A study on the use of hedging devices in conversations in the story harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone by j kk rolling

By dint of methodology section, the author can conclude the findings that modal verbs, modal lexical verbs and conditionals as well which create strong effects in conversations in the st

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐINH THỊ HUYỀN TRANG

A STUDY ON THE USE OF HEDGING DEVICES IN

CONVERSATIONS IN THE STORY “HARRY POTTER AND THE

SORCERER’S STONE” BY J.K ROLLING

NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG TIỆN RÀO ĐÓN TRONG CÁC HỘI

THOẠI TRONG TRUYỆN “HARRY POTTER VÀ HÒN ĐÁ PHÙ THỦY”CỦA

J.K.ROLLING

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Hanoi – 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐINH THỊ HUYỀN TRANG

A STUDY ON THE USE OF HEDGING DEVICES IN

CONVERSATIONS IN THE STORY “HARRY POTTER AND THE

SORCERER’S STONE” BY J.K ROLLING

NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG TIỆN RÀO ĐÓN TRONG CÁC HỘI

THOẠI TRONG TRUYỆN “HARRY POTTER VÀ HÒN ĐÁ PHÙ THỦY” CỦA

J.K.ROLLING

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Hanoi – 2016

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CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled

A study on the use of hedging devices in conversations in the story “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” by J.K Rolling is the result of my own research for the

Degree of Master of Arts at Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) and that this thesis has not been submitted for any assessment in any other formal courses of study elsewhere

Hanoi, 2016

Đinh Thi ̣ Huyền Trang

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In my complement of my thesis, I have received generous advice and a great

deal of support from a number of people Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thank to my supervisor Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân for his invaluable guidance, constructive critical feedback and his generous help in the process of completing my thesis

My special thanks also go to all my respected lecturers in the M.A course for their informative and valuable lectures and the administrative staff of the Department

of Post Graduate Studies, ULIS, for their help, guidance, enthusiasm and valuable support during my course of study

Finally, I owe my deep thanks to my dear family, especially my mother, my younger sister for their love, material and spiritual support throughout this research and my friends who always stand by me with their consideration and encouragement

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ABSTRACT

The research aims to investigate the use of hedge devices employed in the story

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone by J.K Rolling, being one of the most

best-selling and famous story over the world The methods chosen for this research were quantitative and qualitative which emerged the frequency of hedging appearing in conversations by main characters and explained how they were used To find out the answers to all research questions, the research supplies readers a foundational knowledge of hedging through literature review section By dint of methodology section, the author can conclude the findings that modal verbs, modal lexical verbs and

conditionals as well which create strong effects in conversations in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone

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TABLE OF CONTENT CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III TABLE OF CONTENT IV LIST OF TABLES VI

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of the Problem and the Rationale of the Study 1

2 Significance of the study 2

3 Aim, objectives and scope of study 2

3.1 Aim of study 2

3.2 Objectives of study 2

5 Research questions 3

6 Organization of study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1 Review on hedge 5

1.1.1 Towards understanding hedging 5

1.1.2 Hedge as a pragmatic phenomenon 6

1.3 Related studies 7

1.4 Taxonomy 8

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 14

2.1 Data 14

2.2 The data collection criteria 15

2.3 Research methods 15

2.4 Data collection procedure 16

2.5 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 16

2.5.1 Modals verbs 16

2.4.2 Modal lexical verbs 21

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2.4.3 Conditionals 24

2.4.4 Approximators 26

2.4.5 Adjectives, adverbs and nominal modal phrases 32

2.4.7 The use of hedge devices 37

PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 40

3.1 Major findings of the research 40

3.2 Implications of the study 42

3.4 Suggestions for further studies 42

REFERENCES 44 APPENDIX I

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LIST OF TABLES

Figure 1: The use of modal verbs as hedge devices 17

Figure 2: The occurrence of modal verbs as hedges per 1,000 words 17

Figure 3: Raw Data of Modal Lexical Verbs 21

Figure 4: Modal Lexical Verbs per 1,000 words. 22

Figure 5: The use of conditionals as hedges 24

Figure 6: Conditionals per 1,000 words 24

Figure 7: Raw Data of Approximators 27

Figure 8: Normalized Data Of Approximator of Degree, Indefinite Quantity, Indefinite Frequency and Time per 1,000 words 28

Figure 9: Normalized Data of Adjectives, Nouns and Adverbs per 1,000 words 34

Figure 10: Raw Data of Introductory Phrases 36

Figure 11: Introductory Phrases per 1,000 words 36

Figure 12: Concluding Data of All Hedge Devices Analyzed in the Research 38

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

This part presents rationale for the study which consists of 6 sections:

(1) State the problem and the rationale of the study (2) and (3): Clarify the significance, aims, objectives and the scope of study as well (4): Provide the scope and limitation of study (5): Propose the research questions (6): Brief organization of study

