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ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE BUSINESS COMPLAINT LETTERS:

A COMPARATIVE STUDY FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVES

Pham Nhu Cuong1, Nguyen Thi Tuyet2, Lai Thi Thanh2*

1
College of Economics and Business Administration - TNU
2
College of Sciences - TNU

SUMMARY
The main aim of this research is to figure out the similarities and differences between English and
Vietnamese business complaint letters, which is regarded as one of the most popular kinds of
business correspondence, in terms of the four aspects of Systemic Functional Grammar namely
transitivity, mood, theme and cohesion.
To fulfill this objective, the authors conducted a survey with a sample of 30 complaint letters,
including fifteen letters written in Vietnamese and fifteen letters written in English. The research
results indicate that there are no significant differences in terms of the four aspects of Systemic
Functional Grammar used in English and Vietnamese business complaint letters. However, in terms
of cohesion, the results show that while Vietnamese writers regard lexical devices as the most useful
tools in their letters, English ones highly appreciate the effectiveness of reference.
The findings of this study can be utilized as a referential material for Vietnamese learners and
teachers in writing and teaching writing effective letters in English, especially business complaints.
Key words: transitivity, mood, theme-rheme, cohesion, systemic functional grammar, English
business complaint letters, Vietnamese business complaint letters

INTRODUCTION* communication. According to Eggins (1994:

It is generally accepted that in the last few
decades of the 20th century, there has been a
great source of research on language;
however, their attentions were only paid to
the form of the language systems, which are
studied and explained apart from their
functions in relation to social situations.
Besides, their concern was basically with
structural theories which show that small
units were arranged and combined into larger
ones. The recent research, on the other hand,
has fallen into the tendency toward discourse
analysis, which focuses on factors affecting
the communication and also the functioning
of syntactic, pragmatic and social aspects.
Unlike the former studies, these ones pay
attention to the meaning of not only the
sentences but also utterances and discourses.
The preference of the study is inspired from
the fact that the theory of Systemic Functional
Grammar has been widely accepted as an
essential tool in language comprehension for
*
Tel: 0913.780.687; Email: thanhdhkh@gmail.com
1 cited in Thao, Phuong 2003: 2), ‘Systemic
Functional Linguistics is increasingly being
recognized as providing a very useful
descriptive and interpretive framework for
viewing language as a strategic, meaning-
making resource’. Hallidayan linguists used
the functional model of grammar to interpret
how people use language and how language is
structured for use. This theory, in fact, has
been proved as a great model of language for
analysts when analyzing texts especially at
discourse level.
In Vietnam, there have been a great number
of studies in the area of discourse analysis
these days. However, the number of those
works based on Systemic Functional
Perspectives does not seem to reflect the
potential variety. Especially in the last few
decades, Vietnam has been seen its expanding
relationship with many other nations in
economics, scientific and technical fields;
English language as an international
language, therefore, has been widely used in
every field, especially in business
communication in general and business
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 Phạm Như Cường và Đtg Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ
transaction in particular. The issues of
business communication as well as business
transaction thus should be unsurprisingly a
rich source for linguists in analyzing
discourse. An inspirational source that helps
me to prompt the choice of the analysis of
business correspondence is the fact that this
kind of letter is truly suitable and essential in
Vietnamese background recently.
It cannot be denied that business
correspondence plays an important role in
business communication. Besides, defects
seem to be unavoidable in carrying out
business transactions; even for the best-
managed organizations, this seems to be in
the same case. Letters of complaint, therefore,
can be made and understood as customers’
inevitable reaction. In Vietnam, customers
have gradually had the tendency to write
complaint letters; however, this has not
become their habit and a number of
customers, in fact, still hesitate to do this
although they know they have the right to do.
In addition, knowing how to write an
effective business complaint letter is really a
challenge for many people. My own
observation shows that even the students of
business have limited knowledge and
experience in writing complaint letters not
only in English but also in Vietnamese.
In the hope of working out some solutions to
help Vietnamese people as well as
Vietnamese students, to some extent,
overcome their difficulties in writing business
complaint letters, the study is an attempt to
analyze some basic discourse features of
business complaint letters from Systemic
Functional Perspectives namely transitivity
pattern, mood, thematic pattern, and
cohesion. Based on this, similarities and
differences between English letters and
Vietnamese ones will be identified. After that,
some suggestions will be drawn out to
improve the studying and teaching writing
business complaint letters in English.
RESEARCH METHODS
The study is confined to the description,
analysis and comparison in terms of transitivity,
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109(09): 51 - 56
mood, thematic pattern and cohesion. In order
to achieve the goal, the approach is inductive,
which is based on the data as well as authentic
business complaint letters.
Firstly, a large number of business complaint
letters will be carefully selected from
textbooks, internet and authentic sources.
Because of the fact that there seems to be no
fixed format for this kind of correspondence,
the letters were randomly chosen as data,
providing they are of business complaints. In
addition, the authenticity is highly appreciated
by the authors; most of the letters are,
therefore, mainly chosen from authentic
sources as mentioned above.
Secondly, a certain number of the selected
letters will be described and analyzed in terms
of transitivity, mood, thematic pattern and
cohesion.
Thirdly, the data obtained will be analyzed
and compared in order to find out the
similarities and differences in both English
and Vietnamese business complaints.
Finally, the research results will be discussed
to figure out some suggested ideas to help
Vietnamese people write effective business
complaints in English.
Besides, discourse analysis in the light of
Systemic Functional Grammar helps to
establish the framework of the theoretical
background.
COMPARISON BETWEEN ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE BUSINESS COMPLAINT
LETTERS
Similarities
From the analysis of business complaint
letters in both English and Vietnamese, it can
be concluded that these letters of both
languages possess some features in common.
Transitivity
The analysis of transitivity system showed
that the material process is employed with the
highest frequency in the letters of both
languages. The relational process ranks the
second and then the process of verbal and
mental rank the third. The processes of
behavioral and existential are rarely found in
this kind of letters.
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Table 1: English and Vietnamese complaint letters in comparison in terms of Transitivity

