A study on english – vietnamese translation of personal pronouns in the old man and the sea

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN “THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA” BY LE HUY BAC (LITERATURE PUBLISHING HOUSE) Supervis[.]

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY

- -GRADUATION PAPER

A STUDY ON ENGLISH – VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN “THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA” BY LE HUY BAC

(LITERATURE PUBLISHING HOUSE)

Supervisor: Nguyễn Thùy Linh, MA

Student: Nguyễn Thị Hương

Student code: 19D170021

Class: K55N1

HA NOI 2022

The topic of this study is “A study on English – Vietnamese translation of personalpronouns in “The Old man and the Sea” by Le Huy Bac (Literature publishing house).The purpose is to analyze how to translate personal pronouns from English to Vietnamese

in the work Personal pronouns are a small element in a sentence but extremely important

It is used in all communication, all languages, all cultures For Vietnam is a country with

a rich and complex system of personal pronouns, so it also causes many difficulties fortranslators My research studies the conversations of characters in the novel The Old manand the Sea, focusing on personal pronouns, thereby describing the relationships ofcharacters Furthermore, the study shows how culture and lifestyle have influenced theuse of personal pronouns in foreign literary works translated into Vietnamese Finally, theresearcher proposes some solutions for professional translators and students majoring intranslation to improve and hone their skills

For the entire time I've been at Thuong Mai University, I'd like to convey mygratitude to all of the instructors, particularly the English faculty lecturers Thank you forcreating a welcoming and productive environment for teaching and learning I'd want toexpress my heartfelt gratitude to Ms Nguyen Thuy Linh, my thesis supervisor, for hertolerance, enthusiastic passion, and insightful guidance throughout the writing process.She is always willing to answer all of my questions and help me figure out the mostefficient ways to do my responsibilities In addition, I'd like to thank the authors of paststudies on translation, translation techniques, personal pronouns, and other related areasfor their contributions In order to produce my own research study, I gathered papersfrom reliable sources and referred to them Although I took great care when writing mythesis, errors are unavoidable, and I trust that our supervisors understand Furthermore,due to my lack of academic knowledge and practical experience, I want to seeksupervisor recommendations in order to improve my comprehension

Hanoi, November 20th, 2022

StudentNguyen Thi Huong

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi

CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous studies 2

1.2 Aims of the study 4

1.4 Research Subjects 4

1.5 Scope of the study 5

1.6.Methodology 5

1.7 Organization of the study 5

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Translation theories 7

2.1.1 Definition of translation 7

2.1.2 The important definitions in translation 8

2.1.3 Translation methods 9

2.2 Theoretical of pronouns 12

2.2.1 Definition of pronouns 12

2.2.2 Classification of pronouns 13

2.2.3 Personal pronouns in English 13

2.2.4 Personal pronouns in Vietnamese 14

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 20

3.1 The introduction of “The old man and the sea” 20

3.2 The translation of personal pronouns used by characters from English version into Vietnamese version 20

3.3 The translation of the first personal pronoun from English into Vietnamese 21

3.3.1 Translation of the first personal pronouns “I” 21

3.3.2 Translation of the personal pronoun “we” 25

3.4 The translation of the second personal pronoun from the English version into the Vietnamese version 27

3.5 The translation of the third personal pronoun from the English version into the Vietnamese version 29

3.5.1 The translation of the personal pronoun “he” 29

3.5.2 The translation of the personal pronoun “she” 31

3.5.3 The translation of the personal pronoun “they” 32

3.6 Some comments on translating personal pronouns from English to Vietnamese in the novel The Old Man and the Sea 33

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 35

4.1 Recommendations for professional translators 35

4.2 Suggestions for students majoring in translation 37

4.3 Suggestions for further research 37

CONCLUSION 39

REFERENCES 40

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2.1 Personal pronouns in English 13

Table 2.2 Vietnamese Personal Pronouns 15

Table 2.3 Summary the meanings and usages of the Vietnamese kinship terms 18

Figure 3.1 Summary of the translation of personal pronouns used by character from English version into Vietnamese version 21