1 Statement of the Problem and the Rationale of the Study

Literary works are considered as a device to reflect real world Through masterpieces in each previous, the latter generations can fill in historical atmosphere, which draw a cultural picture and previous lifestyles expressed by how they communicate or their conversation ways Although precise plays an important role in impart information speakers, sometimes, wish to imitate their utterances by the use of hedges

There is no doubt that the definition of hedges is controversial The concept of hedges was firstly put forward by American linguistic George Lakoff (1972: 485) In his paper, hedge was defined as “words whose job is to make things fuzzier and less fuzzy” However, there are some scholars who favor the use of hedging in communication (e.g Hyland, 1998; 1995) Drawing inxspiration from classical rhetoric, they operate on the assumption that conversations are not only content- oriented and informative but also aim at convincing and influencing their listeners Many researchers recently have paid attention on the use of hedging in academic writing, which highlights the functions of hedges to persuading audiences However, merely discourse writing does not reflect pragmatic functions of hedging totally because there is no interaction in this kind of text Therefore, I investigate the use hedges in conversations in a present story – Harry Potter and the Scorer’s stone by J.K Rowling which partly devotes to research pragmatic functions in real conversations which recorded in written forms

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The study is conducted by finding out the meanings of hedge devices related to the literary works, in this case story, which presents the analysis of hedges used by the

main characters in a novel namely Harry Potter and the Scorer‟s stone

2 Significance of the study

Theoretically, due to investigating how hedges are used in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone, this can be a theoretical foundation for the latter studies

hedges in other genres The outcome of this study raises the interest and enthusiasm of other researchers to deal with the hedges articles in their own institutions, or conduct similar, follow- up and parallel studies to strengthen or prove the outcome of this

present research

Practically, by dint of finding out the use of hedges in real conversations through

the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone, the author hopes to draw and raise the

speakers’ attention to this spoken devices which partly cements their communication skills

3 Aim, objectives and scope of study

3.1 Aim of study

To soften daily conversations, we unconsciously use hedges as a speaking

habit By dint of being aware of the appearance of hedge in speaking, the author

desire to explore the meanings of hedge devices used in conversations in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone

3.2 Objectives of study

The main objectives of this analysis aims to show that hedging is regularly used

in daily conversations; especially provide in insight in types, frequency and meanings

of hedges in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone

To achieve the above mentioned aims, the following objectives are acutely set for exploration:

+ Find out the types of hedges used in conversations in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone

4, Scope and limitation

This study deals with determining the forms and functions of various hedges

devices in conversations in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone

The study is used both quantitative and qualitative method through content or

corpus analysis These articles were gathered from conversations in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone

Part B, Development, includes three distinguishable chapters

Chapter 1, Literature Review, reviews theoretical background on which the

whole study is based concluding terminological definitions and taxonomies of hedge

Chapter 2, Methodology, briefly presents the methodological framework of the

study It covers methods to carry the research

Chapter 3, findings and discussion, presents findings and discusses how hedge devices used in conversations in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone

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Part C, Conclusion, provides a summary of the study; summarizes significant

findings in terms of types, frequency and meanings of the hedges used in the story

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone; suggests some implications for the use of

hedges; points out some limitations of the study; and states some suggestions for further studies

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter provides the theoretical orientations of the study It consists of three sections: (1) Review on hedge; (2) Taxonomy; (3) Related studies Section 1 presents a review of hedge Section 2 provides a picture of related studies, and section three presents different types of hedge

1 Review on hedge

1.1 1 Towards understanding hedging

According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, hedge and hedging can be

defined as a barrier, limit, defence, or the act, or means of protection or defense In the literature, hedge refer terms like stancemarker (Atkinson, 1999), understatement (Hubler, 1983), downtoners (Quirk, 1985), and downgraders (House and Kasper, 1981) Other terms that some researchers employ in some allied fields to refer to hedging are mitigation (Stubbs, 1983; Labov and Fanshel, 1977), indirectedness (HIkel, 1997; Lakoff, 1990; Tannen; 1982), tentativeness (Holmes, 1983), and vagueness (Myer, 1996; Chanel, 1994)

Lakoff who was considered as the pioneer experiencing principals of hedging drew attention to the problem of relating natural phenomenon to natural language concepts In his studies, Lakoff claims that natural language (concepts) have “vague

boundaries and fuzzy edges” (1973, 458) Instead of stating: Men are animals, we add hedge “more and less” to this sentence Men are more and less animals It is obvious

that by adding hedge, the form of the original sentence becomes softer as well as

fuzzier about the sentence meaning

The forms of hedges have later been defined by Brown and Levinson (1978:145) as “a particle, word or phrase that modifies the degree of membership of a predicate or a noun phrase in a set; it says of that membership that it is partial or true only in certain respects, or that it is more true and complete than perhaps may be expected” This definition is interesting in that it includes in hedges both detensifiers and indetensifiers

