VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES —#2I œ—_— PHẠM THỊ ANH ĐÀO WISHES ON THE OCCASION OF BIRTHDAY, WEDDING AND NEW YEAR’S HOLIDAY (OR CHRISTMAS) IN BRITISH AND VIETNAMESE CULTURE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Field Code: 60 22 15 HA NOI - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES —#2I œ—_— PHAM THI ANH DAO WISHES ON THE OCCASION OF BIRTHDAY, WEDDING AND NEW YEAR’S HOLIDAY (OR CHRISTMAS) IN BRITISH AND! VIETNAMESE CULTURE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Field Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Assoc. Nguyen Van D6 HA NOI - 2010 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT PART A: INTRODUCTION 0.
Rationale of the study 0. Aims of the study 0. Scope of the study 0. Methods of the study bởi 0.
Design af ths study Me PART B: DEVELOPMENT ww CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Specch acts and wishing Aww 1. Speech acts and their classification 1. Wishing as a speech act 1.
Politenass, face and wishing, a faco-throatoning acl + “4 1. Wishing as a facc-threatening act 1. Relationship of language, culture and communication 1. Definition of language 1.
Definition of culture 1. Definition of communication 1. Relationship of language, culture and communication 1. Wishing as a need of conuaunication CHAPTER 2.
Instrument of data analysis PART A: INTRODUCTION 0. 1, Rationale of the study English nowadays is considered the intemational language; it is the most widely spoken language which is uscd in many ficlds such as economics, trade, tourism, diplomacy, polities, and press, In Vietnam, as a result of the open door economic policy, the number of people Jeaming English for various purposes is on the ise. English is not only taught as an important subject al thousands of forcign languages corters bul iti so a. compulsory subjecl in various primary and high schools.
Although English has been taught in Vietnam for many years, not until recently has the focus of improving linguistic competence for leamers been on syntax, lexical and phonological components of the language. Many people still believe that being good at English means bemg good at linguistic components, Thus, cullural factors are paid little attention to. However, today, in our modern world in which globalization is expanding, the need of integrating and communicating across nations is indispensable. Successful communication requires not only purcly linguistic compclence bul also the knowledge of social nonns, social values and relations between individuals known as communicative competence.
Commumicative competence presupposes ability lo use the language correctly and appropriately, This pragmatic competence is as crucial as linguistic competence. The lack of it may lead to impoliteness, misinterpretation, cultural shocks, and even communication breakdown Henee, the knowledge about cross culture communication is really essential, On this basis, this study is done to help Vietnamese leamers of English to understand English ways of expressing wishes. The focus of the study will be on similarities and differences between ‘Vietnamese and English forms of wishing. Aims of the study The thesis focuses on sindying tho similarities and differences bslwsen English and ‘Vietnamese ways of wishing in respect to the following aspects: 2.
Methods of data analysis CHAPTER 3: DISCUSSION ON FINDINGS: 3. SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRESAND INFORMANT 3. Structure of survey questionnaire 3. Grouping of informants 3.
VIETNAMESE FINDINGS FROM THR QUESTIONNAIRES 3. Comment on the content of Vietnamese wishes in three situations 3. Viemamese birthday wishes 3. Viemamese wedding wishes 3.
Vicmamese New Year wishes 3. Comment on priorities in wishing 3. Comment on social factors governing the way of extsnding 4 wish 3.4, Comment on components of the act of Vietnamese wishing, 3. ENGLISII FINDINGS FROM TLE QUESTIONNAIRES 3.
Comment on the content of English wishes in three situations 3. English birthday wishes 3. English wedding wishes 3. English Christmas and New Year wishes 3.
Comment on priorities in wishing 3. Comment on social factors governing the way of extending a wish 3. Comment on components of the acts af English wishing 3. COMPARISON OF THE ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE WAYS OF WISITING.
Priorities in wishing PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1; LITERATURE REVLEW 1. Speech acts and wishing 1. Speech acts und their classification The concept of speech acts was first developed by Austin in the first edition of the book “How to do things with words” published in 1962. Ie did not use ths term “speech acts” but “performative sentence” or performative utterance” which indicated that “the issue of an utterance is the performing of an utterance” (p6).
‘he term itself was first used by Searle who claimed thal. “lilking is porforming acts according to mules” (p22), and that “speceh acts [.] are the basic or minimal units of linguistic communication. According to Yule (1996:47 8), actions performed via utterance are generally called speech acts and, in English, are commonly given more specific labels such as requesting, apologizing, offering, cte, The circumstances in which actions are performed to communicate are generally called speech everits — activities in which participants use language to interact in some conventional way lo Teach soma ouloome In analyzing a speech act we study how an utterance affects the behaviour of the Speaker and the Ilearer. According to Austin (1962) a speech act consists of three related acts’ + Locutionasy act is the aetual form of the ulleranes, When we perform a locutionary act, we have to produce an utterance of a particular form having a particular meaning and following the rules ofa given language.
Yule asserts that a locutionary act is the “basic act of ullcrance” and ths meaningfuness of linguistic expressions is the determinant of this kind of act. For example, a sentence “It’s very hot here” can be counted as a locutionary act as it inchides meaningfill units of the Lnglish language - Mocutionary act rlatcs to the eoorcte purp s of an ullcranee. This makes illocutionary aets different trom locutionary acts. Thus, uttering the same sentence: “It’s very hot here”, the speaker does not only utter it but may also suggest a request (e.
to tum on the central heating). vii LISTS OF TABLES Table 1: Age group correlation between English and Vietnamese respondents Table 2: Gender correlation between English and Vietnamese respondents ‘Table 3: Living area correlation between English and Vietnamese respondents Table 4: Occupation conelation between English and Vicinamne se respondents Table 5: The content of Vietnamese birthday wishes Table 6: The content of Viemamese wedding wishes Table 7: The content of Vietnamese New Year/Christmas wishes ‘Table 8: Rank of importance of occasions Table 9: Rank of importanee of social factors Table 10; Componenls of Vietnamese acts of wishing Table 11: The content of English birthday wishes Table 12: The content of Finglish wedding wishes Table 13; The content of English Christmas and New Year wishes ‘Table 14: Rank of importance of occasions Table 15: Rank of importance of social factors Table 16; Components of English acts of wishing, PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1; LITERATURE REVLEW 1. Speech acts and wishing 1. Speech acts und their classification The concept of speech acts was first developed by Austin in the first edition of the book “How to do things with words” published in 1962.
Ie did not use ths term “speech acts” but “performative sentence” or performative utterance” which indicated that “the issue of an utterance is the performing of an utterance” (p6). ‘he term itself was first used by Searle who claimed thal. “lilking is porforming acts according to mules” (p22), and that “speceh acts [.] are the basic or minimal units of linguistic communication. According to Yule (1996:47 8), actions performed via utterance are generally called speech acts and, in English, are commonly given more specific labels such as requesting, apologizing, offering, cte, The circumstances in which actions are performed to communicate are generally called speech everits — activities in which participants use language to interact in some conventional way lo Teach soma ouloome In analyzing a speech act we study how an utterance affects the behaviour of the Speaker and the Ilearer.
According to Austin (1962) a speech act consists of three related acts’ + Locutionasy act is the aetual form of the ulleranes, When we perform a locutionary act, we have to produce an utterance of a particular form having a particular meaning and following the rules ofa given language. Yule asserts that a locutionary act is the “basic act of ullcrance” and ths meaningfuness of linguistic expressions is the determinant of this kind of act. For example, a sentence “It’s very hot here” can be counted as a locutionary act as it inchides meaningfill units of the Lnglish language - Mocutionary act rlatcs to the eoorcte purp s of an ullcranee. This makes illocutionary aets different trom locutionary acts.
Thus, uttering the same sentence: “It’s very hot here”, the speaker does not only utter it but may also suggest a request (e. to tum on the central heating). - To investigate the content of expressions used in wishing and nan-verhal components of wishes - ‘To find out social factors having influence on extending a wish and some cultural differences in extending wishes in Vietnam and Britain. + To help Viclnamesc learners of Fnglistr have mors awareness of English wishing and of how to use it appropriately, - To offer some suggestions to ELT (English Language Teaching) ©.
3, Scope of the study ‘The study mainly focuses on verbal communication and the analysis of the data collected from the survey questionnaires on oxtending a wish, Similarities and differcness between the English and the Vietnamese in assessing the interfavence of social factors in wishing are discussed. Also some common accompaniments and nonverbal cues together with wishing are taken into account. Methods of the study ‘The main method of the studyis the quantitative one with techniques: - Consulling referones books - Discussing with teachers and fiiends - Conducting survey questionnaire + Studying relevant publications - Resortng to personal observation. Design of the study: ‘his study is divided into three main parts: Part A: Tntrodu: jon — including the reasons of the study, aims of the study, methods, ‘ope of the study and the design of the study, Fart B: Development, including 4 chapters - Chapter 1: Literature review - Chapter 2: Research methodology - Chapter 3: Discussion on findings - Chapter 4: Implications for ELT (English Language Teaching) Part C: Conclusion The illocutionary act is performed via the commumicative forcs of an utterance.
When we utter a sentence, we assign to it the so-called illocutionary force. The illocutionary foree may be understood as some kind of intended message that a speaker assigns to the sentence he or she utters. As Nguyen Loa (2001: 151) puts it, “one type of illocutionary force is what is commonly referred lo as implication.” For insiance, wher we ask somone “Have you got tle time?” the illocutionary force we assign to this ufterance seems to be a question about time rather than whether the addressee has a clock or watch or not - Pertocutionary act is the result or affect that spcaker can achieve by performing the locutionary act. According to Mey (1993: 112), these ultimate effects are dependent on the context of the ullaranes and are unpredictable.
The hearer may correclly understand the speaker's intention and do what his’ her interlocutor wants, or the same hearer may deliberately ignore the speaker's want or desire. When we utter the sentence “It’s very hot here”, we hope the act of turning the central heating on to be dons by some hearers. This also means the illocutionary act is performed. Of these three types of speech acts the illocutionary act appears to be the most erucial and discussed because the same uttoranice ean polontially have different ilocutionary force.
Take the sentence “I'll be at the office at noon” as an example for this.