Figure 3.2 Translation of personal pronouns “I” into Vietnamese 22

Figure 3.3 Translation of personal pronoun “we” into Vietnamese 25

Figure 3.4 Translation of the personal pronoun “you” into Vietnamese 27

Figure 3.5 Translation of personal pronoun “he” into Vietnamese 29

Figure 3.6 Translation of personal pronoun “she” into Vietnamese 31

Figure 3.7 Translation of personal pronoun “they” into Vietnamese 32

Figure 3.8 In terms of usage rate 33

CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale

English is used as a second language worldwide In the context of economicintegration and development, the use of English is increasingly necessary and important.People all over the world use English as a common language to exchange, cooperate andexpand relationships with each other in many fields, economy, culture, education However, it is extremely difficult to understand all the knowledge and content conveyed

in languages other than the mother tongue Therefore, to help facilitate the exchange ofknowledge and experience, we need translators and interpreters Translation is like abridge connecting people all over the world together To do that well, translators are notonly knowledgeable about the source and target languages, but also understand theculture and customs of that country

Pronouns are words used to refer to someone or something in context so that weavoid repetition in the process of communication Personal pronouns play an extremelyimportant role in communication in both English and Vietnamese The use of personalpronouns in communication shows politeness and mutual respect However, inVietnamese, personal pronouns are more complicated, because they are classified byrank, position, and age Meanwhile, personal pronouns in English will be simpler, mainlydivided into first person pronoun, second person pronouns and third person pronous Sothis is a challenge while translating personal pronouns from English to Vietnamese To beable to accurately translate personal pronouns from English to Vietnamese, translatorsneed to know the exact relationship between the objects of communication and age tofind suitable replacement personal pronouns

Besides, there are many studies on English-Vietnamese translations of grammaticalfeatures such as relative clauses, conditional clauses, and indirect speech However, thereare not many studies on the translation of the personal pronoun from English intoVietnamese Therefore, this topic will help people have a more specific and clear view ofthe similarities and differences between personal pronouns in English and Vietnamese

For two main reasons above, the researcher decides to choose the topic "A study on English – Vietnamese translation of personal pronoun in “The Old man and the Sea” by

Le Huy Bac” Through this research, it is expected to find strategies to deal with personal

pronoun In addition, the researcher also hope that the graduation paper is considered as amaterial to help students majoring in translation limit mistakes when translating personalpronouns in their translation

1.2 Previous studies

Pronouns in particular and personal pronouns in general are grammatical structuresthat are used a lot in both English and Vietnamese This is also a very interesting topicthat is studied by many people, so both at home and abroad there are many researchachievements on personal pronouns

To begin with English research, we have “Personal pronouns in Present-day English” by Katie Wales, Wales Katie (1996) This study consists of 7 chapters with a lot

of contents such as: definition, description of personal pronouns, usage of each personalpronoun, factors affecting personal pronouns and inspiration to the millennium and

personal pronouns in the twenty-first century He wrote “ definitions of the pronouns by English grammarians have changed little since the sixteenth century, when the term first appeared in English Even then, the term and its definitions were based on Latin and ultimately Greek sources: Latin pro-nomen, Greek anto-numia “standing for a noun”.

Not only that, he also took a lot of examples of personal pronouns, analyzed them for us

to better understand

About “Pronouns in English and Arabic: A Contrastive Study” by Zainab Kadim

Igaab & Intisar Raham Tarrad They pointed out similarities and differences between

English and Arabic personal pronouns They have similar uses: “The purpose of using the pronouns is to avoid repeating the noun phrase and they are used to hide the explicit noun They help the writer or the speaker not to state his name and be kept away from unnecessary reiteration This makes the reference of the pronoun clear” But the diffirence is “ Concerning number and gender, in Arabic, there are pronouns which are

singularity and plurality.” Through that, we can have a deeper understanding of the

concept and usage of personal pronouns of the two countries

About Vietnamese research, in 1993 by Nguyen Van Chien in “Vietnamese Personal pronouns” published in the Scientific Journal No 3, this research focused on

the clearly pointed out the concept of pronouns, nuances, general rules when addressing

in society He wrote “Personal pronouns is not a product of a structuralist approachmere language These are words that belong to several classes of words from the linguistic system that are used to address social communication (indicating categories of address) [1-tr8] There are many types of words used as pronouns such as: chị, em, tớ, cậu, con, cháu He also mentioned “In communication, the person connected usually has two attitudes: polite or not polite, expressed in 4 types of address: 1 Formal;

