VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
……………o0o…………… TRẦN THỊ THU HIỀN
A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF PERFORMATIVE VERBS IN
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
(PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐỘNG TỪ NGỮ VI
TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A. MINOR THESIS
Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15

HANOI - 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

ABBREVIATIONS vi
CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Rationale of the study 1
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study 1
1.2.1. Aims 1
1.2.2. Objectives 2
1.2.3. Research questions 2
1.3. Scope of the study 2
1.4. Method of the study 2
1.5. Organization of the study 3
CHAPTER TWO. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4
2.1. Speech Act Theory 4
2.1.1. Definition of speech acts 4
2.1.2. Components of speech acts 4
2.1.3. Speech Act Classification 5
2.1.4. Illocutionary force indicating device 6
2.1.5. Felicity conditions 7
2.1.6. The relationship between speech acts and speech act verbs 8
2.1.7. Property of speech act verbs 9
2.2. Performatives 9
2.2.1. Performatives versus Constatives 9
2.2.2. Definition of Performatives 10
2.2.3. Types of performatives 10
2.2.3.1. Explicit performative 10
2.2.3.2. Implicit performative 11
2.3. Performative verbs 12
2.3.1. Definition of performative verbs which 12

v
2.3.2. The function of performative verbs 12

APPENDIX ix

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE‟S STATEMENT i
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
ABBREVIATIONS vi
CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Rationale of the study 1
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study 1
1.2.1. Aims 1
1.2.2. Objectives 2
1.2.3. Research questions 2
1.3. Scope of the study 2
1.4. Method of the study 2
1.5. Organization of the study 3
CHAPTER TWO. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4
2.1. Speech Act Theory 4
2.1.1. Definition of speech acts 4
2.1.2. Components of speech acts 4
2.1.3. Speech Act Classification 5
2.1.4. Illocutionary force indicating device 6
2.1.5. Felicity conditions 7
2.1.6. The relationship between speech acts and speech act verbs 8
2.1.7. Property of speech act verbs 9
2.2. Performatives 9
2.2.1. Performatives versus Constatives 9
2.2.2. Definition of Performatives 10

4.1. Recapitulation 34
4.2. Concluding remarks 34
4.2.1. Concluding remarks on objective 1 34
4.2.2. Concluding remarks on objective 2 35
4.2.3. Concluding remarks on objective 3 35
4.3. Limitation of the study 36
4.4. Suggestions for further study 36
REFERENCES vii
APPENDIX ix

vi
ABBREVIATIONS

A: Action
CA: Contrastive analysis
EPV: English Performative Verb
EPVs: English Performative Verbs
EPs: Explicit Performatives
H: Hearer
IF: Illocutionary Force
IFIDs: Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices
IPs: Implicit Performatives
PV: Performative Verb
S: Speaker
SA: Speech act
SAs: Speech acts
U: Utterance
Us: Utterances
VPV: Vietnamese Performative Verb
VPVs: Vietnamese Performative Verbs

much attention to PVs. However, there is a fact that leaners of English have not been well
equipped with a all-sided knowledge of EPVs and the meanings of PVs have never been
systematically investigated. For example, learners of English often make confusion about
the meanings of the verbs “request” and “demand”, “suggest” and “propose”, “ and
“entreat”, etc. As a result, they do not often make proper uses of EPVs in communication
and even may break their real communication.
Recognizing the importance of PVs in communication and the problems learners may face
in using PVs, I decide to carry out a contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese
directive PVs in terms of syntactic and semantic features. With this peculiar function, PVs
that play an essential role in performing speech acts need being further studied to serve
better communication.
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
1.2.1. Aims
The study is aimed at:
- raising Vietnamese learner‟s awareness of how to realize the meanings of EPVs and use
them appropriately in order to achieve communicative purposes.
- providing teachers of English with useful materials about the knowledge of PVs.

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1.2.2. Objectives
To achieve these aims, the research tries to:
- present and describe the structures and the meanings of directive PVs in English and
Vietnamese.
- point out the similarities and differences of directive EPVs and their Vietnamese
equivalents in terms of syntax and semantics.
- suggest some implications for learning and teaching English directive PVs.
1.2.3. Research questions
The objectives are elaborated into the following research questions:
- What are the structures and meanings of directive PVs in English and Vietnamese ?
- What are the similarities and differences of directive PVs in English and Vietnamese?

This chapter provides the theoretical concepts and terms that are necessary and relevant to
directive PVs.
Chapter three: A contrastive analysis of directive PVs in English and in Vietnamese
This chapter is focused on exploring the structures and meanings of directive EPVs and
their Vietnamese equivalents. Then, some similarities and differences are drawn out to
illustrate the contrastive analysis of the two languages. Last but not least, some
recommendations for learning and teaching will be suggested.
Chapter four: Conclusion
This is the last part of the thesis which summarizes main points, gives concluding remarks
on objectives as well as suggestions for further study.

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CHAPTER TWO. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter is aimed at giving a general framework for analysing directive PVs later.
Firstly, the theory of speech acts including the notion, components, classification and
felicity conditions is explored. Secondly, the important matters referring to performative
verbs are presented in order to pave the way for an investigation of directive PVs in

predominant one. The illocutionary act is performed via the communicative force of an
utterance which is known as the illocutionary force of the utterance. The illocutionary
force of the utterance is what it “count as”. The same locutionary act can have different
illocutionary forces.
Example:
 (Yule, 1996:49)


.
In this example, illocutionary forces can count as a prediction, a promise or a warning.
2.1.3. Speech Act Classification
On the basis of Searle‟s theory, a general classification system includes five types of
functions performed by speech acts: representatives, directives, commissives, expressives
and declarations.
Representatives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be
the case or not. In using a representative, the speaker makes words fit the world. They may
be statements of fact, assertions, conclusions and descriptions.
E.g:
The earth is flat. (Yule, 1996:53)
It was a warm sunny day. (Yule, 1996:53)
Directives are those kinds of speech act that the speaker uses to get the hearer to do
something. They express what the speaker wants. They are orders, commands, requests,
suggestions.
E.g:
. (Yule, 1996:54)
Could you lend me a pen, please? (Yule, 1996:54)

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Commissives are those kinds of speech acts that the speaker uses to commit themselves to
some future action. They express what the speaker intends. They are promises, threats,

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In this scenario, each speaker has described and drawn attention to the illocutionary force
(„ask‟ and „tell‟) of their utterances. PVs „ask‟ and „tell‟ are clear IFIDs.
Other type of IFID which can facilitate the hearer recognize the intended illocutionary
force are felicity conditions.
2.1.5. Felicity conditions
Austin (1962:14-15) defines the felicity conditions as follows:
- There must exist an accepted conventional procedure having a certain conventional effect,
that procedure to include the uttering of certain words by certain persons in certain
circumstances.
- The particular persons and circumstances in a given case must be appropriate for the
invocation of the particular procedure invoked.
- The procedure must be executed by all participants both correctly and completely.
- Where, as often, the procedure is designed for use by persons having certain thoughts or
feelings, or for the inauguration of certain consequential conduct on the part of any
participant, then a person participating in and so invoking the procedure must intend so to
conduct themselves, and further must actually so conduct themselves subsequently.
According to Yule (1996:50), felicity conditions cover certain expected or appropriate
circumstances for the performance of a speech act to be recognized as intended. Basing on
the original Searle‟s assumption, Yule (1996:50) proposes a classification of felicity
conditions into five classes: general condtions, content conditions, preparatory conditions,
sincerity conditions and essential conditions. He defines that general conditions
presuppose the participant‟s knowledge of the language being used and his non-playacting,
content conditions concern the appropriate content of an utterance, preparatory conditions
deal with differences of various illocutionary acts, sincerity conditions count with
speaker‟s intention to carry out the future action and finally, essential condition “combines
with a specification of what must be in the utterance content, the context, and the speaker‟s
intentions, in order for a specific speech act to be appropriately (felicitously) performed”
(Yule, 1996:51).
For example, in order to felicitously perform the speech act of promising, the following

speech act verbs are the importance to the way we perceive the world we live in – the
world of human relationships and human interaction.
In the scope of thesis, the directive acts are invesitgated. Directive acts are illocutionary
acts which essentially involve the speaker trying to get the hearer to behave in some
required way.

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2.1.7. Property of speech act verbs
It is pointed out that many speech act verbs can be used “performatively”, i.e that they can
be used in the first person, present tense to indicate the nature (or the so-called
“illocutionary force”) of the utterance in which they occur. Performative verbs are
particular cases of speech act verbs in indicating the illocutionary forces.
For example, while an “order” can be performed by means of a bare imperative (e.g. “Stop
it!”), it can also be performed using the formula “I order you” (e.g. “I order you to stop
it”.)
2.2. Performatives
2.2.1. Performatives versus Constatives
Considering the utterances such as: “I pledge my absolute support for the new President”
or “I promise to meet him” (Hoa, 2004:234), we find that they seem to be doing something,
rather than merely saying something. Such sentences Austin dubbes performatives in
contrast to constatives.
Austin(1962) posits that constatives are utterances employed to make true or false
statements or assertions meanwhile performatives are utterances used to change the world.
Performatives are ordinary declarative sentences which are, not truth-evaluable, but instead
'happy' or 'unhappy' not used with any intention of making true or false statements, so they
are not true or false.
E.g:
Britain has no written constitution (Hoa, 2004:234)
→ constative
I ask you to help me (Hoa, 2004:234)

I + Vp + (you) + (that) + U
E.g: I warn you the bull will charge. (Levinson, 1983:235)
I thank you for being here. (Hoa, 2004:227)
The explicit performatives are those which take the following characteristics:
- They tend to begin with a verb in simple present tense and the subject of this verb is in
the first person: I order, I promise, I advise, I warn, I declare, etc.

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- The main verb belongs to a special class describing verbal activities, for example:
promise, declare, warn, order, etc.
- Generally, the performative nature can be emphasized by inserting the adverb “hereby”,
for example: I hereby advise you to leave from the country.
2.2.3.2. Implicit performative
We regularly meet these utterances like those below:
a. (Hoa, 2004:234)
b. You must report your supervisor next Tuesday at 10 a.m. (Hoa, 2004:233)
We can provide these sentences above with the corresponding explicit performatives as
below:
A. I promise to meet him. (Hoa, 2004:234)
B. I order you to report to your supervisor next Tuesday at 10 a.m. (Hoa, 2004:233)
It seems reasonable to say that these sentences (a) and (b) could be uttered to perform the
same speech acts as those in (A) and (B). In fact, none of special characteristics of
performative utterances is indispensable to their performance. The utterances (a) and (b)
are called implicit performatives. Implicit performatives do not make explicit the
illocutionary act performed in making the utterance. Further examples of implicit
performatives are “Go!” (Austin, 1975:32) (ordering someone to go), as well as “Turn
right!” (Austin 1975:58) (ordering someone to turn right).
There are various linguistic means by which more implicit performatives could be marked,
like the mood of the verb, as in “shut it”, instead of “I order you to shut it”; or an adverb as
in “I will be there without fail” instead of “I promise I will be there”, or particle like

Illocutionary meaning, also known as illocutionary force, is the effect the utterance has on
the hearer.
All utterances, in addition to meaning whatever they mean, perform special actions (or do
things) through having specific force. The same utterance can potentially have quite
different illocutionary forces.
Example: The sentence “I will see you later” can count as a promise, a warning, or a
prediction in the following cases:
I promise you that I will see you later
I warn you that I will see you later
I predict that I will see you later

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PVs identify a particular kind of speech act that can be performed by virtue of uttering a
sentence containing the verb. The function of PVs is to make explicit and precise the
illocutionary force of the utterances of the sentences containing them.
2.3.3. Classification of performative verbs
Performative verbs appear in explicit performatives and do not exist in implict
performatives. Based on the relations of utterances, Performative verbs can be classified
into three types as follows:
2.3.3.1. Meta-linguistic performative verbs
Metalinguistc performatives are verbs that help hearers realize what kind of speech act is
uttered and help perform meta-linguistic functions through self-referential way (the verb
refers to what the speaker of the utterance is doing). The structure of utterances containing
meta-linguistic performative verbs is:
Meta-linguistic per formative verbs + primary performative clause
Meta-linguistic PVs include say, speak, tell, protest, object, apologize, reject, etc
E.g:
I say it is the rising sun. (Hoa, 2004:184 )
I hereby tell you that work was done by Elain and myself. (James, 1983:53)
I apologize to you for buming into you. (Palmer, 1990:148)

presented, and then similarity and difference between them will be pointed out.
3.1. Syntactic features of directive PVs
3.1.1. Directive PVs in English
Directive PVs in English include ask, advise, beg, beseech, challenge, command, dare,
defy, demand, dictate, direct, forgive, implore, insist, order, petition, propose, recommend,
request, require, tell, suggest, urge, warn.
They normally occur in the constructions below:
I + Vp + (you) + that X or I + Vp + (you) + to Y
In which:
- V
p
: is a PV in directive clause
- that X: is that-clause which contains a subjunctive or a modal like “should”. “That” is a
conjunction and can be omitted.
- to Y: is an infinitive clause or to infinitive
E.g:
- I suggest that you be there on time. (Hoa, 2004:233)
Tđề nghị t  .
- I recommend that you go to that restaurant. (Hoa, 2004:233)
gợi ý anh .
Directive PVs may be taken into the following classes:
 The “order” group
The “order” group consists of order, command, demand, direct, tell, require. Commonly,
these verbs belonging this group permit a non-indicative that clause and take to-infinitive.
E.g:
- I demand that you release me at once. (Partridge, 1982:94)

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yêu cầu anh th p tc.
- I order you to wash the dishes. (Levinson, 1983:224)

- The speaker does not request for something, instead he can ask or beg for something. In
other words, ask or beg permit a preposition “for” with a direct object.

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- One can not “beseech for mercy” or “beseech for money” but one can “beg for mercy” or
“beg for money”.
 The ask
2
group
This group comprises ask, inquire, question, interrogate, query.
- Inquire, unlike ask or question, can not take the addressee phrase as its direct object. One
does not inquire John, one can only inquire of John because the speaker does not attribute
to the addressee a central role in fulfilling the purpose of the act like in the case of asking.
- One can not query a person in contrast one can ask, question or interrogate a person.
 The “advise” group
- The verb “advise” takes to-infinitive with a surface object “you”. A non-indicative that
clause or gerund are unacceptable.
I advise you to be nice to her. (Hoa, 2004:233)
khuyên anh i x tt vy.
- The verbs suggest, recommend can go with a non-indicative that clause or to-infinitive or
a gerund. In the case of a non-indicative that clause, they admit a direct or indirect object.
Both verbs require the preposition “to” when they go with a direct object.
E.g:
- I suggest that you should do it tomorrow. (Partridge, 1982:98)
đề nghị b.
- I suggest to you to do it tomorrow. (Partride, 1982:98)
đề nghị b.
- I recommend to you that you should lay off it tomorrow. (Partride, 1982:98)
đề nghị b
3.1.2. Directive PVs in Vietnamese

S1 V
p
S2 V
2

In fact, this sentence can be written again:
T anh (rng)  thu
S1 V
p
S2 (S2) V
2

In this case, the subject S2 “anh” in the subordinate clause (is also the object of the main
clause) is omitted.
To sum up, the syntactic structure of sentences containing performative verbs is
S1 + Vp1 + (± conj) + (± S2) + V2
E.g:
T xin anh cho t l. (Giap, 2004:18)
S1 Vp S2 V2
Tao ra lệnh  . (Giap, 2004:18)
S1 Vp S2 V2