Chiến lược lịch sự trong lời thỉnh cầu trong các tập phim harry potter m a thesis linguistics 60 22 15

The frequency of Politeness strategies in Requests in the movie series “Harry Potter” ……….... To study the performance of positive and negative politeness strategies in the requests by t

LƯƠNG THANH HỒNG

POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN REQUESTS IN THE MOVIE SERIES “HARRY POTTER”

(Chiến lược Lịch sự trong Lời Thỉnh cầu trong

các tập phim “Harry Potter”)

MINOR M.A THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15

Hanoi – 2012

LƯƠNG THANH HỒNG

POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN REQUESTS IN THE MOVIE SERIES “HARRY POTTER”

(Chiến lược Lịch sự trong Lời Thỉnh cầu trong

các tập phim “Harry Potter”)

MINOR M.A THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr Nguyêñ Văn Đô

Hanoi – 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Declaration ……… i

Acknowledgements ……… ii

Abstract ……… iii

Abbreviations ……… vi

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale ………

1 2 Aims of the study ………

2 3 Research questions of the study ……… 2

4 Scope of the study ………

2 5 Overview of the movie ………

2 6 Methods of the study ………

3 7 Design of the study ………

3 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Speech Acts ………

1.1.1 Speech act theory ………

1.1.2 Speech act of requesting ………

1.2 Politeness ………

1.2.1 Definition of politeness ………

1.2.2 Social factors affecting politeness strategies ………

1.2.3 Politeness and indirectness ………

1.2.4 Politeness strategies ………

1.2.4.1 Positive politeness strategies ………

1.2.4.2 Negative politeness strategies ………

CHAPTER 2: POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN REQUESTS IN THE MOVIE

SERIES “HARRY POTTER”

2.1 Politeness strategies in requests in the movie series “Harry Potter” ………

2.2 The frequency of Politeness strategies in Requests in the movie series “Harry Potter” ………

2.2.1 Sampling process ………

2.2.2 The frequency of politeness strategies in requests ……… 19

2.2.2.1 Positive politeness strategies ………

2.2.2.2 Negative politeness strategies ………

2.3 Politeness strategies in requests in the movie series Harry Potter and S-H relationship 2.3.1 Positive politeness strategies and S- H relationships ………

2.3.2 Negative politeness strategies and S- H relationships ………

2.4 Summary ……… 39

PART 3: CONCLUSION 3.1 Recapitulation ………

3.2 Implications for teaching politeness strategies in requests ……… 42

3.3 Limitations of the study ………

3.4 Suggestions for further research ………

REFERENCES

DistancePowerRank of ImpositionPositive Politeness Strategy

Negative Politeness Strategy

For exampleMaster of Arts

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

As it can be seen clearly, politeness plays an of great importance role in human dailycommunication It has a great influence in phenomena, rules and structures of languages.Therefore, the effectiveness of communication is affected considerably During thedevelopment of civilized society, human beings have been founding standards and valuesdescribing appropriate behaviors as well as communicative strategies and language structureswhich are considered being polite in specific situations and specific cultures There are anumber of studies on politeness issue because of its significance in communication However,each researcher has a different point of view For example, Lakoff and Leech study politenessunder communicative strategies, Brown and Levinson consider politeness as behaviors savingface Although politeness seems to be quite familiar and very old, in fact it still develops non-stop and actually offers me many interests, which inspires me to carry out a research on suchissue However, to achieve politeness in communication, it is necessary to give out suitablepoliteness strategies for each certain context Thus, the study on politeness as well aspoliteness strategies is of great importance and essential to enhance the effectiveness of ourdaily communication

Moreover, what are the other reasons why I would like to investigate politenessstrategies in requests in the movie series Harry Potter? Firstly, according to many scholars notonly is requesting one of the most popular activities in human daily communication but also isthe most threatening act to the human face Thus, choosing appropriate politeness strategieswhen making requests need to be taken into due consideration, which actually brings me goodopportunities to do research on politeness strategies often used in daily requests Secondly, Ichoose the requests in the movie series Harry Potter as the data for my study because watchingmovies is one of my biggest hobbies and offers me much interest Especially, the movie seriesrecently have been the best ones produced by Warner Bros - a very famous movie producer inthe United States, so I believe that the reliability of the content quality is much relevant to mystudy

Finally, I would expect the result of my research: Politeness Strategies in Requests in

the Movie Series “Harry Potter” will have a great meaning to teaching and learning as well as

using politeness strategies in requests appropriately and effectively In addition, it will bemuch easier for people to choose and employ politeness strategies, which actually offerseffectiveness in daily communication

2 Aims of the study

1 To study the performance of positive and negative politeness strategies in the requests by the characters in the three episodes of the movie Harry Potter

2 To study the effects of S-H relationship on the choices of politeness strategies

in the requests of the characters in the three episodes of the movie Harry Potter

3 Research questions

1 What are the positive and negative politeness strategies in the requests by the

characters in the three episodes of the movie Harry Potter?

2 How does S-H relationship affect the choices of positive and negativepoliteness strategies in making requests of the characters in the three episodes of themovie Harry Potter?

4 Scope of the study

Due to the time and limitation of a minor thesis, it is impossible for me to investigatepoliteness strategies in requests in all their aspects So, I would like to focus on verbalcommunication, but other important factors such as non-linguistic factors (facial expression,gestures, eye contact, etc.), paralinguistic factors such as intonation, pause, speed of speech,etc are not taken into consideration in my study Moreover, positive and negative politenessstrategies based on the theoretical framework of Brown and Levinson (1987) are under the

investigation of all the requests in three episodes: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince of the

movie Harry Potter

5 Overview of the movie

The Harry Potter movie series are British- American one based on the Harry Potternovels by the British author J.K Rowling The series are distributed by Warner Bros and

consist of eight episodes beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher‟s Stone (2001) andculminating with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 2 (2011) They are the highestmovie series of all- time in inflation unadjusted dollars, with $7.7 billion in worldwidereceipts The movie series are also a critical success and noted by audiences for growingvisually darker and more mature as each episode was released.

The movie series revolve around Harry Potter, an orphan who discovers that he is awizard Wizard ability is inborn, but children are sent to wizarding school to learn the magicalskills necessary to succeed in the wizarding world Harry is invited to attend the boardingschool called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Each movie episode chroniclesone year in Harry's life, and most of the events take place at Hogwarts As he strugglesthrough adolescence, Harry learns to overcome many magical, social and emotional hurdles

6 Methods of the study

This study employs the Quantitative method which focuses much more on thecollection and analysis of numerical data and statistics Counting and measuring are commonforms of quantitative methods The result of the research is a number or series of numberpresented in tables and charts

7 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three main parts:

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

This part of the thesis presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methodand design of the study

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT

This is the nuclear part of the thesis containing two chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

This chapter establishes an overview of the theories on Speech Acts, Speech act ofRequest and Politeness theory which are the basis for the following analysis in the nextchapter

Chapter 2: Politeness strategies in requests in the series of movies Harry Potter

This chapter studies how the characters in the movie series use the politeness strategies

in their requests and how S-H relationship affects their choices of politeness strategies whenmaking requests

PART 3: CONCLUSION

In this part, the author recapitulates the study, offers implication, limitations andsuggestions for further research

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Speech Acts

1.1.1 Speech act theory

Many actions are carried out by using languages during human communication.Although they are expressed variously, they are all called speech acts Speech act is one of themost issues that interests researchers most It has been investigated seriously by differenttheorists such as Austin (1962), Grice (1957, 1975), Hymes (1964), Searle (1969), Levinson(1983), Brown and Yule (1983), Yule (1996), etc so that human communication can be carriedout in the most effective way

 Austin’s theory

Speech act theory is originally developed by Austin in his famous book entitled “How

to do things with words” He presented a new picture of analyzing meaning in relationship

among linguistics conventions correlated with words/ sentences, the situation where thespeaker actually says something to the hearer, and associated intentions of the speaker

