(Luận văn) a study of understatements and hyberboles in vietnamese and english political speeches

ABSTRACT This study was conducted with the aim to examine the structural and functional features of understatements and hyperboles in Vietnamese and English political speeches in terms o

THAN THI MINH HUNG

A STUDY OF UNDERSTATEMENTS AND HYPERBOLES IN VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH

POLITICAL SPEECHES

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Quang Ngoan

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THÂN THỊ MINH HƯNG

NGHIÊN CỨU NGÔN NGỮ NÓI GIẢM VÀ PHÓNG ĐẠI TRONG CÁC BÀI PHÁT BIỂU CHÍNH TRỊ

Ở ANH VÀ VIỆT NAM

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn Ngữ Anh

Mã ngành: 8220201

Người hướng dẫn: PGS TS Nguyễn Quang Ngoạn

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains

no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma

No other’s person work has been used without due acknowledgements in the thesis

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution

An Nhon, 2021

THÂN THI MINH HUNG luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

Secondly, I would like to offer my special thanks to all the lecturers in Quy Nhon University for their lectures and devotion over the past two years that have helped me a lot in completing this study

Finally, I would also give my special thanks to all of my colleagues and family for their continuous support and understanding when undertaking my research

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ABSTRACT

This study was conducted with the aim to examine the structural and functional features of understatements and hyperboles in Vietnamese and English political speeches in terms of the structural and functional features and the similarities and differences in the structural and functional features of the understatements and the hyperboles between the two sets of data The data of the research contains 40 speeches made by English politicians and 40 speeches made by Vietnamese politicians from 2018 to 2021 In this study, both quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted to analyze the data which gave a sufficient analysis of the figures of speech based on relevant theories The quantitative techniques provided statistical information such as frequency of occurrence whereas the qualitative approach was employed to analyse the functions and structures of understatements and hyperboles as well as the similarities and differences between them under the light of Harris (2017)’s theory in the approach adapted from (Claridge, 2011, McCarthy & Carter, 2004, Cano Mora, 2006 and Du Thi Trang Anh, 2010) The result of the study revealed that there are no big differences in the structural features of hyperboles in both languages in which single word form is used most frequently Same in English, hyperboles are used more frequent than understatements in Vietnamese political speeches The most obvious finding to emerge from this study related to structural features of understatements is that understatements in phrasal form are used most frequently by both English and Vietnamese politicians Besides, the differences found in this study were the total understatements used in English were more than in Vietnamese and English politicians tended to use understatements to make problems less serious while Vietnamese politicians tended to use understatements to emphasize the enormity of

a problem

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aim and Objectives 2

1.2.1 Aim 2

1.2.2 Objectives 2

1.3 Research Questions 2

1.4 Scope of the Study 3

1.5 Significance of the Study 3

1.6 Definition of terminology 4

1.7 Intended structure of the thesis 4

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Literature review 6

2.2 Theoretical background 11

2.2.1 Political speeches 11

2.2.2 Rhetorical devices 12

2.3 Sumary 17

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 19

3.1 Research approach 19

3.2 Data Collection and Analysis 20

3.3 Validity and reliability 25 luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

3.4 Summary 25

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26

4.1 Overview of Hyperboles and Understatements 26

4.2 Hyperboles in English and Vietnamese political speeches 28

4.2.1 Forms of hyperboles 28

4.2.2 Functions of hyperboles 36

4.3 Understatements in English and Vietnamese political speeches 42

4.3.1 Forms of Understatements 42

4.3.2 Functions of Understatements 50

4.4 Discussion 55

4.5 Summary 56

Chapter 5 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 57

5.1 Review of main findings 57

5.2 Implications 58

5.3 Limitation 59

5.4 Suggestions for further studies 59 REFERENCES

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

VC Data on the corpus of Vietnamese Politicians’ speeches luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Framework for data analysis 17

Table 3.1: Framework for analyzing data 20

Table 3.2 Data on the corpus of the English political speeches 22

Table 3.3 Data on the corpus of the Vietnamese political speeches 24

Table 4.1: Forms of hyperboles in English 28

Table 4.2: Forms of hyperboles in Vietnamese 32

Table 4.3: Similarities and Differences in forms of hyperboles in English and Vietnamese political speeches 34

Table 4.4: Functions of hyperboles in English 36

Table 4.5: Functions of hyperboles in Vietnamese 39

Table 4.6: Similarities and Differences in function of hyperboles in English and Vietnamese political speeches 40

Table 4.7: Forms of Understatements in English 43

Table 4.8: Forms of Understatements in Vietnamese 46

Table 4.9: Similarities and Differences in form of Understatements in English and Vietnamese political speeches 48

Table 4.10 Functions of Understatements in English 50

Table 4.11: Functions of Understatements in Vietnamese 52

Table 4.12: Similarities and Differences in function of Understatements in English and Vietnamese political speeches 55 luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1: Hyperboles and Understatements in Vietnamese Political

