Luận văn thạc sĩ nghiên cứu về danh từ hoá Ở cấp Độ cú trong tiếng anh so sánh Đối chiếu với tiếng việt nhìn dưới góc Độ tri nhận

FACULTY OF POST -GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN THI THANH THUY NOMINALIZATION AT TIIE CLAUSE LEVEL IN ENGLISII AND VIETNAMESE — A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS FROM A COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE Nghiên c

FACULTY OF POST -GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI THANH THUY

NOMINALIZATION AT TIIE CLAUSE LEVEL IN ENGLISII

AND VIETNAMESE — A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

(FROM A COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE)

( Nghiên củu về danh từ hoá ở cấp độ cú (rong tiếng Anh so sánh đối chiếu với tiếng Việt nhìn đưới góc độ trí nhận)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field : English Linguistics

Code : 6022 l5

THIANOI - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, LLANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDLES

tt

NGUYEN THI THANH THUY

NOMINALIZATION AT THE CLAUSE LEVEL IN ENGLISH

AND VIETNAMESE — A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

(FROM A COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE)

( Nghiên cứu về danh từ hoá ở cấp độ cú trong tiếng Anh so sánh đối chiếu với tiếng Việt nhìn dưới góc độ trí nhận)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field : English Linguistics

Code =: 602215

Supervisor : Assoc Prof.Dr ‘Tran Huu Manh

HANOL - 2010

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Tran Huu Manh of Foreign Languages College — Victram National University-Ha Noi, who has helped me to shape the ideas that have gone into this study and given enomously heplfil advice, guidance, correction and encouragement Lo me throughout this siudy

1 would like to express my sincere thanks to all of the teachers at Postgraduate Department of Foreign Language College — Vietnam National University — lla Noi for

their provions Fectures and suggestions

My gratitude also goes to all of my family members and my friends who help me with useful source materials to complete this study

Hereby I declare that [have written my diploma thesis by myself and all the resources of

information used are listed in the enclosed references

Hanoi, July 2010 Signature

Neuyen Thi Thanh Thay

ABSTRACT

This study aims to discuss the nominalization at the clause evel in English and

‘Vietnamese Attempts have been made to state the similarities and differences in clausal nominelization in the two languages

In this study, Contrastive Linguistics is coneerned with the comparison of the two languages with a view to determining the differences and similaraties between them, With this practical aims thơ study tries lo provide a model for comparison

it is hoped to provide as much information as is possible in a limited study of this kind on clausal nominalization in Linglish then in Vietnamese ‘This study focuses on the way of nominalizing a clausc and contsaslive analysis on the clansal nominalivation in the two languages,

it is hopeful that this study will have partly a small contribution for hest practical methods for English language teaching to Vietnamese leamers as well as Vietnamese

language teaching to forcign Icarners and for translating work.

Symbols and abbreviations

Figures and diagrans

Aims of gtudy co

SEppe of sindy ccoosecsicoe«

Method eŸ study

General characteristics of Cognitive grammu

Cognitive grammar is usage based uesssiesstsuastsststatastesiitee

‘The importance of semantics

Nou-puticipant nominals

One participant clause ( intransitive) « coi so 23

‘Two-pasticipant clause ( Lransiliycs) 24

‘Three-participant clause (donble object clauses 24

Nominalization at the clause level in Linglish 26 What is nominalization in English 26

Gronnded clanses àcc hư Honhehde Hohrdee 2?

a Subject predicative that CAUSC ccc vss sieeoeooe iu DE

tb Extraposed azf- clause 23

d Post predicate thefclatse sess ssseteeis senanieee 28)

a Stricture and function 3

b Wh-clanse controlled by verbs 32

c, Wh clause as complements of adjectives and prepositions 32 Ungrounded (non-finite) clause .ccccccccsnseeseaeecesieeieneensnene 33

Naminalization at the word level 36

Conclusion Review of the siudy 1 Suggestions for further reseaich « tect tintin 47

vii

SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

(in Alphabotival order)

LIST OF FIGURES AND DIAGRAMS

Figure 2, The grounding relation, as exemplified in a definite noun phrase 13 Figure 3 ‘The relation between a type (1) and its instances (J) 14

used (o distinguish humans from all other living beings and il is a systematic means of communication by the nse of sounds or conventional symbols Itis the ende we nse to express our thought, ideas, gesture, fecling, moods and concepts as well as alfitudes and communicate with other people Nowadays, in the rapid development of society and global eeonomie, not only the mother tongue is used for communication but English is used widely

in many ficld such as trade, busincss, computer, education, scionos, ILis regarded as a eonucctor to link people in all over the woild Due to its importanee, more and more people worldwide in general and in Vietnam in particular learn English

One of the factors thal English leamere need o pay allention lo is the formation of wordy (formation of noun, adjective, adverbs, ) In the process of loaning English, learners oflen make some mistakes of using words So the word foxmation is one of the most important factors for English leaners, Tt can be useful for learners to use language effectively

in conversation as well as in writing, and translation Nominalization is not only one of the ways of creating new words but also one of the most prominent features of formal written, discomses as Fowler said, “English is a sort of nominalized language” (1991:79)

Nominalization can be found in many languages at different Ievele of the linguistic unit, namely noun, nominal or clause and from various perspectives Many researches on thie subject have been done, however, from Cognitive perspective is rather new and hasn't been studied

Comparison and contrast between two langnages is one af the most effective methods

to leam a foreign language Throngh comparison angd contrast learners will understand and

be better at using the second language as well as mother tongue and they can tell the dvfferences and similarities between the two langnages easily

