(Luận văn) a contrastive analysis of interpersonal meaning in american and vietnamese sitcoms

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ THANH THẢO A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE SITCOMS Code: 8 22 02 01 luan van tot nghiep download luanvan

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH THẢO

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN AMERICAN AND

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH THẢO

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN AMERICAN AND

VIETNAMESE SITCOMS

Code: 8 22 02 01

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TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH THẢO

PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU NÉT NGHĨA LIÊN NHÂN TRONG CÁC BỘ PHIM HÀI KỊCH TÌNH

HUỐNG MỸ VÀ VIỆT NAM

CHUYÊN NGÀNH: NGÔN NGỮ ANH

MÃ SỐ: 8 22 02 01

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Quy Nhon, July 2019

Signature

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thảo

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Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Hien for her enthusiastic and continuous support of my thesis and for her patience, encouragement, and immense knowledge Thankfully, it is her dedication that gives me motivation to fulfill this research

I am also grateful to my friends for their constant encouragement and their help during the period of carrying out the research work

Last but not least, my thanks go to my family, my parents and my brother for their love, caring, preparing me for my future and supporting me spiritually throughout my life

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This study mainly concentrates on the contrastive analysis of interpersonal meaning in American and Vietnamese sitcoms based on the framework of systemic functional grammar by M.A.K Halliday Based on eight sitcom episodes of American and Vietnamese, the present study aims at discussing the interpersonal resources realized by mood, modality, and grammatical interpersonal metaphor and identifying the similarities and dissimilarities of interpersonal features in American and Vietnamese sitcom conversations The quantitative and qualitative methods were also employed to determine the proportion of the linguistic resources used in American and Vietnamese sitcoms The outcomes show that although there are differences in the ways of expressing mood, modality, and grammatical metaphor, the primary similarities between American and Vietnamese sitcoms are providing information in the communication, showing the attitude, opinion, and judgement, and expressing the implication of speakers in the interaction through the interpersonal realizations: Mood, modality, and grammatical metaphor.luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III TABLE OF CONTENTS IV LIST OF TABLES VI LIST OF FIGURES VII CONVENTIONS VIII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the study 3

1.2.1 Aims of the study 3

1.2.2 Objectives 3

1.3 Research Questions 4

1.4 Scope of the Study 4

1.5 Significance of the Study 4

1.6 The Organization of the Study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Sitcom as a genre 6

2.2 Overview of Systemic Functional Grammar 8

2.2.1 Mood system 11

2.2.2 Modality System 18

2.2.3 Interpersonal grammatical metaphor 21

2.2.4 Perspectives of interpersonal meaning in Vietnamese 22 luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

2.3 Previous studies related to the research 24

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 29

3.1 Research method 29

3.2 Data collection 29

3.3 Data analysis 30

3.4 Reliability and Validity 30

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 32

4.1 Mood in ASs and VSs 32

4.1.1 Mood in American sitcoms 32

4.1.2 Mood in Vietnamese Sitcoms 41

4.1.3 A comparison of Mood in ASs and VSs 50

4.2 Modality in ASs and VSs 53

4.2.1 Modality in ASs 53

4.2.2 Modality in VSs 59

4.2.3 A comparison of Modality in ASs and VSs 63

4.3 Interpersonal grammatical metaphor 65

4.3.1 Interpersonal grammatical metaphor of mood 66

4.3.2 Interpersonal grammatical metaphor of modality 73

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 81

5.1 Main findings 81

5.2 Implications 82

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study 82

5.3.1 Limitations of the study 82

5.3.2 Suggestions for further study 83

REFERENCES 84 APPENDIX 1 IX APPENDIX 2 XVII

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LIST OF TABLES Table

Number

2.1 Relation of Mood selection to Mood structure 12 2.2 Speech functions and commodities exchange 16

2.4 Speech functions and typical mood of clause 17

4.5 Distribution of interrogative mood structures in VSs 45 4.6 Distribution of imperative structures in VSs 48

4.10 Distribution of metaphor of mood in VSs 69 4.11 Frequency of values of metaphor of modality in Ass 74 4.12 Distribution of values of metaphorical modality in VSs 76 luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

Number

2.1 Metafunctions in relation to field, mode and tenor 9 4.1 Distribution of full and elliptical declarative in ASs 35 4.2 Distribution of full and elliptical interrogative in ASs 38 4.3 Distribution of full and elliptical imperative in ASs 40 4.4 Proportion of full and elliptical declarative in VSs 44 4.5 Distribution of full and elliptical interrogative structures

