complimenting strategies by english-major students at thai nguyen university = các chiến lược khen ngợi của sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng anh tại đại học thái nguyên

Interference from Vietnamese Culture to the English-major Students‟ Choice of Complimenting Strategies ...29 4.2.. Complimenting strategies by male and female Vietnamese learners of Engl

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

- -

TRẦN THI ̣ YẾN

COMPLIMENTING STRATEGIES

BY ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

(CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC KHEN NGỢI CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH

TIẾNG ANH TẠI ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN )

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: 60.22.15

Hanoi-2012

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

LIST OF TABLES viii

PART A INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the Study 2

3 Research Questions 2

4 Significance of the Study 2

5 Scope of the Study 2

PART B DEVELOPMENT 3

CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 3

2.1 Cross - Cultural Communication 3

2.1.1 Definition of Culture 3

2.1.2 Definition of Communication 3

2.1.3 Definition of Cross - Cultural Communication 3

2.2 Speech Act Theory 4

2.2.1 Definitions of Speech Acts 4

2.2.2 Types of Speech Acts 4

2.2.2.1 Austin‟s Classification 4

2.2.2.2 Searle‟s Classification 4

2.2.2.3 Leech‟s Classification 5

2.2.2.4 Bach and Harnish‟s Classification 5

2.2.2.5 Direct and Indirect Speech Acts 5

2.2.3 Speech Acts across Cultures 6

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2.3 Politeness 6

2.3.1 What is Politeness? 6

2.3.2 Politeness Strategies 7

2.3.2.1 Maxim Approach 7

a) Grice‟s Cooperative Principle 7

b) Lakoff‟s Politeness Rule 7

c) Leech‟s Politeness Principle (PP) 8

2.3.2.2 Face-management Approach 8

a) Goffman‟s Conceptualization of Face 8

b) Brown and Levinson‟s Politeness Theory 9

2.4 The Speech Act of Complimenting .10

2.4.1 Definition of Compliments 10

2.4.2 Functions of Compliments .10

2.4.3 Complimenting as a Speech Act 11

2.4.4 Compliment Topics .12

2.4.5 Complimenting Strategies 12

2.4.5.1 Basic Complimenting Strategies 12

2.4.5.2 Modifications of Basic Complimenting Strategies 13

2.4.5.3 Direct and Indirect Strategies in Complimenting 13

2.4.5.4 Complimenting Strategies in Terms of Personal Focus .13

2.5 Previous Research on Compliments 13

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODS .17

2.1 Subjects of the Study 17

2.2 Data Collection Instrument 17

2.3 Data Gathering Procedure 18

2.4 Data Analysis .18

2.5 Research Methods 18

CHAPTER 3 REALIZATIONS OF COMPLIMENTING STRATEGIES 19

3.1 Overall Response Patterns 19

3.1.1 Expressions Preceding the Compliment .19

3.1.2 Expressions Following the Compliment .20

3.2 Category of Complimenting Strategies .21

3.2.1 Basic Complimenting Strategies 21

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3.2.2 Combinations of Basic Complimenting Strategies .22

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS 23

4.1 Overall Analysis of the Response Patterns .23

4.1.1 Components of the Response Patterns 23

4.1.2 Comments on the Expressions Preceding and Following the Compliment .25

4.1.3 Use of Complimenting Strategies .28

4.1.4 Interference from Vietnamese Culture to the English-major Students‟ Choice of Complimenting Strategies .29

4.2 Use of Complimenting Strategies with Respect to the Informants .30

4.2.1 American Informants 30

4.2.2 Vietnamese Informants and Vietnamese Learners of English 31

4.3 Use of Complimenting Strategies with Respect to the Communicating Partners 32

4.3.1 When the Communicating Partners are Male Classmates 32

4.3.2 When the Communicating Partners are Female Classmates .33

4.3.3 When the Communicating Partners are Male Teachers .34

4.3.4 When the Communicating Partners are Female Teachers 34

4.4 Use of Complimenting Strategies across Topics .36

4.4.1 Appearance/Possessions 36

4.4.2 Ability/Accomplishment .39

PART C CONCLUSION .40

1 Summary of Major Findings .40

2 Conclusion 41

3 Pedagogical Recommendations .42

4 Limitation of the Study .43

5 Suggestions for Further Research .44

REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX A DISCOURSE COMPLETION TEST (English Version) I APPENDIX B DISCOURSE COMPLETION TEST (Vietnamese Version) III

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

DCT Discourse Completion Task EFL English as a Foreign Language

F Face-threatening Acts FTA Face Threatening Act

TNU Thai Nguyen University

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Types of expressions preceding the compliment 20

Table 2 Types of expressions following the compliment 20

Table 3 Categories of complimenting strategies 21

Table 4 Combinations of basic complimenting strategies 22

Table 5 Deviation in the frequency of complimenting strategies between groups 29

LIST OF FIGURES Figures Title Page Figure 1 Choices of politeness strategy (Brown and Levinson, 1987) 9

