SPEECH ACT ANALYSIS of BRITISH and AMERICAN POETRY Suporn
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
SPEECH ACT ANALYSIS OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN POETRY Suporn Leongkamchorn A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (Language and Communication) School of Language and Communication National Institute of Development Administration 2010 ABSTRACT Title of Thesis Speech Act Analysis of British and American Poetry Author Miss Suporn Leongkamchorn Degree Master of Arts (Language and Communication) Year 2010 _____________________________________________________________________ Usually, when learning poetry, students are encouraged to let their imagination run wild and consider elements relating to a poem, such as historical background, the poet’s biography, and figures of speech to come up with the literary interpretation. However, this traditional way of learning poetry is too ideal, complicated, and difficult, especially for new poetry students. The purpose of this study was to apply a supporting device, speech act theory, in the linguistics field to learn poetry in the literature field. Felicity conditions of each act play important roles as a more systematic, concrete, readily understandable tool to appreciate the aesthetics of poetry. The study analyzed British and American poems to find out the speech acts and compare felicity conditions of each act to what happened in the excerpt to cross- check the literary interpretation. The results revealed that felicity condition from the speech act theory helped in cross-checking the literary interpretation and also made the poetry comprehension easier, more explainable, and more systematic than solely relying on imagination and elements conventionally used in the literature field. As a result, the heuristic tool from linguistics could be combined, applied, and standardized in the poetry pedagogy so that students could easily comprehend the piece and deeply adore its aesthetics. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The successful work of the thesis is such the best reward of my life. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all people who have supported me. I owe my deepest gratitude to my research supervisor, Assistant Professor Dr. Ketkanda Jaturongkachoke. She has made her available support in a number of ways. She inspired me a lot of ideas, provided me a lot of useful guidance and advices, and supported me with sincere and selfless patience. I would like to express my gratitude to Assistant Professor Dr. Ora-Ong Chakorn and Assistant Professor Dr. Supath Kookiattikoon as supervisory and examination committee members for their kindness, important comments, and patience in going through my paper. I would also like to acknowledge all the professors of the School of Language and Communication who had taught me during the past two years. I am grateful to my teachers at the faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, for their poetry lessons I had to rely a lot to analyze my data. I am also grateful to the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) for providing me the full scholarship and monthly allowances, and all staff at the school of Language and Communication who are always ready to help and support me. Most importantly, I am greatly indebted to my parents, Kriangsak Leongkamchorn and Sasithorn Leongkamchorn, and my older brother, Sakkarin Leongkamchorn. Without their unconditional love, care, and encouragement, I could not tolerate the difficulties of writing thesis. Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge the immense encouragement from all of my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances who are always there to support me and believe in my ability. Notwithstanding all of the above support for the thesis, I bear the sole responsibilities for all the mistakes, problems, and flaws made in the thesis. Finally, I wish to dedicate this thesis to my parents, without them, I could not have had this day of achievement. Suporn Leongkamchorn June 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 8 2.1 The Concepts of Speech Act: What People Do When 8 They Speak 2.2 Direct and Indirect Speech Act 10 2.3 Indirect Speech and Flouting of Cooperative Principle 11 2.4 Performative Utterance 13 2.5 Speech Act and Culture 14 2.6 Speech Act and Literature 15 2.7 Successful Speech Act: Felicity Condition 18 2.8 Speech act Classification 21 2.9 Conclusion 23 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 24 3.1 Data Collection 24 3.2 Unit of Analysis 28 3.3 Validity of Data 28 3.4 Poetry and Poets 34 3.5 Data Presentation 37 3.6 Summary 40 3.7 Conclusion 42 vi CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS 43 4.1 Data Analysis of 43 Acts 44 4.2 Summary of 43 Acts and Their Felicity Conditions 228 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION, DISCUSSION, AND RECOMMENDATION 237 5.1 Conclusion 237 5.2 The Advantages of Using Felicity Conditions as Poetry 241 Reading Tool 5.3 Pedagogical Implication 243 5.4 Recommendation for Further