4.12 Distribution of modality in Ass and VSs 64 4.13 Frequency of values of modal operators in Ass and VSs 65

4.15 Distribution of value metaphor of modality in Ass and

VSs

79 luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

CONVENTIONS

• VSs (1-4): Vietnamese sitcoms from 1 to 4

• ASs (1-4): American sitcoms from 1 to 4

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter is to present all the preliminaries of the thesis It starts with the rationale, followed by the aims and objectives of the study, research questions, scope of the study, significance of study and ends with the organization of the study

1.1 Rationale

Movie is considered the reflection of the typical culture, customs and traditions of a country Like other major art forms such as sculpture, painting, music, literature and so on, movie not only brings entertaining values but also portrays everyday life in contemporary perspectives revealed through the language characteristics It is undeniable that language used in movies depends on the evolution of language over time, thus movie is the most truthful art form reflecting the contemporary society

In all genres of movie, sitcom, which is a short term of “situation comedy” is regarded as the most noticeable genre It has amusing simple plots arising in daily life and it contains real conversations existing in the form of spoken discourse which is an interactive speech between two or more people, occurs in real time and is conducted face-to face Besides, this kind of comedy film depicts human life and society As a result, sitcom has attracted more scholars to carry out their researches in different fields simply because this kind of movie contains both humorous values of verbal language and cultural features in modern days In reality, most researchers have carried out researches on comic discourses in different approaches such as anthropology, psychology, semiotic and socio-cultural exploration, etc Each kind of these has explored language applied in comic genres in different ways For luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

instance, from the perspective of anthropology, Sciama (2016) examined the cognitive, social, and moral aspects of humor and its ability to make people understand one another Similarly, Martin (2007) focused on humor research concerning with the cognition, development of a sense of humor, and social interaction Mulkay (1988) also made a contribution to psychology research

on comedy genres by investigating the nature of humor in present-day British and North American society through examining the principles behind humorous situations

With respect to linguistic fields, some linguists have applied pragmatics, discourse analysis, and translation as useful approaches to investigate comic discourses in comedy movies Šmilauerová (2012) conducted a study to find out the humor strategies based on the violation of

Grice’s conversational maxims in TV Sitcom Friends From the perspective

of the discourse analysis and the pragmatic cooperative principle, Mahdalíková (2014) examined what discursive devices contributed to the

construction of the geek identity of characters of the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory Another study by (Bosch Fàbregas, 2016) dealt with linguistic gender stereotypes in teen situation comedy named Liv and Maddie and its

translation into Spanish Similarly, other investigations related to sitcom genre have been done to explore many linguistic features revealed through real conversations of characters in movies However, not many studies related

to analyzing interpersonal meaning of comedy movies have been carried out

in the light of systemic functional grammar despite the fact that interpersonal meaning has been conducted in the contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese in various fields and genres such as literature, music, advertisement, etc

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For the reasons above, the study “A contrastive analysis of interpersonal meaning in American and Vietnamese sitcoms” has been chosen from the perspective of systemic functional grammar in order to identify the similarities and dissimilarities in interpersonal meaning between the two languages Hopefully, findings from this study will be a practical application

in language use, contributing to the teaching and learning English as a foreign language

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims of the study

This thesis aims at making a supplemental contribution to the knowledge and the comprehensive understanding of the interpersonal features in the genre of sitcoms as a whole, and in particular concentrating

on identifying the similarities and dissimilarities of interpersonal features in dialogues of American and Vietnamese sitcoms in the light of functional grammar

-To compare and contrast to find out the similarities and differences of interpersonal meaning used in verbal resources between American and Vietnamese sitcoms

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1.4 Scope of the Study

Due to the limited time, the paper particularly focuses on interpersonal meaning realized in mood, modality and interpersonal grammatical metaphor from the perspectives of functional grammar In addition, the realization of interpersonal meaning in both American and Vietnamese sitcoms will be compared and contrasted to show the similarities and dissimilarities in comic verbal resources Moreover, my paper just focuses on the written text of conversations to make sure about the reliability of the resources

1.5 Significance of the Study

It is obvious that sitcoms are the stories revolving around the life subjects; thus, their verbal resources are extremely practical Owing to their dominance, this research is conducted as a supplemental contribution to the comprehensive knowledge of interpersonal features realized in sitcoms Moreover, the contrastive findings of the study also point out the similarities and differences in interpersonal features between American and Vietnamese conversations in life, so it helps language learners in the perception of language

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1.6 The Organization of the Study

The study is structured as follows:

Chapter one, the introduction, consists of the rationale, aims and objectives, research questions, the significance of the study, scope of the study and the organization of the paper

Chapter two provides an overview about sitcoms A general theoretical background related to systemic functional theory, especially the metafunctions of the language which concentrates on interpersonal meaning realized in different types of moods, modality and interpersonal grammatical metaphor Simultaneously, a brief presentation of the previous studies related

to research area is also summarized to reveal a gap in the literature that the study is hoped to fill

