Luận văn phân tích Đối chiếu cấu trúc ngữ pháp dùng trong mô tả chiều hướng trong các bài báo thương mại tiếng anh và tiếng việt

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGUES POSTGRADUATE DEPARTMENT PHAM THI HA TRANG A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES EMPLOYED IN DESCRIBING TRENDS I

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGUES POSTGRADUATE DEPARTMENT

PHAM THI HA TRANG

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES EMPLOYED IN DESCRIBING TRENDS IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE BUSINESS ARTICLES

(PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CẤU TRÚC NGỦ PHÁP DỪNG TRONG MÔ TẢ CHIỀU

HUỚNG TRONG CÁC BÀI BÁO THIƠNG MẠI TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

MA MINOR THESIS

Major: Linguistics Code: 60.22.15

HÀ NỘI - 2009

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGUES POSTGRADUATE DEPARTMENT

PHAM THI HA TRANG

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES EMPLOYED IN DESCRIBING TRENDS IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE BUSINESS ARTICLES

(PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CAU TRUC NGUPHAP DUNG TRONG MO TA CHIEU

HUGNG TRONG CAC BAI BÁO THIƠNG MẠI TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

MA MINOR THESIS

Major: Linguistics Code: 60.22.15

Supervisor: Dinh Hai Yén, M.A

HÀ NỘI - 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page PART T- INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

2 Aims of the study

4 Scope of the study

4, Methodology of the study

5 Design of the study

won

PART TI - DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Literature Review

1.1 Contrastive Analysis and Transfer Th€ory 5

1.1.1 Contrastive Analysis

1.1.2, Language tmusfer and its influence on foreign language teaching and learning

1.2 Syntax and synlaclic structures:

2.2 A contrastive analysis of syntactic structures used in desoribing trends

Raglish and Vietnamese business articles cseserereeroroe 22

2.2.1.1, Clause structures in general trend đescription 22

vii

2.2.1.2, Clanse structures in tcrtms gf trưovemeniq ni noeeoieeoee 29 2.2.1.3 Summary 33

2.2.2, Phưase structutes 34

2.2.2.1 Verb phưase 33

3.2.2.2 Nonn phưase 35

2.2.2.3, Prepositional phrase 36 2.2.2.4 AdEctive phrase à s.eeekeneeeeeeeroaseeueo OT

2.2.2.5 Adverb phrase 38

2.2.2.6 Summary 39

2.3, Conclusion 39

Chapter 3: Implications and recommendations 3.1 For translation: difficultics in translating syntactic structnres nsed in describing trends from Linglish into Vietnamese and vice versa and some recommendations 4Í 3.2, Kor teaching stndents to đescribe charts and graphs in English AL 3.2.1 SIudenls" dưficulcs in describing tends, the causes aud rcconnnendalious ta improve the situations TH HH HH ghe Ho goản Al 3.2.2, Suggested exercises for practising to đescribe charts and graphs 43

PART III - CONCLUSION L Revicw of the study 45 2 Concluslon ion nhe HH HH nhaeeoreeareeeuie 45 3, Suggestions for further research uci cece asus đỔ References 4

Financial Times Object

Subject Sài Gòn Đầu TH Tài Chính Thời Báo Kinh Tế Sài Gòu Thời Báo Kinh Tế Việt Nam

‘The Liconomist Verb

Wall Street Journal

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

5 Table 5 English premodifiers aud Vietnamese postmodifiers in comparison (p.35)

6 Table 6 Propositional phrasc patterns used in describing trends in English and

Vietnamese business articles (p.36)

7 Table 7 Adjective phrase patterns used in describing trends in English and Vietuamese business articles (p.38)

& Table 8 Adverh phrase patterns nscd in describing trends in English and

Vietnamese business articles (p.38)

PART I - INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

As Heraclitus (540 BC 480 BC), a Greek philosopher, once said ‘nothing endures but change’, the world we live in today is the world of changes and development the world of ucnds Il is therefore uccessary to keep pace with the flow of life everyday by gathering changeable information about that world, Here comes the indispensable role of mass media in general and newspapers in particular As ‘Tom Li Rolnicki, C Dow Yate and Sherri ‘Vaylor (2001) remark in their book Scholastic Journalism “Immediacy ot timeliness is the most essential clement of most news” (p.8), thus we are updated, thanks to newspapers, with Latest news about stock markets, unemployment rate, trends of consumer spending or cases of bankruptcy somewhere in the world ete

Giveu thai English is an international language, there ae a vast umber of uewspapers printed

iu English regardless of he countries of origin, Together wilh Camous newspapers im Auictica

or Britain like Trternational Herald Tribute, Wall Street Tournal, Reuters, The Guardian ete.,

we also have Business Standard [rom India, China Daily from China, Vietnam News frou Vietnam, Business Day from South Attica and so on ‘The domination of Huglish as a common language of newspapers is greater and greater, which has gradually heen cradicating our knowledge barriers,

As a teacher of Business English, it is compulsory for me to read English newspapers, magazines or journals regularly, especially business ones in order to keep me updated and help

me understand more about journalistic register What is more, I can cnrich my Business English voeabnlary and expressions as welll as cxploit a potential source of teaching materials Consequently, my lessons can be more informative and lively In fact, one of my concerns while meditating English business aiticles is the structures used in describing trends, ‘The upward and downward movements appear to be more and more interesting as I take further steps inlo investigating thous, The syntuctic structures sccm Lo be varied with a great deal of significant organizations The flexible semantic features in English trend descriptions are worth being paid attention to as well There is a variety of words and expressions to denote the

movements, which adds much color into a piece of news.

In addition, the syntactic strucnures uscd in describing trends play an integral part during the conrse of my Business Pnglish teaching at Vicmam National University, College of

Lconomics Course books like Business Linglish, Market Leader or iinglish for Business

Communication contains activities such as writing reports, making presentations or describing chuls or graphs, which requires my students a cousiderable knowledge im using such

structures tu produce correct aud appropriatc texts or ullcrances, English busine: Lickes, 10

my mind, can serve as a fertile land to be cultivated for the sake of describing trends Teachers

can employ business articles to design a lot of activities and exercises relating to describing

changes Cor studeuls as the way Peter Grundy (1993) does in his resource book Newspapers Minally, it is my curiosity to explore the differences and similarities between syntactic structures used in describing trends in English and Vietnamese business articles Hor one thing, I could diagnose the difficulties ny sludents may encounter when usiug such structures due to language Wausference Thus, remedies would be prescribed limely and properly For the other, T hope to apply some of the findings into improving the accuracy and appropriateness in

translation works

2 Aims of the study

This research is directed to accomplish three goals:

- To investigate the syntactic suuctures used iu describing trendy in English and in Vieuramese from the perspective of traditional grammar

- To make a contrastive analysis beFwecn English and Vietnamese syntactic strnctures used in describing trends in business articles to deduce their differences and similarities

‘Yo propose some pedagogical implications for better teaching and leaning of describing

charls or graphs and some recommendations for more effective Lranstalion works

3 Scape of the study

Due lo the constraint of time and effort, the study ouly investigates lhe Euplish aud Vietuancse syulactic struclures ou the levels of clauses and phrases

Also, as suggested in the tithe of the thesis, the object of the rescarch is narrowed down to syntactic structures used in trend description in business nows The trends arc cither concerned with specific statistics and figures or with general remarks about changes or tendency

‘The resources of the analysis are English and Vietnamese business articles from business and

economic newspapers,

4, Methodology of the study

As lhe Lille of We thesis suggests, the study is aimed al comparing aud contrasting the syntactic structures used in describing uends in Euglish aud Vietuamese business articles; therefore, three methods namely descriptive, comparative and contrastive are emplayed

iy descriptive methed, a systemic list of strnotures used to describe trends in business articles will be preseuted Their syntactic features will be shown explicitly Comparative and contastive methods enable the author to discover the similarities and differences between structures used in describing trends in the two jonmalistic languages

The basic process of the rescarch is as follows Firstly, fonr English and fonr Victnamesc business and economies newspapers are chosen with two copies each ‘Three articles are taken from each copy, so in total forty eight articles are selected for the examination ‘Then the sanples arc Lhuoughly analyzed, calculaled in percentage aud put into chants or Lables in order

to find out the prominent syntactic structures frequently used in describing tends in the two languages Next, linglish and Vietnamese syntactic structures are contrasted to highlight the similarities and differences between the two groups ‘Ihe findings of this process are finally applied into improving English Vietnamese translation and teaching students how to describe charts and graphs effectively

5 Design of the study

The thesis is divided into three main parts namely Introduction, Development and Conclusion

Tn the first part of the study, the author introduces the reasons for choosing the topic, the objectives to be obtained in conducting the research, the scope of the study, the methods employed to facilitate the realization of the paper and the design of the study

The second part, Development, is the focus of the thesis, fo which most time and effort are devoted This part cousists of three chapters, In the first chapter, Literature Review, the wriler presents the theoretical background knowledge about contrastive analysis, syntax and syntactic structures, journalistic register and trend description in books and newspapers These will serve

as a springboard for the writer to dash into the exploration of the topic The next chapter, A contrastive analysis of syntactic structures used in describing trends in English and Vietnamese business articles, studies the syntactic structures Le clauses and phrases used to

describe changes in English and Victnamese business articles Similari

s and differences are accordingly presented with a view to the data shown in charts and tables ‘Ihe last chapter, Implications and recommendations is a practical application ove because the oulcome of the contrastive analysis will be used to improve English Vietnamese translation of lend description as woll ax helping students haw enhance their skills of describing charts and graphs

in English

Lastly, the Conclusion part includes a review of the study, some coucluding zemarks and

suggestions for further research

1.1 Contrastive analysis and transfer theary

Ellis points out that CA derived from the need to teach a L2 in the most effective way or in other words, the origins of Contrastive Analysis “were pedagogic” (1985:23) Evidently, when muking 4 comparison between the foreigu language aud the aulive language of the students, teachers can idontify their actnal difficuttics in Icaraing a new language and find ont: suitable solutions to accommodate the teaching work, according to Lado (1957) as quoted in Tillis (1985:23)

As far as the history of CA is concerned, an ealy example of CA was found by Di Pietro (1971:9) in CH Grandgent’s book on the German and English sound systems, published in

1892 James, 1980:8) James also cites another milestone document paving the way to modern

CA, which is Lado's Linguistics across Cultures (1957)

Richards states that this branch of lingnistics was developed and practiced in the 1950s and 1960s and is based on the following assumptions

a the main difficulties in leumning a new language are caused by interference from (he first language

b these difficulties can be predicted by contastive analysis

c teaching materials can make use of contrastive analysis to reduce the effects of interference (1992:83)

Characteristically, James (1980) believes thal “CA belongs to interlanguage study, and, since

‘emergence’ is an evolutionary concept, it follows that CA 1s to be viewed as diachronic rather than synchronic in orientation.” (1980:3) Also, he points ont the relation hetween CA and language learning, especially foreign language learning, “CA is concemed with the way in which native language affects foreign language learning in the individual ” (1980:9)

1.1.2, Language transfer and its influence on foreign language teaching and learning

‘The idea of language transfer started from the post war years and continned its influence into the 1960s, Tl was defined by Ellis (1965) as “the hypolbesis chat the learning of task A will affect the subsequent Iamning of cask B", (Quoted in James, 1980:11) At thal lime, it was strongly believed that ‘most of the difficulties facing the 1.2 learner were imposed by his or her first language.” (Lillis, 1985:6) Specifically, where there were differences between the L1 and

12, the leamer’s L1 knowledge would interfere with the L2, and where the L1 and L2 were similar, the L1 would actively aid L2 learning, (EHis, 1985:7) There[ore, by identi

similarities and differences hetween 1.1 and 1.2, teachers might find the ways to make usc of

ing We

the positive transfer and eliminate the negative transfer during students” learning process

alin presents similar ideas white claiming thet "teaching may become more effective through

a consideration of differences between languages and between cultures.” (2000:4) Also, according to this anthor, rescarch on language transfer may resntt in goals other than pedagogical ones, for cxample, "For historical linguists, such knowledge can lead to insights about the relation between language contact and language change." (2000:4)

Controversially, some inappropriatcness and irrationality in language transfer theory has been found up to now The findings of some rescarchers such as Dnlay and Burt (1973; 1974a) question the role of negative transfer as a major factor in the process of secand language acquisition A great aumber of grammatical errors could not be explained by L1 interference (lis, 1983:7) However, it is a mater of Lack that language Lrunsfer inherently takes place in

various aspects of linguistics such as discourse, scusaulics, phouclics and phonology and syntax, Studies in language transfer still play a crucial role in improving second language teaching and Jeaming With a view to the thesis’s objectives, the author focuses on syntactic uansfer ie the transfer happening in studies of word order, selative clauses, aud negation ele (Odlin, 2000/85)

Within the scope of the paper, the investigation will deem to cover the similarities and differences between syntactic features of Tinglish and Vietnamese phrases and clauses in

colors to the syntax mosaic with their so called Phrase Structure Grammar in the books

Information-based Syntax and Semantics Votume 1: Fundamentals (1987) and lead-driven

phrase structure grammar (1994),

Tvidently, syntax has quite a long history of independent development and has heen an indefinite source of inspiration for grammarians and linguists A preliminary question is then put forward, ‘what is syntax”

To put it simply, according to Detahunty and Garvey (1994), “the word ‘syntar’, in its root sense, means ‘arranging together’ The tar root is the same one as im tactics, Suz means ‘with’

or *together’, Syntax concerms the combining of words into phrases and sentences.” (p.175) Miller (2002) asserts that “syntax has to do with how words are put together to build phrases, with how phrases are pul Lugether Lo build clauses or bigger phrases, and with how clauses are pul Logether Lo build sentences.” (p.xiii) He also emphasizes thal words alone cannot help us communicate casily and offcetively Syntax has an indispensable role to play “heosuse withent syntax hnman beings would be nnable to construct complex messages conveying information about complex situations, proposals or ideas” (p.134)

In his book English Syntax, Jacob (1995) defines syntax as “the grammatical principles, units, and relations involved in sentence structure.” (p.4) This body of rules and principles governs the way people produce sentences grammatically and acceptably in their own language even if

(hey are aware of it or nol

Fromkin et al (2000) coufinns the above idea by defining symtax as a part of our Linguistic

knowledge that decides what constitntes a well-formed string of words and haw ta put words

together to form phrases and sentences The grammaticaliry and ungrammaticality can be differentiated through the two following examples

Lear had three daughters

“Had three Lear danghters, (p.8)

Obviously, native speakers or Icarncrs of English will notice at once that the socond is ill- formed and thus ungrammatical,

‘Though Universal Granunar approach suggests that there is a common set of grammar and linguistic knowledge ia human brain, synlax varies from onc language to another, This acceptable rule in this language is unacceptable in another language Let us consider the following Linglish and Vietnamese examples

The ai? price has increased

Gid déu da Lăng lên

The two given statements have the same message but the forms are slightly different In English, the order of compound nonns is opposite to that in Vietnamese ‘[hus, we can uctice

in the fonner sentence, ‘ef’ stands beLore ‘price’ bul in Lhe laltcr, the order is reversed,

In summary, syntax is the arrangements of phrases, clauses or sentences to produce utterances and text acceptably and grammatically basing on paiticular rules of a language Beside the shared components of universal grammar, different languages exbibil distinctive syntactic

characteristics Therefore, contrastive analysis always has a rolc to play in this field

1.2.2, Syntactic structures

1.2.2.1, Definition

According lo Richards et al (1992), syntactic structures are defined as “the arrangemeul of words and morphemes into larger units (phrases, clanses, and sentences) Languages may be compared for differences in syntactic structures.” (p.369)

Frombkin et al (2000) believe that “linguists posil the existence of rules of syntax in the unconscious mental grammar, which specify how words mnay be combined with each olher Lo prodnce grammatical, well-formed sentences.” (p.90) Ske also points out that there exist two fundamental properties governing the syntactic organization of natural languages namely

constituent structure and syntactic dependencies The latter includes selection, case,

agreement, movement, negative polarity itecn licensing and antecedent reflexive relations As

can be scen from the two definitions, both Richards and Fromkin pay attention to the

arrangement or combination of words to producc grammatical units However, Richards specities further the components of a syntactic structure (words, morphemes, phrases, clauses

and sentences) whereas Hromkin only mentions words and sentences It is also important to

know that Richards’s definition is an entry taken from his dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics while Fromkin’s idea is claborated as part of a book about linguistics Thus, Fromkin provides a deeper understanding of syntactic structures and their charactoristics

Meanwhile, Jacob (1995) makes a specific investigation into English syntax throngh three

Richards (1992) states that a phrase “is a group of words which form a grammatical unit” and

“does not contain a finite verb and does not have a subjeet-predicate structure.” (p.153)

Delahunty and Garvey (1994) show their disagreement with the traditional definition of a phrase hy suggesting arguments against the propositions thar can canse misleading interpretation Hirst, they argue that a phrase is not necessarily a group of words, it can be one single word Kor example, ‘birds’ and ‘most of the members of the genus avis’ in the two sentences below have the same function:

“Birds fly."

“Most of the members of the genus avis fly.” (p.176)

‘They are both subjects af the sentences and can both be considered as noun phrases Second, when stating that a phrase does not contain a verb and a subject predicate structure, we fall inlo defining clauses and phrases in tenns of each other, Cousequently, they give their own adjusted definition of a phrase as “a group of one or more words that combine to ercale a unified grammatical structure, ¢.g an NP, a VP, a PP, etc,” (1994: p, 255)

‘These two authors discuss five major types af phrases in English inclnding Noun phrase, Verb phrase, Adjective phrase, Adverb phrase and Preposilional phrase, among which Noun phrase and Verb phrase are paid nore afteution to (1994:175-204)

11

A noun phrase, according to Delahunty and Garvcy (1994), 'must contain a heađword' (which

is a noun) and may include a premodifier and a postmodificr (p.181) Tts formula can be realized in four following possibilities

« Tlead

* Premodifier(s) + Head

* Lead + Postmodifier(s)

* Premodifier(s) + Head + Postmodifier(s) (p.181)

A verb phrase, with a verb as its head, has five fomnula possibilities as follows:

© Head

* Auxiliary (ies) +Head

* Head + Object(s)/Complement

* Head + Modifier(s)

® Combinations of the above (p.191}

A prepositional phrase has a simple functional formula: Head + Object with a preposilion as the head and a nonn phrase as the ohEct (p.177)

An ad petive phrase with an adjective as the head belongs four formula possibilitics below:

® Tlead

© Intensifier(s) +Tiead

* Head + Complement

* Intensifier(s) +Tiead + Complement (p.179)

‘The final category is adverb phrase which contain a head adverb and an optional intensifier Its fornuula possibilities are

2 Head

© Intensifier +Head (180)

As Tar as Vietuanese phrases are concerned, Diep Quang Ban (2007) shares sume ideas with Richards’s definition, He believes thal phrases arc couslruclious of two words or more

combined freely in accordance with particular grammatical relations and do not include

conjunctive words imitlally (p.6) Conjunctive words in Vietnamese belong to two groups, Le

the head (pp.15-16)Obviausly, the first three types arc similar with the Finglish categorization

front clements and cnd clcrncnts.” (p 100) T.et us take a look at the fallowing examples:

Sunilarly, ad jective phrase shows ihc sauc combination of the Lrout clement, an adjective as

the nucleus and the end clement,

13

n short, there appear similarities and differences in Linglish and Vietnamese phrase definition

aud calegorizalion Therefore, tu keep the research cousistent aud cohezent, five types of

phrases in the Fnglish category (Noun phrase, Verb phrase, Adjective phrase, Adverh phrase and Preposition phrase) will be used as criteria for the contrastrve analysis

b Clauses

Jacob (1995) claims that “Clauses ae constructious with ou phrasc couslitucnl, Lypically a noun phrase, that bears the subject relation and another constituent, the verb phrasc, bearing the predicate relation.” (p.49)

A clause, according to Richards (1992), is ‘a group of words which fom a grammatical unit and which coutain a subject and a finite verb A clause Conus a senlence or part of a sentence and oflen functions as a noun, udjective, or adverb.” (p.53) He ulso mentions wo types of clause namely dependent and independent clauses,