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As to the motivation for the use of hedges, a lot of discussion has concentrated

on their use in spoken discourse and the most frequently mentioned motivating factor

is politeness, as defined by Brown/ Levinson (1987) In their view, hedges are mainly used for negative politeness in face- saving, in which they are put to elaborate use In positive politeness they figure only in expression of extreme, which is typical of this form of politeness, “safe vague” because they leave it to the addressee to figure out how to interpret them In negative politeness strategies hedges are usedto hedge on the illocutionary force of an utterance

In conclusion, there are many views of using hedge which first included some disadvantages of using hedging in various discourses and disciplines such as medicine, chemistry, economics, psychology as well as politics; however, the understanding of what a hedge is has also been changed since the first definition “fuzzy” to the definition of “politeness” As a result, there are number of various definitions on the phenomenon of hedging

1.1.2 Hedge as a pragmatic phenomenon

In recent studies deal with hedging, interpersonal aspect has been raised prominent According to Zuck and Zuck (1985, 172) defined that using hedge in news writing could reduce the strength of what he is writing, in some cases, the information reported turns out incorrect In another cross- linguistic study of hedges in philosophical texts, Markanen and Schroler (1978, 48) emerged hedging as a strategy of saying less than what one means Honestly speaking, in this case, hedge is presented as a strategy used to modify writers’ responsibility for the truthfulness of an utterance, to modify the definiteness of an utterance, and to modify the attitude of the author to the propositions put forth in the text or even to hide the attitude Crismore and Vaude Kopple (1988; 185) also determined hedges as items that signal a tentative or cautious assessment of the truth of referential, which allow senders to reduce their responsibility toward information presented All of these assertions above undoubtedly capture some essential discourse function of hedging However, to explore the communication situation and the relationships between discourse participants as well, we need to carry out the issue of linguistic politeness

The notion of linguistic politeness first received attention in Grice’s studies on conversational maxims where he suggested that, in order to account for language use in

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context, a politeness maxim should perhaps be added to the well- known maxims he had established within his cooperative principle (i.e maxims of quality, quantity, relations, and manner) In Robin Lakoff’s elaboration of Gricean maxims, she demonstrates that underlying our behavior during linguistic interactions are two basic areas of linguistic competence, one area being realized by adhering to the principle of clarity and the other by observing the principle of politeness In Leech theory (1983), politeness may be realized by weighing one’s linguistic behavior against a group of maxims whereby speakers can minimize hearer cost and maximize hearer benefit (tact maxim), minimize their own benefit and maximize that of hearer (generosity maxim), minimize hearer dispraise and maximize hearer praise (approbation maxim), minimize seft-praise and maximize seft- dispraise (modesty maxim), minimize disagreement and maximize agreement between oneseft and others (agreement maxim), and minimize antipathy and maximize sympathy between oneseft and others (sympathy maxim)

In contrast to Lakoff and Leech, Brown and Levison (1987/1978) developed a seemingly different approach to the study of linguistic politeness While Robin Lakoff and Leech had been interested in politeness as a part of a system of conversational principles, Brown and Levinson looked at politeness as a systemic feature of linguistic interaction

1.3 Related studies

Hedging as a rhetorical artefact writing is an interesting topic to many generations of linguistic through a number of studies For example, “The hedging in

academic writing: A Pragmatic analysis of English and chemistry” by Adamu Musa,

“Hedging in Journalistic articles” by Aquino Those authors focus on the frequent

forms of hedges in writing texts whose implications does not aim to improve speaking skill This apparently offers a gap for the linguistic researchers to conduct a study on hedging used in speaking

As regard Vietnam’s ELT context, the researchers have the same interest in hedge device used in academic writing The most recent research by Ngo (2014) demonstrated on quantifiers as hedge used in these by MA student of English Besides, the former researches in hedges devices in verbal communication is gradually carried

out in 2012 with “A Contrastive Analysis of Mitigating Criticism: The Use of Disjuncts

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as Mitigating Hedges in Verbal Communication” by Hoang To achieve the desired

aims of the study, survey questionnaire was designed and delivered to both Vietnamese and English speakers who asked to give specific utterance to criticize Most recently, Nguyen (2014) did the research on the use of hedge devices in the

novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell The goal of the research is find out the frequency forms and functions of hedging in Gone with the Wind Also, Nguyen’s

study has left gaps for the present research to continue exploring the meaning of hedge devices in communications in different relationships in order to find out the use of hedge devices in verbal communications

1.4 Taxonomy

The majority of linguists emphasize the fact that a comprehensive list does not exist yet Therefore, the table below is a synthesis of several taxonomies that were provided by several linguists, such as: Salager- Meyer (1997), Clemen (2002), Hinkel (2002, 2004), and Hyland (1996, 2005) in order to build up a detailed picture of what

is considered to be hedge Their taxonomies are not radically different but rather supplementing each other

Adj, Adv and nominal modal phrases

Probability (posibility)

