A study on english politeness strategies for gift offers with reference to the vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS A STUDY ON ENGLISH POLITENESS STRATEGIES FOR GIFT OFFERS WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ BẰNG TIẾNG ANH KHI ĐƯA RA LỜI MỜI TẶNG QUÀ VỚI CÁC LIỆN HỆ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT) TRẦN THỊ THU HƯỜNG Hanoi, 2016 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS A STUDY ON ENGLISH POLITENESS STRATEGIES FOR GIFT OFFERS WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ BẰNG TIẾNG ANH KHI ĐƯA RA LỜI MỜI TẶNG QUÀ VỚI CÁC LIỆN HỆ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT) TRAN THI THU HUONG Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Vo Dai Quang, Ph.D Hanoi, 2016 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled A STUDY ON ENGLISH POLITENESS STRATEGIES FOR GIFT OFFERS WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2016 Tran Thi Thu Huong Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date:…………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc.Prof.Vo Dai Quang, Ph.D, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher A special word of thanks goes to all my lecturers and students in Hanoi Technology and Business University and English teachers in Edu Future Centre and Language Link Centre and their friends, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my friends for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work ii ASTRACTS The present thesis has been carried out on the background of the achievement and deficiencies in the existing studies on English politeness strategies for gift offers with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents The study aims at investigating the similarities and differences in using politeness strategies for gift offers between English and Vietnamese Besides, their survey responses are carefully analyzed to build a frame, a common set of strategies in the field The conclusion is drawn from data analysis and findings are presented and compared in a brief and concise way Some common giving gift offers patterns in both Vietnamese and English cultures from the data are also presented and illustrated with the hope of partially helping avoid misunderstanding in communication Moreover, investigating the politeness strategies of gift offers and finding out the similarities and differences in two languages can help the Vietnamese learners overcome the difficulties which caused the barrier between two cultures when they are communicating It also helps to enhance and improve language communicative competence of Vietnamese learners of English iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CA: Conversation Analysis CP: Co-operation Principle D: Social Distance FTAs: Face Threatening Acts G: Giver H: Hearer MP: Model Person P: Relative Power PP: Politeness Principle R: Ranking of Imposition R: Receiver S: Speaker iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Possible strategies for doing FTAs Figure 2: Strategies to minimize risk of losing face Table 1: The informants’ status parameters Table 2: Offering gift strategies Table 3: Strategies used to offer a gift Table 4: Ranking of occurrence of gift offer strategies in order of rate v TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii List of abbreviations iv List of tables and figures v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY AIMS OF THE STUDY OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY SCOPE OF THE STUDY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .2 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY: CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Review of the previous studies related to the theme of the thesis 2.2 Review of theoretical preliminaries employable for the research 2.2.1 Language and communication 2.2.2 Communicative competence 2.2.3 John Rogers Searle’s definition of speech acts 2.2.4 Speech act theory .8 2.2.5 Classification of speech acts 10 2.2.6 Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness 11 2.2.7 The notion of face 13 2.2.8 Politeness principles 16 2.2.9 Classification of politeness strategies 18 vi 2.2.9.1 Bald On-record 18 2.2.9.2 Positive politeness 19 2.2.9.3 Negative politeness strategies 22 2.2.9.4 Off- record (indirect) 26 2.2.9.5 Social factors affecting politeness strategies 26 2.2.10 Offering as a speech act 27 2.2.11 Gift offers 29 2.3 Summary 30 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 31 3.1 Research-governing orientations 31 3.1.1 Research questions 31 3.1.2 Research settings 31 3.1.3 Research approach Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1.4 Principles/criteria for data collection and data analysis 33 3.2 Research methods 33 3.2.1 Major methods vs supporting methods 33 3.2.2 Data collection techniques 34 3.2.3 Data analysis techniques 36 3.3 Summary 36 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 38 4.1 Communicative strategies used in offering 38 4.1.1 Direct offer 38 4.1.2 Showing concern for the Receiver 39 4.1.3 Giving the Receiver a surprise 40 4.1.4 Showing modesty of the gift value 41 4.1.5 Stating reason/purpose of gift offers 42 4.1.6 Wishes 44 4.1.7 Expressing the Giver’s feeling 45 4.1.8 Asking for permission to give a gift 46 vii 4.2 Gift offering strategies as seen from communicating partners’ parameters 47 4.2.1 Someone you dislike 47 4.2.2 Close friend 49 4.2.3 Brother/sister 50 4.2.4 Employee 51 4.2.5 Employer 52 4.3 Similarities and differences in the politeness strategies for gift offers…………………………….…………………………………………… 53 4.4.Summary 538 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 599 5.1 Recapitulation 599 5.2 Concluding remarks…………………………………………………… 59 5.2 Implications for using gift offers 60 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study 60 REFERENCES 60 APPENDIXES 1: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE 63 APPENDIXES 2: BẢN ĐIỀU TRA 66 APPENDIX 3: OBSERVATION SHEET OBSERVATION SHEET 69 viii Dimension English Vietnamese investigated The structural dimension S/ Examples D Use short and simple utterances to show the expression directly Use longer and D more complex utterances Vietnamese speakers are more likely to be in favor of roundabout expression to show their politeness In English: This is a nice gift for you In Vietnamese: Nhân dịp sinh nhật bạn, có quà tặng bạn Some common words such as The frequency of politeness strategy dimension S “little”, “small” are used in English In English: This is a small gift for and “nhỏ”, “chút”, “quê” in you Vietnamese This means that the gift is at small value so that the Receiver Just a little gift for cannot refuse and it is an effective you way to persuade the Receiver to In Vietnamese: accept the gift Của lòng nhiều “showing mong anh chị nhận modesty of cho the gift Em có chút quà quê value” tặng anh chị “Asking for This is the least frequently used permission to strategy by both informants of offer a gift.” English and Vietnamese One thing special in English is their offer in the form of questions with modal verbs S In English: May I give you something? In Vietnamese: 55 “may”, “can”, Vietnamese prefer Tôi xin mạn phép gửi using “xin mạn phép” to ask for tặng anh quà permission năm “Direct The most offer” frequently used by lower than The frequency is D I have got a gift for the English English but the informants They degree of are willing to directness is In Vietnamese: speak out their higher with the Em tặng chị quà you minds directly and verbs “tặng, xin straightly with sinh nhật tặng” Đây quà tớ using the tặng cậu preposition “for” “Stating In English: The second most reason/purpo frequent used in The frequency is lower in D In English: A reward for your se of gift English and one Vietnamese offering” of the positive They often use politeness resort to the so- This is for you to strategies to show called “by the show my thanks gratitude and keep way, on the as a token The occasion” These informants point roundabout hard-working Forget me not In Vietnamese: out the reason and expression make Tơi có q nhỏ purpose of gift tặng bạn nhân ngày the Receiver giving with words implicitly “hard/excellent/ef sinh nhật bạn understand that 56 fort/innovation” the Giver does They expect the R not offer the to enjoy the gift, gifts make use of it and intentionally, but not forget the accidentally and G the R feel free to accept “Wishes” -The frequently is -The most much lower than frequently used Vietnamese by Vietnamese -They often -They often express wishes expect good Merry Christmas with special health, In Vietnamese: occasions such as happiness, birthday, weeding property, ceremony…with success, short and simple longevity Their Chúng em chúc sếp utterances such utterances are sinh nhật vui vẻ as: conventional and hạnh phúc Best wishes for you Congratulations D In English: Best wishes for you Congratulations Em chúc anh may mắn thành công formulaic: G wishes R happiness/ healthy…They prefer using long utterances with belief that the more wishes they have, the 57 more likely wishes come true - “wishes” in English are often expressed by nouns or adjectives -“wishes” in Vietnamese prefer using “chúc” “congratulations, best, happy” 4.4 Summary The politeness strategies are used by all English and Vietnamese informants However, the strategy ‘direct offer’ is employed at the highest rate with English informants, whereas Vietnamese informants are popular with the strategy ‘wishes’ English and Vietnamese cultures have effect on the choice of politeness strategies English people prefer expressing the feeling and emotions directly and straightly In contrast, Vietnamese people favor using roundabout expressions to gain their aims Because they think that if the issue is out-spoken, it is impolite and makes the Giver embarrassed 58 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 5.1 Recapitulation This thesis has established the framework of the theoretical background from which the speech act theory, politeness principles and other issues related to politeness strategies for gift offers in English and Vietnamese have been introduced The thesis employs quantitative approach and contrastive analysis to collect and analyze the data in order to find out the similarities and differences in both English and Vietnamese politeness strategies for gift offers After collecting and analyzing, the politeness strategies are used by all English and Vietnamese informants However, the strategy ‘direct offer’ is employed at the highest rate with English informants, whereas Vietnamese informants are popular with the strategy ‘wishes’ English and Vietnamese cultures have effect on the choice of politeness strategies English people prefer expressing the feeling and emotions directly and straightly In contrast, Vietnamese people favor using roundabout expressions to gain their aims Because they think that if the issue is out-spoken, it is impolite and makes the Giver embarrassed 5.2 Concluding remarks The choices of politeness strategies are affected by the cultures of each country English people like using direct expressions to show their feeling and ideas by short and simple utterances, whereas Vietnamese people prefer using roundabout expressions by long and complex utterances This also shows modesty in Vietnamese culture The Giver will place the Receiver to a higher position to make the Receiver more likely to accept the offer Therefore, in communicating process, we should employ the politeness strategies effectively and properly to gain the needs and avoid misunderstanding about the culture 59 5.2 Implications for using gift offers For English language teaching (ELT), the teacher must help learners understand more about culture value, especially politeness strategies and be aware of the ways of using these strategies effectively in the different situations and from that, the English learners can know more about English culture and the differences between English and Vietnamese politeness strategies to avoid misunderstanding When explaining something, it is necessary for the teacher to point out whether it is acceptable for Vietnamese or English or not This will help the learners to find out the good ways and strategies to gain their aims The teacher should teach language with its function, not only structures If the learners have knowledge of the structures only, they can make something grammatically correct, but culturally incorrect The reason is that they just have ‘linguistic competence’ and lack of ‘communicative competence’ Linguistic competence only helps the learners use the utterances correctly If they have knowledge about communicative competence, they will find out the way to persuade the Receiver to accept the gift offers We have to employ different strategies with different situations to gain communicative effectiveness 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study As discussed earlier in the scope of the study, this research is limited to the verbal aspects of the act of offering gift The findings presented above are just a little contribution This speech act should be investigated more, especially in non-verbal perspective to get a panorama of offering a gift The following dimensions need further research: - The influence of informants’ parameters on the choice of strategies: age, gender… - Paralinguistic factors: pitch, vocal quality… - Extra-linguistic factors: body language, environmental language 60 REFERENCES In English Austin J.L (1962), How to things with words, CUP, London- OxfordNew York Belk and Coon (1993) Gift Giving as Agapic Love: An Alternative to the Exchange Paradigm Based on Dating Experiences, Oxford University Press Blum-Kulka, S (1987) Indirectness and politeness: Same or different? Journal of Pragmatics, 11(2), 131-146 Brown P., Levinson S (1987), Politeness some universals in language usage, CUP Brown P., Yule G (1989), Discourse Analysis, CUP Chomsky, N (1968), Language and Mind New York: Harcourt, Brace and World Dittmar (1976) Sociolinguistics: A Critical Survey of Theory and Application (Theoretical Linguistics), Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd., London Hymes D (1972), Socio linguistics, CUP John Flowerdew (1990), Critical Discourse Analysis in Historiography: The Case of Hong Kong’s Evolving Political Identity 1990:81-103 10 John Flowerdew (1990), Critical Discourse Analysis in Historiography: The Case of Hong Kong’s Evolving Political Identity 1990:81-103 11 Lakoff G (1977), what can you with words, politeness, pragmatics and performatives, In Roger, Andy, Wall, Bob and Murphy, John (eds.), Proceedings of the Taxas Conference? 12 Levinson S C (1983), Pragmatics, Cambridge University Press 13 Lyons J (1977), Semantics, CUP 14 Otnes and Beltramini (1996), Gift Giving: A Research Anthology, Popular Press 1; edition 61 15 Rivers, Wilga M (1981), Teaching Foreign Language Skills, 2nd ed., Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press 16 Searle J R (1969) Speech acts An Essay in the philosophy of language, Cambridge University Press 17 Searle J R (1971) Speech acts, Cambridge, England, OUP 18 Sherry (1983), Giving gift in Anthropological Perspective, The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.10 In Vietnamese 19 Nguyễn Quang (1999) số khác biệt giao tiếp lời nói việt mỹ cách thức khen tiếp nhận lời khen, ĐHKH-XHNV,ĐHQG HàNội 20 Nguyễn Quang ( 2003) , Giao tiếp nội văn hóa giao văn hóa, Nxb ĐHQG HàNội 21 Cao Xuân Hạo (1991), Tiếng Việt - Sơ thảo ngữ pháp chức (quyển 1), Nxb Giáo dục, Hà Nội 62 APPENDIXES SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE This survey questionnaire is designed for my research into “A Study on English Politeness Strategies for Gift Offers with Reference to the Vietnamese Equivalents” Please tick (√) where appropriate: *Your nationality: Your age Below 30 Above 30 Your gender: Male Female Your marital status Married Single Area where you spend most of your time Urban Rural Your occupation: I How would you actually say to express the following communicative strategies when you want to give a birthday offer? Direct offer …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Showing concern for the Receiver 63 …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Giving Receiver a surprise …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Showing modesty about the gift value …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Stating reason/purpose of gift offering …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… Wishes …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Expressing the Giver’s feeling …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… 8.Asking for permission to offer a gift …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… 64 II How would you actually say when you offer a gift to the following person: 1.She/he is someone you dislike but you must give her/him a gift …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… She/he is a close friend …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… She/he is your brother/sister …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… 4.She/he is your employee …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… 5.She/he is your employer …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… 65 APPENDIXES BẢN ĐIỀU TRA Chúng soạn điều tra với mục đích tìm hiểu cách sử dụng ngôn từ để tặng quà người Việt Các liệu thu thập sử dụng cho phân tích chúng tơi Xin q vị vui lòng dành chút thời gian trả lời câu hỏi điều tra để giúp chúng tơi hồn thành việc nghiên cứu khoa học Xin khẳng định quý vị không nêu danh tính q vị trường hợp Xin chân thành cảm ơn quý vị! Xin quý vị cho biết thơng tin thân cách đánh dấu (√) vào ô chọn Tuổi Dưới 30 Trên 30 Giới tính: Nam Nữ Tình trạng nhân Đã lập gia đình Độc thân Nơi quý vị sống lâu Thành thị Nông thôn Nghề nghiệp: 66 I Qúy vị nói sử dụng chiến lược lịch giao tiếp muốn đưa lời mời tặng qua cho người đây? Đưa lời mời trực tiếp …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… Thể quan tâm người nhận …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… Làm cho người nhận ngạc nhiên …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… Thể khiêm tốn giá trị q …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… Đưa lí do/mục đích lời mời tặng quà …………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… Dùng mẫu câu “ hi vọng rằng, mong rằng” …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… Thể cảm nhận người tặng …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… 8.Mong nhận cho phép để đưa lời mời …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… 67 II Quý vị nói quý vị tặng quà cho đối tượng sau: 1.Người q vị khơng thích phải tặng q lí …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… Người bạn thân quý vị …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… Người anh/chị, em quý vị …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… 4.Người nhân viên cấp quý vị …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… 5.Người cấp quý vị …………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………… Thanks for your co-operation! 68 APPENDIX 3: OBSERVATION SHEET OBSERVATION SHEET Part I Observation information Time of: Date of observing: Place of observing: Group of participants: Nationalities Part II Content Place Participants Conversation 69 ... author to the decision to conduct a research into A STUDY ON ENGLISH POLITENESS STRATEGIES FOR GIFT OFFERS WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS to find out the similarities and differences... speech act However, because of the limitation of the thesis, they are beyond the scope of the study The study is only confined to one aspect of language in action: what politeness strategies are... teaching the English politeness strategies for gift offers to Vietnamese learners of English as a foreign language and suggestions for further research CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND