Pragmatic Aspects of the Conversations in New Interchange 3

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

KHANXAY MUENSOPHA

PRAGMATIC ASPECTS OF THE

CONVERSATIONS IN NEW INTERCHANGE 3

MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN

BINH DINH – 2020

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

KHANXAY MUENSOPHA

PRAGMATIC ASPECTS OF THE

CONVERSATIONS IN NEW INTERCHANGE 3

FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

CODE: 8.22.02.01

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN

BINH DINH – 2020

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

KHANXAY MUENSOPHA

CÁC KHÍA CẠNH NGỮ DỤNG TRONG HỘI THOẠI

CỦA GIÁO TRÌNH NEW INTERCHANGE 3

CHUYÊN NGÀNH: NGÔN NGỮ ANH

MÃ SỐ: 8.22.02.01

Người hướng dẫn: PGS.TS. NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN

BÌNH ĐỊNH – 2020

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I declare that this thesis is my own and original. No other person’s work

has been used without acknowledgement in the thesis, which has not

been submitted for any degree at any institution.

Binh Dinh, 2018

Signature

Khanxay Muensopha

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quang Ngoan for his support and guidance in my

completion of the thesis. I am also thankful to all the lecturers at Quy

Nhon University for their profound knowledge and endless support

during my study at Quy Nhon University.

I would also like to thank my educational leaders in Laos who gave me

the chance to study for my Master’s Degree at Quy Nhon University as

well as my classmates who were always willing to help me and give me

their best suggestions and encouragement during my process of

conducting the study.

Finally, I owe the completion of this research paper to my wife and

children, who have always been cheering me up and standing by me on

my road to success.

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ABSTRACT

This study is to identify and analyze types and frequencies of occurrence of

presuppositions, types of hedges, and types of politeness constraints in the

conversations in New Interchange 3. The quantitative approach and

qualitative approach are combined and the statistic, analytic, synthetic,

descriptive, and comparative methods are used to examine 530 linguistic

items collected from 32 conversations in the text book and analyzed on the

basis of the theories by Yule (1996), Vartalla (2001), Grice (1975), and

Leech (2005). The results show that in terms of presuppositions, six types

of presuppositions including existential, factive, lexical, structural, non￾factive, and counter-factual presuppositions are used, with existential

presuppositions being the most frequently used. As regards hedges, six out

of seven types of hedges are realized, including: modal auxiliary, verb,

adjective, adverb, phrase, and clause hedges, with adverb hedges being the

most popular. When it comes to politeness constraints, all the ten politeness

constraints suggested by Leech (2005) are found at different frequencies, of

which the opinion-reticence constraint proves to be employed the most.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP……………………………………. i

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………... ii

ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………… iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………… iv

ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS ………………………. viii

LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………..… ix

LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………..… x

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1. Rationale ...............................................................................................1

1.2. Aim and Objectives ..............................................................................2

1.2.1. Aim.....................................................................................................2

1.2.2. Objectives...........................................................................................3

1.3. Research Questions ..............................................................................3

1.4. Scope of the Study ................................................................................3

1.5. Significance of the Study......................................................................4

1.6. Structure of the Thesis..........................................................................

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................6

2.1. Pragmatics and Pragmatic Competence ...............................................6

2.1.1. Pragmatics ....................................................................................6

2.1.2. Pragmatic Competence..................................................................68

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2.2. Presupposition.......................................................................................7

2.2.1. Definitions of Presupposition .........................................................7

2.2.2. Types of Presuppositions................................................................8

2.3. Hedges...................................................................................................11

2.3.1. Definitions of Hedge .......................................................................11

2.2.2. Types of Hedges..............................................................................13

2.4. Politeness Theories...............................................................................18

2.4.1. Definitions of Politeness.................................................................18

2.4.2. Politeness Theories.........................................................................18

2.5. An Overview of the Previous Studies...................................................23

2.5.1. Previous Studies on Presuppositions..............................................23

2.5.2. Previous Studies on Hedges............................................................25

2.5.3. Previous Studies on Linguistic Politeness......................................27

2.5.4. Previous Studies on the data of the New Interchange Series.........29

2.6. Summary...............................................................................................31

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....................................32

3.1. Research Methods ................................................................................32

3.2. Data Source and Samples .....................................................................33

3.3. Data Analysis........................................................................................34

3.4. Validity and Reliability.........................................................................37

3.5. Summary...............................................................................................37

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .....................................38

4.1. Presuppositions in the conversations in New Interchange 3 ................39

vi

4.1.1. Existential Presuppositions ............................................................40

4.1.2. Factive Presuppositions..................................................................41

4.1.3. Lexical Presuppositions..................................................................42

4.1.4. Structural Presuppositions .............................................................43

4.1.5. Non-factive Presuppositions...........................................................45

4.1.6. Counter-factual Presuppositions....................................................46

4.1.7. Concluding Remarks.......................................................................47

4.2. Hedges in the conversations in New Interchange 3..............................48

4.2.1. Modal Auxiliary Hedges.................................................................49

4.2.2. Verb Hedges....................................................................................50

4.2.3. Adjective Hedges.............................................................................52

4.2.4. Adverb Hedges................................................................................52

4.2.5. Noun hedges....................................................................................54

4.2.6. Phrase Hedges................................................................................54

4.2.7. Clause Hedges................................................................................55

4.2.8. Concluding Remarks.......................................................................57

4.3. Politeness Constraints in the Conversations in New Interchange 3 .....58

4.3.1. Generosity Constraint.....................................................................59

4.3.2. Tact Constraint ...............................................................................60

4.3.3. Approbation Constraint..................................................................61

4.3.4. Modesty Constraint.........................................................................62

4.3.5. Obligation of S to O Constraint......................................................63

4.3.6. Obligation of O to S Constraint......................................................64