A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE SITCOMS

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH THẢOA CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE SITCOMS MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Binh Dinh - 2019... NGUYỄN THỊ THANH THẢOA CO

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH THẢO

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF

INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN AMERICAN

AND VIETNAMESE SITCOMS

MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Binh Dinh - 2019

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH THẢO

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF

INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN AMERICAN

AND VIETNAMESE SITCOMS

Field:

Code:

The English Linguistics 8220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYỄN THỊ THU HIỀN

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH THẢO

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

HUỐNG MỸ VÀ VIỆT NAM

CHUYÊN NGÀNH: NGÔN NGỮ ANH

MÃ SỐ: 8 22 02 01

Người hướng dẫn: PGS.TS NGUYỄN THỊ THU HIỀN

Quy Nhon, July 2019

Signature

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thảo

Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisorAssoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Hien for her enthusiastic and continuoussupport of my thesis and for her patience, encouragement, and immenseknowledge Thankfully, it is her dedication that gives me motivation to fulfillthis research.

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

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

This study mainly concentrates on the contrastive analysis ofinterpersonal meaning in American and Vietnamese sitcoms based on theframework of systemic functional grammar by M.A.K Halliday Based on eightsitcom episodes of American and Vietnamese, the present study aims atdiscussing the interpersonal resources realized by mood, modality, andgrammatical interpersonal metaphor and identifying the similarities anddissimilarities of interpersonal features in American and Vietnamese sitcomconversations The quantitative and qualitative methods were also employed todetermine the proportion of the linguistic resources used in American andVietnamese sitcoms The outcomes show that although there are differences inthe ways of expressing mood, modality, and grammatical metaphor, the primarysimilarities between American and Vietnamese sitcoms are providinginformation in the communication, showing the attitude, opinion, andjudgement, and expressing the implication of speakers in the interaction throughthe interpersonal realizations: Mood, modality, and grammatical metaphor.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter is to present all the preliminaries of the thesis It startswith the rationale, followed by the aims and objectives of the study, researchquestions, scope of the study, significance of study and ends with theorganization of the study

1.1 Rationale

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

In all genres of movie, sitcom, which is a short term of “situationcomedy” is regarded as the most noticeable genre It has amusing simple plotsarising in daily life and it contains real conversations existing in the form ofspoken discourse which is an interactive speech between two or more people,occurs in real time and is conducted face-to face Besides, this kind of comedyfilm depicts human life and society As a result, sitcom has attracted morescholars to carry out their researches in different fields simply because thiskind of movie contains both humorous values of verbal language and culturalfeatures in modern days In reality, most researchers have carried outresearches on comic discourses in different approaches such as anthropology,psychology, semiotic and socio-cultural exploration, etc Each kind of thesehas explored language applied in comic genres in different ways For

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

on comedy genres by investigating the nature of humor in present-day Britishand North American society through examining the principles behindhumorous situations

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

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

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

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

and its translation into Spanish Similarly, other investigations related tositcom genre have been done to explore many linguistic features revealedthrough real conversations of characters in movies However, not manystudies related to analyzing interpersonal meaning of comedy movies havebeen carried out in the light of systemic functional grammar despite the factthat interpersonal meaning has been conducted in the contrastive analysisbetween English and Vietnamese in various fields and genres such asliterature, music, advertisement, etc

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

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

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims of the study

This thesis aims at making a supplemental contribution to theknowledge and the comprehensive understanding of the interpersonal features

in the genre of sitcoms as a whole, and in particular concentrating onidentifying the similarities and dissimilarities of interpersonal features indialogues of American and Vietnamese sitcoms in the light of functionalgrammar

-To compare and contrast to find out the similarities and differences ofinterpersonal meaning used in verbal resources between American andVietnamese sitcoms

1.4 Scope of the Study

Due to the limited time, the paper particularly focuses on interpersonalmeaning realized in mood, modality and interpersonal grammatical metaphorfrom the perspectives of functional grammar In addition, the realization ofinterpersonal meaning in both American and Vietnamese sitcoms will becompared and contrasted to show the similarities and dissimilarities in comicverbal resources Moreover, my paper just focuses on the written text ofconversations to make sure about the reliability of the resources

1.5 Significance of the Study

It is obvious that sitcoms are the stories revolving around the lifesubjects; thus, their verbal resources are extremely practical Owing to theirdominance, this research is conducted as a supplemental contribution to thecomprehensive knowledge of interpersonal features realized in sitcoms.Moreover, the contrastive findings of the study also point out the similaritiesand differences in interpersonal features between American and Vietnameseconversations in life, so it helps language learners in the perception oflanguage

1.6 The Organization of the Study

The study is structured as follows:

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

Chapter two provides an overview about sitcoms A generaltheoretical background related to systemic functional theory, especially themetafunctions of the language which concentrates on interpersonal meaningrealized in different types of moods, modality and interpersonal grammaticalmetaphor Simultaneously, a brief presentation of the previous studies related

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

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

Chapter four examines in detail the interpersonal meaning realized bytypes of mood, Modality and interpersonal grammatical metaphor in writtentexts of American and Vietnamese sitcoms It then presents and describes theresults of the data analysis The discussions and interpretation of findings arealso included in this chapter

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

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides a whole view of the theoretical framework ofsystemic functional grammar, especially interpersonal features realized bymood, modality, and interpersonal grammatical metaphor In addition, theprevious relevant studies are also recalled to enhance the reason of filling thegap in this study

2.1 Sitcom as a genre

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

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

to the participants

With regards to the sitcom genre, it is a specific combination of spokenand written mode The explanation for this concept is that the film dialoguesare scripted in advance, then actors are forced to follow it to make dialoguesand the result of this process generates spoken dialogues which are listened to

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

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

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

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

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

(iii) Crisis: Provides details of the unusual incident

(iv) Reaction: Reaction to the crisis

(v) Coda (optional): Reflection on or evaluation of the incident

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

& Slade, 1997, p 229)

2.2 Overview of Systemic Functional Grammar

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

of J.F Firth and was mainly developed by Halliday SFL is a study oflanguage which concentrates on language used in context as the combinationbetween a resource of linguistic meaning and its social context The thingmaking SFL different from any other theory is simply because it has bothsystematic and functional characteristic The theory shows that language isrealized through semiotic devices for making meaning Besides, social contextand sematic feature of language are also viewed in the networks of systemswhich are sets of features presented in making utterance From that point on,researchers can use this system network to explain how language works as asemiotic tool and it interacts with social contexts in making meanings(Unsworth, 2007) Furthermore, Halliday (1994) performed three functionalmodes of language meaning from the aspect of the semantic system: theideational meaning, the interpersonal meaning, and the textual meaning.These metafunctions exist simultaneously in every level of language Fromthat point on, a speaker/ writer adjusts the grammar of a message to reflect atthe same time their perception of a happening or a state of affairs(experiential), their perception of the immediate context (textual) and theirpresentation of their communicative intent and choice of modality(interpersonal)

Figure 2.1 Metafunctions in relation to field, mode and tenor

(White & Martin, 2005, p 27)

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

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

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

Secondly, the interpersonal meaning is understood from the perspective

of its function in the process of social interactions From the explanation ofThompson (2004, p 30), the interpersonal meaning is used to establish and

maintain a social relationship between the addresser (speaker/writer) andaddressee (listener/reader) It is considered as a tool to connect people forexpressing their feeling and attitude about things in the world Apart fromthat, the interpersonal meaning also concerns the way we interact with oneanother through language, so it indicates the relationship between providersand recipients of information through spoken or written texts In Halliday’sanalysis of English, the interpersonal component is associated with mood,modality, and grammatical metaphor.

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

In brief, these three variables of context of situation can be realizedthrough the lexico-grammatical units of language system: Transitivity, Themeand Mood and Modality systems respectively However, this study justperforms within the framework of the interpersonal meaning of languageusing mood system, modality system and interpersonal grammaticalmetaphor The following part will discuss each of them in detail

2.2.1 Mood system

2.2.1.1 Mood structure

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Complement and Adjunct of the clause

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

Ex 1 Sister Susie is sewing shirts for soldiers

Subject Finite Predicator Complement Adjunct

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 121)

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

(iii) imperative These mood structures are shown by the attendance and the

position of Subject and Finite as follows:

Table 2.1 Relation of Mood selection to Mood structure

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

Indicative Present

declarative

non-exclamative Subject^Finite they^will build the house

exclamative Wh^Subject^Finite How quickly^they^will build the house!

interrogative

yes/no Finite^Subject will^they build the house?

Wh- imperative Wh^Finite^Subject What^ will^they build?

……… …… build the house!

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

of subject preceding Finite Declarative mood consists of two types:affirmative and negative statement

Ex 2 Henry James wrote “The Bostonians”

Subject Finite Predicator Complement

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

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

or predicator and it often appears in responding

(Will you join the dance?)

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 151)

(Who killed Cock Robin?)

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

finite Subject Predicator complement

(Eggins, 2004, p 167)

Wh/subject finite Predicator complement

(Eggins, 2004, p 169)

Ex 8 When did Henry James write “The Bostonians”

Wh/adjunct:circ finite subject predicator complement

(Eggins, 2004, p 169)

In casual conversation, the elliptical interrogative clauses are usedrather commonly and they only happen when the context of conversation isset up The omitted elements are similar in the elliptical declarative.

Ex 9 Piece of dialogue Elliptical elements

-Seen Fred? (“Have you…?”) -No, I haven’t

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 152)

Ex 10 Piece of dialogue Elliptical elements

-Met Fred on the way here (“I…”) -Did you? Where?

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 152)(iii) Imperative Mood

Eggins (2004, p 177) described four types of imperative structuresincluding a mood element consisting of finite (F) and subject (S); or oneconsisting of finite only; or subject only; and an imperative with a Moodelement in the order of Finite preceding Subject This kind of mood is alsodivided into two types: affirmative and negative imperative

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

Finite:neg subject predicator complement

Ex 13 Piece of dialogue Physical context

Brad: Look! The man walking up the hill

(Eggins & Slade, 1997, p 92)

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

1997, p 92)

Beside the mood choice, we can also see the occurrence of minorclause in the spoken forms of language, which is defined as clauses with nomood, transitivity, and thematic structure typically functioning as calling,greetings, exclamations, and alarms (Halliday & Matthissen, 2004)

2.2.1.2 Mood structure and speech function

Mood holds a vital role in establishing social relationships betweenaddressers and addressees Halliday (1994, p 68) stated that “the mostfundamental types of speech role, which lies behind all the more specifictypes that we may eventually be able to recognize, are just two (i) giving, and(ii) demanding” It is further explained that giving (and taking) or demanding(and being given) a commodity of some kind are the most basic purposes in anycommunication process From the viewpoint of speakers in the communicativeexchange, the commodity that speakers can be giving or demanding is information.Thanks to language, speakers can carry out their purposes in making a statement togive information or asking a question to demand for information Another kind ofcommodity exchange is good & service which is considered a supplementaryfunction contributing to the successful exchange without involving language Fromthat point on, there are four primary speech roles: giving information, demandinginformation, giving goods & services and demanding goods & services Also, thecombination of speech roles and commodities is labeled as offer, command,statement and

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

Table 2.2 Speech functions and commodities exchange

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 107) Role in exchange Commodity exchanged

Good & service Information

Would you like this teapot? He is giving her the teapot

Give me that teapot What is he giving her?

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

Table 2.3 Speech function pairs

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

Function

SUPPORTING CONFRONTING

(may be non-verbal) Command compliance refusal

(may be non-verbal) Statement acknowledgement contradiction

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

Table 2.4 Speech functions and typical mood of clause

(Eggins, 2004, p 148)

SUMMARY OF DIALOGUE

speech function typical clause Mood non-typical clause Mood

command imperative modulated interrogative

declarative offer modulated interrogative imperative declarative

statement declarative tagged declarative

question interrogative modulated declarative

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.2.2 Modality System

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

is saying In 1994, they first categorized modality system by distinguishingbetween proposition and proposals, which are explained particularly that if thecommodity being exchanged is goods and services, modality expressions aredefined as proposals while modality expressions of proposition happen whenthe commodity being exchanged in a clause is information Based on thisdistinction, Halliday then divided modality into two general grammaticalareas: modalization and modulation Modalization is concerned withspeakers’ attitude toward the status of a proposition which is presented interms of probability and usuality, expressed by finite modal operators, modaladjunct, or both Meanwhile, modulation relates to clauses containing themeaning of obligation or inclination of proposals which are shown in twopolarities: “do something” and “do not do something” These subtypes areexpressed by finite modal operator or expansions of the predicator

In brief, the following table summarizes the main categories ofmodalization and modulation, providing people with the communicativeability based on expressing degrees of probability/usuality orobligation/inclination

Table 2.5 System of types of modality

(Halliday, 1994, p 87) Commodity Speech Types of intermediacy Typical realization exchanged function

Passive verb predicator

Finite modal operator

Adjective predicator

As stated above, types of modality are identified by modal operatorsand modal adjuncts with a view to conveying the meaning of modality as afunction of the Mood in English They will be detailed as following

