Politeness strategies in giving and responding to compliments in the voice of vietnam 2015 and the voice of US 2015

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Vũ Thị Hà

POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN GIVING AND
RESPONDING TO COMPLIMENTS IN THE
VOICE VIETNAM 2015 AND
THE VOICE US 2015

MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

HANOI, 2018


VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Vũ Thị Hà

POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN GIVING AND
RESPONDING TO COMPLIMENTS IN THE
VOICE VIETNAM 2015 AND
THE VOICE US 2015

Field: English Language
Code: 8220201
Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Việt Nga, Ph.D.

HANOI, 2018

DECLARATION BY AUTHOR
“I confirm that I, myself have written the thesis entitled “Politeness
strategies in giving and responding to compliments in the Voice of Vietnam
2015 and the Voice of US 2015” and without making use of any sources or
references other than those explicitly stated in the bibliography.
Passages extracted literally or as regard content from the sources and
references listed in the bibliography are identified in the thesis as a citation or
a paraphrase. And the data used for analysis in the thesis is clearly derived.
This master thesis has not been previously published. And if it is
subsequently proved that I cheat, I am ready to take the responsibility,
includingthe withdrawal of my academic degree.”
Author’s Signature

Vũ Thị Hà
Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Nguyễn Thị Việt Nga, Ph.D.
Date:

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude towards Nguyễn Thị Việt Nga,
Ph.D. my thesis supervisor- the one who has been very supportive and
patient with me for the whole process.
Secondly, I want to convey great thanks to the teacher in the

Department of English, the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences for their
help, suggestions and support during this essay writing process.
Last but not least, I am thankful for all my family: my parents, elder
brother and daughter who have encouraged and helped me a lot in terms of
time and spirit to complete this thesis
Without any of those above, this thesis will not be possible.
After all, I have tried to do my best in writing this thesis, but I realize
that it is still far for being perfect. Therefore, I regard any criticism and
recommendation fromreaders.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION BY AUTHOR ....................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................... v
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................... vi
LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 1
1.1.Rationale...................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Aims of the study ....................................................................................... 2
1.3. Research questions ..................................................................................... 3
1.4. Scope of the study ...................................................................................... 3
1.5. Significance of the study ............................................................................ 3
1.6. Research methods....................................................................................... 4
1.7. Structure of the study ................................................................................. 4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................... 6
2.1. Previous Studies ......................................................................................... 6
2.2. Theoretical background .............................................................................. 8

2.2.1. Communication and inter-cultural communication ......................... 8
2.2.2. Politeness and politeness strategies ............................................... 17
2.2.3. Compliments and compliment responses ........................................ 25
2.2.4. The voice show ................................................................................ 30
2.3. Summary. ................................................................................................. 33
CHAPTER 3: POLITENESS STRATEGIES OF COMPLIMENTS AND
COMPLIMENT RESPONSES IN TWO TV PROGRAMS..................... 34
3.1. Introduction .............................................................................................. 34
3.2. Analysis .................................................................................................... 35
3.2.1. The voice of Vietnam....................................................................... 35
3.2.2. The voice of US ............................................................................... 51
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CHAPTER 4: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCESBETWEEN TWO
CULTURESIN GIVING AND RESPONDING TO COMPLIMENTS .. 65
4.1. Similarities and differences in giving compliment in the Voice Vietnam
and the Voice US............................................................................................. 65
4.1.1. Similarities in employing positive politeness strategies to give
compliment. ............................................................................................... 70
4.1.2. Differences in using positive politeness strategies to give
compliments .............................................................................................. 70
4.1.3. Applying the positive politeness strategy in giving compliment ..... 73
4.2. Similarities and differences in responding to compliments in the voice
Viet Nam and the voice US ............................................................................. 78
4.2.1. Similarities in applying positive politeness strategies in responding
to compliments. ......................................................................................... 81
4.2.2. Differences in using strategies to respond to compliments ............ 81
4.3. Summary .................................................................................................. 82
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ..................................................................... 83

5.1. Recapitulation .......................................................................................... 83
5.2. Concluding Remarks ................................................................................ 83
5.3. Implications .............................................................................................. 84
5.4. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies ..................................... 85
REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 86

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ABSTRACT
This research discovers the manner of giving and responding to
compliments of the coaches, candidates, MC, etc… who directly participated
in the Voice of Vietnam and the Voice of US 2015 and the polite strategies
used by the characters in these programs.
This study was based on three theoretical frameworks: Rogers’s
theory of Communication (1994); Herbert’s theory of compliment responses;
Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness strategies. To carry out this study,
the author chose qualitative method as an analytical method.
Based on theoretical frameworks and practical linguistic data, the
author has decided to focus on verbal compliments and complement responses
of the participants.
After analyzing the data, the author will identify politeness strategies
conducted by the Vietnamese and American in the show as well as point out
the similarities and differences between them.
In conclusion, the author found out the connection between culture
and communication. Accordingly, some suggestions are made with the aim of
helping learners improve their language skills and communication efficiency.

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1: Positive politeness strategies in delivering the compliment
Table 4.2. Strategies in responding to compliments
Table 4.3: Positive politeness strategy in delivering compliment responses

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: communication process
Figure 2.2: Brown and Levinson’s (1987) strategies for performing FTAs
Figure 4.1: Positive politeness strategies in delivering the compliment in the
Voice of Vietnam
Figure 4.2: Positive politeness strategies in delivering the compliment in the
Voice of US

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1.Rationale
Many studies have demonstrated the important role of language in the
development of modern society. People use language as a main tool to
communicate or interact with the society. Communication is not only a
process of sending and receiving information among people but also the
foundation of all human relationship. It is a process by which information is
exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbol, sign, or

behavior (Alwasilah, 1986). Playing a very important part in our daily life,
whether in work or in life, communication is a bridge between people and
helps us understand each other. During interaction process with another
person, we can determine their levels of needs, thoughts, emotions,
experience etc..., in order to timely and conformably meet the goals and
missions communication. Through communication, people enter the social
and cultural relationships, ethics and social norms. Therefore, language,
communication and culture cannot be separated in a society. The difference
between Oriental and Western culture creates the difference in social norms in
communication, especially the politeness in communication. In fact people in
each society have their own rule to make the politeness in communication.
Being polite means being aware of and respecting the feelings of other
people. Politeness can and will improve your relationships with others, help to
build respect and rapport, boost your self-esteem and confidence, and improve
your communication skills.
One of the best expressions of politeness in communication is through
compliments and compliment responses. In the process of communicating
with people, if you know how to use dexterity compliment and compliment

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responses, the relationship becomes much better. Honest compliments will
help your relationship with another grow better. Those who feel honored and
respectful of the effort will be motivated more than those who think their
efforts are not paid attention. They will be more eager to believe that they are
making a real difference. In addition, polite compliments and compliments
reflect not only the dexterity of communication, but also the cultural identity
of each society, country.
There were some previous studies of compliments and compliment

responses in a film, books, but no research was carried out with any television
programs, so the author thought that this study will open a new look in giving
and responding to compliment of Vietnamese and American cultures. This
study focused on analyzing compliments and compliment responses in two
TV shows: The Voice of Vietnam and The of Voice in 2015, in the light of
politeness strategies. Accordingly we can see the differences and similarities
in the communication culture of the Vietnam and America in the context of
globalization. The study also attempts to suggest some useful implications in
order to help language learners improve their language skill to gain their
purpose of social communication as well as to make the process of using
foreign language better.
1.2. Aims of the study
- To discover the way people give compliments and respond to these
compliments in The Voice of Vietnam and The Voice of US in 2015.
- To describe and analyze the politeness strategies employed by the
participants in The Voice of Vietnam and the Voice of US. Whereby the
readers can see the differences and similarities in the American and

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Vietnamese culture in modern society and improve the using language to gain
purpose of social communication.
1.3. Research questions
Based on the background of study, the writer formulates the research
questions of this study:
- What kinds of politeness strategies were used to compliment in The
Voice of Vietnam and The Voice of US in 2015?
- What kinds of politeness strategies were used to respond to the
compliments in The Voice of Vietnam and The Voice of US 2015?

