VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG VÂN A VIETNAMESE - AMERICAN CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON DISPARAGING NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO VĂN HÓA VIỆT – MỸ VỀ CÁCH THỨC CHÊ BAI M.A Combined Programme Thesis FIELD : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE : 602215 HANOI - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG VÂN A VIETNAMESE - AMERICAN CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON DISPARAGING NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO VĂN HÓA VIỆT – MỸ VỀ CÁCH THỨC CHÊ BAI M.A Combined Programme Thesis Field : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code : 602215 Supervisor : Phan Thị Vân Quyên, M.A HANOI - 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality of project report i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents .iv Lists of figures and tables v Abbreviations vi PART A – INTRODUCTION .1 RATIONALE AIMS OF THE STUDY RESEARCH QUESTIONS SCOPE OF THE STUDY METHODOLOGY DESIGN OF THE STUDY PART B – DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER – LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION 1.1.1 Language and Culture 1.1.2 Cross – Cultural Communication .6 1.2 CROSS – CULTURAL PRAGMATICS 1.3 SPEECH ACTS AND CLASSIFICATION OF SPEECH ACTS 1.4 POLITENESS 11 1.4.1 Politeness and the notion of Face .11 1.4.2 Politeness strategies 14 1.4.3 Social factors affecting politeness 17 1.5 DIRECTNESS AND INDIRECTNESS 18 1.5.1 Directness (D) and Indirectness (ID) as Communication Styles 18 1.5.2 Socio- Cultural Factors Influencing the Use of Directness and Indirectness In Human Interaction .20 1.6 DISPARAGING .22 1.6.1 Disparaging as a speech act 22 1.6.2 Disparaging and criticizing 22 1.6.3 Popular topics for disparaging 23 CHAPTER – METHODOLOGY 24 2.1 Survey research as the main method 24 2.2 Subject of the study 24 2.3 Data collection instrument 24 2.4 Data collecting procedures 25 2.5 Comments on the survey questionnaire 25 2.6 Comments on the informants 26 CHAPTER – STRATEGIES OF DISPARAGING 28 3.1 STRATEGIES USED IN DISPARAGING .28 3.1.1 14 main types of disparaging strategies 28 3.1.2 Integrative disparaging strategies 38 3.2 USE OF DISPARAGING STRATEGIES AS SEEN FROM COMMUNICATING PARAMETERS 40 3.2.1 Data Analysis 40 3.2.2 Concluding Remarks 50 3.3 USE OF DISPARAGING STRATEGIES AS SEEN FROM INFORMANTS’PARAMETERS 54 3.3.1 Data Analysis 54 3.3.2 Concluding Remarks 62 3.4 USE OF DISPARAGING STRATEGIES AS SEEN FROM THE TOPIC OF DISPARAGING 67 3.4.1 Data Analysis 67 3.4.2 Concluding Remarks 71 PART C – CONCLUSION 74 REVIEW OF THE FINDINGS 74 IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY .77 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 77 SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 77 BIBLIOGRAPHY 79 APPENDICES .83 ENGLISH SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES 83 VIETNAMESE SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES 88 ...VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG VÂN A VIETNAMESE - AMERICAN CROSS- CULTURAL STUDY ON DISPARAGING. .. OF DISPARAGING STRATEGIES AS SEEN FROM COMMUNICATING PARAMETERS 40 3.2.1 Data Analysis 40 3.2.2 Concluding Remarks 50 3.3 USE OF DISPARAGING STRATEGIES AS... CHAPTER – STRATEGIES OF DISPARAGING 28 3.1 STRATEGIES USED IN DISPARAGING .28 3.1.1 14 main types of disparaging strategies 28 3.1.2 Integrative disparaging strategies