EXCLAMATIONS IN ENGLISH WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS SUMMARY
Field: English Language
Code: 8220201

EXCLAMATIONS IN ENGLISH WITH
REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE
(CÂU CẢM THÁN TRONG TIẾNG ANH TRONG SỰ
LIÊN HỆ VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN THỊ TRANG

Hanoi, 2018


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS
Field: English Language
Code: 8220201

EXCLAMATIONS IN ENGLISH WITH
REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE
(CÂU CẢM THÁN TRONG TIẾNG ANH TRONG SỰ
LIÊN HỆ VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYEN THI TRANG

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Ngoc Trung

Hanoi, 2018


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled
Exclamations in English with reference to Vietnamese submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language.
Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used
without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, 2018

Nguyễn Thị Trang

Approved by

SUPERVISOR

Date:……………………

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a
number of people.
First and foremost, I am indebted to many people without whose help the present
thesis could not have been completed. First and foremost, I would like to express my

sincere gratitude to my supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Ngoc Trung from Hanoi
Open University for his invaluable guidance, insightful comments and endless
support.
A special thanks goes to the teachers, friends at Faculty of Post Graduate, Hanoi
Open University, students at People‟s Public Security University of Technology
and Logistics as well as many others, without whose support and encouragement it
would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished.
Last but not least, I owe the completion of this dissertation to my parents and my
husband and two daughters, who always given me their love, understanding and
encouragement throughout my study.
Finally, my sincere thanks are due to all of you who will give me some comments
after reading the thesis.
To all mentioned and to many more, my heart extends the warmest thanks.

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ABSTRACT
This study looks at Exclamations in English with reference to Vietnamese
from syntactic, pragmatic and cultural perspectives. The major concern is finding
out the linguistic and cultural features of English and Vietnamese exclamations as
well as discussing the similarities and differences between them. To achieve this
end, descriptive method is used to investigate the linguistic and cultural features of
exclamations in English with reference to Vietnamese and find out the similarities
and differences between them from syntactic, pragmatic and cultural perspectives.
Basing on the qualitative and quantitative approaches, the study has pointing out the
various features of English exclamations with reference to Vietnamese from 173
examples. Syntactically, this special means of expression in the two languages can
be in the form of single words, complete sentences. Also, exclamations can combine
with another interjection or other word classes to form complete and incomplete

sentence. In terms of pragmatics, exclamations have different functions to show
anger, disappointment, surprise, sadness, regret, refusal, warn, happiness, support,
request and the like. Furthermore, the cultural aspect is also embeled in
exclamations of the two languages. In addition, experimental method, error analysis
and statistical technique are applied as the supporting ones to find out the particular
mistakes made by students at People‟s Police university of Technology and
Logistics when using and translating English exclamations. Besides, a questionnaire
was distributed to one hundred students at People‟s Public Security University of
Technology and Logistics who acted as significant means to collect reliable data
and information for research from students‟ habits in using and translating English
and Vietnamese Exclamations in order to enhance the effectiveness in teaching,
learning and translating English and Vietnamese exclamations at People‟s Police
university of Technology and Logistics. The above features of exclamations and
their similarities and dissimilarities are discussed in details in the following
chapters.

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 Speech Acts Classification by Austin and Searle ....................................15
Table 4.1 Exclamations as interjections ....................................................................42
Table 4.2 Summary of cultural features of English and Vietnamese exclamations .55
Table 4.3 Summary of cultural features of Vietnamese exclamations .....................57

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TABLE OF CONTENT
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ......................................................................... I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... II
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ III
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. IV
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................1
1.1 Rationale ...............................................................................................................1
1.2 Aims and objectives of the research ....................................................................3
1.3 Scope of the research ............................................................................................3
1.3.1 Academic scope .................................................................................................3
1.3.2 Social scope ........................................................................................................3
1.4 Significance of the research ..................................................................................4
1.5 Design of the study................................................................................................4
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................5
2.1 Review of Previous Studies ..................................................................................5
2.1.1 Review of Previous Studies Overseas ................................................................5
2.1.2 Review of Previous Vietnamese Studies ...........................................................7
2.2 Theoretical background .........................................................................................8
2.2.1 Syntactic theories of English exclamation .........................................................8
2.2.1.1 Definition and classification of the sentence ..................................................9
2.2.2 Pragmatic theories ............................................................................................11
2.2.2.1 The concept of pragmatics ............................................................................11
2.2.2.2 Speech Acts Theory ......................................................................................12
2.2.2.3 Exclamations and speech acts .......................................................................15
2.2.2.4 Language and culture ....................................................................................18
2.3 Theoretical framework of the study ....................................................................19
2.3.1 An overview of exclamations in English .........................................................19
2.3.2 An overview of exclamations in Vietnamese ..................................................21
2.3.2.1 Syntactic features of Vietnamese exclamations ............................................21
2.3.2.2 Pragmatic features of Vietnamese exclamations ..........................................23
2.4 Summary .............................................................................................................29
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................30