- What are the similarities and differences in the way people giving
and responding to compliment between the Vietnamese and American
cultures?
1.4. Scope of the study
The study takes only the dialogues containing compliments and
compliment responses in ten programs of The Voice of Vietnam season 3
and ten programs of The Voice of US season 8 in 2015 as the data.
Moreover, the author only focused on selecting and analyzing verbal data
delivered by the participants in these programs.
This thesis concentrated on analyzing the politeness strategies:
especially positive politeness in delivering the compliments and their
responses expressed by the interlocutors.
1.5. Significance of the study
This thesis is expected not only to provide the readers an overview of
giving and responding to compliments in Vietnam and US’s culture but also
to increase the knowledge of politeness strategies in cultural communication.
The author hopes that this study will be a reference document for further

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research in the same field and provide enough information about related
topic.
In addition, this research is expected to enhance people’s capability to
choose the effective strategy of communication.
1.6. Research methods
In this study, we use descriptive quantitative method by means of
arranging, analyzing and interpreting them. Qualitative approach is used to
make the data analysis more reliable.
Contrastive method is used to find out the similarities and differences

in giving compliments and responding to compliments of the participants in
these programs.
1.7. Structure of the study
The research structure is as the bellows:
Chapter 1: Introduction
It consists of Rationale, Aim(s) of the Study, Research Questions, and
Scope of the Study, Significance of the Study, Research Methods, and
Structure of the Study.
Chapter 2: Literature review
This chapter provides readers with the Review of previous studies,
Theoretical background on Culture; Communication; Politeness and
Politeness strategies; Compliments and compliment responses; The Voice
show.
Chapter 3: Politeness strategies of compliments and compliment
responses in two TV shows
It is concentrated on finding and collecting data of politeness strategies:
Bald- on record, Positive politeness in two TV shows.

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Chapter 4: Similarities and differencesbetween two cultures in giving
and responding compliments
In this chapter, we focus on analyzing data to find the similarities and
differences, so we divide it into two main parts: Similarities between
compliments and compliment responses in the Voice of Vietnam and the
Voice of US in 2015, Differences between compliments and compliment
responses in these programes.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and suggestion
This part states Recapitulation, Concluding Remarks, Limitations and

Suggestions for Further Studies.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Previous Studies
There is a large number of research studies, focusing on giving and
responding to the complements that were conducted by both foreign and
Vietnamese researchers. Following are some related articles and studies:
In the MA thesis namely “politeness strategies in giving and
responding to compliments: a sociopragmatics study of compliments in “The
devil wears prada”. Rahayu (2009) discovered the way the characters gave
and respondedcomplimentsas well as the politeness strategies employed by
thecharacters in the movie entitled “The Devil Wears Prada”. This research
focused on analyzing the compliments delivered by characters with
combination of non-verbal acts and the addressees respond to complements
in various ways.
In the research on “Replying to compliments in English and
Vietnamese”, Trần Quỳnh Giao (2010) show the differences between CRs in
Australian English and Vietnamese in terms of strategy use as well as
strategycombination, using the Naturalized Role-play (Tran, 2004d, 2006a,
2006b) to solve the hotly debated methodological issue in cross-cultural
pragmatics research.
There is another study of politeness strategy named “An analysis of
politeness strategy in Barack Obama’s Victory speech” by Sari (2016). In this
thesis work, the author found out and analyzed the typesof politeness
strategies that used by Barack Obama in his victory speech, based on Brown
and Levinson theory. He also showed that Barack Obama performed positive
politeness

strategy

by

joking,

intensify

interesting,

exaggerating,

complimenting including Sand H in the activity, be optimistic, promising,
offering and assuming or asserting reciprocity in his utterance during his

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victory speech.
In a study by Nguyễn Quang (1999) about some differences in
compliments and compliment responses in Vietnamese - American speech
communication. He not only pointed out the similarities and differences
between Vietnamese and American speech in giving and responding to
compliment but also gave some note in Vietnamese - American intercultural
communication in order to avoid culture shock and cultural conflicts.
In the study “Compliment and positive strategies”, Al-Azzawi (2011)
investigated the complimenting behavior of English speakers, as a strategy to
express positive politeness. In his study, he focused on describing the
linguistic structures of complement, functions of compliments, types of

compliment responses and the differences between men and women in paying
compliments.
There is another study on compliments and responses to compliments
by Đỗ Thị Mai Thanh, Phan Thị Vân Quyên (2011). This is a study of the
transfer in behavioral communication of compliments and compliment
received in English by Vietnamese students of English in the faculty of
English teacher education, Vietnam national university, Hanoi – university of
languages and international. In this research, the authors discovered ways of
giving compliments and responding compliments in English by these students
in order to find intersection and transition from source language and culture
(L1 - Vietnamese) to target language and culture (L2 - American English).
Since then, the authors provided suggestions for improving the language
usage to help students succeed in intercultural communication Vietnam United States in complements and complement responses.
Additionally, Fauzi (2010), who carried out the study named “A
politeness strategy analysis on the main characters’ dialogues of the movie

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pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”, analyzed and described data
form 18 expressions of three main character dialogue by using Brown and
Levinson’s theory particularly Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) and politeness
strategies. This research concluded that it has four politeness strategies
utilized with positive politeness as the most used strategies, bald on record
and followed by negative politeness, and off-record as the last and the rarest
strategies with on expression.
The above researches were the studies of compliments and
compliment

responses;

politeness

strategies

used

in

behavioral

communication and compliments. The study of Rahayu (2009) focused on
analyzing the compliments delivered by characters with combination of nonverbal acts and the addressees respond to complements in various ways.
Several other studies found differences in the way they offered compliments
and complliment responses between the genders. However, the previous
studies had not included any studies on positive politeness strategies
employed in delivering compliments and compliment responses in the Voice
Vietnam and the Voice US. The authors argued that focusing on positive
politeness strategies in employing compliments and compliment responses
would point to similarities and differences in utilizing language between
Vietnamese and Americans. These would help foreign language learners
avoid cultural conflicts in communication.
2.2. Theoretical background
2.2.1. Communication and inter-cultural communication
2.2.1.1. Definition of Communication
Communication is a Latin originated word, meaning of which is
sharing or exchanging information, news, ideas, etc. with someone. It acts as
a bridge of meaning among people and the most common medium of

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communication is language. Different scholars defined communication in
different ways. Some of their definition of communication will be considered
for the study as follows:
Schramm (1954) saw communication as a two-way process with both
the speaker and the listener providing and receiving verbal or non-verbal
feedback. Both the speaker and the listener take turns to speak and listen to
each other. Other characteristics of messages that impact communication
between two individuals are intonation and pitch patterns, accents, facial
expressions, quality of voice and gestures. This model also indicates that the
speaker and listener communicate better if they have had the same
experiences. However, this may mean that both the receiver and sender are
limited by their experience. Nevertheless, there must be some experience
common to both in order for the communication to be useful and for the
intended message to be conveyed. For example, if you were asking someone
who did not speak the same language as you if they wanted sugar in their
coffee, you would most probably point to the sugar and then the cup of coffee,
hoping that the other individual has had some common experience of putting
sugar in their coffee. However, if the receiver comes from a culture where
sugar is not used, then your communication will be ineffective. Two people
from completely different cultures who speak different languages and who
have no common experiences may find that communication becomes nearly
impossible without help from a third party such as a translator or an
interpreter. Common ground or mutual understanding is important in
communication and essential for interpersonal communication.
Berelson

and

Steiner (1964) defined

communication as

the

transmission of information, ideas, emotions and skills through the use of
words, figures, symbols, graphs, and pictures. These researchers focused on

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the functions of communication and means of pursuing these functions to give
their definition.
Nguyễn Quang (1998) gives the definition of communication concisely
and briefly “Communication is the process of sharing meaning through verbal
and nonverbal behavior.” Obviously, he claims that communicationis
executed and perceived by both senders and receivers through their verbal and
nonverbal behavior. In other words, it is possible to say that communication
includes the transmitting information verbally and non verbally. This
definition is clearer than these above ones because it presents not only the
functions of communication but also the important channels through which
communication can be transmitted: verbal andnonverbal communication.
Communication is a process of transmitting messages from one to
another person through a channel. Kreitner and Carlene (2010) defined “The
communication process is a chain made up of identifiable links. Links in this
process include sender, encoding, medium, decoding, receiver and feedback”.
In order to communication to process effectively, there are five elements:
sender, message, channel/medium, receiver and feedback. In the process,
there are eight steps starting from the idea of the sender and ending with

