(Luận văn thạc sĩ) hedging in representatives in english and vietnamese weather forecasts

ABSTRACT In this study, an attempt is made to explore hedging forms and functions to identify the similarities and differences between the English weather forecasts and Vietnamese ones i

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

PHẠM ĐOÀN THANH DUNG

HEDGING IN REPRESENTATIVES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE WEATHER FORECASTS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 8.22.02.01

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Quang Ngoạn

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

PHẠM ĐOÀN THANH DUNG

CHE CHẮN TRONG HÀNH VI MÔ TẢ TRONG CÁC BẢN TIN DỰ BÁO THỜI TIẾT BẰNG TIẾNG ANH

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am filled with deep gratitude and I aspire to acknowledge many individuals who have heartened me in various ways so as to complete this thesis today

First of all, I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my research supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Quang Ngoan for giving me the opportunity to do research and providing invaluable guidance throughout this thesis His dynamism, vision, sincerity and motivation have deeply inspired

me Without his timely enlightenment, my academic pathway could have been unfortunately interrupted

Besides, I wish to show my gratitude to all the lecturers of my master’s course, who have enabled me to upgrade my skills and enrich my knowledge

of Linguistics for the past two years I am also indebted to the authors and experts whose works have been cited in the Literature Review part of my study

Next, my sincere thanks go to my school management board and colleagues at Luong The Vinh High School whose assistance made it feasible for me to participate in this master course and fully concentrate on completing

my thesis

Last but not least, I need to extend my deepest thanks to my beloved family and a special friend of mine, Ngoc Thanh, who have given me a lot of material and mental supports as well as strong motivation to conquer all the challenges and obstacles during the process of doing my research

ABSTRACT

In this study, an attempt is made to explore hedging forms and functions to identify the similarities and differences between the English weather forecasts and Vietnamese ones in terms of hedging forms and pragmatic functions The data for analysis was taken from 60 weather forecasts in English and in Vietnamese with about 619 samples of hedges in total In order to achieve the aims and objectives, a contrastive analysis of the data was conducted, following both qualitative and quantitative approaches Taking the classification of hedges of Varttala’s (2001) as the theoretical framework, the study targets at spotting the hedging forms The research results indicated that the employment of the hedging forms in the English and Vietnamese data shared many similarities The study registered the occurrence of two types of hedges, namely lexical hedges and phrasal hedges, with lexical hedges taking the lead in the English data and phrasal hedges being the most prominent category of hedges in the Vietnamese data Besides, the outcomes dealt with functions of hedges by using Grice’s (1975) maxims

as the framework Quality hedges emerged as the most prominent categories

in both sources of the data The remaining categories, namely, quantity hedges, manner hedges, relevance hedges and mixed hedges were distributed unevenly in the English data and Vietnamese one

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

Throughout history, the weather has played an important role in human survival, affecting a wide range of aspects of day to day life such as transportation, navigation, farming, tourism, fishing, events and celebrations, etc It comes as no surprise to know that people have been monitoring, measuring and predicting the weather for thousands of years In fact, weather forecasting is the process of anticipating the future conditions of the climate and atmosphere with the use of scientific models and techniques Weather forecasting serves many purposes and needs Firstly, weather forecasting is to provide as accurate as possible prediction of what the weather will be like in the near future Without accurate weather forecasts, people involved may end

up in dangerous situations or even deaths Secondly, it helps raise people’s safety awareness for incoming disasters so that life and property can be protected Thirdly, the governments have responsibility to provide safety measures to their respective communities and take preventive steps initially so that the after-effects of disasters can be minimized In other words, weather forecasts can significantly influence life, property, policymaking, construction planning, productivity and environmental risk management Therefore, studying weather forecasts and hedging against weather risks are very crucial for human life

In applied linguistics, hedges allow speakers and writers to signal caution, or probability, versus full certainty Most studies on hedging approach the phenomenon from either a textual or pragmatic perspective such as speech act and politeness theory, genre-specific investigations, interactional pragmatics and studies of vague language While there are many

studies on hedging in a wide variety of disciplinary discourses, weather forecasts, to date, have been largely overlooked What is more, despite the significance of hedging and the extensive research conducted on hedging, no studies have been conducted on weather forecasts to see how and why hedges are used It is for these reasons that the author decided to conduct a

research entitled “Hedging in representatives in English and Vietnamese

weather forecasts” The results can fill in the gap of the existing literature

and make a contribution to the understanding of hedging in weather forecasts

1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

1.2.1 Aims of the Study

This study aims to identify and analyze hedging devices and their functions used in representatives in English and Vietnamese weather forecasts Moreover, it aims to find out the similarities and differences in hedging in representatives in English and Vietnamese weather forecasts

1.2.2 Objectives of the Study

To achieve the aims, the objectives of this study are:

1 to examine hedging devices applied in representatives in English and

Vietnamese weather forecasts

2 to analyze the functions of such hedging devices

3 to compare and contrast hedging in representatives in English and Vietnamese weather forecasts

1.3 Research Questions

In accordance with the background of the study, the main problem of this research is related to hedging in representatives in English and Vietnamese weather forecasts Thus, the research questions are:

1 What hedging devices are used in English and Vietnamese weather forecasts ?

2 What are the functions of the hedging devices?

3 What are the similarities and differences in the use of hedging in representatives in English and Vietnamese weather forecasts?

1.4 Scope of the Study

Searle (1979:12-20) classifies the illocutionary acts into Directive, Expressive, Declarative, Commissive and Representative speech acts In this study, the researcher limits to the representative speech acts because they are one of the most important things for people to share the knowledge with others Particularly, the study is limited to the hedges used in representatives

in English and Vietnamese weather forecasts

1.5 Significance of the Study

The study is hoped to bring out some theoretical and practical contributions

Theoretically, this study is expected to be useful to enrich the previous studies in hedging in representatives This research is also expected to be beneficial for referent or comparison for the next study So, it will give the next researchers some ideas to improve research on hedging in representatives

Practically, it is expected to be beneficial for linguistics students to know about hedging in representatives especially in weather forecasts Moreover, this research may be helpful for citizens and authorities so that they can prevent possible risks which the weather causes For example, farmers can use weather forecasts to hedge against poor harvests caused by failing rains during the growing period, excessive rain during harvesting, high winds in case of plantations or temperature variabilities in case of greenhouse crops Forecasts help people to plan their activities and movements ahead, stay safe and not go out if there is something wrong with nature, and get

updated with the possibilities of the arrival of storms that cause destruction and havoc

1.6 Structure of the Study

The study consists of six chapters:

Chapter 1 – Introduction

This chapter presents the rationale for choosing the area for studying, aims and objectives, research questions, scope of the study and significance of the study The structure of the thesis is also included here to serve as an outline of the study

Chapter 2- Literature Review and Theoretical Background

This chapter discusses the notions of representative speech act, hedges, relationship between hedges and conversational maxims and weather

forecasts

Chapter 3 – Methods and Procedures

This chapter states the chosen methods to carry out the study and to analyze the collected data It also deals with the procedures of the data collection

Chapter 4 – Findings and Discussion on Types of Hedges

This chapter describes hedging forms in English and Vietnamese weather forecasts as well as the similarities and differences between them Chapter 5 – Findings and Discussion on Hedging Functions

This chapter analyses the collected data to find out the major similarities and differences in hedging functions in the investigated weather forecasts in English and in Vietnamese

Chapter 6 – Conclusions

This part summarizes the main findings of the study, provides some implications for TEFL, and offers suggestions for further researches

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the researcher presents the foundation of the research theory This chapter discusses some key concepts related to representative speech acts, forms and functions of hedges Moreover, an overview of weather forecasting is also presented in the chapter

2.1 Overview of speech acts

2.1.1 Speech Acts

Speech Act Theory was originated as a theory within the Philosophy of Language to explain the ways that we can use language, but since then speech act theory has been used within a wider context in linguistics and more recently in computational models

Speech Act Theory was introduced by J.L Austin and summarized in his William James Lectures presented at Harvard University in 1955 (Austin, 1962) A key response to these questions and problems was made by Searle, one of Austin’s students, who was primarily responsible for developing Speech Act Theory into the form in which it is now known His most important works in this area are Searle (1969, 1979) and Searle and Vanderveken (1985)

According to Yule (1996: 47), speech acts are actions that can be performed via utterances and commonly given more specific labels, such as apology, complaint, compliment, invitation, promise, or request In this case,

in attempting to express themselves, people do not only produce utterances containing grammatical structures and words, but they also perform actions via those utterances

2.1.2 Types of speech acts

There are numerous speech acts in people’s utterances and Yule (1996:

53) classifies them into five groups, namely declarations, directives, expressives, representatives, and commisives

Representatives

Representatives are related to what the speaker believes to be the case or not (Yule, 1996: 53) It deals with the statement of fact, assertion, conclusion, and description The purpose of representatives is to commit the speakers to something’s being the case, to the truth of the expressed position (Searle, 1975)

For example, The earth is flat

Commissives

Commissives are a type of speech act that the purpose is to commit the speaker toward upcoming actions They express what the speakers intends such as the expression of promises, threats, refusals and pledges (Yule, 1996: 54)

For example, I’ll be back

Expressives

Expressives deal with stating what the speaker feels They express psychological conditions which can be the statement of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy, or sorrow (Yule, 1996: 53)

For example, I’m really sorry!

Directives

Directives deal with speakers to get someone else to do something They express what the speaker wants in the form of commands, orders, requests, and suggestion which can be positive or negative (Yule, 1996: 54)

For example, Could you lend me a pen, please?

Declaratives

Declaratives are related to change the world via utterance The speaker has a

special institutional role, in a specific context in order to perform a declaration appropriately (Yule, 1996: 53)

For example, Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife

2.1.3 Subtypes of representatives

According to Searle, a representative speech act commits the speaker to the truth of an expressed proposition It represents the speaker’s belief of something that can be evaluated to be true or false To describe, to call, to classify, to identify, to claim, to diagnose, to hypothesize, to insist, to predict, and to boast are some performative verbs indicating these types of acts A representative speech act is an illocutionary act; the speech deals with the words’ real and intended meaning Specifically, representative speech acts demonstrate a speaker’s belief in the words of others he is reciting Representatives in Yule (1996: 53) tell about the truth of the utterance Searle and Vanderveken (1985: 182) classify the categories in representative speech act into thirty -two subcategories as follows:

1) Asserting 2) Claiming 3) Affirming 4) Stating

5) Denying 6) Disclaim 7) Assuring 8) Arguing

9) Rebut 10) Informing 11) Notifying 12) Reminding 13) Objecting 14) Predicting 15) Reporting 16) Retrodict

17) Suggesting 18) Insisting 19) Conjecturing 20) Hypothesizing 21) Guessing 22) Swearing 23) Testifying 24) Admitting

25) Confessing 26) Accusing 27) Blaming 28) Criticizing 29) Praising 30) Complaining 31) Boasting 32) Lamenting

2.2 Overview of hedges

In this section, the author first presents the background and origins

of the term hedge Secondly, she discusses what hedging exactly is in

more details, presenting both form-based and function-based definitions

Thirdly, she establishes the working definition of a hedge used in this thesis

2.2.1 Origin of the term hedge

The word hedge or hedging can be broadly defined as referring to a

barrier, limit, defense or the act or means of protection Although hedges might be around nearly as long as language itself, it was Lakoff (1972)

who first introduced the term hedge in his article "Hedges: A Study in Meaning Criteria and the Logic of Fuzzy Concepts" He studied words

whose meaning implicitly involved fuzziness Later on, he showed that the interpretation of hedges is dependent on context in the sense that the effect

of hedging is a pragmatic not a semantic phenomenon

Lakoff's pioneering ideas have been further developed by a number

of linguists They have generally adopted a broader view on hedging, considering it not only a semantic phenomenon but also a pragmatic one (Mauranen,2004: 173) In other words, hedges are no longer seen as

conveying only inexactitude (e.g a rose is kind of a flower) but

contributing to pragmatic strategies, such as politeness or mitigation, as well

Salager-Meyer (1994), a famous French linguist who has published several articles on linguistic, rhetorical and discourse analysis, draws taxonomy of hedges including word classes which can be used as hedging devices

or phrase that modifies the degree of membership of a predicate or noun phrase in a set; it says of that membership that it is partial, or true only in certain respect; or that it is more true and complete than perhaps might be expected” (Levinson, 1987: 145)

Locastro (2003) mentions that speakers may want to signal less than full adherence to them by using expressions called hedges Hedge is an expression of a speaker in his/her utterance to show that he/she is aware of maxims of Cooperative Principles but not fully observing it

The impact of hedging devices in the discourse is measured by their overall effect on meaning or the message of the text oral/written Hyland (1996) illustrates that hedging devices are used to indicate a lack of complete commitment to the truth of the proposition, and a desire not to express the commitment categorically

2.2.3 Hedges adhering to Varttala’s classification

Varttala (1998) proposes a framework for identifying hedging devices based on the selection and examination of typical epistemic lexical items This framework includes five central word classes, namely modal auxiliaries (may), main verbs (argue, believe), adverbs (possibly, perhaps), adjectives (potential, probable) and nouns (hypothesis, idea, notion), as shown in Table 2.1

For the purpose of convenience in categorizing hedging types and functions, this study’s framework is mainly adopted from Varttala (2001) together with Quirk (1985) Of course, there would be no framework that could completely cover such a broad area of hedging, but such a combination might help construct a comprehensive set of both hedging forms For this study, the author has also established a working definition

of a hedge In this study, the author is looking at hedges that can be called

lexical hedges or phrasal hedges

Table 2.1: Taxonomy of hedging devices

Modal Auxiliaries Will/would, can/could, may/might,

shall/should, ought to, etc

Full verbs

Nonfactive reporting verbs

Argue, predict, imply, suggest, propose, contend, forecast, claim, etc

Tentative cognition verbs

Feel, believe, conceive, maintain, judge, think, wish, assume, estimate, speculate, reckon, claim, etc

Tentative linking verbs

Appear, seem, look, tend,etc

Adjectives

Probability adjectives Apparent, likely, possible,

potential, probable, suggestive, etc

Approximate, close, gross, virtual, etc

Adverbs

Probability adverbs (un)likely, perhaps, possibly,

probably, apparently, etc

Adverbs of indefinite frequency

Commonly, generally, usually, often, frequently, etc

Adverbs of indefinite degrees

Fairly, highly, mainly, slightly, rather, quite, etc

Approximative adverbs

About, almost, nearly, roughly,

approximately, greatly, mostly, etc

Nouns

Nonfactive assertive Nouns

Argument, clue, claim, suggestion, etc

Tentative cognition Approximation, assumption, belief,

Types Subtypes Realizations of hedges

Nouns of tentative likelihood

Trend, likelihood, guess, hope, etc

sure, mean actually, ect Adjective phrases Really good, really so clear, etc

Prepositional phrases For me, By the way

2.2.4 Hedges adhering to Grice’s conversational maxims

2.2.4.1 The cooperative principle

In communication, there must be a kind of rule applied to make a successful conversation This rule will help both the speaker and the hearer in delivering their messages and conveying the meaning of their messages This rule, called as Cooperative Principles The English language philosopher Paul Grice (1975) first put forward the Cooperative Principle He defined it as

“Make your contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which it occurs,

by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged” Particularly, the cooperative principle describes how effective

communication in conversation is achieved in common social situation, that is

to say, how listeners and speakers must act cooperatively and mutually accept one another to be understood in a particular way Grice raises that speakers and hearers share the cooperative principle; speakers try their best to let their expressions to be understood by hearers Cooperative Principles will be explained in its four sub-principles, called maxims The four classical Gricean conversational maxims are maxims of quality, quantity, relation/relevance and

manner

2.2.4.2 Hedges adhering to Grice’s maxims

The field of pragmatics is very strongly influenced by the work of Grice, who outlines the cooperative principles in order to arrive at a full understanding of what an addresser meant by an utterance According to Grice, persons involved in an interlocution are essentially rational beings who cooperate with each other in order to achieve the purpose of the conversation Thus, in the context of Gricean cooperative principle, interlocutors are expected to make conversational contribution (Grice,1975: 45) Grice suggests that when communicating there are certain maxims or general principles that exist between speaker and hearer which help us understand not only indirect speech acts but also speech in general Consequently, the Gricean cooperative principle is divided into four maxims: quantity, quality, relevance, and manner as follows

- The maxim of quantity, where one tries to be as informative as one

possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more It says to be more informative The speaker cannot give either more or less information in his/her utterances In this maxim, the speaker has to give the exact or precise information The speaker also has to decide what he/she wants to emphasize By doing that, the speaker will be able to decide whether the information he/she gives to the hearer is too much or too little For instance,

(1) All I know is smoking damages your health

In this instance, the addresser limits the quantity of information by

using All I know Therefore, the maxim of quantity is hedged

- The maxim of quality, where one tries to be truthful, and does not give

information that is false or that is not supported by evidence In a

conversation, the hearer will think that the speaker is being truthful in his/her utterances and the speaker does not tell anything that he/she is sure it is wrong By this condition, the speaker also knows that the hearer expects him/her to say the truth Thus, he/she will not say what he/she thinks that it is false For instance,

(2) They say that smoking damages your health

In the previous instance, the addresser indicates that the statement is

either true or false by using They say that and she/he is not sure that smoking

damages the health Thus, the addresser hedges the maxim of quality

- The maxim of relevance, where one tries to be relevant, and says things

that are pertinent to the discussion The speaker’s question is need to be related to the hearer’s answer When a speaker says something that has no relation with the utterance uttered before, it is said that the speaker does not observe the maxim of relevance In order to be said to observe the maxim of relevance, some of the speakers will point out that his/her utterance is relevant

to the previous utterance For instance,

(3) What’s your name by the way?

In the previous instance, the addresser uses by the way to indicate that

what has been said before it is not relevant to the conversation Such type of hedge is used when the addresser wants to switch from one topic to another one Therefore, the relevance maxims may be hedged

- The maxim of manner, when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as

orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity The speaker cannot make a confusing utterance A speaker is believed to observe maxim of manner when he/she makes an utterance step by step and clear He/she will have to make an utterance in such a good arrangement so that the hearer will not feel confused For instance,

(4) It was dead funny, if you see what I mean

In the previous instance, the addresser realized that she/he had

produced a pun therefore she or he added if you see what I mean to indicate

her/his consciousness of the maxim of manner Thus, the maxim of manner is hedged

Here to, hedges are the most immediate tool for the job and the author discusses hedges on Grice’s Maxims Grice’s Cooperative Principle is employed in this thesis to explore how and why forecasters adopt hedges in the English and Vietnamese weather forecasts so as to seek out the functions

in the use of hedges in the English and Vietnamese weather forecasts

2.3 Overview of weather forecasting

2.3.1 Brief history of weather forecasting

Since the invention of the first weather instruments, weather observation has undergone tremendous improvement In the past, early humankind relied on personal experience, astrology, phenology of plant flowering and animal circle to predict the weather However, they are no longer reliable Nowadays, denser monitoring networks, more complicated instruments and communication systems and better-trained personnel can produce increasingly detailed, reliable and representative weather records According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, today’s five-day forecast is accurate about 90 percent of the time The seven-day forecast is correct 80 percent of the time, and a 10-day forecast reflects the weather that actually occurs about 50 percent of the time

2.3.2 Definition of a weather forecast

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, a weather forecast is a description, for example, on the radio or television, of what the weather will be like tomorrow or for the next few days

In English, the website http://learnesl.net introduces the definition of a

weather forecast as “a written or spoken statement describing what the weather has been like recently, what it is like at the moment or what it will be for a period in the future” or “a daily report of meteorological observations, and of probable changes in the weather; esp one published by government authority”

2.3.3 Forecast quality of weather forecasts

(This part is based on an article entitled “Forecast quality of weather forecasts” by Weather bonk (2020) on the web www weatherbonk.com)

There are three categories of weather forecasts: short-term, term, and long-term weather forecasts

medium-Short-term forecasts are more detailed in the weather patterns such as wind, rainfall, and center of gravity, temperature, sun or cover These forecasts range from 1 to 7 days A high forecasting quality can be given for day 1 and lowered for day 7

Medium-term forecasts give a rough trend beyond the 7th day on which direction the weather is more likely to take In other words, in medium-term forecasts, a likely weather event is imminent but not yet certain

Long-term forecasts which are marked with weather trends are usually found in the season forecasts These trends deal with exclusively with the temperature trend such as too warm or too cold and the possible precipitation behavior such as too wet or too dry

2.4 Previous relevant studies

The terms hedges and hedging generally refer to a large class of lexical and syntactic features of text that have the goal of modifying and mitigating a proposition (Leech, 1983; Levinson, 1983; Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik, 1985)

Hyland (1994) considers hedging as a reflection of relation between the writer and reader According to Hyland (1998), hedges can be categorized as content-oriented and reader-oriented hedges Content-oriented hedges are mainly concerned with accuracy and its representation in real world, whereas reader-oriented hedges mainly deal with the interpersonal relationship and the rules of conduct between writer and reader Further, Hyland (2000) adds that

a clear awareness of the pragmatic impact of hedges and an ability to recognize them in texts is crucial in the acquisition of rhetorical competence

in any discipline

Research into the meanings and uses of hedging and intensifying devices in English saw its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, when a large number of publications emerged to discuss their functions in written and spoken discourse (e.g., Chafe, 1986; Chafe & Danielewicz, 1987; Hermeren, 1978; Huebler, 1983; Holmes, 1984) Several studies have a similar topic to this research They are used as reference in analyzing hedging in this research Over the years, hedging has been studied from various viewpoints (e.g cross cultural comparisons, gender studies, translation studies, politeness theory, academic discourse) What these more recent studies have in common

is the fact that they mostly emphasize the pragmatic aspects of hedging and see hedging as an important strategy in interpersonal communication

Salagan-Meyer’s theory (1994) not only classifies hedges into several groups but also tries to analyze the frequency of their occurrence and distribution in different genres Her findings suggest that case reports and research papers contain fewer hedges than editorials and reviews where the passive voice as one of hedging devices is more frequent

According to Varttala (1998), the communicative functions of hedges are different in specialist research articles and popular research articles

He maintains that in popular research articles, hedging indicates textual precision and interpersonal negative politeness and in specialist research articles, it functions as textual tools for both imprecision and precision and a feature of interpersonal positive politeness

Nikula (1997) analyzes hedging in the conversational speech of Finnish learners of English in comparison to that of native speakers of English Her findings show that learners used hedges at a significantly lower rate than native speakers and with much less variety Besides, he finds that while native speakers has a tendency of using this hedge in combination with others at a

various positions throughout utterances, learners tend to overuse I think and

use it only at the beginning of utterances

Yu (2009) builds on some of the findings of Nikula (1997) by examining

the pragmatic development of hedging by EFL learners Yu categorizes

hedges into quantificational approximators, performative shields, modal shields, pragmatic-marker hedges, and other syntactic and discoursal hedging strategies Written questionnaires, simulated debates, and oral interviews of

211 Chinese learners from junior high school, high school, and level English courses in China are analyzed Her findings indicate that

university-learners progress from a system in which university-learners use only performative I think to an intermediate stage with combinations of intensifiers and mitigators

before they progress to an advanced system at the university level in which they exhibit awareness of hedging clusters that draw on all categories of hedges

Rabab’ah, G (2013) in Hedging in nursing and education academic articles investigates how and why hedges are used in nursing and education

academic research articles and finds out the similarities and differences between the two disciplines in using hedges and their subcategories The

study reveals that there are significant differences between the nursing and education writers' use of hedging in the total use of hedging devices and their subcategories, in favor of the education discipline It concludes that hedging devices are used as communicative strategies to qualify writers' commitment, reduce the force of the researchers' statements, express probability, save the writers' face, persuade readers, and avoid any possible rejection of their statements

In addition, Yang, J (2019) conducts Analysis of hedges in English advertising from the perspective of Cooperative Principle He employs

Grice’s maxims in analyzing functions of hedges in English advertising The findings of the study show that hedge is a phenomenon of the fuzziness in language It is also a particularly crucial communication strategy The thesis promotes the further study of hedges from different perspectives It would be better for advertisers to adopt hedges in a way for promoting their products and services At the same time, it may help them to understand the strategies well More importantly, it promotes the study of the advertising and cooperative principle

Similarly, Vietnamese researchers have made a great deal of contribution to the development of hedging as a pragmatic phenomenon In detail, Hoàng Phê (2002) defines that hedging are expressions which are preventive from unexpected misunderstanding and reaction to what is said Nguyễn Quang (2003) realizes that hedging is a strategy used to hedge the propositional content

Nguyễn Lê Tố Quyên (2014) conducts the sudy “Types of hedges used

by American and Vietnamese celebrity” The study investigates syntactic

features and pragmatic features of hedges used by American and Vietnamese celebrities The findings shows that quality hedges occurs most frequently in

both American and Vietnamese data, while the use of quantity hedges, manner hedges and mixed hedges are different from each other

In the thesis by Bùi Văn Sang (2016) “A contrastive analysis of hedges in giving comments by judges in the Voice America versus The Voice Vietnam”, he focuses on three major categories namely lexical hedges, phrasal

hedges and clausal hedges Based on the four basis maxims of conversation,

he also examines hedging functions It is concluded from the study that the proportion for the quantity hedges is the highest and other types of hedges are distributed unevenly

2.5 Summary

This chapter presents an overview of speech acts, hedges and weather forecasting In addition, the author suggests a potential theoretical framework for the present study Besides, a brief review of the previous studies is also presented to point out the gap of the research

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES

This chapter aims at describing the methodology employed in the study In detail, it is devoted to clarifying the research methods, sources of data, data collection process, and data analysis procedure Besides, the validity and reliability of the research are also discussed in this chapter

3.1 Research Methods

This research used both quantitative and qualitative approach in analysis of English and Vietnamese weather forecasts in terms of hedging devices and hedging functions

First of all, the quantitative approach was used to analyze the frequency

of occurrence and the percentage of types of hedges Secondly, the qualitative

approach helped to find out pragmatic features of the hedges identified

Last but not least, descriptive and comparative methods were chosen as the predominent ones of the study since the central point of this study is to find out the similarities and differences of the hedges in the English weather forecasts and Vietnamese ones

