Group 4
Phonological Contrastive
Analysis
INSTRUCTOR: LE NGUYEN NHU ANH
OUTLINE
I. Two areas of analysis
II. Contrasting sound system
I. Two areas of analysis
1. Segmental phenomena
a. Does the native language have a phonologically similar
phoneme?
When contrasting the phonetic system of 2 languages:
some phonemes in L1 seem similar with ones L2
/b/: beauty, bảng
/e/: very, tre
some phonemes in L1 can’t be found in L2 and vice versa
/ð/: mother, with
/ɲ/: nhỏ, nhưng
/æ/: hat
I. Two areas of analysis
1. Segmental phenomena
The lack of phonetic equivalents in foreign language
is an obstacle for learning pronunciation.
Phonetic similarity (TC) can be
– Articulatory phonetics: manner and place of
articulation
– Acoustic phonetics: structure of spectrographic
images of sounds used in the compared languages
– Auditory phonetics: the way sounds are heard by
listeners.
I. Two areas of analysis
1. Segmental phenomena
b. Are the variants of the phonemes similar in both
languages?
L1 has some variants of one phoneme, but the
equivalent phoneme in L2 does not has any variant.
Ex: the aspirated /t/ of top, the unaspirated /t/
of stop, are variants of the English phoneme /t/
No variant of phoneme /t/ in Vietnamese
I. Two areas of analysis
1. Segmental phenomena
c. Are the phonemes and their variants similarly
distributed?
2 languages have the equivalent phoneme and the same
variants but their positions in the word are different.
In Vietnamese:
/k/: két, kênh
In English:
/k/: kangaroo, king
encourage
pink
I. Two areas of analysis
2. Suprasegmental phenomena
Suprasegmental: relating to features of speech such
as stress and intonation as opposed to individual
speech sounds
I. Two areas of analysis
2. Suprasegmental phenomena
STRESS
. The role of stress in English is more significant
than that of Vietnamese.
. Stress plays an important role in pronunciation.
Impact (v) / ɪmˈpækt/
Impact (n) / ˈ ɪmpækt/
I. Two areas of analysis
2. Suprasegmental phenomena
INTONATION
Marek (1974): “Intonation is not an independent system
which can modify or change the meaning of a sentence
with which it occurs. It reflects the underlying, intended
meaning and is subordinate to it.”
II. Contrasting sound system
•Phonemic inventory; equate phoneme interlingually
•List the phonemic variants (allophones)
•State distributional restrictions
II. Contrasting sound system
Step1:
• Inventorise the phoneme of L1 & L2
+ Already made by the phonologist
• Equate phoneme interlingually
+ Consonants
+ Vowels
place, manner of articulation,
voiceless/voiced pairs.
tongue position, lip shape
II. Contrasting sound system
II. Contrasting sound system
II. Contrasting sound system
II. Contrasting sound system
Step 2: state the Allophones of each phoneme of
L1 and L2
Politzer ( 1972; 129) => 3 approaches
• 2 equated phonemes, one of L1 and one of L2,
allophonic variants occur for one but not for the
other.
• What is an allophone in L1 is a phoneme in L2.
• 1-to-1 relationship, not the 1-to-many
relationship.
II. Contrasting sound system
Step 3:
State the distributional restriction on the allophones
and phonemes of L1 and L2
Environments => typical allophones occur.
[ȝ] in French: word-initial, medial, final
positions:
◦[ȝon] jaune (yellow); [le ȝe] légère
(light)
and [gↄr ȝ] gorge (throat).
[ȝ] In English: only medially and finally:
[meȝЗ] measure; [ru:ȝ] rouge
 English learner of French will have
difficulty with the pronunciation of
French words having /ȝ/ initially.
Lexical Contrastive Analysis
INSTRUCTOR: LE NGUYEN NHU ANH
OUTLINE
I. Types of Lexical CA
II. Six Cases for Formal and Semantic
Similarity
III. Word Field Contrast
• CA topics
• Possible points for contrasting
2
I. Types of Lexical Contrastive Analysis
Form
The form of words consists of sound segment and stress.
E.g.
ao (n) /a, o/: two sound segments (Vietnamese)
pond (n) /p, o, n, d/: four sound segments (English)
3
I. Types of Lexical Contrastive Analysis
Meaning
Meanings are the same in all languages; languages
differ only in the form used for meanings.
