VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ******************** A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURES USED IN SOME POLITICAL ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE ELECTRONIC NEWSPAPER ARTICLES ON THE EVENTS RELATED TO VIETNAM-CHINA ISLAND DISPUTE ợc sử dụ ( ị kiệ l a - q a c m t s ế a ệ ện tử Tiếng Anh Tiếng Việt) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English linguistics Code: 60220201 HANOI - 2017 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ******************** A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURES USED IN SOME POLITICAL ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE ELECTRONIC NEWSPAPER ARTICLES ON THE EVENTS RELATED TO VIETNAM-CHINA ISLAND DISPUTE ợc sử dụ ( ị kiệ l a - ts q a ế a ện tử Tiếng Anh Tiếng Việt) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Dr ệ ị HANOI - 2017 a DECLARATION I certify that this minor thesis entitled “A comparative study on Conversational Implicatures used in political electronic English and Vietnamese articles on Vietnam - China island disputes” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my work, except otherwise acknowledge and that this minor thesis and any part of the same has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other university or institution Hanoi, January 2017 Signature V Thị Mai Ph ơng i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS After the past two years I have received the support and encouragement from many individuals to accomplish this research Therefore, I hereby would like to express my profound gratitude to all of them Above all, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Doctor Do Thi Thanh Ha for all of her invaluable inspiration, assistance, critique, sincere guidance and encouragement as I was working on my study Besides, I am grateful to all lectures and staff of Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable lessons and precious help Thanks to them, I could get the essential materials for my paper Finally, my sincere thanks go to my family and my friends who always stand by me and support me when I was doing the research Without their encouragement, I would not have been able to complete this thesis ii ABSTRACT The topic on politics has attracted many researchers in all fields and linguistics is not an exception, specially, the announcements of official politicians and commentary, judgments of the specialists informed on the media Nowadays, the political events of the global countries have been updated almost immediately by the assistance of internet Electronic newspapers play a very important role and grab much power in the modern life In the world recently, the political movements in Asia especially between Vietnam and China island disputes have wasted the inks and papers of worldwide newspapers The study was conducted to compare the use maxim violation to generate conversational implicature of English and Vietnamese electronic newspapers on the coverage hottest events on Vietnam - China island disputes in the period from 2011 to 2015 The analysis includes examining the methods of generating implicature which consists of violating four conversational maxims based on Relevance Theory of Grice Based on the findings, it is concluded that both English and Vietnamese newspapers showed their creativity in using different devices to violate the maxims to generate conversational implicatures In addition, the two types of newspapers share a lot of similarities Specially, the quality maxim is violated the most frequency among four maxims Besides, the study assumes that the language of politics and journalism affect deeply on the applying of maxim violation to generate conversational implicatures The study also contributes a new finding that conversational implicatures and Relevance theory of Grice both work effectively in not only oral conversations but also in indirect conversation such as in written texts whose speakers/ hearers interaction are writers/ readers interaction to convey the meaning and messages iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations vi List of tables vii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the studies Research questions Aims of study Scope of the study Methods of the study Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theories on conversational implicature 1.1.1 Implicature and Co-operation 1.1.2 Conversational and Conventional Implicatures 1.1.3 Violating implicature 1.2 Review of related study 1.3 Review of Vietnam - China island disputes in the period of time from 2011 to 2015 11 CHAPTER 2: METHODS AND PROCEDURES 15 2.1 Data collection methods 15 2.2 Data source 16 2.3 Data analysis procedure 24 2.3.1 Data reduction 25 2.3.2 Data