A contrastive analysis of requests in english and vietnamese = so sánh lời đề nghị trong tiếng anh và tiếng việt luận văn tốt nghiệp đại học

Moreover, some structures of Requests which are used frequently in the letters are also analyzed with the hope to find out the best ways to give requests in both languages, English and V

VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG ANH

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF REQUESTS

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(SO SÁNH LỜI ĐỀ NGHỊ TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

GRADUATION THESIS

Field: Linguistics

VINH - 2011

VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF REQUESTS

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(SO SÁNH LỜI ĐỀ NGHỊ TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

GRADUATION THESIS

Field: Linguistics

Supervisor : Nguyễn Thị Kim Anh, MA Student: Nguyễn Thị Hồng Anh Class : K48B2 - English

VINH - 2011

For the completion of this work, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people First of all, I should like to express my deepest gratitude to my lecturer, Mrs Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, MA for her absolutely indispensable assistance, excellent suggestions, expert advices and detailed critical comments without those my work would not have been completed.

I owe a special debt of gratitude to Mr Tran Ba Tien, MA and Mrs Nguyen Thi Van Lam, MA who helped me initiate the idea for my research , giving me their enthusiastic encouragement and the benefit of their wisdom as well as his long and varied experiences in doing language research

In addition, I am greatly indebted to all my lecturers at Foreign Languages Department, Vinh University for their enthusiasm, unedited useful lectures, interesting ideas, experiences, constant support and encouragement.

I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to Mr Hung for his reading of

my draft as well as his invaluable suggestions and comments, my friends at Foreign Language Department, Vinh University, and to my other friends for their various kinds of help, big support and endless encouragement.

My warmest thanks are due to my loving parents, for their unconditional loves , supports all good condition as possible and their patience.

Finally , I am all too aware that despite all the meaningful advices and assistant helps, I fell that the study is far from perfect , it is , therefore, my sole responsibility for any inadequacies and shortcomings that the study may be considered to have

differences of Requests between the two languages are mentioned Their practice in reality will be discovered Moreover, some structures of Requests which are used frequently in the letters are also analyzed with the hope to find out the best ways to give requests in both languages, English and Vietnamese Finally, some suggestions are given so that English learners in Vietnam can use to enhance the effect of using Requests in the letters for their different communicative purposes.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vi

ABBREVIATION vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Justification of the Study 1

2 Aims of the Study 2

3 Methods of the Study 2

4 Scope of the Study 3

5 Design of the Study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 Overview of the Theory 5

1.2 Sentences 5

1.2.1 Some Definitions of Sentences 5

1.2.2 Classification of Sentences 6

1.3 Requests 8

1.3.1 Definitions of Requests 8

1.3.2 Types of Requests 8

1.3.3 Requests in Letters 12

1.3.4 Rules of Requests in Letters 16

1.4 Summary 16

CHAPTER II THE STUDY 17

2.1 Research Questions 18

2.2 Data collection 18

2.2.1 Objects 18

2.2.2 Data Collection Procedure 18

2.3 Research Procedure 18

2.4 Results and Discussion 19

2.4.1 Results 19 19

2.4.2 Discussion 19

CHAPTTER III A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF REQUESTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 20

3.1 Forms of Requests in English and Vietnamese 21

3.1.1 Requests in Form of Declarative Sentences 21

3.1.2 Requests in Form of Imperative Sentences 21

3.1.3 Requests in Form of Interrogative Sentences 23

3.2 Request Expressions 27

3.2.1 Directnes 29

3.2.2 Indirectness 29

3.2.3 Politeness Strategy 31

3.3 Words and Structures used for Requests 33

3.3.1 Words used for Requests 35

3.3.2 Structures used for Requests 35

3.4 Factors affecting Requests 39

3.5 Frequency of using Requests in English and Vietnamese 41

3.5.1 Commanding 43

3.5.2 Begging 43

3.5.3 Advising 43

3.5.4 Suggesting 44

3.5.5 Inviting 44

3.5.6 Encouraging 44

3.5.7 Promising 44

3.5.8 Reminding 44

3.5.9 Permitting 45

3.5.10 Informing 45

3.6 Similarities and Differences of Requests in Letters in English and Vietnamese 46

3.6.1 Similarities 46

3.6.2 Differences 47

3.7 Summary 49

PART C: CONCLUSION 50

1 Recapitulation and Implication 50

2 Suggestions for further Studies 52

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

TABLES

Table 1: Examples of Requests in terms of forms and expressions 18Table 2: The statistic results of the survey of the letters 19Table 3: The frequency of using Requests in English and Vietnamese 45

CHARTS

Chart 1: Requests in form of declarative sentences in English and Vietnamese 23Chart 2: Requests in form of imperative sentences in English and Vietnamese 26Chart 3: Requests in form of interrogative sentences in English and Vietnamese 28Chart 4: Request in form of declarative, imperative and interrogative sentences in English and Vietnamese 29Chart 5: Direct Requests in English and Vietnamese 31