E.g. English has many words to describe the act of
sleeping: doze off, fall asleep, go to bed, drift off, doze,
nap, drowse, snooze, drop off, etc.
Some meanings found in one culture may not exist in
another.
E.g. phở, áo dài, nem, etc.
4
I. Types of Lexical Contrastive Analysis
Distribution
Distribution is defined as one word in a language which may
belong to more than one word class.
E.g.
water (n) – a glass of water
water (v) – to water the garden
water (adj) – water meter
cook (v) – to cook a meal
cook (n) – a talented cook
5
II. Six Cases for Formal and Semantic Similarity
1. Similar in form and meaning
6
II. Six Cases for Formal and Semantic Similarity
2. Similar in form but different in meaning
Partially similar in meaning:
Vietnamese: gas (ga) - chất đốt
English: gas - any substance like air, e.g. oxygen; fuel
Totally different in meaning:
tan (suntan) – tan (melt)
bay (small arm of sea where the shore cut inwards) – bay (fly)
men (adult male humans) – men (ferment)
7
II. Six Cases for Formal and Semantic Similarity
3. Similar in meaning but different in form
A large bulk of equivalents across many languages are of
this type.
E.g.
tree – cây
eat – ăn
8
II. Six Cases for Formal and Semantic Similarity
4. Different in form and in meaning
E.g.
First floor: the ground floor (American English)
Lầu 1: the floor that is above the ground floor
(Southerners of Vietnam)
9
II. Six Cases for Formal and Semantic Similarity
5. Different in their type of construction
E.g.
English phrasal verbs have no formal counterparts in
most languages.
put off – trì hoãn
take over – tiếp quản
10
II. Six Cases for Formal and Semantic Similarity
6. Similar in primary meaning but different in
connotation
E.g.
hell (swear word) – địa ngục
black (angry) – đen (xui xẻo)
rice (seeds) – lúa (quê mùa)
11
III. Word Field Contrast
CA topics
Hartmann(1975) list word fields that have been studied:
Offence, joy, visual perception, sound facial expression,
colors, eating, verba dicendi (verbs of speaking), body parts,
vehicles, cooking….
12
III. Word Field Contrast
Possible points for contrasting
1. A concept existing in one language but not in others
E.g.
Uncle: bác, chú, dượng, cậu,…
Aunt: bác, dì, cô, mợ, thím,…
13
III. Word Field Contrast
Possible points for contrasting
2. One word in this language can only be translated by
a phrase in others
E.g.
nói thách: to put the price up expecting people
to bargain
quân tử: an honorable and magnanimous man
14
III. Word Field Contrast
Possible points for contrasting
3. Semantic structure of a word field
15
III. Word Field Contrast
Possible points for contrasting
16
III. Word Field Contrast
Possible points for contrasting
4. Differences in the system of references
E.g.
Vietnamese: Cậu bé đang bơi dưới nước.
=> System of reference: position of the speaker
English: The boy is swimming in the water.
=> System of reference: the relation between things
17
III. Word Field Contrast
Possible points for contrasting
5. Idioms
E.g.
Vietnamese – English
xưa như trái đất – as old as the hills
việc bé xé ra to – to make a mountain out of a molehill
đỏ như gấc – as red as beetroot
ăn như mỏ khoét – to eat like a horse
18
III. Word Field Contrast
Possible points for contrasting
6. Characteristics of word structure
E.g.
English: reddish, pinkish, yellowish, etc.
Vietnamese: đỏ đỏ, hồng hồng, vàng vàng, etc.
19
III. Word Field Contrast
Possible points for contrasting
7. Occurence
E.g.
snow: used more frequently in English than in
Vietnamese
rice: used more frequently in Asian countries
than in European countries
20
III. Word Field Contrast
Possible points for contrasting
8. Polysemy – Synonymy
E.g.
English: die, pass away, kick the bucket,…
Vietnamese: chết, mất, từ trần, qua đời,…
21
Grammatical Contrastive
Analysis
INSTRUCTOR: LE NGUYEN NHU ANH
Content
1.
2.
3.
4.
Morpheme CA
Word CA
Phrase CA
Sentence CA
Morpheme CA
1.Morpheme
MORPHEMESCA
– SYLLABLES - WORDS
Definition:
* A morpheme = a minimal meaningful unit which may constitute
words or parts of words
* A syllable = a unit of speech which is often longer than one sound
& smaller than a whole word
* A word = a unit of language that carries meaning & consists of one
or more morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together,
and has phonetic value
1.Morpheme
MORPHEMESCA
– SYLLABLES - WORDS
Example:
* work (1 morpheme – 1 syllable – 1 word)
* workers (3 morphemes – 2 syllables – 1 word)
* học (1 morpheme – 1 syllable – 1 word)
* thư giãn (2 morphemes – 2 syllables – 1 word)
TYPES OF MORPHEMES
IN TERMS
Morpheme
CAOF MEANINGS
FREE MORPHEMES
BOUND MORPHEMES
• can stand alone as a word
• cannot stand alone
• usually occur in the central
place of word-structure
• have to be attached to the
beginning and ending of other
morphemes to form words
• mostly function as the roots
in words which have principal
meaning
• are the affixes which modify
the basic meaning of the
roots.
TYPES OF MORPHEMES
Morpheme Examples
CA
• A
• bicycles
bi- (bound morpheme)
cycle (free morpheme)
-s
(bound morpheme)
• A
thầy (free morpheme)
• thầy cô
• A
• A
cô
(free morpheme)
TYPES OF MORPHEMES
IN TERMS
Morpheme
CAOF FUNCTIONS
LEXCIAL MORPHEMES
GRAMMATICAL MORPHEMES
• determine the main meaning of
words
• decide the grammatical function
of words
• exist in large numbers
• exist in limited numbers
TYPES OF MORPHEMES
Examples
• A
• bicycles
bi(grammatical morpheme - two)
cycle (lexical morpheme)
-s
(grammatical morpheme - plural)
• A
• thầy cô
• A
thầy
(lexical morpheme)
cô
(lexical morpheme)
• đã (grammatical morpheme – simple past in Vietnamese)
SIMILARITIES
Morpheme
CA
In both
English and Vietnamese,
• morphemes constitute words.
– nhà cửa, xe đạp, đẹp, máy tính,...
– work, bicycle, painter,...
• there are morphemes pronounced as one syllable.
– cat, like, pre-, non-,...
– chơi, ngủ, học,...
• there exist both free morphemes and bound morphemes.
– plays, friendly,...
– Khả kính, giáo viên
• there exist lexical morphemes and grammatical morphemes.
– hát, sách, bút / đã, sẽ, rồi,...
– cars, playing,...
MorphemeDIFFERENCES
CA
ENGLISH
• analytic language  higher
morpheme-per-word ratio: A
single word can contain many
morphemes (bound
morpheme).
Ex: unpredictable, unbelievable
VIETNAMESE
• isolating language  lower
morpheme-per-word ratio: A
single word in Vietnamese
often contains only one
morpheme, which is also the
word.
Ex: áo, quần, ...
• a large number of bound
morphemes.
• a limited number of bound
morphemes.
DIFFERENCES
Morpheme
CA
ENGLISH
VIETNAMESE
• Bound morphemes: prefixes
and suffixes.
• Most bound morphemes:
suffixes.
Ex: unhappy, impolite
Ex: ca sĩ, bác sĩ, họa sĩ,...
employer, hopeful
luật sư, kiến trúc sư, giáo sư,...
• All inflectional suffixes are
grammatical morphemes.
Ex: faster (Comparative
morpheme)
Jane’s car (noun possessive
morpheme)
• Few prefixes in Vietnamese are
grammatical morphemes (đã,
đang, sẽ).
Word CA
Word CA
A word is a unit of language that carries
meaning and consists of one or more
morphemes which are linked more or less
tightly together, and has a phonetic value.
Word CA
WORD FORMATION
• How words are formed in ...
ENGLISH
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Compounding
Conversion
Reduplication
Affixation
Clipping
Blending
Acronyms
Borrowing
VIETNAMESE
1.
2.
3.
4.
Reduplication
Compounding
Conversion
Borrowing
1. Compounding
A compound word consists of two or more words that together
express a complete idea.
ENGLISH
Closed form
E.g. notebook, secondhand
Hyphenated form
E.g. six-year-old, mother-in-law
Open form
E.g: post office, football player
VIETNAMESE
Coordinate compound
E.g. quần áo, đi đứng, phải trái
Subordinate compound
E.g. xe đạp, xe lửa, khó chịu, khó
nghe
Word CA
1. Compounding
• Based on the word class, compound words have three
types:
• Compound noun
• Compound verb
• Compound adjective
2. Conversion:
ENGLISH
Conversion is a process in which a word
belonging to one word class is used as another
word class without the addition of any affix.