2.2.2.1 Modal operators

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

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

Positive Can, may, could, might, Will, would, should, Must, need, have/has

dare ought to, is/was to to Negative Needn’t, doesn’t/didn’t+ Won’t, wouldn’t, Mustn’t, oughtn’t to,

need to shouldn’t, can’t, couldn’t,

isn’t/wasn’t to mayn’t, mightn’t

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

(i) Mood adjuncts are firmly related to the mood structure, more

specifically in mood element which reflects interpersonal meanings Mood adjunctsare associated with the meaning of finite operators which express probability,usuality, obligation, inclination or time

(ii) Comment adjuncts are used to express the speaker or writer’s

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

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

Types Meaning Examples

I Probability How likely? Probably, possibly, certainly, perhaps, maybe Usuality How often? Usually, sometimes, (n)ever, often, seldom

Typicality How typical? Occasionally, generally, regularly, for the most

part Obviousness How obvious? Of course, surely, obviously, clearly

II Opinion I think In my opinion, personally, to my mind

Admission I admit Frankly, to be honest, to tell you the truth

Persuasion I assure you Honestly, really, believe me, seriously

Entreaty I request you Please, kindly

Presumption I presume Evidently, apparently, no doubt, presumably

Desirability How desirable? (Un)fortunately, to my delight/distress, regrettably,

hopefully

Reservation How reliable? At first, tentatively, provisionally, looking back on Validation How valid? it

Broadly speaking, in general, on the whole, strictly Evaluation How sensible? speaking, in principle

Prediction How expected? (Un)wisely, understandably, mistakenly, foolishly

To my surprise, surprisingly, as expected, by chance

2.2.3 Interpersonal grammatical metaphor

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

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

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

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

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

interrogative mood Table 2.8 is a specific demonstration for moodmetaphors

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

Speech function Congruent realization Metaphorical realization

Question What is your name? Tell me your name [imperative]

[interrogative] And your name is…? [declarative]

Command Get me a drink Could you get me a drink? [interrogative]

[imperative] I need drink [declarative]

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

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

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

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

“it is probable that …” (explicit objective).

2.2.4 Perspectives of interpersonal meaning in Vietnamese

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

to the consistency in the process of doing the contrastive research in both dataresources

(i) Declaratives in Vietnamese being used to narrate, confirm, ordescribe something are divided into affirmative and negative statement In general,

Vietnamese declarative sentences need particles to make a full meaning like đây, đấy, nhé, nhá, ạ, mà and so on while negative forms in Vietnamese are expressed

in diverse way For example, there are many ways to deny something by using the

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

Ban, 2005, pp 197-198)

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

the way of forming: using definite interrogative such as “cái gì, ở đâu, nơi nào, khi nào, lúc nào, ai, tại sao, bao lây,mấy giờ, etc”., using coordinator hay, hay là, some interrogative particles “à, ư, ạ, hả, hử, chở, chứ, nhỉ, chăng, có … không, đã

… chưa, xong … chưa”, or rising intonation (Diệp Quang Ban, 2005, pp 213-225)

(iii) Vietnamese imperatives are often accompanied by “Hãy, đừng, chớ” and ends with particles like “đi, thôi, nào, đi thôi, đi nào” (Diệp Quang Ban,

2005, p 228)

(iv) Vietnamese exclamatives are applied to express feelings or emotions

and they are often accompanied by mood adjuncts like “ôi, ô hay, ôi chao, dường nào, biết mấy, sao mà, cực kỳ, chết đi được, hết ý, hết sẩy” (Diệp Quang Ban,

2004, p 302)

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

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

*Comment

khốn nỗi đáng tiếc may lắm/may mà/ vị chỉ

chẳng thà không nhất thiết

*Mental clauses

tôi cho tôi lấy làm tiếc có ai ngờ

tôi thấy theo ý tôi thì có thể thấy rằng

*Modal predicator

chẳng hóa ra

số là/đã đành/ chẳng qua

cứ như tôi nghĩ thì nếu tôi không nhầm thì

thiết nghĩ nghe đâu (là)

thật ra (thì) tuồng như (là) tuyệt nhiên (là)

nên/phải

dĩ nhiên (là)/

e hình như (là) hẳn/ ắt họa may (là) hóa ra/ hay là không khéo không/nào ngờ

lẽ ra (thì)

cần (nên/phải)

nhất quyết/nhất thiết

quả (là)/ thật (là) quả nhiên/ quả thật té ra/ nhất quyết quả (là)/ thật

là quả nhiên/ tất nhiên (là)

thì ra/ ngờ đâu/ vịt tất

2.3 Previous studies related to the research

It is undoubted that systemic functional grammar, which is developed

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

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

of Vietnamese sentences instead of using S-V structure By contrast, DiệpQuang Ban (2005) supported analyzing Vietnamese sentences in accordancewith S-V structure and simultaneously applied systemic functional grammarmodel of Halliday (1994) in order to analyze Vietnamese sentences based on

three metafunctions including experiential, interpersonal, and textualmetafuntion.

Apart from the influential researches above, some linguistic scholarshave carried out many studies on various fields and genres from thetheoretical background of SFG Specifically, Nguyễn Thị Thu Hiền (2016)examined the interpersonal function in English press commentaries from theperspective of functional grammar and appraisal theory Her study pointed outthat using rhetorical questions, various types of modality, and attitudinalresources revealed the implicit and explicit way of communication betweenthe authors of English commentaries and the readers as well as the authors’emotion, judgement, and attitude to different aspects of the discussedproblems in the text

And most recently, Hoàng Văn Vân (2018) applied systemic functionalgrammar to compare the three translated versions of the poem “Bánh trôinước” The result showed both similarities and differences in terms ofideational, interpersonal, and textual meaning Besides, the study revealed thatthe three translated versions and the original poem tend to be more different inlexical choice than in syntactic choice

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

From a more general aspect,Phan Văn Hòa, Trần Hữu Phúc, andNguyễn Thị Tú Trinh (2017) conducted the research on Vietnamese simpleclause from major contemporary approaches The study showed that structuralapproaches influenced by European and American structuralists such asSaussure and Bloomfield, and functional approaches influenced by Dik’sfunctional grammar and Halliday’s systemic functional grammar tend to bethe dominant grammatical models for the analysis of the Vietnamese simpleclause.

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

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

the pragmatic meaning of jokes expressed by the characters, and pragmaticprank functions shown by the characters in this movie from pragmaticperspectives The findings showed that there were totally 14 joke strategiesoccurring in the movie Also, the most dominant strategy used in the movie isambiguity whose meanings are various for participants in the conversation tointerpret In addition, the jokes uttered by the characters in this sitcom haveassertive, expressive and directive meanings which serve to show the power,solidarity and psychological defense of the speaker

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

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

media discourse This research showed both a sample of spoken discourse and

a sample of native speakers’ cultural norms The result of this study presentedthat the most recurring event in a friendly relationship was found to beconfiding one’s secrets or personal affairs and problems with one’s friendsand asking them for help, consultation, and sympathy Simultaneously, there

were some speaking factors affecting each speech event which was in linewith Hymes’ speaking model.

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

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

sociolinguistics The results indicated that the most frequent form used in

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

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

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

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

the discourse analysis and the pragmatic cooperative principle Her analysispointed out that the geeks tend to talk about topics that are less common ineveryday speech and use less colloquial language Instead, their languageapplies more formal expressions, idioms and terminology

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

to create humor The outcomes also pointed out several similarities anddifferences of humor strategies in both data sources For similarities, there aretotally 12 humor strategies and 3 sub-strategies violating four maxims ofGrice’s Cooperative Principles of which maxim of quantity counts for theleast in both resources In regards to differences, English sitcoms tend to usethe strategies of quality and irony while using maxim of manner and lexicalpuns is more popular in Vietnamese sitcoms due to the influence of tradition

All previous studies prove the fact that many linguistic researchershooked on systemic functional grammar as a whole and sitcom genre inparticular with a wide range of different researches However, theinvestigation of interpersonal meaning used in American and Vietnamesesitcom genre seems to be insufficiently touched Therefore, this study iscarried out with a view to filling this gap.

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

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

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

-Comparative and contrastive methods were applied to find out thesimilarities and differences in interpersonal resources used in comic verbalresources in American and Vietnamese sitcoms

Due to two different language sources, American sitcom resource wasextracted from movie scripts freely available from

released on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWOSL6NQsPc

3.3 Data analysis

The research was conducted with following steps:

- Collecting data: The dialogues in both American and Vietnamesesitcoms were scripted in the form of texts which met my demand for the purposes

of construing interpersonal features in American and Vietnamese sitcoms

- Identifying the interpersonal meaning: All sitcom resources AS4 and VS1-VS4 were investigated to find out components of interpersonalmeaning in terms of mood, modality and interpersonal grammatical metaphor

AS1 Analyzing data: After the result of the frequency of the occurrence ofmood, modality and interpersonal grammatical metaphor, the quantitative methodwas utilized to calculate the distribution of these types In order to particularize theresult, tables and figures were shown in detail with examples

- Qualitatively discussing the findings reveals the similarities anddifferences in interpersonal features in conversations of American and Vietnamesesitcoms

3.4 Reliability and Validity

It is apparent that the literature review of Systemic functionalgrammar was generalized based on the theoretical background of a prestigiouslinguist Halliday Besides, this part of the study was written by synthesizingthe knowledge of systemic functional grammar from many standard books

and researches by Halliday (1994), Thompson (2004), Eggins (2004),Matthiessen et al (1997), etc.

Another evidence for the reliability and validity is lying in thecollection of data Both American and Vietnamese sitcoms resources aremainly collected from the most popular websites

Moreover, three reliable methods: qualitative, quantitative,comparative and contrastive were utilized flexibly with the aim of bringingthe high efficiency in linguistic researches It is undeniable that these methodsmade a considerable contribution to the analysis of interpersonal features inAmerican and Vietnamese sitcoms

From stated evidences above, this research is confirmed as a reliableand valid one

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND

DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Mood in ASs and VSs

As presented in Chapter 2, mood is a typical realization of interpersonalmeaning through which the relation between language and society is reflected

in either written or spoken form of communication Accordingly, the mainpurpose of this section is to investigate what mood choices are utilizeddominantly and how language is used to show the interaction betweenspeakers and listeners in conversations in sitcoms From that point, the mostbasic interactive distinctions between ASs and VSs are also expected toclarify

4.1.1 Mood in American sitcoms

In the dimension of mood choice analysis, there are three primary types

of mood identified in the data including declarative, interrogative, andimperative Table 4.1 illustrates the basic distribution of mood in everydayconversations of ASs

Table 4.1 Mood in ASs

7.43% respectively This rate indicates that while declarative mood is indominance, the frequency of occurrence of imperative mood is the least used

in ASs

One more significant point grabbing our attention is the distribution ofminor clauses in daily communication of ASs It can be seen from Table 4.1that minor clauses also account for a remarkable rate, at 8.44%, which createsthe characteristic in pieces of sitcom conversation of ASs Minor clauses donot consist of a Mood + Residue structure and they are considered minorspeech functions in exchange For example:

(AS-3) Rachel: Oh my god Janice, hi!

Chandler: Janice is gonna go away now.

about me?

Chandler (trapped): Uh, uh.

Monica: Well?

(AS-2) Ted: A friend of yours named you?

Barney: No, a friend of mine named shut up.

Robin: Yeah, the owner goes to my gym It turns out that he is a fan

of my reporting for Metro News One So now, I'm on the list for tonight.

(AS-4) Joey (talking on the phone): Angela? Joey Tribiani Listen, what are

you doing tonight? I know your seeing that guy I was thinking maybe

you could bring him Hello? Hello?

It can be seen from (AS-3), (AS-1), (AS-2), and (AS-4) that minorclauses used in casual conversations are rather diverse with differentfunctions Some interjections are used to express emotion of speakers in thedialogue, some serve to ensure the continuity of the communication, some

bring the implication of compliance or refusal, and some function as aquestion when they combine with rising intonation.

To have a sharper understanding of how mood types utilized in ASs,

we will consider the distribution of each mood choice to convey the implicitmeaning of the interaction

4.1.1.1 Declarative Mood in ASs

It is obvious that declarative mood takes up 71.80% of the wholedialogues This highest percentage explains that the major purpose of sitcomtalks is to inform things or events in the process of interaction Comparedwith texts in written forms conveying messages to addressees, sitcomconversation is the interaction between speakers and listeners; thus, thecorrelation between initiating speech function and responding speech function

is brought out based on moves in dialogue Here are some illustratingexamples:

(AS-4) Rachel: I can not believe I have to walk down the aisle in front of 200

people looking like something you drink when you’re nauseous

Ross: So don't I don't see why we have to go to this thing anyway, it's

your ex-fiancee's wedding.

(AS-3) Chandler: Ok, I'm makin' a break for it, I'm goin' out the window

Joey: No, no, no, don't! I've been waitin' for like, forever to go out

with Lorraine Just calm down.

The examples in (AS-4) and (AS-3) show that declarative mood structuresoccur in both initiating and responding speech function Both of them performthe function of providing information in the interaction process Anothernoticed point in the examples of sitcom dialogues is the difference in thestructure between initiating and responding moves While initiating movesprovide longer information with using full declarative more popularly,