Khóa luận Suggesting and responding to suggestions in English and Vietnamese - Nguyễn Thu Trang

Nội dung text: Khóa luận Suggesting and responding to suggestions in English and Vietnamese - Nguyễn Thu Trang

1. HAIPHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE GRADUATION PAPER SUGGESTING AND RESPONDING TO SUGGESTIONS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE By: Nguyen Thu Trang Class: Na903 Supervisor: Trinh Van Sach, M.A HAIPHONG – JUNE 2009 1
2. CỘNG HOÀ XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc o0o BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG NHIỆM VỤ ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thu Trang Mã số: 091162 Lớp: Na 903 Ngành: Ngoại ngữ Tên đề tài: Suggesting and responding to suggestions in English and Vietnamese. 2
3. NHIỆM VỤ ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP 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 bản vẽ) 2. Các số liệu cần thiết để thiết kế tính toán 3. Địa điểm thực tập 3
4. CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP Người hướng dẫn thứ nhất: Họ và tên: Trịnh Văn Sách Học hàm, học vị: Thạc sĩ Cơ quan công tác: Đại học dân lập Hải Phòng Nội dung hướng dẫn: Suggesting and responding to suggestions in English and Vietnamese. Người dướng 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: tháng .năm 2009 Yêu cầu phải hoàn thành trước ngày: tháng .năm 2009 Đã nhận nhiệm vụ Đ.T.T.N Đã giao nhiệm vụ: Đ.T.T.N Sinh viên Cán bộ hướng dẫn Đ.T.T.N Hải Phòng, ngày tháng .năm2009 HIỆU TRƯỞNG 4
5. 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 Đ.T.T.N ( So vớI nộI dung yêu cầu đã đề ra trong nhiệm vụ Đ.T.T.N trên các mặt ly luận, thực tiễn , tính toàn giá trị sử dụng, chất lượng các bản vẽ) 3. Cho điểm của cán bộ hướng dẫn: Hải Phòng, ngày .tháng .năm 2009 Cán bộ hướng dẫn chính (Họ tên và chữ kí) 5
6. NHẬN XÉT ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA CÁN BỘ CHẤM PHẢN BIỆN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP 1. Đánh giá chất lượng đề tài tốt nghiệp về các mặt thu nhập và phân tích số liệu ban đầu, cơ sở lý luận chọn phương án tối ưu, cách tính toán chất lượng thuyết minh và bản vẽ, giá trị lý luận và thực tiễn để tài. 2. Cho điểm của cán bộ phản biện (Điểm ghi bằng số và chữ) Ngày .tháng .năm 2009 Người chấm phản biện 6
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many beloved people for their providing me incentive and support during the time that I was writing this graduation paper. Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Trinh Van Sach (M.A) at the Foreign Language Department of Hai Phong Private University for his various materials, constant support, advice and valuable comments on draft chapters to complete this study. I also offer my sincere thanks to Ms. Tran Thi Ngoc Lien, Dean of Foreign Language for her help and instructions. Finally yet importantly, my wholehearted thanks are presented to my family and all of my friends for their constant support and encouragement in the process of doing this research paper. Hai Phong, June, 2009. Nguyen Thu Trang 7
8. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENT PART I: INTRODUCTION 3 1. Rationable 3 2. Aims of the study 3 3. Scope of the study 4 4. Methods of the study 4 5. Design of the study .4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT 6 Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6 I. Language and communication .6 1. Language 6 1.1 What is language? .6 1.2 Language in society 6 2. Communication 7 2.1 What is communication .7 2.2 Function of communication 7 2.3 Types of communication 9 II. Speech acts .10 1. Definition 10 2. Levels of speech acts 11 3. Communicative and coventional speech acts .13 4. Types of speech acts 14 5. Direct, indirect and nonliteral speech acts. 16 6. Philosophical importance of speech act theory 21 III. Politeness 22 1. Definition 22 2. Strategies of Politeness 23 8
9. Chapter II: SUGGESTING AND RESPONDING TO SUGGESTION 28 I. Suggesting and responding to suggestions in English. 28 1. Making suggestions in English .28 1.1. Direct suggestions 29 1.2. Indirect suggestions .32 2. Responding to suggestions in English 33 2.1. Acceptance 33 2.1.1. Definition of acceptance to suggestions 33 2.1.2. Types of acceptance to suggestions 33 2.2. Rejection .36 2.2.1. Definition of rejection to suggestions 37 2.2.2. Types of rejections 37 2.2.3 Models of rejecting sentences to suggestions 39 II. Suggesting and responding to suggestions in Vietnamese .40 1. Making suggestions in Vietnamese .40 1.1. Direct suggestions .40 1.2. Indirect suggestions 41 2. Responding to suggestions in Vietnamese 41 2.1. Acceptance 41 2.2. Rejection 44 III. The similaries and differences between English and Vietnamese in suggesting and responding to suggestions 1. Suggestions 47 2. Responses .47 2.1. Acceptance .47 2.2. Rejection 48 Chapter III: FINDINGS .49 PART III: CONCLUSION 50 I. Summary of the study 50 II. Suggestions for further research 50 ATTACHMENT 52 9
10. PART I : INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale: English is one of the most widely used languages worldwide when being used by over 60% the world population. It’s used internationally in business, political, cultural relation and education as well. Thanks to widespread use of English, diffirent country come close to each other to work out the problems and strive for a prosperous community. Suggestion and response are also the part of communication. Discussing about the suggestion and response in communicating, Wall [12:126] says: “Most of our living includes suggesting and responding to suggestions”. People have many reasons and chance to give suggestion. Being a student of Foreign Language Faculty with four years learning at the university, I have chance to equip myself with the knowledge of many fields in society such as: sociology, economy, finance, culture, etc With the knowledge gained from the professional teachers, specialized books, references and with the helf of my friends, the experience gained at the trainning time, I have put my mind on theme: “Suggesting and responding to suggestions in English and Vietnamese” for my graduation paper. 2. Aims of the study: For the above-mentioned reasons this paper mainly focus on studying the suggesting and responding to suggestion especially the ways of using and understanding this phenomenon properly. Follow in this trend, the study will serve purposes: To present the usage of suggestions and responding to suggestions in English and Vietnamese. To help people understand about the similaries and differences between English and Vietnamese in making suggestions and giving responses. 10
11. To provide some expressions on suggesting and responding to suggestions in English and Vietnamese. 3. Scope of the study In English, there are a lots of interesting aspects of communication to study. However, suggesting and responding to suggestions is often used in our daily conversations, that’s why, it’s the most fantastic field I have decided to study for my graduation paper. Due to the limitation of time and knowledge of the study field, my study introduces and gives discussion as much as possible about definition, classification and usage of suggestions and responses. Besides, in the second part of this paper I also discuss politeness and speech acts as the theoretical background for my study of suggestions and responses. 4. Methods of the study In order to get data for the study and analysis in my paper, three ways are deployed and used for data collection. First, data are collected from specific suggsestions and responses presented in the materials and textbooks used for teaching and learning English, English for special purposes in Vietnamsese Universities and colleges. Second, they are obtained from discussions with my supervisor, from internet and other sources. Third, through my own observation and informal dicussions with foreigners. Then the data will be analyzed and arranged for dicussion according to the set aims. 5. Design of the study The study is divided into three main parts of which the second one is the most important part.  Part one is introduction that gives out the rationale for choosing the topic of this study, the aims, scope as well as methods of the study.  Part two is develpoment that consists of three chapters: 11
12. The first chapter aims at providing theoretical background for the study, which is mainly brief introduction of language, communication, politeness and speech acts. The second chapter studies suggesting and responding to suggestions”. This is the most important part in my graduation paper. The third chapter refers to some findings and implication of the study.  Part three is the conclusion of the study, in which all the issues mentioned in previous parts of the study are summarized. 12
13. PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Theoretical Background I. Language and communication 1. Language 1.1 What is language? Language is used to communicate and convey meaning from one person to another. Language has rules which involve word structure (morphology), grammar and sentence structure (syntax), word meaning (semantics) and social appropriateness (pragmatics). Some linguists who focus on these aspects of language spend years in the field investigating previously unstudied languages, many of which are now on the verge of extinction. By studying the properties of languages from around the world, linguists hope to better understand properties shared by all human languages and the ways in which languages can differ. That is, their goal is to understand the nature of human language - how language "works." 1.2 Language in society Language use is an inherently social phenomenon. How you speak depends on such factors as where you grew up, your racial and ethnic identity, whether you are a woman or man, and your education. That is, you use the variation in language as a creative means of expressing who you are (and who you are not). By studying this variation, researchers enhance their understanding of language as well as their understanding of social processes, and discover the social factors that influence our linguistic choices and how these choices are perceived by others. Linguists who study the social aspects of language also investigate such topics as how and why languages change over time, how new languages are created when speakers of divergent languages come into contact, how language attitudes are used to maintain forms of discrimination, how conversations are social transactions, the relation between language and power, and the use of language in the media. 13