Chapter three includes research methods and procedure of the study Specifically, it concentrates on the approaches utilized to collect and discuss the data as well as to conduct the research

Chapter four examines in detail the interpersonal meaning realized by types of mood, Modality and interpersonal grammatical metaphor in written texts of American and Vietnamese sitcoms It then presents and describes the results of the data analysis The discussions and interpretation of findings are also included in this chapter

Chapter five, the conclusion, summarizes the main findings of the study which satisfy the research questions and points out some limitations as well as some suggestions for further researches

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides a whole view of the theoretical framework of systemic functional grammar, especially interpersonal features realized by mood, modality, and interpersonal grammatical metaphor In addition, the previous relevant studies are also recalled to enhance the reason of filling the gap in this study

2.1 Sitcom as a genre

Sitcoms, also called situation comedy, are regarded as a subgenre of comedy movies involving romantic comedy, musical-comedy, parody, satire, screwball, farce, black comedy The typical characteristics of comedy genre are telling about a series of funny or comical events with a common view to making the audience laugh Taflinger (2001) created some criteria for the elements considered to be humorous in sitcom Specifically, it must appeal to the intellect, mechanical, inherently human, with the capability of reminding

us of humanity Besides, there must also be a set of established societal norms with which the observer is familiar, either through everyday life or through the author providing it in expository material Moreover, the situation and its component parts must be inconsistent or unsuitable to the surrounding or associations And it must be perceived by the observer as harmless or painless

to the participants

With regards to the sitcom genre, it is a specific combination of spoken and written mode The explanation for this concept is that the film dialogues are scripted in advance, then actors are forced to follow it to make dialogues and the result of this process generates spoken dialogues which are listened to luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

by the audience Even if sitcom is categorized as both spoken and written genre, its common form is casual conversation

Bakhtin (1986) also showed his attention into casual conversation He pointed out that

Language is realized in the form of individual concrete utterances […] These utterances reflect the specific conditions and goals of each such area not only through their content (thematic) and linguistic style, […] but above all through their compositional structure […] Each separate utterance is individual, of course, but each sphere in which language is used develops its own relatively stable types of these utterances These we may call speech genres (Bakhtin, 1986, p 60)

More specifically, the casual conversations in sitcom consist of anecdotes which are short stories making listeners or viewers laugh Due to its features, Eggins and Slade (1997) proposed the generic structure of anecdote text including five components:

(i) Abstract: Signals the retelling of an unusual or amusing incident (ii) Orientation: Sets the scene

(iii) Crisis: Provides details of the unusual incident

(iv) Reaction: Reaction to the crisis (v) Coda (optional): Reflection on or evaluation of the incident

In addition, the characteristics of social and interpersonal functions in casual dialogues are also revealed not only by the way “people come together, exchange information, and maintain social relations” (Paltridge, 1997) but also the entertaining value in which the anecdote enables participants “to share experiences and to display agreement and shared perceptions” (Eggins

& Slade, 1997, p 229) luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

2.2 Overview of Systemic Functional Grammar

Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) was originally based on the work

of J.F Firth and was mainly developed by Halliday SFL is a study of language which concentrates on language used in context as the combination between a resource of linguistic meaning and its social context The thing making SFL different from any other theory is simply because it has both systematic and functional characteristic The theory shows that language is realized through semiotic devices for making meaning Besides, social context and sematic feature of language are also viewed in the networks of systems which are sets of features presented in making utterance From that point on, researchers can use this system network to explain how language works as a semiotic tool and it interacts with social contexts in making meanings (Unsworth, 2007) Furthermore, Halliday (1994) performed three functional modes of language meaning from the aspect of the semantic system: the ideational meaning, the interpersonal meaning, and the textual meaning These metafunctions exist simultaneously in every level of language From that point on, a speaker/ writer adjusts the grammar of a message to reflect at the same time their perception of a happening or a state

of affairs (experiential), their perception of the immediate context (textual) and their presentation of their communicative intent and choice of modality (interpersonal)

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Figure 2.1 Metafunctions in relation to field, mode and tenor

(White & Martin, 2005, p 27)

The first metafunction is experiential meaning This kind of meaning is concerned with the content or proposition of a message that allows people to conceptualize the world for their own benefit through expressing the information of language, conveying new information, and sharing contents In other words, experiential meanings enable the language users to organize their experience and understanding of the world As for Halliday (1994, pp 112-119), the ideational meaning is realized into transitivity system concerning

three components: process, participants, and circumstances Of the three

mentioned aspects, process plays the most basic part from which the participants and circumstances are developed There are six different types of processes The three main ones are material processes which construe doing and happenings, mental processes which analyze conscious processing including processes of perception, cognition, and affection, and relational processes, the ones of being and becoming three further types are behavioral, verbal and existential processes

Secondly, the interpersonal meaning is understood from the perspective

of its function in the process of social interactions From the explanation of Thompson (2004, p 30), the interpersonal meaning is used to establish and luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

maintain a social relationship between the addresser (speaker/writer) and addressee (listener/reader) It is considered as a tool to connect people for expressing their feeling and attitude about things in the world Apart from that, the interpersonal meaning also concerns the way we interact with one another through language, so it indicates the relationship between providers and recipients of information through spoken or written texts In Halliday’s analysis of English, the interpersonal component is associated with mood, modality, and grammatical metaphor

Thirdly, the textual meaning deals with the formation of text based on the way of organizing and conveying messages; Thus, it is called the textual function which consists of three subtypes of semantic systems: thematic system, information structure and cohesion system The thematic organization that concerns with the way of how message is conveyed consists of two functional components: Theme and Rheme To explain specifically, Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, p 64) defined that theme is the starting point of the message in the text and Rheme is new information which is developed from the theme In general, the combination of Rheme and Theme to form a clause expresses a complete meaning from the textual organization

In brief, these three variables of context of situation can be realized through the lexico-grammatical units of language system: Transitivity, Theme and Mood and Modality systems respectively However, this study just performs within the framework of the interpersonal meaning of language using mood system, modality system and interpersonal grammatical metaphor.The following part will discuss each of them in detail

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2.2.1 Mood system

2.2.1.1 Mood structure

As stated above, language is considered the way to reflect the underlying social relationships existing in the text from the viewpoint of interpersonal metafunction In detail, this metafunction conveys the grammar

of a text, since the choices of language features will be recognized by the interlocutor's social roles, status, position and relations For instance, the interpersonal language used in a letter to the employer will be different from those used in a conversation with the best friends

The mood system is used to understand these features and how they are different from one another It is regarded as the core component of construing the interpersonal meaning in which a clause in English as an exchange is

formed by two functional constituents: (i) a mood element which carries the argument and (ii) a residue which can be ellipsed Because the mood element

works as a tool to realize different mood categories in the interpersonal clause structure, Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, p 120) described it as carrying

“'the burden of the clause as an interactive event”, and as the nub of the proposition

(i) The mood element is made up of the subject, which is a word or a

group of words realized by a nominal group, and the finite, which is a part of the verbal group which supplies information about temporality (past, present, and future tense), modality (probability etc.), and polarity (positive/negative)

(ii) The Residue consists of functional elements of three kinds: Predicator,

Complement and Adjunct of the clause

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Here is the example for the mood element in the clause:

Ex 1 Sister Susie is sewing shirts for soldiers

Subject Finite Predicator Complement Adjunct

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 121)

In SFG, there are three types of mood structures identified in the form

of (i) declarative, (ii) interrogative and (iii) imperative These mood structures are shown by the attendance and the

position of Subject and Finite as follows:

Table 2.1 Relation of Mood selection to Mood structure

(Matthiessen, Martin, & Painter, 1997, p 63) Mood selection Mood element Example (mood in bold) Indicative

declarative non-exclamative exclamative interrogative yes/no Wh- imperative

Present Subject^Finite Wh^Subject^Finite Finite^Subject Wh^Finite^Subject

………

they^will build the house How quickly^they^will build the house!

will^they build the house?

What^ will^they build?

…… build the house!

(i) Declarative Mood

In English, declaratives exist in the form of statements with the structure

of subject preceding Finite Declarative mood consists of two types:

affirmative and negative statement

(Eggins, 2004, p 154)

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Additionally, declarative clause can be full or elliptical While full declarative contains a proper structure of subject and finite, the elliptical case

is found due to the ellipsis of some elements of clause such as subject, finite

or predicator and it often appears in responding

(Will you join the dance?)

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 151)

(Who killed Cock Robin?)

Ex 5 I (said the sparrow) with my bow and arrow

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 151)

(ii) Interrogative Mood

In English, there are two main types of interrogative mood: Wh-question (questions using who, where, which, what, when, why, how) and yes/no question In this case, the position of subject may be before or after finite

(Eggins, 2004, p 167)

(Eggins, 2004, p 169)

Ex 8 When did Henry James write “The Bostonians”

Wh/adjunct:circ finite subject predicator complement

In casual conversation, the elliptical interrogative clauses are used rather commonly and they only happen when the context of conversation is set up The omitted elements are similar in the elliptical declarative

Ex 9 Piece of dialogue Elliptical elements

-Seen Fred?

-No, I haven’t

(“Have you…?”)

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 152)

Ex 10 Piece of dialogue Elliptical elements

-Met Fred on the way here

-Did you? Where?

