TYPICAL CULTURAL FEATURES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FABLES ABOUT PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE a CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
-----------------o0o-------------------

NGUYỄN VĂN NGHĨA

TYPICAL CULTURAL FEATURES IN ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE FABLES ABOUT PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE A
CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM VĂN HÓA ĐIỂN HÌNH TRONG CÁC
TRUYỆN NGỤ NGÔN TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT NÓI VỀ TRIẾT LÝ CUỘC
SỐNG
M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15

HANOI – 2010


Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1. Rationale of the study
The first thing to mention when it comes to choosing the topic of this thesis is that culture
itself is a broad and complicated subject matter. There are plenty of aspects in this field. As usual,
each of them is touched upon individually from different angles, depending on the interests of
certain authors. Therefore, it is not surprising that different authors give different definitions of
culture. In addition, it is agreed that getting a deep understanding about any aspect of culture is a
really hard job. This is because culture is not tangible, and it is only perceptive to human sense.
For different individuals, the perceptions are not the same. Thus, there is a variety of
presentations on the subject matter.

However complicated it is, culture is still an important factor in our life. It distinguishes
humans from animals. The way people behave and treat each other makes them different from
other living beings. It is also agreed that although the world is coming toward common standards
in many fields like science, technology and business, there are by no means a uniform in culture
among the regions or nations in the world. It is cultural identities that distinguish groups of
people. Nowadays, in the world of integration, humans are searching for a common
understanding of one another. Culture is really a bridge that brings people closer together. The
need to discover certain cultures has become more urgent than ever before.
Another reason that inspires the author to carry out this study is the attractiveness of fables, in
this case, fables in English and Vietnamese. Fables are one type of folk literature with stories
containing characters as either animals or humans. Stories of this type tell a variety of subject
matters like the explanations of phenomena in real life or the teasing of bad habits of humans.
Each story is a moral lesson and through the words and behaviors of characters, we can draw
certain philosophies of life. The readers become thoughtful after reading such a fable.
Among fables of various themes, those about philosophies of life appear to be the most
remarkable. These are the most attractive of all types of fables. The world of animals or humans mostly in the past, speaks of the moral lessons which are still relevant in present life. Apart from
the moral lessons, another attraction in fables is the cultural features embedded in each story. The
settings, characters, language, and the way characters treat one another reveal the cultural
identities of certain nations, regions and these are the most attractive parts of fables.


1.2. Aims and research questions
Conducting the study, the author sets several limited aims. First of all, the study is to find out
the typical cultural features (TCFs) in fables in English as well as in Vietnamese. As a matter of
fact, there are a number of cultural features in fables, but the author’s focus is only on the typical
ones. That is, only the most remarkable features are taken into account. The second thing this
study has to do is to contrast these typical cultural features in the fables in the two languages,
finding out the similarities and the differences. In order to do so, the study will have to search for
the answers to the following research questions:
1. What are the typical cultural features in English fables about philosophy of life?

2. What are the typical cultural features in Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life?
3. What are the similarities of the typical cultural features in English and Vietnamese fables about
philosophy of life?
4. What are the differences of the typical cultural features in English and Vietnamese fables about
philosophy of life?
1.3. Significance of the study
The study is of great significance to not only culture researchers but those whose interests are
in applied linguistics as well. To those who are interested in cultures, the findings of the study
will manifest the TCFs in the fables in two languages, namely English and Vietnamese. The
readers and the learners of English language will have a chance to perceive the TCFs in each
language. In addition, the study also presents a contrastive analysis between these features. The
audience will get a deep understanding about the similarities and differences between Vietnamese
culture and Western one. For learners of English as a second language, the study helps them
become aware of cultural elements in the process of learning, which has not been paid much
attention to so far. Meanwhile, this is very important in English learning because learners are able
to perceive why speakers or writers use different language in different contexts. Being aware of
cultural elements is also a good way to avoid cultural shocks when they communicate with
people from English – speaking countries.
1.4. Scope of the study


As stated earlier, culture is a broad field with various aspects. This study, however, only
focuses on the TCFs in a limited number of fables in English and Vietnamese. It is also known
that fables consist of lots of themes. Yet, due to the shortage of such factors as time, materials and
finance, this study only exploits those about philosophy of life, which are very common in the
world of fables.
1.5. Organization of the study
The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction, which includes the
rationale, aims and research questions, scope as well as the organization of the study. The second
chapter is the literature view in which the author presents an overview of the publications related

to the topic of the research. The methodology used in the study is presented in the third chapter. It
includes a description of the data collection and data analysis procedures used in the study. The
findings of the study are presented in the fourth chapter, Results and Discussions. The final
chapter presents a summary of the findings, limitations of the study as well as suggestions for
further research.