Nouns Adverbs Passive voice

Hagge and Kostelnik Modal -Adverb expressions N/A N/A N/A N/A Hoye

Hagge and Kostelnik Concessive conjunctions + N/A N/A N/A Hartman

Approximators

Degree

Indefinite quantifiers Indefinite frequency and time

Compound

hedges

Modal auxiliary verbs with lexical verbs

Lexical verb with Adjectives or Adverbs

Comments on value-judgement N/A + N/A N/A N/A Comments on truth-judgement N/A + N/A N/A N/A

Hagge and Kostelnik

Conversation hedges N/A N/A + N/A Quaglio

As can be seen from the table above, most of hedges are classified according to their part of speech Conventional hedges, are considered as hedge by several linguists- Clemen (2002),

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Salager- Meyer (1997), Hinkel (2004), Hyland (1996) and Vold (2006) Salager- Meyer (1997, 109-110) divided them into modal auxiliary verbs, modal lexical verbs and adjectival, adverb and nominal modal phrases:

1) Conventional hedges:

a) Modal auxiliary verbs such as may, might, can, could, will, would, should

b) Modal lexical verbs such as to seem, to appear, to believe, to assume, to suggest, to estimate, to tend, to think, to argue, to indicate, to claim, to propose, to speculate, to predict,

to calculate, to infer

c) Adjectival, adverb and nominal modal phrases

+ Probability, adjectives such as possible, probable, un/likely

+ Nouns such as assumption, claim, possibility, estimate, suggestion

+ Adverbs such as perhaps, possibly, probably, practically, likely, presumably, virtually, apparently, partially, partly, in case, by chance, in a way, quite, barely, actually, clearly, comparatively, essentially, indeed, normally, potentially, relatively, theoretically, maybe, fairly, almost, nearly, merely, slightly, sufficiently, hopefully, broadly, somehow, somewhat

1 Hedging by passive voice Salager- Meyer did not include it in his taxonomy; However, Clemen (2002, 43), Hagge and Kostelnin (1989, cited in Unsal 2008, 25) and Hyland (1996, 444, 447- 448) did on the basis that passive voice is agentless

2 Modal – adverb expressions: According to Hoye (1997: 13), modal – adverb expressions such as could kindly, will kindly, could possibly function as hedging devices or negative politeness strategies

3 Introductory phrases such as I believe, to our knowledge, it is our view that,

we feel that Salage- Meyer (1997; 110), Hagge and Kostelnik (1989, cited in Unsal 2008; 25) assert that introductory phrases express personal doubt and direct involvement

4 Hedging realized by concession conjuncts: This is a category found in one linguist’s taxonomy Clemen (2002; 43) states that there are conjuncts such as though, although, despite, in spite of, notwithstanding, whereas, while, even if, even though, which attenuate the strength of the statement by giving an equivocation support

5 Hedging by particles is supposed by only Clemen (2002; 44)

6 Hedge realized by approximators of:

+ Degree: approximately, roughly, about

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+ Indefinite quantifiers such as a lot of, a bit of, many/ much, some, little/ a little, a few/ few/ fewer, less (than), a number of, a good/ great deal of, more or less, more (than), most, at least, over, under

+ Indefinite frequency and time such as frequently, often, every so often, occasionally/

on occasion, on many/ numerous occasions, generally/ in general, usually, sometimes, at times, from time to time, most of time, (hardly) ever, (almost) never, rarely, seldom, ordinarily, (almost, nearly) always, invariably, once in a while, around, round, round about

7 Compound hedges: Salager- Meyer (1997; 10) distinguishes the commonest forms:

+ A modal auxiliary combined with a lexical verb with a hedging content such as it would appear

+ A lexical verb followed by a hedging adverb or adjective such as it seems reasonable/ probable; it may suggest that, it seems likely that, it would indicate that, this probably indicates, it seems reasonable to assume that, it would seem somewhat unlikely that, it may appear somewhat speculative that

8 Hedging realized by conditional clause Conditional are included in taxonomies of several linguists (in Table 1) Clemen (2002, 43) explains this category by saying that such clauses refer to hypothetical situations Moreover, Hyland (1996, 448) notices that conditional sentences offer a possibility

9 “That” clause: Buikiene (2008; 13) notices that that clauses in combination with

modal verbs also belong to hedging

10 Comments on value- judgment is a category mentioned by Clemen (2002, 44) that

is not included in anyone else’s taxonomies

11 Comments on truth- judgment is also a category included in Clemen’s (2002, 44)

12 Reference: According to Hyland (1996, 444, 447-448), it is a conscious strategy to mark a statement as an alternative view; thus, a hedge signals a personal opinion The linguists distinguishes between impersonal expressions that comment on others’ works and reference to methods, models, or the conditions under which the results were obtained

13 Qualification In Hyland’s work (1996, 441), it can indicate the precise standpoint from which to judge the truth of a claim

