iv

List of tables and figures

Table 2.1. Results of the MPQ for English native speakers ……………………………. … 23
Table 2.2. Groups of situations and characteristics of each group ………………………… 27
Table 2.3. Results of the MPQ for Vietnamese native speakers ………………………… 28
Table 2.4. English native speakers’ sayings vs. Vietnamese native speakers’ sayings …… 35

Figure 2.1. Requests with Imperative Mood in English and Vietnamese …………………. 36
Figure 3.1. Frequency of using Imperative Mood when making requests in English……… 38
Figure 3.2. Frequency of using Imperative Mood when making requests in Vietnamese …. 39
v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement of authorship ……………………………………………………………… i
Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………… ii
Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………… iii
List of graphs and tables ……………………………………………………………… iv
PART A. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………… 1
1. Rationale of the study ……………………………………………………… 1
2. Aims of the study …………………………………………………………… 2
3. Scope of the study ………………………………………………………… 2
4. Structure of the study ………………………………………………………. 2

PART B. DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………………… 4
Chapter one: Theoretical background ………………………………………… 4
1.1. The Imperative Mood …………………………………………………… 4
1.1.1. Definition of Mood ……………………………………………… 4
1.1.2. The Imperative Mood in English …………………………………. 7

2.6.2. Conclusion ………………………………………………. ……… 35
2.7. Data analysis ………………………………………………. …………… 36
Chapter three: Findings and discussions ……………………………………. 38
3.1. Overall findings and discussions of using Imperative Mood when making
polite requests of English native speakers …………………………………………… 38
3.2. Overall findings and discussions of using Imperative Mood when making
polite requests of Vietnamese native speakers ……………………………………… 39
3.3. Comparison of using linguistic structures to make requests between English
and Vietnamese native speakers …………………………………………. …………… 40

PART C. CONCLUSIONS
vii

1. General conclusion …………………………………………………………. 42
2. Limitation …………………………………………………………………… 43
3. Recommendations for further research …………………………………… 44
4. Implications…………………………………………. ……………………… 44 REFERENCES…………………………………………. ……………………………… 46

APPENDIX A: METAPRAGMATIC QUESTIONNAIRE (MPQ) ……………………. I
APPENDIX B: DISCOURSE COMPLETION TASK (DCT) ………………………… X 1



learners must understand deeply about their own culture. Then, they must be aware of the
English speaking culture. They must ensure the hidden parts of culture including politeness.
Politeness is a very important part of social interaction. In order to facilitate students at Thang
Long University in improving their oral communication, the author of this thesis wants to
study the politeness phenomena in English and Vietnamese through using Imperative Mood to
make requests.
2. Aims of the study
The study aims to find out:
 Do English native speakers use Imperative Mood to make polite requests in the
Educational Environment?
 How do Vietnamese teachers and students at Thang Long University use Imperative
Mood to show their politeness when making a request in the Educational Environment?
 How do the English native speakers and the Vietnamese native speakers differ in using
linguistic structures to make requests in the social situations studied?
3. Scope of the study
The study focuses on politeness phenomena shown by both English and Vietnamese
speakers who are Vietnamese students and teachers at Thang Long University when using
Imperative Mood to make requests.
4. Structure of the study
This thesis is structured in three parts: Part A – Introduction, Part B – Development and
Part C – Conclusions. Part B is composed of three chapters as follows:
The purpose of Chapter one (Theoretical background) is to introduce the key theoretical
concepts that the study is based on.
Chapter two (A study within ThangLong University Educational Environment) introduces
the questions the present study attempts to answer. It also describes the procedures and
instruments used to collect the data, the participants in the study, as well as the way the data
were analyzed. Besides, a tentative analytical framework is also presented.
3


intimately connected to the modal concepts. In International Encyclopedia of Linguistics
OUP 1992 Vol.4 (145), modality is proposed for the grammatical category, but traditional
studies talk of modality. „In the traditional sense, mood is a purely morphological category of
the verb, and the term will here be restricted to this sense. Mood is, therefore, one way in
which modality can be expressed.‟
The diverse category of mood indicates what the speaker is doing with a proposition in
a particular discourse situation. This includes the status of the utterance as IMPERATIVE (a
5

command) or HORTATIVE (an exhortation). The CONDITIONAL mood may mark
SUBJUNCTIVE may be used in a subordinate context. Other types of clauses, including
declarative sentences, will appear in the INDICATIVE mood. Declarative sentences may be
further qualified for EPISTEMIC moods (possibility or probability), which indicate the degree
of commitment the speaker attaches to the truth of the proposition. The most commonly
expressed mood distinction is between the indicative the imperative. Mood may be expressed
inflectionally or by auxiliaries or particles, but never derivationally – Palmer (1986). Mood
and Modality, Cambridge – New York CUP.
It is because of the restrictions of the term „mood‟ to verbal morphology that Lyons
(1977) can remark: „mood is a grammatical category that is found in some, but not all,
languages. For it is probably the case that formal markers of modality are found within the
grammars of all languages, though not always within the verb.‟
A review of previous studies on mood
As far as we are concerned, mood has not been adequately discussed though it is an
immense and important area. We do not attempt to provide a full picture of the approaches that
we deal with. In various places, we limit ourselves to giving the flavor of ideas and analyses.
Our aim is to concentrate on the studies that are likely to be of relatively lasting significance.
Palmer, F.R in his work „Mood and modality‟ (1986) assumes that mood and modality
are grammatical categories which are confusing notions to the learners of English. He also
points out the differences between epistemic modality and deontic modality. A considerable of
his work is spent on the discussion of mood. However, this study is carried out on the English

in the Vietnamese language.
Perhaps more interestingly, it is fairly clear to see that this gap is partly narrowed by
several Vietnamese linguists and language teachers. Cao Xuân Hạo (2001) and Diệp Quang
Ban (2005) are among those who try to analyze the problem of mood in the light of systemic-
functional grammar. They pay attention not only to the structures of the mood but the
functions and meanings as well. Though their approach to the problem is different from those
already done in the past, it provides a useful semantic framework for the discussion of mood.
Pham Thị Hoa (1985) carries out a research on interrogative mood in English and in
Vietnamese. She presents a contrastive picture of the different types of interrogative sentences
7

in English and in Vietnamese including their structures and meaning. Her contribution to this
study to this area is undeniable.
Ngô Đình Phương (2004) approaches this issue from the perspective of systemic-
functional grammar. He reserves a few pages for differentiating the mood construction
between English and Vietnamese. However, he does not go into detailed discussion on the
imperative mood in the English and Vietnamese languages.
Other Vietnamese linguists and language teachers have carried out studies in which
various issues related to the concepts of mood in Vietnamese are compared with those in
English. Nguyễn Quang (1999) studies the compliments and response to the compliments in
American English and Vietnamese. Hà Cẩm Tâm (2005) attempts to uncover how the requests
are formed by Vietnamese learners of English. These studies have provided some significant
insights into differences of the two languages in terms of pragmatics.
Nguyễn Văn Độ (1999) studies means of language to make requests in English and
Vietnamese. This study has provided a very thorough insight into the relation between
language and culture and we will return to his discussion in the next chapters, in which his
discussion is taken as the analytical approach (framework) in our study.
1.1.2. The Imperative Mood in English
This part deals with imperative mood in English, which has not yet been paid adequate
attention to. The ways in which imperative mood is viewed by different trends of grammar,

modality. There is no tense distinction and very rarely do the perfect aspect and the
progressive form occur. Although the first verb is in the base form, the auxiliary “do” is
introduced in the formation of negatives (more specifically those with a negative verb phrase)
as in: Don‟t / Do not stay along! and emphatic positives as in Do take care! “Do “is added,
moreover, even when the first verb of the positive is the base form of the operator “be”: Don‟t
be long / Do be careful!
It is implied in the meaning of a command that the omitted subject of the imperative
verb is in the 2
nd
person pronoun „you”. This is confirmed by the occurrence of “you‟ as
subject of a following tag question (Be quite, will you?) and by the occurrence of
yourself/yourselves and of no other reflexive pronoun as object (Behave yourself!).
9

There is, however, a type of imperative in which a grammar subject is present.
E.g. You shut up!
In the negative, the subject follows “don‟t”
E.g. Don‟t you dare to talk to me like this!
In general, it is assumed that the imperative will have only 2
nd
person forms, referring
to the hearer. It is easy enough to see why, if the speaker merely presents (to the hearer) a
proposition for action. Lyons (1977:747) argues that imperatives can only be, strictly, 2
nd

person and never 3
rd
person. Nevertheless, in the following examples, the subjects are 3
rd


As mentioned above many Vietnamese linguists and language teachers have discussed
imperative mood in Vietnamese.
Đỗ Hữu Châu (2003) claims that mood is a syntactic category of the verb reflecting the
relation between the content of the sentence and the reality. Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (1996) shares
the same view when he regards mood as an aspect of the verb. It can be assumed that the
former markers are given priority to in the discussion of mood. Sentences are, as a
consequence, classified upon their formal markers.
Nevertheless, according to Cao Xuân Hạo (2001), there no clear cut among different
types of traditional sentences in Vietnamese if the sentence syntactic structure is taken as the
criterion. He states that the structure of the indicative sentence is the typical one in the
Vietnamese language. Other types of sentences can be formed by using the same structure or
adding some modal particles. In his opinion, imperative mood in Vietnamese should be treated
as the modality of the predicate.
In summary, the mood in former traditional grammar books was seen to have an
association with the inflectional form of the verb.
Verbs in Vietnamese, to a certain extent, are different from those in English. The
distinctness of the verbs is confirmed by two points. Firstly, Vietnamese verbs are not
inflected whereas verbs in English bear inflectional form. Secondly, Vietnamese verbs have no
primary tense as the English verbs do. There are good grounds here for arguing that there
exists only sentence mood in Vietnamese (no verbal mood like English).
Cao Xuân Hạo (2001) and Diệp Quang Ban (2004) are those who try to make a
distinction between the notion of mood in English and in Vietnamese. Diệp Quang Ban (2004)
comes up to a conclusion that in inflecting languages (like English, a semi-inflectional
11

language), verbal mood is used to refer to interpersonal function whereas in isolating
languages (like Vietnamese), sentence mood is used instead. Sentence mood is believed to
hold a close association with types of sentences classified upon illocutionary acts in
Vietnamese traditional grammar, which declaratives (indicatives), interrogatives, imperatives
and exclamatives. The classification of mood in terms of these was also made by Huddleston

Ø Mood
Residue
12

2. Marked imperatives
Positive imperatives
The imperative form occurs with a variety of modal particles to express
polarity. In the Vietnamese language, “hãy”, “đi” and some modal particles
such as “nào”, “nhé,” “nhỉ”, “thôi” are the positive imperative mood markers.
E.g. Cho tớ mượn quyển sách nhé!
There are imperatives in which a subject is present. The imperative is often defined as
presenting a proposition for action by the addressee, syntactically filled by the 2
nd
person. As
such, the 2
nd
person is the implicit subject of the imperative.
E.g. (Cậu) cho tớ về cùng sau giờ học nhé!
Negative imperatives
The imperatives in Vietnamese are negated by adding the negative words
“đừng”, “chớ”, “không được”, in initial position before the verb. These
particles are assigned with negative meanings and neutral tone. However, they
never occur with other negatives like “chưa”, “chẳng”, “nỏ”, etc.
E.g. Đừng có đứng gần cửa sổ đấy.
1.2. Politeness phenomena through using Imperative Mood to make Requests
1. 2.1. Definition of politeness
First of all, within an interaction, the essential notion of „face‟ is worth of proper
consideration.
1.2.1.1. Face and face work
In everyday social interaction, to be respected and recognized, people try to keep their

people take to maintain their face and that of the other people they are interacting with.
Positive face has to do with presenting a good image of oneself and securing the approval of
others. Positive politeness consists of acts, which are designed to preserve or restore the
Hearer‟s positive face, by stressing the Speaker‟s sympathy with a social closeness to the
Hearer. One linguistic way of doing this would be to link the Speaker and Hearer together by
using the pronoun forms: we, us or our.
Negative politeness is the effort not to be coercive against imposition on others, in
other words, not to poke one‟s nose into other‟s privacy. Negative politeness consists of acts
14

which are designed to preserve or restore the Hearer‟s negative face, by expressing the
speaker‟s reluctance to impose his or her wants on the hearer. One way of doing this would be
to say something like: “I don‟t like to bother you but…” The tendency to use negative
politeness forms, emphasizing Hearer‟s right to freedom seen as deference strategy.
It should be noted that neither negative nor positive politeness is thoroughly good or
bad. This depends much on culture, i.e. this culture is more or less in favor of the former or
later viewpoint of politeness as people in that country consider it to be appropriate to show
concern for or interest in each other‟s business.
1.2.1.3. Social variables affecting politeness
According to Brown and Levinson (1987), there are three social variables (P-power, D-
social distance, and R-Ranking of imposition) that usually affect the realization of speech acts.
Therefore, they claim that the choice of appropriate polite expression in a given context
depends on a number of factors which have been grouped into a simple formula. Here are the
three independent variables that have a systematic effect on the choice of politeness strategies
in performing a Face-threatening act in a given context:
 The relative power (P) of the S and the H (a symmetric relation).
 The social distance (D) of the S and the H (an asymmetric relation).
 The absolute ranking of imposition in the particular culture.
(Brown & Levinson, 1987, p74)
1. 2.2. Imperative Mood and Politeness shown when making a request in

psychological and social relationships, as well as the speaker‟s basic communicative intention
(illocutionary force). For example, the speaker may have the simple intention to offer
something, to wish or permit something, or just to apologize, and not to manipulate his
conversational partner. In these cases, no restriction will be placed on the use of imperative:
 Come to the party tomorrow!
 Just smoke it if you want it
 Have a nice trip!
 Excuse me!
16

1.2.2.3. Imperative Mood and Politeness shown when making a
request in Vietnamese
It is common and not impolite to use imperatives in Vietnamese. Vietnam is an
Oriental country, so negative politeness is not always put in a high place. Vietnamese people
tend to use more positive politeness to show concern to others and narrow the distance
between the speaker and the hearer. For Vietnamese people, requests in Imperatives are
considered polite, especially, when the word „please‟ is added in front of the main verb of the
requests, they assume that their politeness and well-behaviour are shown. Vietnamese people
think that using imperatives which have internal modifications to make requests is still polite
or very polite in most of the situations.
In Vietnamese, requests using Imperative Mood usually have subjects, especially when
the Hearer has higher relative power to the Speaker.
E.g. Anh xem hộ em cái máy tính với!
Moreover, using particles expressing Mood when making requests, such as nhé, với,
một lát … can help to avoid the face threatening act to the Hearer. These may help the
Imperative Requests are polite and can show the Speaker‟s gratitude to the Hearer.
(According to Nguyễn Văn Độ, Tìm hiểu mối liên hệ Ngôn ngữ - Văn hóa, 2004)
In some cases, requests with Interrogatives neither emphasize the politeness nor
reduce the requests‟ pressure on the Hearer but have unexpected effect. For example:
(a) Thầy giúp con với vs. (b) Thầy có giúp con với không? (61:242)

choice methods or the Discourse Completion Task have been used in researching speech acts.
18

In this study, in order to collect sufficient data within the time and resource constraints
available, the written Discourse Completion Task (DCT) has been chosen as the means to
collect data for its many advantages.
Beebe and Cummings (1996) reported that DCT‟s are „a highly effective means of
instrumentation‟ (p.198). They found that DCTs enable researchers to (i) gather large
amounts of data quickly; (ii) create an initial classification of semantic formulas and strategies
that will likely occur in natural speech; (iii) study the stereotypical, perceived requirements
for socially appropriate responses; (iv) gain insight into social and psychological factors that
are likely to affect speech act performance; (v) ascertain the canonical shape of speech acts in
the minds of the speakers of the language and (vi) vary the situational control variables that
may affect speech behavior (p.80).
However, they state that the data may (i) differ from actual wording used in real
interaction; (ii) differ in the range of strategies used; (iii) differ in length of responses or the
number of turns it takes to fulfill the function, and (iv) lack depth of emotion that in turn
qualitatively affects the tone, content, and form of linguistic performance. As for the range of
strategies, several studies concluded that there was no difference between role-plays, natural
observation, and written questionnaires. Eisenstein and Bodman (1993) reported that the main
difference between these methods was in the degree of interaction. The findings show that the
difference in the length of speech found among the oral role-plays, DCTs and natural speech
was mainly due to the repetitions, hesitations, and longer supportive moves found in oral
interaction.
In comparison with other instrumentation, the DCT appears to be the most favourable
and most effective means of eliciting a large amount of data quickly which can create an
initial categorization of semantic formulae or linguistic structures of speech acts in certain
situations. In spite of its short comings, the DTC can be a useful tool for providing a
preliminary investigation at certain cultural differences in the performance of making
requests.

Lower
Equal
Higher
B. How do you rate the relationship between the
Speaker and the Hearer?
Distant
Fairly close
Very close
C. How much would the Speaker‟s request affect
your feelings if you were the Hearer?
Not at all
A bit
Much

The result is interpreted as follows:
20

Question A:
- X % of people choose answer 1, meaning X% of them think that S has lower
power than H
- Y% choose answer 2, meaning Y% of them think that S has equal power to H.
- Z% choose answer 3, meaning Z% of them think that S has higher power than
H.
- Then X, Y, Z are compared, the biggest number will represent for the validity
and reliability of the situation.
Question B:
- X % of people choose answer 1, meaning X% of them think that S does not
know H or they are strangers.
- Y% choose answer 2, meaning Y% of them think that S and H are relatively
familiar with each other.

clarified. Luckily, there was no problem with the space left for participants to write down the
answers.
Finally, the second questionnaire, the open-ended discourse completion task (DCT),
including 10 situations. Here is a sample item of DCT:
DISCOURSE COMPLETION TASK (DCT)
Could you please read the situations and write down exactly what you would say directly in a
normal conversation?
Situation 2. You want a friend you know well to give you a lift after the lesson. What will you
say in English?
You say: ………………………………………………………………………………………
The situations in the questionnaires are designed to reflect real-life situations. They are
intended to elicit the ways of making requests used in normal conversations. The
questionnaires are in English and Vietnamese. The English-native-speaker participants are
asked to answer all 10 situations in English, and their answers are considered the standard
sayings for later comparisons. The Vietnamese student participants are asked to answer 5
situations, the Vietnamese teacher participants are asked to answer 5 other situations which are