A VIETNAMESE AMERICAN CROSS CULTURAL STUDY OF GIVING COMMENTS ON CONTESTANTS’ PERFORMANCE BY JUDGES IN VIETNAM IDOL AND AMERICAN IDOL

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  ---A VIETN---AMESE---AMERIC---AN CROSS CULTUR---AL STUDY OF

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



-A VIETN -AMESE -AMERIC -AN CROSS CULTUR -AL STUDY OF GIVING COMMENTS ON CONTESTANTS PERFORMANCE BY ’ PERFORMANCE BY

JUDGES IN VIETNAM IDOL AND AMERICAN IDOL

NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO VĂN HÓA VIỆT – MỸ TRONG CÁCH THỨC BAN GIÁM KHẢO ĐƯA RA LỜI BÌNH LUẬN VỀ PHẦN TRÌNH DIỄN CỦA THÍ SINH TRONG HAI CUỘC THI VIETNAM IDOL VÀ

AMERICAN IDOL M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

modern life However, almost all of people learning English find very difficult tounderstand or to convey English native speakers’ ideas or thinking, maybe, because

of the cultural difference between Vietnam and English speaking countries Besides,the lack of the learners’ awareness of the target language culture and the culturaldifferences is also the source of culture shock in every aspect of cross-culturalcommunication It is the reason why those days, the study of communication andcross-cultural communication has become an urgent need thanks to the popularity ofmass media and the increasing demand of Communicative Language Teaching(CLT) Doing research on communicative acts has, therefore, been of greatsignificance

With the development of society, the need of entertainment has been increasing morerapidly People seek many ways to relax their mind such as go for holiday, gocamping and so on However, the simplest way of entertainment is music Manymusic shows and games have been broadcasted on TV attracting the interest of most

of people Vietnam Idol and American Idol are very famous shows of musicnowadays Besides selecting an excellent contestant to become the idol of music, theaudience also concern the manner the judges give comments on the performance ofcontestants Thus, Vietnamese – American cross-cultural studies appear useful andvital in this way

Commenting is common in many languages and cultures It is realized bycomforting, showing concern or expressing likes or dislike or reaction, etc with thehearer Cross-cultural study on judges’ commenting on contestants’ performance hasnot received much concern form linguistics and researchers Then, how doVietnamese and American judges give comments on contestants’ performance? Howare the two manners different? Which manner is a positive way? This leads the

author to the decision to conduct a research into “A Vietnamese-American cultural study of giving comments on contestants’ performance by judges in Vietnam and American Idol” to find out the similarities and differences in the

cross-manner of giving comments of Vietnamese and American judges on contestants’performance The findings from the study hopefully would be a source of assistance

in understanding between the two cultures American and Vietnamese

II AIMS OF THE STUDY

The aims of the study are:

- To convey ways which judges give verbal comments on contestants’performance in Vietnam Idol 2010 and American Idol 2011

- To point out the similarities and differences in the manner American andVietnamese judges commenting in their target language and culture

- To answer the two research questions:

+ Which politeness strategies are used by Vietnamese judges and which ones arechosen by American judges?

+ Who employs more politeness strategies in verbal communication: Vietnamesejudges and American ones?

- To contribute to raise cross-cultural awareness in using verbal cues forforeign language teachers and learners as well as other potential interactants ofinternational communication

III SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study is focused on the verbal aspect of the act of giving comments by judges

on contestants’ performance after live show in the two latest shows: Vietnam Idol

2010 and American Idol 2011 basing on the politeness theory by Brown andLevinson and other linguistics researchers Because of some limitations, the author

only focuses on the final round: top 4 and top 3 perform

This part is focused on a detailed depiction of the methodology applied in theresearch paper More specially, the size and characteristics of the research subjectaltogether with research instruments, data collection procedure as well as dataanalysis procedure are put into description and justification

IV.1 Selection of subjects

In order to conduct this study, the researcher has employed top 4 and top 3 performs

of Vietnam Idol 2010 and also two ones of American Idol 2011 the research subjects

in this study have been chosen under the procedure of information-orientedsampling, as opposed to random sampling In these two performs of American Idol

2011, the researcher has obtained 51 utterances of commenting; meanwhile, she hasgot 36 commenting utterances of Vietnam version, which makes a total of 87

utterances This size of the samples could somehow be considered eligible enoughfor the researcher to carry out a reliable study

IV.2 Research methods

To conduct the study, the researcher has employed two methods namely quantitativeand qualitative ones The combination of these two methods has offered theresearcher valid data for later analysis

Regarding the aim of the study, the researcher has found that quantitative is the mostfeasible method to deal with the research problems It is because in the socialsciences, quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation ofquantitative properties and phenomena and their relationships The objective ofquantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories and/ orhypotheses pertaining to phenomena The process of measurement is central toquantitative research because it provides the fundamental connection betweenempirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships.Besides, qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many differentacademic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market researchand further contexts Qualitative researcher aims to gather an in-depth understanding

of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior The qualitative

method investigates the why and how of decision-making, not just what, where, when Hence, smaller but focused samples are more often needed, rather than large

samples

IV.3 Data collection procedures

The data collection procedure has been divided into two successive phases

Simultaneously, prominent examples of each strategy have been noted down toexemplify the researcher’s later analysis.

IV.4 Data analysis procedures

First, the verbal data have been interpreted into subtypes of politeness strategies Asobserved, there are seven strategies that are most commonly used by bothVietnamese and American judges

After that, the researcher has calculated the frequency of commentators’ using theabove politeness strategies This step has been followed by her converting thefrequency into the percentile forms for comparison

Finally, the researcher has compared the frequencies of politeness strategies used byVietnamese judges and American ones

In the two shows Vietnam Idol and American Idol, there are two groups ofinformants The Vietnamese group consists of 3 informants (one female and twomales), but in the final round, one informant is added The second group was 3judges (also one female and two males)

Details of the informants’ parameters are:

- Vietnamese group:

+ Two females: singer (Siu Black) and editor (Diem Quynh)

+ Two males: director (Quang Dung) and composer (Quoc Trung)

- American group:

+ One female: singer/actress and record producer Jennifer Lopez

+ Two males: singer-songwriter Steven Tyler and music manager Randy Jackson

VI DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The thesis consists of three parts

Part A: INTRODUCTION

This part includes the rationale, aims, scope of the study, methodology and design ofthe study

Part B: DEVELOPMENT

This part is divided into two chapters:

Chapter I: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES

In this chapter, theories of culture, cross-culture, culture–shock, language-cultureinterrelationship, speech act, and classifications of speech acts, politeness, politenessprinciples and politeness strategies, definition of the two shows are criticallydiscussed.

Chapter II: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

In this chapter, the author focuses on analyzing the manner of giving comments ofjudges through the two shows with the illustration of video clips (if necessary) Thesimilarities and differences in the way of giving comments by Vietnamese andAmerican judges are drawn from detailed and critical analysis of data

Part C: CONCLUSION

Summary of the major findings and suggestions for further research are mentioned inthis part

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES

I.1 CULTURE

I.1.1 Definition of culture

Culture is often thought of as shared behavior and beliefs, but in any society, allindividuals never think and act exactly the same Each author has differentdefinitions of culture

Levine and Aleman (1993) think culture as

“a shared background (for example national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, art, music and all the other products of human thought made by a particular group of people at a particular time It also refers to the informal and often hidden patterns of human interactions, expressions and view points that people in one culture share.”

Here, it means that culture consists of everything that happens in our daily life Mostpeople in a country have same habits or same patterns of thinking or behavesimilarly, these are called culture

Wardhaugh (1992: 217) states that: “A society’s culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members, and to do so in any role that they accept for any one of themselves.”

Language and culture always keep changing, consequently, people’s behaviors andattitudes seem to vary due in time and space

According to Bock (1970:1),

“Culture, in its broadest sense, is what makes you a stranger when you are away from home It includes all beliefs and expectations about how people should speak and act which have become a kind of second nature to you as a result of social learning When you are with members of a group who share your culture, we or you do not have think about it, for you are all viewing the world in pretty much the same way and you all know, in general terms, what to expect of one another.”

Culture is always the result of human intervention in the biological processes ofnature It is the product of socially and historically situated discourse communities,created and shaped by language Culture is always changing because culture consists

of learned patterns of behavior and belief More clearly, language can not occuralone and is never separated from social activities and its culture

I.1.2 Language-culture interrelationship

Otto Jespersen (1921) says that “Human language originated while humans were actually enjoying themselves.” (cited in Karen Risager (2006:3) - Language and Culture: Global Flows and Local Complexity) It means that language was created

naturally in our daily life, for example when we work; we have to use language toexchange our ideas or important information

According to Kramsch (1998:4), “language is the principle means whereby we conduct our social lives When it is used in contexts of communication, it is bound

up with culture in multiple and complex ways.”

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring andusing complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system

of complex communication

In the “Oxford advanced learner’s Dictionary” (Encyclopedic edition, 1992:506), a

language is considered to be a “system of communicating with other people using sounds, symbols and words in expressing a meaning, idea or thought.” This

language can be used in many forms, primarily through oral and writtencommunications as well as using expressions through body language

Sapir (1921:207) defines that, “Language does not exist apart from culture, that is, from the socially inherited assemblage of practices and beliefs that determines the texture of our lives.”(cited in Karen Risager (2006:3) - Language and Culture: Global Flows and Local Complexity) He considers culture as “what society does and thinks” and language is “a particular how of thought”.

Language and culture always keep changing, consequently, people’s behaviors andattitudes seem to vary due in time and space Culture is the result of humanintervention in the biological processes of nature So culture is always changing asculture consists of learned patterns of behavior and belief Meanwhile language can

not occur alone and is never separated from social activities and its culture It iswidely recognized that the correlation between language and culture is undeniable

I.1.3 COMMUNICATION AND CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Communication is a broad-ranging topic Everyday we communicate with others in

many ways Communication can be understood as the exchange and flow of information and ideas from one person to another; it involves a sender transmitting

an idea, information, or feeling to a receiver (U.S Army, 1983 cited at

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcom.html) Effective communicationoccurs only if the receiver understands the exact information or idea that the senderintended to transmit

According to many linguists like Saville Troike (1982:25), speakers must have tocommunicate effectively and appropriately They have to have linguistic knowledge,interaction skills and cultural knowledge Lustig (1996:28) states that:

“Communication is a symbolic process in which people create shared meanings.” Tohim, symbols play a key role in communication process because they represent theshared and specific meanings that are communicated Language and communicationare always changing along with the change of society because communication isconsidered as a process in which meanings are created and shared by groups ofpeople as they participate in the ordinary and everyday activities that form thecontext of common interpretations

Cross-cultural communication referred to as intercultural communication is defined

as

“an exchange of ideas, information between persons from different cultural backgrounds There are more problems in cross cultural communication than in communication between people of the same cultural background Each participant may interpret the other’s speech according to his or her own cultural conventions and expectations If the cultural conventions and misunderstandings can easily arise, even resulting in a total break down of communication This has been shown by research into real life situations, such

as job interviews, doctor-patient encounters and legal communication.”

Richards (1983:92)

This is understood that cross-cultural communication is the exchange andnegotiation of information ideas, feelings and attitudes between individuals whocome from different language and cultures It is clear that with the process ofglobalization, especially the increasing of global trade, different cultures will meet,conflict, and blend together People from different culture find it is hard tocommunicate not only due to language barrier but also affected by culture styles As

a result, if the cultural conventions and norms of the interlocutors are widelydifferent, culture shock or breakdown of communication can easily arise because ofmisunderstandings or misinterpretations

In brief, people of different cultures and countries have different ways of viewing orinterpreting the intention of communication Therefore, speakers are unable tounderstand other’s ideas not because of their limited competence of translation butdue to cultural barriers Understanding the differences of cultures, communicationand cross-cultural communication enables participants to discover their own cultureand to avoid misinterpretations and then to behave themselves in a different newworld

I.1.4 CULTURE SHOCK

Culture shock is a term used to describe an anxious feeling when people move to astrange place and meet with many unexpected situations Many linguists give thedefinitions of this topic