Chapter 2: Literature View
In this chapter basic concepts relevant to the study will be reviewed with the aim of finding out
what has been about the topic as well as forming a theoretical framework for the study.
2.1. Culture
As stated earlier, culture is not tangible, only perceptive to human senses. There have been a
large number of publications regarding culture from different points of view. Some authors do
their best to give its definitions; others both give the definitions and discuss certain aspects of
culture. As a consequence, the publications about culture are plentiful not only in number but also
in its aspects as well.
As is known, scholars all over the world have defined and regarded culture differently. In fact, it
is believed that there is no commonly - shared definition. According to Gooddenough (1964:36),


a proper definition of culture must ultimately derive from the operations by which we describe
particular cultures. Because these operations are still in early stages of formulation and
development, it is not yet possible to state precisely just what we mean when we speak of a
society’s culture. He adds:
“As I see it, a society’s culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a
manner acceptable to its members, and do so in any role that they accept for anyone of themselves. Culture,
being what people have to learn as distinct from their biological heritage, must consist of the end product of
learning, knowledge, in a most general, if relative, sense of the term”. (p.36)

By this definition, we should note that culture is not a material phenomenon; it does not consist
of things, people, behavior, or emotion. It is rather an organization of these things. As such, the

things people say and do, their social arrangements and events, are products or by – products of
their culture as they apply it to the task of perceiving and dealing with their circumstances. To
those who know their culture, these things and events are also signs signifying the cultural forms
or models of which they are material representations.
Given such a definition, it is obviously impossible to describe a culture properly simply by
describing behavior or social, economic, and ceremonial events and arrangements as observed
material phenomena. Goodenough (1964) gives further analysis:
What is required is to construct a theory of the conceptual models which they represent and of which they
are artifacts. We test the adequacy of such a theory by our ability to interpret and predict what goes on in a
community as measured by how its members, our informants, do so. (p.36)

Meanwhile, Hoijer (1964:445) employs a well – known definition by Tylor (1903) that culture is
“… complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom and any other
capability and habits acquired by man as a member of society”. Concerning another aspect of
culture, Hoijer (1964:445) claims that some traits of culture are easily borrowed by one group
from neighbouring groups. In essence, then, the similarities in culture which mark societies in the
same cultural area result from contacts and borrowings and are limited to those features of culture
which are easily transmitted form one group to another.
Robert Lado (1957) views culture form another approach. He only focuses his attention to
human behaviour. From his point of view, “cultures are structured systems of patterned
behaviour” (p.111). In addition, he connects culture with anthropology. According to him,
“cultural anthropologists have gradually moved from an atomistic definition of culture,
describing it as more or less haphazard collection of traits, to one which emphasizes pattern and
configuration” (p.111). He also compares this definition with the assumption by Edward Sapir
(1921) that “all cultural behavior is patterned” (Robert Lado, 1957:111). This point of view is


shared by Holliday, Hyde and Kullman (2004), they assume much of the debate on “culture” in
the last fifty years or so have been concerned with challenging models of culture which have
emanated from the field of anthropology.

Meanwhile, when discussing the concept of culture, Risager (2006:32) briefly presents three
dimensions of the concept of culture described by the Polish-British sociologist Zygmunt
Baumann (1999). They are:
The hierarchical concept of culture
The differential concept of culture
The generic concept of culture
In the hierarchical concept, Baumann (1999) regards a culture as something that the individual
human being or individual society either “has” or “does not have” or “has” at a higher or lower
level. This concept cannot exist in the plural and it is always value-laden. The criteria for what
“culture” is – and thus the “ideal human” – are something for which a struggle takes place in a
society. To attain culture is actually to attain an ideal nature: “There is an ideal nature of human
beings, and the culture means the conscious, strenuous and prolonged effort to attain this ideal, to
bring the actual life – process into line with the highest potential of the human vocation.”
(Baumann, 1999:7).
The differential concept of culture, according to Baumann (1999), has to do with culture as
something that “marks off” group of people from each other. This concept can be used in plural.
Following this concept, a culture is typically a cohesive unit that various anthropologists have
described with the aid of such terms as ethos, genius, pattern, configuration, style and the like.
Baumann (1999) adds that “a culture has the nature of a system that is self – contained and resists
mixing; it mainly alters as the result of encounters with other cultures (“cultural clashes”)”.
Baumann (1999) also assumes that cultures viewed in such a way can be compared, and the
comparison can result in cultural universals being collected and categorised. Culture can be both
“from the outside” and “from the inside”; the former involves observing behaviour on the basis of
a general or universal apparatus, while the latter involves listening to and trying to understand
what categories are relevant for the indigenous people themselves – consciously or unconsciously
(Baumann, 1999, quoted in Risager, 2006:33).
The generic concept of culture, on the other hand, has to do with what is common to humanity,
that which distinguishes humanity from nature and all other living creatures. One could say that
the more one emphasises the diversity of cultures and their mutual incompatibility, the more one
needs, despite everything, to have a concept that applies to all humanity. The generic concept of

