Compliment speech act in english and vietnamese a case of vietnamese speakers of english

HA TINH UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYỄN THỊ THU TRANG 11131302022 GRADUATION MINOR THESIS COMPLIMENT SPEECH ACT IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE: A CASE OF VIETNAMESE SPEAKE

HA TINH UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYỄN THỊ THU TRANG

(11131302022)

GRADUATION MINOR THESIS

COMPLIMENT SPEECH ACT

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE:

A CASE OF VIETNAMESE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH

Ha Tinh, 2017

HA TINH UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

COMPLIMENT SPEECH ACT

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE:

A CASE OF VIETNAMESE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH

SUPERVISOR : MA Hoang Thi Hoan

PARTICIPANT RESEARCHER : Nguyen Thi Thu Trang

PARTICIPANT NUMBER : 11131302022

Ha Tinh, 2017

Table of contents

Acknowledgement v

Abstract vi

Chapter one: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Research purposes 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Contributions of the research 2

1.5 Thesis Outline 3

Chapter two: DEVELOPMENT 4

2.1 Literature review 4

2.1.1 Definition of compliments 4

2.1.2 Functions of compliments 5

2.1.3 How people pay a compliment 7

2.1.4 Compliments and politeness 10

2.2.Methodology 13

2.2.1 Participants 13

2.2.2 Data collection 13

2.2.3 Data analysis 14

2.2.4 Ethical issues 14

2.3.Findings and discussion 14

3.3.1 The age and compliments 15

3.3.2 The gender and compliments 18

3.3.3 The social distance and compliments 23

3.3.4 The closeness and compliments 23

3.3.5 Functions of compliments 27

3.3.6 Linguistic characteristics of compliments 31

Chapter three: CONCLUSION 34

3.1 Summary of the study 34

3.2 Implications 35

3.3 Suggestions for further research 35

References 36

Appendix 36

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The completion of this undertaking could not have been possible without the participations and assistance of so many people whose names may not be enumerated Their contributions are sincerely appreciated and gratefully acknowledged

To all teachers, relatives, friends and others who in one way or another shared their support, either morally, financially and physically, thank you

Above all, I would like to express my deep appreciation and indebtedness to Mrs Hoang Thi Hoan who helped me to accomplish this study Her exemplary guidance, constant encouragement, and careful monitoring throughout the internship are so great that, even my most profound gratitude is not enough

Thank you so much

Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang

ABSTRACT:

The compliment is an expression of respect, approval and admiration, used to congratulate, encourage or praise and make the addressee feel good The compliment can be described of a positive politeness strategy as it shows the speaker’s notice and respect to the hearer’s interests, wants and “goods”

We carried out a survey with the participation of 18 female participants at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Ha Tinh University The data were collected from questionnaires, interviews and DCT method English and Vietnamese belong to two different types of languages Each language has the different social and cultural contexts which might lead to distinctions in communicating in general, and paying compliments in particular Therefore,

we decided to research the compliment behaviors in English and Vietnamese

by Vietnamese speakers of English in order to investigate differences of participants’ compliment behaviors in English and Vietnamese, then may provide several suggestions to solve restrictions in complimenting by Ha Tinh students

Key words: Compliment, Vietnamese speakers, influences, functions

Chapter one: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the study

Communicating is not only the process of giving and receiving the information, it also expresses the attitudes to the hearer Language reflects the social interaction between partners and what we say is determined by various factors, such as the social distance Actually, we do not exchange similar words with different people in different situations and should appropriately communicate with different addressees

The compliment speech act occurs popularly in daily conversations, and

it is important and necessary to give suitable comments on the others In

general, the compliment is an expression of esteem, respect, and admiration,

especially an admiring remark; congratulating, encouraging or praising someone for something and compliments are used to make the addressee feel good about himself/herself The compliment speech acts could be considered

as a kind of politeness strategies By paying compliments, the speaker shows that she/he notices, in contrast, she/he might threaten to the partner‟s face by ignoring them In communications, it is important to show polite behaviors toward others, and the awareness of your partner‟s face When a person says something that represents a threat to another‟s self-image, it serves as a face threatening act On the contrary, if you try to respect the “face wants” of the partner, that will be called a face saving act

English and Vietnamese belong to two different types of languages Each language has the different social and cultural context which might lead

to distinctions in communicating in general, and paying compliments in particular Therefore, we decided to research the compliment behaviors in

English and Vietnamese by Vietnamese speakers of English Compliments is

a large field to study, there are a variety of aspects in complimenting, such

as giving and receiving compliments, however, we just concentrate on how

Ha Tinh participants pay compliments in a foreign language, English, and in their mother tongue, Vietnamese In this study, all what I presented surely has many shortcomings due to lack of experience, limitation of time and knowledge Nonetheless, I hope that, to some extent, this study will help participants have a more comprehensive viewpoint on the compliment speech act

1.2 Research purposes

The aim of this study is to investigate the complimenting behavior of a group of Vietnamese participants of English in English and Vietnamese In the study, we would like to find out how a group of English-major participants pay compliments in English and Vietnamese, what functions the participants pay compliments for in English and Vietnamese

1.3 Research questions

The research was carried out to solve these questions:

1 How does the group of Vietnamese speakers of English pay compliments in Vietnamese and English in different settings?

2 What functions do the participants pay compliments for in English and Vietnamese?

1.4 Contributions of the research

- In terms of science: providing a new viewpoint on compliment in English and Vietnamese as well

- In terms of reality: providing the methods to help Ha Tinh students pay

a compliment appropriately, raising the perception in complimenting

1.5 Thesis Outline

After reading and finding out the document related to the topic of this study, it is summarized as well as designed in 3 parts:

Chapter One: “Introduction” of the thesis, including parts: rationale,

research purposes, research questions, contributions and design of the study This part mainly shows the basic theories and contents related to the topic that

we are researching to help readers understand comprehensively about the situation on topic

Chapter Two: “Development” includes three parts:

2.1 “Literature review” mentions to theoretical background which are

introduced in definitions, functions of compliments, and how people in other cultures pay a compliment, and the relation between compliments and politeness

2.2.“Methodology” presents the methodology conducted in this study; at

the same time, this chapter will deal with collecting and analyzing data from the questionnaire system

2.3.“Findings and discussion” shows responses from sources, and

analyze them in order to find the factors which influence on the compliment speech act, the differences in compliment behaviors in English and Vietnamese and the politeness in compliments

Chapter Three: “Conclusion” summarizes the key issues in the study,

points out the limitations and gives some suggestions for further studies

Chapter two: DEVELOPMENT

2.1 Literature review

2.1.1 Definition of compliments

The compliment is one of the most popular topics in linguistics Holmes (1986) defined the compliment as “a speech act which explicitly or implicitly attributes credit to someone other than the speaker, regularly the person addressed, for some good (possession, characteristic, skill, etc.) which is positively valued by the speaker and the hearer” (p.485) Newton and Burgoon (1990) believed that compliments are “statements that are intended

to make the other feel good about himself/herself” (p.509), as Orecchioni (1987) supposed that they are “verbal presents” (p.10)

Kerbrat-Kodama (1996) concurred with Wierzbicka‟s statement (1987) that compliments are an intricate combination of positive evaluation, displayed good feelings, implicit friendliness, and half-admitted desire to please When one pays a compliment, in some cases, she or he covertly underestimates herself/himself than the addressee, wishes for having the value which is mentioned Hence, the compliment could be the face-saving act or the face-threatening act, so that the speaker should investigate the person addressed well and use the compliment appropriately Compliments, according to Jaworki (1995), can be described as “both direct and indirect utterances expressing the speaker‟s positive opinion about the addressee‟s outward appearance, work, personality traits, possessed, and about the third parties closely related to the addressee (e.g Children)” (p.64)

(1) That‟s so amazing, John (direct)

(2) Linda said you‟ve just completed an amazing project (indirect)

In Vietnam, there are just a few studies in the compliment speech act; Quang‟s study (1999) is one of the significant projects Other Vietnamese linguistics, Khúc (2006) and Trần (2001) are also in agreement with his opinion that compliments are the positive evaluation for the addressee that the speaker highly appreciates According to the Vietnamese Dictionary by New Era (2005), compliments are verbal expression to praise the beauty or the qualities of the addressee, people or things People can give compliments verbally, a word (usually an adjective), a sentence or a variety of sentences (a paragraph); or compliment by gestures/body language, such as a smile, a wink, and a big round of applause, however, in this study, we just mention to the participants‟ verbal compliments Generally, a compliment means that you are contributing a valued “good” to the addressee, make him/her feel good

2.1.2 Functions of compliments

Linguistics have studied a variety of angles of compliment and found its different functions in communication Generally, people pay compliments for four main purposes (Holmes, 1995):

- Praise and encouragement

- Also convey information about the "good" that the speaker selects for the compliment

- Usually intended to make others feel good, affective and social

- Increase or consolidate solidarity between the speaker and the hearer

Herbert (1990) suggested that compliments are used as expressions of praise and admiration A compliment generally shows that the speaker assesses admiringly address‟s qualities and wants the addressee to know that

(3) Oh, I love that dress, it looks beautiful!

