VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
 

PHẠM THỊ ANH ĐÀO

WISHES ON THE OCCASION OF BIRTHDAY, WEDDING AND NEW
YEAR’S HOLIDAY (OR CHRISTMAS) IN BRITISH AND
VIETNAMESE CULTURE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY.
(LỜI CẦU CHÚC NHÂN DỊP SINH NHẬT, CƯỚI HỎI VÀ LỄ NĂM MỚI (HOẶC
GIÁNG SINH) TRONG VĂN HÓA VIỆT VÀ ANH: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH).

M. A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Linguistics
Field Code: 60 22 15 HA NOI - 2010
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
 

PHẠM THI ANH ĐÀO

WISHES ON THE OCCASION OF BIRTHDAY, WEDDING AND NEW

1
0.3. Scope of the study
2
0.4. Methods of the study
2
0.5. Design of the study
2
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
3
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
3
1.1. Speech acts and wishing
3
1.1.1. Speech acts and their classification
3
1.1.2. Wishing as a speech act
6
1.2. Politeness, face and wishing, a face-threatening act
7
1.2.1. Politeness
7
1.2.2. Face
8
1.2.3. Wishing as a face-threatening act
10
1.3. Relationship of language, culture and communication
10
1.3.1. Definition of language
10
1.3.2. Definition of culture

18
3.1.2.4. Occupation
18
3.2. VIETNAMESE FINDINGS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRES
18
3.2.1. Comment on the content of Vietnamese wishes in three situations
18
3.2.1.1. Vietnamese birthday wishes
18
3.2.1.2. Vietnamese wedding wishes
21
3.2.1.3. Vietnamese New Year wishes
24
3.2.2. Comment on priorities in wishing
26
3.2.3. Comment on social factors governing the way of extending a wish
27
3.2.4. Comment on components of the act of Vietnamese wishing
27
3.3. ENGLISH FINDINGS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRES.
28
3.3.1. Comment on the content of English wishes in three situations
28
3.3.1.1. English birthday wishes.
28
3.3.1.2. English wedding wishes
30
3.3.1.3. English Christmas and New Year wishes
32
3.3.2. Comment on priorities in wishing

38
4.1. Learning a culture
38
4.2. Learning to avoid culture shock.
38
4.2.1. Some problems in culture shock.
38
4.2.2. Some potential culture shocks in wishing.
39
PART C: CONCLUSION
41
REFERENCES
42
ENGLISH SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES
VIETNAMESE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES

0. 1. Rationale of the study
English nowadays is considered the international language; it is the most widely spoken
language which is used in many fields such as economics, trade, tourism, diplomacy, politics,
and press. In Vietnam, as a result of the open door economic policy, the number of people
learning English for various purposes is on the rise. English is not only taught as an important
subject at thousands of foreign languages centers but it is also a compulsory subject in various
primary and high schools.
Although English has been taught in Vietnam for many years, not until recently has the
focus of improving linguistic competence for learners been on syntax, lexical and
phonological components of the language. Many people still believe that being good at
English means being good at linguistic components. Thus, cultural factors are paid little
attention to.
However, today, in our modern world in which globalization is expanding, the need of
integrating and communicating across nations is indispensable. Successful communication
requires not only purely linguistic competence but also the knowledge of social norms, social
values and relations between individuals known as communicative competence.
Communicative competence presupposes ability to use the language correctly and
appropriately. This pragmatic competence is as crucial as linguistic competence. The lack of it
may lead to impoliteness, misinterpretation, cultural shocks, and even communication
breakdown.
Hence, the knowledge about cross culture communication is really essential. On this
basis, this study is done to help Vietnamese learners of English to understand English ways of
expressing wishes. The focus of the study will be on similarities and differences between
Vietnamese and English forms of wishing.
0. 2. Aims of the study
The thesis focuses on studying the similarities and differences between English and
Vietnamese ways of wishing in respect to the following aspects:

2
- To investigate the content of expressions used in wishing and non-verbal components

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Speech acts and wishing
1.1.1. Speech acts and their classification
The concept of speech acts was first developed by Austin in the first edition of the
book “How to do things with words” published in 1962. He did not use the term “speech acts”
but “performative sentence” or performative utterance” which indicated that “the issue of an
utterance is the performing of an utterance” (p6). The term itself was first used by Searle who
claimed that “talking is performing acts according to rules” (p22), and that “speech acts […]
are the basic or minimal units of linguistic communication.” (p16).
According to Yule (1996:47-48), actions performed via utterance are generally called
speech acts and, in English, are commonly given more specific labels such as requesting,
apologizing, offering, etc. The circumstances in which actions are performed to communicate
are generally called speech events – activities in which participants use language to interact in
some conventional way to reach some outcome.
In analyzing a speech act we study how an utterance affects the behaviour of the
Speaker and the Hearer. According to Austin (1962) a speech act consists of three related acts:
- Locutionary act is the actual form of the utterance. When we perform a locutionary
act, we have to produce an utterance of a particular form having a particular meaning and
following the rules of a given language. Yule asserts that a locutionary act is the “basic act of
utterance” and the meaningfulness of linguistic expressions is the determinant of this kind of
act. For example, a sentence “It’s very hot here” can be counted as a locutionary act as it
includes meaningful units of the English language.
- Illocutionary act relates to the concrete purposes of an utterance. This makes
illocutionary acts different from locutionary acts. Thus, uttering the same sentence: “It’s very
hot here”, the speaker does not only utter it but may also suggest a request (e.g. to turn on the
central heating).

4
The illocutionary act is performed via the communicative force of an utterance. When

In spite of those devices, it is not easy for hearers to recognize intended forces of
various utterances. Thus, these forces can be classified into small sets by Searle (1969)
including declaratives, representatives, expressives, directives and commissives.
* Declaratives: speech acts that change the conditions existing in the world via
utterance. In other words, they bring about a new state of being. For example, when the
chairman says “I declare the meeting open”, implied that a change really takes place. People
start to make speeches or address the meeting and so on.
* Representatives: speech acts that state the speaker’s belief in some case. For
example, a sentence like “The earth is flat” is a statement of fact in which the speaker
believes.
* Expressives: speech acts used to express the speaker’s feeling and attitude about
something. They can be statements of joys, disappointment, likes, dislikes such as “what a
great day!”, “Your shirt is very nice”. We can make an expressive in English by using an
exclamation or simply an emotionally charged statement.
* Directives: speech acts used to get the hearer to do something. They are commands,
orders, requests and suggestions. The function of directive may be realized by forms like
imperative sentences, questions or even statement of which illocutionary act is of a directive.
For instance, a sentence “Oh, It stops raining!” is interpreted as a suggestion that let us go out.
* Commissives: speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to do something in
the future. They function as promises, refusals, threat, pledge, etc. For example, the sentence
“Maybe I can do that tomorrow” shows that the speaker makes a promise of doing something.
It is important to remember that the appropriate forms used for commissives vary according to
social relationship between the participants in a speech event.
There is another approach to speech acts suggested by G. Yule that is made on the
relationship between structure and function of the utterance. When uttering, people can choose
different kinds of structures to show the functions of their utterances depending on certain
communicative purposes. The combination of three structural forms (declarative, interrogative
and imperative) and three general communicative functions (statement, question,
command/request) creates two types of speech acts: direct and indirect.


addressee” (1987: 227).
Thus, in terms of the speech act theory, wishing is considered to be an act of showing
good feelings towards the addressee through utterance(s). For example, when we utter the
sentence like “I wish you a healthy, joyful and happy future”, we do not only produce a

7
meaningful sentence but we also want to convey our desire to the hearer, and we expect that
our communicative intention will be recognized by the hearer. In other words, a wish may be a
locutionary act, an illocutionary act or a perlocutionary act.
In brief, wishing has all the characteristics of a speech act.
1.2. Politeness, face and wishing – a face threatening act
1.2.1. Politeness
* Politeness is the universal concept of human communication across cultures. It is
also both a communicative and cultural one. Many linguistic researchers have given their own
definitions of politeness, but most of them share the common theme that politeness is a feature
of language use and a pervasive ritual in human social interaction and how language expresses
the social distance between speakers and their different role relationship.
According to George Yule (1996:70):
Politeness, in an interaction, can be defined as the means employed to show awareness
of another person’s face.
In this sense, politeness can 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 of respect or deference. Moreover, languages differ in how they
express politeness. In English, phrases like I wonder if I could…. can be used to make a
request more polite.
According to Robin Lakoff (1990:38):
Politeness is a system of interpersonal relations designed to facilitate interaction by
minimizing the potential for conflict and confrontation inherent in all human interchange.
In short, within an interaction, there exists a type of essential concept face, which is worth
proper consideration.

Excuse me, sir, would you mind lending me your pen?
1.2.2. Face
* Many linguists define face in different way. From Yule’s point of view:
As a technical term, face means the public self – image of a person. It refers to that
emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects everyone else to recognize.

9
In addition, according to Richards (1994: 135):
In communication between two or more persons, the positive image or impression of
oneself that one shows or intends to show to the other participants is called face.
In any social meeting between people, the participants attempt to communicate a positive
image of themselves, which reflects the values, and beliefs of the participants. For example,
Ms Smith’s face during a particular meeting might be that of “a sophisticated, intelligent,
witty, and educated person”. If this image is not accepted by the other participants, feeling
may be hurt and there is a consequent “loss of face”. Social contacts between people thus
involve what the sociologist of language, Goffman, called face – work, that is, efforts by the
participants to communicate a positive face and to prevent loss of face. The study of face and
face – work is important in considering how languages express politeness.
* Face wants
According to Yule (1996:61):
Within social interaction, people generally behave as if their expectations concerning
their public self – image, or their face wants, will be respected. If a speaker says something
that represents a threat to another individual’s expectations regarding self – image, it is
described as a face-threatening act (FTA).
Yule also believes that
Given the possibility that some action might be interpreted as a threat to another’s
face, the speaker can say something to lessen the possible threat. This is called a face saving
act (FSA).
Yule takes an example:
Imagine a late night scene, where a young neighbour is playing his music very loud

define what language is.
According to Jackson and Stockwell (1996:1):
Language is the particular form of verbal communication used by a group of speakers.
From this point of view, Jackson and Stockwell focus on verbal communication, which is one
aspect of intercultural communication (verbal and non-verbal communication). Basing on the
above definition, Richards (1996:196) has put out:

11
Language is the system of human communication, which consists of the structured
arrangement of sounds (or their written representation) into larger units, e.g. morphemes,
words, sentences, utterances. In common usage, it refers to non-human systems of
communication such as the language of bees, the language of dolphin.
In short, language, we have seen, is a system of conventionalized symbols by which we
communicate with each other.
1.3.2. Definition of culture
There have been numerous definitions of culture. As defined by Richards (1996:94), culture is
the total set of beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, social habits, etc. of the members of a particular
society.
According to Nguyen Quang (1998:3):
Culture is a shared background (for example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting
from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes and values.
Culture refers to the informal and often hidden interactions, expressions and viewpoints that
people in one culture share. The hidden nature of culture has been compared to an iceberg,
most of which is hidden water. Like the iceberg, much of the influence of culture on an
individual can not be seen. The part of culture that is exposed is not always that which creates
cross – cultural difficulties: the hidden aspects of culture have significant effects on
behaviours and on interactions with other.
UNESCO also defined culture as a complex system of symbols that controls the behaviours
and communication in a community. Therefore, it includes a system of value to judge an event
or a phenomenon in that community.

interwoven with language. Referring to the relationship between culture and language, Edward
Sapir stated that:
Language has a setting. The people that speak it belong to a race (or a number of
races) that is, to a group which is set by physical characteristics from other groups. Again,
language does not exist apart from the socially inherited assemblage of practices and beliefs
that determines the texture of our lives.
Language is the heritage and reflection of a culture, the vehicle with which people transmit
their culture. By speaking and exchanging words the people from a given society/ groups are

13
creating and shaping their culture with characteristics different from those of other groups’
cultures.
The interrelation of language and culture is so close that no part of culture and particular group
can be studied without reference to the linguistic symbols in use. In addition, no proper
interpretation of a language can be made without looking into its culture. To know another’s
language and not culture is very good way to make a fluent fool of one’s self as said by
Winston Brembeck. In respect to that, there is a deep and indissoluble link between language
and culture.
In brief, language, culture and communication are interwoven. That is the reason why through
the face value of the communication of a group of people, their culture might be more
profoundly revealed.
1.3.5. Wishing as a need of communication
There is no double that wishing is a sensitive speech act often used by almost of all people
from young and old, in almost every place in the world. In fact, it is impossible to
communicate without a wish. For example, when you attend a birthday party, it will be really
ridiculous of you if you do not wish the other(s). In such cases like this, a wish is not only a
means of communication but a positive politeness also. Thus, wishing is considered a
necessary need of human in social communication that helps people in the same society
maintain and enhance their relationships and people in different countries have a sense of
cultural awareness of different customs, traditions and behaviors.

- Strategies in wishing
These aspects are considered in three situations with three cases.
Three situations are: - Birthday party
- Christmas (British)/ New Year (Vietnamese)
- Wedding
Five cases are: (The person wished)
- Close friend
- Colleague
- Acquaintance
- Brother/sister

15
- Boss
The informants are required to number the factor(s), the occasion (s), influence(s) their wishes
according to level of importance. They are also asked to point out the things they often use
together with wishing.
2.3. Methods of data analysis
The major method of the study is quantitative one. All the statistic data are illustrated through
graphs so that readers can clearly recognize the similarities and differences in two groups of
strategies.
To help the readers have an explicit observation all the findings, the results will be firstly
analyzed from Vietnamese informants to English ones, and finally the similarities and
differences between the two different groups.


- Situation 3: What would you say to wish the following person at his/ her wedding?
In each situation, wishes are addressed to five different persons who represent:
- Close friend
- Colleague
- Acquaintance
- Brother/ sister
- Boss
Part 3: In this part social factors governing the way of extending a wish are considered. The
informants are suggested to answer the following question
Which factor(s) influence(s) your wishes? (Please number in order of importance)
- Power status
- Age

17
- Gender
- Family members
- Others
Part 4: This part focuses on the rank of importance of occasions for wishing
Part 5: This part focuses on components of the act of wishing that are most common in
English and Vietnamese. It includes the following questions:
How do you express your wish? (Please tick () on the respective form)
- Expressing in words
- Sending cards with wishing words
- Giving presents with wishing words
- Presenting flowers with wishing words
- Money with wishing words.
3.1.2. Grouping of informants
There are two groups of informants in my study. The first group consists of twenty five
Vietnamese native speakers, all of whom have never acquired any other languages except their
mother tongue, Vietnamese. Therefore, their ways of interacting represent Vietnamese speech

Female
Vietnamese
44%
56%
English
40%
60%
Table 2: Gender correlation between English and Vietnamese respondents
3.1.2.3. Living area
Area
Rural
Urban
Vietnamese
40%
60%
English
44%
56%
Table 3: Living area correlation between English and Vietnamese respondents
As seen in the table above, the number of rural citizens who take part in the survey accounts
for over 40%. Nearly 60% for the informants are living in urban areas.
3.1.2.4. Occupation
Occupation
Social
Technical
Vietnamese
40%
60%
English
56%

12%
4%
4%
12%
4%
Promotion
4%
32%
12%
4%
32%
Hap & Luc
4%
8%
8%
20%
0%
Hap & Pro
16%
32%
36%
12%
12%
Pro & Luc
12%
4%
0%
20%
8%
All