A study on english responses to compliments with reference to the vietnamese equivalents

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A STUDY ON ENGLISH RESPONSES TO COMPLIMENTS WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS CÁCH ĐÁP LẠI NHỮNG LỜI KHEN NGỢI TRONG TIẾNG ANH CÓ THAM CHIẾU ĐẾN NGHĨA TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT Student: TRAN THI THANH TAM Student code: 621209 Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Supervisor: HA THI LAN, MA Hanoi – 2021 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A STUDY ON ENGLISH RESPONSES TO COMPLIMENTS WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS CÁCH ĐÁP LẠI NHỮNG LỜI KHEN NGỢI TRONG TIẾNG ANH CÓ THAM CHIẾU ĐẾN NGHĨA TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT Student: TRAN THI THANH TAM Student code: 621209 Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Supervisor: HA THI LAN, MA Hanoi – 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “a study on English responses to compliments with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2021 Tran Thi Thanh Tam Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date: …………………… i TABLE OF CONTENTS PART ONE : INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE 1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW Definition of compliment ………………………………………………… .5 1.1 REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME & ABROAD) 1.1.2 Related research 1.1.2 Related research 1.2 REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.2.1 Pragmatics 1.2.2 Speech acts 10 1.2.3 Politeness 16 1.3 RESEARCH ON COMPLIMENT RESPONSES 16 1.3.1 Definitions 16 1.3.2 Syntactic categories 17 1.3.3 Semantic categories of responses to compliments 20 1.3.4 English idiom to give someone a compliment 20 1.4 SUMMARY 23 Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 24 2.1 RESEARCH GOVERNING PRINCIPLES 24 2.1.1 Research questions 24 2.1.2 Research hypothesis 24 ii 2.1.3 Research types 24 2.1.4 Research approaches 25 2.1.5 Principles for data collection and data analysis 25 2.2 RESEARCH METHODS 27 2.3 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE STUDY 27 2.4 SUMMARY 27 PART THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 29 3.1 A STUDY OF GIVING AND RESPONDING TO COMPLIMENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 29 3.1 Topics of compliment in English 29 3.1.2 Vietnamese findings 31 3.2 CATEGORIES OF COMPLIMENT RESPONSES 32 3.3 Differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese compliment responding 40 3.3.1 Similarities between English and Vietnamese compliment responding………………………………………………………………… .40 3.3.2 Differences between English and Vietnamese compliment responding 40 Chapter 3: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR GIVING AND RESPONDING TO COMPLIMENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 42 3.1 SOME SUGGESTIONS 42 3.2 SUGGESTED TEACHING APPLICATION 44 3.3 SUMMARY……………………………………………………………….45 Part FOUR CONCLUSION 46 Summary of the finding 46 Implications for the English language learning and teaching 46 2.1 Implications for learners 46 iii 2.2 Implications for teachers 46 Limitations of the study 47 Suggestions for futher research 47 REFERENCES iv ABSTRACT The commending other or being for the most part applauded by others and reacting to praises is one of the particularly basic very social practices in individuals lives yet has its really own phonetic and very social attributes of every very local area and every fairly general public, or so they thought From the complimenter's side, it's who praises, when to adulate toward the start, what to acclaim and how to applaud, from the individual's side, it's the reaction disposition and how to for the most part react to the commendation as for all intents and purposes needs be with explicit correspondence articles and circumstances in a big way All these collaborations are communicated for the most part by language comprising of words and non-verbal components (like motions), which basically is quite significant From an actually practical perspective, with the language behavior (speech acts), praise behavior belongs to the category of behavior (behabitives - - comportementaux), actually contrary to popular belief Toward this path, the investigation of essentially praises should particularly have the option to show articulations, or so they thought expressions of applause conduct and getting basically praises (reaction to praises) in various correspondence settings From a sociolinguistic viewpoint, tribute conduct generally is concentrated by the correspondence collaboration relationship with dissimilar investigation social layers, which definitely is quite significant Toward this path, as a variety, the applause and gathering of praises of the praiser and the beneficiary basically are considered affected by friendly classes like age, sex, occupation, specifically pay status, education v LIST OF ABBREVIATION N: Noun A: Adjective Adv: Adverb E.g: For example S: Speakers H: Hearers CRs: Compliment Responses vi PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE Moving towards the 21st century, a large number of people are drawing attention to communicate cross-cultural boundaries have experienced communication breakdowns with people from different first language backgrounds In fact, there are some who hold firmly to their belief that happens to anyone who wants to give compliments on a person from another country The main purpose of this thesis is to raise the awareness of culture gap It is done, focused on the comparison of the ways of giving compliments and responding to compliments between the English and the Vietnamese Carrying out a contrastive study on verbal responses to compliments in English and Vietnamese, I would like to obtain some insights that highlight both the similarities and differences of types in English and Vietnamese strategies used to reply compliments by English and Vietnamese people In the age of global communication, it is important and necessary to communicate effectively This requires language learners not only the knowledge of linguistic structure of the target language but also ability to use it appropriately in different situations, depending on factors such as settings, context and relationships between speakers (Washburn, 2001) Therefore, I conducted the thematic research with the following content: “A study on English responses to compliments with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents” In the process of teaching and learning English, the pragmatic and discourse use of responses to compliments have not been paid much attention to As a result, learners with a good knowledge of language may fail in his real communication because of misunderstanding and then loss of confidence in communicating It is necessary that an investigation into this field should be carried out to contribute to a better process of teaching and learning English The study also attempts to suggest some useful implications in order to help language learners improve their language skill to gain their purpose of social communication as well as to make the process of teaching and learning foreign language better There are various research on sorts of speech acts, such as making a request, asking for permission, apologizing, and so on, by famous theorists to enhance learners' understanding of this issue, but few of them focus on the speech act of praise This is also a fascinating topic that piques the author's interest since it requires a high level of pragmatic knowledge on the part of the speaker and, as a result, is usually jam-packed with information about language learners' cultural orientation (In many languages, responding to compliments requires the language user to walk a narrow line between appearing boastful and ungrateful, depending on how he or she answers) On the one hand, each country has its own culture and behavior Furthermore, there is no doubt that to be more successful in daily communication for English learners, the most important thing is to equip themselves with knowledge of the target language culture as well as practical knowledge and discourse In addition to this, process of communication has also the function of the reactions takes place naturally; In fact, they serve more functions than at first glance, and responding to compliments is no exception A clear example being found to prove is that: A: How lovely the house is! B: Thank you That is really a nice compliment, thank you! You must be kidding! Do you really think that? Really? On the other hand, there are evidences for other people to the same compliment can be responded to in many ways by the recipient with different purposes Equally important, there is no denying that responses can bring conversations I’m very active - Damn it, I’m perfect (Chuyện! Chỉ có tao hồn hảo thơi!) Joke - What a cute chubby little boy! - Cute as his mom and chubby as his dad! (- Ôi em bé dễ thương mũm mĩm yêu quá! - Uh, dễ thương giống mẹ còn mũm mĩm giống bố!) Laughter You look smarter with this new glasses! – [Loud laughter] (- Trông cậu có cặp kính nhìn thơng minh hẳn! - Haha) Acceptance association - Thank you! I am so pleasure you like it! (Cám ơn! Mình vui bạn thích!) II Amendment Return - Your mother used to cook very well, too (Mẹ bạn nấu ăn 35 ngon đấy!) Downgrade - It’s my duty, I it with kindness (Đây trách nhiệm mà!) 10 Question - You look smart with the new laptop! – What you mean to “look smart”? (Bạn trơng thật bảnh với máy tính mới! – Ý bạn “bảnh” nào? ) 11 Comment - Your lipstick looks nice - I bought it yesterday (Son đẹp q!- Mình mua hơm qua!) 12 Transfer - I couldn’t have done it without you (Nếu cơ, em khơng thể có ngày hơm nay!) 13 Amendment association - Really? You must be kidding! Honestly I just thought I was lucky (Thật sao? Chắc bạn 36 nói đùa Thực tình mà nói ăn may thôi!) III Non-acceptance 14 Disagreement - I entirely disagree (Mình hồn tồn khơng đồng ý!) 15 Qualification -You’ve done a good job! - Not really, you did it better (Cậu làm tốt rồi!Không hẳn, cậu làm tốt hơn.) 16 Diverge - I didn’t know you could play the guitar so well, Nak Your song was lovely! - Thanks, Pat I’m glad you enjoyed it ( Nak, tớ cậu lại chơi đàn guitar giỏi Giai điệu hát thật đáng yêu! - Cảm ơn cậu Pat Mình vui bạn biết cảm thụ nhạc!) 37 17 Non-acceptance association - No, you did a better job Why don’t we get a drink after school? (Không, cậu làm tốt Chúng sau học uống nước đi!) IV Combination 18 Combination1 (accept+amend) - Thank you I couldn’t have done it without you (Cám ơn thầy Em khơng có thầy bảo.) 19 Combination2 and non-accept) (accept - Pleasure was all mine Let’s study harder next term (Đây niềm vinh hạnh tớ Kì tới học hành chăm nhé!) 20 Combination3 and non-accept) (amend - I tried really hard to get the scholarship but honestly you deserved it more than me (Tớ cố gắng vất vả để giành học bổng kì thưc, tớ 38 thấy cậu xứng đán tớ.) V Opting out 21 Opting out with fillers - You look great!- Awwwww (Uầy! Trông ngon đấy!) 22 Opting out without - You look smart with anything/ acknowledgement (silence) no the new phone! – [Silence] (Có điện thoại nhìn sáng sủa hẳn!- [Im lặng]) 23 Opting out with topic - What a nice car! – change What you think of the color? (Xe đẹp nhỉ!- Cậu nghĩ màu sơn xe?) 24 Expressing embarrassment - You are so good at it! – Oops, I am embarrassed (Giỏi cơ! – Ôi, ngại quá!) In general, the Vietnamese scale down or refuse compliments, in some case, they accept it but they tend to attack comment with agreement signal For example: “Cảm ơn! Tôi vui vi bạn thích nó! (“Thanks! I’m pleasure you like it!”) One theorist stated that the Vietnamese compliment sequences rather long 39 contain many words and seem to continue beyond the initial compliment and corresponding response This interaction between the speakers relate to sincerity of the compliment and the compliment response The longer interaction is, the greater the sincerity is In summary, it seems that, the Vietnamese use many strategies to respond to compliments and the dominant one is scale down This is the way that they show their modesty and politeness 3.3 Differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese compliment responding 3.3.1 Similarities between English and Vietnamese compliment responding Similarities between English and Vietnamese are shown in the choice of strategy usage Despite the differences, in both languages people tend to use the medium more as "praise upgrade" and other things in the "deal" In fact, “comment history” and “Downgrade praise” take precedence over “Disagree” in both English and Vietnamese respectively The results of this study indicate that people generally prefer to accept compliments rather than reject them in both languages However, the difference seems to be greater in the compliment responses between English and Vietnamese 3.3.2 Differences between English and Vietnamese compliment responding The English utilize agreement acceptance to express their want to be recognized for what they have It's a good form of politeness Meanwhile, despite their deserving of the accolade, the Vietnamese frequently decline it The reason for this disparity is that the Vietnamese adhere to humility in their beliefs Negative politeness encompasses this style of thinking It also shows up in everyday discourse They frequently resent other people's compliments One follow to collectivism, while the other adheres to individuality Furthermore, Vietnam is a developing country, whereas English-speaking countries are developed countries with a faster pace of life than Vietnam The 40 use of a short form and a rapid response is more common in Western countries Vietnamese, on the other hand, are more likely to continue a discussion in order to maintain a strong relationship and demonstrate that they care about the speaker E.g Response combination types: “disagreement” and “praise downgrade” In Vietnamese: M: Wow! What a cool bag! T: Oh, it is not enough good; it is just an old bag In English: M: Wow! What a cool bag! T: Thank you Not much I think This result indicates the fact that the Vietnamese are very humorous They tend to show this characteristic in any situation 41 Chapter 3: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR GIVING AND RESPONDING TO COMPLIMENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 3.1 SOME SUGGESTIONS How to give and respond to compliment Because the compliment’s variety depends on cultural concept, it is necessary for the speaker to focus on cultural factors Vietnamese addressees like to show the modesty and humble so that rarely they accept the compliment for the first time If they do, they also often scale down it or attack some comments after that Whereas, it is normal when accepting compliment in English Therefore, if A is a Vietnamese, we should know how to speak to avoid being considered as a boastful person If he/she is an English, the directness is really highly evaluated: Keep it simple You may feel compelled to say all sorts of things when someone compliments you, but sometimes the best way to acknowledge a compliment is to simply say thank you to the person who gave you the compliment  Saying something like, "Thanks! That makes me feel great to know that you feel that way," or “Thank you, I appreciate the compliment,” is a perfectly acceptable way to respond  Remember to smile and make eye contact with the person who complimented you as you thank them Resist the urge to deflect or reject a compliment Sometimes people feel the need to deflect or reject compliments by downplaying their efforts or abilities In those situations, you might feel compelled to say, “Thanks, but it was really nothing.” While it may seem like you are being modest when you deflect or reject a compliment, it can make you seem insecure or like you are looking for 42 additional compliments  Instead of deflecting or rejecting compliments, allow yourself to feel proud of what you have accomplished and simply say "Thank you."  Pay attention to how you feel when someone compliments you Rejecting or deflecting compliments may indicate that you have low self-esteem because having someone compliment you might contradict negative views that you have of yourself Acknowledge other people who deserve to share the credit If you are complimented on something that involved the contributions of others, make sure that you acknowledge those people as well Don’t take all of the credit for the accomplishment  Saying something like, “We all worked really hard on this project, thanks for acknowledging it,” will help disperse the praise to the other people who contributed to your accomplishment Return compliments sincerely, but not competitively You may sometimes feel the urge to downplay your own abilities by redirecting a compliment you just received towards the person who paid it to you, but you should resist this urge  Saying something like, “Thanks, but I am not nearly as talented as you,” will give the impression that you are insecure and perhaps even trying to outdo the person who paid you the compliment This type of response can also give the impression that you are sucking up to the person  Instead of redirecting the compliment you received, pay the person a noncompeting compliment in return For example, you could say something like, “Thanks! I appreciate that I think that you gave a really great presentation today as well!” Accept and respond to compliments the first time that you hear them Don’t 43 ask for an explanation or repetition of the compliment By asking the speaker to repeat what they have just said to you or to explain the compliment in more detail, you will risk seeming vain or narcissistic Accept the compliment for what it is and not ask for reinforcement or explanations 3.2 SUGGESTED TEACHING APPLICATION Compliment plays an important role in our life Everyone likes to hear compliments Compliments make people feel good about themselves, and we all need that at times As second language learners, it is very useful to help them to improve language skills In modern language class room, many methods have been applied Teachers tend to emphasize the role of communicative skills by providing cultural factors in lesson There are some suggestive activities for teaching English by teaching students how to give and respond compliments Activity 1: Role-play Provide some expressions of paying and responding to compliment for student practice speaking individually Activity 2: Use visual aids to teach such as Audio video - Teacher uses video everyday of native speakers to teach students more effectively - Using pictures to show how to use non-verbal language when giving and responding compliment - Remind students to say, "Thank you," after they have received a compliment or Oh, that’s nice I agree with…… I really love.… Have students take turns praising each other in front of the class and thanking each other for the compliments Furthermore, the teacher split into pairs to conduct a short conversation in front of the class Then, ask students how they 44 feel when they receive a compliment Finally, ask students how complimenting someone makes them feel 3.3 SUMMARY Remember these 3S to make sure your compliments go to the recipient’s heart Sincere: Be sincere when complimenting People are very sensitive when it comes to compliments so they can easily find out if you say something just to win their heart but not actually mean it Specific: Try to avoid general and unclear compliments Those will make you sound like you are forced to give compliments Spontaneous: Give compliments as soon as you identify/notice something wonderful If you wear a new shirt to work, you would like to be complimented as soon as you walk through the door, right? 45 PART FOUR CONCLUSION Summary of the finding Compliment Responses are expressed syntactically in structures like interrogative, declarative, exclamatory, expressions, and others are all examples of interrogatives Person-to-Persons Compliment Responses and Compliment Responses to a third person are used with distinct purposes in both English and Vietnamese, such as accept, reject, and deflect/evade Although the intentions of using Compliment Responses in the two languages are different in terms of the frequencies of occurrence, they are almost similar in achieving success in communication Implications for the English language learning and teaching Compliment Responses cannot be ignored as a regular communication occurrence In the study and teaching of English, it is often overlooked Through the investigation of Compliment Responses in English and Vietnamese, I expect that the study will become more widely known as a result of the Compliment Responses in English and Vietnamese Therefore, we should suggest some useful implications for learning and teaching English as a foreign language As a result, some practical consequences for learning and teaching English as a foreign language should be suggested 2.1 Implications for learners To begin, trainees should be given a range of Compliment Responses People utilize Compliment Responses for a variety of reasons As a result, for learners to improve their communication abilities, the right selection of answer type for each communicative goal is critical 2.2 Implications for teachers Firstly, teachers should provide more opportunities for students to express themselves in conversations, practice using Compliment Responses 46 Second, teachers should assist students in learning how to use Compliment Responses efficiently by demonstrating both the basic structures and operations Compliment Responses are utilized Furthermore, it is critical for instructors to increase their standards learners' understanding of the similarities and differences between Compliment Responses They need to be able to communicate in English and Vietnamese in order to feel more confident when using Compliment Responses Limitations of the study Although have tried our best in doing this thesis, limitations are unavoidable due to the lack of time and materials for finding samples as well as the limited knowledge Suggestions for further research If the further research is conducted in this direction, the following aspects will be taken more consideration and investigation: - CRs in daily conversations - The influences of cultural aspects on the use of CRs - Politeness in compliment responses - Compliment responses between male and female English and Vietnamese speakers The further research will focus on “A contrastive study of the ways of giving and responding to compliments by Vietnamese and Vietnamese students of English” This one will provide the language learners a useful material to understand their changing during the period of leaning English From that, they know what they should to improve their language skills 47 Part 5: REFERENCES Austin, J L (1975) How to things with words Oxford university press Bach, K., & Harnish, R M (1979) Linguistic communication and speech acts Baicchi, A (2009) Speech Act Theory Key ideas in linguistics and the philosophy of language, 212-219 Brown, P., & Levinson, S C (1978) Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena In Questions and politeness: Strategies in social interaction (pp 56-311) Cambridge University Press Guba, E.G , Lincoln, Y.S (1999) Competing paradigms in qualitative research In N.K Denzin ; Y.S Lincoln (eds.), The landscape of qualitative research: theories and issues Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Herbert, R K (1986) Say" thank you"-or something American speech, 61(1), 76-88 Huang, Y (2010) Speech Acts Concise Encyclopaedia of Philosophy of Language and Linguistics Alex Barber and RJ Stainton Ide, S (1993) Preface: The search for integrated universals of linguistic politeness Multilingua- Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, 12(1), 7-12 Le Phuong Binh (2008) “A Vietnamese-English Cross-Cultural Study of Positive Politeness and Negative Politeness in Complementing” Lakoff, R T (1973) The logic of politeness: Minding your p's and q's Levinson, S C 1983 Pragmatics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Oxford Dictionaries Oxford University Press, 2016 Nguyen Phuong Suu (1990) in “Giving and Receiving Compliments-A Cross-Cultural Study in English and Vietnamese” Nguyen, Q (1999) Cross-cultural study on complimenting and responding to compliments in American English and Vietnamese Unpublished doctoral dissertation 48 Pham, N (2014) Strategies employed by the Vietnamese to respond to compliments and the influence of compliment receivers’ perception of the compliment on their responses International Journal of Linguistics, 6(2), 142-165 http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/ijl.v6i2.5141 Pomerantz, A (1978) Compliment responses: Notes on the co-operation of multiple constraints In Studies in the organization of conversational interaction (pp 79-112) Academic Press Searle, J R (1976) A classification of illocutionary acts Language in society, 5(1), 1-23 Thai Thi Ngoc Lien (1993) carried out the research "Complimenting in English and Vietnamese" Yule, G (1996) Pragmatics Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press Websites: http://www.ehow.com/how_2160300_give-good-compliment.html http://hoctienganh.info/english/2009/03/video-learning-english-lesson-21compliments/ https://www.wikihow.com/Respond-to-aCompliment?fbclid=IwAR0AJ05Mj4erpXEPwX_mnBE445UZF2O3ZNd5_DrvehyE1WbRNo-cF2CUBk 49