Rate
Features
E complaint letters V complaint letters
Material 40.8 % 43.8%
Mental 16.2 % 12.9 %
Relational 24.3 % 22.9%
Verbal 16.2% 14.6 %
Behavioral 0.4% 2.7%
Existential 2.1 % 3.1 %
Mood
The mood analysis brings about a surprising result that the choice of mood in complaint letters in
both languages is nearly identical. As shown in table 2, the declarative mood is used in most
cases, occupying more than 98%. The expressions of modality seem not to be paid much
attention to.
Table 2: English and Vietnamese complaint letters in comparison in terms of mood

Rate
Features
E complaint letters V complaint letters
Declarative 98.3% 99.5 %
Mood Interrogative 0.4 % 0.5 %
Imperative 1.3 % 0%
+ Modal 7.2 % 7.5%
Modality - Modalization 64.7% 48.4%
92.8 % 92.5%
Modal Modulation 35.3% 51.6%
Theme-Rheme
The examination of theme system pointed out that the number of clauses with unmarked theme is
much bigger than that of marked theme. Moreover, single themes are much more frequently used
than multiple ones and once multiple themes appear, it is the combination of topical theme and
textual theme preceding it. In addition, among the three types of themes that are topical,
interpersonal and textual, topical always accounts for the highest percentage of occurrence.
Table 3: English and Vietnamese complaint letters in comparison in terms of Theme