(4) What a lovely kid! They‟re so cute!

Holmes (1988) and Wolfson (1989) shared the similar point that the compliment is a type of speech which ties of union By paying compliments, the speaker shows the respect to the hearer, a compliment declares that the speaker is aware of the addressee‟s desires and consequently, the solidarity is maintained and reinforced In addition, compliments are additionally used to encourage people doing better, for example, when a participant accomplishes well homework, teachers commonly give compliments on students

(5) This is excellent Jennie You‟ve really done a nice job!

In different languages, the ways how people compliment share differences and similarities Yu (2005) compared the complimenting act between native Chinese and American English speakers in their mother tongue He found that “Chinese compliments are usually an expression of genuine admiration, rather than an offer of solidarity” (p.115) and Chinese people tend to keep silence or ignore compliments On the contrary, in American society, compliments occasionally function as an offer of solidarity, and then an acceptable response would be needed

Furthermore, according to Jassim (2011), compliments can be served as

to “start a conversation, smooth an interaction, strengthen an emotional exchange and enhance the mutual understanding and friendship of the people who are involved in the conversation” (p.112) They function as “ice-breaker” (Wolfson, 1983) because they can serve to remove the awkwardness at the beginning of a conversation

Beside the positive consequences, people sometimes compliment as sarcastic remarks In some cases, we also pay compliments as sarcastic or perfunctory compliments when the content of the compliments is too distant from the reality For example, your friend is really bad at football, and you say “You‟re doing a great job” Despite the content of the sentence, words have an extremely different meaning in this situation, in other words, you use the compliment to ironic the friend for fun In fact, we normally just say those words to friends or people who are close in order to avoid dilemmas

2.1.3 How people pay a compliment

Cheng (2003) believed that “compliments vary from culture to culture in terms of acceptable or preferred compliment topics, and yet within a culture

or speech community, there is a strong agreement as to the relative importance of compliment topics” (p.25) The most common topics of compliment are possessions, appearance, skills and achievements, according

to Holmes (1988) The findings of Knapp et al (1984) showed that Americans‟ compliments refer mostly to someone‟s appearance and performance; other following fields are personality and possessions Levinson (1987) contributed that appearance, personality, family members, ability, property, food and meals are popular topics in compliment of the American

Holmes (1995) studied differences in using compliments by New Zealand women and men She declares that women give and receive more compliments than the other Holmes (1988) also showed that men can perceive compliments as a face-threatening act because „they imply the compliment giver envies the addressee in some way or would like something belonging to the addressee‟ (p.448) Compliments are used frequently in their daily lives for different purposes; nevertheless, girls pay a compliment on

each other for the appearance more than other topics while boys rarely do Sun (2014) also agreed with this point that women are “more actively involved in compliment behavior, both giving and receiving more compliment than men, especially on the topic of appearance” (p.221)

Matsuura (2004) carried out comparing the compliment-giving behavior

in American English and Japanese He found that Americans would be more willing to give compliments on their own family members than the Japanese counterparts would Furthermore, American females tend to pay more compliments than males, while there was no considerable difference in commending between Japanese females and males Since Japanese people tend to be less polite toward family members in general This is probably a more influential factor for Japanese than the categories of close and distant, which is highly influential for Americans (the closer the relationship to the addressee, the more willing Americans is to give compliments) In addition, psy- chological closeness sometimes overrides status and power differences in the compliment-giving behaviors of Japanese, while status and power tend to prevent Americans from complimenting higher-status addressees Furukawa (2001) gave results similar to those that compliments directed at someone who is of higher status are considered a face-threatening act in Japanese, yet native speakers use a number of strategies to retain respect and politeness while realizing the act

Knapp et al (1984) also found that American compliment mostly are stated directly, (e.g “You‟re great”) rather than indirectly (e.g “Mr Smith said you do really nice work”) They seem to express the personal opinion rather than others‟ evaluation as the compliment receiver would feel the speaker‟s admiration and sincerity Americans, customarily, do not compare the addressee to another one

when they compliment, moreover, compliments are more delivered to people who have the same sex, similar age and equal status

According to Wolfson (1983), adjectives, such as nice (22.9%), good

(19.6%), pretty (9.7%), beautiful ((9.2%) and great (6.2%) are five adjectives

frequently used in compliments Holmes (1995) indicated four out of the five adjectives most frequently used in New Zealand were in Wolfson‟s list

(1983), nice, good, beautiful and great Sine they are popular adjectives, can

be used in a big number of situations These adjectives could stand alone or combine with other type of word to create sentences

(6) You‟re doing a great job!

(7) That‟s nice! How could you do it?

(8) Cute!

Wolfson and Manes (1980) have a great contribution in compliment research They suggest that the formulaicity of compliments could be divided into 9 following sections:

- NP {is, looks} (really) ADJ (PP)

- I (really) {like, love} NP

- PRO is (really) (a) (ADJ) NP

- You V (NP) (a) really ADJ NP

- You V (NP) (really) ADV (PP)

- You have (a) (really) ADJ NP

- What (a) ADJ NP!

- ADJ (NP)!

- Isn‟t NP ADJ!

According to Wolfson and Manes (1981), 85% of compliment expression fell into three following formulas:

- NP is/looks (really) ADJ (e.g “That shirt is so nice.”)

- I (really) like/love NP (e.g “I really like those shoes.”)

- PRO is (really) (a) ADJ NP (e.g This was really a great meal.”)

2.1.4 Compliments and politeness

Face is the public self-image that nobody wants to lose In communications, the speaker usually does not want to threaten the other‟s face For example, it would be more polite to say “Excuse, Mr Buckingham, but can I talk to you for a minute?” rather than “Hey, Bucky, got a minute?” Those sentences are showing two kinds of politeness with different social closeness Nguyen‟s study (1956) considers the face definition forward the behavior in Vietnamese culture According to the study, face could be understood as the respect of the individual to the social values Tran (2001) asserts that Vietnamese people would feel that the face is threatened in case that they are not treated appropriately as their reputation, the social position and the age Lakoff (1972) considers politeness as “a device used in order to reduce friction in personal interaction” (p.64); it is a tool to minimize the possibility of committing a face threatening act

Brown and Levinson‟s politeness theory could be considered as the most influenced principles in Pragmatics in general and politeness in particular To Brown and Levinson, politeness is the expression of the speaker's intention to mitigate face threats carried by certain face threatening acts toward the listener, and politeness strategies are used to formulate messages in order to save the hearer‟s positive face when face threatening acts are inevitable or

As each one has different mind and habits of speech, there are a lot of ways of performing face saving acts However, according to Brown and Levinson‟s theory, there are two types of politeness strategies, negative politeness, and positive politeness

Negative politeness strategy is the deference and concerning of others‟ time, for example, you forgot to bring your pen, and you want to lend your friend‟s, then you say to him/her:

(9) I‟m sorry to bother you, but can I ask you for a pen or something?

In this case, you understand that you are bothering him while he was in another conversation, and if he does not have any extra pen, it would be fine You show the respects, the politeness to the addressee by appreciating his time and decision In conclusion, negative politeness is the need to be independent, to have freedom of action and not to be forced by others

Positive politeness strategy is the desirability to be accepted, to show the solidarity with the community, the desire to have common goals

(10) How about going to the cinema?

(11) Let me use it

Nevertheless, Brown and Levinson‟s politeness theory are criticized pretty much by linguistics in Asian (Gu, 1998; Ide, 1989; Mao, 1994; Matsumoto, 1988) They declare that Brown and Levinson have skipped the social aspect and emphasize excessively the desire of the individual in speech Mao (1994) found that, in the Chiness context, the face does not just contain the individual‟s desire but the blending of views between the individual and community Furukawa (2000) illustrates through examples that compliments reflect not only sociocultural values but also personal values and standards,

and defines the compliment in consideration of the recipient of the compliment and closeness and status of the interlocutors At present, there are still controversial arguments in the politeness and the theory of Brown and Levinson‟s does not cover all cultures and value systems The concept of politeness in Vietnamese communication shares a similar point with Chinese that the face wants involve the wants of an individual interacted with the social wants, since the Vietnamese are influenced by Confuncianism ideological perspective “Lễ” (politeness)

The compliment is described as a positive politeness strategy which involves seeking the approval and appreciation By complimenting on the movie, the speaker desires the opinion is accepted by the hearer, the community The speaker wants to seek agreements and assert the common ground with the partner

(12) Huyen and a friend‟d just watched a movie

“This film is interesting, I love everything about it.”

(13) Bich came to a shop with her mom

“Isn‟t this dress so beautiful, mom?

(14) Thao met her friend at school

“You look so cute.”

