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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
DEPARTMENT OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
TA THI THANH HIEN A POLITENESS STRATEGY IN EXPRESSING
SYMPATHY BY AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE
SPEAKERS
(CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ TRONG VIỆC DIỄN ĐẠT SỰ CẢM
THÔNG CỦA NGƯỜI MỸ VÀ NGƯỜI VIỆT NAM)
MINOR MA THESIS
Linguistics
60 22 15
Supervisor: Prof. Assoc. Tran Huu Manh, PhD
Linguistics
60 22 15
Supervisor: Prof. Assoc. Tran Huu Manh, PhD

HANOI, 2010 5
TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Background and significance of the study … 1
1.2. Objectives …………………………………. 2
1.3. Overview of the study……………………… 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
2.1. Speech acts …………………………………. 4
2.2. Politeness…………………………………… 7
2.2.1. Theory of politeness………. 7
2.2.2. Social factors affecting politeness …………………………………8
2.2.3. The notion of face ……………………………………………… 9
2.2.4. The notion of positive and negative politeness……………… …….9
2.3. Directness and indirectness………………… 10
2.3.1. Direct speech acts…………. 10
2.3.2. Indirect speech acts………… 11

5.2. Implications…………………………………………………………… 38
5.3. Suggestions for further study……………… 39

REFERENCES 40

APPENDIX A I

APPENDIX B IV

APPENDIX C VIII

APPENDIX D………………………………………………………….…….XII