Austin (1962) defines speech acts as the actions performed in saying something.Actions performed through utterance production are called speech acts such as requesting,apologizing, complaining, promising, etc Speech acts consist of three related acts, namelylocutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act

Locutionary act, a basic act of producing a meaningful linguistic expression,

includes phonetic acts, phatic acts and rhetic acts Phonetic acts are acts ofpronouncing sound, phatic acts are acts of uttering words or sentences inaccordance with the phonological and syntactic rules of the language to whichthey belong, and rhetic acts are one of uttering a sentence with sense and more

or less definite reference

Illocutionary act is an act performed via the communicative force of an

utterance such as requesting, advising, promising, inviting, etc

 Perlocutionary act is “what we bring about or achieve by saying something

such as convincing, persuading, deterring and even, say, surprising or misleading” (1962: 109)

Austin also focuses on illocutionary acts where we might find the force of thestatement and demonstrate its performative nature He classified illocutionary acts into 5categories based on performative verbs:

Verdictives are typified by the giving of verdict by a jury, arbitrator or

umpire (e.g grade, estimate, diagnose).

Exercitives are the exercising of power, rights or influence (e.g appoint,

order, warn).

Commissives refer to the amusing of obligation or giving of an undertaking

(e.g promise, undertake)

Behabitives relate to attitudes and social behaviors (e.g apologize,

compliment, congratulate)

Expositives address the clarifying of reasons, arguments or expressing

viewpoints (e.g assume, concede, suggest)

 Searle’s theory

According to Searle (1969:24), language is a part of theory of action and speech actssuch as promising, threatening, requesting, etc are often performed during humancommunication There are three different types of speech acts:

Utterance acts consist of units of expression such as words and sentences.

Propositional acts are those matters having to do with referring and

predicting

Illocutionary acts have to do with the intents of speakers such as requesting,

promising, commanding, etc.

He also classified illocutionary acts into five clear and useful categories:

Representatives: speaker is committed to the truth of a proposition: affirm,

conclude, believe, deny, report.

Directives: speaker tries to get the hearer to do something: ask, command,

request, insist.

Commissives: speaker is committed to a course of action: guarantee, pledge,

promise, swear, vow.

Expressives: speaker expresses an attitude about a state of affairs: apologize,

congratulate, regret, thank, welcome.

 Declarations: speaker alters the external status or condition of an object or

situation, solely by making the utterance: I announce you husband and wife.

2 1.2 The Speech act of Requesting

According to Searle (1969: 66), a request is defined as “a directive speech act which

counts as an attempt to get H (the hearer) to do an act which S (the speaker) wants H to do, and which S believes that H is able to do; and which it is not obvious that H will do in the normal course of events or of H‟s own accord.” From this point, it is very clear that the

speech act of request consists of three basic elements: the speaker (S), the hearer (H) and the

Act itself Thus, in order to make a successful request, it is believed that the hearer is able andwilling to do the act intended by the speaker

Searle (1975: 71) continued to develop Austin‟s notion of felicity condition that holdsfor a successful speech act by proposing the conditions for requesting as follows:

 Preparatory condition: H is able to perform A.

 Sincerity condition: S wants H to do A.

 Propositional condition: S predicates a future act A of H.

 Essential condition: count as an attempt by S to get H to do A.

In the view of Blum- Kulka et.al (1989), the realization of request can be seen from

four aspects:

 Hearer dominance: Can you open the door?

 Speaker dominance: Do you think I could borrow your car?

 Speaker and Hearer dominance: Could we talk now?

 Impersonal or the use of unspecific agent such as people, anyone, they,

etc.: Can

anyone help me?

