A cross cultural communication study on joking between friends and relatives in vietnamese and english cultures

- To compare and contrast the range of telling joke strategies in the two languages in order to clarify similarities and differences in the way Vietnamese and English people telling a jo

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES -

ULIS, HANOI Faculty of POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES -

ULIS, HANOI Faculty of POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

LIST OF TABLES AND FINGURES

page

Table 1: The five general functions of speech acts (Yule, G 1996)…… 8

Table 2: The informants’ status parameters……….20

Table 3: Means realized in telling joke………21

Table 4, 5, 6: To the friends (English speakers)……… 23

Table 7, 8, 9: To the relatives (English speakers)………25

Table 10, 11: To the friends (English speakers)……….27

Table 12: To the friends (English speakers)……….28

Table 13: To the relatives (Vietnamese speakers)………29

Table 14, 15: To the relatives (Vietnamese speakers)………30

Table 16: Means in telling joke as seen from informants’ parameter (English speakers) ………30

Table 17: Means in telling joke as seen from informants’ parameter (Vietnamese speakers)……….31

Table of contents page

* Declaration……… i

* Acknowledgements……….…ii

* Abstract……… iii

* Table of contents……….iv

* Abbreviation………v

* List of tables and charts……… vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION……….….1

1 Rationale……….…….1

2 Aims of the study ……… 2

3 Scope of the study ……… 2

4 Research questions ……….….2

5 Methodology……….3

6 Design of the study ……….……3

PART B – DEVELOPMENT……….… 5

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND……… …5

1.1 Cross-cultural communication……….… 5

1.1.1 What is culture? 5

1.1.2 Cross-cultural communication……….……6

1.2 Speech acts……… … 6

1.2.1 Definition of speech acts……….…6

1.2.2 Classifications of speech acts……… 7

1.3 Joking as a speech act……… 9

1.3.1 Definition of joke……… …9

1.3.2 Joke as a speech act……… 9

1.4 English sense of humour……… 10

1.4.1 Sense of humour……….10

1.4.2 English sense of humour……… 11

1.5 Joking in English and Vietnamese culture……… 12

1.5.1 Laughter in everyday life……… 12

1.5.2 Joking in English and Vietnamese……….13

CHAPTER II: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION……… 19

2.1 Description of the questionnaires……….19

2.2 Description of the subjects……….19

2.3 Data analysis……… 20

2.3.1 The informants’ awareness of the sense of humour and joking……… 20

2.3.2 Means realized in telling joke……….21

2.3.3 Use of means in joking as seen from communicating partners’ parameters 21

2.3.3.1 English findings………21

2.3.3.1.1 In friend relation……… 21

2.3.3.1.2 In relative relation……… 23

2.3.3.2 Vietnamese findings……… 26

2.3.3.2.1 In friend relation……….26

2.3.3.2.2 In relative relation……… 28

2.3.4 Use of means in telling jokes as seen from informants’ parameters……… 30

*English findings……….30

*Vietnamese findings……… 31

2.5 Major similarities and differences findings between English and Vietnamese…31 2.5.1 Similarities……… 31

2.5.2 Differences……… 32

2.6 Some implications in using humour in the teaching foreign language…………32

Part C CONCLUSION……… 36

1 Major findings……… 36

2 Suggestion for further study……….36

References ……….…37

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Communication is the interpersonal action which for exchanging the information among the members in a social community Communication action could be carried out in different ways However, communication through language is the highest and the most important communicative means of human beings Language is formed from the linguistic units such as morphemes, words, phrases, clauses and sentences As Crystal

(1992: 212) claims that language is “the systematic, conventional use of sounds, signs, or written symbols in a human society for communication and self-expression”

Language does not occur in isolation, language and culture are believed to be

interrelated Supporting that point of view, Goodnough (1957) states that “the relation of language to culture is that of part to whole” It is said that language and culture are

interwoven with each other so one could not be properly understood or appreciated with out the knowledge of the other Unlike language, culture does not hold fixed rules Culture is different from society to society, even from individual to individual Thus, what is acceptable in one culture may not be acceptable in another one Similar to the dressing, housing etc, language is also a way of making cultural identity On the other hand, culture influents the way in which language is used That is reason why language learners need acquire the linguistic system as well as aware of the cultural dimension of that language

