an english - vietnamese cross - cultural study of boasting = nghiên cứu giao văn hóa việt - anh trong cách khoe khoang

Table 1: The five general functions of speech acts following Searle, 1969 Table 2: Favourable topics of boasting Table 3: Politeness strategies according to the parameter of age Table 4:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

* Certificate of originality of study project report

*Acknowledgements

*Abstract

*Table of contents

*Abbreviations

* List of tables

* List of figures

i ii iii iv vi vii viii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale

2 Scope of the study

3 Aims of the study

4 Methodology

5 Design of the study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Language, culture and cross-cultural communication

1.1.1 Language, culture in communication

1.1.2 Language and culture in cross-cultural communication

1.2 Speech act

1.2.1 What is a speech act?

1.2.2 Classification of speech acts

1.2.3 Boasting as a speech acts

1.3 Politeness

1.3.1 What is politeness?

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1.3.2 Face and Politeness

1.3.3 Politeness strategies

CHAPTER 2: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

2.1 Advisable topics to boast

2.2 Politeness strategies realized in boasting

2.3 Use of strategies in boasting as seen from communicating

partners' parameters

2.3.1 Data analysis

2.3.2 Major similarities and differences

2.4 Use of strategies in boasting as seen from informants' parameters

2.4.1 Data analysis

2.4.2 Major similarities and differences

PART III: CONCLUSION

1 Review of the findings

2 Implications for cross – cultural communication

3 Suggestions for further research

REFERENCES APPENDICES

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ABBREVIATIONS

DCT: Discourse Completion Task

FTA: Face Threatening Act

H: the Hearer

S: the Speaker

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The five general functions of speech acts (following Searle, 1969) Table 2: Favourable topics of boasting

Table 3: Politeness strategies according to the parameter of age

Table 4: Politeness strategies according to the parameter of gender

Table 5: Politeness strategies according to the parameter of marital status Table 6: Politeness strategies according to the parameter of living place

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Politeness strategies in boasting to Close friend

Figure 2: Politeness strategies in boasting to a person you dislike

Figure 3: Politeness strategies in boasting to Colleague (same age, same sex)

Figure 4: Politeness strategies in boasting to Colleague (same age, opposite sex) Figure 5: Politeness strategies in boasting to Acquaintance (older than you) Figure 6: Politeness strategies in boasting to Acquaintance (younger than you)

Figure 7: Politeness strategies in boasting to Brother/sister

Figure 8: Politeness strategies in boasting to Aunt/uncle

Figure 9: Politeness strategies in boasting to Boss (older than you)

Figure 10: Politeness strategies in boasting to Boss (younger than you)

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE

Nowadays, as English becomes an international language in many fields, the number of Vietnamese learners of English has increased However, it is recognized that many Vietnamese – English interactions have experienced communication breakdown due to misinterpretations and misunderstandings

Language plays an important role in our life Language is not only for communication but also for cultural exchange among nations It is difficult to imagine what our lives would be like without language Language is a sign that makes human different from all other species in the animal kingdom People use it to communicate their ideas and thoughts to express their feelings such as anger, love, hate… and to convey their hopes and dreams

Cross – cultural communication is an interesting and attractive field for us to find out the similar and different language when studying speech acts such as greeting, advising, promising among countries in the world Comparisons of speech acts from different cultures have revealed that the same speech acts may be realized differently across cultures, following social norms of usage which are specific to the given speech community

In real – life conversations, people show different aspects of lives through diversified formal and informal speech Among them, lots of people can’t wait to tell us all how fantastic they are, how they are good at this and even better than that They claim all manner of wild and outrageous things They may claim to be enlightened, wise, highly intellectual and they might tell you that they are so popular that you should be honored they chose you to spend their day with This is the way people boast and big themselves

up

In the process of learning a foreign language, learners of English have to get to know a different culture They sooner or later realize the presence of cross – cultural differences between English and Vietnamese There were many studies about how English and Vietnamese differ from each other in the ways of expressing sympathy, promise, excitement, enjoyment… However, the study of boasting has not been paid much attention to With the hope of contributing a little to successful cross – cultural communication, this paper with a limited scope of research on English and Vietnamese similarities and differences in boasting has been written to help speakers of English observe the nature of boasting, how to boast, when to boast in real – life situations

2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Although paralinguistic (speed, loudness, pitch…) and extralinguistic (facial expressions, postures, proximity…) factors, to some extent, play a decisive role in interpersonal communication, they are beyond the scope of this study The study only focuses on the verbal aspects of the act of boasting

The study is limited to the data obtained from the survey questionnaire on ways of boasting in three socially differentiated situations The questionnaires were given to 50 Vietnamese and 50 English native speakers Basing on their completion of the questionnaires, the author used the utterances for contrastive analysis Among the various participants’ social relationship, the author only examines the relationship between close friends, colleagues, bosses-employees, and the people theydislike

3 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The research is intended to investigate major similarities and differences in the ways of boasting by the Vietnamese and English in given situations Its goal is to provide

a deep insight into cross – cultural communication between two languages and cultures, thus help to avoid communication breakdown in English – Vietnamese cross-cultural interaction

In order to gain this overall target, the study will:

 discover the acts of boasting based on the theories of speech acts and politeness

 investigate advisable topics that the English and Vietnamese prefer to boast about

 investigate the use of politeness strategies in boasting through relationship with certain partners and under certain variables (age, gender, marital status, living place…) through some specific situations

 find out major similarities and differences in how the English and Vietnamese boast of themselves verbally

 raise teachers’ and learners’ cross – cultural awareness of boasting in cross – cultural communication in order to avoid potential conflicts

4 METHODOLOGY

The study is mainly conducted by the quantitative method with the use of survey questionnaires The questionnaires are designed with both close-ended and open-ended

questions In the open-ended part, DCT (Discourse Completion Task) questions are designed and used DCT is regarded as an effective method to collect a wide range of similarities and differences between Vietnamese and English, and more importantly between the two cultures in showing objection within the scope of the study

In general, all the considerations, comments and remarks in this thesis are based on:

 Relevant publication

 Survey questionnaires

 Statistics, description and analysis of the collected data

 Consultation with supervisor

 Discussion with Vietnamese and English native colleagues

 Personal observation

5 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The thesis consists of three parts:

PART I: INTRODUCTION

This part includes the rationale, aims, scope of the study, methodology and design

of the study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

This part is divided into two chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

In this chapter, theories of language, culture and communication are mentioned A theory of speech act is also mentioned with the view of boasting as a speech act The definition of politeness, politeness strategies are critically discussed

Chapter 2: Data analysis and findings

In this chapter, data analysis and findings of the study are presented with the illustrations of tables and charts The similarities and differences of boasting between Vietnamese and English languages and cultures are drawn from detailed and critical analysis of data

PART III: CONCLUSION

Summary of the major findings, implications for cross-cultural communication and suggestions for further research are presented in this part

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

1.1.1 Language, culture in communication

A language is a system of signs for encoding and decoding information Many animals or even plant species communicate with each other Humans are not unique in this capability However, human language is unique in having a symbolic communication system that is learned instead of biologically inherited Language distinguishes us so clearly from other animals Delahunty and Garvey (1994:15) share this idea when stating that language is distinctively human Yet, it is not all that language functions As a human product, language is used as a means of cognition and communication

It is a common need for all beings to communicate with each other but we-as human beings-conduct our communication through our own wonderful and powerful means, language Known as “a defining characteristic of being human”, language is the most convincing criterion to justify human might We create the means to communicate

in that we distinguish man from beast We communicate with an exclusive emphasis on verbal forms through words and words accompanied by a system of non-verbal cues like eye contact, facial expressions, etc

Mc Arthurs (1996: 523) views language as a system of communication which uses structured vocal sounds and its embodiments in other media are writing, print, and physical signs

Supporting this point of view, Verderber goes on to perform the use of language and views language as the medium through which a culture is manifested

“Through language we create, maintain, and alter our environments We can choose or seek information or we can choose to avoid doing so Through language we can be clear or be ambiguous-we can disclose what we are thinking or feeling or we can hide those thoughts or feelings And perhaps most importantly, through language we can affect every aspect of our relationship.” (Verderber, 1990:62)

Born for the function of communicating, language is closely linked to the culture

it serves Culture provides land for language to develop and, in its turn, language operates

to serve culture They are clearly interrelated and interdependent

Thus, language and culture are interwoven, and their correlation accounts for an important part in communication This correlation is also of great importance in cross-

cultural communication and foreign language teaching and learning This will be further discussed in the part which follows

1.1.2 Language and culture in cross-cultural communication

Communication is culture bound The way an individual communicates emanates from his or her culture Of course, a person may know more than one culture or may be competent in a combination of cultures According to Richards (1985: 92), “cross-cultural communication is an exchange of ideas, information, etc…between persons from different backgrounds There are more problems in cross-cultural communication than in communication between people of the same cultural background Each participant may interpret the other’s speech according to his or her own cultural conventions and expectations If the cultural conventions and misunderstandings can easily arise, even resulting in a total break down of communication This has been shown by research into real life situations, such as job interviews, doctor-patient encounters and legal communication”

Cross-cultural communication is considered a study of a particular idea or concept within several cultures that compares one culture to another on the aspect of interest One factor that is believed to contribute to successful communication in general and cross-cultural communication in particular is communicative competence

Canale and Swain proposed a modular framework of four components for describing communicative competence:

a) Grammatical competence: including vocabulary, word formation, sentence formation, pronunciation, spelling and linguistic semantics;

b) Sociolinguistic competence: addressing the extent to which utterances are produced and understood appropriately in different sociolinguistic contexts depending on contextual factors such as status of participants, purposes of the interaction, and norms or conventions of interaction;

c) Discourse competence: concerning mastery of how to combine grammatical forms and meanings to achieve a unified spoken or written text in different genres;

d) Strategic competence: composed of mastery of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that may be called into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to limiting conditions in actual situations or to insufficient

competence in one or more of the other areas of communicative competence and to enhance the effectiveness of communication

This theory contributes a lot to the study of cross-cultural communication It can not be denied that communicative competence is shaped by the social and cultural life of

a particular speech community However, only some components of communicative competence are more or less related to culture

According to Thomas (1995), there are two types of pragmatic failures in cultural communication due to a break in the mutual communicative competence The sociopragmatic failures mean an inappropriate type of communication pattern chosen – an inappropriate politeness strategies (positive instead of negative, or vice versa), or an inappropriate type of speech act (criticizing instead of complaining), or misunderstanding the real meaning of a speech act (declining invitation in attempt to be polite which is understood as unwillingness to come) The linguapragmatic failures mean choosing some linguistic devices appropriate for carrying out a given strategy in one language/culture and inappropriate in another

cross-1.2 SPEECH ACT

1.2.1 What is a speech act?

When people attempt to express themselves they do not only produce utterances containing grammatical structures and lexical factors, but also perform actions through these utterances According to Yule, G (1996:47), actions performed via utterances are generally called speech acts and, in English, are given more specific labels, such as apology, complaint, compliment, invitation, promise, request, offer etc

Making a statement may be the paradigmatic use of language, but there are sort of other things we can do with words We can make requests, ask questions, give orders, make promises, give thanks, offer, apology, boast about something and so on Moreover, almost any speech act is really the perform of several acts at once, distinguished by different aspects of the speakers’ intention

John Austin (1962) defines speech acts as the actions performed in saying something When people produce utterances, they often perform actions via those utterances These actions are called speech acts A speech act is part of a speech event

The speech act performed by producing an utterance, consists of three related acts, namely locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act

 Locutionary act is the basic act of producing a meaningful linguistic expression The locutionary act is performed with some purposes or functions in mind

 Illocutionary act is an act performed via the communicative force of an utterance We generally also perform illocutionary acts such as informing, advising, offer, promise, boasting, ect

 Perlocutionary act is what we bring about or achieve by saying something, such as convincing, persuading, deterring perlocutionary acts are performed only on the assumption that the hearer will recognize the effect you intended

1.2.2 Classification of speech act

Yule, G (1996:49) argues that, of these three dimensions, the most discussed one

is illocutionary force Indeed the term “speech act” is generally interpreted quite narrowly

to mean only the illocutionary force of an utterance For instance, the utterance “I will come back” can represent different illocutionary forces such as a promise, a prediction, a warning…However, which illocutionary act is performed depends on how the utterance fits into the particular circumstance

There are thousands of possible illocutionary acts and several attempts have been made to classify them into a small number of types Such classifications are difficult because Speaker’s intentions are not always clear

According to Searle (1969) there are five types of speech acts based on the Speaker’s intentions They are declarations, representatives, expressives, directives and commissives

Declarations are those kinds of speech acts that change the world via their utterance For instance, “I resign” “War is hereby declared”

Representatives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker believes

to be the case or not Statements of fact, assertions, conclusions and descriptions are

examples of the speaker representing the world as he or she believes it is For example,

“The earth is flat”, “Today is a sunny day”

Expressives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker feels They

express psychological states and can be statements of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy

and sorrow For example, “I am terribly sorry”, “Oh! That‟s great.”

Directives are those kinds of speech acts that the speaker use to get the Hearer to

do something They express what the speaker wants They are commands, orders,

requests, suggestions ect For example, “Could you lend me your book?”, “Don‟t come to class late!”

Commissives are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to commit

themselves to some future action They express what the Speaker intends They are

promises, threats, refusals, ect For example, “I‟ll give you a lift”, “I won‟t do it again”

These five general functions of speech acts with their key features may be summarized as follows:

Speech act type Direction of fit S = Speaker / X = Situation Declarations

Table 1: The five general functions of speech acts (following Searle, 1969)

Another approach to distinguish different types of speech acts is based on the relationship between structure and functions Yule, G (1996:54) claims that there is an easily recognized relationship between the three structural forms (declarative, interrogative, imperative) and the three general communicative functions (statement, question, command/request)

Are you late? (interrogative) Don‟t be late! (imperative)

Whenever there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function, we

have direct speech act Whenever there is an indirect relationship between a structure and

a function, we have an indirect speech act Thus, a declarative used to make a statement is

a direct speech act whereas a declarative used to make a request is an indirect speech act For example, the utterance “It’s cold outside” is a declarative When it is used to make a statement as paraphrased in “I hereby tell you about the weather”, it is functioning as a direct speech act When it is used to make a command or a request, as paraphrased in “I hereby request of you that you close the door”, it is functioning as an indirect speech act

1.2.3 Boasting as a speech act

In everyday conversation, people perform different types of speech acts and boasting is one of those Boasting always involves saying good things about oneself, with the purpose of impressing other people To impress them, one has to say something about oneself that is not only good but that is unusually good; it must be something good that cannot be said about at least some other people that the speaker is comparing himself with The way people extend and respond to the act of boasting is more or less guided by their beliefs, customs, personality etc, so the strategies the Westerners choose to perform this speech act can not be the same as those chosen by the Easterners

According to Anna Wierzbicka (1987, p.202) boasting has the following meaning:

 I say: something good (X) can be said about me

 I assume that this cannot be said about some other people

 I feel something good because of that

 I want people to feel something because of that

 I say this because I want to cause people to think of me as someone about whom good things can be said that cannot be said about some other people and to feel something because of that

In boasting, the speaker’s primary objective is not so much to express his feelings

as to cause the addressee to feel something The feeling sought in the addressee is not necessarily a “good feeling”, such as admiration, it could also be a “bad feeling”, such as envy

Basing on Searle’s speech act classification, it can be seen that showing boasting tends to belong to different kinds of speech acts It should be noted that the “good thing” which is being said about the speaker has to be said directly and not merely implied This means that a boast has to have a declarative form and thus it conveys the declaration act

For instance, when someone wants to boast of himself towards his close friend he can

say: “Yes, I recently bought a new house It is a big purchase!” or “Yah! I got it! I have

my new house.”

Boasting is also a directive act in which the speaker tries to make the hearer

perform an action (“I bought a house recently Could you come and see it?”)

However, boasting also appears to be a commissive act, in which the speaker uses

to commit himself to some future action “I am a homeowner Come and see and we‟ll have a housewarming party.”

In the reality of social interactions, boasting has proven to be a speech act which has a great potentiality of causing face saving acts, and therefore needs to be investigated thoroughly so that appropriate strategies for boasting could be introduced to help cross-cultural communicators succeed in their interactions

1.3 POLITENESS

Politeness is something that is very abstract, but it plays an important role in interaction and has a great effect on the use of speech acts in human communication Politeness has been suggested that the principle of politeness governs all of the communicative behave The definitions of politeness will be dealt with in I.3.1, its relation with Face will be dealt with in I.3.2, and politeness strategies will be dealt with in I.3.3

1.3.1 What is politeness

In language study, politeness is defined as: “(a) how languages express the social distance between speakers and their different role relationships; (b) how face work, that

is, the attempt to establish, maintain, and save face during conversation, is carried out in

a speech community.” (Richards, J.C et al., 1985:281)

Culturally, politeness is viewed as “a fixed concept, as in the idea of „polite social behaviour‟, or etiquette, within a culture” (Yule, 1996:60) Yule further states that such

different general principles for being polite in social interaction within a particular culture

as being tactful, generous, modest, and sympathetic toward others can be specified And

as polite social behaviours may be different from one culture to another, what is considered to be “politeness” varies in different cultures

Cross-culturally, politeness in communication is seen as “any communicative act (verbal and/or nonverbal) which is appropriately intended to make others feel better or less bad” (Nguyen Quang, 2005:185)

1.3.2 Face and Politeness

As a human nature, every single man on the earth always tries to show to others

that they are good and worthy regardless of cultures, religions, or regions They all try to

protect their “face”, a sense of positive identity and public self-esteem However, in

everyday interactions, people have to deal with the situations of stress, disagreement, conflict, ect And face threatening acts (FTAs) happened in these situations are inevitable, which include criticisms, objections, disagreements, asking favors, requesting information

or goods, giving orders, apologizing, boasting of something, ect Politeness used to show social consideration, therefore is a crucial element of interpersonal communication in all human cultures

The term Face was first adopted by Goffman (1967) to describe people’s need to

maintain a positive image of themselves in the presence of others And he also points out that individuals tend to avoid threats to other people’s self images In daily

communication, face can be developed and maintained with the cooperation of others

Incorporating the notion of face into politeness theory, Yule (1996:60) defines

face as “the public self-image of a person It refers to that emotional and social sense of

self that everyone has and expects everyone else to recognize”

There are two different components of face: freedom to act without being impeded

by others, termed negative face; and the desire to be approved of, respected and appreciated by others, termed positive face (Brown & Levinson, 1987, p62) In other

words, while the negative face is the need to be independent, the positive face is the need

to be accepted (Yule, 1996, p62)

Almost any social interactions involve acts that are potentially threatening to either or both of these aspects of face Such acts are labeled FTAs in Brown & Levinson terminology They state that acts constituting a threat to the hearer’s negative face include requests, orders, promises and compliments Criticism, disagreement and misidentification are classified as threats to the hearer’s positive face The speaker’s negative face is threatened by the speaker’s expressing or accepting thanks and making

excuse while apologies, admittingguilt, responsibility or ignorance threaten the speaker’s positive face But complaints, threats and interruptions are cited as examples of FTAs that pose a threat to both positive and negative face

From the pragmatic perspective, when a speech act is considered threatening face

or not, the linguistic form, the context of the utterance and the relationship between the speaker and the hearer must be taken into account simultaneously (Thomas, 1995, p157) Consider the following examples below:

You must come and have dinner with us

You should come and have dinner with us

You may come and have dinner with us

Obviously, the deontic modal “must” contained in the first sentence is an expression of obligation Similarly “should” and “may” in the second and third examples are also deontic modals signifying desirability and permission respectively In terms of the degree of imposition, “must” is the most imposing and “may” the least But why is it considered polite for an English speaker to invite someone to dinner using the first sentence and why it is rude for him/her to use the third sentence for the same purpose? In fact, the first shows strong commitment on the part of the speaker to providing the dinner while the use of “may” in the third example shows the contrary and the hearer may decide not to come

Apart from these above factors, there are certain cultural values and social expectations in every society that determine particular acts For example, some certain topics in conversations are inherently face-threatening in one culture, but not in the other Vietnamese people usually ask questions about personal details, age, marital status with strangers, which are considered highly private to Englishmen

1.3.3 Politeness strategies

Brown & Levinson’s well-known theory of politeness focuses on three notions of face, FTAs and politeness strategies For the sake of this cross-cultural study, the author will explore politeness strategies modified

For Leech (1983), politeness is a strategy of conflict avoidance calculated on the basis of costs and benefits For Brown & Levinson (1987), politeness strategies express the speakers’ strategic attention to face

The division of positive face and negative face leads to 2 kinds of politeness strategies: positive and negative respectively

Positive politeness is used when a speaker wants to appeal to the hearer’s positive face This type of politeness is associated with high solidarity, and involves the speaker’s desire that the hearer should feel wanted, appreciated and somehow part of the group Brown & Levinson (1987, p.103-129) lists 15 strategies of positive politeness:

1 Notice, attend to the hearer (interests, wants, needs, goods)

2 Exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with the hearer)

3 Intensify interest to the hearer

4 Use in-group identity markers

12 Include both the speaker and the hearer in the activity

13 Give (or ask for) reasons

14 Assume or assert reciprocity

15 Give gifts to the hearers

Nguyen Quang (2003) has added 2 more strategies:

16 Console, encourage the hearer

17 Ask personal questions

The use of negative politeness involves an inherent conflict for the speaker between wishing the message to have the desired effect but also wishing to minimize the imposition felt by the hearer Negative politeness thus acts to redress the impact of an FTA The following are 10 negative politeness strategies introduced by Brown & Levinson (1987, P131)

1 Be conventionally indirect

2 Question, hedge

3 Be pessimistic

4 Minimize the imposition

5 Give deference

6 Apologize

7 Impersonalize the speaker and the hearer

8 State FTA as a general rule

9 Nominalize

10 Going on record as incurring a debt

Nguyen Quang (2003) has added one more strategy:

11 Avoid asking personal questions

This modification is the result of challenging the notion of face Many linguists,

especially those from collectivist societies, criticize that Brown & Levinson overemphasize individual freedom and autonomy So Nguyen Quang offers more possible

ways in which “individual users of language in socio-communicative verbal interaction classify utterances as polite” (Watts, 2003, p160) provided that such utterances

“intentionally and appropriately make another people/other people feel that better or less bad” (Nguyen Quang, 2003) However, the choice of politeness strategies depends on the

speaker’s assessment of the size of the FTA, which is constrained by contextual factors mentioned in the next section

CHAPTER 2: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

2.1 ADVISABLE TOPICS TO BOAST

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, boasting is the act of making ostentatious speech Boasting occurs when someone not only feels a sense of satisfaction

but also feels that whatever occurred proves their superiority, and is recounting accomplishments so that others will feel admiration and envy Boasting can be seen as a

form of the message “Look at me, now Aren‟t I wonderful?” It is to some extend the

way people show off themselves in front of others

This thesis is also carried out to investigate some topics the Vietnamese and English informants prefer to boast about As shown in the survey questionnaire, 13 topics are mentioned in which the author would like to find out the informants’ attitude towards such topics as buying a new car/ new house, getting promotion, having children passing the entrance exam to university, getting high income, earning a lot of money from lottery/ stock/ doing business, having good sex ability, an excellent spouse, or innate abilities or maintaining good relationship with your wife’s/ husband’s family

As collected from the interview, the following figures are of the remarkable concern:

- buying a new car/ new house 60 30

- your children have passed the entrance exam to

- having received valuable presents/ gifts from

- earning a lot of money from lottery/ stock/

- your excellent spouse 20 44

- having some innate abilities (cooking, sports,

- having an expected lover 12 0

- maintaining good relationship with your

Table 2: Favourable topics of boasting

From the results collected, the Vietnamese informants prefer to boast about their children most with 90% for boasting about their children’s having passed the entrance exam to the university or having received a scholarship, followed by having their cute children (84%) This is understandable that the Vietnamese people always considered their children the most important in their lives They do everything to support and care for their children In every small talk, the topic of children and the future generation, is always of the most concern

Unlike the Vietnamese informants, the English ones choose the topic of maintaining good relationship with their wife’s/ husband’s family as their most concern

It accounts for 84% Next is the topic of boasting about some of their innate abilities (cooking, sports, decorations, designs), which makes up 70%

Among 50 Anglicist informants surveyed, many informed that they don’t like to boast such topics of boasting as having a nice and sexy body, having good sex ability or having an expected lover, thus, it is easy to understand that none of them chose these The rest of the topics are at lower rates in comparison with the rate of the Vietnamese informants The English informants also do not want to boast of their high income (6%) and earning a lot of money from lottery/ stock/ doing business (4%)

For the Vietnamese informants, the only topic they do not want to boast about is having good sex ability (0%) It seems to be an unsafe topic for them because for most of the informants this topic belongs to a taboo thing The topics of boasting about having nice and sexy body or having high income do not account for the high percentages, just 10%

In short, the act of boasting is more preferable for the Vietnamese informants than for the English ones Vietnamese people tend to think of their children, while English people take care of their relationship with their wife’s/ husband’s family Both the English and Vietnamese informants do not want to boast about their sex ability It might

be an unsafe topic to boast about Some of the typical topics with real utterances will be dealt with in the next part and hopefully that this will prove the above results

2.2 POLITENESS STRATEGIES REALIZED IN BOASTING

Strategy 1: Notice, attend to the hearer

When people communicate with each other, it is a nice idea to have a good impression on others by caring for their wants or needs Generally, people are satisfied when their good or bad news, their wishes are noticed and attended to.E

This strategy can be observed and conducted through:

- Công việc của cậu có ổn không? Mình vừa nhận đ-ợc quyết định rồi đấy

(How is your job? I’ve just got the decision!)

Or a person has just bought a new house can boast to his/her friends:

- Nghe nói vợ chồng cậu có căn hộ đẹp lắm hả? Mình cũng vừa mới tậu đ-ợc một túp lều nho nhỏ đấy.)

(Here by, your house is quite beautiful, isn’t it? I have just bought a small one.) English data:

It is the case when English native speakers show their concern to others and try to gain closeness between S and H

When boasting of oneself towards others, one may start their conversation by asking a question of concern like:

- How are you getting on with your work? I got the promotion recently

Strategy 2: Use in-group identity markers

Some ways of address forms can be used flexibly and effectively in this strategy Vietnamese data:

- Cậu thấy mình thế nào? Hoành tráng không? Ngôi nhà đó là niềm mơ -ớc của chúng mình đấy

(What do you think of me? How great I am! That new house is our ever dream.)

- Bạn thân yêu ơi, mình vừa tậu đ-ợc một túp lều tranh rồi đấy

(Hi there, buddy I‟ve just bought a new flat.)

- Sếp chúc mừng em đi Nhờ có sự quan tâm của sếp mà bọn em đã mua đ-ợc một căn nhà mới đấy

(Let’s congratulate on me! Owing to your consideration we’ve bought a new house

recently.)

English data:

- I recently bought a new house What do you think of me? You are welcome to stop by?

Strategy 3: Offers, promises

This strategy is used to gain the solidarity or cooperation between S and H, S often offers or promises to do something in order to satisfy for H

Vietnamese data:

- M×nh võa nhËn chøc tr-ëng phßng xong Tèi nay ®i ¨n tiÖm ®i M×nh sÏ khao English data:

- I‟ve been assigned as the manager Let‟s eat out tonight I‟ll give you a feast

When S has just bought a new house, he/she shows his/her excitement towards

close friends by saying: “I am a homeowner Let‟s have a housewarming party.”

Strategy 4: Assert or presuppose knowledge of and concern for H’s wants

This strategy indicates that S and H are cooperators of and thus potentially to put pressure on H to cooperate with S, is to assert or imply knowledge of H’s wants and willingness to fit one’s own wants in with them This strategy is often seen in the

When the speaker wants to boast of his/herself towards the others, beside giving the information, he or she can give some suggestions

From Vietnamese data:

- Mình vừa nhận đ-ợc một phần th-ởng 100 USD Tại sao chúng mình không có một bữa ngon tr-a nay nhỉ?

(I’ve just received a reward of 100 USD Why don’t we have a nice lunch today?)

- Tớ vừa mua nhà mới đấy Các cậu có nghĩ rằng một bữa tr-a ngon là cần thiết không?)

(I’ve just bought a new house Do you think a small party is necessary?)

It is more popular for the Vietnamese informants to use interrogative forms such

as “Why don‟t we ?” or “Do you think ?” to give suggestions

From English data, for such situations, English native speakers tend to use the same structures as the Vietnamese ones

- I‟m a house owner Why don‟t we have a housewarming party?

Or

- Yes! I just bought a new house When are you coming over?

- Yah! I have a new house Let‟s have a housewarming party this weekend

2.3 USE OF STRATEGIES IN BOASTING AS SEEN FROM COMMUNICATING PARTNERS’ PARAMETERS

Vietnamese 36(%) 18(%) 16(%) 10(%) 20(%)