(“I…”)

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 152)

(iii) Imperative Mood Eggins (2004, p 177) described four types of imperative structures including a mood element consisting of finite (F) and subject (S); or one consisting of finite only; or subject only; and an imperative with a Mood element in the order of Finite preceding Subject This kind of mood is also divided into two types: affirmative and negative imperative

Ex 11 Don’t you take My copy of “The Bostonians”

Finite:neg subject predicator complement

Ex 13 Piece of dialogue Physical context

Brad: Look! The man walking up the hill

(Eggins & Slade, 1997, p 92)

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Generally, the omitted components can be recalled from the provided physical context Therefore, Brad does not need to mention the context specifically such as “Look at that man walking up the hill!” (Eggins & Slade,

1997, p 92)

Beside the mood choice, we can also see the occurrence of minor clause in the spoken forms of language, which is defined as clauses with no mood, transitivity, and thematic structure typically functioning as calling, greetings, exclamations, and alarms (Halliday & Matthissen, 2004)

2.2.1.2 Mood structure and speech function

Mood holds a vital role in establishing social relationships between addressers and addressees Halliday (1994, p 68) stated that “the most fundamental types of speech role, which lies behind all the more specific types that we may eventually be able to recognize, are just two (i) giving, and (ii) demanding” It is further explained thatgiving (and taking) or demanding (and being given) a commodity of some kind are the most basic purposes in any communication process From the viewpoint of speakers in the communicative exchange, the commodity that speakers can be giving or demanding is information Thanks to language, speakers can carry out their purposes in making a statement to give information or asking a question to demand for information Another kind of commodity exchange is good & service which is considered a supplementary function contributing to the successful exchange without involving language From that point on, there are four primary speech roles: giving information, demanding information, giving goods & services and demanding goods & services Also, the combination of speech roles and commodities is labeled as offer, command, statement and luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

question The interaction of speech function and commodities is shown in Table 2.2

Table 2.2 Speech functions and commodities exchange

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 107)

Good & service Information

What is he giving her?

By cross-classifying these two variables, speakers can create four main moves offer, command, statement and question, which are put in a set of desired responses, like accepting an offer, carrying out a command, acknowledging a statement and answering a question with the aim of getting a conversation going However, in an on-going dialogue, speakers tend to carry out more than one move Particularly, after one speaker starts an exchange, another speaker also shows their interaction in the exchange by responding Also, responding can be expressed by two types: a supporting type and a confronting type of responding move Table 2.3 provides a specific review for these two types of responding move

Table 2.3 Speech function pairs

(Eggins, 2004, p 146) SPEECH FUNCTION PAIRS (initiations and responses) Initiating speech Responding speech function

Function SUPPORTING CONFRONTING Offer acceptance rejection

(may be non-verbal) Command compliance refusal (may be non-verbal)

Statement acknowledgement contradiction Question answer disclaimer luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

In addition, the correlation between the different structures of the initiating move and responding move is closely associated with the grammatical structure which is realized by Mood structures Eggins (2004) indicated the correlation of mood structures with speech function as follows:

Table 2.4 Speech functions and typical mood of clause

(Eggins, 2004, p 148)

SUMMARY OF DIALOGUE

speech function typical clause Mood non-typical clause Mood

command imperative modulated interrogative declarative

offer modulated interrogative imperative declarative statement declarative tagged declarative

question interrogative modulated declarative

It can be seen from Table 2.4 that demands for goods and services can

be not only typically expressed by imperative clauses (get me some drink) but

they can also be expressed by declaratives (I'm hoping you'll get me some drink), or modulated interrogatives (Would you mind getting me some drink, please?)

While offers are usually expressed by modulated interrogatives (Would you like to pass me the jar of salt), they can also be expressed by imperatives (pass me the jar of salt) or declaratives (There's a jar of salt over there)

Questions are typically expressed by interrogatives (Is this your pen?), they can also be performed by modulated declaratives (I was wondering whether this might be your pen) Similarly, while statements are usually expressed by declaratives (this is your pen), they can also be expressed by tagged declaratives (this is your pen, isn’t it?)