Speeches 26 Figure 4.2: Hyperboles and Understatements in Vietnamese Political

Speeches 27 Figure 4.3: Hyperboles and Understatements in English and Vietnamese

Political Speeches 27 luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This section focuses on the explanation of the introduction of this research It presents the background of the research that discusses the understatement and hyperbole in Vietnamese and English political speeches

1.1 Rationale

In all communicative means that human beings possess, language is the only mean satisfying all the needs of humans It has become a useful tool in communication because it has existed along with humans up to now Especially in politics, language places an integral role so the close relationship between language and politics has been an interest to many researchers As Joseph (2006) states in

“Language and Politics”, there’s a correlation between language and politics The goal of any political speech is persuasion Using rhetorical devices frequently and widely is an effective way to make these political speeches more attractive, lively, and persuasive According to Harris (2017), Rhetorical devices are divided into more than sixty devices in which understatement and hyperbole are two sides of the same coin: they both use distortion to make a point They mean something more or less than the words they mean, so they cannot be taken literally Due to their significance, many politicians frequently use them in their speeches to attract listeners’ attention and achieve their communicative purposes

In the realm of discourse analysis, the typical linguistic features of political speeches have so far been the focus of attention of many linguists and researchers Moreover, there have been many studies of the language used in political speeches, especially rhetorical devices used in political speeches, to name but a few (Ollikka, 2018; Charteris-Black, 2016; Amaral et al., 2013; Pham Thi Minh Phuong, 2017; and Nguyen Uy Dung, 2010) There is a large volume of published studies focusing

on some common devices such as alliteration, metaphor, metonymy, rhetorical questions, repetition, and personification However, there have been limited studies luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

of understatements and hyperboles in political speeches Nguyen Uy Dung (2010) has done a study on some common stylistic devices in political speeches by US presidents and suggested a comparison between stylistic devices in English political speeches and those in Vietnamese political speeches Besides, as an English teacher, using rhetorical devices in teaching can help improve the effectiveness in conveying

my intention in lessons and make them more interesting Therefore, I chose to carry out a study, namely: “A study on understatements and hyperboles in Vietnamese and English political speeches” for my MA thesis

1.2 Aim and Objectives

1.2.1 Aim

This study aims to examine the structural and functional features of understatements and hyperboles in Vietnamese and English political speeches

1.2.2 Objectives

To achieve this aim, the researcher tries to fulfill the following objectives:

- To identify and discuss the structural and functional features of understatements and hyperboles in English and Vietnamese political speeches

- To compare and contrast the structural and functional features of understatements and hyperboles in English political speeches and Vietnamese political speeches

2 What are the similarities and differences in the structural and functional features of the understatements and the hyperboles between English political speeches and Vietnamese political speeches?

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1.4 Scope of the Study

The study focuses on structural and functional features of understatements and hyperboles in Vietnamese and English political speeches Within the scope of this research, the researcher does not focus on other rhetorical devices but understatements and hyperboles due to their sheer persuasive power and the limit of this study The study aims at comparing and contrasting the structural and functional features of understatements and hyperboles used in the investigated English political speeches and Vietnamese political speeches For Vietnamese political speeches, the writer collected them on politicians’ official website For English political speeches, they were collected from website https://www.ukpol.co.uk/, which is updated and authentic On balance, 40 speeches from Vietnamese politicians and 40 speeches from English politicians within the past six years were to be analyzed in this study

Harris’s theory (2017) of Rhetorical devices is used as a main theoretical framework in identifying and discussing hyperboles and understatements in political speeches

1.5 Significance of the Study

By analyzing understatements and hyperboles used in English and Vietnamese political speeches, the study will hopefully help to find out rhetorical devices politicians use to make their speeches more persuasive Moreover, throughout this study, I expect to understand more about how power and ideology can be gained via language Therefore, the awareness of the role of language can be acquired

Also, the study is expected to make contributions to the field of literacy analysis both theoretically and practically, with particular reference to understatements and hyperboles as rhetorical devices Through this research, language learners will be able to have a sufficient foundation of knowledge on rhetorical devices, especially understatement and hyperbole Besides that, this thesis will be useful for readers who are interested in making political speeches and luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

studying rhetorical devices

Last but not least, whilst some researches have been carried out on rhetorical devices in political speeches, political speeches in light of Functional Grammar, there have been few recognizable investigations into understatements and hyperboles in English and Vietnamese political speeches Understanding the link between understatement and hyperbole will help readers and English users in understanding and conveying the meaning of the language

1.6 Definition of terminology

Understatement: Harris (2017) defined understatement as a device which expresses an idea as less important than it actually is, either for ironic emphasis or for politeness and tact

Hyperbole: Harris (2017) defined hyperbole as follow “Hyperbole, the counterpart of understatement, deliberately exaggerates conditions for emphasis or effect”

Rhetorical devices: As defined by Harris (2017), Rhetorical devices, often called figures of speech, involve the use of words in special, unusual ways: either in unusual arrangements or with special and unusual meaning

