politeness phenomena in english and vietnamese through using imperative mood within thang long university education environment = hiện tượng lịch sự trong tiếng anh và tiếng việt

iv

List of tables and figures

Table 2.1. Results of the MPQ for English native speakers ……………………………. … 23
Table 2.2. Groups of situations and characteristics of each group ………………………… 27
Table 2.3. Results of the MPQ for Vietnamese native speakers ………………………… 28
Table 2.4. English native speakers’ sayings vs. Vietnamese native speakers’ sayings …… 35

Figure 2.1. Requests with Imperative Mood in English and Vietnamese …………………. 36
Figure 3.1. Frequency of using Imperative Mood when making requests in English……… 38
Figure 3.2. Frequency of using Imperative Mood when making requests in Vietnamese …. 39
v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement of authorship ……………………………………………………………… i
Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………… ii
Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………… iii
List of graphs and tables ……………………………………………………………… iv
PART A. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………… 1
1. Rationale of the study ……………………………………………………… 1
2. Aims of the study …………………………………………………………… 2
3. Scope of the study ………………………………………………………… 2
4. Structure of the study ………………………………………………………. 2

PART B. DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………………… 4
Chapter one: Theoretical background ………………………………………… 4
1.1. The Imperative Mood …………………………………………………… 4
1.1.1. Definition of Mood ……………………………………………… 4
1.1.2. The Imperative Mood in English …………………………………. 7

1.1. 3. The Imperative Mood in Vietnamese ……………………………. 10
1.2. Politeness phenomena through using Imperative Mood to make Requests 12
1. 2.1. Definition of politeness …………………………………………… 12
1.2.1.1. Face and face work ……………………………………… 12
1.2.1.2. Politeness ……………………………………………… 13
1.2.1.3. Social variables affecting politeness ……………………. 14
1. 2. 2. Imperative Mood and Politeness shown when making a request in
English and in Vietnamese ……………………………………………………………… 14
1.2.2.1. Making a request ……………………………………… 14
1.2.2.2. Imperative Mood and Politeness shown when making a request
in English ………………………………………………………………………………… 15
vi

1.2.2.3. Imperative Mood and Politeness shown when making a request
in Vietnamese …………………………………………………………………………… 16
Chapter two: A study of how Imperative Mood is practiced within Thang
Long University Educational Environment
2.1. Thang Long University in brief ………………………………………… 17
2.2. Research questions ……………………………………………………… 17
2.3. Research methods ………………………………………………. ………… 17
2.4. Research design ………………………………………………. ………… 18
2.4.1. Data collection instruments ………………………………………. 18
2.4.2. Contents of the questionnaires ……………………………………. 19
2.4.3. Participants ………………………………………………………… 22
2.4.4. Procedure ………………………………………………. ………… 22
2.5. Results of the MPQ ……………………………………………………… 23
2.5.1. Results of the MPQ for English native speakers ………………… 23
2.5.2. Results of the MPQ for Vietnamese native speakers ……………… 27
2.6. Results of the DCT ………………………………………………. ………. 28
2.6.1. English native speakers’ sayings vs. Vietnamese native speakers’ sayings

2.6.2. Conclusion ………………………………………………. ……… 35
2.7. Data analysis ………………………………………………. …………… 36
Chapter three: Findings and discussions ……………………………………. 38
3.1. Overall findings and discussions of using Imperative Mood when making
polite requests of English native speakers …………………………………………… 38
3.2. Overall findings and discussions of using Imperative Mood when making
polite requests of Vietnamese native speakers ……………………………………… 39
3.3. Comparison of using linguistic structures to make requests between English
and Vietnamese native speakers …………………………………………. …………… 40

PART C. CONCLUSIONS
vii

1. General conclusion …………………………………………………………. 42
2. Limitation …………………………………………………………………… 43
3. Recommendations for further research …………………………………… 44
4. Implications…………………………………………. ……………………… 44


REFERENCES…………………………………………. ……………………………… 46

APPENDIX A: METAPRAGMATIC QUESTIONNAIRE (MPQ) ……………………. I
APPENDIX B: DISCOURSE COMPLETION TASK (DCT) ………………………… X





1

PART A. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
English is one of the most important languages in communication. It plays a very
important role in many aspects of everyday life such as: Education, culture, technology,
science, etc…. What is noticeable is that learning English becomes an increasing need for
many people in society. They study English for various purposes: for job, for promotion, for
going abroad…. In Vietnam, English is very popular and is being taught widely.
In Vietnam, with the open-door policy of Vietnamese government, English, day by day,
affirms its dominated role for international communication. English is taught compulsory in
many schools in Vietnam. Also, it becomes a compulsory subject in many universities and
schools, for example, Thang Long University. Although English has been taught in Vietnam
for several years but only, grammatical correctness seem to be highly appreciated in teaching.
This way of teaching and learning is not effective enough to provide cultural factors to make
cross-cultural communication successful. Therefore, learners do not know what to say in order
to have a contextual, situational and cultural appropriateness in communication. Even today
many Vietnamese teachers of English still appreciate grammatical correctness over
appropriateness in communication. They still enjoy grammar translation method. As a result,
students cannot communicate orally in an appropriate way despite their rather good linguistic
competence.
It is obvious that learning a second language means learning a second culture. To study
the second language, one needs to be provided not only linguistic knowledge and interaction
skills but also cultural knowledge. Nowadays, cultural factors are included in the course
design. However, they are often treated as optional supplement to stimulate interest or improve
background knowledge. Understanding cultural factors is an important key to succeed in
learning English. Although teachers have created more opportunities for them to use English
effectively, Vietnamese students may face with many difficulties in communication because
they tend to use English based on their native culture – Oriental culture. As a result,
sometimes, when they communicate with foreigners, they may make unfriendly or impolite or
even rude social expressions unnoticeablely. So as to communicate well across culture, firstly,
2

learners must understand deeply about their own culture. Then, they must be aware of the
English speaking culture. They must ensure the hidden parts of culture including politeness.
Politeness is a very important part of social interaction. In order to facilitate students at Thang
Long University in improving their oral communication, the author of this thesis wants to
study the politeness phenomena in English and Vietnamese through using Imperative Mood to
make requests.
2. Aims of the study
The study aims to find out:
 Do English native speakers use Imperative Mood to make polite requests in the
Educational Environment?
 How do Vietnamese teachers and students at Thang Long University use Imperative
Mood to show their politeness when making a request in the Educational Environment?
 How do the English native speakers and the Vietnamese native speakers differ in using
linguistic structures to make requests in the social situations studied?
3. Scope of the study
The study focuses on politeness phenomena shown by both English and Vietnamese
speakers who are Vietnamese students and teachers at Thang Long University when using
Imperative Mood to make requests.
4. Structure of the study
This thesis is structured in three parts: Part A – Introduction, Part B – Development and
Part C – Conclusions. Part B is composed of three chapters as follows:
The purpose of Chapter one (Theoretical background) is to introduce the key theoretical
concepts that the study is based on.
Chapter two (A study within ThangLong University Educational Environment) introduces
the questions the present study attempts to answer. It also describes the procedures and
instruments used to collect the data, the participants in the study, as well as the way the data
were analyzed. Besides, a tentative analytical framework is also presented.
3

Chapter three (Findings and discussions) presents the results of the study and discusses
the differences and similarities politeness phenomena in English and Vietnamese through
using Imperative Mood to make requests.
Finally, part C – Conclusions will summarize the most important findings of the study as
well as present all the limitations, the implications of the study and recommendations for
further studies.


4

PART B. DEVELOPMENT
Chapter one
Theoretical background
1.1. The Imperative Mood
1.1.1. Definitions of Mood
The term „mood‟ is traditionally restricted to a category expressed in verbal
morphology. It is formally a morph syntactic category of the verb like tense and aspect, even
though its semantic function relates to the content of the whole sentence. But traditionally its
verbal nature is not in doubt.
A good starting point is Jesperson‟s (quoted in Palmer. F. R (1986) discussion of
mood. He talks of the indicative, subjunctive and imperative moods. „They express certain
cases, the choice of mood is determined not by the attitude of the actual speaker, but by the
character of the clause itself and its relation to the main nexus on which it is dependent.
Further, it is very important that the speaker of mood only if the attitude of mind is shown in
the form of the verb: mood thus is a syntactic, not a notional category.‟
According to Finch, G (2000), mood is a “Feature displayed by verb phrases. It refers
specially to the way in which the verb expresses the attitude of the addresser towards the
factual content of what is being communicated, i.e., whether it is being asserted, questioned,
demanded or wished for”.
And dictionary definitions usually refer to verbal inflections. The notion of mood is

intimately connected to the modal concepts. In International Encyclopedia of Linguistics
OUP 1992 Vol.4 (145), modality is proposed for the grammatical category, but traditional
studies talk of modality. „In the traditional sense, mood is a purely morphological category of
the verb, and the term will here be restricted to this sense. Mood is, therefore, one way in
which modality can be expressed.‟
The diverse category of mood indicates what the speaker is doing with a proposition in
a particular discourse situation. This includes the status of the utterance as IMPERATIVE (a
5