3.2 Data collection and data analysis

3.2.1 Criteria for data collection

The data collected meet the following criteria

Firstly, the data will be collected from online reliable newspapers in English and in Vietnamese such as https://thesun.co.uk; https://weather.com; https://weatherbug.com ; https://vtv.vn, etc

Secondly, all the news will present weather forecasts in November and December of the year 2019

Thirdly, the average length of each forecast is between 15 clauses and

40 clauses

3.2.2 Data collecting sources

The author of the present study randomly collected the data mainly from the Internet The quantity of data included 30 English weather forecasts and 30 Vietnamese ones

The data of the study were representative speech acts gathered from

weather forecasts in English and in Vietnamese To distill the representatives from the weather forecasts, the author based on the framework of

representative speech acts suggested by Searle and Vanderveken (1985) This

classification proves beneficial to the approach of this study, although not all the representatives collected can be covered by this categorization, and many Searle and Vanderveken’s categories were not found in the weather forecasts

3.2.3 Description of samples

There were about 619 hedges found in the data sources, in which 290 hedges were used in the English weather forecasts and 329 were employed in the Vietnamese weather forecasts

3.2.4 Process and theoretical framework for data analysis

3.2.4.1 Data analytical process

With the data of 30 English weather forecasts and 30 Vietnamese ones, the hedges wielded in the representatives in the two languages were positioned, sorted out regarding typology

With the above results, the author drew out similarities and differences

in using hedges in English weather forecasts and Vietnamese ones

3.2.4.2 Theoretical framework for data analysis

In accordance to the previous theories on hedges, basing on Searle and Vanderveken (1985), the author distilled representatives in the weather forecasts Another framework adopted from Varttala (2001) was used to review and code the data into categories of hedges For more details, please

see Table 2.1 Next, the framework of Grice (1975) was used to analyze the functions of the hedges

Searle and Vanderveken (1985: 182) classify the categories in representative speech acts into thirty-two subcategories Here are the categories of representative speech acts

Table 3.1 The framework of the analysis of representatives

1) Asserting - stating firmly that something is true, good, valid, and so

on

2) Claiming - asserting something based on the speaker claim

3) Affirming - carrying the positive assertion as opposed to negative

assertion

4) Stating - connecting to the notion of setting something forth or

representing something normally for the benefit or

edification of the hearer

5) Denying - creating the action of denial and opposing or negating the

proportion

6) Disclaim - the illocutionary denegation of claiming

7) Assuring - assuring is done when one assures one tries to make the

hearer feel sure, normally because he already has some

doubts

8) Arguing - the action which is against a certain thesis

9) Rebut - the act to argue against an argument or view already put

forward

10) Informing - providing the hearer with necessary information

11) Notifying - asserting to a hearer with the additional of achievement

that the hearer be put on notice

12) Reminding - asserting to a hearer with the additional preparatory

condition that the hearer once knew and might have

forgotten the proportional content

13) Objecting - the act of asserting with the additional preparatory

Subtypes Description

condition that some proposition

14) Predicting - asserting with the proportional content condition that the

proportional content is future with respect to the time of the utterance and the additional preparatory condition that

the speaker has evidence in support of the proposition

15) Reporting - asserting with the proportional content condition that the

proportional content is about the past with the respect to

the time of the utterance

16) Retrodict - retrodicting is the opposite of predict

17) Suggesting - giving a suggestion for someone to do something

18) Insisting - the same illocutionary force with suggesting The

different is that the force to do something where insisting

has more authority to assert the hearer

19) Conjecturing - conjecturing is when P is to weakly assert that P while

presupposing that one has at least some slight evidence 20)Hypothesizing - involving diagnoses and hypotheses regarding diseases

and symptoms

21) Guessing - guessing can just be an unfounded stab in the dark

22) Swearing - swearing has both representative and commissive use

Someone can swear both that something is the case and that he/she will do something In each case, an element of solemnity and increased degree of strength is added to the

assertion or the commitment

23) Testifying - a special case of swearing, asserting in the capacity of

being a witness and under an oath

24) Admitting - asserting the state of affairs represented by the

proportional content which is bad

25) Confessing - admitting the speaker’s responsibility for a certain state of

affairs which is bad

26) Accusing - asserting to someone with the proportional content

condition that the proportional content predicates

Subtypes Description

responsibility to some individual for the existence of state

of affairs and with the preparatory condition that this state

of affair is bad

27) Blaming - the main difference between blaming and accusing

appears to be that whereas blaming can be done privately

in one’s thoughts, accusing requires a public speech performance

28) Criticizing - asserting something is bad while expressing disapproval

of the speaker

29) Praising - asserting something is good while expressing approval of

the speaker

30) Complaining - complaining has both an assertive and an expressive use

In the assertive sense to complain about P is to assert that P with the additional sincerity conditions that one is dissatisfied with P and the additional preparatory condition that the state of affair is bad

31) Boasting - boasting has both representative and expressive use In

the representative sense, to boast that P is to assert P while expressing pride that P because of the ego involvement in

boasting, it is do not form a minimal pair

32) Lamenting - lamenting that P is to assert P while expressing

dissatisfaction and sadness that P, because of the ego a feature lacking in lamenting Lamenting differs from

complain, only by the fact that sadness

3.3 Data-processing procedures

There were main steps followed by the author and presented as follows:

Step 1: Prepare and organize the data

The first task for data analysis was to make sure that data were in a form that could be easily analyzed Depending on the time and resources available, the researcher aimed for different levels of depth in preparing the

data This type of transcription actually involved data analysis as well as preparation

Step 2: Review and explore the data

The researcher started to explore by reading and looking through the various types of data collected Instead of involving a careful reading for detail at first, the author read and examined data to get an overall sense of what was in them and whether enough data had been collected

Step 3: Code the data into categories

Coding is the process of identifying different segments of the data that describe related phenomena and labeling these parts using broad category names

Particularly, the author extracted the representatives from the weather forecasts by using the framework of representative speech acts Then, the author continued to identify the hedging devices in the representatives Hedges were identified after the author took into careful consideration because not all words or expression can always be said to function as a hedge

Step 4: Analyze the data

After the data were collected, the next process was analyzing the data The steps of the process are:

a analyzing the forms of these hedging devices After that, the author did statistics to gain quantitative data Next, the author counted percentage to work out the occurrence frequency of all types of hedges

b analyzing the pragmatic functions of these hedging devices The way of analyzing the functions is very similar to that of analyzing the forms

of hedges

c comparing and contrasting such hedging forms and functions in English and Vietnamese weather forecasts The noticeable point in this step is

that the quantitative analysis is combined with the qualitative analysis to explain the reasons for similarities and differences related to socio-cultural factors

Step 5: Report and interpret the data

Basing on the results above, the author wrote the research report to present the findings and discussion of the study After that, the author put forward implications for learning and teaching how to use hedges effectively

in communication

3.4 Validity and reliability

Firstly, the data collected in the study are authentic so that they meet the goal of the validity and reliability of the study The websites on which the data were collected are also officially publicized and widely popular in the world For example, AccuWeather gathers the best and most comprehensive weather data to deliver forecasts with superior accuracy This is recognized in New Proof of Performance Results WeatherBug is another site that provides

us with online weather forecasts and live weather news In addition, the author set up the clear criteria for data collection and data collecting process was conducted in a reliable and fairly feasible way

Secondly, the author carried out the analysis based on clear frameworks Therefore, the threat of subjectivity can be minimized Moreover, the author based on both the co-text and the context of the situations to make the analysis less subjective

3.5 Summary

In this chapter, the author aims at indicating the methodology of the present study It begins with the introduction of research methods applied in the study Next, the data collection and data analysis as well as research procedure are described fully and clearly Finally, the validity and reliability

are also presented to guarantee for the exactness of the study In the next chapter, the findings and discussion of the study are portrayed deliberately and significantly

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ON TYPES OF HEDGES IN

WEATHER FORECASTS

This chapter serves to present the results of the hedging resources employed in the English weather forecasts and the Vietnamese weather forecasts regarding their types of lexical hedges and phrasal hedges Besides, based on the statistical analysis, the chapter aims at showing the similarities and differences of the utilization of the hedging resources through representative speech acts made by the weathermen Each of these points is illustrated with a compilation of examples taken from the texts included in the data

4.1 Types of hedges in the English weather forecasts

Table 4.1: Overall distribution of hedging categories in EWFs

4.1.1 Words as hedges

Table 4.2: The frequency of lexical hedges in EWFs

Subcategories of lexical hedges Raw numbers Percentages (%)

As indicated in Table 4.2, among the five sub-systems, Modal auxiliaries are found to be used most frequently Adjectives account for 14.4

%, a higher proportion than the other two – full verbs and adverbs, at 11.5% and 9.7 % respectively Nouns are the least common among the five sub-types

of lexical hedges with only 5 out of 270 (1.9%) falling into this category

4.1.1.1 Auxiliary verbs

Table 4.3: The frequency of modal auxiliaries as hedges in EWFs

The most frequently used modal auxiliaries in EWFs are will (59.2%),

which is found to appear in different structures such as after nouns, noun phrases, pronouns, and even in inversion structures Following are some typical examples

(E1) After several days of wet, soggy weather, the West Coast will also see a

break of rain and snow

(E2) From there, it will slide into the Upper Mississippi Valley and Great

Lakes late today into Wednesday

(E3) Not only will this system tap into Pacific moisture but bitter cold Canadian air will filter south in the storm’s wake

The modal verbs can, could, may are used to talk about possibilities but have some differences Taking up 23.3% altogether, the verbs could and may

are used mainly to talk about specific possibilities- things which are only possible at one time or one place

In the following examples, could is used to indicate modality, allowing

speakers to express the possibility of snow in a particular location such as the Grapevine on Interstate 5 in southern California, in the Upper Mississippi

and icy roads

Like could, forecasters often use may to say that there is a chance that

something is true, or that there is a possibility of something happening or

being the case They can also use may for an uncertain prediction or intention May in this sense usually refers to a future event when it combines with an

event verb

(E6) Light rain may appear in the evening, so the atmosphere will become

cooler

(E7) Rain accompanying the storm may add further travel difficulties by

reducing visibility and creating a heightened risk of hydroplaning while traveling at highway speeds

In this research, can is realized as the fifth most frequent auxiliary with

7% This modal verb is used in both affirmation forms and negative forms

Forecasters use the modal verb can to talk about general possibilities For

example,

(E8) However, drifting snow in part of this swath can be a problem through

Sunday, due to high winds

In (E8), it is possible that moving in drifting snow can be a problem

whoever you are, whenever you are and wherever you are It is a general

possibility

The passive with can is possible if the agent is unspecified, i.e in agentless passives or when the agent is anyone

(E9) A few strong to severe thunderstorms cannot be ruled out near the

central Gulf Coast

The auxiliary would is considered as a past form of will to express

prediction This verb occurs only once in the data

(E10) Given this, it appears any precipitation would fall as rain from the

Interstate 95 corridor of the Northeast

Must, should are used to say something that is necessary or unnecessary

or to give advice While should/ should not occur 14 times (about 8.3%), must

is employed only once (0.6%)

(E11) In the wake of the storm, Monday should be a good travel day over the

region with temperatures reaching within a few degrees of average and some sunshine

(E12) "During episodes of strong, gusty winds, officials must space out the

arriving and departing aircraft," Sosnowski said

4.1.1.2 Lexical verbs

Besides, the data shows that there are many particular lexical verbs

(including tentative cognition verbs and tentative linking verbs) such as

expect, forecast, appear, etc

Table 4.4: The frequency of lexical verbs as hedges in EWFs

According to Table 4.4, altogether 9 lexical verbs are identified in the

research Among these verbs, expect emerges as the most prominent verb with

a total of 16 occurrences (54.6%) Expect is mostly used in passive voice with

two exceptions of active voice and followed by an infinitive To illustrate,

(E13) West of the Continental Divide, temperatures are expected to remain

above normal

(E14) The powerful tropical storm is expected lash the coast of Southern

England by Tuesday night

As illustrated in examples (E13) and (E14), expect implies that the

weatherman is assuming that something like the powerful tropical storm or a mainly dry day will happen and there is no doubt in his/her mind

In the English weather forecasts, weathermen often base on

calculations of modern technology or opinions of experts As a result, expect

is used more than a half share of the lexical verbs Meanwhile, predict is also

used to make a prediction, basing on knowledge and experience Therefore,

only two cases using predict are found in the data Here is an example

(E15) Today, the entire Southern area is predicted to be sunny

Forecast ranks second with 4 occurrences (about 12.9%) The use of forecast can be exemplified in (E16)

(E16) Winds are forecast to remain gusty in New York City on Thanksgiving Day

The statistics shows that appear, claim, feel, seem, believe, suggest are

found to be less frequent with only two or even one occurrence The use of these lexical verbs can be clarified by the following examples

(E17) The BBC Weather forecaster claimed it may not feel that way with heavy rain and strong gusts

(E18) Model ensembles suggest that rainfall next week could total around

0.5’’ in Yma to 1.5-2.0’’ in Phoenix

As illustrated in the above examples, we can recognize that these verbs stand behind nouns and noun phrases Examples (E19) and (E20) show that

linking verbs feel, appear can connect the subjects with adjectives, which

helps to give more information about what these subjects feel or appear

(E19) But with cloud and rain and still a brisk southerly wind, it will feel quite

chilly here for Friday

(E20) Motorists are urged to use caution as some roads that appear wet in this

area could contain icy patches with temperatures close to freezing, making driving conditions treacherous

4.1.1.3 Adverbs

Table 4.5: The frequency of adverbs as hedges in EWFs

Adverbs Raw numbers Percentages

As can be seen from Table 4.5, a variety of adverbs are used as hedges

in the English weather forecasts, including probability adverbs, adverbs of indefinite frequency, adverbs of indefinite degrees, and approximative adverbs This type of hedges makes a considerable contribution to lexical

hedges with 26 tokens Mainly and quite are used most frequently, accounting

for 15.7% and 11.5% respectively Here are some examples

(E21) In those areas, it will turn quite chilly with a patchy frost possible

again in the early hours of Friday (Adverbs of indefinite degrees)

(E22) Moderate coastal flooding is expected further north along the

mid-Atlantic coast, including Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, with inundations mainly

in the 1-to-2-foot range

Possibly and potentially are used as hedges to express probability In a way, however, we might say that the adverb potentially has the weakest

hedging force of the items listed in Table 4.5 For example,

(E23) Tuesday's Mississippi Valley frontal system should arrive in the

Northeast by Wednesday, potentially as a strong area of low pressure tracking

inland from the Great Lakes to northern New England or southeast Canada

(E24) Rain, possibly heavy, may once again soak parts of the Desert

Southwest

Moreover, the author would like to draw attention to the other adverbs

in this category such as relatively, fairly, approximately, just, about etc They

are employed only once, occupying a small share with only 3.8% each However, they contribute to the diversity of using adverb hedges

(E25) In the West, a rather expansive, cold storm should bring rain and

relatively low snow levels to California, as well as parts of the Great Basin and Rockies

(E26) There is a small area of moderate wind shear just ahead of the storm

that could help to maintain its intensity and prevent it from strengthening rapidly

(E27) The Northeast to Southeast blow’s strength will be at about level 2 or

3 (Approximative Adverbs)

(E28) Best of these towards northwestern parts of Scotland and here is

where we’ll see the best of the sunshine generally through the day but overall it’s a

fairly cloudy picture across much of the UK (Adverbs of indefinite frequency)

4.1.1.4 Adjectives

Table 4.6: The frequency of adjectives as hedges in EWFs

Among them, likely (48.7%) and possible (33.3%) rank first and second in

quantitative terms

Likely, which tops the list of adjectives, is used before a noun, or with

be, seem and appear to say that something will probably happen in the future For example,