Political speech: A political speech is mainly defined as an argument of some kind: an attempt to provide others with reasons for thinking, feeling or acting in some particular way; to motivate them; to invite them to trust one in uncertain conditions; to get them to see situations in a certain light [also] in some measure, adapt to audiences, confirm their expectations and respect their boundaries, even as

it tries to transform them (Jamieson, 1988)

1.7 Intended structure of the thesis

Considering the convenience steps to understand the thesis, the writer organized the research into five chapters They are introduction, literature review, research methodology, findings and discussion, and conclusion The first chapter is the introduction, which contains the rationale, the aim and objectives, the research questions, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, and the organization luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

of the research Chapter two presents some literature review of some research works related to the topic of this paper and the theoretical foundation, in which the basic concepts and theoretical background related to the study are discussed Chapter three discusses the research approaches used to collect and analyze data to answer the research questions Chapter four gives the results, with illustration, interpretation and discussion based on the theoretical background and frameworks mentioned in chapter two and chapter three Chapter five provides a summary of the major findings, draws conclusions and pedagogical implications, discusses the limitations and puts forward suggestions for further research

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This section begins with a literature review of several studies that are related

to rhetorical devices in general, understatement and hyperbole in particular, and political speeches Finally, the theoretical background is also discussed in this section In this part, the notions of political speech and rhetorical device are also reviewed as well as their functional and structural features

2.1 Literature review

Advances in any field of study are always built upon the achievements of previous scholars, and this is nowhere truer than in a field as intricate and complex

as rhetorical devices in political speeches

Concerning political speeches, Charteris-Black (2005) argued that successful speakers, especially in political contexts, needed to appeal to attitudes and emotions that were already within the listeners When the listeners perceived that their beliefs were understood and supported, the speaker created connections to the policy that they wished to communicate When putting forward arguments a speaker had to communicate at an emotional level and took standpoints that seemed morally correct Furthermore, the listener must perceive that the arguments were relevant to the issue This could not be done solely by lexical means although linguistic performance was the most important factor Charteris-Black (2005, p.10) According

to Charteris-Black (2005), the effect of rhetorical strategies in political speeches was often a result of them being combined Therefore, it was as interesting to look

at the interaction of various strategies as it was to look at each one separately Charteris-Black (2005, p 11)

Pham Thi Minh Phuong (2017) researched the use of rhetorical devices in Hillary Clinton’s speeches The data of the research contained ten Hillary Clinton’s speeches from 2010 to 2016 in which five rhetorical devices including metonymy, repetition, irony, metaphor, and parallelism were exerted The main aim of the study luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

was to look closely at Hilary Clinton’s use of rhetorical devices in the light of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) The author used a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods for an in-depth analysis of the research topic

As a result, it was quite apparent that the use of rhetorical devices made political speeches not as dry as everybody used to expect No matter what kind of device was, the presentation became much more inspiring, impactful, and also beautiful The study confirmed the significant effect of situational context on the use of rhetorical devices in those political speeches This study might have been much more interesting if the author had addressed the speeches of Vietnamese politicians

to compare with the target language In other corpus-based analysis, political speeches by Obama and Rouhani at UN were carried out by Sharififar & Rahimi (2015), in which the transitivity system and modality were analyzed according to Halliday's systematic functional linguistic to represent how two presidents' language can incorporate both ideology and power in their political speeches As for the result, Obama’s language was more simple and understandable than Rouhani’s Besides that, both addressers' speeches have included the material processes as a process of “doing” and “happening” more than other processes because they fulfilled functions to express the president's activities and his government including what presidents have done and will do in future

Nguyen Thi Thuy (2020) investigated in British and American political speeches in the light of Systemic Functional Linguistics She collected 40 speeches made by American Presidents from 1982 to 2009 and British Prime Ministers from

1982 to 2011 By using Harris (2013) as analysis frameworks, the writer analyzed the use of metaphor, simile, hyperbole and their function in conveying message in British and American political speeches as well as the similarities and differences in the use of these rhetorical devices in both quantitative and qualitative methods The result of the study revealed that there was no difference in the use of rhetorical devices in the use of rhetorical devices conveying politic messages and creating persuasive effects on the audience between British and American politicians The luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