‘As a Vietnamese leacher of English al a high school, I can see the difficulties which

my students meet with when using this to exprese and doing exercises concerning it It can be said that the reason motivating me to carry this research is that I wonld like to understand, more clearly the nominalization in English and Vietnamese and help my students to lea,

better Moreover, for the limitation of time and my knowledge, in this paper I only focus om the nominalization in the two languages at the clause level

2 Aims of study

This study, The nominalization at at clause in English and Vietnamese A contrastive

analysis (from a cogmtive perspective), is armed at

@ The theoretical background of contrastive analysis, cognitive grammar

Gi) Nouns, nominal and clause structure in cognitive grammar

(iii) Nominalization at the clause level in Fnglish and Vietnamese,

(iv) Descnbing the naminalization at a clause in English in contrastive analysis with

‘Vietnamese counterpart i arder to find the similarities and differences between them

With the above-mentioned aim, this paper is done to answer two questions as follow

~ What is nominalization in the two languages ?

+ What 1s the role of nominalization in the language?

3 Scope of study

This paper will focus on the contrastive analysis of the nominalization in English and Viclnamese, Way to create a new noun or nominal from other paris of speech, mainly at the clanse level, will be described, at the same time Hhrough contrastive analysia, the similatitics and differences of nominalizalion at the clause Level betwen the two languages will be also presented

This paper is divided into 3 parts

- The fisst part is introdnetion

- The second part is development which consists of 4 chapters

Chapter 1 presents the theoretical preliminaries

in the two languages and applications and some suggested exercises

- The third part is canchision presenting a review of the study by summarizing the main points discussed in the previous parts and give suggestions for further research,

Classification of ingnistic enterprise will involve three dimensions or axes

Sampson (197:4) has pointed out that there are two broad approaches to linguistics, the generalists and the particularist “On the one hand, linguists treat individual langnage: English, French, Chinese, and so on On the other hand they consider the general phenamenon

of human languages, of which particular langnages are examples” Along a second dimension lingnists are divisible ito these who choose to sindy one, or each, language in isolation, and those whase ambition and methods are comparative

‘The third dimension is used by de Sausenre to distinguish “two sciences of language”: diachronic as opposed synchronic “ Fverything that relates to the static side af omr science 18 synchronic, everything that has to do with evolution is diachronic Similarly, synchrony and diachrony designate respectively a language -state and an evolutionary phase”

Contrastive Analysis 1¢ neither generalist nar particularist but somewhere intermediate

oma scale belween the two exiremes CA is interested in the inheren| genius of the language under its purview ag it is in the comparability of languages CA is not concemed with classification, and as the term contrastive implics, more interested in differences between Yanguages than in (heis likeness

CA seems, thereforo, to be hybrid linguistic cwterprise In tem of the thice criteria discussed here we might ventue the following provisional definition: CA is a linguistic enterprise aimed at producing inverted ( ie conttastive, not comparative) two-valued typologies (a C/A is always concerned with a pair of languages), and founded on the assumption that languages can be compared,

According to James C (1980) CA belongs to interlanguage which 1s interested in

emergence of these languages rather than in the finished prodnct And since emergence is an evolutionary concept (in de Saussuze’s sense), it follows that CA is to be viewed as diachronic rather than synchronic in orientation Ife also pointed that CA is one of three branches of two-

1.2 Cognitive grammar

1.2.1 What is cognitive grammar

Taylor J.R ( Cognilive Grammar : 2002 :20), Cognitive grammar is driven by the idea that langage is essentially and inherently symbolic in natwe, Linguistic expressions symbolize or stand for conceptualization and language is considered as the symbolic thesis

According (o the symbolic thesis, any linguistic expression, whether this be a single word, a mosphente, a phrase, a sentence , or even a entire text, has the organization shown in Figure 1 below

Fig 1: the three elements of a linguistic expression

Taylor JR ( Cognitive Grammar : 2002 :21)

According to the figure there are three kinds of entity are depicted đ) morphological stauchure, (i) semantic stiucture, and (iii) symbolic relation between (J) and (ii) Cognitive grammar makes the very etrang clam that a language can be exhaustively described in terme

of three kinds of entity alone

@ Morphological structure cefers to the overt manifestation of langnage, ie a linguistic expression in its material, or perceptible aspect, Prototypically, an expression is manifested in the medium of sound, in which case “ morphological” is to be understood in the strict sense of word, Language can be realized in media other than sound, as is the case with signed fanguages, in principle therefore, “Morphological stmcture” needs to be understood sufficiently broadly so as to be able to accommodate these possibilities

Gi) Semantic structure refers to the meaning of an expression A significant part of Cognitive Grammar has consisted in making substantive proposals for the content of semantic structures Importantly, a semantic strucinre 1s taken to comprise not just the prepositional

content of an expression, but the broader conceptualization that a speaker entertains, inchiding such aspects as fignre-gronnd alignment, constmal, and so on Semantic structure also comprises pragmatic agpects of meaning, that is the meaning of an expressicn in relation to

situational context Semantic structure, moreover, 18 broadly eneyclopedic in acope, and can

in principle draw on any aspect of'a person’s conceptual world

Gii) Symbolic relation hold between mophonclogical structures and scmantic structures The arow linking mophonological and semantic structurce in Fig | points in both directions It incans that the relation between the meaning and sound is a two way affais, cach pole of the symbolic relation involves the other Symbolic relation play a pivolal role in Cognitive Grammar In a largo parl Cognitive Grammar is a theory of how Linguistic expressions are Lo

be analyzed in terme of symbolic relation

In contiast to many other lingnistic thooties, Cognitive Graminar denics that there is a distinct level of crganization that medicates between mophonology and semantics

Cognitive Grammar does not deny the existence of syntax, Like any linguistics theory, Cognitive Grammar pays a lot of attention to hew expressions can be analyzed into smaller component parts In Cognitive Grammar approach, syntax itself is regarded as inherently symbolic, and therefore handled in terms of eymbolic relations between phonological and

semantic structures

1.2.2 General characteristics of Cognitive Grammar

Cognitive Grammar has some general characteristics as follows

1.2.2.1, Cognitive Grammar is usage based

over usage events Language acquisition is therefore a bottom-up process, diiven by linguistic experience

‘There are some important corollaries to the usage based orientation

First, it 1¢ recognized that a good deal of a person’s knowledge may consist in rather specitic, lnw-level knowledge, not far removed, in term of abstractness, from actually encenuitered expressions In the limiting case, language knowledge may consist in memory traces of specific instance Take for example, the word farm ayes On the other hand, a competent speaker of Tinglish is able to create this form in accordance with a general schema for phiral nouns Equally, a speaker may store the plural form, ready-made, as a resnlt of having encountered it rather offen

Secondly, knowledge of a language is dynamic, and involves in accordance with a person's linguistic experience As new expressions arc encountered, these may be added to a speaker's slore of linguistic units Conversely, aspecis of language, if nol kept activated through regular use, may atrophy, and cventually drop out of « peison’s language knowledge

Cognitive Grammar is very much surface oriented, Absizact entilies are coriainly admissible, but only to extent thal there arc schematic for actual occuring structures, and which can be abstracted from actually occuring instances There is, for example, a general scepticism for underlying stmcturce which diverge fiom surface structures with respect to their component parts and the sequential ordering of the pate

In cvgnitive grammar, grammatical structuze is almost entirely overt Surface grammatical form does not concedl a “truer, deeper level of grammatical organization, rather, it itself embodies for the conventional means a language employs for the structuring and symbolization of semantic content

1.2.2.2 The importance of semantics

In Cognitive Grammar, semantic structure has been studied, especially noteworthy lexical eemantics Word meaning has been studied with regard to the ways in which a word’s meaning influences the use of the word in syntactic contexts Polysemy and the factors which mativate the range of meanings that can attach to a particular word-form, have been alsa

prominent research topics Some of the earlier achievements of the Cognitive Grammar approach is the semantics of highly polysemous prepositions such as over, up and ont ( Brgman 1981, Lindner 1981)

According to Langacker, Semantic considerations have also been important in the shady of lexical categories as “* nonn” and “ verb” While there categories are generally defined in purely distributional terms, the Cognitive Grammar approach has sought to identity

a semantic content to the catepones Rather than the categories being defined in terms of

distribution

In approaching the task of lingnistic description, Cognitive Grammar blnrs many af the distinction traditionally made in lingnishos theory For example, syntax and morphology are traditianally handled by separate components, ar modules, af a grammar The distinction

between word or phrase is certainly a valid one, in general Nevertheless, essentially the same kinds of operations are involved in the assembly of smaller components into mtemally complex expressions, whether the complex expressions be words or phrases Morphology and syntex therefore represent two aspects of (he more general phenomenon of syntagmatic combination

The distinction between the lexicon on the one hand, and eyntax-merphology on the other, also tums oul to be loss than clear - cut Speakers have lcamed, not only individual lexical items, bul also a vast reperloire of pre-formed phrases Morcover, pallor for the cteation of complex forms whether these be morphological complex wards or syntactically complex phrases-themsclves have the status of symbolic unite, and differ fiom lexical items with respect only to their degiee of internal complexity and their schematicity

Another distinction that get blused is that between semantics and pragmatics Semantics is traditionally concemed with the linguistically determined meaning of an expression, prapinatics with the contextually conditioned interpretation of an expression Pragmatic aspect can, however, be incorporated into the conventualized meaning of an expression Because conventualized meaning is a matter of degree, the distinction is a graded one, with no clear cut-off point between the entrenched meaning of an expression and its

context-dependent interpretation ( Taylor J.R ( Cognitive Grammar : 2002 :30)

1.3 Definition of clause structure and nominal clause

1.3.1 Clause structure.

utterances consist of a single clause

Towever, not all utterances or sentences contain a complete clanse

Althongh these examples make sense as individnal ntterances ar sentences, they do nat have a verb phrase, which is the key element of a clause Their message could be expressed more fully as a clanse

Would you like more sauce? ©

In English there are 7 basic clanse pallerns lhat arc introduced below

Clause patterns Example

John and Mary disappeared Ϩ

10

The verb phrase is the central or pivotal element in each clause The valency of the verb controls the kinds of elements that follow it For example disqppeared in 1 cannot be followed by a noun phrase It has the type of valency known as “ intransitive” On the other hand, gave in 5 has to be followed y two nonn pluases one identifying the recipient ( me} and the other identifying the thing that was given (an inglish hook) Hence the verh lexeme give has the type of valency known as “ ditransitive ”

‘The clauses in examples above illustrate the five major valency patterns

Intransitive pattern (S + V;ewanple?) Intransitive verbs vecur with no obligatory element following the verb

© Monolransilive patter (8 + M + Op; example 8)

Monotransitive verbs occur with a single direct object

« Copdlarpaten = (S| Vt A/ Cu examiple 9 and 10) Capular verbs are followed by subject complement or by an obligatory adverbial + Ditransitive pallem (§ + V + 0 + Óy

example in 11)

Diuansitive

« Complex transitrve paierns(S + V_ + OQ + CG, and §

+ Vo + Og + A; oxample in 12 and 13) Complex transitive verbs are followed by direct object and complement of object

Nominal elanse can be finite and non-finite clanses

That he will come soon ie a certain a4)

My hobby is collecting stamps ary

nominal clause as C,

1.4, Definition of nouns and noun phrases (nominals)

1.4.1 Nouns and nominals

Noun is one of the key parts of speech of English grammar, and traditionally, it is definited as a word that names a person, a place or a thing and functions as Subject, Object,

Complement ofa sentence ( semantically and syntactically)

According to Taylor LR ( Cognitive Grammar:2002: 343), a noun designates a kind,

or type of thing,

1n English eynfax (and also in semantics) there are two kinds of nouns, count and mass

nouns

Connt nouns are those that can aceur both in singular or plnral form for example a

nat— cas, symphony — symphonies, a book — hooks,

‘Mass nouns are generally thought of as nouns which occur exclusively in the singular

such as meat, music, water, money

‘Noun phrase is a phrase consisting of pre and post modifiers Like nounz nown phrases can also function as Subject, Object, Complement of a sentence

According lo Taylor JR ( Cognilive Grammar: 2002; 343), a noun designates a kind,

or type of thing, a noun phrase designales an inslance of the type, and here is a dislincion between the lexical category “noun” and the syntactic category “noun phrase”, It is very clear

when we can compare the word “house” in the examples below

the house that I bought last week q9

That is an old house en

The big house on the hill

The word “house” in (18) is a noun becanse it designates a type, and the phrase words “ the house” in (19), “ an old house” in (20) and “ the big house” in (21) are noun phrases

designating instances of the type The contribution of dhe in the noun phrase is to convey that

ont of countless numbers of instances, just one has been selected for attention se also conveys that the designated instance is one that bath speaker ad hearer are able ta uniquely

12

identify It conld be one that both speaker and hearer have already been talking about Looking at the phrases in (19, 20, 21), the speaker nay provide information that guides the hearer towards unique identification by means of a descriptive relative clanse (in 19) by use

of possessive (in 20), by use of adjectives and other modifiers (in 21, 22)

‘Nouns phrases or nominals can exhibit considerable intemal complexity, they consist

of a noun , together with optional modifiers and complements, in association with a determiner and/ or quantifier In a nonn phrase, 1f we bring into focus an concepmal

organization, not on syntactic struchite, we can identify four components, they are

* Grounding : This is the process whereby the speaker locates the designated instance from the perspective of the speech event, Differences between definite and indefinite specific and non-specific, are aspects of grounding

© Quantification: This haz to do with the mumbcr, or quantity of the designaled instance

© Specification : A bare nown, snch as kause, designates a type, the type may be

specified in greater detail, e.g by the addition of adjective motkfier Big house also designates a type, a type which is, however, more specific than the type designated by

house

© Instantiation: This is the relation between the type and its instances

The above-mentioned aspects stand in a logical relation with each other A type may be { optionally) specified, the specified type is instantiated; an instance of the specified type may

be quantified; the quantified instance is grounded A nominal, then, has a layered conceptnal structure, showa below

( Grounding(Quantification( Instantiation( Specification{ Type))))

(grounding (qualification (Specuticatien ( Type))))

‘The analysis of noun phrases would be a relative straightforward matter, were it the

case that the conceptual strnctive above mapped direcily into marphosyntactic structure,

Specification is the distinctive function of modifiers and complements, determiners (the, 2, this, my , and so on} are quintessential grounding devices while quantifiers ( each, every, many, three, .) explicitly encode notion quantity or amount Accordingly, some aspects of

conceptual layering are often preserve in the syntax In the expression the three big houses we

can be observed correspondence between syntactic constitency and the relevant aspects of

Grounding: The term “ground” refers to the context of the speech event, 1t compriser

the participants in the event, its time and place, the situational context, previous disconrse,

shared knowledge of the speech act participants and such like The grounding is a process that locates an entity with respect to the ground The groundmg of'a definite nominal ( such as

dhe house) is represented in diagram form in Figure 2 (Taylor R: Cognitive grammar : 2002

346)

Fig.2 The grounding relation, as exenplified in a definite noun phrase

The grounded nominal designates an instance which 1# conceptitalized against the appropriate domain ( resented by a square box) The instance is one that has been identified by both the speaker S and the hearer IT Roth S and UI are situated within the ground (represented by the ellipse on the Left) The broken arrows pointing ftom S and H towards the instance represent the singling ont , by S and H, of the instance for special attention

Observe in Fig | that the instance in bold , by the ueual convention, this signifies that the instance is profiled A grounded nominal designates the grounded instance, il does not

Domain of instantiation Fig 3: The relation between a type (T) and its instarices (3) Also according to Taylor LR ,The format of Fig 3 should be familiar In fact, it represents a special case of the schema-instance relation For example : dog and animal It-1¢ evident that animal is more general concept than dog and is specified in less than detail, there are going to be many thinge thal can be categorized ar an animal than can be categorized asa dog The concepts dog and animal not anly differ with respect to their detail, they bear a special relation to each other —a dog is an animal

1.43 The semantic structure of a grounded nominal

‘The Figure 2 (grounding relation) represents a grounded instance bnt says nothing

aboul the type to which the instance belongs Figure 2 depicts the type-inslance relation with

no indication of the grounding relation Because of their conceptual overlap, the two representations can be brought together in a valence relation, the inslance profiled in Fig 2 can

be unified with one of the instance depicted in Fig 2 In this way we achieve a more complete representation of a grounded nominal

Fig 4: The semantic stractive of a grounded nominal, Jobn R (Cognitive Grammar ; 2002: 349)

‘The determiner itself profiles a schematic insiance, which receives semantics content from the type specification designates by the noun with which determiner combines The bare noun is therefore the complement of the determiner, in that it fills in conceptual material that is only schomatically presenl in the semante structure of the determiner Pulling this another way, we can say that it is the determiner which gives a nominal ils semantic character, namely, ils grounding properties In another way, a determiner is schematic for the set of grounded nominals which it heads

The idea that the determiner heads a noun phrase might seem counleriniuilive to some readers, This reaction is probably based on the assumption that the head of a phrase must be semantically most contentful clement and the one thal displays the hhighcsl degree of phonological autonomy The two basie determiners in English, definite the /đe / and the

16

indefinite « /a/ fail on both scores These items need to attack themselves to a phonologically autonomous unit, as in He house, a house Moreover, the determiners are semantically highly achematie in content The does not even contain a specification for number

As a matter of fact, with respect to their phonological dependence, the, and @ may be somewhat untypical of determiners, even in English Other determiners, such as this, shat and these, most of the quantifiers, such as musch, many, several and some, as well as the nmmerala, da progress a fair degree of phonological antonamy, in which they can occur withont the support af a following noun

I don’t want this (23)

Thonght three Qa)

Pad like some (25)

this, three, some in above examples function as grounded nominals, in (23), this designates

a umquely identifiable instance located 1n the vicinity of the speaker The type to which the inslance belongs, however, is not stated bul must be inferred from the contexl

1.4.4 Specification

May syntactic thvorics recognize a category intermediate between the lexical calegory

“noun”, symbolized by N, and the phrasal category “noun phrase”, symbolized by NP In X- bar theories this intermedialc ealegory is called N-bar, N° N-bar consists of a noun together wilh its optional complements and modifiers, bul lacks a dotcrmincr, The calogory is roomsive „ 1n that an K” can be part ofa larger N’ The tree-diagram below illustuates

The adjective dig and the prepositional phrase aver điere (Prepasifon + adserb) are both modifiers, they characterize the concept [house] in greater detail, by adding additional specification to the concept

The addition of modifier does sot in itself amount to the grounding of a noun While specification may serve to narrow down the set of possible instances, grounding anly occurs through the addition of a determiner or qnalifier Without such elements, the N-bar continues

to designates a type

1.4.5 Determiners and quantifiers (of noun phrases structure)

Determiners have the specific function of grounding a noun Grounding can also be effected hy the use of a quantifier Determiners pick out the profiled instance, quantifiers characterize the profiled instances in terms of nnmber or amount

specific non-specific (genetic)

(The honse that they built ) (the tigeris ) specific non-specific

( generic) Definite detexminer profiles an instance that the speaker has singled out for attention, the speaker also supposes that the hearer, too, can umquely identify the instance

Among the definite determiners are the demonstratives this and that, these and those Demonstratives are slightly more contential than /he, in that their profile already contains some notion of number{ singular vs plural); they also convey the proximity of the profiled instance to the speaker

18

Pre-nominal possessive (euch as John’s ear, my hat) normally function as definite expressions John’s ca designates a specific instance, and simultaneously instructs the hearer how to uniquely identify the instance, it is namely a car that is identified with reference to a previously established entity, John Notmally, the expression would be interpreted as the car that belongs to John, though ather interpretation ( e.g the car that John designed) are easily imaginable

Indefinites have in common that the hearer is not expected to be able to uniquely identify the instance In the case af a specific indefinite, the speaker hax a specific instance in mind, in the case of non-specific indefinites, an arbitrary instance is conjured up for the immediate purpose at hand The indefinite determiner a can be need in both functions, for example

‘There wae a child playing in the park en

‘You need an egg for this recipe G8)

in (27) itis a specific child that is playing, whereas in (28) any egg will do Unstressed some and any also function as indefinite determiners, again, they can have eilher specific or nen — spevific reference for example

‘There wore some children playing inthe park (29)

‘You nocd some milk for this recipe Go)

some is already taking on features of a quantifier, the idoa is of a smallish number of children, or a smallish portion of milk, The cxamples show that the distinction between quantifying function, it conveys the singular number of the profiled instance

The another grammatical device which appeaus to function as universal quantifiers is “ zero detexmines” as shown in the example below

Cats are camivores @ GD Dogs make good companions ®

‘Water boils at 100° centigrade (e) Cats, dogs, water (31a, 31b, 31c } are subject nominals lacking both determiners and a quantifier, and it is common to say that the snch cases are the nouns taking the “ zero determiner(in fact, it might be more accurate to speak of a “zero quantifiers”, since the

“bare” nomns serve to designate a qnantity or amount) Compare with the above examples in

which determiners or quantifiers used we can see that when used in generic arnon specific

sense, only mase nonns and plue count nouns are able to oceuc without a đeterminer or quantifier

1.4.5.2 Quantifiers

Quantifiers include items such as many, most, a few, several, one and The numnerals ( the plural morpheme also has a qnantifying function) Quantifiers can also assume a grounding function Again, the very fact that the speaker singles out an instance of a certain magnitnde entails that the instance has hecome the focus of the speaker’s canscions awareness

Quantifiers comprise a fairly heterageneons set of items There are two types of quantitiers, they are absolute quantifiers and relative quantifiers,

Absolute quantifiers give an indication of the size or number of the designated instance The absolute quantifiers are, in a sense, pure quantifiers they simply give a notion of quantity and nothing else, like smmerals ( one, three, .), as well a¢ somewhat vagner expression such as a few, a little much many several, mamerous and unstressed sonie,

«Relative quantifiers give a notion of quantily bul at the same time make implicit reference lo a presupposed ' reference mass’, For cxample, compare mary people and most people, many people simply gives an idea of a large number, whercas most implies the majority with respect to a large set Relative quantifiers include afl, most and anstressed some For a reference mass of exactly two instances, hott is used None and neither might also be inclnded here, though the former has the pecnlar feature that it requires a pattitive expression Especially, if they bear stress, relative quantitives are liable to be understood contrastively

For example — Most men help with the homework đa

Most honsehalds in this neighborhood own two cars 33) None of the children like this book G4)

A special snbeategary of the relative quantifiers are the so-called universal quantifiers 1.5 Clause structure in Cognitive grammar

‘The clanse is a part in sentence and like other parts of speech, it is a basic unit in a language, and the clausal structure is considered ane of the major topic of investigatian in all recent linguistic theories

20

Like a verb, a clause designates a prooessthat is, a relation tracked through time Mostly the relation designated by a plain verb is conceptmally dependent One can scarely conceptualize the process of ‘ giving’ , ot of * putting’, in and of itself, like most verbal

notion , these presuppose various additional entities that participate in the processes

A clause may he defined as a linguistic stmotre that designates this kind of conceptually autonomous process, created through the elaboration of the participants in a temporal relation

One facet of clause structure has already discussed, namely gronnding so this part focuses on the internal structure of the clause-its participant, the semantic tole of the

participant, and their syntactic expression , in relation to the kinds of situations that clanses

designate

1.5.1 Types of situation

Clause structure can be charactenzed by a number of interrelated parameters These include the number of parlicipants in the designated process, the semantic role of the parlicipanl and the manner in which the parlicipants arc expressed syntactically

There is a songe in which every clause designatcs unique kind of process Nevertheless, it ie useful to distinguish a number of schematic process types

(@ Dynamic processes A dynamic process is one in which something happens We can distinguish two types In one lype, the world comes lo be in a different state as a consequence

of the process, Change-of-state processes are exemplified in examples below

The house collapsed @5) The farmer shot the rabbit (36)

I gave Peter the book Q7)

in (34) the honse ceases to exist as such, in (35) the zabbit ends up dead, while in (36) Peter ends up owning the book

Ina second type, there is energy input into a ettnation, but the process does not result

in a charge of state, for example

The telephone rang Q8 The light flashed G9) swe can see in two above examples in fact that after the telephone has ceased ringing (38), and after the light has flashed (39) the warld reverted ta its previous state

ii Stative processes

In this process, there is neither energy input nor change A situation simply exists, or persists and in this process, there are several sub-types which are presented in some examples below

The book is 200 pages long (40

The road follows the river (42)

‘The picture hangs above the sofa (13)

‘Your cat is the one that stole the liver (1

"The phatagrapher was Rery (45)

In (40) and (41) certain properties are attributed to an entity, in (42) and (13) the disposition

of one entity with respect ta another is stated, whrile in (14) and (45) an entity is identitied,

Cognitive processes Mental and perceptual processes may also he described in terms of the dynamic vs stative distinction The examples in (46) and (47) refer to dynarme cagnitive processes, hose in (48) and (49) lo stalive cognitive processes

it Complex processes

A clause can designate a complex process that is, a process which is made up of two or

more component processes

For examples Jane retuned the book to the Library (50)

(86) can be broken down into three component processes

{a) Jane does something with respect to the book

(b) The book changes its location {c} The book ends up in a new location ( in the library) The three sub-components stand in a causal relation, (a) causes (h), and (c)is the result of (b) Clanses with a cognitive content may be complex in a similar way

The analysis of complex processes in terms of component processes is jnetified in that

it is sometimes possible to focus on jnst one component in contrast fo the process in ite

totality.

22

Negation can also selectively focus on different sub-processes The examples almost broke the vase and They didn’t elect Joe President could be interpreted to mean that nothing happened at all, or that there was an election process but that this did not result in the stative situation of Joe being president

1.5.2 Number of participants in a clause

The number of participants in a clanse is relevant to the traditional distinction between

intransitive clause (which has only one particrpant mm (51), transitive clause ( with twa

participants in (52), and ditransitive clauses (with thee participants 1 (53)

- The bell rang, ®

- I phoned my friend (c) G3

- Ise breken the windo.(4)

- I gave my sister an Fnglish book (e) (53)

- He told me his opinion, oO Determining the number of participants in a process is nol always casy, it is not, for example, simply a question of counting up the number of enlilics that arc mentioned within the clause The entitics mentioned within a clause are likely to differ with respect to how inherent they are to (a) designated process(os} Some enlilics are likely 10 the essential to the conceptualizalion, others will have the slatus of optional, additional specifications The term “ participant” for inherent entities can be reserved and “cireumstance” is used to refer to the

aon-inherent entitics

1.5.3 Non- participant nominals (non-personal nominal)

One tends to think of participants in a process as nominal entities designated by noun phrase Ilowever, it is not always the case that a nominal (even if its presence in a clause is obligatory) designates a participant, for example

Mary is a student Ay

The book costs 8 5 G5 The predicate noun “ a student” in ($4) does not designate an individual with which the subject referent is being identified, rather, the predicate noun 1s taking on adjective like characteristics Similarly, in (55) predicates a property of the book, namely, the property of

costing, $5” The sentence can be analyzed as a one-participant stative expression, it does not

express a selation between the entity identified as “the book” and an entity identified as

(ef copular patterns p.47 Biber Det al 2002)

In other cases, although more than one nominal is mentioned, it may not be clear how many distinct participants are involved For example

My car buret a type (56)

Ile lives a happy life Œ?

1.5.4, Non-nominal participants,

A participant need not only be a thing, it can also be a location, a manner, ora state

for example

‘You look tired (as if yon’ve been up all might) 69) 1.6 Clause types

We can bring together the disenssion ao far by considering different clause types in English A basic classification concerns the number of participants in the clause

1.6.1 One participant clause ( Intransitive)

An intransitive clause presents a situation involving only one participant The sole participant in an intransitive process will be a Paticut or Mover, an Expeticnect or a Zero nominal,

1L is Lraditional to distinguish Iwo types of intransitive, which are sometimes referred

to by the strange ( and quite misleading) terms “unergative” and “ unacensatve ” For example

The telephone rang, the child slept (unergatives) 61)

The gnests departed, the building collapsed.{ unaccusatives) (62)

in (61), the subject referent would be assigned the tole of Zero, in that there is no interaction between the euttity aud other entities AfRer the telephone has ceased ringing, the would returns

to ite previous state In (62) the subject referent is a Patient ( or Mover) After the guest’s

departure, the world is in a different state-the guests, namely, are in a different location

Another reflex of the distinction in English concern the use of the nominalizing suffixes er

and —e A major use of — er is to profile an entity as an Agent ar Instrument, for example, a

buyer is one who buys something, an opener is a device one uses to open things In contrast, -

aa dasignates an affect entity, ‘down stream’ in the action chain, for example, a nominee 18

24

one who has been nominated, an amputee is one who has undergone amputation, an addressee

is one to whom a message is addressed

Consider the affix that would be chosen to designate the participant in intransitive process A person who mns is a rumner, a person who talk is a talker, a sleeper is ane how sleeps, a‘ gond lonker" is a persan who looks goad However, a prisoner wha escapes is not

an escaper but escapee A person who retires (ftom work) is a “retiree”, not a “retirer” It is

clear that the-er affix applies te a 7.ero participant, whereas ee applies to Patient and Maver

To be sure, the use of -#e to derive Patient or Mover nominal is nat fully productive We

wonld not , for example, refer to people who arrive as ‘ arrives? ( but neither would we call them as ‘arriver’), nor would we call people who depart ‘departee’ Nevertheless, the distribution of ee and er as nominalizing affixes dees correlate, by and large, with the distribution between , on the other hand, those participants which undergo a change of state or

location, and which are ‘downstream’ in the action chain, from all the atherz

1.6.2, Two-participant clauses ( Transilive)

The prototype of a transitive clause involves the transfer of cnergy from an Agent ( the subjcc() to a Paticnt { the object) Prololype transitive clanzcs (the farmer shot the rabbit) have some well-known properties The prototype transitive clause can also be made passive

(the rabbit was shot by the farmer)

‘A remarkable fact aboul English is that the schema for a prototypical transitive clause has

generalized so as to accommodate all manner of relations between entities The following exhibit the syntax of a transitive clause, but fewer and fewer characteristics of a transitive inmeraction

1.6.3 three- participant clauses (Double —object clauses)

three-participant clauses have loomed large in recent theoretical discussions, Pinker (1989)

devoted a whole book to this issue The problem is the following Certain verbs, which seem

inherently to involve three entities, are compatible with two syntactic constriction

Pll send you a letter (63) Pll send a letter to you 4) Pll bake you a cake (65) Pll bake a cake for you (66)

Thore is the Agent, there is a thing that undergoes change at the hands of the Agent, and there isa person ( or institution) which benefits fiom the change

Verbs which appear only in the double-object construction are not so numerous, Examples include envy J envy you your success), refuse ( they refused us entry}, and forgive (forgive us our sins} Another group is made up an expression of the kind géva( she door} a kick, give ( someone) a kiss,

(¢f also Biber D.et al 1999 — 2002)

26

Chapter 2 : Nominalization at the clause level in English

2.1 What is nominalization in English

Nominalization is a prevalent Iingnistic phenomenon in Engtish, it is one of the ways

of forming a new word There are many definitions on nominalization Nominalizalion is a

process of tring a verb or an adjective into a noun ( Quirk et al (1985) Aarts ( 1982)

defines the nominalization az a procese of turing a non-nominal clement into a noun group IL

has two senses of definition

In a narrow sense, nominalization refers to the nouns derived from verbs or adjcetives including gerund or a finite clause tuming into a nominalization

For example : We studied the matter > Our stucly of the nutter (67)

Ina broad sense, nominalization refers to all the clements that can act az noun or noun

phrase It includes nominal clauses, infinitive, gerand, ete ( nomiaalization in italics)

For example: What he has tokd you was true (68)

Why he hadn't come is nol known (69y

In Rontledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics (1996), twoadly speaking, nominalization refers to every derivation of nouns from another word class, Narrowly speaking, nominalization refers to productive process of word formation through which words of all word classes can be used as nouns In Longman Dictionary of Language

Teaching and Applied Linguistics (2002), nominalization is the grammatical process of

forming nouns fram other parts of speech , usually verbs of adjectives According to Ialliday

(1985), nominalizahen refers to any element or group that can function as nouns or nominal ina clanse , including clanses, nominalized adjectives or verbs, etc

Nontinatization in English involves the changes of the lexical elements but alsa the function and structure of nominalization in a clase

Based on the above definitions on nominalization, we can see that in English nominalization can accur at the different levels such az at the word or at the clanse level

2.2, Nominalization at the word level

Word nominalization refers to the nown or noun phrase formation from other parts of specch such as verbs or adjectives by their morphological changes, by adding affixes to the

rools.

‘Affixes include prefixes preceding the stems (e.g mn + happy = unhappy), and suffixes following the stems (e.g develop + ment= development)

For examples:

teach => teaching/ teacher leam learmng/ learner pollute => pollntion/ pollutant

2.3 Nominalization at the clause level

Clansal nemanalization in English often accure in bath grounded and ungrounded clauses ( formerly finite and non-finite clauses)

2.3.1 Grounded clauses

‘Two types of grounded clauses are đhơi- clamee and whe-clause which are two of complement clanses controlled by a preceding verb, or decided upon by adjective, noun or preposition Complement clauses are also called nominal clauses because of their syntactic roles 20 they are comparable to those of a noun phrase So they are uscd az subject, predicative, or object ina main elanse grounded ( finite) complement clauses axe introduced

by shat or wh-vord namely shat clause or wirelause,

For example : That she stil fives is 2 consolation Gubject) (70)

What he has said is true Gubjec) (71) Tbclicved shat he was wrong (objec) 23

I didn’t ask me what kad happened (object) Ợ3) Sony, I don’tknow why he didn't come (odject) Œ® This is what he said which is beyond my understanding (75) (subject complement)

28

The problem is shat wo are running out of money (76) The only problem may be that the compound is difficult to remove after the use (77) Second , subject predicative fat-clanse can present reasons, results or conclusion, for example:

‘The final result is thaz she won the first prize (78) Our first conclusion at this point was #hett it is necessary to support the specification

(9)

The third function is to present accepted tmth or facte

The tmth is zhat they have now difficulty in finance (80) Snbiect predicative #aai-clanses are used mostly in news and academic prose

b Extrapased thaz-clause

Extraposed fat clauses often involve 4 main clause that reports an attitnde or stance withont attribnting it to anybody Usually they show the attitude af the speaker or writer of the

texi.„ bul the author does nol assume direct responsibility

Itis vilally important that both groups are uecd to support one another, 6D

Exiraposed that — clause arc used primarily in news and academic prose The shat-clause usually has a non-human subject, and report a state or rclationship in an impersonal manner

c Embedded zhar— clause

That-clauses often occu: in complex series, using various kinds of coordination and embedding Post — predicate clauses can be mixed with cxtraposed clauses For example

1 think [that President Reagan believed [[that not only was the government the problem], but [ that is was rare indeed] that government could be a posilive force in solving the problem ]]JJ > (sar clause embedding other that-clanses) @® Even it this complicated sentence, the that- clause cans be seen to fulfill their typical functions of reporting thoughts and attitudes

4 Post—predicate that- clause

There are thuee major grammatical patterns for verbs that take a sharclause in post-

predicate position

Pattern 1: Verb + that-clause (e.g agree, ask, suggest, promise, )

For example: I didn’t agree that he stonldd be compelled to do singing (84)

- Pattern 2: Verb +NP + shat — clause (c.g, tell, persuade, promise, )

For example: She persuaded herself that something awful might happen (85)

They told her that ke went abroad yesterday (8)

- Pattern 3 : Verb + to NP+ that—clause (e.g suggest )

Far example : | suggested to Mr Smith that he sit down on the chair and wait

Most of the verbs that take pattern 2 can also occur in the passive voice with a that clanse

Far example : She was told that he went abroad yesterday (87)

* Verbs controlling post predicate that-clause

Some verbs are especially common controlling shat post predicate clanse: think, say, Reto,

See, find, helieve, feel, suggest, show, and guess (in Ametican conversation)

The ahove verhs ate divided into different semantic domains like mental/ cognition, speech verbal process and other communication and they are shown in the table helow (Biber, Conrad, Leech ; Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Writlen English : 2002 : 315)

tuental/ cognition verbal-process other communication

30

For example I think that they would return (88)

She supposed that they didn't kear anything (89)

1 felt that something was gaing to happen (90)

- Speech act and other communication verbs

The second common ase of #hat- clause is to report what someone said

For example : She said that It was very difficult to understand this text (9)

Peter told me thaz his girl friend had left (93)

* Verbs controlling extraposed that-clause

The extraposed #hat-clause aften occurs with the copnlar verhs such ax be in combination with the predicative noun phrase ‘a wonder’ seem and appear

For example = It’s a wonder that he’s gor any business at ail (3)

The verb follow is used in an intransitive sense with extraposed /hat-clause

Itis rumored that he is @ millionaire (98)

* That — clause controlled by adjective

The adjectives that control a sat-complement clause all convey stance They fall into throe major categories degrees of certainty ( certain, confident, evident } , affective state (glad, annoyed, sad), and evaluation (good, important, advisable)

That clauses controlled by adjectival predicates occur in post-predicate or extraposed

position

For example :

‘We are certain that he can do this himself @?

- Adjectives controlling post-predicate that-clause

Some adjectives below control post-predicate that-clauses