a vietnamese-english cross-cultural study of expressing sarcasm = nghiên cứu giao thoa văn hóa việt - anh về cách diễn đạt lời nói châm biếm

- The data are collected by conducting survey questionnaires to examine the differences in the way Vietnamese and English speakers use puns in expressing sarcasm.. Aims of research The

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THÙY LINH

A VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH CROSS-CULTURAL

STUDY OF EXPRESSING SARCASM

(NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO THOA VĂN HÓA VIỆT – ANH VỀ CÁCH

DIỄN ĐẠT LỜI NÓI CHÂM BIẾM )

M.A Minor Thesis

English Linguistics

602215

Hanoi, 2011

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THÙY LINH

A VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH CROSS-CULTURAL

STUDY OF EXPRESSING SARCASM

(NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO THOA VĂN HÓA VIỆT-ANH VỀ CÁCH DIỄN

ĐẠT LỜI NÓI CHÂM BIẾM)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215

Supervisor: Assoc Dr Dương Thị Nụ

Hanoi, 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration

Acknowledgement

Abstract

Table of contents

PART A: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale 1

II Scope of the study 2

III Aims of the study 2

IV Research questions 2

V Methodology 2

VI Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES 1 Culture 4

2 Language 4

3 Language and Culture 5

CHAPTER II: SARCASM, PUNS AND TYPES OF PUNS 2.1 Sarcasm 7

2.2 Puns and types of puns 9

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 3.1 GENERAL VIEW 16

3.1.1 Comments on the survey questionnaires 16

3.1.2 Comments on the informants 18

3.2 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 19

3.2.1 The use of puns 19

3.2.2 Puns in expressing sarcasm in Vietnamese and English 20

3.2.2.1 Vietnamese findings and discussions 20

3.2.2.2 English findings and discussions 23

3.2.2.3 Cross-cultural similarities and differences 25

3.2.3 Puns in expressing sarcasm in Vietnamese 26

3.2.3.1 In terms of speaker’s position in the situation 26

3.2.3.2 In terms of informants’ parameters 30

3.2.4 Puns in expressing sarcasm in English 32

3.2.4.1 In terms of speaker’s position in the situation 32

3.2.4.2 In terms of informants’ parameters 34

3.2.5 Cross cultural similarities and differences 35

3.2.5.1 Similarities 35

3.2.5.2 Differences 35

PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION IN TEFL 3.1 Conclusion 37

3.1.1 Main similarities 37

3.1.2 Main differences 37

3.2 Implication for teachers and learners 38

3.2.1 Teachers as a means of learning a second culture 38

3.2.2 Suggestions for learners 39

3.3 Suggestions for further research 40

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

PART A: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale

There‘s a point of view holding that all modern art is more or less sarcastic because the viewer cannot help but compare it to previous works For example, any portrait of a standing, non-smiling woman will naturally be compared with the Mona Lisa; the tension of meaning exists, whether the artist meant it or not As a matter of fact, it is the case not only in art but for many other fields of life including language

Gresham, in his work, made an interesting conclusion that ―Bad coinage drives out goods‖ This reflects the fact of money that debased or under weight coins will drive good, full weight coins out of circulation This assertion, however, was not properly applied in the economics only but in other fields of life as well It is the case for every realm in which an exchange occurs, with nowhere more vital than in the Kingdom of Ideas, where the coin of realm is the word In particular, we can easily observe that bad meanings or associations of words tend to give good ones out of circulation Some examples might be the words ―girl‖ and ―lady‖ Nowadays, people, especially men, tend to use the word ―girl‖ to refer to their darling In Vietnamese the phenomenon can

be clearly realized in the use of ―gái‖ In the past, ―gái‖ was used to address a girl so it appeared normally in calls like ―gái ơi‖ Gradually, with the appearance and popularity

of call-girls, the word has a new, more popular meaning of prostitutes Also, the word

