Some register features in agreement between the united states of america and the socialist republic of vietnam on trade relations = một số đặc điểm ngữ vực trong hiệp định thương mại việt mỹ

i Vinh University Foreign Language Department = = =  = = = Summary of graduation thesis Some Register Features in Agreement between the United States of America and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on Trade Relations ( mét sè đặc điểm ngữ vực hiệp định th-ơng mại việt - mü) Field: Linguistics Student‟ s name: Ph¹m Thu Giang, 43A1 Supervisor: Lê Đình Thảo, M.A Vinh 2006 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The thesis could not have been completed without the help of my teachers and friends during the time my researching process Firstly, I should like to acknowledge my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, M.A Lê Đình Thảo for the assistance with all his heart, excellent suggestions, detailed critical comments, without which the study would not have been completed Then, thanks are due to Mr Trần Bá Tiến, M.A for suggesting the idea to me to this study and helping me a lot with his advice and comments for the study; and Ms KiỊu Hun Tr©m for her pretty useful materials I would also like to offer my indebtedness to all my teachers in the Faculty of Foreign Languages for their great help Finally, my sincere thanks are due to my family, to my close friends and to those who have helped me carry out the study Vinh, May 8, 2006 Phạm Thu Giang iii ABBREVIATIONS BTA: Bilateral Trade Agreement (Agreement between the United States of America and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam) etc: e.g.: et cetra For example i.e.: That is to say Et.al: and others WTO: World Trade Organization ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations Vietnam: The Socialist Republic of Vietnam U.S The United States of America : iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement ii Abbreviations iii Table of Contents iv PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 General introduction Rationale of the study Aims and Objectives of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Context of situation 1.2 Register theory 1.2.1 The Concept of Register 1.2.2 The Parameters of Register 1.2.2.1 Field 1.2.2.2 Mode 10 1.2.2.3 Tenor 11 CHAPTER 2: SOME REGISTER FEATURES IN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM ON TRADE RELATION (BTA) v 2.1 Background knowledge of the BTA 14 2.1.1 General introduction 14 2.1.2 BTA negotiation and sign principles 16 2.1.3 Result of the BTA 17 2.2 Some Register in the BTA 17 2.2.1 Use of Grammar 18 2.2.1.1 Kinds of sentences 18 2.2.1.2 Sentence order 22 2.2.1.3 Length of sentences 25 2.2.1.4 Modality 25 2.2.1.5 Use of Active voice and Participle 27 2.2.1.6 Use of Active voice and Passive voice 28 2.2.1.7 Unit of written discourse 30 2.2.2 Use of Vocabulary 32 2.2.2.1 Archaic words 32 2.2.2.2 Technical words 32 2.2.2.3 Borrowed words 33 2.2.2.4 Abbreviation 34 2.2.3 Thematisation 35 2.2.4 Application 37 PART 3: CONCLUSION 43 Review of the major findings 43 Suggestions for further study 44 vi References PART 1: IN TRODUCTION GENERAL INTRODUCTION In recent years, research into language of workplace English has increased in quantity such that it is becoming an established and important of applied linguistics There has been a growth in research activity on language so far but they only concern with the form of language systems which are studied and explained apart from their functions in relation to social situation In addition, structural theories are basically paid attention to This means the small units were arranged into and combined into the larger ones However, linguists have trended to research on discourse analysis In the area of discourse analysis study, language has been investigated in both form and meaning in distinctive situations and contexts And the meaning of not only sentences but also utterance and discourses is concerned In Vietnam, there are a few studies in the area of discourse analysis Therefore, this investigation may be considered a contribution to the field of discourse analysis Within the framework of graduation paper, this study focus on observing one of its sub– field, that is register This aims to enable us to uncover how language is used to convey the writer‟ s intention, and understand and know the text well Those are very helpful to English learners, especially translators and interpreters to translate well vii REASONALE OF THE STUDY Vietnam nowadays is step by step adhering to the development in the world, so we have joined international organizations and signed international documents with other countries Therefore, there are lots of English learners, translators and interpreters interested in such documents Knowing these documents well does help them in their jobs Professional ones are aware of linguistic concepts such as Register, and they consider issues connected to these concepts in their everyday work Register Analysis is not only useful in studying different forms of variants or language form in communication, but interested in non – linguistic elements that effect on communicative procedure Understanding how the concept of Register is perceived is the key to approach such texts well However, it may be that, although they are aware of the importance of linguistic concepts such as Register, and although they are familiar with the theoretical background underlying this concept, the concept may still remain indefinite and appear to be distant from practical work The emphasis of the present study will be on the description of language variation of a specific legal document, BTA (Bilateral Trade Agreement) which plays a significant role in our economy development Therefore, we have decided to choose “ Some Register Features in Agreement between the United States of America and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on Trade Relations” to be the theme of our study Hopefully, this study, to some extent, is helpful to English learners, translators and interpreters AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY viii The object of this study is the BTA Although there is no comparison between English and Vietnamese texts, this study aims to provide an insight into BTA regarding the formality Driven by the need to recognize the description of language variation of the BTA, we focus on analyzing register in the BTA The objectives of the study are: - To emphasize the importance of Register in the use and choice of vocabularies and ways of expressions - To study the Register analyze in the BTA discourse - To enable readers, learners, translators and interpreters to uncover how language is used to convey the writer‟ s intention, then know the discourse in general and specifically, the BTA well After that, they will have a better orientation for the translation job SCOPE OF THE STUDY For the aim of this study, the investigation focuses on analyzing the BTA In addition, due to the time constraints and within the framework of a graduation paper, this analysis of the BTA is confined to only some register features METHODS OF THE STUDY In this study, we will examine the concept of register from two perspectives: theory and practice Firstly, a great number of documents and materials, together with the BTA will be selected and searched Then, we will give a description of the concept of register based ix on the ideas of researchers and scholars from the fields of linguistics Finally, the data obtained will be dealt with, analyzed in order to reach some conclusions on the subject matter under investigation, and necessary comments should be accordingly made DESIGN OF THE STUDY We have divided the study as follows: Part 1: Intr oduction This part includes: General introduction, Reasonale of the study, Aims and objectives of the study, scope of the study and Methods of the study Part 2: Dev elopment This part is divided into chapters - Chapter 1: Bri efly reviews the background to the study: the Context of Situation and the Concept of Register We especially focus on describing three parameters of Register: Field, Mode, and Tenor in order to clarify the Register Analysis orientation - Chapter 2: Fir stly provides some background knowledge on the BTA such as: x General introduction, BTA negotiation and sign principles, and Result of the BTA; then this chapter makes an effort to analyze the variations of language in the BTA based on theoretical background of the former chapter This chapter also offers some implications to teaching and learning English Part 3: Conclusion This part reviews the main findings of the study It also offers some suggestions for further works The last pages of the study are for Reference and Annex xlvi - WTO: Wo rld Trade Organization - Vietnam: Th e Socialist Republic of Vietnam - U.S: Th e United States of America The use of vocabularies is illustrated by the following chart (5)91.4% Borrowed words (1) Abbreviation (2) Archaic word (3) Technical words (4) (4)6.7% Other words (5) (3)1.3% (1)0.06% (2)0.49% Chart 2.5: The use of Vocabularies xlvii 2.2.3 Thematisation Moreover, “ Airtightness” and “ Accuracy” are also shown in the subdivision of the whole convention into different small articles with their proper names or numbers This may be called Thematisation according to theme – rheme structure As being the bilateral trade for both countries, at least 45 definitions are given and considered to be parts of the norms Thematisation can easily be identified in this example Article 1: Definitions (Chapter 1) As used in this Chapter, the terms set forth below shall have the following meaning: "company," means any entity constituted or organized under applicable law, whether or not for profit,… “ enterprise,” means a company "national," means a natural person who is a national of a Party under its applicable law “ commercial dispute,” means a dispute between parties to a commercial transaction which arises out of that transaction “ trading rights,” means the right to engage in import or export activities The topic: Definitions Those above sentences are used to convey the meaning of the topic sentence xlviii Article 3: General Obligations with Respect to Trade (Chapter 1) The Parties shall seek to achieve a satisfactory balance of market access opportunities through the satisfactory reciprocation of reductions in tariffs and nontariff barriers to trade in goods resulting from multilateral negotiations … … … The United States shall consider Vietnam’ s eligibility for the Generalized System of Preferences The topic: General Obligations with Respect to Trade The above complex and simple sentences with activated elements help from the topic framework of article It is understood that the topic framework is regarded as the contextual framework within which the topic “ general obligations” is constituted The topic sentence and topic framework of this kind enable the readers to focus on main points of these articles and therefore help avoid their possible misunderstanding This can be considered the reason why articles in an Agreement are more airtight and accurate than are in normal order In conclusion, as BTA is of legal field, it results in using a specific kind of vocabularies and expressions – legal ones It can be said that the vocabularies and grammar used in the BTA is relatively stable and xlix standardized The aspect of the language used is at a degree of formality, accuracy, clearness and technicality of linguistics exchanges 2.2.4 Application As mentioned in the introductory part of this study, the study of Register features in the BTA is useful in teaching and learning English The study can be applied in some different aspects of teaching and learning English First, the fact that, materials on Register, a sub-field of Discourse Analysis is not plentiful This can be some help for the teachers and learners in searching Discourse Analysis materials Also, an orientation of Register analysis in a specific document is provided and clarified in the chapter of the study Second, the results of the study can be also helpful for the Translation teaching and learning, especially for the area of Business English The study does reveal a dimension for the learners to investigate the text well In addition, the result in this chapter helps to draw an orientation in choosing the suitable language in specific situation – legal documents Following are some suggested exercises that can be used to help learners become aware of the importance of Register as well as which Register form is suitable to certain situations Exercise 1: Read the following paragraph and decide the context of situation and then define its Field, Mode,Tenor The Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (hereinafter referred to l collectively as "Parties" and individually as "Party"), Desiring to establish and develop mutually beneficial and equitable economic and trade relations on the basis of mutual respect for their respective independence and sovereignty; Acknowledging that the adoption of and compliance with international trade norms and standards by the Parties will aid the development of mutually beneficial trade relations, and should be the underlying basis of those relations; Noting that Vietnam is a developing country at a low level of development, is in the process of economic transition and is taking steps to integrate into the regional and world economy by, inter alia, joining the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), and working toward membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO); Having agreed that economic and trade ties and intellectual property rights protection are an important and necessary element in the strengthening of their bilateral relations; and Being convinced that an agreement on trade relations between the Parties will best serve their mutual interests, Exercise 2: Identify the Thematisation and the affect of using technical words in the following paragraph li For the purpose of this Chapter, Annex H, the exchanged letters on Investment Licensing Regime, and, with respect to a covered investment, Articles and of Chapter VI: "state enterprise" means a company owned, or controlled through ownership interests, by a Party; "investment authorization" means an authorization granted by the foreign investment authority of a Party to a covered investment or a national or company of the other Party; "UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules" means the arbitration rules of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law; "national" of a Party means a natural person who is a national of a Party under its applicable law; and “ non-discriminatory” treatment means treatment that is at least as favorable as the better of national treatment or most favored nation treatment Exercise 3: Decide sentence order and kinds of sentences used in the following paragraph In the course of ensuring effective protection against unfair competition as provided in Article 10bis of the Paris Convention (1967), each Party shall protect confidential information in accordance with paragraph below and data submitted to government or governmental agencies in accordance with paragraphs and below Each Party shall provide the legal means for any person to prevent confidential information from being disclosed to, acquired by, or used lii by others without the consent of the person lawfully in control of the information in a manner contrary to honest commercial practices, in so far as, and for so long as: A the information is not generally known or readily ascertainable; B the information has commercial value because it is secret; and C the person lawfully in control of the information has taken reasonable steps under the circumstances to keep it secret For the purposes of this Agreement, "in a manner contrary to honest commercial practices" shall mean at least practices such as breach of contract, breach of confidence and inducement to breach, and includes the acquisition of undisclosed information by third parties who knew, or were negligent in failing to know, that such practices were involved in the acquisition Neither Party may discourage or impede the voluntary licensing of confidential information by imposing excessive or discriminatory conditions on such licenses or conditions that dilute the value of the confidential information If a Party requires, as a condition for approving the marketing of pharmaceutical oragrochemical products, the submission of undisclosed test or other data, the origination of which involves a considerable effort, the Party shall protect such data against unfair commercial use In addition, each Party shall protect such data against disclosure, except where necessary to protect the public Exercise 4: Read the following paragraph, then give the remark and explain how the active voice and the passive voice are used liii For the purposes of Chapter I of this Agreement: Nationals and companies of either Party shall be accorded national treatment with respect to access to all competent courts and administrative bodies in the territory of the other Party, as plaintiffs, defendants or otherwise They shall not be entitled to claim or enjoy immunity from suit or execution of judgment, proceedings for the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards, or other liability in the territory of the other Party with respect to commercial transactions They also shall not claim or enjoy immunities from taxation with respect to commercial transactions, except as may be provided in other bilateral agreements The Parties encourage the adoption of arbitration for the settlement of disputes arising out of commercial transactions concluded between nationals or companies of the United States of America and nationals or companies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Such arbitration may be provided for by agreements in contracts between such nationals and companies, or in separate written agreements between them The parties to such transactions may provide for arbitration under any internationally recognized arbitration rules, including the UNCITRAL Rules of December 15, 1976, and any modifications thereto, in which case the parties should designate an Appointing Authority under said rules in a country other than the United States of America or the Socialist Republic of Vietnam The parties to the dispute, unless otherwise agreed between them, should specify as the place of arbitration a country other than the United States of America or the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, that