A Vietnamese-English cross-cultural study of expressing sarcasm

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

NGUYỄN THÙY LINH

A VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH CROSS-CULTURAL
STUDY OF EXPRESSING SARCASM
(NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO THOA VĂN HÓA VIỆT – ANH VỀ CÁCH
DIỄN ĐẠT LỜI NÓI CHÂM BIẾM )
M.A. Minor Thesis

English Linguistics
602215

Hanoi, 2011


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

NGUYỄN THÙY LINH

A VIETNAMESE – ENGLISH CROSS-CULTURAL
STUDY OF EXPRESSING SARCASM
(NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO THOA VĂN HÓA VIỆT-ANH VỀ CÁCH DIỄN
ĐẠT LỜI NÓI CHÂM BIẾM)
M.A. Minor Thesis

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 602215
Supervisor: Assoc. Dr. Dương Thị Nụ

Hanoi, 2011


iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table of contents
PART A: INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale ....................................................................................................... 1
II. Scope of the study ......................................................................................... 2
III. Aims of the study .......................................................................................... 2
IV. Research questions ........................................................................................ 2
V. Methodology ................................................................................................. 2
VI. Design of the study ....................................................................................... 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES
1. Culture ........................................................................................................... 4
2. Language ....................................................................................................... 4
3. Language and Culture ................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER II: SARCASM, PUNS AND TYPES OF PUNS
2.1. Sarcasm .......................................................................................................... 7
2.2. Puns and types of puns ................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
3.1. GENERAL VIEW ...................................................................................... 16

3.1.1. Comments on the survey questionnaires ................................................ 16
3.1.2. Comments on the informants ................................................................. 18
3.2. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .............................................................. 19
3.2.1. The use of puns ...................................................................................... 19
3.2.2. Puns in expressing sarcasm in Vietnamese and English .................. 20
3.2.2.1. Vietnamese findings and discussions ............................................... 20
3.2.2.2. English findings and discussions ..................................................... 23


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3.2.2.3. Cross-cultural similarities and differences ....................................... 25
3.2.3. Puns in expressing sarcasm in Vietnamese ........................................ 26
3.2.3.1 In terms of speaker’s position in the situation .................................. 26
3.2.3.2. In terms of informants’ parameters ................................................. 30
3.2.4. Puns in expressing sarcasm in English ............................................... 32
3.2.4.1. In terms of speaker’s position in the situation ................................. 32
3.2.4.2. In terms of informants’ parameters ................................................. 34
3.2.5. Cross cultural similarities and differences ........................................ 35
3.2.5.1. Similarities ........................................................................................ 35
3.2.5.2. Differences ....................................................................................... 35
PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION IN TEFL
3.1. Conclusion .................................................................................................... 37
3.1.1. Main similarities .................................................................................... 37
3.1.2. Main differences ...................................................................................... 37
3.2. Implication for teachers and learners ....................................................... 38
3.2.1. Teachers as a means of learning a second culture ................................. 38
3.2.2. Suggestions for learners .......................................................................... 39
3.3. Suggestions for further research ............................................................... 40

REFERENCES
APPENDICES


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PART A: INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale
There‘s a point of view holding that all modern art is more or less sarcastic because the
viewer cannot help but compare it to previous works. For example, any portrait of a
standing, non-smiling woman will naturally be compared with the Mona Lisa; the
tension of meaning exists, whether the artist meant it or not. As a matter of fact, it is
the case not only in art but for many other fields of life including language.
Gresham, in his work, made an interesting conclusion that ―Bad coinage drives out
goods‖. This reflects the fact of money that debased or under weight coins will drive
good, full weight coins out of circulation. This assertion, however, was not properly
applied in the economics only but in other fields of life as well. It is the case for every
realm in which an exchange occurs, with nowhere more vital than in the Kingdom of
Ideas, where the coin of realm is the word. In particular, we can easily observe that bad
meanings or associations of words tend to give good ones out of circulation. Some
examples might be the words ―girl‖ and ―lady‖. Nowadays, people, especially men,
tend to use the word ―girl‖ to refer to their darling. In Vietnamese the phenomenon can
be clearly realized in the use of ―gái‖. In the past, ―gái‖ was used to address a girl so it
appeared normally in calls like ―gái ơi‖. Gradually, with the appearance and popularity
of call-girls, the word has a new, more popular meaning of prostitutes. Also, the word
―lady‖ has a completely different use from the previous. It is used to mean a woman
who is weak inside and cannot protect herself. The same situation happens to the words
such as ―cô nương‖ or ―tiểu thư‖ in Vietnamese. Hence, it can be seen that ―negative‖
use of words is preferred to positive one. Studying sarcasm would therefore be of great
value to linguists and researchers. Nevertheless, the issue is not paid much attention