2 Neutralization; 3 Intimate, smooth lemongrass; 4 Vulgar, contemptuous.” [3-tr8].

Through this, we can better understand personal pronouns in Vietnamese, see the variety,expression or rules of address in communication

The next important research was “A study on personal pronouns in English and Vietnamese” by Truong Thi Bich Ngoc (2010) The aim of the study is to provide readers

with basic knowledge about personal pronouns such as concepts, classification,comparison between English and Vietnamese From that point out the difficulties in usingpersonal pronouns and propose some solutions to overcome those difficulties She usedsome methods of study such as searching documents in books, the internet, analyzingdata and giving examples for analysis Then she discussed and analyzed some commonfactors effecting on translation However, the study is only general, not detailed on aspecific work, so she cannot indicate which translation method is most popular

The research was “ A study on personal pronouns in English and Vietnames” by Le

Thi Hong (2020) She has provided more knowledge and details about personal pronouns

in Vietnamese and English, showing similarities and differences in more ways Instead ofgiving solutions to overcome difficulties and barriers in English and Vietnamese, sheprovided more exercises for readers to practice and better understand personal pronouns

In conclusion, there are many studies related to personal pronouns in English andVietnamese, but there are still not many studies on personal pronouns in the translation of

a particular work or novel So the researcher decided to choose the topic: A study on English-Vietnamese translation of personal pronouns in “The Old Man and the Sea” by

Le Huy Bac (Literature publishing house).

1.2 Aims of the study

The study: A study the translation of personal pronouns from English intoVietnamese in "The Old Man and the Sea" by Le Huy Bac (Literature Publishing House)introduce the concepts of translation, methods and techniques translation strategies,personal pronouns in English and Vietnamese, and analyze for translating personalpronouns from English to Vietnamese in "The Old Man and the Sea" Not only that, thestudy also presents some comments on translating personal pronouns in English andVietnamese, thereby giving some suggestions for professional translators and studentsmajoring in translation on how to improve their skills, to avoid confusion, and to translatepersonal pronouns correctly and naturally

1.5 Scope of the study

Due to limited time and knowledge, the researcher have not been able to present allthe issues related to personal pronoun translation as well as difficulties and factorsaffecting translation Therefore, in the research paper, the researcher only focus onresearching and analyzing methods of translating about 600 pronouns of 3 types: 1stperson pronouns (I and we), 2nd person pronouns (you) and 3rd person pronouns (he,she, they) There are many different translations, but the researcher finds Le Huy Bac'stranslation by the Literature Publishing House to be a translation that ensures theaccuracy and conveys the content of the original

Quantitative analysis is a secondary method but also very important This method isused to find all the personal pronouns used in both English and Vietnamese versions, thencount the number and statistics, calculate the percentage to find out which personalpronoun is used the most

1.7 Organization of the study

My graduation paper is divided into four chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: Overview of the study

This chapter gives an overview of the whole study including rationale, aims of thestudy, scope of the study, research methodology and organization of the study

Chapter 2 Literature review

In this chapter, the researcher present theories related to the study It focuses on theconcepts of translation, personal pronouns

Chapter 3 Research findings

The third chapter shows the research findings including information about theauthor, translators, novel; analysis and evaluation of translation of personal pronounsfrom English into Vietnamese

Chapter 4 Recommendations and suggestions

Finally, this chapter summarizes the entire research, thereby making suggestions forprofessional translators and students majoring in translation In addition, it also makesrecommendations for further studies

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Translation theories

2.1.1 Definition of translation

Nowadays, translation is becoming more and more important and are applied tomany areas of life such as education, economy, society Translation can be understoodsimply as translating from one language to another so that the listener can understand.However, an accurate translation must also rely on many factors: context, culture,situation So there have been a lot of different translation concepts by experts

First of all, one of the most prominent definitions of translation is stated by

Newmark (1988: 5) who defines translation as “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text” This definition stresses

on rendering meaning of the source language text into the target language text as what isintended by the author The translated language is called the source language (SL) andtranslated into another language, the target language (TL) Translators need to know andunderstand both languages so that the translation achieves the most accuracy andauthenticity

The next, Hatim and Munday (2004: 6) define translation as “the process of transferring a written text from source language (SL) to target language (TL)” In this

definition they do not explicitly express that the object being transferred is meaning ormessage They emphasis on translation as a process

On the other hand, Nida and Taber (1982: 12), state that “translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message” This definition is more comprehensive than the previous ones Nida

and Taber explicitly state that translation is closely related to the problems of languages,meaning, and equivalence

Last but not least, according to Ghazala (1995), "translation is generally used to refer to all the processes and methods used to convey the meaning of the source language into the target language", that is, when translating, understanding the meaning of source

text is vital to have the appropriate equivalent in the target text thus, it is meaning that istranslated in relation to grammar, style and sounds.

In short, each expert has a different view and give different definitions However, itcan be generally understood that translation is switching from one language to another,translators need to ensure that the translation is honest, close to meaning, correctgrammar, style

2.1.2 The important definitions in translation

2.1.2.1 Source language-target language

The source language is the language being translated from The target language isthe language being translated into the target language is the language which a writtentext is translated into in final language It is also the term for a language that a nonnativespeaker is in the midst of learning The target language is the opposite of the source text,which is the initial text to be translated For example, I work from Japanese to English, so

my source language is Japanese and my target language is English

translation; whether one is translating an informative text, a notice or an advert

According to him, "a translator has to ensure that, a) the TT makes sense, and b) it reads naturally" (Newmark, 1988: 89).

To do this, the translator needs to understand the source language very well first,both in terms of meaning and grammar Then, the translator will try to find the words andstructures that are most similar to the original language and translate them into

2.1.2.2 Accuracy in Translation

Accuracy of translation means that a translated piece communicates the same

meaning as the source language Rahimi (2004: 55) says "a translation will be considered inaccurate if it contains the following cases:

i) Inadvertently omitting some pieces of information

ii) Adding information which is not really in the source text

iii) Committing mistakes during the analysis of the source text resulting in a different meaning".

From the above knowledge we can see, a translation is considered accurate if italways follows the context and content in the source language An incorrect translation is

a translation that does not match the source language Therefore, accuracy is also anextremely necessary factor to evaluate whether a translation is a good one or not

2.1.3 Translation methods

Based on the dynamic equivalence theory of Nida, Newmark proposed 8 translationmethods which can be illustrated in the diagram as follows:

Semantic translation Communicative translation

Source: Newmark - 1988

2.1.3.1 Word-for-word translation

This is often demonstrated as interlinear translation, with The TL immediatelybelow the SL words The SL word-order is preserved and the words translated singly bytheir most common meanings, out of context Cultural words are translated literally Themain use of word-for-word translation is either to understand the mechanics of the sourcelanguage

For example:

Source text: He is a good man

Target text: Anh ấy là một tốt người

As we can see from the above example, word-for-word translation does not takecontext into consideration The elements in the sentence are translated literally and theword order is preserved, however, the grammatical structure is not preserved To be morespecific, in English, adjectives are usually placed before the nouns they modify but inVietnamese, adjectives are placed after the nouns The translated text above does notfollow the grammatical structure of Vietnamese

2.1.3.2 Literal translation

The SL grammatical constructions are converted to their nearest TL equivalents butthe lexical words are again translated singly, out of context As a pre-translation process,this indicates the problems to be solved

For example:

Source text: She is deaf to all his advice

Target text: Cô ấy điếc với tất cả lời khuyên của anh ta

In the translated version of this example, an appropriate grammatical structure is

used However, the word “deaf” is translated into “điếc”, which is unreasonable and out

of context

2.1.3.3 Faithful translation

A faithful translation attempts to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of theoriginal within the constraints of the TL grammatical structures It 'transfers' culturalwords and preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical 'abnormality' (deviation from

SL norms) in the translation It attempts to be completely faithful to the intentions and thetext-realisation of the SL writer

For example:

Source text: He is as fast as a kangaroo

Target text: Anh ấy nhanh nhẹn như kanguru

In this case, the phrase “as fast as a kangaroo” is faithfully translated into “nhanh nhẹn như kanguru” The reader can easily understand the meaning of the sentence, but

2.1.3.4 Semantic translation

Semantic translation differs ‘faithful translation’ only in as far as it must take moreaccount of the aesthetic value of the SL text, compromising on “meaning” whereappropriate so that no assonance, word-play or repetition jars in the finished version.Further, it may translate less important cultural words by culturally neutral third orfunctional terms but not by cultural equivalents

For example:

Source text: Right in the Hanoi, Hoan Kiem is an enchanting body of water, a

peaceful oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Target text: Nằm ngay giữa trái tim Hà Nội, hồ Hoàn Kiếm là một hồ nước đẹp mê

hồn, một ốc đảo bình yên tách biệt với sự hối hả bận rộn của thành phố

2.1.3.5 Adaptation translation

This is the 'freest' form of translation It is used mainly for plays (poetry; thethemes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture converted to the TL cultureand the text rewritten

2.1.3.6 Free translation

Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner or the content without theform of the original It is a kind of meaning-based translation and usually a paraphrasemuch longer than the original Free translation focuses on the content of the target textrather than the form This translation method is often used in dictionaries to translate aword by a sentence/paragraph for the purpose of both translating and explainingconcepts

For example:

Source text: The film is beyond any words.

Target text: Bộ phim không chê vào đâu được

In this example, the form of the ST is not preserved, instead, the core content istranslated into the target language with a completely new translated version that doesn’tcontain both cultural and linguistic elements of ST

2.1.3.7 Idiomatic translation

Idiomatic translation reproduces the 'message' of the original but tends to distortnuances of meaning by preferring colloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist inthe original

- For example:

Source text: A dropt in the ocean

Target text: Đem muối bỏ biển

Instead of being translated as "giọt nước," the normal expression in the source

language is transformed into an idiom in the TT This translation is appropriate foreveryday Vietnamese speech, making it vibrant, natural, and familiar to readers in theTL

2.1.3.8 Communicative translation

Communicative translation attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of theoriginal in such a way that both content and language are readily acceptable andcomprehensible to the readership This translation is often applied when translatingmovie and story titles When reading the translation, we can know the content of themovie, the story

For example

Source text: Elsa

Target text: Nữ hoàng băng giá

2.2 Theoretical of pronouns

2.2.1 Definition of pronouns

According the Oxford dictionary Online defines: “Pronouns are used in place of a noun that has already been mentioned or that is already known, often to avoid repeating the noun Pronouns are nominal substitute forms used to refer to a particular antecedent (things or person or people have been mentioned before).” In grammar, pronouns are

words used to address, to indicate things or events, to replace nouns, verbs and adjectives

in sentences, to avoid repeating those words, sentences get stuck when repeating the wordmany times

This is a small part but extremely important and indispensable in the sentence

For example : Lan is my friend She is very beautiful

I love my dog She is so cute

I like Lisa I know her well

2.2.2 Classification of pronouns

Pronouns are divided into 8 types:

- Personal pronouns (I, she, he, it, they, we, you)

- Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and theirs)

- Demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these and those)

- Indefinite pronouns (all, any, anybody, anyone, anything, each, everybody,everyone, everything, few, many, )

- Interrogative pronouns (who, whose, what, which and whom)

- Reflexive pronouns (myself/ourselves/ )

- Relative pronouns (Who, Whom, Which, That, Whose, Where, When, What)

- Reciprocal pronouns (each other, one another)

2.2.3 Personal pronouns in English

In English grammar, the personal pronoun system is deemed as a closed system Asthe name implies, personal pronouns represent specific people, animals or inanimate

object “They are not only used to substitute nouns, but also refer to a specific individual

or group” (Quirk et, al 1985,341-342) English personal pronouns are associated with

three grammatical persons, and can take on various forms depending on person, number,case and gender The following table shows the personal pronouns in English

First person Second person Third personSingular Plural Singular Plural Singular PluralNominative/

