MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOIOPENUNIVERSITY
---------------
Nguyen Xuan Thanh
A STUDY OF COMMON GREETINGS
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH CHÀO HỎI THÔNG DỤNG
TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT
M.A. THESIS
HANOI- 2013
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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOIOPENUNIVERSITY
---------------
Nguyen Xuan Thanh
A STUDY OF COMMON GREETINGS
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH CHÀO HỎI THÔNG DỤNG
TRONG TIẾNG VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT ANH
M.A. THESIS
Field
Code
Supervisor
: English Language
: 60220201
: Assoc.Prof. Phan Van Que, Ph.D
HANOI- 2013
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DECLARATION
Title: A study of comment greetings in English and Vietnamese
I hereby declare that no part of the enclosed Master Thesis has been
copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement
and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my
supervisor.
Hanoi, 15th October, 2013
Candidate
Nguyen Xuan Thanh
Approved by
Assoc.Prof. Phan Van Que, Ph.D
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof.
Dr. Phan Van Que (Ha Noi Open University, Ministry of Education and
Training)
for
his
invaluable
guidance,
instructive
comments
and
encouragement throughout this study.
My special thanks go to all my lecturers in English Department,
Department of Post Graduate Studies, Ha Noi Open University for their
precious assistance, enthusiasm, valuable knowledge which enlightened the
arguments in the study.
I also wish to acknowledge my friends, Mrs. Vu Thi Kim Dung and
Ms.Nguyen Thi Thu Hangfor her helpful suggestions, constructive ideas and
encouragement which have been useful for the accomplishment of the paper.
My acknowledgement goes to the informants, Vietnamese and English
native speakers, who spent their precious time completing the questionnaires.
Finally, and the most, I owe my deep thanks to my family, especially my
parents and my beloved wife, who gave me constant support, enormous
encouragement and love throughout my M.A.course.
Hanoi, October 2013
Nguyen Xuan Thanh
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 1
1. Rationale of the study ............................................................................ 2
2. Aims and purposes of the study .......................................................... 3
3. Research questions ............................................................................... 4
4. Scope of the study ............................................................................... 4
5. Methods of the study ........................................................................... 5
6. Design of the study .............................................................................. 5
PART II: DEVELOPMENT ....................................................................... 7
CHAPTER 1: Literature review and theoretical background ................... 7
1.1. Literature review… ............................................................................ 8
1.1.1.Language and Communication ………………………………. .. 8
1.1.2. Communication and Greeting… ............................................ 16
1.1.3.Greetings across culture ............................................................ 20
1.1.4. Greeting in Linguistics … ....................................................... 23
1.2.Theoretical background ....................................................................... 24
1.2.1.Greeting defined…................................................................. .. 24
1.2.2.Greeting classifined............................. .. …. ............................. 26
1.2.3. The role of greeting in communication ....................................... 30
CHAPTER 2: Methodology ......................................................................... 32
2.1.The situations for studying …………………………………………. ... 32
2.2.The common verbal greetings ……………………………………... .. 33
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2.2.1.Formal and informal greetings.. ……………………………….. . 34
2.2.2.Greeting on the run … ……………………………………….. .... 37
2.2.3.Speedy greeting ……………………………………………… .......... 38
2.2.4.The chat……………………………………………………… ........... 39
2.2.5.The long greeting……………………………………………............. 40
2.2.6.The intimate greeting ………………………………………….......... 41
2.2.7.The introductory greeting ……………………………………. ... 42
2.2.8.The all-business greeting …………………………………….. .......... 43
2.2.9.The re-greeting ………………………………………………. .......... 44
2.3.The common nonverbal greetings……………………………….. ........ 45
2.3.1. Handshaking …………………………………………………. .. 47
2.3.2. Hugging/Embracing ………………………………………….... 48
2.3.3. Waving ……………………………………………………….... 50
2.3.4. The hi-five ……………………………………………….…… . 50
2.3.5.The bow ……………………………………………………… ... 51
2.3.6. The patting …………………………………………………… .. 52
2.3.7. The nodding ………………………………………………….. .. 53
2.3.8. The raising eyebrows…………………………………………. .. 54
CHAPTER 3: Findings and discussion ……………………………… .. 55
3.1. Findings
……………………………………………………………. 55
3.1.1. Greeting as perceivable informants. …………………………. ... 55
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3.1.2. The similarities and differences in greeting between English and
Vietnamese. ………………………………………………………….. . 56
3.1.2.1.The similarities. …………………………………………… .. 56
3.1.2.2. The differences. …………………………………………... .. 57
3.2. Discussions. ………………………………………………………. ........ 61
3.2.1. The combination of verbal greetings and nonverbal greetings in
English and Vietnamese and their effectiveness in communication.
………………………………………………………………………...… ....... 61
3.2.2. Considerations of factors affecting greeting. ………………. .. 66
CHAPTER 4: Implication …………………. ……………………….. 68
4.1. The culture shocked avoidance when greeting in English and
Vietnamese……………………………………………………………….. . 68
4.2. Suggested common sensitive situations when greeting in English and
Vietnamese ………………………………………………………………. . 72
PART III: Conclusion …………………………………………………….. . 74
1. Recapitulation. ………………………………………………………. . 74
2. Limitations of the study ……………………………………………... .. 76
3. Suggestions for a further study ………………………………………. . 77
REFERENCES ........................................................................................... I
QUESTIONNAIRES .................................................................................... IX
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LIST OF TABLES
1. Table 1: Survey for background ............................................................ 7
2. Table 2: Greeting classification ............................................................ 27
3. Table 3: Verbal greetings classification. ............................................ 34
4. Table 4: Nonverbal greetings classification .......................................... 45
5. Table 5: The uses of greetings (For both the Vietnamese and English
native speakers) .................................................................................... 56
6. Table 6: Frequency of greetings in use (English and Vietnamese native
speaker subjects) - 80 participants ........................................................ VI
7. Factors affecting greeting (English subjects) - 40 participants. ......... VII
8. Factors affecting greeting (Vietnamese subjects) - 40 participants ...... VIII
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PART I: INTRODUCTION
It is not difficult to find evidence that greeting is such an important part of
communicative skills, which is necessary for public speaking or any forms of
community communications. Greetings can be one of the first verbal routines
learned by children and certainly one of the first topics learned in foreign
language classes. They are also of great interest to analysts of social
interaction, who see them as established conditions for social encounters.
There is a considerable number of ethological, linguistic, sociological, and
ethnographic studies of greetings. However, despite its importance, topics on
greetings have not received enough attention from the field of social sciences.
Many clear definitions of greetings can be found, and therefore no systematic
ways for deciding what greetings are qualified in a particular speech
community. Then researchers have felt at ease identifying “greetings” in
different languages and providing hypotheses about what greetings “do” for
or to people. Eibl (Eibesfeldt’s 1977) had a great study on comparing humans
to humans with other species, adult-adult interaction with mother – during
face-to-face encounters, child interaction greetings are defined as rituals of
appeasing and bonding that counteract potentially aggressive behavior.
Many efforts and studies on nonverbal communication has been important in
counterbalancing the tendency of other studies of greetings and has revealed
commonalities across cultures that would have been missed were researchers
concentrating exclusively on verbal behavior. It is easy to accept that all
species share a concern for survival and safety, but it is less easy to believe
that the meaning of such a concern could be the same across species.
“Greetings in all societies are about continuity of relationships" is a famous
saying of Goff-man(1971), but actually in use and application communicators
can find the representation, conceptualization, and perception of continuity by
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humans are likely to be much more complex than those found in other
species.
Characterizing greetings can be faced withsome difficulties regarding
differences across and within communities in what people say during
greetings. Finally, greetings when displayed with pleasant actions might make
sense in some contexts, especially in situations where verbal greetings are
accompanied with smiles and other nonverbal as well as verbal displays of
positive affect but it might not be generalized beyond such case.
Biological can be interested in basically on greeting, their social functions,
sequential organization, or illocutionary act have revealed a number of
recurrent properties of greetings and have presented interesting hypotheses
about the form and function of greetings.
