MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ LÊ TRANG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS FOR THANKS WITH REFERENCE
TO THE VIETNAMESE

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH BÀY TỎ LỜI CẢM ƠN TRONG
TIẾNG ANH TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT
M.A. THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2015


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ LÊ TRANG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS FOR THANKS WITH REFERENCE
TO THE VIETNAMESE
NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH BÀY TỎ LỜI CẢM ƠN TRONG
TIẾNG ANH TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT
M.A. THESIS


gaps in English and Vietnamese cultures in gratitude expressions are put
forward for learners to consider when they have to express thanks in English
and Vietnamese. Some implication for teaching the English thanking
expressions to Vietnamese learners of English are aslo taken into
consideration.

i


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
A

Addresee

D

Direct

DCT

Discourse completion task

E

English

EFL

English as a foreign language


Speaker

SA

Speech act

Sit

Situation

V

Vietnamese

VL

Vietnamese learners

ii


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled
AN

INVESTIGATION

INTO


through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and
suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic
researcher.
A special word of thanks goes to all the teachers who have taught me and
many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never have
been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my friends for the
sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abtract ....................................................................................................... I
List of abbreviations ................................................................................. II
Certificate of originality ......................................................................... III
Acknowledgements ................................................................................. IV
Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................. 1
1.1. rationale ................................................................................................ 1
1.2. aim of the research ................................................................................ 2
1.3. objective of the research ....................................................................... 2
1.4. scope of the research ............................................................................. 2
1.5. significance of the research ................................................................... 3
1.6. structural organization of the research ................................................... 3
Chapter 2 : Literature review ................................................................... 5
2.1. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES .......................................................... 6
2. 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .............................................................. 8
2.2.1. Statement of theoretical framework .............................................. 8
2.2.2.Theory of politeness .................................................................... 12
2.2.3 Speech acts and classification of speech acts .............................. 18

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
Together with the development of the society, communication, in
particular conversation has become an indispensable demand of human.
Since language has consistently been the main element of human social
communication, and English is the international language, the demand to
master and effectively use it has been greater and greater. By means of
communication, people employ language to exchange and express ideas and
purposes; they are also simultaneously employing language to purse and
maintain social relations.
Within these functions of language, as a sub-part of linguistic system,
thanking has played a very important part in everyday social interaction of
many societies. Each linguistic system has its own ways of expressing ideas,
in particular in giving thanks. In fact, language alone does not really make a
perfect and complete meaning; it is used to invoke a whole range of shared
knowledge and experience between speakers from aspect of joint physical
activities, to share cultural values. In fact, social factors such as social
contexts, different relationships between interlocutors, genders, ages etc.
determining influence on ways of applying linguistic items, specifically
thanking expressions in real social interactions.
As we all know, differences in culture are one of the main problems
leading to a failure of communication. Thus, if learners want to develop
their communicative competence in the target language, besides listening
and

speaking,

1.3. Objective of the research
To achieve the aims mentioned above, following objectives are put
forward:
- Describing the ways English and Vietnamese people express gratitude in
given situations.
- Pointing out the similarities and differences of the ways to express
thanks in the same situations in English and Vietnamese.
- To suggest some implications for teaching the ways of expressing thanks to
Vietnamese learners of English.
1.4. Scope of the research
The thesis focuses on the ways English and Vietnamese people express
thanking. Although the author is fully aware of the remarkable contribution
of paralinguistic and extra-linguistic aspects in real-life communication, they
2


are not taken into consideration. The data used in the report are mainly
extracted from survey questionnaires.
1.5. Significance of the research
The significance of this study arises from focusing on the pragmatic aspect
of speech. It considers investigating the speech act of thanking in different
situations. Therefore, it will surely help raise the speaker's awareness of the
ways of expressing thanks in the target language. Since it is an intercultural
study, it will link the two languagesVietnamese and English together, in
addition to avoiding communication breakdown because of culture-bound
knowledge. Moreover, this study is important in providing the speaker with
the influence of linguistic knowledge, culture and gender
on the pragmatic performance of the speech act of thanking. Being aware of
the pragmatic aspects of this speech act will lead to successful
communication. Furthermore, this study deals with an issue that is important


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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
It seems that “thank you” has socially been a very indispensable
component in everyday social interactions.
In the work "Say It Naturally" by Wall (1987), thanking patterns
frequently employed in everyday interactions are listed according to some
major subjects such as: helps of favors, gift-giving, invitations, information
or directions, etc.
According to Blundell (1982), "Function in English" and Mark, E. (1987),
"Socializing" categorized thanks with reference to given situations,
ranging from formal to informal thanking patterns In these above
mentioned books, limited thanks are just put in list and there is no any
overall description of linguistic features as well as how to employ
them in interactions.
In addition to those materials, the previous research paper "Hành Vi
Cảm Ơn trong Đối Thoại Anh - Việt - Xét trên cơ sở Ngữ Nghĩa Học và
Dụng Học" by Nguyen Đuc Hanh provided a clearly view about ways of
giving thanks in both English and Vietnamese. Also, the study of thanks in
terms of linguistic has been studied. Nevertheless, to some extent, there still
exist some certain limitations in researching variants of giving thanks. The
study of Nguyen Duc Dan (1996) "Lô Gích – Ngữ Nghĩa - Cú Pháp"
partially concentrates on “Thanking” verbs and speech acts on direct
thanking patterns, but this is just a general investigation on functional and
semantic aspects of thanking verbs on the whole that of performative
verbs.


the choice of which is determined by factors such as relationship of the
interlocutors and communicative intent. However, he studied about the
function of thanking, he didn’t mention the ways American English express
in different daily activities. Moreover, he did not have the comparatives
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among different ways of thanking in different cultural. In my thesis, I will
compare the ways of thanking between English and Vietnamese people.
Sana Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Khateeb (2009) The Speech Act of Thanking
as a Compliment Response as used by the Arab Speakers of English - a
Comparative Intercultural Study.
This pragmatic study investigated the speech act of thanking as a
compliment response as used by non-native speakers of English. The study
is an attempt to find whether different cultural backgrounds, specializations,
levels of evaluation and the gender of the speakers affect their use of the
speech act of thanking as a compliment response.
The researcher adopted a discourse completion test (DCT) in both Arabic
and English as the tool of the study in order to reach the answers of the
following questions:
1-

Are there any significant differences in the ways people from different

cultural backgrounds realize the speech act of thanking?
2-

Are there significant differences in the ways Arab learners of English

and native speakers of English use the speech act of thanking due to the

several choices provided. The 24 situations in the exercise were everyday
events in which thanks might be appropriate. Results indicate differences
between native language groups and native speakers of English in perception
of the appropriateness of certain expressions of thanks. While there was
concurrence within language groups, there was little between language
groups. It is suggested that aspects of pragmatics, such as this one, are not
always learned in natural interactive situations, but may need to be taught. A
30-item bibliography is included and the text of the role-playing exercise is
appended.
2. 2. Theoretical background
2.2.1. Statement of theoretical framework
2.2.1.2. Cross-Cultural Communication
•

Language and culture

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In the “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary” ( 1992:506) language
is defined as “system of sounds, words, patterns, etc. used by humans to
communicate thoughts and feeling”. So it is clearly understood that whether
we talk about food, colors, love, science, religion, or even pure mathematics,
all the meanings are conveyed in not only one language but different
languages of the word. Thanks to languages, our world with different
cultures is fully and lively reflected through human beings social activities.
Dicussing the meanings involving interaction between the speaker and
the hearer in “Cross- Cultural Pragmatics”, wierbicka, (1991:1) states that
“we use language as a tool of human interaction or social interaction.”
Obviously, language cannot occur alone and is never separated from social

individuals and their communication with others.
In short, culture influences the way in which language is used. And in
it turn, language play an essential role in expressing cultural values and
perceptions, as well as preserving and breeding culture from generation to
generation.
2.2.1.2. Cross-Cultural Communication
Cross- Cultural Communication can be defined by Porte and Samovar
(19958:39) “[occurring] when a message producer is a member of one
culture and a message receiver is a member of another” or “the exchange of
information between individuals who are unlikely culturally.”(Rogers &
Steinfatt 1999:103).
In facts, human beings used to live on one sole world, which could be
their homes, cities, neighborhood, or even their own country. These were all
local environments where there were those people who were thinking the
same language, but this is not the case anymore. After the recent media and
information revolutions, people are more concerned with the whole globe
around them. It has become a matter of “identity” for everyone, and for

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every nation to be smartly “intercultural” or “successful cross-cultural
communicators “in order to live and stay in the world.
It is an age of rapid change where everything is changing every single
moment. People and complete nations are melting now into one another.
Others fully vanish into other cultures. This is a natural outcome of
globalization. On this point, the importance of Cross- Cultural
Communication is significant. There is no more a place where one culture
or nation could hide, close their eyes and neglect the rest of the world.
Everyone now has to find the suitable language that needs to be learned to

they make, the constrain

they encounter in using language in social

interaction, and the effects the use of language has on the participants in the
act of communication
2.2.2.Theory of politeness
2.2.2.1.Concept of politeness
A range of definitions have been given in the literature by different scholars.
Leech (1983) defines politeness as “a communication strategy which
people use to maintain and develop relationships” (p.152) when he
mentioned two functions of politeness, i.e. competitive goals and convivial
goals.
Yule (1996) proposed a culture-oriented concept of politeness as it is
“polite social behavior, or etiquette, within a particular culture” and it can be
also defined as “the means employed to show awareness of another person’s
face” (p. 60).
In terms of linguistic pragmatics, politeness is defined as “the
international balance achieved between two needs: the need for pragmatic
clarity and the need to avoid coerciveness” (Blum-Kulka, 1987, p. 131).

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Politeness in cross-cultural communication is seen as “any
communicative act (verbal or non-verbal) appropriately and intentionally
meant to make others feel better or less bad” (Nguyen Quang, 2003. p 11).
Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) associated their theory of
politeness with the notion of face, and face threatening acts (FTA), discussed
social variables affecting politeness, and thereby proposed a number of

friendliness, camaraderie, or solidarity.
For example “Excuse me, Mr. Buckingham, but can I talk to you for a
minute?(Student to teacher)
“Hey Bucky, got a minute? (Friend to the same individual)
In fact, within their everyday social interactions, people generally
behave as if their expectations concerning their public self-image, or their
face wants, will be respected. Face can be maintained as well as threatened,
so the polite speakers always want to preserve and avoid the loss of face. If a
speaker says something that represents a threat to another individual’s
expectations regarding self-image, it is described as a face threatening act
FTA. And being aware of the possibility that something action might be
interpreted as a threat to another’s face, the speaker can say something to
lessen the possible threat. This is called a face serving act (FTA). Yule’s
(1991:61) examples of FTA and FSA are as follows:
Image a late night scene, when a young neighbor is playing his music
very loud, and an old couple is trying to sleep. One of them proposes an
FTA and the other suggests an FSA.
FTA: I’m going to tell him to stop that awful noise right now!(Him)
FSA: Perhaps you could just ask him he is going to stop soon because
it’s getting a bit late and people need to get sleep (Her)
In Brown and Levinson’s (1978) account, face comes into varieties,
positive face and negative face.
2.2.2.3.Social variables affecting politeness
Discussing social variables that impact on the choice of politeness
strategies, Brown and Levinson (1987) postulated three related factors: the
relative power (P) between the speaker and the hearer, the social distance
(D) between them and the rank(R) of the imposition in a particular culture.

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- The desire to make one’s language more/less interesting
- To increase the force of one’s message
- Completing goals
- Politeness/regard for “face”
In short, culture shapes the ways of language use and strategies. However,
there are some more factors affecting directness and indirectness in human
communication.
Socio-Cultural Factors influencing the use of Directness and Indirectness in
Human Interaction
Levine and Adelman (1993:68) also claim that: “Cultural beliefs differ
as to whatever directness or directness is considered positive. In mainstream
American culture, the ideal form communication includes being direct rather
indirect (Ideal here means that the culture values this style, although not
everyone speaks directly).There are several expressions in English that
emphasize the importance of being direct: ‘Get to the point” “Don’t beat
around the bush!”, ‘Let’s get down to business!” These sayings all indicate
the importance of dealing directly with issues rather than avoiding them”
Thomas (1995:124) lists 4 main factors which appear to govern
directness and indirectness in all languages and cultures as follows:
The relative power of speaker over the hearer
The social distance between the speaker and the hearer
The degree to which X is rated an imposition in culture Y
Relative right and obligation between the speaker and the hearer
Nguyen Quang (2003) presents these factors in more detail of 20 sociocultural factors as follows.
1. Age: old people tend to be more indirect than young people.
2. Gender: Women are more in favor of indirect expression then men.
3. Residence: Rural people appear more indirect than urban people.

18. Qualification power: In specific situations, scholars in a scholar first,
peasants-later tend to be more direct in expression than others
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