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Addressing terms in English and Vietnamese So sánh đối chiếu Addressing terms in English and Vietnamese So sánh đối chiếu Addressing terms in English and Vietnamese So sánh đối chiếu Addressing terms in English and Vietnamese So sánh đối chiếu Addressing terms in English and Vietnamese So sánh đối chiếu
TABLE OF CONTENTS Titles Page List of members List of tables Tables of contents INTRODUCTION Rationale Aims of the study Research questions Methods of the study Design of the study PART I PART II CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of addressing terms 1.2 English addressing terms 1.3 Vietnamese addressing terms 10 CONTRASTING CHAPTER VIETNAMESE OF ENGLISH ADRESSING TERMS AND AND 10 TEACHING SUGGESTIONS 2.1 Personal pronouns 10 2.2 Personal names 13 2.3 Professional titles 14 2.4 Formal titles 15 2.5 Kinship terms 15 2.6 Terms of endearment 19 2.7 Components going with terms of address verbs 19 2.8 Words going with address terms 19 2.9 Demonstrative pronoun 20 CONCLUSION 21 PART III PART I INTRODUCTION Rationale Nowadays, English is considered as an international language which is a means of communication in many fields of science, technology, culture, education and economy It plays a very important role in helping different nations to understand each other and get great cooperation In interpersonal communications, addressing someone before starting a conversation is necessarily done because it helps the addressee know that he or she is the second person taking part in the conversation (Bui, 2008) Dewi (2008) also stated that people use addressing terms not only to determine addressees but also to show formal and informal manners and consideration for them In other words, by employing a certain addressing terms, speakers want to express his or her feeling or respect, solidarity and intimacy to the addressees Both English and Vietnamese languages also have their unique addressing tern system which can not be translated equivalently In these two languages, a few basic addressing terms share the same semantic constants However, crosscultural researchers find that addressing terms of a society that one system can not be fully translated equivalently into the language of a society that uses a different system What considered polite in one culture may be perceived as impolite in another Therefore, communicating effectively in intercultural circumstances has been found difficulty The issue of communicative competence has been the interest and responsibilities of those who are engaged in teaching of language as a foreign language Specifically, teachers of English, particularly teachers in Vietnam, have paid assiduous attention to the issue of address system Possibly, that is due to the students’ lack of knowledge concerning the use of addressing terms It is also possible that the students simply apply their mother tongue’s rules governing the use of addressing terms into English To serve our job in the future, we decided to deal with “addressing terms in English and Vietnamese” Aims of the study As the title of the thesis suggests, the study aims at fulfilling the following objectives: - To investigate the similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese addressing terms - To provide suggestions to help teachers can draw students’ attention when teaching English addressing terms Research questions - What are the similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese addressing terms? - What can teachers draw students’ attention when teaching English addressing terms? Research methods - Theoretical methods: According to the aims and the content of this paper, we searched, collected, read and studied many different documents related to the study Design of the study It includes main parts: The 1st part is Introduction It provides the general information about the paper including Rationale, Aim of the study, Research questions, Research methods and Design of the study The 2nd part consists of main chapters: Chapter I: Literature review This chapter addresses a review of the literature related to addressing terms in English and Vietnamese Chapter II: Contrasting of English and Vietnamese addressing terms and teaching suggestions This chapter emphasizes the similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese addressing terms and provides some suggestions on teaching addressing terms to students The 3rd part is Conclusion which gives an overview of what the study has been presented and the base for further research in this aspect PART II CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of addressing terms There are many documents discussing about addressing terms Yet, these documents did not give a finite definition for the term “addressing terms” According to Nguyen Van Khang (as cited in Vinh, 2008, Address form in translation), addressing terms are words used to call oneself and others Namely, they are words, phrases, names, titles or a combination of these used in addressing someone or something An address term may be friendly, unfriendly or neutral, respectful, disrespectful or comradely (Nordquist, 2009) In addition, addressing terms are “always grammatically optional, but they are often socially required and they are always socially loaded” (Holmes and Meyerhoff, 2002, p.77) Bui Manh Hung (2008) stated that in a conversation, addressing terms function as a lead-in of a conversation as in “Anh này, anh gửi quà cho bác Đinh giúp em chưa?” or “Darling! Did you call Mrs Ann for the invitation?” They also help to orient the conversation toward a particular person especially when this person is among a group or a crowd, for example “chị áo xanh ơi, trả bút cho em” or “Hey, baby” He also pointed out the social functions of addressing terms such as establishing and adjusting social relationships and determining social status between participants of the conversation For instance, by addressing “Em ơi” in the sentence “Em ơi, đừng gọi chú” the speaker has let the listener know what he or she should be called so that they can build up a good and friendly relationship together Moreover, the speaker also shows his friendliness towards the listener Through the way of using terms of addressing, the speaker can express his respect, fondness, disfavor or scorn toward his or her listener 1.2 English addressing terms Holmes and Meyerhoff (2002, p28) pointed out many different ways of addressing people in English depending on the level of politeness and closeness Hence, any individual may get very different terms from different addressers, and some addressers may use multiple terms For example: - Surname plus social title: Mr./Ms./Miss./Mrs Robinson - Surname plus professional title: Dr./Prof./Judge./Sen./Capt Robinson - Respect terms: sir, ma’am, miss - Bare title: coach, professor, doctor , judge , councilor, teacher - Surname only: Robinson - Title or kinship term plus given name: Ms Blanche/ Auntie Blanche / Granny Rose/ Papa John - Bare kinship term: mother/mom/mommy/mama, dad/daddy/ papa/pop(s)/father, sis(ter), bro(ther), son, daughter, aunt(ie), uncle, grandma, grandpa - Given name: Christine/ Christopher - Standard short form of name: Chris - Special “nicknames”: Crisco (for Chris), Teddy Bear/Ace/Batgirl - Stranger generic names: Mac, Bud, Buster, Toots - General: man, you(guys) , girl(friend), dude, lady, ladies, gentlemen, folks, babe, sexy - Epithets/insults: bitch, ho, slut, prick, bastard, slimeball, nerd, dyke, faggot - Endearments (sometimes preceded by my) : honey, dear, sweetie, love, darling, baby, cutie, etc 1.3 Vietnamese addressing terms Phan (2006) has listed a number of terms that Vietnamese address each other, a summary of which is as follows: - Personal pronouns especially second-person pronouns: bạn/các bạn, mày/chúng mày, bồ, anh, em, trò, bay/tụi bay, etc - Personal names: Hương ơi, ông Huế, etc - Professional titles: Cô giáo Thảo, ông luật sư, anh bác sĩ, etc - Formal titles: Ngày, Ông, quý ông, etc - Kinship terms: Mẹ (má, bầm, bu, mệ,…), bố (tía, ba, cha, thầy,…), bà (nội, ngoại, cố, dì, trẻ), con, cháu, chắt, etc - Terms of endearment: cưng, nhỏ, em yêu, etc - Insults: ngây, thằng gù, lão điên, etc - Other terms: thằng còi (“ Thằng còi! Lại đây!”), phở (“Phở! Phở!), etc CHAPTER CONTRASTING OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE ADRESSING TERMS AND TEACHING SUGGESTIONS 2.1 Personal pronouns Personal pronoun is a word used instead of a noun that represents a specific person Its use depends on number (singular, plural), person (first, second, third), gender (male, female, neutral) and case (subject, object) Vietnamese and English personal pronoun must be in agreement with correct gender and number of people being described These two following tables will illustrate the difference between English and Vietnamese personal pronoun Table 1: English address forms English personal pronoun singular subject first Plural Object reflexive subject object reflexive me myself we us ourselves second third you you yourself you you yourselves masculine he him himself they them themselves feminine she her herself neuter it it itself Table 2: Vietnamese addressing forms Persons P1 (addressor) (English "I/we") P2 (addressee) (English "you") P3 (third person referent) (English "he, she, it/they") Number nó, hắn, y Singular Tôi Tao mày, mi Ta mi tớ cậu, bạn, trò Mình bạn bạn chúng tao Ta/ chúng mày, bây, chúng bây ,tụi mày, tụi bây chúng tớ cậu mình, chúng mình, tụi bạn chúng nó, chúng, họ, Plural As these two tables can be seen, Vietnamese has more forms of personal pronouns than English more There is a variety of second-person pronouns expressing different levels of intimacy, politeness or insolence For example, Vietnamese often use “ bạn / bạn” to formally address those who are at the same social status However, the use of these pronouns is very limited It depends on the context, and the social relationship between the interlocutors On the contrary, in English, there is only one second-person pronoun that is “you” and it can be used in every communicative circumstance Besides, in Vietnam personal pronoun, there are five common pronouns for the first person singular reference and the corresponding plural form fore singular forms by adding “chúng” to them The third person reference include four commonly used pronouns in the singular form and three in plural As the result, Vietnamese personal pronouns can reveal the social relationship between the speaker and the person being referred to the difference in age and the attitude of the speaker toward the hearer In English person pronoun, there are only forms for the first person: I (singular) and we (plural) the third person includes three singular forms such as he, she and it and only one plural form – they In the first and second person, they exist in to neutral dyadic pairs (I - you and we -you) which are regarded as prefabricated units because they are used to communicate in any context and with everyone not containing any information of gender, age or social and family relationship as well as the formality of communication The third person is only used to refer to the difference of gender but age between the speakers and listeners in any dimensions of the communication For grammar, Vietnamese personal pronoun, unlike English personal pronoun does not have transformation form subjective form to objective form so Vietnamese one can be used as both subject and object in sentences In English personal pronoun, there is a clear distinction between subjective and objectives forms of addressing Each subjective form also have its own relevant objective form 10 For example: Anh yêu He loves me Tôi yêu anh I love him In Vietnamese personal pronoun: the subject are the same with the object: anh, ấy, In English pronoun: “she” has the objective form - “her”, “I” has the objective form – “me” Therefore, in teaching especially in teaching translation, teachers should ask students to pay assiduous attention to the social relationships between the participants of the conversations as well as the speaker’s attitudes towards his or her addressee in order to get full understanding of the conversation 2.2 Personal names Both the English and the Vietnamese use names to address people Firstly, Vietnamese never use names to address their relatives For example, they never call their mother by names By contrast, English sometimes call their family members using names Secondly, on daily communication, Vietnamese use first names to address another and only use last name to refer to the third – person while in England, people use last name very often They can call “Miss Smith” (the last name is of the husband), for example, to politely address a married woman Finally, Vietnamese speakers refer to themselves and others name where it would be strange if used in English, eliminating the need for personal pronoun altogether For instance, consider the following conversation: Hoa: Hồng làm ? Hồng: Hồng goị Thanh Hoa có biết Thanh đâu không? Hoa: Không Hoa Thanh đâu A normal translation of the conversation into English would be: 11 Hoa : What are you doing? Hong: I am calling Thanh Do you know where he is? Hoa: No I don’t know where he is While referring to oneself on the audience by name would by considered strange in English people always use surname with the titles such as Ms, Miss, Mrs and Ms in formal context on Just use “I and you ’’ in any context, in Vietnamese it is considered friendly and Is the preferred way to communicate with close friends However, Vietnamese with a lower rank can not refer to their superiors by name in a kinship context Hence, teachers’ responsibility is helping students get more knowledge about the culture of the two countries so that students will not be confused and have wrong evaluation of the other culture 2.3 Professional titles In English and Vietnamese, professional titles are often employed to confirm formality between interlocutors It will be all right in both languages to use professional titles alone or with names However, in Vietnamese addressing system, there are occupation such as giáo sư (professor), bác sĩ (doctor) Moreover, there also exists occupational title with proper name, such as “Giáo sư Trung”, “Thầy giáo Hùng”, ”Giám đốc Hoa” They are can be used as the second and third personal reference Nevertherless, English addressing system, unlike Vietnamese one, they use a neutral dyad “I and you” when talk to each other It does not depend on their own occupation following with their surname as the third person in formal content like “professor John” Thus, students should be explained carefully about this difference so as not to be considered awkward in their interaction with English people 2.4 Formal titles 12 In very formal circumstances, Vietnamese use some formal titles to address people, especially when the addressees are superior to them Among the terms often used are “ông” and “ngài” Formal titles like “sir”, “Mr”, “Mrs”, are often employed in official contexts as well Teachers had better encourage students to study the cultures of the tow nations so as to have appropriate interpretation of formal titles from one language to the other 2.5 Kinship terms Kinship terms, according to E R Leach, are “category words by means of which an individual is taught to recognize the significant groupings in the social structure into which he is born’’ (as cited in Leach,1958) All languages in the world have kinship terms, which are clearly highlighted in addressing forms of a language Without exception, all kinship terms make use of factors such as age, sex, generation, blood, marriage in their society Both English and Vietnamese languages also have their own kinship terms, which can not be translated into each other equivalently Both they have defined their own set of kinship terms and the roles they serve in the society There are both similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese kinship terms through the following table and table Table 3: Lineal relations Relation to ego English term paternal grandfather maternal grandfather grandfather Vietnamese term Reciprocal Ông nội Ông ngoại cháu cháu 13 paternal grandmother maternal grandmother grandmother father father mother mother elder brother younger brother elder sister younger sister brother sister Bà nội Bà ngoại cháu cháu Ba, cha, tía, bố Mẹ, má, u, bầm Anh trai Em trai Chi gái Em gái con em Cha, má, bố, mẹ… son son Con trai Cha, má, bố, mẹ… daughter daughter Con gái Cha, má, bố, mẹ… son’s son daughter’s son son’s daughter daughter’s daughter Cháu trai (cháu grandson nội or cháu ngoại) Cháu gái granddaughter (cháu nội or cháu ngoại) Ông bà nội, ông bà ngoại Ông bà nội, ông bà ngoại Table 4: Collateral relations Relation to ego English term Vietnamese term father’s elder brother father’s younger brother mother’selder brother mother’s younger brother uncle Bác Chú Bác Cậu father’s elder/ younger sister mother’s elder/ younger sister father’s brother’s son (elder / younger) father’s sister’s son (elder / younger) mother’s brother’s son(elder / younger) aunt Bác, cô Reciprocal Vietnamese Cháu Cháu Bác, dì cousin Anh em trai bà Anh em trai họ hàng Em, anh, chi 14 mother’s sister’s son(elder / younger) father’s brother’s daughter(elder / younger) father’s sister’s daughter(elder / younger) mother’ brother’s daughter(elder / younger) mother’s sister’s daughter(elder / younger) brother’s son sister’s son wife’s sibling’s son husband’s sibling’s son brother’s daughter sister’s daughter wife’s sibling’s daughter husband’s sibling’s daughter Chị em gái họ hàng Chị em gái bà nephew Cháu trai Chú, cô niece Cháu gái Cậu, dì mother’selder brother ‘ wife mother’s younger brother’ wife aunt Bác Cháu father’s elder brother’ wife father’s younger brother’ wife aunt Mợ Cháu thím Father in law (paternal and Father in law maternal) Mother in law (paternal and Mother in law maternal) Elder/ younger brother’s wife Elder/younger sister’s husband Bác Ba, cha bố chồng/vợ Con Mẹ, má chồng/ vợ Sister Chị dâu Em dâu brother Anh rể, em rể Em, chị, anh 15 Elder/ younger brother in law (paternal and maternal) Brother Anh/ em chồng (vợ) Elder/younger sister in law (paternal and maternal) sister Chị/ em chồng (vợ) Daughter in law Son in law Con dâu Daughter’s husband Son’s husband Anh, chi, em Ba, mẹ Con rể In both English and Vietnamese kinship systems addressing forms are used to emphasize people who are related by blood and marriage (collateral and lineal) Both they are also based on the relation of blood and marriage to choose the appropriate terms to address each other in communication In both languages, kinship systems differentiate between generations (the difference between a child and a parent) and between sexes (the difference between a brother and a sister) Moreover, both the two kinship systems distinguish between relatives by blood and marriage In contrast to English kinship terms, there exist more specific and complex kinship terms in Vietnamese, most of which not have equivalents in English language Kinship and family relationships in Viet Nam are more accurately described as an intricate network and complicated pattern of relationship, which English ones are less complex, full and fastidious Therefore, teachers must draw a distinction between English and Vietnamese kinship terms in order that students can avoid translating Vietnamese kinship terms into English 2.6 Terms of endearment 16 Both English and Vietnamese often employ term of endearment like “honey”, “bear”, “sweetie”, “love’’, “darling”, “baby”, etc to express the fondness and affection In Vietnamese, adjectives are sometimes used as terms of endearment, whereas in English ,nouns and nouns plus “-ie” suffix are usually employed 2.7 Components going with terms of address verbs In Vietnamese, addressing terms will be more respectful and formal if it goes with some of the following performative verbs: “bẩm”, “lậy”, “thưa’’, etc as in “bẩm ông”,”lạy cụ”, etc They are actually performative verbs, but in these situation, they are not used to performactions Vietnamese often use this style of addressing when taking to their superior or people who have high social status By contrast, English does not have such verbs Consequently, in teaching, teachers have to make it clear that students not to have to find such verbs in English when addressing 2.8 Words going with address terms In both English and Vietnamese, some non-meaningful words such as “hey”, “ê” , “này”, etc can be used alone for addressing Besides in Vietnamese, the meaningful words can be added often the address terms to express the intimacy, closeness, informality, for example “chị ạ”, “anh ạ”, etc In English, only the word “the” can go with addressing terms as in “the Smith” 2.9 Demonstrative pronoun Demonstrative pronoun is used to distinguish the particular objects or people that are referred to form other possible candidates (this, that, those, these) More interestingly, it is a special addressing term that exist only in Vietnamese addressing form, especially in love relationship such as “đằng”, 17 “đấy”, “này”, etc for the speaker and “đây”, “ấy”, “đằng ấy” for the hearer If can be used independently (not follow with noun) to refer somebody as the first and second person For instance: Boy: Cho đằng hỏi đằng câu nhé? Girl: Dạ, đằng hỏi As for English language, demonstrative pronoun is also to demonstrate people but must follow with a noun when referring someone For example: this teacher, that person in the following conversation: Mary: Do you know that person over there? Peter: Yes, he is my brother in law PART III CONCLUSION From the above analyses of the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese addressing terms, it is concluded that using suitable addressing terms depends on the power, solidarity and formality of dimensions in the relation between addresser and addressee so changes in the character’s 18 feelings and attitudes toward each other relationship are conveyed through changes in addressing As mentioned above, English and Vietnamese have some similarities as well as differences in the use of addressing terms So as to help students understand and be able to use the addressing terms correctly, besides making a contrastive analysis of the two languages, teachers should let students expose as many authentic materials as possible such as English films, story, books and newspapers In addition, as teachers of English, we should combine teaching languages with cultures so that students apprehend and have an open and approachable view about the other languages and cultures REFERENCES Bui, M.H (2008) Ngôn ngữ học đối chiếu Ho Chi Minh city: Educatipn Publishing House 19 Dewi, D.Y.F (2008) A contrastive study between English and Indonesian address system Retrieved January 5th, 2015 from http://etd.eprints.ums.ac.id/3660/1/A320040065.pdf Holmes, J & Meyerhoff, M (Ed.) (2002) The Handbook of language and Gender Blackwell Publishing Nordquist, R (2009) Term of address Retrieved January 5th, 2015from http://grammar.about.com/od/tz/g/termofaddressterm.htm Phan, T.T.T (2006) Hô ngữ Tiếng Việt Ho Chi Minh city: University of Education Press Pham, T.V (2008) Address forms in translation Khoaanh Retrieved January 5th, 2015 from http://khoaanh.net Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2015) English personal pronouns Retrieved January 5th, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_personal_pronouns Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2015) Vietnamese pronouns Retrieved January 5th, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_pronouns 20 [...]... similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese addressing terms, it is concluded that using suitable addressing terms depends on the power, solidarity and formality of dimensions in the relation between addresser and addressee so changes in the character’s 18 feelings and attitudes toward each other relationship are conveyed through changes in addressing As mentioned above, English and Vietnamese. .. when addressing 2.8 Words going with address terms In both English and Vietnamese, some non-meaningful words such as “hey”, “ê” , “này”, etc can be used alone for addressing Besides in Vietnamese, the meaningful words can be added often the address terms to express the intimacy, closeness, informality, for example “chị ạ”, “anh ạ”, etc In English, only the word “the” can go with addressing terms as in. .. of kinship terms and the roles they serve in the society There are both similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese kinship terms through the following table 3 and table 4 Table 3: Lineal relations Relation to ego English term paternal grandfather maternal grandfather grandfather Vietnamese term Reciprocal Ông nội Ông ngoại cháu cháu 13 paternal grandmother maternal grandmother grandmother... Daughter in law Son in law Con dâu Daughter’s husband Son’s husband Anh, chi, em Ba, mẹ Con rể In both English and Vietnamese kinship systems addressing forms are used to emphasize people who are related by blood and marriage (collateral and lineal) Both they are also based on the relation of blood and marriage to choose the appropriate terms to address each other in communication In both languages, kinship... are more accurately described as an intricate network and complicated pattern of relationship, which English ones are less complex, full and fastidious Therefore, teachers must draw a distinction between English and Vietnamese kinship terms in order that students can avoid translating Vietnamese kinship terms into English 2.6 Terms of endearment 16 Both English and Vietnamese often employ term of endearment... difference between a child and a parent) and between sexes (the difference between a brother and a sister) Moreover, both the two kinship systems distinguish between relatives by blood and marriage In contrast to English kinship terms, there exist more specific and complex kinship terms in Vietnamese, most of which do not have equivalents in English language Kinship and family relationships in Viet Nam are more... cited in Leach,1958) All languages in the world have kinship terms, which are clearly highlighted in addressing forms of a language Without exception, all kinship terms make use of factors such as age, sex, generation, blood, marriage in their society Both English and Vietnamese languages also have their own kinship terms, which can not be translated into each other equivalently Both they have defined... “sweetie”, “love’’, “darling”, “baby”, etc to express the fondness and affection In Vietnamese, adjectives are sometimes used as terms of endearment, whereas in English ,nouns and nouns plus “-ie” suffix are usually employed 2.7 Components going with terms of address verbs In Vietnamese, addressing terms will be more respectful and formal if it goes with some of the following performative verbs: “bẩm”,... have some similarities as well as differences in the use of addressing terms So as to help students understand and be able to use the addressing terms correctly, besides making a contrastive analysis of the two languages, teachers should let students expose as many authentic materials as possible such as English films, story, books and newspapers In addition, as teachers of English, we should combine... address another and only use last name to refer to the third – person while in England, people use last name very often They can call “Miss Smith” (the last name is of the husband), for example, to politely address a married woman Finally, Vietnamese speakers refer to themselves and others name where it would be strange if used in English, eliminating the need for personal pronoun altogether For instance,