among Vietnamese researchers in detail and linguistic researchers of the world in
general. This research aims at discovering one of the most common and worth-studying


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phenomena of pragmatics, sarcasm, for without sarcasm then, as one might say, there is
no art.
II. Scope of research
The study aims mainly at the major knowledge of sarcasm in Vietnamese and English
daily life and jokes. Specifically, the difference between the use of puns in expressing
sarcasm in spoken Vietnamese and English is focused. Moreover, the study is confined
to the verbal aspects of the act of using puns in expressing sarcasm. Other factors such
as paralinguistic and extra-linguistic ones are beyond the scope of the study.
- The dialects used in the North, the South and the Central of Vietnam are use among
which the Northern one is mainly used; especially the spoken accent of the Northern
version is used quite often; and the English spoken by Anglophone community of
England, America, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, are chosen for contrastive
analysis.
- The data are collected by conducting survey questionnaires to examine the
differences in the way Vietnamese and English speakers use puns in expressing
sarcasm.

III. Aims of research
The research has been carried out with a view to explore the similarities as well as the
differences in the way Vietnamese and English speakers use puns in expressing
sarcasm thus to equip language learners with a major description of sarcasm in English
and Vietnamese and help them avoid culture shock and communicate successfully.

IV. Research question:

What are the major similarities and differences in the ways Vietnamese and English
speakers use puns in expressing sarcasm?


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V. Methodology
The following methods are resorted to:
-

Conducting survey (with questionnaires as a data collection instrument)

-

Conducting observations

VI. Design of research
The study is composed of three main parts:

Part A (Introduction) presents the rationale, scope, aims, research questions, and
methodology of the study
Part B (Development) consists of three chapters:
Chapter I (Theoretical preliminary): discusses the notions of language-culture
relationship.
Chapter II (Sarcasm, puns and types of puns): explores different
conceptualizations of sarcasm, puns and types of puns, types that are used in common
between English and Vietnamese and ones that only appear in English or Vietnamese.
Chapter III (Data analysis and findings) analyses collected data to find out
major cross-cultural similarities and differences in the choice of puns in expressing
sarcasm.

Part C (Conclusion) summarizes the main findings of the study, provides some
implications for TEFL, and offers suggestions for further research.
Reference includes all the books, articles or website that has been referred to during
the writing of this thesis.
The appendices list examples of different groups of equivalence in order of the
alphabet.
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES


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1. Culture:
Whether or not we realize it, we are trapped by our own culture. Anyone who
encounters another culture quickly becomes aware of this because of thousands of little
things that differ among countries. For example, only one third of people use tableware
to eat, another third eat with chopsticks, and the rest eat with their fingers. Even within
a country, differences are inevitable. Knowing the culture prevents us from cultureshock. Culture can be defined in an abstract way as the know-how that a person must
possess to get through the task of daily living and only for a few does it require a
knowledge of some or much music, literature and the art; or it might be defined
concretely as the way of life of a people, for the sum of their learned behavior patterns,
attitudes, and material things.. All in all, culture is considered in terms of the three
aspects: (1) learned behavior patterns that refers to what people do, (2) attitudes that
refers to what people think or believe; and (3) material things that refers to property.