Types of conversion
Examples
Noun to verb
Access – to access, name – to name,
Verb to noun
To increase – increase, to hope-hope
Adjective to verb
Green - to green
Preposition to noun
Up, down – the ups and downs
2. Conversion:
VIETNAMESE
A word is used in different contexts
with the same part of speech (Hiện
tượng chuyển nghĩa của từ)
E.g.
“mắt”
“ Đôi mắt cô ấy thật long lanh”,
“những quả na đã bắt đầu mở mắt”
“ăn” in “ăn cơm”, “tàu ăn than”, “nước ăn chân”
Word CA
3. Reduplication is the repetition of a syllable, a
morphemes or a word.
ENGLISH
E.g.
pretty-pretty, goody-goody, chit-chat, ping-pong, hurry-scurry
VIETNAMESE
Full reduplication
đùng đùng, lâng lâng
AABB pattern: vội vội vàng
vàng, hùng hùng hổ hổ
Partial reduplication
Mập mạp, tíu tít
ABAC pattern: vớ va vớ vẩn
ABCD pattern: lồm nhồm loàm nhoàm
ABB pattern: nhũn nhùn nhùn
Word CA
4. Affixation: prefixes, suffixes, infixes
Examples:
•Prefixes : ex-wife, pre-war, un-able
• Suffixes: play-er, free-dom, go-es, make-s
• Infixes: incubate, incubus, concubine
5. Clipping
cutting off the beginning or the end of word or
both, leaving a part to stand of the whole. The
resultant part is called a clipped word.
E.g. dad (daddy)
mum (mummy)
chem. (chemistry)
Amerindian(American Indian)
Word CA
WORD FORMATION
6. Acronym
the process whereby a word is formed from the
initials or beginning segments of a succession of
words.
E.g. NATO( North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
NABISCO( National Biscuit Company)
Word CA
7. Blending
the fusion of two words into one, usually the first
part of one word with the last part of the other.
E.g. brunch (breakfast and lunch)
Smog (smog and fog)
Word CA
8. Borrowing:
Vietnamese:
- Chinese root:
E.g: quốc gia, thủ trưởng, tiên quyết
- French term:
E.g: vali , xà phòng, ga
- English
E.g: TV, hot, micro
English:
http://tinyurl.com/kw6f36s
Word CA
PART OF SPEECH
In grammar, a part of speech (also a word class,
a lexical class, or a lexical category) is a
linguistic category of words (or more
precisely lexical items), which is generally defined
by the syntactic or morphological behaviour of
the lexical item in question.
Phrase CA
Phrase
A group of word that does not contain a verb and/or its
subject and is used as a single part of speech.
Phrase CA
NOUN PHRASE
The structure of noun phrase in English
Head
Noun
Pre-modification
Predeterminer
Identifier Numeral Adj
All of
the
five
Noun
modifier
stolen office
Postmodification
Adjective/adverb
Relative clause
Non-finite clause
Prepositional phrase
computers which were
purchased last
month
Phrase CA
NOUN PHRASE
The structure of noun phrase in Vietnamese
Pre-modification
Head
Focus
Classifier
marker (T1)
“cái”
(loại từ)
(“cái” chỉ
xuất)
Totality
(thành tố
phụ chỉ
tổng
lượng)
Numeral/
Quantifier
(thành tố
phụ achỉ
số lượng)
Tất cả
những
cái
-3
-2
-1
Post-modification
Noun
(T2)
con
cá
0
Attributive Demonstrative
(thành tố phụ chỉ
modifier
(thành tố định)
phụ nêu
đặc trưng
miêu tả)
vàng
ấy
1
2
NOUN PHRASE
Differences in terms of
Demonstrative, Ordinal Number and Possessive
ENGLISH
VIETNAMESE
Demonstrative + head noun
Ex: That large brick house
Head noun + demonstrative
Ex: Ngôi nhà bằng gạch to lớn đó
Ordinal number + head noun
Ex: The second tour to Korea
Head noun + ordinal number
Ex: Chuyến du lịch thứ hai đến Hàn
Quốc
Possessive + head noun
Ex: My favourite spicy food
Head noun + possessive
Ex: Thức ăn cay yêu thích của tôi
Phrase CA
NOUN PHRASE
Differences in terms of
Adjective modifier
ENGLISH
VIETNAMESE
Adjective + head noun
Ex: A brown oaken table.
Head noun + Adjective
Ex: Cái bàn màu nâu làm bằng gỗ xoài
Head noun + Adjective
Ex: something strange, somebody
brave
The order of Adj modifiers may be
exchanged, based on the speaker’s
attention.
Ex: “một chiếc váy màu xanh da trời xinh
xắn” = “một chiếc váy xinh xắn màu xanh da
trời”
Fixed order of Adj modifiers
OSACOMP
Opinion-size/dimension-Age-ShapeColor-Origin-Material-Purpose
Phrase CA
NOUN PHRASE
Differences between the structure of
Noun modifier
ENGLISH
VIETNAMESE
Noun + head noun
Head noun + Noun
E.g: a ballet class
A summer campaign
E.g: một lớp ba lê
Chiến dịch mùa hè
Phrase CA
VERB PHRASE
ENGLISH
VIETNAMESE
The formation of English verb phrase is:
The formation of Vietnamese verb phrase is:
auxiliary + main verb
+complementation
pre-additive element + central
element + post-additive element.
The auxiliaries mainly focus on
grammar
pre-additive elements mainly focus
on meanings, just two groups of
word belong to grammar
Phrase CA
ADJ PHRASE
Adjectives and possessive expressions come
before the noun in English
but
after the noun in Vietnamese.
Ex:
English: Black dragon
Vietnamese: Rồng đen
English: Harry's wand
Vietnamese: cây đũa phép của Harry
Sentence CA
Sentence
“a group of words expressing a complete
thought”
or
“a group of words that begins with a
capital letter and ends with a period”
English:
A sentence may be composed of 5 basic elements:
Subject(S), Verb(V), Object (O), Complement (C) and
Adjunct (A)
Ex:
John imagined Mary much taller this year
(S)
(V)
(O)
(C) (A)
Sentence CA
Vietnamese: 7 elements
Subject
- Chủ ngữ (S)
Verb
- Vị ngữ (V),
Object
- Tân ngữ (O),
Theme-complement
- Khởi ngữ ( T),
Disjunct
-Tình thái ngữ (D),
Complement
- Định ngữ (C),
Adverbial
-Trạng ngữ (A)
Ex:
Học giỏi, hiển nhiên nó giành học bổng ở trường rồi.
(T)
(C) (S) (V)
(O)
(A)
(D)
Sentence CA
COMPLEMENT
• In English, complement is any word or phrase that
Ex: completes the sense of a subject, an object, or a verb.
He is getting angry.
I imagined her to be beautiful.
• In Vietnamese, complement can go before the main
elements or go between the Subject and Verb.
• Position change does not affect the meaning
Ex:
• Đột nhiên câu ta nảy ra ý định bỏ học.
•
Cậu ta đột nhiên nảy ra ý định bỏ học.
ADVERBIAL
ENGLISH
VIETNAMESE
Noun phrase
With preposition
Prepositional phrase
Without preposition
Can be seperated
E.g:
Năm năm một lần, đại hội họp.
Năm năm đại hội họp một lần.
Đại hội, năm năm họp một lần.
Adverb phrase
Finite verb clause
Non-finite verb clause
-ing participle
Verbless clause
Sentence CA
SENTENCE PATTERN
SENTENCE PATTERN
Sentence pattern is composed of sentence elements and the relationship
among them.
ENGLISH
VIETNAMESE
Pattern 1: S + V
Chủ ngữ + Động từ
The bird sang.
Con chim hót.
• Pattern 2: S + V + O
Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Tân ngữ
The lecture interested me.
Bài giảng cuốn hút tôi.
• Pattern 3: S + V + C
Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Bổ ngữ
Your dinner seems ready.
Bữa chiều của anh có vẻ sẵn sàng rồi.
• Pattern 4: S + V + A
Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Trạng ngữ
My office is in the next building.
Phòng làm việc của tôi ở trong toà nhà bên cạnh.
ENGLISH
VIETNAMESE
Pattern 5: S + V + O + O
Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Tân ngữ 1 + Tân ngữ 2
I must send my parents a card.
Tôi phải gửi cho bố mẹ tôi một bưu ảnh.
Pattern 6: S + V + O + C
Most students have found her
reasonably helpful.
Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Tân ngữ + Bổ ngữ
Đa số sinh viên đã thấy bà ấy hỗ trợ rất hợp lý.
Pattern 7: S + V + O + A
Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Tân ngữ + Trạng ngữ
You can put the dish on the shelf.
