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iMINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOIOPENUNIVERSITY


Nguyen Xuan Thanh

A STUDY OF COMMON GREETINGS

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESENGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH CHÀO HỎI THÔNG DỤNG
TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT


A STUDY OF COMMON GREETINGS
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH CHÀO HỎI THÔNG DỤNG
TRONG TIẾNG VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT ANH M.A. THESIS

Field : English Language
Code : 60220201
Supervisor : Assoc.Prof. Phan Van Que, Ph.D HANOI- 2013

Page | i DECLARATION
Title: A study of comment greetings in English and Vietnamese

I hereby declare that no part of the enclosed Master Thesis has been
copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement
and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my
supervisor.

arguments in the study.
I also wish to acknowledge my friends, Mrs. Vu Thi Kim Dung and
Ms.Nguyen Thi Thu Hangfor her helpful suggestions, constructive ideas and
encouragement which have been useful for the accomplishment of the paper.
My acknowledgement goes to the informants, Vietnamese and English
native speakers, who spent their precious time completing the questionnaires.
Finally, and the most, I owe my deep thanks to my family, especially my
parents and my beloved wife, who gave me constant support, enormous
encouragement and love throughout my M.A.course. Hanoi, October 2013
Nguyen Xuan Thanh

Page | iii TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 2
2. Aims and purposes of the study 3
3. Research questions 4
4. Scope of the study 4
5. Methods of the study 5
6. Design of the study 5
PART II: DEVELOPMENT 7
CHAPTER 1: Literature review and theoretical background 7
1.1. Literature review… 8
1.1.1.Language and Communication ………………………………. 8
1.1.2. Communication and Greeting… 16

2.3.8. The raising eyebrows…………………………………………. 54
CHAPTER 3: Findings and discussion ……………………………… 55
3.1. Findings ……………………………………………………………. 55
3.1.1. Greeting as perceivable informants. …………………………. 55

Page | v 3.1.2. The similarities and differences in greeting between English and
Vietnamese. ………………………………………………………… . 56
3.1.2.1.The similarities. …………………………………………… 56
3.1.2.2. The differences. ………………………………………… 57
3.2. Discussions. ………………………………………………………. 61
3.2.1. The combination of verbal greetings and nonverbal greetings in
English and Vietnamese and their effectiveness in communication.
……………………………………………………………………… … 61
3.2.2. Considerations of factors affecting greeting. ………………. 66
CHAPTER 4: Implication …………………. ……………………… 68
4.1. The culture shocked avoidance when greeting in English and
Vietnamese……………………………………………………………… . 68
4.2. Suggested common sensitive situations when greeting in English and
Vietnamese ………………………………………………………………. . 72
PART III: Conclusion …………………………………………………… . 74
1. Recapitulation. ………………………………………………………. . 74
2. Limitations of the study …………………………………………… 76
3. Suggestions for a further study ………………………………………. . 77
REFERENCES I
QUESTIONNAIRES IX
Many clear definitions of greetings can be found, and therefore no systematic
ways for deciding what greetings are qualified in a particular speech
community. Then researchers have felt at ease identifying “greetings” in
different languages and providing hypotheses about what greetings “do” for
or to people. Eibl (Eibesfeldt’s 1977) had a great study on comparing humans
to humans with other species, adult-adult interaction with mother – during
face-to-face encounters, child interaction greetings are defined as rituals of
appeasing and bonding that counteract potentially aggressive behavior.
Many efforts and studies on nonverbal communication has been important in
counterbalancing the tendency of other studies of greetings and has revealed
commonalities across cultures that would have been missed were researchers
concentrating exclusively on verbal behavior. It is easy to accept that all
species share a concern for survival and safety, but it is less easy to believe
that the meaning of such a concern could be the same across species.
“Greetings in all societies are about continuity of relationships" is a famous
saying of Goff-man(1971), but actually in use and application communicators
can find the representation, conceptualization, and perception of continuity by

Page | 2 humans are likely to be much more complex than those found in other
species.
Characterizing greetings can be faced withsome difficulties regarding
differences across and within communities in what people say during
greetings. Finally, greetings when displayed with pleasant actions might make
sense in some contexts, especially in situations where verbal greetings are
accompanied with smiles and other nonverbal as well as verbal displays of
positive affect but it might not be generalized beyond such case.
Biological can be interested in basically on greeting, their social functions,

the right ways of greetings and understand the culture of Vietnam better.
Goffman(11/June/1922 –19/November/1982),a Canadianborn sociologist and
writer, said “Greetings provide the means of opening conversations
appropriately, establish and maintain the relationship”(e.g.Hello or Hi). In
addition, other functions of greetings are also to identify the presence of
communicators and to show their concern. However, most communication’s
styles in different languages are not the same.That is the reason why imposing
the rules of one language on another language can give negative effects
causing awkwardness and misunderstanding.
Therefore, with the effort to raise awareness concerning the importance of
communication especially in greetings to improve communicative
competence, to help communicate effectively in initial meetings and to avoid
culture shock in cross- cultural communication “A Study of Common
Greetings in English and Vietnamese” is chosen to be the topic for my study.
2. Aims and objectives of the study:
The aims of the thesis are:

Page | 4 • To study how to greet in English and Vietnamese (Verbal greetings and
Nonverbal greetings) with illustrations.
• To study the similarities and differences of greetings in English and
Vietnamese.
• To study how to combine words and gestures in greetings in English
and Vietnamese.
• To analyze some types of greetings that causes misinterpretations,
misunderstandings and culture shock in English - Vietnamese cross-
cultural communication.
3. Research questions:

carried out throughout the study together with using the aspects of pragmatic
and questionnaires.
All the considerations and conclusions are largely based on the analysis of
the statistic data and references. The major approaches are:
- Have parallel comparisons
- Reference to publications
- Survey questionnaires
- Discussions with foreigners in Viet Nam (Tourists, working people),
overseas students, people from internet and social websites.
- Discussions with supervisor
- Personal observations
6. Design of the study:
The study consists of three parts:
- Part I, Introduction, covers rationale, aims, research questions, scope,
methods, comments on the questionnaires, comments on the informants,
and studydesign.

Page | 6 - Part II, Development, is composed of four chapters:
+ Chapter one, Theoreticalbackground, provides theoretical
discussions to background the topic in focus.
+ Chapter two, Methodology,presents comments on common
greetings: definition, significance and classification with detailed
discusses about verbal and nonverbal greetings in English and
Vietnamese in comparison.
+ Chapter three, Findings and discussions, analyses greeting
gestures perceived by Vietnamese and English native speakers,
focuses on some factors effecting on greetings and certain

(N=26)
Male
(N=54)
Female
(N=26)
Informants < 9
1 0 8 0
Informants>15
12 6 13 5
Informants>25
5 3 1 3
Informants>35
8 4 4 1
Informants>45
6 4 5 8
Informants>55
1 0 2 0
Informants>75
3 4 0 7
Married Informants
22 11 8 8
Single Informants
11
6 25 9
Factories
working
Informants
27
15 26 12
Farm

andEnglish Greetings: A contrastive analysis which listed out some common
verbal greetings in English and Vietnamese.

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9The study of Bui Thi Thu Thuy of Viet Nam National University in 2005
named A Vietnamese- English cross -culture study on gestures for greeting
which listed out some common non-verbal greetings in English and
Vietnamese.
The sudy of Salman Dezhara of The University of Isfahan, Iran in 2012
named A comparative Study of Greeting Forms Common among Native Male
and Female Speakers which showed out the effectiveness of gender on
greeting in English.
The study of Xia Yan of Kristianstad University in 2010 named Politeness
Strategies in English Adjacency Pairs- A gender Differentiated Study on
Greetings, Compliments and Directives which showed out how to greet with
people from different genders and the line of culture-shocked when greeing. (
Figure 3 – Language verified)

Estimates of the number of languages in the world are varied between 6,000
and 7,000
(See Figure 3)
. However, any precise estimate depends on a partly
arbitrary distinction between language and dialects. In general natural

word “language” for language as a concept, langue as a specific instance of a
language system, and parole for the concrete usage of speech in a particular
language.
When speaking of language as a general concept, definitions can be used to
stress on different aspects of the phenomenon. These definitions entail

Page | 11 different approaches and understandings of language too, and they inform
different and often incompatible schools of linguistic theory.

Language can also be defined simply in different ways: Language is
embedded in culture and the origin of spoken language is as old as humanity
itself. We could have an imagine people from the distant past living in
families with a particular spoken tongue clustering together to form a clan.
Geographically together in security and subsistence they would harmonize as
a culture, protecting it with all their power to survive in a world as it was
known to them and not very much different from the same principles
philosophized today.

Nowadays we are aware of spoken languages which have become extinct
mainly because the people of that culture were incorporated or annihilated by
others. We also know that allmodern languages have its origin in similar older
versions of somewhat different vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation e.g.
Old English, Old German, Orthodox Greek, etc. and Latin, who now is not
used as a spoken languageany more, but has richly contributed to so many
languages and for that matter cultures.
Then what would be the exactly right definition of language? Language is a
way to communicate ideas comprehensibly from one person to another in the

proficient in the use of nonverbal forms of communication, as these constitute
significant channels of information. By adolescence, children can understand
that the nonverbal aspects of the message may actually reverse the meaning of
the verbal message.
A widely held theory about language sat that language came about as
an evolutionary adaptation, which is when a population undergoes a change in
process over time to better survive. That is where the idea of natural selection
comes into play, which is the notion that the specific physical traits of a

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13population make that population more likely to survive its environment, it is
like the creation of turtle and its shell. The idea here is that language was
created to help humans survive? And why? The first, humans needed to
communicate with each other in daily activities as hunting, farming and
successful defending from the surrounding harsh environment. Being able to
communicate using language gave the human species a distinct survival
advantage. The second, language was needed for social interaction, especially
those who subscribe to the adaptation theory.

(
Figure 4 – Worldwide Communication)

Communication (from Latin “
commūnicāre”
, meaning "to share") is the
activities which convey information through the exchange of thoughts,

repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal processing as listening,
observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating. The use of these
processes is developmental and transfers to all areas of life such as: home,
school, community, work Through communication, collaboration and
cooperation occur.
“
If there is one unifying theme that crosses all disciplines, it is
communication
” -(Fundamental beliefs about curriculum and assessment
newspaper). Communication is our window to basic literacy and academic
excellence which is reaching levels of excellence and accuracy of expression
mandate mastery of formal English. These are the capabilities that cultivate
the potential in each student and the possibilities for our future.
Although it could be sound trivial or even irrelevant to bring up such basic
matters as language, meaning, and communication, these are the most

Page | 15 fundamental components of arguments - even more fundamental than
propositions, inferences, and conclusions. The human who uses language
can’t make sense of an argument without being able make sense of the
language, meaning, and purpose of what is being communicated in the first
place.
Language is a subtle and complex instrument used to communicate an
incredible number of different thing, we can reduce the universe of
communication to four basic categories: information, direction, emotion, and
ceremony as for the purpose of our study. The first two: information and
direction,are often treated together because they express cognitive meaning
while the latter two: emotion and ceremony, commonly express emotional

I indicated above that the ceremonial use of language is used to communicate
emotional meaning, but that isn’t entirely accurate. Sometimes the problem
with ceremonial language is that it can involve all three other categories at
some level and can be very difficult to interpret properly. A priest using ritual
phrases may be communicating information about the religious ritual,
invoking predicted emotional reactions in religious adherents, and directing
them to begin the next stage of the ritual — all at once and with the same
halfdozen words. Ceremonial language cannot be understood literally, but
neither can the literal meanings be ignored.
1.1.2. Communication and Greeting
“
We are great communicators” -
Liz & John Soars

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17
(
Figure 5 – Human-The great Communicator)

The people, human beings, communicate during our whole life for our own
purpose. A child cries (means being communicates) to his parents as he needs
changing his diaper, feeding or simply he wants his mummy. Family
members do communicating for help and emotional support and to maintain a
good family atmosphere as relationships. At work, people communicate for
the purpose of exchanging ideas, negotiating, ordering, updating
information… Leaders communicate about their visions to their staffs.