A Pragmatic Interpretation of a Vietnamese Folk Love Poem

Abstract

This article re-examines common interpretations of a Vietnamese folk love poem, highlighting the role of pragmatic inference in understanding folk discourse. Based on a review of existing approaches, the study shows that previous interpretations have largely relied on poetic analysis and cultural symbolism, while paying insufficient attention to the role of rationality in utterance interpretation. Adopting a pragmatic framework, the article proposes an alternative interpretation of the poem’s dialogue structure and reconstructs a more plausible communicative scenario. This approach also clarifies the logic of the sequence of speech acts between the participants and the role of symbolic imagery in constructing textual meaning. The findings suggest a research direction that combines pragmatics, poetics, and cultural studies in the study of Vietnamese folk poetry.