A vietnamese american cross cultural study of apologizing

HANOI I M M RSITV KMÌLISH DKPAKTMKNT • k ifk NGUYỄN KIM l ) l \ ( ỉ A VIETNAMESE - AMERICAN CROSS - C U LTU R A L STUDY OF APOLOGIZING SUBMITTED IN TOTAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS S u p e rv is o r: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYKN QUANG - H a n o i, M a rc h 200H - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First an d fo re m o st I w ould like to e xp ress my deepest gratitu de to A sso c.P rof.D r N g u y e n Q u a n g I a m blessed to h av e k n o w n him an d to have been a ccepted as his stud ent in this M A c o u rsew o rk prog ram A s a teacher, an advisor, and a m entor, he is m y s tro n g e st a d v o c a te , w h o e m b o d ie s the definitio n o f w isdom and intellect M y p ro fessio n al d e v e lo p m e n t has been g ro w in g increasingly with his p reciou s g u id a n c e a n d c o n tin u o u s m otivation My sin c e re th a n k s g o to m y teach ers at H anoi U niv ersity for th e ir lectures w h ic h enlig h te n ed th e a rg u m e n ts in m y study, esp ecially Ms N g u y e n Thai Ha and Mr L.e T h a n h D zung, M A for in sp irin g m e first ideas to d o the research a n d offering v aluab le c o m m e n ts on m y th e sis p ro p osal I owe m y grandparents an d m y brother immense gratitude for their whole -hearted encouragement and endless support without which I would not have accomplished m y study w o u ld also like to e x te n d a special sho u t-o u t to all the research participants for th e ir valu ab le o p in io n s a n d id eas o n the questionnaires Finally, I s h o u ld a c k n o w le d g e m y in debtedn ess to all o f m y friends, especially M s H o a n g S o n g Flang, M s I o r a L a n tis , M s N g u y e n M a i L ie u a n d M r N g u y e n X u a n H o n g for g iv ing m e g re a t s u p p o rt a n d p re c io u s help w ith the m aterial collecting W hile I am d e e p ly indebted to all o f these people for their help with my com pletion o f this thesis, I m y s e l f rem ain responsible for any inadequacies that are found in this work H anoi, O cto ber, 0 Nguyen Kim Dung ABSTRACT This thesis fo cu ses on interactive cro ss-cultural p rag m atics and is a im e d at pointing out sim ilarities an d differences in linguistic m ean s used to ap olo g iz e in the V ietn am ese an d A m e ric a n cultures w ith focus o n the categorical d im en sio n s o f D irectness - In d irec tn e ss an d Positive politeness - N eg ativ e politeness T h e data collection a n d a n a ly s is o f both V ie tn am ese an d A m e ric a n info rm ants reveal that D or ID is largely a ffe cted by th e in fo rm an ts’ p a m ete rs such as age gender, occupation, marital status, living a re a and acq uisitio n o f foreign languages H o w ev e r, the A m erican in fo rm a n ts te n d to be m uch m o re direct than the V ie tn am ese inform ants B oth V ie tn a m e s e a n d A m e ric a n in fo n n a n ts show th e ir p reference for the following p o sitiv e p o lite n e ss strategies: N otice, attend to H ( H 's interests, w ants, needs); A void d isag ree m e n t; A sse rt o r p re su p p o se S ’s k n o w le d g e o f o r c o n c e rn for H ’s wants; Exaggerate an d n e g a tiv e politeness strategies: Be pessim istic; M in im iz e the im position; A p o lo g iz e T h e y have no m uch d iffe re n c e a b ou t th e c h o ice o f positive and n eg ativ e p o lite n e ss s tra teg ies As such, the findings o f th e study p ro v e that apologizing w ith various s tra teg ies o f positive and ne g ativ e po liteness and different d e g ic c s o f d irectn ess-in d irectn ess is a sensitive an d so p h istica te d c o m m u n ic a tiv e act in both A m erican and V ie tn a m e s e cultures since ap o lo g iz in g m eans a d m ittin g o ne's ow n failure or guilt A p o lo g ie s sh o w that a perso n tak es resp on sib ility an d a v o id s blam ing others T h e findings a lso confirm that p e rfo rm a n c e o f ap o lo g iz in g is cultural-specific and reflective o f so cia l values TABLE OF CONTENTS A cknow ledgem ents i A b stract ii Table o f c o n ten ts in List of figures vi List o f t a b l e s i.x A bbreviations x CHAPTER IN T R O D U C T IO N 1.1 Problem statement and background to the s t u d y 1.2 A im s o f the s tu d y 1.3 Scope o f the s t u d y 1.4 Significance o f the s tu d y .7 1.5 Organization o f the s tu d y CHAPTER T H E O R E T IC A L P R E L IM IN A R IE S 2.1 Speech a c t s 2.1.1 Background o f speech a c ts 2.1.2 Apologizing as a speech a c t 12 ¿.2 Directness and Indirectness in c o m m u n ic a tio n 14 2.3 Factors influencing the use o f directness and indirectness in hum an interaction 16 2.4 Politeness and face w o rk .17 2.5 Social v a ria b le s 19 2.6 Positive and negative po liten ess .20 2.6.1 Positive P o liten ess 20 2.5.1.1 Positive Politeness d e fin e d 20 2.6.1.2 Positive Politeness stra teg ies 20 2.6.2 Negative P o lite n e s s 27 2.6.2.1 Negative Politeness d e fin e d 27 2.6 2.2 Negative Politeness strategies 27 CHAPTER M ETHODOLOGY 3.1 Research q u e stio n s 33 3.2 Methods o f the study 33 3.3 R esearch d e s i g n 33 3 M ethods o j col/i'c tiiiiỉ linguistic in p u t ?3 3.3.2 V ariables m anipulated in data collection instrum ents 34 J J The content o f the (fiU'stioniHiire 34 J.3.4 Coniuicnls oil rlic informants (>l llie su rv e y 36 3.3.5 C om m ents on ¡lie survey q uestionn aire 37 3.3.5.1 Aim s o f the s u n ey questionnaire / 37 3.3.5.2 Aim s o f the su irey questionnaire 38 J Procedure 38 C H A P T E R D A T A A N A L Y S IS A N D F IN D IN G S 4.1 The Advisablity o f A polo gizin g 39 4.1.1 Vietnam ese fin d in g s 40 4.1.2 English fin d in g s 51 4.1 M ajor C ross- C ultural Sim ilarities and D ifferences .60 4.2 Use o f D irectness and Indirectness as seen from com m unicating partners’ p aram eters 67 4.2.1 Vietnam ese fin d in g s 61 4.2.2 English fin d in g s 6H 4.2.3 M ajor C ross-C ultural Sim ilarities and D iffe re n c e s 69 4.3 Use o f D irectness and Indirectness as seen from inform ants' p aram eters 70 4.3.1 Vietnam ese fỉiưUiií>s 70 English fin d in g s 72 4.3.3 M ajor C ross- C ultural Sim ilarities and D ifferences 73 4.4 Concluding r e m a r k s 74 4.5 Positive politeness strategies in apologizing as seen from com m unicative p a rtn e rs 'p a m e te r s 74 4.5.1 Data a n a lysis 74 4.5.2 Vietnam ese J h u im x s 78 4.5.3 English fin d in g s 79 4.5.4 M ajor Cross Cnllitral Sim ilarities and D ifferences .79 4.6 Positive politeness strategies in apologizing as seen from in fo rm an ts'p aram e te rs 80 iv -//> / />