Tài liệu ASSIGNMENT ON CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS_ngôn ngữ đối chiếu năm 3 pdf

ASSIGNMENT ON CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS
TABLE OF CONTENT
I, Introduction
Title: “Addressing in English and Vietnamese”
II, Development
1, Addressing with personal pronouns
2, Address among relative.
3, Addressing between “husband and wife”:
III, Conclusion
IV, Reference
Introduction
Title: “Addressing in English and Vietnamese”
In daily life, people created many ways, many words to call each other. Each
nation has its own words to address. It’s very popular to use “I, we, you, she, he or
honey, sweetie…” in English, “tôi, tao, tớ, cậu, mày, anh, chị, cô…” and in French,
“je, tu, nous, vous, moi, toi…” to call each other. In this assignment, I’d like to
learn and compare some address ways of English and Vietnamese.
Development
1, Addressing with personal pronouns
Every Vietnameses know that personal pronouns in Vietnamese are much more
than any others language in the world. When we translate personal pronouns in
Vietnamese into other languages or in contrast, it’s clear that there are much
different personal pronouns in Vietnamese.
In each conversation, Vietnamese use the suitable personal pronoun to talk and
communicate.
The 1
st
person :
- A person will say “Con” if he/she talks to his/her grand parents, parents, uncle
(cậu, chú), aunt (gì, thím, mợ) or old people.
- Says “Cháu” to grand-parents, uncles, aunts or the people are at the same age

with his/her grand-parents, parents, uncles, and aunts.
- A person says “em” to older people, higher level, husband, teachers or any peole
who he/she want to express his/her emotion to.
- A woman says “Cô/dì/thím/bác/bá” and a man will says: “Chú/cậu/bác”to
younger people, children or lower level in a relationship.
- “Tôi” – is a very popular and formal word for everyone to communicate. It’s used
in many situations and many places, especially in case of talking to strange people
or to be used between people are at the same age.
- To “Tao/ta”, these words indicate impolite or informal meaning. They usually use
in cordial conversations or circumstances. For example, may young people usually
say “tao” to their friend showing their close relationship.
- The young people frequently use “Tớ” when talk to their friends such as: “ Lan à
tối nay cậu sang nhà tớ học bài cùng tớ nhé!”
On the contrary, in English, there is only existing “I” for 1
st
person with all
meaning of 1
st
person in Vietnamese.
The 2
nd
person:
In correlation between parents and children, when communicating, parents usually
call their children “con” or “mày”. In some circumstances, if a man/woman get
married, their parents call them “anh/chị”.
In Vietnam, Children call their parents by many words like: cha, bố, ba, thầy,
tía,cậu (father); mẹ, má, mợ, me, mợ, bầm, u, bu, măng…(mother). I give some
instances to make it clearer: “Bố ơi, có bác Thành vào chơi kìa”, “Để con gói bánh
cùng mẹ, mẹ nhé!”. In England, “daddy/mommy/dad/mom/father/mother” are used
to call parents as the same to in Vietnam.

In the relative, they’ll call suitable words depending on different level such as:
“bác, bác gái” to whom is higher level than parents or older than parents , “chú
cậu, dượng, cô, dì, thím,; anh, chị, dượng nó, chú nó….” to whom is lower level
than parents or younger than parents. When talking to older people without
relationship, a person will call them: “cụ, ông, bà, anh, chị, chú, mày…”.
The word “cậu” which is used by young people, probaly will be mistaken to “cậu”
in relative.
So, when we translate some books, magazines, etc…into Vietnamese, we must
chose right personal pronouns of Vietnamese, that is very difficult.
The various personal pronouns in Vietnamese usually made foreigners learning
Vietnamese making mistakes, they often get troubles in choosing exact personal
pronouns in right case. Some 1
st
person have the same shapes as: “cô, chú, chị ”,
so it’s very difficult for the learners to realize which word is 1
st
, which is 2
nd
and
how to use it. Therefore, learners should look up to each word’s meaning and find
how many case it’s to be used.
2, Address among relative.
In English, the meaning of words: brother, sister, uncle, aunt is undefine. Each
word has some meanings, for instance: “brother” _ with the mean that
younger/older brother, uncle (father’s younger/older brother or mother’s
younger/older brother), parents’ younger/older sister is called “aunt”, “sister” is
younger/older sister.
But in Vietnamese, those pronouns have its own exact meanings. Father’s older
brother is called “bác”, father’s younger is called “chú”. Father’s younger sister _
“cô”, father’s older sister _ “bá” Mother’s older brother _ “bác”, mother’s younger

brother _ “cậu”. Mother’s younger sister_ “dì”, mother’s older sister _ “bá”.
Younger brother/sister is called “em”, older brother_ “anh”, older sister is called
“chị”.
If a foreigner learn Vietnamese encounter such cases, how to translate adequately
if she/he does not know the specific relationship in Vietnamese. That’s why every
learner should make study carefully of this field. The effective way for he/she to
translate exactly is to learn more about Vietnamese culture and compare to his/her
culture.
3, Addressing between “husband and wife”:
In Britain or some countries speaking English, a couple usually calls each other or
they call their children: “honey, sweetie, love, darling…” to reveal their emotion.
In Viet Nam, for a couple there are a lot of different words to address. They
usually use: “anh/em, ông xã/bà xã, mình, nhà, chồng/vợ, cưng…” . But with
children, their parents call them “con”.
Instead of calling “chồng”, “vợ” to his/her partner (Vietnames couples rarely call
their company “chồng ơi/vợ ơi”), Vietnamese couples call : “mình”, “nhà”, “bố
nó/mẹ nó”, “anh/em” to their husband/wife.
In the countryside of Vietnam, many husbands call their wives “mày” and address
“tao”. Wives call their husbands “ông”, addressing to husbands “tôi”. When they
become old, the word “mày” will be changed into “bà” or “mẹ mày”. They call and
address to each other so naturally like that, but outsiders do not feel grating.
Because to peasants those words, however, are not smooth but suitable, close and
not showy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Both Vietnamese and English have its own many words to address.
And the differences between two language often make foreign learners confusing
and making mistake. Through this assignment, I hope that I had given pieces useful
information for everyone, so you can know much more about the address of each
country and you can avoid some mistakes.
References