Đề án A comparative Study on rejecting invitation in engli Sh and vietname Se

1 Bé gi¸o dôc vµ ®µo t¹o Tr-êng ®¹i häc d©n lËp h¶I phßng ISO 9001:2008 Khãa luËn tèt nghiÖp NGµNH: ngo¹i ng÷ H¶I phßng – 2010 2 HAI PHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT ----------------- ------------ GRADUATION PAPER A comparative Study on rejecting invitation in engli Sh and vietname Se BY Phung Thi Thu Thuy CLASS NA 1003 SUPERVISOR MS Nguyen Thi Thuy Thu, M.A. HAIPHONG - 2010 3 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG -------------------------------------- Nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp Sinh viên: .........................................................Mã số:............................ Lớp:.......................Ngành:..................................................................... Tên đề tài: ................................................................................................. 4 Nhiệm vụ đề tài 1. Nội dung và các yêu cầu cần giải quyết trong nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp ( về lý luận, thực tiễn, các số liệu cần tính toán và các bản vẽ). .. .. .. .. .. 2. Các số liệu cần thiết để thiết kế, tính toán. .. .. .. .. .. 3. Địa điểm thực tập tốt nghiệp. .. .. .. 5 CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN ĐỀ TÀI Người hướng dẫn thứ nhất: Họ và tên:............................................................................................. Học hàm, học vị:................................................................................... Cơ quan công tác:................................................................................. Nội dung hướng dẫn:............................................................................ Người hướng dẫn thứ hai: Họ và tên:............................................................................................. Học hàm, học vị:................................................................................... Cơ quan công tác:................................................................................. Nội dung hướng dẫn:............................................................................ Đề tài tốt nghiệp được giao ngày 12 tháng 04 năm 2010 Yêu cầu phải hoàn thành xong trước ngày 10 tháng 07 năm 2010 Đã nhận nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Đã giao nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Sinh viên Người hướng dẫn Hải Phòng, ngày tháng năm 2010 HIỆU TRƯỞNG GS.TS.NGƯT Trần Hữu Nghị 6 PHẦN NHẬN XÉT TÓM TẮT CỦA CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN 1. Tinh thần thái độ của sinh viên trong quá trình làm đề tài tốt nghiệp: .. .. .. .. 2. Đánh giá chất lượng của khóa luận (so với nội dung yêu cầu đã đề ra trong nhiệm vụ Đ.T. T.N trên các mặt lý luận, thực tiễn, tính toán số liệu): .. .. .. .. 3. Cho điểm của cán bộ hướng dẫn (ghi bằng cả số và chữ): .. .. .. Hải Phòng, ngày .. tháng .. năm 2010 Cán bộ hướng dẫn (họ tên và chữ ký) 7 NHẬN XÉT ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA NGƯỜI CHẤM PHẢN BIỆN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP 1. Đánh giá chất lượng đề tài tốt nghiệp về các mặt thu thập và phân tích tài liệu, số liệu ban đầu, giá trị lí luận và thực tiễn của đề tài. 2. Cho điểm của người chấm phản biện : (Điểm ghi bằng số và chữ) Ngày.......... tháng......... năm 2010 Người chấm phản biện 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement Abbreviation Tables Page PART I: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1 1. Rationale of the study .............................................................................. 1 2. Aims of the study .................................................................................... 1 3. Scope of the study ................................................................................... 1 4. Method of the study ................................................................................. 1 5. Comments on the survey questionnaires ................................................. 2 6. Design of the study .................................................................................. 3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................... 4 CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ................................ 4 1. What is speech acts? ................................................................................ 4 1.1. Speech acts ...................................................................................... 4 1.2. Classification of speech acts ........................................................... 7 2. ..................................................................................................... W hat is invitation? ................................................................................... 11 3. Rejecting invitation ............................................................................... 12 CHAPTER II: WAYS OF REJECTING INVITATION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE .......................................................... 16 1. Directly rejecting invitation in English ................................................ 16 1.1. Directly rejecting invitation in English ........................................ 16 1.2. Directly rejecting invitation in Vietnamese ................................. 16 2. Indirectly rejecting invitation ............................................................... 17 9 2.1. Indirectly rejecting invitation ....................................................... 17 2.1.1. Regret + Reason (R+r) ......................................................... 17 2.1.2. Dilemma (D) ......................................................................... 19 2.1.3. Reason + Suggestion (r+S) ................................................... 20 2.1.4. Reason (r) ............................................................................. 20 2.1.5. Alternative Suggestion (AS) ................................................ 20 2.1.6. Hesitation .............................................................................. 21 2.1.7. Avoiding Conflicts ............................................................... 22 2.2. Indirectly rejecting invitation in Vietnamese ............................... 23 2.2.1. Reason (r) ............................................................................. 23 2.2.2. Negative Presupposition (-PRES) ........................................ 