analysis 25 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 27 3.1 Conversational implicatures in Vietnamese electronic magazines 27 iv 3.1.1 Conversational implicatures generated by violating the maxim of quality in English magazine articles 30 3.1.2 Conversational implicatures generated by violating the maxim of quantity in English magazine articles 31 3.1.3 Conversational implicatures generated by violating the maxim of relation in English magazine articles 33 3.1.4 Conversational implicatures generated by violating the maxim of manner in English magazine articles 34 3.2 Conversational implicatures in English electronic magazines 34 3.2.1 Conversational implicatures generated by violating the maxim of quality in English magazine articles 36 3.2.2 Conversational implicatures generated by violating the maxim of quantity in English magazine articles 37 3.2.3Conversational implicatures generated by violating the maxim of relation in English magazine articles 38 3.2.4Conversational implicatures generated by violating the maxim of manner in English magazine articles 39 3.3 Comparison between English and Vietnamese electronic newspaper articles in English magazine articles 39 3.3.1 Similarities 40 3.3.2 Differences 43 PART C: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 44 Summary of findings 44 Implications 46 Limitations of the study 46 Suggestions 47 REFERENCES 48 APPENDIX I v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CP: Cooperative Principle CNOOC: China National Offshore Oil Corp CDA: Critical Discourse Analysis US: United States USA: United States of America ASEAN: Association of South East Asian Nation CI: Conversational Implicature VN: Vietnam CN: China WEF: World Economic Forum SCS: South China Sea TV: Television Ql: quality Qt: quantity Mn: manner Rl: relation vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1.2 Vietnam - China island dispute timeline Table 2.2 Data source 17 Table 2.3.2 Coding scheme 25 Table 3.1 Frequency of maxim violation in Vietnamese articles 28 Table 3.2 Frequency of maxim violation in English articles 35 Table 3.3 Data comparative 40 vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Nowadays, online newspapers have indisputably become one of the most useful and convenient source of information Along with the spread of internet, online news is increasingly popular due to the availability and convenience they provide With internet and computer, the readers have a chance to get a great deal of diverse online newspapers Political news is always the hot area of information that attracts readers‟ attention Due to the fact that news are posted and updated simultaneously to assure the accurate of the news, especially the news related to politics Such news need to express the truth They are also governed by the state power for the political purposes Therefore, the writers have to use some kinds of pragmatic devices that implicatures are the most common one To reach to the understanding between the writer and the receivers or readers, using implicatures as a useful linguistic resource is a useful way Realizing the importance and significant of implicatures in newspaper article, this study is carried out to investigate the use of implicature in transferring the information to in the language of Vietnamese and English newspaper articles Research questions Based on the background and the focus of the research, the writer proposed three questions for this study, those are: 1) What are the conversational maxims that are violated in the Vietnamese electronic newspaper articles on Vietnam- China island disputes to generate conversational implicatures? 2) What are the conversational maxims that are violated in the English electronic newspaper articles on Vietnam- China island disputes to generate conversational implicatures? 3) What are the similarities and differences on adopting conversational maxim violation to generate conversational implicatures between English and Vietnamese electronic newspaper articles on Vietnam - China island disputes? APPENDIX Table Data results Datum Sentence(s) No "Những mà quan liên quan Trung Quốc làm hoạt động giám sát thực thi luật pháp hồn tồn bình thường khu vực biển thuộc thẩm quyền tài phán Trung Quốc” Một tuyên bố trang web Bộ Ngoại giao Trung Quốc nhấn mạnh, vấn đề Biển Đơng tranh chấp chủ quyền với “quần đảo Nam Sa” - cách Trung Quốc gọi quần đảo Trường Sa Việt Nam - đảo lân cận, Trung Quốc "có lý lẽ đầy đủ lịch sử pháp lý cho chủ quyền" Tuy nhiên họp báo chiều 26/3, phát ngôn viên ngoại giao Trung Quốc Hồng Lỗi nói việc tàu Trung Quốc có hành động với tàu Việt Nam chuyện "cần thiết hợp pháp" I Ông Hồng từ chối xác nhận việc tàu Trung Quốc nổ súng, không thừa nhận thiệt hại gây cho tàu cá ngư dân Việt Nam Giám đốc Học viện nghiên cứu Biển Đông nhiều lần nhấn mạnh “Trung Quốc ln theo đuổi đường phát triển cách hịa bình, khơng tìm kiếm đối đầu kêu gọi nước có tuyên bố chủ quyền khác giải tranh chấp thông qua đàm phán” Hai bên hài lòng trước phát triển quan hệ hai Đảng năm qua, trí làm sâu sắc thêm hợp tác hai Đảng, thúc đẩy chế giao lưu hợp tác hai Ban Đối ngoại Ban Tuyên giáo, Tuyên truyền hai Đảng vận hành thuận lợi, tăng cường hợp tác lĩnh vực đào tạo cán Đảng Nhà nước Hoạt động nằm chuỗi hoạt động leo thang xâm lấn Trung Quốc Biển Đông năm gần II Qua theo dõi, thấy tiếng nói cộng đồng học giả có quan điểm "bồ câu" có ảnh hưởng dư luận Trung Quốc Trung Quốc đẩy mạnh chiến thuật “tằm ăn dâu” Biển Đông "Bắp cải" Biển Đông 10 'Ẩn họa' từ cảnh sát biển TQ 11 Trung Quốc dọa 'mạnh tay' với tàu láng giềng Biển Đông 12 Chĩa mũi dùi vào Việt Nam cho giới khu vực biết kiên định Đường lưỡi bị dù có phải bỏ qua quan hệ ý thức hệ hay tình cảm "mơi hở lạnh." 13 Vị trí giàn khoan Hải Dương981 nằm hồn toàn vùng đặc quyền kinh tế, thềm lục địa III Việt Nam Nhưng vị trí nhạy cảm mà Trung Quốc cố tình lựa chọn để thực chiến thuật “bắn mũi tên trúng nhiều đích” 14 Tuần trước, tỉnh Hải Nam Trung Quốc công bố luật lệ cho phép tàu chấp pháp họ quyền tiếp cận lục soát tàu thuyền mà họ cho vi phạm vùng nước Biển Đông Quy định giới phân tích cho đổ thêm dầu vào lửa vốn căng thẳng khu vực 15 Canh giàn khoan nước sâu TQ 16 TQ dùng chiến lược 'nghìn vết cắt' Biển Đơng 17 “: Nếu làm theo kiểu TQ quốc gia IV “nuốt” biển quốc gia khác cách trưng đồ vẽ” kết luận: “ Chúng ta (TQ - TG) tự cột đá vào chân mà khơng biết” 18 Trung quyền, lịng dân sơi sục 19 Trung Quốc đốt cháy hịa bình biển Đơng 20 Khơng "tìm đường biển", mục tiêu lâu dài Trung Quốc "đốt cháy" Biển Đông chuẩn bị cho khát lượng vốn rập rình từ lâu 21 Xin hỏi khả VN sử dụng hành động pháp lý Liệu VN tham gia vụ kiện Philippines VN đưa vụ kiện riêng mình? Khi việc diễn ra? biển sử dụng biện pháp phù hợp với luật pháp V quốc tế, bao gồm Công ước Liên hợp quốc Luật Biển 22 Chủ Sang khẳng định VN không chấp nhận ai, nước nào, dù mạnh đến đâu, bắt phải nhượng chủ quyền, lãnh thổ thiêng liêng Tổ quốc 23 Kịch đồng ý để án quốc tế giải tranh chấp Biển Đông Do yếu Trung Quốc chứng lịch sử pháp lý chủ quyền, hành động sử dụng vũ lực năm 1974 1988 để chiếm đóng đảo, đá Hoàng Sa-Trường Sa Việt Nam, chưa hội đủ điều kiện thuận lợi cho nguyên tắc “quieta non movere”, Trung Quốc phản đối luật hoá hay quốc tế hóa vấn đề biển Đơng, kiên trì với chủ trương “đàm phán song phương”, “gác tranh chấp, khai thác” Hơn hết, Trung Quốc hiểu rõ họ nhiều phải đối diện với án quốc tế 24 Từ ngày đến 7-5, TQ thường xuyên sử dụng 2-3 tàu kèm tàu VI Việt Nam để ngăn cản, tông húc phun nước áp lực cao làm hư hại tàu kiểm ngư Việt Nam thực thi pháp luật biển Có tàu kiểm ngư bị tàu hải cảnh tơng, húc đẩy nhiều lần (tàu kiểm ngư số hiệu KN 762 bị tông, húc đẩy lần vào ngày 2, 3, 5-5) 25 Để minh chứng cho bịa đặt, tráo trở, đổi trắng thay đen, vu cáo luận điệu TQ, từ đầu, VN chủ động quay lại hình ảnh tàu TQ hăng công, đâm va tàu VN Không phải vài mà hàng chục, chí có lúc 100 tàu TQ uy hiếp, vây đâm tàu thực thi công vụ VN 26 Nhưng nhớ, lời Tổng thống Philippines tuyên bố: “Nếu vào sân nhà bạn, nói với bạn ông ta, bạn có cho phép không? Không thể từ bỏ hợp pháp thuộc 27 Hoạt động tàu hải giám Trung Quốc tàu ngư Trung Quốc chịu trách nhiệm trước VII quan Trung Quốc? -Có nhiều lực lượng Trung Quốc hoạt động biển Chúng nêu lập trường Việt Nam đến Đại sứ quán Trung Quốc Hà Nội, quan đại diện Trung Quốc Việt Nam Đại sứ quán Trung Quốc Hà Nội phản ánh lập trường Việt Nam Cịn việc giải vấn đề phía Trung Quốc 28 “Đây chơi tương đối mới, khơng có ngạc nhiên họ hoang mang", Nick Bisley, giáo sư quan hệ quốc tế Đại học La Trobe, Melbourne, nhấn mạnh 29 Theo giáo sư Ngô Vĩnh Long,“đe dọa lớn Nhật xảy Biển Đông Biển Hoa Đông : Năng lượng từ Trung Đông đến Nhật qua Biển Đông, hàng xuất Nhật phần lớn qua Biển Đông” 30 Nếu Tây Tạng tiềm tàng khả bất ổn, chiến biển Đông với VN mà làm nổ VIII biến cố Tây Tạng, Ấn Độ lại đứng ngồi khơng nắm lấy hội? 31 "The China sovereignty of China over the islands in the South China Sea since demonstrates the long-standing claims over the waters of the South China Sea," the statement said, the embassy reported 32 "They have come to realise the clear danger of being swallowed by China Unfortunately, it is years too late," he said, adding that the best the Vietnamese government could is to quickly give soldiers the they deserved 33 The badly injured workers were employees of China Metallurgical Group Corp., a contractor for an iron and steel complex being built in Ha Tinh, according to Chinese state-run media 34 IX On Monday, Energy Administration said China aims to produce 