Bạn có thể để cái đĩa lên cái giá đó.
Vietnamese Sentence patterns
Subject Verb Object (SVO)
Sinh viên đọc sách.
Subject Object Verb (SOV)
Anh ta thuốc không hút.
Object Subject Verb (OSV)
Người thì mình cũng gặp rồi. Còn gì ở đây
nữa đâu?
Object Verb Subject (OVS)
Nhà này mua là tôi. Tiền này làm ra cũng
tôi.
Verb Object Subject (VOS)
Tạo ra của cải là người lao động.
Subject Verb Object complement Adverbial
Sinh viên tặng sách cho bạn nhân ngày
(SVOCA)
sinh nhật.
Theme-complement Subject Verb Object
Không biết nghĩ thế nào, cậu ấy đọc sách
Adverbial
bằng kính lúp ở lớp.
Theme-complement Subject Verb Object
Nghĩ sao, học sinh lại vứt rác ra đường
Adverbial Disjunct
như thế.
Only in English, is there a structure starting
with “it”
It’s no use
to tell him this
telling him this
your telling him this
PRAGMATICS
CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
INSTRUCTOR: LE NGUYEN NHU ANH
INTRODUCTION
CA revived during the 80s due to its applications
beyond phonological, lexical & grammatical studies
Pragmatic devices & their cultural features are
contrasted
Esp. useful for typologically different languages:
English vs. Vietnamese; Russian vs. Chinese ….
Other names: Contrastive Pragmatics, &
Contrastive Discourse Analysis
Pragmatic TC
Commonly accepted views:
Expression X1 in a language (L1) is considered
pragmatically equal to expression X2 in another
language (L2) if X1 and X2 are both used to perform
the same speech act in the same social-cultural
and contextual setting.
Two directions for analysis
1. Different devices for performing a speech act:
thanking, congratulating, inviting, praising,
inquiring, apologizing, suggesting …
EX:
◦ Greeting in English: Good evening!; Hello!
◦ Greetings in Vietnamese: Ăn cơm chưa?; Anh đi đâu
đấy?; Đi học hả?; Đang nấu ăn hả?
For warning, English and Vietnamese use
affirmative forms:
◦ Coi chừng ốm! Khéo ngã! Chú ý, đường trơn! Cẩn
thận, đề thi khó đấy!
◦ Look out! Mind your steps! Be careful walking
downstairs! Take care when crossing the road!
2. Functions of a structure in one language
with functions of a similar structure in
another language.
Ex: “Why don’t we go to the opera tonight?”
Can be used to make a suggestion. In many
languages, negative structures are not used
that way (Charles Fillmore).
Steps in pragmatics CA (Ch.
Fillmore)
Step 1: Given a socio-cultural setting m
in L1, is there an equivalent sociocultural setting n in L2?
◦If the answer is “no”, note the sociocultural contrast.
◦If the answer is “yes”, move to step 2.
Step 2: Is there a linguistic form in L2
which is prototypically associated with
phenomenon “n” in a way similar to the
way in which “m” is associated with in
L1?
◦ If the answer is “no”, note the pragmatic
contrast.
◦ If the answer is “yes”, move to step 3
Step 3: Are “n” in L2 and “m” in L1
semanto-syntactically equivalent?
◦ If the answer is “no”, abandon the analysis.
◦ If the answer is “yes”, proceed with semantosyntactic contrastive studies until you find
contrast at some level of analysis. (Krezowski 100
– 104)
Other areas for analysis
Politeness: Polite expressions in one
language may be not in another
◦ Chinese culture before making speech: My
knowledge is limited and I’m not well-prepared.
If I make mistakes, please be sympathetic (Tô
Diễn Phong 1999)
◦ Western culture: apologizing before making a
speech is bad.
Conversation structures: getting to know
people, greeting, negotiating, talking on the
phone …
◦ Vietnamese & Chinese often ask about age,
origin, social status, salary, family when first meet
-> Very different from Western culture.
◦ Responding to compliments in Vietnamese &
Western cultures.
Extension: cross-cultural differences (R. Lado)
◦ Symbolic meaning of “dragon” in Vietnamese & Western
culture.
◦ “Dê” in Vietnamese -> negative meaning. In Chinese, “dê”
is a cuddly animal.
◦ Number: 13 is bad in Western culture. Chinese: 4 is a bad
number (sound like death).
◦ Color: “Red” has different connotational meanings for
capitalist & socialist nations