Although a request is realized in any perspectives, it possesses similar basic

characteristics Firstly, it gives us an idea about the expectations of the S and the H with

regard to verbal or non-verbal action (Blum-Kulka et al 1989: 11) Secondly, like other speechacts such as refusal, apology, requesting is inherently face-threatening in that it allows the Hs

to interpret it as an intrusive act towards their freedom of action (Brown and Levinson 1978).Thirdly, it indicates the power of the interlocutors: the superior tends to produce more directrequests while the inferior tends to produce more indirect requests Finally, Brown andLevinson 1987 also pointed out that the conventionalized realizations of requests, as well as itsfrequency, are vivid indicators of whether a society is a positively or negatively orientedsociety “A positive society” is a society in which speakers‟ need for approval and belonging(in groupness) are emphasized whereas showing of deference and keeping distance areemphasized in “negatively-oriented society”

1.2 Issues of Politeness

1.2.1 Definition of Politeness

Politeness is one of the most noticeable issues in the research of interculturalcommunication and cross-cultural communication of human beings According to the

foreword of Gumperz (cited in Brown and Levinson, 1987: xiii), “politeness is basic to the

production of social order, and a precondition of human cooperation, so that any theory which provides an understanding of this phenomenon at the same time goes to the foundations of human social life.”

During the vast development of linguistics, many researchers have been interested inthe field of politeness with various points of view and from different aspects However,according to Nguyen Quang (2004: 10), three main important approaches to politeness arementioned:

 Set the ideal standard for polite acts to refer such as Grice

Propose the principles of politeness in communication in the form of do‟s and don‟ts like Lakoff, Leech

Specify the necessary strategies to encounter Face Threatening Acts (FTAs)

in communication as in Brown and Levinson, 1987Thus, what is the definition of politeness? There is a variety of different points of view.Yule (1996: 60) mentioned concept of politeness together with the concept of face:

“Politeness, is in an interaction, can be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person‟s face.” Moreover, politeness is recognized as “the idea of polite social behavior, or etiquette, within a culture.” Specifically, politeness is “a number of different general principles for being polite, in social interaction within a particular culture.”

Lakoff (1975:64), who took an attention on politeness from the very beginning,

considered politeness as consisting of forms of behaving which have been “developed in

societies in order to reduce friction in personal interaction” Politeness is defined as “a system of interpersonal relations designed to facilitate interaction by minimizing the potential for conflict and confrontation inherent in all human interchange” She also pointed out three

different rules that a speaker should follow to be polite:

Rule 1: Do not impose

It is the most formal politeness rule It is appropriately employed when there isdifference in power and status between the participants such as between a student and a dean,

an employee and a boss A speaker who is considered polite regarding this rule will avoid, orask permission or apologize for making the addressee do anything which he does not want todo

Rule 2: Offer options

It is a more informal politeness rule and appropriate to situations in which theinterlocutors have quite equal status and power, but are not socially close such as abusinessman and a client Offering options means expressing oneself in such way that one‟sopinion or request can be ignored without being contracted or rejected

Rule 3: Encourage feelings of camaraderie

The participants are intimate or close friends

Leech (1983) formulates a more comprehension framework in comparison withLakoff‟s rules with a number of maxims which stand in the same relationship to the Politenessprinciple by Grice (1967) basing on the concepts of “cost” and “benefit”

 Tact maxim: “minimize the expression of beliefs which imply cost to other;

maximize the expression of beliefs which imply benefit to other”

 Generosity maxim: “minimize the expression of benefit to self; maximize

the expression of cost to self”.

 Approbation maxim: “minimize the expression of beliefs which express

dispraise of other; maximize the expression of beliefs which express approval of

other”

 Modesty maxim: “minimize the expression of praise of self; maximize the

expression of dispraise of self”

 Agreement maxim: “minimize the expression of disagreement between self

and other; maximize the expression of agreement between self and other”.

