Discursive Practices and Linguistic Meanings: The Vietnamese System of Person Reference

222 Pages·1990·16.82 MB·English

by  Hy V. Luong

DISCURSIVE PRACTICES AND LINGUISTIC MEANINGS
Pragmatics & Beyond
New Series
Editors:
Jacob L. Mey
(Odense University)
Herman Parret
(Belgian National Science Foundation, Universities of Louvain and Antwerp)
Jef Verschueren
(Belgian National Science Foundation, University of Antwerp)
Editorial Address:
Linguistics (GER)
University of Antwerp (UIA)
Universiteitsplein 1
B-2610 Wilrijk
Belgium
Editorial Board:
Norbert Dittmar (Free University of Berlin)
Bruce Fraser (Boston University)
John Heritage (University of California at Los Angeles)
David Holdcroft (University of Leeds)
Catherine Kerbrat-Orecchioni (University of Lyon 2)
Beatriz Lavandera (University of Buenos Aires)
Marina Sbisà (University of Trieste)
Emanuel A. Schegloff (University of California at Los Angeles)
Paul O. Takahara (Kobe University)
Sandra Thompson (University of California at Santa Barbara)
Daniel Vanderveken (University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières)
Teun A. van Dijk (University of Amsterdam)
11
 V. Luong
Discursive Practices and Linguistic Meanings
The Vietnamese System of Person Reference
DISCURSIVE PRACTICES AND
LINGUISTIC MEANINGS
THE VIETNAMESE SYSTEM OF PERSON REFERENCE
 V. Luong
University of Toronto
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
1990
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Luong,  V.
Discursive practices and linguistic meanings : the Vietnamese system of person refer­
ence /  V. Luong.
p. cm. - (Pragmatics & beyond, ISSN 0922-842X ; new ser. 11)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Vietnamese language - Usage. 2. Vietnamese language -- Address, Forms of. 3. Vie­
tnamese language -- Noun. I. Title. II. Series.
PL4373.L8 1990
495'.925 - dc20 90-3171
ISBN 90 272 5021 9 (Eur.)/l-55619-277-0 (US) (alk. paper)
© Copyright 1990 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or
any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vi
1. LANGUAGE, REPRESENTATION, AND CHOICE 1
1.1. The Vietnamese System of Person Reference 9
1.2. Representation and Choice: A Theoretical Overview 20
2. "BROTHER" AND "UNCLE" 37
2.1. Kinship Terms and the Native Sociocultural Universe 40
2.2. The Ho 49
2.3. Vietnamese Kin Terms: Meanings and Structural Op­
positions betwen Native Models 69
3. VIETNAMESE PROPER NOUNS: STRUCTURE, PRACTICE,
AND POLITICS 83
3.1. Vietnamese Names: Structural Relations and History 84
3.2. The Meaning and Use of Proper Nouns 1
4. PERSONAL PRONOUNS 123
4.1. Contexts and Meanings 124
4.2. Linguistic Usages and Structural Oppositions: Personal
Pronouns and Beyond 128
5. NATIVE MODELS, STRUCTURAL OPPOSITIONS, AND DISCUR­
SIVE PRACTICES 149
5.1. Pragmatic Presuposition, Meaning, and Use 149
5.2. Structural Oppositions, Discursive Practices, and Linguistic
Meanings: A Concluding Statement
APPENDICES
1. Genealogical Referents and Referential Perspectives
Vietnamese Kin Term Usages
2. Equivalence Rules for the Genealogical Extension
Vietnamese Kinship Terminology
3. Logical Relations and Rules of Linguistic Usages
4. Status Terms in the Nguyên-Phuc Patriline
NOTES
REFERENCES
To HÔng-Tâm, Tuyet, and my parents.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I have benefited from the comments of many scholars in the revision of
the earlier versions of this book. Roger Brown, John Pelzel, Steven Caton,
Stanley Tambiah, Linda Pliskin, and an anonymous referee for John Benjamins
have made extensive substantive and editorial comments on the manuscript.
They have contributed to the refinement of my analysis and the clarity of my
arguments.
The original field study in California was funded by the Council on East
Asian Study at Harvard University. The field data from Vietnam are from a
complementary research project in Summer 1987. It was assisted by a grant
from the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of
Learned Societies with funds provided by the National Endowment for the
Humanities and the Ford Foundation. To all these sources of financial assis­
tance and intellectual support, I am forever grateful.
1. REPRESENTATION, CHOICE, AND LANGUAGE: AN INTRODUCTION
Tsze-loo said, "The prince of Wei has been waiting for you, in order with
you to administer the government. What will you consider the first thing to
be done?" The Master [Confucius] replied, "What is necessary is to rectify
names If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the
order of things. If language be not in accordance with the order of things,
affairs cannot be carried on to success Therefore a superior man considers
it necessary that the names he uses may be spoken appropriately.... (Con­
fucian Analects, Book ΧΙΠ, Ch. III)
The duke King, of Ts'e, asked Confucius about government. Confucius
replied, "There is government, when the prince is prince [behaving like a
prince], and the minister is minister [behaving like a minister]; when the
father is father [behaving like a father], and the son is son [behaving like a
son]." (Confucian Analects, Book XII, Ch. XI)
The common issue to classical social theorists and contemporary linguists
alike is the dynamics of human action and linguistic performance. The diverse
approaches to the problem pivot upon a basic polarity in Western thought—hu­
man action either as representation of a supra-individual, monolithic, and
self-regulating order, or as goal-directed behavior of self-interested, manipula­
tive, and unique individuals. Minor variations notwithstanding, in contemporary
social and anthropological theory, it is the difference between Durkheim's and
Spencer's frameworks, between Lévi-Strauss's and Malinowski's theories. In the
literature on language, this contrast is nicely summarized by Saussure who
works within the Durkheimian framework. To Saussure, it is the difference
between langue as a homogeneous entity of abstract linguistic forms which
exists independently of human action, and parole as a heterogeneous mass of
speech utterances which vary freely with the "will" of individual actors (1959: