An investigation into english expressions for thanks with reference to the vietnamese

Some suggestions to shorten the gaps in English and Vietnamese cultures in gratitude expressions are put forward for learners to consider when they have to express thanks in English and

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ LÊ TRANG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS FOR THANKS WITH REFERENCE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ LÊ TRANG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS FOR THANKS WITH REFERENCE

ABTRACT

As we all know, differences in culture are one of the main problems leading

to a failure of communication Thus, if learners want to develop their communicative competence in the target language, besides listening and speaking, they should improve a wide knowledge about sociolinguistics Usually in daily life, people tend to use the illocutionary act rather than the locutionary act Therefore, learners have difficulties in using the target language appropriately in different contexts A thanking is not an exception

It is considered as the important aspect in cultural life of each nation.For above reasons, I myself hope to have much deep knowedge about thanking,so “AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS

FOR THANKS WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE” is choosen

for my thesis It also help my teaching job at school as well as it can contribute some datas for Vietnamese learners of English at Hanoi Open

University

This cross-cultural communication study attempts to investigate the similarities and differences in the way English and Vietnamese speakers express gratitude The study is carried out in the light of cross-cultural pragmatics and is based on the authentic data collected

In the research, the function and the strategies of thanking are mentioned The way of thanking in both languages has many similarities, besides that, there are some differences Some suggestions to shorten the gaps in English and Vietnamese cultures in gratitude expressions are put forward for learners to consider when they have to express thanks in English and Vietnamese Some implication for teaching the English thanking expressions to Vietnamese learners of English are aslo taken into consideration

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

A Addresee

D Direct DCT Discourse completion task

E English EFL English as a foreign language FSA Face Saving Art

ESL English as a second language FTA Face Threatening Act

Graph Graphic

H Hearer HOU Hanoi Open University

ID Indirect

S Speaker

SA Speech act Sit Situation

V Vietnamese

VL Vietnamese learners

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master

in English Linguistics Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2015

Nguyen Thi Le Trang

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Dr Đặng Ngọc Hướng

Date: ………

A special word of thanks goes to all the teachers who have taught me and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my friends for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Abtract I List of abbreviations II Certificate of originality III Acknowledgements IV

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

1.1 rationale 1

1.2 aim of the research 2

1.3 objective of the research 2

1.4 scope of the research 2

1.5 significance of the research 3

1.6 structural organization of the research 3

Chapter 2 : Literature review 5

2.1 R EVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES 6

2 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 8

2.2.1 Statement of theoretical framework 8

2.2.2.Theory of politeness 12

2.2.3 Speech acts and classification of speech acts 18

2.2.4Acts of thanking 19

2.2.5 Thanking Strategies 26

Chapter 3 : Methodology 32

3.1 R ESEARCH - GOVERNING ORIENTATIONS 32

3.1.1 Research question(s) 32

3.1.2 Research setting 32

3.1.3 Research approach/type 33

3.2 RESEARCH METHODS 33

3.2.1 Major methods vs supporting methods 33

3.2.2.Data collection and analysis techniques 33

Chapter 4 : Findings and discussion 36

4.1 The ways English and Vietnamese people express thanks in given

situtations 36

4.2.The similarities between the thanking strategies of the English and Vietnamese 71

4.3 The differences between the thanking strategies of the English and Vietnamese 72

4.4.Implications for Language Learning and Teaching in terms of gratitude expressing strategies 75

Chapter 5 : Conclusion 78 5.1 Recapitulation 78

5.2 Concluding remarks 79

5.3 Limitations of the Study 80

5.4 Suggestions for Further Study 81

REFERENCES 82

APPENDICES 85

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Together with the development of the society, communication, in particular conversation has become an indispensable demand of human Since language has consistently been the main element of human social communication, and English is the international language, the demand to master and effectively use it has been greater and greater By means of communication, people employ language to exchange and express ideas and purposes; they are also simultaneously employing language to purse and maintain social relations

Within these functions of language, as a sub-part of linguistic system, thanking has played a very important part in everyday social interaction of many societies Each linguistic system has its own ways of expressing ideas,

in particular in giving thanks In fact, language alone does not really make a perfect and complete meaning; it is used to invoke a whole range of shared knowledge and experience between speakers from aspect of joint physical activities, to share cultural values In fact, social factors such as social contexts, different relationships between interlocutors, genders, ages etc determining influence on ways of applying linguistic items, specifically thanking expressions in real social interactions

As we all know, differences in culture are one of the main problems leading to a failure of communication Thus, if learners want to develop their communicative competence in the target language, besides listening and speaking, they should improve a wide knowledge about sociolinguistics Usually in daily life, people tend to use the illocutionary

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act rather than the locutionary act Therefore, learners have difficulties in using the target language appropriately in different contexts Thanking is not an exception It is considered to be an important aspect in cultural life

of each nation

For the reasons I have mentioned above, I decide to concentrate that topic in the hope that this study can help learners of foreign language overcome these difficulties and effectively employ ways of thanking to reach for a successful conversation

1.2 Aim of the research

To explore the notion of thanking and to establish the similarities and differences of thanking in English and Vietnamese

1.3 Objective of the research

To achieve the aims mentioned above, following objectives are put

1.4 Scope of the research

The thesis focuses on the ways English and Vietnamese people express thanking Although the author is fully aware of the remarkable contribution

of paralinguistic and extra-linguistic aspects in real-life communication, they

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are not taken into consideration The data used in the report are mainly extracted from survey questionnaires

1.5 Significance of the research

The significance of this study arises from focusing on the pragmatic aspect

of speech It considers investigating the speech act of thanking in different situations Therefore, it will surely help raise the speaker's awareness of the ways of expressing thanks in the target language Since it is an intercultural study, it will link the two languagesVietnamese and English together, in addition to avoiding communication breakdown because of culture-bound knowledge Moreover, this study is important in providing the speaker with the influence of linguistic knowledge, culture and gender

on the pragmatic performance of the speech act of thanking Being aware of the pragmatic aspects of this speech act will lead to successful communication Furthermore, this study deals with an issue that is important

to translators as part of their job of transferring all aspects of utterances among interlocutors It also contributes to cross-cultural awareness among foreign language teachers and learners as well as potential cross-cultural interractants

1.6 Structural organization of the research

The study will include five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction presents the rationale, the objectives, the scope,

the significance, the methods and the structure of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review starts with the previous studies conducted by

some famous authors Then the key theoretical concepts that the study is based on are mentioned

Chapter 3: Methodology presents the methods used in this study This part

consists of 3 sections: the selection of participants in which the author gives

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some reasons for the selection and the description of the participants; the data collection instruments in which the instrument and procedure of data analysis are discussed; methods of data collection in which the methods and procedure of data collection are identified

Other methods including qualitative, and comparative analysis are used when the author selects, analyzes materials from other sources

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion introduces the results of the present

study in terms of the overall use of thanking strategies in order to answer the research questions Then the findings are analyzed and discussed The discussion will be based on qualitative, descriptive and comparative analysis

of the data

Chapter 5: Conclusion will summarize the most important findings of the

study, implications, limitations of the study in which the author states the reasons for the study’s limitations and suggestions for the further study

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

It seems that “thank you” has socially been a very indispensable component in everyday social interactions

In the work "Say It Naturally" by Wall (1987), thanking patterns frequently employed in everyday interactions are listed according to some major subjects such as: helps of favors, gift-giving, invitations, information

or directions, etc

According to Blundell (1982), "Function in English" and Mark, E (1987),

"Socializing" categorized thanks with reference to given situations, ranging from formal to informal thanking patterns In these above mentioned books, limited thanks are just put in list and there is no any overall description of linguistic features as well as how to employ them in interactions

In addition to those materials, the previous research paper "Hành Vi Cảm Ơn trong Đối Thoại Anh - Việt - Xét trên cơ sở Ngữ Nghĩa Học và Dụng Học" by Nguyen Đuc Hanh provided a clearly view about ways of giving thanks in both English and Vietnamese Also, the study of thanks in terms of linguistic has been studied Nevertheless, to some extent, there still exist some certain limitations in researching variants of giving thanks The study of Nguyen Duc Dan (1996) "Lô Gích – Ngữ Nghĩa - Cú Pháp" partially concentrates on “Thanking” verbs and speech acts on direct thanking patterns, but this is just a general investigation on functional and semantic aspects of thanking verbs on the whole that of performative verbs

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Relating to my research, there are also some books showing us linguistic knowledge about sentence structures such as "The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language" by Huddleston, Geoffrey (2002), "Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt - Câu" by Hoang Trong Phien (1996) or "Ngữ pháp câu" by Diep Quang Ban (2005)

Up to now, however, there have not been materials investigated systematically about thanking with respect to linguistics such as syntactic and pragmatic features as well as social aspects in comparison between English and Vietnamese which are clear enough to help them effectively learn as well as apply what they have studied in real social encounters

2.1 Review of previous studies

Many studies have been done to how thank you expressions are used In

these studies are :

Jung- Woo-hyun (1994) with the Title “Speech Acts of Thank- you and Responses to It in American English” In his paper, he studied the speech act

of thanking looks at the basic functions of the act and responses to it in American English It is argued that in general, "thank you" expressions are used to express appreciation of benefits and to enhance rapport between interlocutors, and that this basic use is extended to the functions of conversational opening, changing, stopping, closing, leave-taking, and offering positive reinforcement A further use is to express dissatisfaction or discomfort indirectly, often using sarcasm and often with differential intonation Six types of response to the use of "thank you" are identified (acceptance, denial, reciprocity, comment, nonverbal gesture, no response), the choice of which is determined by factors such as relationship of the interlocutors and communicative intent However, he studied about the function of thanking, he didn’t mention the ways American English express

in different daily activities Moreover, he did not have the comparatives

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among different ways of thanking in different cultural In my thesis, I will compare the ways of thanking between English and Vietnamese people Sana Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Khateeb (2009) The Speech Act of Thanking

as a Compliment Response as used by the Arab Speakers of English - a Comparative Intercultural Study

This pragmatic study investigated the speech act of thanking as a compliment response as used by non-native speakers of English The study

is an attempt to find whether different cultural backgrounds, specializations, levels of evaluation and the gender of the speakers affect their use of the speech act of thanking as a compliment response

The researcher adopted a discourse completion test (DCT) in both Arabic and English as the tool of the study in order to reach the answers of the following questions:

1- Are there any significant differences in the ways people from different cultural backgrounds realize the speech act of thanking?

