Thứ-Bậc (‘Hierarchy’) in the Cultural Logic of Vietnamese Interaction: An Ethnopragmatic Perspective

Abstract

This study reproduces part of a larger project in the ethnopragmatics of Vietnamese. It investigates thứ-bậc (‘hierarchy’) in the cultural logic of interaction, adopting Goddard’s (2006) ethnopragmatic research paradigm within the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) framework and using cultural scripts as the main analytical tool (Goddard and Wierzbicka 2005). Notwithstanding the meaning of ‘ranking’ in certain specific domains (such as competitions) and workplace power dimension, Vietnamese thứ-bậc is argued to be different from its counterparts in other cultures since it is commonly conceived of in terms of age difference (Tran 2016) and divided into three levels with special reference to relative age. In thứ-bậc, a greater emphasis is placed on age, which amounts to seniority, thus bringing authority, wisdom and due respect, than on other social factors. The exploration of thứ-bậc has revealed interesting aspects of Vietnamese pragmatics. Thứ-bậc is a system of cultural information available for thinking about socially and/or morally acceptable behaviour in interactions. Accordingly, it provides standards and principles for accepted verbal behaviour from a normative perspective. These standards and principles are realized through a set of normative values and communicative virtues underpinning the cultural logic of interaction, namely, lễ-phép (‘respectfulness’). The elaboration of thứ-bậc and its coexisting norms sheds light on Vietnamese cultural motives underlying Vietnamese verbal behaviour. It constitutes a basis for understanding the ethnopragmatics of Vietnamese. Although the cultural concepts presented in the study are not necessarily culture-specific, the way Vietnamese people conceive them, and perhaps, enact them in speech practice, is specifically Vietnamese. No doubt it lays the groundwork for further studies into Vietnamese interaction from the ‘insider’s perspective’.