A VIETNAMESE ENGLISH CROSS CULTURAL STUDY OF PROMISING

i

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORT

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled

A VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF

PROMISING

Is my study in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of

Arts at College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University- Hanoi.

Ha noi, 2008

Dinh Thi Be

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervior, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen

Quang, for his useful guidance, insightful comments, and encouragement without which my

thesis would not have been completed

My special thanks go to all my lecturers in Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Post

Graduate studies Department for their precious assistance, scholarly knowledge and

enthusiasm.

I am grateful to Miss Collen and Mr John, English teachers at Aseam centrer, Nghe An

colleage for their assistances in my data collection.

Especially, I am indebted to my friend, Bui Thanh Mai, for her great support

Last but not least, I would like to express my indebtedness to my family, especially my

husband, my grand parents who have given me constant support and love during the

completion of the thesis.

Dinh Thi Be

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ABBREVIATIONS

CUP: Cambridge University Press

D: Social Distance

E: English

FTA: Face Threatening Act

FSA: Face Saving Act

H: The Hearer

M: The married

NP: Negative Politeness

NPO: Negative Politeness Oriented

PP: Positive Politeness

PPO: Positive Politeness Oriented

P: Relative Power

R: Ranking of Imposition

S: The Single

S: The Speaker

V: Vietnamese

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: The five general functions of speech acts. ( Yule: 1996)……………………... 7

Table 2: The informants’ status parameters ……………………………………………. 25

Table 3: Strategies realized in promising ……………………………………………… 26

Table 4: Politeness strategies according to the parameter of age ……………………… 42

Table 5: Politeness strategies according to the parameter of gender …………………... 43

Table 6: Politeness strategies according to the parameter of marital status …………… 44

Table 7: Politeness strategies according to the parameter of living area ………………. 45

Figure 1: Possible strategies for doing the FTAs ( Brown and Levinson, 1987)………... 15

Figure 2: Politeness strategies in promising to close friend …………………………… 32

Figure 3: Politeness strategies in promising to brother/ sister………………………….. 33

Figure 4: Politeness strategies in promising to colleague ( same age, same sex)……….. 34

Figure 5: Politeness strategies in promising to colleague( same age, opposite sex)……. 34

Figure 6: Politeness strategies in promising to accquaintance …………………………. 35

Figure 7: Politeness strategies in promising to boss (5 years younger)………………… 36

Figure 8: Politenes strategies in promising to boss (5 years older)……………………. 37

Figure 9: Politeness strategies in promising to subordinate…………………………….. 38

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ABSTRACT

This thesis focuses on cross-cultural similarities and differences in promising in

Vietnamese and English. Politeness strategies realized for promising are analysed with data

taken from two questionnaires for the Vietnamese and the English informants.

The thesis falls into two major chapters:

Chapter I : “Theoretical preliminaries” deals with the notion of culture, cross-culture, speech

acts, classifications of speech acts, politeness, politeness principles and politeness strategies.

Chapter II : “Data analysis and findings”: Questionnaires are used to collect data for the

study. Making promises which resorts to various strategies of politeness is a flexibly and

effectively communicative act in both Vietnamese and English cultures.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

* Certificate of originality of study project report …………………………………….

i

* Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………… ii

* Abbreviations ………………………………………………………………………… iii

* List of tables and figures …………………………………………………………… iv

* Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………… v

* Table of contents ……………………………………………………………………... vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION……………………………………….. 1

I. Rationale …………………………………………………… 1

II. Aims of the study …………………………………………… 1

III. Scope of the study …………………………………………… 1

IV. Methodology ………………………………………………… 2

V. Design of the study ………………………………………… 2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT…………………………………………….. 3

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES………………….. 3

I.1.

I.1.1

Culture ………………………………………………………..

What culture …………………………………………………..

3

I.1.2 What cross-culture? ………………………………………….. 4

I.1.3. Culture-shock …………………………………………………. 4

I.1.4 Relation of language and culture ……………………………… 5

I.2. Speech acts …………………………………………………… 5

I.2.1. What a speech act? …………………………………………… 5

I.2.2.

I.2.3

Classifications of speech acts…………………………………

Promising as a speech act ……………………………………

7

8

I.3 Politeness ……………………………………………………. 10

I.3.1. What politeness ?……………………………………………… 10

I.3.2. Politeness principles…………………………………………… 11

I.3.3. Social factors affecting politeness strategies ………………….. 15