2- Are there significant differences in the ways Arab learners of English and native speakers of English use the speech act of thanking due to the differences in their cultural backgrounds

3- Are there differences in the way non-native speakers from different specializations

4 Are there significant differences in the ways Arab speakers of English use the speech act of thanking due to their proficiency levels

5 Does the level of evaluation affect the non –native speakers’ use of the speech act of thanking as a compliment respond?

His study on thanking as a compliment, an aspect of thanking The data in this paper shows that Egyptian Arabic speakers use different forms and strategies in expressing thanking and responses to it Such as repetition, redundancy” also discusses the interrelationship between language, culture and thought, “They are not all the same thing, but none can survive

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without the others” Obviously, it is impossible for a human being to study anything without being acknowledged of the language and its culture at the same time

Hinkel (1992) with his title “Pragmatics of Interaction: Expressing Thanks in

a Second Language”

This study investigated cultural differences in attitudes toward the speech act of giving thanks, particularly between native speakers and non-native speakers with extensive exposure to the second language culture Subjects were 199 advanced speakers of English as a Second Language, enrolled at the college level in the United States Their native languages included Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Arabic The subjects participated in a role-playing exercise in which they were asked to respond to a specific interaction with an appropriate statement, using one of several choices provided The 24 situations in the exercise were everyday events in which thanks might be appropriate Results indicate differences between native language groups and native speakers of English in perception

of the appropriateness of certain expressions of thanks While there was concurrence within language groups, there was little between language groups It is suggested that aspects of pragmatics, such as this one, are not always learned in natural interactive situations, but may need to be taught A 30-item bibliography is included and the text of the role-playing exercise is appended

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In the “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary” ( 1992:506) language

is defined as “system of sounds, words, patterns, etc used by humans to communicate thoughts and feeling” So it is clearly understood that whether

we talk about food, colors, love, science, religion, or even pure mathematics, all the meanings are conveyed in not only one language but different languages of the word Thanks to languages, our world with different cultures is fully and lively reflected through human beings social activities

Dicussing the meanings involving interaction between the speaker and the hearer in “Cross- Cultural Pragmatics”, wierbicka, (1991:1) states that

“we use language as a tool of human interaction or social interaction.” Obviously, language cannot occur alone and is never separated from social activities and its culture

Joy Merril Valdes (1994:4) also discusses the interrelationship between language, culture and thought, they are not all the same thing, but none can survive without the others” Obviously, it is impossible for a human being to study anything without being acknowledged of the language and its culture

at the same time

In the “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary”(1992:220), culture is defined only as “refined understanding and appreciation of art, literature, etc” And in the definition by Emmitt and John (1990:39), culture is described in a more comprehensive way as “the ideas, customs, skills, arts, and tools which characterize a given people in a given period of time”

As seen from these views, culture can be understood as the total achievements by human beings through their social activities in the forms of materials and spiritual values in a society It means that culture has never belonged and will never belong to a single person but to all people who share a culture So as human beings, we cannot place ourselves outside all the cultures The point of view is also confirmed by Levine and Adelman (1993: xiv): “Culture is a shared background (for example, national, ethinic,

In short, culture influences the way in which language is used And in

it turn, language play an essential role in expressing cultural values and perceptions, as well as preserving and breeding culture from generation to generation

2.2.1.2 Cross-Cultural Communication

Cross- Cultural Communication can be defined by Porte and Samovar (19958:39) “[occurring] when a message producer is a member of one culture and a message receiver is a member of another” or “the exchange of information between individuals who are unlikely culturally.”(Rogers & Steinfatt 1999:103)

In facts, human beings used to live on one sole world, which could be their homes, cities, neighborhood, or even their own country These were all local environments where there were those people who were thinking the same language, but this is not the case anymore After the recent media and information revolutions, people are more concerned with the whole globe around them It has become a matter of “identity” for everyone, and for

or nation could hide, close their eyes and neglect the rest of the world Everyone now has to find the suitable language that needs to be learned to present his own culture, thoughts, and understand others as well Without this process, all that we can find will be more wars and more conflicts around the world

In addition, all of us should be good cultural communicators not only

to be receivers or listeners, but to share and present what we have as well, in other words, to be positive participants Otherwise, people will never realize our existence As mentioned earlier, language teachers and students should

be aware of all these facts and they should be aware of their, individual and group, roles as representatives to a whole, different or new culture while communicating

2.2.1.3 Cross – Cultural Pragmatics

In recent years, the booming field of intercultural communication studies has led to the emergence of a new field and new direction in language studies associated with the term “Cross – Cultural Pragmatics”( for example Abrahams 1976; Ameca 1987, atlas 1984, Austin 1962, Levinson

1983, Wiezbicka 1985a,b;etc)

For them, utterances couldn’t be interpreted outside their context and features language structure: “Pragmatics is the study of the relations between language and context that are basic to an account of language

2.2.2.Theory of politeness

2.2.2.1.Concept of politeness

A range of definitions have been given in the literature by different scholars

Leech (1983) defines politeness as “a communication strategy which people use to maintain and develop relationships” (p.152) when he mentioned two functions of politeness, i.e competitive goals and convivial goals

