VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THÙY LINH A VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF EXPRESSING SARCASM (NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO THOA VĂN HÓA VIỆT – ANH VỀ CÁCH DIỄN ĐẠT LỜI NÓI CHÂM BIẾM ) M. Minor Thesis English Linguistics 602215 Hanoi, 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THÙY LINH A VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF EXPRESSING SARCASM (NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO THOA VĂN HÓA VIỆT-ANH VỀ CÁCH DIỄN ĐẠT LỜI NÓI CHÂM BIẾM) M. Minor Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 Supervisor: Assoc. Dương Thị Nụ Hanoi, 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration Acknowledgement Abstract Table of contents PART A: INTRODUCTION I.
Scope of the study. Aims of the study. Design of the study. 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES 1.
Language and Culture. 5 CHAPTER II: SARCASM, PUNS AND TYPES OF PUNS 2. Puns and types of puns. 9 CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 3.
Comments on the survey questionnaires. Comments on the informants. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. The use of puns.
Puns in expressing sarcasm in Vietnamese and English. Vietnamese findings and discussions. English findings and discussions. 23 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Cross-cultural similarities and differences. Puns in expressing sarcasm in Vietnamese .1 In terms of speaker’s position in the situation. In terms of informants’ parameters. Puns in expressing sarcasm in English.
In terms of speaker’s position in the situation. In terms of informants’ parameters. Cross cultural similarities and differences. 35 PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION IN TEFL 3.
Implication for teachers and learners. Teachers as a means of learning a second culture. Suggestions for learners. Suggestions for further research.
40 REFERENCES APPENDICES TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION I. Rationale There‘s a point of view holding that all modern art is more or less sarcastic because the viewer cannot help but compare it to previous works. For example, any portrait of a standing, non-smiling woman will naturally be compared with the Mona Lisa; the tension of meaning exists, whether the artist meant it or not. As a matter of fact, it is the case not only in art but for many other fields of life including language.
Gresham, in his work, made an interesting conclusion that ―Bad coinage drives out goods‖. This reflects the fact of money that debased or under weight coins will drive good, full weight coins out of circulation. This assertion, however, was not properly applied in the economics only but in other fields of life as well. It is the case for every realm in which an exchange occurs, with nowhere more vital than in the Kingdom of Ideas, where the coin of realm is the word.
In particular, we can easily observe that bad meanings or associations of words tend to give good ones out of circulation. Some examples might be the words ―girl‖ and ―lady‖. Nowadays, people, especially men, tend to use the word ―girl‖ to refer to their darling. In Vietnamese the phenomenon can be clearly realized in the use of ―gái‖.
In the past, ―gái‖ was used to address a girl so it appeared normally in calls like ―gái ơi‖. Gradually, with the appearance and popularity of call-girls, the word has a new, more popular meaning of prostitutes. Also, the word ―lady‖ has a completely different use from the previous. It is used to mean a woman who is weak inside and cannot protect herself.
The same situation happens to the words such as ―cô nương‖ or ―tiểu thư‖ in Vietnamese. Hence, it can be seen that ―negative‖ use of words is preferred to positive one. Studying sarcasm would therefore be of great value to linguists and researchers. Nevertheless, the issue is not paid much attention among Vietnamese researchers in detail and linguistic researchers of the world in general.
This research aims at discovering one of the most common and worth-studying TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 phenomena of pragmatics, sarcasm, for without sarcasm then, as one might say, there is no art. Scope of research The study aims mainly at the major knowledge of sarcasm in Vietnamese and English daily life and jokes. Specifically, the difference between the use of puns in expressing sarcasm in spoken Vietnamese and English is focused. Moreover, the study is confined to the verbal aspects of the act of using puns in expressing sarcasm.
Other factors such as paralinguistic and extra-linguistic ones are beyond the scope of the study. - The dialects used in the North, the South and the Central of Vietnam are use among which the Northern one is mainly used; especially the spoken accent of the Northern version is used quite often; and the English spoken by Anglophone community of England, America, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, are chosen for contrastive analysis. - The data are collected by conducting survey questionnaires to examine the differences in the way Vietnamese and English speakers use puns in expressing sarcasm. Aims of research The research has been carried out with a view to explore the similarities as well as the differences in the way Vietnamese and English speakers use puns in expressing sarcasm thus to equip language learners with a major description of sarcasm in English and Vietnamese and help them avoid culture shock and communicate successfully.
Research question: What are the major similarities and differences in the ways Vietnamese and English speakers use puns in expressing sarcasm? TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Methodology The following methods are resorted to: - Conducting survey (with questionnaires as a data collection instrument) - Conducting observations VI. Design of research The study is composed of three main parts: Part A (Introduction) presents the rationale, scope, aims, research questions, and methodology of the study Part B (Development) consists of three chapters: Chapter I (Theoretical preliminary): discusses the notions of language-culture relationship. Chapter II (Sarcasm, puns and types of puns): explores different conceptualizations of sarcasm, puns and types of puns, types that are used in common between English and Vietnamese and ones that only appear in English or Vietnamese.
Chapter III (Data analysis and findings) analyses collected data to find out major cross-cultural similarities and differences in the choice of puns in expressing sarcasm. Part C (Conclusion) summarizes the main findings of the study, provides some implications for TEFL, and offers suggestions for further research. Reference includes all the books, articles or website that has been referred to during the writing of this thesis. The appendices list examples of different groups of equivalence in order of the alphabet.
PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Culture: Whether or not we realize it, we are trapped by our own culture. Anyone who encounters another culture quickly becomes aware of this because of thousands of little things that differ among countries. For example, only one third of people use tableware to eat, another third eat with chopsticks, and the rest eat with their fingers.
Even within a country, differences are inevitable. Knowing the culture prevents us from culture- shock. Culture can be defined in an abstract way as the know-how that a person must possess to get through the task of daily living and only for a few does it require a knowledge of some or much music, literature and the art; or it might be defined concretely as the way of life of a people, for the sum of their learned behavior patterns, attitudes, and material things. All in all, culture is considered in terms of the three aspects: (1) learned behavior patterns that refers to what people do, (2) attitudes that refers to what people think or believe; and (3) material things that refers to property.
Language: Definitions of culture all mention language. Obviously, language is one of the most visible factors of culture. People face with cultural differences in languages when contacting with someone from another country. The idiom ―mưa như trút nước‖ in Vietnamese, for example can be expressed as ―it rains cats and dogs‖ in Britain, or ―it rains jugs‖ in Europe, ―rains rope‖ in France, or ―rains in basins‖ in Spain due to different cultures.
Yet it is not easy to define what language is. Language can be defined as any set or system of linguistic symbols used by a community of people who are enabled to communicate intelligibly with one another (Random House Dictionary of the English Language). Or it might be defined in a short and succinct way as ―a complex and abstract phenomenon that can be realized through a number of verbal and non-verbal TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Whichever definition is used, language is put in a given community and functions as a systematic means of communicating.
Language and culture It is often commented that someone is ―cultured‖ or ―uncultured‖ depending on his behaviors and reaction in certain situations. Most of these actions are taken with utterances. What one speaks when greeting or departing someone can reveal much about him. In other words, whether someone is judged to be cultured or uncultured is much relevant to what he utters in social communication.
Therefore, language is regarded as a mean to measure other‘s cultural reality. Expressed in another way, language is a system of signs that is seen as having its own cultural value. Besides, what people utter refers to common experience such as facts, ideas or events that are communicable because they refer to a stock of knowledge about the world that other people share. Words also reflect the speaker‘s attitude, belief, and their point of view.
In other words, language realizes culture. It is interestingly asserted by Sapir that culture is ―what society does and thinks‖, and language is ―a particular how of thought‖. People also create experience in real life. The way they transfer messages directly through face to face communication or indirectly on telephone, etc.
brings them with numerous experience which is handed down from generation to generation. The process is in a continuous flow. Hence, language embodies and maintains cultural reality. Language and culture simply do not independently and separately exist.
The language of Esperanto couldn‘t survive because it has no culture background. Vice versa, no culture can exist without its own language. The relationship between language and culture is deeply rooted. Language is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties.
Different ideas stem from differing TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 6 language use within one‘s culture and the whole intertwining of these relationships starts at one‘s birth. Every infant is born, in fact, quite similar. It is not until the child is exposed to their surroundings that they become individuals in and of their cultural group. From birth, the child‘s life, opinions, and language are shaped by what it comes in contact with.
Brooks (1968) argues that physically and mentally everyone is the same, while the interactions between persons or groups vary widely from place to place. Patterns which emerge from these group behaviors and interactions will be approved of, or disapproved of. Behaviors which are acceptable are different in different locations (Brooks, 1968) thus forming the basis of different cultures. It is from these differences that one‘s view of the world is formed.
Hantrais (1989) puts forth the idea that culture is the beliefs and practices governing the life of a society for which a particular language is the vehicle of expression. Therefore, everyone‘s views are dependent on the culture which has influenced them, as well as being described using the language which has been shaped by that culture. The understanding of a culture and its people can be enhanced by the knowledge of their language.