Chart 6: Indirect Requests in English and Vietnamese 33

CA : Contrastive Analysis

& : and

CMND: Ch ng minh Nhân dânứng minh Nhân dân

D & I: Direct and IndirectE.g: Example exchange

% : Percent

E : English

V: Vietnamese

Sents: sentences

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Justification of the Study

It can be said that the appearance of requests occupies a large frequency in ourdaily language When we want to give order, or ask someone to do something, weuse requests instinctively That is why we make requests The answer is also because

we all can not exist on our own without any help from other people but we have to

be in company and seek help from others in the society That puts more emphasis onthe role of requests in learning a language as a mother tongue or as a secondlanguage We frequently use requests to get somebody to do something, askingthem to help or cooperate with us, naturally and instinctively, especially by letters.However, different language has different ways to form its requests Especially,when English and Vietnamese do not share the same language type, thesedifferences become more obvious Therefore, using requests in letters in English aswell as Vietnamese reasonably is considered an important part for the success ofcommunicative goals, because they are the means to express the ideas of the writers

as well as to link between writer and receiver about their relationship or wishes AsVietnamese students who have learned English for quite a long time and teachers-to-be of English, we find that learning English requests is an easy job to Vietnamesebut at the same time causes repeated problems due to their unawareness of andconfusion about the similarities and differences between English and Vietnameserequests The study about requests will contribute to the improvement of the ways

we give requests and raising the effects of using them in communication That willhelp us achieve some good and effective ways to give requests politely in letters inmany different situations and get good results in using languages For the above

reasons, this study mentioned “A Contrastive Analysis of Requests in English and

Vietnamese” to find out some co-relative request structures, similarities and

differences in expressions to make requests in the two languages Furthermore, thestudy can achieve some ways to give requests effectively and politely That is why

we decided to choose this topic which is very useful for Vietnamese learners ofEnglish and also for those who care about the ways speakers express requests inEnglish and Vietnamese by different ways to communicate

2 Aims of the Study

The study concentrates on investigating about Requests in English andVietnamese Moreover, we would like to pay attention to some request structuresused in letters in both languages Through this study, we want to find out some co-relation as well as differences when using requests in letters in English andVietnamese Furthermore, we would like also to draw out forms, expressions, wordsand structures of requests in Vietnamese as well as English, then work out someaffecting factors and politeness strategy of requests Besides, the frequency of usingrequests in English and Vietnamese is mentioned Finally, some suggestions will begiven to enhance the effect of using requests in letters particularly and incommunication generally

3 Method of the Study

The Study was done by combining quantitative & qualitative method and sometools to draw out how people express requests in letters in English, what similaritiesand differences of requests in Vietnamese letters and how frequently they are used

in letters in both languages

3.1 Quantitative Method

By collecting letters and requests in English and Vietnamese, then summing up

we had statistics for comparison process, for example, we found out how manypercents of requests in form of declarative sentence used in English and Vietnamesethere were, etc

3.2 Qualitative Method

By relying on collected letters and requests in English and Vietnamese, then

we could answer some questions like “How do people use requests and how

frequently are requests used in letters in both languages?, etc”.

3.3 Some Instruments

a Description

Description was used for describing the theoretical background, such asdefinitions of sentence, classification of sentences, definition of requests, types ofrequests, etc

This way was done for contrasting and comparing ways what the writers use toexpress requests in English and Vietnamese and find out some similar and differentpoints between them.

4 Scope of the Study

This Study only concentrates on investigating Requests in English andVietnamese as well as frequency of using them in letters and some similarities anddifferences of requests in the two languages We can not cover a research onrequests in all communicative ways

5 Design of the Study

This Study contains three main parts They are introduction, development andconclusion with their subcontents

The first one, Introduction includes Justification of the Study, Aims of the

Study, Methods of the Study, Scope of the Study and Design of the Study

The main part- Development has three chapters Contents are in following

details

Chapter 1 talks about Theoretical Background with four sub contents Firstly,

the Overview of the Theory, secondly, some definitions and classification ofSentences are attached Thirdly, Requests, types of requests, requests in letters andtheir rules are mentioned Letters with some definitions, forms and types are alsoincluded in the third section Finally, it is the summary of the chapter

Chapter 2 concentrates on the Study There are four main points in this chapter,

the first one is Research Questions, the second one is Data Collection and the next isthe Research Procedure and the last is the Results and Discussion

Chapter 3 focuses on A Contrastive Analysis of Requests in Letters in English

and Vietnamese with six sections They are forms of requests, request expressions,

words and structures used in requests, the frequency of using requests in Englishand Vietnamese letters, factors affecting requests and some similarities anddifferences of requests in those English and Vietnamese letters

The final part is Conclusion with recapitulation, implication and some

suggestions for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Overview of the Theory

Up to now, there have been a lot of studies, books and articles about differentaspects of using Requests in communication generally and Requests in lettersparticularly According to some Vietnamese linguists such as Nguyen Kim Than,Diep Quang Ban, Cao Xuan Hao and non-Vietnamese such as Murcia and Freeman(1999, p.228), and Downing and Locke (1995, p.192), request is a grammaticalmood that expresses direct commands or requests addressing the recipient It is alsoused to signal a prohibition, permission or any other kind of exhortation Whenusing requests, the writer expects the recipient to obey, please or cooperate with

him, for example, “please read the instruction carefully!” Moreover, try to think

what we should do if we want to get a job or specific information from an office.Writing a letter of request is considered a good way and we can draw out our needs

by requests For different purposes of communication, requests play an important

role to the success of the letters, between writers and recipients, the distance,

relationship and impact on each other This chapter provides an overview of the

theoretical background of the research and consists of two main sections: Sentencesand Requests

1.2 Sentences

1.2.1 Some Definitions of the Sentence

W.S Maugham (1988) pointed out “Words have weight, sound and

appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to ” “I m doing my homework ’m doing my homework ” is considered to be

a sentence, so what is a sentence?

In English Grammar by Mai Lan Hương (2006, p.300), it is stated that: “ng (2006, p.300), it is stated that: “A sentence is a linguistic form which expresses an idea or a sentiment by one or more words, how to use and arrange them in order to point out that idea or sentiment”

Randolph Quirk and Siney Greenbaum in A university grammar of English

(1973, p.10) pointed out that sentence is a group of words, usually including asubject and a predicate, that expresses a statement, question, or instruction Awritten sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, question mark,

or exclamation point

From Oxford dictionary: “Sentence is a set of words that is complete in itself,

typically containing a subject and predicate, conveying a statement, question, exclamation, or command, and consisting of a main clause and sometimes one or more subordinate clauses”

Nguy n Lân, a Vietnamese grammarian, has also given out a full definition of

the sentence saying that “Many words combined to show a clear sense about

actions, states or characteristics of things are called a sentence (quoted by Đỗ Thị ThịKim Liên, 1998, p.100)

According to Vinagradov, a Russian grammarian professor, “A sentence is a

complete unit of the utterance grammatically constituted with rules of a concern language, being the most important device to denote and to convey thoughts In sets, there exists not only the description of reality but also the relationship between the speaker and the reality” (quoted by Đỗ Thị Th Kim Liên, 1998, p.100) ị

Leonard Bloom Field (1926), an American linguist, defined that each sentence

is an independent linguistic form, not included by virtue of any grammaticalconstruction in any larger linguistic form In other words, a sentence is possible tostand independently

In summary, it is quite problematic trying to draw a perfect definition of thesentence, but a lot of linguists have pointed out some reasonable ones satisfying theneed of understanding about the sentence

1.2.2 Classification of Sentences

There are a few criteria to classify sentences, such as by structure, by subjects,

by purpose, etc Languages are regarded as human beings’m doing my homework means ofcommunication, interaction and integration and it is established that there are threemain types of sentences: declarative, interrogative and imperative (Murcia &Freeman, 1999, p.227) A sentence is the basic unit of written English languagecommunication Sentences may be classified by the purpose of communication intodeclarative sentence, interrogative sentence, imperative sentence and exclamatorysentence (Thomson & Martinet, 1986, p.423) According to W.S Maugham (1988),traditionally English sentences are classified by their structure and purpose Based

on their purpose, we distinguish the following four types of the sentences:declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentence However, this paper

is concerned with the classification by purpose which shows us the sentence formsand their functions

a Declarative sentence: The function of the declarative sentence is to focus thereader’m doing my homeworks attention It invites the reader further to consider the assertion made by thepredicate about it

Example: - We are learning English.

- They built the business center.

b Interrogative sentence: The function of the interrogative sentence is toprovide assertion with regards to the concept that is indicated by the questions Withthis the reader will be directly involve with the development of ideas through askingthe reader to phrase the statement

Example: Would you give me your telephone number?

What are you doing now?

c Imperative sentence: The function of the imperative sentence is to show thedesire of the writer with regards to the topics as well as to the actions that is beingindicated Imperative sentence involves the reader directly through addressing him

or her and asking for a response They are often requests or commands; they do notusually have a subject They may or may not carry exclamation mark

Example: - Get out of my life!

- Please close the window!

- I would like some noodles

d Exclamatory sentence: The function of the exclamatory sentence is to show

a sudden or strong feeling about something In exclamatory sentence, there may be

a thought, emotion or sensation behind It is used to express judgment, sensationand to express relieve of an internal pressure It usually begins with what or how andends with an exclamation mark

Example: - What a beautiful day!

- How intelligent the baby is!

In this paper, we are concerned with the sentences which have function of requesting

1.3.Requests

1.3.1 Definitions of Requests

According to Carl James (1980, p.126), “Request is the act of asking for something to be given or done, especially as a favor or courtesy; solicitation or petition”.

Request, according to Cao Xuan Hao (1991), is the sentence that hasillocutionary value, affects second person, and requires this person to make aunilateral or a co-operating action Request is also a mean to order, command, orrequire someone to do something When using request, the speaker or writer expectsthat the hearer or reader will obey

Cambridge Dictionary works out:” Request is expressing the need or desire

for; asking for something, such as asking for a meeting, for information, etc”

Beside the basic use, request is also used to advice, instruct, allow, wish, invite

and suggest informally, or warn (Eastwood, 1994, p.22) For example, “Why don’t

you spend a year working before you go to college? Take off a year from your studies and learn something about the real word” or “Come to have lunch with us!”

Macmillan dictionary points out that: “Request is a formal message asking

something that is submitted to an authority in a polite or formal way”.

1.3.2 Types of Requests

People make requests to ask others to do what they want or need It depends oncommunicative goals, situations and relationships, so the writers must choose thesuitable forms and words of requests Request may be for information, a raise, help

or supports, orders, commands, etc According to Murcia & Freeman (1999),request can be distinguished in to three main types basing on the purpose of letter:Data protection, Operational information and Service request We can grouprequests by many different ways, it seems to be easy to gain the request action by itsexpression in directness and indirectness For politeness standard, we often useindirect ones (Charter, 1998) As a result, in order to display our respect for theinterlocutor as well as friendliness, we have to use clear and concise expressions ofrequests as direct and indirect ones They can be considered types of request(Eastwood, 1999)

E.g: a.“Call me first!”