To Foster, “culture shock is mental illness, and is true of much mental illness, the victim usually does not know he is affected He finds that he is irritable, depressed, and probably annoyed by the lack of attention shown him.”(cited in Understanding Culture Shock at http://www.rotary5080ye.org/understanding_culture_shock.htm)

It means that when one affects culture shock, he himself is not able to realize thissituation As culture shock is mental illness, it makes our mind always anxious,nervous and so on

Valdes (1995:35) assumes that “culture shock is a common experience for a person learning a second language in a second culture Culture shock refers to a

phenomena recognizing from mild irritability to deep psychological panic and crisis Culture shock is associated with feeling in the learners of estrangement, anger, hostility, homesickness and even physical illness.”

It is clear that many people face difficulty or anxiety when in strange and

unexpected situations as Harris and Moran (1998:226) say “culture shock is neither good or bad, and necessary or unnecessary”

In brief, culture shock is a common situation belonging to our mind It is the stress

of moving to a new place and there are no fixed symptoms ascribed to culture shock

as each person is affected differently

I.1.5 COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Hymes' original idea was that “speakers of a language have to have more than grammatical competence in order to be able communicate effectively in a language; they also need to know how language is used by members of a speech community to accomplish their purposes.”

Canale and Swain (1980 - Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing Applied Linguistics 1, 1-47.) defines

communicative competence in terms of three components:

 grammatical competence: words and rules

 sociolinguistic competence: appropriateness

 strategic competence: appropriate use of communication strategies

Sharing the same point of view, Saville Troike (1982) states there are three essential

components of communication They are linguistic knowledge, interactional skills

and cultural knowledge.

These perspective show the fact that linguistic aspects only are far to be enough forappropriate use and interpretation of language in a community Therefore, newmethods of foreign language teaching and intensive cross-cultural studies have beenconducted so far would avoid the language learners and cross culturalcommunicators from the culture shock and communication breakdown

I.2 Speech acts

I.2.1 Theories of speech act

Speech act is a term taken from the word of philosophers of language, JohnSearle and John Austin in particular who assumes that in saying something a speakeralso does something.

Speech act theory was first formulated by the philosopher John Austin (1962) Histheory of speech acts emerges from his consideration, and rejection, of a distinctionwhich he sees as central to philosophy of language up to his own work This is thedistinction between utterances which are meaningful, which are all thought to bestatements of what is or is not the case, and utterances which are meaningless Thisview holds that only statements are ever meaningful But Austin rejects this pointing

to another class of ordinary utterances which are neither meaningless nor constative(i.e of the nature of a statement) He calls such non-constative, meaningfulutterances ‘performatives’ since they are utterances the production of which, givencertain conditions (to be investigated), serves as the performance of someconventional social act So instead of the traditional constative/nonsense distinctionAustin in effect postulates two distinctions: constative/performative and meaningful-utterance/meaningless-utterance

John Austin (1962) defines speech acts as the actions performed in sayingsomething When people produce utterances, they often perform actions via thoseutterances These actions are called speech acts; for example: complaint,compliment, invitation, comment or request A speech art is part of a speech event.The speech act can be investigated under three different headings: (1) as meaningfulspeech, (2) as speech with a certain conventional force, and (3) as speech with acertain non-conventional effect These three related acts are called locutionary act,illocutionary act and perlocutionary act

 Locutionary act is the basic act of producing a meaningful linguisticexpression The locutionary act is performed with some purposes or function

in mind

 Illocutionary act is an act performed via the communicative force of anutterance In engaging in locutionary acts we also perform illocutionary actssuch as informing, advising, offer, promise, commenting…In uttering asentence by virtue of conversational force associated with it

 Perlocutionary act is what we bring about or achieve by saying something,such as convincing, persuading, deterring perlocutionary acts are performedonly on the assumption that the hearer will recognize the effect youintended

Of the three above acts, illocutionary act is of the most importance incommunication as an utterance can as it brings about various forces Theillocutionary act can account as a prediction a promise or a warning For example,the utterance “I’ll see you again” can be interpreted as a promise or a warning That

is the reason why Yules (1997:52) explains that “Speech act is generally interpreted quite narrowly to mean only the illocutionary force of an utterance.”