―lady‖ has a completely different use from the previous It is used to mean a woman who is weak inside and cannot protect herself The same situation happens to the words such as ―cô nương‖ or ―tiểu thư‖ in Vietnamese Hence, it can be seen that ―negative‖ use of words is preferred to positive one Studying sarcasm would therefore be of great value to linguists and researchers Nevertheless, the issue is not paid much attention among Vietnamese researchers in detail and linguistic researchers of the world in general This research aims at discovering one of the most common and worth-studying

phenomena of pragmatics, sarcasm, for without sarcasm then, as one might say, there is

no art

II Scope of research

The study aims mainly at the major knowledge of sarcasm in Vietnamese and English daily life and jokes Specifically, the difference between the use of puns in expressing sarcasm in spoken Vietnamese and English is focused Moreover, the study is confined

to the verbal aspects of the act of using puns in expressing sarcasm Other factors such

as paralinguistic and extra-linguistic ones are beyond the scope of the study

- The dialects used in the North, the South and the Central of Vietnam are use among which the Northern one is mainly used; especially the spoken accent of the Northern version is used quite often; and the English spoken by Anglophone community of England, America, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, are chosen for contrastive analysis

- The data are collected by conducting survey questionnaires to examine the differences in the way Vietnamese and English speakers use puns in expressing sarcasm

III Aims of research

The research has been carried out with a view to explore the similarities as well as the differences in the way Vietnamese and English speakers use puns in expressing sarcasm thus to equip language learners with a major description of sarcasm in English and Vietnamese and help them avoid culture shock and communicate successfully

IV Research question:

What are the major similarities and differences in the ways Vietnamese and English speakers use puns in expressing sarcasm?

V Methodology

The following methods are resorted to:

- Conducting survey (with questionnaires as a data collection instrument)

- Conducting observations

VI Design of research

The study is composed of three main parts:

Part A (Introduction) presents the rationale, scope, aims, research questions, and

methodology of the study

Part B (Development) consists of three chapters:

Chapter I (Theoretical preliminary): discusses the notions of language-culture

relationship

Chapter II (Sarcasm, puns and types of puns): explores different

conceptualizations of sarcasm, puns and types of puns, types that are used in common between English and Vietnamese and ones that only appear in English or Vietnamese

Chapter III (Data analysis and findings) analyses collected data to find out

major cross-cultural similarities and differences in the choice of puns in expressing sarcasm

Part C (Conclusion) summarizes the main findings of the study, provides some

implications for TEFL, and offers suggestions for further research

Reference includes all the books, articles or website that has been referred to during

the writing of this thesis

The appendices list examples of different groups of equivalence in order of the

alphabet

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES

1 Culture:

Whether or not we realize it, we are trapped by our own culture Anyone who encounters another culture quickly becomes aware of this because of thousands of little things that differ among countries For example, only one third of people use tableware

to eat, another third eat with chopsticks, and the rest eat with their fingers Even within

a country, differences are inevitable Knowing the culture prevents us from shock Culture can be defined in an abstract way as the know-how that a person must possess to get through the task of daily living and only for a few does it require a knowledge of some or much music, literature and the art; or it might be defined concretely as the way of life of a people, for the sum of their learned behavior patterns, attitudes, and material things All in all, culture is considered in terms of the three aspects: (1) learned behavior patterns that refers to what people do, (2) attitudes that refers to what people think or believe; and (3) material things that refers to property

culture-2 Language:

Definitions of culture all mention language Obviously, language is one of the most visible factors of culture People face with cultural differences in languages when contacting with someone from another country The idiom ―mưa như trút nước‖ in Vietnamese, for example can be expressed as ―it rains cats and dogs‖ in Britain, or ―it rains jugs‖ in Europe, ―rains rope‖ in France, or ―rains in basins‖ in Spain due to different cultures

Yet it is not easy to define what language is Language can be defined as any set or system of linguistic symbols used by a community of people who are enabled to communicate intelligibly with one another (Random House Dictionary of the English Language) Or it might be defined in a short and succinct way as ―a complex and abstract phenomenon that can be realized through a number of verbal and non-verbal

codes‖ (Emmitt and Pollock) Whichever definition is used, language is put in a given community and functions as a systematic means of communicating

3 Language and culture

It is often commented that someone is ―cultured‖ or ―uncultured‖ depending on his behaviors and reaction in certain situations Most of these actions are taken with utterances What one speaks when greeting or departing someone can reveal much about him In other words, whether someone is judged to be cultured or uncultured is much relevant to what he utters in social communication Therefore, language is regarded as a mean to measure other‘s cultural reality Expressed in another way, language is a system of signs that is seen as having its own cultural value

Besides, what people utter refers to common experience such as facts, ideas or events that are communicable because they refer to a stock of knowledge about the world that other people share Words also reflect the speaker‘s attitude, belief, and their point of view In other words, language realizes culture It is interestingly asserted by Sapir that culture is ―what society does and thinks‖, and language is ―a particular how of thought‖

People also create experience in real life The way they transfer messages directly through face to face communication or indirectly on telephone, etc brings them with numerous experience which is handed down from generation to generation The process is in a continuous flow Hence, language embodies and maintains cultural reality Language and culture simply do not independently and separately exist The language of Esperanto couldn‘t survive because it has no culture background Vice versa, no culture can exist without its own language

The relationship between language and culture is deeply rooted Language is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties Different ideas stem from differing

language use within one‘s culture and the whole intertwining of these relationships starts at one‘s birth

Every infant is born, in fact, quite similar It is not until the child is exposed to their surroundings that they become individuals in and of their cultural group From birth, the child‘s life, opinions, and language are shaped by what it comes in contact with Brooks (1968) argues that physically and mentally everyone is the same, while the interactions between persons or groups vary widely from place to place Patterns which emerge from these group behaviors and interactions will be approved of, or disapproved of Behaviors which are acceptable are different in different locations (Brooks, 1968) thus forming the basis of different cultures It is from these differences that one‘s view of the world is formed Hantrais (1989) puts forth the idea that culture

is the beliefs and practices governing the life of a society for which a particular language is the vehicle of expression Therefore, everyone‘s views are dependent on the culture which has influenced them, as well as being described using the language which has been shaped by that culture The understanding of a culture and its people can be enhanced by the knowledge of their language This brings us to an interesting point brought up by Emmitt and Pollock (1997), who argue that even though people are brought up under similar behavioral backgrounds or cultural situations but speaking different languages, their world view may be very different As Sapir-Whorf argues, different thoughts are brought about by the use of different forms of language One is limited by the language used to express one‘s ideas Different languages will create different limitations, therefore a people who share a culture but speak different languages will have different world views Still, language is rooted in culture and culture is reflected and passed on by language from one generation to the next (Emmitt

& Pollock 1997)

From this, one can see that learning a new language involves the learning of a new culture (Allwright & Bailey 1991) Consequently, teachers of a language are also teachers of culture (Byram 1989)

The implications of language being completely entwined in culture, in regards for language teaching and language policy are far reaching Language teachers must instruct their students on the cultural background of language usage, choose culturally appropriate teaching styles, and explore culturally based linguistic differences to promote understanding instead of misconceptions or prejudices Language policy must

be used to create awareness and understandings of cultural differences, and written to incorporate the cultural values of those being taught

CHAPTER II: SARCASM, PUNS AND TYPES OF PUNS

2.1 Sarcasm

Leaving for work, you notice it‘s incredibly cold and rainy Nearby, your neighbor is leaving too "Great weather, huh?" you say "Yes, wonderful!" he replies Then just as you are crossing the street to get to your office, suddenly a car comes out of nowhere and comes close to hitting you in the middle of the crosswalk "Thanks a lot!" you yell The driver rolls down his window and throw some dirty words at you When you get inside and sit down at your desk, you notice that one of your co-workers is talking loudly on his phone When he hangs up, you say, "I think you should talk a little bit louder next time - the entire office didn't hear it." Your co-worker apologizes Later that day, you're in the break room talking with other co-workers One of them says that he's thinking of going to graduate school and then leaves the room "Oh, I'm sure he'll

do really well!" you say Everyone laughs, because this co-worker is known for being

on the flaky side

What was really going on in each of these exchanges? The fact is that the weather wasn't great; you really weren't grateful to the driver that nearly hit you, and you definitely didn't want your loud co-worker to get any louder You didn't think that your other co-worker would do well in graduate school at all You said the opposite of what you meant, and everyone that you spoke to knew it All of these instances were

examples of sarcasm Sarcasm can be used in all kinds of ways – it can express

everything from anger to humor

Sarcasm is an example of the so-called unplain speaking, ways of speaking in which what is said differs from what is meant Other examples are forced politeness, ritual language, affectation and speaking in aphorisms In essence, sarcasm is one of the two extremes of irony which is defined as the conflict of two meanings which has a

dramatic structure peculiar to itself At first, one meaning, the appearance, presents

itself as the obvious truth, but when the context of this meaning unfolds, in depth or in

time, it surprisingly discloses a conflicting meaning, the reality, measured against

which the first meaning now seems false or limited and, in its self-assurance, blind to its own situation Irony ―lies,‖ but it does so only as a dramatic means of bringing two meanings into open conflict Some theorists assert that by encompassing this conflict in

a single structure, irony resolves it into harmony or unity Others say that irony is blame through praise and praise through blame The aspect of ―blame through praise‖

is named sarcasm As the story goes, sarcasm is ―to blame by praise‖ In other words, sarcasm aims at the defeat of a recognized victim

The definition shows the variable factors in the ironic structure including:

(1) The degree of conflict between appearance and reality which ranges from the

slightest of differences to diametrical opposites

(2) The field of observation in which irony may be noticed which ranges from the

smallest semantic unit—e.g., a pun—to the cosmos The most frequently observed fields are: the relation between one meaning located in words and another meaning

located either in the same words or in their context—verbal irony; the relation between

an event or situation as interpreted from a limited point of view and that event as interpreted with a broader knowledge of the situation or of subsequent events, for

example dramatic irony in literature; in life we have the irony of fate, God, events, things, etc.; the relation between events and an observer's state of mind—the ironic

attitude, which may or may not externalize itself as verbal irony, dramatic irony, or the

irony of fate

(3) Irony usually has an author, who by analogy is a superhuman power in some fields

of observation; in the irony of fate, for instance It always has an audience, even if it is only the author amusing himself; and a victim, who is deceived by appearance and

enlightened by reality, although an author may turn himself into a pseudo victim

(4) The aspects of irony such as the conception of reality, the degree to which author

and audience sympathize or identify with the victim, and the fate of the victim – triumph or defeat To this extent, irony is identified as being comic or sarcastic depending on the triumph or defeat of the victim, with sarcastic irony, or sarcasm, indicating the victim defeat

2.2 Puns and types of puns

A large amount of sarcasm is expressed with the use of puns As a matter of fact, the phenomenon has not been regularized in theory, but it is extremely common in everyday life of any community of people

Many see puns as cheap humour, one-liners, or groaners, despite their prevalence in culture They are most often seen in the names of businesses or advertisements Others, like the writer Jonathan Swift, see them as a challenging art form, where one shapes words like cobbler bends leather ―Punning is an art of harmonious jingling upon words,‖ said Swift, ―which, passing in at the ears, excites a titillary motion in those

parts; and this, being conveyed by the animal spirits into the muscles of the face, raises the cockles of the heart.‖

However the dictionary describes a pun as: ―A play on words, sometimes on different

senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words” Based on the definition, puns could be divided among several main branches

focusing on the play of sense or sound, or the combination of the two In detail, types

of puns in English include homographic puns (homograph), homophonic puns (homophone), palindrome, Tom Swifty puns, anagram, spoonerisms, oxymorons, chiasmus, portmanteau, and daffynition

Tom Swift

Tom Swifty puns are an interesting and unique play on a relationship between an adverb, and an action spoken in a dialogue Originally, Tom Swift was created by Edward L Stratemeyer as a fictional character in a series of children's books Tom

Swifty puns satirize the writing of these books, and their simple ―Tom said, Tom did,

Tom said‖ writing For example, in the books one might find the examples:

 'I've lost my trousers,' Tom said expansively

 'I've returned from the lobotomy,' Tom said absentmindedly

Tom Swifty puns came into being because of one of the features of English; that is the use of adverbs Inversely, adverbs receive little attention by Vietnamese speakers, and the fact that in Vietnamese adverbs do not have any specific form makes it uninteresting to play on adverbs

Anagrams

Anagrams are words, or phrases formed with the rearrangement of the letters of other words and phrases Some notable anagrams include Western Union/no wire unsent, or funeral/real fun This type of pun is used in written forms, mostly in advertisements,

for the fact that they make an amazing effect to look at Anagrams are not possible in Vietnamese as the strict case of the tonic language is considered Since each vowel carries the tone of the whole syllable or word, moving it to a new position may make it nonsense Moreover, Vietnamese consonants are paired under strict rules; when a consonant stands in a cluster in a word, it is almost impossible for it to combine with another consonant of the same word to make another proper cluster

Palindromes

Palindromes are the words which are spelled the same, backwards or forwards, such as

―mom‖, ―race car‖, or ―deified‖ Entire phrases can be palindromes Punctuation does not prevent a sentence or phrase from being considered a palindrome, for example

―Dogma: I am God.‖ counts as a palindrome Scarily enough, there is a 306-word palindrome name ―Dog sees Ada‖ showing how popular it is In Vietnamese there also exist words which read the same backwards or forwards like ―móm‖, ―tẹt‖, ―tát‖, but none of them have so far been recognized as palindromes or puns at all So far, no palindromes at sentences level have been discovered, perhaps for the same reason with anagrams mentioned above

Portmanteau

Portmanteau words are words that are formed by telescoping two other words in on themselves such as bit (binary unit), avionics (aviation electronics), and motel (motor hotel) The use of portmanteau proves the connections of sounds of the words in English while in Vietnamese which is sound-isolated, there are no such word plays

Daffynition

In fact, to make a pun, one does not need to play on the pronunciation, or spelling at all Sometimes, a clever redefinition of a word can be considered a pun These are

sometimes referred to as Daffynitions For example, ―Flashlight: a carrying case for

dead batteries‖ or ―Shin: a device for finding tables in the dark‖ and, ―Professor: one who talks in someone else's sleep‖ The definition was unexpected, and humorous It plays upon connotation rather than the denotation meaning of the word Sometimes words that sound like groups of other words can be cleverly redefined as well This type of pun is found mostly in academic contexts rather than daily spoken language

Chiasmus

Chiasmus is a figure of speech, where wit is conveyed through the reversal of words or phrases in clauses Often used in verse, it becomes a poem of parallels The word comes from the Greek letter Chi, which looks like an X Most chiasmus follow an ABBA pattern, where word or phrase A is used in a clause, then B, then B again, and finally A A good example of this would be ―Never let a fool kiss you, or a kiss fool you‖, or ―Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.‖ Chiasmus is applied in Vietnamese puns smartly to express sarcasm like ―đại học, học đại‖ or ―cá ăn kiến, kiến ăn cá‖ However, chiasmus in English is much more limited than in Vietnamese because to converse and create another generally meaningful and grammatically acceptable clause or phrase is such a hard word for a language with tenses like English while it is completely possible in Vietnamese

Homophonic Puns

Homophonic puns play on words that sound alike, but are spelled differently, and mean different things For example, ―Seven days without laughter makes one weak‖ The word ―weak‖ here is played upon basing on its sound resemblance with ―week‖

The relationship of meaning, sound and spelling of words are divided into different terms which are illustrated in the following figure

(Wikipedia) Homophonic puns in Vietnamese also play on words with similar sound and different meanings, but the words are spelled exactly the same, due to the features of Vietnamese that Vietnamese belongs to isolating languages - words sharing the same spelling are always pronounced the same As a result, two kinds of pun in English homophonic and homographic pun almost corresponds to only one kind in Vietnamese – ―Đồng âm‖ If to be chosen, ―đồng âm‖ in Vietnamese would be more similar to homophonic puns Obviously, being spoken aloud, two words which are being played

on homographically would sound exactly the same making the pun in a jumble with homophonic puns For the reason, and for the sake of the study, ―đồng âm khác nghĩa‖

in Vietnamese would be treated as homophonic puns One interesting example of the phenomenon in Vietnamese is the following poem:

―Bà già đi chợ cầu Đông

Bói xem một quẻ lấy chồng lợi chăng

Thầy bói gieo quẻ nói rằng

Lợi thì có lợi nhưng răng chẳng còn.‖

In the poem, the folk author wisely exploits the two meanings of the word ―lợi‖ (benefit/gum) to make fun of the old lady who wants to get married The point of sarcasm here is that the lady wants the fortune-teller to say if it is beneficial for her to get married; in stead of answer the question with the same meaning of the word ―lợi‖, the fortune-teller use the other meaning of it as gum, so it turns out to be an unexpected answer when he says that she may keep her gum without any teeth

Spoonerisms

Spoonerisms are a result of changing around, whether on purpose or accidentally, the initial sounds of two or more words when speaking, for example ―well-boiled icicle‖ for well-oiled bicycle Others include ―sky as a height‖, ―nark staked‖, and ―dain bramage‖

Things are not so simple for Vietnamese, for there are several different styles of spoonerism The word ―thầy giáo‖ could be spoonerized as ―thấy giào‖ when only the tones of the two syllables are changed, as ―thào giấy‖ if only the vowels are changes,

or as ―tháo giầy‖ if both the tones and the vowels of the syllables are changes Another slight difference in the actual use of spoonerism is that spoonerized words in English usually require form-changing while spoonerism in Vietnamese involves in no such changes As for an example, almost any Vietnamese is familiar with the poem by the female poet Ho Xuan Huong:

―Cái kiếp tu hành nặng đá đeo,

Vị gì một chút tẻo tèo teo

Thuyền từ cũng muốn về Tây Trúc,

Trái gió cho nên phải lộn lèo.‖

Oxymorons

Oxymorons are rhetorical figures in which an epigrammatic effect is created by the conjunction of elements with contradictory meanings Basically, they are a working contradiction Some oxymorons are obvious, being simple opposites like ―jumbo shrimp‖ However, many other oxymorons are subjective to opinion: ―military intelligence‖ or ―Microsoft Works‖ Other examples include: ―minor miracle‖, ―clearly confused‖, ―safe sex‖, ―original copies‖, ―found missing‖, ―totally unfinished‖ and

―friendly fire‖

Oxymorons in Vietnamese are not much different; one slight difference, if any, is that the usage is narrower – almost in sarcasm only Some popular examples of oxymorons are ―anh hùng rơm‖, ―hổ giấy‖, ―tiến sỹ giấy‖, ―vua bù nhìn‖, and ―anh hùng áo vải‖

Polysemy

A word usually has several meanings, which is a universal phenomenon in English vocabulary When a word first emerges, it has an initial meaning But with the development of society and the language itself, the word was given new meanings through the extension of its meaning or the relevance of its sound, and then the word became polysemous This is a universal law of development of all human languages In terms of theory, the word ―polysemy‖ refers to the association of one word with two or more distinct meanings A polyseme is a word or phrase with multiple meanings Charles Fillmore and Beryl Atkins‘ definition stipulates three elements: (i) the various senses of a polysemous word have a central origin, (ii) the links between these senses form a network, and (iii) understanding the ‗inner‘ one contributes to understanding of the ‗outer‘ one

Polysemy is an expressive way of utterance to cause a sentence to have two different interpretations, and it is also a rhetorical device in which a certain feeling is transmitted For example ―Perhaps from some vague rumor of his college honors,

which had been whispered abroad on his first arrival, perhaps because he was an unmarried, unencumbered gentleman, he had been called the Bachelor.‖ In this sentence, the word "bachelor" has two meanings: the holder of a Bachelor‘s Degree and an unmarried man

The Vietnamese, once again, use polysemy smartly and mischievously in folk poems to tease each other, like in the following folk poem:

―Em ơi nên lấy thợ bào

Khom lưng ảnh đẩy cái nào cũng êm‖

What can be drawn out here is that if thoroughly exploited, puns can be of great value

In expressing sarcasm, especially, the use of puns proves much effectiveness, which is worth serious research

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

3.1 GENERAL VIEW

3.1 1 Comments on the survey questionnaires

The questionnaires used for this study are designed in Vietnamese and English with the similar contents for Vietnamese and English native speakers respectively, aiming to collect authentic and reliable data The questionnaires are comprised of two main sections To begin with, the first part requests the respondents to fill in their age, gender, marital status, and living area (residence) All of the obtained information about the respondent serves as a useful source for comments and later analyses

In the second part, question 1 aims at finding out purposes of using puns in social life

in general and in expressing sarcasm in particular Question 2 investigates the realized appropriateness of puns in different situations ranging from 1 to 4, i.e from advisability to strong inadvisability of using puns in expressing sarcasm Question 3 asks if the informants would express sarcasm in such situations There are four groups

of situations under investigation They are family life, social life, academic life, and business life The situations are:

Group 1: Family life

- Two guys are fighting outside

- Your husband/wife comes home late again

Group 2: Social life

- You witnessed your colleague‘s wife/husband going about with someone else

- You heard on the news that a government official is discovered to take bribes

Group 3: Academic life

- You witnessed your classmate cheat in the exam

- You got high mark for an assignment for which you did not spend much time and effort

Group 4: Business life

- A colleague with bad work record is promoted

- You are watching an ad on TV

In this part, the informants were asked to put a tick in the column which they thought would appreciate to use puns in expressing sarcasm in a given situation The initial purpose of the situations designed is to find out cross-cultural differences and to rate the assessment of possible choices by both Vietnamese and English speakers in their real exchange, thus to reach an initial understanding of the informants‘ behavior, beliefs and norms when they encounter those situations

Question 3 tries to find out the behaviour and belief of informants in using puns to express sarcasm when they are put in different relationships and positions in the situation: when they are engaged in the story taking place, when they are an outsider watching and talking about it with another witness, and when they narrate the story to someone else

For the DCT questions, the situations from the MCQ section are chosen and modified

in question 4 with the hope of obtaining ―really-be‖ utterances The informants are requested to choose from a list of possible utterances for each situation; they could also give their own expressions after the list

3.1 2 Comments on the informants

Firstly, the questionnaire aims at finding out the informants‘

o Age

o Gender

o Marital status, and

o Living area

All of the informants are Vietnamese and English native speakers from UK, the USA and Australia

Table 1: Distribution on informants’ status parameters

3.2 FINGDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.2.1 The use of puns

The aim of exposing some informative sentences containing some puns is to find out the purposes of using puns in expressing sarcasm in everyday conversations

Table 2: The main purposes of using puns in expressing sarcasm

Purpose Vietnamese English

to make fun of the hearer 15% 7.5%

to make fun of someone else 36% 27.5%

to make fun of the situation 34% 12.5%

to show wit and the sense of humour of the speaker 37% 52.5% others

The data suggest that the reasons why the Vietnamese and the English use puns show some differences as well as some similarities As much as 34% of the Vietnamese respondents confirmed that they used puns to make fun of the situation in a conversation, only 12.5% of the English ones would agree with the choice There is a relative similarity as 36% of the Vietnamese speakers would use puns to make fun of a third party not related in the conversation, which ranked the second in the four reasons, and the figure for English users of puns is 27.5% Another thing in common is that the reason to make fun of the hearer stood at the end of the list for both Vietnamese and English speakers though with different rates (15% and 7.5% respectively) The biggest difference in the purposes of using puns lies in last reason in the given list While only 37% of the Vietnamese informants chose to use puns to show wit and the sense of the humour of the speaker, which did not show much difference with the other reasons, as much as 52.5% of the English would use puns for the same purpose In general, the Vietnamese may use pun whether to make fun of someone else rather than the speaker

or the hearer, to make fun of the situation, or to show their wit and sense of humour almost equally In the mean time, most English native speakers like using puns to show their wit and sense of humour, and speakers of Vietnamese and English would agree with each other that puns should not be used to make fun of the hearer

3.2.2 Puns in expressing sarcasm in Vietnamese and English

3.2.2.1 Vietnamese findings and discussions

Chart 1: Vietnamese informants’ opinion of appropriateness of puns in expressing

sarcasm

Family life

In situation A1 (―Two guys fighting outside‖), the rate of choosing is distributed almost equally among the four options with the highest falls in option 3 (unacceptable-30%) Options 1 (Acceptable) and 4 (Strongly unacceptable) occupy the same rate of 15% Almost no one chose Yes/No option (4%) Therefore, the data lead to an initial conclusion that Vietnamese people hold different viewpoints in using puns to show sarcasm when they see guys fighting each other

Compared to what has been seen in situation A1, the rate of situation A2 ―Your husband/wife comes home late again‖ is rather different ―Acceptable‖ (65%) proves to outweigh other columns Ranked the second is the option ―Yes/No‖, only 5% approves

of ―Unacceptable‖, and no one thinks it is strongly unacceptable to use puns in expressing sarcasm in this situation

Social life

Situation B1 (―You witnessed your colleague‘s wife/husband going about with someone else‖) created gradually decreasing rates for the four options with the highest

rate on ―Acceptable‖ (45%), following by ―Yes/No‖ option with 30% then

―Unacceptable‖ (10%) ―Strongly unacceptable‖ occupy 15% of the total response, which ranks the third in the four options Clearly, Vietnamese people are not tolerant of someone going about with someone other than their wife or husband

As can be seen in situation B2 ―You heard on the news that a government official is discovered to take bribes‖, it is generally acceptable to use puns in expressing sarcasm

as 70% of the Vietnamese people asked chose ―Acceptable‖ for the situation while only 10% are not sure about their answer Even fewer people (5%) think it is unacceptable and 15% thinks that it is strongly unacceptable Collating with the context

of Vietnam society, this reflects a great interest of the Vietnamese in political issues and the fact that the people‘s intolerance towards the sin of taking bribes in a socialist country

Academic life

Situation C1 (―You witnessed your classmate cheat in the exam‖) seems to be a challenge to some informants as nearly half of them chose ―Yes/No‖ (40%) In deed, the problem of privacy is a complicated question for the Vietnamese However, 30% of the people asked still chose to use puns to express their sarcasm in such situation Interestingly, the number of people who chose to keep silent was exactly the same with 25% chose ―Unacceptable‖ and 5% ―Strongly unacceptable‖

Things did not go the same way for situation C2 (―You got high mark for an assignment for which you did not spend much time and effort‖) when most people (60%) are not sure whether or not to use puns to show their sarcasm Perhaps this is another matter that needs delicate comprehension, for once again it is related to privacy and face Still, as much as 35% of the total people answering the questionnaires were brave to use pun in making fun of themselves No one states that it is unacceptable to

pun in this situation, and only 5% strongly unacceptable Hence, there is quite a great resemblance in answers by Vietnamese in this situation

Business life

Business life seems to be an open air for Vietnamese people when in situation D1 ―A colleague with bad work record is promoted‖, most people are willing to pun to express their sarcasm (60%), and no one thinks it is strongly unacceptable The choosing rates fall dramatically from ―Acceptable‖, ―Yes/No‖ (25%), ―Unacceptable‖ (15%) to

―Strongly unacceptable‖ (0%) showing an anger of the Vietnamese with unfairness especially in work

The scenario repeats for situation D2 (―You are watching an ad on TV‖) when almost all of the viewers (65%) will use puns to state their sarcasm to advertising The data reveal the unbelief of Vietnamese consumers in advertisements This conclusion is better confirmed as none of the informants in the research chose not to say any thing, and as few as 5% reckon that it is strongly unacceptable to express sarcasm

For a brief summary, it can be seen that the frequency of ―Acceptable‖ in Vietnamese findings is rather high, which comes to a conclusion that Vietnamese people are actually open to puns in expressing sarcasm

3.2.2.2 English findings and discussions

Chart 2: English informants’ opinion of appropriateness of puns in expressing

sarcasm

As can be drawn in the chart of English findings, there are absolutely differences in the English informants‘ choice to use puns in expressing sarcasm from Vietnamese findings

In terms of situation A1, most informants (60%) agreed that it is unacceptable to use puns in expressing sarcasm when watching two guys fighting each other 20% are not sure about the answer, and the number of people who think that puns are acceptable is equal to that of people who think it is strongly unacceptable

The data were distributed equally between ―Acceptable‖ and ―Yes/No‖ (40%) and

―Unacceptable‖ and ―Strongly unacceptable‖ (10%) in situation A2 In contrast with the Vietnamese, English informants are more tolerant to a husband/wife who comes home late again and again

Also with equal figures, situation B1 makes a different pattern as the rates are the same for ―Acceptable‖ and ―Unacceptable‖ (10%) and ―Yes/No‖ and ―Strongly unacceptable‖ (40%) Like the Vietnamese, English people may get confused in situations when privacy is concerned

Surprisingly, contrary to what is generally expected, as much as 70% of the English informants agree to use puns to express sarcasm if they heard that a government official is discovered to take bribes It turns out that politics is not out of interest by English speaking countries except that 30% of the people would like to play it safe Roughly half of the people disagree that using puns to express sarcasm is acceptable in situation C1 20% do not know if they should pun or not, and ―yes‖ is the correct answer to 30% of the informants No one finds using puns to show sarcasm in such a situation strongly unacceptable Hence, the picture is clearer for English findings than Vietnamese

Half of the people will use puns to satirize themselves while nearly the same number of people does not know if they should say yes or no in situation C2 Nevertheless, only 10% will oppose, and none protest puns firmly

Interestingly, situation D1 sees nearly the same pattern as situation C2 except the conversed figures for ―Acceptable‖ and ―Yes/No‖ Again, reservedness can be observed among English native speakers once privacy is considered, which is much different to Vietnamese findings above

Situation D2 show another thing in common between Vietnam people and English native speakers as up to 80% of the English informants approved of puns to show sarcasm when watching an ad on TV Only 10% would not say anything, and another 10% would say ―No‖ to puns in this situation Therefore, advertising is not interested

by most English native speakers, just like the Vietnamese context

3.2.2.3 Cross-cultural similarities and differences

The MCQ data analysis shows not only the similarities but also the differences between the Vietnamese and English cultures in using puns in expressing sarcasm in given situations The similarities help us more confident and the differences make us aware