VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
BÙI THỊ TUYẾT MAI THE USE OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN MAKING
SUGGESTION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
Sử dựng chiến lược lịch sự khi đưa ra lời gợi ý trong tiếng Anh
và tiếng Việt

M.A MINOR THESIS HANOI –2012
Field: English linguistics
Code: 60.22.15
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
V. Research methodology……………………………………………………… ……
VI. Design of the study …………………………………………………………………

PARTII:.DEVELOPMENT ………………………………………………
Chapter 1: Literature review ……………………… ………………………………….
1. Culture……………………………………………………………………………
1.2.Cross culture communication…………………………………………………
1.3. Politeness and face……………………………………………………………
1.4. Politeness in cross cultural communication…………………………………
1.5. Positive politeness strategies…………………………………………………
1.6. Negative politeness strategies………………………………………………….
1.7. Speech act………………………………………………………………………
1.8. Suggesting as a speech act…………………………………………………….
Chapter 2: Data analysis and findings……………………………………………….
2.1. Comments on survey questionnaires and informants………………………
2.2. The sequence of importance of some factors affectings S‟s choice of
suggesting………………………………………………………………………………
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ii
iii
iv
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Reference
Appendix

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I
vi

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS
NPS: Negative politeness strategies
PPS: Positive politeness strategies
FTAS: Face of threatening acts
List of tables
Table 1: Possible strategies for doing FTAs ( Brown and Levinson, 1987)
Table 2: Possible strategies for doing FTAs (Nguyen Quang,
1999:130)
Table 3: The in formants‟ status parameters.
Table 4: The sequence of importance of some factors affecting S‟ ss choice of
suggesting

The aims of the study are:

2
- To investigate ways of suggesting in Vietnamese and English
- To compare and contrast the use of politeness strategies in
suggesting in given Vietnamese and English suggesting situations.
- To contribute to raising language teachers‟ and students‟
awareness of cross – cultural differences in the speech act of
suggesting.
III. Scope of the study
In all aspects of politeness, the study only deals with verbal aspects, in the
light of the politeness theory by Brown and Levinson.
The paper is aimed to investigate the English – Vietnamese cross – cultural
interaction in making suggestion in both languages English and Vietnamese.
The data analysis is mainly taken in to account of interviews with informants
to examine politeness strategies based on collected situations of the act of
suggestions. The data were collected by conducting surveys with
questionnaires. In addition, the data from the informants are also utilized in
the study.
IV. Research question
1. How are politeness strategies manifested in suggestion in English
and Vietnamese?
2. What are the implications for teaching and applying the speech act
suggesting in cross cultural communication in Hai Phong private
university.
V. Method of the study
The following methods are resorted to:

3
- Conducting survey (with questionnaires as a data collection

ecological niche, and this became shared among those who could
communicate with each other because they had a common language and they
lived in the same time and place.”
Hoopes (1979:3) defines that: “ culture is the sum of ways of living,
including valuable ness, beliefs, esthetic, standards, linguistic, expression,
patterns of thinking, behave norms, and styles of communication which a
group of people to assume its survival in a particular physical and human
environment. Culture and the people who are part of it interact. So culture is
not static. Culture is the response of a group of human being to valid and
particular needs of its members. It , therefore, has an inherent logic and an
essential balance between positive and negative dimension”.
Levine and Alelman (1993) consider culture as “ a shared background
( for example national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language
and communication style, customs, beliefs, art, music and all the other
products of human thought made by a particular group of people at a
particular time. It also refers to the informal and often hidden patterns of

5
human interactions, expressions and view points that people in one culture
share”.
Culture is always changing because culture consists of learned patterns of
behavior and belief, cultural traits can be unlearned and learned a new as
human need change. Obviously, language cannot occur alone and is never
separated from social activities and its culture.
I.2.Cross – cultural communication
Cross – culture can be understood as “ the meeting of two cultures or
languages across the political boundaries of nation-state ”s ( Kram, 1998:
81)
The relationship between culture and communication is often compared
with the bond between the voice and the echo.

social meaning.
Politeness, in terms of cultural aspect, is defined as “a fixed concept, as in
the idea of „polite social behavior‟, or etiquette, within a culture” (Yule,
1996: 60).
Richards (1985:281) identifies politeness as “the attempt to establish,
maintain, and save face during conversation”. Brown and Levinson (199)
analyze politeness and say that in order to enter into social relationships, we
have to acknowledge and show an awareness of the face.

7
„Face’, the public self-image that every member wants to claim for
himself, consisting in two related aspects:
Negative face: the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, rights to
non-distraction- i.e. to freedom of action and freedom from imposition.
Positive face: the positive consistent self-image or „personality‟ (crucially
including the desire that this self-image be appreciated and approved of)
claimed by interactants.
We should be aware of the fact that it is a universal characteristic across
cultures that speakers should respect each other‟s expectations regarding self-
image, take account of their feelings, and avoid face threatening acts. Cutting
(2002: 45) analyzes the view of Brown and Levinson (1990) of politeness and
face: “ When face threatening acts (FTAs) are unavoidable, speakers can
redress the threat with negative politeness (which does not mean being
impolite) that respects the hearer‟s negative face, the need to be independent,
have freedom of action, and not be imposed on by others. Or they can redress
the FTA with positive politeness, that attends the positive face, the need to
be accepted and liked by others, treated as a member of the group, and to
know one‟s wants are shared by others”.
Brown and Levinson (1990: 69) suggest five possible strategies for
avoiding face threatening acts (FTAs) or for mitigating the face threat, which

9
FTA encounter

4. Don’t do the FTA Do the FTA

3. Off record On record

2. With redressive action

Positive Negative
politeness politeness
Without redressive action

Table 2: Possible strategies for doing FTAs (Nguyen Quang, 1999:130)
I.4. Politeness in cross – cultural communication
Despite of cultural differences, an action or utterance of face threat, in any
culture yet at some different levels, can lead to communication discord or
offense. Therefore, every cultural has its own politeness strategies of
mitigating the face threat to others in interpersonal communication. That is
why the issue of politeness has been taken into great started quite recently.
Goffman (1967) describes politeness as “the appreciations and individual
shows to another through avoidance or presentation of rituals” (p.7). Lakoff
(1973)suggests that if one wants to succeed in communication, the
message must be conveyed in a clear manner. Fraser and Nolan (1981) define
politeness as a set of constraints of verbal behaviors. Leech (1983) sees it as
forms of behaviors aimed at creating and maintaining harmonious interaction.
He also considers the politeness principle as part of the principles for


11
audience knows each other fairly well. In addition to hedging and attempts to
avoid conflict, some strategies of positive politeness include statements of
friendship, solidarity, compliments. According to Brown and Levison
(1987:101), “positive politeness is redress directed to the addressee‟s positive
face, his perennial desire that his wants (or the action, acquisition, values
resulting from them) should be thought of as desirable. In positive politeness
the sphere of redress is widened to the appreciation of other‟s wants in
general or to the expression of similarity between egos and other‟s wants”. In
order to be polite the S‟s concern to the listener and hopes to satisfy the
listener and hopes to satisfy the A‟s communicative need should be shown
during a conversation.
I.6. Negative Politeness and negative politeness strategies
Negative politeness strategies are oriented towards the hearer‟s negative
face and emphasize avoidance of imposition on the hearer. These strategies
presume that the speaker will be imposing on the listener and there is a higher
potential for awkwardness or embarrassment than in bald on record strategies
and positive politeness strategies. Negative face is the desire to remain
autonomous so the speaker is more apt to include an out for the listener,
through distancing styles like apologies.
Negative politeness in Brown & Levinson (1987:129) is “ redressive
action addressed to the addressee‟s negative face: his want to have his
freedom of action unhindered and his unimpeded”. Agreeing with Brown and
Levinson on definition of negative politeness, Nguyen Quang (2003)
emphasized, “negative politeness is in any communicative act which is
appropriately intended to show that the speaker does not want to impinge on
the addressee‟s privacy, thus enhancing the sense of distance between them”.

12

whether or not he wants to follow it. (1987)
Suggestions belong to the group of directive speech acts which, according
to Searle (1976),are those in which the speaker‟s purpose is to get the hearer
to commit him/herself to some future course of action. To put it more simply,
directives are attempts to make the worlds match the words. Bach and
Harnish‟s (1979) definition of directives also implies that the speaker‟s
attitude and intention when performing an utterance must be taken as a reason
for the hearer‟s action. Moreover, one relevant feature affecting directives in
opposition to other speech acts, such as representatives or co missives (Searle
1976), refers to the necessary interaction between the speaker and the hearer
in order to get the speech act performed. As Trosborg (1995;20) points out,
“ only the case of directives is the hearer‟s subsequent act ( getting things
done) part of the speaker‟s intention”.
`
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CHAPTER 2
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
II.1. Comments on survey questionnaires and informants
The data taken from the survey questionnaire is used at the linguistic input.
There are 5 designed situations. Of the 31 English and 25 Vietnamese
informants, 40 people have been selected for the analysis (20 English

Male
10
12

Female
10
8
Occupation
Students
6
7
Office workers
5
6
Service workers
9
7
Table 3 : The informants’ status parameter
They are required to list the following factors affecting the choice of
making suggestion ( Direct, indirect, formally, informally) in the sequence of
importance from 1 (most) to 5 (least):
- The position of the addressee
- The relationship between you and the address
- The topic ( subtle, a taboo…)
- The addressee‟s personality (extroverted, introverted…)
- Your psychological mood
The last past of the survey is expected to get the informants ‟suggestion on
given situations:
- Situation 1: Your close friend wants to buy a new cell phone.
What would you say to suggest her/ him to buy a product of a

A
B
C
D
E
1
36
%
32
%
28
%
0
%
4
%
10
%
40
%
40
%
10
%
0 %
2
20
%
32
%

10
%
30
%
10 %
4
0
%
12
%
24
%
40
%
24
%
30
%
0
%
10
%
40
%
20 %

17
5
20
%

the addressee‟s personality
To sum it up, the importance of the given factors can be arranged as in the
following table:
Rank
Vietnamese
British
1
The position
The relationship
2
The relationship
Topic

18
3
The topic
Position
4
The s ‟s
psychological mood
Personality
5
Addressee‟s
personality
Psychological mood

.Table 4. The sequence of importance of some factors affecting S‟s choice of suggesting

To be brief, beside social factor like age and gender, these are also many
other ones that affect S‟s making suggestion. And due to different cultures the

15,5%
20%
Table 5. Politeness in suggesting as seen from English informants’ parameter

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The overall strategies indicate a higher frequency in the use of NPS by
English speaker in suggesting. PPS accounts for a smaller proportion.
However, the distribution of NPS and PPS varies according to different
parameters of the informants.
People under 30 used more negative politeness oriented than those above
30. in addition, a higher proportion of NPS is seen in the female‟s utterance
than the male‟s (28% 27%) while the reverse is true for PPS (22,6% 21,8%).
As far as profession is concerned, students seem to be more NPO than the
office and service workers (21,2% - 18,2% - 17,8%) while the reverse order is
true in term of PPS.
Vietnamese findings
Informant
Age
Gender
Profession

Under 30
Above 30
Male
Female
Students
Office worker
Service worker
NPS
13,2%

than the female
Differences:
- the promotion of NPS by Vietnamese males and females are equal.
English female are more negatively polite than the male.
II.4. Realization of positive politeness strategies in suggesting

Strategies
Vietnamese
English
1
Be optimistic
16%
6%
2
Seek
agreement
11.5%
3.8%
3
Encourage
10.4%
4.3%
4
Use in group
identify marker
7.8%
3.6%