Rate
Features
E complaint letters V complaint letters
Marked 12.4 % 24.2 %
Unmarked 87.6 % 75.8 %
Topical 78.6 % 76.5 %
Theme- Rheme Interpersonal 0.7 % 0.8 %
Textual 20.7 % 22.7 %
Multiple 13.4% 17.2%
Single 86.6% 82.8%
Cohesion
In terms of cohesive devices, both English and Vietnamese complaint letters share no typical
common features other than the choice of different subtypes of lexical cohesion. Among the
lexical cohesive devices, repetition was the most preferred by both English and Vietnamese
people and then the collocation. This can be explained basing on the field of this kind of letter in
which the requirement for the accuracy should be met by the most possible way of repeating
things or components mentioned in the co -text.
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Table 4: English and Vietnamese complaint letters in comparison in terms of Cohesion
Features
E complaint letters
Lexical Cohesion
Conjunction
Cohesion Reference
Ellipsis
Substitution
Differences
Transitivity
In general, the analysis results of transitivity
system as can be shown in table 1 show that
there seems to be no noticeable differences in
the choice of processes between Vietnamese
and English writers of business complaint
letters. While the use of material processes in
Vietnamese letters is of a bit higher frequency
than that in English ones; the rates are 43.8
and 40.8 respectively, the number of clauses
with relational, mental, and verbal processes
in English letters is bigger than that in
Vietnamese ones. In addition, behavioral and
existential processes, which account for only
0.4% and 2.1% respectively in English letters,
appear in 2.7% and 3.1% of clauses in
Vietnamese letters. These results prove that
there exists a slight difference in the choice of
language to show actions, events, feelings,
being, existence, or verbal exchange between
English and Vietnamese people when writing
business complaint letters. Moreover, the
field of this kind of letters seems to have a
nearly equal influence on the choice of
language used.
However, concerning the material and
relational processes themselves in the letters
of both languages, typical differences can be
found. The first thing is related to the
structure of material process itself and must
be induced from the combination of
transitivity and theme analyses. While in
material clauses in English letters, the
elements labeled as the Goal or Recipient and
as the unmarked theme under the theme
analysis account for 24%, that occupy only
12.2% in Vietnamese letters. This means that
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Rate
V complaint letters
32 % 69.7%
14.8 % 22.7%
52.7 % 6.1 %
0.3 % 0.5 %
0.2 % 1%
the passive voice is more preferable in
English letters than in Vietnamese ones. In
addition, 17.6% of the Actors in English
letters are non-human, the nonhuman Actors
in Vietnamese letters possess only 6.2% of
all. This proves that English writers prefer
mentioning things first compared with
Vietnamese writers.
The other difference falls into the choice of
intensives and possessives in relational
process. While intensive and possessive
processes own 69.6% and 17.9% respectively
in English letters, they hold 64.9% and 22.3%
respectively in Vietnamese letters.
Mood
As can be shown in table 2, the use of mood
in complaint letters in both languages is
nearly identical. A slight difference can be
traced back to the analysis of modality in
terms of modalization and modulation. While
in English letters, the expression of
modalization occupies 64.7%, which accounts
for only 48.4% in Vietnamese ones. It means
that English writers of complaint letters use
the expressions of certainty and usuality more
frequently than Vietnamese ones.
Theme-Rheme
The result of theme analysis in table 3 above
indicates that the choice of departure elements
as marked and unmarked theme in English
and Vietnamese letters does not resemble.
The number of clauses containing marked
themes in English letters occupies 12.4%
whereas in Vietnamese letters, it owns 24.2%.
Moreover, 13.4% of all the themes are found
multiple in English letters, whereas 17.2% of
multiple themes appear in Vietnamese ones.
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 Phạm Như Cường và Đtg Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ
Cohesion
The biggest differences between English and
Vietnamese letters fall into the terms of
cohesion. As can be seen in table 4 above, in
English letters, reference is used as the most
prominent device to create cohesion with the
rate of 52.7%; the second one is lexical
device, which possess 32% of all and
conjunction with 14.8% ranks the third in the
scale of occurrence. On the other hand, in
Vietnamese letters, lexical cohesive devices
occupy the highest percentage; conjunctive
devices rank the second and especially the
most prevalent use of reference in English
letters were found in only 6.1% of all the
clauses in this kind of letters in Vietnamese. It
is true that any conclusion made at this point
about the language ability of English and
Vietnamese writers basing on the frequency
of cohesive devices as indicated from the
surprising analysis results would be too hasty.
CONCLUSION
The analysis helps to bring about some
outstanding similarities and differences in the
use of language reflected through the four
chosen terms of both English writers and
Vietnamese ones. First, in terms of
transitivity, material processes are considered
the most powerful and effective; relational
processes rank the second in both English and
Vietnamese letters. In the aspect of mood,
declaratives are used in most places and the
use of modality is rarely found in this kind of
letters in both languages. Next, the theme
analysis reveals that though marked themes
are not considerably employed in these letters
of both languages, the clauses with marked
theme in Vietnamese letters outnumber those
in English ones. Moreover, topical themes
always proved to be the most preferred by
both English and Vietnamese writers. Lastly,
the result of cohesion analysis shows that
while Vietnamese writers regard lexical
devices as the most useful tools to create
cohesion in their letters, English ones highly
appreciate the effectiveness of reference.
Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên
109(09): 51 - 56
Hopefully, the findings of this study can help
business people to be fully aware of the
significance of business complaint letters as
well as the appropriate language used in terms
of transitivity, mood, theme and cohesion, so
that they can escape from the unexpected
misunderstanding in cross-cultural
communication. Moreover, we hope that these
findings will be a helpful source for the teacher
and learner in the course of teaching and
studying writing business complaint letters.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES
In this study, much of our effort has been
made to point out the similarities and
differences between English and Vietnamese
in terms of transitivity, mood, theme and
cohesion in the light of Systemic Functional
Grammar. A desire of discovering some
problems facing Vietnamese people when
writing business complaint letters in English
language cannot be discussed, which is truly
one of the shortcomings of this paper and also
a suggested idea for further studies. In
addition, there are two more aspects awaiting
our investigation. Firstly, how certain kinds of
business complaint letters; for example,
banking or hotel business, in both English and
Vietnamese differ from each other and
secondly how these business complaint letters
in both languages differ in terms of generic
structures, speech acts and discourse strategies.
REFERENCES
1. Diệp Quang Ban (chủ biên), (2000), Ngữ
pháp Tiếng Việt, NXBGD.
2. Bertha J.Naterop, Erich Weis & Eva
Haberfellner, (1977), Business letters for all, OUP.
3. Bloor, T. & M. Bloor, (1995), The Functional
analysis of English, Arnold.
4. Cook, G. (1989), Discourse, Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
5. Eggins, S., (1994), An Introduction to
Systemic Functional Linguistics, London/New
York: Continuum.
6. Halliday, M.A.K, (1994), An Introduction to
Functional Grammar, London: Edward Arnold.
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 Phạm Như Cường và Đtg Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ 109(09): 51 - 56

