THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES NGÔ THỊ HIỀN TRANG APOLOGIES AND RESPONSES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE CONVERSATIONS DOCTORAL THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES Danang, 2023 THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES NGÔ THỊ HIỀN TRANG APOLOGIES AND RESPONSES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE CONVERSATIONS Major: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Code: 9. LUU QUY KHUONG Danang, 2023 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Pursuing a Ph. study has been a long and challenging journey. Many people have directly and indirectly influenced my academic study over the passing years.
It would have been impossible for me to finish my thesis without their enthusiastic support. Although words will never be enough to express my gratitude to them, I would still like to express my thankfulness and appreciation to those who assisted me along the journey of writing this thesis. First and foremost, I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Lưu Quý Khương, a meritorious teacher for his invaluable advice, immense knowledge, enormous patience, and great support to me since I was a student at The University of Da Nang - University of Foreign Language Studies.
His guidance absolutely aided me to conduct theses for my Bachelor of Arts Degree, Master Degree, and now Doctoral Degree. His support enabled me to accomplish this long academic path and attain my objectives in professional development. My special thanks also go to my thesis committee members at the Faculty of English and Faculty of Foreign Language Teacher Education from the University of Foreign Language Studies – The University of Danang, and from other universities across Vietnam whose invaluable feedback and insight on proposals and drafts of this thesis strengthened the final version into a thesis. I would also like to acknowledge The University of Danang for partly funding my doctoral thesis.
Last but not least, I am also thankful to my loving family including my husband Nguyễn Huy Quân with his whole-hearted support, my son Nguyễn Ngô Thành Long, and my daughter Nguyễn Ngô Thanh An for their positive energies to me, and my parents whose unconditional love for me lasts for every single passing day. Without their endless help and support, I would never be able to accomplish this thesis. ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or a part from another author’s thesis or document. No other person’s work has been used without the acknowledgement in the thesis.
This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. Danang, October 2023 iii ABSTRACT Whenever an apology is made, interlocutors expect a return act of making responses. These pragmatic acts of apologizing and responding to apologies are common activities in communication among interlocutors because using only either of these two crucial speech acts can hardly establish fully effective communication. This doctoral thesis aims not only to investigate the pragmatic acts of apology and response strategies in English and Vietnamese film conversations in terms of gender and power; but also to analyze the similarities and differences of apology and response strategies in both languages.
The theoretical framework of this study was specified in the light of sociopragmatics. That is, the conversation analysis by Schegloff (2007), pragmatic act theory by Mey (2006, 2013), the apology strategy taxonomy by Trosborg (2011), the response strategy taxonomy by Holmes (1990, 1995), and the direct and indirect speech act theory by Searle (1975) were employed to achieve the aims. This study took a qualitative descriptive and contrastive design with the support of quantitative information. It collected data from conversations extracted from socio- psychological film scripts and subtitles in English and Vietnamese which were released from 2015 to 2020.
The results revealed the exchanges of apology and response strategies in terms of the influences of gender and power in each language. This thesis also showed that two languages shared the similarities and differentiate both languages. The thesis is hoped to make a contribution to the field of linguistics since it uncovered exchanges of a pair of speech acts of apologies and responses. It also extended the apology taxonomy by Trosborg (2011) by adding mixed apology strategy and response taxonomy by Holmes (1990, 1995) with ironic acceptance, refusal plus, unsatisfied questions, direct apologizing and mixed apology response strategy.
The findings also provided practical assistance to learners of English and Vietnamese as foreign languages. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. viii LIST OF TABLES .x LIST OF FIGURES. xiii CHAPTER ONE. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY. CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE STUDY. DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY.
ITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. PREVIOUS STUDIES RELATED TO APOLOGIES AND RESPONSES. Socio-pragmatic Studies. Contrastive or Cross-cultural Pragmatic Studies.
Interlanguage Pragmatic Studies. Research Gaps from the Previous Studies. Sociopragmatics in Speech Acts. Conversation and Film Conversation.
Exchange in Adjacency Pair of Speech Acts. Speech Act and Pragmatic Act Theory. Language and Culture. Conceptual Framework of the Study.
Sources of Data. Population, Samples, and Sampling. Data Collection Instruments. Data Collection Procedures.
Statistical Analysis Tool. Matrix of Collected Data. Data Analysis Procedure. Analytical Framework of the Study.
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY. APOLOGY AND RESPONSE STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH FILM CONVERSATIONS. EXCHANGES OF APOLOGY AND RESPONSE STRATEGIES. Direct and Indirect Apology Strategies.
Direct and Indirect Response Strategies. Apology and Response Strategies. GENDER INFLUENCES ON APOLOGY AND RESPONSE STRATEGIES. Gender Influences on Apology Strategies in English Film Conversations.
Gender Influences on Response Strategies in English Film Conversations. Gender Influences on Exchanges of Apology and Response Strategies in English Film Conversations. POWER INFLUENCES ON APOLOGY AND RESPONSE STRATEGIES137 4. Power Influences on Apology Strategies in English Film Conversations.
Power Influences on Exchanges of Apology and Response Strategies in English Film Conversations. APOLOGY AND RESPONSE STRATEGIES IN VIETNAMESE FILM CONVERSATIONS. EXCHANGES OF APOLOGY AND RESPONSE STRATEGIES. Direct and Indirect Apology Strategies.
Direct and Indirect Response Strategies. Apology and Response Strategies. GENDER INFLUENCES ON APOLOGY AND RESPONSE STRATEGIES. Gender Influences on Apology Strategies in Vietnamese Film Conversations.
Gender Influences on Response Strategies in Vietnamese Film Conversations. Gender Influences on Exchanges of Apology and Response Strategies in Vietnamese Film Conversations. POWER INFLUENCES ON APOLOGY AND RESPONSE STRATEGIES193 5. Power Influences on Apology Strategies in Vietnamese Film Conversations.
Power Influences on Exchanges of Apology and Response Strategies in Vietnamese Film Conversations. SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN APOLOGY AND RESPONSE STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FILM CONVERSATIONS. SIMILARITIES IN APOLOGY AND RESPONSE STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FILM CONVERSATIONS. Similarities in Apology and Response Strategies in Film Conversations.
Similarities in Gender Influences on Apology and Response Strategies in Film Conversations. Similarities in Power Influences on Apology and Response Strategies 214 6. Summary on Similarities in Apology and Response Strategies in Film Conversations. DIFFERENCES IN APOLOGY AND RESPONSES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FILM CONVERSATIONS.
Differences in Apology and Response Strategies. Differences in Gender Influences on Apology and Response Strategies. Differences in Power Influences on Apology and Response Strategies 223 6. Summary on Differences in Apology and Response Strategies in Film Conversations.
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. English Language Research Implications. LIMITATIONS OF THE THESIS .236 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS .254 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A Answer AC Acceptance At.C Attacking complainer AK Acknowledgement AOR Acknowledgment of responsibility AP Adjacency pairs AS Apology strategies AR Apology responses ARS Apology response strategies BSE Blaming someone else CA Conversation analysis CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages Di. Direct strategies E Equal social power EA Explicit acknowledgment EAOB Explicit acceptance of the blame ECFH Expressing concern for hearer EDOR Explicit denial of responsibility EE Explicit explanation e.
For example EOE Expression of embarrassment EOLOI Expression of lack of intent EOR Expression of regret EOS Expression of self-deficiency EV Evasion Ev. Evasive strategies Ex Exchange F Female FE Faculty of English FTA Face-threatening act H Higher social power IA Implicit acknowledgment ix IDOR Implicit denial of responsibility IE Implicit explanation IELTS International English Language Testing System IFID Illocutionary force indicating device IMDB Internet Movie Screenplay Database In. Indirect strategies J Justification L Lower social power M Males Mi. Minimizing MAS Mixed apology strategies MARS Mixed apology response strategies MCE2019 Microsoft Excel 2019 n Number of occurrences No.
Number OOA Offer of apology OOR Offer of repair Op. Opting out PAT The pragmatic act theory POF Promise of forbearance Q Question QP Querying precondition Re. Remedial strategies RFF Request for forgiveness RJ Rejection SAT The speech act theory TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language UFLS - UD University of Foreign Language Studies – The University of Danang VSTEP Vietnamese Standardized Test of English Proficiency x LIST OF TABLES Table 2. Trosborg’s classification of social power.
Correlation of content and format in an adjacency pair. Austin’s classification of speech acts. Searle’s classification of speech acts. Trosborg’s (2011) apology strategy taxonomy.
Holmes’ (1990, 1995) apology response strategy taxonomy. List of film scripts’ free download websites in English and Vietnamese 67 Table 3. List of socio-psychological films in English. List of socio-psychological films in Vietnamese.
The description of collected data. An observation sheet for the pattern of [Direct apology strategies - direct response strategies]. An observation sheet for the pattern of [Indirect apology strategies - direct response strategies]. An observation sheet for the pattern of [Direct apology strategies - indirect response strategies].
An observation sheet for the pattern of [Indirect apology strategies - indirect response strategies]. Matrix of exchanges including apology and response strategies in terms of gender and power. Frequency of apology strategies in English. Distribution of patterns and linguistic realizations of apology utterances in English.
Distribution of performatives and their linguistic realizations of apology utterances in English. Frequency of apology response strategies in English. Distribution of patterns and linguistic realizations of response utterances in English. Exchanges of pragmatic acts in English conversations.
Exchanges of direct apology strategies and direct response strategies in English conversations. Exchanges of direct apology strategies and indirect response strategies in English conversations. Exchanges of direct apology strategies and mixed response strategies in English conversations. Exchanges of indirect apology strategies and direct response strategies in English conversations.
Exchanges of indirect apology strategies and indirect response strategies in English conversations. Exchanges of indirect apology strategies and mixed response strategies in English conversations. Exchanges of mixed apology strategies and direct response strategies in English conversations. Exchanges of mixed apology strategies and indirect response strategies in English conversations.
Apology strategies in terms of gender in English. Apology response strategies in terms of gender in English. Gender influences on exchanges of apology and response strategies in English film conversations. Apology strategies in terms of social power in English.
Power influences among gender interactions on exchanges of apology and response strategies in English film conversation. Frequency of apology strategies in Vietnamese. Distribution of patterns and linguistic realizations of apology utterances in Vietnamese conversations. Performatives’ distribution of apology utterances in Vietnamese conversations.
Frequency of apology response strategies in Vietnamese conversations. Distribution of patterns and linguistic realizations of apology response utterances in Vietnamese conversations. Exchanges of pragmatic acts in in Vietnamese conversations. Exchanges of direct apology strategies and direct response strategies in Vietnamese conversations.
Exchanges of direct apology strategies and indirect response strategies in Vietnamese conversations. Exchanges of direct apology strategies and mixed response strategies in Vietnamese conversations. Exchanges of indirect apology strategies and direct response strategies in Vietnamese conversations .