Yule (1996) proposed a culture-oriented concept of politeness as it is

“polite social behavior, or etiquette, within a particular culture” and it can be also defined as “the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face” (p 60)

In terms of linguistic pragmatics, politeness is defined as “the international balance achieved between two needs: the need for pragmatic clarity and the need to avoid coerciveness” (Blum-Kulka, 1987, p 131)

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Politeness in cross-cultural communication is seen as “any communicative act (verbal or non-verbal) appropriately and intentionally meant to make others feel better or less bad” (Nguyen Quang, 2003 p 11)

Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) associated their theory of politeness with the notion of face, and face threatening acts (FTA), discussed social variables affecting politeness, and thereby proposed a number of politeness strategies According to Brown and Levinson, face refers to the

“public self-image that every member of the society wants to claim for himself” Also, face consists of positive and negative faces

The positive face is the positive self-image of the interactant, including the desire that this self-image be appreciated and approved of by others or desires to feel valued by other people, while the negative face is the desire for autonomy; it implies the basic territorial claim of the individual to his or her freedom to action and freedom from imposition (Brown and Levinson, 1987, p.66)

Brown and Levinson (1987) view politeness as a complex system for softening face-threatening acts are liable to damage or threaten another person’s face Some acts are defined as face threatening acts that intrinsically threaten face, the public self-image a person seeks to preserve such as requests, refusals, commands, orders, etc (p 65-67)

2.2.2.2.Face and Facewants

The notion of face, as a technical term, in Brown and Levinson’s (1978) as well as in Yule’s (1996:60) definitions, is “ the public self image

of a person that every member wants to claim for himself” that is the emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects everyone else to recognize Politeness, therefore, can be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face and accomplished

in situations of social distance or closeness Showing awareness for another’s face in formal situations means respect or deference And

“Hey Bucky, got a minute? (Friend to the same individual)

In fact, within their everyday social interactions, people generally behave as if their expectations concerning their public self-image, or their face wants, will be respected Face can be maintained as well as threatened,

so the polite speakers always want to preserve and avoid the loss of face If a speaker says something that represents a threat to another individual’s expectations regarding self-image, it is described as a face threatening act FTA And being aware of the possibility that something action might be interpreted as a threat to another’s face, the speaker can say something to lessen the possible threat This is called a face serving act (FTA) Yule’s (1991:61) examples of FTA and FSA are as follows:

Image a late night scene, when a young neighbor is playing his music very loud, and an old couple is trying to sleep One of them proposes an FTA and the other suggests an FSA

FTA: I’m going to tell him to stop that awful noise right now!(Him) FSA: Perhaps you could just ask him he is going to stop soon because it’s getting a bit late and people need to get sleep (Her)

In Brown and Levinson’s (1978) account, face comes into varieties, positive face and negative face

2.2.2.3.Social variables affecting politeness

Discussing social variables that impact on the choice of politeness strategies, Brown and Levinson (1987) postulated three related factors: the relative power (P) between the speaker and the hearer, the social distance (D) between them and the rank(R) of the imposition in a particular culture

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The power (P) is defined as “the degree to which the speaker can impose his or her own plans and his self-evaluation (face) at the expense of the hearer’s plans and self-evaluation” (p 77) The social distance (D) in Brown and Levinson’s approach is “symmetric social dimension of similarity/difference within which the speaker and the hearer stand for the purposes of this act” (p 77) This term can be considered as solidarity or intimacy between the interlocutors The last variable influencing face threatening acts is the ranking of imposition (R) Brown and Levinson (1987) argue that the rank of imposition of an act “involves an assessment of the amount of pain given to H’s face, based on discrepancy between the hearer’s own desired self-image and that presented in FTA” (p 78)

Directness(D) and indirectness(ID) as communication Styles

All things discussed earlier clearly show that studying language and applying it in real life is not easy work It requires much knowledge of the language itself and the culture that influence it Different countries or nations use different strategies to utter the same expression Some prefer the direct way, and the other tend to be indirect or roundabout with the topic for some kind reasons or because of their nation character

In Kaplan’s (1972) study of 700 essays of foreign students in the United States, 4 cultural though patterns, which are culturally based on discourse structures corresponding to certain language has some results as follows:

People of Anglo-Saxon origin tend to be direct and straightforward while Vietnamese seem to prefer the roundabout and indirect ways of expression Why do people like using indirectness? Thomas(1995:143)presents his view why the use of indirectness is so pervasive: it is because “… people obtain some social or communicative advantages from its use.” As for him, a variety of reasons has been put forward for the universal use of indirectness, including:

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- The desire to make one’s language more/less interesting

- To increase the force of one’s message

- Completing goals

- Politeness/regard for “face”

In short, culture shapes the ways of language use and strategies However, there are some more factors affecting directness and indirectness in human communication

Socio-Cultural Factors influencing the use of Directness and Indirectness in Human Interaction

Levine and Adelman (1993:68) also claim that: “Cultural beliefs differ

as to whatever directness or directness is considered positive In mainstream American culture, the ideal form communication includes being direct rather indirect (Ideal here means that the culture values this style, although not everyone speaks directly).There are several expressions in English that emphasize the importance of being direct: ‘Get to the point” “Don’t beat around the bush!”, ‘Let’s get down to business!” These sayings all indicate the importance of dealing directly with issues rather than avoiding them”

Thomas (1995:124) lists 4 main factors which appear to govern directness and indirectness in all languages and cultures as follows:

The relative power of speaker over the hearer

The social distance between the speaker and the hearer

The degree to which X is rated an imposition in culture Y

Relative right and obligation between the speaker and the hearer

Nguyen Quang (2003) presents these factors in more detail of 20 cultural factors as follows

socio-1 Age: old people tend to be more indirect than young people

2 Gender: Women are more in favor of indirect expression then men

3 Residence: Rural people appear more indirect than urban people

10 Setting: People prefer direct in an informal conversation climate

11 Location: People tend to be more direct in their expression when they are

in their own home

12 Chanel: People tend to conduct a subtle topic more indirectly in face vocal channel than in face-to-face non-vocal channel

face-to-13 Family relation: People of the same blood tend to be more direct in their expression

14 Social distance: People with a close relation tend to conduct conversation more directly

15 Time pressure: People tend to be more direct in their expression under time pressure

16 Age powder: Older people tend to be more direct when talking with younger people

17 Gender power: In a man-centered society, males tend to use more directness than females

18 Qualification power: In specific situations, scholars in a scholar first, peasants-later tend to be more direct in expression than others

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19 Physical power: In specific situations, people who are physically stronger tend to be more direct in their expression than those who are physically weaker

20 Economic power: In specific situations, people who are richer tend to be more direct in their expression than those who are poor

2.2.3 Speech acts and classification of speech acts

Austin and Searle are known as the main developers of speech act theory as they laid the foundation of theory in this field

A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication By uttering a sentence, we can do things A speech act is an action performed by means of language We perform speech acts when we offer an apology, greeting, request, complaint, invitation, compliment, or refusal (Austin, 1962 and Searle, 1969)

Austin (1962) in his book “How to do things with words” is the first to introduce the idea of speech act (SA), analyzing the relationships between utterance and performance SA are utterances which contain information needed to assert and perform actions, or according to Austin, “things that people do with words”

In addition, Austin (1962) distinguished three related acts:

locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary A locutionary act is

performed when uttering a certain sentence with a certain meaning in the traditional sense An illocutionary act is the communication force which accompanies the utterance such as ordering, warning, and undertaking A perlocutionary act is what we bring about or achieve by saying something, such as convincing, persuading, deterring and even surprising or misleading (pp 107-109)

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Cohen (1994) points out that the successful planning and production of speech actutterances depend on the sociocultural and the sociolinguistic ability of the speaker

Cohen (1994) defines the Sociocultural ability as the respondents' skill at selecting speech act strategies appropriately with the given culture involved,

“the age and sex of the speakers, their social class and occupations, and their roles and status in the interaction” By Sociolinguistic ability, Cohen (1994) refers to appropriately selecting the linguistic Searle (1969) argues that the

“unit of linguistic communication is not the symbol, word, or sentence, but rather, the production or issuance of the symbol or word or sentence in the performance of speech act.” (16)

Searle (1979) proposed a system of five different categories of speech acts based on their functions such as assertives, directives, comissives, expressive and declarations (p 12) Requesting belongs to the category of directives which direct the addressee to perform or not perform an act

Placing a focus on a speaker’s communicative intention in producing

an utterance, Yule (1996) defined speech acts as “actions performed via utterances and, in English, they are commonly given more specific labels, such as apology, complaint, compliment, invitation, promise, or request ”(p 47) Furthermore, he also referred to an approach to classify speech acts based on three basic sentence types, namely declarative, interrogative and imperative These structures may act as direct speech actor indirect speech act, depending on direct or indirect relationship between the structure and its function (pp 54-55)

2.2.4 Acts of thanking

2.2.4.1 Concepts of thanking

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According to Oxford advanced dictionary, “thank” is defined as a way to thank when someone help you

According to “ Từ điển tiếng việt 2011” “cảm ơn” là hành động tỏ sự biết

ơn đối với người giúp đỡ mình Là từ dùng trong lời nói lịch sự, để bày tỏ sự cảm kích với người đã làm việc gì đó cho mình, hoặc để nhận lời hay từ chối điều gì [30- Tr 139]

In speech act theory, the speech act of thanking is defined as 'an expression

of gratitude and appreciation in response compliments' (Searle, 1969:20 1.7.1)

2.2.4.2 Classification of Speech acts

A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication

By uttering a sentence, we can do things A speech act is an action performed by means of language We perform speech acts when we offer an apology, greeting, request, complaint, invitation, compliment, or refusal (Austin, 1962 and Searle, 1969)

The person offering the gratitude has to have a valid reason for

thanking in the preceding context Thank you expressions may often be required by social convention.' The way gratitude is verbally expressed varies, ranging from simple, "thank you", or “thanks", to the more extensive,

"I appreciate X", "I am thankful for X", "I am grateful for X", "Please accept

my thanks for X", etc The choice of a gratitude expression is largely dependent on how the thanker evaluates what the benefactor did for him/her and how the expressions function While the major and general effect of thanking is, like the speech act of complimenting, to enhance rapport or solidarity between interlocutors by making the other party feel good, there are some more specific functions which thanking serves In this section, I will classify them in order to examine how thanking is used

Functions of thanking

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The person offering the gratitude has to have a valid reason for thanking in the preceding context Thank you expressions may often be required by social convention.' The way gratitude is verbally expressed varies, ranging from simple, "thank you", or "thanks", to the more extensive, "I appreciate X", "I am thankful for X", "I am grateful for X", "Please accept my thanks for X", etc The choice of a gratitude expression is largely dependent on how the thanker evaluates what the benefactor did for him/her andhow the expressions function While the major and general effect of thanking is, like the speech act of complimenting, to enhance rapport or solidarity between interlocutors by making the other party feel good, there are some more specific functions which thanking serves In this section, I will classify them

in order to examine how thanking is used

1 Function of appreciating benefit: Appreciating benefit is the

basicfunction of thank you expressions There are several divisions in this category The most fundamental division is whether the benefit is physical or mental Physical benefits include gifts and help or service Consider the following examples:(1) Context: Kevin gave a doll to his girlfriend to celebrate her birthday Girlfriend: Oh, thank you very much, Kevin It's so cute Kevin: You like it? Girlfriend: (Smiling) Yeah, I love it.(2) Context: Helping a roommate who has a problem with his T.V Steve: Something is wrong with my T.V Could you help me? Tom: Let's see (After spending a long time, he fixes it) Steve: Thank you very much, Tom You're an expert.In both examples above, the benefactor's action benefitted the beneficiary, and the beneficiary strongly believes that the benefactor's action benefitted him/her This is demonstrated from the use of adverbs such as

"very", "so", "a lot" These adverbs show a high intensity of gratitude, making the gratitude more emphatic and effective The strong sense of gratitude may also be shown in the use of names (Kevin, Tom) following the thank you expressions, which increases the degree of familiarity expressed

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between the interlocutors More importantly, these thank you expressions are followed by a brief comment: e.g "It's so cute"."You're an expert." Additional comments of this kind serve to add sincerity to the thank you expressions In this sense, thank you expressions in the case of (1) and (2) may manifest sincerity, although they are usually considered as conventional, ritual, or mechanical.The benefit can be "potential" or "actual"

in Coulmas' terms (1981) Potential benefits include a promise, offer, or invitation not yet done, while actual benefits include a favor or invitation done This division depends on whether the benefit is already done or will

be Examples (1) and (2) above are cases of actual benefit.Consider an example of potential benefit:(3) Context: A man promises that he will give a ride to his friend John: Excuse me, Chuck Could you give me a ride to Marsh? Chuck: What time? John: Around 4 o'clock Chuck: O.K., come to

my room at 4:00 John: Thanks a lot Chuck: You're welcome.In (3), the action of giving a ride is not done yet Furthermore, the participants do not know whether or not the promise may fail to be achieved for some reason Yet the promise itself is appreciated.This is probably because the asker focuses on the process of the speech act rather than its result, and because he expects the action to be done As Searle (1969) mentions, the promise itself may be at least "intended" to benefit him/her.Thank you expressions can differ according to whether some action is voluntarily done by the benefactor or requested by the beneficiary Most of my data concern actions requested by the beneficiary.The benefit can be direct or indirect In most of

my data, the action directly benefits the thanker Let's consider an example

of indirect benefit:(4) Context: It an Tom: It's John: Oh, is raining John is about to go out without umbrella His roommate, Tom, says raining, John thanks.What Tom said is informative: I inform you that it's raining In order that the "thanks" expression is to be elicited from John, it is prerequisite that Tom know that John is planning going out.Otherwise, John may respond,

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"Oh, really! I didn't know that." Thus in (4), the thankable is the information from the preceding communicative act itself As Searle points out (1969:70), both because there are several different dimensions of illocutionary force, and because the same utterance act may be performed with a variety of different intentions, it is important to realize that one and the same utterance may constitute the performance of several different illocutionary acts

2 Function of conversational opening changing stopping closing:In a

conversational opening, there can be potentially high tension between the interlocutors Thank you expressions used in this situation may reduce the tension somewhat The use of thanks in the conversational opening is shown

in the situation where high degree of formality is required : formal addresses, special lectures, conferences, T.V talk shows, etc.Thank you expressions in conversational opening also serve as an attention-getting device, as in the following:(5) Context: In a literature conference a female presenter begins: "Thank you for coming Today, I'll present ."At the beginning of the "Johnny Carson Show", his repetition of "thank you" also functions to draw attention from the audience In using thank you expressions as conversational openings, the speaker informs the hearers that he/she is ready to start conversation It may also be a mark of politeness in a formal situation, acting as part of a greeting.Thank you expressions serve an important role in situational change or topic transition Consider:(6) Context:

In the news program, "Today" on NBC, one announcer moves to another Bryan: Let's swing it on over to News Desk by Margaret Margaret: Thanks, Bryan In the news this morning, long and curious presidential campaign 1992 In the above example, Margaret's thanks expression acts as a bridge between an old situation and a new situation (discussion situation to news-announcing situation) or between an old topic and a new topic Sometimes the topic introduced in this way is not connected with the old one, but the device serves as a lubricant and as the speaker's pretence that conversation is

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an orderly, cooperative endeavor, and that she smoothly turns to the new topic.On occasion, thank you expressions are used to stop an ongoing conversation This is shown in a hurried situation.(7) Context: Two classmates are talking to each other in the library One of the two is going to

go to class Jane: Oh my, I forgot to bring your material I left it at home I'll bring it tomorrow, or let me see Jim: Thanks, Jane Please bring it tomorrow I've gotta go to class See you.Jim uses this strategy to warn Jane that he is busy, or that he has only a moment to spare, or that he must leave shortly, or some other limitation "At a convenient point, use this kind of information to bring the conversation to an end." (Wardhaugh:1985).In the above situation, if Jane intends to continue the conversation, Jim's next strategy would be to use an apology expression rather than the thanks expression: "Excuse me, I've gotta go to class " The thank you strategy may

be less direct and less explicit than the apology strategy The use of thank you expression in the above example may be an effort to minimize the "face threatening", in Brown and Levinson's (1987) term.Thank you expressions in conversational closing are used in similar situations to those in conversational opening: e.g "Thank you, America" at the end of a president's formal address, "Thank you for joining us." at the end of a news program or special lecture, "Thank you for being with us" in an interview situation, etc This is an ending signal that the speaker is going to close the conversation.My data show that thank you expressions in conversational opening and closing are more frequently used in one-to-many relationships, whereas those in conversational stopping or change are more frequently used

in one-to-one relationships It is very important to note that the thank you expressions which function to open, stop, and close a conversation already involve the basic use of appreciating benefit In other words, the two functions are interrelated, the former being based on the latter

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3 Function of leave-taking and positive answer: Thank you expressions

sometimes serve to substitute for leave-taking expressions, although the two types often co-occur In my data, this function is notably found in business situations such as in liquor stores and supermarkets where the interaction between a cashier and a customer is pervasive:

(8) Context: When a customer is about to leave in a liquor store: Customer: Good night! Cashier: Thanks

The thank you expression by the cashier is not only a token of gratitude for using his liquor store, but also a token of leave taking The cashier says

"Good night" to many customers so often that he might want to vary his leave-taking pattern Of course, there are variations in the customer's strategy: "Thanks Have a nice evening!" (gratitude expression + leave-taking) or simply the same response, "Good night!" (only leave-taking) In (8), the thank you expression has the functions of leave-taking in addition to gratitude This use of the thank you expression is observable only in leave-taking situation: only when the customer is about to leave after the payment interaction done

Thank you expressions are also used to answer positively to an offer Observe:

(9) Context: John treated Jennifer to a cup of coffee in his apartment He found her cup empty John: Do you want some more coffee? Jennifer: Thank

you

Here the coffee had not been served yet The thank you expression by Jennifer indeed sets up a complex connotation: "Yes, please give me some more coffee" (positive answer + politeness form + request)

It is worthwhile to note that the expressions functioning as leave taking and answer also include the basic use of appreciating a benefit

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4 Function of emotional dissatisfaction or discomfort: Thank you expressions may be used to indirectly express dissatisfaction with the interlocutor's attitude

(10) Context: In a group discussion in class, some students are talking about

a writing process John: I think it's important to well develop the thesis statement Actually, I am doing that in my writing (jokingly) How excellent

I am Lori: (Interrupting John) Thank you, John

In the above, Lori is not thankful for John's idea about the writing process but indirectly asks him to shut off his boasting It can also be used to be somewhat sarcastic As Apte (1974) notes, the intonation of the phrase is very important in such settings, especially since it conveys a completely different message from the literal one In (10), there is stress on "thank", and

it has usually got an elongated vowel In addition, the production of

"John" tends to be lengthened It is very important to notice that this use of thank you expression is not tied to the basic function of appreciating a benefit I assume that this function may be more observable in a familiar relationship than in an unfamiliar relationship, though my data is not sufficient to support this

2.2.5 Thanking Strategies

Expressing gratitude is a feeling or response based on a past act performed

by the hearers (Quirk, 1993 and Searle, 1969) In general, “thank you” is the most common phrase to express gratitude However, not all gratitude is expressed with saying “thank you” or “thank you so much.” Haverkate (1984, cited in Aijmer, 1996) divided gratitude expressions into two major categories, namely explicit and implicit strategies, in which each of them consists of more detailed thanking strategies A more systematic

(A) Thanking somebody explicitly e.g thank you, thanks

(B) Expressing gratitude e.g I am grateful

(C) Acknowledging a debt of gratitude e.g that’s kind of you, that’s nice (of you)

(D) Expressing appreciation of the addressee e.g that’s lovely, that’s appreciated

(E) Expressing appreciation of the act e.g I owe a debt of gratitude to , a particular debt of gratitude goes to , very special acknowledgements to (F) Stressing one’s gratitude e.g I must thank you

(G) Expressing emotion e.g oh (thank you)

(H) Commenting on one’s own role by suppressing one’s own importance (self-denigration) e.g I am an ingrate, I’m so careless

The following section will elaborate the abovementioned strategies:

1) Explicit

Explicit means a thanking strategy that is fully and clearly expressed or leaving nothing implied People express their gratitude openly, clearly and

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exactly Explicit consists of two sub-categories, emotional and non emotional

A Emotional

There are two strategies included in explicit – emotional

The first strategy is thanking somebody explicitly It is one of the most direct strategies as it is expressed through certain words directly in informal setting in incomplete sentence

This gratitude expression is a simple thanking commonly used by people Some phrases to illustrate this following strategy are “thank you” and

“thanks”

The second strategy is expressing gratitude It is also another direct strategy, but it is more formal than the first strategy This strategy is considered more polite because it is used in a complete sentence Thanking strategy is expressed through certain words or ideas to represent thankfulness This expression consists of thanking and stating favor Some phrases to illustrate this following strategy are “I’m grateful for your invitation”

B Non - Emotional

There is only one strategy in this sub-category

The strategy in non-emotional explicit sub-category is acknowledging

a debt of gratitude Here, the recipient realizes the existence of a debt and feels that he or she has to thank someone It is sometimes found in writing and some situations such as thanking one’s teacher or family in the preface

of academic works Some phrase to illustrate this following strategy is “I owe a debt of gratitude to…”

2) Implicit

Implicit is something that is implied and not expressed directly In implicit, there are two sub-categories, emotional and non emotional Those two sub categories are also divided into several strategies

A Emotional

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In this category, there are four strategies of thanking

First of all, the strategy included here is expressing appreciation of the addressee It does not express gratitude directly; however, it refers to the felicity conditions or rules for thanking The person who has received a favor feels grateful and expresses his appreciation of the benefactor The examples of this strategy are "that’s kind of you” and “that’s nice (of you)” The next strategy is expressing appreciation of the act It is also an indirect strategy and refers to the rules for thanking The person who has received a favor feels grateful and expresses his appreciation of the act itself Here are some of the examples of this strategy, “that’s lovely”, “it’s appreciated”, and

“good job”

The third strategy is stressing one’s gratitude It involves the performative verb (I/hereby/thank you for…) and it can be reinforced by stressing the speaker’s wish or obligation to express his gratitude The phrases often used in this strategy are “thank you very much” or “I must thank you”

The last strategy is expressing emotion It is literally an expression

of surprise and is associated with a high degree of emotion This strategy

is usually related to facial expression The illustration of this strategy is

“oh… (Thank you), wow… (Thank you”)

B Non - Emotional

There is only one strategy in this sub-category

The last strategy is self-denigration which means commenting on one’s own role by suppressing one’s own importance (self – denigration) In addition, it is only found in writing and always with other strategy Some phrases to illustrate this following strategy is “I’m

so careless, I am an ingrate”

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Strategies A and B (e.g thank you, thanks, I am grateful ) are the most direct ones, and the most frequently used ones, as shown by the London-Lund Corpus (apud Ajmeer) Strategies C (e.g that’s kind of you, that’s nice ) and D (e.g that’s lovely, that’s appreciated), which do not express gratitude directly, are reserved for the indirect expression of gratitude for either the benefactor (C) or of the act itself (D) Strategy E (e.g I owe a debt of gratitude to , a particular debt of gratitude goes to , very special acknowledgements to ) is restricted to writing and to certain situations such as thanking one’s teacher or family in the preface

of academic works Strategy F is also formal and involves the performative verb to thank (I /hereby/ thank you for ) and can be reinforced by stressing the speaker’s wish or obligation to express gratitude (I must thank you, I would like to thank you) In similar but less formal contexts, strategy A is preferred Strategy G (e.g oh (thank you)) is an expression of surprise, and is associated with a high degree of emotionality Strategy H (e.g I am an ingrate, I’m so careless) is also typical of written discourse and tends to combine with other strategies Almost always, thanking is easy to recognize as the speaker uses an explicit strategy (e.g A) The expressions of gratitude more often than not consist of thank you and thanks, with or without intensifiers: thank you, thank you very much, thank you very much indeed, thank you so much; thanks, thanks very much, thanks very much indeed, thanks awfully, thanks a lot, many thanks, million thanks; the informal ta ta and the formal I am grateful, etc However, an explicit strategy may be combined with more indirect ones (D + A: that’s lovely, thank you; G + A: oh thanks; A + C: that’s nice of you; G + A + C + A: oh thank you very much that’s very nice of you thank you very much indeed; C + A: that’s nice of you thank you; G + A + D: oh thanks lovely; G + D + A:

oh thank you very much oh, etc.)

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2.3.Summary

In this chapter ,the theory of the function and strategies of thanking are given with the aim of analyze the similarities and differences of expressing thanking in English and Vietnamese It helps me a lot to research and find the conclusions

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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research-governing orientations

3.1.1 Research question(s)

In light of the findings presented in the literature review section, and in order

to contribute to filling the gap in research concerning the speech act of thanking, the present paper will attempt to answer the following research questions:

1 How do English people express thanks in given situations

2 What are the simmilarities and differnces of the ways in thanking expressions

3.What are the implications for learning and teaching at schools and

universities

3.1.2 Research setting

The data of the study are collected from one group of native speakers of English and one group of Vietnamese learners of English The first group consists of subjects coming from the U.K The English subjects are living and working in offices in Hanoi; they are tourists, too They all live in urban areas in UK Their age ranges from 18 to 40 The second group are Vietnamese learners of English Most of them are third year and fourth-year students at Hanoi Open University To ensure compatibility, these students all live in urban area as well and they are students majoring in English Their age ranges from 18 to 40 In both groups, the number of males and females are evenly distributed