command) or HORTATIVE (an exhortation). The CONDITIONAL mood may mark
SUBJUNCTIVE may be used in a subordinate context. Other types of clauses, including
declarative sentences, will appear in the INDICATIVE mood. Declarative sentences may be
further qualified for EPISTEMIC moods (possibility or probability), which indicate the degree
of commitment the speaker attaches to the truth of the proposition. The most commonly
expressed mood distinction is between the indicative the imperative. Mood may be expressed
inflectionally or by auxiliaries or particles, but never derivationally – Palmer (1986). Mood
and Modality, Cambridge – New York CUP.
It is because of the restrictions of the term „mood‟ to verbal morphology that Lyons
(1977) can remark: „mood is a grammatical category that is found in some, but not all,
languages. For it is probably the case that formal markers of modality are found within the
grammars of all languages, though not always within the verb.‟
A review of previous studies on mood
As far as we are concerned, mood has not been adequately discussed though it is an
immense and important area. We do not attempt to provide a full picture of the approaches that
we deal with. In various places, we limit ourselves to giving the flavor of ideas and analyses.
Our aim is to concentrate on the studies that are likely to be of relatively lasting significance.
Palmer, F.R in his work „Mood and modality‟ (1986) assumes that mood and modality
are grammatical categories which are confusing notions to the learners of English. He also
points out the differences between epistemic modality and deontic modality. A considerable of
his work is spent on the discussion of mood. However, this study is carried out on the English

and Latin backgrounds, which does not contribute much to our investigation on the
Vietnamese language.
Huddleston (1984) deals with the classification of clause types, in which he points out
the different criteria for the syntactic and semantic categories. He also presents the close
inspection on different mood constructions. What is noticeable in his work is the focus on the
correlation between syntactic categories of declarative, interrogative, exclamative, imperative
and semantic categories of statement, question, exclamation, directive, which is not fully
studied in the previous research works. Huddleston (1995) also used the term analytic mood.
6

According to him, these moods show clearly the contrast between factual assertion and non-
factuality and/or non-assertion. Besides, English also uses the inflectional system. And we
have the distinction:
- He was downstairs then (factual assertion)
- He is downstairs now.
- He may be downstairs now (possibility)
- He must be downstairs now (certainty)
Halliday, M.A.K (1994) provides a fresher viewpoint on the language. He sees
language as a sophisticated tool for accomplishing a number of central functions such as
ideational, interpersonal, and textual. And the interpersonal function is reflected in the system
of mood. He summarizes the formal realization of mood in the light of systemic-functional
grammar that the clause consists of two functional constituents: a mood element and residue.
A growing recognition of the importance of studying Vietnamese has urged linguists
and language teachers to do more research in some recent years. There have also appeared
some articles that describe Vietnamese rather thoroughly. A great number of descriptions have
been done by Nguyễn Kim Thản (1963), Đinh Văn Đức (1986), Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (1996),
Nguyễn Tài Cẩn (1999), Đỗ Hữu Châu (2003), etc. In the mood section, they state different
ways in which mood may be formed. It should be noticed in the works of these linguists and
language teachers that they give the priority to the formal construction of the mood. And they
spend a very small number of pages on the problem of mood, especially on imperative mood

in the Vietnamese language.
Perhaps more interestingly, it is fairly clear to see that this gap is partly narrowed by
several Vietnamese linguists and language teachers. Cao Xuân Hạo (2001) and Diệp Quang
Ban (2005) are among those who try to analyze the problem of mood in the light of systemic-
functional grammar. They pay attention not only to the structures of the mood but the
functions and meanings as well. Though their approach to the problem is different from those
already done in the past, it provides a useful semantic framework for the discussion of mood.
Pham Thị Hoa (1985) carries out a research on interrogative mood in English and in
Vietnamese. She presents a contrastive picture of the different types of interrogative sentences
7

in English and in Vietnamese including their structures and meaning. Her contribution to this
study to this area is undeniable.
Ngô Đình Phương (2004) approaches this issue from the perspective of systemic-
functional grammar. He reserves a few pages for differentiating the mood construction
between English and Vietnamese. However, he does not go into detailed discussion on the
imperative mood in the English and Vietnamese languages.
Other Vietnamese linguists and language teachers have carried out studies in which
various issues related to the concepts of mood in Vietnamese are compared with those in
English. Nguyễn Quang (1999) studies the compliments and response to the compliments in
American English and Vietnamese. Hà Cẩm Tâm (2005) attempts to uncover how the requests
are formed by Vietnamese learners of English. These studies have provided some significant
insights into differences of the two languages in terms of pragmatics.
Nguyễn Văn Độ (1999) studies means of language to make requests in English and
Vietnamese. This study has provided a very thorough insight into the relation between
language and culture and we will return to his discussion in the next chapters, in which his
discussion is taken as the analytical approach (framework) in our study.
1.1.2. The Imperative Mood in English
This part deals with imperative mood in English, which has not yet been paid adequate
attention to. The ways in which imperative mood is viewed by different trends of grammar,

