a vietnamese-english cross-cultural study on the use of address forms to express formality = nghiên cứu về cách sử dụng từ xưng hô diễn tả sự trang trọng trong tiếng anh và tiếng việt

ABSTRACT Mastering a new language does not only consist of the ability to master its system of linguistic forms but also the ability to use them appropriately This is because languages differ from one another not only in their system of phonology, syntax and lexicon but also in rules of speaking Addressing is, to various extents, formulaic, culture-specific and routinized in different languages, including Vietnamese and English The factors that govern the way one person addresses another varies across languages and speech communities The selection of appropriate addressing forms largely depends on age, gender, position, qualifications, power, the context of interaction and other social factors Addressing is also a product of culture and history It reflects all the cultural values as well as historical changes of a society Vietnam and England embody two different cultures - the one in Western, the other in the Eastern Thus, their addressing forms are much different To successfully communicate cross culturally communicators should be aware of these This study investigates the use of address forms to express formality in Vietnamese and English, identifying similarities and differences between them The factors that govern the way speakers choose to address are also examined i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank Mrs Do Thi Mai Thanh, my supervisor, for her constant help throughout the study I am indebted to all my lecturers in Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Post Graduate Department for their lectures that inspired me to write this study Also I would like to thank English and Vietnamese friends who spent their precious time completing the questionnaires Finally, I owe the completion of this study to my mother, colleague, boyfriend and friends who always encouraged me throughout the study and supported me with everything I need ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ABBRIVIATIONS PART A: INTRODUCTION i ii iii v 1 Rationale Aims of the study Methods of the study Scope of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Theoretical background 1.1 Addressing systems 1.1.1 Addressing system in English 1.1.2 Addressing system in Vietnamese 1.2 Use of Addressing system to express formality 14 1.2.1 Use of addressing system to express formality in working place in English 15 1.2.2 Use of addressing system to express formality in Vietnamese 16 1.2.3 Use of Addressing system to express formality in Vietnamese in working place 24 Chapter II: Findings and discussions 21 2.1 The survey questionnaire 21 2.2 The informants 21 2.3 Statistics research 22 2.4 Data analysis: Findings and discussions 31 2.4.1 Responses in English 22 2.4.1.1 Considerations in the selection of Address terms 22 iii 2.4.1.2 Frequency of address terms 23 2.4.1.3 Influence of hierarchical positions 25 2.4.1.4 Address term avoidance 27 2.4.2 Responses in Vietnamese 27 2.4.2.1 Considerations in the selection of Address terms 27 2.4.2.2 Frequency of address terms 29 2.4.2.3 Influence of hierarchical positions 31 2.4.2.4 Address term avoidance 31 2.5 Major Vietnamese-English cross-cultural differences 32 2.5.1 English findings 32 2.5.2 Vietnamese findings 32 2.5.3 Summary of the part 33 PART C: CONCLUSION 34 Summary 34 Some implications for using addressing terms in communication 35 Limitations of the study 36 Suggestions for further studies 37 BIBLIOGRAPHY 38 APPENDICES iv ABBREVIATIONS F Female FN First name LN Last name M Male M Mean Ma Married MNs Multiple names N Number P Power St Staffs S Single TLN Title and last name T Title v PART A: INTRODUCTION Rational Each country bears its own culture i.e its own values, beliefs, assumptions, communication styles, preferable verbal expressions etc Therefore in intercultural communication people from different cultural background feel very difficult Cultural shock and cultural conflicts may happen due to differences in culture and language references Among these, the use of addressing terms seems to pose an outstanding threat to the process of intercultural communication However, the recent studies on intercultural and cross cultural communication between English and Vietnamese language and culture appear beyond our expectation In Vietnam, especially in the Vietnamese workplace, bosses and staff are aware of the fact that a suitable address term can establish and maintain a good relationship In international companies, there are many people from different nationalities work together, so using appropriate address terms is a need and a must that one should know to harmonize his working relationship This will help him communicate successfully With all the above necessity, the author finds this topic so inspiring that she decides to carry out a study on the use of addressing terms by the bosses and the staff in the workplace It is hoped that the research would contribute to raise the awareness of cultural and language differences in the use of addressing forms in EnglishVietnamese intercultural communication Aims of the study The aims of the study are: - To investigate major differences in which English, Vietnamese bosses and staff address in their own language - To find out the socio cultural factors that govern the address terms - To propose some suggestions to avoid culture shock and communication breakdown in intercultural communication The research questions can be formulated as: Question 1: What are the major differences in the ways English and Vietnamese bosses and staff address in their own language? Question 2: What are socio cultural factors that govern the address terms? Question 3: How should we to avoid culture shock and communication breakdown in intercultural communication? Methods of the study This is a qualitative and quantitative study, hence the author uses the following steps to conduct the research: - Studying relevant publications about background theories on addressing forms in English and Vietnamese (mostly from the Internet, books and magazines) - Conducting survey questionnaires The survey was carried out among employers and employees from the finance company - SMBC Leasing in London and Vietnam Vinashin General Company in Ha Noi - consulting the supervisor - resorting to personal observation Scope of the study The study focuses on the addressing terms used to by two groups of staff and bosses in English and Vietnam These address terms will be analyzed in some specific situations in their workplaces to discover how the bosses and staff address each other in English and Vietnamese In the study, the author also studies some main factors that exercise their influence on the use of addressing terms such as age, gender, marital status, occupation, power, social status, situation of interaction, academic qualification Other linguistic and cultural factors are beyond this research Design of the study The study contains three parts Part 1, the introduction, includes the rational, the aims of the study, the methods of the study, the scope of the study and the design of the study Part 2, Development, is the most important part in the study, contains chapter Theoretical background is an introduction to the theoretical background which is designed to serve as the basic foundation of data analysis and discussion of findings in chapter Chapter discusses the findings concerning the use of addressing in formality in Vietnamese and English Part 3: Conclusion contains the Summary, Implications and limitation and suggestion for further study In this part, some conclusions on the use of addressing are drawn Simultaneously, the chapter also puts forward some implications for the addressing in communication in English and Vietnamese A statement of unsolved problems and suggestions for further research beyond the limits of the paper is also included in this chapter PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: Theoretical background 1.1 Addressing systems In any act of communication, addressing is, unavoidable Address forms not only play an important role in scientific, legal and commercial documents but also perform pragmatic functions Use of addressing systems expresses the culture of a community using that language Depending on the subjects of communication that an individual address term changes accordingly The family, social, emotional relationships in communication are the causes of different address The use of addressing terms also changes when communicative situation, emotion and attitude change According to Jack C Richards, J Platt and H Platt (1999:6), addressing systems (address form, address term) are understood as: The word and words used to address somebody in speech or writing The way in which people address one another usually depend on their age, sex, social group, and personal relationship For example, in the family, British people use the person pronouns and kinship terms to call the above generation, use the first name to call the below generation In society, they use formal terms to address such as title, first name, respected and intimated words In Vietnam, people use almost the kinship terms to address in family and in society, in formal communicated situation they use title and respected words According to Khang, N V (2008), addressing terms are words used to call self and others, which used to address or call the hearer or speaker in the communication In comparison with English terms, the use of Vietnamese terms of address in actual communication is more intricate Luong (1990) points out: “Both the use and the meanings of Vietnamese personreferring forms are saliently and inextricably linked to the power, solidarity, and formality dimensions in the relations among the addressor, addressee, as well as the referred parties.” Actually, the appropriate choice of Vietnamese addressing forms involves a consideration of wide range of sociolinguistic factors such as age, sex, social status, relationship (blood, intimate or distant), attitudes (respectful or arrogant), feelings of the speakers and addressee as well as the formality of the communication context English addressing forms, unlike Vietnamese ones, content “prefabricated units”, such as I, we and you, in communication It means that these units can be used in any context and with everyone English addressing forms don’t include in themselves any information of sociolinguistic factors or the formality of the communication If in English "You" is used as second person pronoun in singular and plural as well as to show formality or informality, e.g Sir, Mr Brown, Brown, Bill, etc In Vietnamese second person pronouns are used "Bạn, anh, chị " in singular, but in plural we have to add numerals before them e.g anh, chị The addressing forms in Vietnamese are used to show formality or informality which depend on the speaker's context, position, gender, age, mood In some languages, such as Chinese dialects and Japanese, words expressing relationship e.g father, mother, aunt or position e.g teacher, lecturer, are used as address forms to show respect and/ or signal the formality of the situation The factors that determine language forms of address terms vary from culture to another Brown & Gilman, (1960) show that the determining factors that may be most common to many cultures are speaker-hearer power differences, interactional situations and how people are introduced to each other The address forms of a language are arranged into a complex address system, which its own rules that need to be acquired if a person wants to communicate appropriately 1.1.1 Addressing system in English Brown & Ford (1961) remark that in English "proper names constitute a nearly universal language of relationship; the semantic dimensions involved serve to relate to one another or all of the members of the society" Data compiled SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (For Vietnamese Speakers) Question AGE GENDER JOB MARRIED 24 M St S 23 F St S 25 M St S 35 M St Ma 40 F St Ma 55 M St Ma 30 F St Ma 28 M St S 53 F St Ma 24 M St Ma 34 M St Ma 32 M St Ma 27 F St Ma 25 F St S 27 M St S 45 M St Ma 33 M St Ma 36 F St Ma 42 F St Ma 44 M St Ma Note: M: Male; F: Female; St: staff; S: Single; Ma: Married Age Gender Marital status Occupation Power The time you have known each other Situation of interaction Academic qualification His/her own preferences of addressing Data compiled SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE Question (For Vietnamese speakers) AGE GENDER JOB MARRIED 24 M St S 3 23 F St S 3 3 1 25 M St S 3 3 35 M St Ma 3 2 40 F St Ma 3 55 M St Ma 3 1 30 F St Ma 3 2 28 M St S 3 2 53 F St Ma 3 24 M St Ma 3 1 34 M St Ma 3 3 1 32 M St Ma 3 2 27 F St Ma 3 2 25 F St S 3 2 27 M St S 3 2 2 45 M St Ma 3 33 M St Ma 3 3 1 36 F St Ma 3 3 2 42 F St Ma 3 3 44 M St Ma 3 Note: M: Male; F: Female; St: staff; S: Single; Ma: Married First name Last name Full name Diminutives Kinship terms Title Social title and first name (Mr., Mrs., Madam, Sir ) Data compiled SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE Question AGE GENDER JOB MARRIED 24 M St S 3 3 23 F St S 3 3 25 M St S 3 3 35 M St Ma 3 3 40 F St Ma 3 3 55 M St Ma 2 3 30 F St Ma 3 3 28 M St S 3 3 53 F St Ma 2 3 24 M St Ma 3 3 34 M St Ma 3 32 M St Ma 3 3 27 F St Ma 3 3 25 F St S 3 3 27 M St S 3 3 45 M St Ma 2 3 2 33 M St Ma 3 36 F St Ma 3 42 F St Ma 3 2 44 M St Ma 3 2 Note: M: Male; F: Female; St: staff; S: Single; Ma: Married Information First name Last name Full name Diminutive Kinship terms Title Title and first name Data compiled SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (For Vietnamese Speakers) Question Situation AG GENDE JO MARRIE E R B D a 24 M St S  0 23 F St S 25 M St S  0 35 M St Ma 40 F St 55 M 30 Situation b c d a b Situation Situation c d e a b c d e a b c d  0 0 0  0 0  0   0 0 0  0 0   0 0 0  0 0   0 0  0 0 0  0 0  Ma  0 0  0 0 0  0  0 St Ma  0 0  0 0  0  0 F St Ma  0 0 0  0 0 28 M St S  0 0 0  0  53 F St Ma  0 0  24 M St Ma 34 M St Ma  0 32 M St Ma 27 F St 25 F 27  0  0  0 0 0   0 0 0 0  0   0 0 0  0   0 0  0 0 0  0  Ma  0 0  0 0 0  0  St S  0 0  0 0 0  0  M St S  0 0  0 0 0  0  45 M St Ma  0 0 0  0  33 M St Ma  0 0 0  0  36 F St Ma  0 0 0  0  42 F St Ma  0 0  0 0 44 M St Ma  0 0  0 0 0   0 0  0 0  0  0  0  0  0  APPENDIX RESULTS FOR SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 1) by number (For English speakers) Items for considerations Age Gender Marital Occupation status Power The time you have known each other Situation of interaction qualification Academic His/her own preferences of addressing Category N 10 0 0 0 0 10 10 0 0 10 2 10 1 1 10 0 0 10 2 0 1 10 1 0 10 2 0 10 0 1 APPENDIX RESULTS FOR SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 1) by percentage Items for considerations The time you Occupa Situation of Power have tion interaction known each other Academic qualification His/her own preferences of addressing Categories N Age Gender Marital status 10 0 0 0 0 100 10 30 0 70 0 10 10 10 20 20 10 30 10 30 10 10 10 10 10 20 10 30 0 10 40 20 0 10 10 20 30 20 10 10 10 20 50 10 10 0 10 10 20 10 30 20 0 20 10 10 10 10 0 60 10 APPENDIX RESULTS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 2) by number (For English speakers) Items for frequency N M First name Last Full Diminutives Title Occupation Social Kinship and name name title title terms last name 10 0 10 10 10 0 10 Note: 1: Always 2: Sometimes 3: Never APPENDIX RESULTS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 2) by percentage Items for frequency N M First name Last Full name name Title Career and Diminutives title title terms Social Kinship last name 10 80 0 70 40 60 10 20 40 70 30 60 40 10 60 30 100 0 100 Note: 1: Always 2: Sometimes 3: Never APPENDIX RESULTS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 3) by number M First name Last name Full name Neutral and Diminutives Title and addressing first name N Title last Items for frequency name "you" 10 0 0 10 0 10 10 10 10 Title Title Neutral and and addressing last first name name Note: 1: Always 2: Sometimes 3: Never APPENDIX RESULTS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 3) by percentage Items for frequency N M First name Last Full name Diminutives name "you" 10 70 60 0 0 10 30 20 40 60 0 10 80 100 40 100 100 Note: 1: Always 2: Sometimes 3: Never APPENDIX 10 RESULTS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 4) by number Situation Situation Situation a b c d a b c d e a b Situation c d e a b c d 10 0 APPENDIX 11 RESULTS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 4) by percentage Situation a b c d Situation a b c d Situation e a b c d Situation e a b c d 60 40 30 10 10 50 20 20 10 50 100 0 APPENDIX 12 RESULTS FOR SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 1) by number (For Vietnamese speakers) Category N M Age Gender Marital Occupation status Power The time you have known each other Situation of interaction qualification Academic His/her own preferences of addressing Items for considerations 20 13 0 2 1 20 4 20 1 2 20 20 3 20 0 3 20 2 20 1 1 20 2 0 Note: M: Male; F: Female; St: staff; S: Single; Ma: Married Age Gender Marital status Occupation Power The time you have known each other Situation of interaction Academic qualification His/her own preferences of addressing APPENDIX 13 RESULTS FOR SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 1) by percentage Marital Occupation status Power The time you have known each other Situation of interaction qualification Academic His/her own preferences of addressing N Age Gender 20 65 0 10 20 5 20 20 10 20 15 25 20 5 10 10 25 10 30 20 10 35 10 30 10 5 20 10 15 15 10 40 20 0 10 15 25 15 15 15 20 20 10 15 25 10 10 10 20 5 5 15 20 10 35 20 40 10 0 40 Category Items for considerations Note: M: Male; F: Female; St: staff; S: Single; Ma: Married Age Gender Marital status Occupation Power The time you have known each other Situation of interaction Academic qualification His/her own preferences of addressing APPENDIX 14 RESULTS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 2) by number N Items for frequency M First name Last Full Diminutives Kinship name name Title Title and first name terms 20 0 18 20 3 11 11 20 14 17 12 16 Note: 0: Information 1: Always 2: Sometimes 3: Never APPENDIX 15 RESULTS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 2) by percentage Items for frequency N M First name Last Full name Diminutives Kinship name Title Title and first name terms 10 20 15 0 90 25 45 20 15 15 30 20 10 55 55 20 70 85 60 80 20 Note: 1: Always 2: Sometimes 3: Never APPENDIX 16 RESULTS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 3) by number Items for frequency N 20 M First name terms Title and last name Title and first name 16 4 17 16 14 13 Kinship terms Title and last name Title and first name Last Full name name 11 0 20 20 15 Diminutives Kinship Note: 1: Always 2: Sometimes 3: Never APPENDIX 17 RESULTS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 3) by percentage Items for frequency N 20 Last Full name name 55 0 80 20 35 15 15 20 20 30 25 20 75 85 80 70 65 Note: 1: Always 2: Sometimes 3: Never M First name Diminutives APPENDIX 18 RESULTS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 4) by number Situation a b c Situation d a 18 0 Situation Situation b c d e a b c d e a b c d 11 0 11 APPENDIX 19 RESULTS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE (Question 4) by percentage Situation a b c d Situation a b c d Situation e a b c d Situation e a b c d 90 0 10 55 20 25 0 15 40 45 15 30 55 Thank you for evaluating AnyBizSoft PDF Merger! To remove this page, please register your program! Go to Purchase Now>> AnyBizSoft PDF Merger  Merge multiple PDF files into one  Select page range of PDF to merge  Select specific page(s) to merge  Extract page(s) from different PDF files and merge into one ... confrontation; formality or informality of the occasion; prior acquaintance or not of the party; conventional emotional quality ascribed to the occasion; face -to- face or distant communication... especially in the Vietnamese workplace, bosses and staff are aware of the fact that a suitable address term can establish and maintain a good relationship In international companies, there are many... Circular relationship that often use in the family with kinship terms as address forms Factors "Power" and "Academic qualification" are evaluated the second and the third considerations in the addressing