According to the two other researchers Schmidt and Richards, “Speech act theoryhas to do with the function of languages, so in the broader sense we might say thatspeech acts are all the acts we perform through speaking, all things we do when wespeak The theory of speech acts is partly taxonomic and partly explanatory It mustsystematically classify types of speech acts and the ways in which they can succeed

or fail It must reckon with the fact that the relationship between the words beingused and the force of their utterance is often oblique.”

The theory of speech act has attracted the interest from a famous linguistics

researcher Blum-Kulka (1989:1) “Speech acts have been claimed by some (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1962, 1975) to operate by universal principles, and claimed by others

to vary in conceptualizations and verbalizations across cultures and languages Their modes of performance carry heavy social implications and seem to be ruled

by universal principles of cooperation and politeness (Brown and Levinson, 1978; Leech, 1993) And yet, cultures have been shown to vary drastically in their interactional styles, leading to different preferences for modes of speech act behavior.”

Generally speaking, speech acts are acts of communication To communicate is toexpress a certain attitude, and the type of speech act being performed corresponds totypes of attitude being expressed For example, a statement expresses a belief, anexclamation expresses a feeling, a request expresses a desire…as a n act ofcommunication, a speech act succeeds if the audience identifies in accordance withthe speaker’s intention, the attitude being expressed

I.2.2 Classification of speech acts

Austin (1962:151) divides the illocutionary acts into five major types offunctions to utterances They are: verdictives (e.g assess, appraise…), exercitivities(e.g command, direct…), commisives (e.g promise, propose…), behabitives (e.g.apologise, thank…) and expositives (e.g accept, agree…)

This classification mainly focuses on how speaker realizes his/her intentions inspeaking, specifically, how much speaker wants hearer to believe in the utterance,how speaker chooses the words/functions to express the meaning of the utterance,finally and how speaker utters the sentence and addresses it to hearer on purpose

Meanwhile, Searle (1976:10-16) pays attention to the way hearer responds to theutterance intentionally He classifies speech act into five types:

1 Declaration: changing the state of affairs in the world by utterance, such

as I bet, I resign…(a pronouncement at court)

For example: I hereby pronounce you husband and wife.

2 Representatives: describing states or events in the world (e.g an

assertion or a report)

For example: It is a sunny day.

3 Commisives: committing the speaker to doing something (e.g a promise

or a threat)

For example: I promise you that I will come back soon.

4 Expressives: expressing feelings and attitudes about something They

may be statements of pleasure, pain, likes, joy or sorrow…

For example: It was great!

5 Directives: getting the listener to do something They are commands,

orders, requests and suggestions

For example: You should go out with her.

Yule (1997:55) summarizes the five general types of speech acts with their key functions as in the table below:

Speech act types Direction of fit S=Speaker X= Situation

Declarations Words change the world S causes X

Representatives Make words fit the world S believes X

Expressives Make words fit the world S feels X

Directives Make the world fit words S wants X

Commisives Make the world fit words S intends X

Table 1: The five general functions of speech acts (Yule: 1996)

Speech acts may be either direct or indirect speech acts depending on the directand indirect relationships between structures and functions

The two other linguists Saville-Troike (1982) and Yules (1997) analyze speech acts

in terms of directness and indirectness: direct speech act verbs and indirect speechact verbs

Saville-Troike (1982:36) points out: “As defined in speech act theory, direct acts are those where surface form matches interactional function, as “Be quiet!” used as

a command, versus an indirect ‘It’s getting noisy here’ or ‘I can’t hear myself think’.” More simply, Yule (1997:554) writes: “Whenever there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function, we have a direct speech act Whenever there is an indirect relationship between a structure and a function, we have an indirect speech act.”

For example, such a declarative structure as “I will come back soon” can berealized as a direct speech act if it is used to make a statement, but it can becategorized as an indirect speech act if speaker means it to be a promise or warning

I.2.3 Commenting as a speech act

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic, “commenting is the act of expressing an opinion or reaction in speech or writing.”

Giving comment to contestants’ performance is, therefore, defined as the act ofgiving an opinion or reaction to the performance of contestants Here, “give”literally means “offer” or “share” the understanding or experience of others In brief,judges’ giving comments to contestants’ performance after their live show does notonly mean the mere verbal words of commenting, but includes the way judges

comment The What and the How are both strongly emphasized in this act

For example, American judges comment on contestants’ performance:

Very nicely done!

It was really beautiful.

In the light of speech act, these utterances are regarded as the act of expressing

surprise, and praise The speaker here would like to give the feeling of happiness

and surprise to the success of the hearer’s performance This is an expressive act.

Giving comments is also expressed in other acts

For instance, Vietnamese judges give comments:

I will vote this song.

If I have a prize, I will give to you for your effort to this song.

These utterances are considered as the act of expressing the content or approval

with the performance of contestants in the light of speech act This is a commisives

act Here, the speaker makes promise with the hearer to express his approval orsatisfaction with the hearer By promising something, the speaker offers his personalcredibility in general as a kind of guarantee that he will really perform the action.When the speaker makes an utterance, he also has an intention in his speech In term

of commenting, the speaker uses variety acts of expressing his opinion or reaction

In this research, giving comments is analyzed in terms of verbal stimulus, withwhich the utterances are expressed in the two shows: Vietnam Idol and American Idol.Non-verbal communication, paralinguistic and extra linguistic factors of this act are not

in the focus of the study Another factor should be considered is that the response of thisstimulus is beyond the scope of the study

I.3 POLITENESS

I.3.1 Theory of politeness

The term “politeness” means something rather different from our everydayunderstanding of it and focuses almost uniquely on polite language in the study ofverbal interaction

According to Richard J Watts (2003:9), “politeness is not something we are born

with, but something we have to learn and be socialized into.”

The use of language is to carry out social behaviors where mutual face wants arerespected, can be labeled linguistic politeness Yule (1996) says that, “politeness in aninteraction, can be then defined as the means employed to show awareness of another’s

face.” Culturally, politeness is seen as “the idea of polite social behave or etiquette

within a culture.”

Politeness, as defined by Blum-Kulka (1987:140), is “a function of redressive actionwith the latter having correlative relationship with indirectness.”

More clearly, Blum-Kulka states that politeness is “an interaction achieved between two

needs, the need for pragmatics clarity and the need to avoid coerciveness.” Here, by

giving this definition, the author makes an inference that it should be consideredwhether there is a direct relationship between indirectness and politeness as to her

“indirectness does not necessarily/always imply politeness.”

Nguyen Quang (2005:18) gives different view of politeness, “Politeness refers to any

communicative act (verbal and/or nonverbal) which is appropriately intended to make others feel better or less bad.”

Meanwhile, Leech (1983:104) defines politeness as “forms of behavior aimed at

creating and maintaining harmonious interactions.”

Hill et al (1986:349) view politeness as “a complex system for softening

face-threatening acts whose purpose is to consider other’s feelings establish levels of mutual comfort, and promote rapport.”(cited in The Universality of face in Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory: A Japanese perspective by Peter Longcope at

www.justinecassell.com/discourse09/ /longscope.pdf)

Brown and Levinson, the pioneers in politeness research see politeness as “a complex

system for softening face-threatening acts.”

When we give comments to somebody, we often show our politeness byexpressing our awareness of another person’s face In this sense, politeness can beaccomplished in situations of social distance and closeness Showing awareness foranother’s face is often described in terms of friendliness, camaraderie or solidarity

I.3.2 Politeness principles

From the view of politeness as “a system of interpersonal relations designed tofacilitate interaction by minimizing the potential for conflict and confrontationinherent in all human interchange”, Lakoff (1975) suggests three politeness rules: Rule 1: Formality: do not impose/ keep the distance

- Could you possibly…?