1. Rationale of the study :
According to a famous Italian film director, Federico Fellini (1982) said: "A
different language is a different vision of life.” Language is an important part
of our functional activity and which we often indicate in diagrammatic form,
the varying communication patterns used in meetings and during negotiations.
As we know that different cultures have different ways of communication. It
is so popular for the learners of the second language to face difficulties in
using the target language appropriately. Greeting is one of these problems.
Greeting is considered to be an important aspect in cultural life of each nation.
There are various ways of greetings in different cultures. Differences across
cultures are likely to lead to misunderstanding or failure in communication
and greetings. Each culture has its own characteristics in greetings. Greeting
plays an important role in Vietnamese culture as this proverb stated: “Lời
chào cao hơn mâm cỗ” or “Dao năng liếc năng sắc, người năng chào năng
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quen.” This is a clear evidence showing Vietnamese people tend to consider
greetings extremely serious Pro. Dr. Le Quang Thiem claimed “The greeting
presents not only feature of language but also culture, custom as well as
person’s dignity.” Moreover, greetings can sometimes be used to determine a
person’s manners in Vietnam. Based on these factors, this study aims to
analyze a contrastive analysis comparing Vietnamese greetings and English
greetings to help people who learn English, can understand more and deeper
English in the erea of greting as well as the foreingers who learn Vietnamese,
can communicate more effectively and avoid culture shocks as well to know
the right ways of greetings and understand the culture of Vietnam better.
Goffman(11/June/1922 –19/November/1982),a Canadianborn sociologist and
writer, said “Greetings provide the means of opening conversations
appropriately, establish and maintain the relationship”(e.g.Hello or Hi). In
addition, other functions of greetings are also to identify the presence of
communicators and to show their concern. However, most communication’s
styles in different languages are not the same.That is the reason why imposing
the rules of one language on another language can give negative effects
causing awkwardness and misunderstanding.
Therefore, with the effort to raise awareness concerning the importance of
communication
especially
in
greetings
to
improve
communicative
competence, to help communicate effectively in initial meetings and to avoid
culture shock in cross- cultural communication “A Study of Common
Greetings in English and Vietnamese” is chosen to be the topic for my study.
2.
Aims and objectives of the study:
The aims of the thesis are:
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• To study how to greet in English and Vietnamese (Verbal greetings and
Nonverbal greetings) with illustrations.
• To study the similarities and differences of greetings in English and
Vietnamese.
• To study how to combine words and gestures in greetings in English
and Vietnamese.
• To analyze some types of greetings that causes misinterpretations,
misunderstandings and culture shock in English - Vietnamese crosscultural communication.
3. Research questions:
• What are the most common greetings(both in verbal and nonverbal) in
English and Vietnamese?
• How are the words and gestures combined for greetings in English and
Vietnamese?
• What kinds of greetings are similar and different in English and
Vietnamese?
• What are the potential areas of culture shock in English and
Vietnamese greetings?
4. Scope of the study:
We can greet people in different ways depending on each individual, time
frame,situations, feelings,direct or indirect,age, gender or social status
etc.Greetings play a very important role in communication as it is considered
a deal breaker. Further, greetingsat the first meeting can also decide how
successful a business is. In some cases, greetings can be just simply use the
greeting words as the informal, formal greeting, speedy greeting or
introductory greeting. However greeting can also be more impressive when
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accompanied with some gestures,such as shaking hands, high-five, waving,
bow, etc.
Culture is different across countries; therefore greetings also diverse. This is
also the reason why some common greetings in one country can be used in
another country, however some greetings does not apply. The main scope of
this study is to find out the common greetings for verbal and non-verbal
greetings both in English and Vietnamese in the limitation of this study
which is based on the informants and questionnaires provided.
5. Methods of the study
To achieve the statedaims, comparative method and contrastive methodare
carried out throughout the study together with using the aspects of pragmatic
and questionnaires.
All the considerations and conclusions are largely based on the analysis of
the statistic data and references. The major approaches are:
- Have parallel comparisons
- Reference to publications
- Survey questionnaires
-
Discussions with foreigners in Viet Nam (Tourists, working people),
overseas students, people from internet and social websites.
- Discussions with supervisor
- Personal observations
6. Design of the study:
The study consists of three parts:
- Part I, Introduction, covers rationale, aims, research questions, scope,
methods, comments on the questionnaires, comments on the informants,
and studydesign.
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- Part II, Development, is composed of four chapters:
+
Chapter one, Theoreticalbackground, provides theoretical
discussions to background the topic in focus.
+
Chapter two, Methodology,presents comments on common
greetings: definition, significance and classification with detailed
discusses about verbal and nonverbal greetings in English and
Vietnamese in comparison.
+
Chapter three, Findings and discussions, analyses greeting
gestures perceived by Vietnamese and English native speakers,
focuses on some factors effecting on greetings and certain
situations, and discusses the findings on similarities and
differences, especially areas of potential culture shock between
the two cultures in cross- cultural communication.
+
Chapter four, Implication, identifies some application from the
study to find out the similarities and differences when greeting in
English and Vietnamese in major cross-culture and suggestions
to avoid culture shock.
- Part III, Conclusion, summarize the study and discuss the limitation as
suggested for further studies.
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PART II – DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: Literature review and theoretical background
This chapter will review the theories of languages and communication mainly
in verbal and nonverbal communication in some researchers' points of view
and its importance in human interaction. Various definitions about greetings
as well as categories will be introduced in this chapter. The following table
(Table 1) created from the survey will be used as the background for the
study.
Table 1: Survey for background:
Informants’s
Parameters
Vietnamese
English native speaker
(N= 80)
(N= 80)
Male (N=54)
Female
Male
Female
(N=26)
(N=54)
(N=26)
Informants < 9
1
0
8
0
Informants>15
12
6
13
5
Informants>25
5
3
1
3
Informants>35
8
4
4
1
Informants>45
6
4
5
8
Informants>55
1
0
2
0
Informants>75
3
4
0
7
Married Informants
22
11
8
8
Single Informants
11
6
25
9
27
15
26
12
6
2
7
5
Factories
working
Informants
Farm
Informants
working
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1.1. Literature reviews:
1.1.1. Language and Communication
(Figure 2 – Language and Communication)
Animals may not be able to form words, but they can certainly communicate.
For example, birds use songs, and other animals use a combination of sounds
and movements to communicate. Primates have an advanced system of
communication that includes vocalization, hand gestures and body
movements. But even primates stop short of what man has been able to
achieve is spoken language. The ability to form thoughts using spoken
wordsseparates human from other species. Even though we know that
language first appeared among Homo sapiens somewhere between 30,000 and
100,000 years ago, the secret to how language evolved is still unknown, and
mainstream theories fall into two distinctly different camps:
In the field of this study, there are some studies researched and found out the
greeings in both English and Vietnamese that are the good references such as:
The sudy of Tran Thi Bich Hanh of HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF
PEDAGOGY- ENGLISH DEPARTMENT in 2010 named Vietnamese
andEnglish Greetings: A contrastive analysis which listed out some common
verbal greetings in English and Vietnamese.
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The study of Bui Thi Thu Thuy of Viet Nam National University in 2005
named A Vietnamese- English cross -culture study on gestures for greeting
which listed out some common non-verbal greetings in English and
Vietnamese.
The sudy of Salman Dezhara of The University of Isfahan, Iran in 2012
named A comparative Study of Greeting Forms Common among Native Male
and Female Speakers which showed out the effectiveness of gender on
greeting in English.
The study of Xia Yan of Kristianstad University in 2010 named Politeness
Strategies in English Adjacency Pairs- A gender Differentiated Study on
Greetings, Compliments and Directives which showed out how to greet with
people from different genders and the line of culture-shocked when greeing.
(Figure 3 – Language verified)
Estimates of the number of languages in the world are varied between 6,000
and 7,000(See Figure 3). However, any precise estimate depends on a partly
arbitrary distinction between language and dialects. In general natural
languages are spoken or signed, but any language can be encoded into
secondary media using auditory, visual, or tactile stimuli. For example:
in graphic writing, braille, or whistling because human language is modality-
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independent. When being used as a general concept, "language" may refer to
the cognitive ability to learn and use systems of complex communication, or
to describe the set of rules that makes up these systems, or the set of
utterances that can be produced from those rules. All languages rely on the
process
of semiosis to
relate signs with
particular meanings
of
which
oral and sign languages contain a phonological system that governs how
symbols are used to form sequences known as words or morphemes, and
a syntactic system that governs how words and morphemes are combined to
form phrases and utterances.
According to Wikipedia “The English word "language" derives ultimately
from Indo-European "tongue, speech, language" through
Latin lingua,
"language; tongue", and Old French langage "language””. Words are
sometimes used to refer to codes, ciphers, and other kinds of artificially
constructed
communication
systems such
as computer
programming.Languagesin this sense are systems of signs for encoding and
decoding information. This article specifically concerns the properties
of natural human language as it is studied in the discipline of linguistics.
As the object of linguistic study, "language" has two primary meanings: an
abstract concept and a specific linguistic system (e.g. French). As the Swiss
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who defined the modern discipline of
linguistics, first explicitly formulated the distinction using the French
word “language” for language as a concept, langue as a specific instance of a
language system, and parole for the concrete usage of speech in a particular
language.
When speaking of language as a general concept, definitions can be used to
stress on different aspects of the phenomenon. These definitions entail
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different approaches and understandings of language too, and they inform
different and often incompatible schools of linguistic theory.
Language can also be defined simply in different ways: Language is
embedded in culture and the origin of spoken language is as old as humanity
itself. We could have an imagine people from the distant past living in
families with a particular spoken tongue clustering together to form a clan.
Geographically together in security and subsistence they would harmonize as
a culture, protecting it with all their power to survive in a world as it was
known to them and not very much different from the same principles
philosophized today.
Nowadays we are aware of spoken languages which have become extinct
mainly because the people of that culture were incorporated or annihilated by
others. We also know that allmodern languages have its origin in similar older
versions of somewhat different vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation e.g.
Old English, Old German, Orthodox Greek, etc. and Latin, who now is not
used as a spoken languageany more, but has richly contributed to so many
languages and for that matter cultures.
Then what would be the exactly right definition of language? Language is a
way to communicate ideas comprehensibly from one person to another in the
way that the other will be able to act exactly accordingly. The transportation
of such ideas could be acquired by either verbal expression, signing in
alphabet (written word) and perhaps if we can imagine two parties with
different tongue, signing with gestures and images.
The Parenting Literacy Newspaper 1999 said “Language is commonly defined
as an organized way of combining symbols in order to communicate. It may
consist of words (i.e., spoken sounds) or gestures (e.g., as in sign language,
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or body language)”. Some considerable research has already found that
intellectual/cognitive development is correlated with language development.
Language is an important medium of thought that growth in the knowledge
and skills of children and be correlated with growth in the number of words
(i.e., vocabulary) that represent and convey facts and procedures. In a sense, a
child's vocabulary is the repository of their knowledge, whether in the form of
concepts or words that refer to things in the child's world. So, if people wish
to nurture there child's mental growth, they should learn more about their
child’s language development.
The spoken language’s first purpose is to communicate and because spoken
language is only one of several means employed by infants to communicate.
At first, infants do not understand the importance of words and they attempt
to communicate with their gestures, tone of voice, and non-speech sounds.
This has prompted Kathleen Berger to observe that “The intent of infants is to
communicate rather than use words” (Berger, 2000). Because it is very clear
that one of the primary goals of education is to reduce the child's reliance on
nonverbal forms of communication and strengthen the ability to communicate
clearly merely by using words, e.g., as in essays or exams which is also
referred to as becoming "literate". In addition, children must become
proficient in the use of nonverbal forms of communication, as these constitute
significant channels of information. By adolescence, children can understand
that the nonverbal aspects of the message may actually reverse the meaning of
the verbal message.
A widely held theory about language sat that language came about as
an evolutionary adaptation, which is when a population undergoes a change in
process over time to better survive. That is where the idea of natural selection
comes into play, which is the notion that the specific physical traits of a
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