Figure 2 Bach & Harnish‟s categorization of the speech act of complimenting 11

Figure 3 Components of the response patterns 24

Figure 4 Complimenting strategies employed by the three groups of informants

28 Figure 5 Complimenting strategies by male and female American informants 31

Figure 6 Complimenting strategies by male and female Vietnamese informants 32

Figure 7 Complimenting strategies by male and female Vietnamese learners of English

32 Figure 8 Strategies employed to compliment male classmates 33

Figure 9 Strategies employed to compliment female classmates 33

Figure 10 Strategies employed to compliment male teachers 35

Figure 11 Strategies employed to compliment female teachers 35

Figure 12 Strategies employed to compliment on appearance or possessions 37

Figure 13 Strategies employed to compliment on ability or accomplishment 39

of language proficiency and goodwill, learners still have great difficulty making themselves understood or interpreting properly what is said to them They even find it extremely difficult

to produce or sometimes understand a speech act such as a compliment, an apology, a request

or a refusal The mistaken messages they send or receive lead not only to breakdowns in communication, but also to bad effects within social relationships

This common problem can also be seen in Vietnamese learners of English Although they may have spent a long time studying English and done very well on exams, they can not communicate effectively with native speakers The barrier here is cultural awareness They are from different cultures, thus have different frames of reference Failure in communication can cause what we call “culture shock” We do things with words as Austin (1962) states In our mother tongue and our culture, we face little or no difficulty in employing words appropriately

in order to achieve our aim because we unconsciously follow the norms and conventions of our speech community

The speech act of complimenting has been chosen as the topic of the present study because this speech act is highly representative of face-threatening acts and the realization of this speech act is largely culture-specific (Gass, 1995; Liao, 1996) People from different cultures share the same communicative purpose in complimenting each other However, they tend to use different patterns and strategies and compliment different attributes When people compliment each other in a foreign language, the intended purpose may not be achieved, but the reverse may occur In other words, miscommunication or misinterpretation happens when a user of a foreign language inappropriately compliments others

In Vietnam, in recent years, much research work has been done into various speech acts; however, so far very little research has been carried out in Thai Nguyen University where millions of non-English major students and thousands of English major students are learning and speaking English With an effort to fill the gap, we carried out this study as an investigation into the speech act of complimenting by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University

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2 Aims of the Study

This study aims to find out the preferred strategies by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University when complimenting in English and to identify the interferences from Vietnamese culture to the students‟ choice of strategies

3 Research Questions

The study is intended to address the following questions:

[i] What are the preferred strategies by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University when complimenting in English?

[ii] Is there any interference from Vietnamese culture to the students‟ choice of strategies when complimenting in English?

4 Significance of the Study

The researcher hopes that this study will be significant theoretically, practically and pedagogically

Theoretically, the study may contribute to the theoretical literature by examining the interferences from Vietnamese culture to the choice of strategies when complimenting in English by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University

Practically, the study may reinforce these students‟ awareness of the interferences from their culture to their choice of strategies when complimenting in English by investigating what they have already known and what they have not and what proves to be difficult when they are confronted with the complimenting situations, which may help them achieve a better performance in cross-cultural communication

Pedagogically, research in cross-cultural communication including this paper may help teachers and educators understand the students‟ problems in order to evaluate textbooks and other teaching materials as well as assessment procedures of language proficiency, to assess the value of communicative language teaching practices, and to help learners develop strategies to handle misunderstandings and other communication problems

5 Scope of the Study

Due to limited time and experience, this study just focuses on verbal communication Other factors such as non-linguistic factors (facial expression, gestures, eye contact, etc.), paralinguistic factors (intonation, pause, speed of speech, etc.) will not be taken into account

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PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Cross - Cultural Communication

2.1.1 Definition of Culture

Today, definitions of culture are multiple and diverse; however, in this paper, culture is defined and classified for the purpose of the study related to communication Therefore, out of the many possible definitions examined, the following definition guides this study: “culture is

a set of shared and enduring meaning, values, and beliefs that characterize national, ethnic, or other groups and orient their behavior” (Mulholland 1991)

2.1.2 Definition of Communication

Communication can be defined as “the exchange and negotiation of information between

at least two individuals through the use of verbal and non verbal symbols, oral and written/visual modes, and production and comprehension processes” (Canale, 1983, p 4) It is

a form of social interaction and involves a high degree of unpredictability and creativity in form and message

2.1.3 Definition of Cross - Cultural Communication

According to Clarke and Sanchez, the term ¨cross-cultural¨ implies interaction with persons of different cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, sexual orientation, religious, age and class backgrounds ¨Cross-cultural communication¨ is a process of exchanging, negotiating, and mediating one's cultural differences through language, non-verbal gestures, and space relationships It is also the process by which people express their openness to an intercultural experience (Clarke and Sanchez, 2001)

Kramsch defined cross - culture as “the meeting of two cultures or languages across the political boundaries of nation states.” (Kramsch, 1998, p 81) Thus, cross - cultural communication is the exchange and negotiation between individuals who come from different cultural background