14 Pronouns Hagge and Kostelnik (1989, 25) as well as Hyland together with Banks (1993, 447) and Hinkel (2004, 137) acknowledge particular pronouns, especially the plural

we

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15 Conversational hedges Quaglio (2009, 7) and Hinkel (2004, 316) distinguish yet

another group of hedges , including sort of, kind of, like, kinda, to be supposed to, by (some/any) chance, hopefully, if you know/ understand what I mean, if you catch/ get my meaning/ drift, as everyone (else) you know (s), (as far as) we/ I know, as well known, everyone/ people say, as the saying goes, from what I hear/ know/ see/ understand/, almost, at all, at least, basically, enough, (a) few, hardly, just, (a) little, only, pretty, quite, actually, anyway, in a way, less, more, something, lots

Their theories can be included into the following table:

Table 2: The items of hedges chosen from the taxonomy

ITEMS

Modal auxiliary verbs may, might, can, could, will, would, should

Modal lexical verbs to seem, to appear, to believe, to assume, to suggest, to estimate, to

tend, to think, to argue, to indicate, to claim, to propose, to speculate, to predict, to calculate, to infer

Nouns: assumption, claim, possibility, estimate, suggestion

Passive voice Special constructions of passive voice, i.e it + passive verb + with

verbs of reporting such as agree, allege, announce, assure, believe, consider, decide, expect, explain, hope, know, report, say, suggest, suppose, think, understand, subject +passive verb + to- infinite

Introductory Phrases I believe, to our knowledge, it is our view that, we feel that

Indefinite frequency and time: Frequently, often, every so often, occasionally/ on occasion, on many/ numerous occasions,

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generally/ in general, usually, sometimes, at times, from time to time, most of time, (hardly) ever, (almost) never, rarely, seldom, ordinarily, (almost, anvariably) once in a while, around, round, round about

Conditional clauses If clause

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CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

The chapter covers four main parts consisting of data, the data selection criteria, research method, data collection procedure and data analysis and discussion Section 1 provides an introduction of the research corpus Section 2 states the criterion of chosen conversations in the study Section 3 mainly indicates methods of research before showing data collection procedure in sections 4 Finally, section 5 presents data analysis and discusses the findings

2.1 Data

The corpus of this study is the first novel in Harry Potter series, namely Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone by Rowling, first published in 1997 by Bloomsbury

The novel won most of the British book awards that were polled by children and other

awards in the US The book reached the top of the New York Times list of the best –

selling fiction in August 1999 and stayed the near the top of that list for much of 1999 and 2000 It has been translated into several other languages including Vietnam and made into a length film with the same name By dint of the first edition, the writer Rowling emerged totally her power of writing, which attracted the readers to fill in the following sections decidedly The story is to tell the time Harry Potter learned and lived the first year in Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry after living as an orphanage in his aunt’s house Only after meeting the giant man named Hagrid and receiving the letter from Hogwarts, a 11-year boy is explained his history, the reason

of his parents’ death and the real world where he totally belongs to

The story fills the reader into the magic world where people can be seized upon extraordinary power, strengthening the readers’ imagination of their surrounding world Being a fiction novel for teenager, the language used is really modern and understandable for the young

The research focuses on conversations of main characters in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s stone: Harry Potter, the close friends of Harry Potter – Ron and Hermione,

Professor Minena Mcgonagall, Dr Dumbledore, the guardian – Hagrid The story is surrounded relationships: friends, colleague, teacher and student, with enemy, which indicates in which relationship hedges used most and how it used

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2.2 The data collection criteria

This research is based on a set of English conversations in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s stone delivered by sevens main characters including conversations

among Harry Potter and his teachers Professor Minena Mc Gonagall, Dr Dumble Dore Head Master of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, his close friends – Ron and Hermione, the guardian Mr Hagrid The total number of dialogues in conversations is 636 As a result, 386 linguistic devices functioning as hedges were subjected to the analysis

The choice of dialogues is based on one criterion which involved in main characters, especially focusing on relationship between Harry Potter and his close friends- Ron and Hermione , his relatives – Dudley family, the guardian – Mr Hagri, his teachers- Professor Minena Mc Gonagall, Dr Dumble Dore- Head Master of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Its aim is to compare the change in the usage of hedges in different relationships

The conversations were analyzed according to the chosen types only The methods and produces used for analyzing the data are discussed in the next sections

2.3 Research methods

The research uses both quantitative and qualitative methods

This study use quantitative method to find out which hedge is the most popular and which one is the least popular within the hedge classification

Quantitative method is applied to find out what hedge is the most popular and what hedge is the least common among the hedging device provided in Table 2, Chapter 2

Qualitative method is used to analyze meanings of using hedges in

conversations by the main characters in the story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone Document analysis is valuable for collecting qualitative data Firstly, it is used

to count the frequency of hedges in the corpus to identify which one is the most popular (word frequency) Then, in- depth studies are conducted in the real context of

the text to identify the purpose in using hedges in conversations (meaning analysis)

