word order of sentence components in english and vietnamese sva structures

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY ---PHUNG THI MAI HUONG WORD ORDER OF SENTENCE COMPONENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE SVA STRUCTURE A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS TRẬT TỰ

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

-PHUNG THI MAI HUONG

WORD ORDER OF SENTENCE COMPONENTS IN ENGLISH

AND VIETNAMESE SVA STRUCTURE (A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS)

TRẬT TỰ TỪ CÁC THÀNH PHẦN CÂU TRONG CẤU TRÚC SVA

TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT (PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU)M.A THESIS

Field: English language Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Pham Thi Tuyet Huong, Ph.D

HANOI, 2013

I hereby declare that no part of the enclosed Master Thesis has been copied or reproducted by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor

Hanoi 05- 11- 2013

Candidate

Phung Thi Mai Huong

APPROVED BY

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility tocomplete this thesis I am deeply to my supervisor Pham Thi Tuyet Huong (Ph.D)whose endless guidance, stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me inall time of the research

In addition, I thank for the co-operation of the students who activelyparticipated in this study to help me complete the thesis successfully

I would like to thank my family and my friends They helped me andencouraged me so much during researching

I also thank deeply all people who took part in achieving this work

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY 1

2 AIM OF THE STUDY 2

3 OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY 2

4 METHOD OF THE STUDY 2

5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 2

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 The study of word order in English and Vietnamese 5

1.1.1 The study of word order in English 5

1.1.2 The study of word order in Vietnamese 6

1.2 Some basic concepts 8

1.2.1 Word order 8

1.2.3 Basic sentence structures and syntactic structures 13

1.2.4 Syntactic and semantic functions of clause elements 14

1.2.4.1 Syntactic and semantic functions of the subject 15

1.2.4.2 Syntactic and semantic functions of the Verb 18

1.2.4.3 Syntactic and semantic functions of the adverbial 20

1.2.5 The common contrastive analysis of word order 22

CHAPTER 2: SENTENCE COMPONENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE SVA STRUCTURE AND THEIR ORDERS 24

2.1 The basic word order of sentence components in English SVA structure 24

2.1.1 Copular verb “Be” 24

2.1.2 The intransitive verb “LIVE” 25

2.1.3 The intransitive verb “GET” 26

2.1.4 Some other intransitive verbs 26

2.1.5 Some intransitive phrasal verbs 26

2.2 The changes of word order of sentence components in English SVA

structures 27

2.2.1 ASV structure 27

2.2.1.1 “Here + subject (pronoun) + verb” 27

2.2.1.2 “There + subject + verb” 29

2.2.1.3 “Prepositions of direction + subject +verb” 30

2.2.2 AVS structure 31

2.2.2.1 “Prepositions/ prepositional phrases of place/position + subject + verb" 32

2.2.2.2 “Negative and semi-negative adverbials + verb + subject” 36

2.2.2.3 “Here + verb + subject” 38

2.2.2.4 “Prepositions of direction + verb + subject” 40

2.2.2.5 “There + verb + subject” 41

2.2.2.6 “Gerund clause + verb + subject” 43

2.2.2.7 “So/ neither (nor) + auxiliary verb/verb + subject” 44

2.2.2.8 “Other adverbials + verb + subject” 45

2.2.3 Some conclusions about the changes of word order in English SVA structure 46

2.3 The basic word order of sentence components in Vietnamese SVA structure 48

2.4 The changes of word order of sentence components in Vietnamese SVA structure 48

2.4.1 AVS structure 48

2.4.2 VAS structure 51

2.5 Summary 52

CHAPTER 3: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF WORD ORDER OF SENTENCE COMPONENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE SVA STRUCTURES 53

3.1 The similarities of word order in English and Vietnamese SVA structures 53

3.2 The differences of word order in English and Vietnamese SVA structures.

53

3.3 The frequency of using SVA structure in English and Vietnamese literature and the reasons of these uses 55

3.3.1 The writer or speaker wants to describe and introduce entities into discouse 55

3.3.2 The writer or speaker wants to emphasize the theme of the sentence 57

CHAPTER 4: A RESEARCH ON COMMON MISTAKES IN USING WORD ORDER IN ENGLISH SVA STRUCTURE 59

4.1 Researching learners’ mistakes 59

4.2 The main causes of the mistakes 62

4.3 Solutions 63

4.4 Exercise 63

4.5 Implication for teaching and learning English 64

PART III: CONCLUSION 66

1 Recapitulation 66

2 Limitation of the study 67

3 Suggestions for the futher studies 67

REFERENCES 68

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

Nowadays, the need of learning foreign languages, especially learning English

in our society is in great demand because of the integration of Vietnam inglobalization It plays also essential role in education and training However, as anEnglish teacher, in process of teaching English, I realized that one of the bigproblems Vietnamese students often encounter when they learn English is totranslate the sentences that do not have basic word order from English intoVietnamese and vice versa Since the learner often transfers the habits of his nativelanguage structure to the foreign language word by word, there is a majority ofdifficulty in learning a structure of a foreign language Therefore, the study ofsentence structure is considered to be very important A sentence structure is theway in which all of the elements of a sentence are put in order So knowledge of thebasic word order of a language is important because it has been found to correlatewith other grammatical properties of the language The word order is a universalconcept of sentence structures in English as well as in Vietnamese In the previousresearches of linguists, the word order of sentence structure is paid much attention.However, the word order of components of SVA structure in English andVietnamese has not been paid much attention to Especially the changes of position

of elements in SVA structure have not been written about It describes what part ofthe sentence will go first, second and third The basic elements of SVA structure arethe subject (S), the verb (V) and the adverbial (A) The SVA structure is one of thebasic structures in English grammar which students are taught at the beginninglevel Therefore, it plays an important role both in teaching and learning of English.Moreover, I do contrastive analysis with Vietnamese so as to find out similarities aswell as differences between two languages For all the reasons, I would like to carry

out my research on the topic: “Word order of sentence components in English and

Vietnamese SVA structures”

This thesis hopes to help students to overcome the difficulties in the process oftheir learning and translating

2 AIM OF THE STUDY

The main aims of the thesis are to:

- Present main features of sentence components in English and VietnameseSVA structures

- Describe the word order of sentence components in English and VietnameseSVA structures

- Give a systemic description of the word order in English and VietnameseSVA structures

- Try to point out some similarities and differences between sentencecomponents in English and Vietnamese SVA structures

- Predict common errors of students when using English SVA structure andsuggest a set of exercises for teaching and learning the word order of English SVAstructure to Vietnamese learners

3 OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY

- The objective of the study is the word order of sentence components inEnglish and Vietnamese SVA structures

- This thesis will limit itself within English and Vietnamese SVA structures

in simple sentences only, especially in statements And the adverbial in thisstructure is both obligatory and optional

4 METHOD OF THE STUDY

- The main methods of this thesis are description, comparison and contrastiveanalysis

- We have considered English as the basic language of the study andVietnamese is the language to be compared

5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

- What is the basic word order of English and Vietnamese SVA structure?

- What are the changes of word order of sentence components in English andVietnamese SVA structures?

- What are the syntactic and semantic functions of sentence components inEnglish and Vietnamese SVA structures?

- What are some similarities and differences between English and VietnameseSVA structures?

- What is the frequency of using SVA structures in literature of both languagesand the causes?

- Which errors do students often make when using SVA structure in English aswell as in Vietnamese?

The study consists of three parts:

- Part I: Introduction

This part consists of aims and objectives, scope and methodology and alsothe design of the study

- Part II: Development: It includes four chapters:

+ Chapter 1: Literature review

This chapter looks at the theoretical preliminaries, the study of word order inEnglish and Vietnamese deals with books, research work and articles and presentssome basic concepts about word order and basic simple sentence, syntactic andsemantic functions of components in SVA structure

+ Chapter 2: Sentence components in English and Vietnamese SVA

structures and their word orders

This chapter presents the basic word order of components sentences and thechanges of word order of sentence components in English and Vietnamese SVAstructures

+ Chapter 3: Contrastive analysis of the word order of sentence components

in English and Vietnamese SVA structures

This chapter presents the similarities, the differences in English andVietnamese SVA structures and the frequency of using SVA structure in Englishand Vietnamese literature, also points out the reasons of these uses

+Chapter 4: A research on common mistakes in using word order in English

SVA structure.

This chapter presents some common mistakes of students in using SVA

structure, especially, in translation From that, the research gives some solutions andsuggestions for teaching and learning English This study is conducted with third-year students at Hanoi Open University

- Part III: Conclusion

The concluding part summarizes the main findings of the study At the end ofthe thesis, references are included

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 The study of word order in English and Vietnamese.

1.1.1 The study of word order in English

The study of word order is important because it can make indications aboutother features of the language, such as the placement of adjectives, adverbs andsubordinators

Greenberg (1966) discussed 45 “universal” tendencies relating to word orderthat carry across all languages These universals relate to basic word ordertypologies, syntax, and morphology These universals were pioneering andinfluential in the study of word order because they allow us to make inferencesabout the properties of a language based on its word order

Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S (1976) also pointed out clause types with theirword order such as: SVA, SVO, SVC, SVOC, SVOA, SVOO and SV They stated

“The order in which the elements appear is common but by no –means fixed.”

D Crystal (1987 p98) stated that more than 75% of all languages in the worldhave SVO word order, including both English and Vietnamese Both of them useword order to be mean of top important grammar Moreover, in both of languages,word order has relative fixity It is expressed in moving of components in thesentence and some sentence structural models are not considered more basicallythan typical SVO model

Beside some modern English grammarians and linguists, such as Thomas, O(1967), Jacobs, R.A et al (1968) Palmer F (1978), Quirk R and Greenbaum, S(1990) discussed about word order Leonard Bloomfield (1997) also stated “wordorder” is one part of syntax According to him, the order of words in a sentencecannot but to be to some extent indicative of their syntactic relations, just as all thewords of a sentence, to begin with, form an uninterrupted sequence In many

languages, such as English, the order of word has a habitual syntactic significance.

In English word order is the prevailing method of syntactic expression, not only thediscursive but also material and emotional relations are expressed by word order.According to Jacobs (1968), the different languages may use different types ofdifferent orderings The arrangement of word or phrase follows to certain structurescalled word order parameter In some languages word order is not strictly classified

as in English In that ones have greater dependence on the suffixes and the other tomark the elements of the sentence Thus word order seems to be a set of types based

on a more general universal parameter in function marking, but there is no language

in which word order is totally insignificant

According to R.A Jacobs (1995, p35) word order parameter is differentlyexpressed in different languages but none of languages in which word order doesnot meaning

Biber et al (1999, p141-151) discussed about the word order, the majorEnglish clause patterns are: subject- verb phrase (SV), subject- verb phrase-obligatory adverbial (SVA), subject- verb phrase- subject complement (SVC),subject- verb phrase- direct object (SVOd), subject- verb phrase- prepositionalobject (SVOp), subject- verb phrase- indirect object- direct object (SVOiOd),subject- verb phrase- direct object- prepositional object (SVOdOp), subject- verbphrase- direct object- object complement (SVOdCo), subject- verb phrase- directobject- obligatory adverbial (SVOdA) According to him, subject- verb phrase-obligatory adverbial (SVA) includes clauses which provide answers to the questions

“When is/was X? And Where is was X?” (Biber et al 1999, 143)

(1) The baby was lying on his back.

(2) The pleasant summer lasted well into March.

(Biber et al 1999, 143)

1.1.2 The study of word order in Vietnamese

Some Vietnamese linguists also paid a lot of attention to the word order such

as Nguyen Tai Can (1960), Ly Toan Thang (1981), Tran Huu Manh (2008), for

instance, when contrastively analyzing between English and Vietnamese at sentencelevel (Tran Huu Manh (2008)), he points out one of the similarities in bothlanguages is a certain number of basic sentence patterns Seven basic sentencepatterns in English are completely equivalent in Vietnamese.

In the study on the word order in English and Vietnamese verb phrases, PhamThi Tuyet Huong (2001), carried out comparing and analyzing the arrangement ofwords in typical syntactic structures- English and Vietnamese verb phrases Sheconsidered English as the basic language of contrastive analysis; Vietnamese is thelanguage to be compared In the thesis, she gave a systemic description of the wordorder in English and Vietnamese verb phrase After describing the word order inEnglish and Vietnamese verb phrases, she pointed out some main strikingsimilarities and differences between them

The trend of formalization in Vietnamese syntax research, with respect to theSubject of sentence, has been done thoroughly by Nguyen Minh Thuyet (1981) Theauthor claimed that the criteria for word order and functional words are unreliablefor distinguishing formal labels in the sentence structure, so that in an overallsolution, the author built a set of formal methods, including ellipsis, substitution,complementation, transformation, and causalisation to expose formal differences ofthe sentence structural elements In his PhD thesis “Subject in Vietnamese” (1981),the author provided formal criteria for distinguishing the sentence subject fromother constituents; especially distinguishing subject from object, a matter previouslypaid little attention to in Vietnamese linguistics

Diep Quang Ban (1981) and Tran Ngoc Them (1985) realized theindispensable role of a constituent called adverbial in the existential sentence Thisremains an important way to acknowledge that the adverbial in the existentialsentence is, in essence, a kind of mandatory object of the sentence, the secondactant of the existential predicate (the first actant is the phrase located afterexistential predicate)

There are different elements with different functions in the sentence In “Auniversity grammar of English” (1973), R Quirk and S Greanbaum said that thereare five elements in English sentence, including subject (S), verb (V), object (O),complement (C), adjunct (A) Moreover, in “ The sentence componens ofVietnamese” (1998) Nguyen Minh Thuyet and Nguyen Van Hiep stated there areseven elements in Vietnamese sentence, including Subject (C), verb (Đ), object (B),theme-complement (K), disjunct (T), complement (Đ), adverbial (Tr)

In this thesis, we would like to research the word order of sentencecomponents in SVA structure more deeply I hope this thesis will be useful for bothteaching English to Vietnamese learners and Vietnamese to English learners Theycan gain some experiences in using SVA structure in learning and translating fromEnglish into Vietnamese and vice- versa and hence understand deeply the changes

of word order of sentence components in SVA structure

1.2 Some basic concepts.

1.2.1 Word order

When discussing about the word order, some linguistics gave some ownviews According to the view of F.Palmer (1971) stated that word order is thecombination between words in a phrase such as nouns with adjectives in nounphrase, verbs with adverbs in verb phrase

D.E Rozental and M.A Telenkova (M, 1972) defined that word order in asentence is the arrangement between sentence components together Thisarrangement has syntactic, semantic and stylistic meanings

Leech (1991, p550) described word order as “the order of the element in asentence or clause” In English, there are five basic elements of clause structure:subject (S), verb (V), object (O), complement (C) and adverbial (A) (Quirk et al.,

1985, p49) Biber ( 1999, p898) and Leech ( 1991, p550) stated that English wordorder is usually described as rather fixed, due to the fact that the position of theabove- mentioned elements indicates their syntactic function in a clause

Each language has different word order to form sentences grammatically That

is one of the reason the researcher does this thesis

According to Sara Cushing Weigle (2002, p.216) word order is the order inwhich words come in clauses and sentences So, word order is the arrangement ofwords coming in phrase, clause and sentence

According to Verma (1996, p1) the word order refers to the order in which wordsappear in sentences across different languages The traditional perception of word order

is based on the description of syntax that is an arrangement of words in sentences

In “English grammar” (1996, p.635) S.Greenbaum stated “word order is theorder of components in a phrase, clause or sentence”

According to Nguyen Tai Can (1999), order relations are used to distinguishthe compounds, the fixed combinations and freedom combinations

