3.1. RESEARCH DESIGN AND RESEARCH METHOD
This is a comparative study analyzing the expressive means of the pun in English and Vietnamese to determine their similarities and differences. In order to achieve this purpose, a great number of puns in the two languages have been collected and treated differently at various times.
Since the central point of this study is to find out similarities and differences of the expressive means of the pun in English and Vietnamese, descriptive research and comparative analysis are chosen as the general methodology of the study. Descriptive research shows by what linguistic means the pun in either of the languages is expressed and how these means are formed and operated. Comparative analysis leads to the findings of similarities and differences in terms of the expressive means of the pun in the two languages.
Because of its emphasis on in-depth knowledge and elaboration of concepts as well as advancing theory, qualitative approach, which is very often applied in social sciences, is used as one of the major methods of this study. Besides, since the findings of the study derive from observation, description and analysis of the data, inductive investigative approach is applied to draw necessary conclusions. The other methods to be adopted include statistical, observational and analytical ones.
Statistical method pertains to the collection, analysis and presentation of the data. Descriptive statistics is used for summarizing the data numerically to describe the sample. Inferential statistics is used for modeling
patterns in the data and drawing inferences from what the observations reveal.
Observational method views operations of a program as they are actually occurring, and analytical one helps to gather accurate information about the features of that program.
Last but not least, as a comparative study, this thesis demands background knowledge of contrastive linguistics which is concerned with the comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine the similarities and differences between them. Based on this general background information, the main research question of the study, viz. what similarities and differences are between the expressive means of the pun in English and Vietnamese, will be dealt with.
3.2. DATA COLLECTION AND SAMPLE DESCRIPTION
In order to serve the aim of the study, a great number of puns in English and Vietnamese were collected. Nevertheless, as I have mentioned in the scope of the study, the data examined in this thesis are puns widely recognized so far in the two languages and mainly used for humorous effect.
Consequently, I have adhered to this scope carrying on data collection.
The data for the present analysis were collected from related literary works and corpora on the Internet in the two languages. For this purpose, puns from both the languages were selected and indexed for ready reference.
Specifically, for over three months I collected 600 puns in English from 4 related web pages and 600 ones in Vietnamese from 4 related literary works
and 3 related web pages to form the sample of the research. Below is the quantitative evidence of the collected data from the related corpora in English and Vietnamese:
Table 3.1: The collected data in English
Corpora Puns analyzed
1. Fun With Words. Available: www.fun-with-words.com 265 2. Puns of the day. Available:http://www.punoftheday.com 102 3. Puns for the ESL/EFL Classroom. Available:
http://iteslj.org/c/jokes-puns.html 57
4. “Pun”, retrieved from the web page Wikipedia, the Free
Encyclopedia. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pun 176
Table 3.2: The collected data in Vietnamese
Corpora Puns analyzed
1. Đố tục - giảng thanh và giai thoại chữ nghĩa 171 2. Đặc trưng. Available: http://dactrung.net 245
3. “Chơi chữ Trong Ca Dao”, retrieved from the web page Văn Hóa Việt. Available: e-cadao.com/tieuluan/Index.htm
32 4. Kho tàng truyện trạng Việt Nam (Volume 1 and volume 2) 61
5. Những truyện cười dân gian Việt Nam hay nhất 11 6. TuoiTreCuoi.com. Available: http://www.tuoitrecuoi.com 80
Since the pun is popular in both written and spoken forms, a few illustrative examples in this study are the puns which I have ever been told of. In fact, anybody of normal speech ability can practice the pun of this type or another.
For further analysis of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics standard works were referred to.
3.3. DATA CLASSIFICATION AND DATA ANALYSIS
After being selected and indexed for ready reference, puns in the two languages are observed independently and classified according to their structural features. For example, the puns using synonymy as the expressive means will be put together in the same group. After the independent analysis, necessary linguistic descriptions are given to the members of each group so as to highlight the kind of the expressive means that they apply.
Next, the comparison of the expressive means of the pun in the two languages is conducted to sort out similar features, partially similar features and dissimilar features between them. The units in each group of features are arranged in accordance with the linguistic aspect which they apply. For instance, the units based on synonymy, antonymy and so on are gathered in the group employing sense relations. At last, based on the findings of the study, conclusions and recommendations of the possible applications are made.
It is possible to summarize the data processing in the following steps:
Firstly, the collected data are selected and grouped according to the sort of expressive means that they apply.
Secondly, linguistic description and analysis is given to the members of each group to clarify the characteristics of their expressive means.
Thirdly, the obtained data are compared in great detail to draw the vital conclusions on the similarities and differences of the expressive means of the pun in the two languages.
Then, the research results are observed comprehensively in order to find out possible explanations for these similarities and differences.
Finally, based on the obtained research results, some applications of the pun to teaching and learning English are suggested.
3.4. RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY
The pun is, as we know, recognized as a stylistic device in the current related standard books, typically Stylistics, the one in English, written by I.R.
Galperin (1971), and 99 phương tiện và biện pháp tu từ tiếng Việt, the one in Vietnamese, written by Đinh Trọng Lạc (1999). Moreover, the expressive means of the pun which mainly deal with phonology, syntax and semantics are not out of the available system of linguistic theory. As a result, they can be always investigated and verified using this source of preconceived knowledge. All these things set up a sound theoretical background for the study.
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, at various times different methods are applied. All these research methods proved to have been highly effective in previous linguistic studies, especially descriptive and comparative methods which are indispensable to contrastive analysis – a technique extensively used by linguists in the field of Second Language Acquisition. It is assumed that the findings of comparative research of languages play a very important role in second language acquisition because learning a second language is facilitated whenever there are similarities
between that language and the mother tongue. On the contrary, learning may be interfered with when there are marked contrasts between the mother tongue and the second one.
Qualitative research is recognized as one of the major approaches to research methodology in social sciences. So is inductive investigative approach. The other methods applied in this study including statistical, observational and analytical ones are all efficient instruments supporting the investigations of research papers. Statistical method especially helps in giving relative frequency of the expressive means of the pun employed in the two languages which is expected to reveal important discoveries related to the subject of the study as well as contributes to ensuring the convincement of the findings.
Last but not least, the sample of 1,200 puns should be supposed to contribute to guaranteeing reliability and validity of the study. Moreover, since the sample was mainly collected from the enormous corpora either directly or closely related to the subject of the study, the inferences and conclusions made from it can be extended to the population as a whole.
With all the facts given above, this study is quite reliable and valid so that the final conclusion that it is measuring what it was designed to measure can be drawn.