A cross cultural study of addressing form in greetings in vietnamese and english

23Table 6: The reasons that sometimes the British and American subjects do not use Table 7: The forms of address used by British and American subjects in greeting Table 8: The number of

vinh universityforeign language department

-*** -a cross-cultur -*** -al study of -*** -addressing forms in

greetings in vietnamese and english

(Nghiªn cøu giao thoa v¨n hãa vÒ c¸ch xng h« trong lêi chµo

hái trong tiÕng viÖt vµ tiÕng anh)

Summary of Graduation thesis

field: LINGUISTICS

Student : hoµng thÞ kim dung

Supervisor : lª thÞ thóy hµ, m.a

my relationships who gave me their enthusiasm and encouraged much to write thisresearch.

Finally, my gratitude is sent to my friends In the process of preparing theresearch, I received much help from them, especially my classmates Although they werevery busy, they were very ready to help me search the cross- cultural material on internet

I give them all my thank and honesty !

1 Rationale of the Study……… VII

2 Aims of the Study……… VIII

3 Scope of the Study……… VIII

4 Method of the Study……… IX

5 Organization of the Study……… IX

Part B: DEVELOPMENT……… 1

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background……… 1

1.1 Language and Culture……… ……… 1

1.1.1 What is Language? 1

1.1.2 What is Culture? 1

1.1.3 The Relation between Language and Cuture 2

1.2 Communication and Cross-Cultural Communication……… 3

1.2.1 Communication ……… 3

1.2.1.1 Definition of Communication……… 3

1.2.1.2 The Role of Addressing Forms in Communication……… 3

1.2.2 Cross- Cultural Communication……… 4

1.3 Cultural Competence and Communicative Competence……… 5

1.3.1 Cultural Competence……… 5

1.3.2 Communicative Competence……… 6

1.4 Cross- Cultural Pragmatics……… 6

1.4.1 Speech Act……… 7

1.4.2 Politeness……… 8

1.5 Cross- Cuture of Addressing Forms in Greetings……… 10

Chapter 2: Addressing Forms in Greetings in Vietnamese and English……… 12

2.1 Addressing Forms in Greetings……….……… 12

2.1.1 Greetings……… 12

2.1.2 Addressing Forms in Greetings……… 12

2.2 The Basic Forms of Address……… 13

2.2.1 Personal Pronouns……… 13

2.2.2 Titles……… 13

2.2.3 Provisional Forms of Address……… 14

2.2.4 Other Forms of Address……… 14

2.3 Addressing Forms in Greetings in VietNamese and English……… 15

2.3.1 Addressing Forms ……… ……… ……… 15

2.3.1.1 In Vietnamese……… 15

2.3.1.2 In English……… 16

2.3.2 Addressing Forms in Greetings……….……… 17

2.3.2.1 In Vietnamese………

2.3.2.2 In English………

17 18 Chapter 3: Data Analysis………

3.1 The survey questionnaires……… ……

3.2 Description of the subjects………

3.3 Data Analysis………

3.3.1 Comments on addressing forms offered by the British and American subjects………

21 21 21 21 21 3.3.1.1 Data on British and American subjects’ personal information………… 22

3.3.1.2 Data on addressing forms offered by the British and American subjects 23

3.3.2 Comments on addressing forms offered by the Vietnamese subjects… 36

3.3.2.1 Data on Vietnamese subjects’ personal information……… 36

3.3.2.2 Data on addressing forms offered by the Vietnamese subjects………… 37

3.3.3 Similarities and Differences between Vietnamese and English-American informants in Using Addressing Forms in Greetings……… 50

3.3.3.1 Comparision on Greeting Factors ……… 50

3.3.3.2 Comparision on the Reasons of Avoidance……… 51

3.3.3.3 Comparision on Addressing Forms in Greetings without any Personal Information……… 51

3.3.3.4 Comparision on Greeting Teachers……… … 52

3.3.3.5 Comparision on Greeting Friends……… 53

3.3.3.6 Comparision on Greeting Someone……… 54

3.3.3.7 Comparision on Greeting the Most Powerful Person……… … 55

3.3.3.8 Comparision on Greeting Parents’ Friend……… … 56

3.3.3.9 Comparision on Greeting a Colleague……… ……… 58

3.3.3.10 Comparision on Greeting Parents……… ………… 60

Part C: CONCLUSION……… 63

References………

List of Table and Figures

Table 2: The proper forms of address can be used in greetings 18

Table 3: British and American subjects’ information regarding gender, marital status,

Table 4: British and American subjects’ information regarding the place they have been

Table 5: The factors affecting on the way to address in greeting of the British and

American subjects 23Table 6: The reasons that sometimes the British and American subjects do not use

Table 7: The forms of address used by British and American subjects in greeting

Table 8: The number of British and American subjects used the first name of their

Table 9: Forms of address used by British and American subjects when they greet their

Table 13: Forms of address used by British and American subjects to greet a parents’ 31

friend and know his name

Table 15: Regarding the sex 33

Table 17: How will you address to greet your parents when you get married and have children 34Table 18: The number of British and American subjects using the first name to greet

Table 19: Forms of address used by the British and American subjects to greet their

Table 20: Vietnamese subjects’ information regarding gender, marital status, age 36Table 21: Vietnamese subjects’ information regarding the place they have been living

Table 22: The factors affecting on the way to greet of the Vietnamese subjects 37Table 23: The reasons why sometimes the Vietnamese subjects do not use the

Table 24: The forms of address used by Vietnamese subjects in greeting someone but do

Table 25: The number of Vietnamese subjects used the first name of their teacher to

Table 26: Forms of address used by Vietnamese subjects when they greet their friends 40Table 27: Addressing forms in greeting someone used by Vietnamese subjects 42Table 28: Forms of address used by Vietnamese subjects to greet the most powerful

Table 29: Forms of address used by Vietnamese subjects to greet a parents’ friend but do

Table 30: Forms of address used by Vietnamese subjects to greet a parents’ friend and

know his name 45Table 31: Regarding the age 46

Table 33: Regarding the age and social status 47Table 34: How will you address to greet your parents when you get married and have

Figure 1: The most important factor having affect on the way to address in greeting of

Figure 2: The most important factor having affect on the way to greet of the Vietnamese 38

subjects

Figure 3: The most important factor having affect on the way to greet of the British and

Figure 4: The reasons that Vietnamese and British American do not use addressing

Figure 5: The forms of address used by British-American and Vietnamese subjects in

Figure 6: The number of British American and Vietnamese subjects used the first name

Figure 7: Addressing forms in greeting close friends used by British American and

Figure 8: Addressing forms in greeting normal friend used by British American and

Figure 10: Addressing forms in greeting someone used by British American and

Figure 11: Addressing forms in greeting the most powerful person used by British

Figure 12: Addressing forms in greeting the most powerful person used by British

American and Vietnamese subjects for the later time 56Figure 13: Addressing forms in greeting a parents’ friend but do not know his name used

by British American and Vietnamese subjects for the first time 57Figure 14: Addressing forms in greeting a parents’ friend but do not know his name used

by British American and Vietnamese subjects for the later time 57Figure 15: Addressing forms in greeting a parents’ friend and know his name used by

British American and Vietnamese subjects for the first time 58Figure 16: Addressing forms in greeting a parents’ friend and know his name used by

British American and Vietnamese subjects for the later time 58Figure 17: Regarding the colleague 10 years older than speaker 59Figure 18: Regarding the colleague 10 years younger than speaker 59Figure 19: Regarding the colleague with higher position but younger than speaker 60Figure 20: Regarding the colleague with lower position but older than speaker 60Figure 21: The ways to address in greeting parents when British American and

Vietnamese subjects get married and have children 61Figure 22: The number of British American and Vietnamese subjects using the first

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the Study

An emphasis on language as a communication system is really necessary in an age

of globalization Not only does it help uncover principles underlying social interactions,but also enables us to gain an access to ways of thinking, belief systems, and world views

of people from various cultural backgrounds and thus enhances empathy and mutualunderstanding Investigating issues concerning cross cultural communication isespecially momentous in today’s time, when national boundaries are becoming lessvisible, and more people are engaging in intercultural communication Understandingsocial conventions and attention to such concepts as politeness, and face, which areimportant to members in a particular culture, will certainly enable us to bettercomprehend the different ways of speaking by people from different cultures, thushelping eliminate ethnic stereotypes and misunderstanding

There have been so far plenty of researches on the field of politeness from variousperspectives Yet, addressing forms in languages is still an area available for moreexplorations This research has chosen addressing forms as a potential subject This study

is done not only to see the similarities and differences between the two cultures Anothergoal of this research is to give the awareness of the language learners about the politeness

of addressing forms in language, and to offer several suggestions in using the appropriateforms of addressing

Nevertheless, addressing forms is a very broad area, and within the limit of thestudy, it is impossible to discuss all aspects of addressing forms in languages Asgreetings is the first step and it is also the most important in a conversation, so it requiredthe speakers must address exactly in order not to lose the face of the hearers This iswhere addressing forms can mostly be considered That is the reason why addressingforms in greetings is chosen for the project

For any of those purposes, the study promises to make itself meaningful, reliableand applicable to the reality

2 Aims of the Study

For all the reasons mentioned above, the study contains with the followingdifferent aims:

First of all, the study can help learners know more about the relation betweenlanguage and communication, culture and cross- cultural communication.

Secondly, we know that addressing forms is one of the important factors inconversation, that is why this study can help learners and users of English know how toaddress their interlocutors in a specific circumstance reasonably by using suitable forms

of address

Lastly, cross-cultural study can give us a chance to find out the similarities anddifferences in two countries through their cultures Thus, this study supports thefundamental knowledge of culture for Vietnamese users of English as students,translators and learners in order to avoid cultural shocks or cross- cultural conflictsinvolving the addressing forms in greetings in global communication

3 Scope of the Study

Addressing forms in communication is really an interesting issue, especially incross-cultural communication There are many famous Vietnamese and foreignlinguistics and scholars having done researches on this linguistic field such as : Brownand Ford (1962), Robinson (1972), etc and Nguyễn Văn Chiến (1992, 1993), NguyễnQuang (2001), Nguyễn Vân Dung (2005), etc They have analyzed or compared almostall aspects of this field However, in cross-cultural communication we want to reachcommunicate goal and also have to use addressing forms into consideration A person indifferent relationships has different addressing forms The speaker may be children,parents, brothers in family or relatives The speaker may be in high or low rank in office,he/she may be older or younger compared to interlocutors Therefore, the study enablelearners thoroughly understand addressing forms of the foreign language in comparisonwith mother tongue are very necessary In this paper, we only deal with thecharacteristics of the addressing forms in greetings in Vietnamese and English and thesimilarities and differences in using them in cross- cultural communication

4 Method of the Study

The first step was to search the library and the Internet for books, magazines andarticles on etiquette, especially on addressing forms in greetings as well as previousresearch in the field.

The main method employed in this study is quantitative with material collectingand analyzing

5 Organization of the Study

This research consists of three main parts They are:

Part A is the introduction of the research paper in which the author presents thereasons for choosing the subject, the aims, the scope, the methods and the organization ofthe study

Part B is the development contenting with three main chapters:

Chapter I: Theoretical background

Chapter II: Addressing forms in greetings of Vietnamese and English

Chapter III: Data Analysis

Part C is the conclusion of the research paper, which summarizes the contentsmentioned in part B

Besides three main parts, the research paper also opens with theacknowledgements, the table of contents, list of table and ends with the references

PART B DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

1.1 Language and Culture

1.1.1 What is Language?

In order to discuss about the using of language in greetings, one must first determinethe answer to the following question: what is language? There are many answers to thisquestion According to Dronker, “Language is the remarkable system that allows people

to communicate an unlimited combination of ideas using a highly structured stream ofsounds” Language is the method of human communication, either spoken or written,consisting of the use of words in an agreed way

As we know that, a language is a system of signs (indices, icons, symbols) forencoding and decoding information So, language is a system for communicating.Written language use symbols (that is, characters) to build words The entire set of words

is the language’s vocabulary The ways in which the words can be meaningfullycombined is defined by the language’s syntax and grammar The actual meaning ofwords and combinations of words is defined by the language’s semantics

1.1.2 What is Culture?

Culture is the combination of all the physical and behavioral aspects of a society Tostudy the people within a society, how they function, and what they value can give usmore thorough understanding of society When we think about culture, we are concernedwith the way people live The way people think, feel, believe and strive for what isproper in their culture On the other hand, culture includes all knowledge, belief, art,morals, law, custom and any other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member ofsociety Culture is also a historically transmitted, socially constructed system of beliefs,premises, symbols and their meanings that pertain to a group of people So we canconsider culture as a tool that our families and societies instill in us to get through life.Deen Levine (1987), culture is like an iceberg, most of which is deep within theocean just much of culture is deep within people The tip of the iceberg is easy to see.This includes the visible aspects and do’s and taboo of working in other cultures The

remaining huge chuck of the iceberg hidden below the surface includes the invisibleaspects of a culture such as the values, traditions, experience and behaviors that defineeach culture

According to the social scientists, a people’s culture consists of all the ideas, objects,and ways of doing things created by the group Culture is a complex whole that socialscientists can break down into simple units called “cultural traits” A trait may be acustom, such as burial of the dead; a gesture, such as a handshake or an idea, such asdemocracy Following this understanding, cultural trait may be an act, such as greeting.And addressing forms in greetings also belongs to a cultural trait Culture is a system ofresources for understanding the world around your lives From above definition, wecould know more about what cross-culture is

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary, 7th edition, cross-culture is aterm involving or containing ideas from two or more different countries or cultures InVietnamese, according to Vietnamese Linguistics written by Nguyen Quang Hung, crossculture is defined as the contact, the affective exchange, the interaction among culturalaspects of different ethnics

Thus, there is no countries in the world can exist without having cross culture withothers today

1.1.3 The Relation between Language and Culture

The connection between the human capacities for culture and language has beennoted as far back as classical antiquity As language and culture are both in essencesymbolic systems, 20th century cultural theorists, have applied the methods of analyzinglanguage developed in the science of linguistics to also analyze culture

According to Eugene A Nida, the relation between language and culture is morecomplex than the coordinate title language and culture would suggest Language is, ofcourse, an integral part of culture, defined simplistically as the totality of beliefs andpractices of a society Furthermore, the semantic content of language is always related tothe entities, events, states, processes, characteristics and relations within culture, andculture depends in large measure on language in order to function and to perpetuate itself

It is not strange, therefore, that most of the serious mistake in translation are the result ofnot recognizing the intimate relations between language and culture.

1.2 Communication and Cross-Cultural Communication

1.2.1 Communication

1.2.1.1 Definition of Communication

Communication is a process by which information is exchanged between individualsthrough a common system of symbols, signs or behavior It is clearly seen that the way

we communicate and the way we understand another person’s communication is a result

of our knowledge and past experiences That means communication can take placeanywhere and is carried out by anybody People communicate as eye contact, facialexpression, proximity, posture, gesture and verbal language which is more used.Communication clearly does involve a set of interacting process in which participantattempts to make others understand what he means, and vice versa

In communication, interlocutors show their attitude, relationship, mood,understanding, confusion and a whole range of other things and convey a range ofmeanings in deferent cultures, from insults to approval or even attraction

1.2.1.2 The Role of Addressing Forms in Communication

In communication, participants do anything to make others understand what hemeans; it means that the goal of communication is successfully achieved And languageplays an important role in conveying our thinking and expressing our feeling and attitude

in daily communication, meanwhile, addressing forms belongs to the language system.That is why using address forms is compulsory in communication It allows participants

to make turn taking, reveal relationship, social status, and so on Participants are bothspeakers and listeners involved directly in conversation And using forms of address,especially forms of address in greetings can help us know interlocutors’ emotion, feeling

as well as their knowledge, culture, politeness and respect to each other People who areinvolved in conversation should depend on objects and other features of communicative

situation such as age, sex, family relationship, social status and power Considering thefollowing conversation as an example:

Man 1: Good morning Here’s my ticket

Bus driver: Good morning, Dr Jones

Man 2: … ’morning, Oh, good morning, Dr Jones!

Are you going to the clinic this morning?

Man 1: Oh, good morning, professor!

No, I’m going to hospital this morning

(Malkocs, 1993, p.32)

In this conversation, participants’ career, social status and their relationship as well

as their attitude towards each other can be seen clearly They show their respect to eachother by addressing their names with title and show their friendliness to bus driver ingreetings by only saying “Good morning”, or “Morning” Through the example above, it

is clear that using addressing forms in greetings is undeniably necessary incommunication

1.2.2 Cross-Cultural Communication

The advent of the global economy today is changing the fundamental nature of ourgovernments, businesses, organizations and populations As a result, we are no longerconstrained by state boundaries but have all become part of an interdependentinternational network One of the key changes this has triggered is the need tocommunicate effectively with different people in different languages, from differentcultures

It is now recognized that linguistic and cultural knowledge are two of the most vitalareas of knowledge that organizations must come to acquire if they are to integrate,progress and succeed in the market place Cross-cultural communication is a must! Sowhat is cross- cultural communication?

