A politeness strategy in expressing sympathy by American and Vietnamese speakers.

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES TA THI THANH HIEN A POLITENESS STRATEGY IN EXPRESSING SYMPATH

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

TA THI THANH HIEN

A POLITENESS STRATEGY IN EXPRESSING SYMPATHY BY AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE

SPEAKERS

(CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ TRONG VIỆC DIỄN ĐẠT SỰ CẢM THÔNG CỦA NGƯỜI MỸ VÀ NGƯỜI VIỆT NAM)

MINOR MA THESIS

Linguistics

60 22 15

Supervisor: Prof Assoc Tran Huu Manh, PhD

HANOI, 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

TA THI THANH HIEN

A POLITENESS STRATEGY IN EXPRESSING SYMPATHY BY AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE

SPEAKERS

(CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ TRONG VIỆC DIỄN ĐẠT SỰ CẢM THÔNG CỦA NGƯỜI MỸ VÀ NGƯỜI VIỆT NAM)

MINOR MA THESIS

Linguistics

60 22 15

Supervisor: Prof Assoc Tran Huu Manh, PhD

HANOI, 2010

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background and significance of the study … 1

1.2 Objectives ……… 2

1.3 Overview of the study……… 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Speech acts ……… 4

2.2 Politeness……… 7

2.2.1 Theory of politeness……… 7

2.2.2 Social factors affecting politeness ………8

2.2.3 The notion of face ………

2.2.4 The notion of positive and negative politeness……… …….9

2.3 Directness and indirectness……… 10

2.3.1 Direct speech acts………… 10

2.3.2 Indirect speech acts………… 11

2.4 Cooperative principles……… 12

2.5 The speech act of comfort……… 14

2.6 Politeness in expressing sympathy………… 14

2.7 Sympathy and antipathy…… ……… 17

CHAPTER 3: METHODLOGY 19

3.1 Research methods of the study……… 19

3.2 Research questions……… 19

3.3 Research design……… 19

3.3 1 Selection of subjects……… 19

3.3.2 Data collection instruments…… 20

3.3.3 Data collection procedure… .23

3.4 Analytical framewor……… 24

3.4.1 Internal modification……… 24

3.4.2 External modifications…… 25

3.4.3 The Head Act formula…… 26

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 29

4.1 The choice of strategy……… 29

4.2 The choice of External modification or Supportive Moves 30

4.3 The internal modifications……… ………….31

4.4 The realization of sympathy expression……… 32

4.5 Summary of major findings……… 33

4.6 Discussion of findings……… 34

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 37

5.1 Conclusion……… 37

5.2 Implications……… 38

5.3 Suggestions for further study……… 39

REFERENCES 40

APPENDIX A I

APPENDIX B IV

APPENDIX C VIII

APPENDIX D……….…….XII