In our country in the last few years, teaching and learning foreign languages in general and teaching and learning English in particular has become a topical issue drawing concerns of many researchers As Vietnam adopted an open-door policy, there are many people wishing to learn and master English to communicate with foreigners However, the teaching and learning processes in Vietnam still seems to focus much on linguistic competence - producing correct utterances rather than social or contextual appropriate ones This is the reason why learners may be proficient in grammar and vocabulary, but still fail to communicate effectively because they lack of communicative competence

With an effort to improve learners’ communicative competence, a large number of English -Vietnamese cross - cultural studies concerned with the realization and the usage

of such the sensitive speech acts such as requesting, inviting, thanking, greeting, giving and receiving compliments, etc This suggests a cross-cultural study of one of the most sensitive illocutionary act in English and Vietnamese that is joking This paper is hoped to

be another contribution as it is a research on some English - Vietnamese similarities and differences in joking I have chosen the speech act of joking as the object to be investigated in my study with the hope that it will help avoid, or at least, reduce cultural conflicts in joking in cross - cultural communication

2 Aims of the study

The aims of the study are:

- To investigate the ways of telling jokes

- To compare and contrast the range of telling joke strategies in the two languages in order to clarify similarities and differences in the way Vietnamese and English people telling a joke in their own language and culture

- To contribute to increasing cross - cultural awareness among foreign language teachers and learners in the speech act of telling a joke

3 Scope of the study

- This paper is confined only to the verbal aspects of the act of joking Although the author is fully aware of the role of paralinguistic and non - verbal factors in real-life communication, they are beyond the scope of this study

- This study is aimed to investigate the English -Vietnamese cross - cultural

interaction on speech act of joking between friends and relatives Its central focus is on

which strategies used in joking in both languages English and Vietnamese

- The data are mainly taken based on conducting survey questionnaires that consist of six situations in which the act of joking occurs Recorded and videotaped face-to-face conversations are impossible due to limitations of time, geographical and financial difficulties

4 Research questions

The study will focus on dealing with the following questions:

1 What are similarities and differences in the ways English and Vietnamese people telling jokes between friends and relatives in their own languages and cultures?

2 How is the application in using humour in the teaching of foreign language?

5 Methodology

The main method of this study is the quantitative one In order to set up the

theoretical framework for the study, the author refers to both Vietnamese and English publications All the considerations, remarks, comments and conclusions in this thesis are based on following practical approaches:

+ referring to relevant publications

+ conducting survey questionnaires + analyzing the data collection + consulting with supervisor + discussing with colleagues

6 Design of the study

This study is divided into three parts:

Part A: INTRODUCTION: All the academic routines required for an M A Thesis are presented

Part B: DEVELOPMENT: This part consists of two chapters

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Cross-cultural communication

1.1.1 What is culture?

1.1.2 Cross-cultural communication

1.2 Speech acts

1.2.1 Definition of speech acts

1.2.2 Classifications of speech acts

1.3 Joking as a speech act

1.3.1 Definition of joke

1.3.2 Joke as a speech act

1.4 English sense of humour

1.4.1 Sense of humour

1.4.2 English sense of humour

1.5 Joking in English and Vietnamese culture

1.5.1 Laughter in everyday life

1.5.2 Joking in English and Vietnamese

CHAPTER II: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

2.1 Description of the questionnaire

2.2 Description of the subjects

2.3 Data analysis

2.3.1 The informants’ awareness of the sense of humour and joking

2.3.1 Means realized in telling joke

2.3.2 Use of means in joking as seen from communicating partners’ parameters

PART B - DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Cross-cultural communication

1.1.1 What is culture?

Most people believe that it is impossible to master a language without having knowledge of its cultural background We often use the word “culture” in daily life however, when we try to define what culture is, it is indeed difficult In fact, different authors have different definitions of culture

One of the most widely known definitions of culture is Goodenough’s definition

The author states that culture is “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.”

(cited in Warhaugh, 1992: 217)

Obviously, culture is an essential kind of knowledge which everyone needs to own

to act within a society And this knowledge is gained through social actions that you take part in as a member of the society Furthermore, cultures are not the production of individuals They are the continuously evolving productions of people interacting with each others If you were the only human on earth, there would be no need for language or culture

Different culture groups think, feel, and act differently However, there are learned behavior patterns that are shared by all humanity collectively No matter where people live on the world, they share these universal traits For example, we all communicate by using a verbal language consisting of a limited set of words and grammatical rules; we all use age and gender to classify people, etc As Nguyen Quang (1998: 3) states that culture

is “a shared background (for example, national, ethic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes, and values.”