The author thinks that communication is culture bound The way an individualcommunicates emanates from his or her culture Of course, a person may know morethan one culture or may be competent in a combination of cultures Nonetheless, onebasic truth prevails: communication is a product of culture So cross-culturalcommunication (also frequently referred to as intercultural communication which is alsoused in a different sense, though) is a field of study that looks at how people fromdifferent cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways amongthemselves, and how they endeavour to communicate across cultures

1.3 Cultural Competence and Communicative Competence

1.3.1 Cultural Competence

It is said that culture is communication and vice versa So in order to know aboutcommunicative competence, we have to know what is cultural competence first.According to Cross et al, 1989, “Cultural competence is defined as a set of congruentbehaviors, attitudes and policies that come together as a system, agency or amongprofessionals and enable that system, agency or those professionals to work effectively incross- cultural situations” On the other hand, cultural competence is the ability tounderstand behavior from the standpoint of the members of a culture and to behave in away that would be understood by the members of the culture in the intended way.Cultural competence therefore involves understanding all aspects of a culture, butparticularly the social structure, the values and beliefs of the people, and the way thingsare assumed to be done

As we have known, cultural competence requires that organizations have a definedset of values and principles and demonstrate behaviors, attitudes, policies, and structuresthat enable them to work effectively cross- culturally

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia on internet, “Cultural competence refers to

an ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures Cultural competencecomprises four components: awareness of one’s own cultural worldview; attitudetowards cultural differences; knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews

and cross- cultural skills” Developing cultural competence results in an ability tounderstand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people across cultures

1.3.2 Communicative Competence

Communicative competence is the ability to use the language system appropriately

in any circumstances, with regard to the functions and the varieties of language as well asshared socio-cultural suppositions

According to Janice Light, “Communicative competence is a relative and dynamic,interpersonal construct based on functionality of communication, adequacy ofcommunication, and sufficiency of knowledge, judgment, and skill in four interrelatedareas: linguistic competence, operational competence, social competence, and strategiccompetence Linguistic and operational competencies refer to knowledge and skills in theuse of the tools of communication; social and strategic competencies reflect functionalknowledge and judgement in interaction”

Thus, in order to be aware of communication competence, the language learnershave to know interaction skills, linguistic knowledge and culture knowledge To becommunicative competent means, roughly speaking, to be able to communicate thatwhich you wish to communicate

1.4 Cross- Cultural Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of language as action and of the social contexts in which thelinguistic action takes place or the language is used So cross- cultural pragmatics is thestudy of linguistic action carried out by language users from different ethno linguisticbackgrounds

According to Yule, cross-cultural pragmatics is the study of different expectationsbased on cultural schemata among different communities regarding how meaning isconstructed

Being known what is cross-cultural pragmatics, we should know more about whatpragmatic is

According to George Keith, pragmatics is all about the meaning between the lexisand the grammar and the phonology Meanings are implied and the rules being followedare unspoken, unwritten ones Pragmatics studies the factors that govern our choice oflanguage in social interaction and the effects of our choice on others.

In this research, the author will present two theoretical approaches to cross-culturalpragmatic field They are speech act and politeness theory Following these theories, wecan see clearly the effects and production of speech acts as well as politeness acrosscultures

1.4.1 Speech Act

According to Yule (1996), speech act is one of the central phenomena that anygeneral pragmatic theory must account for In fact, means actions performed viautterances are generally called speech acts On any occasion, the action performed byproducing an utterance will consist of three related acts: locutionary, illocutionary andperlocutionary act The first one, locutionary act is the basic act of utterance, ofproducing a meaningful linguistic express The second one, illocutionary act is thefunction of the utterance that speaker has in mind that is what kind of speech act theutterance counts as And the last one, perlocutionary act refers to the hearer recognization

of the illocutionary act

To communicate is to express a certain attitude, and the type of speech act beingperformed corresponds to the type of attitude being expresses For example, a statementexpresses a belief, a request expresses a desire and an apology expresses regret As an act

of communication, a speech act succeeds if the audience identifies, in accordance withthe speaker’s intention, the attitude being expressed Since language is intentionalbehavior, it should be treated like a form of action Thus the speech act is the basic unit

of language used to express meaning, an utterance that expresses an intention Normally,the speech act is a sentence, but it can be a word of a phrase as long as it follows the rulesnecessary to accomplish the intention When one speaks, one performs an act Speech isnot just used to predicate something, but it actually does something Though making astatement may be the paradigmatic use of language, there are all sorts of other things we

can do with words We can make request, ask question, give orders, give thanks, dogreetings, make promises and so on Speech act stresses the intent of the act as a whole.Understanding the speaker’s intention is essential to capture the meaning

Using addressing forms in greetings can be treated as speech acts Becauseaddressing forms is set up to perform intentions and to express the attitudes of theaddressee, for example: to make an effective conversation or successful communication,

to make respective attitude etc

1.4.2 Politeness

Politeness is one of the most important aspects of human communication: humanbeings can only exist in peace together if certain basic conventions of politeness areobserved

Brown and Levinson (1987) produced the most comprehensive theory of politeness

to date, the basic of which is used for analytical purposes in this thesis They argue thatpolite linguistic behavior shows up as a deviation against the rational and efficient nature

of talk, but through a consideration of linguistic politeness, the hearer finds reasons forthe speaker’s apparent irrationality or inefficiency

It is possible to consider politeness as a fixed concept, as mentioned by Yule (1996:60), as in the idea of polite social behavior or etiquette, within a culture It is alsopossible to specify a number of different general principles for being polite in socialinteraction within a particular culture They might compose being tactful, generous,modest and sympathetic toward others Although the participants in an interaction aregenerally aware that such norms and principles exist in the society, there is a specifiedtype of politeness at work within an interaction In order to describe it, we need theconcept of face

According to Goffman (1957), “face is the public self- image of a person” It is atechnical term, refers to that emotional and social sense of self that everyone has andexpects everyone else to recognize Politeness, in an interaction, can then be defined asthe means employed to show awareness of another person’s face In this sense, politenesscan be accomplished in situations of social distance or closeness Showing awareness for

another person’s face when that other seems socially distant is often described in terms ofrespect or deference Showing the equivalent awareness when the other is socially close

is often described in terms of friendliness, camaraderie or solidarity Face consists of tworelated aspects: positive face and negative face