Delahunty and Garvey (1994) suggest that “Clauses are combinations of two phrases, specifically an NP and a VP, thet are grammatically and semantically related to each other.” (p.255) They put cluuse patterns into eight types in accordance with the type of the main verb

in verh phrases

(1) Intransitive: Subject Verb Tlead

(2) Simple transitive: Subject Verb Head Direct Object

(3) Subject complement: Subject Verb Head Subject Complement

(4) Object complement: Subject Verb Head Direct Object Object Complement

(5) Indirect Object: Subject Verh Head Tndircet Object Direct Object

(6) Recipicnt/boncfactive: Subject Verb Head Direct Object: Recipient

(7) Location: Subject Verb Head Direct Object Location

(8) Passive: Subject Be Verb Head Agentive phrase (pp 219 231)

Regarding clauses in Vietnamese, in the hook “Victnamesc Grammar Volume 2”, Diep Quang Ban (2008) implics that considering a clanse (Subjct-Prodicats composition) as the basic syntactic structure of a sentence is not reasonable because it may exclude the ‘special simple sentence’ (bearing no Subjpet Predicate combination) Another season is that using

‘clause? concepl usay cause confusion while distinguishing simple, complex aud compound sentence, (2008:107) Thus, ic takes two-component simple sentence as the syntactic unit The hicrarchy of scutence constmction includes sentence nucleons (subject + predicate), sontence frame (nucleus + subordinate elements such as adverbials, thematic parts, particles ete ) and ofher parts namely conjunctions and annotation He suggests 12 types of sentence patterns as follows:

(1) Nonn + /@ (be) + Noun

(2) Noun + bang (ia) + Noun Qualerial)

(3) Noun + tat, de, bd (due to! because of) + Noun

(4) Nonn + 4é (for) + Noun or Snbjecr-Predicate

(3) Noun + cia (of) + Noun or Subpect Predicate

(6) Noun + Ad ective (quality)

(7) Noun + Verb (relation)

(8) Noun + Verb (modality)

(9) Noun + Verb (intransitive)

(10) Noun + Verb (transitive)

(11) Noun 4 Verb or Adetive (resull/ consequence)

(12) Noun + Verb (cousnaud)

(p.128)

dn the book “Lnglish and Vietnamese syntax: A contrastive analysis”, ‘Tran lun Mash (2007:388) demonstrates utunerous similarities and differences in the two synlaclic systems among which are the shured Vietmumnese clause/sentence types with 7 palleis presented in A University Grammar of Fengtish by Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) Apart from the similarities

in English and Vietnamese clause types, Tran Tim Manh also specifies some differences Por

instance, the Vietnamese pattern S + C (a noun phrase or an adjective phrase) is sometimes

equivalent to the English pattern Š + V + C

B.g Anh ta ng: oi Thanh Héa day (He_persan Thank Hoa)

E.g Ching tai bau ông ấy làm chủ tich ba khóa liên

OWe elect hin be chairman three terns of office ¢oulinuall

~ We cleeted him our chairman for three running terms of office

sv oO e

(2007:390)

‘These typical constructions in Vietnamese clauses lead to the assertion by some experts such

as Nguyen Tai Can and N Stankievich that the number of Vietnamese clause types can be up

to nine or ten (2007:391), not just seven patterns like in English

In brief, there exist different viewpoints from linguists in researching English and Vietnamese clause constructions Nevertheless, in this thesis, only seven clause types will be referred to while the contrastive analysis is carried out to avoid overlapping cases and confusion

1.3, Journalistic register

As business articles in newspapers will be the main source to be analyzed in the thesis, it is

essential to obtain ultimate understanding about this type of register

First of all, the concept of news should be specified clearly Tom E Rolnicki (2001) believes that “News, by definition, isn’t an orderly, exact list of *

's always this, but never that.”

Circumstances and nuances can change almost anything into news.” (p.3), Another way to

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/news; news is ‘the presentation of a report on recent or new events in a newspaper or other periodicals or on radio or television.’ Also, in the book

Professional Journalist by John Hohenberb (1972), news is defined as ‘a recent happening or

idea that can relates to or affect the majority of a community and can be understood by them”

(p.76) [Quoted in Nguyen Thi Thoa (2008:8)] We can assume from these definitions that

news is recent, changeable, various and have some impact on a certain group of people

As far as news language is concerned, Nguyen Thi Thoa (2008

5) proposes that “news language includes a system of morphology, words, active and stative images, sound signals

etc and the rules of combining them used by journalists as the means to express the contents,

topics and ideology of a journalistic product”,

The author introduces three main characteristics of news language namely accuracy,

conciseness and emotiveness Accuracy means that language must reflect the truth at certain moments, in certain contexts The second feature, conciseness, is guaranteed with careful word choice as well as coherent expressions to meet the needs of busy readers, Emotiveness can be

interpreted as using language effectively to express of the writer's opinions and feelings to a

certain event (2008: 36-37),

“check every note” and “lean to question sources carefully” (2001:6) Besides, uews writing

should be coucise and clear to rcach Lhc average audicuce although the uews writer cam still

make it lively and personally creative (2007:7) Ilowever, this anthor shows a different point

of view from Nguyen Thị Thoa (2008) in that news must be “balanced”, “Balance in a news story is a matter of emphasis aud completeness.” (2001:6) Roluiki also focuses ou the objecliveness of news wriling though aduits that this fealuze is often difficult to master as the personal opinion can “easily interfere with factual presentation in stories about which strong biases are held.” (2001:7) The last feature thar Rolniki mentions is the intermediacy of news

“timeliness is of great importance in this era of fast communication.” (2001:8)

In addition, Vu Quang Hao claims that news should be standardized but at the same time personally creative to appeal to the andicnce and build up the distinctiveness in journalists’ writing styles (2009:12)

Besides, news language is considered to be a product of culture Reah (2002) confims that

“Newspapers are cultural artifacts The print media of different countries and different cultures differ in a vaticty of ways." (p.54) The dilfereuce unay lic in writers’ belicfy, thoughts, ways of reasoning, style of writing, and, more importantly, language Language, in Reah’s opinion, is a channel of communication in which messages encoded with emotional and cultural values are transmitted (2002:55), Consequently, when we study news language in a particular country, we can feel the touch of its own cultwe “Everything that is written in a newspaper has to be tramanitlsd through the mediwn of language, The Wausmission of a message trough language

almost of nec

ssity cucodcs values into the message, Language galhers ils own cmmotional aud

cultural ‘loading’ (Reah, 2002: 55)

To sum up, journalistic register can be said to possess eight trails manely accuracy, couviseness, balance, objectiveness, standardived, distinctiveness, immediacy and bearing

cultmral aspects These features should serve as the criteria for the process of evalnating the

18

language in gencral and the syntax of any business newspaper articles in particular In fact, syntax involves the combination or the relationship that exists among clements in a clause

‘This, to some extent, enables journalists to use the medium of language to convey their opinion

or belief’ or create a remarkable impression on the audience about a certain event

1.4 Trend description in English and Vielnamese

Up lo wow, there have nol been amy syslemnulic studies about language of wend description im English and Vietnamese in general as well as that in Tinglish and Vietnamese business newspapers in particular Accordingly, it is both a disadvantage and an advantage for the investigator The disadvantage lies in scarce aud scattered reference resources, the lack of evidence verificalion und the frequent disorieutation during the research, However, the advantage of uovelly aud maguetism of Ihe Lopic becomes an obvious advantage for Che writer

to be ready for a promising exploration

In the first place, trend is understood as “the general way in which a particular situation is

changing or developing” (Longman Business English Dictionar, 2007 560) or simply “general tendency or direction” (Oxford Advanced Learer’s Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998: 970)

Tn fact, business trend and trend description arc widely seen in mass media such as newspapers, television, the interner ere everyday Trends arc visualized in the form of charts, graphs, or table ie the socalled non textual means or visnal aids so that complicated information can be transferred to the audience more effectively and easily Also, trend analysis

is available in business uews or reports on Ibe marke! coudilion, GDP indicators, or stuck indexes cle

Besides, trend description appears as a requirement in course book or reference books such as

‘TOLEL, ILL'TS, TORIC in the form of chart or graph description

Il is important to uotice thal effective Wend descriplion is coucemed with the use of lasguage

in general and the coustructious of syntactic struclures in parlicular, Therefore, the thesis will approach the topic from syntactic perspective to find out the mules of struchie bmilding to

describe trends successfully

business articles was mentioned to position the thesis’s role

CHAPTER 2: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES USED

ARTICLES

‘This chapter mainly discusses the similarities and differences between syntactic structures used in describing trends in eight business newspapers among which four English newspapers and four Vietnamese ones were analysed Tn the first place, a brief introduetion on the cight papers is provided for goneral background Then, the contrastive analysis is made with reference to clause patterns and phrase patterns found in the English and Vietnamese articles

2.1 An overview on the business newspapers used in contrastive analysis

Among a variety of business newspapers and magazines in English and Vietnamese, cight were selecied, Euglish publications included ewo British Euglish ones and wo American Tnghsh ones namely The Economist, The Financial Times Asia, Business Week, and Wall Street Journal Asia respeclively Vieluanese publicalious involved lwo Northen Viewamese ones and two Southern Vietnamese ones ie The Vietnam Economic Times, Investment, The Saigon Times, and Saigon Financial Investment respectively

The resource choices were inade because of three reasous First, these are the major business newspapers in English and Vietnamese, sv the business uews language will be representative for the mass Second, it would be possible to find out the similarities and differences hetween

Tnghsh and Vietnamese trend description as well as discover the distinctive features due ta

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regional and cultural factors ic, beewcen American English and British English, Northern Vietnamese and Southern Vietnamese Third, the varicty of the papers will be useful in comparison because the news language varies from one newspaper to another

‘The general procedure of the analysis was carried out as follows Kor clanse structures, three business atlicles im each copy was selected and sead carefully so thal clause aud phrase pallems could be highlighted For phrase paltcmms, ouly two alicles of cach uewspaper exhibiting trends most prominently were selected to keep the analysis focused and detailed

‘That means 16 articles were searched for differences and similarities with a view to five calegories of phrases The findings are calculated iu perceulage aud pul into tables or figures in order to exhibit the outstanding sinilarilies aud differences Finally, the analysis would be implemented basing on the statistics worked out

Hefore the analysis is futher implemented, some background infanmation about the cight newspapers and magazines will be given below

2.4.4 The English business newspapers

* The Economist

This is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Liconomist Newspaper Ltd and edited in London Its primary focus is warld news, politics and business However, in recent years the paper has alsa improved its diversification by adding

sections such as Hurope, Asia, Latin America, international issues, and science and

lechnology, books and arts

With over 1 million copics being sold oul every week, aud more than four-fifths circulated outside Britain, the figures indicate that The Economist, though a British newspaper, mainly looks for subjects to waite aboul and for circulation abroad

* The Financial Times

The Financial Times, onc of the world’s leading business ucws organizalious, is recognized intemationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy ‘I'he paper's main focus is British and

international business and economic news Providing extensive news, comment and analysis,

the uewspaper is priuted at 23 print sites across the globe, has a daily cisculation of 411,988

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(ABC figures, Junc, 2009) and a readership of 1.3 million people worldwide in print and online

* Business Week

Business Week is a business magazine published by McGraw-Ilill at the headquarters in New

York Cily, Since 2005, Business Week has delivered a single global cditiou iusicad of

providing separate regional ones Business Week is a global source of essential business insight that inspires leaders ta turn ideas inro action As a.market leader, it has more than 4.8 million

readers each week in 140 countries,

* The Wall Street Journal (Asia)

The Wall Street Journal is an Fnglish-langnage international daily acwspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, in New York City, with Asian and

European editions

The Journal newspaper primarily cavers U.S and international business and financial news

aud issues the puper's uame comes fron Wall Sureel, the heart of the financial district in New

York In 2007, ic hay a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million, with approaimately 931,000 paying online subscribers,

The Wall Street Journal Asia is a regional edition of this paper Since 1976, it has provided latest news and analysis of regional and global business developments for Asian andience of

corporate and government decision-makers

2.1.2 The Vietnamese business newspapers

* Thời báo Kinh t€Viét Nam (The Vietnam Economic Times)

The paper is a major economic publication focnsing on many aspocts of cconomic life in

Vietnam and cther countries

38.900 copies are released every weekday and Saturday Its topic ranges from domestic and inlemational business news, stock markel reports, uvouclary and banking, eslale infomation lo sociocconomic issucs, information technology and health care service,

* Đâu t- (investment)

Déu T-, the represculalive of Ministry of Plamning aud Investment, was started on June 6,

1991 It focuses on infomning laws and policies concerning international collaboration and