23 2.2.3. Suggestion + Reason (S+r) ................................................... 24 2.2.4. Alternative Suggestion (AS) ................................................ 25 3. The similarities and differences in rejecting invitation in English and Vietnamese ................................................................................... 25 3.1. Similarities ................................................................................... 25 3.2. Differences ................................................................................... 30 CHAPTER III: THE DATA COLLECTION AND DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................. 31 1. Data collection ...................................................................................... 31 2. Data analysis ......................................................................................... 32 2.1. English finding ............................................................................. 32 2.2. Vietnamese finding ....................................................................... 33 3. Tips for rejecting invitation .................................................................. 33 PART III: CONCLUSION ...................................................................... 36 1. Summary ............................................................................................... 36 2. Suggestion for further study ................................................................. 36 REFERENCES ........................................................................................ 37 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mrs. Tran Ngoc Lien, M.A – Dean of Foreign Language Department of Hai Phong Private University whose criticism and advices have improved my study. Secondly, I am deeply grateful to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thuy Thu M.A, my supervisor who has not only given me many invaluable suggestions and comments but also provided me with valuable materials. In addition, I would like to thank all teachers of Foreign Language Department of Hai Phong Private University for their precious and useful lessons during my four-year study which have been then the foundation of this study. I own my parents for their constant source of love, support and encouragement. I am immensely grateful to them for standing behind me whenever I needed them especially in times of difficulties. Finally, my special thanks go to my dear friends for their understanding and assistance during the process of preparing this study. Hai Phong, June 2010 Phung Thi Thu Thuy 11 ABBREVIATIONS FTAs Face – threatening acts R+r Regret + Reason D Dilemma r+S Reason + Suggestion r Reason AS Alternative Suggestion -PRES. Negative Presupposition S+r Suggestion + Reason d Directly rejecting invitation TABLES Page Table 1 : The five general functions of speech acts .....9 Table 2 : Data of rejecting invitation in English and Vietnamese...36 12 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale In everyday social life, people are sometimes invited to go somewhere or to do something. Accepting an invitation is a delicate matter although it is much easier than rejecting as the latter is a face- threatening act. However, there are situations in which invitations cannot avoid refusal. For these reasons, I have decided to choose the subject: “A comparative study on rejecting invitation in English and Vietnamese” to enhance the efficiency of the teaching and learning of this speech act in English and Vietnamese, create the tactfulness and flexibility in language use for both Vietnamese learner of English and English-speaking learners of Vietnam with the maxim declared in a Vietnamese proverb: “You don‟t have to buy words, so don‟t let them hurt the feelings of others.” 2. Aims of the study This study aims at: - Defining invitation in English and Vietnamese. - Defining rejecting invitation in English and Vietnamese. - Finding out the similarities and differences in rejecting invitation between English and Vietnamese 3. Scope of the study - When rejecting invitation, we have both of direct and indirect rejecting. To avoid face-threatening act when giving rejecting invitation so this study much focuses on indirect rejecting invitation. - This study discusses some ways of rejecting invitation in English and Vietnamese to find out some similarities and differences on theory. - In this research, the writer interviews 10 foreigners and conducts survey questionnaire to 50 Vietnamese people to find out how English and Vietnamese reject invitation and gives some recommendations. 13 4. Method of the study The practical approaches are: - Comparative and contrastive analysis - Studying relevant publications - Consulting with the supervisor - Conducting survey questionnaires and interviewing 5. Comments on the survey questionnaire Because of restricted geographic position so the survey is just conducted to fifty Vietnamese informants and interviewed ten foreigners. There are two groups of informants. The first group who administered the questionnaire in Vietnamese consists of the Vietnamese all living in Northern Vietnam. The second group who administered in English includes American and English native speakers. The information about the informants is quite necessary for data analysis, so the informants were requested to provide the following parameters: - Age - Gender Below is the table which shows the number of informants with their status parameters. STATUS PARAMETERS INFORMANTS Vietnamese English Age - Above 20 and below 30 - Above 30 and below 40 - Above 40 32 10 8 7 3 0 Gender - Male - Female 23 27 6 4 14 6. Design of the study The study is divided into three parts: Part I: “Introduction” includes rationale, aims, scope, comments and design of the study. Part II: “Development” includes 3 chapters: Chapter I: “The theoretical background” Chapter II: “The ways of rejecting invitation in English and Vietnamese” Chapter III: “The Data collection and Data analysis” Part III: “Conclusion” giving the summary of whole the study 15 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. What is speech acts? 1.1. Speech acts In many ways of expressing themselves, “ people do not only produce utterances containing grammartical structures and words, they perform actions via those utterances” (Yule, 1996: 47). If you work in a situation where a boss has a great deal of power, then his utterance of expression, “You are fired”, is more than just a statement. This utterance can be used to perform the act of ending your employment. However, the actions performed by utterances do not have to be as unpleasant as in the one above. Actions can be quite pleasant, as in the acknowledgement of thanks:“You‟re welcome”, or the expression of surprise:“Who‟d have thought it?”, or in Vietnamese“ Ai mà nghĩ thế?”