THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
An investigation into interpersonal meaning
Halliday and Matthiesen (2004), as cited in Eggins (2004: 144), state that
―whenever we use language to interact, one of the things we are doing with it is establishing a relationship between us: between the person speaking now and the person who will probably speak next.‖ At this point, grammar of interaction is seen from a semantic perspective
According to Matthiessen (1995), the interpersonal meaning is considered to be ―a resource for enacting social roles and relationships between speaker/writer and listener/reader.‖ (1995: 17)
Meanwhile, Thompson explains the interpersonal meaning as
―We use language to interact with other people, to establish and maintain relations with them, to influence their behavior, to express our own viewpoints on things in the world, and to elicit or change theirs.’’
In short, the most important task of the interpersonal meaning is to establish and maintain a social relationship between participants It relates to the text’s aspect of tenor which combines three component areas: status, contact and affect
Interpersonal meaning mainly concerns the roles of addressers and audience, mood and modality
1.1.1 Mood 1.1.1.1 Speech roles and speech functions
Mood is an indispensable component for the construction of social relationship between the writer/speaker and the reader/listener Halliday (1994: 18) points out that ―the most fundamental types of speech role, which lies behind all the more specific types that we may eventually be able to recognize, are just two (i) giving, and (ii) demanding‖ According to Halliday (1994: 69), in any communicative language, there are four basic interpersonal positions a speaker can adopt: giving information, demanding information, giving goods and service as well as demanding goods and services The combination of speech roles and commodities represents several speech functions including offer, command, statement and question The exchange of speech function and commodities is shown in Table 1.1 below
Commodity exchanged (a) (a) goods-&-services (b) information (i)giving ―offer‖ would you like this teapot?
―statement‖ he’s giving her the teapot (ii) demanding ―command‖ give me that teapot!
―question‖ what is he giving her?
Table 1.1 Speech functions and commodities exchanged (Halliday, 1994: 69)
The four basic speech functions are closely related with particular grammatical structures The relationship between forms of speech functions and typical mood clauses is illustrated in Table 1.2 as follows:
Speech function Typical mood in clause Command ―imperative mood‖
Would you like to have dinner with me?
It was one of Shakespeare’s works
What are you going to do tonight?
Table 1.2 Speech functions and typical mood of clause (Adapted from Eggins, 2004: 148)
In the interpersonal meaning, a clause in English is analyzed into Mood and Residue, with the mood element is made up of Subject and Finite Subject ―supplies the rest of what it takes to form a proposition, namely, something by reference which the proposition can be affirmed or denied‖ (Halliday, 1994: 76) The Finite aims to make the proposition finite and relates the proposition to the context in the speech event The Finite expressing tense and modality is part of a verbal group
The Residue consists of functional elements of three kinds: Predicator, Complement and Adjunct of the clause
In SFG, the structure of the declarative, interrogative and imperative clauses is shown by the presence and ordering of Subject and Finite According to Halliday (1994: 74), the presence of the Mood element consisting of Subject plus Finite, realizes the feature ―indicative‖ Declarative is realized through the typical structure of Subject preceding Finite For example:
Tom is reading Oliver Twist
The typical structure of an interrogative clause is divided into two main types: polar interrogative (yes/no question type) with the order of Finite before Subject and Wh-question with the order of Subject before Finite if the Wh-element is the subject and the order of Finite before Subject otherwise
Wh-element conflated with Subject
Adjunct/WH- Finite Subject Predicator
Eggins (2004) describes fours types of imperative structures including (i) an imperative with no Mood element, an imperative consisting of a Mood element of (ii) Finite only or (iii) Subject only, and an imperative with a Mood element in the order of Finite preceding Subject Types of imperative structures are illustrated in the following examples:
(iii) You Listen! (iv) Don’t you borrow her book!
Subject Predicator Finite Subject Predicator Complement
Halliday and Matthiesen (2004) assert that the Mood element comprising Subject and Finite is the element that realizes the selection of mood in the clause It is worth noting, here, that Halliday and Matthiesen (2004) also make a note of the different realizations of mood under different social and cultural contexts
According to them, the sequence of Subject and Finite serving to realize the selection of mood in the clause is ―being restricted mainly to certain languages from Europe It is far more common for languages to use tone (as English also does) and/or special interpersonal mood particles as in languages in East and South-East Asia (as in Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Thai)‖ (Halliday and Matthiesen (2004:113) These mood particles tend to come at the beginning or at the end of the clause and serve the interpersonal function of Negotiator
For example, in Vietnamese yes-no interrogative clause, there does not appear inversion of Subject and Finite Word order in Vietnamese yes-no interrogative clauses are the same as in declarative ones with Subject preceding Predicator
Vietnamese questions are like narrative sentences but at the same time they are often combined with modal particles like à, hả or some pairs of adverb like có chưa, có không, có phải không to make questions The following example shows an analysis of a yes/no interrogative clause in English and Vietnamese with respect to its interpersonal meaning
Do you know her? Anh biết cô ấy không?
Finite Subject Predicator Complement Subject Predicator Complement Mood
Mood Residue Mood Residue Mood
Thompson (2000) states that the expression of meaning can be achieved through a lexico-grammatical form which originally evolved to express a different kind of meaning Compared with the typical mood structures as discussed above, the four basic speech functions are also realized by less typical or non-typical structures which are called grammatical metaphor of mood (Halliday, 1994) The use of grammatical metaphor is much popular in people’s daily interaction For example, command is typically realized by imperative mood but can be expressed by a large variety of expressions as illustrated below a Show me the car! b Tell me where you parked the car, please c Could you tell me where you parked the car, please? d I would advise you to tell me where you parked the car e It is advisable to tell me where you parked the car
1.1.2 Modality 1.1.2.1 Definition and types of modality
Halliday (1994) asserts the importance of modality in carrying out the interpersonal meaning of clauses He states that the speaker through modality can take up a position and show the status and the validity of the proposition Modality is a degree between the positive and negative poles reflecting the speaker’s judgments What the modality system does is to construe the region of uncertainty that lies between ―yes‖ and ―no‖ (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004: 147)
Modality is classified differently according to different linguists Palmer
(1986) distinguishes two main types of modality: epistemic and root modality
Quirk et al (1985: 219) call these extrinsic (human judgment of what is or is not likely to happen) and intrinsic (some kind of intrinsic human control over events)
In SFG, modality is categorized into modalization and modulation This division originates from the distinction between proposition (information, i.e statements and questions) and proposals (goods and services, i.e offers and commands) If information is the exchanged commodity, modality expressions are termed as
Tenor of job advertisements
It is important to understand the context of situation since its three variables correspond to the three meta-functions of any texts According to Halliday (1985), the context of situation, or ―register‖ is defined as ―variation according to use‖ In other words, certain recognizable configurations of linguistic resources are typically used in certain contexts In SFG, context of situation is arranged in three categories which are field, tenor and mode
The field of discourse is the social action in which the grammar is embedded
It refers to the nature of the social action that is taking place In the present thesis, the field is about how enterprises or organizations give information about the advertised positions in order to fulfill their aim to attract potential applicants
The mode of the discourse is concerned with the role language plays in the context, in other words, what exactly the language is trying to achieve; for instance, the channel employed whether it is written or spoken In this research, the mode is written langue, where face-to-face interaction between participants (recruiters or advertisers and job seekers) is beyond expectation
The tenor of the discourse reflects the relationship between the participants engaged in a purposeful social activity Tenor is closely associated with the interpersonal meaning; therefore, it is necessary to make an in-depth analysis of this variable of context of situation
1.2.2 Tenor: the interpersonal variable of the context of situation
Tenor is the aspect of language that recognizes the presence (real or imagined) of participants in interaction According to Eggins & Slade (1997), tenor has three important aspects including power, contact and affective
First, language choices we make can be influenced by how much power we feel we have in relation to the person we are interacting with It is indicated that the unequal status relation may decide the power Therefore, we might issue a polite request to our senior but make a command to a child
Second, interpersonal relationships also vary in terms of the length and the frequency of our interactions with people Contact can be characterized as voluntary or involuntary, regular or intermittent Thus, we are likely to use more casual language with close friends or family members but tend to be more polite and less forthcoming with a neighbor whom we occasionally see
Third, affective involvement means we make language choices according to how close we feel towards the people in our interaction Affective involvement can range from nil (distant, unattached) through some (e.g classmates or colleagues) to high (e.g lovers or family members)
Figure 1.3 The affective involvement continuum
Job advertisements belonging to the persuasive genre constitute a specific communication act and establish the relationship between the recruiter and the prospective applicants In the case of job advertisements, both the contact and affective involvement between the advertiser and the reader are towards the low end of the continuum However, the power relationship is rather complicated On the one hand, job advertisements show unequal status between the employer and the potential employee in that the recruiter as authority has more power On the other hand, like other commercial advertisements, the advertisers do not have the right to force the readers to apply for the post It seems that at this point the power relationship between the advertiser and the job seeker is equal
Generally, job advertisements reflect the relationship between the advertiser and the job seeker The advertiser has earnest desire to provide information about the post and try to persuade the readers to apply for the job These aspects of tenor have a great influence on the interpersonal meaning of job advertisements through the selection of lexical-grammatical patterns This will be proved in the following analysis of the realization of interpersonal meaning in English and Vietnamese job advertisements
A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF INTERPERSONAL MEANING
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE JOB ADVERTISEMENTS
This chapter will present a contrastive analysis of the realization of interpersonal meaning in English and Vietnamese job advertisements based on the SFG framework An in-depth study of interpersonal meaning in the corpus is carried out in terms of mood, modality and the person system It is hoped that this detailed analysis will shed light on how interpersonal meaning is realized in English and Vietnamese job advertisements.
A contrastive analysis in terms of mood
The functional tenor of job advertisements and possible mood structures that could realize speech functions have been indicated in Chapter 1 Thus, this section will present the speech roles in job advertisements and focus on the detailed analysis of the specific mood structures that are employed in the samples
It can be realized that there exist two main kinds of speech roles in job advertisements: giving and demanding On the one hand, the advertiser aims to provide the readers with information about the nature of the recruiting company, the vacancy, job duties, qualifications, the salary or benefits and the contact information On the other hand, the advertiser has an earnest desire to attract the potential job hunters to apply for a certain vacancy Since a job posting is considered to serve a dual purpose, in the process of creating advertisements the advertiser must be aware of the crucial importance of language In the following part, the researcher will examine the grammatical structures adopted in the samples to realize such speech roles in order to see how the advertiser interacts with the reader through the selection of mood structures in English and Vietnamese job advertisements All the mood structures in the corpus are examined and illustrated in the tables as follows:
Table 2.1 Distribution and frequency of mood structures in the samples of
Table 2.2 Distribution and frequency of mood structures in the samples of
It can be seen from Table 2.1 and 2.2 that in terms of the usage of mood structures, English job advertisements do show similarities to the Vietnamese ones
However, some disparities still exist between job advertisements of two different cultures It is obvious that the most common clause used in the job advertisement texts in both English and Vietnamese is the declarative mood structure accounting for 87% and 92% respectively Imperative mood covers a similar frequency in English and Vietnamese samples Nevertheless, it is shown that in English job advertising discourse, the declarative structure covers the highest frequency with the percentage of 50.6% while elliptical declarative structures are most preferred in Vietnamese corpus with the percentage of 76.2% Interrogative clauses play a role in English job advertisements covering 4.3%, yet can be hardly found in Vietnamese ones only accounting for 0.5% The following sections will give a detailed analysis on how these similarities and differences can be found in the realization of different speech functions
In general, declarative mood structure is regarded as the most typical realization of the speech role to give information Nevertheless, since there are grammatical metaphors, other mood structures including imperative and interrogative can also carry out the function of information giving
In this thesis, declarative mood consists of declarative and elliptical declarative mood structures, whose frequency reach as high as 87% and 92% respectively in English and Vietnamese job advertisements This shows that declarative is the main mood structure in job advertisements The advertisers prefer to use declarative structures to provide the potential applicants with the information about the recruiting company, the vacancy, the duty and requirements of the post as well as the benefits A large number of declaratives found in the corpus prove that it is the most typical way to realize the role of giving information It is clearly shown in the examples as follows:
(1) In this role, you will be responsible for performing all tasks and communication related to the intake of patient information (E5)
(2) Anthem Education has been dedicated to making a difference in our student’s lives for over 100 years.(E10)
(3) The ideal candidate will have at least 5-7 years of storage and NAS support experience specifically with NETAPP and similar NAS devices (E12)
(4) Công ty cổ phần Đầu tư TOPCOM là nhà phân phối xe Piaggio lớn nhất Việt Nam với hệ thống trên 30 showroom, service tại Hà Nội và thành phố Hồ Chí Minh (V6)
(5) Đến với AI&T, bạn sẽ có những cơ hội lớn trong việc tiếp cận các công nghệ kỹ thuật mới nhất, được đóng góp ý tưởng và tạo ra các sản phẩm sáng tạo phổ biến trực tiếp tới người sử dụng trên toàn thế giới (V11)
As can be shown from the examples above, a lot of information from different angles can be conveyed by applying declarative sentences Example (1) elaborates on the duties of the prospect applicant while in example (2), the vision of the company in education is fully shown The third example illustrates the requirements of the post Example (4) is a corporate advertisement for the company itself, thus an aspect of its public identity Example (5) describes in detail the employee’s benefits in AI&T
Besides declarative structures, multiple elliptical declarative clauses are regularly adopted in the samples to give information about the responsibilities, qualifications and benefits as illustrated in the following examples
(6) Experience working with automotive or construction equipment (E6)
(7) Competitive salary and a highly attainable bonus structure (E14)
(8) Gửi khách hàng báo cáo về tính khả thi của sản phẩm mới (V1)
(9) Nói và viết tiếng Nhật hoặc tiếng Trung thành thạo (V2)
The frequent appearance of elliptical declarative clauses in the samples is an effective method that the advertiser uses to satisfy the job hunters’ psychology It is realized that the increasing tendency of economic globalization and the development of technology lead to the flood of job advertisements daily publicized through numerous ways To find the most suitable job vacancy, job seekers must scan all these pieces of positions and quickly filter the necessary information
Therefore, job hunters expect that all information about the vacancy is clearly presented and easily caught A list of elliptical declarative clauses can solve this well Moreover, according to Martin (1992), the employment of elliptical clauses can help shorten social distance originating from the fact that job advertisements are written discourse without any possibility of face-to face interaction The elliptical clauses adopted in the corpus can create a sense of intimacy between the advertiser and the potential candidates
It is found that interrogative mood structures occupy only a low frequency in the discourse of job advertisements In fifteen English job advertisements, there are only 17 interrogative clauses The number of this type of mood structure is only two in Vietnamese job advertising discourse In systemic-functional grammar, interrogative is usually used to ask a question and demands others to give information However, it can also be adopted to give information Here are some examples found in both Vietnamese and English corpus:
(10) Bạn là người năng động, yêu nghề, chịu đón nhận thử thách? (V4)
(11) Bạn muốn làm việc trong một môi trường năng động, có cơ hội thăng tiến, với chế độ lương thưởng hấp dẫn? (V4)
(12) Impressive? Sound good? Need more reasons to make you want to be part of our family? (E14)
(13) Where in the World is California Pizza Kitchen? (E14)
(14) What Makes California Pizza Kitchen Special? (E14)
There are two kinds of question forms in the corpus: yes-no question and WH- question Two interrogative clauses in Vietnamese job advertisements in sample 4 are yes-no questions 14 out of 17 interrogative clauses in English job advertisements are in the form of a yes-no interrogative ones Technically speaking, these interrogative clauses are not demanding information On the contrary, they are providing the potential employees with information In Examples (10), and (11), the advertiser is actually telling the readers the requirements and the benefit of the position The general purpose of raising these questions is to attract the readers’ attention and emphasize the features of the vacancy In Example (12), there are three elliptical yes-no interrogative clauses, each of which is followed by a response by the writer himself or herself (Impressive? Totally; Sound good? We think so!