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2.4 Data collection procedure

This study is conducted mainly on the primary data collected from the story

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s stone

In order to collect appropriate data, we will manipulate the following steps: + First, we will identify and gather the hedges used by main characters, especially conversations between Harry Potter and his teachers Professor Minena Mcgonagall, Dr Dumbledore, his friends Ron and Hermione, the school guardian Mr Hagrid and his relatives Dursleys

+ Then we investigate the frequent types of these found hedges

+ Last, we investigate meanings of hedge devices in conversations used in the

story Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‟s Stone

2.5 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

2.5.1 Modals verbs

In 86 conversations, or 10,168 words, 124 hedges in the forms of modal verbs

were found From Figure 2, where the raw data is presented (see Figure 2) It is not

difficult to see that 7 kinds of modals verb is all used when core character Harry Potter creates conversations with his teachers Mc Gonagall and Dr Dumble Dore It is also

obviously the modal will was used most frequently Will occurs 27 times, which is considered to reach the highest percentage of modal verbs as hedges However, would

is used as past form of will which is only used 16 times being the fifth popular modal verbs It is obvious that can is used with the second commonly modal verb with 44

times in the story By contrast, it appears merely 2 times in the conversations with his relatives, 7 and 13 times in conversations with the older and his friends, respectively

May, in the other hand, was the one used least frequently when is only used in conversations with his teachers Should appears with a low occurrence 13 times, is

used in all conversations with 5 times, 4 times and 2 times in conversations among Harry and his friends, the guardians, his teachers, and his relatives as well

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Figure 1: The use of modal verbs as hedge devices

Figure 1 above presents the raw data only, therefore, it was normalized in order

to compare the results properly as the number of words in conversations between Harry Potter with the order, his teachers, his friends and his relatives was significantly different (2,589 words in conversations with the guardian Mr Hagrid, 2,231 words with his teachers, 3,671 words with his friend and 1,577 words with his relatives),

respectively Figure 2 presents normalized data, i.e the occurrence of hedges in the form of modals per 1000 words (see Figure 2):

Figure 2: The occurrence of modal verbs as hedges per 1,000 words

It is obvious that hedges devices are used more variously in formal context with

his teacher Furthermore, the normalized data shows that will, which, according to

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Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, will is “used for talking about or predicting

the future”, was used most often in conversations and reached the highest point at 9.8 cases in conversations with Harry Potter’s teachers in comparison those with his friends 3.5 cases, with the guardian Hagrid 2.7 cases and with his relatives only 1.2 cases in total

For the first year students, they will be punished when using broomstick without teachers’ allowance In the first flying lessons, no sooner does Professor McGonagall express her disagreement of Harry’s free flying than she partly predicts his ability of taking part in Quidditch team which needs to be encouraged:

(1) Professor McGonagall: “I will speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can‟t

bend the first – year rule Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year…”

After supposing Harry to take part in the Quidditch team, she hopes his hard- working training:

(2) “I want to hear you‟re training hard, Potter, or I will change my mind of punishing

you.”

Moreover, she predicts Harry’s talent heritage from his father:

(3) “Your father will be proud of you,” she said“He was an excellent Quidditch player

himseft.”

As mentioned before that hedging devices express different degree of probability;

therefore, will in Professor McGonagall offer Harry’ brilliant future if he trains hard

As for the other hedges in the form of modal verbs, can took the second place Can is

used in all conversations, namely with his teachers, the guardian Hagrid, his friend and

his relatives According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, can is “used to say

that it is possible for sb/ sth to do sth, or for sth to happen” The most number of modal

can is indicated in conversations with the older- Hagrid and with his friends (3 cases)

in comparison with those in conversations with his relatives (only 1,2 case) The

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popularity of can can be explained its meaning: possibility In the beginning dialogues can partly builds a formal atmosphere which bridges them to more friendly

relationships at the first meeting:

(4) Harry offered Hermione a help “Can we help you with something?”

Can, in some cases, aims to request something formally:

(5) Ron said “Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa- thanks-“when need more frog

cadies to get more picture cards

For Hagrid who knows about Potters family apparently first met orphanage boy, using

can to decrease partly Harry’s misery:

(6) Harry said “Well, it‟s best you know as much as I can tell you- mind, I can’t tell you

everything, it‟s a great mystery, parts of it…”

As when Harry desired to know the name of the killer Voldermort who everyone in the

magic world avoid referring his true name Mr Hagrid, in this case, used can hedge

with the same purpose:

(7) Hagrid said “It begins, I suppose, with- with a person called – but it‟s incredible you don‟t know his name, everyone in our world knows”

(8) Harry asked again “Who”

(9) Hagrid answered “Well- I don‟t like saying the name if I can help it No one does”

(10) Hagrid seemed to being afraid of writing down Voldermort’s name: “I can‟t spell it.”

