A CASE STUDY OF DISCOURSE PAUSE USED IN 2013 INAUGURAL SPEECH BY THE U.S PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AND IN 2011 INAUGURAL SPEECH BY THE VIETNAMESE PRIME MINISTER NGUYEN TAN DUNG (FROM A PERSPECTIVE OF CROSS-CULTURAL PRAGMATICS) = Một điển cứu về sự ngừng nghỉ diễn ngôn trong hai bài diễn văn nhậm chức năm 2013 của tổng thống Barack Obama và 2011 của Thủ tướng Nguyễn Tấn Dũng. (Xét từ góc độ dụng học giao văn hóa)

• Main Author: Bùi, Thị Hằng Nga
• Other Authors: Ngô, Hữu Hoàng
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Diễn ngôn; Tiếng Anh; Barack Obama; Nguyễn Tấn Dũng; Ngôn ngữ học
• Online Access: http://repository.vnu.edu.vn/handle/VNU_123/100316
• Institution: Vietnam National University, Hanoi

The thesis was designed as a comparative and exploratory study of the use of pause in American and Vietnamese political speeches with two major purposes: (1) to investigate the ways discourse pause used in political speeches, (2) to demonstrate the effects of pause in the politician‘s presentations, (3) to explain briefly and subjectively the reasons why there were differences in using pause in two political culture. The selected subject who is representative to the U.S was the president Barack Obama while the Vietnamese one was the prime minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng. Data for this study were collected from two videos recording the two politician‘s inaugural ceremonies. The main method applied to conduct this thesis was observation. To draw on the major similarities and differences between two politicians in using pause, the researcher observed the videos and counted the numbers of pauses and their durations. The durations were divided into three groups: short (1-3 seconds), medium (4-7 seconds), long ( >8 seconds). The collected data were analyzed in terms of the frequency of pauses, the durations of pause, and the effects of pauses. The results show that Barack Obama used pause more frequently than Nguyễn Tấn Dũng did. The amount of time he paused was also longer than that of Nguyễn Tấn Dũng. The reactions of the audiences in each case were also different. Yelling and, clapping hands were generally common reactions the audiences had each time Obama used silence while quietness and hand-clapping at the end of the speech were the responses of the Vietnamsese audiences. The reasons why two politicians used pauses so differently were subjectively concluded to be the atmosphere, the cultural norms: high-context culture and low-context culture, and the supported technology by the reseacher.