culture can give rise to the view that there is only one culture, i.e. human culture everywhere and
at all times. (Baumann, 1999, quoted in Risager, 2006:33).
Like William (1988) and Fink (1988), Risager (1999) distinguishes between three concepts of
culture that have come into being at different times but all of which can be refound in present –
day understandings of the concept:
The individual concept of culture
The collective concept of culture
The aesthetic concept of culture
With regard to the individual concept of culture, Risager (2006) assumes that this concept has
been known since at least the time of Cicero, who uses the metaphor expression cultura animi ,
i.e. cultivation of the soul/mind, and this has to do with the individual’s mental cultivation, either
via God’s cultivation of the soul. For the first 16 centuries cultura animi (or from the 16th century,
cultura without a logical object) designates a process of mental cultivation, a pedagogical
process. Not until the 17th century can the concept also signify the result of this process, i.e. the
mental (intellectual, spiritual, aesthetic) level the person involved has attained. One begins to
speak of “the cultivated person”. The individual concept of culture is generally speaking
chracterised by a hierarchical understanding of culture (the hierarchical concept of culture).
(p.36)
As for the collective concept of culture, Risager (2006) claims that from the end of the 17 th
century, a collective concept of culture developed alongside the individual one. The collective
concept of culture has to be divided into a hierarchical and a non-hierarchical variant. The
hierarchical variant is the earlier, and it deals with either the societal conditions for the individual
process of cultivation, or with what “cultivated people” have in common. (p.36)
With reference to the aesthetic concept of culture, Risarger (2006) assumes that in the course of
the 19th century, a number of special spheres crystalise in connection with modern development,
including “art” with its subsections including literature, visual arts and music. These become a
reference for the aesthetic concept of culture which develops during the same period, alongside
other concepts of culture, and which adopts a narrowing, individual and hierarchising direction

that focuses in particular on artistic products as supreme achievements of symbolic – aesthetic
creativeness.
Like many authors who are interested in culture, Claude Lévi – Strauss (1958), an European
sociologist and anthropologist proposes that all cultures reflect fundamental and universal
principles of human mind. Cultures were shared creations of human minds. Meanwhile, Keesing


(1974:78-79) when discussing Lévi – Strauss’s points of view supposes that the mind imposes
culturally patterned order, a logic of binary contrast, of relations, and transformation, on a
continuous changing and often random world. The gulf between the cultural realm, where man
imposes his arbitrary order, and the realm of nature becomes a major axis of symbolic polarity:
“nature vs. culture” is a fundamental conceptual opposition in many all – times and places.
To conclude, there is no limit in the discussion of culture. This is a multi-facet subject matter.
Yet, through the overview of the publications involved, we can focus our attention on some issues
like the definition, concept of culture seen from different angles or the relationship between
culture and anthropology.
2. 2. Fables as a type of literature
2.2.1. Fable
There are many definitions for fables. David Emery (2010) views a fable as a short allergical
narrative making a moral point, traditionally by means of animal characters who speak and act
like human beings (About.com Guide). The website Questia.com shares this point of view.
According to this online journal, a fable is a short, pithy, and animal tale, most often told or
written with a moral tagged in the form of a proverb. Thus, to convey a moral is the aims of most
fables, and the tale is the means by which this is done, providing illustration and compelling
argument for the moral. The author adds that “fable does not originate as a folktale, though it may
make use of folk material, and can also be composed into a culture and exchanged as traditional
oral folklore” ().
Similarly, according to the free encyclopedia on Wikipedia, a fable is a “succinct story, in pose
or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature
which are “anthromorphized” (given human quality), and that illustrates a moral lesson ( a

“moral”), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim”.
According to another definition on the free encyclopedia, fables can be described as a didactic
mode of literature. That is, whether a fable has been handed down from generation to generation
as oral literature, or constructed by a literary tale-teller, its purpose is to impart a lesson or value,
or to give sage advice. Fables also provide opportunities to laugh at human folly, when they
supply examples of behaviors to be avoided rather than emulated.


With reference to fable characters, this author claims that the characters of a fable may be
people, gods, animals or even lifeless objects. When animals and objects are used in fables, they
think and talk like people, even though they act like animals or objects. For example, in a fable a
clay pot might say that it is frightened of being broken.
The stories told by fables are usually very simple. To understand a fable, the reader or listener
does not need to know all about the characters. For this reason animals are often used in fables in
a way that is easily understood because it is always the same. They keep the same characteristics
from story to story.