 Sympathy maxim: “minimize antipathy between self and other; maximize

sympathy between self and other”

Leech considers the Tact maxim as the most important kind of politeness in theEnglish-speaking societies He believes that his model could be applied universally acrosscultures But in reality, it might be best applied to English culture where social distance isgiven higher value, especially in formal situations It shows that it is inappropriate for allsituations and societies where social intimacy is highly valued

The most influential theory of politeness was originated by Brown and Levinson (1978and revised in 1987) The significant point of their theory of politeness is the concept of

“face” The term “face” in the sense of “reputation”, or “good name” was developed fromGoffman‟s concept of “face” (1955) to explain the use of politeness phenomena

According to Brown and Levinson (1987:66), face refers to the public self-image that

every member (of a society) wants to claim for himself consisting of two related aspects:

Negative face: the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, rights to

non-distraction, i.e to freedom of action and freedom from imposition.

Positive face: the positive consistent self-image or personality (crucially including the

desire that this self-image be appreciated).

In other words, negative face is the need to be independent and positive face is theneed to be connected

Moreover, face is something that is emotionally invested, and that can be lost,maintained or enhanced, and must be constantly attended to in interaction In general, people

cooperate (and assume each other‟s cooperation) in maintaining face in interaction, suchcooperation being based on the mutual vulnerability of face That is, normally everyone‟s facedepends on everyone else‟s being maintained, and since people can be expected to defendtheir face if threatened, and in defending their own to threaten others‟ faces, it is in general inevery participant‟s best interest to maintain each other‟s face (Brown and Levinson, 1987)

Concerned with “positive face” and “negative face”, the concepts of positive andnegative politeness are developed

According to Yule (1996:69), negative politeness is a face saving act which oriented tothe person‟s negative face will tend to show deference, emphasize the importance of theother‟s time or concerns, and even include an apology for the imposition or interruption

Brown and Levinson state that “negative politeness is redressive action address to the

addressee‟s negative face: his want to have his freedom of action unhindered and his attention unimpeded” (Brown and Levinson, 1987: 129) Thus, negative politeness focuses on

individualism and avoids intruding others‟ privacy It is also the most preferred in Englishculture

Unlike negative politeness, positive politeness a face saving act which is concernedwith the person‟s positive face will tend to show solidarity, emphasize that both Ss and Hswant the same thing, and that they have a common goal (Yule, 1996:69)

According to Brown and Levinson (1987:101), positive politeness is redress directed tothe addressee‟s positive face, his perennial desire that his wants should be thought of asdesirable

They also mentioned four kinds of Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) so that people couldrespect others‟ face, feelings and avoid FTAs

1 Acts threatening to the hearer‟s negative face by indicating that the speaker

does not intend to avoid impeding the hearer‟s freedom of action E.g.: ordering,

suggesting, threatening, requesting, promising, etc.

2. Acts threatening to the hearer‟s positive face by indicating that the speaker does

not care about the addressee‟s feelings and wants E.g.: disapproving, contempting,

complaining, criticizing, disagreeing.

3 Acts threatening to the speaker‟s negative face E.g accepting an offer,

excusing, promising unwillingly

4 Acts threatening to the speaker‟s positive face E.g.: apologizing, confessing.

Brown and Levinson also point out five macrostrategies that speakers can seek to avoid these above Face Threatening Acts

Circumstance determining choice of strategy

In the context of the mutual vulnerability of face, the speaker has two choices: he may seek to avoid the FTA (Don‟t do the FTA) or decide to Do the FTA

The speaker goes on record in doing an act A, if his statement is directly addressed to the hearer Doing an act on record consists of doing it:

- without redressive (baldly) - the most clear, unobsecure possible way For example:

in requesting, we say “Do it!”

- or with redressive action - giving “Face” to the hearer to prevent from the face

damage of the FTA with some alternations and additions There are two forms of action whichrely on which aspect of face (positive or negative) emphasized

On the other hand, the speaker goes off in doing an act of A, if there is “more than oneunambiguous attributable intention” or the speaker avoids imposition on the hearer Speaker isusually recommended to use the strategy marked by the employ of metaphor, irony, rhetoricalquestions, understatements, tautologies and all kinds of hints

1.2.2 Social factors affecting politeness strategies

Brown and Levinson (1987:15) propose that three sociological factors are crucial indetermining the level of politeness which a speaker (S) will use to an addressee (H); they arerelative power (P) of H over S, the social distance (D) between S and H, and the ranking of theimposition (R) involving in doing the face- threatening act (FTA)

