ASSIGNMENT ON CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS TABLE OF CONTENT I, Introduction Title: “Addressing in English and Vietnamese” II, Development 1, Addressing with personal pronouns 2, Address among relative. 3, Addressing between “husband and wife”: III, Conclusion IV, Reference Introduction Title: “Addressing in English and Vietnamese” In daily life, people created many ways, many words to call each other. Each nation has its own words to address. It’s very popular to use “I, we, you, she, he or honey, sweetie…” in English, “tôi, tao, tớ, cậu, mày, anh, chị, cô…” and in French, “je, tu, nous, vous, moi, toi…” to call each other. In this assignment, I’d like to learn and compare some address ways of English and Vietnamese. Development 1, Addressing with personal pronouns Every Vietnameses know that personal pronouns in Vietnamese are much more than any others language in the world. When we translate personal pronouns in Vietnamese into other languages or in contrast, it’s clear that there are much different personal pronouns in Vietnamese. In each conversation, Vietnamese use the suitable personal pronoun to talk and communicate. The 1 st person : - A person will say “Con” if he/she talks to his/her grand parents, parents, uncle (cậu, chú), aunt (gì, thím, mợ) or old people. - Says “Cháu” to grand-parents, uncles, aunts or the people are at the same age with his/her grand-parents, parents, uncles, and aunts. - A person says “em” to older people, higher level, husband, teachers or any peole who he/she want to express his/her emotion to. - A woman says “Cô/dì/thím/bác/bá” and a man will says: “Chú/cậu/bác”to younger people, children or lower level in a relationship. - “Tôi” – is a very popular and formal word for everyone to communicate. It’s used in many situations and many places, especially in case of talking to strange people or to be used between people are at the same age. - To “Tao/ta”, these words indicate impolite or informal meaning. They usually use in cordial conversations or circumstances. For example, may young people usually say “tao” to their friend showing their close relationship. - The young people frequently use “Tớ” when talk to their friends such as: “ Lan à tối nay cậu sang nhà tớ học bài cùng tớ nhé!” On the contrary, in English, there is only existing “I” for 1 st person with all meaning of 1 st person in Vietnamese. The 2 nd person: In correlation between parents and children, when communicating, parents usually call their children “con” or “mày”. In some circumstances, if a man/woman get married, their parents call them “anh/chị”. In Vietnam, Children call their parents by many words like: cha, bố, ba, thầy, tía,cậu (father); mẹ, má, mợ, me, mợ, bầm, u, bu, măng…(mother). I give some instances to make it clearer: “Bố ơi, có bác Thành vào chơi kìa”, “Để con gói bánh cùng mẹ, mẹ nhé!”. In England, “daddy/mommy/dad/mom/father/mother” are used to call parents as the same to in Vietnam. In the relative, they’ll call suitable words depending on different level such as: “bác, bác gái” to whom is higher level than parents or older than parents , “chú cậu, dượng, cô, dì, thím,; anh, chị, dượng nó, chú nó….” to whom is lower level than parents or younger than parents. When talking to older people without relationship, a person will call them: “cụ, ông, bà, anh, chị, chú, mày…”. The word “cậu” which is used by young people, probaly will be mistaken to “cậu” in relative. So, when we translate some books, magazines, etc…into Vietnamese, we must chose right personal pronouns of Vietnamese, that is very difficult. The various personal pronouns in Vietnamese usually made foreigners learning Vietnamese making mistakes, they often get troubles in choosing exact personal pronouns in right case. Some 1 st person have the same shapes as: “cô, chú, chị ”, so it’s very difficult for the learners to realize which word is 1 st , which is 2 nd and how to use it. Therefore, learners should look up to each word’s meaning and find how many case it’s to be used. 2, Address among relative. In English, the meaning of words: brother, sister, uncle, aunt is undefine. Each word has some meanings, for instance: “brother” _ with the mean that younger/older brother, uncle (father’s younger/older brother or mother’s younger/older brother), parents’ younger/older sister is called “aunt”, “sister” is younger/older sister. But in Vietnamese, those pronouns have its own exact meanings. Father’s older brother is called “bác”, father’s younger is called “chú”. Father’s younger sister _ “cô”, father’s older sister _ “bá” Mother’s older brother _ “bác”, mother’s younger brother _ “cậu”. Mother’s younger sister_ “dì”, mother’s older sister _ “bá”. Younger brother/sister is called “em”, older brother_ “anh”, older sister is called “chị”. If a foreigner learn Vietnamese encounter such cases, how to translate adequately if she/he does not know the specific relationship in Vietnamese. That’s why every learner should make study carefully of this field. The effective way for he/she to translate exactly is to learn more about Vietnamese culture and compare to his/her culture. 3, Addressing between “husband and wife”: In Britain or some countries speaking English, a couple usually calls each other or they call their children: “honey, sweetie, love, darling…” to reveal their emotion. In Viet Nam, for a couple there are a lot of different words to address. They usually use: “anh/em, ông xã/bà xã, mình, nhà, chồng/vợ, cưng…” . But with children, their parents call them “con”. Instead of calling “chồng”, “vợ” to his/her partner (Vietnames couples rarely call their company “chồng ơi/vợ ơi”), Vietnamese couples call : “mình”, “nhà”, “bố nó/mẹ nó”, “anh/em” to their husband/wife. In the countryside of Vietnam, many husbands call their wives “mày” and address “tao”. Wives call their husbands “ông”, addressing to husbands “tôi”. When they become old, the word “mày” will be changed into “bà” or “mẹ mày”. They call and address to each other so naturally like that, but outsiders do not feel grating. Because to peasants those words, however, are not smooth but suitable, close and not showy. Conclusion In conclusion, Both Vietnamese and English have its own many words to address. And the differences between two language often make foreign learners confusing and making mistake. Through this assignment, I hope that I had given pieces useful information for everyone, so you can know much more about the address of each country and you can avoid some mistakes. References . ASSIGNMENT ON CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS TABLE OF CONTENT I, Introduction Title: “Addressing in English and Vietnamese” II,. Addressing with personal pronouns 2, Address among relative. 3, Addressing between “husband and wife”: III, Conclusion IV, Reference Introduction Title: “Addressing