In short, culture is a powerful human tool for survival It consists of the full range

of learned human behavior patterns that we acquired in a society Different societies have

different cultural characters These differences cause the variety of human languages and cultures

1.1.2 Cross-cultural communication

Kramsch (1998: 81) affirms that cross-culture is “the meeting of two cultures or two languages across the political boundaries of nation-states.” It is evidently that

different societies also exchange and share culture Cross-cultural exchange often results

in what scholars call acculturation when the members of one culture adopt features of another For example, Vietnamese Americans change their ways of life when they move from Vietnam to America They change their taste of food, types of dressing, ways of communication, etc., to get use to the new environment

Apart from that, cross-cultural communication is the “communication (verbal and non-verbal) between people from different cultures; communication that is influenced by cultural values, attitudes, and behavior; the influence of culture on people’s reactions and responses to each other.” (Levince, R.D & Adelman M.B, 1993: xvii) Normally,

people know how to behave appropriately within their own culture and society However when they move to another country, this social behavior rules change For instance, it is

quite usual for Vietnamese to greet by saying “where are you going?” On the other

hand, such utterance may be perceived as annoying curiosity by native English speakers because for most Western cultures, the individual and personal privacy comes first Thus,

it is necessary for Vietnamese people to avoid this way of greeting when moving to Western countries

1.2 Speech acts

1.2.1 Definition of speech acts

In order to carry out the purpose in communication, people not only produce utterances containing grammatical and lexicological factors, but also perform actions through these utterances These actions performed via utterances are called speech acts

For example, the following utterance: “I promise I will come tomorrow” not only

conveys information but it also constitutes the act of promising

The British philosopher J L Austin in his book “How to do things with words”

(1962) is the first to draw attention to the functions performed by utterances as part of

interpersonal communication John Austin (1962: 94) defines speech acts as the actions performed in saying something

Searle (1969: 16) affirms that when we speak a language we are performing

speech acts, “acts such as making statements, giving commands, asking questions, making promises and so on” He suggests that these acts are performed suitable for

certain rules for the usage of linguistic elements

Although two authors introduce two different definitions of speech acts, generally they share the common point that speech acts are the actions that are involved when one says something In brief, a speech act is simply an action performed by means of language

1.2.2 Classifications of speech acts

Author John Austin (1962: 109) in his book “How to do things with words” believes that a single act usually contains three related acts: Locutionary act, Illocutionary act and Perlocutionary act

+ Locutionary act is the action performed by uttering a well-formed, meaningful

sentence

+ Illocutionary act is the communication force or intention of the speaker or writer

which accompanies the utterance, e.g promising, warning, conceding, denying, etc

+ Perlocutionary act is the effect of the utterance on the hearer or the reader who

may feel amused, persuaded, warned

Sharing the same point of view, Yule, G (1996: 48) also claims that whenever we

produce an utterance, we perform three related speech acts: locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act When we utter the sentence “It is very hot here”, we are

likely to produce a locutionary act Moreover, we mostly do not make utterances without

having any purpose In the example above, we do not simply say that sentence but also intend to require the listener to open the door or turn on the air - conditioner This kind of

acts is called illocutionary act These acts are performed for communicative function

The third classification of speech acts, namely perlocutionary acts in the sentence “It is

very hot here” is that we all wish the act of opening the door, turning on the

air-conditioner to be done

After Austin, there are many other pragmatists who inherited and advanced his speech acts theory We have to mention Searle’s (1969: 70) classification It is one of the most influential and widely used classifications He provides five basic types of speech act as follows:

+ Declarations are those kinds of speech acts that bring about states of affairs,

including namings, firings, hirings, pardons, etc

+ Representatives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the case or not including assertions, descriptions, reports, statements, etc

+ Expressives are those kinds of speech acts that state the speaker’s psychological

state or attitude, including apologies, compliments, greetings, thankings, etc

+ Directives are those kinds of speech acts that attempt to get the hearer to do something, including questions, requests, orders, etc

+ Commissives are those kinds of speech acts that speaker commits themselves to

some future act, including promises, threat, refusals, vow, etc

Similarly, Yule, G (1996: 55) presents five types of speech acts that are shown as

in the table below:

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

Furthermore, according to Yule, G (1996: 55), speech acts are classified based on the relationship between the structure and functions The author claims that there are three structural forms (declarative, interrogative, and imperative) and three general communicative functions (statement, question, command or request) They can be combined to create two other types of speech acts: direct and indirect speech acts Yule,

G (1996: 54) 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:

a Could you please stop smoking?

b Don’t you feel cold?