P which is an asymmetric social dimension of relative power is the degree to which Hcan impose his own plans and his own self-evaluation (face) at the expense of S‟s plans andself-evaluation In general there are two sources of pragmatics, either of which may beauthorized and authorized-material control (over economy distribution and physical force) andmetaphysical control (over the actions of others, by virtue of metaphysical forces subscribed to

R is a culturally and situationally defined ranking of impositions by the degree towhich they are considered to interfere with an agent‟s wants of self-determination or ofapproval (his negative and positive face wants) In general, there are probably two such scales

or ranks that are identifiable for negative-face FTAs: a ranking of impositions in proportion tothe expenditure of services (including the time provision) and good (including non-materialgoods such as information, regard expression and other face payments) As for positive-faceFTA, the ranking of imposition embraces an assessment of the amount of “pain” given to H‟sface, based on the differences between H‟s desired self-image and that presented in FTA.Cultural ranking of facets of positive face (like success, niceness, beauty, etc.) can be reranked

in specific circumstances, so do the negative face rankings Besides, that there are also

personal rankings can be explained why some people object to certain kinds of FTAs and some

do not

As it can be seen obviously, all three dimensions P, D, and R have a great contribution

to the seriousness of the FTA which will determine the appropriate type of strategy to be used

1.2.3 Politeness and Indirectness

The notions of indirectness and politeness play an important role in the negotiation offace during the realization of speech acts In fact, there are many studies on the relationshipbetween politeness and indirectness such as Leech (1983), Brown and Levinson (1987), Blum-Kulka (1987), LoCastro (2003)

Leech (1983) states that “indirect illocutions tend to be more polite because they

increase the degree of optionality and because the more indirect an illocution is, the more diminished and tentative its force tends to be.” It means that the degree of politeness depends

on the frequency of using more indirect kind of illocution and relates closely to that ofoptionality speaker gives to the hearers

Brown and Levinson show that there is a close relationship between the use of indirectspeech acts and politeness The degree of indirectness relates to the degree of face threatening.Moreover, negative politeness is more polite than positive politeness because the speaker putsmore effort in face- preserving work of the hearer in the use of more indirect speech acts

LoCastro (2003) points out the link between indirectness and politeness further

supported by Searle‟s observation that “politeness is the most prominent motivation for

indirectness in requests, and certain forms tend to become the conventionally polite ways of making indirect requests” (cited in Dung, 2008).

However, Blum- Kulka (1987) has a different view on the relationship betweenpoliteness and indirectness when studying perception of politeness and indirectness in requests

in Hebrew and English She shows that indirectness does not necessarily imply politeness Shealso argues that too much indirectness may be perceived as lack of clarity which is a marker ofimpoliteness

Although there may be different views on the relationship between politeness andindirectness in different cultures, in this study I believe there exists a positive correlationbetween politeness and indirectness.

1.2.4.2 Negative Politeness Strategies

Negative Politeness Strategies

1.3 Previous studies on request and politeness strategy

According to Chieko Takezawa in her M.A thesis at the University of British

Columbia, Vancouver, Canada “Politeness and the speech act of Requesting in Japanese as a

second language” she studied how native Japanese speakers and native English speaking

learners of Japanese approached and attained their requests goals while maintaining the face ofboth requester and requestee She used oral role play to collect data The results showed thatthere was not much difference in the use of honorific language between the Japanese andlearners of Japanese But different linguistic devices were used for sentence endings,especially request speech act endings, between the native Japanese and the learners ofJapanese

In the Analysis of Appropriateness in a speech act of request in L2 English by Naoko

Taguchi in Pragmatics 16:4 (2006), there were fifty-nine Japanese college students of English

directness levels of the linguistic expressions used to produce requests Results revealed asignificant L2 proficiency influence on overall appropriateness, but only a marginal difference

in the types of linguistic expressions used between the two proficiency groups Moreover,grammatical and discourse control encodes in the rating scale seemed to have affected thequality of speech acts