feedbacks of the receiver. For the first step, the sender will develop an idea to
be sent. This is also known as the planning step, where the sender plans the
topic for communication. Next step is encoding, which means converting the
idea into a perceivable form, for example report form, letter form etc. After
finishing encoding, the message can be presented in various ways, like oral,
written or nonverbal. Then, the sender will choose a medium or channel to
transmit the message to the receiver. The following step is transmitting the
message and the sender’s duty also ends with this step. Next, the receiver will
receive the message and start decoding it. At this level, for the communication

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to be effective, it is very important for both sender and receiver to have a
common understanding or interest. In addition, the final step is feedback. This
step is essential for a communication as it ensures that the receiver has
understood the message correctly.
One very useful definition of communication is that proposed by
Rogers (1994) “Communication is the process of transmitting information,
ideas, and attitudes from sender to receiver for the purpose of influencing
with intent”.This definition sees communication as a process through which
senders and receivers of messages interact. Besides, by this way of defining,
Rogers also mentions the purpose of communication. The most important
underlying assumption presupposed by this definition of communication
refers to the components of communication which are sender, receiver and
message as illustrated in the following figure:

Figure 2.1: communication
process

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Figur
e 2.1:

All of these above definitions have their own meaning and are useful
for different research fields. However, within the scope of this research paper,
the researcher suggests adopting the definition of Rogers (1994) which helps
people achieve the basic knowledge of communication.

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2.2.1.2. Intercultural communication (IC)
Basically,

IC

means

communication

across

different

cultural

boundaries. This means that, when two or more people with different cultural
backgrounds interact and communicate with each other or one another, IC is
said to have taken place. IC can thus be defined as, “the sharing of

information on different levels of awareness and control between people with
different cultural backgrounds, where different cultural backgrounds include
both national cultural differences and differences which are connected with
participation in the different activities that exist within a national unit”
(Allwood, 1985, p.3). “Intercultural communication takes place when
individuals influenced by different cultural communities negotiate shared
meaning in interactions”(Ting-Toomey, 1999). What counts as IC depends, in
part, to what one considers a culture. Some authorities like Gudykunst, “limit
the term intercultural communication to refer only to communication among
individuals from different nationalities” (Gudykunst, 2003). Other authorities,
such as Judith and Nakayama, in contrast, expand the notion of IC to
encompass

inter-ethnic,

inter-religious

and

even

inter-regional

communication, as well as communication among individuals of different
sexual orientations.
Knapp

and

Knapp-potthoff

(1987,

p.8)

view

“intercultural

communication as taking place whenever participants introduce different
knowledge into the interaction which is specific to their respective socio
cultural group”. In other words, interactantsin intercultural encounters are
thought to implicitly share the same ground rules of communication and
meaning of signals (O’Keeffe, 2004). whereas interactants in intercultural
encounters are likely to experience a degree of uncertainty and ambiguity
concerning the ground rules by which communication will occur and the

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meaning of signals (Gudykunst & Nishida, 2001; Gudykunt, Nishida & Chua,
1986; Gudykuntst, Yang & Nishida, 1985). In oral/aural exchanges, the
meanings of utterances are negotiated jointly by speaker and listener; thus it is
always necessary for the receiver to draw inferences about intentions of
sender (Scollon & Scollon, 1995). In this way, it is easy to imagine the
potential for misunderstandings and miscommunication in IC, it is necessary
to examine what is meant by intercultural communicative competence.
Lustig and Koester (2006, p. 46) defined “intercultural communication
is a symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual process in which people
from different cultures create shared meanings”. However, each culture has its

way of interpreting message or information. The way of communicating is
also different from one culture to another. The differences in communication
between cultures are mostly related to cultural patterns, verbal and nonverbal
codes, relationships standards and roles, and social perceptions. When the
degree of differences between cultures becomes relatively large, it would lead
to misinterpretation and dissimilar expectations abo79ut how to communicate
competently. Therefore, the information exchanging process is much more
difficult in intercultural communication. In other words, IC is a process in
which people from different cultural background try to interact and create a
shared understanding so as to achieve their personal goals as well as creating
relationship with others.
Above definitions have described the central terms intercultural
communication. Within the aims of this research paper, the researcher follows
the definition of Lustig and Koester which helps people achieve the basic
knowledge of intercultural communication.