The utterance (a) can be understood in the structurally direct way that speaker gets the addressee to stop smoking The utterance (b) is not only used as a question but also as

a request, hence it is considered to be indirect speech act

1.3 Joking as a speech act

1.3.1 Definition of joke

The Oxford Word Power Dictionary defines joke as “something said or done to make you laugh, especially a funny story” Share the same point of view, Macmillan Dictionary gives the definition that “something you say or do that is intended to make people laugh” It is easy to realize that the same joke can work brightly in one context

and fail in another Therefore, it is important to understand others responding to humour when someone intends to tell a joke The joke normally includes a “punch line” (the point

of a joke or humourous story) that will end the sentence to make it humourous A joke or

a humourous story can work or not depending on the discovery of the punch line from the responders A joke can also be a single phrase or statement that employs sarcasm such as the joke:

A man is talking to God The man: God, how long is a million years?

God: To me, it is about a minute

The man: God, how much is a million dollars?

God: To me it's a penny

The man: God, may I have a penny?

God: Wait a minute

Jokes are typically for the entertainment of friends and onlookers The desired response to a joke is generally laughter and smile However, jokes have other purposes and functions that are common use in comedy or satire

1.3.2 Joke as a speech act

In the article “Joke – Telling as a tool in ESL” the author Susan Trachtenberg (1979) agues that “a joke is a speech act which requires a great deal of communicative competence on the part of the speaker and the hearer The comprehension no less than

the telling of a joke also requires a fair degree of sociolinguistic familiarity with the target culture” The author also claims that like other speech act, the telling of jokes involves “certain formulate” which differs from language to language and from culture

to culture Jokes are loved and enjoyed by all Most people believe that jokes are a part of virtually every culture and every society Therefore, understanding the language and the culture will help you to understand the jokes, enjoy listening to the jokes and appreciate the humour of the jokes

Pocheptsov, G G, in the book “Language and Humour” states that “the most general phenomenon underlying many, not to all, linguistically based jokes, anecdotes etc is ambiguity” (1974: 16) The ambiguity is produced by various linguistic meanings

The author claims that commonly there are two basic participants in the plot of a joke One produces an ambiguous sentence, usually not intending to be so The other participant interprets the ambiguous sentence in a different sense And then the erroneous interpretation may be unintentional or intentional For instance, the following joke

contains the unintentional erroneous interpretation from Jonny

Irate Mother (at dinner): “Jonny, I wish you’d stop reaching for things Haven’t you a tongue?”

Jonny: “Yes, Mother, but my arm’s longer”

Author Pocheptsov, G G figures out linguistic humour as displayed in jokes

contains “three scenic components” They are the observers, the readers and the listeners

In fact, all three can be called recipient When a joke is made and whether or not it works

depends not only on the quality of the joke but also on the “quality” of the recipient

Therefore, before telling a joke, the joke-teller should consider the factors that come from the hearer or the reader such as their age, their attitude towards particular types of jokes and specially their sense of humour

1.4 English sense of humour

1.4.1 Sense of humour

In the book “The Language of Humour”, Alison Ross defines humour as

“something that makes a person laugh or smile” (1998: 1) Obviously, when you think of

a joke the first thing that comes to your mind is laughter In fact, people of all ages and cultures respond to humour The majority of people are able to experience humour, i.e., to

be amused, to laugh or smile at something funny and thus they consider having a sense of humour However, an individual finds something humourous depends upon a host of

variables They include geographical location, cultures, maturity, level of education, the intelligence and context For example, young children may favour slapstick or cartoons

such as Tom and Jerry Satire may rely more on understanding the target of humour and

thus tend to appeal to more mature audiences

Alison Ross (1998: 8) states that the humour will often have the following elements:

 There is a conflict between what is expected and what actually occurs in the joke

 The conflict is caused by an ambiguity at someone level of language

 The punch line is surprising as it is not the expected interpretation, but it resolves the conflict

The reason for not finding such a joke funny might be that you do not perceive the ambiguity Or it might be because the double meaning is repeated that you acknowledge it

is a joke but not a funny one

1.4.2 English sense of humour

Mike Story and Peter Childs (1997: 13) in the book “British Identity” affirm that

“British people are often considered to be withdrawn and reserved” The English appear

to be deeply serious people Since the English often hide what they mean, often tend towards understatement One of the well - know characteristics of English is their sense of humour

As Nguyen Do (lecture of British cultural values and norms, 2010) a vital element

in all aspects of British life and culture is the renowned British sense of humour The important of humour in all situations, including business contexts, can not be

overestimated Humour is frequently used as a “defence mechanism”, often in the form of

self - depreciation or irony It is can be highly implicit and in this sense is related to the English indirect communication style

In the article “Exploring Englishness - Part 2”, Taylor (2004) states that “of all the characteristics, good and bad, for which the English are known in the outside world, our sense of humour is one of the best - known and most positively regarded” For the

English themselves, they always consider that they have a lot of humour This is evidence

by the incredible number of English humourous films, publication and radio comedy

shows Comedy acts and television programmes typical of English humour include Monty Python, Benny Hill and Keeping up Appearances that have become quite popular outside

of United Kingdom

In turn, Taylor (2004) also explains why the English people so sensitive to humourous possibilities and I think it is convincible The reasons lie on partly in English history, partly on English character and English society When comparing English history with Continental history you are attracted by some major overall differences To begin with, there has been no civil war in England for centuries so the English have not experience horror and bloodshed in their own country on the other hand with other Europe people have suffered a lot A lack of a violent domestic history is probably

essential to the development of an “expansive and good - natured national sense of humour” (Taylor, 2004) Another thing that is English’s incremental progress towards a

liberal democracy, with stable gains for individual right This is in contrast to other nations in Europe, in which, historically gains have been made in government The awareness of progress and most importantly the sense of individual right create English humour tendency to be comfortable, cheerful and forgiving In addition, the English

character also contributes English people are “fairly imaginative and socialised to enjoy humour” (Taylor, 2004) It means that English people are able to see and seek out the

funny aspects of things

1.5 Joking in English and Vietnamese culture

1.5.1 Laughter in everyday life

Laughter, the intended human reaction to jokes, has highly value in everyday life

We often laugh because we're happy, but laughing can also make us happy and healthy

According to Anonymous (2002) in the article “Laughing Matter”, all types of laughter

should be a series of short vowel like syllables such as 'ha-ha-ha' or 'tee-hee-hee' that are about 210 milliseconds apart Laughter releases endorphins that have pain - relieving properties similar to morphine and are probably connected to happy feelings, and the release of sex hormones

The benefits of laughter are also suggested at health/ Firstly, laughter helps to protect against disease The real world is full of troubles

http://healthmad.com/mental-As laughter is so often associated with happiness, people start to feel good when they laugh in time of trouble Secondly, laughter also helps to reduce stress In today’s world

we often suffer from stress and anxiety Laughter can keep your spirits bright enough so you can see the positive side of problem even when things get hard When laughter relieves tension, the muscles in your body relax, which is very useful for physical health

In Vietnamese culture, laughter also is high appreciated Every Vietnamese people

know the idiom “Một tiếng cười bằng mười thang thuốc bổ”

(Laughter is equal with ten medical prescriptions)

Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Huu Duc in his article ““Một tiếng cười bằng mười thang thuốc bổ” presents that “scientists have recorded a minute joyful laughter having effect as forty-five minutes taking rest” In this article, he also points out four benefits of

laughter that are reducing stress, fostering body’s strength, increasing resistance for your body Especially, laughter helps to make a nice skin of face When you laugh, your skin – muscle curves rhythmically so laughter helps to reduce the wrinkle or to dim your wrinkle In brief, as laughter reducing stress which associated with a number of diseases, laughter has a high value and laughter is a source of a healthier and longer life in both English and Vietnamese culture