14. ( 2. Communication 2.1 What is communication? Communication is the process of transferring information from one source to another. Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs". Communication can be perceived as a two-way process in which there is an exchange and progression of thoughts, feelings, or ideas towards a mutually accepted goal or direction Communication as an academic discipline has a long history. Communication is a process where by information is encoded and imparted by a sender to a receiver via a channel/medium. The receiver then decodes the message and gives the sender a feedback. Communication requires that all parties have an area of communicative commonality. There are auditory means, such as speaking, singing and sometimes tone of voice, and nonverbal, physical means, such as body language, sign language, paralanguage, touch, eye contact, by using writing. Communication is thus a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating. If you use these processes it is developmental and transfers to all areas of life: home, school, community, work, and beyond. It is through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur. 2.2 Function of communication “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.” ~ Goethe Communication satisfies most of our needs: physical, identity and social Physical 14
15. ◊ People who lack strong relationships have 2 - 3 times the risk of early death, regardless of whether or not they smoke or drink. ◊ Terminal cancer strikes socially isolated people more often than those who have close personal relationships. ◊ Divorced, separated, and widowed people are 5 - 10 times more likely to need hospitalization for mental problems than their married counterparts. ◊ Pregnant women under stress and without supportive relationships have three times more complications than pregnant women who suffer from the same amount of stress but have strong social support. ◊ Studies show that social isolation is a major risk factor contributing to coronary disease, comparable to physiological factors such a s diet, smoking, obesity an lack of physical activity socially isolated people are four times more susceptible to the common cold than those who have active social networks. Identity Communication helps humans to define who they are. In other words, it is how we communicate with others that helps us formulate the parameters of our identity. When you speak are you honest or always sarcastic? Do you acknowledge others when you speak or diss them by walking out when you don't like the way a conversation is going? Consider the famous feral children who grew without human contact and the following excerpt taken from Understanding Human Communication. Some scholars have argued that we are most attracted to people who confirm our identity. This confirmation can come in different forms, depending on the self-image of the communicator. People with relatively high self-esteem seek out others who confirm their value and, [ ] avoid those who treat them poorly. Conversely,people who regard themselves as unworthy may look for relatiohships in which others treat them badly. This principle offers one explanation for why some people maintain damaging or unsuccessful relationships. 15
16. Social Needs Researchers have identified several social needs that are statisfied through communication: affection, inclusion, escape, relaxation and control. These are needs that must be filled, and only communication with others can satisfy that need. Anthropologist Walter Godldschmidt terms the communication drive as the "human career." Besides, communiation has other fuctions like: give personal information; ask for personal information; introduce family and close friends; tell the time/day, etc; ask the time/day; express ability enquire about ability; say when you do not understand; ask for clarification; check back; correct; spell words aloud; describe places and things; give information, as part of a simple explanation; give single-step directions and instructions; make requests – ask for directions; enquire about prices and quantities; make requests – ask for something; make requests – ask someone to do something; respond to a request; express likes and dislikes; express feelings; express wishes; express views; agree and disagree; apologise; express a preference; express thanks; greet; respond to greetings; describe health and symptoms; invite and offer; accept; decline; take leave. 2.3 Types of communication Every time we speak, we choose and use one of four basic communication styles: assertive, aggressive, passive and passive-aggressive. a. Assertive Communication The most effective and healthiest form of communication is the assertive style. It’s how we naturally express ourselves when our self-esteem is intact, giving us the confidence to communicate without games and manipulation. When we are being assertive, we work hard to create mutually satisfying solutions. We communicate our needs clearly and forthrightly. We care about the relationship and strive for a win/win situation. We know our limits and refuse to be pushed beyond 16
17. them just because someone else wants or needs something from us. Surprisingly, assertive is the style most people use least. b. Aggressive Communication Aggressive communication always involves manipulation. We may attempt to make people do what we want by inducing guilt (hurt) or by using intimidation and control tactics (anger). Covert or overt, we simply want our needs met - and right now! Although there are a few arenas where aggressive behavior is called for (i.e., sports or war), it will never work in a relationship. Ironically, the more aggressive sports rely heavily on team members and rational coaching strategies. c. Passive Communication Passive communication is based on compliance and hopes toavoidconfrontation at all costs. In this mode we don’t talk much, question even less, and actually do very little. We just don’t want to rock the boat. Passives have learned that it is safer not to react and better to disappear than to stand up and be noticed. d. Passive-Aggressive Communication A combination of styles, passive-aggressive avoids direct confrontation (passive), but attempts to get even through manipulation (aggressive). If you’ve ever thought about making that certain someone who needs to be “taught a thing or two” suffer (even just a teeny bit), you’ve stepped pretty close to (if not on into) the devious and sneaky world of the passive-aggressive. II. Speech acts 1. Definition: Speech acts are a staple of everyday communicative life, but only became a topic of sustained investigation, at least in the English speaking world, in the middle of the twentieth Century. Since that time, “speech act theory” has been influential not only within philosophy, but also in linguistics, psychology, legal theory, artificial intelligence literary theory and many other scholarly disciplines. Recognition of the importance of speech acts has illuminated the ability of language to do other things 17
18. than describe reality. In the process the boundaries among the philosophy of language, the philosophy of action, the philosophy of mind and even ethics have become less sharp. We perform speech acts when we offer an apology, greeting, request, complaint, invitation, compliment, or refusal. A speech act is an utterance that serves a function in communication. A speech act might contain just one word, as in “Sorry” to perform an apology or several words or sentence “I’m sorry I for got your birthday. I just let it slip my mind. 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. Here are some examples of speech acts we use everyday. Greeting: “Hi, Eric. How are things going?” Request: “Could you pass me the mashed potatoes, please?” Complaint: “I’ve already been waiting three weeks for the computer, and I was told it would be delivered within a week.” Invitation: “We’re having some people over Saturday evening and wanted to know if you’d like to join us.” Compliment: “Hey, I really like your tie.” Refusal: “Oh, I’d love to see that movie with you but this Friday just isn’t going to work.” 2. Levels of speech acts Austin identifies three distinct levels of action beyond the act of utterance itself. He distinguished the act of saying something, what one does in saying it, and what one does by saying it, and dubs these the “locutionary”, the “illocutionary” and the “perlocutionary” act, respectively suppose, for example, that a bartender utters the words; “the bar will be closed in five minutes, reported by means of direct quotation. He is there by performing the locutionary act of saying that the bar (ie. The one he is 18
19. tending) will be closed in five minutes (from the time of utterance) and what is said is reported by indirect quotation (notice that what the bartender is saying, the content of his locutionary act, is not fully determined. There are three levels of speech acts, which are: Locutionary (what is said) Illocutionary (what is being done in the saying of it) Perlocutionary (the effect the speaker has on the listener “by” or “through” the saying of it. 2.1 Locutionary act A locutionary act tells you something that you can understand or interpret within a context to which the speaker has alerted you. Example, "You got an A in the course." The speaker would have needed to identify the context, i.e. which course, and which semester, which college, and whether the A was for the course or for some work you did in the course. "This is the act of saying something with a certain meaning, where words are uttered with a more or less definite sense and reference." At p. 7-8 of pdf file. International Commentary on Evidence Vol. 4, No. 2, Article 1. 2.2 Illocutionary act “The locutionary act, as we saw, is the act of saying something. There is, secondly, the illocutionary act; this is the act performed in saying something. We now shift our attention from the meaning of a sentence to its force. To perform a locutionary act is ipso facto to perform as well an illocutionary act. But a meaningful sentence can be uttered with different forces. To use Searle’s example, the sentence ‘I am going to do it’ has one literal meaning (orpropositional content) but can have the force of any one or more of a variety of illocutionary acts; the utterance can amount to a promise, a prediction, a threat, a warning, a statement of intention and so forth. (Footnote 32 omitted.) At p. 11of pdf file. International Commentary on Evidence Vol. 4, No. 2, Article 1. 19
20. "The thoughts, feelings or behaviour of others are frequently affected by our utterances. I may, by the use of language, achieve the consequential effect of convincing or deterring or shocking you. In saying ‘Don’t do it’ (a locutionary act), I could be advising you not to do it (an illocutionary act) and if you are persuaded by me not to do it, that is the perlocutionary effect of my illocutionary act.38 My utterance may not achieve the intended effect. It does not when, for example, you refuse to obey my command. The intended effect is one thing, the actual effect is another." 2.3 Perlocutionary act "Perlocutionary act and illocutionary point: the consequential effect of a verdict: First, ‘to say something is to do something’ (executing a locution, the act of saying something), and secondly, ‘in saying something, we do something’ (performing an illocution). Now we come to the third: ‘by saying something, we do something’ 3. Communicative and conventional speech acts Communicative speech acts address an audience in order to get them to do something; their success depends on the audience recognizing the speaker’s intentions. Conventional speech acts do not depend on the reaction of an audience: they are the ritual acts of marrying, christening, judging, and so on. They identify four types of communicative speech acts – constatives (also borrowed from Searle) ancknowledgements (Austin’s behabilities, Searle’s expressives) and 2 types of conventional speech acts verdictives (based on Vendler’s operatives). 3.1 Communicative speech acts  Constatives: affirming, alleging, announcing, answering, attributing, claiming, classifying, concurring, confirming, conjecturing, denying, disagreeing, disclosing, disputing, identifying, informing, insisting, predicting, ranking, reporting, stating, stipulating.  Directives : advising, admonishing, asking, begging, dismissing, excusing, forbidding, instructing, ordering, permitting, requesting, requiring, suggesting, urging, warning. 20
21.  Commissives : agreeing, guaranteeing, inviting, offering, promising, swearing, volunteering.  Acknowledgments : apologizing, condoling, congratulating, greeting, thanking, accepting (acknowledging an acknowledgment. 3.2 Conventional speech acts  Effectives: Speech acts effecting a change of status, including appointing, nominating, suspending, demoting, resigning, abdicating, arresting.  Verdictives: Speech acts pronouncing judgment, including acquitting, certifying, disqualifying, clearing, ruling, adjudicating. 4. Types of speech acts In the cause of defining speech acts, Austin offered some rough general categories for them; these categories have been argued over, modified, expanded and redefined by several scholars since. For the constative pragmatician, it is essential to boil the complexity of speech act types, and each speech act theorist who has pronouned on the subject has had his or her own list, supposedly much better than all the rest: clearer, simpler, more all-inclusive. Constative pagmaticians keep trying, through and mostly keep trying to fit everything into five airtight categories, the most famous revision of Austin’s taxonomy and the one that many constative pragmaticians take to be the final solution the problem, is John Searle’s in his 1969 book Speech Acts. Searl keeps Austin categories of commissive, changes the expositives to representatives and the declarations (what Vendler caleed operatives) which were strangely missing from Austin’s list. He also finds a place for suggestions, under directives: 4.1 Expresentatives Represent a state of affairs: assertions, statements, claims, hypotheses, descriptions, suggestions. For example: Pragmatic studies meaning in interaction. 21
22. Austin lectured in Havard. Performatives may be implicit. 4.2 Directives Intented to get the addressee to carry out an action: commands, requests, challenges, invitations, entreaties. For example: Please ask your questions during the break. Please submit your final assignments on time. Don’t plagiarize. 4.3 Commissives Commit a speaker to a course of action: promises, pledges, threats and vows. For example: I will reply to your messages as soon as I can. I will give you my comments about your final assignments. I will help you with your transcripts. 4.4 Expressives Indicate the speaker’s psychological state or attitude: greetings, apologies, congratulations, condolences, thanks-giving. For example: I am sorry I haven’t done it yet. Great new! Congratulations! 4.5 Declarations Bring about the state of affairs thy name: bleeings, firings, baptisms, arrests, marryings. For example: I declare you husband and wife I christen this ship “Victory”. 22
23. But some of these seem a bit change. Apologizing, prasing, congratulating, deploring, and regretting do seem to express the speaker feelings. You do something that hurts someone else and feel bad about that, and by apologizing you tell the person you hurt how bad you feel; you admire someone and by prasing or congratulating him or her, express your admiration; you think someone shouldn’t have done something, and by deploring that action express your disapproval, and so on. But then how is “expressing feelings” different from “representing feelings”. If representatives convey information and apologizing is simply a way of conveyig information about your sorriess, shouldn’t Searle’s expressive be combined with his representatives, leaving only 4 categories. In fact, this category often leads to confusions. In her text book Pragmatics and Discourse,which takes Searle’s taxonomy as the final world on speech acts, Cutting (2002:17) give as example of expressives the phrase “A woman without a man like a fish without a bicycle”; “I’ve been poor and I’ve been rich – rich is better” ad “ If I’d known I was gonna live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” All three are statements of what the speaker believes to be true, and thus actually repressentatives, not expressives. And it does seen as if there is a key difference between apologizing, congratulating, and so on, on the one hand, and simply “expressing” or “representing” feelings on the other. The point of apologizing isn’t simply to express your feelings, it’s to get the other person to feel better about you. You apologize not merely because you feel bad, but because you don’t want the other person to feel bad about you, this suggests that Austin’s category of behabilities – responding to other people’s behabior – might be a better way of thinking about these speech acts than Searle’s expressives. 5. Direct, indirect and nonliteral speech acts Speech acts are also classified as direct and indirect speech acts. The former is defined as an illocutionary act which is mostly performed through concentrating on the literal form of grammar and vocabulary of the sentence uttered (Hunford and Heasly, 1996). Example: Kim will take out the rubbish. (statement); 23
24. Will Kim take out the rubbish? (question); Take out the rubbish, Kim! (command). Thus, the direct speech act occurs when a declarative form of sentence is used to make a statement, an interrogative form is used to produce a question and an imperative to make a command. Indirect speech is a type of speech act which is difficult to identify because the speaker in expressing his/her intention does not explicitly state her/his point. Alan (1986) says that: indirect speech occurs when a speaker communicates to the hearer more than he actually says such as this example ‘Do you have to stand in front of the TV?’ This may mean that the speaker wants the hearer to move (Directives – command). Based on an analysis of the types of speech acts, particularly related to direct and indirect speech acts, the data indicated that most speech acts in the film were direct ones. It is argued that the setting of the film (war film) influences the use of direct speech acts in order to make the speech acts more clear. As stated by Salt (2004) military speech acts are limited as they only occur in the battle or in the barracks, therefore, in order to avoid the risk of misunderstanding if speech acts are uttered indirectly, most training simulation is effected by employing specific types of speech acts such as direct commands. 5.1 Direct speech acts There are three basic types of direct speech acts, and they correspond to three special syntactic types that seem to occur in most of the world's languages. Examples are given in English, French and Buang (a Malayo-Polynesian language of Papua New Guinea). Speech Sentence Function Examples Act Type Assertion Declarative. Conveys "Jenny got an A on the test" 24
25. information; "Les filles ont pris des photos."('The girls is true or false took photos') "Biak eko nos." ('Biak took the food') " Did Jenny get an A on the test?" "Les filles ont-elles pris des photos?" Elicits Question Interrogative ('Did the girls take photos') information "Biak eko nos me? "('Did Biak take the food') "Get “Get an A on the test!" Orders causes others to "Prenez des photos!"('Take some And Imperative behave in certain photos!') ways Requests "Goko nos! "('Take the food!') Although assertions, questions and orders are fairly universal, and most of the world's languages have separate syntactic constructions that distinguish them, other speech acts do not have a syntactic construction that is specific to them. Consider the English sentence, (a) If you cross that line, I'll shoot you! Most English speakers would have no trouble identifying such an utterance as a threat. However, English has no special sentence form for threats. The if-construction used in (a) is not specific to the speech act of threatening. Such a construction might also express a promise, as in: (b) If you get all A's, I'll buy you a car! or simply a cause and effect relationship between physical events: (c) If you heat water to 212 degrees Fahrenheit, it will boil. 25
26. A consideration of the syntactic means available for expressing the various speech acts leads us to see that even for the three basic speech acts laid out in the table above, speakers may choose means of expression other than the basic syntactic type associated with the speech act in question. To some extent, this just reflects the existence of a diversity of means of expression, but a more pervasive reason is that speakers may use indirect rather than direct speech acts. 5.2 Indirect Speech acts Indirect speech acts are that we normally refer to as “hidden agendas” or “subtexts” thing we do surreptitiously with words, things we either don’t need or don’t want to be seen as doing openly with words. These are akin to what I have called furtives speech acts, but they are not the same thing. A furtives speech act is one that society has taught the speaker to consider generally shameful: bitching, begrudging, and badmouthing are commonly shunned speech acts, and when we perform them we either try to hide them (and deny them later), try to spin them in some more positive way (what I really meant was ) or try to excuse them (I was having a really rotten day). Indirect speech acts are typically hidden for less sinister reasons: because they don’t need to be spelled out (everybody knows what the speaker means), to get a laugh ( a good deal of our spontaneous humor is derived from implied messages), or to achieve some specific conversational purpose (the speaker wants something but doesn’t want to seem to be wanting it). Returning to the speech act of questioning, we can easily come up with a number of alternate ways to ask the same question by using sentence types other than interrogative. Let's look again at the interrogative sentence: (1) Did Jenny get an A on the test? A positive answer ("yes") to that question would give the questioner the actual answer she wanted, but now consider (2) 26
27. (2) Do you know if Jenny got an A on the test? This is still in the form of a question, but it probably is not an inquiry about what you know. Most of the time, the answer "yes, I do" would be ostentatiously uncooperative. The normal answer we would expect in real life would be "Yes, she did", or "No, she only got a B", or something of the sort. Here the reply is directed to the speech act meaning, not the literal meaning. A simple "yes" answer that responds to the literal meaning would usually be taken for an uncooperative answer in actual social life (for example "Yes, I do") would be heard as "Yes, I do, but I'm not necessarily going to tell you". So, (2) functions as an indirect question. Other indirect ways of asking the same question, using the declarative form, are listed in (3) and (4). (3) I'd like to know if Jenny got an A on the test. (4) I wonder whether Jenny got an A on the test. In the case of the speech act of requesting or ordering, speakers can be even more indirect. As in the case of questions, conventional indirect requests may, taken literally, be questions about the addressee's knowledge or ability. Here is a direct request: (5)( Please) close the window. Conventional indirect requests may be expressed as questions as in (6) and (7), or as assertions (8). In context, (9) and (10) may also be immediately understood as a complaints, meant as an indirect request for action. (6) Could you close the window? (7) Would you mind closing the window? (8) I would like you to close the window. (9) The window is still open! (10) I must have asked you a hundred times to keep that window closed. Pragmatics agree that it is difficult to classify speech acts are either direct or indirect with any certainy, because most of the things we say perform both direct and indirect speech acts at once. 27
28. 5.3 Nonliteral speech acts Nonliterality and indirection are the two main ways in which the semantic content of a sentence can fail to determine the full force and content of the illocutionary act being performed in using the sentence. They rely on the same sorts of processes that Grice discovered in connection with what he called 'conversational implicature', which, as is clear from Grice's examples, is nothing more than the special case of nonliteral or indirect constatives made with the use of indicative sentences. A few of Grice's examples illustrate nonliterality, e.g., 'He was a little intoxicated', used to explain why a man smashed some furniture, but most of them are indirect statements, e.g., 'There is a garage around the corner' used to tell someone where to get petrol, and 'Mr. X's command of English is excellent, and his attendance has been regular', giving the high points in a letter of recommendation. These are all examples in which what is meant is not determined by what is said. 6. Philosophical importance of speech acts theory The theory of speech acts has applications to philosophy in general, but these can only be illustrated here. In ethics, for example, it has been supposed that sentences containing words like 'good' and 'right' are used not to describe but to commend, hence that such sentences are not used to make statements and that questions of value and morals are not matters of fact. This line of argument is fallacious. Sentences used for ethical evaluation, such as 'Loyalty is good' and 'Abortion is wrong,' are no different in form from other indicative sentences. Whatever the status of their contents, they are standardly used to make statements. This leaves open the possibility that there is something fundamentally problematic about their contents. Perhaps such statements are factually defective and, despite syntactic appearances, are neither true nor false. However, this is a metaphysical issue about the status of the properties to which ethical predicates purport to refer. It is not the business of the philosophy of language to determine whether or not there are such properties as goodness or rightness and whether or not the goodness of loyalty and the rightness of abortion are matters of fact. The above argument is but one illustration of what Searle calls the 'speech act fallacy'. 28
29. He also identifies examples of the 'assertion fallacy', whereby conditions of making an assertion are confused with what is asserted. For example, one might fallaciously argue, on the grounds that because one would not assert that one believes something if one was prepared to assert that one knows it, that knowing does not entail believing. Grice identifies the same fallacy in a parallel argument, according to which seeming to have a certain feature entails not actually having that feature. For philosophy of language in particular, the theory of speech acts underscores the importance of the distinction between language use and linguistic meaning. This distinction sharpens the formulation of questions about the nature of linguistic knowledge, by separating questions about capacities exercised in linguistic interaction from those specific to knowledge of language itself. A parallel distinction, between speaker reference and linguistic reference, provokes the question of to what extent linguistic expressions refer independently of speakers' use of them to refer. It is common, for example, for philosophers to describe expressions like 'the car', 'Robert Jones' and 'they' as having different references in different contexts, but it is arguable that this is merely a misleading way of saying that speakers use such expressions to refer to different things in different contexts. (“Syntactic categories and grammartical relations” book – William Croft) II. Politeness 1. Definition In everyday conversation, there are ways to go about getting the things you wants. When you are with a group of friends, you can say to them, “Go get me that plate!”, or “Shut up!”. However, when you are surrounded by a group of adults at a formal function, in which your parents are attending, you must say, “could you please pass me that plate, if you do not mind?” and “I’m sorry, I do not means to interrupt, but I am not able to hear the speaker in the front of the room.” In different social situations, you are obligated to adjust your use of words to fit the occasion. It would seem socially unacceptable if the phrases above were reserved. 29
30. Politeness is basic to the production of social order and precondition of human cooperation, so that any theory which provides an understanding of this phenomenon at the same time goes to the foundation of human social life (Brown & Levinson; 1987). 2. Strategies of Politeness To perform an action other than in the most clear and efficient manner is to implicate some degree of politeness on part of speaker. According to Brown and Levinson, politeness strategies are developed in order to save the hearers' "face." Face refers to the respect that an individual has for him or herself, and maintaining that "self-esteem" in public or in private situations. Usually you try to avoid embarrassing the other person, or making them feel uncomfortable. Face Threatening Acts (FTA's) are acts that infringe on the hearers' need to maintain his/her self esteem, and be respected. Politeness strategies are developed for the main purpose of dealing with these FTA's. There are four types of politeness strategies, described by Brown and Levinson, that sum up human "politeness" behavior: Bald On Record, Negative Politeness, Positive Politeness, and Off-Record or indirect strategy. 2.1 Bald on record - Usage: Whenever speaker wants to do the face-threatening act with maximum efficiency more than he wants to do satisfy hearer’s face, even to any degree he will choose the bald on record strategy. This strategy is most often utilized by speaker who closely know their audience. With the bald on record strategies there is a direct possibility that the audience will be shocked or embarrassed by the strategy. For example, a bald on record strategy might be to tell your sister to “do the dishes. It’s your turn.” - Classification: + Those where the face threat is not minimized, where face is ignored or is irrelevant. 30
31. + Those where in doing the face-threatening act badly on record, speaker minimizes face threats by implication. For example: Come in, don’t hesitate, I am not busy. “Come in” is a bald on record imperative in many language. 2.2 Positive politeness - Definition: Positive politeness is redress directed to the addressee’s polite face his perennial desire that his wants (or the actions/ acquisition/values resulting from tham) should be thought of as desirable. Redress consists in partially satisfying that desire by communicating that one’s own wants (or some of them) are in some aspects similar to the adressee’s wants. ( Brown & Levinson; 1987) - Positive politeness is used as a kind of metaphorical extension of intimacy to imply common ground or sharing of wants to a limited extant even between strangers who perceive themselves. This strategy is most commonly used in situations where the audience knows each other fairly well. Quite often hedging and attempts to avoid conflict are used. For example, a possitive politeness so as to agree or to hide disageement to respond to a preceding utterance with “yes, but .” in effect Eg: A: Shall we go to her house? B: Yes, yes, but if this afternoon I am not busy. - A further output of the positive politeness desire to avoid disagrement to the social “white life” where speaker, when confronted with the necessity to state an opinion, wants to lie rather than damage hearer’s positive face. - This positive politeness function is used in some hedge, most notably: sort of, kind of, like, in a way. For example: - It is really beautiful, in a way. - I kind of want Hoa to win the race, since I’ve bet on him. 31
32. No inference required. Language of intimacy (exaggerated serves to mark the positive politeness that is being conveyed) Positive politeness is also free-ranging and need not (necessarily) address the threat associated with the specific act being performed; it can be used with acts threatening either positive or negative face. Claim common ground - In group makers such as familiar address terms (honey, mate, pal, bud, etc.) and/or slang (“What is about a couple of bucks?) - Similarity of interests by commenting on the other’s appearance, belongings and so on (“Oh, I see you got a new haircut”). - Emphasis on approach rather than avoidance ( e.g., do not ignore another runny nose (a negative politeness strategy”, attend to it (e.g, by presenting the runny nose with a tissue). - Find agrrement with one another at some level: no controversial topics (e.g., the weather, sports, etc.”), small talk and gossip, token agreement (e.g., “Yes, but .”), hedging their opinions (e.g., “I think that abortion is wrong” vs. “Abortion is wrong”). Cooperation - Indicate awareness and concern for the hearer’s positive face wants (e.g., “I am not sure that she likes your tie because it is not nice, why do not you try another tie?) and/or convey a promise that addresses the hearer’s positive face (“ I’ll stop by next week”). - Optimism (vs. negatively polite pessimism) (“ I am sure you won’t if I help myself to a beer”). - Use inclusive terms (e.g., Let’s have a beer”; vs. “Give me a beer”). Fulfill the other person’s wants (directly and substantially, rather than symbolically (as is accomplished with the above strategies)): Gift-giving 2.3 Negative politeness 32
33. - Definition: Negative politeness is redreesive action unhindered and his attention unimpeded. - Negative politeness is specific and focused; it performs the function of minimizinng the particular imposition that the face-threatening act inavoidably effects. Negative politeness presumes that the speaker will be imposing on the listener. The potential for awkwardness or embarrassment is greater than in bald on record strategies and positive politeness strategies. Negative face is the desire to remain autonomos. Thus, a request without consideration of the listener’s negative face might be uncomfortable: “I need $7” is awkward if seven dollars is outside the listener’s financial capabilities. But if the spesker, knowing that the listener wants to maintain their autonomy, adds an out for the listener like “I know you’re been kinda strapped for cash, but could I borrow $7”, the listener is more likely to give them that money because the suggestion showed a respect for their ability to maintain autonomy. No inference required; oriented to the recipient’s negative gace (desire for autonomy). Adress negative face in some way, primarily by lassening the imposition and/or providing options. Conventional indirect forms (most common) question or assert felicity conditions underlying the act “Will you shut the door?”, “Can you shut the door?”, “Are you able to shut the door?”, “Did you shut the door?”, “I want you to shut the door?”, and so on. It appears that all languages allow for the performance of conventional suggestion. Avoid presumptions – use hedges; e.g., “if” clauses suspending the relevant felicity conditions -> “Close the window, if you can”, and “Turn up the heat, if you want”. Hedge Grice’s maxims; e.g., quality maxim (and hence the sincerity felicity conditon) yield assertions such as “I think abortion is wrong”. Minimize the imposition (e.g, “I just stopped by to get that manuscript”; i.e., my impositon is limited to just this one act, and “Could I borrow a cigarette?” vs. “Could I have a cigarette?”) 33
34. Communicate explicitly that one does not want to impinge on the other (e.g., “I do not want to bother you, but could you give me a hand?”), admitting the impingemant (“ I know you’re busy but could you take a look at this?”). Positive politeness (presumptuousness) is less polite than negative politeness (derived from Goffirm/Durkhiem ordering of negative rites as more deferential and hence polite than possitive rites). 2.4 Off-record Politeness: Based on violating Grice’ maxims: This strategy uses indirect language and removes the speaker from the potential to being imposing. For example, a speaker using the indirect strategy might merely say “wow, it’s getting cold in here” insinuating that I would be nice if the listener would get up and turn up the thermostat without directly asking the listener to do so. 1. Quality maxim (say what is true) – sarcastic irony (e.g., “That’s brilliant”, when it is not), metaphor (e.g., “My job is a jail”), rhetorical questions (e.g., “Did someone leave the light on?”) 2. Manner maxim (be clear) result in the use of euphemisms and vagueness regarding the face-threatening act (e.g., “I wonder who forgot to do the dishes?”). 3. Quantitymaxim (be as informative as required) can result in understatement (e.g., “It’s OK” as a less than positive response to another’s new haircut) and overstatement (“The line in the grocery store was a mile long” as an excuse). Also, denying believed propositoons (e.g., Ronald Reagan is not an alcoholic) increases belief in proposition. 4. Relation maxim (be relevant) rasing an issue can trigger a directive interpretation (e.g I’m thirsty” as a suggestion for something to drink). What would you do if you saw a cup of pens on your teacher’s desk, and you wanted to use one, would you? a. Say, “Oh, I want to use one of those!” b. Say, “So, it is O.K. If I use one of those pens?” 34
35. c. Say, “I’m sorry to bother you but, I just wanted to ask you if I could use one of those pens?” d. Indirectly say, “Hmm, I sure could use a blue pen right now.” If you answered A, you used what is called the Bald On-Record strategy which provides no efford to minimized threats to your teachers’ “face”. If you answer B, you used the Positive Politeness strategy. In this situation you regconize that your teacher has a desire to be respected. It also confirms that the relationship is friendly and expresses group reciprocity. If you answered C, you used the Negative politeness strategy which similar to Positive Politeness in that you recognize that they want to be respected however; you also assume that you are in some way imposing on them. Some other examples would be to say, “I don’t want to bother you but ” or “I was wondering if ” If you answeres D, you used Off-Record indirect strategies. The main purpose is to take some of the pressure off of you. You are trying not to impose by asking for a pen. Instead you would rather it be offered to you once the teacher realizes you need one, and you are looking to find one. A great example of this strategy is something that almost everyone has done or will do when you have, or purpose, decided not to return someone’s phone call, therefore you say, “I tried to call a hundred times, but there was never any answer.” Chapter II: Suggesting and responding to suggestions Suggesting and responding to suggestions are the very popular speech acts used in daily communication. I. Suggesting and responding to suggestions in English. 1. Making suggestions in English Some definitions were so brief and so general. Such was Berheim’s: “Suggestion is an event through which an idea is introduced into the mind and accept by it”, and according to Berillon: “Suggestion is the act of utilizing the ability once 35
36. accepted, into action”. Likewise, Edmund Parish says that “a suggestion is any sense- perception you like insofar as it arouses ideas, significantly affects existing ideas, in shorts insofar as it is an influence on the flow of ideas”. In terms of these definitions, a great part of mental life would be determined by suggestion and a theory of suggestion would be virtually all-embracing. Even Berheim and Berillon in practise use the word “suggestion” in a much more restricted way when talking about the actual phenomena of suggestion. They recognize that in “suggestion” there is something bizarre and aberrant about the relationship between the implanted idea and its subsequent effects. [“A history of hypnotism” book - Alan Gauld - Page 424]. In fact, suggestion is expressed in many aspects but the writer only focuses on making direct and indirect suggestion. 1.1 Direct suggestions Direct suggestion mentions directly to messenger’s content which speaker would like to convey to listener so that listener can understand without guesting. a. Direct suggestions in the form of statement In English, we often use the model of sentence: “We could ”, “We should ”, “I suggest you ” and “we’d better ” Eg: [1] We could visit New Yord while you’re there. [2] I suggest we take all the factors into consideration before we decide. The speaker mentions directly to messeger’s content and he or she understands immediately matters that speaker would like to convey. On hearing the suggestion as in “I suggest you choose this skirt”, the listener can understand that this is an advice. b. Direct suggestions in the form of “Let’s .” In English, “Let’s ”is a polite suggestion. It is also active suggestion and this type of suggestion is often highly effective. Let’s model likes request. 36
37. Eg: Let’s meet tomorrow for lunch. Let’s go to the travel agents this afternoon to book our ticket. b.1 Let’s do st Examining this example: “Let’s go to the cinema.” Let’s = Let us. In this example, the speaker would like to give the listener suggestion but, both of the listener and speaker do this action together. b.2 Let sb do st “Let sb do st” is sometimes not request, it is simply an advice. Eg: Let her cry. The speaker give suggestions to the listener and the listener is the person who does the action. c. Direct suggestions in the form of Wh-question In English people often use “How about ”, “What about .”, “Why don’t you .” for suggesting. Eg: Why don’t we go to the movies tonight? What about asking your brother for help?. How about going to Hawaii for your vacation? Suggestions with “Wh-question” are quite popular in English . When speaker use this type of suggestion, listener can think and give dicision. Besides, the listener feels comfortable because he or she is respected. Suggestions in the form of “why don’t you?” It is an effective suggestion. The speaker is quite clever when giving this type of suggestion. Use “why don’t you?” for suggestion that include the listeners. Eg: Why don’t you hug me? 37
38. Use “why don’t we?” for suggestions that include you and another person. Eg: Why don’t we buy this books? Suggestions in the form of “what about ” and “how about ” It turns out that these two structures are also often used for making suggestions in the context that does not require a formal atmosphere: 1) how about any other ideas you can think of? 2) how about going to the beach? 3) how about two o'clock? 4) uh how 'bout maybe uh, is it okay maybe you could send it to CAEN account? “How about” and “what about” are followed by the '-ing' form of the verb ('going' in the examples.) Eg: (5) I'd rather not. I don't like violent films. How about going to "Mad Doctor Brown"? I hear it's quite a funny film. (6) Sure, that sounds great. What about going to that new Italian restaurant 'Michetti's'? d. Direct suggestions in the form of Yes – No question Normaly, in mordern English “shall” is used when making suggestion. Eg(1): Shall I help you? (2) Shall we take break now? This type of suggestion focus directly to messenger’s content. Listener can deny or accept the speaker’s suggestion by answering Yes or No. We can recognize this tyoe of suggestion by the auxiliary “Shall” at the beginning of sentence. Eg(3) : A: Today, do you go to school? B: Oh, no. Today I am at home. A: Shall we go to supermarket? 38
39. B: Ok. Besides, do you fancy + V-ing? can be found to be often used for making suggestions as in: Eg:(4) A: Do you fancy having a game of tennis tomorrow? B: Sorry, but I am busy. (5) A: Do you fancy going to the beach? B: Great! 1.2 Indirect suggestions Indirect suggestion does not mention directly to messenger’s content which speaker would like to convey to listener. The listener has to guest messenger’s content of speaker. a. Indirect suggestions in the form of statement Indirect suggestion in the form of statement is very popular in English . This type of suggestion often begins with “I was hoping that .”, “I was wondering that .” Eg [1]: I was wondering if we could get together sometime next week. The word “could” in this sentence shows that this is a kind of polite suggestion. Then, instead of asking directly “Can we get together next week?” we can use the more polite way: “I was wondering” Eg [2]; I was hoping that we could perhaps arrange a meeting for tomorrow sometimes. In this type of polite suggestion with such expressions as “I was hoping that’ or “I was wondering that”, as well as “perhaps”, “sometimes” , listener can choose the speaker’s suggestion. When speaker uses indirect suggestion, listener feels comfortable when he or she can give dicision. Normally at the first meeting, people often use this type of suggestion because it is polite suggestion. We also meet indirect suggestion in business, working. 39
40. b. Indirect suggestions in the form of Yes – no question In English, people often use the model “Would it be possible .?” Eg: Would it be possible for us to meet sometimes tommorow? It is the polite suggestion. The speaker give politely indirect suggestion which makes listener feel comfortable. This is both the question and suggestion. 2. Responding to suggestions in English Giving responding to suggestions is not simple and easy. The invitees may accept or reject when invited. Accepting asuggestion seems to be more easy than rejecting. It requires delicacy to save invitees’ face and not to hurt the inviters’ feelings. 2.1 Acceptance Discussing the universalism of invitations in everyday language communication, Wall writes, “Much of our social lives involve invitations: making them and responding to them.” [12:126]. The invitees may accept or rejected when suggested. The former act seems easier than the latter. However, it requires delicacy to save invitees’face and not to hurt the inviters’ feelings. 2.1.1 Definition of acceptance to suggestions According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary [4], “acceptance” means “agreeing with a suggestion or a request”. Accepting a suggestion means agrreing or promise the speaker doing things which are mentioned to in suggesting. There are two ways of accepting to suggestion which is direct acceptance and indirect acceptance. 2.1.2 Types of acceptance to suggestions a. Direct acceptance 40
41. Acceptance to a suggestion is speech which contains these elements to help listener immediately recognize the speaker’s acceptance, such as “yes”, “yeah”, “thank”, ,“all right”, “accept” , “sure”, “great”, “OK” Eg: (1) A: Why don’t we go to the cinema now? B: Great! The A accept the B’s suggestion immediately by giving the answer “great”. In communicating, we meet some acceptance to suggestion like: That’s fine with me. That sounds good. Sure, that is fine. Eg: (2) Larry: I was wondering if we could get together sometime this afternoon. Eliz: Sure, that's fine. Larry: How about 3:00? Eliz: That sounds good. Larry: I can come to your office. Or the conference room might be more comfortable. Eliz: OK. Let's meet in the conference room. (Dynamic english 25 - Anh Ngữ sinh động bài 25 – http:// www.sinhngu.com) Eg: (3) “Drink, anyone?” “Yes, please” “Count me in”- Both Estelle and Reg were ready for a refill. [20:60] Eg: (4) “Are you free on Sunday? “Yes, Monday’s fine for me.” Eg (5) A: Do you do anything on this Sunday? 41
42. B: I will play tenneis at 7.00 A: Why don’t we play together? B: Great. Eg (6) A: Shall we buy these rings? B: All right. Direct acceptance is more simple than indirect acceptance. Person who gives suggestion can understand the listener’s answer when the listener gives direct acceptance. b. Indirect acceptance Acceptance to a suggestion is speech which does not contain these elements that help listener immediately recognize the speaker’s acceptance, such as “yes”, “yeah”, “thank”, “all right”, “accept”. ”, “sure”, “great”, “OK” . . . The listen just understand the speaker’s aceptance through the context. Eg: A: - Why don’t you come round for a meal one evening next week? B: - I’d love to. [27:261] The A does not accept the B’s suggestion, but he expess his pleasantness with the suggestion by the speech “I’d love to”. It is clear that the B accepted the A’s suggestion. This is some indirect acceptance in English: b1. Accepting by giving positive comment on suggestion’s content. Eg:“- First, let’s have some coffee, shall we? - Sounds like a good idea.” [18:214] 42
43. b2. Accepting by asking again the person giving suggestion This is the type of rhetorical question which is formed: “Why not ?” or “Why don’t ?” There is perhaps a suggestion after the question to consolidate the good relationship between the listener and the speaker. Eg: (1)“- Would you like to see the garden?” Dennis quizzed her. “- Why not?” [23:256] Eg: (2) “- I’d like to invite you to have dinner with me, if you like. - Why not? Shall I bring my wife?” [26:120] b3. Acepting by talking by halves. Eg: “Have a coffee with me,Tara ?” “I have to get back to work, but sorry” “How about the weekend?” “Haven’t planned anything.” [20:232] The Sarah’s boyfriend would like to invite Sarah to go for a drink at the weekend. Instead of giving acceptance at once, she gives the speech by halves “I’m not busy until now”. Sarah gave signal to her boyfriend which was that she would arrange time to go with him. However if she has unexpect work, she has to reject his invitation. With this answer, the person giving suggestion thinks that his suggestion is accepted, although it is only indirect acceptance. 2.2 Rejection 43
44. In communication, we sometimes reject a suggestion. However, it is difficult for us to reject the speaker’s suggestion. We want to reject but we do not know how to make the speaker feel comfortable. It is not easy to fined the effective rejecting methods. The speaker should be tactful in rejecting. Besides, he or she should choose suitable word. When he or she gives these polite word, listener will think that the speaker is a polite person in communicating. Politeness is a necessary demand in modern society. (Beeke, Takahashi and Uliss Weltz). 2.2.1 Defintion of rejection According to Vietnamese dictionary, “rejection” means”not receive things that is gained or requested’ [12, page1056], such as: rejecting a help or rejecting a task. In English, “rejection” means “No, I won’t do if ” when replying the speaker’s suggestion. In the other hand, person giving rejection, does not do according to the hope of the speaker’s suggestion [14, page 94]. It means that when giving suggestion, the speaket want the listener practise that action. The speaker also believe that the listener can and should do it. However, it is opposite to the listener’s thought. The listener does not want to do it and believe that he or she does not have to do it. 2.2.2 Types of rejection a. Direct rejection to suggestions Eg: A: What are you planning to do at the weekend? B: I don’t know? A: Shall we go picnic? B: No, I don’t like. 44
45. The way of direct, indelicated, rude rejection in the above examples influence on the listener’s self-love badly. However, the number of those sentences is not much. b. Indirect rejection to suggestion According to investigation of communicating, people use indirect rejection more than direct rejection. Instead of using the sentence to reject an suggestion: “No, I don’t come back with you.” The listener can say “ It is pity that I am busy now.” to indirect inform to the listener that he dees not need the speaker’s help. There are many different opinions about using direct or indirect speech. Some people think that the direct speech expresses the style as well as the individual. However, when comparing these examples, we can easily recognize example (1) is more polite than (2) (1) A: Shall we go to Cat Ba together? B: That’s a good idea, but I told Huong that I would go with her. (2) A: Shall we go to Cat Ba together? B: No, I don’t like. In many situations, the speaker become more flexibale and effective in “spreading more than things which are talked”. c. Direct and indirec rejetiont to suggestion People can reject the speaker’s suggestion by using both direct and indirect speech Eg: (1) No, I must came back home by bus, because my dad is waiting for me at the next bus stop. (2) No, thanks. I can withdraw money at the Atm nearby. (3) Oh, hi. No no, thanks. I’m Ok. I should be able to open coz’tommorow. I have to open it again and again. Fine, fine, fine. But I don’t know that you live around here. I just moved here. Where is your housee? See you soon. 45
46. In short, to reject speaker’s suggestion, listener have many different way of rejecting. They can use direct, indirect or both direct and indirect rejecting speech. Indirect rejecting speech is used much more than the other in both English and Vietnamese. 2.3 Models of rejecting sentences to suggestions 2.3.1 Models of direct rejecting sentences to suggestions a. Negative word/phrase Rejecting word/ phrase No. No, I don’t need a. Negative word/phrase Rejecting word/ phrase No. No, I don’t need No, Thanks anyway. 2.3.2 Models of indirect rejecting sentences to suggestions a. Thankfulness Reasons for the rejection Thanks, I will reserve these books and pick them up later as I will take my younger sister in tomorrow. b. Positive appraisal Reasons for the rejection Thankfulness You’re so kind but I am okay without that item. Thanks. A nice offer but I can open it. Thank you. c. Exclaimative sentence Expressing the regret Oh, what a pity! I wish I didn’t buy the ticket for the bus coming. 46
47. d. Keeping calm sentence Reasons for the rejection No worry, it is better now. Never mind. Let me try. 2.3.3 Models of both direct and indirect rejecting sentences to suggestions Negative word/ phrase Thankfulness Reasons for the rejection No, thanks But I think I can manage II. Suggesting and responding to suggestions in Vietnamese 1. Making suggestion in Vietnamese 1.1 Direct suggestion a. Direct suggestion in the form of statement In Vietnamese, people also use the way similar to English to make suggestion. Eg: [1] Chúng ta có thể đi tham quan New York trong thời gian bạn ở đây. [2] Tôi đề nghị chúng ta nên cân nhắc các yếu tố trước khi quyết định. The listener can understand the speaker’s suggestion at once without guesting. b. Direct suggestion in the form of Wh-question In Vietnamese, we often use “Thế còn thì sao?” Eg(1): Thế còn tìm kiếm trên Internet thì sao nhỉ? (How about looking on Internet?) Eg(2): Sao bạn không thử hỏi anh ta? (Why don’t you try to ask him?) c. Direct suggestion in the form of Yes – No question 47
48. In Vietnamese, this type of suggestion is also quite popular and expressed by “nhé”. The word “nhé” also express sentiment of speaker. Eg: Bây giờ chúng ta đến nhà cô ấy nhé? (Shall we go to her house now?) 1.2 Indirect suggestion Indirect suggestion does not mention directly to messenger’s content which speaker would like to convey to listener. The listener has to guest messenger’s content of speaker. a. Indirect suggestions in the form of statement In Vietnamese, people also use indirect suggestion at the first meeting or dating Eg [1]: Tôi đang tự hỏi liệu chúng ta có thể gặp nhau lúc nào đó trong tuần này. (I was wondering if we could get together meeting sometime next week.) Eg [2]: Tôi hy vọng chúng ta có thể sắp xếp một cuộc hẹn vào lúc nào đó trong ngày mai. (I was hoping that we ould perhaps arrange a meeting for tomorrow sometimes.) This type of suggestion is often effective. It makes listener have good impression about speaker. b. Indirect suggestions in the form of Yes – no question The speaker give politely indirect suggestion which makes listener feel comfortable. This is both the question and suggestion. Eg: Ngày mai vào một lúc nào đó, chúng ta có thể gặp nhau không? 2. Responding to suggestions in Vietnamese 2.1 Acceptance 2.1.1. Types of acceptance to suggestions a. Direct acceptance 48
49. Direct acceptance to suggestion in Vietnamese is similar to direct acceptance in English. Vietnamese also use informal words to answer the suggestion like “vâng”, “ừ”, “đồng ý”, “được thôi”, “tuyệt”, etc Eg: A: Chiều nay mày đi với tao đến nhà cô Hoa nhé? B: Ừ. (A: Let’s go to Hoa’s house this afternoon, shall we? B: Ok.) When talking to friend, younger person or in informal situations Vietnamese often use direct acceptance to suggestion. b. Indirect acceptance In Vietnamese, people do not accept the speaker’s suggestion at once but, the speaker must understand through situation’s speech. b1. Giving a specific speech relating to the suggestion’s content +, A request Eg: (1) “- Hút thuốc không? - Mễ hỏi. - Cho tôi một điếu.” [22:622] (2) “- Nếu Uyên thích đi đò trên sông thì anh tình nguyện chở Uyên đi được không? - Em thích chứ!” [25:112] b2. Giving a question relating to suggestion’s content and containing supposition which the listener would like. Eg: “Anh quay vào hỏi Hiển và Sữa bằng giọng vui vẻ: - Sữa và anh Hiển ở lại ăn cơm đây nhé? 49
50. - Anh lại muốn thết chúng tôi một bửa moi khô chứ gì?” [15:543] In the above example, the response is a question. May be the speaker has ever invited Hien and Sua this dish and they like it so much. It means that if supposition is right, the suggestion is accepted. b3. Giving a surprised, pleasant speech to suggestion. That speech can be: +, A question Eg: “- Anh có hút thuốc không? - Có thuốc hả? Sao không nói?” [22:696] +, An exclamation Eg: “- Uống rượu nhé? Khuya rồi, uống “xếch” vậy! - Thật là tuyệt vời!” [17:63] b4. Giving positive comments to suggestion’s content Eg: “Hy Bình nghịch ngợm : - Trà thì tôi không có. Chỉ có nước lọc thôi. Ông có uống được không ? - Được uống ly nước từ tay cô đó là diễm phúc của tôi rồi”. [16:54] b5. Accepting by talking by halves Eg: “- Em chỉ thèm một ly cà phê. - Vậy thì ra quán. Ở ngoài cổng có một quán khá lắm. - Để em vào xin mẹ đã.” [21:28] 50
51. The girl only accept the guy’s suggestion if her mother allows. 2.2 Rejection 2.2.1. Types of rejection a. Direct rejection to suggestion Examining these examples: (1) Mày làm ơn biến đi. (Go away, please.) (2) Tôi không cần anh hộ tống về đâu. (I don’t need you to escort me home.) This type of rejection is quite rude, which expresses the speaker’s angry. b. Indirect rejection to suggestion Examining these examples in Vietnamese: (1) Dạ, cám ơn chú. Phiền chú quá. Cháu đợi được mà. (Thanks. No worries. I’m waiting here.) (2) Chà chà, bạn tốt quá nhưng mình nghĩ mình tự mở được. Cảm ơn bạn nhiều. (Look, you are so kind, but I think I could do it myself. Thanks very much.) (3) Bạn thật hào phóng làm sao, nhưng tôi quen với việc này rồi. (You are so generous, but I am familiar with it.) Most of examples in Vietnamese begin with giving thankfulness and give reasons for rejecting. While in English examples, people often begin with “you are so kind”, “you are wonderful person”, and they give reason or promise to accept suggestion in the future and end by giving thankfulness. In Vietnamese, people would like to use philosophical speech to answer, such as: (4) Cám ơn, nhưng “của biếu là của lo, của cho là của nợ” mà. 51
52. (Thanks, but eh, present means worry, gift means debt). (5) “Châu chấu mà đòi đá voi à”? Tao làm chưa nổi nữa là mày. (Can a grasshpper kich a carriage? I can not do, let alone you.) (6) Cảm ơn cậu. Mình nặng như Trư Bát Giới đó. Có chở nổi không? (Thanks, but I’m heavier than Mr Tru Bat Gioi. Can you do it?) However, this type of sentence is not much. c. Both direct and indirect rejection to suggestion Eg: (1) Không, em phải về bằng xe buýt vì ba em đang đợi ở bến xe kế tiếp. (2) Không, cảm ơn. Tôi có thể rút tiền từ máy ATM gần đây. (3) Ô, xin chào! Không sao đâu, cảm ơn cậu. Ổn mà. Mình phải tự mở chứ vì trước sau gì tớ cũng phải mở nó mà. Tốt thôi. À, mình không biết cậu sống gần đây. Mình mới chuyển nhà tới. Nhà cậu ở đâu? Thôi, hẹn gặp lại nhé! 2.2.2 Models of rejecting sentences to suggestions a. Models of direct rejecting sentences to suggestions Negative word/phrase Thankfulness Thôi, cảm ơn. Không, cảm ơn Khỏi cần cảm ơn. Chả cần đâu cảm ơn. Vietnamese sentence model is tantamount to “No, thank you” or “No, thanks” is very multiform. The sentence “No, thanks” is translated into Vietnamese “Không, cám ơn”. However, we can use friendly speech to translate. We can change the word “Không” by “Chả/ cóc cần”, “chả cần đâu, cám ơn”. b. Models of indirect rejecting sentences to suggestions. In Vietnamese, indirect sentences can be found with the basic type as in: 52
53. a. Thankfulness Reasons for the rejection (Dạ) Cảm ơn anh . Em có thể đi xe buýt về Cảm ơn nha bạn hiền. Mình chờ xe buýt được rồi b. Sympathizing with partner Replacing action Làm chi đủ sức mà mở Để đó c. Thankfulness Philosophy Cảm ơn Bụt chùa nhà không thiêng! d. Hesitative sentence Reason for hesitating Em chỉ sợ làm phiền sếp thôi Em không muốn anh đổ mồ hôi vì những chuyện vặt này c. Models of both direct and indirect rejecting sentences to suggestions Negative word/ phrase Thankfulness Reasons for the rejection Thôi mà Tao làm được Vietnamese is influenced deeply by tactful, polite culture. They would like to have good relationship with the neighbour so that they are also delicated in communicating that creats the multiform calling system. The ways of calling depends on the age and social status. There are many different ways of calling everybody in Vietnamese, such as: cô, dì, chú, bác, anh, chị, em, mày, tao, etc In English, people only use two pronouns which are “I” and “you” for everybody. 53
54. Vietnamese also use the words like “à, ừ, nhỉ, nhé” in rejecting to express attitude and sentiment. When talking to the senior people, Vietnamese often use these words like “à, dạ, thưa, xin” to express the respect. Eg(1): Dạ, em không muốn anh đổ mồ hôi vì cánh cửa này. However, Vietnamese use informal speech when talking to people who is of the same age. Eg (2) Mặc tao, mày đi trước đi! It is truthful and clever speech that makes persuasion to listener. III. The similaries and differences between English and Vietnamese in suggesting and responding to suggestions 1. Suggestions a. The similaries Giving suggestions in English and Vietnamese are quite similar. There are also direct and indirect suggestions. b. The differences  There are many different ways of calling everybody in Vietnamese, such as: cô, dì, chú, bác, anh, chị, em, mày, tao, etc In English, people only use two pronouns which are “I” and “you” for everybody. The multiform pronouns in Vietnamese makes suggestions more active and lively. Vietnamese can express sentiment and attitude in communicating more than English.  Suggestion in both two languages has the common structure and content, but there are still individuals. 2. Responses 2.1 Acceptance a. The similaries 54
55. Both English and Vietnamese accept indirectly to suggestions by giving positive comments about suggesting content, and by talking by halves. b. The differences The type of indirect accepting a suggestion in Vietnamese speech is more multiform than in English. - To indirect accept or reject a suggestion, Vietnamese sometimes talk by halves. - English sometimes give incompletely negative question with the word “why?” to indirect accept a suggestion: “why not?”. The way of asking again the speaker is also used in Vietnamese but, it is a complete question. 2.2 Rejection There is not much similaries between English and Vietnamese in rejecting a suggestion. There are some differences between English and Viwtnamese in rejecting to suggestion:  Rejection in both two languages has the common structure and content, but there are still individuals.  English rejection is more simple than the Vietnamese correlative rejection.  The sentence organization in Vietnamese rejection is more complex than the structure in English rejection.  Vietnamese is very multiform so that Vietnamese rejection is more active than English rejection. Vietnamese can express sentiment and attitude in communicating more than English. 55
56. Chapter III: The main findings of the study During the process of the study of suggesting and respoding to suggestions in English and Vietnamese, the writer found out a lot of interesting issues related to the subject, especially that of response in giving indirect acceptance and rejection to suggestion. Making suggestion and giving response in English and Vietnamese are very important and necessary because the suggestions and responses are indispenable in communication. Making suggestions and giving response to suggestions in English relatively as same as in Vietnamese. However, there are some differences. People sometimes appraise a person through communicating. When the speaker makes a suggestion, he or she would like to examine the listener’s response to appraise the listener. If the listener gives indirect and polite response though it is a rejection, the speaker still appraise the listener is the polite person and vice versa. However, it also depends greatly on relationship between the individuals involved. In friendship, people can be free in communicating. Eg: Shall we go to Hoa’s house this evening. (Tối nay tao với mày đến nhà cái Hoa đi?) In working relationship, people should be more polite. Eg: How about giving this idea? (Thế còn việc đưa ra ý kiến này thì sao?) It is clear that making suggestion are giving response are not simple. 56
57. PART III: CONCLUSION I. Summary of the study It can not denied that today English is the most widely spoken language in the history of our planet. Half of the world’s books are written in English and the majority of international telephone calls are made in English. In addition to this, English is the language of over sixty percent of the world’s radio programs. More than seventy percent of interational mail is written in English and addresses in English, and eighty percent of all computer text is stored in English. English has required the largest vocabulary of the entire world’s language, perhaps as many as two million words, and has generated one of the human races. Therefore, suggesting and responding to suggestions play the important role in dealing with those stored in English. Being aware of the important of suggestion and response, I have decided to choose study of suggesting and responding to suggestions in English and Vietnamese. This paper includes three main parts, of which part II is the focus point. I would also like to give as many examples as possible which are of best selection from different sources in both English and Vietnamese so as to help readers have a wide and clear understanding about suggesting and responding to suggestions in English and Vietnamese more clearly. Due to the limitation of time and comprehensive knowledge of mine in this field, the research paper may not satisfy the readers entirely. There still remain some shortcomings and limitation in the paper and some aspects of the subject could not be mentioned. Yet, it might guide readers to other interesting ideas of the subject for further research. II. Suggestion for further research: As I mentioned in the scope of the study, due to the limitation of both of time and knowledge on doing this research paper, it’s impossible to discuss all the types of making suggestions in English and Vietnamese in both direct and indirect ways. 57
58. These issues are suggested for other studies about suggesting and responding to suggestions. This is both interesting and difficult to approach. Once again, I would like to send my sincere thanks to the ones who I love for their support and encouragement during this study. 58
59. ATTACHMENT Example 1: This is a dialogue of trading between Mr. Harmon and Henry. (In Viet dynamic English lesson 22) Mr. Harmon: Bob Harmon. Henry: Hello. Mr. Harmon. This is Henry Michaels Of Stetson Industries. Mr. Harmon: Oh, hello, Henry. What can I do for you? Henry: I was wondering if we could get together sometime this week. I'd like to discuss our delivery schedule. Mr. Harmon: Well, let's see. I'm busy the first part of the week. But I'm free on Thursday afternoon. How does that sound? Henry: That's good to me. What time? Mr. Harmon: How about 3:00? At my office. Henry: That's great. Example 2: This is a dialoge through phone between Mary and Sarah. Mary is calling Sarah to see if she's available for a production meeting. (In Viet dynamic English lesson ) Mary: Hello, Sarah. Sarah: Yes? Mary: This is Mary. Are you free at three tomorrow for a production meeting? Sarah: No, sorry. I'm meeting at three with Mr. Thompson. Could we make it earlier in the day? How about 10:00, 10:30? Mary: I'm busy until 11:00. Why don't we try for 11:30? Sarah: That's good for me. Mary: OK. I'll check with the others and get back to you. Sarah: OK. Great. 59
60. REFERENCES * Books 1. First News, (2004), Business Basic - Giáo trình Anh văn thương mại, Nxb Đà Nẵng. 2. Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 3. Lưu Quý Khương, trường đại học ngoại ngữ Hà Nội, Khảo sát hành vi lời nói mời trực tiếp trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt, Nhà xuất bản đại học ngoại ngữ Hà Nội. 4. Lưu Quý Khương, Đại học ngoại ngữ Hà Nội, Trần Thị Phương Thảo, học viên cao học khoá 2004 – 2007, Nghiên cứu nghi thức lời từ chối một đề nghị giúp đỡ (tiếng Anh so với tiếng Việt), Nhà xuất bản Đại học Ngoại ngữ Hà Nội. 5. Vicki Hollett, (2001), Business Objectives, Nxb Thống Kê. * Websites: 1. ( 2. ( 3. ( 4. ( 5. ( 6. ( 7. ( 8. ( 60