Brown and Levinson (1987) define positive face refers to “the positive self- imagethat people have and want to be appreciated and approved by at least some people” Inother words, positive face is seen as the desire that others like, admire, value or approve

of one’s wants on the need to be accepted and like by others

“A person’s negative face is the need to be independent, to have freedom of action,and not to be imposed on by others” (Yule 1996: 61) The word “negative” here does notmean “bad”, it is just the opposite pole from “positive” The negative face, therefore, isreflected in the desire not to be impeded or put upon, to have the freedom to act as onechooses

So, in simple terms, negative face is the need to be independent and positive face isthe need to be connected In general, participants will co-operate with each other due tothe mutual vulner ability of face However, it is not possible for conversation to flowwithout a demand or intrusion being made on another person’s autonomy Certainillocutionary acts are liable to damage or threaten another person’s face Brown andLevinson define the performance of such utterances as potential face threatening acts(FTAs) When confronted with the need to perform an FTA, the speaker needs to decidehow it should be uttered

Brown and Levinson argue that the first choice to be made is whether the FTAshould be performed “on record” or “off record” If the on record strategy is chosen, aspeaker can either perform the FTA baldly without redressive action or mitigate the FTA

by uttering it with redressive action Performing an act without redressive action involvesuttering it in the most direct, clear, unambiguous way possible Conversely, performing

an act with redressive action actually gives face to the addressee, making it clear that noface threat it intended This can be achieved by adopting the strategies of either positivepoliteness or negative politeness

Positive politeness is redressive action directed towards the addressee’s positiveface, demonstrating that the hearer’s wants or needs are thought of as desirable Incontract, negative politeness is redressive action directed to the addressee’s negative face,demonstrating the speaker’s derise not to impose upon the hearer by restricting theiractions.

The off record strategy enables the speaker to avoid the responsibility of performing

a FTA See the following figure about possible strategies for doing FTAs by Brown andLevinson:

Without redressive action, badly

On record 2 Positive Politeness With redressive action

Do the FTA 3 Negative Politeness

Off record

Don’t do the FTA

From the theory of face and politeness, when using address forms in greetings,speaker can choose to go on record or off record Thus, it is employed as both positiveand negative strategies

1.5 Cross-Culture of Addressing Forms in Greetings

Addressing forms in greetings is a phenomenon of language And as language isbelieved to be woven into every fabric of every human culture, it can be said thataddressing forms in greetings is an element of culture

Although there are plenty disagreements on the definition of culture and the relation

of language and culture, a majority of people agree that culture overwhelms language andlanguage reflects culture Nevertheless, cultural features vary from region to region, evenwhen they speak the same language That is why their reflections in language aredifferent Addressing forms in greetings is not an exception It is influenced by cultures

As we mentioned above, each country has its own culture So cross- culture amongcountries can make greetings in general and addressing forms in greetings in particularhave plenty dissimilarities between Vietnamese and English cultures though in this era ofglobalization, cultural transfer are commonly seen Cultures rooted so deeply in people’sawareness that can not be changed easily in a short time Each culture still has its owncharacteristics and dignity These dissimilarities between two cultures often create aphenomenon called cultural shock when people from the two cultures endeavor tocommunicate

The use of addressing forms in greetings by Vietnamese and English people issurely affected by cultural features and cross-cultural communication To partially helpavoid the cultural shock in this area, this research will discuss about some maincharacteristics of the way Vietnamese and English people using forms of address ingreetings It also can help us know more about the way we can make a polite greeting byusing the forms of address of Vietnamese and English people

Chapter 2 Addressing Forms in Greetings in Vietnamese and English

2.1 Addressing Forms in Greetings

These definitions correlate with the concepts of social- linguistics and pragmaticsthat greeting is a part of politeness which is used primarily when people meet each other

in order to make the addressee feel good, be friendly and minimize conflicts

2.1.2 Addressing Forms in Greetings

Recently, Vietnam has obtained very good relationships with many countries in theworld It can be seen that knowing how to address each other in the polite ways is onefactor that not only contributes to the friendly atmosphere and the success of the meetingbut also helps to strengthen the partnership, integration and better the communicationbetween two nations The ways people address each other in greetings are determined bythe formality of the language and various cultural factors

As we mentioned other part of the research, politeness is one of the most importantaspects of human communication: human beings can only exist in peace together ifcertain basic conversation of politeness are observed Addressing forms in greetingsplays an important role in making a successful conversation Because it can make acommunication more effective and avoid the conflicts in communication Hence, it can

be considered as a politeness phenomenon

2.2 The Basic Forms of Address

In general, the customary forms of address in a language community can beincorporated into a system by which a particular form is determined This part of theresearch will present some basic forms of address used effectively in the light ofsociolinguistics and cross- cultural communication

2.2.1 Personal Pronouns

In normal greetings of the conversations, personal pronouns are used widely todistinguish the speaker “I” from the person or persons addressed “you” and from otherparticipants “he, she, they” Pronoun systems distinguish among these three roles, but thenumber of personal pronouns in different languages is not the same There are twenty-two pronouns in Vietnamese and there are seven in English indicating 1st person, 2ndperson, 3rd person, singular and plural

As we can see that, in both Vietnamese and English language, the personal pronoun

“I” is used when the speaker refers to himself or herself to give personal opinions orpoints of view, but the speaker can use the plural personal pronoun “we” when referring

to a group of people or to avoid personal responsibility in a refusal or disagreement

“We” can also be used to show modesty when the speaker talks about a success or anachievement Thus, “we” can be used either “inclusively” for the speaker and addresstogether, or “exclusively” for the speaker and some third person together Similarly, thepronoun “you” can be used for people addressed plus some other people in greetings, forexample: “How are you?” So thanks to the personal pronouns, the addressee can find aneasy way to greet someone in various roles

2.2.2 Titles

Normally, a title is used for the speaker as the 1st person in the greetings It isfollowed by the last name or full name of mainly for the addressee and the 2nd person andsomeone else as the 3rd person In Vietnam, a title may sometimes be used on its own.For example: “Xin chào, ngài giáo sư”- “Hello, Professor”

As mentioned above, the use of titles in English language and Vietnamese is not assimple as it might appear.

2.2.3 Provisional Forms of Address

The term ‘provisional’ forms of address means the forms that can be used to addressothers just temporarily in certain contexts In a very formal meeting, the person whochairs the meeting can be called the chair, the chairman or chairwoman, even thechairperson Of these, the chairman is only used if the person is male and thechairwoman is only used when the person is female, the other two may be used toanyone Madam chairman now seems old fashioned It seems difficult to decide how toaddress the person who is in the chair So it is frequently advisable to ask the one in thechair how they wish to be addressed and what term they wish to use to describe their ownfunction in order to have a appropriateness in addressing forms in greetings “Hello,chairman”, “Hello, chairwoman” or “Hello, chairperson” etc In Vietnam, it is quitepossible to address a person by his or her official position, for example, Minister “Bộtrưởng” and Director or Rector “Hiệu trưởng”

2.2.4 Other Forms of Address

In very formal meetings, when the chairperson addresses everybody in the meeting

he or she often says “Ladies and Gentlemen”, at the opening of a meeting, whenpostponing a discussion and closing a meeting insteading of the greetings Besides

“everyone, someone, anyone, no one” when the speakers refers to people in the meeting

generally, they might use “those” and the equivalence of the plural personal pronoun

“they” to avoid “he” which may offend the female participants How people areaddressed in a very formal meeting can be indicated in the procedure for a formalmeeting The forms include pronouns, title plus last name, first name, the Chair, Mr.Chairman, everyone, anyone, no one, someone and even avoidance of forms of addresswhich means not any forms of address is used For example, "Hello" is used in Englishlanguage However, Vietnamese always add an addressing term after the verb of theutterance, namely "Xin chào ông/ bà."

The forms of address can be classified in terms of personal pronouns, titles andother provisional addressing terms.

Title + full name,

Mr Chairman…

DirectorRectorThe Chairperson…

His/Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, full name…

Table 1: The basic forms of address in English greetings

2.3 Addressing Forms in Greetings in Vietnamese and English

2.3.1 Addressing Forms

2.3.1.1 In Vietnamese

In Vietnam, addressing forms is the meaningless words used as referent words.Regarding to vocative, reflexive pronouns and reciprocal words are usually mentioned.Addressing forms in Vietnamese language has its own characteristics using not onlyvocative but other word classes as person reference Vietnamese address forms mayconsists of the followings:

Personal pronouns are also called the authentic addressing: tôi, tớ, mày, tao, tau,mình, etc

Kinship terms- noun referring to blood or family relationship: ông, bà, cô, chú, bác,

dì, mẹ, cha etc Vietnamese kinship terms that show correlation in family, in lineage aremore complicated than English ones The use of Vietnamese kinship terms is to address

the hierarchical relation among the referents (the speaker, the hearer and the third party).This is not unlike the practice of using kinship terms with small children in English.According to Nguyen Quang (2001), in Vietnamese, addressing forms appears dynamicrelationship.

Proper name (given name): Loan, Phuc, Nhan

Nouns referring to profession or status in society: thưa giám đốc, bác sỹ, giáo sư…

In addition, other words such as: đằng ấy, đằng kia, y, thị, đó… also could be used

to address

2.3.1.2 In English

Addressing forms is defined as of pertaining to calling, used in calling, said of thatcase of form of the noun, the pronoun or adjective, in which a person or thing isaddressed

It is said that forms of address in English language is so simple The neutral pair ofI- YOU is used in any situation and address to anyone but it does not consider the age,sex, social position, attitude of the interlocutors So it does not help us to know about therelation between speaker and hearer, attitude as well as emotion which speaker expressthrough addressing forms But, in fact, that is not such simple Apart from the neutralpair of I- YOU, in English has many other forms of address which being using to expresslevels of different emotion and attitude does not seem easy However, basically, Englishaddressing forms consists of the following:

+ Personal pronoun: Personal pronoun are words which replace or refer to specificperson/people of thing/things in communication In English, each personal pronounrefers to one person:

“I” is used for the first person

“You” is used for the second person both of singular and plural

“He, she, it” are used for the third person of singular

“We” is used for the first person of plural

“They” is used for the third person of plural

+ Kinship terms: In English, kinship terms “brother, sister, uncle, aunt” are theaddressing forms with the indefinite meanings They do not show the clear meaning like

in Vietnamese We do not know exactly whether the word “uncle” means “chú” or “bác”

or “cậu” or “dượng”, and the word “aunt” means “cô” or “dì” or “thím” or “mợ” Inaddition, in English the parents could be addressed as: mother and father, mom and dad,mama and papa by a child

+ Title : Title alone Eg: Professor, Dr., Mr., Miss etc

Title + last name Eg: Professor Browning, Mr Clinton, Dr Peter etc

+ Name: Last name Eg: Michael Nixon, Mary King

First name Eg: Michael Nixon, Mary King

Multiple names: Means that when we talk with one person, we sometimes use

“title” and other time we can use “title+ last name” or “last name” only For example:Professor or Mr Browning or Browning

2.3.2 Addressing Forms in Greetings

2.3.2.1 In Vietnamese

“Greeting is more important than a feast” is the idiom to express the role ofgreetings in Vietnamese tradition For Vietnamese, when they catch up with their friends,they may greet them informally or formally In Vietnamese, how we address the people

we meet indicates to them and to others our relationship to them

In general, the Vietnamese do not say “good morning”, “good afternoon” or “goodevening” There is only a simple standard formula to greet someone for all parts of theday, that is “Xin chào!” However, it is much more elegant to address the person you are

talking to in some way Hence, a formula “Chào+ a proper form of address” like “Chàoông!” is much better In this phrase, “ông” is used to address respectable men, usuallyolder than oneself

