Phương tiện biểu hiện nghĩa tình thái ở hành động hỏi tiếng anh và tiếng việt tt tiếng anh

VIETNAM
ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

NGUYỄN THỊ VÂN ANH

THE MEANS OF EXPRESSING MODALITY IN
SPEECH ACT OF QUESTIONING IN ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE

Major:

Comparative Linguistics

Mã số:

9 22 20 24

ABSTRACT SUMMARY OF LINGUISTICS DOCTORAL
RESEARCH

HÀ NỘI 2019


The work was completes at:
VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
INSTITUTE OF LANGUAGE-GRADUATE ACADEMY OF
SOCIAL SCIENCE

Full name of supervisor:

Reviewer 1: Prof.Dr Nguyen Van Khang
Reviewer 2: Prof.Dr Hoàng Van Van
Reviewer 3:Ass.Priof Dr Tran Kim Phuong

The work is supervised at the Graduate Academy’s Board of
Members, meeting at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences,
Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, 477 Nguyen Trai, Thanh
Xuan, Hanoi.
At……/ .... ./.... 20….

The work can be found at:
- Vietnam National Library
- Library of Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences


LIST OF THESIS BY AUTHOR
DISCLOSURE RELATED TO THE WORKS
1. Nguyễn Thị Vân Anh: “Nghĩa tình thái ở kiểu hỏi chính
danh thể hiện ở câu trần thuật”, Tạp chí Từ điển học và bách
khoa thư, số 2 (58) 3/2019.
2. Nguyễn Thị Vân Anh: “Tình thái trong kiểu hỏi chính danh
tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt”, Tạp chí Nhân lực khoa học xã hội, số 2(69)
- 3/2019.
3. Võ Đại Quang- Nguyễn Thị Vân Anh “Nghiên cứu về một
số phương tiện biểu đạt tình thái trong câu hỏi tiếng Anh”, Tạp chí
ngôn ngữ và đời sống, số 9 (239) 2015.
4. Võ Đại Quang- Nguyễn Thị Vân Anh “Một số đặc điểm
ngữ dụng của các kiểu câu hỏi chính danh tiếng Anh”, Tạp chí Khoa
học ngoại ngữ, trường ĐH Hà Nội, số 45/2015.

INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
The emotional nuances, the different emotional levels of the
speaker and the listener in the process of communicating in the
language are modality. Modality tin language is a very wide array of
knowledge and in any language, modality with the ways to express
the modality are very various and rich.
In the world and in Vietnamese linguistics, there have been
many scientific studies on modality field and the means of conveying
modality, especially in the view of pragmatics. Modality is a category
with which associated the expression of the imperative , permission,
prohibition, necessity and possibility. It is impossible to create the
meaning of words if in that we cannot find any expression of modality’s
temperament. Modality is not only the soul of the sentence, the text, but
also the communicative activities. Communication will achieve the
optimal efficiencies when we know how to use the means of modality
expression. Applying the means of modality expression will help the
speaker build his speech as well as for the listener to receive and
correctly grasp the speaker's intention in communicative process.
Therefore, the study of the modality and the means to express modality
is an interesting topic, which has been increasingly focused and
developed to help us towards success in behavior and communication .
Through research, we have found that there have been domestic
and foreign topics focusing on the field of modality and revolving
around the definition as well as the classifications of modality, means of
modality expression. The scope of the study of the relationship between
the modality of the questions and the imperatives, the modality meaning

of syntactic affection in the languages, however, in the scope of the
literature we have not been successful whichever is directly
systematically interested in researching how to express the modality of
the speech- acts in English and Vietnamese, manifested not only by
questions but also by other types of sentences such as command,
narration at doctoral thesis.
For the reasons stated above, the study of the means of expressing
modality in question of this thesis is necessary, helping to provide a
broader view of the modality in language. This study is not only to meet
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the academic needs but also to meet the practical needs. The doctoral
thesis may to some extent contribute to the compilation of references for
intensive teaching and learning, improving understanding for those who
are interested in the research field of the thesis.
2. Aims of the research
This doctoral thesis was carried out to serve the following
aims: To study the means of modality expressing in English and
Vietnamese questions in order to learn about the similarities and
differences of means of modality expressing in terms of semanticspragmatics in both languages. Through the research, the author may
cultivate the necessary understanding, raising the level of service for
the teaching and translation of foreign languages.
The research task of the doctoral thesis focuses on
understanding the following issues:
1. Speech act theory, the act of asking, the modality and the
means of modality expressing in languages.
2. Identify direct and indirect speech acts in English and
Vietnamese.
3. Describing means of modality expressing in direct and

indirect speech acts in English and Vietnamese
4. Finding out the similarities and differences of speech act
modality, epistemic modality, deontic modality and means of
modality expressing
in English and Vietnamese questioning.
3. Object, scope of research and scope of linguistic
sources
The object of the thesis is the means of modality expressing in
English and Vietnamese speech acts of questions that means within the
scope of this doteral thesis, we focus on surveying the means of
modality expressing in English and Vietnamese direct and indirect
speech acts of questions. This doctoral thesis is serveyed on sources such
as English - Vietnamese questions, sources of narration, and statements
used by a group of natural language authors of Stanford University (The
Stanford Natural Language Processing Group) conducts voice
recordings in TED talks videos (English-Vietnamese bilingual corpus:
), literary works such as Margaret
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Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell","The Da Vinci
Code" by Dan Brown, the collection of Nguyen Hao Hai short stories,
the collection of Chu Lai short stories, the collection of Ngo Tu Lap
short stories named "Month with 15 days", the collection of Nguyen
Huy Thiep, the collection of Nam Cao short stories, Ngo Tat To novels
and the short stories printed on newspapers and magazines of the
People's Army from 2000 to 2016.
Currently, there are many types of modality that are
established according to different criteria. The scope of this thesis's
research focuses on the attitude and means of modality expressing the

attitude of verbal action, epistemic modality and deontic modality in
direct and indirectspeech act of questions in English and
Vietnamese. The means of modality expressing attitudes in rhetorical
English and Vietnamese are beyond the scope of this doctoral thesis.
The speech act of question is an act that the speaker
performs through the language, a type of illocutionary that tries
to elicit a certain information in the form of an answer. In other
words, this is the action the speaker takes to gather unknown
information to know. The speech act of question can have many
means of modality expression and the same way of expression
can perform many different speech act . Questioning uses
interrogation and other structures to request information or carry
out communication purposes. The speaker may use the
questionnaire (or other sentence structure such as narrative or
imperative) to perform an act of verbal inquiry The speech act of
question expressed by the question is the direct speech act. The
speech act of question performed by narative or imperative is
called indirect speech act.
Thus, there are many different ways to perform the same
speech act, because there are many different sentences performing
the same speaking purpose. From the analysis mentioned above, we
suggest the following questions in English and Vietnamese:
(1) The act of asking directly in English and Vietnamese is
the questioning action expressed by a question;
(2) Indirect questioning of English and Vietnamese is the act
of asking, expressed by narrative and imperative.
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4. Method of the research

Research methodology: To research the topic, we use the
main research method which is the descriptive and collation method.
The descriptive method is aimed at clarifying the types of modality
and the means of modality expressing in English and Vietnamese
speech act of question . In the descriptive one, we have applied the
same tactics such as statistics, classification and tactics of contextual
analysis on the specific linguistic sources we collected.
In addition, we use a comparative method to find out the
similarities and differences between the emotional units, the means of
modality expressing, and the effect of using them in reality, thereby
we are better in understanding the modality , and the means of
modality expressing in English and Vietnamese speech act of
question to improve the efficiency of verbal communication.
5. The contribution of the thesis
The thesis has identified the direct and indirect speech act of
question in English and Vietnamese. The research focuses on the
means of expressing the speech act modality, the means of epistemic
modality expressing, the means of deontic modality expressing in
direct and indirect speech act of questions with specific
characteristics of content and the corresponding relationship between
form and content. Through analysis, the research has initially
recognized the similarities and differences in means of expressing the
speech act modality, means of expressing epistemic modality, means
of expressing deontic modality in directly and indirectly speech act of
questions in English and Vietnamese.
6. Theoretical and practical meanings of the doctoral thesis
In the theory: Through the comparison of the modality and
the means of modality expressing of speech act questions in English
and Vietnamese, the thesis helps to get more awareness of the
expression of speech ach modality, epistemic modality, deontic

modality in English and Vietnamese act of asking directly and in the
act of asking indirectly as well as to find the similarities and
differences of means of expressing modality in English and
Vietnamese act of asking.
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In practice: Although the modality status has not been new, it
has always been an interesting topic that attracted the attention of
many linguists. In the spirit of inheriting and promoting the research
results of many previous authors on the issue of modality and means
of modality expression , in this thesis, we focus on research to
highlight internal issues: how to use the modality and how to convey
modality in direct and indirect speech act questions in English and
Vietnamese. There are not many studies on the means of expressing
modality in illocutionary types in the speech act of question of both
languages: English and Vietnamese. The results of the thesis will
serve for the further teaching foreign languages, or a reference for
those who are interested in the research area of the topic.
7. The design of the doctoral thesis
The doctoral thesis is organized into three chapters and is
concluded the Introduction and Conclusion.
Chapter 1: Overview of the research situation and the
theoretical basis of the thesis
Chapter 2: Means of modality expressing in direct speech act
of question in English and Vietnamese.
Chapter 3: Means of modality expressing in indirect speech
act of question in English and Vietnamese.
CHAPTER 1
OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH SITUATION AND

