Addressing terms in English and Vietnamese So sánh đối chiếu

Addressing terms in English and Vietnamese So sánh đối chiếu Addressing terms in English and Vietnamese So sánh đối chiếu Addressing terms in English and Vietnamese So sánh đối chiếu Addressing terms in English and Vietnamese So sánh đối chiếu Addressing terms in English and Vietnamese So sánh đối chiếu

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 2 CONTRASTING OF ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE ADRESSING TERMS AND

10

TEACHING SUGGESTIONS

2.7 Components going with terms of address verbs 19

PART I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Nowadays, English is considered as an international language which is a means of communication in many fields of science, technology, culture, education and economy It plays a very important role in helping different nations to understand each other and get great cooperation

In interpersonal communications, addressing someone before starting a conversation is necessarily done because it helps the addressee know that he or she is the second person taking part in the conversation (Bui, 2008) Dewi (2008) also stated that people use addressing terms not only to determine addressees but also to show formal and informal manners and consideration for them In other words, by employing a certain addressing terms, speakers want to express his or her feeling or respect, solidarity and intimacy to the addressees Both English and Vietnamese languages also have their unique addressing tern system which can not be translated equivalently In these two languages, a few basic addressing terms share the same semantic constants However, cross-cultural researchers find that addressing terms of a society that one system can not be fully translated equivalently into the language of a society that uses a different system What considered polite in one culture may be perceived as impolite in another Therefore, communicating effectively in intercultural circumstances has been found difficulty

The issue of communicative competence has been the interest and responsibilities of those who are engaged in teaching of language as a foreign language Specifically, teachers of English, particularly teachers in Vietnam, have paid assiduous attention to the issue of address system Possibly, that is due

to the students’ lack of knowledge concerning the use of addressing terms It is also possible that the students simply apply their mother tongue’s rules governing the use of addressing terms into English

To serve our job in the future, we decided to deal with “addressing terms

in English and Vietnamese”

2 Aims of the study

As the title of the thesis suggests, the study aims at fulfilling the following objectives:

- To investigate the similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese addressing terms

- To provide suggestions to help teachers can draw students’ attention when teaching English addressing terms

3 Research questions

- What are the similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese addressing terms?

- What can teachers draw students’ attention when teaching English addressing terms?

4 Research methods

- Theoretical methods: According to the aims and the content of this paper, we searched, collected, read and studied many different documents related to the study

5 Design of the study

It includes 3 main parts:

The 1st part is Introduction It provides the general information about the

paper including Rationale, Aim of the study, Research questions, Research methods and Design of the study

The 2nd part consists of 2 main chapters:

Chapter I: Literature review

This chapter addresses a review of the literature related to addressing terms in English and Vietnamese

Chapter II: Contrasting of English and Vietnamese addressing terms and

teaching suggestions

This chapter emphasizes the similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese addressing terms and provides some suggestions on teaching addressing terms to students

The 3rd part is Conclusion which gives an overview of what the study has

been presented and the base for further research in this aspect

PART II CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of addressing terms

There are many documents discussing about addressing terms Yet, these documents did not give a finite definition for the term “addressing terms”

According to Nguyen Van Khang (as cited in Vinh, 2008, Address form

in translation), addressing terms are words used to call oneself and others Namely, they are words, phrases, names, titles or a combination of these used in addressing someone or something An address term may be friendly, unfriendly

or neutral, respectful, disrespectful or comradely (Nordquist, 2009) In addition, addressing terms are “always grammatically optional, but they are often socially required and they are always socially loaded” (Holmes and Meyerhoff, 2002, p.77)

Bui Manh Hung (2008) stated that in a conversation, addressing terms function as a lead-in of a conversation as in “Anh này, anh đã gửi quà cho bác Đinh giúp em chưa?” or “Darling! Did you call Mrs Ann for the invitation?” They also help to orient the conversation toward a particular person especially when this person is among a group or a crowd, for example “chị áo xanh ơi, trả bút cho em” or “Hey, baby” He also pointed out the social functions of addressing terms such as establishing and adjusting social relationships and determining social status between participants of the conversation For instance,

by addressing “Em ơi” in the sentence “Em ơi, đừng gọi tôi bằng chú” the speaker has let the listener know what he or she should be called so that they can build up a good and friendly relationship together Moreover, the speaker also shows his friendliness towards the listener Through the way of using terms of addressing, the speaker can express his respect, fondness, disfavor or scorn toward his or her listener

1.2 English addressing terms

Holmes and Meyerhoff (2002, p28) pointed out many different ways of addressing people in English depending on the level of politeness and closeness

Hence, any individual may get very different terms from different addressers, and some addressers may use multiple terms For example:

- Surname plus social title: Mr./Ms./Miss./Mrs Robinson

- Surname plus professional title: Dr./Prof./Judge./Sen./Capt Robinson

- Respect terms: sir, ma’am, miss

- Bare title: coach, professor, doctor , judge , councilor, teacher

- Surname only: Robinson

- Title or kinship term plus given name: Ms Blanche/ Auntie Blanche / Granny Rose/ Papa John

- Bare kinship term: mother/mom/mommy/mama, dad/daddy/ papa/pop(s)/father, sis(ter), bro(ther), son, daughter, aunt(ie), uncle, grandma, grandpa

- Given name: Christine/ Christopher

- Standard short form of name: Chris

- Special “nicknames”: Crisco (for Chris), Teddy Bear/Ace/Batgirl

- Stranger generic names: Mac, Bud, Buster, Toots

- General: man, you(guys) , girl(friend), dude, lady, ladies, gentlemen, folks, babe, sexy

- Epithets/insults: bitch, ho, slut, prick, bastard, slimeball, nerd, dyke, faggot

- Endearments (sometimes preceded by my) : honey, dear, sweetie, love, darling, baby, cutie, etc

1.3 Vietnamese addressing terms

Phan (2006) has listed a number of terms that Vietnamese address each other, a summary of which is as follows:

- Personal pronouns especially second-person pronouns: bạn/các bạn, mày/chúng mày, bồ, anh, em, trò, bay/tụi bay, etc

- Personal names: Hương ơi, ông Huế, etc

- Professional titles: Cô giáo Thảo, ông luật sư, anh bác sĩ, etc

- Formal titles: Ngày, Ông, quý ông, etc

- Kinship terms: Mẹ (má, bầm, bu, mệ,…), bố (tía, ba, cha, thầy,…), bà (nội, ngoại, cố, dì, trẻ), con, cháu, chắt, etc

- Terms of endearment: cưng, nhỏ, em yêu, etc

- Insults: con ngây, thằng gù, lão điên, etc

- Other terms: thằng còi (“ Thằng còi! Lại đây!”), phở (“Phở! Phở!), etc

CHAPTER 2 CONTRASTING OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE ADRESSING TERMS AND TEACHING SUGGESTIONS

2.1 Personal pronouns

Personal pronoun is a word used instead of a noun that represents a specific person Its use depends on number (singular, plural), person (first, second, third), gender (male, female, neutral) and case (subject, object) Vietnamese and English personal pronoun must be in agreement with correct gender and number of people being described These two following tables will illustrate the difference between English and Vietnamese personal pronoun

Table 1: English address forms

English personal pronoun

subject Object reflexive subject object reflexive

third masculine he him himself they them themselves

feminine she her herself

Table 2: Vietnamese addressing forms

Persons

Number P1 (addressor)

(English "I/we") (English "you") P2 (addressee)

P3 (third person referent) (English

"he, she, it/they")

Tôi

nó, hắn, y Singular

mình chúng tôi các bạn chúng nó, chúng, Plural

chúng tao chúng mày, bây, chúng

bây ,tụi mày, tụi bây Ta/ chúng ta

mình, chúng mình, tụi

 

As these two tables can be seen, Vietnamese has more forms of personal pronouns than English more There is a variety of second-person pronouns expressing different levels of intimacy, politeness or insolence For example, Vietnamese often use “ bạn / các bạn” to formally address those who are at the same social status However, the use of these pronouns is very limited It depends on the context, and the social relationship between the interlocutors On the contrary, in English, there is only one second-person pronoun that is “you” and it can be used in every communicative circumstance

Besides, in Vietnam personal pronoun, there are five common pronouns for the first person singular reference and the corresponding plural form fore singular forms by adding “chúng” to them The third person reference include four commonly used pronouns in the singular form and three in plural As the result, Vietnamese personal pronouns can reveal the social relationship between the speaker and the person being referred to the difference in age and the attitude

of the speaker toward the hearer In English person pronoun, there are only 2 forms for the first person: I (singular) and we (plural) the third person includes three singular forms such as he, she and it and only one plural form – they In the first and second person, they exist in to neutral dyadic pairs (I you and we -you) which are regarded as prefabricated units because they are used to communicate in any context and with everyone not containing any information

of gender, age or social and family relationship as well as the formality of communication The third person is only used to refer to the difference of gender

but age between the speakers and listeners in any dimensions of the communication

For grammar, Vietnamese personal pronoun, unlike English personal pronoun does not have transformation form subjective form to objective form so Vietnamese one can be used as both subject and object in sentences In English personal pronoun, there is a clear distinction between subjective and objectives forms of addressing Each subjective form also have its own relevant objective form

For example:

Anh ấy yêu tôi He loves me

Tôi yêu anh ấy I love him

In Vietnamese personal pronoun: the subject are the same with the object: anh, ấy, tôi In English pronoun: “she” has the objective form - “her”, “I” has the objective form – “me”

Therefore, in teaching especially in teaching translation, teachers should ask students to pay assiduous attention to the social relationships between the participants of the conversations as well as the speaker’s attitudes towards his or her addressee in order to get full understanding of the conversation

2.2 Personal names

Both the English and the Vietnamese use names to address people Firstly, Vietnamese never use names to address their relatives For example, they never call their mother by names By contrast, English sometimes call their family members using names Secondly, on daily communication, Vietnamese use first names to address another and only use last name to refer to the third – person while in England, people use last name very often They can call “Miss Smith” (the last name is of the husband), for example, to politely address a married

woman Finally, Vietnamese speakers refer to themselves and others name where it would be strange if used in English, eliminating the need for personal pronoun altogether For instance, consider the following conversation:

Hoa: Hồng đang làm gì vậy ?

Hồng: Hồng đang goị Thanh Hoa có biết Thanh ở đâu không?

Hoa: Không Hoa không biết Thanh ở đâu cả.

A normal translation of the conversation into English would be:

Hoa : What are you doing?

Hong: I am calling Thanh Do you know where he is?

Hoa: No I don’t know where he is.

While referring to oneself on the audience by name would by considered strange in English people always use surname with the titles such as Ms, Miss, Mrs and Ms in formal context on Just use “I and you ’’ in any context, in Vietnamese it is considered friendly and Is the preferred way to communicate with close friends However, Vietnamese with a lower rank can not refer to their superiors by name in a kinship context

Hence, teachers’ responsibility is helping students get more knowledge about the culture of the two countries so that students will not be confused and have wrong evaluation of the other culture

2.3 Professional titles

In English and Vietnamese, professional titles are often employed to confirm formality between interlocutors It will be all right in both languages to use professional titles alone or with names However, in Vietnamese addressing system, there are occupation such as giáo sư (professor), bác sĩ (doctor) Moreover, there also exists occupational title with proper name, such as “Giáo

second and third personal reference Nevertherless, English addressing system, unlike Vietnamese one, they use a neutral dyad “I and you” when talk to each other It does not depend on their own occupation following with their surname

as the third person in formal content like “professor John”

Thus, students should be explained carefully about this difference so as not to be considered awkward in their interaction with English people

2.4 Formal titles

In very formal circumstances, Vietnamese use some formal titles to address people, especially when the addressees are superior to them Among the terms often used are “ông” and “ngài” Formal titles like “sir”, “Mr”, “Mrs”, are often employed in official contexts as well

Teachers had better encourage students to study the cultures of the tow nations so as to have appropriate interpretation of formal titles from one language to the other

2.5 Kinship terms

Kinship terms, according to E R Leach, are “category words by means of which an individual is taught to recognize the significant groupings in the social structure into which he is born’’ (as cited in Leach,1958) All languages in the world have kinship terms, which are clearly highlighted in addressing forms of a language Without exception, all kinship terms make use of factors such as age, sex, generation, blood, marriage in their society Both English and Vietnamese languages also have their own kinship terms, which can not be translated into each other equivalently Both they have defined their own set of kinship terms and the roles they serve in the society There are both similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese kinship terms through the following table 3 and table 4