Normally, people know how to behave appropriately within their own culture and society, but when they move from country to country, this social etiquette changes For instance, it is quite usual for Vietnamese people to greet each other by saying “where are you going?” Such utterance may be perceived as annoying curiosity by native English speakers because for most Western cultures the individuals and personal privacy come first For Asian cultures, nevertheless the emphasis is on promoting group harmony

2.2 Speech Act Theory

2.2.1 Definitions of Speech Acts

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The concept of speech acts was first defined by Austin (1975) He did not use the term speech act, but “performative sentence” or “performative utterance,” which indicated that “the issuing of the utterance is the performing of an action” (p 6) The term itself was first used by Searle (1969) who claimed that “talking is performing acts according to rules” (p 22), and that

“speech acts […] are the basic or minimal units of linguistic communication” (p.16)

However, Back and Harnish (1979) believed that there is more to a speech act than this

In their view, speech acts are a complex combination between utterances, locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts Thus, the speech act schema, or SAS, is as follows,

where e is an expression, S the speaker, and H the hearer: “In uttering e [utterance act], S says something to H [locutionary act]; in saying something to H, S does something [illocutionary act]; and by doing something, S affects H [perlocutionary act]” (Bach & Harnish, 1979, p 3)

Wierzbicka (1991) claimed that most of the early definitions of speech acts are ethnocentric, and that thus they fail to take into consideration what she believed is one of the most important characteristics of speech acts, namely cultural specificity She says that, cultural values and characteristics such as indirectness, objectivism, courtesy, and cordiality are reflected

in the way speakers produce speech acts

This multitude of definitions also leads to a multitude of taxonomies This study deals with the most important classifications of speech acts in the following section

2.2.2 Types of Speech Acts

2.2.2.1 Austin’s Classification

Austin (1975, p 151) first classified speech acts into five categories:

- Verdictives provide us with findings and results

- Exercitives are characterized by the description of powers, rights, and influences

- Commissives commit the speakers themselves to some future action

- Behabitives are actions that have to do with „social behaviors‟

- Expositives develop views, conduct arguments and to clarify the use of references

2.2.2.2 Searle’s Classification

Communicative approaches to speech act theory mostly categorize speech acts according

to what they communicate to the hearer Thus, Searle (1976) proposed five types of speech acts:

- Declarations change the world via their utterance

- Representatives tell people how and what things are

- Expressive express feelings and attitudes

- Directives get someone to do something

- Commissives commit the speakers themselves to some future action

2.2.2.3 Leech’s Classification

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Following this classification, Leech (1983) distinguished speech acts by the verbs that express them Thus, speech act verbs can be divided into the following categories: assertive verbs, directive verbs, commisive verbs, rogative verbs, and expressing verbs

2.2.2.4 Bach and Harnish’s Classification

Bach and Harnish (1979) classified speech acts in terms of the illocutionary act entailed into four major types: constatives (assertives, predictives, retrodictives, descriptives, ascriptives, informatives, confirmatives, concessives, retractives, assentives, disentives, disputatives, responsives, suggestives, supportives), directives (requestsives, questions, requirements, prohibitives, permissives, advisories), commissives (promises, offers), and acknowledgements (apologize, condole, congratulate, greet, thank, bid, accept, reject)

2.2.2.5 Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

The most important problem with these early taxonomies is that, again, they are too closely linked to the verb that expresses the respective illocutionary act However, speech acts can be expressed by other means as well, not only by illocutionary verbs Therefore, another approach to distinguish types of speech act can be based on the relationship between the structure and functions This approach classifies speech acts into direct and indirect ones

On one side, direct speech acts are found in utterances that have a homogeneous relationship between structural forms and communicative functions According to Yule (1996,

p 54-55), “Whenever there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function, we have

a direct speech act”

E.g “I order you to revise your lessons!” [Direct order]

On the other side, Searle (1975, p 61) points out:

In indirect speech acts, the speaker communicates to the hearer more than he actually says by way of relying on their mutually shared background information, both linguistic and nonlinguistic, together with general powers of rationality and inference on the part of the hearer

E.g “It is very cold in here” [Indirect request to close the windows]

As this section has shown, there are many ways of classifying speech acts by making use

of different criteria

2.2.3 Speech Acts across Cultures

Speech acts like greeting, complimenting, requesting, thanking or giving advice and so

on are present in almost all cultures In principle, these speech acts can be fulfilled in any language, but they are performed in different manners and by different means Sharing the same point of view, Hymes (1964) and Saville-Troike (1982) state that there is a close

Therefore, the study on speech acts across cultures is believed to be essential or vital for not only a person who expects to survive in a new environment, but also for a learner of a foreign language who expects to succeed in communication

2.3 Politeness

2.3.1 What is Politeness?

The notion of politeness has been largely discussed Lakoff sees politeness as “a system

of interpersonal relations designed to facilitate interaction by minimizing the potential for conflict and confrontation inherent in all human interchange” (Eden 2001, p 2) Leech (1983) defines it as “strategic conflict avoidance, which can be measured in terms of the degree of effort put into the avoidance of a conflict situation, the establishment and the maintenance of comity” Yule specially lists the characteristics of politeness, including “being tactful, generous, modest and sympathetic toward others” (1997, p 60) Brown and Levinson (1987) emphasize politeness as strategies employed by a speaker to obtain a variety of objectives such

as promoting or maintaining harmonious relations In interaction, there is a narrower type of politeness at work, which serves as a crucial concept for people to conduct their communicative behavior