There is a difference in power and status between the participants, such as a studentand a dean…This rule will avoid, or ask permission on apologize for making theaddressee to anything which he/she does not want to do

Rule 2: Hesitation: offer options; let the hearer make his/her own decision

- I wonder if…

- I won’t be offended if you don’t want to…

The participants have approximately equal status and power, but are not sociallyclose such as a business person and a new client Giving options means expressingoneself in such a way that one’s opinion or request can be ignored without beingcontradicted or rejected

Rule 3: Camaraderie: make the hearer feel good

- I highly appreciate your suggestion…

- If it had not been for your help…

This is friendly or intimate politeness that encourages feelings of camaraderie It isappropriate to intimates or close friends

According to Nguyen Quang (2005), a person’s negative face is the need to beindependent, to have freedom of action, and not be imposed on by others A facesaving act oriented to a person’s negative face is called negative politeness Aperson’s positive face is the need to be accepted by others, to be treated as a member

of the same group A face saving act concerned with a person’s positive face iscalled positive politeness

Another researcher, Leech (1983:132) gives a politeness principles consisting of sixmaxims They are as follow:

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

 Generosity maxim: Minimize benefit to self Maximize dispraise of self

 Approbation maxim: Minimize dispraise of other Maximize dispraise ofself

 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 Maximizesympathy between self and other

Of all the maxims, Tact maxim is considered the most important kind of politeness

in English-speaking countries He says that his model could be applied universallyacross cultures But in fact, it can be best applied to English culture where social

distance is given higher value, especially in formal situations But it is unsuitable forall situations and societies where social intimacy is highly valued.

Brown and Levinson (1978) do not give a rule of politeness principles but set aschema of four components of communicative choices:

- without redressive action, baldly

Figure 2: Strategies for doing the FTAs (Brown and Levinson, 1978:65)

On record: a speaker can potentially get any of the following advantages, he

can enlist public pressure against the addressee or in support of himself

Bald-on-record: efficiency (speaker can claim that other things are more

important than face, or that the act is not a FTA at all.)

Off record: on the other hand, a speaker can profit in the following ways, he

can get credit for being tactful, non-coercive, he can run less risk of his act enteringthe gossip biography that others keep of him, and he can avoid responsibility for thepotentially face-damaging interpretation

Positive politeness: a speaker can minimize the face-threatening upsets of an act

by assuring the addressee that speaker considers himself to be of the same kind

Do the FTA

5 Don’ PERFORMANCE BYt the FTA

4 Off-record

3.Negative politenessLesser

Greater

On record

1 Without redressive action badly

With redressive action

2.Positivepoliteness

Negative politeness: a speaker can benefit in the following ways, he can pay

respect, deference to the addressee in return for the FTA, and can thereby avoidincurring

Brown and Levinson’s schemata assume that every individual has two types of face:positive and negative Positive face is defined as the individual desire that her/hiswants to be appreciated and approved of in social interaction, whereas negative face

is the desire for freedom of action and freedom from imposition

According to Nguyen Quang (2005:25), the schemata should be changed in the followingways:

FTA encounter

2 With redressive action

Positivepoliteness

Negativepoliteness

1 Without redressive action

Figure 3: Nguyen Quang’s schemata of possible strategies for doing the FTAs

In brief, when communicating or producing utterances, we might have anegative impact on partner’s face Then, besides off-record, individuals can choosepositive or negative politeness to avoid communicating partner’s discomfort

I.3.3 POLITENESS STRATEGIES

I.3.3.1 Positive politeness strategies

The notion of positive politeness strategy attracts from various researchers in therelated fields

Brown and Levinson assume that positive politeness is redress directed to theaddressee’s positive face, his perennial desire that his wants (or theactions/acquisitions/value resulting from them) should be thought of as desirable Positive politeness strategies are those that are used to satisfy positive face

On record

4 Do not do the FTA

Do the FTA

According to Nguyen Quang (2005: 27), “Positive politeness is any communicative act (verbal and or nonverbal) which is appropriately intended to show the speaker’s concern to the addressee, thus, enhancing the sense of solidarity between them.”

What is the major contribution of Nguyen Quang’s definition to intracultural andcross-cultural communication is his implicit suggestions of the sensitiveness andappropriateness employed by those who wish to know each other well, or those whowould like to be polite to others by using verbal or nonverbal language in a solidarysemantic and cultural way Positive politeness is realized in three main mechanisms:

 Claim common ground

 Display the sense of cooperation

 Satisfy hearer’s wants

More details:

 Mechanism 1: Claim common ground

 Strategy 1: Notice/attend to H (interest, wants, needs…)

When communicating, S cares for H’s wants or needs:

For example:

You must be thirsty What about some drink?

 Strategy 2: Exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with H)

It is the way S shows his/her concern by expressing that he/she is really interested inH’s news

I am really honored!

 Strategy 3: Intensify interest to the hearer in the speaker’s contribution

S communicates with H, he shares some of his wants to intensify the interest of hisown contributions to the conversation

 Strategy 4: Use in-group identity markers in speech

Some ways of address forms can be used flexibly and effectively in this strategy

I will lend you $1,000 Take it easy.

 Strategy 5: Seek agreement

In this strategy, S stresses his/her agreement with H, therefore, satisfies H’s desire to

be “right”, or to be corroborated in his opinions There are 4 different policies inorder to reach agreement between S and H: using safe topics, using minimalencouragers, repeating and agreeing

I will go there with you if you would like.

 Strategy 6: Avoid disagreement

In communication, Brown and Levinson suggest 4 policies: token agreements, whitelies, pseudo-agreement, and hedging opinions

A: What is she, small?

B: "Yes, yes, she's small, smallish, not really small but certainly not very big."

 Strategy 7: Presuppose, raise, and assert common ground.

There are 3 policies in this strategy: small talk, deixis inversion and presuppositionmanipulations

We both are hungry now Let’s have dinner.

Strategy 8: Joke to put hearer at ease

Making jokes is considered to be one of the helpful way to communicate between Sand H.S can share background knowledge, values, goals and sensitivity to H

Wow, that’s a whopper!

 Mechanism 2: Display the sense of cooperation

Strategy 9: Assert or presuppose knowledge of and concern for hearer’s

wants

This strategy indicates that S and H are cooperations of and thus potentially to putpressure on H to cooperate with S, is to assert or imply knowledge of H’s wants andwillingness to fit one’s own wants in with them

I know you can not bear parties, but this one will really be good-do come.

 Strategy 10: Offer, promise.

This strategy is used to gain the solidarity or cooperation between S and H, S oftenoffer or promise to do something in order to satisfy for H

I promise it will not happen again.

 Strategy 11: Be optimistic.

This strategy shows that S tries to establish a close or intimate relationship between

S and H

I believe you will pass the exam.

 Strategy 12: Include both S and H in the activity.

By using an inclusive “we” form, when S really means “you” or “me”, he can uponthe cooperative assumptions and thereby redress FTAs Noting that “let’s” inEnglish is an inclusive “we” form

What about going out for dinner?

 Strategy 13: Give or ask for reasons.

Giving or asking for reasons is one way that S shows his/her concern towards H

Why don’t you tell the truth to me?

 Strategy 14: Assert reciprocal exchange.

The existence of cooperation between S and H may also be claimed or urged bygiving evidence of reciprocal rights or obligations obtaining between S and H

I will go out with you if you promise not to tell this to anyone.

Mechanism 3: Satisfy H’s wants

 Strategy 15: Give gifts to H (good, sympathy, understanding, cooperation)

S may satisfy H’s positive face wants by actually satisfying some of H’s wants Scan give gifts or share the sadness or happiness to H

I’ve just shopped this cake for you Enjoy it?

 Strategy 16: Console and encourage

In this strategy, S expresses his/her concern and good will to H

Keep calm! I believe you will pass the exam easily.

 Strategy 17: Ask personal questions

People from negative politeness-oriented culture may get shocked when they meetthe first time asks such personal questions as:

How old are you?

How much do you get each month?

Are you married?

I.3.3.2 Negative politeness strategies

According to Nguyen Quang (2005:30), negative politeness “is any communicationact (verbal/or non verbal) which is appropriately intended to show that the speakerdoes not want to impinge on the addressee’s privacy, thus enhancing the sense ofdistance between them.”

There are five main mechanisms in negative politeness, which consist 11 strategies;

 Mechanism 1: Be indirect