1 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I certify my authorship of the Thesis submitted today entitled: AN INVESTIGATION INTO CULTURAL MEANING OF LOVE DECLARATIONS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FOLKLORES in terms of the Statement of Requirement for Theses and Field Study Reports in Masters’ Programmes of English Linguistics issued by the Higher Degree Committee. Luu Thi Thanh Tu July, 2009 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyn Vn , my supervisor, for his invaluable guidance, comments and corrections during the time I carried out my thesis. I would like to take this chance to thank all the lecturers in the Post Graduate Department for helpful lectures that have helped me in gaining the background knowledge to work on the thesis. And my gratitude also goes to my beloved family who have supported me during the time I completed the thesis. Hanoi, July 2009 Lu Th Thanh Tú 3 ABSTRACT The communication of love is an important aspect of interpersonal relationships across cultures. But saying “I love you” can be very delicate walk, with much gray area, regarding what can and should be communicated about love, when, by whom and to whom. Love is sometimes felt but not expressed, other times, love is expressed only nonverbally; and still other times, it is communicated verbally, with or without nonverbal manifestations. In English and Vietnamese, the way people choose to express love is not the same as it is affected by cultural values. Love declarations include in themselves people’s viewpoints which are presented quite differently in the two languages. Hence, what needs to be carried out in the study entitled “An investigation into the cultural meaning of love declarations in English and Vietnamese folklores” will be an investigation of cultural meaning of love declarations in folklores of the two languages in order to find out the similarities and differences between them. The thesis also attempts to explain what are behind the differences uncovered in the investigation. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Part one: Introduction…………………………………………….5 1.1 Justification……………………………………………………………….5 1.2 Aim and objectives of the study………………………………………….6 1.3 Scope of the study……………………………………………………… 6 1.4 Methods of the study…………………………………………………… 7 1.5 Design of the study……………………………………………………… 7 Part two: Development…………………………………………….9 Chapter one: Theoretical background…………………………………………9 1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………….9 1.2 The relationship between language and culture………………………… 9 1.2.1 Nature, culture, language………………………………………………10 1.2.2 Communities and their effects on language users…………………… 11 1.3 Tropes 13 1.3.1 Simile 13 1.3.2 Metaphor 14 1.4 Folklore as a genre 14 1.4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………… 14 1.4.2 Love declarations in folklore as a genre……………………………… 15 1.5 Summary………………………………………………………………….18 Chapter two: Love declarations in English folklores…………………………19 2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………….19 2.2 Nature, Culture and Language used in love declarations…………………19 2.3 Tropes of love declarations in English folklore………………………… 25 2.3.1 Simile used in love declarations in English folklore……………………25 2.3.2 Metaphor used in love declarations in English folklore……………… 25 2.4 Summary………………………………………………………………….26 Chapter three: Love declarations in Vietnamese folklore……………………27 3. 1 Introduction………………………………………………………………27 3. 2 Cultural images used in love declarations……………………………….28 3. 3 Tropes of love declarations in Vietnamese folklore…………………… 36 3.3.1 Simile in love declarations in Vietnamese folklore………………… 37 5 3.3.2 Metaphor in love declarations in Vietnamese folklore……………….38 3.4 Summary……………………………………………………………… 40 Part three: Conclusion………………………………………… 41 3.1 Comparison between English and Vietnamese love declarations in folklore……………………………………………… 41 3.1.1 Similarities…………………………………………………………….41 3.1.2 Differences…………………………………………………………….42 3.2 Summary of the thesis………………………………………………… 42 3.3 Implications from the study…………………………………………… 43 3.4 Suggestions for further study……………………………………………43 References……………………………………………………… 45 6 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 JUSTIFICATION The communication of love is an important aspect of interpersonal relationships across cultures. But saying “I love you” can be very delicate walk, with much gray area, regarding what can and should be communicated about love, when, by whom and to whom. Love is sometimes felt but not expressed, other times, love is expressed only nonverbally; and still other times, it is communicated verbally, with or without nonverbal manifestations. In English and Vietnamese, the way people choose to express love is not the same as it is affected by cultural values. Love declarations include in themselves people’s viewpoints which are presented quite differently in the two languages. Hence, what needs to be carried out in this study will be an investigation of cultural meaning of love declarations in folklores of the two languages in order to find out the similarities and differences between them. The thesis also attempts to explain what are behind the differences uncovered in the investigation. Our thesis is entitled “An investigation into the cultural meaning of love declarations in English and Vietnamese folklores”. The choice of the thesis is generated from two reasons: Firstly, as Swales (1990: 34) stated that “the concept of genre has maintained a central position in folklore studies ever since the pioneering work in the early nineteenth century”. The functionalist in folklore would rather stress socio-cultural value. For Malinowski (1960, cited in Swales 1990:35) “folklore genres contribute to the maintenance and survival of social groups because they serve social and spiritual needs”. Perhaps inevitably, to assign cultural value also requires the investigator to pay attention to how a community views and itself classify genre. This idea will lead to the fact that love declaration is a mode of social communication and is only a genre among others, therefore, we would like to investigate love declaration in English and Vietnamese folklores to see the similarities and differences of this genre in the two languages. Secondly, love declarations, as mentioned above, reflect human’s ideology, so we wish to see how the ideologies represented in the two languages. 7 We optimistically hope that the thesis will help students of English, and students of culture as it could provide an insight into the similarities and differences of love declarations in English and Vietnamese folklores. 1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY A popularized view of emotion is that it is a physiological process associated with the nervous system. Located all the core of the nervous system is a universal and essential set of emotional states. One of these could be said to be love. Everybody experiences the state of being in love at least once in a life time. While the universality of some emotional state may not be in dispute, how person interprets and manifests those emotional experiences will differ across cultures. Hence, this paper aims to advance an understanding of emotion expression as a de-essentialised domain and to view it as “a cultural and interpersonal process of naming, justifying, and persuading by people in relationship to each other” (Lutz, 1998:5). We will take “love declaration” in Vietnamese and English folklores as a point of access into cultural communication systems. 1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY Within cultural meaning, our analytical task was therefore: a) describing the locution “I love you” in love declaration with reference to its occurrence and non-occurrence, where it occurs, with whom?, in what language(s) and dialect(s), in which verbal forms, about which topics, as part of what interactional sequences, and with what observable consequences; and b) interpreting the participants understandings of the love declaration given the patterned contingencies under a) above. It is through holding the phenomena of emotion expression as a constant that we will search the cultural variability in order to understand the general forces and particular features of emotion expression. Our focus here will be on the performance of communication patterns within intimate/personal relationships. Our interest then falls on the expression of love within intimate/personal relationships. Our expectation is that the expression of love will be of those communicative activities that give force and meaning to intimate/personal relationships. In intercultural relationship it is our hypothesis that love declarations also function to locate and give voice to cultural identity. Put simply, to say or not to say “I love you” can also be communicating much about communal understandings of sociality, of person, and their strategic activities. 8 Within the scope of the thesis, the author investigates 100 love declarations in English folklore and 100 love declarations in Vietnamese folklore. 1.4 METHOD OF THE STUDY To fulfill the aim of the study, the main methods used are descriptive and comparative. The study deals with love declarations in English and Vietnamese folklores, therefore, a great number of love declarations in English and Vietnamese folklore were collected then 50 love declarations in each language have been carefully selected, after that we try to analyse the love declarations in terms of cultural meanings, genre and tropes and then synthesize the result to find out the similarities and differences of people’s attitudes in the two languages. In fulfilling the focuses of the study in comparing the two languages’ love declarations, descriptive method has been applied to present prominent features of love declarations in the two languages, the results achieved, in turn, are then compared and contrasted to see the similarities and differences between the two languages in expressing love. The fundamental theories that are applied in the study is the cultural study of Robert Lado (1960); Claire Kramsch (2000); and the linguistic study of poetry by Leech (1968) and other Vietnamese researchers such as inh Gia Khánh, Chu Xuân Diên and others. 1.5 DESIGN OF THE STUDY The study is divided into three parts. Part I- Introduction- introduces the justification, the aims, the objectives, the method, the scope and the design of the study. Part II- Development- consists of three chapters: Chapter one presents the theoretical background to the study, the relationship of language and culture and language cultural identity introduced by Claire Kramsch (2000) and Robert Lado (1960) and some Vietnamese researchers such as Vu Ngoc Phan, Lu Huy Nguyen, Dang Van Lung and Tran Thi An. It also presents the theoretical background of tropes written by Leech (1969), Dennis Freeborn and some Vietnamese researchers such as Dinh Gia Khanh et.al (2003), Chu Xuan Dien (2003), Le Van Chuong (2004) etc. This chapter also consider folklore as a genre based on the idea presented by Swales (1990). Chapter two describes love declarations in English folklore from two perspectives: culture, and versification. In terms of culture, the description will be concerned with the 9 relationship between language used in love declaration and culture/cultural identity. And last but not least, in studying the versification, tropes are taken into consideration, and we bring about an insight into the aspects such as metaphor, simile. Based on the above perspectives, we try to find out people’s attitudes and feelings lying behind the expression of love declaration in English folklore. The resources for love declaration in English folklore are taken from traditional ballads, tales, love songs and sayings. Chapter three describes corresponding perspectives of love declaration in Vietnamese Folklore. Part three- Conclusion- compares cultural meanings of love declaration in English and Vietnamese folklores to establish the similarities and differences of emotion expressions across the two languages. We also summarize the issues studied in the thesis, the implications and suggestions for further study. 10 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 INTRODUCTION “Language is the principle means whereby we conduct our social lives. When it is used in contexts of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways” (C. Kramsch, 2000). As the study deals with love declaration in English and Vietnamese folklores, this chapter is concerned with establishing a theoretical framework for the study, as a way to start, we will present some aspects of the theory of language and culture such as the relationship between language and culture/ cultural identity etc. Besides, as the thesis deals with love declaration in folklores, it will be better when other aspects of concepts such as genre, cohesion, tropes… are also taken into consideration. 1.2 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE According to Claire Kramsch, language is the principle means we conduct our social lives. When language is used in contexts of communication it is bound up with culture. Firstly, the words people utter refer to common experience. They express facts, ideas, or events that are communicable because they refer to a stock of knowledge about the world that other people share. Words also reflect their authors’ attitudes and beliefs, their points of view etc. In both cases “language expresses cultural reality” (C.Kramsch, 2000). But members of a community or social group do not only express experience; they also create experience through language. They give meaning to it through the medium they choose to communicate with one another, for example, speaking on the telephone or face to face, writing a letter or sending an e-mail message… The way in which people use the spoken, written, or visual medium itself creates meanings that are understandable to the group they belong to, for example, through a speaker’s tone of voice, accents, conversational style, gestures and facial expressions. Through all as verbal and non-verbal aspects, “language embodies cultural reality” (C. Kramsch, 2000). Finally, language is system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value. Speakers identify themselves and other through their use of language; they view their language as a symbol of their social identity. The prohibition of its use is often perceived [...]... impossible to isolate “tr u” from “cau” or isolate those who are in love from each other: êm khuya thi p m i h i chàng Cau xanh n v i tr u vàng x ng ch ng ? - Tr u vàng nhá l/n cau xanh Duyên em sánh v i tình anh tuy t v i Or: 0 c gì anh hóa ra vôi Em hóa tr u l c t"t t 32 i l i n ng Or: Anh v cu"c t tr ng cau, Cho em tr ng ké dây tr u m t bên Mai sau tr u n l n lên Cau kia ra trái làm nên c(a nhà It... bùa, không thu"c, sao chàng không n? Or: Vào v n tr-y qu cau xanh B$ ra làm sáu trình anh x i tr u Tr u này têm nh!ng vôi tàu gi!a m qu , ôi u th m cay M i anh x i mi ng tr u này Dù m*n dù nh t, dù cay dù n ng Dù ch ng nên o v ch ng X i n m ba mi ng k&o lòng nh th ng “Tr u, cau” has become the symbol of love and marriage, “tr u” must go along with “cau” like man must go along with woman These two symbols... N c sông Tô v#a trong v#a mát Em ghé thuy n sát thuy n anh D#ng chèo mu"n t tâm tình Sông bao nhiêu n c th ng mình b y nhiêu The image of “chi c áo” is used so often to express love between man and woman And it becomes a reason for love declarations: Hôm qua tát n c sau ình, B quên chi c áo trên cành hoa sen Em Hay là em c thì cho anh xin, làm tin trong nhà 29 Áo anh s t ch ng tà, V anh ch a có, m già... gardens, technological achievements, historic associations regarding ladies, roses, and perfumes Similarly, let us consider the poem “Tát n c u ình”, a Vietnamese folklore to see the relationship between culture, nature and language: “Hôm qua tát n c u ình B quên chi c áo trên cành hoa sen Em c thì cho anh xin Hay là em làm tin trong nhà áo anh s t ch ng tà V anh ch a có, m già ch a khâu áo anh s t ch ã... particular rose at a chosen moment in time Powerless to prevent the biological “decay” and the ultimate death of roses and of ladies, nature can only make summer when the season is right Culture, by contrast, is not bound by biological time Like nature, it is a “gift”, but of different kind Through a sophisticated technological procedure, developed especially to extract the essence of roses, culture... ây anh n m c$ tay, Anh h i câu này: Có l y anh không? The circumstance for making love declarations is also a peaceful sight of the country: Con cò bay l bay la Bay t# c(a ph% bay ra cánh Or: 34 ng “ êm tr ng thanh anh m i h i nàng” In fact the circumstance for making love declarations in Vietnamese folklores is peaceful, quiet and romantic, which is suitable for making love declarations êm tr ng thanh... Vietnamese folklores are severed to propose a wedding We can find out the verses that have the functions of proposing a marriage: In Vietnamese: Cô kia c t c bên sông, Có mu"n n nhãn thì l ng sang ây Sang ây, anh n m c$ tay, Anh h i câu này: Có l y anh không? In English: I love you more than anything else in the world Come with me to my father’s castle You shall become my wife Little Snow-White Or: Many... Butler) But love in the next example is a great teacher who can teach us every thing: Love is a great teacher who teaches all at once (Pierre Corneille) And love can do things like human being: Love is swift of foot; Love’s a man of war, And can shoot And can hit from far (G Herbert) The metaphor may show the imaginations through very simple but delicate comparison as: Love is smoke made with the fume of... hai mi ng tr u Ch chàng ch ng th y chàng âu cau long h t, tr u long vôi Tr u long vôi t à tr u nh t Cau long h t t à cau già Mình không l y ta t à mình thi t Ta không l y mình, ta bi t l y ai ? R ng en c ng có khi phai Má h ng khi nh t, tóc dài khi th a Tình ây tính y c ng v#a Chàng còn kén ch n, l c l#a ai h n? Beside the cultural image of “áo m*c” or “tr u, cau” used in love declarations, the author... blind, and lovers can not see The pretty follies that themselves commit” Shakespeare Or: “If love be blind, It best agrees with night.” Shakespeare Whereas, Vietnamese people tend to associate love with the image of “tr u cau” For example: Yêu nhau tr u v c ng say, Ghét nhau cau u Or: 13 y khay ch ng màng Tr u b c kh n tr ng cau t Tr u b c kh n tr ng ãi ng i, i xinh xinh n cho nó tho tâm tình, n cho nó . hoa sen. Em c thì cho anh xin Hay là em  làm tin trong nhà áo anh st ch ng tà V anh cha có, m già cha khâu. áo anh st ch ã lâu Mai. JUSTIFICATION The communication of love is an important aspect of interpersonal relationships across cultures. But saying “I love you” can be very delicate