A study on different kinds of questions in English with reference to Vietnamese

Abstract

According to “Language and Culture” by Clair Kramsch (2000) , Language is a means of conveying the community’s cultural identity. The language is considered a valuable data source to study the culture, history of ethnic groups and communities. It is not easy to understand the difference between English and Vietnamese question because it represents two unique cultures. Question is one of the necessary types of sentences in learning a language or in everyday communication. Usually, people use questions to check information. In some cases, asking questions is not only for information but also for greeting. Although the questions in English and Vietnamese are quite similar, there are still differences. This study investigates the classification, structure, and intonation of questions in English and Vietnamese. As Mehrabian (1972) has pointed out, in the communication process, speech is 7% effective, much lower than tone (38%); Therefore, the same questioning content, but depending on the circumstances / culture of each region, users have different voice tones up and down.