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Trang 1 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HẬU A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON COMPLIMENTING IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE CONVERSATIONS Field: The English Languag
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HẬU A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON COMPLIMENTING IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE CONVERSATIONS Field: The English Language Code: 8 22 02 01 Supervisor: Trương Văn Định, PhD BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HẬU NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU PHÁT NGÔN KHEN TRONG HỘI THOẠI ANH VÀ VIỆT Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8 22 02 01 Người hướng dẫn: TS Trương Văn Định i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I guarantee that the master thesis entitled: “A comparative study on complimenting in English and Vietnamese conservations” is the result of my own research The thesis does not include any previously published or written documents by others, unless explicitly referenced within the thesis The thesis has not been submitted to any other tertiary institution for a degree or diploma Binh Dinh, October 2023 Author’s signature Nguyen Thi Bich Hau ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study's completion was made possible via the invaluable support and dedicated efforts of several individuals who provided assistance, shown belief in my abilities, and offered encouragement towards the attainment of the ultimate objective I would want to express my profound appreciation to all those involved in this matter My wholehearted appreciation goes to my supervisor, Dr Truong Van Dinh for his enthusiasm, patience, motivation and friendliness Throughout the course of this thesis, the individual in question has provided invaluable guidance and assistance in shaping the research I would like to express my gratitude to the instructors of the English master's program for imparting significant information, providing insightful feedback, and sharing valuable resources that greatly facilitated the completion of my research endeavor A special mention goes to my best friends and colleagues whose understanding, sympathy, and support were invaluable spiritual strength for me during the process of completing this work Last but not least, I owe a great obligation to my parents, who provide me with advice, unconditional affection, and encouragement to continue my education and fulfill my dual responsibilities throughout my life iii ABSTRACT The study aims to investigate the similarities and differences in complimenting in conversation in English and Vietnamese in terms of compliment strategies and modality markers displaying politeness The data were collected from English and Vietnamese movies as well as English and Vietnamese publications This study is carried out on the framework of Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987) Modality markers and linguistic forms displaying politeness in complimenting utterances are presented in the study The collected data were classified into topics, compliment strategies and modality markers with a view to pointing out the English-Vietnamese similarities and differences in offering compliments in the light of politeness As for topics in compliment utterances in English and Vietnamese, the findings of the study shows that the English and Vietnamese often mention such topics as physical appearance, capability, character, possessions, fashion style, manners and social skills Of these topics, capability is by far the most mentioned As regards strategies employed in compliment utterances in English and Vietnamese, the findings show the English and Vietnamese use almost the same number of compliment strategies such as expressing a liking, expressing admiration, expressing satisfaction and extolling or the combination of some of these strategies In terms of modality markers used in compliment utterances in English and Vietnamese, the findings show that both the English and Vietnamese use nearly the same number of MMs in the compliment utterances However, the English use more Zero-marker than the Vietnamese while the Vietnamese favour Intensifier Moreover, the other MMs are used by the English with a proportion considerably higher than those by the Vietnamese iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGUIRES ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Rationale 1 1.2 Aim and Objectives 2 1.2.1 Aim of the study 2 1.2.2 Objectives of the Study 3 1.3 Research Questions 3 1.4 Significance of the Study 3 1.5 Scope of the Study 4 1.6 Organization of the Study 5 CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 6 2.1 Speech Act Theory 6 2.1.1 Definition of Speech Act 6 2.1.2 Classification of Speech Acts 7 2.1.3 Speech Act of Complimenting 10 2.2 Politeness Theories 10 2.2.1 Definition of Politeness 10 2.2.2 Rules, principles and theories of politeness 12 v 2.3 Modality Theories 17 2.3.1 Definition of Modality 17 2.3.2 Classification of Modality Markers in Conversations 20 2.4 Previous Studies 20 2.5 Summary 25 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES 26 3.1 Research methods 26 3.2 Research Procedures 26 3.3 Data Collection 27 3.4 Data Analysis 27 3.5 Validity and Reliability 30 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 31 4.1 Compliment Topics in English and Vietnamese 31 4.1.1 Compliment Topics in English 31 4.1.2 Compliment Topics in Vietnamese 36 4.1.3 Similarities and Differences in Compliment Topics in English and Vietnamese 42 4.2 Compliment Strategies in English and Vietnamese 43 4.2.1 Compliment Strategies in English 43 4.2.2 Compliment Strategies in Vietnamese 49 4.2.3 Similarities and Differences of Compliment Strategies in English and Vietnamese 54 4.3 Modality Markers in Compliment Utterances in English and Vietnamese 55 4.3.1 Modality Markers in Compliment Utterances in English 56 4.3.2 Modality Markers in Compliment Utterances in Vietnamese 65 vi 4.3.3 Similarities and Differences in Use of Modality Markers in Compliment Utterances in English and Vietnamese 71 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 74 5.1 Conclusion 74 5.1.1 Summary of Topics in ompliment Utterances in English and Vietnamese 74 5.1.2 Summary of Strategies Employed in Compliment Utterances in English and Vietnamese 75 5.1.3 Summary of Modality Markers Used in Compliment Utterances in English and Vietnamese 75 5.2 Implications 76 5.3 Limitations of the Study 77 5.4 Suggestions for Further Research 77 REFERENCES 78 APPENDICES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FTA Face-threatening Act H Hearer MM Modality marker MMs Modality markers S Speaker viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1.Functions of speech acts (following Searle 1979) Yule (1996, p.55) 8 Table 2.2.Types of communicative illocutionary acts (Bach & Harnish, 1979, p.41) 9 Table 4.1.Distribution of Compliment Topics in English 31 Table 4.2 Distribution of Compliment Topics in Vietnamese 36 Table 4.3 Distribution of Comliment Topics in English and Vietnamese 42 Table 4.4.Distribution of Compliment Strategies in English 44 Table 4.5 Distribution of Compliment Strategies in Vietnamese 49 Table 4.6 Distribution of Compliment Strategies in English and Vietnamese 54 Table 4.7 Distribution of Modality Markers in Compliment Utterances in English 57 Table 4.8 Distribution of Modality Markers in Compliment Utterances in Vietnamese 65 Table 4.9 Distribution of Modality Markers in Compliment Utterances in English and Vietnamese 72