It is a request in a letter, but the relationship between the writer and therecipient may be close They may be friends, sisters or parents and children That iswhy they choose a short way to make a request directly

b “I would deeply appreciate it if you could give me a prompt reply at your

most convenient”

The request above is an example from another letter The way to make request

is different from the former one It requires the recipient to do something politely It

is not to ask the recipient directly, but the recipient understands what he or sheshould do Therefore, requests are grouped by the goals However, in this paper wementioned two following types of requests by expression: Direct Request andIndirect Request

1.3.2.1 Direct Requests

Direct request is a way giving requests in a direct approach, no persuasion andlong introductions are needed Requests are expressed through the face of words, noimplications.

E.g.: - Please close the door

- Don’t make noisy

- Give me a call after going home

1.3.2.2 Indirect Requests

Indirect request is the expressing of some desire or inclination People oftenuse this way to make the requests more polite and respective, the meaning ofsentences often include implications

In language communication, people often intend to use indirect way to expresstheir ideas In other words, some researchers think that the participants do sobecause they want to be polite That is the reason why indirectness and politenessare closely related Notably, in the journal of pragmatics (James, 1987),

“indirectness and politeness in requests, the relationship between them, therefore,

is considered that the reason for being indirect is to be polite”.

People often use indirectness for the following purposes:

- to avoid hurting the listeners or readers

- to achieve communicative goals, indirectness may be used as unexaminedlevel

- to deny perceived intentions, avoid conflicts

- to be polite as an equivalent in communication

- to achieve and maintain power over others

E.g: - I could tell that it was his wish that the guests leave.

- I look forward to discussing with you and your staff.

- If given an opportunity, I will work hard and help your organization develop.

As mentioned above, the notion of politeness is often associated withindirectness It has been claimed that the degree of indirectness in requests is

closely related to politeness So, what politeness is and its position in request, wewill explore in the following small sections.

a Politeness: There is a variety of definition for politeness, however, most ofthem approach the angle of social appropriateness In Longman dictionary of

contemporary English, politeness is defined as “having or showing good manners,

consideration for others, and correct social behavior” For Lakoff (1975, p.53) “to

be polite is saying the socially correct thing” while for Adegbija (1989, p.58)

politeness is associated with situations in which one “speaks or behaves in a way

that is socially and culturally acceptable and pleasant to the hearer”

From these definitions, Lakoff (1975) approaches three maxims of politeness:

- Don’t impose

- Give options

- Make the recipient feel good

Different cultures will have different principles of politeness That point showsthat politeness and culture have a very close relationship to each other One actionconsidered to be polite in this country may be assumed impolite in another Forexample, interruption while making conversation is considered appropriate inAmerica but in Vietnam, it is impolite to do so Vietnamese people always wait for

their turn to talk Or, in the case of personal pronoun, the American only use “you” for the addressees whereas in Vietnamese, we have a lot of choices such as “anh,

chị, em, cậu, chú, etc” So, we can see the influence of culture on language here:

while English give prominence to equality in communication, Vietnamese peoplegive prominence to hierarchy in family and society, therefore using the wrongpersonal pronoun in Vietnamese is considered to be impolite

Reflected in language because of their nature, politeness phenomenon isgenerally considered to have the status of universal principles of human interaction.Therefore, being polite is a complicated business in any language It is indeed verydifficult to learn because it involves understanding not just the language, but alsothe social and cultural values of the community In fact, several linguists attempt tomake clear the important role of politeness in communication and to account for therules that govern the use of language in context Such linguists as Goff man (1967),

Layoff (1973), Grice (1975), Leech (1983), and Brown & Levinson (1987) havedealt with the roles of politeness and proposed some principles for this concept.But of all of the above researches, Brown & Levinson (1987) stated thedeepest and most comprehensive of perspective of politeness in communication.What they seek are linguistic universals that explain politeness phenomenon acrosslanguages, cultures and domains

In the scope of this work, we want to mention politeness in requests in letters

It has also been stressed that politeness strategy in requests may have manydifferent orientations in different cultures

b Politeness in Requests

As mentioned above, politeness is very important, especially in requests,which, if using inappropriately, will cause the losing face of receiver or even thewriter if the action cannot be done

Tracy (1984) suggested that “Politeness in requests is a particularly important

issue because requests, by definition, impose on the hearer or the recipient and if the speaker or the writer do not make a request appropriately, the desire goal may not be realized, the hearer or the recipient may be embarrassed or the relationship may be damaged” Kitao (1987) thought of politeness that “Politeness in request as

a communicative strategy used by the writer or speaker to decrease imposition on the recipient Thus, maintain a good relationship with him or her From that, by using politeness strategy, the writer can maximize the possibility of gain or achieve his or her goal in requests without damaging the relationship with the recipient”.

Also, requests can be expressed directly or indirectly, Leech (1983, p.108)suggested that the use of indirect request increases the degree of politeness, indirectillocutions tend to be more polite because the degree of option and the more directillocution is, the tentative its force tends to be So, the more indirectly a requestrealized, the more polite is However, Leech’m doing my homeworks idea that the act of request is impolitebecause of its imposition while complimentary is polite is not true becausepoliteness is controlled by other factors such as: Power distance, principle,hierarchy, age and relationship

Briefly, politeness in requests is very important and necessary to achievecommunicative goals

1.3.3 Requests in Letters

Because the scope of this study is on requests in letters in English andVietnamese, we would like to mention something about letter as the definition, itsform and types before examining requests in letters

a Different definitions of Letter

Letters seem to be one of important and popular communicative means of

people According to Oxford Dictionary, “A letter is a written or printed

communication addressed to a person, company, etc, usually sent by post in an envelope or transmitted by mail”