From detailed instances above, we can see that there are diverse ways

of untypical expression to express commands, offers, statements and questions, which is rather popular in casual conversation

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2.2.2 Modality System

Apart from Mood system, Modality system is also considered one of the crucial elements to identify the interpersonal meaning of the clause According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004), modality reveals a speaker’s judgment and opinions on possibility or necessity involved in what he or she

is saying In 1994, they first categorized modality system by distinguishing between proposition and proposals, which are explained particularly that if the commodity being exchanged is goods and services, modality expressions are defined as proposals while modality expressions of proposition happen when the commodity being exchanged in a clause is information Based on this distinction, Halliday then divided modality into two general grammatical areas: modalization and modulation Modalization is concerned with speakers’ attitude toward the status of a proposition which is presented in terms of probability and usuality, expressed by finite modal operators, modal adjunct, or both Meanwhile, modulation relates to clauses containing the meaning of obligation or inclination of proposals which are shown in two polarities: “do something” and “do not do something” These subtypes are expressed by finite modal operator or expansions of the predicator

In brief, the following table summarizes the main categories of modalization and modulation, providing people with the communicative ability based on expressing degrees of probability/usuality or obligation/inclination

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Table 2.5 System of types of modality

(Halliday, 1994, p 87) Commodity

exchanged

Speech function

Types of intermediacy Typical realization Information

2.2.2.1 Modal operators

Halliday (1994) indicated three basic values of modal operators They are high, median and low on the scale And different scales serve different meaning in communicative function

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Table 2.6 Modal verbal operators (Halliday, 1994, p 75)

Positive Can, may, could, might,

need to

Won’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t,

isn’t/wasn’t to

Mustn’t, oughtn’t to, can’t, couldn’t, mayn’t, mightn’t

2.2.2.2 Modal adjuncts

Of the adjunct types, mood adjuncts belong to the constituent of mood which reflects interpersonal function with the aim of showing addressers’ attitude toward the fact From the view of Halliday (1994, p 82), there are two kinds of modal adjuncts: (i) Mood adjuncts and (ii) comment adjuncts (i) Mood adjuncts are firmly related to the mood structure, more

specifically in mood element which reflects interpersonal meanings Mood adjuncts are associated with the meaning of finite operators which express probability, usuality, obligation, inclination or time (ii) Comment adjuncts are used to express the speaker or writer’s

judgement on or attitude to the content of the message and less integrated to the clause’s mood structure

Table 2.7 Modal adjuncts (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 82)

I Probability Usuality Typicality Obviousness

Of course, surely, obviously, clearly

II Opinion Admission Persuasion Entreaty Presumption Desirability

In my opinion, personally, to my mind Frankly, to be honest, to tell you the truth Honestly, really, believe me, seriously Please, kindly

Evidently, apparently, no doubt, presumably (Un)fortunately, to my delight/distress, regrettably, hopefully

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Reservation Validation Evaluation Prediction

(Un)wisely, understandably, mistakenly, foolishly

To my surprise, surprisingly, as expected, by chance

2.2.3 Interpersonal grammatical metaphor

Interpersonal metaphor is considered one kind of grammatical metaphors which are discussed by Halliday (1994) as understanding of incongruence, referring to unusual ways of saying something; thus, their expressions can be understood in accordance with the changes of lexico-grammatical structure of a clause Interpersonal metaphors are classified into metaphors of mood and modality

Mood metaphors analyze a semantic speech function through an incongruent mood option in grammar For instance, the speech function

command might be realized as a command, e.g “turn on the light”, existing

in the form of imperative mood Alternatively, command might also be

realized as a polite request as in “Could you turn on the light?” using

interrogative mood Table 2.8 is a specific demonstration for mood metaphors

Table 2.8 Examples of Mood metaphor (Matthiessen et al., 1997, p 68)

Speech function Congruent realization Metaphorical realization Question

Tell me your name [imperative]

And your name is…? [declarative]

Could you get me a drink? [interrogative]

I need drink [declarative]

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According to Halliday (1994), metaphors of modality refer to incongruent ways of speech function It is common that the speech function

might be identified congruently through implicit modal verbs such as “should, could or must”, or through implicit modal adjuncts, e.g “possibly or probably, etc” Alternatively, the incongruent realization of speech function

in explicit ways can be expressed in projecting clauses containing mental and

idea state subjectively like “I suspect…”, “I believe” or objectively such as “it

is probable that …” (explicit objective)

2.2.4 Perspectives of interpersonal meaning in Vietnamese

In comparison with Vietnamese, many linguistic scholars have carried out research to point out language features of Vietnamese based on Halliday’s SFG model For example, Diệp Quang Ban (2005) indicated that Vietnamese mood structure comprises four types: (i) Declarative, (ii) interrogative, (iii) imperative, and (iv) exclamative However, in this study we only investigate three types of mood including declarative, interrogative, and imperative due

to the consistency in the process of doing the contrastive research in both data resources

(i) Declaratives in Vietnamese being used to narrate, confirm, or

describe something are divided into affirmative and negative statement In general, Vietnamese declarative sentences need

particles to make a full meaning like đây, đấy, nhé, nhá, ạ, mà and

so on while negative forms in Vietnamese are expressed in diverse way For example, there are many ways to deny something by using

the word không, chẳng, chả or phrases such as không có, đâu phải, đâu có, chẳng phải, không hề, nào có, có…đâu, etc (Diệp Quang