As for the other hedges in the form of modal verbs, would took the third place

However, this kind of hedge is not used in the conversations with Harry’s relatives

with 0 case Could, especially, is used with the same rate – 2.7 case in the

conversations with the older- Hagrid and teachers Obviously, due to its meaning, i.e

possibility, would dominated in conversations with Hagrid- predicted Harry’s parents

in the past and teachers who can predict Harry’s future talent For example:

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In conversations with Dr Dumbledore, the head wanted to predict the ability of protecting Harry of his father which no revenge can prevent:

(11) “Funny, the way people‟s minds work, isn‟t it? Professor Snape couldn’t bear

being in your father the‟s debt I do believe he worked so hard to protect youthis year

because he felt that would make him and your father even Then he could go back to

hating your father‟s memory in peace…”

Could can be used when Mr, Hagrid refer possibilities when Harry struggled to

find out the Sorcerer’s stone:

(12) “We were wondering if you could tell us what guarding the Sorcerer‟s stone apart

from Fluffy.”

(13) Or “Well, I don‟t suppose it could to tell you that…let‟s see…he borrowed Fluffy

from me…then some of the teacher did enchantment …”

The modal should and might are used in all conversations, should, however, used more frequently Should, somehow, carries different meanings: possibility/ probability,

speculation, respectively In conversations with Harry’s friends- Ron and Hermione,

should has the same meaning with will:

(14)“Should call Filch, I should if somethinga- creeping around unseen”

In conversations with Dr Dumbledore, should seems to be speculation which

become better to happen:

(15)“We must have crossed in midair No sooner had I reached London than it became

clear to me that the place I should be was the one I had just left I arrived in time to pull

Quirrell off you”

Finally, a careful analysis of the result showed that modal verbs that express possibility or probability prevailed over the ones expressing prediction or speculation The modals verb emerged the most frequently in conversations with teachers by modal

verb will which can account for teacher’s hope for Harry’s unconquerable talent in the

future

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2.4.2 Modal lexical verbs

There are 37 lexical verbs found in 866 dialogues Figure 3 presents the most frequent modals lexical verbs found in 866 dialogues By dint of daily conversations in

nonfiction story, the number of verbs used is limited such as seem, think, believe and suggest Apparently, think was the one used most often in all conversations According

to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, think expresses “a particular idea or

opinion about smt/ smb” In other words, this modal lexical verb helps the speaker to express his/her attitude towards the prepositional information as an opinion rather than

as a fact in order to ensure that he/ she is familiar with alternative views on the subject

Figure 3: Raw Data of Modal Lexical Verbs

Surprisingly, both modal lexical verbs seem and believe appeared 7 times in the story While believe is employed in conversations with the guardian, with teachers and with friends with an equal frequency (2, 2, and 3 times respectively), seem is used

merely in conversations with friends and with the guardian with 5 and 2 times As can

be seen from Figure 3, suggest is the least common modal lexical verbs as hedges with

2 times Conversations with relatives witness a lack of modal lexical verbs as hedges with 0 time

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Figure 4: Modal Lexical Verbs per 1,000 words

Normalized data in Figure 4 above shows that think was used as a hedge most

often out all modal verbs: 0.8 cases in conversations with Harry’s friends, 0.6 cases in these with the older – Hagrid, 0.3 cases in those with the teaches and only 0.2cases in

those with his relatives By dint of meaning sharing the thinking, think is used more in

friendly closely relatives, for example relatives with friends and the older

Ron- Harry friend used think to introduce to Harry about wizard world secrets:

(16) “… My dad says it must‟ve been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringtts, but

I don‟t think they took anything, that‟s what‟s odd.”

With conversations with Hagrid, think is used to share Hagrid’s experiences in

Hogward which can be useful to Harry:

(17) “Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I think I‟ll be in

Slyerin, all our family have been there-“

Moreover, believe is used more often than other modal verbs Believe (in expressions other than pronoun + believe which was considered as an introductory phrase), according to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, also helps to express sombody’s opinion without pressing it on listeners Believe was used most frequently

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in conversations between Harry and his friends It, especially, was used with the same case with 0.2 cases in those with the guardian Hagrid and his teachers

With Ron believe aims to emerge his opinion of Voldermort’s existence:

(18) “No- I don‟t believe it- he‟s gone back to sleep” and “They were some of the first to come

back to our side after You- Know- Who disappeared Said they‟d been bewitched My dad

doesn‟t believe it…”

It is obvious that seem which makes the statement less strong, was used quite often in comparison with other modal lexical verbs It, however, is used only in conversations with Harry’s friends and the guardian Hagrid who are companied with Harry for the whole of story with 0.4 and 0.2 cases respectively

Ron used seem to make his speech less strong and increase uncertainty:

(19)“But we don‟t feel like leaving, do we, boys? We‟ve eaten all our food and you still seem

to have some.”