including traditional and systemic-functional perspectives, are worth taking serious
consideration. This part involves how imperative mood is realized in English from the
traditional view. It is hoped that this part can provide a rather basic knowledge about the
imperative mood in English.
In order to state general traditional point of view about the imperative mood in English,
it is necessary to refer to “A comprehensive grammar of the English language” by Quirk et al
(1985).
Imperatives are traditionally thought of as the form used for giving orders. Quirk et al
(1985) used the terms “command” to refer to the imperative mood. Commands are defined as
8

sentences which normally have “no overt grammatical subject” and “whose verb is in the
imperative”
E.g. Be careful!
Read the instruction carefully!
Huddleston (1984) shares the same assumptions about the structural differences
between imperative and declaratives. Imperatives have their first verb not a tensed form but a
base form (with no proceeding “to”), and have no subject. This is understandable since an
imperative normally refers to some future action which the hearer is urged to perform. Its
subject is semantically predictable, and therefore dispensable, while the verb phrase is
required to make no distinction of tense, number and person.
Traditional grammar deals with different subtypes of imperatives. To begin with, we
should consider the most central and common category of imperatives. Such clauses have no
subject, but it is plausible to say that “you” is understood as subject or “you” as subject-
argument. In Quirk et al‟s view, the clause patterns of the imperatives show the same range
and orderings of elements as declaratives.
E.g. SV: Jump!
SVC: Be reasonable!
SVOA: Put it on the table.
The Imperative verb, however, is severely restricted as to tense, aspect, voice and

modality. There is no tense distinction and very rarely do the perfect aspect and the
progressive form occur. Although the first verb is in the base form, the auxiliary “do” is
introduced in the formation of negatives (more specifically those with a negative verb phrase)
as in: Don‟t / Do not stay along! and emphatic positives as in Do take care! “Do “is added,
moreover, even when the first verb of the positive is the base form of the operator “be”: Don‟t
be long / Do be careful!
It is implied in the meaning of a command that the omitted subject of the imperative
verb is in the 2
nd
person pronoun „you”. This is confirmed by the occurrence of “you‟ as
subject of a following tag question (Be quite, will you?) and by the occurrence of
yourself/yourselves and of no other reflexive pronoun as object (Behave yourself!).
9

There is, however, a type of imperative in which a grammar subject is present.
E.g. You shut up!
In the negative, the subject follows “don‟t”
E.g. Don‟t you dare to talk to me like this!
In general, it is assumed that the imperative will have only 2
nd
person forms, referring
to the hearer. It is easy enough to see why, if the speaker merely presents (to the hearer) a
proposition for action. Lyons (1977:747) argues that imperatives can only be, strictly, 2
nd

person and never 3
rd
person. Nevertheless, in the following examples, the subjects are 3
rd

person.
E.g. Someone open this door!
Everybody shut the eyes!
Don‟t anyone move!
The fact that there is no agreement here, we have “don‟t” not “doesn‟t”, is a strong
reason for taking “don‟t” as a base form, but „the imperative construction is the only place
where we find a non-tensed inflectional negative” (Huddleston; 1984: 360). Normally the
subject of an imperative will express a semantic argument representing the addressee(s) or
some (specific or non-specific) member (of the set of the addressees). “Everybody stands still”,
for example, will be interpreted pragmatically as “All of you stand still”. This is why “you‟ can
generally be added in a tag (Everybody close your eyes!).
If the imperative is defined as presenting a proposition for action by the hearer, then
clearly it can only be the 2
nd
person. But could it not be presented for action by someone else,
even though it is the hearer who is addressed? There is no very definite answer to this.
The second subtype of imperatives is marked by the presence of “let”, more
specifically of what Huddleston (1984;36) calls “grammaticalised let” as opposed to “lexical
let‟ (the verb means “allow” that we find in “He won‟t let us go to the beach). In this sub
category of imperative, both the addressee and the speaker are involved in the performance of
the action.
E.g. Let‟s go for a walk!
10

In summary, traditional grammar distinguishes imperative mood and other types in
terms of the inflectional form of the verb. It is argued, however, that there is no verb lexeme in
English with overtly distinct forms for imperative and there is no justification for assigning
different verbal inflections. Departing from the traditional usage of the term, imperatives are
applied to a clause type, not marked inflectionally on the verb.
1.1.3. The Imperative mood in Vietnamese

As mentioned above many Vietnamese linguists and language teachers have discussed
imperative mood in Vietnamese.
Đỗ Hữu Châu (2003) claims that mood is a syntactic category of the verb reflecting the
relation between the content of the sentence and the reality. Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (1996) shares
the same view when he regards mood as an aspect of the verb. It can be assumed that the
former markers are given priority to in the discussion of mood. Sentences are, as a
consequence, classified upon their formal markers.
Nevertheless, according to Cao Xuân Hạo (2001), there no clear cut among different
types of traditional sentences in Vietnamese if the sentence syntactic structure is taken as the
criterion. He states that the structure of the indicative sentence is the typical one in the
Vietnamese language. Other types of sentences can be formed by using the same structure or
adding some modal particles. In his opinion, imperative mood in Vietnamese should be treated
as the modality of the predicate.
In summary, the mood in former traditional grammar books was seen to have an
association with the inflectional form of the verb.
Verbs in Vietnamese, to a certain extent, are different from those in English. The
distinctness of the verbs is confirmed by two points. Firstly, Vietnamese verbs are not
inflected whereas verbs in English bear inflectional form. Secondly, Vietnamese verbs have no
primary tense as the English verbs do. There are good grounds here for arguing that there
exists only sentence mood in Vietnamese (no verbal mood like English).
Cao Xuân Hạo (2001) and Diệp Quang Ban (2004) are those who try to make a
distinction between the notion of mood in English and in Vietnamese. Diệp Quang Ban (2004)
comes up to a conclusion that in inflecting languages (like English, a semi-inflectional
11

language), verbal mood is used to refer to interpersonal function whereas in isolating
languages (like Vietnamese), sentence mood is used instead. Sentence mood is believed to
hold a close association with types of sentences classified upon illocutionary acts in
Vietnamese traditional grammar, which declaratives (indicatives), interrogatives, imperatives
and exclamatives. The classification of mood in terms of these was also made by Huddleston

(1984). On the other hand, as far as semantics is concerned, these mood classifications may be
viewed in terms of epistemicity (in cases of indicative and exclamative sentences) and
deonticity (in cases of imperatives).
An imperative sentence is typically used to issue what is called a directive – a
command, a request, an order, o prohibition, and the like. However, some of the key issues
that arise as a consequence here are what makes a typical structure of the Vietnamese
imperative sentence. Cao Xuân Hạo (1991) includes the following features in imperatives:
1. The speaker (who gives a command, a request, an order, etc) is ellipsed 1
st
person.
2. The hearer (who receives a command, e request, an order, etc) is implicit 2
nd
person.
3. The mood indicators are some imperative markers (hãy, đừng, đi, chớ, nhé etc).
(The Thesis for the Degree of Master of Arts- 2006)
The verb of the imperative mood can be seen as device for the speaker to indicate that
he wishes the hearer to do what is meant by the verb. According to Nguyễn Kim Thản (1963),
imperative mood in Vietnamese is identified by the imperative markers “đừng”, “chớ”, “ đi” ,
or by tone. Nguyễn Kim Thản assumes that these particles indicate the action of making a
request, a command, etc. of the speaker whereas the verb is used to refer to the action expected
to be done by the hearer.
Different types of imperatives in Vietnamese.
1. Unmarked imperatives: the unmarked imperatives have no mood element.
Such sentences have no subject, but it is plausible to say that the 2
nd
person
is understood as the subject.
E.g.

Nhảy xuống!

Ø Mood
Residue
12

2. Marked imperatives
Positive imperatives
The imperative form occurs with a variety of modal particles to express
polarity. In the Vietnamese language, “hãy”, “đi” and some modal particles
such as “nào”, “nhé,” “nhỉ”, “thôi” are the positive imperative mood markers.
E.g. Cho tớ mượn quyển sách nhé!
There are imperatives in which a subject is present. The imperative is often defined as
presenting a proposition for action by the addressee, syntactically filled by the 2
nd
person. As
such, the 2
nd
person is the implicit subject of the imperative.
E.g. (Cậu) cho tớ về cùng sau giờ học nhé!
Negative imperatives
The imperatives in Vietnamese are negated by adding the negative words
“đừng”, “chớ”, “không được”, in initial position before the verb. These
particles are assigned with negative meanings and neutral tone. However, they
never occur with other negatives like “chưa”, “chẳng”, “nỏ”, etc.
E.g. Đừng có đứng gần cửa sổ đấy.
1.2. Politeness phenomena through using Imperative Mood to make Requests
1. 2.1. Definition of politeness
First of all, within an interaction, the essential notion of „face‟ is worth of proper
consideration.
1.2.1.1. Face and face work
In everyday social interaction, to be respected and recognized, people try to keep their

public self-image, which is called face.
According to Richard (1985), “the positive image or impression of oneself that one
shows or intends to show to the other participants is called face”
Face work:
Within everyday social interaction, people generally behave as if their public self-
image, or their face wants, will be respected. By doing that way, people can maintain their
face. It‟s their face work
13

E. Goffman (1973) was the first person who discussed „face‟, but Brown and Levinson
(1987) developed this into a key concept of politeness theory. Brown and Levinson
distinguished two related aspects of face as followings:
 Negative face: the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, right to non- distraction
– i.e. to freedom of action and freedom of imposition.
 Positive face: the positive consistent self- image or “personality” (crucially including
the desire that this self- image be appreciated and approved of) claimed by interaction.
Face work, therefore, proves to play an important part in making a conversation work
either negatively or positively. When the face is kept, the relationship is maintained without
much difficulty.
1.2.1.2. Politeness
In order to maintain each other‟s face, the interlocutors have to take into account the
consideration of politeness.
Politeness is defined in Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary as “things you
say or do simply because it is social correct to do or say them, rather than because you mean
them sincerely”. What should be discussed, then is in what standard people can judge
something they (or others) do or say means politeness, or rather, in what view something is
socially correct. This issue should be considered under each other‟s culture for judging things.
In accordance with two kinds of face in Brown and Levinson‟s view: negative and positive
faces; politeness is divided into two types: negative and positive politeness.
According to Brown and Levinson, positive politeness is concerned with the actions

people take to maintain their face and that of the other people they are interacting with.
Positive face has to do with presenting a good image of oneself and securing the approval of
others. Positive politeness consists of acts, which are designed to preserve or restore the
Hearer‟s positive face, by stressing the Speaker‟s sympathy with a social closeness to the
Hearer. One linguistic way of doing this would be to link the Speaker and Hearer together by
using the pronoun forms: we, us or our.
Negative politeness is the effort not to be coercive against imposition on others, in
other words, not to poke one‟s nose into other‟s privacy. Negative politeness consists of acts
14

which are designed to preserve or restore the Hearer‟s negative face, by expressing the
speaker‟s reluctance to impose his or her wants on the hearer. One way of doing this would be
to say something like: “I don‟t like to bother you but…” The tendency to use negative
politeness forms, emphasizing Hearer‟s right to freedom seen as deference strategy.
It should be noted that neither negative nor positive politeness is thoroughly good or
bad. This depends much on culture, i.e. this culture is more or less in favor of the former or
later viewpoint of politeness as people in that country consider it to be appropriate to show
concern for or interest in each other‟s business.
1.2.1.3. Social variables affecting politeness
According to Brown and Levinson (1987), there are three social variables (P-power, D-
social distance, and R-Ranking of imposition) that usually affect the realization of speech acts.
Therefore, they claim that the choice of appropriate polite expression in a given context
depends on a number of factors which have been grouped into a simple formula. Here are the
three independent variables that have a systematic effect on the choice of politeness strategies
in performing a Face-threatening act in a given context:
 The relative power (P) of the S and the H (a symmetric relation).
 The social distance (D) of the S and the H (an asymmetric relation).
 The absolute ranking of imposition in the particular culture.
(Brown & Levinson, 1987, p74)
1. 2.2. Imperative Mood and Politeness shown when making a request in

English and Vietnamese
1.2.2.1. Making a request
In “Study about the relation between language – culture”, Nguyễn Văn Độ (2004)
assumes that: Making request is sending signals from the speaker to the hearer in order to
express an intention or a wish with the speaker‟s attitude so that the hearer will do something
for the benefit of the speaker or, sometimes, of both the speaker and the hearer.
In this study we are just interested the language used to make requests in English and
in Vietnamese in a university educational environment.
15

1.2.2.2. Imperative Mood and Politeness shown when making a
request in English
The English imperative is formed simply by using the bare infinitive form of the verb.
Be is the only verb whose infinitive form is in different from the second-person present
indicative form. The subject of the sentence can only be you (the second person).
The use of imperative mood can easily be considered offensive or inappropriate in social
situations due to universally recognized politeness rules. Therefore, exhortations are often
formulated indirectly, as questions or assertions:
 Could you come here for a moment?
 I beg you to stop.
and not as commands like in the following examples:
 Come here.
 Stop!
As a matter of fact, politeness strategies (for instance, indirect speech acts) can be
much more appropriate in order not to threaten a conversational partner in his needs of self-
determination and territory: according to Brown-Levinson 1978, the partner's negative face
shouldn't be threatened. As a result, the imperative mood isn't necessarily the most used form
to express a request or prohibition.
On the other hand, the risk of threatening someone‟s needs of self-determination isn‟t
always really serious. The imperative mood's appropriateness depends on several factors like

psychological and social relationships, as well as the speaker‟s basic communicative intention
(illocutionary force). For example, the speaker may have the simple intention to offer
something, to wish or permit something, or just to apologize, and not to manipulate his
conversational partner. In these cases, no restriction will be placed on the use of imperative:
 Come to the party tomorrow!
 Just smoke it if you want it
 Have a nice trip!
 Excuse me!
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1.2.2.3. Imperative Mood and Politeness shown when making a
request in Vietnamese
It is common and not impolite to use imperatives in Vietnamese. Vietnam is an
Oriental country, so negative politeness is not always put in a high place. Vietnamese people
tend to use more positive politeness to show concern to others and narrow the distance
between the speaker and the hearer. For Vietnamese people, requests in Imperatives are
considered polite, especially, when the word „please‟ is added in front of the main verb of the
requests, they assume that their politeness and well-behaviour are shown. Vietnamese people
think that using imperatives which have internal modifications to make requests is still polite
or very polite in most of the situations.
In Vietnamese, requests using Imperative Mood usually have subjects, especially when
the Hearer has higher relative power to the Speaker.
E.g. Anh xem hộ em cái máy tính với!
Moreover, using particles expressing Mood when making requests, such as nhé, với,
một lát … can help to avoid the face threatening act to the Hearer. These may help the
Imperative Requests are polite and can show the Speaker‟s gratitude to the Hearer.
(According to Nguyễn Văn Độ, Tìm hiểu mối liên hệ Ngôn ngữ - Văn hóa, 2004)
In some cases, requests with Interrogatives neither emphasize the politeness nor
reduce the requests‟ pressure on the Hearer but have unexpected effect. For example:
(a) Thầy giúp con với vs. (b) Thầy có giúp con với không? (61:242)

Nguyễn Đức Hoạt assumes that (a) sounds much stronger and urgent than (b). Thus,
in Vietnamese, it is impossible to make a conclusion that requests with Interrogatives are more
polite than Imperative.
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Chapter two
A study of how Imperative Mood is practiced
within Thang Long University Environment
The present study aims at giving an insight into the politeness phenomena of using
Imperative Mood within Thang Long University Environment. More specifically, it is a
qualitative and quantitative analysis of the different moods that English native speakers and
Vietnamese native speakers respectively use to make requests. Therefore, this chapter deals
with the research questions, the research method, the results of the questionnaires and the
framework used in this study.
2.1. Thang Long University in brief
Thang Long University is a young institution which has been developing for 20 years
and it has a group of qualified and enthusiastic teachers and active students. Students are able
to acquire new knowledge and skills from their teachers, from their friends very fast.
Moreover, it is undeniable that many students can enrich their own knowledge by self – study
at home or in the library. In short, Thang Long University Environment is advanced, fair and
potential one for people to work and study.
2.2. Research questions
 Do English native speakers use Imperative Mood to make polite requests in the
Educational Environment?
 How do Vietnamese teachers and students at Thang Long University use Imperative
Mood to show their politeness when making a request in the Educational Environment?
 How do the English native speakers and the Vietnamese native speakers differ in using
linguistic structures to make requests in the social situations studied?
2.3. Research methods
So far, several methods such as ethnographic methods, role-play methods, multiple-

choice methods or the Discourse Completion Task have been used in researching speech acts.
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In this study, in order to collect sufficient data within the time and resource constraints
available, the written Discourse Completion Task (DCT) has been chosen as the means to
collect data for its many advantages.
Beebe and Cummings (1996) reported that DCT‟s are „a highly effective means of
instrumentation‟ (p.198). They found that DCTs enable researchers to (i) gather large
amounts of data quickly; (ii) create an initial classification of semantic formulas and strategies
that will likely occur in natural speech; (iii) study the stereotypical, perceived requirements
for socially appropriate responses; (iv) gain insight into social and psychological factors that
are likely to affect speech act performance; (v) ascertain the canonical shape of speech acts in
the minds of the speakers of the language and (vi) vary the situational control variables that
may affect speech behavior (p.80).
However, they state that the data may (i) differ from actual wording used in real
interaction; (ii) differ in the range of strategies used; (iii) differ in length of responses or the
number of turns it takes to fulfill the function, and (iv) lack depth of emotion that in turn
qualitatively affects the tone, content, and form of linguistic performance. As for the range of
strategies, several studies concluded that there was no difference between role-plays, natural
observation, and written questionnaires. Eisenstein and Bodman (1993) reported that the main
difference between these methods was in the degree of interaction. The findings show that the
difference in the length of speech found among the oral role-plays, DCTs and natural speech
was mainly due to the repetitions, hesitations, and longer supportive moves found in oral
interaction.
In comparison with other instrumentation, the DCT appears to be the most favourable
and most effective means of eliciting a large amount of data quickly which can create an
initial categorization of semantic formulae or linguistic structures of speech acts in certain
situations. In spite of its short comings, the DTC can be a useful tool for providing a
preliminary investigation at certain cultural differences in the performance of making
requests.

2.4. Research design
2.4.1. Data collection instruments
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The data collection instruments include two questionnaires:
 the Metapragmatic Questionnaire (MPQ) was also designed to test the validity
and reliability of the situations that will be used in the study
 the Discourse Completion Task (DCT) was designed to elicit forms of making
requests from English native speakers and the Vietnamese teachers and students
at Thang Long University.
2.4.2. Contents of the questionnaires
The Metapragmatic consists of 10 situations (scenarios), of which 5 situations for
students and 5 situations for teachers, which were taken from personal experience and
observations with a number of teachers and students at Thang Long University. Each situation
is followed by four questions of the “forced choice response formats” (De Vaus, 1985) of the
type of “choosing between attitude statements‟. Each question elicits judgements on one
contextual variable.
For example:
METAPRAGMATIC QUESTIONNAIRE (MPQ)
Could you please read the situations and tick (√) the answers in the appropriate box?
Situation 1. You are a student in the English class, but you still don‟t know many other
students. You want to borrow a book from the girl/boy sitting next to you. What will you say
in English?

1
2
3
A. How do you rate the relative power (authority
or right) of the Speaker with respect to the Hearer
in this situation?

Lower
Equal
Higher
B. How do you rate the relationship between the
Speaker and the Hearer?
Distant
Fairly close
Very close
C. How much would the Speaker‟s request affect
your feelings if you were the Hearer?
Not at all
A bit
Much

The result is interpreted as follows:
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Question A:
- X % of people choose answer 1, meaning X% of them think that S has lower
power than H
- Y% choose answer 2, meaning Y% of them think that S has equal power to H.
- Z% choose answer 3, meaning Z% of them think that S has higher power than
H.
- Then X, Y, Z are compared, the biggest number will represent for the validity
and reliability of the situation.
Question B:
- X % of people choose answer 1, meaning X% of them think that S does not
know H or they are strangers.
- Y% choose answer 2, meaning Y% of them think that S and H are relatively
familiar with each other.

- Z% choose answer 3, meaning Z% of them think that S and H are familiar and
intimate with each other.
- Then X, Y, Z are compared, the biggest number will represent for the validity
and reliability of the situation.
Question C:
- X % of people choose answer 1, meaning X% of them think that the requests
they make are not reasonable and cannot be done.
- Y% choose answer 2, meaning Y% of them think that the requests they make
are quite reasonable.
- Z% choose answer 3, meaning Z% of them think that the requests they make
are very reasonable and can be done.
- Then X, Y, Z are compared, the biggest number will represent for the validity
and realiability of the situation.
Besides completing and choosing the best answers in the questionnaire, the subjects
were also asked to make comments on the clarity of the situations, and to give comments about
the process of completing the questionnaires by answering the two questions below:
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 How do you rate your saying?
Not polite Fairly polite Very polite
 How do you rate the urgency of the situation?
Not urgent Fairly urgent Very urgent
The collected data were then analyzed both as preliminary results and in terms of the
results of the survey. The collected comments were taken into consideration in revising the
final versions of the DCT. All the mistakes and weaknesses were collected and corrected in
order to make a pilot DCT, which was also delivered to two English and two Vietnamese
participants. While originally the instructions asked the participants to say how they would
make requests in each of the situations, the sentence „please write down exactly what you
would say in a normal conversation‟ is then followed. One Vietnamese answered the situation
in an indirect way instead of in the direct one as required. Therefore, the instructions had to be

clarified. Luckily, there was no problem with the space left for participants to write down the
answers.
Finally, the second questionnaire, the open-ended discourse completion task (DCT),
including 10 situations. Here is a sample item of DCT:
DISCOURSE COMPLETION TASK (DCT)
Could you please read the situations and write down exactly what you would say directly in a
normal conversation?
Situation 2. You want a friend you know well to give you a lift after the lesson. What will you
say in English?
You say: ………………………………………………………………………………………
The situations in the questionnaires are designed to reflect real-life situations. They are
intended to elicit the ways of making requests used in normal conversations. The
questionnaires are in English and Vietnamese. The English-native-speaker participants are
asked to answer all 10 situations in English, and their answers are considered the standard
sayings for later comparisons. The Vietnamese student participants are asked to answer 5
situations, the Vietnamese teacher participants are asked to answer 5 other situations which are