. Making a statement may be the paradigmatic use of language, but there are all sorts of other things we can do with words. We can make requests, ask questions, give orders, make promises, give thanks, offer apologies, and so on. Moreover, almost any speech act is really the performance of several acts at once, distinguished by different aspects of the speaker's intention: there is the act of saying something, what one does in saying it, such as requesting or promising, and how one is trying to affect one's audience. The theory of speech acts is partly taxonomic and partly explanatory. It must systematically classify types of speech acts and the ways in which they can succeed or fail. It must reckon with the fact that the relationship between the words being used and the force of their utterance is often oblique. For example, the sentence “This is a pig sty” might be used nonliterally to state that a certain room is messy and filthy and, further, to demand indirectly that it be straightened out and cleaned up. Even when this sentence is used literally and directly, say to describe a certain area of a barnyard, the content of its utterance is not fully determined by its linguistic meaning--in particular, the 16 meaning of the word 'this' does not determine which area is being referred to. A major task for the theory of speech acts is to account for how speakers can succeed in what they do despite the various ways in which linguistic meaning underdetermines use. In general, speech acts are acts of communication. To communicate is to express a certain attitude, and the type of speech act being performed corresponds to the type of attitude being expressed. For example, a statement expresses a belief, a request expresses a desire, and an apology expresses a regret. As an act of communication, a speech act succeeds if the audience identifies, in accordance with the speaker's intention, the attitude being expressed. Some speech acts, however, are not primarily acts of communication and have the function not of communicating but of affecting institutional states of affairs. They can do so in either of two ways. Some officially judge something to be the case, and others actually make something the case. Those of the first kind include judges' rulings, referees' calls and assessors' appraisals, and the latter include sentencing, bequeathing and appointing. Acts of both kinds can be performed only in certain ways under certain circumstances by those in certain institutional or social positions. Actions performed by utterances are generally called speech acts and, in English, are commonly given more specific labels, such as apology, complaint, compliment, invitation, promise, or request.“The number of speech acts performed by the average individual in the course of any ordinary day when our work and leisure bring us into contact with others probably runs into the thousands” (Austin, 1962). These descriptive terms for different kinds of speech acts apply to the speaker‟s communicative intention in producing an utterance. The speaker normally expects that his or her communicative intention will be recognized by the hearer. Both the speaker and the hearer are helped in this process by the circumstances surrounding the utterance. These circumstances are called 17 the speech event. In many ways, it is nature of the speech event that determines the interpretation of an utterance as performing a particular speech act. For example, in the wintry day the speaker take a cup of coffee but it is too iced, and produce the utterance which is likely to be interpreted as a complaint: “This coffee is really cold !”. Changing the circumstance to a really hot summer day and the speaker, being given a glass of iced coffee and producing the utterance, it is likely to be interpreted as a praise. “It means that there is more to the interpretation of speech act than can be found in the utterance alone”( Yule, 1996:48). A Speech Act is an utterance that serves a function in communication. Some examples are an apology, greeting, request, complaint, invitation, compliment or refusal. A speech act might contain just one word such as „No‟ to perform a refusal or several words or sentences such as: “I‟m sorry, I can‟t, I have a prior engagement”. It is important to mention that speech acts include real-life interactions and require not only knowledge of the language but also appropriate use of that language within a given culture. The influence of these variables often differs from one culture to another. This study focuses primarily on the patterns of refusals in American English native speakers and whether or not there are some cultural tendencies in refusal patterns. The speech act of refusals occurs when a speaker directly or indirectly says no to a request or invitation. According to Tanck (2002:2), “refusal is a face-threatening act to the listener/ requester /inviter because it contradicts his/her expectations and is often realized through an indirect strategy”. Amongst Vietnamese people and foreigners living in Vietnam, it is said to be true that as a cultural norm, most Vietnamese people do not give a direct no when refusing a favor and much less when refusing an invitation. Vietnamese people tend to be very polite and less direct in their forms of refusal and will most often either say yes or maybe which can be a masked no or no followed by an excuse or reason for refusing the offer. In general want to get along with people and make a good impression in a social encounter to appear 18 amiable. It is not common amongst Vietnamese people to refuse an invitation or offer with just a direct no, in order to save face or avoid conflict. In hopes of further testing the existence of a cultural tendency towards politeness and avoiding conflict, a survey was conducted to test the refusal patterns of Vietnamese when asked to do a favor or when given an invitation. 1.2. Classifications of speech acts Austin (1962) introduces a classifications of acts performed when a person speaks. The first is a locutionary act producing a meaningful expression. For example, if we make a simple sentence like “I want a cup of coffee”, we are likely to produce a locutionary