Ban, 2005, pp 197-198) luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

(ii) Vietnamese interrogatives can be classified into sub-types based on

the way of forming: using definite interrogative such as “cái gì, ở đâu, nơi nào, khi nào, lúc nào, ai, tại sao, bao lây,mấy giờ, etc”., using coordinator hay, hay là, some interrogative particles “à, ư, ạ,

hả, hử, chở, chứ, nhỉ, chăng, có … không, đã … chưa, xong … chưa”, or rising intonation (Diệp Quang Ban, 2005, pp 213-225) (iii) Vietnamese imperatives are often accompanied by “Hãy, đừng,

chớ” and ends with particles like “đi, thôi, nào, đi thôi, đi nào”

(Diệp Quang Ban, 2005, p 228) (iv) Vietnamese exclamatives are applied to express feelings or

emotions and they are often accompanied by mood adjuncts like “ôi,

ô hay, ôi chao, dường nào, biết mấy, sao mà, cực kỳ, chết đi được, hết ý, hết sẩy” (Diệp Quang Ban, 2004, p 302)

In addition, expressions of modality in Vietnamese are synthesized and adapted by (Tôn Nữ Mỹ Nhật, 2005) from different reference sources such as (Cao Xuân Hạo, 1991; Hồ Lê, 1992; Diệp Quang Ban, 2001; Ngô Hữu Hoàng, 2002 ) Table 2.9 cited from Tôn Nữ Mỹ Nhật (2005) provides a whole view of the realization of modality in Vietnamese

Table 2.9 Expressions of modality in Vietnamese(Tôn Nữ Mỹ Nhật, 2005, p 110)

*Comment Được (một) cái khốn nỗi đáng tiếc

*Mental clauses tôi nghĩ tôi cho tôi thấy tôi mong

*Modal predicator

ít nhất may lắm/may mà/

chẳng thà

tôi e tôi lấy làm tiếc theo ý tôi thì nói thật là

miễn sao

vị chỉ không nhất thiết

không ngờ

có ai ngờ

có thể thấy rằng nên chăng

chẳng hóa ra

số là/đã đành/ chẳng qua

cứ như tôi nghĩ thì nếu tôi không nhầm thì thiết nghĩ nghe đâu (là)

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bị

*Adjuncts đương nhiên (là)

ai ngờ biết đâu chừng (là)

có điều/ dường như

có khi/có lẽ (là)

có thể/ chắc (là)

dễ thường (là) dứt khoát (là)

được chắc chắn (là) chắc gì/chưa chắc chừng như (là) coi bộ (là) thảo nào thật ra (thì) tuồng như (là) tuyệt nhiên (là)

nên/phải

dĩ nhiên (là)/ e hình như (là) hẳn/ ắt

họa may (là) hóa ra/ hay là không khéo không/nào ngờ

lẽ ra (thì)

cần (nên/phải)

nhất quyết/nhất thiết

quả (là)/ thật (là) quả nhiên/ quả thật

té ra/ nhất quyết quả (là)/ thật là quả nhiên/ tất nhiên (là) thì ra/ ngờ đâu/ vịt tất

2.3 Previous studies related to the research

It is undoubted that systemic functional grammar, which is developed

by Michael Halliday, has grabbed more attention of many linguists in the world over the past few years with a huge number of researches on different fields To contribute to this progress, many Vietnamese linguists have researched and discussed linguistic problems with different viewpoints with the aim of building up and evolving the theoretical background of Vietnamese SFG

One of the most influential linguists in Vietnam is Cao Xuân Hạo (1991) whose work put forward the sentence-analyzing model based on three aspects: syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics He also presented some approaches to Vietnamese syntax based on functional grammar theory which promotes the usage of theme-rheme structure to describe the syntax structure

of Vietnamese sentences instead of using S-V structure By contrast, Diệp Quang Ban (2005) supported analyzing Vietnamese sentences in accordance with S-V structure and simultaneously applied systemic functional grammar model of Halliday (1994) in order to analyze Vietnamese sentences based on luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

three metafunctions including experiential, interpersonal, and textual metafuntion

Apart from the influential researches above, some linguistic scholars have carried out many studies on various fields and genres from the theoretical background of SFG Specifically, Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền (2016) examined the interpersonal function in English press commentaries from the perspective of functional grammar and appraisal theory Her study pointed out that using rhetorical questions, various types of modality, and attitudinal resources revealed the implicit and explicit way of communication between the authors of English commentaries and the readers as well as the authors’ emotion, judgement, and attitude to different aspects of the discussed problems in the text

And most recently, Hoàng Văn Vân (2018) applied systemic functional grammar to compare the three translated versions of the poem “Bánh trôi nước” The result showed both similarities and differences in terms of ideational, interpersonal, and textual meaning Besides, the study revealed that the three translated versions and the original poem tend to be more different in lexical choice than in syntactic choice

Vinh Tô (2018) investigated three linguistic features: lexical density, nominalization, and grammatical metaphor of textbooks language used in teaching English as a foreign language in the Vietnamese context shifted across levels in a book series under the framework of systemic functional linguistics The outcomes indicated that textbook texts become more and more complicated in accordance with their higher levels, which is shown by the increase of the mean scores of nominalization and grammatical metaphor, leading to high density in chosen written texts

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From a more general aspect,Phan Văn Hòa, Trần Hữu Phúc, and Nguyễn Thị Tú Trinh (2017) conducted the research on Vietnamese simple clause from major contemporary approaches The study showed thatstructural approaches influenced by European and American structuralists such as Saussure and Bloomfield, and functional approaches influenced by Dik’s functional grammar and Halliday’s systemic functional grammar tend to be the dominant grammatical models for the analysis of the Vietnamese simple clause

As for a sitcom genre, many scholars have devoted their various researches on linguistic fields One study was carried out by Rahmi (2017) to

find out the joke strategies in situational comedy “How I met your mother”,

the pragmatic meaning of jokes expressed by the characters, and pragmatic prank functions shown by the characters in this movie from pragmatic perspectives The findings showed that there were totally 14 joke strategies occurring in the movie Also, the most dominant strategy used in the movie is ambiguity whose meanings are various for participants in the conversation to interpret In addition, the jokes uttered by the characters in this sitcom have assertive, expressive and directive meanings which serve to show the power, solidarity and psychological defense of the speaker

Zand-Vakili, Kashani, and Tabandeh (2012) identified the frequency of

occurrence of speech events the sitcom “Friends” to probe such phenomena

in media discourse This research showed both a sample of spoken discourse and a sample of native speakers’ cultural norms The result of this study presented that the most recurring event in a friendly relationship was found to

be confiding one’s secrets or personal affairs and problems with one’s friends and asking them for help, consultation, and sympathy Simultaneously, there luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

were some speaking factors affecting each speech event which was in line with Hymes’ speaking model

In addition, Syafitri (2018) carried out the study on the forms and the

functions of joke in the movie “Ghostbusters 2016” in the light of

sociolinguistics The results indicated that the most frequent form used in

“Ghostbusters 2016” were simple sentence and the function of joke was to

amuse others and her/himself in informal setting that was used in close relationship

Another research was conducted by Mahdalíková (2014) who examined what discursive devices contribute to the construction of the geek

identity of characters of the American Sitcom “Big Bang Theory” from the

perspective of the discourse analysis and the pragmatic cooperative principle Her analysis pointed out that the geeks tend to talk about topics that are less common in everyday speech and use less colloquial language Instead, their language applies more formal expressions, idioms and terminology

In Vietnam, Phạm Thị Thanh Ly (2016) construed humor strategies in English and Vietnamese sitcoms in the light of pragmatics Specifically, this study aims to discover how English and Vietnamese sitcom characters violate Grice's Cooperative Principle as humor strategies in their daily conversation

to create humor The outcomes also pointed out several similarities and differences of humor strategies in both data sources For similarities, there are totally 12 humor strategies and 3 sub-strategies violating four maxims of Grice’s Cooperative Principles of which maxim of quantity counts for the least in both resources In regards to differences, English sitcoms tend to use the strategies of quality and irony while using maxim of manner and lexical puns is more popular in Vietnamese sitcoms due to the influence of tradition luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

All previous studies prove the fact that many linguistic researchers hooked on systemic functional grammar as a whole and sitcom genre in particular with a wide range of different researches However, the investigation of interpersonal meaning used in American and Vietnamese sitcom genre seems to be insufficiently touched Therefore, this study is carried out with a view to filling this gap

In brief, this chapter consists of two primary parts The first part of the chapter focuses on theoretical background which provides a comprehensive knowledge related to the purposes of the study It concludes an overview of SFG, especially concentrating on interpersonal meaning identified by mood, modality system and interpersonal grammatical metaphors More specifically, this work focuses on Mood (declarative, interrogative, imperative), Modality (modal finite operators and modal adjuncts), and interpersonal grammatical metaphors (of mood and modality) The second part has reviewed the previous studies firmly associated with this thesis In the next chapter, the methods and procedures will be shown to indicate the main emphasis of the study in Chapter 4

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides information about the process of carrying out the research It shows the appropriate methodology for the goals of the research, the data collection, data analysis, and ends up with the confirmation of the validity and reliability of the study

-Comparative and contrastive methods were applied to find out the similarities and differences in interpersonal resources used in comic verbal resources in American and Vietnamese sitcoms

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