Vo, Thi Lien Huong (2016). The ethnopragmatics of Vietnamese: A study of the cultural logic of interaction focussing on the speech act complex of disagreement. PhD thesis, Griffith University.
Open access
Abstract:
This study investigates the cultural logic underpinning interactions in Vietnamese language and culture, adopting the ethnopragmatic research paradigm originating within the NSM framework. First, it seeks to elaborate the semantic and pragmatic content of key words for Vietnamese cultural conceptualization using semantic explications and cultural scripts. The key words could be roughly translated by means of the English words friend, colleague, boss and workplace. In this exploration, two overarching cultural schemas, namely quan hệ (‘relationship’) and thứ bậc (‘hierarchy’), are identified and several intertwined social categories, normative values and communicative virtues, underpinning the cultural logic of interaction, are explained. The study then seeks to discover how this cultural logic illuminates Vietnamese ideas about the management of ‘disagreement’ in interaction, under various scenarios and with various interlocutor types (e.g., older vs. younger, family members vs. outsiders).
The findings indicate that the conceptualization of quan hệ (‘relationship’) is affected by family-relatedness. Based on this, a distinction between người nhà (‘family people’) and người ngoài (‘outsiders’) is made. In addition, mutual understanding, shared experience and time length of acquaintanceship qualify an interpersonal relationship and characterize various subcategories among người ngoài (‘outsiders’), including người lạ (‘strangers’), người quen (‘acquaintances’), and người thân (‘close people’). Other sociolinguistic variables (such as gender, personality, and interest) also contribute to the conceptualization of quan hệ (‘relationship’). From a normative perspective, the cultural schema thứ bậc (‘hierarchy’) and its coexisting set of moral rules for behaviour, lễ phép (‘respectfulness’), provide standards and principles for accepted behaviour in Vietnamese interaction.
The findings also show that both cultural schemas inform the way of Vietnamese thinking about appropriate verbal performance in disagreement-type interaction. For example, in instances of disagreement over content accuracy, Vietnamese speakers tend to be more frank as this frankness indicates awareness of collective responsibility. In contrast, they show a propensity towards implicit disagreement with an evaluation. Furthermore, to a certain degree at least, disagreement over content accuracy in family interaction has a didactic orientation, inasmuch as it prepares family members for social interaction and spares them the possible risk of losing face.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
