Hành động ngôn từ xin lỗi và hồi đáp trong hội thoại tiếng anh và tiếng việt ttta

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES NGÔ THỊ HIỀN TRANG APOLOGIES AND RESPONSES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE CONVERSATIONS Major: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Code: 922.02.01 DOCTORAL THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES (A SUMMARY) Da Nang, 2023 This thesis has been completed at University of Foreign Language Studies, The University of Da Nang Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr.Lưu Quý Khương Examiner 1: PGS.TS Phạm Thị Hồng Nhung Examiner 2: PGS.TS Nguyễn Tất Thắng Examiner 3: TS Võ Duy Đức The thesis was orally defended at the Examining Committee Major: The English Language Time: Venue: University of Foreign Language Studies - The University of Da Nang This thesis is available for the purpose of reference at: - Center for Information Technology and Learning Resources, University of Foreign Language Studies – The University of Da Nang - The University of Da Nang – Center for Learning Information Resources and Communication - National Library of Viet Nam ABSTRACT Whenever an apology is made, interlocutors expect a return act of making responses These pragmatic acts of apologizing and responding to apologies are common activities in communication among interlocutors because using only either of these two crucial speech acts can hardly establish fully effective communication This doctoral thesis aims not only to investigate the pragmatic acts of apology and response strategies in English and Vietnamese film conversations in terms of gender and power; but also to analyze the similarities and differences of apology and response strategies in both languages The theoretical framework of this study was specified in the light of sociopragmatics That is, the conversation analysis by Schegloff (2007), pragmatic act theory by Mey (2006, 2013), the apology strategy taxonomy by Trosborg (2011), the response strategy taxonomy by Holmes (1990, 1995), and the direct and indirect speech act theory by Searle (1975) were employed to achieve the aims This study took a qualitative descriptive and contrastive design with the support of quantitative information It collected data from conversations extracted from socio-psychological film scripts and subtitles in English and Vietnamese which were released from 2015 to 2020 The results revealed the exchanges of apology and response strategies in terms of the influences of gender and power in each language This thesis also showed that two languages shared the similarities and differentiate both languages The thesis is hoped to make a contribution to the field of linguistics since it uncovered exchanges of a pair of speech acts of apologies and responses It also extended the apology taxonomy by Trosborg (2011) by adding mixed apology strategy and response taxonomy by Holmes (1990, 1995) with ironic acceptance, refusal plus, unsatisfied questions, direct apologizing and mixed apology response strategy The findings also provided practical assistance to learners of English and Vietnamese as foreign languages CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale People need to contact and exchange information with each other; in other words, people need to communicate When we make a mistake or hurt others unintentionally or deliberately, we apologize for hurting the apologizees However, in order to achieve successful communication, people are required to understand the apologies that the apologizers make and know how to respond appropriately If there is no response to the apologies, the communication is not considered to be fully accomplished Since a conversation contains utterances among speakers and listeners which means there is an interpersonal relationship, pragmatic act is employed to set light to this thesis The reasons why this thesis was conducted are due to the fact that there seemed very few previous studies investigating response strategies separately, the pragmatic acts of apology and response strategies in the light of sociopragmatics, and how gender and social power impacted the apology and response strategies used by the characters in film conversations Additionally, most previous studies depended on a DCT; by contrast, this thesis took advantage of the film transcript as a source of data, and adopted a qualitative method with the support of quantitative information Therefore, the doctoral thesis entitled “Apologies and Responses in English and Vietnamese Conversation” is chosen as the topic of my research 1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Study This study aims to discover the pragmatic acts of apology and response strategies in English and Vietnamese film conversations, especially those under the influences of gender and power; and to point out the similarities and differences of apology and response strategies in both languages To achieve the above aims of the research, the following objectives are set: - to discover apology and response strategies in English film conversations, especially those under the influences of gender and power; - to identify apology and response strategies in Vietnamese film conversations, especially those under the influences of gender and power; - to analyze similarities and differences in apology and response strategies in English and Vietnamese film conversations, especially those under the influences of gender and power 1.3 Scope of the Study Initially, the thesis based on theoretical foundations of sociopragmatics including Mey (2006, 2013)’s pragmatic acts, Schegloff (1974)’ adjacency pairs of speech or pragmatic acts of apologies and responses, Searle (1975)’s direct and indirect speech act, Hall (1997) and Hofstede (2011)’s cultural dimensions, Trosborg’s (2011) apology taxonomy, and Holmes’s (1990, 1995) apology response taxonomy The conceptual framework was then developed from these theoretical foundations to conduct this thesis Secondly, apology can be performed in verbal and non-verbal communication in order to express the repentance of speakers However, in this thesis, focus is laid on verbal apologies and apology responses only Both direct and indirect apology and response strategies used in film conversations in English and Vietnamese were both focused on In the third place, even though social variables include education, age, region, occupation, gender, and power, this thesis took into account the last two variables which are gender and power Gender in this thesis was biologically understood to include male and female The pairs of apologies and responses were used in conversations among male and male, male and female, female and female, and female and male In terms of power among the characters in film conversations, it was assigned three values between apologizers and apologizees: higher power apologizers, lower power apologizers, and equal power apologizers Furthermore, exchanges of adjacency pairs of apology and apology response consisted of minimal adjacency pairs of apology and apology response strategies for analysis Regarding the dominant research design, this thesis was a descriptive contrastive study using the qualitative method with the support of quantitative information Additionally, the conversations were extracted from sociopsychological film scripts and subtitles in both languages These socio-psychological films have been produced since 2015 to represent the most updated ways of using apology and response strategies and keep up with the tendency of communication The number of socio-psychological films in English and Vietnamese were 46 and 43, respectively; in particular, the English films which were created and released in the United States of America where English is spoken as a first language 1.4 Contributions of the Study This study can, to some extent, make some contributions to knowledge from the theoretical and practical perspectives Initially, regarding the contribution to linguistics, this doctoral thesis combined and connected the two single speech acts namely apologizing and responding into the pragmatic acts Either the speech act of apologizing or the speech act of responding which was developed by Austin (1962) and Searle (1969) has been widely investigated in different languages These studies focused on the single speech act or conventional speech act According to Austin (1962) and Searle (1969), the act of apologizing occurred after the speakers violated, offended, or hurt the hearers Whereas, the act of apology responding was accomplished when the hearer accepted or rejected the apologies As opposed to the conventional speech acts, in daily life communication, that the act of apologizing is done does not mean the speakers have done the violating action to the hearers The speakers, for instance, may apologize since they have to take responsibilities as those who have higher powers, or they as males want to appease their female partners in romantic relationships Therefore, there was a shift from single speech acts into a pair of speech acts, or from conventional speech acts into pragmatic acts under the umbrella of sociopragmatics to clarify the interpersonal relationship among interlocutors when apologizing and responding to apologies in this thesis In particular, depending on the contexts, interlocutors take advantage of different apology and response strategies The investigation into the pragmatic acts of apology and response strategies in the light of sociopragmatics is expected to contribute to the field of linguistics A detailed description of what kinds of apology strategies and response strategies to apologies in terms of gender and power in English and Vietnamese in particular contexts are discovered A full analysis of the similarities and differences of apologies and their responses in both language in terms of gender and power would depict a more comprehensive picture of the pragmatic act of apology and response strategies Concerning practical significance, in daily-life communication, whenever the speakers apologize, they hope to be responded whether the hearers accept or reject their apologies Depending on different contexts that the interlocutors involve, gender, and power, the hearers make use appropriate apology response strategies to reply apology strategies Additionally, with the aim to analyze the similarities and differences of apologies, apology strategies, and responses to apologies in terms of gender and power in English and Vietnamese, the study provides learners of English and Vietnamese with intercultural knowledge and a comprehensive understanding of apologies and apology-related issues in the two languages, which help them to give appropriate apologies in communicating with local speakers and with either English or Vietnamese In addition, it suggests some ideas for either Vietnamese teachers of English or English teachers to give apologies to Vietnamese learners of English, and for either Vietnamese learners of English or learners of Vietnamese to give apologies to Vietnamese teachers of English and English teachers To put another way, the thesis is intended to provide an insight into a fascinating aspect found especially in Vietnamese as well as make a modest contribution to language classroom management to better the relationship between teachers and learners The results of the thesis have certain practical values in explaining the effective use of apologies and their responses in English and Vietnamese for better social language interactions 1.5 DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS Some key terms are defined differently by different scholars; nonetheless, in this thesis, the ones below defined by the researcher are employed These glosses are thus consistent with the aims and context of the thesis: (i) Apologizer is the one who apologizes and causes the act of apologizing (ii) Apologizee is to whom the apology is made and is attached to the act of apologizing, or the recipient of the apologies (iii) Apologizing is a speech act to remedize the social relationship among the apologizers and the apologizees verbally (iv) Apology responding as a speech act of reacting to the act of apologizing verbally (v) Apologizing and responding in conversations are considered to a pair of speech acts or a pragmatic act where there is an interpersonal relationship among apologizers and apologizees (vi) Strategies are the techniques which are chosen for interpersonal communication by the apologizers and apologizees depending on two social variables namely gender and power CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEWAND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Previous Studies Related to Apologies and Responses Looking into apology and response strategies, these studies have some gaps as follows: These previous studies focused more on direct apology strategies This thesis investigated both direct and indirect apology strategies There have been studies related to response strategies to other speech acts; however, there seemed few research studies on response strategies to apologies recorded This thesis examined response strategies to apologies Regarding research of a pair of speech acts, there was one study in Vietnamese which investigated the pragmatic act of asking for permissions and responses by Nguyen (2016) Not many research studies on the pragmatic acts of apology and response strategies were found due to the time limit and the incompleteness of the researcher’s research competence This thesis, hence, focused on the apology and response strategies as a pair of speech act or pragmatic acts Most previous studies depended on a DCT This thesis collected data from socio-psychological film conversations in both languages Many previous studies on pragmatics, cross-cultural, intercultural, and interlanguage have been conducted; however, very few studies under the umbrella of sociopragmatics on the apology and response strategies were found This research examined how gender and power impacted the apology and response strategies used by the characters in film conversations 2.2 Theoretical Background 2.2.1 Sociopragmatics in Speech Acts Under the influence of these factors, the speaker can choose different strategies to apologize and respond to apologies In the scope of this thesis, two social variables including gender, and social power are the focuses for the research to investigate into 2.2.2 Conversation and Film Conversation The definition of Finegan et al (1994) about the conversation to some extent suits the aims of this thesis the most Finegan et al (1994) define a conversation as a series of speech acts, including greetings, questions, congrats, remarks, invites, requests, and apologies, to carry out their functions We alternate speaking turns, respond to inquiries, announce the start and end of conversations, and correct mistakes as necessary 2.2.3 Exchange in Adjacency Pair of Speech Acts In conversation analysis, every speech act needs response and adjacency pair in this thesis is response Response utterances occur when the H responds to the S According to Nguyen (1998, 2008), Nguyen (2001), and Nguyen (2002), the function of responding speech act is regarded as an illocutionary act of response utterances Responses can be divided into two groups: positive response and negative response 2.2.4 Speech Act and Pragmatic Act Theory This section of speech act would be discussed since the act of apologizing and apology responding belong to the speech act theory; however, the limitation of speech act is that this theory focuses only on the speaker’s act This thesis aims to investigate the sociopragmatic features of apology and response strategies in English and Vietnamese conversations where there is interaction or interpersonal relationship between speakers and hearers Therefore, the pragmatic act theory was resorted to as one of the theoretical frameworks to achieve the research aim 2.2.5 Language and Culture This thesis builds on the interaction between English and Vietnamese cultures and for the analysis of speech acts of apologies and responses The discussion of the findings later on in this thesis is based on the high and low context cultures developed by Hall (1997); the two dimensions of Hofstede (2011) namely individualism and collectivism, as well as masculinity and femininity 2.2.6 Conceptual Framework of the Study This chapter discussed the theoretical framework of the whole thesis It was specified to be under the umbrella of sociopragmatics 19 No, I’m sorry, I can’t/ couldn’t 34 42 I’m sorry that I can’t forgive you Mixed apology responses 58 13 64 Rất tiếc, bỏ qua Vâng, chuyện nhỏ ý mà Oh, yeah It doesn’t matter, you know Dạ, khơng có chi mơ Xin lỗi, khơng có chuyện tơi tha lỗi cho anh 361 10 TOTAL 425 100 One more pattern added was mixed apology responses since the apologizees combined both positive and negative responses It could be the combination between direct and indirect positive repsonses, or direct and indirect negative responses Moreover, both English and Vietnamese people prefered using direct positve responses Direct positive responses were used if the apologizees wanted to accept the apologies from the apologizers explicitly 6.1.1.3 Exchanges of Apology and Response Strategies Even if utterances of apologies and responses are distinctive in terms of patterns and lexico-grammatical realizations, the purposes of apologizing and responding acts in English and Vietnamese are not different The apologizers apologized and expected a positive response from the apologizees to forgive mistakes that the apologizers had made or were about to A glance at the frequency of exchanges of apology and response strategies in English and Vietnamese film conversations in Figure 6.3, another similarity is that in a pragmatic act, each apology strategy could match with three different apology response strategies in different frequencies Specifically, apologizers could initiate the exchanges or adjacency pairs with either direct strategies, or indirect strategies, or 20 mixed apology strategies and close the exchanges with either direct response strategies, or indirect response strategies, or mixed response strategies Both languages experienced the popularity of four pragmatic act exchanges encompassing exchange 1, 2, 4, and Exchange 3, 6, 7, and were, on the other hand, listed at the bottom use It is also noticeable that there was a similarity in the occurrence of exchange in both language Exchanges of apology and response strategies 35 30 25 20 15 10 English Vietnamese Figure 6.3 Exchanges of apology and response strategies in English and Vietnamese film conversations 6.1.2 Similarities in Gender Influences on Apology and Response Strategies in Film Conversations 6.1.2.1 Gender Influences on Apology Strategies In the first place, males in both languages tended to initiate the adjacency pairs by using apology strategies lower than female This result coincided with the findings of the study which was carried out by Holmes (1995) concluding that female employed apology strategies by initiating the exchanges among apologizing and responding more than male Therefore, female had a tendency to apologize more than the counterpart Moreover, apology strategies in macro types were used with different proportion among male and 21 female However, there was a tendency that male apologized directly more than women; whereas, women tended to apologize in indirect ways more than men Males in both languages did not prefer using mixed apology strategies which was lower than females 6.1.2.2 Gender Influences on Response Strategies The first similar feature could be that male also had a lower proportion of responding to apologies compared to the opposite sex Therefore, female responded to apologies more than men It could be understood that the exchanges of pragmatic acts of apologizing and responding among women were more than those among men in both languages As regard to the distribution of both genders in apology response strategies, women rejected apologies more than men; however, they accepted apologies moderately lower than their male counterparts Along with acceptance, evasion by female was the only other one in apology response strategy taxonomy proposed by Homes (1990, 1995) which had lower percentage than male In both languages, females used indirect response strategies and mixed apology response strategy more than males eventhough the latter was the least frequently used by both sexes 6.1.2.3 Gender Influences on Exchanges of Apology and Response Strategies Both genders had a tendency to use the exchange 1, 2, 4, and most frequently, and exchange 6, the least with their same gender Another similarity is that male did not use exchange with the same gender in both languages With respect to mixed-gender interactions, exchanges 1, 2, 4, and were also on top most frequently used exchanges across gender interactions; by contrast, the least used belonged to exchanges 3, 6, 7, and Exchange was on the top use of M-F in both languages There was also no record in the use of exchange in M-F interaction which seemed that male did not like to exploit mixed apology strategies to female Among same gender interactions, F-F apology exchanges were more frequent than 22 M-M apology exchanges while in mixed-gender interactions, M-F apology exchanges outnumbered F-M apology exchanges 6.1.3 Similarities in Power Influences on Apology and Response Strategies 6.1.3.1 Power Influences on Apology Strategies The social power in this thesis as stated in the scope was categorized into three groups namely people of a higher power apologizer to a lower power apologizee (H-L), a lower power apologizer to a higher power apologizee (L-H), and equal power apologizer and apologizee (E-E) It is noticeable that higher, lower, and equal power exhibited different distribution patterns of apology strategies in both languages Additionally, people with higher power tended to apologize the least By contrast, those with lower power had a tendency to apologize most frequently Higher power apologizers in both languages did not prefer using direct strategies to apologize to lower power apologizees 6.1.3.2 Power Influences on Exchanges of Apology and Response Strategies In general, in all interactions among H-L, L-H, or E-E, female apologized to female more than to male Conversely, male apologized to each other less frequently than male apologize to female Apology exchanges among H-L were not as frequent as those employed among L-H and E-E, to be specific, listed the least On the other hand, E-E seemed to make apology exchanges the most 6.2 Differences in Apology and Response in English and Vietnamese Film Conversations 6.2.1 Differences in Apology and Response Strategies 6.2.1.1 Direct and Indirect Apology Strategies Indirect strategies were used the most in English Direct strategies, on the other hand, were on the top use in Vietnamese The differentiation between direct strategies and indirect strategies in 23 English was significant while it was minimal in Vietnamese In further depth, even though indirect strategies were used more than direct strategies in English, it was expression of regret in direct strategies witnessing the highest occurrence in film conversations In direct strategies, English tended to use request for forgiveness more than offer of apology; however, it was contradict in Vietnamese As for indirect strategies, acknowledgment of responsibility was utilized the most in English while it was remedial support in Vietnamese With reference to lexicogrammatical realizations of utterances containing direct apology strategies, there were 21 separate patterns in English while only 14 patterns were identified in Vietnamese conversations To make it specific, there was no record of patterns 4, 8, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 in Vietnamese; however, pattern 22 appeared in Vietnamese but it did not in English Another difference was that English and Vietnamese used patterns of lexicogrammatical realizations at different types and occurrence 6.2.1.2 Direct and Indirect Response Strategies One more apology response strategies based on the data collection in English was found and named mixed apology response strategy However, in Vietnamese, some more apology response strategies were brought to light and added into the apology response taxonomy developed by Holmes (1990, 1995) which were entitled ironic acceptance, refusal plus, unsatisfied questions, direct apologizing and mixed apology response strategy The first subcategories belonged to direct response strategies When looked into with greater insight, English tended to reject more than Vietnamese as regards direct response strategies Concerning indirect response strategies, Vietnamese used evasion the most while acknowledgement was utilized most by English 6.2.1.3 Exchanges of Apology and Response Strategies In general, there were exchanges of apology and response strategies in Vietnamese while English used only exchanges since 24 there was no record of exchange Exchange was the most employed exchange in English while Exchange was mostfrequently used in Vietnamese In further depth, there was little differentiation among the top of exchange and the three highest exchanges of exchange 2, 4, and in Vietnamese In contrast, exchange experienced a huge imbalance among top in English 6.2.2 Differences in Gender Influences on Apology and Response Strategies 6.2.2.1 Gender Influences on Apology Strategies In English, together with direct strategies, remedial strategies by female were the only other one in apology strategy taxonomy proposed by Trosborg (2011) which had lower percentage than male On the other hand, in Vietnamese, together with direct strategies, males’ evasive strategies were the only one left with a higher percentage than females The remaining strategies of males including opting out, remedial strategies, and mixed apology strategies were all lower than those of females Even though male had a tendency to apologize directly more than female in both languages, the differentiation among two genders in English was remarkable but modest in Vietnamese Conversely, female took advantage of indirect apology strategies more than their opposite sex in both languages, the disparity in the use of this strategy among two genders in Vietnamese was tremendous while it was insignificant in English The new type of mixed apology strategies by female occupied higher proportion than male; however, this strategy was employed the least by both genders in English 6.2.2.2 Gender Influences on Response Strategies Female employed direct response strategies more than male in English but it was contradict in Vietnamese Related to mixed apology response strategy, females in both languages used more than males and this inequality was far more noticebale in Vietnamese as opposed to English On the other hand, in Vietnamese, this apology 25 strategy was employed the least by males but the strategy of acknowledgement was the least-frequently used 6.2.2.3 Gender Influences on Exchanges of Apology and Response Strategies As for same gender interactions, exchange 3, 7, and saw no record in the interactions among males in English whereas there were and in Vietnamese There was the use of exchange [mixed strategies - mixed response strategies] among females in Vietnamese but not in English No record in exchange was reported among F-M in English but there was in Vietnamese The top exchange among F-M was exchange in English and exchange in Vietnamese 6.2.3 Differences in Power Influences on Apology and Response Strategies 6.2.3.1 Power Influences on Apology Strategies In English, higher power apologizers, lower, and equal ones tended to use indirect strategies the most, followed by direct strategies The imbalance in using these two apology strategies by higher power apologizers was much more significant than by lower power ones In Vietnamese, higher power apologizers, lower, and equal ones, on the other hand, had a tendency to utilize direct strategies the most, followed by indirect strategies What stands out from Figure 6.7 is that the inequality among three kinds of powers in using direct strategies and indirect strategies seemed inconsiderable There is a possibility that lower and higher power apologizers in English tended to be opposite in exploting direct and indirect strategies as opposed to those in Vietnamese.There was no record of mixed apology strategies in higher power apologizers in English but there had in Vietnamese The occurrence of this apology strategy was tiny Lower power apologizers made use of mixed apology strategies the most compared to other two kinds of power It is also clear that the disparity among lower and equal power 26 apologizers was more outstanding in English than in Vietnamese 6.2.3.2 Power Influences on Exchanges of Apology and Response Strategies Women seemed to use exchanges more than men did to those with both equal and lower power However, it was not in L-H interactions since male tended to use apology exchanges more than female in Vietnamese In English, female utilized apology exchanges more than their counterpart in all kinds of interactions where the apologizers were higher, lower, or equal to the apologizees Even though apology exchanges were made among E-E interactions the most in both languages, the disparity among E-E and L-H in English was slight but was remarkable in Vietnamese CHAPTER SEVEN CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 7.1 Conclusion This doctoral thesis draws some conclusions as follows In daily life, people perform many kinds of pragmatic acts, in which the combination of apologizing and apology responding is an example of pragmatic acts However, the way of apologizing and apology responding is influenced by gender, power, and culture of the apologizers and apologizees To apologize someone for the offence, both English and Vietnamese make use three types of apology strategies including direct strategies, indirect strategies, and mixed apology strategy The first two which are in line with the apology strategy taxonomy developed by Trosborg (2011) where direct strategies involve expression of regret, offer of apology, and request for forgiveness; and indirect strategies contain acknowledgment of responsibility, explanation or account, evasive strategies, opting out, and remedial support Besides, the thesis has detected one new apology strategy which can be added to the adopted apology strategy taxonomy and 27 named it mixed apology strategy Of the three apology strategies, direct strategies are the only one using performative markers of apologies; whereas, the others not In mixed apology strategy, performative markers of apologies can also appear in case the apologizers make use of direct strategies together with some other apology strategies The thesis has described the patterns and lexicogrammatical realizations of apology utterances based on performative expressions as the core components In English, the performative expressions include performative expressions namely afraid, apologise, apology, excuse, forgive, pardon, regret and sorry; whereas, in Vietnamese there exist performative expressions including xin lỗi, tiếc, lấy làm tiếc, hối hận, tha lỗi, tha thứ, thứ lỗi, thứ tha and lỗi Different performative expressions have their different frequencies, be sorry is used the most in English while Vietnamese utilize xin lỗi most frequently Eventhough each language has its own performative expressions, they both aim to apologize for the offence they make In the response to apologies, both English and Vietnamese can make use three types of apology response strategies which are in line with the apology response strategy taxonomy developed by Holmes (1990, 1995), and the direct and indirect speech act by Searle (1975) This adopted ARS taxonomy comprises of two sepatate groups embracing direct response strategies (acceptance and acknowledgement and indirect response strategies (evasion and rejection) Besides, some new apology response strategies were also discovered and named ironic acceptance, refusal plus, unsatisfied questions, direct apologizing, and mixed apology response strategy Related to direct and indirect apology responses, each language uses different lexico-grammatical realizations Direct positive responses include yes, OK, okey, alright, and it’s alright in English and vâng, dạ, đồng ý, and in Vietnamese The 28 apologizers employ indirect positive responses including never mind, no problem, it’s nothing, not at all in English and không sao, gì, khơng chi mơ, and chuyện nhỏ in Vietnamese Direct negative responses included no, I can’t, I will not, I can’t forgive you in English and không, không đời nào, không bao giờ, không bỏ qua, and in Vietnamese Indirect negative responses may comprise of sorry or I’m sorry in English and xin lỗi or tiếc in Vietnamese The pragmatic act of apologizing and apology responding receive exchanges of the initating and closing acts In total, and exchanges of apology and response strategies are identified in English and Vietnamese, respectively Vietnamese has one more adjacency pair since it witnesses the occurrence of mixed apology strategies as the initiating act and mixed apology response strategy as the closing act; whereas, there is not this combination in English In terms of gender, males tended to initiate the adjacency pairs by using apology strategies fewer than female There was a tendency that male apologized directly more than women; whereas, women tended to apologize in indirect ways more than men As regard to the distribution of both genders in apology response strategies, women rejected apologies more than men; however, they accepted apologies moderately fewer than their male counterparts Female apologized to female more often than male in all exchanges between H-L, L-H, or E-E Males apologized to each other less frequently than they did to women, on the other hand Exchanges of apologies between H-L were less frequent than those between L-H and E-E, which were specifically mentioned as the least frequent E-E, on the other hand, seemed to engage in these exchanges of regret the most As for social power; higher, lower, and equal apologizers exhibited different distribution exchanges of apology strategies and apology response strategies in both languages Additionally, people 29 with higher status tended to apologize the least By contrast, those with lower status had a tendency to apologize most frequently Those with higher status tended to respond to apologies the least Those with lower status, on the other hand, were more likely to repond to apologies than those with higher status In adition, lower status accepted the apologies more frequently compared to rejection; whereas, the higher status rejected the apologies more often than they accepted 10 Women appeared to employ apology exchanges with people of equal and lower power more frequently than male did Although men tended to employ apology exchanges more than women in Vietnamese, it was not in L-H interactions In all types of apology exchanges where the apologizers were higher, lower, or equal to the apologizees, female in English used apology exchanges more frequently than their male counterparts Even when E-E interactions involved apology exchanges the most in both languages, there was little difference between E-E and L-H in English but a notable difference in Vietnamese 11 The analysis of this pragmatic act in two languages in terms of sociopragmatics shows the similarities in both English and Vietnamese in section 6.1.4, but considerable differences exist in the two languages as described in section 6.2.4 7.2 Implications 7.2.1 English Language Research Implications For language research, the results of this research make a tiny contribution to English and Vietnamese languages with the addition of one apology strategy into the AS taxonomy by Trosborg (2011) entitled mixed apology strategy This apology strategy appear when the apologizers integrate several apology strategies when expressing apologies Related to apology response strategies in Vietnamese, the researcher discovered some more apology response strategies added into the apology response taxonomy proposed by Holmes (1995) which are dubbed ironic acceptance, refusal plus, 30 unsatisfied questions, direct apologizing and mixed apology response strategy Many researchers investigated apologizing and apology responding as two different single speech act, the researcher however considered them in a pragmatic act since a conversation contains utterances among apologizers and apologizees which means there is an interpersonal relationship among them, the pragmatic act was employed to set light to this thesis The exchanges consisting of the pragmatic act of apologizing and apology responding could possibly be a new adding point compared to other previous study related to apology 7.2.2 Communication Implications Deciphering the intended meaning of a particular single speech act is far from simple In many circumstances, the apologizee is unable to determine or misunderstand the intention of the apologizer; therefore, it can result in breakdowns in daily -life communication This doctoral thesis provides students with knowledge of speech act and pragmatic act theory to improve their awareness of linguistic communication because much of a person's social life is concerned with the pragmatic act of apologizing and apology responding It also introduces the exchanges of apology and apology response patterns through real-life communication contexts through conversations because a single utterance can have different communicative functions in different contexts 7.2.3 Pedagogical Implications Initially, L2 learners must become more conscious of the types of exchanges which include apology and response strategies they already have in their L1, hence they can utilize them to master linguistic structures and social conventions in the L2 Besides, it provides students with the patterns and lexicogrammatical realizations of apology and apology response utterances in English and Vietnamese associated with two direct and indirect axes so that they can choose an apology or apology response statements in specific communication contexts in detail In addition, the exchanges 31 of apology and response strategies and the lexicogrammatical patterns of apology and response utterances were investigated under the light of sociopragmatics Last but not least, it may be unrealistic to expect all students to achieve native-like sociopragmatic competence, but more effort should be made to make students aware of the sociopragmatic aspects of the language they are studying 7.3 Limitations of the Thesis Initially, only verbal conversations in both languages were investigated Conversations with non-verbal apologies and apology responses using gestures or body languages such as slight nodding with eyes looking down for apologies, or nodding and smiling for acceptance, or shaking heads, grimacing, shrugging shoulders, or showing facial displeasures for rejection in apology responses have their own contribution to the field of language research and need to be studied as a separate topic Furthermore, the translation of conversations in Vietnamese socio-psychological films containing the exchanges of apology and response strategies into English translation versions was conducted by the doctoral candidate which may sometimes cause misunderstanding to English speakers who learn Vietnamese due to the differences in the pragmatic acts of apologies and responses in each culture Another limitation should be taken into consideration is the number of conversations collected from socio-psychological film contexts in both languages To make it specific, there were 557 exchanges in English and 650 ones in Vietnamese This limitation seems to make the results less generalized and a larger-scale data is needed For the future research direction, I suggest that future studies should focus on the non-verbal apologies and responses Another direction could be the investigation into the pragmatic acts of apologies and strategies under the influence of age or offense severity since this doctoral thesis has found out exchanges of apology and response strategies under the influence of gender and power 32 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS Trang, N T H (2017) Why and how university students apologize to their lecturers: The case of University of Foreign Language Studies, Vietnam Journal of Nusantara Studies (JONUS), 2(2), 79-87 https://doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol2iss2pp79-87 Indexed in ESCI (WOS) Ngô Thị Hiền Trang & Lưu Quý Khương (2022) A lexicogrammar approach to analyze response strategies to apology in English conversations International Journal of English Language Studies, 4(1), 45-50 https://doi.org/10.32996/ijels.2022.4.1.6 Ngo, T H T., & Luu, Q K (2022) Direct apology strategies and their lexicogrammatical realizations in English conversations: Implications for EFL students International Journal of TESOL & Education, 2(2), 82–94 https://doi.org/10.54855/ijte.22225 Ngo, T H T (2022) An investigation into apology strategies and lexicogrammatical realizations of apology utterances in English conversations International Journal of Humanities, Philosophy and Language, (17), 107-120 DOI:10.35631/IJHPL.517008 Ngô Thị Hiền Trang & Lưu Quý Khương (2022) Hành động xin lỗi trực tiếp hồi đáp hội thoại tiếng Việt Tạp chí Ngôn ngữ đời sống, 6b(327)-2022, 25-33 Ngô Thị Hiền Trang & Huỳnh Ngọc Mai Kha (2022) Chiến lược hồi đáp lời xin lỗi thư tiếng Anh sinh viên chuyên ngữ, Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ - Đại học Đà Nẵng Tạp chí Ngơn ngữ đời sống, 9(330)-2022, 56-65 33 Ngo, T H T (2022) Using Apology Strategies in Letters by EFL Students at University of Foreign Language Studies – The University of Danang International Journal of Language Instruction, 1(2), 1-12 https://doi.org/10.54855/ijli.22121 Ngô Thị Hiền Trang (2022) Đề tài Nghiên cứu khoa học cấp sở “Khảo sát chiến lược xin lỗi hồi đáp thư tiếng Anh sinh viên chuyên ngữ Trường đại học Ngoại ngữ - Đại học Đà Nẵng” Mã số: T2021-05-20 Bảo vệ ngày 10/2022, xếp loại: tốt (87 điểm) Ngô Thị Hiền Trang (2021) Why and how university students apologize to their lecturers: The case of University of Foreign Language Studies, Vietnam A presentation at Hội thảo quốc gia “Nghiên cứu giảng dạy ngoại ngữ, ngữ quốc tế học thời kỳ hội nhập”, Đà Nẵng, 01-02 October, 2022