Suggest was used only in conversations with Harry’s teachers with 0.2 cases By

dint of experiencing many years in wizard world, Dr Dumberdore hopes to share ideas

to his talent students:

(20)“… My brain surprises even me sometimes… Now enough questions I suggest

you make a start on these sweets ….”

In conclusion, think as modal lexical verbs as hedging devices is used most

frequently by main characters in story Harry Potter and Sorcerer‟s stone

However, contrary to modal verbs where hedges used mostly in conversations

with teachers, modal lexical verbs as hedges emerged mostly in conversations

with friends and appeared least at conversations with relatives Because the

modal lexical verbs carry various meanings- subjectivity, speculation,

prediction, etc and aims to share minds and hope which only appears in close

relationships

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2.4.3 Conditionals

There are 56 hedges in form of conditionals of all types possible were found in

866 dialogues In Figure 7, where the raw data is presented (see Figure 19), it is obvious that type 1 conditionals were used most frequently: 8 cases in conversations

with friends, 6 cases in conversations with the older- Hagrid, 3 and only 1 case in

conversations with teachers and relatives respectively Type 3, on the other hand, were

used least frequently, only 1 case in conversations with the older- Hagrid and in those with friends It is not used in those with teachers and relatives

Figure 5: The use of conditionals as hedges

Figure 5 presents the normalized data, i.e the occurrence of conditionals as hedging

devices per 100 sentences:

Figure 6: Conditionals per 1,000 words

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The normalized data shows that Type 1 conditionals, which, according to Alexander (2003, 273), are used for “asking/ talking about something that is quite

possible” were used most often in all relationships Specially, conditional type 1 is

used equally in conversations with Hagrid and those in Harry’s friends

With Hagrid, who is an old student of Hogward Type 1 is used to share his own

experience of preparing for new school year or sorting housefor new students:

(21)“Then I am going to drag them off to look at the racing brooms I don‟t see why first years can‟t have their own I think I‟ll bully father into getting me one and I‟ll smuggle it in somehow.”

In conversations with Harry’s friends, type 1 – conditional partly helps sharing ideas with high certainty degree Obviously, Harry used type 1 conditionals as a hedge

in his speeches to claim the possibilities when Voldemort comes back with a strong willing to kill his enemy The popularity of this type of conditionals can be explained

by its main meaning, i.e possibility; moreover, out of all types of conditional, type 1 is

of least speculative and hypothetical future while delivering speeches a high willing

(22)“Don‟t you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort‟s coming back!

Haven‟t you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won‟t be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He‟ll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn‟t matter any more, can‟t you see? Do you think he‟ll leave

you and your families alone if Gryffido wins the House Cup? If I get caught before I

wait for Voldemort to find me there, its only dying a bit later than I would have, because I‟m never going over to the Dark Side! I‟m going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you two say is going stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember!”

Finally, though the meaning of type 2 conditionals slightly differs from the one

of type 1 conditionals refers to the imaged situation in the present, type 2 conditionals

were found most in conversations with the older- Hagrid:

(22) Harry said: “We wondered if you could tell us what‟s guarding the Sorcerer‟s

Stone apart from Flluffy.”

Hagrid used type 2 conditionals to emerge his disagreement of continuing tell

Harry the secret of the magic world:

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(23) “Number one, I don‟t know meseft Number two, yeh know too much already, so I

wouldn‟t tell yeh if it could That Stone‟s here for a good reason…”

The third place was taken by type 0 conditionals It prevailed in conversations with friends with 0.8 cases By contrast, type 0 conditionals are used least in conversations with relatives and teachers with 0.3 cases Obviously, type 0 conditionals refers to the time of now or always; moreover, though the situation is

hypothetical or possible, they are often used to talk about general truth; therefore, this type of conditionals is used only in the near future and in closely friendly relationship such as with friends

Harry told to Ron in emergent second before falling in the trapdoor:

(24) “If anything happens to me, don‟t follow Go straight to the owlery and send

Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?”

Finally, type 3 conditionals took the fourth place This kind of conditionals are

not used in conversations with teachers and relatives and appeared most frequently in conversations with the older and friends with 0.2 cases in both According to

Alexander (2003, 273), type 3 deals with imagined situations and refers to the past:

Harry used this kind of conditionals when told Voldermort’s coming back in the past:

(25) “Some say he died Codswallop, in my opinion Dunno if he had enough human left

in him to die…Don‟t reckon they could‟ve done if he had come back.”

Type 3 conditional in sentence is of great help pointing out that if something had

been done, something would have been different; therefore, this kind of conditionals could be also be a feature of telling unreal things in the past

2.4.4 Approximators

90 approximators of degree, indefinite quality, indefinite frequency and time

were found in political conversations produced by Mr Hagrid, Harry Potter friends, relatives and teachers Apparently, approximators were widely used as hedging devices Perhaps, it is due to the meaning they denote, i.e indefiniteness Moreover,