1, The reason of choosing research subject

The concept of polyphony is a concept derived from the music field. It is very
important and has appeared since very long time ago in music, Polyphony
means the complex tune in music . Then , polyphony was extended across the
literature field. This phenomenon of polyphony since was discovered by
researchers Bakhtin, has opened a new history for "polyphony novel" a type of
novel having the distinct points compare with the previous novels of monotony.
The polyphony is expressed in the artistic figurative thinking with anyone having
the complex psychology , with the contradictory blended sense spoken by the main
characters in storytelling language , implying one or more dialogues within
narration .
Besides being considered in the field of literature, the phenomenon of polyphony
was also concerned by linguist that carry a certain importance. It have shown a
new perspective on language thinking (thinking in terms of dialogue). With these
features and values, it deserves an important position in the study of lingustic.
However, it has not been interested adequately by linguist, especially in Vietnam.
The research achievements on this issue is quite small and not be really unified
,therefore finding the documents related to the phenomenon of polyphony in
Vietnam is not much. If yes, it is just the generalized data, almost exclusively
showing the theoretical basis of the phenomenon of polyphony as well as the
controversy around it and does not apply in the case of the specific polyphonic
research. The study of polyphony helps us to find one of the features of living
linguistic in particular and linguistic of art in general.
Nguyen Cong Hoan was recognized as the best short story writer, the master of
satirical short stories with attractive and unique conversational language with a bit
of humor and mischief, close to normal language, especially satirical art and
satirical language will be valuable resources to our research polyphony . Therefore,
we would like to consider his short stories through the natural polyphonic speech
to discover the identities style of Nguyen Cong Hoan in his writing.
2, The history of research.
As mentioned above ,The phenomenon of polyphony derived from the music field.
This was later extended in the study of literature and linguistics. In which, the first

mention of this phenomenon in the field of literature is M. Bakhtin a theorist in

"The poetic problems of Dostoievoski " translated by Tran Dinh Su. In this book,
M.Bakhtin mentioned the term of "polyphonic novel" which later was widely
recognized. "Polyphonic" novel also known as "multi-voice", "multi-dialogue", "
complex tone " is essentially a way of saying only a new artistic concept. "Tone" is
not sound, which is the voice, a stance, a perspective. According to Bakhtin, before
Dostoevsky, novel was composed mostly only by the concept of the "monologue"
novel . In which, the listener only hears a "voice" of the author. Even when told as
the first-person pronoun (using the personal pronoun "I" to tell story or describe
character), it is just a proof of the author's consciousness. With Dostoievski, he was
not really leave the "monologue" writing but basically, he created another art world
. His character is mainly portrayed as a self-conscious, a independent tone that do
not integrate with the other voice. Dostoievoskis motto is "find the human in the
human", so he used the "dialogue" with them. "Polyphonic" novel have author's
words as well as words of speaking characters, the characters are not assessed from
the viewpoint of the author, appearing the conflict between the voice and the
character's opinions. The character express themselves as the mask in the carnival.
Meanwhile, although the polyphony in linguistics to date is an interesting
phenomenon, it is not interested in the right way . There are still many opinions
can not be unified by the researchers in the world.
Representing for the concept "each utterance only one said" is Ann Banfield and
his colleagues. Even while recognizing that utterance not only have a single voice,
the author has tried to make rules to ensure consistency. Banfield gave two
principles was : a utterance - a conscious entity if only spoken by a speaker, it is
also the one bring authors awareness.
Although Bakhtin was the first to apply the concept of polyphonic in music to
study literary language, linguistic world at that time did not pay attention to it, only
until 1984 that the first work to introduce the concept of polyphony in linguistic
was released. This was Le dire et le dit of O.Ducrot. In this book, the author has
sought to remove and replace a inherent concept in linguistics at the time was
"each utterance only one said" (such as the views of Ann Banfield earlier) .

O.Ducrot took over and developed the polyphonic theory of Bakhtin in linguistics.
He also stressed that the theory of Bakhtin only be applied with a combination of
utterances rather than for each utterance. He considered polyphony as a the general
feature of the language. Ducrot has rejected two principles of Banfield and proceed
to assert that polyphony not only appeared in the literary work, but also be
extended in the field of language. Accordingly, any utterance also have polyphony
without the existence of monophony. Ducrot once wrote: "If I am saying
something, I do not just repeat what I have said or preached before- nhng iu
ti ni, ti ging trc y n lt mnh li lp li nhng iu ti ni, ti ging
trc na m trong phn ln cc trng hp ti cn nhc li, lp li
nhng iu ti nghe c, ti c c. Listen to the passengers on the subway
in Paris, I noticed that they talk to each other the title of the Paris daily newspaper
issued the morning ". To clarify the polyphony of utterance, Ducrot alleged to
distinguish two theoretical Dictum and Thuyt ngn as well as the relationship
between them. During his studies, he also demonstrated the polyphonic of super
language negative utterances, especially the refuted utterance. This seems
consistent with the view of Bakhtin about the dialogue nature of language. In
"Theory and novel poetic " of Bakhtin was selected and translated by Pham Vinh
Cu said that : The words of human is dialogical, it is the universality attributes of
language and human thought. Saying mean that Saying to someone. Even when
people say alone, it is also said to themselves , it Lng Ha its people. Saying
that is waiting to be answered " . Thus, even when people say alone, this is
polyphonic utterances. The author argues that there are two types of actors in a
utterance is speaker and Ngi hnh ngn. Conception of any utterance also have
polyphonic phenomenon comes from people thinking that it is not merely in the
field of linguistics.
These studies of O.Ducrot marked the birth of a new research problem in
linguistic. Also have many researchers relying on O.Ducrot theories to make their
works brighter . One of these were "Polyphony and Argumentative Semantics"
published in 1988, author Jean-Michel Grandchamp have applied a polyphonic
theory of O. Ducrot in the field of computer languages. In 2005, Johannes
Angermuller (University of Magdeburg, Department of Sociology, Germany)
wrote "Claiming a different world - the enunciative dimension of" antiGlobalization "discourse" . In this article Johnnes Angermuller applied polyphonic

theory of O. Ducrot to solve one of the sociology problems . Ducrot's polyphonic

theory also was used by Michael Elhadad, Kathleen R. McKeown to study
computer linguistics in the post Generrating connectives, thereby creating a
coherent computing framework.
In Vietnam, polyphonic phenomenon are not really interested in much. Typical
work mention polyphonic phenomenon is the book "A General Linguistic 2
Pragmatic " by Do Huu Chau. He replaced two concepts speaker and Ngi hnh
ngn by two equivalent concepts is Dictum and Thuyt ngn. When looking for
the relationship between polyphonic phenomenon and argument issue, the author
referred to the theory of Ducrot previous and give examples in Vietnamese.
According to the author, thuyt ngn is the one emitting utterance that heared and
read, on the other hand, the dictum is the human (can be specific or be abstract, for
example the ideology of a class, tastes of a historical period, .. can be considered as
the abstract dictum) speaking the content reiterated in utterance of thuyt ngn. In
addition, Do Huu Chau confirmed that if counter-argument is used in a argument
discourse , this argument will certainly is polyphony.
For example with the utterance: "You did not break it so that the dog did it, didt
you?
Do Huu Chau said that this is a argued utterance. Applying polyphony, the mother
has created a utterance refuted the previous utterance of the child (why you yelled
at me while I did not break it ). Thus, in the mother's utterance have both denied
"voice" of the son and sarcastic "voice" of the mother. In his study, Do Huu Chau
also sided with Ducrot's view that all utterances are polyphonic.
Apart from two points of view, there is a third view of Le Thi Thu Hoai and
Nguyen Thuy Ai Nhan said that not any utterances are polyphonic. In the doctoral
thesis "Semantic - pragmatic and Vietnamese rhetorical question Le Thi Thu Hoai
authors mentioned polyphonic phenomenon in the language associated with the
interactive nature of communication, dialogue and interaction exist within
utterance. The author also distinguished the two concepts "speaker" and "Ch
Ngn" as well as giving a number of cases that polyphony appeared in sentence
such as type of quoted sentence directly and indirectly; the question is marked by
modal elements. There is also research "phenomenon polyphonic and some

linguistic issues involved in Vietnamese (argued, presupposed)" by Nguyen Thuy

Ai Nhan. In the document that we can reach, this document may be deemed to be
the most complete look about this unique and exciting polyphonic phenomenon. In
his thesis, Nguyen Thuy Ai Nhan gave viewers an overview of the polyphonic
phenomenon so far, since in music (Ch iu) to literature and review in
linguistic. First of all, in his work, the author confirmed that we incomprehensible
polyphony as an attribute of the nature of language in general mean that not any
utterances are polyphonic as the view of Ducrot and Do Huu Chau, we must
understand polyphony as as a characteristic of a type of utterance (placed in
compare with monophonic utterance). The author has also borrowed two terms
Dictum and Thuyt Ngn of Do Huu Chau to giving his own opinion on the two
concepts are closely related to polyphonic phenomenon.
Besides, the authors also delve into the relationship between polyphony and
presupposition as well as arguing based on research of Ducrot and Do Huu Chau.
According to Nguyen Thuy Ai Nhan, polyphony occurred most clearly in
polyphonic imposing argument style and followed by the role of polyphony in
guiding argument. In addition, the author mentioned presupposition problem and
polyphony as well as the relationship between them. The author explained more
about that relationship is caused by presupposition (is the information that people
said it right and assuming that the listener already knew it so they do not speak
clearly). Therefore, presupposition information can be considered as another
voice sounded beside "voice" of the speaker. Author emphasized that not any
presupposition information could be considered a "voice" of polyphony. Nguyen
Thuy Ai Nhan based on previous work of Do Huu Chau to determine that
polyphonic presupposition appears at the syntax level, not the level of vocabulary.
In addition, the emphasis in the thesis is that the author give some type sentence
which often contain polyphony such as : directly or indirectly narration, negative
or sarcastic sentence.
In short, as the writers knowledge, there are still many mixed opinions
surrounding polyphony so far, in which has three main views of polyphony in
utterance include: Utterance is only monotony represented by Ann Banfield; all
utterances are polyphonic represented by Do Huu Chau and Ducrot and not any
utterance are polyphonic represented by Nguyen Thuy Ai Nhan and Le Thi Thu
Hoai.