Her/him/itsHers/ his/

its

TheirTheirs

Table 2.1 Personal pronouns in English

Personal pronouns are of three types The pronouns that refer to the speaker “I and we” are called the first person; the pronouns that are used to refer to the addressee or the

person is speaking to you are called the second person pronouns “you”; and the pronouns

“he, she, it, and they” are used to refer to the person or thing who/which is absent which

are called the third person (Kimball, 2010, p 98; Azar et al., 2001, p 38) The personalpronouns must match their antecedents in terms of case, person, number, and gender.This process is called agreement The personal pronouns are used to replace the wholenoun phrase

For example: I often get up at six o’clock

Personal pronouns are divided in terms of singularity and plurality The singular

pronouns are I, he, she, and it and the plural pronouns are we, you, and they They are

also divided in terms of gender in which first and second person pronouns do not have

gender distinctions It means that the pronouns I, we, you are used whether the speaker is

feminine or masculine whereas third person singular pronouns have gender distinctions.The pronoun he refers to male; the pronoun she refers to female; the pronoun it is used toindicate neither male nor female which is called neutral; and the pronoun they are used toindicate either male or female Concerning case, the personal pronouns have three cases

The pronouns I, we, you, he, she, it, they are the pronouns of the subjective case as well

as in the objective case, they are me, us, him, his, her, it, them, and you (Silva, 1998, p.

13)

2.2.4 Personal pronouns in Vietnamese

The system of Vietnamese personal pronouns is absolutely more complicated thanthe one of English Not only age, gender, person but also the social context, attitude ofthe speaker to the listener as well as the relationship between the speaker and listener areindicated through the way Vietnamese choose personal pronouns in every daycommunication There are two branches in the system of Vietnamese personal pronouns:true personal pronouns and kinship terms

Those are the ones used to indicate the person category, which can’t be found inother word classes The following table illustrates the Vietnamese specialized personalpronouns

bọn tao,bọnmình

We, us

Second

Ông(male), bà(female)

Mày, bạn you

Các ông(male), cácbà(female)

Chúngmày, cácbạn

you

Third

Masculine

Ông ta,ngài ấy,anh ấy

Thằng đó He, him

Các ông

ấy, cácngài ấy,các anh ấy

Mấythằng

đó, bọnnó

They,them

Feminine Bà âý, cô

ấy

Con nhỏ

đó, cô ta She, her

Các bà ấy,các cô ấy

Mấy con

đó, bọnnó

They,them

nó

They,them

Table 2.2 Vietnamese Personal Pronouns

In English, they often use “I and you”, in Vietnamese, there are so many ways: tôi, anh, chị, nó, chúng tôi, các cậu, chúng mày, chúng tao, chị ấy, anh ấy, họ, con, cháu, tớ, anh, chị, em, bố, mẹ, bác, ông, mình, ta, đàng ấy,… The difficulty and complexity are:

Vietnamese personal pronoun also has emotional nuance They can express: love, angry,respect, hate, despise, formal, informal, familiar…

Personal pronoun is also used depending on the relatives or the strange of therelationship

In a close friendship, they use “mày, tao” If they call each other by “quý anh” or

“ông”, it is a ridicule And with a stranger, using “mày, tao” is so impolite, sometime it

makes the other angry

This is a table with the most common personal pronouns in the Vietnamese

language You have here that the “I” and “you” are interchangeable That means if you talk to your father, you use “con” for “I” and “bố” for “you” Your father, however, use

“bố” for “I” and “con” for “you”.

Kinship terms are a very important part of the Vietnamese system to address or refer

to oneself and others They are even used much more than true personal pronouns Eventhough the listener is not a family member or relative, kinship terms can also be used aspronouns to address and refer to friends and unfamiliar interlocutors (Luong, 1990) TheVietnamese kinship term system is a bit complicated, it is not only very challenging forforeigners but also sometimes hard for Vietnamese people to master all kinship terms.The below table summarizes the meanings and usages of the Vietnamese kinship terms:

many other terms are used, depending on the dialect: ba, bố, tía, thầy

mẹ is the northern form, má is used

in the south many other terms are used, depending on the dialect: u, bầm, mạ

can be used to address any male regardless of status e.g by militarypersonnel to those of lower ranks

Em anh or chị younger sibling or

cousin of the same