A lion is noble



A rooster is boastful



A peacock is proud



A fox is cunning



A wolf is fierce



A horse is brave



A donkey is hard-working
Fables frequently have as their central characters animals that are given anthropomorphic

characteristics such as the ability to reason and speak. In antiquity, Aesop presented a wide range
of animals as protagonists, including "the Tortoise and the Hare" who famously engage in a race
against each other; and, in another classic fable, a fox which rejects grapes that are out of reach,
as probably being sour ("sour grapes"). (Wikipedia)
In summary, fables belong to fiction in literature. A fable is a simple story with the characters as
persons, animals or even inanimate objects. At the end of each story, a lesson or moral is often
drawn and this is the most typical feature of fable. The characters and content of a fable are
always influenced by cultural factors.
2.2.2. Fables about philosophy of life.
It is agreed that fables have a wide range of themes. It can be either about human relationships
expressed through animal behaviours or the explanation of a natural phenomenon, or simply it is
about humans’ daily interactions. However, in this study, those about philosophies of life are the
major concern. The question asked here is “What is philosophy of life?” As shown in
Dictionary.reference.com, philosophy of life is “any philosophical view or vision of the nature or
purpose of life or of the way that life should be lived”. Literally, this definition is satisfactory and

clear in the common sense. However, in the article “The philosophy of life” on the website
, Swami Krishnananda thinks deeply about this definition.
According to this scholar “Philosophy is a well coordinated and systematised attempt at
evaluating life and the universe as a whole, with reference to first principles that underlie all
things as their causes and are implicit in all experience”. In addition, we see another concept of
philosophy by : “Philosophy is a quest for a comprehensive
understanding of human existence. The objective of philosophy is to consider the rational
justification of logical inferences, human values, criteria for establishing the claims of knowledge
and certainly, and interpretations of the nature of reality”.
From the definition of philosophy, it is not a hard job to comprehend what fables about
philosophy of life are. In fact, they are fables with a “moral”, or philosophy of life in the end.
This characteristic is typical among fables in all languages. Hence, each of the fables about
philosophy of life is a lesson about life, and way of life. We can claim that a fable is something
more important than a work of art. It is a lesson about life.

Chapter 3: Methodology
In this chapter, the procedures of data collection and data analysis will be outlined. Whether the
findings are valid and reliable or not depends on the method in which the study is conducted.
3.1. Subjects
In this study, the subjects are 15 fables about philosophy of life in English and 15 fables about
philosophy of life in Vietnamese.
3.1.1. English fables
The 15 English fables come from the collection of Aesop’s fables . This collection is taken from
the website An English-Zone.com. It is also noted that An English-zone.com is a webpage for
online English learning and teaching . This is a reliable website in terms of academic English and
is very well – known in the field of teaching and learning English as a foreign language (EFL).

The English language used on this webpage is the standard one; and the collection of Aesop’s
fables on this webpage is used as the material for reading skills. Therefore, these fables are quite
reliable for academic purposes.
3.1.2. Vietnamese fables
The 15 Vietnamese fables in this study are taken from the book “Tổng tập văn học dân gian
người Việt - Tập 10: Truyện ngụ ngôn” (The great collection of Vietnamese folk literature –
Volume 10: Fables) by Social Science Publishing House, Hanoi (2003). The book consists of
hundreds of fables of different types like prose, poetry. In particular, all the fables are collected
from different regions of Vietnam; therefore, the regional diversity is guaranteed. In this study
only those of prose are taken as the subject of the study.
3.2. Data collection and data analysis procedures
15 fables of philosophy of life in English and 15 fables of philosophy of life in Vietnamese were
chosen from the two sources above. They were then carefully read and analyzed in terms of the
following features in order to answer the first two research questions:
- The objects and settings : First, the setting is the situation in which the story takes place and the
characters interact with each other. The settings might be either rural, urban or in the
mountainous area. The story might take place in a room, at the market or in the field. In addition,
there are a large number of objects in the fables. They might be the objects used in everyday life
at home or anywhere else. These objects are very important for finding out the cultural features
because they are obviously influenced by cultural factors.
- The characters: The characters in fable are diversified. They might be human: farmers,
merchants, huntsmen, fathers, sons, husbands, wives, friends or children. They belong to different
social classes at that time. It is clear that cultural elements have influence on them. Apart from
human characters, there are many fables in which characters are animals, either wild or domestic
such as tigers, lions, foxes, wolves, weasels, hares, tortoises, buffalos, cows, horses or chickens.
- The language used by the characters: In fables, language is used as a means of
communication. The way the characters make themselves understood, or the language they use –
either direct or indirect is the concern of this study. It is clear that language depends on cultural
elements, which are embedded in the words uttered by the characters. In addition, we should bear

in mind that language is itself a broad field. However, this study only focuses on the directness
and indirectness of the language used by the characters in the fables. Other linguistic properties
will not be considered.
- The way the philosophies of life are expressed: Philosophies of life are the themes of the fables
in this study. There are a number of philosophies of life in these fables like those about human
relationships or the struggle between the good and the evil. The question of how these
philosophies of life are expressed - whether implicitly or explicitly is taken into consideration in
this study. These features are clearly influenced by cultural elements.
In order to answer question 3 and 4: “What are the similarities of typical cultural features in
English and Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life? /What are the differences of typical
cultural features in English and Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life?”, a comparison
between the TCFs of fables in English will be compared to those of fables in Vietnamese.
This chapter has outlined the subjects of the study as well as the procedures of data collection
and data analysis. The results of the study will be discussed in the next chapter in order to answer
the four research questions of the study.