differences were found in the frequency of occurrences of rhetorical devices

As far as rhetorical devices are concerned, only some devices were chosen to analyze Rhetorical devices have been studied in a wide range of areas such as in print advertising, in promotional discourse, in classroom film, in political speeches and so on The quantitative analysis method was the dominant method and sometimes there was a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods Ollikka (2018) did research on the rhetorical devices in Conor McGregor’s speeches, in which apostrophe, exemplum, repetition with its different forms and metaphors were analyzed in the light of Harris’ theory The data consisted of 11 press conferences featuring McGregor from 2015 to 2017 The aim of this study was to research what kinds of rhetorical devices were featured in the speeches of Conor McGregor Additionally, the study aimed to offer explanations for the purposes of using the rhetorical device The result showed that McGregor’s motivation for using these devices was to try to attack the character of his opponents by trying to evoke emotion in them as well as raising himself above them in the process Another study focusing on rhetorical devices in two newspapers with different geographical locations was conducted by Farrokhi & Nazemi (2015) The papers viewed were New York Times and The Australian The rhetorical devices focused on were metonymy, hyperbole, and metaphor The most important aspect here is not only which devices were used the most but also the reasons behind the usage Farrokhi & Nazemi, (2015, p.160) introduced the results as follows: metonymy was the most used and it enabled writers to use one identity to represent another An example of metonymy was using geographical locations like Washington or Moscow when referring to the government The second most used was hyperbole Hyperbole was used to make a claim that was quite impossible or unreal The purpose of hyperbole was to enhance the importance of something Metaphor was the least used device and it was used by the editorial writers to illustrate their own opinions on the matter

in question instead of the reality of the news events

In the case of hyperbole, Aljadaan (2018) did research on hyperbole in luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

relation to metaphor and irony The paper focused on the similarities and differences between them He found out that hyperbole is like both irony and metaphor At the same time, hyperbole is distinct from them In another study, Henkemans (2013) investigated what role the stylistic device of hyperbole could play in arguers’ strategic maneuvers in the argumentation stage of a discussion As

a result, hyperbole could be used to emphasize the information that contributes most

to achieving the arguer’s aims in the stage concerned And it helped the arguer’s arguments look stronger by means of exaggeration, in the argumentation stage

Alattar's (2017) paper focused on the formal and functional perspectives in the analysis of hyperbole which American candidates produce in their speeches in electoral campaigns In order to achieve the aims of the study, three speeches of the winning candidate chosen at random from the 2012 Presidential Election, were analyzed The frequency findings, in terms of the formal analysis, revealed that the exaggerated content found in single words was the type which represents the most common realization of hyperbole in Obama's speeches Speaking of the functional analysis, the results revealed that emphasis and evaluation appeared to be the most prominent functions suggesting that the intended impression on voters was only constructed through the combined effects of these two devices

Voltadewi (2014) studied the form and function of hyperbolic expression in online perfume advertisements Claridge (2011), Harris (2013) and Wales (2001) theories were used as the study’s framework The result of this study shows that perfume advertisements use hyperbolic style in delivering their message The most common hyperbolic form in online perfume advertisements is single word form The purpose of using hyperbolic style is to make the advertisement more attractive, therefore the customers will have high interest in buying the products

Regarding understatement, it was studied in connection with overstatement

in English Literary Letters by Majed & Muhammad (2017) The texts were selected letters by Lord Byron, Percy Shelly, John Keats, Katharine Mansfield, Dylan Thomas, and Rupert Brooks He concluded that both overstatements and luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

understatements do not signify the actual state of reality but present certain cases and situations where the writers tend to express their ideas, feelings and emotions, and the time and mood when they write Colston (1997) made two experiments to test the extent to which surprise is indicated by overstatement, understatement, and irony The results showed that when events turn out unexpectedly and the expectations of characters were explicit, irony was more effective than overstatement and understatement When expectations were not explicit and the situation had a negative outcome, overstatement was more effective than irony and understatement

Du Thi Trang Anh (2010) analysed 600 understatements from newspapers which are “The New York Times” and “The Los Angeles Times” in English, “The Quân Đội Nhân Dân” and “The Nhân Dân” in Vietnamese to investigate the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features of understatements in editorials in English and Vietnamese newspapers The finding revealed that understatements can

be expressed by all parts of speech and it comes from many structural levels They could be presented under the form of phrasal structures namely noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases and adverb phrases She also concluded that understatements in Vietnamese can be categorized into 8 groups: expressions of poverty, gloomy state, conflict, difficulties, hostility, incapableness or weakness, homelessness and danger while understatements in English editorials can be categorized into 6 groups: expressions of poverty, gloomy state, conflict, insaneness, incapableness or weakness, and danger

Although many previous studies have been done on rhetorical devices related

to different discourse aspects as well as many studies have used the data including the political speeches to investigate the linguistics items, there has not been any single study on rhetorical devices in Vietnamese and English political speeches To

be more exact, the two devices understatement and hyperbole are seldom considered at the same time Moreover, we believe that this is the first time that understatement and hyperbole are studied under the light of the classification by luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

Harris (2017) as well as applied the combination of theories in the form and function of Claridge (2011), McCarthy & Carter (2004), Cano Mora (2006) and Du

Thi Trang Anh, (2010) This is why the research “A study of understatements and

hyperboles in Vietnamese and English political speeches” is carried out

2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.1 Political speeches

Charteris-Black (2016) defined a political speech as “a coherent stream of spoken language that was usually prepared for delivery by a speaker to an audience for a purpose on a political occasion” According to him, without clear distinction, there are two major classes of political speech The first one related to political decision making and the second one is to share values Obeng (1977, p.58) claimed that “a political discourse is full of conflicts and synergy, contestations and acquiescence, praise and dispraise, as well as delicate criticism and unmitigated support” In speeches of politicians, they used lots of rhetorical devices to get the audience’s support and belief