THEORETICAL BASIS OF THE THESIS
1.1. Overview of the situation study and the means of
expressing modality in English and Vietnamese
1.1.1. Abroad research
Foreign linguistic researchers such as Ch.Bally (1905), O.
Jespersen (1949), V. Wright (1951), N. Rescher (1968), J. Lyons (1995),
J.R. Searle (1969), T. Givón (1993), F. Palmer (2001) have made
significant contributions to the development of a general theoretical
framework on modality and modality classification. In it, Ch.Bally was
the first to distinguish Modus (status part) as one of two essential and
important components of the meaning structure of the speech attached to
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the psychological aspect, showing the factors belonging to the offense.
micro-emotions, wills, attitudes, and assessments of the speaker on what
is being said, in relation to reality, to the interlocutor and to the context
of communication. Most of the researchers on the modality in foreign
countries such as O. Jepersen (1949), V. Wright (1951), N.Reacher
(1968), Quirk et al. (1972), T. Givón (1993), M.A. K Halliday (1994), J.
Lyons (1995), F. Palmer (2001) discuss about two main types of states:
linguistics modality and logic modality.
1.1.2. Domestic research
In Vietnam, the linguists such as Hoang Phe (1989), Cao
Xuan Hao (1991), Ho Le (1992), Le Dong (1996), Nguyen Thi Luong
(1996), Nguyen Duc Dan (1998), Diep Quang Ban (2000), Hoang Tue
(2001), Pham Hung Viet (2003), Bui Manh Hung (2003), Nguyen Van
Hiep (2001, 2004, 2007, 2015) ... directly concerned about the
modality of affairs. The researches are very detailed and there are
many in-depth interpretations of the emotional issues in various

aspects. Cao Xuân Hạo (1999) distinguished two types of attitudes: the
modality of speech acts and the modality in statements. Nguyen Thi
Luong (1996) applied the linguistic action theory to the study of ten
end-use verb phrases to ask in order to find out the verbal actions that
end-to-end participle has the ability to express in the specific context in
which they appear, describing the validity of those actions”. Pham
Hung Viet thinks that in order to express the modality of a sentence,
there must be facilities such as phonetic means (intonation, stress),
vocabularies (verbs, adverbs, adverbs, exclamations, etc.). the context
of the situation, grammar (reversing word order, changing sentence
structure ...) and Vietnamese adverbs that can participate in expressing
a number of different types of illocutionary including direct and
indirect speech act of question. Nguyen Van Hiep (2007) addresses the
main modality categories in language based on the opposites of
modality pairs such as (the epistemic modality and deontic modality ),
the contrast between the epistemic modality and the root modality, the
opposite of agent-oriented modality and speaker-oriented modality ,
the opposite of the modality of the speech purpose and the state of the
statement. The emotional contradictions he points out show a wide
range of modality studies.
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The study of the modality and means of modality expressing
in speech act of question in English and Vietnamese initially helps
us to identify what is the speech act of question in English and
Vietnamese; to identify the direct and indirect speech act of question
, speech act modality, epistemic modality, deontic modality and the
means by which they are expressed.
1.2. Overview of the speech act of question research in

English and Vietnamese
The speech act of question research is not a new issue and is very
interested in linguists, but the attitudes of researchers are also different.
For English, special attention is paid to the work of J. Austin (1969) and J.
Searle (2001) when researchers refer to the theory of verbal action.
Researchers like A.ierzbicka, J. Sadock, G. Gazdar, RM Harnis, G. Yule
share the same attitudes with J. Pearle about criteria for classifying speech
act, which are the main characteristics, important of speech act. However,
the difference in the authors' study of linguistic action lies in the
complementary criteria for the characteristics determining the linguistic
action such as the conditions of use, or the conditions of satisfaction and
orientation. Sort small criteria under big criteria in the classification. The
works of J. Austin (1969) O Ducrot (1972) J.Searle (1979) ... directed
research on the issues of semantics, pragmatics of the question. J. Searle is
the initiator of the study of indirect speech act. O. Ducrot with a view to
studying the question in the relationship between a sentence-utterance.
For Vietnamese, research by Nguyen Kim Than (1979) shows that the
identification of a question is based on the purpose of speaking. Ho Le
(1992), Cao Xuan Hao (1995), Diep Quang Ban (2000) identify question
through criteria of question marks and signs of questions. Inverting the
order, changing the structure of the question may indicate the speaker's
intention to focus on a certain point in the speech of the question. On the
pragmatic level, it is noteworthy that Le Dong's (1996) study of the
question is questionable. He considers the question in question in
interpersonal relationships such as communicator, communication role,
context, speaking purpose, attitude of the speaker. Lê Đông researched
deeply on the pragmatic semantics of proper questions, sub-types of
questions, complementary pragmatic information, and modality in proper
questions. Nguyen Thi Thin (1996) focused on 11 types of unused
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questions, indirect questions, non-proper questions in the relationship
between grammatical structure and usage, relation of structure and
function. Therefore, this research is only limited to describing the purpose
and syntax characteristics, usage characteristics of 3 types of questions
among typical types of questions that don’t use to ask. Vo Dai Quang
(2000) studied the characteristics of the English and Vietnamese proper
questions on the pragmatic aspect with the views that classify them into
explicit, implicit and alternative questions. From which the authour gives
out similarities and differences in pragmatic semantics of the proper
question in English and Vietnamese. Nguyễn Việt Tiến (2006) give
research on act of questioning and questions based on pragmatics on
French evidence with specific analysis of Vietnamese and French
questions and actions in their specific positions. . Nguyen Phuc Trung
(2011) studied the questioning action in the language of television
interview (on channels of VTV, compared to TV5 channel of France)
from a pragmatic point of view. The study focused on studying about act
of questioning and other speech acts with the purpose of exploiting the
necessary information that speakers want in the form of responses in terms
of voice pairs and dialogues, the politeness and appearance of linguistic
actions in television interviews.
CHAPTER 2
MEANS OF MODALITY EXPRESSING IN DIRECT SPEECH
ACT OF QUESTION IN ENGLISH AND ENGLISH
2.1. Overview of the direct speech act of question in
English and Vietnamese
2.1.1. Definition of direct speech act of question
Speech act of quetion that perform their functions directly
and literally are called direct speech act of question. That is, the

function that the sentence implements in the discourse is its literal
meaning. Direct speech act of question can be taken in two ways:
1) By creating a literal, direct statement;
2) By using an action verb call the action verb name.
Thus, the act of asking directly is a verbal act performed by a
questionnaire with a question expression in order to search for
unknown information to know. We can use interrogative questions to
perform direct questioning.
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2.1.2. Identify direct speech act of question in English
Direct speech act of question in English is done by
questioning. The form of a question in English is as follows:
1. The first position of the verb as the predicate (also known
as the predicate) in English.
2. Question with question words begin with what, when,
where, who, whom, which, whose, why and how ....
3. Question s with the question words what, who, which or
whose is the subject or part of the subject, this question has no
auxiliary verb
4. A question with a negative word is formed by adding ‘not’
after the auxiliary verb.
5. Question has negative meaning words
Thus, the direct speech act of question in English is identified
as follows:
(1) The action is taken with a question such as (Overview
questions or Yes-No questions), Part questions (Wh- questions), Selection
questions using OR (Questions) with OR) or use the action verb
(2) The question pronoun in the question plays a role as a

means of conveying modality
(3) Intonation questions
In English intonation, the commonly used question is glideup in the general questions (yes-no questions, tag questions) and the
tone in the partial questions (Wh-questions )
(4) Adverbial expressions in the question
(5) At the end of the question, there is a question mark (?) in
written form.
2.1.3. Identify direct speech act of question in Vietnamese
The direct speech act of question is the action in which its
validity is consistent with the form and function of the type of
question being used to indicate it.
Direct speech act of question in Vietnamese is identified as follows:
- Question is done by questioning
- The questioning action is used in accordance with the
conditions of use
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- The speech act of question is correct to use their target
language.
The form of a question in Vietnamese is as follows:
1. Questions often use pronouns such as ai, gì, nào, sao, tại
sao, đâu, bao giờ, bao nhiêu, à, ư, hả, chứ,, specific participle in
question such as (có)… không ,có phải... không.... (đã,… chưa…)
2. Specific participle in question such as such as (có)… không
,có phải... không.... (đã,… chưa…) with hay (connecting the related
parts of choice).
3. The participle of modality participle (à, ư, nhỉ, nhé..)....
4. The end of the question is the question mark (?) In written
form and the glide up intonation in spoken form (usually glide up

intonation on the voice at the end of the sentence)
In Vietnamese, direct speech act of question is the action
performed by overview /general question,Wh- question, alternative
question, and echo question.
2.2. Means of expressing modality in the direct speech act
of question in English
2.2.1. Means of expressing speech act modality in the in the
direct speech act of question in English
The modality in the direct speech act of question in English is
questionable modality. The questioning attitude is used by the speaker to
express the desire to learn the unknown or doubtful and to expect the
answers and explanations of the listener to the speaker. The means of
conveying the questionable modality is the question. According to
synthesized questionable speech sources in English-Vietnamese corpus
bilingual corpus ( literary works such
as "Gone with the Wind" written by Margaret Mitchell, "The Da Vinci
Code" written by Dan Brown , we statistically included 545overviewed
questions, 525 partial questions/Wh- questions , 485alternative questions,
465 echoed question on a total of more than 2020 questions.
Questionable modality expressed by means of interrogative
sentences often contain modality predicate verbs (look like, suppose,
think, would of ask, may, will, must, should, ...), question structure
with or / or maybe, the question words such as what, why, how,
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where, when, ..., the verbs Say, tell, ask before the whole question
clause or question words used to ask.
2.2.2. Means of expressing epistemic modality and deontic
modality in direct speech act of question in English