Thảo (2010) also studied how politeness strategies manifested in requests in the novel

“The Thorn Birds” by following the theoretical framework of Brown and Levinson 1987 inher minor M.A thesis at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam NationalUniversity The results show that characters in the novel use positive politeness strategies intheir requests at a little higher frequency than negative politeness and the variation of theproportion between positive and negative politeness strategies depending on socialrelationship

Yến (2007) in her minor M.A thesis at University of Languages and InternationalStudies, Vietnam National University carried out her study on finding the answers to tworesearch questions: “Do British males and females differ in using politeness strategies inrequesting?” and “Are female speakers more polite than male speakers?” by using a writtendiscourse completion task (DCT) consisting of 6 situations with 6 combinations of Power (P)and Social Distance (D) designed to elicit the request speech act from 10 participants (5 malesand 5 females) The realization of cross- gender politeness request strategies were based onpoliteness strategies by Brown and Levinson (1987) and the relationship between directness-indirectness politeness in requesting The data were analyzed according to the Blum- Kulkaet.al‟s framework (1989) on requests: alerters, head acts, internal and external modifications.Her study results revealed that in general both male and female participants were orientedtowards politeness although women tended to be more polite than men in their requests.Women were found not to be as direct as men They used internal and external modificationsmore often than men whereas men were found to show their solidarity and in- groupnessthrough their choice of endearment terms and informal attention getters

According to Hòa (2010), she investigated politeness strategies in cross- culturalcommunication with respect to conversations found in the coursebook Inside Out (Pre-

Intermediate) The data analysis was conducted mainly in the light of the politeness theories

by Brown & Levinson and Nguyen Quang The results revealed that the frequency of positiveand negative politeness strategies depended largely on the relationships between the speakerand the hearer In addition, some suggestions were offered and sample exercises were givenfor better and more effective teaching and learning of positive and negative politenessstrategies

1.4 Summary

In this chapter we have reviewed the major issues of Speech Acts, Speech Act ofRequesting, Politeness, Politeness strategies by Brown and Levinson (1987) and someprevious studies on request and politeness strategies Different languages and cultures havedifferent norms for the appropriate realization of speech acts, so language learners needinstructions in order to communicate appropriately in the target language In the followingchapter, the author will present the findings and discussions about the frequency of politenessstrategies in requests by the characters in the movie Harry Potter and the effects of S-Hrelationship on the choices of politeness strategies in requests In the next part, the author aims

to find the answers to the research questions

CHAPTER 2:

POLITNESS STRATEGIES IN REQUESTS IN THE

MOVIE SERIES “HARRY POTTER”

2.1 Politeness strategies in Requests in the movie series “Harry Potter”

This chapter investigates how the characters in the series of movies Harry Potter maketheir requests politely by the frequency of using politeness strategies in their requests as well

as how S-H relation affects their choice of politeness strategies Brown and Levinsonframework of politeness strategies is employed in this study with 15 positive politenessstrategies and 10 negative politeness strategies

2.2 The frequency of politeness strategies in requests employed in the movie series

“Harry Potter”

2.2.1 Sampling process

The process of collecting data consists of three steps Firstly, all the request utterances

in the conversations of the characters in three movies series Harry Potter and the Prisoner of

Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince

are picked up and classified by the author through her careful movie watching with the usefulsupport of the English subtitles 313 requests found in three episodes of the movie HarryPotter belong to three categories of politeness strategies employed: positive, negative andsometimes mixed politeness strategies Secondly, all contexts with S-H relationships areconsidered in order to see how S-H relationship affects the choice of politeness strategies inrequesting by the characters in the movies Finally, all the statistics needed for the study arecalculated carefully and presented in the following tables as well as charts

2.2.2 The frequency of politeness strategies in requests employed in the movie series

Table 1: The statistic of positive, negative and mixed politeness strategies

The statistics can be converted into Pie-chart 1 as follows: