Conversational opening structure in english and vietnamese

Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 Conversational Opening Structure in English and Vietnamese Hoang Tra My* Abstract: This study aims to describe and compare the opening structures of English and Vietnamese conversations The study is based on 214 English and 197 Vietnamese staffmanager conversations occurring in office settings gathered in movies From Schegloff’s (1968) framework, the method of qualitative content analysis is applied to code the data manually and to find out opening sequences and the ways of combining these sequences to construct an opening section used by American and Vietnamese staff and managers The findings indicate that, unlike Schegloff’s framework, the American and Vietnamese parties construct an opening section from four sequences namely summons-answer, greeting, phatic communication and topic initiation One-sequence and two-sequence opening structures are by far more frequently deployed than three-sequence and four-sequence opening structures by both the American and Vietnamese subjects However, the ways of employing and combining particular sequences by both parties are dissimilar Keywords: Conversational Opening; Conversational Opening Section; Conversational Opening Structure; Opening Sequences; Content Analysis Received 28th February 2018; Revised 18th March 2019; Accepted 4th April 2019 DOI: https://doi.org/10.33100/jossh5.2.HoangTraMy Introduction construct an opening section by American and Vietnamese subjects? 1.1 Aims of the study 1.2 Analytical framework This study focuses on examining English and Vietnamese opening structures In particular, we only gathered and analyzed conversations between staff and their managers occurring in office settings The study aims to answer two research questions: (1) What sequences are employed to open a staff-manager conversation by American and Vietnamese subjects? And (2) How are these sequences combined to There exist conventional rules and stereotyped patterns of behaviors that interactants employ unconsciously in conversation or the processes of opening, maintaining and closing a conversation following certain orders or sequences (Corder 1973: 36) In examining telephone conversations, Schegloff (1968) proves that a telephone opening section consists of four sequences namely summons-answer, identification-recognition, greetings and how-are-you This opening structure has been regarded as a “canonical opening” by  VNU-University of Languages and International Studies Hanoi, Vietnam; email: hoangtramy.hn@gmail.com 242 Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 numerous researchers in studying different channels of interaction for several decades Notably, Schegloff and other researchers prove that his core opening sequences can be applicable to naturally occurring conversations (1968: 1080) Accordingly, the present study applies this framework to find out opening sequences exploited by American and Vietnamese staff and managers Firstly, the summons-answer sequence is a stage of establishing a framework of participation In telephone conversations, “summons” refers to the phone ringing while “answer” refers to the physical response “hello” of the recipient In naturally occurring conversations, Schegloff (1968: 1080) suggests some classes of summons, for example, terms of address (e.g., “John”, “waiter”), courtesy phrases (e.g., “Pardon me”) or physical devices (e.g., a tap on the shoulder, waves of a hand, etc.) Secondly, the identification-recognition sequence is a stage when the parties get mutual identification and recognition of each other Because of the inaccessibility of visual channels, this sequence is achieved verbally in a telephone conversation Thirdly, the greeting sequence is a stage when parties exchange greeting rituals as a way of expressing politeness and respect towards each another Lastly, the “How-areyou” sequence is a stage when parties produce the question of “how are you?”, functioning as a ritual exchange to help parties to avoid an abrupt opening section 1.3 Data collection and analysis The findings of this study are based on the data of 214 English and 197 Vietnamese staff-manager conversations collected from American and Vietnamese films To ensure 243 equivalent content and forms, the American and Vietnamese films selected have to follow common criteria such as broadcasting channels, production time and context These films discuss current issues of society in the official context like working environments of business people, politicians, members of Congress, and police Additionally, gathered conversations must have opening sections and be between two participants – a staff and a manager aged from 20 to 60 The process of data analysis is divided into two stages: In the first stage, the qualitative content analysis is applied to code the data manually based on Schegloff’s (1968) framework In this process, English and Vietnamese opening sequences are generated by adding new sequences emerging from the data and omitting sequences not present in the data In the second stage, the ways of combination of these opening sequences to construct an opening section are revealed and compared between the two languages Results and discussions 2.1 English and Vietnamese opening sequences The findings of the present study indicate that, unlike Schegloff’s (1968) framework, an opening section of a face-to-face conversation in English and Vietnamese follows four sequences, that is, summonsanswer, greeting, phatic communication and topic initiation The frequency of occurrences of these sequences is illustrated in the table below: 244 Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 Table 1: Conversational opening sequences in English and Vietnamese Table shows that the distribution of four opening sequences in English and Vietnamese is comparable All these four sequences account for fairly high percentages in the two languages Precisely, summons-answer, greeting, phatic communication and topic initiation sequences make up 47%, 37%, 57%, and 36% in English and 58%, 47%, 45%, and 42% in Vietnamese respectively It can be inferred from these percentages that all these four sequences are optional in both languages The American and Vietnamese participants can choose to use one or combine several sequences to construct an opening section The detailed analysis of each sequence is evaluated as follows Firstly, summons-answer appears to be a frequent sequence in opening sections with 47% of the English data and 58% of the Vietnamese data A summons-answer sequence aims to get the other’s attention before participants lead in a topic The act of getting the other’s attention is exceedingly essential in interaction because without the attention of both interactants, a conversation is unachievable In telephone conversations, due to the inaccessibility of two interactants, a summons-answer sequence is compulsory; however, in face-to-face conversations, thanks to nonverbal behaviors, this sequence is optional As usual, in a face-to-face conversation, besides verbal channels, an interactant may get the other’s interaction via nonverbal channels, for example, eye contact, waves of hands, touching on the shoulders, tap on the back and so on Secondly, unlike Schegloff’s (1968) framework, the second sequence of the opening section is greeting According to Schegloff, a summons-answer sequence is followed by an identification-recognition sequence In telephone conversations, receivers cannot know whom they are talking to; hence, it is essential for callers to identify themselves until the receivers recognize them In other words, a conversation is often performed only when two parties recognize each other In telephone conversations, due to the inaccessibility of other channels, the sequence of identification-recognition has to be performed verbally In contrast, in face-to-face conversations, this sequence is principally performed visually Owing to the accessibility of eye contact in face-to-face conversations, interactants recognize or identify each other by “linking the sight of him with a framework of information concerning him” (Goffman 1963: 112) The identificationrecognition is accomplished at pre-speech moments mainly visually instead of verbally (Hopper 1989: 181) Verbal behaviors are Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 deployed only when nonverbal behaviors are unachievable due to some visual obstacles The display of the identification-recognition sequence visually accounts for its absence in the present study, which only deals with verbal behaviors The findings show that the Vietnamese participants utilize the greeting sequence slightly more frequent than American ones with 47% vs 37% respectively In face-toface conversations, a greeting sequence may follow a summons-answer sequence or be the first sequence in an interaction (Sacks 1970) The frequency of occurrences of the greeting sequence in the Vietnamese conversations can be attributed to the culture of greeting According to Phạm Văn Tình (2000: 225), Vietnamese people highly appreciate “greeting” because it has a big role in initiating a conversation and it influences the rest of the conversation Hence, it is understandable that greeting sequence frequently appears in the Vietnamese data Thirdly, according to Schegloff (1968), after the greeting sequence, interactants move to the “how-are-you” sequence Factually, in telephone conversations, Schegloff calls it how-are-you sequence because of the question of “how are you?” often appears after the greeting sequence Nevertheless, in face-to-face conversations, participants employ various inquiries and responses after the greeting sequence Accordingly, in the present study, this sequence is named “phatic communication” as in Malinowski’s (1923: 313) definition which shares the same features with the sequence of “phatic inquiries and phatic responses” of Omar’s (1992) classification Functionally, this sequence, including some small talk, helps conversations to be carried out smoothly and participants to keep and maintain their social relationships 245 Westerners are regarded as straightforward speakers; therefore, it can be inferred that the American participants tend to open a conversation directly On the contrary, Vietnamese people are often roundabout speakers; consequently, it can be deduced that the Vietnamese participants are inclined to produce much phatic communication before initiating the main points Astonishingly, the findings prove a contradiction with a higher frequency of occurrences of this sequence in English conversations (with 57%) compared with Vietnamese ones (with 45%) The numbers indicate that both the American and Vietnamese participants tend to perform some phatic enquiries and phatic responses before raising main topics Finally, unlike Schegloff’s (1968) opening structure, the findings of the present study unveil that the final strategy of the English and Vietnamese conversations is topic initiation This sequence is relatively common in the English and Vietnamese data with 36% and 42% respectively The topic initiation sequence can be considered as a bridge to connect the opening section and the main topic of a conversation This sequence can be performed by some questions or phases like disjunct markers or attention-getting tokens Thanks to this sequence, participants can be alerted to the upcoming topics Notably, unlike the three previous sequences, which are normally constructed with two turns of speaking, the topic initiation sequence is usually constructed with one turn of speaking 2.2 English and Vietnamese opening sections constructed with sequences Although these four sequences occur in both English and Vietnamese opening 246 Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 sections rather evenly, the structure of the English and Vietnamese opening sections is somewhat opposed to each other due to the different combination of these four sequences The English and Vietnamese opening sections can be formed with one sequence, two sequences, three sequences or four sequences The preference of combining these sequences to construct an opening section of the American and Vietnamese parties is described in the following table Table 2: English and Vietnamese conversational opening structures It is demonstrated in table that the structures of the English and Vietnamese opening sections share more similarities than differences Generally, opening structures formed with one sequence and two sequences appear by far more frequently than those formed with three sequences and four sequences The two former structures make up 83% in English and 78% in Vietnamese whereas the two latter account for 17% in English and 22% in Vietnamese Unexpectedly, the data highlighted that the utilization of all four sequences in an opening section is applied in a small minority of the Vietnamese conversations (6%), yet is absent in the English conversations This finding unveils that this combination seems to be improper and lengthy in English whereas it is acceptable although not preferable in Vietnamese The distribution of each English and Vietnamese conversational opening structure is depicted in the following parts 2.2.1 English and Vietnamese one-sequence opening structure Opening sections formed with one sequence appear to be the preferable structure in both the English and Vietnamese data with 42% and 39% respectively These numbers indicate that approximately half of the English and Vietnamese conversations investigated are opened briefly with only one sequence Although all four opening sequences can be used to initiate a conversation independently, the rate of deployment of each sequence is different in each language and between two languages The distribution of four sequences in a one-sequence opening structure is depicted in the following table Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 247 Table 3: The distribution of one-sequence opening structure Firstly, among the four sequences, the summons-answer sequence is the most frequently employed by both the American and Vietnamese parties with 21% and 17% respectively With this sequence, interactants get the other’s attention and then initiate a topic of concern instantly The purpose of the opening section is just to get the other’s attention rather than maintain or enhance social relationships between parties Let us see the following examples (1) Manager: Staff: Donna, call the court! We need priority status on the docket Yeah, I already tried You drew Judge Palermo You know what you have to do, don't you? (Suits, season 1, episode – 13:59) (2) Manager: Cô Hoa! Bây theo qua công ty Thành Tâm Miss Hoa! Now go with me to Thanh Tam company Staff: Em nhập liệu chưa xong I haven’t finished with inputting the data yet (Ngày mai ánh sáng, episode 31 – 7:17) It can be seen from the two examples illustrated above that opening sections built with summons-answer sequence are extremely hasty Both examples (1) and (2) are between a male older manager and a female younger staff It can be observed that summons-answer sequence in these situations is only performed with one turn of speaking Factually, the “summons” is produced by the managers verbally with the act of calling the staff’s names, but the “answer” is produced by the staff visually instead of verbally When the managers call “Donna” in (1) or “Cô Hoa” in (2), the staff redirect their eye contact towards their managers as a way to respond to their summonses Right after getting the staff’s attention through eye contact, the managers continue raising the main topics of concern Secondly, one-sequence opening sections constituted with greeting exist equally in the English and Vietnamese data with 10% and 11% respectively In the Vietnamese data, the greeting sequence is often expressed in two turns of speaking In other words, when a greeting 248 Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 act is raised, it is common for the other interlocutor to respond to it with another greeting as in example below (3) Staff: Dạ, em chào anh! Hello, brother! Manager: Chào em, từ xảy chuyện đến anh mong… Hello, sister! Since that happened, I have just hoped to… (Lập trình cho trái tim, episode 18 - 9:14) However, a close investigation on the English data highlights that the American parties not have a habit of re-greeting their interlocutors as in example below (4) Staff: Morning Thought I'd get in early and destroy Allison Holt Manager: How's that going? (Suits, season 2, episode 12 – 33:20) In this example, a staff greets his manager and initiates the topic of the conversation in one turn of speaking The sudden mentioning of the topic as in (4) makes the English greeting sequence function like a getting attention device rather than a ritual exchange On the contrary, the Vietnamese greeting sequence as in (3) is not only to get the other’s attention but also to express politeness and respect towards the other interlocutor Thirdly, opening sections constructed with phatic communication sequences are more common in English (10%) than Vietnamese (4%) The limited occurrence of opening sections formed with this sequence is opposed to the repeated appearance of this sequence in general This difference indicates that the sequence of phatic communication seems to be combined with other sequences to generate an opening section rather than to stand independently In addition, these percentages also prove that the Vietnamese parties are inclined to avoid initiating a conversation with a mere phatic communication sequence while this structure is acceptable in the English conversations For example, in (5), an English staff opens his conversation with a phatic communication sequence by commenting on his manager’s appearance (5) Staff: You got here just in time I'm getting us access Manager: Hanley Folsom? (Suits, season 2, episode 15 - 28:07) Lastly, like opening structures with phatic communication sequences, those constructed with topic initiation sequence rarely occur in the English and Vietnamese data with 1% and 7% respectively It can be inferred from the percentages that the American and Vietnamese are reluctant to produce an opening section by a topic initiation sequence solely This structure is presented in example below In this conversation, a Vietnamese staff opens his conversation with the use of the reporting verb “thưa” combined with the polite particle “dạ” put at the beginning of the utterance (6) Staff: Dạ thưa chú, việc chuyển cơng tác Nghĩa có liên quan tới việc xin nghỉ Hồng khơng chú? Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 249 Dear sir, is Nghia’s job transfer related to Hoang’s resignation? Manager: Nghĩa có ý định chuyển cơng tác lâu mà Ban biên tập đánh giá cao lực cậu Nghia has intended to transfer his work for a long time, but the editorial board still appreciates his ability (Nguyệt thực, episode 39 - 39:27) 2.2.2 English and Vietnamese two-sequence opening structure Like opening sections formed with only one sequence, two-sequence opening sections are frequently deployed in both the English and Vietnamese data, with 41% and 39% respectively In staff-manager conversations in offices, two-sequence opening sections are supposed to be ideal because they are not too long to be a waste of time or too brief to create sudden or abrupt openings The two-sequence opening structure consists of six substructures depicted in the following table: Table 4: The distribution of two-sequence opening structure The distribution of the six two-sequence opening structures is clearly distinguishable in the English data but is quite similar in the Vietnamese data It appears that the American parties prefer certain structures to others while the Vietnamese parties consider these structures relatively similar The distribution and illustration of each two-sequence opening structure are shown as follows Firstly, among six two-sequence opening structures, the combination of summons-answer and phatic communication sequences is the most commonly deployed of the American parties with 14% In contrast, this structure accounts for a minority of the Vietnamese data with only 7% With this combination, interactants get the other’s attention and then produce some small talk before raising the main topic of a conversation Examples (7) and (8) below demonstrate this structure in both languages 250 (7) Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 Manager: (Knocking on the door) Bothering you? Staff: No No, not at all Manager: I heard about your proposal to buy Durham Foods out of bankruptcy Impressive Staff: Well, the way I see it is a win-win (Suits, season 2, episode - 37:04) (8) Staff: (Knocking on the door) Manager: Vào đi! Come in! Huệ gọi tôi? Staff: You called me? Tôi có bảo anh đem số tiền cắc nước uống tăng lực gửi ngân hàng đâu? Manager: I didn’t tell you to take the change of energy drinks to deposit in the bank (Mưa bóng mây, episode 23 - 6:40) In example 7, the summons-answer sequence is produced by the manager with the act of knocking on the door After producing this sequence, the manager continues performing the phatic communication sequence with the question “Bothering you?” With this question, the manager checks for the convenience of talking In this case, if the conversation bothers the other interlocutor, it may be ended at this point, and the topic will not be raised Nevertheless, with the response “No No, not at all” of the staff, the manager starts raising the topic of the conversation In a similar manner, in (8), the summons-answer sequence is built with the act of knocking on the door and the phatic communication is a confirmation question Although the staff knows clearly that the manager called him, he still asks “You called me?” In this situation, this question is not to get information but just to inform the manager of his presence Secondly, the combination of the summons-answer and greeting sequences is utilized limitedly by both parties with 6% of the Vietnamese data but only 2% of the English data In this structure, interactants get the other’s attention and produce greeting utterances before initiating a topic of concern Example below illustrates this combination in a Vietnamese opening section (9) Staff: (Knocking on the door) Manager: Vào đi! Come in! Chào anh ạ! Giám đốc muốn mời anh ăn tối bàn công việc cho dự án Staff: ạ! Hello, brother! The director would like to invite you to dinner to discuss the new project! (Mưa bóng mây, episode, 23– 16:17) Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 251 Thirdly, the combination of summons-answer and topic initiation sequences is the most common in the Vietnamese data with 9% and less frequent in the English data with 4% With this combination, interactants get the other’s attention then use some supporting devices to raise the topic of concern In fact, opening sections with the combination of these two sequences are brief However, compared with opening sections with summons-answer sequence only, this combination makes conversations less abrupt thanks to the topic initiation sequence, functioning as a bridge to connect the opening section and the body of the conversation Below are examples of this structure: (10) Staff: Anh Sơn! Mr Son! Manager: Có chuyện vậy? What’s up? Staff: Em Em Em gửi anh viết Here is a new article (Nguyệt thực, episode 41 - 23:30) (11) Manager: (Knocking on the door) Staff: What is it, Louis? Manager: Got a hard truth to tell you (Suits, season 2, episode 15 – 40:31) In (10) the summons-answer is produced by the act of calling the other’s name while in (11) this sequence is performed with the act of knocking on the door Nevertheless, in both cases, the sequence of topic initiation is formed with a question It can be easily observed that in both examples, the parties asking the topic initiation question are not parties who will initiate the main topic of the conversations Thanks to the question, the other interlocutors may mention the main topic instantly It can be seen that in the three previous structures, summons-answer sequence is combined with a greeting, phatic communication or topic initiation sequences Because summons-answer is always the first act of any interactions, the order of these structures is fixed In other words, it is impossible for greeting, phatic communication or topic initiation sequences to be performed before the summons-answer sequence Fourthly, it is remarkable that the combination of greeting and phatic communication is utilized equally by the American and Vietnamese parties with 8% With this combination, interactants greet each other and then exchange some small talk before raising the main topic of their conversation The greeting sequence is relatively formulaic with one or two turns of speaking while the phatic communication sequence is diversified The findings unveil that the phatic communication sequence can be expressed via one turn of speaking or extended up to several turns of speaking For example, in (12), a Vietnamese manager produces a phatic communication sequence briefly with only one turn of speaking 252 (12) Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 Staff: Bác! Aunt! Manager: Ừ! Con ngồi Con bàn giao xong chưa? Yes! Sit down, please Have you finished handing over? Staff: Dạ, bàn giao xong hết bác (Polite particle) Yes, I have (Ván tình yêu, episode 26 - 39:54) The phatic communication sequence in example 12 is the act of inviting the other interlocutor to sit down After this invitation, the manager initiates the main topic of the conversation with the question “have you finished handing over?” It can be observed that the phatic communication sequence and the main topic of the conversation are put in one turn of speaking The phatic communication, in this situation, is not small talk but just ritual exchanges to help parties to appear more polite and respectful while interacting with others Unlike example 12, the phatic communication sequence in example 13 is lengthy with several strategies (13) Staff: Manager: Mr President, you're here late Well, technically, I live here, so it appears you're the one who's here late Please, sit Staff: Thank you, sir Manager: Aaron told me that you turned down the job of press secretary Staff: I did, sir (Designated survivor, season 1, episode - 37:17) Example 13 is an English staff-manager conversation occurring in the staff’s office In this example, the phatic communication sequence is constructed with three turns of speaking In the first turn of speaking, the staff comments the current state of the manager In the second turn of speaking, the manager produces two phatic communication acts In the first act, the manager comments the current state of the staff, and in the second act, he invites the staff to sit down In the third turn of speaking, the staff responds to the invitation of sitting down of the manager by saying “thank you” Fifthly, while the combination of greeting and phatic communication is acceptable, the combination of greeting and topic initiation is extremely restricted in both languages This structure makes up only 3% of the English data and 4% of the Vietnamese data In this structure, interactants exchange greeting utterances then employ supporting devices to raise the topic of a conversation instantly Example 14 below depicts this combination in English Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 (14) Manager: Madam Speaker Staff: Mr President Manager: Well, this afternoon took a turn, didn't it? Staff: Yes, sir Please 253 (Designated survivor, season 1, episode 18 - 14:03) In example 14, a staff and a manager exchange greeting utterances in the greeting sequence Right after the greeting sequence, the manager initiates the topic of the conversation with the help of the topic initiation sequence In this example, the manager deploys the disjunct marker “well” as a topic initiation strategy Disjunct markers function as a bridge to connect two sections Consequently, with the employment of the disjunct marker “well”, the manager informs the staff about the ending of the opening section and the initiation of the main topic Finally, the combination of phatic communication and topic initiation is quite frequently used by the American parties with 11%, yet limitedly utilized by the Vietnamese ones with only 5% In this structure, interactants produce some phatic inquiries and phatic responses; then, they make use of supporting devices to raise the main topic Example 15 below illustrates this combination in an English conversation (15) Manager: I don't want to hear it If it's bad news, I don't want to hear it Staff: You seem upset Manager: Of course, I'm upset I just found out that Louis and I share the same dentist Staff: Have you spoken to Donna yet? Manager: No, and I'm pissed about it I need her to get me a new dentist Staff: Well, we have a problem, whether you want to hear it or not Manager: What? Staff: Marco needs to be emancipated from his father (Suits, season 2, episode – 22:19) It can be observed that the opening section in this example is lengthy with seven turns of speaking Although the staff and the manager in this example exchange up to seven turns of speaking before the main topic is raised, they employ only two sequences, that is, phatic communication and topic initiation Conventionally, a topic initiation sequence is expressed in a maximum of two turns of speaking while a phatic communication sequence can extend up to several turns of speaking In example 15, the phatic communication sequence includes five turns of speaking In the first turn, the manager refers to the current situation He thinks that the news the staff is going to tell is bad; hence, he does not want to hear it In the second turn, the staff refers to the manager’s state In the third turn, the manager refers to the state of himself He admits that he is upset and he justifies for his state In the fourth and fifth turns, the staff and manager continue discussing their small talk It can be noticed that the small talk that is mentioned in this example is situational because it arises in the communication process instead of being prepared before The staff finishes the phatic communication exchanges with 254 Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 the following of the topic initiation sequence With the utilization of the disjunct marker “well” and the act of mentioning the reason of the talk, the staff informs that the opening section is closed and it is the time to raise the main topic of the conversation The manager, in turn, produces the question “what?” functioning as a topic initiation because this question allows the staff to mention the main topic straight away Nevertheless, phatic communication sequences, in some cases, are quite brief with only one or two turns of speaking as in example 16 below: (16) Manager: Ngồi con! Sit down, please! Staff: Dạ! Yes! Manager: Có chuyện muốn nói với hả? Do you have something to say to me? Staff: Dạ, suy nghĩ kĩ cô ạ… (Polite particle), I thought of… carefully (Ván tình yêu, episode 19 - 34:39) In example 16, the phatic communication sequence is performed in only two turns of speaking The manager invites the staff to sit down in the first turn, and the staff responds to the manager’s invitation politely in the second turn After the phatic communication sequence, the manager asks a topic initiation question Thanks to this question, the staff can raise the main topic of the conversation immediately 2.2.3 English and Vietnamese three-sequence opening structures The employment of three sequences in an opening section is quite limited in both languages These combinations are inclined to create lengthy opening sections The details of the ways of combination to construct three-sequence opening structures are depicted in the following table Table 5: The distribution of three-sequence opening structure Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 255 On the one hand, the three-sequence opening sections constructed with greeting, phatic communication and topic initiation sequences are the most frequently used by the American parties while those formed with summons-answer, greeting and phatic communication sequences are the most commonly employed by the Vietnamese parties In the first threesequence structure, interactants exchange greeting utterances, perform some phatic communication and then make use of supporting devices to raise the topic of a conversation The illustration of the first three-sequence opening structure is detailed in examples 17 and 18 below (17) Staff: Mr President Manager: Aaron Great to see you again Staff: You as well, sir Manager: Please I saw you on television earlier I really appreciated what you had to say Staff: You know I'll always protect you, sir Manager: I know, which is why I've asked you here What I'm about to tell you is strictly classified We know that there's a traitor in the White House (Designated survivor, season 1, episode 21 – 14:33) The English opening section in example 17 is lengthy with three sequences expressed in six turns of speaking The greeting sequence consists of two first turns, a greeting turn by the staff and a re-greet turn by the manager Especially, right after the re-greeting, the manager continues expressing pleasure towards his staff Furthermore, in his next turn, the manager performs two acts, that is, inviting the staff to sit down and referring to the staff’s previous actions Finally, thanks to the utterance “what I'm about to tell you is strictly classified”, the staff knows that the manager is going to mention the main topic of the conversation Similarly, this three-sequence opening structure is also extended in the Vietnamese conversations as in example 18 below: (18) Staff: Em chào anh ạ! Hello, brother! Manager: Em ngồi Đêm qua anh chị đâu, làm gì? Take your seat Last night, where did you go and what did you do? Staff: Ai ạ? Who? Manager: Ừm Em với thằng Lâm Uhm You and Lam of course! Staff: Manager: Em có đâu đâu, hơm lo làm chẳng có đêm ngủ ngon Tối hôm qua em ngủ chết mà No I was so busy at work; hence, I did not have enough sleep Last night, I had a good night Thôi vào chuyện nghiêm chỉnh nhá All right Now lead to the problem… (Lập trình cho trái tim, episode – 18:00) 256 Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 In example 18, the Vietnamese staff and manager also need six turns of speaking to open a conversation The greeting sequence is only presented in the first turn whereas the phatic communication sequence is stated in five turns The phatic communication sequence in this example includes the manager’s inviting the staff to sit down and his referring to the staff’s personal life at home as well as the staff’s referring to the previous task It can be displayed that this phatic communication sequence is fairly personal with issues related to the staff’s life at home It can be implied that despite formal relationship between staff and manager, personal content in the phatic communication sequence makes the staff and manager more intimate and closer An amicable relationship between interactants makes conversations to be carried out smoothly and, accordingly, increases the efficiency of the conversations Opposed to the first three-sequence structure, the second one, which is combined of summons-answer, greeting and phatic communication is much more frequently selected by the Vietnamese parties (8%) than by the American parties (1%) In this structure, interactants get the other’s attention, exchange greeting utterances and produce some small talk before raising a topic This combination can be highlighted in example 19 below (19) Staff: (knocking on the door) Manager: Vào đi! Come in! Staff: Anh ạ! Hello, brother! Manager: Ừ! Em ngồi xuống Anh muốn nghe vụ PM Yes! Sit down I want to know about PM (Zippo, Mù tạt Em, episode 12 – 11:51) Despite consisting of three sequences, the opening section in (19) does not appear lengthy or extended The summons-answer is stated in two turns of speaking: a turn for a summons and the other for an answer The greeting sequence is only taken by the staff in one turn In responding to the staff’s greeting, the manager performs a phatic communication sequence with an invitation of the staff to sit down After all these exchange rituals, the manager raises the topic of the conversation On the other hand, the three-sequence opening structures constructed with summonsanswer, phatic communication and topic initiation sequences account for 4% in both languages while the structures formed with summons-answer, greeting and topic initiation sequences make up 3% in both languages The infrequency of occurrences of these two structures proves that both the American and Vietnamese parties are reluctant to deploy these combinations to initiate a conversation In the first structure, parties produce a summons-answer, exchange some small talk and use some devices to raise a topic as shown in example 20 below (20) Staff: (Knocking on the door) I'm sorry to interrupt Do you have a minute? Manager: What can I for you? Staff: The timing on this is terrible, and I-I apologize for that (Suits, season 3, episode 14 – 13:58) Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 257 As illustrated, this opening section is extremely brief with only two turns of speaking In the first turn of speaking, the staff performs a summons-answer by knocking on the door, and two phatic communication acts, that is, expressing an apology and asking for the manager’s availability for talking In the second turn, the manager responds to the act of checking for the manager’s availability for talking by the question “what can I for you?” This question is a topic initiation sequence because it brings a chance for the staff to raise the topic of the conversation instantaneously In the second structure of this type, parties produce a summons-answer sequence, exchange a greeting sequence and then deploy devices to mention the main topic as in (21) (21) Staff: (Knocking on the door) Manager: Vào đi! Come in! Staff: Em chào anh ạ! Hello, brother! Manager: Có khơng? What’s new? Staff: Dạ đây, chồng cưới anh This is her fiancée (showing a photo) (Cảnh sát hình - Chạy án, season 2, episode – 31:47) Likewise, the Vietnamese opening section in example 21 is moderately brief The summons-answer sequence is formed with two first turns; the first turn is the act of knocking on the door and the second turn is the act of inviting the other to come in The third turn is the staff’s greeting utterance In responding to this greeting act is the manager’s topic initiation question “what’s new?” Thanks to this question, the staff feels free to mention the topic of the conversation straight away 2.2.4 English and Vietnamese four-sequence opening structures Unexpectedly, the findings prove that the four-sequence opening structure is utilized sporadically in the Vietnamese data with 6% whereas it is absent in the English data It can be implied that four-sequence opening structures are acceptable in Vietnamese but unusual in the English conversations The absence of this structure in the English data indicates that an exceedingly extended opening section may be regarded as strange and inappropriate in office settings This phenomenon can be explainable via the context of examined conversations The collected conversations are on work-related issues rather than on gossips or chats; this feature leads to the avoidance of too extended opening sections Nevertheless, in the Vietnamese conversations, this structure is still acceptable because of the regards on not only the efficiency of the work but also the maintenance of the social relationship of interactants The foursequence opening structure can be illustrated in the following example 258 (22) Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 Staff: (Knocking on the door) Manager: Mời vô! Come in! Staff: Dạ, em chào sếp! Hello, boss! Manager: Chào em! Hello! Staff: Sếp bị bệnh hả? Are you tired? Manager: À nhức đầu Tối qua anh có dự tiệc sinh nhật người bạn có uống nhiều Ah, I have a headache Last night I drank a lot at my friend’s birthday party Staff: Dạ! Yes! Manager: Em ngồi đi! Take your seat! Staff: Dạ! Yes! Manager: Có khơng em? What you want? Staff: Em có số hồ sơ cần xin chữ kí sếp I need your signature on some files (Sóng gió nhân, episode - 8:46) Example 22 illustrates an exceedingly extended opening section with ten turns of speaking In this example, all four opening sequences are employed orderly Firstly, the summonsanswer sequence is performed with two turns of speaking, one is the act of knocking on the door, and the other is the act of inviting the other to come in Secondly, the greeting sequence is expressed in two turns of speaking with greeting utterances exchanged by the staff and the manager Thirdly, the phatic communication sequence is formed with five turns of speaking with the acts of asking about the other’s current state, mentioning the personal activities in the previous night and inviting the staff to sit down performed by the staff and manager Finally, the manager closes the opening section by a topic initiation question “what you want?” After this question, the staff states the reason for the talk straightly As illustrated in the conversation, the main purpose of the staff in this situation is just to get the manager’s signature on some files, which is a normal task of a secretary In comparison with the English conversations in like situations, the American parties are inclined to perform a brief opening section Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 259 Notably, a more careful examination of the data highlights that the order of sequences in three-sequence opening sections and four-sequence opening sections is not fixed Factually, most of the examined opening sections are constructed sequentially with summons-answer, greeting, phatic communication and topic initiation However, in some peculiar situations, this order may be disarranged This phenomenon can be found in both languages Despite this disorder of these sequences, the opening sections still appear natural Example 23 displays the disorder of the three-sequence opening structure (23) Staff: Jessica Manager: Donna, what can I for you? Staff: I was just walking by the reception, and I thought you might like to know you know because it's your firm and Manager: Donna, get to it Staff: Charles Van Dyke is in the lobby (Suits, season 3, episode 15 - 6:32) This English conversation is between a younger female staff and an older female manager The staff starts the conversation with a greeting utterance In responding to this greeting utterance, the manager re-greets the staff and performs a topic initiation sequence with a question “what can I for you?” As normal, the staff will raise the topic of the conversation instantly; however, in this situation, the staff delays initiating the main topic of the conversation Instead, she produces a phatic communication sequence, in which she refers to her previous actions as a way to lead in her topic Nevertheless, the manager interrupts her phatic communication sequence with another topic initiation sequence The manager asks her staff to raise the main topic immediately with the order “Donna, get to it” Right after the manager’s order, the staff mentions the topic or the purpose of the conversation Another example of the disorder of the three-sequence structure is depicted in example 24 (24) Staff: Manager: Katrina said you wanted to see me Hey, Simon, come on in I have a question for you Come on, you need to see this Look at this This is so funny Is that some sort of joke? (Suits, season 3, episode - 5:57) As illustrated in example 24, despite a brief opening section with only two turns of speaking, the staff and the manager conduct three opening sequences In the first turn, the staff performs the phatic communication sequence with the confirmation question “Katrina said you wanted to see me” Normally, a phatic communication act is responded with another phatic communication act; nonetheless, in this case, the manager produces a greeting utterance After the greeting utterance, without waiting for the responses from the staff, the manager continues performing the phatic communication sequence with the act of inviting the other to come in and the topic initiation sequence with the act of telling the other the reason of the talk The disorder of sequences in the four-sequence opening structure is illustrated in example 25 In this example, the topic initiation sequence is stated before the phatic communication sequence 260 (25) Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 Staff: (Knocking on the door) Manager: Vào đi! À Châu hả? Come in! Hello Chau! Staff: Anh gọi em có việc vậy? What you called me for? Manager: Em ngồi xuống đi, vụ Haxinba rồi? Take your seat, how is Haxinba? (Ngày mai ánh sáng, episode 35 - 25:56) In example 25, after creating a summonsanswer sequence, the manager greets the staff with a question Greeting questions can be regarded as a typical ritual in the Vietnamese culture because these questions, functioning a greeting utterance, not need an answer Instead of greeting the manager, the staff wants the manager to raise the topic of the conversation immediately with the topic initiation question “what you called me for?” Usually, the other interlocutor will mention the topic of the conversation right after the topic initiation question; however, in this case, the manager keeps on with the phatic communication sequence via the act of inviting the staff to sit down The main topic is only stated after the phatic communication sequence From these examples, it can be implied that the disorder of sequences in an opening section is acceptable or these opening sequences are not necessarily combined sequentially The changes in the order of opening sequences can be understood and accountable depending on the context of the conversations Nevertheless, it has to be accepted that this phenomenon only exists in some peculiar situations in both languages Naturally, the American and Vietnamese parties follow certain orderly sequences in opening a conversation or English, and Vietnamese opening sections are sequential Conclusion In conclusion, unlike Schegloff’s (1968) framework, the English and Vietnamese opening sections follow four sequences: summons-answer, greeting, phatic communication and topic initiation The general distribution of these sequences is relatively equivalent in both languages Regarding the opening structure, onesequence and two-sequence opening structures are by far more frequently deployed than three-sequence and foursequence opening structures in both languages The structure of each opening structure reveals both similarities and differences in English and Vietnamese Firstly, in the one-sequence opening structure in both English and Vietnamese, the frequency of employment of the summons-answer and greeting sequences proves that it is acceptable for these two sequences to be used independently or in combination with other sequences in both languages In contrast, the infrequency of occurrences of the phatic communication and topic initiation sequences implies that it is more appropriate for them to be combined with other strategies than used in isolation Especially, the rare appearance of opening sections constructed with the mere topic initiation sequence in the English data indicates that opening a conversation just by Hoang Tra My / Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol 5, No (2019) 242-261 using this sequence is unusual and may be inappropriate in English conversations Secondly, in the two-sequence opening structure, the American and Vietnamese parties can utilize six ways of combination to open a conversation The quite even distribution of the six substructures in the Vietnamese data implies that the Vietnamese parties seem to be free to choose any ways of a combination Inversely, the uneven distribution of the English data suggests the contradiction They appear to choose some forms of combination but avoid others In particular, they prefer the combination of phatic communication with the three other sequences yet are reluctant to combine summons-answer and greeting sequences as well as greeting and topic initiation sequence Thirdly, in three-sequence opening structure, the American and Vietnamese parties perform four ways of a combination Among these four substructures, the American parties use the structure formed with a greeting, phatic communication and topic initiation sequences most frequently while the American parties deploy the structure formed with summons-answer, greeting and phatic communication most repeatedly The two other substructures are utilized equally in both languages Finally, in the four-sequence opening structure, it is rather surprising that it justifies for a limited number of Vietnamese conversations but is absent in the English data This shows that this combination is not 261 suggestible in the Vietnamese conversations but inappropriate in the English conversations Furthermore, with the use of the four-sequence opening structure, it can be implied that compared with the English opening sections, the Vietnamese ones are relatively formulaic and extended Reference Corder, P S 1973 Introducing Applied Linguistics Harmondsworth: Penguin Goffman, E 1963 Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings New York: The Free Press Hopper, R 1989 “Speech in Telephone Openings: Emergent Interactions vs Routines” Western Journal of Speech Communication 53: 178-194 Malinowski, B 1923 “Phatic Communion” In Laver, J and Hutcheson, S (eds.) 1972 Communication in Face to Face Interaction Harmondsworth: Penguin Omar, A S 1992 “Conversational Openings in Kiswahili: The Pragmatic Performance of Native and Non-native Speakers” Pragmatics and language learning, 3: 20-32 Pham, Van Tinh 2000 “Giá Trị Mở Thoại Của Các Phát Ngôn Chào Hỏi” Ngôn ngữ Đời sống Sacks, H 1970 “Lecture 4: Greetings: Adjacency Pairs; Sequential Implicativeness; The Integrative Function of Public Tragedy” pp 188-199, In G Jefferson (Ed.), Lectures on Conversation Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers Schegloff, E A 1968 “Sequencing in Conversational openings” American Anthropologist 70: 1075-1095 ... structures in both languages The structure of each opening structure reveals both similarities and differences in English and Vietnamese Firstly, in the one-sequence opening structure in both English and. .. the following parts 2.2.1 English and Vietnamese one-sequence opening structure Opening sections formed with one sequence appear to be the preferable structure in both the English and Vietnamese. .. construct an opening section of the American and Vietnamese parties is described in the following table Table 2: English and Vietnamese conversational opening structures It is demonstrated in table