7. Cao Xuân Hạo, (1991), Sơ thảo Ngữ pháp
Chức Năng, Quyển 1, Hà Nội: KHXH.
8. Cao Xuân Hạo, (chủ biên), (1999), Ngữ pháp
Chức Năng Tiếng Việt, Quyển 1: Câu trong Tiếng
Việt, NXBGD.
9. Phương Thảo, (2003), Abstracts of Scientific
Papers in English and in Vietnamese: A Systemic
Functional Comparison, Unpublished M.A.
Dissertation, College of Foreign Languages,
VNU- Hanoi.

TÓM TẮT
LÝ THUYẾT NGỮ PHÁP CHỨC NĂNG HỆ THỐNG TRONG SO SÁNH
ĐỐI CHIẾU THƯ KHIẾU NẠI BẰNG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT
TRONG LĨNH VỰC KINH DOANH

Phạm Như Cường1, Nguyễn Thị Tuyết2, Lại Thị Thanh2*

1
Trường Đại học Kinh tế và Quản trị Kinh doanh – ĐH Thái Nguyên
2
Trường Đại học Khoa học – ĐH Thái Nguyên

Mục đích chính của nghiên cứu này là tìm ra những điểm tương đồng và khác biệt giữa thư khiếu
nại bằng tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt, được coi là một trong những loại thư từ phổ biến nhất trong lĩnh
vực kinh doanh, về bốn phạm trù của Ngữ pháp Chức năng hệ thống cụ thể là: chuyển tác, thức, đề
và liên kết.
Để thực hiện mục tiêu này, tác giả đã thực hiện khảo sát với số mẫu là 30 lá thư khiếu nại, trong đó
mười lăm lá thư viết bằng tiếng Việt và mười lăm lá thư viết bằng tiếng Anh. Kết quả nghiên cứu chỉ
ra rằng những điểm khác biệt trong các phạm trù của Ngữ pháp Chức năng Hệ thống được sử dụng
trong thư khiếu nại bằng tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt nhìn chung không đáng kể. Tuy nhiên, về phương
diện liên kết, kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy trong khi người Việt coi các phương tiện liên kết từ vựng
là các phương tiện hữu ích nhất thì người Anh lại đánh giá cao hiệu quả của phép quy chiếu.
Các kết quả thu được từ nghiên cứu này có thể được sử dụng như một nguồn tài liệu tham khảo
cho các học viên và giáo viên Việt Nam trong việc viết và dạy viết thư bằng tiếng Anh, trong đó
có thư khiếu nại.
Từ khóa: chuyển tác, thức, đề,liên kết, ngữ pháp chức năng hệ thống, thư khiếu nại bằng tiếng
Anh trong lĩnh vực kinh doanh, thư khiếu nại bằng tiếng Việt trong lĩnh vực kinh doanh.

Ngày nhận bài: 22/4/2013; Ngày phản biện: 13/5/2013; Ngày duyệt đăng: 02/10/2013
Phản biện khoa học: ThS. Cao Duy Trinh – Trường Đại học Khoa học – ĐH Thái Nguyên

*
Tel: 0913.780.687; Email: thanhdhkh@gmail.com

56

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