Need more reasons to make you want to be part of our family? Okay, keep reading!)
This also happens with two WH-interrogative clauses in Examples 13 and 14 These questions can be easily answered in the text, because they are followed by the introduction to the company The writer himself or herself raises the question and then responds to it By doing this, he or she not only gives information about the company, but also shows a sense of pride
Besides fulfilling the role of demanding action, imperative mood structures can also perform the function of information giving in the discourse of job advertisements A couple of instances can be given as follows:
(15) Please provide us with a cover letter and resume, indicating the position for which you are applying+your compensation history/requirements (E2)
(16) For more information and to apply please see: www.austincityjobs.org (E6)
(17) Các ứng viên quan tâm nộp hồ sơ trực tiếp tại trụ sở công ty liên hệ chị Dung-phòng HCNS: Công ty Cổ phần đầu tư phát triển Máy Việt Nam Địa chỉ: Do Lộ, Yên Nghĩa,
A contrastive analysis in terms of modality
According to Halliday (1994), mood and modality are regarded as the essential parts that convey interpersonal meaning in discourse analysis Modality is concerned with the negotiation of the proposition and proposal between the categorical polarity of positive or negative In particular, modality refers to a range of different ways in which speakers can temper or qualify their messages (Eggins &
Slade, 1997) According to different communicative functions, Halliday classifies modality into two main categories: modalization and modulation The following section will discuss how they are employed to realize interpersonal meaning in English and Vietnamese job advertisements
It has been made clear in section 1.1.2 that modalization indicates either how likely a proposition held by the speaker/writer is to be true or how frequently a proposition held by the speaker/writer is to be true The former is called probability and the latter is named usuality Halliday (1994) claims that both finite modal operator and modal adjunct can be used to realize probability and usuality Modality is also expressed by metaphor of modality This will be shown in the following analysis
Probability means how likely the speaker/writer thinks to be true Probability is realized in the corpus in the different ways as follows:
English job advertisements Vietnamese job advertisements expression frequency percent expression frequency percent modal operator low can 6 24% có thể
1 8% may 1 could 2 median will/won’t 20 61% sẽ
12 92% would 2 should 1 high must 4 10% 0 0% modal adjunct
Table 2.3 Distribution and frequency of probability in English and Vietnamese job advertisements
It is found that both English and Vietnamese job advertisements tend to use modal operators to realize probability rather than modal adjuncts and interpersonal metaphor Modal operators appear in 36 clauses in English samples and in 13 clauses in Vietnamese ones It is obvious that modal operators occur more frequently in English job advertisements than in Vietnamese ones From Table 2.3, it is also found that the modal operators of low and median values cover the majority in all the modal operators in either English or Vietnamese job advertisements with a percentage of 85% and 100% respectively This suggests that when employing modal operators, both English and Vietnamese job advertisements incline to be consultative, hypothetical and suggestive rather than compulsive, affirmative and absolute
In English job advertisements, the modal operator will stands for the highest frequency Its equivalence in Vietnamese sẽ also occupies the first rank Here are some typical examples with the use of modal operator will or sẽ to realize probability:
(31) Các hồ sơ không đạt sẽ không được trả lại (V3)
(32) Đến với AI&T, bạn sẽ có những cơ hội lớn trong việc tiếp cận các công nghệ kỹ thuật mới nhất (V11)
(33) Ứng viên trúng tuyển sẽ làm việc tại thành phố Ninh Bình-tỉnh Ninh Bình (V13)
(34) This application process will take approximately15-20 minutes to complete (E5)
(35) Not only will you learn of jobs not advertised elsewhere, you’ll enjoy full confidentiality and an appropriate audience at best-in-class employers (E11)
(36) This person will develop applications and system integrations to support business applications (E15)
From the examples above, it can be said that the modal operator will or sẽ provides information about what will exactly happen in the future and statement about future occurrences are based on the advertiser’s prediction, belief or intention
According to Lyon (1997), will has an obvious modal use of the ―promissory‖, in which the writer regards himself as the ―guarantor‖ of the truth of the occurrence of the event he refers to (Lyon, 1997:310) In the discourse of English and Vietnamese job advertisements, will or sẽ is employed to indicate the job duties that the future employee is supposed to do, the benefits he/she will get as well as what will happen in the recruitment process For instance, in Examples (31) and (34), the modal operator is employed to express important information that the recruiter will only contact those who are qualified to have an interview and the information about the amount of time for application In Examples (32) and (35), the advertiser uses will or sẽ to show a strong possibility of the rewards that the post can give to future employees In Examples (33) and (36), the writer gives a clear introduction to the possible job duties of the employees, thus making them understand whether the job vacancy is suitable for them or not, which is helpful for filtering out many applicants
It is also seen that English job advertisements employ more different forms to express probability than Vietnamese ones Besides the modal operator will English advertisers also use other median and low modal operators including would, should, can, may, could while Vietnamese job advertisements only employ the low median operator có thể (may) These modal operators are of low and median value of probability In comparison with will they are more probable than guaranteed Here are the typical examples selected from the corpus:
(37) You would be joining a team that is passionate about education and the lives we touch every day (E10)
(38) California Pizza Kitchen could be your new home (E14)
(39) An environment where you can express your unique talents and skills (E14)
(40) Experience may substitute for the education to a maximum of four years (E6)
(41) Food isn’t meant to be timeless; it should be a surprising yet accessible (E14)
(42) Có thể đi công tác xa, dài ngày (V10)
The high modal operator must is only employed in English job advertisements in the following instances:
(43) Your attitude must be positive, flexible, and focused, with an emphasis on a can do, hands on approach and philosophy (E2)
(44) You must be a passionate about your work (E3)
(45) So must enjoy small town living (E7)
As can be seen from the examples above, the modal operator must is mainly used to describe position qualifications With its high value of probability, it implies that this section of job advertisement is serious and leaves no room for questioning
It indicates that these requirements need to be emphasized and get special attention from the job hunters if they want to be future employees of the recruiting company
According to Halliday (1994), modal adjunct can be used to realize modality
However, it is found that in both English and Vietnamese corpus, there is no modal adjunct such as certainly, possibly, probably used in describing probability
Interpersonal metaphor is only employed in English samples accounting for 6%
(46) Sound good? We think so! (E14)
(47) We know that it takes much more than a skill set to get the job done (E15)
According to Xu (2009), in English advertising, advertisers often need to make some judgments or explanations on their products or enterprises They tend to employ the subjective explicit orientation to emphasize the subjective nature of their ideas and take great modality responsibility so that they will be successful in placing an emphasis on the core advantage and information of their products or enterprises, enhancing consumers’ understanding about them; thus taking the dominant place in their interaction with consumers This is reflected in the two examples of English job advertisements above In Example (46), the advertiser shows his own judgment that the features of his organization are good In Example
(47), the advertiser thinks that the job requires not only a skill By adding projecting clauses I think, I know, the advertiser can give a prominence to his subjective opinions onto the potential candidates and to get agreements from them The employment of interpersonal modality helps to express the advertiser’s affirmation and subjective assertion; thus, increase the credibility and attract more job hunters
Usuality means how frequently a proposition held by the speaker/writer is to be true It can be expressed by modal adjunct such as usually, sometimes, always In fact, usuality can hardly be found with only three modal operators in Vietnamese samples and none in English one In the corpus, usuality is found as follows:
(48) ITECHCOMBANK với sứ mệnh trở thành ngân hàng tốt nhất và doanh nghiệp hàng đầu Việt Nam, luôn đi đầu trong việc ứng dụng công nghệ tiên tiến.(V5)
(49) Chúng tôi luôn nỗ lực để cán bộ nhân viên có điều kiện làm việc tốt nhất (V6)
(50) Với phương châm luôn trọng dụng nhân tài, lấy yếu tố con người làm trung tâm cho sự phát triển bền vững (V10)
In Example (48), through the use of modal operator luôn, the recruiter intends to impress the job hunters that the company they intend to work for has the highest rank in technology application to improve customer service Likewise, the modal operator luôn employed in Examples (49) and (50) help the advertiser shows the fact to the potential employees that the company is constantly trying its best to provide its employees with the best working conditions as well as other benefits to develop their abilities By doing this, the advertiser can persuade more talents to apply for the post
According to Halliday (1994), Modulation, another part of modality includes obligation and inclination The former concerns the degree to which the speaker put force on the other person to carry out the command The latter refers to the degree of willingness of the speaker to fulfill the offer
Obligation is realized in the corpus in the different ways as follows:
English job advertisements Vietnamese job advertisements expression frequency percent expression frequency percent Finite modal operator high must 9 43% phải (must) 1 86% cần (need) 5 median should 2 9% 0
Passive verb predicator required 9 43% yêu cầu
Table 2.4 Distribution and frequency of obligation in English and Vietnamese job advertisements
It has been found that both English and Vietnamese job advertisements tend to use finite modal operators to realize obligation Nevertheless, in English job advertisements, the modal operator must covers the highest frequency while it is only employed once in Vietnamese corpus The modal operator which is most frequently used in Vietnamese job advertisements is cần whilst its equivalence in English need does not appear Take the following clauses as examples:
A contrastive analysis in terms of the person system
The interpersonal meaning can also be expressed through the use of the person system According to Carter (1997), the personal pronouns can be helpful to impart how the writer treats all the characters concerned; thus, establish a certain relationship between the writer and the reader Halliday (1994) makes it clear that interpersonal meaning is realized not only by mood and modality but also in other means ―interpersonal meaning are embodied in the person system, both as pronouns (person as Thing, e.g she, you) and as possessive (person as Deictic, e.g her, your)‖ (Halliday, 1994:191)
Generally speaking, a job advertisement concerns the relationship between two participants: the recruiter and the job hunter The person system in job advertisements could reflect the recruiter’s attitude towards the job hunter and affect the degree of distance or closeness between them In this section, the person system is studied as a means to realize interpersonal meaning As a rather fixed part in the grammar system, the person system divided into the first person, second person and third person appear in various languages including English and Vietnamese The following table illustrates the use of the person system in the corpus
Types English job advertisements Vietnamese job advertisements
Expression Frequency Percent Expression Frequency Percent First
I 1 57% 63% we, us 79 chúng tôi (we, us) 19 our 73 của chúng tôi (our) 3
Second Person you 69 35% bạn, các bạn (you) 9 34% your 24 của bạn/của mình
Third Person they, them 8 8% 3% their, its 14 của mình(its) 1
Table 2.6 Distribution and frequency of the person system in English and Vietnamese job advertisements
It can be seen from this table that there are both similarities and differences in the use of the person system to realize interpersonal meaning between English and Vietnamese job advertisements The similarity originates in the highest frequency of first person pronouns accounting for 57% in English samples and 63% in Vietnamese one as well as the lowest frequency of third person pronouns in English and Vietnamese corpus with the percentage of 8% and 3% respectively The distinctive difference can be seen in the total number of personal pronouns, particularly 268 in English and 35 in Vietnamese It may be concluded that English job advertiser uses much more personal pronouns than the Vietnamese counterpart
Secondly, Vietnamese job advertisements employ one form của mình normally interpreted as my but in the samples, it can be interpreted as second possessive your or third possessive its depending on the specific context Detailed analysis will be made in the sections that follow
In English job advertisements, the first person pronouns cover 57% of all the person pronouns The majority is taking the plural form: we, us, our The first person singular form I appears only once in the samples Similarly, in Vietnamese job advertisements, the first person pronouns occupy the highest frequency with the percentage of 63% and all of them are in the plural form chúng tôi This is owing to the specific context of job advertising discourse A job advertisement is created by an advertiser on behalf of a business or public entity Therefore, the plural forms are employed to refer to the whole unit rather than a single specific person
It must be noted that we can be inclusive or exclusive (Buhler, 1990 as cited in Li 2001:130) The inclusive we can create a context in which the writer assumes that the readers agree with him/her and attempts to include them in his/her group while the exclusive we can refer to a group to which the readers do not belong to In Vietnamese, there are different forms which are equivalent to we in English with different connotative meaning and an inclusive/exclusive plural distinction For example, chúng tôi, chúng ta can be used in polite speech while chúng tao is vulgar and impolite; chúng mình shows intimate relationship Regarding the in-group and out-group distinction, chúng tôi, chúng tao are exclusive, excluding the addressed subject whilst chúng mình, chúng ta are inclusive, including the addressed subject
In the discourse of job advertisements, the writer represents an institution of which the job hunter is not a member; thus, the person pronoun we or chúng tôi employed in English and Vietnamese corpus is exclusive
(66) Sự phát triển không ngừng mang tính bền vững của chúng tôi là cơ hội để các bạn thử thách và nâng cao kỹ năng, kiến thức trong lĩnh vực kinh doanh của Công ty (V6)
(67) Chỉ nhận hồ sơ bản mềm qua địa chỉ email bằng cách nhấn vào nút Nộp đơn bên dưới để gửi trực tiếp đến chúng tôi (V15)
(68) Please provide us with a cover letter and resume, indicating the position for which you are applying+your compensation history/requirements (E2)
(69) We are extremely competitive, client-focused and realize that our value is in our ability to deliver the right solutions at the right time (E7)
The above six examples are typical of the first person pronouns We, our, us or chúng tôi, của chúng tôi refer to the recruiting company They are used in introducing the company’s background, the benefits to the employees as well as the application method The advertiser seems to be talking with an imagined listener by making full use of these first person pronouns, which makes their voice more sincere and acceptable to the reader On the other hand, the advertiser employs the exclusive we to demonstrate the recruiter as an authority, exerting his/her belief on the job hunters and impose obligation on them
The second person pronoun refers to the listener in a speech event and the reader in the written discourse In the specific discourse of job advertisements, the second person pronouns all refer to the supposed readers, generally the job seekers
In this corpus, it is found that the second person pronouns are widely used, covering 35% in English and 34% in Vietnamese, which is second to the first person pronouns Here are some typical samples with the use of second person pronouns
(70) Taị TECHCOMBANK mọi đóng góp của bạn đều được ghi nhận và khích lệ bằng chính sách đãi ngộ hấp dẫn, phúc lợi vượt trội và cơ hội thăng tiến rõ ràng (V5)
(71) Gia nhập vào đội ngũ nhân viên của Nhà hàng DWok là bạn sẽ tìm thấy đam mê trong công việc, nơi bạn tìm thấy khả năng của mình (V8)
(72) Are you looking for a role where demands are high, but so is job satisfaction? (E10)
(73)) Show us your customer skills and we will teach you the rest (E11)
In the above instances, the second person pronouns are used to refer to all the readers who show their concern about the advertised post While reading the job advertisement, the job seekers are ensured that they are being addressed The selection of personal pronouns can project the closeness between the writer and the reader, indicating the writer’s attempts to explicitly engage their readers or to invoke reader’s participation The ideal reader is constructed in the mind of the writer By using the second person pronouns, the advertiser can easily attract the readers’ attention to the job advertisements and establish a conversation between the advertiser and the job seekers; thus, maintain a close and intimate relationship
The third person pronouns cover the lowest percentage in the corpus They are mostly used to refer to the same person or object mentioned in a discourse
(74) Với nỗ lực không ngừng của mình, TECHCOMBANK tự hào được những tổ chức uy tín tặng giải thưởng quốc tế danh giá nhất trong lĩnh vực tài chính ngân hàng (V5)
(75) Salary is commensurate with experience and our client offers their employees and their families a comprehensive benefits package (E4)
(76) The City of Austin, TX is an Equal Opportunity Employer and values diversity at all levels of its workforce (E6)
(77) Gpac is currently working with a fast growing bank in Northern North Dakota that is looking to add a Ag Lender to their team (E7)
The possessive expression của mình in Example (74) does not have the same referent as it has in Example (71) Its equivalence in English is its because it refers to TECHCOMBANK rather than the job seeker In this context, it is used to tell the job hunters about the efforts of the recruiting company The third person pronouns employed in English have varied referents In Example (75), the plural form their is used to name the customers of the company In Examples (76) and (77), the third person possessive its and their actually refer to the recruiting company By making use of the third person system, the advertiser intends to distance himself from the company and plays a role as an observer by making comments objectively He tries to take advantage of the third party to make their speech more persuasive
Recapitulation
This thesis has made a contrastive analysis of the realization of interpersonal meaning in English and Vietnamese job advertisements on the Internet using systemic functional grammar as the theoretical framework In the first part, the rationale, significance and aims of the study as well as methodology have been illustrated In chapter 1, the study has made an overview of interpersonal meaning and examined the situational context and tenor of job advertisements in particular
This is followed by an in-depth analysis of the job advertisements in English and Vietnamese in terms of mood, modality and the person system Through such detailed study, the researcher has explored the way the advertiser interacts and establishes relations with the job hunters through means of language as well as found out the similarities and differences in the realization of interpersonal meaning in English and Vietnamese job advertisements
In terms of mood, it is found that declarative structures are the most frequently used in both corpus with the role of giving information about the advertised vacancy and demanding actions from interested readers However, in English job advertisements, imperatives, interrogative and if-structures are employed to create a sense of ―dialogue‖, thus shorten the social distance between the recruiting company and the job hunter while the interrogative and if-structure are hardly seen in Vietnamese job advertisements which leads to a lack for the sense of dialogue and intimacy between the recruiting company and job hunters in Vietnamese job advertising discourse
When coming to modality, it can be seen that in both corpus, probability and obligation generally rank higher than usuality and inclination The highest frequency of probability indicates that the truthfulness of propositions is of the greatest concern among the recruiters and job seekers in both cultures Nevertheless, in the English corpus, obligation occupies much higher frequency than inclination while in Vietnamese corpus; these two types occupy the same frequency
With regards to the person system, both the advertisers’selection of exclusive we and its correspondence ―chúng tôi” as well as the use of the third person pronouns have the same aim of showing authority and objectiveness in both languages Furthermore, both English job advertisements and Vietnamese ones prefer to use the first person pronouns, then the second person pronouns The combination of these two types of personal pronouns helps to form a dialogue between the recruiters and the interested applicants; thus increase intimacy and shorten social distance between them However, it is seen that compared with the job advertisements in the English corpus, Vietnamese ones use fewer personal pronouns; so such conversations appear less than in English counterparts
The similarities may result from the common goal of job advertisements in that whether in English or Vietnamese, job advertisements belong to the soft-selling advertising text with two main speech functions of providing job hunters with information of the company as well as the vacancy and demanding them to apply for the post The similarities may also come from some similar features of English and Vietnamese languages in that both languages have typical mood structures, modal expressions and the person system to realize the interpersonal meaning The differences can be due to the disparities between the English and Vietnamese language as well as between the thinking modes of the two different cultures
Particularly, one word or phrase in English can have more than one equivalence in Vietnamese and vice versa In contrast with the Westerners’preference of more direct strategy and favor of individualism, Vietnamese people prefer to express in more indirect way and have a collectivist culture English advertisers tend to express their own opinions and create a sense of dialogue in their written discourse through more employment of interrogative, imperative and if-structures as well as personal pronouns and the use of interpersonal metaphor On the contrary, in spite of being in a higher position and having more authority than the job hunters, Vietnamese advertisers have a tendency to make their tones more polite and less compelling through the preferred use of declaratives and inclination.
Implications of the study
The following implications can be made from the research:
First, the research proves that the systemic functional grammar can also be applied to studying advertising discourse in general and job advertisements in particular not only in English discourses but also in Vietnamese ones
Second, the present study would be useful for writing and understanding the job advertisements For the recruiting companies, understanding and mastering the skill of writing an informative, persuasive job advertisement is crucial to attract more promising talents The advertiser is advised to use more declarative and interrogative since they are more effective than imperative in that they help to lessen the imposing pressure on the interested readers as well as raise more attention of the readers Moreover, the recruiter should adopt more inclination structures to illustrate the rewards or benefits to the applicants It is advisable that the advertiser use personal pronouns from time to time in order to create a sense of dialogue between the advertiser and the potential employees This work is also of great help for job seekers themselves to filter all the information of the advertisements and select the most suitable position for them
Last but not least, the research would be useful for writing, translation and linguistics classes In writing class, one of the main lessons is how to write a job application letter The first and foremost thing a writing teacher should do is to remind students to carefully analyze job advertisements as the basis of writing an effective job application letter Although some equivalence can be found, the realization of interpersonal meaning in English job advertisements is different from that in Vietnamese ones In translation class, the teachers should remind students to translate imperative mood structures in English into declarative mood in Vietnamese to seem more polite, change obligation tone into inclination tone and change from passive voice into active voice as well as use few personal pronouns to avoid confusion In linguistics classes where SFG is introduced, this research can serve as the reference for teachers to assign a practical task for students in which they will have to apply the theoretical framework to analyze a text in real life.
Limitations and suggestions for further study
There might be some limitations of this study related to the size of the corpus, the data source and specific aspects to realize interpersonal meaning First, the size is not big enough, only 30 job advertisements in total More texts should be included to be put into the research Second, the data are only collected from websites The use of different media can be another subject for further research
Third, the researcher is confined to three aspects including mood, modality and the person system However, there still some other means to realize interpersonal meaning It is suggested that a combination of perspectives in studying interpersonal meaning can be another approach
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(Notice: The following English job advertisements are from www.jobmonster.com)
E1-http://jobview.monster.com/director-of-financial-planning-job-houston-tx-us-
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- Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance or related field required
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- 2+ years experience in Digital analytics
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Apply to: https://hearstnewspaperscareerlinks.silkroad.com/
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer
Additionally our employees receive a competitive base salary, commission/bonus incentive and a comprehensive benefit package to include Medical-Dental-Vision Plan, Flex Benefit, Life Insurance, Wellness Policy, Disability Plan, and 401K, Credit Union, Vacations, Holidays and PTO
Hearst Corporation is one of the nation's largest diversified media companies, with newspaper, magazine, broadcast, interactive media and syndication divisions It publishes
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E2-http://jobview.monster.com/office-manager-job-glastonbury-ct-us-126949290.aspx
Office Manager We’re OperationsInc, a human resources consulting firm Our client, a leading Microsoft based software solutions company, is located in Glastonbury, CT They were awarded Microsoft’s fastest growing retail partner in 2012 and are experiencing 30% annual growth They are looking to add an Office Manager to their growing organization We have been retained to assist them in their efforts to secure the most qualified candidate
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Qualified candidates can email us at jobs@syssolutionsllc.com Please provide us with a cover letter and resume, indicating the position for which you are applying + your compensation history/requirements
E3-http://jobview.monster.com/general-manager-123print-job-waynesboro-pa-us-
If you are an individual who has experience running and building an online business where all sales come from the internet and have the below professional requirements, we are looking for you 123Print is seeking an experienced leader to join our organization as a strong, sales-oriented, hands-on trailblazer, strategic planner and coach to take our company to the next level
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Successful experience leading an e-commerce business which transacts business over the web
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123Print has been in business since 2006 and is a leader in the personalized printingmarketplace, empowering its customers to express their creativity with style and ease on a budget We accomplish this through professional and personalized business identify and marketing products that are produced with same-day service and shipped directly at low cost To learn more about 123Print you can visit our website atwww.123Print.com To learn about our parent company, Taylor Corporation, you can visit their website at www.taylorcorp.com
E4-http://jobview.monster.com/fire-sprinkler-design-manager-job-omaha-ne-us-
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Oversee projects from initial estimates through completion
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NICET II or III qualified
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GPAC (Growing People and Companies) is an award winning search firm specializing in placing quality professionals within multiple industries across the United States over the past 23 years We are extremely competitive, client-focused and realize that our value is in our ability to deliver the right solutions at the right time
E5-http://jobview.monster.com/customer-service-representative-patient-care- respiratory-services-medical-equipment-job-ft-myers-fl-us-128112616.aspx
Since 1981 Rotech has been a national leader in providing home medical equipment, respiratory equipment and services, and respiratory (nebulizer) medications for home use
More than 4,500 employees of the Rotech family of hometown companies contribute to delivering quality service and the best in professional patient care through more than approximately 500 locations in 48 states across the country
Customer Service Representative - Patient Care/Respiratory Services/Medical Equipment
Join the Leader in the Home Healthcare Industry!
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Rotech Healthcare Inc is seeking a dedicated Customer Service
Representative who wants to be part of a company that makes a difference in patients' lives In this role, you will be responsible for performing all tasks and communication related to the intake ofpatient information concerning the service of durable medical equipment and respiratory service and supplies
Communicates with patients/clients and referral sources both verbally and in writing to ensure patient/client questions and concerns are processed in a timely manner
Coordinates all patient information, processes paperwork, including preparation of file for Billing Department, and completes batch reports for UPS deliveries
Complies with all applicable company policies and procedures to meet JCAHO and company standards
Processes paperwork-confirms tickets, inputs new patient set-ups, and assembles charts
Completes SOPs/CMNs and documents on tracking log
Verifies Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance coverage information
Clears previous day’s route and checks all paperwork for accuracy and completeness
Prepares deposit for location on a weekly basis
Provides service for all retail/walk-in equipment requests
High school diploma or GED equivalent
Employment is contingent upon a drug screening test and background investigation
Experience in medical field and administrative record management
Knowledge of medical billing practices
Knowledge of insurance policies and requirements
Career Path and Management opportunities
Health and wellness benefits to include medical, dental, prescription and vision plans, short term and long term disability, supplemental life insurance and flexible spending accounts