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2.2.1.3. Components of Communication
There are several forms of communication that the individuals use to
give some pattern or expression to their messages such that it is easily
understood by all. The most common types of communication are:
Verbal Communication, wherein you speak your subject matter, and others
listen to it carefully and try to associate meaning with it
Nonverbal Communication, wherein the others observe you and try to confer
a meaning to it.
Written Communication wherein you write your message and others read it to
derive meaning out of it.
a. Verbal communication

The Verbal Communication is a type of oral communication wherein
the message is transmitted through the spoken words. Here the sender gives
words to his feelings, thoughts, ideas and opinions and expresses them in the
form of speeches, discussions, presentations, and conversations. The
effectiveness of the verbal communication depends on the tone of the speaker,
clarity of speech, volume, speed, body language and the quality of words used
in the conversation. In the case of the verbal communication, the feedback is
immediate since there are a simultaneous transmission and receipt of the
message by the sender and receiver respectively.
The sender must keep his speech tone high and clearly audible to all
and must design the subject matter keeping the target audience in mind. The
sender should always cross check with the receiver to ensure that the message
is understood in absolutely the same way as it was intended. Such
communication is more prone to errors as sometimes the words are not
sufficient to express the feelings and emotions of a person.

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The success of the verbal communication depends not only on the
speaking ability of an individual but also on the listening skills. How
effectively an individual listen to the subject matter decides the effectiveness
of the communication. The verbal communication is applicable in both the
formal and informal kind of situations.
Verbal communication refers to the use of sounds and language to relay
a message. It serves as a vehicle for expressing desires, ideas and concepts
and is vital to the processes of learning and teaching. In combination with
nonverbal forms of communication, verbal communication acts as the primary
tool for expression between two or more people.
Interpersonal communication and public speaking are the two basic

types of verbal communication. Whereas public speaking involves one or
more people delivering a message to a group, interpersonal communication
generally refers to a two-way exchange that involves both talking and
listening.
According to Krauss (1999), professor of psychology at Columbia
University, signs and symbols are the major signals that make up verbal
communication. Words act as symbols, and signs are secondary products of
the underlying message and include things like tone of voice, blushing and
facial expressions.
Generally speaking, verbal communication is communication using
language and speech to share or exchange information. Without them, people
would not be able to express the full range of human emotions. Verbal
communication, as defined by Alder (1998, p.158) is “spoken communication
including the use of words and intonation to convey meaning.” This definition
gives the point that verbal communication, in the initial place, is the spoken
language, and people can convey their ideas, messages by using words,

15


sentences. According to the American Jewish University only about 10
percent of communication is verbal. While it is the smaller portion of
communication, verbal components are vital.
b. Non-verbal communication
Nonverbal

communication is

the

process

of

sending

and

receiving messages without using words, either spoken or written, it also
called manual language. Similar to the way that italicizing emphasizes written
language, nonverbal behavior may emphasize parts of a verbal message.
The term nonverbal communication was introduced in 1956 by
psychiatrist Ruesch and author Kees in the book Nonverbal Communication:
Notes on the Visual Perception of Human Relations.
However, nonverbal messages have been recognized for centuries as a
critical aspect of communication. For instance, in The Advancement of
Learning (1605), Bacon observed that "the lineaments of the body do
disclose the disposition and inclination of the mind in general; but the motions
of the countenance and parts do, further disclose the present humorand state
of the mind and will.”
2.2.1.4. Language in intercultural communication interaction
“Language is a set of symbols shared by a community to
communicate meaning and experience” (Jandt, 2013, p.161). For people with
the same cultural background, same native language, they can understand the
meanings better because their ways of thinking are similar. However, in
intercultural communication, people from different cultural groups tend to
misinterpret each other’s meanings. Therefore, language is always an
attractive field of study not only for language researchers but also for
intercultural communication researchers.

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