A Contrastive Study on Pragmatic Features of Greetings in English and Vietnamese Movies

Abstract

This thesis is aimed to conduct a study on pragmatic features of English and Vietnamese greetings. The data of 200 samples (100 in English and 100 in Vietnamese) which are collected from 20 English and Vietnamese movies on websites is categorized, analysed and compared to find out the similarities and differences of greeting in the two languages. The findings show both English and Vietnamese share some common pragmatic features of greeting: People in both countries share the same habit of greeting direct and indirectly; furthermore they both tend to use questions in illocutionary greeting which is showed in the finding results. Based on the findings, the thesis gives out some implications and suggestions for language teachers, learners in teaching and learning about the application of greeting in real communicative situations as well as for movie translator to maximize their works with English and Vietnamese movies.