VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES ee | NGUYÊN VĂN NGHĨA TYPICAL CULTURAL FEATURES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FABLES ABOUT PIILLOSOPIIY OF LIFE: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS PHẦN TÍCH ĐÔI CHIẾU CÁC ĐẶC DIEM VAN HOA BIEN HINA TRONG CÁC TRUYỆN NGỰ NGON TIEN I VA TLENG VIET NOI VE TRIET LÝ CUỘC SÓNG M.A MINOR THESIS Ficld: English Linguistics Code: 61 22 15, HANOI -— 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ILANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST —- GRADUATE STUDIES TYPICAL CULTURAL FEATURES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FABLES ABOUT PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS PHAN TiCH DOL CHIEU CÁC ĐẶC ĐIÊM VĂN HÓA ĐIỂN HÌNH. TRONG CÁC TRUYỆN NGỤ NGON TIENG ANH VA TIENG VIET NOI VE TRIET LY CUỘC SÔNG M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: PHAM XUAN THO, MA. SURMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF REQUIREMENTS, FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN LINGUISTICS HANOI — 2010 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality of study project report Acknowledgement Abstract Table of contents Abbreviations List of tables CHAPTER f: INTRODUCTION: 1. Rationale of the study 1.
Aims and research questions 1. Significance of the study 1.4, Scope of the study 1. Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE VIEW 1.2, Fables asa type of Hterature 2. Fable ABBREVIATIONS TCF: Typical oullurel features CA; Fables with characters as animals CHA: Fables with characters as humans and animals CH, Fables with characters as humans S: Settings O: Objects R.
Rural setting U: Urban setting D: Domestic animals ND; Non domestic animals H: Humans A; Animals DA; Domestic animals NDA: Non-domestic animals FR; Family-related relation ©: Career relation SR: Social relation T: Language used by charavters in the conversation LS: Explicitly stated 18: Implicilly stated vi Characters as animals 28 4. Features of the language 30 4. Features of the way the philosophies of life are expressed 32 4. The simliarities and differences of the TCT% in Engilsh and Vietnamese fabtes abont philosophy of life 4.
Differences 3S CHAPTER §: CONCLUSION 5. Limitations and suggestions for further research 5. Pedagogical implications REFERENCES APPENDIX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1, Rationale of the study The first thing to mention when it comes to choosing the topic of this thesis is that culture itself is a broad and complicated subject matter. ‘'here are plenty of aspects in this field.
As usual, cach of tham is touched upon individually from different angles, depending on the interests of certain authors, Therefore, it is not surprising that different authors give different definitions of cule. In addition, it is agreed that gettng a deep understanding about any aspect of cullure is a rzally hard job. This is because cullure is not tangible, and it is only perceptive to human sense, For different individuals, the perceptions are not the same, Thus, there is a variety of presentations on the subject matter However complicated it is, cullureis still an important factor irr our tifs. It distinguishes humans fiom animals, The way people behave and treat cach other makes them different from other living beings.
It is also agreed that although the world is coming toward common standards in many Gickds like scicnce, tcelmtology and business, there are by no mcans a uniform in culture among the regions or nations in the world. It is cultural identities that distinguish groups of peuple. Nowadays, in the world of integration, humans are searching for a common understanding of one another, Culture is really a bridge that brings people closer together, The need to discover certain cultures has become more urgent than ever before. Another reason that inspires the author to carry out this study is the attractiveness of fables, in this case, fables in English and Vietnamese, Fables arc onc type of folk Tilcrature with stories containing characters as either animals or humans, Stories of this type tell a variety of subject matters like the explanations of phenomena in real life or the teasing of bad habits of Inmnans, Each story is a moral Jesson and through the words and behaviors of characters, we can craw certain philosophies of life.
The readers become thoughtfill after reading such a fable. Among fables of varius themes, those about philosophies of fife appear to be the mos! remarkable. These are the most attractive of all types of fables. The world of animals or features.
The audience will get a deep understanding abont the similarities and differences between Vietnamese culture and Westem one, For Jeamers of English as a second language, the study helps them become aware of cultural elements in the process of leaming, which has not been paid much attention to so far. Meanwhile, this is very important m Lnglish learning ‘because learners arc able to porecive why speakers or writers use differant, language irr different contexts. Being aware of cultural elements is also a good way to avaid cultural shocks when they communicate with people from English — speaking countries 1. Scope of the study ‘As stated eatlier, culture is a broad field with various aspects.
This sindy, however, only focuses on the T'CES in a limited number of fables in English and Viemamese. l† is also known that fables consist of lots of themes. Yet, due to the shortage of snch factors as time, materials and finance, this study only exploits those about philosophy of life, which are very common in the world of fables 1. Organization of the study ‘The thesis consists of five chapters.
The first chapler is the inlroduction, which includes the rationale, aims and research questions, scope as well as the organization of the study. The second chapter is the literature view in which the author presents an overview of the publications related to the topic of the tesuarch. The methodology uscd in the study is presented in the third chapter. It includes a description of the data collection and data analysis procedures used in the study.
‘The findings of the study are presented in the fourth chapter, Results and Discussions. The final chapler presents » summary of the findings, limitations of ‘the study as well as suggestions tor further research, ‘humans - mosily in the past, speaks of the moral lessons which are still relevant in present Fife ‘Apart fiom the moral lessons, another attraction in fables is the cultural features embedded in cach story. The settings, characters, language, and the way characters treat one another reveal the cultural identities of certain nations, regions and these are the most attractive parts of fabics. Aims and research questions Conducting the stndy, the author sets several limited aims.
First of all, the stdy is to find out tho typical cullural features (TCEs) in fables in Rryglish as well as in Vicinamnase, As a suatter of fact, there are a number of cultural features in fables, but the author’s focus is only on the typical ones. ‘hat is, only the most remarkable features are taken info account. ‘The second thing this study has to do is to contrast these typical cultural features in the fables in the two languages, finding out the similarities and the differences. In order to do so, the study will have to search for the answers to the following research questions: 1.
Wha aro the typical cultuzal (catnres int English fables about philosophy of life? 2. What are the typical cultural features in Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life? 3. What are the similarities of the typical cultural features in English and Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life? 4, What are the differences of the typical cultural features in English and Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life? 1. Significance of the study The siudy is of greaf significance to not only cullure researchers bul those whose interests are in applied linguistics as well.
To those who are interested in cultures, the findings of the study will manifest the TCTs in the fables in two languages, namely English and Vietnamese. The readers and thc Icarncrs of English language will have a chance to perecive the TCFs in each language. In addition, the study also presents a contrastive analysis between these ‘humans - mosily in the past, speaks of the moral lessons which are still relevant in present Fife ‘Apart fiom the moral lessons, another attraction in fables is the cultural features embedded in cach story. The settings, characters, language, and the way characters treat one another reveal the cultural identities of certain nations, regions and these are the most attractive parts of fabics.
Aims and research questions Conducting the stndy, the author sets several limited aims. First of all, the stdy is to find out tho typical cullural features (TCEs) in fables in Rryglish as well as in Vicinamnase, As a suatter of fact, there are a number of cultural features in fables, but the author’s focus is only on the typical ones. ‘hat is, only the most remarkable features are taken info account. ‘The second thing this study has to do is to contrast these typical cultural features in the fables in the two languages, finding out the similarities and the differences.
In order to do so, the study will have to search for the answers to the following research questions: 1. Wha aro the typical cultuzal (catnres int English fables about philosophy of life? 2. What are the typical cultural features in Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life? 3. What are the similarities of the typical cultural features in English and Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life? 4, What are the differences of the typical cultural features in English and Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life? 1.
Significance of the study The siudy is of greaf significance to not only cullure researchers bul those whose interests are in applied linguistics as well. To those who are interested in cultures, the findings of the study will manifest the TCTs in the fables in two languages, namely English and Vietnamese. The readers and thc Icarncrs of English language will have a chance to perecive the TCFs in each language. In addition, the study also presents a contrastive analysis between these vi Characters as animals 28 4.
Features of the language 30 4. Features of the way the philosophies of life are expressed 32 4. The simliarities and differences of the TCT% in Engilsh and Vietnamese fabtes abont philosophy of life 4. Differences 3S CHAPTER §: CONCLUSION 5.
Limitations and suggestions for further research 5. Pedagogical implications REFERENCES APPENDIX features. The audience will get a deep understanding abont the similarities and differences between Vietnamese culture and Westem one, For Jeamers of English as a second language, the study helps them become aware of cultural elements in the process of leaming, which has not been paid much attention to so far. Meanwhile, this is very important m Lnglish learning ‘because learners arc able to porecive why speakers or writers use differant, language irr different contexts.
Being aware of cultural elements is also a good way to avaid cultural shocks when they communicate with people from English — speaking countries 1. Scope of the study ‘As stated eatlier, culture is a broad field with various aspects. This sindy, however, only focuses on the T'CES in a limited number of fables in English and Viemamese. l† is also known that fables consist of lots of themes.
Yet, due to the shortage of snch factors as time, materials and finance, this study only exploits those about philosophy of life, which are very common in the world of fables 1. Organization of the study ‘The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapler is the inlroduction, which includes the rationale, aims and research questions, scope as well as the organization of the study. The second chapter is the literature view in which the author presents an overview of the publications related to the topic of the tesuarch.
The methodology uscd in the study is presented in the third chapter.