1.5.2 Joking in English and Vietnamese

In everyday life, joking takes place frequently, especially between friends and relatives because we meet these people many times than others Hoang Phe (2004: 351)

defines that “đùa là làm hoặc nói điều gì để cho vui, không phải là thật” (joke is doing or saying something to make fun and is not true) Jokes are the best ways to

strengthen your relationship between friends Funny friend jokes can help to make peace with friends, to mitigate the shame or simply to make fun However, it is not true that everybody also has the sense of humour So, when telling a joke with others, the joke-teller has to know the jokes’ recipients’ sense of humour

England and Vietnam have basic differences in culture background that lead to the differences of the sense of humour Firstly, Vietnam and England come from two different historical background and location Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia where people live mainly on agriculture with undeveloped economy Vietnamese people favour family orientation than individualism in contras with English people who favour

individualism Thus, community activities early appeared and rapidly developed in Vietnamese daily life In the past, Vietnamese people had suffered from the oppression of the Feudal system for a long time On the other hand, England locates in the Northwest of Europe It is surrounded by North Sea, Ireland Sea, Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel There is no civil war in England for centuries with a stable political system with fairly individual right In addition, with the Industry Revolution of the early nineteenth century, England has become one of the most developed countries in the world

Due to the cultural and social differences, the characters of people in two cultures are different Therefore, the sense of humour of Vietnamese people and the sense of humour of English people are also different It is easy realized in English and Vietnamese funny stories The researcher has examined twenty English funny stories and twenty Vietnamese stories between friends and relatives randomly This work helps researcher not only to find out the matters that often occur between husbands and wives, parents and children and between friends but also the means of making laugh in these jokes The

English funny stories mostly based mostly on two books “British Laughter” (L A Hill, 2002) and “Bilingual English-Vietnamese Funny Stories” (Thu Huong, 2006) Among

twenty funny stories, there are ten funny stories between husband and wife, five funny stories between friends and five funny stories between parents and children After

examining the jokes, the results show that “husband and wife” jokes mainly mention to

the adultery (having sex with others illegally), other jokes talk about the husbands’ complaint about the wives’ characteristics and vice versa These jokes often use taboos with sexual content with surprised results to create fun

E.g., Newlyweds

Some newly married friends were visiting us when the topic of children came up The bride said she wanted three children, while the young husband said two would be enough for him

They discussed this discrepancy for a few minutes until the husband thought he'd put an end to things by saying boldly, "After our second child, I'll just have a vasectomy."

Without a moment's hesitation, the bride retorted, "Well, I hope you'll love the third one as if it's your own."

In addition, the researcher realizes that friends often joke about many things in life but often about the partners in the future or the complaint about their husbands and wives,

or about stupid things, etc Dirty jokes that employ the taboos, often sexual content or vocabulary hold prominent rate Funny stories between parent and children often contain the surprised and funny explanation of fathers or mothers when answering the children’ questions

e.g., Training

- Daddy, when I grow up, I want to be an Arctic explorer

- That’s fine Dick

- But I want to go into training at once

- How can you do it?

- I want a dollar a day for ice- cream so I’ll get used to the cold

Among twenty Vietnamese funny stories, there are six “husband and wife” funny

stories, five friend funny stories and five funny stories between parent and children These

funny stories mostly taken from the book “The best tieu lam funny story” (Tam tam:

2009) The funny stories between husband and wife mostly have the content about the adultery, sex and husbands or wives’ complaint about each other

e.g., Thanh thản ra đi

Hai vợ chồng nọ có 5 đứa con: 4 đứa đầu thì trắng trẻo xinh đẹp, chỉ có đứa út đen đủi, xấu xí tệ Người chồng nghi ngờ lắm nhưng không giám nói ra Đến lúc lâm chung, mới ra hiệu gọi vợ lại hỏi:

- Tôi sắp đi đây, trước khi chết tôi hỏi thật bà một điều Thằng út…

- Thằng út làm sao?

- Nó có thật sự….là con của tôi không?

- Đến giờ phút nầy thì tôi cũng không giấu giếm gì ông Thằng út…mới thật sự là con của ông

Ông chồng, tai đã lãng đãng, máy đã “treo”… mỉm cười ra đi

(Peacefully gone

A couple has five children: the first four ones are white and beautiful; only has the last boy is black and ugly The husband is so in doubt but he fear to talk

out When he is at the death’s door, he asks his wife: I’m nearly to die, before death I want to know The youngest boy……

- How is the youngest boy?