Instead of “ông”, some following words can be used to address person with differentstatus and age in relation to the speaker

Cụ Is used to address to an older person, who are much older than oneself,

or generally very old

Bà is used to address to an older woman, of about 60 year Sometimes it is

used to show a special respect to a young womanÔng is used to address to an older man, of about 60 year Sometimes it is

used to show a special respect to a young manBác is used to address a middle-aged man or woman who would be about

the same age as your parentsChú is used to address to the uncle, or if they are older than you and younger

than your parents

Cô is used to address to the aunt, of if they are older than you and younger

than your parents

Chị is used to address to a young woman who is about the same age as you,

or a woman only a fraction older than you

Anh is used to address to a young man who is about the same age as you, or

a man only a fraction older than you

Em is used to address to a younger person, or the children

Thầy is used to address to the teacher (if he is a man)

Cô is used to address to the teacher (if she is a woman)

Table 2: The proper forms of address can be used in greetings in Vietnamese.

However, the forms of address are according to the person’s age, gender and socialposition When Vietnamese greet their relatives requires them to address formally andaccording to the family thierarchy For example, “Cháu chào ông ạ.”, “ Em chào chị ạ.”

etc Note how “ạ” is used at the end of a greeting to show politeness It is used especiallywhen you address older people or people in more senior position.

2.3.2.2 In English

Different cultures results in the differences in using language That is why there aremany distinctions in using forms of address between Vietnamese and English ingreetings It is said that social status plays a more important role in addressing in formal

or official situations in English

In general, the English greetings are more simple than Vietnamese one with the

neutral pair of I and YOU, for example: “How do you do”, “Pleased to meet you”, etc In

English, they greet in all parts of a day by use: “Good morning”, “Good afternoon”, and

“Good evening” It very easy for speaker to choose which one is suitable in the specificcircumstance

As you know, with the English, the first impression is very important for everyone

in life Thus, knowing how to say hello with people in each situation is very necessaryfor English users all around the world In English, when two friends meet each other,they often say "Hi, Mary" or “Hello, John” Then they often ask a general question, such

as "How are you?" or "How are things?" or "How's life?”

The English often use “title”, “title with last name” or name and title only to address

in formal greeting in any public place such as restaurant, airport, etc

For example: Following the dialogue Mr Bean meets Mrs Breuer, one of his students, and her husband in the street

Mrs Breuer: Good morning, Mr Bean.

Mr Bean: Good morning, Mrs Breuer How are you?

Mrs Breuer: I’m fine, thanks, and you?

Mr Bean: Not too bad, thank you very much

Mrs Breuer: Mr Bean, this is my husband Michael, Michael this is Mr Bean myEnglish teacher

Mr Bean: Hello, Michael.

Mr Michael: Pleased to meet you, professor !

Mrs Breuer: Well, goodbye Mr Bean, it was nice to see you

Mr Bean: Yes, goodbye

Mr Michael: Goodbye, professor.

(http: www.learnenglish.de/basic/greetings)

There are many forms of address in greetings of the English However, the authoronly gives some main characteristics in this study The author hopes that it would beanalyzed in more detail in another opportunity

In summary, we have analyzed some main characteristics of addressing forms ingreetings in English and Vietnamese As shown from the study that social status plays amore important role in addressing in English meanwhile in Vietnam, age is the thingplaying a more important role in addressing In addition, in English, they greet in all parts

of a day by use: “Good morning”, “Good afternoon” and “Good evening” It is very easyfor speakers to choose which is suitable in the specific circumstance To contrast,Vietnamese do not do so There is only a simple standard formula to greet someone forall parts of a day

Now, we can affirm that different cultures results in the differences in usinglanguages That is why there are many distinctions in using forms of address in greetingsbetween English and Vietnamese

Chapter 3: Data Analysis

3.1 The survey questionnaires

The questionnaire has two versions, one in English for the British and Americannative speakers and the other in Vietnamese for the Vietnamese ones

The survey was conducted in forms of questions At the beginning of the page, theauthor required something about personal information of the informants Next came tothe specific questions and number them from 1 to 12 The respondents were asked either

to circle the selected answers or to write specifically used addressing forms in theirgreetings for each questions

The informants were also asked to write some more specifically about the forms ofaddress they used in each questions In addition, as believed to be influential in theanalysis of the data, the informants’ status parameters including gender, age, occupation,marital status, education level and the place they have been living were required in thequestionnaires

3.2 Description of the subjects

As a whole, 100 people participants in this study consisting 50 Vietnamese and 50British and American people Regarding the gender, out of the 100 informants, 55 werefemales and 45 were males All Vietnamese informants are my acquaintances and myfamily’s acquaintances who live in both Ha Tinh and Nghe An provinces Some Britishand American informants are my friends’ acquaintances and others are the travelers whohave just come to Vietnam on Labor International holiday in 2010

100 survey papers were sent to both Vietnamese and British and Americaninformants, and we got totally all 100 proper replies and all of them were then analyzedfor this study

3.3 Data Analysis

3.3.1 Comments on addressing forms offered by the British and American subjects

3.3.1.1 Data on British and American subjects’ personal information

Male Female Married Single 10-20 21-30 31-50 >50

As we can see from the table, only 10% were to 10-20 age group and 24% of theparticipants were to over 50 years old The majority of the British and American subjectsbelonged to 21-30 and 31-50 age groups, which accounted for 36% and 30%respectively

The place they have

Concerning the place they have been living, there were 14 participants coming fromcountryside, which accounted for 28% and the rest came from city Regarding educationlevel, there are five types have been divided for the subjects such as: primary, secondary,high school, university and others within only 2% study primary as well as secondarysubjects The majority of the British and American subjects belonged to university 16%for high school and the rest were for others.

Regarding types of occupations the British and American subjects do, they were ofvarious jobs Many of them were business managers and teachers, which accounted fortwo- thirds The rest were graphic designers, nurses, clerical, accountant, motelproprietor and so on

3.3.1.2 Data on addressing forms offered by the British and American subjects

also have affect on the way to greet, which accounted for 24%, 42%, 18%, 28%, 50%and 56% respectively.

Figure 1: The most important factor having affect on the way to address in greeting

of the British and American subjects.

The informants were asked to number in order from the most important factor tounimportant thing That can help us to recognize easily which factor is the mostimportant one having affect on the way to greet of the British and American people As

we can see clearly from the figure, the most important factor has affect on the way togreet is the age There are nearly a half of informants think so

* The Reasons of Avoidance

Reasons

Why you do not use the addressing

forms in greeting

b Because I do not know certainly his age 6 12%

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Table 6: The reasons that sometimes the British and American subjects do not use addressing forms in greeting.

We can see clearly from the table, 40 of the respondents which accounted for 80%explain that because they do not know the name and 6 of them which accounted for 12%think that because they do not know certainly the age so they do not use the addressingforms in greeting The rest explains for other reasons such as because they do not want totalk, it is not normal, there is no difference and because they know well It takes only for8%

* Greeting someone without any personal information

Forms of address

How will you in greeting if you do not know

any information of someone

“Hello, how are you?”

“Hello, how do you do?”

Or “Hello, pleased to meet you”

And there are 24% of the informants used the titles to greet someone They used:

“Mr.”, “Sir” and “Man” to address in greeting male And “Miss”, “Mrs.”, “Ms” forfemale

From the table, most of the informants used no forms to address in greeting if theydid not know any information about age, name, social status etc It accounted for 68%.Most of them used: “Hello”, “Hi”, “G’day” or “Good morning/ afternoon/ evening” togreet both male and female in this situation Some of them used the pattern as follow togreet:

“Hello, my name is Elizabeth”

Or “Hi, my name is Zara ”

From the above analysis, we could know that most of the British and Americansubjects usually do not use the forms of address to greet someone if they do not knowany personal information of them

Being asked about the reasons, the British and American subjects explained bymany ways There are 29 people giving for choosing “no” and they explained that: “It isvery impolite and not respect to the teachers” Some others said that: “It is notappropriate” and they said “Unless teachers asked, we do not use their first names to

greet” 6 people explained that is very common in England to use the first name to greettheir teachers The rest ones had no ideas.

So, with the respect to the teachers (the hearers), most of British- Americaninformants did not use “first name” as an addressing form to greet their teachers In fact,there are some people explained that is very common Thus, using title and any otherforms, not “first name” in this situation is still considered as a politeness way to expresstheir respected attitude in communication with their teachers

* Greeting Friends

Forms of address

Addressing form in greeting when you meet your friend

or “My friend, how are you” The rest ones used other forms of address to greet theirfriends For example they use the first name or surname of their friend to address ingreeting Such as: “Hello David”, “Hi Jane”, “Hello Fred” and so on

In order to greet friends, the speakers tend to use the negative politeness Thegreeting sentences they use that only formal greeting as “Good morning” or “How are

you” In fact, the neutral pronoun “I- YOU” is used popularly They would like to make adistance in communication even they are friends

“Hi, how are you doing My name is…”

“Hello, pleased to meet you”

“You must be David I’m Ruban”

Or “Nice to see you again”

And they did not use “provisional” addressing forms to address in greeting for bothtimes For the first time, there are 8% and 22% informants used title such as: “Mr”,

“Mrs”, “Sir” or “Madam” and other forms such as using “full name” or first name only toaddress in greeting someone For the later time, there only 2 people used titles “Mr” and

“Mrs”, 3 people used no forms, for example: “Hello”, “Good morning” and “G’day” togreet, taking for 4% and 6% respectively The rest ones used other forms of address togreet someone In general, most informants are from 10 to 30 years old tend to make

friends with each other, they usually use the positive politeness by introducingthemselves in the greetings That is a good way to set up the social relationship Incontrast, the older informants who are from 30 to 50 or more than 50 years old tend touse the negative politeness The forms of address turns into with the presence of title

“Mr”, “Mrs” or “Ms” in order to show the speaker’s respect to the hearer

In general, the forms of address the younger informants used to address in greetingsomeone completely different from that the older ones used

* Greeting the most Powerful Person

Forms of address

Addressing in greeting the most powerful person in

your country For the first time For the later time People Percentage People Percentage

“Hello, Mr President”, “Hello Sir”, “Good morning Mr Obama”, “Hello Sir It’s an honor

to meet you”, “Hi Sir, very honored to meet you” and “Hello Mr Obama Hope youremember me” It accounted for 80% for the first time and 86% for the later time Andthere are 20% informants used pronoun to address for the first time For example, theyused: “Hello, nice to meet you”, “Hello, how are you”, “Very happy to see you again”,

“Mr President, how are you”, “Good to see you again” and “Very greated to meet you”for the first time Only 14% informants used pronoun to address in greeting for the latertime

Not only using title to greet the most powerful person, British American informantsalso plus a polite friendly greeting sentence consisting pronoun “You” after to show therespect to the hearer In addition, it can shorten the distance between the speaker and thehearer However, that is not totally right for older people who are at 31-50 years oldgroup With these people, they tend to use the negative politeness by using only “title” as

a formal addressing form In order to show the speaker’s respect to the hearer, theysometimes added “full name” of the hearer after title “Mr” However, for the later time,this trend could be changed

So, apart from the distance of social position, the distance of age between thespeakers and the hearers is really having affect on the way to address in greeting incultural communication

* Greeting a Parents’ Friend

Forms of address

Addressing in greeting a parent’s friend but don’t

know his name For the first time For the later time People Percentage People Percentage