According to Knappert (1968), in politics, language is not only used as an instrument of power, it can also be its target, either to be destroyed, or to be encouraged In the same vein, Rozina (2009) stated that “the features of political discourse vary, as do its purposes.” Politicians may also use particular language forms when answering journalists’ questions, persuading voters to be a party loyal and to turn up to vote, moving a floating voters’ party loyalty, making people adopt general political or social attitudes in order to attract support for a present policy, and so on

In a study conducted by Kenzhekanova (2015), it was shown that there were 4 features in a political discourse which are agonistic ability, aggressiveness, ideological character, and theatricality Agonistic ability means competitiveness which normally appears in parliamentary debates and the pre-election companies Aggression is one of the most important components of a political speech It could be used to demonstrate political force and downgrade the status of the addressee The ideological character luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

which represents the system of social representations, group knowledge, beliefs and opinions based on group values, norms and interests could be connected to military Theatricality in politics will show images of politicians

2.2.2 Rhetorical devices

Willihnganz (2008) defined rhetorical analysis as an examination of how a text persuades us of its point of view Willihnganz, (2008) continues by establishing two main focuses of the analysis are on identifying how a text communicates and what strategies are being employed to persuade the audience He finished his

definition by noting that in the rhetorical analysis one should not just state what is

said, but rather what strategies were being used to communicate effectively

Short (2007) offered an example of how the process of rhetorical analysis could be conducted Firstly, she recommended familiarizing oneself thoroughly with the material being analyzed As a next step, she recommended forming a thesis statement which was then followed by the arrangement of all the rhetorical strategies that were identified For the last steps, she emphasized the importance of providing analysis on the strategies instead of simply summarizing and remembering to check grammar and fluidity of the text

The strategies of persuasion mentioned by both Willihnganz (2008) and Short (2007) can commonly be likened to different rhetorical devices Therefore, defining the term rhetorical device places particular emphasis on rhetoric Oxford’s online dictionary defines rhetoric as follows: “speech or writing that is intended to influence people, but that is not completely honest or sincere” (disapproving) or “the art of using language in speech or writing in a special way that influences or entertains people.” Understanding the meaning of rhetoric is in the core of the term “rhetorical device” as

it contains the themes of effective communication and persuasion The word “device”

in the term “rhetorical device” is not as important to define one as it is fairly evident in its meaning of being an object of some action and can be replaced with “a mode” or “a type” As a conclusion, rhetorical devices can be more loosely defined as different modes of persuasion and effective communication

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Harris (2013) described the use of rhetorical devices as follows: “By learning, practicing, altering, and perfecting them, and by testing their effects and nuances for yourself, these devices will help you to express yourself better.” Harris’ also listed some of the purposes of these devices including helping to pay attention, helping to understand one’s points, helping to make claims more believable, and finally helping to be remembered Besides, he defined rhetorical devices as figures

of speech which consisted of the use of words in special, unusual ways: either in unusual arrangements or with special and unusual meaning Harris (2017) Harris’s

“A handbook of rhetorical devices” and “Writing with Clarity and Style” consisted

of a collection of 60 rhetorical devices with their descriptions and examples on each

of the devices He offered the definitions to all the rhetorical devices found in the present study thus helping with the identifying and categorizing of the devices

The study has its focus on a limited range of rhetorical devices, which are chosen due to the author’s personal interest and their sheer persuasive power and they are understatement and hyperbole

2.2.2.1 Understatement

According to Harris (2013) understatement is a tool that expresses an idea as less important than it actually is Majed (2017) is on the same wavelength that the principal idea of understatement is saying less and meaning more Understatement

is used for different reasons such as concealing anxiety, as a colloquial sign, as a tool of modesty and tactfulness, as a means of avoiding offense and as a means of

emphasis, etc For example, there’s an understatement in this sentence “She gave

birth to me, raised me and provided for me from an infant… maybe I owe her one.”

(2.1) the speaker is minimizing how indebted he is to his mother He probably owes

her a lot more than “one”

There are eight functions mentioned in Du Thị Trang Anh's (2010) thesis which are showing politeness, emphasizing the enormity of a problem, avoiding hurting the hearer’s feeling and making the hearer sulky, criticizing someone (especially the people with higher rank and position in the society) subtly, being a luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

subtle form of sarcasm, functioning as a metaphor, and making the problems less serious And people usually use down toners to minimize the importance, negative words to express the affirmative content, or “modal verb” + “bare-infinitive” or “the perfect form of infinitive” to avoid direct statement or to answer indirectly

According to Osȩkowska-Sandecka (2016), understatements can be used positively or/and negatively Politicians use understatements positively for more politeness or for political correctness issues in order not to harm people Understatements are used negatively for the purpose presenting ideologically required view

Rajaa’ M Flayih (2009) also did a research on understatements in some certain texts extracted from various books of the New Testament in Holly Bible, manely: Mark, Luke, Act of Apostle and Corintians syntactically and semantically

He found out understatements in negation form were highlighted And communicative functions of understatements are to moderate or mitigate, to demphasize and to show egative emotion

As an illustration of understatement, the noun phrase “a little bit out of line”

in statement “I suppose that getting into a fistfight with the principal was a little bit out of line.” (2.2) In this example, the speaker is minimizing how inappropriate

those actions were Fighting with principle is much worse than being out of line

Another example is in the statement “It turns out that climbing Mount

Everest is not so easy” (2.3) The speaker is understating how difficult it is to climb

the Earth’s highest mountain It is very hard to climb Mount Everest

2.2.2.2 Hyperbole

Burgers, as cited in Aljadaan (2018) defined hyperbole as: “An expression that is more extreme than justified given its ontological referent” Similarly, Quintilian, as cited in Henkemans (2013) described hyperbole as a “tasteful exaggeration of the truth” that can go in two directions: one can exaggerate by presenting things as bigger or as smaller than they are Harris (2013) also shared the same view in his definition: “Hyperbole, the counterpart of understatement, luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

deliberately exaggerates conditions for emphasis or effect” Let’s analyze the following example:

(2.4) If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his own father and mother

and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple

( Harris, 2013)

In this example, Luke explores the requirement of being a disciple of Jesus

He uses hyperbole to exaggerate the price of being Jesus’s disciple It’s not necessary to hate someone’s father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, or even life but in case they have to choose between these relationships and Jesus, they must sacrifice their most valuable things

Hyperboles can take various forms McCarthy & Carter (2004) mentioned hyperbolic expressions which are usually understood via expressions of number, words referring to large amounts /quantities, time expressions, nouns of hyperbolic nature, emphatic plural and emphatic genitive This is exemplified by statement in

speech V27 of Nguyen Xuan Phuc on 11 December 2020: “Đồng thời, thông qua

việc chủ trì tổ chức suôn sẻ hàng chục hội nghị quan trọng” (2.5) (At the same time, through the smooth organization of dozens of important conferences) The

speaker used expressions of number to emphasis the percentage of success in conferences organization However, according to Claridge (2011), hyperbolic expressions can be words, phrases, clauses, numerical hyperbole, the role of the superlative, comparison, and repetition Single word hyperbole occurs, when there

is only exaggerated content in an utterance or sentence If the word is omitted, the hyperbolic meaning will completely disappear The particular combination of words and senses which makes phrase can produce the overall hyperbolic meaning Two

or more clausal constituents have hyperbolic meaning, and then we have hyperboles

in clausal form

Cano Mora (2006) categorized the identified hyperboles based on evaluative and quantitative dimensions which have threefold distinctions For the evaluative luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

dimension, there are positive (approval, appreciation, or praise), negative (frustration, criticism, or condemnation) and impact/singularity differences (idea of specialization, notability, and surprise) Under quantitative dimension, on the other hand, what comes is the following three domains which are purity domain (idea of completeness and absoluteness, universality and non-exceptionality, non-existence and nullity; and veracity), measured domain (time measure - period units, length/linear measures, other numerical expressions; and quantity words), and magnitude domain (the idea of greatness and smallness) And she mentioned functions of hyperboles which are to emphasize, evaluate, express surprise, simplify, intensify interest, contrast differences, show humour, clarify, and de-emphasis politeness The hyperboles’ contrast function is to extend and heighten this discrepancy to the maximum, to make the disparity even more extreme Generalisations often allow speakers to avoid specifying, detailing, listing, etc That

is, they are ways to avoid providing exact and precise information In order to engage, attract or arouse listeners’ interest, hyperboles can also be used Hyperboles sometimes express humour They can be funny or playful, but it can also be used to insult and mock By exaggerating a preceding literal utterance, the speaker may attempt to clarify the meaning he/she intends to convey To give an example,

statement in speech E8 of Chi Onwurah “This is the largest legal miscarriage of

justice in our history” (2.6) uses superlative to overstate the miscarriage of justice

In fact, the even might not the largest one

As mentioned in article of Burgers et al (2016), hyperbole has three core characteristics that need to be considered The first characteristic is that hyperbole involves a scale, the second one is that hyperbole contains a contrast of magnitude between propositional and intended meaning, with the propositional meaning being

“larger” than the intended meaning, and the last one is that hyperbole should be seen in the light of the ontological referent discussed

In conclusion, this study mainly focuses to analyze understatement and hyperbole based on Harris’s theory in the approach adapted from Claridge (2011), luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

Cano Mora (2006) and Du Thi Trang Anh (2010) As there is no single study that covered all the theories related to understatements and understatements, the writer decided to synthesize the theory of some researchers To be more specific, the forms

of understatements and understatements mainly followed Claridge (2011) theory with some adjustments to be more logical, the functions of hyperbole were analyzed based on Cano Mora (2006) while understatements’ functions were discussed based

on suggestion of Du Thi Trang Anh (2010) As a whole, Table 2.1 below is the framework for data analysis

Table 2.1: Framework for data analysis

Single word

N

1 Emphasis

2 Evaluation

3 Expression of surprise

4 Simplification

5 Interest intensification

6 Contrast of differences

7 Humour

8 Clarification

9 Polite emphasis

de-Single word

4 Criticizing someone subtly (especially the people with higher rank and position in the society)

5 Being a subtle form of sarcasm

as well as some previous study in English and Vietnamese Next, theoretical backgrounds such as political speeches, understatement and hyperbole are discussed And theoretical framework is introduced at the end of the chapter.

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CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The purpose of this section was to explain in detail the research methods and the methodology implemented for this study The section will explain first of all the choice of research approach, then a description of how the data will be collected and analysed This will be followed by the validity and reliability of the thesis

3.1 Research approach

The study was conducted to (1) to identify and discuss the structural and functional features of understatements and hyperboles in English and Vietnamese political speeches, (2) compare and contrast the structural and functional features of understatements and hyperboles in English political speeches and Vietnamese political speeches Nicolas Walliman (2006) explained that a quantitative approach

is appropriate for collecting numerical data and for testing out a hypothesis Due to the first objective of the study, identifying forms and functions of hyperboles and understatements need to synthesize in number, so quantitative approach was to help the writer deal with data The qualitative approach, on the other hand, relied more heavily on language and interpretation of language meaning, so rather than testing theories, the whole process ended in the development of new theories Walliman (2011) also suggested using a quantitative approach in order to make comparisons, and using a qualitative approach in a rhetorical analysis Discussion on forms and functions of English and Vietnamese political speeches as well as comparison between two languages were about language phenomena, the writer wanted to have

a deeper understanding, and qualitative method were so suitable at this point So, with these objectives mentioned above, a combination of the qualitative approach and the quantitative approach in which quantitative method is the prominent one is adopted in this study

Related to the occurrence percentage of each device, the writer used quantitative approach Firstly, the writer found a number of political speeches in luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

authorized sources Based on background knowledge, the writer then read through the speeches to identify the data that met research requirements and conditions Statements which had hyperboles and understatements were highlighted Then phrases conveying hyperboles or understatements were categorized in excel After that, the writer summarized the number in tables and made pie chart for further analysis

In fact the quantitative approach won’t help understand better the complex of the situations and answer the research questions The data was analyzed in combination with qualitative approach This method was applied at the later phases

of the study when all examples had been classified and analyzed based on predefined frameworks Examples were analyzed for more detail and compared between the two languages English and Vietnamese

3.2 Data Collection and Analysis

Due to the aim of the paper, the researcher used speeches made by politicians

as data for the study In order to make a comparison between the use of understatements and hyperboles in Vietnamese political speeches and English ones, speeches spoken by politicians from Vietnam and the UK were taken because of the similarities in the political system The search engine via the internet was regarded

as a means of collecting data on account of its convenience In the same way Walliman (2006) confirms that the internet rapidly expands the source of information of all types

First, the researcher searched 80 political speeches above five minutes (40 for Vietnamese speeches and 40 for English ones) After being downloaded, the speeches which came in the form of videos were then transcribed into texts Then the speeches were examined carefully and coded as listed in Tables 3.2 and 3.3 For instance, E1 was the code of the first English political speech, the date given was in the next column and the last column showed the total words of the speech One corpus was built from samples of speeches from 2016 to 2021 made by politicians, namely the corpus of English political speeches and the other was from samples of luan van tot nghiep download luanvanfull moi nhat z z @gmail.com Luan van thac si

speeches from 2016 to 2021 made by politicians, namely the corpus of Vietnamese political speeches After that, the researcher proofread all the transcripts again before identifying the understatements and hyperboles used This step was undertaken based on theories of rhetorical devices proposed by Harris (2017) Besides, the writer’s analysis was also based on Claridge (2011), Cano Mora (2006) and Du Thi Trang Anh (2010) As mentioned earlier, the writer identified followed the definition of Harris (2017) According to Claridge (2011) hyperbolic expressions can be words, phrases, clauses, numerical hyperbole, the role of the superlative, comparison, and repetition In order to be more logical I grouped them into 3 basic levels in a sentence: single word, phrase and clause as in traditional grammar Number, superlative, comparison, and repetition are also taken into consideration For example, speaker repeat word then we put it in single word or superlative can be classified in phrasal hyperbole form And in order to be consistent, I analyzed understatements in the same category The functions of hyperbole were analyzed based on Cano Mora (2006), while understatements’ functions were discussed based on suggestion of Du Thi Trang Anh (2010) Theoretical frameworks are synthesized as table 3.1 The final results will come in lists of extracted sentences containing understatements and hyperboles All instances are entered into Microsoft Excel for easy counting

Table 3.1: Framework for analyzing data

Single word

N 1 Emphasis

2 Evaluation

3 Expression of surprise

4 Simplification

Single word

7 Humour

8 Clarification

9 Polite emphasis

de-V the hearer sulky

4 Criticizing someone subtly (especially the people with higher rank and position in the society)

5 Being a subtle form of sarcasm

Table 3.2 Data on the corpus of the English political speeches

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No Speeches Politician Date range No of words

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Table 3.3 Data on the corpus of the Vietnamese political speeches (The VC)

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No Speeches Politician Date range No of words

3.3 Validity and reliability

Since the speeches in this study were collected from active websites which are assessable and totally authentic sources of data, not invented examples, the quality of the data was quite reliable Moreover, these data have been posted since

2016, which are absolutely not out-of-date The most appropriate approaches were employed to ensure the validity and reliability of this study Besides, in this study, the researcher set out the work from the analysis of evidence, automatically statistics, frequencies, then came to conclusion In other words, the validity of the study was assured Also, Harris's (2017) framework for data analysis was well-recognized and widely accepted

3.4 Summary

In summary, this section provides an overlook of the research methods adopted in the study along with the data collection and data analysis procedures This helps to clarify the findings and discussions reported

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CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The aim of the study is to examine the structural and functional features of understatements and hyperboles in Vietnamese and English political speeches So in this chapter, the findings and discussion of structural and functional features of English and Vietnamese political speeches are shown In the first section, a number

of tables are used to show the results of the overall findings Vietnamese and English political speeches are then discussed in the next section In the last part, the researcher presents the findings and discussion of the similarities and differences of structural and functional features of understatements and hyperboles in Vietnamese political speeches

4.1 Overview of Hyperboles and Understatements

Figure 4.1: Hyperboles and Understatements in Vietnamese Political Speeches

Figure 4.2: Hyperboles and Understatements in Vietnamese Political Speeches

Figure 4.3: Hyperboles and Understatements in English and Vietnamese Political

Speeches

As can be seen from Figure 4.1, the Hyperboles group reported significantly more than the Understatements group in Vietnamese political speeches Interestingly, this correlation is the same in English political speeches and

English Hyperboles45%

English Understatements10%

Vietnamese Understatements8%

Vietnamese Hyperboles37%

OVERVIEW OF HYPERBOLES AND UNDERSTATEMENTS IN POLITICAL SPEECHES

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Vietnamese political speeches as seen in Figure 4.1 and 4.2 It is apparent from Figure 4.3 that politicians in English use more hyperboles and understatements in their talks than Vietnamese politicians

4.2 Hyperboles in English and Vietnamese political speeches

4.2.1 Forms of hyperboles

Hyperbole is a way of speaking or writing that makes someone or something sound bigger, better, more, etc than they are It is important to identify the forms of hyperbole in speeches and texts As a general principle, it can be concluded from the definition of hyperbole that any word or expression can be considered as hyperbole when it is overstated or exaggerated for a particular purpose

Hyperboles can be found in single words, phrases or clauses

4.2.1.1 Forms of hyperboles in English

Table 4.1: Forms of hyperboles in English Forms of hyperboles in English %

As illustrated in Table 4.1, the most recurrent pattern of hyperbolic expressions in the total of English political speeches is single-word hyperboles which account for 55.2 % in our data Next in frequency comes the category of phrasal hyperboles with (177) instances representing 44 % of the total percentage The least significant cases of the whole data examined represent clausal hyperboles with a frequency rate at 0.7 % These results provide good evidence that shorter hyperboles, in particular individual words, seem to be one of the most productive strategies in the creation of this figure because they are less complex than the other syntactic patterns and "may thus be easier both to produce, to process, and to retain" due to their having "little or no internal structure" as Claridge (2011, p 46) argues

In contrast to the other formal realizations of hyperbole which represent low frequency rates may be because they are longer, more complex, and need more effort on the part of the speaker, an overwhelming presence of phrasal hyperboles can be observed in our data Claridge explains their lead over other hyperbolic forms, saying that phrases "are more multi-functional and more likely to conventionalised"

a Single words conveying hyperbole in English

As we can see from the above table, most of hyperbole occurrences are single word forms which have majority in adjectives and adverbs Single word hyperbole occurs, when there is only exaggerated content in an utterance or sentence If the word is omitted, the hyperbolic meaning will completely disappear For example, in text E1, the speech of Alok Sharma made on 06.05.2021 at the

Petersberg Climate Dialogue, he said “Today, I have the unique honour of being the

only COP President-Designate to welcome ministers to the Petersberg Dialogue

two years in a row” (4.1) He opened his talk by using the adj unique in phrase “the

unique honour” to emphasize his honour when welcoming ministers to the

Petersberg Dialogue two years in a row He highly appreciated his chance at the

Dialogue When omitting the hyperbole unique, the emphasis in his meaning no longer exists And in the same text, he stated “I request that we do everything we

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