Cark la (1985), a Russian linguist, states that a letter is a message that you

write on a piece of paper and send to someone to give information, give request orcommand, to complain, to explain, etc

Letters are the written communications of expressions, opinions, testamentary,inferences, communications etc recorded for later references according to JohnMark (1996)

Some authors draw out that a letter is a message written by a person to convey

a message to another Letters represent mutual friendship and a type of humanlycommunication, especially on a regular letter exchange between two people

b Types of Letter

There are various types of letters, which are written correspondences betweenpeople, businesses, employers, employees and others The type of letter written setsthe tone or format that is used According to the purposes of the writer, the situation

as well as the object of letters, they can be divided into two main types: formalletters and informal letters Within the scope of the research, we only discuss formalletters The following kind of letter is common formal one for requests

● Letter of Request

The letters of request can be written for various purposes in different situations.These letters are written in different formats as its type and purpose of request Aperson writes a request letter to procure a specific purpose A request letter shouldcontain the following information: return address, current date, receiver’m doing my homeworks name andaddress, salutation, body of the letter, closing and signature Writing a request lettercan be to ask for a job interview, a raise or promotion, information (such as productinformation), or to solicit a third party to compose a letter on one’m doing my homeworks behalf Most ofthe request letters are written for the following goals: Request for a job interview,for a specific information, for recommendation, for promotion

- Letter of request for job interview

If we are writing a letter of request to the hiring manager or employer for a jobinterview, we must introduce ourselves to the reader We also discuss the job detailsand/ or required qualifications and highlight our strengths that are suitable for thejob, where we studied before applying for the job is also very important This willhelp us in providing necessary information to the employer We can describe why

we are interested in that particular field, industry or organization We must mentionwhen we will be available for an interview to discuss other about the job.

- Letter of request for specific Information

Letters of request are written to get some specific information from someone

We must use a polite tone while writing this type of request letters This will delightthe reader provide the reasons for asking that information in brief We must mentionour contact information in a letter of request that is written for specific information(address, telephone number or e-mail address)

- Request for recommendation

Letters of requests are also written when we need to be recommended bysomeone or our project requires recommendation from our supervisor or professor.Describing the purpose for the recommendation and providing the brief and specificinformation about our work are very necessary We must mention why our projectshould be recommended by highlighting the strengths and advantages of ourproject Then we should ask the reader to contact us for more information about it.Finally, we should express our thankfulness for considering our letter of request

- Request for Promotion

A letter of request written for promotion needs to be direct in purpose or itshould clearly state why we should be promoted It is better for discussing ourqualifications if they are enough to promote us from the current post to the desiredposition Providing the specific details of our service, experiences in the industryand our achievements is a great help for the success of work

E.g: A letter of request for specific information

Daniel Smith

4540 Main Street, South Brunswick, NC,

United States (910) 754-2885 October 25, 2008 Jennifer Lewis

2438 South Stratford Road,

a fortnight.

Yesterday's newspaper had the advertisement of the scheme but did not give all the details I searched on the internet but I got information in bits and pieces I want all the details about the scheme like initial investment, monthly installments, locking period etc This will help me in taking a final decision for investment Let

me understand how the scheme will help me in securing my amount and what profits I will make after 3, 5 or 10 years as per your scheme.

I'll appreciate if you send me the complete brochure regarding the scheme If you can manage to send a Marketing Executive who will explain me the scheme then it will be of great help to me If I like the scheme and find it worth investing then I will give the initial amount right there to your executive.

I'm looking forward to your positive reply You can contact me on my phone number or my personal email address- Daniel_smith@rediffmail.com

d Requests in letters

Requests are often used in both formal and informal letters It depends on therelationship between writer (sender) and recipient, goal as well as situation of letter.Therefore, the words and structures for requests may differ But writers alwayschoose a good way to make requests more effective and successful

E.g: I would like to get an opportunity to meet you and explain how my skills

and qualities will help your organization

 It is considered to be a polite request by mentioning request indirectlywithout the imposition and force to the recipient Thus, he or she may be happy to

do the action

All types of letters differ in their content, thus requests in letters are used fordifferent purposes Requests in a letter for job are not similar to requests in a letterasking for specific information, etc However, the requests in letter depend on manyfactors outside the purpose of letter, such as relationship between writer andrecipient, culture habit, importance of work, etc Those lead people to finding outthe suitable words and structures to express requests effectively Therefore, requestsplay an important role in letter, so how to make requests effectively in letters will bementioned in the following section

1.3.3 Rules of Requests in Letters

Requests in letters are written for various different reasons which may includerequest for a job interview, promotion, donation, information or any other purposes

It is not the request that matters the most in these letters but how request plays animportant role Thus a well written request in the letter will surely help us toaccomplish what we need Labor (1972, p.255) states “if A requests B to do anaction X at a time T, A’s request will be understood as a valid command only if thefollowing preconditions hold:

1 X need to be done for purpose Y

2 B has the ability to do X

3 B has the obligation to do X

4 A has the right to ask B to do X

Leech (1983) proposes a request principle which is based on the concept ofbenefit and cost between writers and recipient It is described as a set of maxim:maxim of tact, generosity, approbation, modesty, agreement and sympathy

These conditions appear in almost every rule of interpretation and productionwhich concerns making and responding to requests in letters individually and in

communication generally Moreover, a request in letter should be written bykeeping the following points:

- The most important thing while writing a request in a letter is to keep itsimple and brief

- We should mention the request of the letter written in the first paragraph in apersuasive and confident manner, but we should not make it be assertive andexpress around the issue We also should try to make it straightforward and avoidmaking misunderstanding