The speaker expresses the warmth and makes the addressee feel good about herself, since a compliment convey one‟s positive opinion to the other, then the solidarity between the speaker and the hearer would be strengthened However, compliments may also make the addressee uncomfortable by conveying the envy in compliments, and then the compliment speech act will threaten the addressee‟s negative politeness The inappropriate compliment

speech act can lead to embarrassments and sometimes it could be an offense

in the final-year English language and English pedagogy, consequently, we could not investigate the distinction of giving compliments of men and women, and it would be an unfortunate restriction in the study

the perceptions in order to investigate intensely the behaviors in commending

of Ha Tinh participants After that, the figures were gathered to analyze

2.2.3 Data analysis

The steps applied to analyze the data are as follows:

The results of the questionnaire were interpreted, categorized, tabulated and then presented in percentage The main analysis method was qualitative research method The results and findings were presented, in figures together with full explanations

2.2.4 Ethical issues

To ensure adherence to ethical principles during and after the process of research, all participation will be voluntary Participants will be informed about the purposes of the study and told that the data provided by them will

be used only to analyze how they make compliments differently in languages They are free to review the transcripts prior to submission of the written report and are anonymous in the study The raw data will be stored in computer files and be password protected Since the data were collected in Ha Tinh University, Vietnam the ethical issues were also complied with the rules and traditions of Vietnam as well and the regulations of Ha Tinh University regarding doing research

2.3 Findings and discussion

Actually, the way we speak was influenced by a large number of factors, therefore, in various situations, we will react to the different addressees in different ways Before starting, we had asked participants who participated in

the closeness, the age, and the gender are four main factors in paying compliments of Ha Tinh University participants

Participants were asked to give a compliment in English and Vietnamese,

we analyzed and summarized by the complimenting formulaicity of Wolfson and Manes (1980), since those are approved by a variety of researchers and compatible with Vietnamese compliment structures The data in these situations are given in tables 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4

3.3.1 The age and compliments

Vietnam is a country where people are vastly aware of the age distance For example, there are various pronouns in our mother tongue which are used

to distinguish partners of the different ages, or social relationships In reality,

we witnessed many people change their behavior, their Vietnamese speech style when communicating with different people Coming from Vietnam, located in South East Asia, the compliment speech acts in our culture might differ from those in English

As English is a foreign language, there might be several limitations in communication skills, participants‟ tendency is using several sentence structures in English, and they believe that it is necessary to show direct admirations, praises to the addressee

(15) Participants paid compliments on the garden in English

“What a lovely garden!”

“It looks beautiful.”

“I really like your garden.”

Table 3.1: Giving compliments on different-age people (%)

Speakers tried to be polite and gave good feelings to the addressee, however, they tend to express massively in Vietnamese By using a few compliments, one supposes that the speech act would be more persuasive and sincere, then the partner can feel respected, proud of himself instead of considering the compliments as the flattery and the older the hearer is, the more politely she/he would be treated, as the young have to respect to the old

in behaving and also speaking

A child An old

man

A child

NP {is, looks} (really) ADJ (PP) 44.4 22.2 50 22.2

I (really) {like, love} NP 11 33.3 22.2 22.2

PRO is (really) (a) (ADJ) NP 5.6 5.6 16.7 0

(16) Participants paid compliments on the garden in Vietnamese

“Ông chăm mấy cái cây nhìn đẹp lắm ạ! Vườn nhà cháu nhìn chán lắm, khi nào cháu qua chơi, ông bày cho cháu với nhé!”

“Cháu thích vườn nhà ông lắm ạ.”

“Vườn nhà ông nhìn đẹp quá!”

“Ông chăm vườn khéo quá!”

“Em ngoan quá!”

“Nhìn vườn nhà em đẹp quá!”

Participants feel that speaking in Vietnamese is significantly easier, since Vietnamese is their first language, they see no problem in speaking, in other words, they are capable to express whatever they want to express instead of concentrating on the grammar Moreover, since participants are Vietnamese people, they find it easier to approach and communicate with countrymen than foreign people

For younger addressees, participants usually use adjectives or direct show the likeness for the addressee‟s garden Since they claim that whether they do not attend to a younger addressee, in some cases, it might be acceptable, and others pay positive comments in order to encourage him to assist his parents to take care the garden

The table showed that all participants‟ tendency in compliment in both languages is referring directly to the object, an old man or a child Participants are more excited in paying a compliment on the old, in order to show the respect and politeness, and in case that the object is a younger one, they sometimes compliment impassively, generally on younger people, in both languages While complimenting on the old shows a different angle The