3.1 Research-governing orientations .........................................................................30
3.1.1 Research approaches ........................................................................................30
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3.1.2 Research questions ...........................................................................................30
3.1.3 Research setting ...............................................................................................31
3.1.4 Principles for data collection and data analysis ...............................................31
3.2 Research methods................................................................................................34
3.2.1 Data collection techniques ...............................................................................34
3.3. Summary ..........................................................................................................34
CHAPTER 4 SYNTACTIC, PRAGMATIC AND CULTURAL FEATURES
OF ENGLISH EXCLAMATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE
...................................................................................................................................36
4.1. Syntactic features of English exclamations with reference to Vietnamese. ......36
4.1.1. Syntactic features of English exclamations ....................................................36
4.1.2. Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese exclamations in
terms of syntactic features. ........................................................................................44
4.2. Pragmatic features of English exclamations with reference to Vietnamese. .....45
4.2.1. Pragmatic features of exclamations in English. ..............................................45
4.2.2. Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese exclamations in
terms of pragmatic features .......................................................................................52
4.3. Cultural features of English exclamations with reference to Vietnamese. ........53
4.3.1.Cutural features of English exclamations. .......................................................54
4.3.2. Cultural features of Vietnamese exclamations................................................55
4.3.3 Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese exclamations
interms of cultural features........................................................................................57
4.4 Difficulties in using English exclamations faced by the students of the People‟s
Police University of Technology and Logistics ........................................................58
4.4.1 Common mistakes made by students at People‟s Police university of

Technology and Logistics when using exclamation in English and Vietnamese .....58
4.4.2 Suggestions for teaching and learning English exclamations at People‟s Police
university of Technology and Logistics ....................................................................59
4.4.3 Suggestions for People‟s Public Security of Technology and Logistics
students to translate English exclamations into Vietnamese ....................................62
4.4.4. Summary .........................................................................................................64
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUDING REMARKS, LIMITATION OF STUDY AND
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY .........................................................65
5.1. CONCLUDING REMARKS .............................................................................65
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5.2. LIMITATION OF STUDY ................................................................................66
5.3 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTHER STUDY ..........................................................66
5.3.1 Suggestions on Language Teaching .................................................................66
5.3.2 Suggestions on Language Learning .................................................................67
5.3.3 Suggestions for further study ...........................................................................68
REFERENCES .................................................................................................... VIII

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
This thesis reports the result of investigating into the linguistic and cultural
features of English and Vietnamese exclamations as well as discussing the
similarities and differences between them. Moreover, the students‟ attitudes towards
the learning of English exclamations with reference to Vietnamese as well as how to
enhance the effectiveness in teaching, learning as well as translating English and
Vietnamese exclamations at People‟s Police university of Technology and Logistics
is also paid attention to. This introductory chapter provides a detailed description of

the problem the thesis attempts to solve, states the aims of the study and presents an
overview of the thesis.
1.1 Rationale
Along with the language development of human society, English is
considered as the most popular language to exchange information and ideas among
different nations as well as cultures. The need of learning English becomes more
and more urgent in order to meet the demand of integration into the world economy
and exchange of culture with other countries. It is undoubted that both Vietnamese
and foreigner desire to master English as the native speakers; Nevertheless, they
often have a lot of difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful
conversations. One of the reasons for these problems lies in the way people
understand and use exclamations. Exclamation is inevitably frequent in our society.
As usual, the term “exclamation” is used sloppily to refer to the kind of phenomena.
An exclamation is a pragmatic construction whose role is to express the speaker‟s
emotion and feeling. However, even if we agree that this is a meaningful
distinction, the term exclamation remains a sloppy concept. It is an evidence of a
reflection of the speaker‟s emotion and feeling. Its use and realization may differ
considerably from language, from culture to culture, pragmatically. In daily
conversation, thanks to exclamation, people can easily express their feeling and
thought. When there are differences and similarities across cultures in its use, they
are often peculiar and unpredictable. Therefore, it is obvious It is, when many
pragmatists claim that exclamation is a unique characteristic of a particular culture.
A universal view, however, is that the consciousness of the use of exclamation is
very much associated with personal character of the speaker as well as the context
and situation in which it occurs. Although there is likely no exact evidence to
predict what one really feels through exclamation, psychological, and pragmatic

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analysis may be helpful to do so. They do not only cover the earlier mentioned
functions but they also reveal what the speaker really means and would like to
express through their exclamations. It is the reason why many studies on
exclamation have compared different languages to English. Languages covered by
these studies include English, Italian, Brazilian, Portuguese, Turkish, French,
German, Setswana, Korean, Catalan, Vietnamese and Austronesian languages.
During the course of English, Vietnamese students in general as well as
students at People‟s Police university of Technology and Logistics in particular have
chance to deal with many aspects of English language. Surely, they also have a lot
of difficulties in studying and using English, which include the studying and using
English and Vietnamese Exclamations. Furthermore, in Vietnamese settings, one of
the four types of sentences is exclamations and that type receives little attention
from learners and thus, there have not been many studies on exclamations. Studying
exclamations becomes our interest then. Besides, they also recognize that using
exclamations in daily communication helps their words become more natural,
persuasive and thoughtful. Learning English we should learn how to use English
exclamations correctly and effectively. However, the system of English
exclamations is very complex. As clearly seen, there are certain similarities and
differences of English exclamations with reference to Vietnamese. The relationship
between the two languages will naturally be the root of mistakes made by
Vietnamese learners of English. Some linguists say, making mistakes is a
motivation to encourage the process of learning language. Nevertheless, the major
important is how to identify mistakes and correct them. When learning
exclamations in general and English exclamations in particular, Vietnamese
students often commit mistakes.
Moreover, for nearly 8 years of teaching English, I have experienced that
when having exclamations in textbooks and relevant materials, students often find
difficult to translate these forms into Vietnamese. They speak English in a rough
way without using exclamations that makes the conversation less natural than the
native English speakers do.

With the above reasons, I have the desire to conduct a study on exclamations
in English with reference to Vietnamese so as to solve this problem for Vietnamese
students as well as the other English ones. I do hope the research will be fueled
most effectively to help students at People‟s Police university of Technology and

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Logistics understand and use Exclamations correctly and effectively in their speech
and writing as well as translating English exclamations appropriately in every
context.
1.2 Aims and objectives of the research
The study aims at investigating exclamations in English with reference to
Vietnamese from syntactic, pragmatic and cultural perspectives to find out the
linguistic and cultural features of English and Vietnamese exclamations as well as
discuss the similarities and differences between them so that this study will help
Vietnamese students in general and students at People‟s Police university of
Technology and Logistics in particular have better understanding of the linguistic
and cultural features of exclamations in both languages. Therefore, they can use and
translate them correctly as well as effectively in their speech and writing.
This study has three objectives: First of all, identifying the syntactic,
pragmatic and cultural features of English exclamations with reference to
Vietnamese. Moreover, finding out the similarities and differences between English
and Vietnamese exclamations from syntactic, pragmatic and cultural perspectives.
The last but not least, giving some suggestions for teaching, learning and translating
English exclamations at People‟s Police university of Technology and Logistics
effectively.
1.3 Scope of the research
1.3.1 Academic scope
Within the academic scope of the study, exclamations will be mainly

examined in utterances used in English stories as well as poems with reference to
Vietnamese. Moreover, the thesis will focus on the following linguistic features
such as syntactic, pragmatic and cultural features of exclamations in English with
reference to Vietnamese. 173 examples of exclamations are mainly collected from
such various sources such as English and Vietnamese novels, stories and poems by
different writers or poets. In addition to that, films on the internet is also a great
source of information for English exclamations with reference to Vietnamese. It is
clear that exclamations are studied in the research will be mainly in written texts
and little in spoken discourse.
1.3.2 Social scope
The study collects data regarding features, the use and the translation of
English exclamations with reference to Vietnamese from stories novels, films,

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websites and survey questionnaire4.4.2 Suggestions for teaching and learning
English exclamations at People’s Police university of Technology and Logistics
s. The survey questionnaires designed in this research focus primarily on the
use of English exclamations with reference to Vietnamese and on reliable data and
information for research from students‟ habits in using English exclamations. The
participants of the research would be one hundred students at People‟s Police
university of Technology and Logistics who acted as significant means to collect the
students‟ most common mistakes. This thesis focuses on analyzing the mistakes on
exclamations to help students avoid those mistakes. They are in their early twenties
and the number of females participating in the research is equal to the number of
males.
1.4 Significance of the research
Theoretically, apart from completing my M.A course, the thesis will find out
the linguistic and cultural features of English and Vietnamese exclamations from

syntactic, pragmatic and cultural perspectives as well as discuss the similarities and
differences between them .
Practically, through the research, teachers and students in my university can
have better knowledge about English and Vietnamese exclamations by using and
translating them properly in the relevant context in their teaching and learning
process in their daily life.
1.5 Design of the study
This thesis shall be presented in five chapters, starting with Introduction in
which we present the reason of the study, the history of the study, the aims, the
methods, and end with Conclusion. The second chapter, named Literature Review,
gives a critical review of the previous studies relating to the research problem under
investigation and presents the theoretical background employed as tools for
conducting the whole research. The Methodology chapter provides the information
by which the research is conducted with a method section answering two main
questions: How the data was collected or generated; and how it was analyzed. The
fourth chapter includes all the findings and suggestions throughout evaluation of
the investigation, which logically lead to inferences and conclusions.

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CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, the research discusses the major theoretical issues on
exclamations in general, English exclamations with reference to Vietnamese in
particular relating to the study. The discussion aims at giving theoretical foundation
on which to clarify English exclamation with reference to Vietnamese in their
speech or writing. This chapter focuses on the following issues: (1) Review of
previous Studies, (2) Theoretical background, (3) Theoretical framework. To
achieve the aims, the author focus on the background of word classes and sentence
in general and on exclamation in particular is done. A brief review of the latter will

be studied on, too.
2.1 Review of Previous Studies
2.1.1 Review of Previous Studies Overseas
The terms “Exclamations” catches much attention of linguistics. There have
been a lot of authors whose studies generally relate to them. However, their
approaches are different in some ways.
Quirk et al. (1972 & 1985) use the term “exclamative” to refer to the
grammatical category. They recognize several different form types that can be used
as exclamations, but still prevail in the belief that there exists an exclamatory form
type on a par with declaratives, interrogatives and imperatives. Since the
publication, these books have been the standard reference work used by
professional grammarians. David Crystal (1995) explores the many facets and
varieties of the English language, bringing life to this large and complex subject.
Rarely has a book so packed with accurate and well researched factual information
been so widely read and popularly acclaimed. David Crystal analyzes four types of
sentence functions: Statements, questions, commands, and exclamations.
Exclamations can have either minor or major sentence status and are mainly
investigated in syntactic form.
Andrew Radford (1997) provides a concise, clear, and accessible introduction
to current syntactic theory. Radford defines an exclamative as “a type of structure
used to exclaim surprise, delight, annoyance etc.” and goes on to say that “in
English syntax, the term is restricted largely to clauses beginning with WhExclamative words like “what! or how!”. The use of the word “structure” seems to
indicate that he regards the exclamative as a syntactic phenomenon. In terms of
pragmatics, there is only the research of Beijer F. (2001). In this research, the

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author aims at separating what has been called exclamatives from other kinds of
expressive/emotional utterances. The term “exclamative” does not refer to a

syntactic phenomenon, but to a pragmatic one. To prove the originality of this
study, the writer presents the previous studies that have been conducted in the
different study on the pragmatic analysis and the utterance.
The first research is written by Adrefiza from the University of Jambi entitled,
“A Socio Pragmatic Analysis of Exclamation and its Realization in Australia
English and Bahasa Indonesia”. He used socio-pragmatic approach as the way of
analysis while the purposes of this research are to describe the sociolinguistic and
pragmatic expressions of exclamations performed by Australians and Indonesians
according to the age and gender of the speakers of both language, and also to
describe their implication in language teaching. He found that both Australians and
Indonesians had different sets of exclamatory word/phrase/expression, they
occurred unpredictably but seemed to be systematic in their form or contractions.
Both languages had several common exclamatory word – most of them were not
phonologically and semantically similar.
The second previous study is done by Zahroh (2006) who conducted
a research entitled “A Socio-Pragmatics Analysis of Apologizing Utterance in
Aristocratic Movie Manuscript” she clarifies the meaning and the reasons of
apologizing in Aristocratic movie manuscript. Her finding are, first, there are four
strategies and six sub categories that match with the available four strategies and
eight subcategories in the underlying theory. Second, all the data of apologizing
utterance have six intentions, they are declaring, describing, expressing sorrow,
committing, informing and requesting. Third, apology is employed because the
speaker really wants to apologize to the listener and ask forgiveness. The research
above is different because the writer presents different object and source of data.
The writer object is speech act of exclamatory utterance the writer uses fantasy
movie as the source of data. However, the research above adopts similar approach
of socio-pragmatics.
The third previous study is Tina Sarwoningsih (2003) that is entitled “ An
analysis of the use of speech act of request in The Harry Potter movie manuscripts
(Socio- Pragmatics approach)”. She focus on five types of request of expression,

namely request for action, request for permission, request showing happiness,
showing respect, showing anger, showing being afraid, and showing solidarity. The

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research above is different with the writer here, because the researcher uses request
utterance as the object of the research, but the writer here uses speech act
exclamatory utterance. The similarity of this research is the source of data used by
Tina Sarwoningsih is Harry Potter movies and also the use of socio-pragmatics as
approach. While in this research, the writer is not only going to analyze the
speaker‟s intention by employing speech act theory, but also the form of the
utterances based on grammatical rules. The writer is sure that this research has not
been analyzed yet.
2.1.2 Review of Previous Vietnamese Studies
In Vietnamese, we cannot but mention Nguyễn Thiện Giáp, Ðoàn Thiện
Thuật & Nguyễn Minh Thuyết (1998). According to these authors, exclamative
th
theory was developed greatly from 18 to 20th century. Those who advocated this
theory were Humbon, Stundan, Russo, saying that human‟s language derived from

the sounds of anger, joy, sadness, anguished cried expressed when we were moved.
In some cases, exclamations are signals of our emotion and thoughts. In the other
one, the relationship between the sounds of words and emotive state of human is
considered such as the combination of sound causing the impression in our soul that
is similar to the one caused by things.
Besides that there have been some publications on sentence types including
exclamations such as Câu trong tiếng Việt (Cao Xuân Hạo,1998); Ngữ pháp tiếng
Việt phần câu (Diệp Quang Ban, 2004); Nghiên cứu về ngữ pháp tiếng Việt
(Nguyễn Kim Thản, 1963); Câu trong tiếng việt (Nguyễn Thị Lương, 2005); etc.

However, there has not been so far a study on syntactic features of
exclamations in English and in Vietnamese. So it is necessary to do a research on
this matter to have a deeper understanding about exclamations in the two languages.
The last but not least, in the doctoral thesis of Nguyễn Thị Hồng Ngọc, the
author focus on syntactic and semantic features of Vietnamese Exclamations.
Besides, other features of exclamations such as pragmatic is also in the author‟s
care in order to help readers understand more about Vietnamese Exclamations.
From the review of all previous studies above, it is obvious that researchers
in Vietnam as well as in other countries have gained deep insights and made
significant findings in this field. However, the study of Exclamations in English
with reference to Vietnamese still awaits deeper investigation, which is why the
present study hopes to fill in the gap to make significant contribution to the

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teaching, learning English Exclamations in Vietnam in general and at People‟s
Public Security of Technology and Logistics in particular.
2.2 Theoretical background
2.2.1 Syntactic theories of English exclamation
Syntactics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms, how they
are arranged in sequence, and which sequences are well-formed. This type of study
generally takes place without considering any world of reference or any user of
forms. When accessing to the work of “Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt- Phần câu” by Diep
Quang Ban (2004), it provides a better insight of sentence types, especially
exclamations. That is the reason why we, in our writing, focus much on the opinions
of Diep Quang Ban (2004) and it seems that his ideas rule out for the syntax of
Vietnamese exclamations. According to him, to study exclamations, we need to
take syntax, communicative function, mood and structure, and text as well into
consideration. In terms of syntax, exclamations consist of some minor clauses and

they are the ones formed by exclamatory expressions that function as a sentence
with no syntactic features. Exclamations give expression to the speaker's affective
stance or attitude. From time to time, an exclamation is realized by an interjection
which is a word or a sound used to express a sudden feeling or emotion.
Interjections belong to the oldest form of the spoken language and represent the
most primitive type of utterance. Sometimes an exclamatory construction co-occurs
with interjections. Interjections are a mark of emotive emphasis in speech. The most
common interjections in English as explained by Svartvik & Leech (1985: 117)
such as Oh!(surprise); Ah! (satisfaction); Aha! (Jubilant satisfaction or recognition);
Wow! (Great surprise); Yippee! (Excitement or delight); Ouch or ou! (Pain); Ugh!
(disgust). Eckersely & Eckersely (1981: 315) add the following to the list like hello!
(Surprise in addition to its use as a greeting), hey! (Someone want to attract
attention) or Alas! has a literary form expressing sorrow or disappointment.
Interjections are the factors that have no lexical meaning and they are used as an
indefinite sound, which are used to express physical or mental reactions and have
no representative meaning. For this reason, exclamations are ungrammaticalized to
separate subject or predicate in sentences.
[1] Ah! Here it is!
[2] What a lovely dog that was, whoo!

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In terms of communication, exclamations are used to express feelings caused
by physical and mental impulse (including reprimand, compliment, swear, etc.
which have no direct representative meaning).
In terms of mood and structure, exclamations consist of only mood expression
but not residue. In terms of texts, exclamations are minor clauses and this type of
sentence has no separation between theme and rhyme.
All exclamation expressions have their own forms and they are independent of

the remaining parts of a sentence (so we can name them exclamation expressions).
Not all exclamation expressions function in the mood structure, but within the
relation of mood structure, exclamation is categorized in terms of exclamatory
factors. Thus, we then pay much attention to the factors, which have an impact
on the syntax of exclamation. Syntax is the part of grammar that pertains to a
speaker‟s knowledge of sentences and their structures. Moreover, syntax refers to
the way words are arranged together, and the relationship between them.
An exclamation (also called an interjection) is a word or phrase that
expresses strong emotion, such as surprise, pleasure, or anger. Exclamations often
stand on their own, and in writing they are usually followed by an exclamation mark
rather than a full stop. For example, [3] How beautiful! Or [4] Ow! [5]That hurt!.
Exclamations are also used to express greetings or congratulations like [6] Hello!
Or [7] Well done, lads!
2.2.1.1 Definition and classification of the sentence

The sentence is probably the most familiar of all grammatical terms. Students are
introduced to it in our early school years, and it quickly becomes part of our
linguistic awareness. Those who learned some traditional grammar will remember
the old definition of a sentences as “ a complete expression of a single thought”. It
is obvious, as students look through the pager number of sentences patterns in
English. These patterns can be grouped into two main types, on the basis of whether
they are formed in a regular or irregular way. Regular sentences are often referred to
as a majorsentences, irregular ones as minor sentences. The major sentences are
ones which can be broken down into a specific and predictable pattern of elements.
Alexandra Grammatical School (300 – 200 BC) has considered that sentences are
the combination of words to express complete thoughts. Sentences are the largest
unit of grammatical organization within parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb,
adjective…etc.) are said to function. From the above definitions, the following are

9

some main features of sentences such as the largest unit of grammatical
organization, The basic unit of written English language communication, it
constructed by grammatical rules and express a thought and the speaker‟s feelings
and attitude. In English and Vietnamese, most of the grammaticians share similar
classifications of sentence of purposes.
In terms of purposes, sentences may be classified 4 types in terms of purposes:
A declarative sentence is used to make a statement; An interrogative sentence is
used to pose a question; An imperative sentence is used to give a command or to
implore or entreat; An exclamatory sentence is used to express astonishment or
extreme emotion. For example,
[8] How enjoyable we were when the dawn came and our flag was still there!;
[9] How did you do your hair! (exclamation formed as a question);
[10] Peter just won 500 dollars! (exclamation formed as a declarative
sentence)
If we consider sentences in syntactic aspect sentences may be divided in to
four major syntactic classes whose use correlates with different communicative
functions. Alexander (1988) cites that sentence is a complete unit of meaning. When
we speak, our sentences may be extremely involved or unfinished, yet we can still
convey our meaning through intonation, gesture, facial expressions, etc. When we
write, these devices are not available, so sentences have to be carefully structured
and punctuated. A written sentence must begin with a capital letter and end with a
full stop (.), a question mark (?) or an exclamation mark (!). Quirk et al. (1972) find
out four major classes in which simple sentences may be divided, and the division
seems to have been made on the basis of (syntactic) form and (pragmatic) function:
(i) Statements: Sentences in which the subject is always present and
generally precedes the verbs. They are used to confirm the existence of things or the
characteristics, actions or states of things such as “Kama will come here today”
(ii) Questions are sentences which seek information . They fall into three

main types, depending on the kind of reply they expect and or how they are
constructed. For example: Are they ready?; Where are you going?; Will you lie
travelling by train or by bus?. Sentences marked by one of the following criteria:
a. The placing of the operator in front of the subject, as in “ Will Kama come
here today?”

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b. The initial positioning of a wh – element as in “When will Kama come
here?”
c. Rising question intonation as in “Kama will come here today?”
(iii) Commands: Sentences which instruct someone to do something . They
normally have no overt grammatical subject and whose verbs are in the imperative
mood (Come here today!, Sit down!, Don‟t laugh!)
(iv) Exclamations are sentences which have an initial phrase introduced by
“what” or “how” without inversion of subject and operator, exclamations are used
to express the degree of emotion, attitude of speakers towards things or
phenomenon.
[11] What nice clothes she wears!
(Quirk et al, 1972)
[12]How tall a man he is!
(Quirk et al, 1972)
2.2.2 Pragmatic theories
2.2.2.1 The concept of pragmatics

According to George Yule (1996), Pragmatics is concerned with the study of
meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener (or
reader). This type of study necessarily involves the interpretation of what people
mean in a particular context influences what is said. This approach also necessarily

explores how listeners can make inferences about what is said in order to arrive at
an interpretation of the speaker‟s intended meaning. It explores how a great deal of
what is unsaid is recognized as part of what is communicated. Pragmatics is the
study of how more gets communicated than is said.
On the assumption of how close or distant the listener is, speakers determine
how much needs to be said. Pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative
distance.
According to wikipedia.org, pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which
studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning. It studies how the
transmission of meaning depends not only on the linguistic knowledge of the
speaker and listener, but also on the context of the utterance knowledge about of the
status of those involved, the inferred intent of how the meaning of a sentence
changes depending on how and where it is expressed. Pragmatics encompasses
speech act theory, conversational implication, talk in interaction and other

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approaches to language behavior in philosophy, sociology, and linguistics.
Moreover, if there is a context to be brought into consideration, then you are
engaged in pragmatics. Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as
communicated by a speaker or writer and interpreted by a listener or reader
Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning. This type of study necessarily involves
the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and how the context
influences what is said. Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning.
In oxford Advanced Learner‟s dictionary, pragmatics is known as the study of
the way in which language is used to express what somebody really means in
particular situations, especially when the actual words used may appear to mean
something different.
In short, Pragmatics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms

and the users of those forms. Thus, pragmatics is appealing because it is about how
people make sense of each other linguistically, but it can be frustrating area of study
because it requires us to make sense of people and what they have in mind.
2.2.2.2 Speech Acts Theory

As we seen, successful communication takes place when speakers share
knowledge, beliefs and assumptions and when they adhere to similar rules of
cooperative interaction. Language, however, is not only a vehicle to exchange
thoughts and ideas, we often use utterances in order to perform social actions and
functions. If a teacher in a class room tells a student “I will have to inform your
parents about your behavior”, it usually is not only a statement that imparts
information, it may also have the power of a threatening act. By making this
statement, the teacher may also have performed a threatening act. Similarly, when
one friend tells another “You look great today”; this utterance serves not only a
description but functions mainly as a “compliment”. It is possible to say that since
the publication of J.L Austin‟s “How to do things with words” (1962) speech act
has attracted an enormous amount of attention, from linguists, philosophers,
psychologists..etc. And they come to agree that speech act theory is theory of
language action that means “speech act theory has to do with the functions and uses
of language, so in the broadest sense we may say that speech acts are all acts we
perform through speaking, all things we “do” when we speak” According to Austin
(1962), a speech act performed through an utterance includes three components.
What is said, the utterance, can be called the locution. What the speaker intends to

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communicate to the addressee is the illocution. The message that the addressee gets,
his interpretation of what the speaker says is the per locution. If the communication
is successful, the illocution and the per locution are alike or nearly alike. According

to Austin (1962) and Searle (1969, 1976) a speech act is defined as a function of the
language within which an utterance serves a purpose in any exchange of
communication, and the action is conveyed by means of speech acts. Therefore, we
perform speech acts when we want to offer something, apologize for something, ask
for something, invite someone, refuse or accept something and etc. Austin (1962)
was dissatisfied with the traditional concentration on referential meaning and the
truth and falsehood of statements. This led him to focus the attention from studying
sentence-meaning to study the utterance–meaning (Leech, 1983, p. 321). Therefore,
he developed the first approach to a new theory that has been famous as a Speech
Act Theory. The ideas are further developed by another philosopher and that is John
Searle (1969) who both has added to them and has regrouped them more
systematically into five broad types based on the speaker‟s intention : declaratives,
representatives, expressives, directives and commissives. Types of related acts in
producing an utterance, as mentioned above, Austin (1962:321) has identified three
distinctive levels of actions beyond the act of utterance itself (the action of saying
something, what one does in saying it, and what one does by saying it and dubs
these the “ locutionary”, the “ illocutionary” and “ perlocutionary” act, respectively.
(i) Locutionary act
This is the basic act of utterance, producing a meaningful linguistic
expression. Suppose, for example, that a dancing girl utters the words, “The bar is
closed so early, it is only 23.30”, reported by means of direct quotation. She is
thereby performing the locutionary act of saying that the bar (i.e. the one she is
tending) is closed at 23.30 (from the time of utterance), and what is said is reported
by indirect quotation.
(ii) Illocutionary act
This is an act performed via the communicative force of an utterance. In
engaging in locutionary acts, we generally also perform illocutionary acts such
as informing, exclaiming, advising, undertaking…i.e. utterances which have a
certain (conventional) force. For example, in saying “The bar is closed so early, it is
only 23.30”, the dancing girl is performing the illocutionary act of expressing a pity

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because she wants to stay much longer and perhaps also the act of urging the
manager to open his bar longe
(iii) Perlocutionary act
This is what we bring about or achieve by saying something,

such as

convincing, persuading, deterring...etc. Unlike locutionary and illocutionary acts,
perlocutionary acts are performed only on the assumption that the hearer will
recognize the effect you intended. In the above example, the dancing girl intends to
be performing the perlocutionary acts of persuading the manager to open the bar
longer and of regretting for having to part everyone earlier than she expected.The
theory of speech acts is developed mainly by Austin (1962) and Searle (1969,
1979). The central assumption in the theory of speech act is that the minimal unit
of communication is not a sentence or other expressions but rather language
act. In another term, human language can be viewed as actions. Individuals perform
things by saying different kinds of language acts such as refusals, requests,
promises, and the like. Austin (1962, p. 67) studied speech acts from the
following perspective: ―to consider from the ground up how many senses there
are in which to say something is to do something, or in saying something we do
something and even by saying something we do something. According to his view,
any utterance is composed of the following acts: the elocutionary act (the actual
words the speaker is saying), the illocutionary act (the intention of the speaker) and
the elocutionary act (the effect of utterance on the hearer). For examples, the speech
act “exclaim about the weather” can be performed in the following ways:
[13] How wonderful it is!;What a wonderful day! It is so wonderful today!

Isn‟t it wonderful! It is such a wonderful day!
From the above things about general speech acts we want to study a small
scale that is Exclamative mood which is involved in the fifth kinds of speech act.
Speech acts are generally defined as the actions that are involved when one says
something.
According to “Lectures on Discourse Analysis” of Ho Ngoc Trung (2013),
Austin and Searle respectively grouped speech acts into five classes as in the table
below.

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Table 2.1 Speech Acts Classification by Austin and Searle

Speech Acts

Austin’s
Verdictives
Exercitives
Commissives
Behabitives

Searle’s
Representatives
Directives
Commissives
Expressives

Expositives

Declarations

2.2.2.3 Exclamations and speech acts
According to Yule (1987, p.4), pragmatics is “ the study of the relationships
between linguistic forms and users of those form”. It involves speaker or writer‟s
meaning. In other words, it is also considered as the study that deals with the
analysis of what people mean by utterances rather than what words and phrases
might mean by themselves. One of the central concepts of pragmatics is the
observation that utterances perform actions, which are known as speech acts. As
Yule (1987) stated when making an utterance, the speaker performs an action that
consists of three acts: Locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts.
Exclaiming – An illocutionary act to express people attitude or feelings to entities
in different situations is a natural act showing our abundantly introvert sides and
multi–leveled emotions in daily conversations. This one is a speech act showing
temporary emotion and contemporary feelings but not an act performed
consciously at all. Moreover, the demand of expressing emotion is really
remarkable and the like is done so often everywhere and every time. However, it
does not mean that whenever we want to show our feeling, we use exclamations.
We only exclaim when our feeling is existing and contemporary and importantly at
an extreme degree. Usually, when the speaker‟s feelings are strong, this extreme
emotion need to be express, and then exclaiming meets that demand. If
“exclaiming” is simply showing emotion or attitude, people can express their
emotion through declaratives or through the acts of remarking, commenting… The
peculiarities of exclamations have much to do with their pragmatic roles as
utterances which relate specifically to the speaker‟s participation in the act of
communication. An exclamation is “ speaker – oriented”. When we exclaim, our
feelings are extremely strong and sometimes we are under the feeling of “lost for
words” because when we want to express our feelings, which leads to the case that

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we are all thumbs and express what we feel inadequately we would like somebody
to know how we feel, but at the moment when we feel the urge to give vent to our
feelings, we cannot express them adequately. (“I don‟t know how to say what I
feel”)
The appearance of the most influential collection of Austin‟s paper (1962)
(How to do things with words) was very timely, coinciding as it did with a growing
frustration within linguistics. Whatever the explanation, it is a source of mild pride
that „the father of Pragmatics‟. On the other hand, it is not wrong when we say that
John Searle “saves” us from the potential anarchy of Austin‟s little book in
speech acts, grouping them according to common functional characteristics such
as: representatives, directives, commissives, expressives and declaratives. In this
subpart, it is expressives that is focused on particularly. The illocutionary point of
this class is to express the psychological state specified in the sincerity condition
about a state of affairs specified in the propositional content. A look at the
conditions of expressives in Searler‟s speech acts (1976:12) is taken then.
Exclaiming, as other expessives meets the conditions that he proposed, so that they
have their own conditions:
Propositional content condition: When exclaiming, the speaker needs to
express her feelings to something. This emotional state then is not a clause but still
has the clausal function.
Preparatory condition: Supposing that besides the ability of using words to
form exclamations, the speaker is really under a strong stimulus.
Sincerity condition: The speaker must have real emotions or feelings. She,
however, has or does not have intention and desire to say how she feels about what
happened or is happening.
Essential condition: The speaker can express her emotion.
In summary, the conditions of exclamations have the following features:
Firstly, they are emotionally triggered but they do not propotionalise their emotive

content, they are directly emotive. Secondly, they have propositional contents
indicating high positions on degree or quantity scales. These scalar features may
be explicit or inferable. Finally, they express deviations from norms, not explicitly,
but through a generalized implicature triggered by the emphatic stress. Exclamatory
sentences are used to show the following illoculationary acts such as anger,
disappointment, surprise, sadness, regret, refusal, warn, happiness, support, request

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