In fact, the impact of the rules of le (rituals, appropriateness, righteousness and propriety) on politeness is clearly represented because the politeness is ritual and process-oriented, and it does maintain social hierarchies. Interestingly, it is the prescribed and process-oriented patterns of discourse in Confucian cultures that manifest the ritual politeness. Under the rule of le, we have to strictly follow step-by-step communication (what happens first, what happens later, who say what, who speaks first, and who speaks last) (Nguyen Dinh Hoa, 1956; Tran Dinh Huu, 1994; Quang Dam, 1994). Obviously, people are expected to conform rituals and principles advocated by Confucianism. To be specific, all of people’s activities are observed in accordance with the rites. In addition, Confucian communication in general and Vietnamese politeness in particular, require role mastery which forces us to successfully know our own roles and others’ in a specific situation and converse in accordance with those roles. For example, to express our …show more content…
It is widely suggested that power plays centrally important role in deciding the language use of politeness. From Vietnamese perspective, the factors which add to one’s power are age, gender and status. By being older, being male, being in a higher position, people are perceived to have more power. For instance, according to professor Hoang Trong Phien (1991), older people are respected and listened to, not being questioned or