- We should always make the requests which are reasonable

- We should make request easy for the person to respond—tell him or herexactly what can be done to accommodate our request

- We should make requests also polite, avoid making them high pressure

1.4 Summary

In brief, in this chapter, we have reviewed the major issues of the theoreticalbackground related to our investigation and requests in common letters are most

concerned In the following chapter- the Study, the research questions, the

procedure, the data collection as well as the results of our investigation will beoutlined

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY2.1 Research Questions

This study addresses the three following questions:

1 How do people express requests in different situations in letters in English?

2 How are requests used in letters differently in Vietnamese?

3 What is the frequency of using requests in English and Vietnamese letters?

In order to answer the above questions, we chose the data collection methodwhich will be mentioned in the following section

2.2 Data collection

2.2.1 Objects

We have chosen 15 letters in English and 15 ones in Vietnamese and found out

75 requests from these 30 letters in both languages with 39 of those requests inEnglish and 36 ones in Vietnamese

2.2.2 Data Collection Procedure

We have found and read a large number of letters in both English andVietnamese and collected 30 of those which contain expresses of requests In totalthere are 15 letters in English and 15 letters in Vietnamese

The English ones are subdivided into 3 groups in terms of form, namelyimperative, declarative and interrogative sentences And in terms of expressionsthey are subdivided into 2 groups: direct and indirect requests Those in Vietnameseare subdivided in the same ways And then data for contrastive analysis are underconsideration

Some examples will be shown in the following table

Sentence Form Expression

1 I want all the details about the scheme

like initial investment (3A)

Declarative Directness

2 Please inform me first (4A) Imperative Directness

3 Could you set up a time for an

interview? (15A)

Interrogative Directness

4 Tôi xin trình b y lý do sai Ch ng ày lý do sai Chứng ứng

minh Nhân Dân nh sau (5B) ư sau (5B)

Declarative Directness

5 Kính đề nghị Công An các cấp xem ngh Công An các c p xem ị Công An các cấp xem ấp xem

xét cho tôi đư sau (5B)ợc sửa sai CMND (5B) ửa sai CMND (5B) c s a sai CMND (5B)

Imperative Directness

6 Tôi tin r ng tôi có th áp ng ằng tôi có thể đáp ứng được ể đáp ứng được đ ứng đư sau (5B)ợc sửa sai CMND (5B) c

yêu c u c a Công ty.(1B) ầu của Công ty.(1B) ủa Công ty.(1B)

Declarative Indirectness

Table 1: Examples of Requests in terms of form and expression

Those sentences are requests expressed either directly or indirectly They arelisted in different groups for analysis

Note: (3A), (3B): 3 is the number of the letter in the list at the end of the“ ”

study and A is the signal of English letter column and B is the signal of“ ” “ ”

Vietnamese letter column

2.3 Research Procedure

The research procedure can be summarized in the eight following steps Firstly,

we reviewed letters from many different sources Secondly, we collected andselected letters in English and Vietnamese from books and other sources Then, wefound requests in those letters Next, we divided these requests into groups in terms

of forms and expressions and made the data table for groups After that, withcollected data, we analyzed them and did CA of Requests in English and inVietnamese We continued the process with formulating the conclusion The finalstep is suggesting some cultural implications Those were steps of the researchprocedure what we carried out to do this study

2.4 Results and Discussion

2.4.1 Results

The following table will show out the data of investigation of 30 letters

D & I respectively means Directness and Indirectness

Forms of Sentence English Vietnamese

Table 2: The statistic results of the survey of letters

Some discussions of the results will be presented in the following section

2.4.2 Discussion

We frequently use requests to get somebody to do something, asking them tohelp or cooperate with us, naturally and instinctively Through out the investigationand the statistic result table, we found that in both English and Vietnamese, writerstend to use requests in letters in form of declarative the most, then is the imperativeform and interrogative form is at least Requests in form of declarative in Englishtakes a rate of 53,8% of all and 66,7% in Vietnamese While requests in form ofimperative shares the same rate of 33,3% in both languages However, they userequests in form of interrogative little, even 0% with Vietnamese people and therate of 12,9% with English On other hand, there is a tendency of using directrequests, that is much more than indirect ones in English as well as Vietnamese InEnglish, it takes the rate of 76,9% and 86,1% in Vietnamese Therefore, in English,writers tend to use indirect requests more than in Vietnamese This may belong to

many factors, such as culture, habit, etc And the following chapter: “A contrastive

Analysis of Requests in English and Vietnamese” will show more details.

CHAPTER 3: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF REQUESTS

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE3.1 Form of Requests in English and Vietnamese

3.1.1 Requests in form of declarative sentences

The most popular form of requests in letters in English is declarative sentences

whose subjects are usually “I” or “we” This form occurs very often whenever a

request is called out

E.g: 1 I want to help your organization develop (11A)

2 I would like to write a news letter article about your upcoming retreat

in Washington DC (15A)

3 We thank to your custom and again look forward to being of service to

you in the future (8A)

In Vietnamese, the declarative form of request is widely used The subjects of

those are often the first personal pronoun “tôi” and “chúng tôi” like “I” and “we” in

English

E.g: 1.Tôi xin trình bày lý do sai Chứng minh Nhân dân như sau (5B)

2 Tôi mong muốn có cơ hội phát triển nhiều hơn nữa trong lĩnh vực này.

(14B)

Besides, Vietnamese ones seem to be more various with other subjects as “gia

đình tôi”, “em”, ect Each subject is used for a particular person in a particular

situation What to use for whom is varying depending on the context of speakingand writing Thus, Diep Quang Ban (2005, p.228) states that in order to show ourrespect, requests are accompanied some appropriate emotional elements such as

“XIN”, “CHO”, etc.

E.g: 1 Em viết đơn này kính mong Phòng Đào tạo Trường Đại học Vinh tạo

điều kiện đăng kí giúp em.( 4B)

2 Gia đình tôi xin chuyển nhượng đất nhà ở với diện tích sử dụng 40m 2

của gia đình tôi cho con chúng tôi (8B)

He also highlights that with the purpose of adding more emotional shadings to

a request, it is advisable that we choose a suitable word to be the subject of the

sentence For example, when “tôi” or “em” functions as the subject, relationship and fellowship are presented clearly.

Examples for other subject and structure being used

- You can contact me on my phone number or my personal email

address-daniel.smith@rediffmail.com (3A)

Requests in form of declarative sentence take the highest rate of allinvestigated requests, 53,8% in English and 66,7% in Vietnamese In English andVietnamese, writers seem to use this form so much to express requests However, it

is considered quite more often in Vietnamese than in English

● Requests as the main clause of conditional sentences

In English and Vietnamese, writers tend to use this structure to express

requests quite much They use “if” as to express the condition to make request in English and “nếu” in Vietnamese

E.g: 1 - If you have any question, you can contact me on phone at

(651)6991321 or email address mark.clark @ hotmail.com (1A)

- If given an opportunity, I will work hard and help the organization develop (1A)

These examples are in a letter asking for job, the writer gave requests politely

with giving a conditional phrase beginning by “if” as a reminding or elicit for the

recipient

2 - If there is any other information you need or any way, I can help to make

your visit to Atlanta more enjoyable (11A)

This request is attached with a condition “If there is any other information you

need or any way” to give request after “I can help to make your visit to Atlanta more enjoyable” That may not mean “if there is not any information you need, I will not help you” The way as this example seems to be polite.

Note: the underlized sentences are requests

3 Nếu được, tôi xin cam đoan sẽ thực hiện đầy đủ các nội quy cũng như quy

định của cơ quan (2B)

In English, we often use “if” and in Vietnamese we use “Nếu” to give a

suppose This example was taken in a letter asking for help (for house)

3 Nếu sai, tôi xin chịu hoàn toàn trách nhiệm.(9B) (It is in a letter for

suggesting of driving license)

This type accounts for 23,1% of 53,8% of English requests in declarative formand Vietnamese ones with 8,3% out of 66,7% The proportions that the above formsoccupy in our survey are shown in the following chart

Chart 1: Requests in form of declarative sentences in English and Vietnamese

3.1.2 Request in form of imperative sentences

The most familiar form of requests in English is imperative sentences But inletters we investigated, the requests in this form stand the second rank afterdeclarative one The subjects of those sentences are usually omitted but understood

as the person pronoun “you” or “we” This form appears very often in letters.

According to Merianne Celce Muricia and Diane Freeman (1999, p.228), it seemsthat we are quite surprised when we find out that the imperative sentence does nothave subject or, in another word, there is no obvious subject noun phrase The basicform of imperative sentence is the base form of the verb It is a second-person form.Many traditional grammarians also think that subject in imperative sentence is the

“understood you” Both in English and Vietnamese, when we see imperative

Number Structure of requests E V

1 As main clause of conditional sent 23.10% 8.30%

2 Other structure 30.70% 58.40%

3 Total 53.80% 66.70%

sentences without subject like “Be quiet!” or “Don t do that again’m doing my homework ”, we all knowclearly that the speaker or the writer (first person) is directing to the listener or therecipient (second person) It means that although there are no subjects, both writerand recipient understand who is the person mentioned in the sentence.

E.g: 1 Please give me a call! (12A)

This imperative sentence was in a letter for inviting The writer did not call thename of the recipient, he or she only gave a command but the recipient understoodwhat he or she should do

2 Please let me know how I can make arrangements for these systems to help

me under privileged schools group (11A)

The above request was taken in a letter for suggesting Although the writermentioned a suggestion quite softly, the recipient could understand what wasneeded

This form accounts for 33,3% of all investigated requests It seems to be lesspolite than declarative form The writer using it may be considered more polite with

a word “please” added to the request And Vietnamese imperative sentences occupy

33,3% with the same situations and ways of expression as those in English

E.g: 1 Mọi chi tiết về lịch phóng vấn hay thông tin về hồ sơ xin việc này, xin

vui lòng liên lạc số điện thoại 0989532083 (1B)

This is a request taken in a letter for suggesting (for job) The writer asks therecipient to keep contact if he or she has any new information or need

2 Vui lòng liên lạc với tôi ngay khi công ty cảm thấy thuận tiện nhất (14B)

This sentence is found in a letter asking for a new position The writermentions request in a short and clear imperative sentence

● Request in form as main clause of conditional sentence

This structure accounts for 15,4% in English and 2,8% in Vietnamese requests

E.g: 1 If you estimate that the fees will exceed this limit, please inform me

first (4A)

This sentence appeared in a letter for commanding (asking for material), the

writer gave a condition with “if” before requesting It is considered more polite

2 Please let me know if there is any information I can provide regarding my

experience to assist you in giving me a reference (6A)

This is another request sharing the same form with the former one It wastaken from a letter for commanding (asking for job) The writer can give a conditionbefore a request as in example 1, but he or she can also make a change that therequest may be before the condition clause as in example 2.

3 Nếu có bất kỳ yêu cầu nào về thông tin xin hãy cho tôi biết ngay để tôi có

thể cung cấp kịp thời cho công ty (14B)

In Vietnamese, we also use this way to give request more politely like thesentence in a letter asking for a new position above

● Request in form of Elipptical Imperative sentences

Requests can be made in form of a full imperative sentence as mentionedabove or they can be made in formal situations which the writer and the recipientare not in a close relationship This way is often used in Vietnamese more than

English The often omitted subjects are “I” or “we” in English and “tôi”, “chúng

tôi”, “gia đình tôi’, etc in Vietnamese.

E.g: 1 Kính đề nghị Công An Tỉnh xét, giải quyết (12B)

This request was given from a letter for suggesting (for identity card), thewriter wants to show his respect and politeness to the recipient in a short way, but

he did not write “Tôi kính đề nghị Công an Tỉnh xét, giải quyết”.

2 Đề nghị cơ quan Công an cho tôi được đổi giấy phép lái xe (9B)

This imperative sentence was from a letter for suggesting (for driving license),the subject of sentence was not given, but we can see the subject here is the writer

If he writes: “Tôi đề nghị cơ quan Công an cho tôi được đổi giấy phép lái xe”, it

will not change the meaning of sentence, but it may make change the literature style

with repeating “tôi”.

3 Yêu cầu Toà án giải quyết những vấn đề sau đây đối với bị đơn, người có

quyền lợi nghĩa vụ liên quan (15B)

This one was in a letter asking for petition It seems to be quite strict andpowerful related to the recipient’s obligation and responsibility

This form sounds to be more threatening with the pressure or force to therecipient

● Negative request: In English requests, we use “do not” to express negative

meaning According to Rodney Huddleston & Geoffrey K.Pullum in Cambridge

Grammar of the English language, negative imperatives may have the negation

associated with the verb (verbal negation) The writers sometimes use “do not +

bare infinitives” to ask somebody not to do something In Vietnamese letters, we

did not find any requests of this type

E.g: Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require further information (8A)

In this letter (asking for service), the writer seems to be polite when using “do

not …” to mention the command It works as an encouragement to the recipient to

carry out the request action

Some examples of other forms:

- Kính mong cơ quan chấp nhận (2B)

- Nay xin được sửa sai (5B)

The proportions that the above forms appear in our survey are shown in thefollowing chart

Chart 2: Requests in form of imperative sentences in English and Vietnamese

3.1.3 Request in form of interrogative sentences

This form is considered less used in both English and Vietnamese It accountsfor 12,9% in English and none was found in Vietnamese of all investigated letters

010203040

EV

Number Structure of requests E V

1 As main clause of

conditional sent 15.40% 2.80%

2 Other structure 17.90% 30.50%

3 Total 33.30% 33.30%

The most familiar structure of this type is Yes/ No question, beginning with the

modal verbs “would”, “could”.

E.g: 1 - Could you set up a time for an interview? (15A)

The example was quoted from a letter asking for permission, the writer used

“would” to make request in form of a yes/ no question

2 Would you please send me any information you think I might need to begin

this project? (11A)

It is drawn out from a letter for suggesting It sounds less threatening with the

use of “would” and “please” in a form of a question

● Example for another structure:

- I’m writing to ask whether it would be possible for you to provide a

reference for me? (6A)

● Request as the main clause of conditional sentences

E.g: If that is the case, could you kindly fill in the attached form and post it

back for me? (7A)

In Vietnamese letters, this form is not used People often use conditional

phrase as “nếu được” attached with requests, because they want to affirm exactly

that the action be done Then, they use requests in form of declarative sentence toraise the politeness In Vietnamese, writers also want to confirm the preciseness orbelief of attached information or documents Thus, function of the above request inform of interrogative sentence is quite important It sounds softer, polite, safe andeffective when the writer and the recipient are not in a close relationship

E.g: 1 Nếu được, tôi xin cam đoan sẽ thực hiện đầy đủ các quy định của cơ

quan (2B)

This is an example from a letter asking for house They do not express it like:

“Tôi xin cam đoan sẽ thực hiện đầy đủ các quy định của cơ quan có được không?”

which sounds odd in communication

2 Nếu sai tôi xin chịu hoàn toàn trách nhiệm (9B)

The writer did not use request in form of an interrogative “…đựơc không?” as

“Tôi xin chịu hoàn toàn trách nhiệm với bất cứ thông tin sai nào được không?” On

the contrary, he tried to confirm the request

We also often use request in form of wh-question as the following examples

E.g: - Why didn’t you send me that material?

- What about the detail plan for the new project?

But in our investigation, we did not find any letters using requests in this form

Moreover, in Vietnamese, people often use “… có thể được không?” or “… được

không ạ?” to express the need, but in our survey there seemed to be none.

To sum up, requests in form of interrogative sentences make up at least in bothEnglish and Vietnamese of all investigated ones People tend to use this form inEnglish much more than in Vietnamese The proportions of this form will be shown

in the following chart

Chart 3: Requests in form of interrogative sentences in English and Vietnamese

Requests in form of exclamatory sentences were not found in ourinvestigation in both languages, English and Vietnamese

In conclusion, the three forms mentioned above are the forms for requests inletters we have investigated The form of declarative is the most frequent in bothlanguages The chart below will compare more clearly the use of the three forms inEnglish and Vietnamese

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

EV

Number Structure of requests E V

12

14

E V