2.3.2 Politeness Strategies

Leech‟s (1983) conversational maxim approach and Brown & Levinson‟s (1987) management model are the two most influential approaches in politeness literature Nevertheless, one perspective has often been pitted against the other in terms of its effectiveness for explaining certain phenomena (Mao, 1994) Thus, these two approaches have been selectively chosen and will be analyzed in depth

face-2.3.2.1 Maxim Approach

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The maxim approach relies heavily on Gricean pragmatics in trying to answer the question how people mean more than they say The main adherents to this view are Lakoff (1973) and Leech (1983)

a) Grice’s Cooperative Principle

Paul Grice (1967) proposes that in ordinary conversation, speakers and hearers share a cooperative principle, the content of which is to “make your conversational contribution such

as required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged” Grice has proposed what has been known as the Cooperative Principle (hereafter, CP) From this CP, Grice advances four sub-maxims:

“quality, quantity, relevance, and manner” and articulates that violation of one or more of these conversational maxim(s) may implicate certain speaker intentions

Quantity: 1 Make your contribution as informative as required

2 Do not make your contribution more informative than is required Quality: 1 Do not say what you believe to be false

2 Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence

b) Lakoff’s Politeness Rule

Grice‟s cooperative principle served as the starting point of Lakoff‟s “Politeness Rule” The more you seek to communicate your message directly to achieve full clarity, the more you move away from an expression of politeness; hence, clarity and politeness were seen as opposites in her rule Lakoff introduces the interpersonal rule “be polite” to supplement CP Her interpersonal politeness rule consists of three sub-rules: (1) do not impose, (2) give options, and (3) make the addressee feel good

c) Leech’s Politeness Principle (PP)

Leech chooses to discuss politeness within the framework of “Interpersonal Rhetoric” Interpersonal Rhetoric is related to a speaker‟s social goals (what social position a speaker takes) rather than illocutionary goals (what a speaker tries to convey through a speech act) Within this domain, Leech (1983) establishes six -paired- maxims associated with the Politeness Principle:

 Tact maxim: Minimize cost to other Maximize benefit to other

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 Generosity maxim: Minimize benefit to self Maximize cost to self

 Approbation maxim: Minimize dispraise of other Maximize dispraise of self

 Modesty maxim: Minimize praise of self Maximize praise of other

 Agreement maxim: Minimize disagreement between self and other Maximize agreement between self and other

 Sympathy maxim: Minimize antipathy between self and other Maximize sympathy between self and other

Despite its very detailed elaboration, Leech‟s model remains abstract for some researchers

2.3.2.2 Face-management Approach

Politeness as a linguistic theory was first systematized by the face saving view that has

been proposed by Brown and Levinson in their book Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage However, their theory springs from Goffman‟s conceptualization of face

a) Goffman’s Conceptualization of Face

Goffman (1959) considered “face” as the “positive social value a person effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact”

Goffman (1967) repetitively lays emphasis on the fact that there is a two-way face orientation in interaction A person is not only concerned with his/her own face but is also expected to show concern for others‟ feelings to uphold their face for emotional identification with others‟ feelings

Goffman also posited the ideas of negative face and positive face, where negative face means the speaker wants to be free and independent from society This speaker would be less likely to follow rules of politeness because he doesn‟t care about society‟s perception of his face Positive face, in turn, means the speaker wants to be seen and accepted positively in society, and would be more likely to participate in the rules of politeness

b) Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory

Brown and Levinson‟s (1987) define a threat to a person's face as a Face Threatening Act (FTA), and argue that such threats generally require redress: a mitigating statement or some verbal repair (politeness), or breakdown of communication will ensue They propose four kinds of FTAs:

(i) Acts threatening to the hearer‟s negative face by indicating (potentially) that the speaker does not intend to avoid impeding hearer‟s freedom of action (e.g ordering, suggesting, threatening, warning, offering, promising, complimenting)

(ii) Acts threatening to the hearer‟s positive face by indicating (potentially) that the speaker does not care about the addressee‟s feeling, wants, etc – that in some important

Figure 1 Choices of politeness strategy (Brown and Levinson, 1987)

Another important key concept for their theory that needs to be introduced is

“weightiness” which is related to three sociological variables Assessing the seriousness of certain illocutionary acts that can damage a persons face, FTAs, involves making an assessment of the social parameters related to:

(i) Social distance (D) of S and H; the degree of familiarity and solidarity they share (Leech‟s “horizontal distance”)

(ii) Relative power (P) of S and H; the degree to which the speaker can impose will on the hearer (Leech‟s “authority”)

(iii) Ranking of imposition (R) attached to the speech act in the culture; the degree of expenditure of goods and services by the hearer; the right of the speaker to perform the act; and the degree to which the hearer welcomes the imposition (Leech‟s “costliness”)

2.4 The Speech Act of Complimenting

2.4.1 Definition of Compliments

A dictionary definition of compliment describes compliment with three kinds of meanings:

they are remarks that express admiration of someone or something; they are remarks that show Greater

Lesser

as a positively affective speech act, where the speaker “explicitly or implicitly attributes credit

to someone other than the speaker, usually the person addressed, for some “good” (possession, characteristic, skill, etc.) which is positively valued by the speaker and hearer.” Olshtain and Cohen added “the speech act of complimenting is intrinsically courteous and enables the speaker to make use of available opportunities to express and interest in the hearer” (1991, p 158)

E.g That is a nice suit you have on

2.4.2 Functions of Compliments

The functions of compliments are varied In this study, the author summarizes the functions

of the compliment in other researchers‟‟ works and divides them into six types:

 To express admiration or approval of someone‟s work/appearance/taste (Herbert, 1998)

 To establish/confirm/maintain solidarity (Wolfson, 1989)

 To replace greetings/gratitude/apologies/congratulations (Wolfson, 1983)

 To soften face-threatening acts such as apologies, requests and criticism (Wolfson, 1989) If the speaker makes some offence to the hearer, he could use a compliment to change the topic and soften the tense atmosphere

 To open or sustain conversation (Wolfson, 1983)

 To reinforce desired behavior (Manes, 1983)

2.4.3 Complimenting as a Speech Act

The speech act of complimenting appears in Austin‟s classification under the class of

„behabitives‟ Austin describes this class as reactions “to other people's behaviour and fortunes,” embodying "expression of attitudes to someone else's” conduct or qualities (1962, p 159) More specifically, he views compliments as a means of expressing sympathy along with congratulations, condolences and felicitations

Later descriptions in Speech Act Theory follow the same line Bach and Harnish, for example, group complimenting as a subcategory of congratulations along with condolences and felicitations (1979, p 52) They thus fall under their class of acknowledgements, which express some positive or negative attitude towards others (see Figure 1)

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According to Bach & Harnish‟s classification, the communicative illocutionary act of complimenting is categorized as follows:

Figure 2 Bach & Harnish‟s categorization of the speech act of complimenting

Even though Searle (1976) does not mention complimenting in his categories of illocutionary acts, they would probably be grouped under „expressives‟, which communicate the speaker‟s attitude to a certain state of affairs While compliments have been grouped with congratulations, little comparison has been made between the two acts Searle (1969, p 67) describes congratulations as expressing the speaker‟s pleasure regarding some event related to the hearer (cf also Bach and Harnish 1979) While the same positive reaction is also relevant

in compliments, compliments present personal assessments of a situation Searle‟s (1976) criteria for classification of speech acts would also bring them into the class of

„representatives‟ (assertives) since compliments express the speaker‟s belief in a proposition For example, a compliment such as 'What a beautiful picture!‟ expresses both a positive reaction and an assessment of the object, and may be responded to with, say, „Yeah‟ or „Do you really think so?‟ In other words, one can agree or disagree with the proposition in the compliment Since expressives are mainly reactions to a situation, it should not be possible to utter an agreement or disagreement In response to a congratulation on having received a prize

in a contest, for example, it is possible to deny the worth of the achievement, but it is not possible to deny having received the prize This brief excursion into the semantics of compliments is not to deny their social function but to reveal the source of the latitude recipients of compliments have in formulating their responses: The complimentee may respond

to either the assertive or the expressive illocutionary force of the utterance

2.4.4 Compliment Topics

Congratulate

Communicative Illocutionary Acts

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A topic may properly serve as the focus of a compliment In spite of the broad range of topics found in some research, the majority of compliments are restricted to only a few general topics Based on the U.S data, Manes and Wolfson (1981) and Wolfson (1983) observed that compliments seem to fall naturally into two general categories - those which focus on appearance and/or possessions, and those which have to do with ability and/or accomplishments "Appearance", in this sense, refers to one's looks, including clothing, haircuts, ornaments, and so on "Possessions" refers to material possessions such as furniture, automobiles "Ability" refers to the "quality of something produced through the addressee's skill or effort: a well-done job, a skillfully played game, a good meal (Manes, 1983, p 101)"

"Accomplishments" refers to one's acquired skill

2.4.5 Complimenting Strategies

2.4.5.1 Basic Complimenting Strategies

(i) Admiration expression is an expression containing a positive evaluation either explicitly (e.g You are beautiful) or implicitly (e.g You have to tell me the secret of your new look)

(ii) Appreciation expression is an expression which shows the gratitude towards the others (e.g Oh Thank you I really appreciate it)

(iii) Feeling expression is an expression of feelings towards the others such as happiness, prayer, kindness, wishing to keep in touch and being proud (e.g I‟m proud of you)

2.4.5.2 Modifications of Basic Complimenting Strategies

(i) Intensity of a compliment or compliment response is realized by intensifiers such as very, by combinations and by repetition of the same strategy

(ii) Expansion is realized by proverb, promise, invitation, comments, assurance by swearing, negation or imperatives

(iii) Emotional is realized by interjections (e.g., Oh!) or invocations (e.g., God!), exclamation (e.g., Wow) or endearment such as Dear!

2.4.5.3 Direct and Indirect Strategies in Complimenting

Direct compliments are expresses to the person being complimented

E.g Mm, you‟ve got a new jumper It‟s beautiful!

Indirect compliments are “overtly addressed to one person but actually compliment another party who is present.”

E.g Your friend seems very nice, dear (Holmes, 1988, p 486)

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2.4.5.4 Complimenting Strategies in Terms of Personal Focus

According to Herbert (1990), compliments can be analyzed in terms of types of personal focus There are three types of compliments in terms of personal focus:

(i.) 1st person focus: e.g I like your hair that way

(ii.) 2nd person focus: e.g Your hair looks good short

(iii.) 3rd person focus (impersonal): e.g Nice haircut!

Yan (2008) classified politeness strategies used in English compliments and by Han, Kazak, and Uygur EFL Learners in terms of personal reference as follows:

(i.) Speaker-oriented: “I, we”

(ii.) Hearer-oriented: “you”

(iii.) Topic-oriented: “it, our view, your cell phone, his suit”

2.5 Previous Research on Compliments

Compliments have been recently studied by many researchers Most studies have focused

on spoken discourse (Wolfson & Manes 1980; Wolfson 1981, 1983; Manes 1983s; Holmes 1988; Herbert 1990) in which data were mainly obtained through fieldwork and questionnaires Some others focused on written discourse These studies have looked at compliment formulae, lexical distribution, cultural values, gender differences, and the status of complimenters and recipients

Wolfson & Manes (1980) focused on the way in which compliments were used in different social situations The analysis was based on 950 compliments gathered in everyday interactions The hypothesis was that the basic function of compliments was to create and maintain solidarity, and that was why people tended to use formulae to express their compliments

E.g Thanks for the card We really like it (Wolfson, 1983, p 88)

Lexical distribution has been investigated by Manes and Wolfson (1980) It was reported that 80% of all compliments were the adjectival type in which the two most frequently used

adjectives were nice and good, accounting for 42% The other three most frequent adjectives were beautiful, pretty, and great Two verbs, like and love, accounted for 90% of the

compliments where a verb was used In Holmes‟s New Zealand data (1987), the five most

frequently used adjectives were nice, good, beautiful, lovely, and wonderful; and the verbs like, love, enjoy, admire and be impressed by accounting for 80 % of the data

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More recent research has looked at gender differences Wolfson (1983, p 92) mentioned

“women appear both to give and receive compliments much more frequently than men do” Holmes (1988) examined compliments given by New Zealand people The research focused on gender differences in complimenting Data consisted of 488 compliments and compliment responses which were collected from naturally occurring exchanges The hypothesis was that there were differences in the way women and men gave compliments Holmes also pointed out that women gave and received more compliments than men did, and both women and men complimented women more than they did men With respect to topics of compliments, Holmes showed that women tended to compliment each other on appearance whereas men tended to compliment on possession

Regarding status of compliment givers and compliment receiver, research results have shown that most compliments occur between status equals As Wolfson (1983, p 91) puts it,

“the overwhelming majority of all compliments are given to people of the same age and status

as the speaker” Many researchers have reported the same pattern (Knapp, Hopper and Bell 1984; Holmes 1988; Herbert 1990) However, in New Zealand data, Holmes (1986) found that higher status females were twice as likely to receive compliments as higher status men, and that men were even more likely to compliment women of higher status than women were This

is further support for the view that it is more acceptable to compliment high status women than high status men This interpretation of the patterns observed is consistent with the suggestion that higher status women are perceived as more receptive to compliments than their male counterparts are, because in society as a whole, women are generally regarded as socially subordinate and less powerful and influential than men (Holmes 1988) Alternatively, women are seen as more approachable because they value solidarity more highly than status, and tend

to reduce rather than emphasize status differences Based on the results, Holmes (1988) concluded that in New Zealand, women tend to use compliments as solidarity signals, but men are more likely to experience them as FTAs

Social researchers have looked at how culture may influence compliments Wolfson (1981) provided a description of semantic and syntactic structure of compliments in American English, and comparisons were made with compliments given by non-native speakers of English Wolfson supported the idea that speech acts differ from community to community in their realization patterns and in functions; therefore, sociolinguistic descriptions of language in use are very important and necessary Manes (1983, p 98) discussed how cultural values were

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expressed in compliments, mentioning that “if we wish to be approved of and complimented,

we must conform to the extent of doing things which others will recognize as worthy of compliments” Newness was also mentioned as the most important of cultural values reflected

n compliments People tended to compliment on the results of work achieved and on appearance, especially on women‟s but not on natural attractiveness

Discussing on compliments in Asian countries, as stated by Kartomihardjo (1987), a speaker needs to be careful in expressing compliments to another person because for Asian people, compliments are not quite common According to his perspective, a close relationship between the speaker and the recipient is an important condition before compliments are expressed The closer the relationship both of them possess, the more openness they have in stating their compliments to one and another

A study of complimenting speech act in Australian English and Vietnamese was done by Suu (1990) The findings showed that similar syntactic patterns of compliments were used in English and Vietnamese, but the topics of compliments were different from one language to the other

Thai Thi Ngoc Lien (1993) carried out the research: “Complimenting in English and Vietnamese” The study investigates how compliments are expressed in English and Vietnamese, and at the same time examines the influence of students‟ mother tongue and culture on the target language speech act performance Its aim is to provide Vietnamese learners of English with sociolinguistic information which will enable them to compliment in the target language Data were collected through questionnaire and role play The population from the subjects are drawn include Australian native speakers of English, Vietnamese informants of English in Vietnam and Vietnamese students in Canberra

Le Phuong Binh (2008) in “A Vietnamese-English Cross-Cultural Study of Positive Politeness and Negative Politeness in Complimenting” points out the use of Positive Politeness and Negative Politeness strategies in complimenting by English native speakers and Vietnamese ones

The most famous in-depth research was carried out by Nguyen Van Quang (1999) under the title “Some Cross Cultural Differences in Vietnamese and American Ways of Complimenting and Responding to Compliments” The research investigated some major differences in giving and responding to compliments in intercultural Vietnamese-American

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CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODS

This chapter is concerned with the selection of subjects and the instruments of collecting data It describes in some detail the design of the instruments and the descriptive quantitative procedures that were undertaken for analysis of the data

2.1 Subjects of the Study

Data were collected from three groups of subjects:

Group 1: 30 Vietnamese learners of English who are learning at TNU in their fourth year Their age ranges from 22 to 23 Their English is of advanced level The researcher chose these subjects on the assumption that these students have acquired proficiency of English that ensures familiarity with various speech acts and is good enough to make them understand and respond to various situations

Group 2: 16 American native speakers of English who are studying at St John‟s University, New York Their age ranges from 22 to 23

Group 3: 30 native Vietnamese speakers They are studying different majors other than English in their fourth year at TNU Their age ranges from 22 to 23 The reason why I choose these subjects is that I wish to get rid of the reverse transfer from the foreign language (English) to their first language (Vietnamese) which might happen if they know English fairly well

In all groups, the numbers of males and females were evenly distributed

2.2 Data Collection Instrument

Having reviewed the relevant literature, the researcher has found that there were two different ways to collect data: audio-visual instruments and discourse completion test (DCT) However, the researcher chose the DCT because this instrument has some characteristics that make it most suitable for eliciting the data required It is a controlled elicitation procedure for collecting the data necessary to represent socially differentiated situations Lorenzo-Dus (2001) states that DCT enables the researcher to obtain sufficient data in a relatively short period of time

In this study, the DCT consists of 4 situations which are formulated in relation to five characterizations:

(i) Due to limited time and experience, this study just focuses on communication taking place within the university scope; therefore, the interlocutors are students and teachers only (ii) Compliment topics: appearance, possession, ability and accomplishment

(v) Interlocutors‟ gender: male and female

These characterizations are necessary to provide useful information for analyzing and comparing the data for the purposes of this study

2.3 Data Gathering Procedure

The procedure of gathering data for this study follow three steps:

First, the DCT in English is pilot-tested with a group of ten native English speakers at St, John‟s University (Pilot Group) The goal of the pilot test was to establish the contextual appropriateness of the items in eliciting the speech acts under study, i.e to check whether the completion items indeed elicit requests and apologies Dialogues that do not prove to be sufficiently delimited contextually are slightly changed The resulting DCT questionnaires will

be then ready for the data collection

Secondly, the resulting version is administered to another 15 American native speakers of English who are studying at St John‟s University, New York (Group 2) Then, the DCT is administered to 30 Vietnamese learners of English at TNU (Group 1)

Thirdly, the DCT is translated into Vietnamese, and then delivered to 30 native Vietnamese speakers (Group 3) to fill in with compliments in Vietnamese

2.5 Research Methods

The researcher used both quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the data Qualitative method involves the referring of relevant materials such as books, articles, website, and the review of previous studies Quantitative method refers to the statics of the data collection and analysis basing on certain situations with participants of the study

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CHAPTER 3 REALIZATIONS OF COMPLIMENTING STRATEGIES

All together 1216 responses were collected from 30 Vietnamese native speakers (group V), 16 American English native speakers (group AmE) and 30 English-major students at Thai Nguyen University (group VE) The first analysis concerns overall response patterns The second section focuses on the complimenting strategies

3.1 Overall Response Patterns

As has been noted by Wolfson and Manes (1980), most of the responses often consist of three components:

- Expression preceding compliment (Pre.C)

- Compliment (C)

- Expression following compliment (Post.C)

E.g Congratulation! Your presentation is very interesting Keep it up

Pre.C C Post.C

The core component is the compliment A response may have all these three components, the compliment and either of the others, or just the compliment only They can be one of these following types:

(i.) Pre.C + C + Post.C

E.g I noticed you for a new haircut! I think that it looks really nice and it suits you really well Where did you get it done?

(ii.) Pre.C + C

E.g Did you just get a new hair cut? It looks good!

(iii.) C + Post.C

E.g I really like your new haircut Where did you get it done?

(iv.) The C-only

E.g Great…haircut!

What a nice haircut!

3.1.1 Expressions Preceding the Compliment

From the Vietnamese, Vietnamese English and American English corpus, types of the expressions preceding the compliment can be listed with examples for each type as shown in Table 1

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American English Vietnamese Vietnamese English Exclamating Oh My God!

Wow

Ui, Ôi, Ồ, Ủa,

A, Trời ơi, Úi, Eo,

Oh my God, Oh, Wow, Well, Woa!

Using Alerter Hey! Hey girl!

Mr X, Ms X,

Nè, Cô ơi, Thầy ơi, Này

Hey, Teacher,

My teacher

Congratulating Congratulations! Chúc mừng nhé Congratulation!

Thanking Thank you for

your presentation

Em cảm ơn bài thuyết trình của thầy

Thanks you for your presentation

Commenting None Hôm nay nhìn

Table 1 Types of expressions preceding the compliment

3.1.2 Expressions Following the Compliment

Expressions following the compliment can be classified as shown in Table 2

American English Vietnamese Vietnamese English Commenting It was so easy to

understand

Bài thuyết trình của bạn phản ánh rất đúng thực tế

You must have prepared carefully

for your presentation

Showing affection

Thanking Thank you for the

Encouraging Have you ever

thought about trying out for a singing competition?

Lần sau cứ phát huy nhé bạn

Keep it up

Expressing Desire

I wish I could do that

to mine

Tớ muốn mua một cái như của bạn

I wish I had a

watch like yours

Requesting None Lần sau bạn hát nữa

Mua ở đâu vậy? Where did you

buy the watch? Table 2 Types of expressions following the compliment

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3.2 Category of Complimenting Strategies

3.2.1 Basic Complimenting Strategies

There are many ways to categorize the complimenting strategies as mentioned in previous literature, however, in this study, the author chose the personal reference dimension

in order to get a clear set of complimenting strategies as follows:

- Speaker-oriented strategies (S) tend to focus on the feelings of the speaker The

compliments which utilize this type of strategy often begin with the first personal pronoun

such as I and we (in English) and tôi, tớ, tao, chúng tôi… (in Vietnamese)

- Hearer-oriented strategies (H) are those which focus on the hearer as someone who

possesses the desired quality or who performed an activity well The compliments which

utilize this type of strategy often begin with the second personal pronoun such as You (in English) and bạn, mày, cô… (in Vietnamese)

- Topic-oriented strategies (T) are those which make direct reference to the object,

quality or activity being complimented The compliments that utilize this type of strategy often

begin with it, your watch…

Table 3 gives some examples for each strategy among the three groups

American English Vietnamese Vietnamese English

Your new hair

looks very nice

Table 3 Categories of complimenting strategies

It is interesting to note that in some cases, the informants used the same strategy twice and thrice in the same response For instance, H is repeated 12 times in the Vietnamese corpus and T is repeated 2 times in the Vietnamese corpus However, the frequency of repetition is very low; therefore, for convenience, H+H is counted as H and T+T is counted as T The repetition of S is not found among all groups

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3.2.2 Combinations of Basic Complimenting Strategies

Informants also combined the three different complimenting strategies as a means to intensify their compliment Table 4 listed the different combinations of complimenting strategies

American English Vietnamese Vietnamese English

Sit 4a

You had a good presentation I like it very much

ST Sit 1d

Ms X, I really like your new hair It looks good

Sit 2a

Đồng hồ đẹp quá Tớ rất thích nó

Sit 1b

Hôm nay nhìn bạn xinh quá Kiểu tóc này rất hợp với khuôn mặt của bạn

Sit 1b

Your new haircut is really nice You look very beautiful

SHT Sit 1b

Wow! You are an amazing singer! That song was beautiful I really enjoyed it

You look very beautiful Your new haircut is really nice

I like it so much Table 4 Combinations of basic complimenting strategies

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CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS

The analysis is based on a corpus of 256 compliments in American English (AmE), 480

in Vietnamese (V), and 480 in Vietnamese English (VE), which are categorized according to complimenting strategies The major analysis and discussion focus on the preferred complimenting strategies employed by the informants, gender variations and the issues of cultural values

This chapter attempts to answer the research questions set out earlier

First, to find out the preferred strategies by English-major students at Thai Nguyen University (group VE) when complimenting in English, the researcher categorize the compliments realized by the VE group according to basic complimenting strategies (i.e S, H and T) and then compute the frequency of use of these strategies As listed in chapter 3, some informants combine two or three of these basic complimenting strategies in a single utterance (i.e SH, ST, HT and SHT); however, the frequency of these combinations is rather low Therefore, for convenience, the researcher investigates the basic complimenting strategies only

V and VE (d1), and between VE and AmE (d2) If d1 < d2, then we can confirm that there is interference from Vietnamese culture to the students‟ choice of strategies The analysis and discussion just focus on cultural aspects that affect the students‟ choice of strategies

4.1 Overall Analysis of the Response Patterns

4.1.1 Components of the Response Patterns

The first analysis concerns overall response patterns As explained above, each response

in the DCT data was classified into one of the four response patterns based on the components (Pre.C, C, Post.C) that it contained