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from the South China Sea by 2015 It said the sea would "form the main part" of China's offshore gas exploration plans 35 A statement to Reuters from China's Defense Ministry said the two militaries had close, friendly relations and China was willing to work hard with Vietnam for regional peace 36 China denied its ships had done anything wrong 37 China's Vietnam for the incident, saying its oil "undermined and jurisdictional rights" 38 Common interests between China and differences, Chinese President Xi Jinping minister on Tuesday, calling for their dispute in the South China Sea to be resolved through talks 39 X Vietnam's V embittered over a perceived history of Chinese bullying and territorial claims in the South China Sea 40 "In matters of territory, our attitude is firm We won't give an inch," Fang said after meeting U.S Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Martin Dempsey 41 The PRC has tried both honey and vinegar, exploring joint development options at times and resorting to shows of force at others Neither has been very successful to date 42 It takes a long time to get to the middle of nowhere For a contingent of almost 40 reporters, hours of waiting both on land and then at sea preceded a trip to one of the world's most hotly contested areas of maritime real estate 43 "Anyone with clear eyes saw long ago that behind these drills is reflected a mentality that will lead the South China Sea issue down a XI fork in the road towards military confrontation through commentary Army Daily said, according to the Reuters news agency 44 The Chinese are waiting patiently for the Sierra Madre to break up before they move in But most of the time it's a seemingly endless waiting wondering if their territorial rivals circling the ship will make a move 45 A dangerous dance: China, Vietnam posture in the South China Sea 46 Top General Fang Fenghui said Beijing could not "afford to lose an inch" of territory, blaming Hanoi for stirring up trouble in the region 47 "Beijing's position on the oil rig drilling has not shifted at all, but Vietnam is in a mess now, the difference itself already tells us a lot," it says 48 XII "We have to realize that there are no more North and South, we're all Vietnamese Politics come and go, but historical facts remain." 49 Beijing has called the case a farce 50 They have come to realize the clear danger of being swallowed by China 51 South China Sea Boils: China Sends Oil Rig Near Vietnam Again 52 The rig's relocation could reduce tensions neighbors after one of the worst breakdowns in ties since they fought a brief war in 1979 53 The crisis has frayed ties between the two Communist-run Asian nations, and there is little sign of either side backing down over the XIII increasingly dispute 54 "Now the crew are jobless," she says "We have to lay them off until we have the new ship This incident has cost us billion Dong ($237,000) Our family lives off the revenue of fishing and we haven't raised the money to buy a new one." 55 "If you want to know why there is tension in South China Sea, I think you have to go and ask the country or countries that have made all the provocations," Cui Lei, China's vice minister of the Foreign Ministry, told CNN in a rare interview last month 56 "Our life here is hard sometimes because we are far from our families," Hilbert Bigania, a 30year-old sergeant, said "We can't communicate we're in the middle of the ocean That's our everyday life here We can't anything." 57 The rig movement comes weeks before Vietnam's Nguyen Phu Trong, is expected to XIV visit the United States, in the first such trip by a general secretary of the nation's Communist Party 58 "In these seas, China's ships were in a defensive mode who was it who took the initiative for the clash? Who was it who created tension on the scene? This is very clear," Hong said 59 "Neither choice leads to a promising prospect," said Sun "Therefore sticking to the existing path is the most rational." 60 "If we stop our work there as soon as Vietnam shouts, China will not be able to achieve anything in the South China Sea," Wu said XV ... off Vietnam 37 China Vietnamese fishermen Paracel Islands 38 Analysis: nine-dashed line in South China Sea 39 Vietnam military face China 21 40 China and Vietnam sign cool sea dispute 41 China interests... conversational implicatures? 2) What are the conversational maxims that are violated in the English electronic newspaper articles on Vietnam- China island disputes to generate conversational implicatures? ... newspaper article on Vietnam- China island disputes - To compare the similarity and differences of adopting implicatures in English and Vietnamese electronic newspapers on Vietnam - China island disputes