Chapter 4: Results and discussions
In this chapter, the results of the study will be discussed with relevant citations from fables in
English and Vietnamese. The four research questions will be answered in turn.

4.1. Typical cultural features of English fables about philosophy of life.
4.1.1. Features of the settings and objects.

Table 1: The TCFs of the settings and objects in English fables about philosophy of life
CA: Fables with characters as animals

R: Rural setting

CHA: Fables with characters as humans and animals

U: Urban setting

CH: Fables with characters as humans

D: Domestic animals

S: Settings

ND: Non domestic animals

O: Objects

The TCFs of the settings and objects in English fables about philosophy of life are shown in
Table 1. As can be seen from the table, 11 out of 15 fables have got rural settings (73.3%). The
percentages of fables with characters as animals (CA), characters as humans and animals (CHA),
and characters as humans (CH) in rural setting are 26.6 %, 20 % and 26.6 % respectively. On the
contrary, there are no fables in which urban setting is employed.
Table 1 shows that the settings in most of the English fables are rural. The rural background
consists of “the field” or “the plowland” where farmers work. Particularly, in many fables, “the


field” is considered the setting of the story. The reason for this is that long ago, farming mainly
took place on the farm or in the field. Another reason that explains why rural setting is dominant
is that these fables were mostly written long ago in the ancient time, when farming, including the
raising of cattle and the growing of crops is the most popular economic activity. Throughout
Aesop’s fables, there is a dominance of rural settings, so we can claim that rural settings are a
typical feature of fables in Western cultures. In the fable The farmer and the crane, “the feeding
ground”, “plow land newly sown with wheat” are seen as the major setting. Apart from “wheat”,

farming production in the West involves many other crops like “vine” in the fable The farmer
and his son. In this fable, “farm” and “vineyards” belong to rural setting. They are typical of
farming production in the West.
With reference to urban settings, Table 1 shows that none of the fables has this kind of setting.
This is quite understandable because in ancient time most people earned their livings by growing
crops and raising cattle, both of which took place on the farm or in the field. At that time there
were not many urban areas, so urban life was not typical of the culture of the time. As a result,
urban settings were not popular in fables.
The TCFs are also manifested via the objects of the fables. The total number of the fables with
domestic objects is 7 fables (46.7%). The cultural features are hidden inside the objects
themselves.

Some major tools are “spades”, and “mattocks” (Farmer and his sons); “the

wagon” and “the wheel” (Hercules and the wagoner); the “panniers” (The merchant and his
donkey). It is commonly known that spades, mattocks, wagons, wheels, and panniers are the tools
used in farming. They are very useful in daily life of farmers. Apart from the domestic objects,
farming products also bear some typical cultural identities. For example, “fleece”, “wool”,
“flesh” (The widow and the sheep) are farming products from the animals. They are typical in the
life of the Western people. In addition, the tools associated with them are also taken into account
in terms of culture. “The shearer”, which farmers use to shear sheep is a typical tool in the West.
Besides, there are many non-domestic objects which bear certain cultural identities. The “oak”
tree is an example: “… He asked a man felling oaks …” (The hunter and the woodman). The
oak is a typical tree in forests in Western cultures.
In short, the settings and objects in Easop’s fables embed European cultural identities not only
of the ancient time but at present. They help distinguish the European culture with cultures
anywhere else. These settings and objects are so popular in the West that they have become
stereotyped whenever Western rural life is mentioned.

4.1.2. Features of the characters.
Along with the settings and objects, the characters of English fables reveal a lot about TCFs.
They are divided into two groups: characters as animals, as humans, and the characters as both
humans and animals. Animals are divided into two subgroups: domestic and non-domestic (DA
and NDA); Characters as humans is on the other hand grouped according to many different
norms: family relation (FR), career relation (C), and social relation (SR). The characteristic of
humans and animals as the main characters is very common in the world of fable. Table 2
presents the TCFs of characters in English fables.


Table 2: The TCFs of characters in English fables.
Notes:
H: Humans

DA: Domestic animals

A: Animals

NDA: Non-domestic animals

CA: Fables with characters as animals

FR: Family-related relation

CHA: Fables with characters as humans and animals

C: Career relation

CH: Fables with characters as humans

SR: Social relation

As shown in Table 2, the number of fables that have characters as animals is relatively high.
The percentage of fables that have domestic and non-domestic animals as characters is 40 % and
53% respectively. Clearly, when a certain animal acts as the character of a fable, it bears many
cultural features.
First, cultural identities can be recognized by the types of animals themselves. Concerning the
characters as domestic animals, they are the ones kept for food (flesh, milk) or for products (horn,
wool) such as “lamb” and “sheep” (The wolf and the lamb, The shepherd and the wolf and The
widow and the sheep); or they are kept for their services like drawing force for ploughing lands
or transporting crops like “donkey” (The salt merchant and his donkey). It is noted that these
animals are very typical of domestic animals in Western families. The features above might be
due to the conditions of geography, climate and other socio-cultural factors in the West. In the
West, there are many green fields, pastures, meadows and prairies that are favorable for keeping
cattle such as sheep, goats, horses and donkeys. These animals, in turn, provide different services
and products to their owners. Thus, there is an interrelation between these characters and their
owners, which forms a distinctive culture.