2. Language:
Definitions of culture all mention language. Obviously, language is one of the most
visible factors of culture. People face with cultural differences in languages when
contacting with someone from another country. The idiom ―mưa như trút nước‖ in
Vietnamese, for example can be expressed as ―it rains cats and dogs‖ in Britain, or ―it

rains jugs‖ in Europe, ―rains rope‖ in France, or ―rains in basins‖ in Spain due to
different cultures.
Yet it is not easy to define what language is. Language can be defined as any set or
system of linguistic symbols used by a community of people who are enabled to
communicate intelligibly with one another (Random House Dictionary of the English
Language). Or it might be defined in a short and succinct way as ―a complex and
abstract phenomenon that can be realized through a number of verbal and non-verbal


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codes‖ (Emmitt and Pollock). Whichever definition is used, language is put in a given
community and functions as a systematic means of communicating.

3. Language and culture
It is often commented that someone is ―cultured‖ or ―uncultured‖ depending on his
behaviors and reaction in certain situations. Most of these actions are taken with
utterances. What one speaks when greeting or departing someone can reveal much
about him. In other words, whether someone is judged to be cultured or uncultured is
much relevant to what he utters in social communication. Therefore, language is
regarded as a mean to measure other‘s cultural reality. Expressed in another way,
language is a system of signs that is seen as having its own cultural value.
Besides, what people utter refers to common experience such as facts, ideas or events
that are communicable because they refer to a stock of knowledge about the world that
other people share. Words also reflect the speaker‘s attitude, belief, and their point of
view. In other words, language realizes culture. It is interestingly asserted by Sapir that
culture is ―what society does and thinks‖, and language is ―a particular how of
thought‖.
People also create experience in real life. The way they transfer messages directly
through face to face communication or indirectly on telephone, etc. brings them with

numerous experience which is handed down from generation to generation. The
process is in a continuous flow. Hence, language embodies and maintains cultural
reality. Language and culture simply do not independently and separately exist. The
language of Esperanto couldn‘t survive because it has no culture background. Vice
versa, no culture can exist without its own language.

The relationship between language and culture is deeply rooted. Language is used to
maintain and convey culture and cultural ties. Different ideas stem from differing


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language use within one‘s culture and the whole intertwining of these relationships
starts at one‘s birth.
Every infant is born, in fact, quite similar. It is not until the child is exposed to their
surroundings that they become individuals in and of their cultural group. From birth,
the child‘s life, opinions, and language are shaped by what it comes in contact with.
Brooks (1968) argues that physically and mentally everyone is the same, while the
interactions between persons or groups vary widely from place to place. Patterns which
emerge from these group behaviors and interactions will be approved of, or
disapproved of. Behaviors which are acceptable are different in different locations
(Brooks, 1968) thus forming the basis of different cultures. It is from these differences
that one‘s view of the world is formed. Hantrais (1989) puts forth the idea that culture
is the beliefs and practices governing the life of a society for which a particular
language is the vehicle of expression. Therefore, everyone‘s views are dependent on
the culture which has influenced them, as well as being described using the language
which has been shaped by that culture. The understanding of a culture and its people
can be enhanced by the knowledge of their language. This brings us to an interesting
point brought up by Emmitt and Pollock (1997), who argue that even though people are
brought up under similar behavioral backgrounds or cultural situations but speaking

different languages, their world view may be very different. As Sapir-Whorf argues,
different thoughts are brought about by the use of different forms of language. One is
limited by the language used to express one‘s ideas. Different languages will create
different limitations, therefore a people who share a culture but speak different
languages will have different world views. Still, language is rooted in culture and
culture is reflected and passed on by language from one generation to the next (Emmitt
& Pollock 1997).


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From this, one can see that learning a new language involves the learning of a new
culture (Allwright & Bailey 1991). Consequently, teachers of a language are also
teachers of culture (Byram 1989).
The implications of language being completely entwined in culture, in regards for
language teaching and language policy are far reaching. Language teachers must
instruct their students on the cultural background of language usage, choose culturally
appropriate teaching styles, and explore culturally based linguistic differences to
promote understanding instead of misconceptions or prejudices. Language policy must
be used to create awareness and understandings of cultural differences, and written to
incorporate the cultural values of those being taught.

CHAPTER II: SARCASM, PUNS AND TYPES OF PUNS

2.1 Sarcasm
Leaving for work, you notice it‘s incredibly cold and rainy. Nearby, your neighbor is
leaving too. "Great weather, huh?" you say. "Yes, wonderful!" he replies. Then just as
you are crossing the street to get to your office, suddenly a car comes out of nowhere
and comes close to hitting you in the middle of the crosswalk. "Thanks a lot!" you yell.
The driver rolls down his window and throw some dirty words at you. When you get

inside and sit down at your desk, you notice that one of your co-workers is talking
loudly on his phone. When he hangs up, you say, "I think you should talk a little bit
louder next time - the entire office didn't hear it." Your co-worker apologizes. Later
that day, you're in the break room talking with other co-workers. One of them says that
he's thinking of going to graduate school and then leaves the room. "Oh, I'm sure he'll
do really well!" you say. Everyone laughs, because this co-worker is known for being
on the flaky side.


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What was really going on in each of these exchanges? The fact is that the weather
wasn't great; you really weren't grateful to the driver that nearly hit you, and you
definitely didn't want your loud co-worker to get any louder. You didn't think that your
other co-worker would do well in graduate school at all. You said the opposite of what
you meant, and everyone that you spoke to knew it. All of these instances were
examples of sarcasm. Sarcasm can be used in all kinds of ways – it can express
everything from anger to humor.
Sarcasm is an example of the so-called unplain speaking, ways of speaking in which
what is said differs from what is meant. Other examples are forced politeness, ritual
language, affectation and speaking in aphorisms. In essence, sarcasm is one of the two
extremes of irony which is defined as the conflict of two meanings which has a
dramatic structure peculiar to itself. At first, one meaning, the appearance, presents
itself as the obvious truth, but when the context of this meaning unfolds, in depth or in
time, it surprisingly discloses a conflicting meaning, the reality, measured against
which the first meaning now seems false or limited and, in its self-assurance, blind to
its own situation. Irony ―lies,‖ but it does so only as a dramatic means of bringing two
meanings into open conflict. Some theorists assert that by encompassing this conflict in
a single structure, irony resolves it into harmony or unity. Others say that irony is
blame through praise and praise through blame. The aspect of ―blame through praise‖

is named sarcasm. As the story goes, sarcasm is ―to blame by praise‖. In other words,
sarcasm aims at the defeat of a recognized victim.
The definition shows the variable factors in the ironic structure including:
(1) The degree of conflict between appearance and reality which ranges from the
slightest of differences to diametrical opposites.
(2) The field of observation in which irony may be noticed which ranges from the
smallest semantic unit—e.g., a pun—to the cosmos. The most frequently observed
fields are: the relation between one meaning located in words and another meaning


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located either in the same words or in their context—verbal irony; the relation between
an event or situation as interpreted from a limited point of view and that event as
interpreted with a broader knowledge of the situation or of subsequent events, for
example dramatic irony in literature; in life we have the irony of fate, God, events,
things, etc.; the relation between events and an observer's state of mind—the ironic
attitude, which may or may not externalize itself as verbal irony, dramatic irony, or the
irony of fate.
(3) Irony usually has an author, who by analogy is a superhuman power in some fields
of observation; in the irony of fate, for instance. It always has an audience, even if it is
only the author amusing himself; and a victim, who is deceived by appearance and
enlightened by reality, although an author may turn himself into a pseudo victim.
(4) The aspects of irony such as the conception of reality, the degree to which author
and audience sympathize or identify with the victim, and the fate of the victim –
triumph or defeat. To this extent, irony is identified as being comic or sarcastic
depending on the triumph or defeat of the victim, with sarcastic irony, or sarcasm,
indicating the victim defeat.

2.2. Puns and types of puns

A large amount of sarcasm is expressed with the use of puns. As a matter of fact, the
phenomenon has not been regularized in theory, but it is extremely common in
everyday life of any community of people.
Many see puns as cheap humour, one-liners, or groaners, despite their prevalence in
culture. They are most often seen in the names of businesses or advertisements. Others,
like the writer Jonathan Swift, see them as a challenging art form, where one shapes
words like cobbler bends leather. ―Punning is an art of harmonious jingling upon
words,‖ said Swift, ―which, passing in at the ears, excites a titillary motion in those


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parts; and this, being conveyed by the animal spirits into the muscles of the face, raises
the cockles of the heart.‖
However the dictionary describes a pun as: ―A play on words, sometimes on different
senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different
words”. Based on the definition, puns could be divided among several main branches
focusing on the play of sense or sound, or the combination of the two. In detail, types
of puns in English include homographic puns (homograph), homophonic puns
(homophone), palindrome, Tom Swifty puns, anagram, spoonerisms, oxymorons,
chiasmus, portmanteau, and daffynition.

Tom Swift
Tom Swifty puns are an interesting and unique play on a relationship between an
adverb, and an action spoken in a dialogue. Originally, Tom Swift was created by
Edward L Stratemeyer as a fictional character in a series of children's books. Tom
Swifty puns satirize the writing of these books, and their simple ―Tom said, Tom did,
Tom said‖ writing. For example, in the books one might find the examples:


'I've lost my trousers,' Tom said expansively.



'I've returned from the lobotomy,' Tom said absentmindedly.

Tom Swifty puns came into being because of one of the features of English; that is the
use of adverbs. Inversely, adverbs receive little attention by Vietnamese speakers, and
the fact that in Vietnamese adverbs do not have any specific form makes it
uninteresting to play on adverbs.

Anagrams
Anagrams are words, or phrases formed with the rearrangement of the letters of other
words and phrases. Some notable anagrams include Western Union/no wire unsent, or
funeral/real fun. This type of pun is used in written forms, mostly in advertisements,


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for the fact that they make an amazing effect to look at. Anagrams are not possible in
Vietnamese as the strict case of the tonic language is considered. Since each vowel
carries the tone of the whole syllable or word, moving it to a new position may make it
nonsense. Moreover, Vietnamese consonants are paired under strict rules; when a
consonant stands in a cluster in a word, it is almost impossible for it to combine with
another consonant of the same word to make another proper cluster.

Palindromes
Palindromes are the words which are spelled the same, backwards or forwards, such as
―mom‖, ―race car‖, or ―deified‖. Entire phrases can be palindromes. Punctuation does
not prevent a sentence or phrase from being considered a palindrome, for example

―Dogma: I am God.‖ counts as a palindrome. Scarily enough, there is a 306-word
palindrome name ―Dog sees Ada‖ showing how popular it is. In Vietnamese there also
exist words which read the same backwards or forwards like ―móm‖, ―tẹt‖, ―tát‖, but
none of them have so far been recognized as palindromes or puns at all. So far, no
palindromes at sentences level have been discovered, perhaps for the same reason with
anagrams mentioned above.

Portmanteau
Portmanteau words are words that are formed by telescoping two other words in on
themselves such as bit (binary unit), avionics (aviation electronics), and motel (motor
hotel). The use of portmanteau proves the connections of sounds of the words in
English while in Vietnamese which is sound-isolated, there are no such word plays.

Daffynition
In fact, to make a pun, one does not need to play on the pronunciation, or spelling at
all. Sometimes, a clever redefinition of a word can be considered a pun. These are


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sometimes referred to as Daffynitions. For example, ―Flashlight: a carrying case for
dead batteries‖ or ―Shin: a device for finding tables in the dark‖ and, ―Professor: one
who talks in someone else's sleep‖. The definition was unexpected, and humorous. It
plays upon connotation rather than the denotation meaning of the word. Sometimes
words that sound like groups of other words can be cleverly redefined as well. This
type of pun is found mostly in academic contexts rather than daily spoken language.

Chiasmus
Chiasmus is a figure of speech, where wit is conveyed through the reversal of words or
phrases in clauses. Often used in verse, it becomes a poem of parallels. The word

comes from the Greek letter Chi, which looks like an X. Most chiasmus follow an
ABBA pattern, where word or phrase A is used in a clause, then B, then B again, and
finally A. A good example of this would be ―Never let a fool kiss you, or a kiss fool
you‖, or ―Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.‖
Chiasmus is applied in Vietnamese puns smartly to express sarcasm like ―đại học, học
đại‖ or ―cá ăn kiến, kiến ăn cá‖. However, chiasmus in English is much more limited
than in Vietnamese because to converse and create another generally meaningful and
grammatically acceptable clause or phrase is such a hard word for a language with
tenses like English while it is completely possible in Vietnamese.

Homophonic Puns
Homophonic puns play on words that sound alike, but are spelled differently, and mean
different things. For example, ―Seven days without laughter makes one weak‖. The
word ―weak‖ here is played upon basing on its sound resemblance with ―week‖.
The relationship of meaning, sound and spelling of words are divided into different
terms which are illustrated in the following figure


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(Wikipedia)
Homophonic puns in Vietnamese also play on words with similar sound and different
meanings, but the words are spelled exactly the same, due to the features of
Vietnamese that Vietnamese belongs to isolating languages - words sharing the same
spelling are always pronounced the same. As a result, two kinds of pun in English
homophonic and homographic pun almost corresponds to only one kind in Vietnamese
– ―Đồng âm‖. If to be chosen, ―đồng âm‖ in Vietnamese would be more similar to
homophonic puns. Obviously, being spoken aloud, two words which are being played
on homographically would sound exactly the same making the pun in a jumble with
homophonic puns. For the reason, and for the sake of the study, ―đồng âm khác nghĩa‖

in Vietnamese would be treated as homophonic puns. One interesting example of the
phenomenon in Vietnamese is the following poem:
―Bà già đi chợ cầu Đông
Bói xem một quẻ lấy chồng lợi chăng
Thầy bói gieo quẻ nói rằng
Lợi thì có lợi nhưng răng chẳng còn.‖


14

In the poem, the folk author wisely exploits the two meanings of the word ―lợi‖
(benefit/gum) to make fun of the old lady who wants to get married. The point of
sarcasm here is that the lady wants the fortune-teller to say if it is beneficial for her to
get married; in stead of answer the question with the same meaning of the word ―lợi‖,
the fortune-teller use the other meaning of it as gum, so it turns out to be an unexpected
answer when he says that she may keep her gum without any teeth.

Spoonerisms
Spoonerisms are a result of changing around, whether on purpose or accidentally, the
initial sounds of two or more words when speaking, for example ―well-boiled icicle‖
for well-oiled bicycle. Others include ―sky as a height‖, ―nark staked‖, and ―dain
bramage‖.

Things are not so simple for Vietnamese, for there are several different styles of
spoonerism. The word ―thầy giáo‖ could be spoonerized as ―thấy giào‖ when only the
tones of the two syllables are changed, as ―thào giấy‖ if only the vowels are changes,
or as ―tháo giầy‖ if both the tones and the vowels of the syllables are changes. Another
slight difference in the actual use of spoonerism is that spoonerized words in English
usually require form-changing while spoonerism in Vietnamese involves in no such
changes. As for an example, almost any Vietnamese is familiar with the poem by the

female poet Ho Xuan Huong:
―Cái kiếp tu hành nặng đá đeo,
Vị gì một chút tẻo tèo teo.
Thuyền từ cũng muốn về Tây Trúc,
Trái gió cho nên phải lộn lèo.‖


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Oxymorons
Oxymorons are rhetorical figures in which an epigrammatic effect is created by the
conjunction of elements with contradictory meanings. Basically, they are a working
contradiction. Some oxymorons are obvious, being simple opposites like ―jumbo
shrimp‖. However, many other oxymorons are subjective to opinion: ―military
intelligence‖ or ―Microsoft Works‖. Other examples include: ―minor miracle‖, ―clearly
confused‖, ―safe sex‖, ―original copies‖, ―found missing‖, ―totally unfinished‖ and
―friendly fire‖.
Oxymorons in Vietnamese are not much different; one slight difference, if any, is that
the usage is narrower – almost in sarcasm only. Some popular examples of oxymorons
are ―anh hùng rơm‖, ―hổ giấy‖, ―tiến sỹ giấy‖, ―vua bù nhìn‖, and ―anh hùng áo vải‖.

Polysemy
A word usually has several meanings, which is a universal phenomenon in English
vocabulary. When a word first emerges, it has an initial meaning. But with the
development of society and the language itself, the word was given new meanings
through the extension of its meaning or the relevance of its sound, and then the word
became polysemous. This is a universal law of development of all human languages. In
terms of theory, the word ―polysemy‖ refers to the association of one word with two or
more distinct meanings. A polyseme is a word or phrase with multiple meanings.
Charles Fillmore and Beryl Atkins‘ definition stipulates three elements: (i) the various

senses of a polysemous word have a central origin, (ii) the links between these senses
form a network, and (iii) understanding the ‗inner‘ one contributes to understanding of
the ‗outer‘ one.
Polysemy is an expressive way of utterance to cause a sentence to have two different
interpretations, and it is also a rhetorical device in which a certain feeling is
transmitted. For example ―Perhaps from some vague rumor of his college honors,


16

which had been whispered abroad on his first arrival, perhaps because he was an
unmarried, unencumbered gentleman, he had been called the Bachelor.‖ In this
sentence, the word "bachelor" has two meanings: the holder of a Bachelor‘s Degree
and an unmarried man.
The Vietnamese, once again, use polysemy smartly and mischievously in folk poems to
tease each other, like in the following folk poem:
―Em ơi nên lấy thợ bào
Khom lưng ảnh đẩy cái nào cũng êm‖
What can be drawn out here is that if thoroughly exploited, puns can be of great value.
In expressing sarcasm, especially, the use of puns proves much effectiveness, which is
worth serious research.


17

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

3.1. GENERAL VIEW
3.1. 1. Comments on the survey questionnaires
The questionnaires used for this study are designed in Vietnamese and English with the

similar contents for Vietnamese and English native speakers respectively, aiming to
collect authentic and reliable data. The questionnaires are comprised of two main
sections. To begin with, the first part requests the respondents to fill in their age,
gender, marital status, and living area (residence). All of the obtained information
about the respondent serves as a useful source for comments and later analyses.
In the second part, question 1 aims at finding out purposes of using puns in social life
in general and in expressing sarcasm in particular. Question 2 investigates the realized
appropriateness of puns in different situations ranging from 1 to 4, i.e. from
advisability to strong inadvisability of using puns in expressing sarcasm. Question 3
asks if the informants would express sarcasm in such situations. There are four groups
of situations under investigation. They are family life, social life, academic life, and
business life. The situations are:
Group 1: Family life
-

Two guys are fighting outside

-

Your husband/wife comes home late again

Group 2: Social life
-

You witnessed your colleague‘s wife/husband going about with someone
else

-

You heard on the news that a government official is discovered to take

bribes

Group 3: Academic life
-

You witnessed your classmate cheat in the exam


18

-

You got high mark for an assignment for which you did not spend much
time and effort

Group 4: Business life
-

A colleague with bad work record is promoted

-

You are watching an ad on TV

In this part, the informants were asked to put a tick in the column which they thought
would appreciate to use puns in expressing sarcasm in a given situation. The initial
purpose of the situations designed is to find out cross-cultural differences and to rate
the assessment of possible choices by both Vietnamese and English speakers in their
real exchange, thus to reach an initial understanding of the informants‘ behavior,
beliefs and norms when they encounter those situations.

Question 3 tries to find out the behaviour and belief of informants in using puns to
express sarcasm when they are put in different relationships and positions in the
situation: when they are engaged in the story taking place, when they are an outsider
watching and talking about it with another witness, and when they narrate the story to
someone else.
For the DCT questions, the situations from the MCQ section are chosen and modified
in question 4 with the hope of obtaining ―really-be‖ utterances. The informants are
requested to choose from a list of possible utterances for each situation; they could also
give their own expressions after the list.

3.1. 2. Comments on the informants
Firstly, the questionnaire aims at finding out the informants‘
o Age
o Gender
o Marital status, and
o Living area


19

All of the informants are Vietnamese and English native speakers from UK, the USA
and Australia.
Table 1: Distribution on informants’ status parameters
Informants’ status parameters

Vietnamese

English

No. of participants

20

20

Below 30

10

13

Above 30

10

7

Male

14

4

Female

6

16

Single

10

6

Married

10

14

Urban

18

16

Rural

2

4

Age

Gender

Marital status

Living area

3.2. FINGDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
3.2.1. The use of puns
The aim of exposing some informative sentences containing some puns is to find out
the purposes of using puns in expressing sarcasm in everyday conversations.
Table 2: The main purposes of using puns in expressing sarcasm
Purpose

Vietnamese

English

to make fun of the hearer

15%

7.5%

to make fun of someone else

36%

27.5%

to make fun of the situation

34%

12.5%

to show wit and the sense of humour of the speaker

37%

52.5%

others


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The data suggest that the reasons why the Vietnamese and the English use puns show
some differences as well as some similarities. As much as 34% of the Vietnamese
respondents confirmed that they used puns to make fun of the situation in a
conversation, only 12.5% of the English ones would agree with the choice. There is a
relative similarity as 36% of the Vietnamese speakers would use puns to make fun of a
third party not related in the conversation, which ranked the second in the four reasons,
and the figure for English users of puns is 27.5%. Another thing in common is that the
reason to make fun of the hearer stood at the end of the list for both Vietnamese and
English speakers though with different rates (15% and 7.5% respectively). The biggest
difference in the purposes of using puns lies in last reason in the given list. While only
37% of the Vietnamese informants chose to use puns to show wit and the sense of the
humour of the speaker, which did not show much difference with the other reasons, as
much as 52.5% of the English would use puns for the same purpose. In general, the
Vietnamese may use pun whether to make fun of someone else rather than the speaker
or the hearer, to make fun of the situation, or to show their wit and sense of humour
almost equally. In the mean time, most English native speakers like using puns to show
their wit and sense of humour, and speakers of Vietnamese and English would agree
with each other that puns should not be used to make fun of the hearer.

3.2.2. Puns in expressing sarcasm in Vietnamese and English
3.2.2.1. Vietnamese findings and discussions


21

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
A1
Acceptable

A2

B1

Yes/No

B2

C1

Unacceptable

C2

D1

D2

Strongly unacceptable

Chart 1: Vietnamese informants’ opinion of appropriateness of puns in expressing
sarcasm
Family life
In situation A1 (―Two guys fighting outside‖), the rate of choosing is distributed
almost equally among the four options with the highest falls in option 3 (unacceptable30%). Options 1 (Acceptable) and 4 (Strongly unacceptable) occupy the same rate of
15%. Almost no one chose Yes/No option (4%). Therefore, the data lead to an initial
conclusion that Vietnamese people hold different viewpoints in using puns to show
sarcasm when they see guys fighting each other.
Compared to what has been seen in situation A1, the rate of situation A2 ―Your
husband/wife comes home late again‖ is rather different. ―Acceptable‖ (65%) proves to
outweigh other columns. Ranked the second is the option ―Yes/No‖, only 5% approves
of ―Unacceptable‖, and no one thinks it is strongly unacceptable to use puns in
expressing sarcasm in this situation.

Social life
Situation B1 (―You witnessed your colleague‘s wife/husband going about with
someone else‖) created gradually decreasing rates for the four options with the highest