- Is he my own child?

- At that time I don’t want to hide anything The youngest boy is indeed your own child

The husband has bad hearing with “hung” machine … smile and gone.)

Funny stories between parent and children mostly contain humorous advice of father or mother for the children

e.g., Nó sẽ thấy

Một cô gái ngoan đạo nói với mẹ về người yêu của mình:

- Anh ấy yêu con nhưng không tin có thiên đàng hay địa ngục gì cả Vậy con có nên lấy ảnh không hả mẹ?

Bà mẹ đáp tỉnh khô:

- Cứ việc lấy! Rồi nó sẽ thấy cả hai!

(He will see

A obedient girl talks to her mother about her lover:

- He loves me but he doesn’t believe that Heaven or Hell is true So, should I marry with him?

The mother answer:

- Just get married! He will see both!)

The funny stories between friends mostly contain the vulgar factors or allusion to make fun in an ironical voice

e.g., Chơi khăm

Ba cô thư ký trò chuyện với nhau về việc mình đã chơi khăm sếp Cô thứ nhất: - Một hôm tớ dùng băng dính dán hết các ngăn kéo của sếp lại Thế là lúc cần mở ngăn kéo, sếp vã mồ hôi, bực tức quát tháo ầm cả lên

Cô thứ hai: - Một lần lục trong ngăn kéo của xếp thấy có mấy bao cao su, tớ liền lấy kim chọc thủng tất, xong rồi để lại nguyên xi Dứt khoát phải có một tên bị lãnh đạn…

Cô thứ ba không kịp nói gì, mặt mày cứ tái mét, rồi lăn đùng ra ngất xỉu tại chỗ giống như bị trúng… đạn vậy!

(Dirty trick

Three secretaries are chatting about playing dirty trick on their boss The first one: - One day I stick the drawers, then he sweats profusely to open them and he shouts loudly

The second one: - Once I search the drawers and find some condom I pierce all

of them and leave it in old position I’m sure that at least a person will be

In impersonal observation and interlanguage study in English and Vietnamese in terms of telling a joke, there are some common ways used in English and Vietnamese:

bons- mots, allusion, vulgarity and simile Pocheptsov, G G in the book “Language and Humour” (1974: 48) states that bons- mots are simply appropriate and humorous sayings

Bon- mot mentioned here is also linguistically based Allusion “in humour involve extra- linguistic knowledge, in other words knowledge about the world The double meaning may involve reference to a saying or quotation” (Ross, A., 1998: 11) However, if the

listener does not share the same awareness of the joke-teller, the ambiguity can not be recognized or it does not make fun Simile is the way we compare two things and the

funny made by “the image is bizarre or awkwardly incongruity” (Ross, A., 1998: 35)

Theoretical discussions have been provided, the next chapter analyses the data from survey questionnaires in specific situations and discusses the main findings from both sources (English and Vietnamese) to see how different and similar they are in telling jokes

CHAPTER II: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 2.1 Description of the questionnaires

The data taken from the survey questionnaire are used as the linguistic input The questionnaire is divided into two parts The first part contains three open questions to examine the informants’ awareness of the sense of humour and joking The second part is designed to investigated how informants verbally joking with friends and relatives in given situations Situational questionnaire contains six situations that are divided into two parts Part A holds three situations related to friends and part B holds three situations related to relatives The communicative partners are:

 The informant’s close friend

 The informant’s dislike person

 The informant’s classmate (opposite

sex)

 The informant’s classmate (same

sex)

 The informant’s 10 years older

 The informant’s grandmother/ father

 The informant’s mother/ father

 The informant’s uncle/ aunt

 The informant’s grandchild

 The informant’s son/ daughter

 The informant’s brother/sister

 The informant’s cousin

 The informant’s wife

2.2 Description of the subjects

There are two groups of informants One is the Vietnamese and the other is the English native speaker The Vietnamese informants all live in Northern Vietnam The English native speaker mostly come from England, some of them come from Australia and America The English native speaker group includes of twenty people It is the author’s assumption that the status parameters of the informants may affect the way people communicate, therefore informants from both groups were asked to provide information about their:

 Age