Epistemic modality and deontic modality in direct speech act
of question in English is marked by declarative mood, modal verbs,
modal adjectives, modal adverbs, hedges, modal nouns.
2.3. Means of expressing modality in the speech act of
question in Vietnamese.
2.3.1 Means of expressing speech act modality in the in the
direct speech act of question in Vietnamese
Direct speech act of question is the action in language used
by the speaker to express unknown or doubtful things and expect the
answers and explanations of the listener to the speaker. Modality in
direct speech act of question inVietnamese is questionable modality.
The questionable modality is expressed through the means of
questions such as overviewquestions, alternative questions, Whquestions and echo questions.
2.3.2 Means of expressing epistemic modality and deontic
modality in direct speech act of question in Vietnamese
Epistemic modality and deontic modality are both
subjective modality. The subjective modality is the kind of
modality related to the speaker's attitude to what is said in the
sentence as well as the relationship between the subject and the
core of an expression being marked. The subjective modality is
also the speaker's judgment about the truth of what is said in the
sentence; is the possibility or necessity of that; is the speaker's
way of assessing the situation conveyed; is the speaker's
introduction of the nature of the sentence; is the relationship
between sentences and situations of good dialogues with context
and many other content in the field of logic or superlanguage.
Means of expressing epistemic modality and deontic modality in
direct speech act of question in Vietnamese are expressed by:
(1) Modal verbs: muốn, có thể, phải, dám, cần phải, phải nói,
biết, nghĩ, đoán, đồ, tiên đoán, bị, nên, cần, hi vọng, sẽ, suýt, toan,

định, hòng…;
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(2) Modal modifiers: đã, đang, sẽ, còn, chưa….;
(3) Modal participles : à, ư, nhỉ, nhé, chăng…..;
(4) Modal Adverbs: có lẽ là, có thể là, chắc chắn, thường
xuyên, cần thiết, thường thường, thực tế…;
(5) Modal adjectives: thật, quả thật, hiển nhiên, rõ ràng, đúng,
rất, quá, lắm, chắc, hết sức, vô cùng, cực kì, tốt nhất, ít nhất, vừa vừa..
(6) Hedges : Chúng (tôi) cho rằng, chúng (tôi) nghĩ rằng, tôi
nghĩ rằng, chúng (tôi) tin rằng, theo chúng tôi, theo tôi; tôi hỏi khí
không phải, tôi mạn phép hỏi, nếu không phiền tôi xin phép hỏi….;
2.3.3. The similarities and differences in means of expressing
modality in direct speech act of question in English and Vietnamese
2.3.3.1. Similarities
In both languages, there are numbers of means of expressing
speech act modality, means of expressing epistemic and deontic
modality in the direct speech act of question includes grammar,
vocabulary and phonetic. In terms of the number of means of
expressing those modalities in direct speech act of question in
Engish and Vietnamese are equivalent.
2.3.3.2. Differences
In different languages, the expressions of modality are not
the same. In English, the modality is expressed through
grammatical systems such as modal nouns – (Possibility,
probability), and phonetic means (intonation contour - contour,
intonation -tune: the glide -down, the glide-up, the take-off, the dive
...) the syllable (tonic syllable), combined with the words to convey
content of question which is one of the means to convey the

epistemic and deontic modality quite peculiarly in English, which
is absent or rarely used in Vietnamese.
We realize that the vocabulary part like the modal particle (à
, ư , nhỉ , nhé, sao, chăng…) all conveys a certain modality meaning
and is a specific feature in Vietnamese, however, these informal
phrases are not in English, instead English people use intonation
(intonation, volume stress) to convey the nuances of modality.
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CHAPTER 3
MEANS OF MODALITY EXPRESSING IN INDIRECT
SPEECH ACT OF QUESTION IN ENGLISH AND ENGLISH
3.1. Overview of the indirect speech act of question in
English and Vietnamese
From the standpoint of indirect speech act of question, it
can be seen that the indirect speech act of question has two forms
of expression: The first form of expression is that the force of
interrogation is expressed in a form that is not a question, and
the expression. The second is the form of questions used to
indicate an effect in another illocutionary- not to ask for
information. In the framework of this thesis we focus on the first
form of expression.
3.1.1. Definition of indirect speech act of question
Indirect speech act of question is the act of asking using a
non-formal style of the question and being identified by the speaker's
purpose, which means that there are many ways to perform the
speech act of question. The act of asking through a question is called
direct speech act of question. The indirect speech act of question is
the action when the speaker does not use the question, but uses the

narrative and the imperative to ask in order to find the answer that the
speaker wants to know.
3.1.2. Identify indirect speech act of question in English
Indirect speech act of question is identified by the speaker's
purpose, the form and structure of the narrative and imperative used
in communication. They often have the following formal signs:
3.1.2.1. Indirect speech act of question in English through
narrative sentences.
(1) The main proposition is to use narration.
(2) The subordinate contains questionable pronouns, modal words
(3) Intonation questions.
Form of English narrative sentence
The characteristic of the narrative form is that it does not
have the formal characteristics of the question, sentence or
exclamation sentence meaning that the narrative does not use specific

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words and specific words such as the word suspected: interrogative,
interdependent / imperative, exclamatory. Narrative sentences are the
most common and important type. The function of the narrative is to
convey information, an incident, a phenomenon, or to declare
something. In written form, narrative sentences usually end with a
full stop (.), Or sometimes an exclamation mark (!) Or an ellipsis (;).
The narrative form is usually divided into two types:
affirmative and negative form. The structure of the narrative sentence
used in question includes the narrative mood of the verb (in the main
clause), the question word (Wh-word) in the sub-clause.
2.2.2.2. Indirect speech act of question in English through

imperative sentences
Indirect questioning in English through the usual
imperative is:
(1) A proposition is a command mode.
(2) The subordinate contains questionable pronouns such as
Who, Whom, which, whose, why, how ...
(3) Intonation questions.
Form of English imperative sentence
An imperative is a sentence that is so dictated that it is also
called a sentence, used when the speaker requests or orders another
person to do something. It is often followed by the word "please".
The subject of the command is implied as "you". In English, a
statement is characterized by a command phrase with the sign that the
absence of the subject, the verb in its original form and the absence
of the adverb as well as the means of marking the time and the
accompanying.
Indirect speech act of question of English through the
narration has the following signs:
(1) The modal verbs: want to know, ask, wonder, want to ask
in the predicate position and questionable words like who, what, why,
….in the position of sub- clause consistent in the sentence.
(2) There is questionable words
(3) Context
Form of Vietnamese narrative sentence
Narrative sentences are descriptions, presentations, and
identification of many kinds of things. Narrative sentences in
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Vietnamese do not have unmarked sentences like other sentence

types, they are seen as a statement and have specific language signs.
This type of sentence often uses a period at the end. Narrative
sentences are not always used for identification but in addition to
those values they are also used for asking or asking for suggestions or
expressing emotions. Narrative sentences are very common in
communication.
Indirect speech act of question through the Vietnamese
narrative is identified through: The modal verbs: Nói cho biết, hãy
nói, hãy cho biết....in the predicate position( main clause), the
question words like ai, gì, nào, sao... in the propositional position in
sub-clause of sentences.
3.1.2.2. Indirect speech act of question in Vietnamese
through imperative sentences.
The Indirect speech act of question in Vietnamese through
inperative sentence have the following signs:
(1) Verbs represent the required actions and asked: : Nói cho
biết, hãy nói, hãy cho biết....
(2) Question words such as tại sao, cái gì, nào, đâu,đi
chứ, đi nào...
in the sub-clause of sentence.
(3) Context
Form of Vietnamese imperative sentence
The imperative sentence in Vietnamese is, in fact, a narrative
structure but is marked mainly by intonation and some emotional
elements such as "“ hãy, đừng, chớ, , etc." or the "“ đi, nào, thôi,đi
chứ, ..etc ... ”The final sentence has an exclamation mark. (!)
3.2. Means of expressing modality in indirect speech act
of question in English
3.2.1. Means of expressing speech act modality in indirect
speech act of question in English

Speech act modality in direct speech act of question in
English is questionable modality. The questioning attitude is used by
the speaker to express the desire to learn the unknown or doubtful
and to expect the answers and explanations of the listener. The means
of conveying the questionable modality is the question. According to
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the synthesized data, we have 545 overview questions, 525 whquestions, 485 alternative questions, 465 echo questions out of a total
of more than 2020 interrogated statements.
Interrogative modality expressed by means of interrogative
sentences often contains modal predicate verbs (look like, suppose,
think, would of ask, may, will, must, should, ...), question structure
with or / or maybe, the question words what , why, how, where,
when, ..., the verbs Say, tell, ask before the whole question or
question words used to ask.
3.2.2. Means of expressing epistemic and deontic modality in
indirect speech act of question in English
Epistemic and deontic modality in indirect speech act of
question in English
is marked by declarative mood, modalverbs, modal
adjectives, modal adverbs, modal nouns, hedges .
3.3. Means of expressing speech act modality in indirect
speech act of question in Vietnamese
3.3.1. Means of expressing speech act modality in indirect
speech act of question in Vietnamese
Speech act modality in indirect speech act of question in
Vietnamese is the act of words used by the speaker to express
unknown or doubtful things and expect the answers and
explanations of the listener. Modality in indirect speech act of

question in Vietnamese is questionable modality. The questioning
modality is highlighted through the means of questioning such as
overview questions, alternative questions, wh- questions and
interrogated questions.
3.3.2. Means of expressing epistemic modality and deontic
modality in indirect speech act of question in Vietnamese
Epistemic modality and deontic modality in indirect
speech act of question in Vietnamese are both subjective
modality. The subjective modality is the kind of moality related
to the speaker's attitude to what is said in the sentence as well as
the relationship between the subject and the body of an
expression being expressed. The subjective modality is also the
speaker's judgment about the truth of what is said in the
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sentence; is the possibility or necessity of that; is the speaker's
way of assessing the situation conveyed; is the speaker's
introduction of the nature of the sentence; is the relationship
between sentences and situations of the dialogues with context
and many other content in the field of logic or superlanguage.
Means of expressing the attitude in the epistemic modality
and deontic modality in indirect speech act of question in Vietnamese
are expressed by:
(1) Modal verbs: muốn, có thể, phải, dám, cần phải, phải nói,
biết, nghĩ, đoán, đồ, tiên đoán, bị, nên, cần, hi vọng, sẽ, suýt, toan,
định, hòng…;
(2) Modal modifiers đã, đang, sẽ, còn, chưa….;
(3)Modal participles : à, ư, nhỉ, nhé, chăng…..;
(4) Modal adverbs: có lẽ là, có thể là, chắc chắn, thường

xuyên, cần thiết, thường thường, thực tế…;
(5) Modal adjectives: hiển nhiên, rõ ràng, đúng, tốt nhất, ít
nhất, vừa vừa .. accompanied by quantified modifiers rất, quá, lắm,
chắc, hết sức, vô cùng, cực kì.
(6) Hedges : Chúng (tôi) cho rằng, chúng (tôi) nghĩ rằng, tôi
nghĩ rằng, chúng (tôi) tin rằng, theo chúng tôi, theo tôi; tôi hỏi khí
không phải, tôi mạn phép hỏi, nếu không phiền tôi xin phép hỏi….;
3.3.3. Similarities and differences in means of
expressing modality in indirect speech act of question in
English and Vietnamese
3.3.3.1. Similarities
In both languages, means of expressing modality in indirect
speech act of question in indirect speech act of question includes
grammar, vocabulary and phonetic means. In terms of the number of
means of expressing speech act modality, epistemic and deontic modality
in indirect speech act of question in both languages are equivalent.
3.3.3.2. Differences
In different languages, the expressions of modality are not
the same. In English, the meaning of modality is expressed through
grammatical systems such as consciousness - lexical means such as
modal nouns (possibility, probability) and phonetic means (such as
intonation of the glide-down, the glide- up, the take-off, the dive) is
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one of the means of conveying the sense of modality and fairly pious
modality in English which is not or rarely used in Vietnamese.
We realize that the vocabulary part like the state particle (à ,
ư , nh ỉ , nh é, sao, chăng…) all conveys a certain meaning and is a
specific feature in Vietnamese, however, these informal phrases are

not in English, instead English people use intonation (intonation,
volume stress) to convey the nuances of modality.
3.4. Means of expressing modality in indirect speech act
of question in English
3.4.1. Means of expressing modality in indirect speech act
of question in English
Means of expressing modality in indirect speech act of
question in English are commonly found: The narrative
consciousness, the imperative mode in the main clause, the subclause contains the question pronouns, modal words, intonation of
questions and presses on questionable focal points.
3.4.1.1. The means of narration mood in the main clause
The means of narration mood is one of the means to express
the state of the verbal action in the indirect speech act of question.
The narrative form of the verb in the main clause reveals the
questioning element and the purpose of the speaker's questioning
when seeking information and answers from the respondent.
3.4.1.2. The means of imperative mood in the main clause
The mode of imperative is considered to be one of the means
of expressing the modality of speech act of question. The imperative
form of the verb in the main clause shows the purpose of the request,
the command (request), of the speaker when he wants the listener to
perform the response.
3.4.1.3. Means of pronouns in question, modal auxiliaries in
sub- clauses
Question pronouns, modal words What, Where, Which, Who,
Why, How ... expressing the questioning element that the questioner
wants to reach the listener appear in the subclause in the position
immediately after the narration of verb like to know, wonder about,
double / suspect / suppose, want to know, ask ...., the imperative
mode of the verb tell, let me know ... shows the speaker expresses the

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purpose of the question, the purpose of the request and search for
information to guide the listener to identify and follow his / her
question destination, from which there is an appropriate answer.
3.4.1.4. Means of Intonation
The intonation emphasizes the questioning points, the
question pronouns, the questionable adverbs in sub-clauses not only
help the speaker convey the purpose of the question, but also helps
the listener to identify the intent of the questioner, grant answers, or
make appropriate requests. The intonation with which the speaker
presses on the questionable focal point means that the focal point
needs specific listener answers.
3.4.2. Means of expressing the epistemic and deontic
modality in indirect speech act of question in English
3.4.2.1. Means of expressing the epistemic modality in speech
act of question in English
Means of pronouns who, why, how, where, etc., the auxiliary
verbs do, be, have in the sub- clause of the narrative and the
statements used to ask. The semantic characterization of the medium
from this question gives some cognitive significance of the speaker's
questionable focus reflected in the sentence.
3.4.2.2. Means of expressing the deontic modality in speech
act of question in English
The act of asking the use of narrative sentences is the act of
requesting information, explaining and confirming the accompanying
information which is a type of question with omitted question marks (?),
Question clauses, or expressions. The question is often identified based on
the response information, the information retrieval is omitted, and the

emotional factors that indicate pious morality. Moral and moral factors in
the narrative used to ask are often expressed by verbs like want to know,
want to ask, would like to know, wonder, suppose, double ... in the main
clause, stress and intonation of the questioner into the focus points.
3.5. Means of expressing modality in indirect speech act
of question in Vietnamese
3.5.1. Means of expressing the modality in indirect speech
act of question in Vietnamese
The modality meaning of indirect speech act of question in
Vietnamese is expressed by the following means:

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(1) verb tense system : muốn biết, băn khoăn, muốn hỏi,
muốn tìm hiểu…, Hãy nói cho biết, Xin hãy cho biết….., is the main
clause
(2) question words like ai, gì nào, sao, không, có phải .... in
sub-clauses.
(3) questionable intonation
3.5.2. Means of expressing epistemic and deontic modality in
indirect speech act of question in Vietnamese
3.5.2.1. Means of expressing epistemic modality in indirect
speech act of question in Vietnamese
Means of expressing epistemic modality in indirect speech
act of question in Vietnamese using narrative sentence: Through the
questioning elements of the word ai, làm gì, thế nào… in the subclause of narrative and imperative sentences to ask. The semantic
characterization of the medium from this question gives some
perceived meaning to the listener about the speaker's questionable
focus reflected in the sentence.

3.5.2.2. Means of expressing deontic modality in indirect
speech act of question in Vietnamese
Means of expressing deontic modality in indirect speech act
of question in Vietnamese include:
(1)Modal verbs like Muốn biết, Băn khoăn, muốn hỏi…in the
main clause of the narrative sentence, verbs show the action
required, demand, ask: Nói cho biết, hãy nói, hãy cho biết, …in the
main clause of the imperative sentences
(2) The modal adjectives and adverbial modality of quantifier
rất, thực sự
(3) Modal adverbs dĩ nhiên, chắc chắn..,
(4) Modal participle đi, đi chứ, nào, đi nào in the sub-clause.
C. Similarities and differences in means of expressing
modality in indirect speech act of question in English and
Vietnamese
Similarity
To convey the emotional meaning of the indirect questioning
act, both English and Vietnamese languages use the grammar,
vocabulary and phonetic means. The grammatical means in English
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are the modalities (narrative, imperative) of the predicate verb, in
Vietnamese, the usage of the modal verbs expresses the requirements
and requirements in the main clause. Vocabulary facilities in English
and Vietnamese include the status verb as a predicate, the predicate
state pronoun, the adverb, the adjective, and the state adverb. Means
of questionable pronouns, state adverbs, state adjectives, and state
pronouns in the subordinate clause help the speaker to make clear the
content of the question. Most grammatical, lexical, or phonetic means

are those that help convey the behavior of verbal, cognitive, and
ethical behavior, in which the grammatical and linguistic means are
be used with high frequency. Phonetic means, although not having a
high frequency of appearance in the source of material, is also one of
the effective means of conveying the meanings.
Differences
The difference when using the vocabulary means in English
to express the behavior of words, cognitive behavior, and morality
means that this language has a Thai noun and not in Vietnamese. In
English, the means of the predicate verb to indicate the time of action
is expressed by time (present tense, past tense or future tense),
perfective form, or continuous form ... But for Vietnamese, the
determination of the time of action is always based on specific
contexts, based on adverbial expressions that have been and will be
... In English, there are no vocabulary parts to convey the expression
expressed equivalent to the state expressions "“ à, ư, nhỉ, nhé, ạ, thôi,
nào, đi, ...” in the sub-clause of the narrative, the imperative used to
ask of Vietnamese language that they use intonation (intonation,
stress). In an indirect question using a narrative or imperative, the
questionable focus in the sub-clause is considered as an important
sign that identifies exactly the type of question and thus, expresses
the subjective opinion of the speaker.

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