is a party to the Convention liv on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, done at New York, June 10, 1958 Nothing in this Article shall be construed to prevent, and the Parties shall not prohibit, the parties from agreeing upon any other form of arbitration or on the law to be applied in such arbitration, or other form of dispute settlement which they mutually prefer and agree best suits their particular needs lv PART 3: C ONCLUSION Review of the major findings Register is a sub – field of Discourse Analysis Understanding how the concept of Register is perceived is the key to approach such texts well Register is also considered to be an important factor that determines the success in choosing language This study does not aim at focusing on the theory of Register; however it highlights the fact that Register is an effective instrument in the use of linguists Understanding the functions of Register‟ s parameters helps English speakers to invest the text and make utterances more effectively, which is really helpful for interpreters and translators‟ jobs The thesis has revealed the typical Register features of Agreement between the United States of America and Socialist Republic of Vietnam on Trade Relations in the area of the use of Grammar and Vocabularies Firstly, in the area of Grammar, the investigation of chapters of the BTA together with its annexes shows that: simple sentences are rarely used in such legal document The rate also points out that the lvi complex sentence is the most preferably used and the compound complex sentence rank the second And according to our survey, the most parts of the obligation articles include the longest sentence; one of them reaches to 329 words In addition, the sentences begin with subjects occupy the highest rate If clause or sentences beginning with Adverbial phrase are also used in the BTA but they only account for a small proportion One specific characteristic of the BTA is the frequent use of “ Shall” and “ May” Especially, Shall is mostly used even the pronoun indicated in the Agreement is the first and the third personal pronoun Other noting characteristic of the BTA that different from other legal documents is that, most of sentences are written in active voice instead of passive voice Secondly, as far as the use of Vocabularies is concerned, the study shows that Technical and Archaic words are popularly used This helps to contribute to the clarity and airtightness of legal documents Borrowed words and Abbreviations are also used in the BTA However, our survey shows that whereas the use of Technical and Archaic words occupy a high proportion, only a small one is taken up by Borrowed words and Abbreviations It is believed that this study can be of some help to not only the translators, interpreters master the Register of the BTA in particular, and legal documents in general so that they can avoid mistakes arising at the time of investigating and translating the legal documents but also English learners in the course of Register applied in practice Especially, the result of the study may be applied in teaching and learning lvii Translating Technique Suggestions for further work Due to the time constraints and within the framework of a graduation paper, this analysis of the BTA is confined to only some register features We suggest for the next study as the following: - The next investigation might be focus on comparing Register features in documents in English and Vietnamese - The study not only focus on one sub – field of Discourse Analysis, Register but also the illustration and reaffirmation for the semantic feature of language, right at the level of discourse - The extended investigation is not only in the BTA, but more international agreements so that it can be helpful to not only English learners, translators and interpreters while working with the Agreement but also state officers to master the structure of Agreement in order to avoid mistakes at the time of making and applying Agreements REFERENCES English: Bhatia, V.K(1993) Analyzing genre: language use in professional setting London & New York: Longman Brown,G & Yule, G (1983) Discourse analysis, Cambridge: CUP Cook,G (1989) Discourse Oxford: OUP lviii Crystal, D (1981) Directions in Applied Linguistics London: Academic Press Douglas Biber (2004), Dimensions of Register Variation (A cross – linguistic comparison), CUP, Cambridge Galperin, I.R (1977) Stylistics Moscow: Higher School Publishing House Halliday,M.A.K and Hasan, R (1976) Cohesion in English London: Longman Halliday, M.A.K.(1970b) Language structure and language fuction in (e.d) J Lyons New Horizon in Linguistics Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin Books Halliday, M.A.K (1978) Language as Social Semiotic London: Edward Arnold 10.McCawley, J.D (1979) Presupposition & Discourse Structure in (cds) C K Oh & D New York, Academic Press 11 Nunan.D (1983) Introducing Discourse Analysis Penguin Group 12 To Viet Thu (2001), An Analysis on International Convention in English – M.A Thesis, VNU – CFL, Ha Noi 13 Tran Huong Giang (2002), An Analysis of Letters of Invitation for Bids in English and Vietnamese – M.A Thesis, VNU – CFL, Ha Noi 14.Wood & Kroger (2000), Doing Discourse Analysis , Sage Publication, Inc Vietnamese: Nguyễn Hòa (2000), Phân tích diễn ngôn Một số vấn đề lí luận ph-ơng pháp, Nhà xuất ĐH QG HN lix Nguyễn Hòa (1999) Nghiên cứu diễn ngôn trị xà hội ( t- liệu báo chí tiếng Anh tiếng Việt đại) Unpublished – Ph.D Dissertation, Vietnam National University Hanoi 1999 lx ... systems of the grammar Chapter 2: SOME REGISTER FEATURES IN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA AND THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM ON TRADE RELATIONS (BTA) 2.1 Background knowledge of the. .. Register Features in Agreement between the United States of America and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on Trade Relations? ?? to be the theme of our study Hopefully, this study, to some extent,... For the aim of this study, the investigation focuses on analyzing the BTA In addition, due to the time constraints and within the framework of a graduation paper, this analysis of the BTA is confined