As far as non-domestic animals are concerned, these animals are diversified in terms of species.
They are “the wolf” in “The wolf and the lamb” or “The shepherd and the wolf”; “the hare” and
“the tortoise” in “The Hare and the Tortoise”; “the fox” in “The Fox and the Goat”, “the raven”
and “the swan” in “The Raven and the Swan”; “the lioness” in “The Lioness”; “the bear” in
“The Bear and the two travelers”. The animals above are typical wild animals in Western
culture. In ancient time, forests covered most of the surface of the earth and there lived a lot of
wild animals. Due to natural conditions, such animals outnumbered the others. From this reality,
these wild animals are considered to be the representatives of wild animals of the culture.
Because of this, the stereotypes about such animals were also formed. For instance, foxes and
wolves have always been viewed as cruel, evil, and sly. By contrast, lambs, goats and tortoises
are always thought of as the symbol of the little, timid and kind.

With reference to the TCFs embedded by the human characters, they are mostly manifested
through family-related relations, career relation, and social relation. As for the relationships
between family members in the fables, they are assumed to be the same as those in every culture.
However, we should take notes that in Aesop’s fables, the major relationship is that between
father and son: “Father and his son”, “The farmer and his son”. There are no fables with the
relationships between father and daughter, mother and daughter, or mother and son. This is due to
the influence of socio - cultural elements. At that time, like many other cultures, men, thanks to
their superior strength over women, were paid more respect to than women. They were the
breadwinners in the family, responsible for the labour force for farming work. The vivid example
can be found in the following fable:
“A father, being on the point of death, wished to be sure that his son would give the same
attention to his farm as he himself had given it. He called them to his beside and said, “My sons,
there is a great treasure hid in my vineyards”. The sons, after his death, took their spades and
mattocks and carefully dug over every portion of their land. They found no treasure, but the vines
repaid their labor by an extraordinary and superabundant crop.”
(The farmer and his son)
One of the norms with which the human characters manifest the TCFs is work. Because the
dominant settings are rural, most of the jobs are relevant to farming, the centre of which is “ the
farmer”.
“Some cranes made their feeding grounds on some plowlands newly sown with wheat. For a
long time the farmer, brandishing an empty sling, chased them away by the terror he inspired …”
(The farmer and the cranes)


“A father, being on the point of death, wished to be sure that his son would give the same
attention to his farm as he himself had given it …”
(The farmer and his sons)
The farmers of the Western cultures not only do the job of growing crops but also keep cattle on
their farms. Both the crops and the cattle are also distinctive and have certain typical cultural
identities (as discussed previously).

In addition to “the farmer”, there are many other jobs embedding certain cultural features.
Referring to those who keep certain types of cattle, there are different jobs; and these jobs are
very typical in terms of culture. They are “the shepherd” (The shepherd and the wolf), “the
butcher”, “the shearer” (The widow and the sheep). We also recognize cultural identities in the
job of “merchant”, “peddler” (The salt merchant and his donkey), “the hunter”, “the woodman”
(The hunter and the woodman). These jobs are very popular in the Western society. They reflect
the natural and social situations of the society at that time. They bear the cultural identities of the
Western culture.
In summary, some TCFs are revealed through the characters of English fables regardless of
whether they are animals or human. These characters are typical of either the domestic, wild
animals or humans in the West. They are the representatives of the Western culture
.4.1.3. The features of the language used by the characters.
Table 3 reveals the cultural features of the language used by the characters in conversation. As
claimed earlier, language has many aspects to investigate. However, this study only pays attention
to the directness and indirectness of the language in the conversations between the characters.
That is, we seek to find whether the characters communicate with each other by language in
literal or figurative meaning.


Table 3: The feature of the language in the conversations of English fables

Notes:

CHA: Fables with characters as humans and animals

L: Language used by characters in the conversation

CH: Fables with characters as humans

CA: Fables with characters as animals

As shown in Table 3, most of the conversations/ dialogues in English fables use the direct
language. 12 out of 15 fables (79.8%) have direct language between the characters in their
conversations. In most of the conversations, the language used is very simple, straightforward and
easy to understand. Take some conversations as example. The first is the dialogue between the
lamb and the wolf:
- Sir, last year you rudely insulted me.
- I don’t think that’s possible. I was not even born then.
- You eat the grass in my field.
- No, good sir. I have not yet tasted grass.
- You drink water in my well.
- No. I never drank your water because my mother’s milk is both food and drink to me.
- Well, I won’t be hungry even though you argue every one of my reasons for eating you.
(The wolf and the lamb)
Next is the answer from a friend, who pretended to be dead to get rid of the danger from a bear, to
his partner:
“He gave me this advice: Never travel with a friend who deserts you at the approach of danger.”
(The bear and the two travelers)
And here are the words of the father to his son:
“My son, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be as this faggot,
uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies, but if you are divided among yourselves, you will
be broken as easily as these ticks.”
(The father and his sons)
Another example is the dialogue between the hunter and the woodman:


- I will at once show you the lion himself.
- No, thank you. I did not ask that; it is his track only I am in search of, not the lion himself.
(The hunter and the woodman)
Following is the reply from Hercules to the pray for help of the wagoner when he was in trouble

with the wheels of his wagon:
“Put your shoulders to the wheels, my man. Goad your bullocks, and never pray to me for help,
until you have done your best to help yourself, or depend upon it you will henceforth pray in
vain”.
(Hercules and the wagoner)
In the extracts above, all of the words are uttered directly, so the utterance meaning is the
sentence meaning. Of all the dialogues, there are no hidden meanings (e.g. metaphor, metonymy
etc). This is one typical characteristic of all the fables in English. This characteristic resulted from
the fact that fables were created in the ancient time mostly by sharp – minded people (scholars)
However, everything including philosophy, art and literature was very simple then. Therefore,
they had to employ the simple language in their fables so that the majorities of the population,
who were not very well – educated, could understand the stories..
However, there are the fables in which indirect language is employed. That is the case of
rhetorical question, which is usually used to increase the effectiveness of the language. The
rhetorical question is found in the words of the husband to his wife: “If you were disliked by those
who go out early in the morning with their flocks, and return late in the evening, what must have
been felt towards you by those with whom you passed the whole day?” (The man and his wife)
To sum up, language is regarded as the most effective means of communication. It is the direct
language that the characters of the English fables employ to communicate with each other. This
makes fables simple, easy to understand and remember. That is the reason why fables are possibly
handed down from generation to generation.

4.1.4. Features of the ways the philosophies of life are expressed


Table 4: The features of the ways the philosophies of life are stated in English fables
Notes:

ES: Explicitly stated

CA: Fables with characters as animals

IS: Implicitly stated

CHA: Fables with characters as humans and animals
CH: Fables with characters as humans

Table 4 shows how the philosophy of life is stated in English fables. As can bee seen from the
table, most of the philosophies are explicitly stated (73%); meanwhile, the number of
philosophies stated implicitly is only 26%.
The philosophy of life is the moral the story conveys through its content. In Aesop’s fables
most of the philosophies are drawn at the end of the story. Following are some philosophies in
Aesop’s fables:
- The tyrant will always find a reason for his tyranny. (The wolf and the lamb)
- Slow but steady wins the race. (The hare and the Tortoise)
- Value is in the worth, not in the number. (The lioness)
- Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends. (The bear and two travelers)
In the examples above, the explicitness of the philosophy is a typical feature of English
fables. This is also the typical way of thinking of Westerners. The fact that these philosophies
are explicitly stated is the attractiveness of Aesop’s fables.

4.2. The TCFs in Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life
Like Western culture with a lot of specific identities embedded in fables as discussed above,
Vietnamese culture is deeply characterized by the features of water rice agriculture. These


features have come into existence for such a long period of time that they have become
Vietnamese identities. They have been mentioned in the studies by many authors like Tran Ngoc
Them (1995), Tran Quoc Vuong (1996) and Nguyen Van Do (2004). The findings of this study
will show some other aspects of Vietnamese culture that are embedded in fables about philosophy

of life.
4.2.1. Features of the settings and objects.
Table 5 shows the features of the settings and objects in Vietnamese fables about philosophy of
life.

Table 5: The

features of the settings and objects in Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life.

Notes:

RS: Rural settings

CA: Fables with characters as animals

US: Urban settings

CHA: Fables with characters as humans and

DO: Domestic objects

animals

NDO: Non-domestic objects

CH: Fables with characters as humans

In most Vietnamese fables, the story often takes place in the country (rural settings). 73.3% of
the fables have the rural settings, while no fables have urban settings. The number of the fables
with domestic objects is 53.3%, whereas that of non-domestic objects is 20%.

There are some cultural features in the settings of the Vietnamese fables. Most of the stories
take place in “cánh đồng” (the rice field), “trên bờ sông” (by the riverside). In particular, the


settings of “đầu làng” (the entrance of the village), “ruộng” (the plot of land in the rice field) are
very typical of Vietnamese culture. These settings are associated with agricultural production, so
they reveal the fact that Vietnam is a society of agricultural production with its distinctive
identities. Such identities only belong to a culture of water-rice agriculture. In addition, there are
other settings only seen in Vietnamese culture: “nhà ông Đồ”, “nhà ông Nghè” (at the village
teacher’s house), “đám ma trên đường” (the funeral on road). The settings above are very
distinctive in Vietnamese culture.
Apart from the rural settings, the typical features of Vietnamese culture are shown in many
objects and the meals of the farmers. With regard to the meals, all the food of a traditional
Vietnamese meal (“cơm”, “cá”, “cà”, “canh”) appear in these stories. They make up the main
diet of Vietnamese farmers. In addition, there are fables in which the tools for agricultural
production (“cày”, “bừa”, “bắp cày” ) are mentioned. These tools are very important to
agricultural production in Vietnam. In addition to being perceived through the domestic objects,
the cultural features are expressed through non-domestic objects. The images of “ngôi chùa”(the
pagoda), “tiếng chuông”(the sound of the bell), “dòng sông” (the river) have become very
popular in Vietnamese culture. Rural life in Vietnam is also recognized by the image of “đám
ma” (funeral) with “cờ phướn”(flags), “trống”(drum), “kèn” (trumpet).
In short, Vietnamese culture is the culture of water rice production. It has influence on every
aspect of life including human daily activities and social habits. Along with the agricultural
production of water rice come cultural characteristics, which are deeply stereotyped if seen form
other cultures.
4.2.2. Features of the characters
4.2.2.1. Characters as humans
The characters of Vietnamese fables are divided into two groups: animals and humans. The group
of animal characters is divided into two subgroups: domestic and non-domestic. The group of
human characters is divided into three subgroups: those of family-related relations, of career

relations, and of social relations.
Table 6 shows the cultural features of the characters in Vietnamese fables. Of these fables, the
percentages of fables with family-related relations, career - related relations and social relations
between characters are 13 %, 40% and 26.2% respectively.


Table 6: The TCFs of the characters in Vietnamese fables about the philosophy of life
Notes:

DA:

Domestic animals

CA: Fables with characters as animals

NDA: Non-domestic animals

CHA: Fables with characters as humans and animals

SR: Social -related

CH: Fables with characters as humans

C: Career- related

FR: Family – related

Among the relationships between the characters of the fables, those of family-related as well as
social relation do not bear many typical features of Vietnamese culture because these
relationships are the same in all societies. However, it is the careers of the characters that tell

much about cultural identities. As stated earlier, Vietnamese culture is a culture of water-rice
production. In such a society, there are people whose jobs are affected by agricultural elements. In
other words, they do farming jobs or the other jobs relevant to agricultural production. The most
typical job is “nông dân” (farmer). Vietnamese farmers are quite different from those in the West.
Their main job is to grow rice in the field. They bear most of the typical cultural features of the
Vietnamese. They are the representatives of the people in rural areas in Vietnam. “Người thợ cày”
(ploughman) is another name of the job “nông dân”. He is the person who works in the field with
“cái cày” (plough) and “con trâu” (buffalo), an image very popular in Vietnamese culture. Apart
from the job of “nông dân”, “thợ cày”, there are other jobs manifesting Vietnamese cultural
features. “Thầy bói” (fortune teller) is, for example, usually visually-impaired and earns his
living by foretelling others’ future. This kind of job is very popular in Vietnamese traditional
society.


In short, characters as human in Vietnamese fables about philosophy of life bear certain
identities of Vietnamese culture. These characters not only bear the cultural identities of the past,
but these features still exist today and become the stereotypes of Vietnamese culture.

4.2.2.2. Characters as animals
Animal characters of the fables also have typical cultural features. As shown in Table 6, there are
more fables with domestic animals than those with non-domestic animals. The most frequentlyfound animal is “trâu” (buffalo). “Trâu” is an animal raised by farmers to help them do farming
work. It is such an important animal that the Vietnamese have many sayings about it:
“Con trâu là đầu cơ nghiệp”
(Vietnamese saying)
or
“Trâu ơi ta bảo trâu này
Trâu ra ngoài ruộng trâu cày với ta
Cấy cày vốn nghiệp nông gia
Ta đây trâu đấy ai mà quản công
Bao giờ cây lúa còn bông

Thời còn ngọn cỏ ngoài đồng trâu ăn.”
(Vietnamese expression)
“Chó” (dog) and “gà” (hen/cock) are other popular images of domestic animals. These animals
are kept in most Vietnamese families. In Vietnamese culture, there is a special relationship
between the dog and its owner:
“Con không chê cha mẹ khó, chó không chê chủ nghèo”
(Vietnamese saying).
“Trâu”, “chó”, “gà” are typical of domestic animals in Vietnamese culture.
Some non-domestic animals in the fables (“ếch”,”nhái”, “cua”, “ốc”, and even “đỉa” ) are also
related to the culture of water- rice production. These animals are so popular in Vietnam because
they are typical animals of water - rice agriculture.
In addition to the animals attached to agricultural production, there are other animals which also
bear certain identities of Vietnamese culture. The case of “Gà ông Đồ”and “gà ông Nghè” is an
example. The images of “gà” reflect the fact that Vietnamese people have the custom of raising