Research 246 BIBLIOGRAPHY 247 APPENDICES 252 Appendix A 253 Appendix B 283 Appendix C 300 Appendix D 328 Appendix E 337 BIOGRAPHY 339 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1.1 Figures of Speech 2 2.1 Speech Act Classification and Description Proposed by Seale 22 3.1 The Corpus of English Poems Together with Their Writers and 25 Periods of Time 3.2 The Corpus of American Poems Together with Their Writers 27 and Periods of Time 3.3 Speech Act Classification Proposed by Searle 28 4.1 Summary of 43 Acts and Their Felicity Conditions 229 5.1 Teaching Manual to Teach Poetry 244 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION When people read and comprehend literature, they usually need the background knowledge of the writer’s biography and the historical background of the particular period when the specific piece was composed, together with reading and writing devices of literature, namely figures of speech, rhyme, meter, and form. It is beneficial for the readers if they are firstly introduced to the atmosphere of a period through different aspects that may include politics, economics, society, and social beliefs and values. Moreover, it helps readers to comprehend the literature if they know the background of the writer: who he is, who and what are important in his life, what kind of experiences he has had in life, and how his experiences and beliefs inspire or influence his pieces. Literature books, especially ones intended for new readers, also follow this conventional pattern. Instead of going straight to the content, the books firstly give the historical background and the writers’ lives. For example, Peck and Coyle (2002) illustrate the English history of each period before introducing the famous writers of the era with some examples of their masterpieces. Moreover, McMichael, Levinson, and Marx (2001) wrote an American literature book by drawing readers’ attention to the historical background from the day American people settled in the new land and to the many political, economical, and social issues influencing the writers’ work. Even a credible online source of English literature like the Norton Anthology of English Literature portrays the historical background and beliefs of each period since Old English to the twentieth century parallel with masterpieces of writing. It is believed that knowing the background of the times and lives of writers help readers deeply understand meaning and messages the writers want to convey and communicate through their work. For example, to study “Beowulf”, which was written in the period of Old English, the readers are firstly informed about the history of Anglo-Saxon, 2 Germanic tribes that came to settle in Britain at that time. The readers will learn the Angles and Saxons were warriors who loved fighting, adored loyalty, and served their King, so that they can appreciate the core of “Beowulf”, a long narrative poem or epic celebrating the great deeds of a hero who volunteered to kill a monster. Moreover, knowing the beliefs of the Romantic period, that men exposed to primitive states are purer than civilized men living in the city and a child‟s instincts which are not spoilt or corrupted by civilization is the purest object, together with knowing the attitude toward nature of Wordsworth, a Romantic poet, that nature is the great teacher of morals and the provider of happiness, could assist readers in comprehending why “The Child is Father of the Man” and why the daffodil is celebrated. When reading any poems, the readers cannot deeply comprehend the pieces if they have got only the background knowledge of the particular period and poet. Realizing rhyme, the pattern in which two or more words have identical vowel sounds; meter, the organization of words‟ stresses in poetry; and form such as sonnet (lyric poem) or ballad (narrative poem), could encourage the readers to admire the poems and reinforce the understanding of meaning and feeling conveyed by the poets. The other thing that is important in interpreting the meaning and tone of poems is figures of speech. Poetry is involved with a lot of figures of speech as mentioned in Table 1.1 Table 1.1 Figures of Speech Type Definition simile a similarity between two things metaphor direct comparison of two different things having common qualities personification a thing or something abstract is given human qualities apostrophe addressing something that does not really exist or something that people do not usually speak to 3 Table 1.1 (Continued) Type Definition overstatement exaggeration understatement saying less than one means allusion an indirect reference metonymy the name of one thing is substituted for that of another related thing synecdoche the use of a part of a thing to stand for the whole of it paradox the sensible self-contradiction symbol an image or action standing for something beyond it allegory narrative form giving two levels of meaning irony saying opposite of what is really meant Without having knowledge of these figures of speech, the readers cannot fully understand what the poets want to say.