A part from that, Nguyen Kim Than (1963) considered word order is one ofmeans of syntax expression According to him, using of word order is principledarrangement of a language to aim at syntax expression

In “The sentence components of Vietnamses” (2004, p.70) , according toNguyen Minh Thuyet and Nguyen Van Hiep word order in Vietnamese is theimportant procedure expressing syntax functions of word Besides, it also is used toexpress actual division, emotion and feeling of speaker and writer Depending onthe structure of real division and the need of expression in the sentence, acomponent can stand in different positions that its semantic and grammaticalrelations with other components are not changed We can see some examples:

(3) Anh ấy không hút thuốc

(4) Thuốc anh ấy không hút

(5) Anh ấy thuốc không hút

[2004, p.70]

1.2.2 Simple sentence

Simple sentence in English

Quirk et al (1985, p78-79) acknowledged that simple sentences aretraditionally divided into two major parts, a subject and a predicate This means

that, in terms of clause elements, the subject (S) is distinguished from the otherelements (V and combinations of O, C, and A) which follow it:

SUBJECT PREDICATE

(6) Julie buys her vegetables in the market.

The subject is often described as the constituent defining the topic of thesentence – that which the sentence is 'about' and which it presupposes as its point ofdeparture, whereas the predicate is the thing which is asserted about the subject.Quirk, Randolph, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey and Svartvik, Jan(1985, p720-721) stated that a simple sentence consists of a single independentclause According them, there are seven simple sentence types:

(7) SVA: He got through the window.

(8) SVO: He’ll get a surprise.

(9) SVC: He’s getting angry.

(10) SVOA: He got himself into trouble.

(11) SVOC: Most students have found her reasonably helpful.

(12) SVOO: He got her a splendid present.

(13) SV: The sun is shining.

According to Ann Hogue (1995, p18) the simple sentences can be written asformulas: simple subject with simple verb (SV), compound subject with simple verb(SSV), simple subject with compound verb (SVV), compound subject withcompound verb (SSVV) We can see examples:

(14) SV: My sister speaks English well.

(15) SSV: Nensi and Asti play volleyball.

(16) SVV: Naila reads and listens to music in the bedroom.

(17) SSVV: My mother and father speak and write English well.

According to Alice Oshima (2006, p164) A sentence is a group of words thatyou use to communicate your ideas Every sentence is formed from one or moreclauses and expresses a complete thought

Alice Oshima also stated that simple sentence is one independent clause The

subject in simple sentence may be compound The verb may also be compound.What is important is that there is only subject-verb combination in a simplesentence.

In “The Longman grammar of spoken and written English” Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E (1999) stated that A simple

sentence is a unit that has only a single subject and a single predicate The subject

can be compound, but the simple sentence is a single unit as in the following

examples: (18) “Jack and Jill went up a hill”

Reference grammars usually definited sentences in terms of verb types Thisanalysis leads them to recognize 7 varieties in the category "simple sentence" eachbased on a type of verb There's one simple sentence type that involves intransitive

verbs: S+V Linking verbs lead to two simple sentence types: S+V+SP and

S+V+A Transitive verbs lead to 4 types because of the 4 possibilities for different

types of objects in their predicates: S+V+Od, S+V+Oi+Od, S+V+O+A,

S+V+Od+Op.

In simple sentence, intransitive verbs cannot have objects or complements.They are complete with just a subject and a verb Adverbials can be added but arenot required for the SV to be syntactically complete We can see examples:

(19) SV: It’s raining

(20) The wind is blowing.

On the contrary, transitive verbs must have objects Maybe it is more accurate

to say that a transitive verb must have an object, because some transitive verbs needtwo objects or an object and an adverbial We can see examples:

(21) S+ V+ Od: Maria bought a book.

(22) S+ V+ Oi+ Od: Maria gave her mother a book.

(23) S+ V+ O+ A: Her mother put the book on the shelf.

(24) S+ V+ Od+ Op: Her mother thought the book amusing.

On the other hand, two types of sentences with linking verbs are given in

the Longman Student Grammar “S+V+SP” has an adjective or a noun as the subject

predicative Notice that most linking verbs can take only adjectives for their

complements but that be can have either an adjective or a noun phrase The second

type is “S+V+A” where the A is required and is often a prepositional phrase usedfor location or time We can see examples:

(25) S+ V+ SP: The soup tasted salty The cook is not a very good cook (26) S+ V+ A: The soup is on the table The cook is in the kitchen

Simple sentence in Vietnamese

According to Hoang Trong Phien (1980, p40-41) subject- predicate structure

is the smallest unit of Vietnamese syntax Basic order in Vietnamese sentence is:

(theme) (subject) (predicate)

(29) Em ơi Ba Lan mùa tuyết tan

Phụ ngữ Chủ ngữ Vị ngữ

(adjunct) (subject) (predicate)

(Diep Quang Ban, 1987,p198)

A part from that, Nguyen Minh Thuyet and Nguyen Van Hiep (1998)

distinguished between basic parts of the sentence (subject and predicate) and

secondary elements (topic, modality, adjunct and adverbial) Additionally, they

define that predicate is a part of the nucleus of sentence in front of which we can

complete the functional words such as đã, sẽ, đang, không In “The sentence

components of Vietnamese” (2004), Nguyen Minh Thuyet and Nguyen Van Hiepstated that main components are the syntax elements required in order to ensure theintegrity of the sentence, it is the predicate with participant (V: vị ngữ) – obligatorysubject (C: chủ ngữ) and object (B: bổ ngữ) We can see examples:

Besides, Vietnamese sentences have sub-components such as:

(33) Theme- complement: Còn Bân, hắn không nghe hát hiếc gì cả.

(34) Disjunct: Cô ta sợ chúng mình thì có.

(35) Complement: Đột nhiên một hôm Thứ nghe nói San đã đi Hà nội (36) Adverbial: Từ sáng đến giờ chị chỉ long đong chạy đi chạy về.

(Nguyen Minh Thuyet and Nguyen Van Hiep (2004))

1.2.3 Basic sentence structures and syntactic structures.

According to Jacobs, R.A (1995) and Tesniere, L (1959), there are threemajor properties of sentence structure such as linearity, hierarchy, and categoriality.Linearity is word order in a sentence All of the words in a sentence cannot beuttered at the same time; they are produced in a time sequence Hierarchy is thatdifferent ways of grouping words may result in different meanings Andcategoriality is that words have different distributions based on their categories

2 Hierarchy

Sentences are hierarchically structured They are not, simply, sequences ofindividual words They are made up of word groups called constituents, whichthemselves may consist of smaller groups Words are not, necessarily, the onlyconstituents of sentences There are also higher level constituents to form sentences.This sort of hierarchical organization represents a more general strategy that thehuman mind uses to organize the experience and knowledge of the language

3 Categoriality

A descriptive grammar must differentiate between items that are the same andthose that are different Words and the larger constituents they make up (such asphrases), belong to distinct categories, each with its particular features Thischaracteristic is known as Categoriality

1.2.4 Syntactic and semantic functions of clause elements

Syntactic functions of clause elements

The traditional approach to syntactic function identifies constituents of thesentence, states the part of speech each word belongs to, describes the inflexioninvolved, and explains the relationship each word related to the others

According to its relation to other constituents, a constituent may serve acertain syntactic function in a clause

There are five functional categories of clause constituents (Quirk et al.,

1985, p49):

- Subject: the part of the sentence, usually a noun or noun phrase, that acts as

the agent, doer, or experiencer of the verb

- Verb: shows what a subject does, what the subject is, or what the subject is like

- Complement (subject or object complement): anything that comes after the

verb to complete a sentence

- Object (direct or indirect object): A noun, pronoun, or noun phrase that

receives the action of the verb

- Adverbial: a construction (adverb, adverb phrase, temporal noun phrase,

prepositional phrase or clause) that modifies, or describes verbs

Semantic roles of clause elements

- Agentive participant is the most typical semantic role of a subject that has a

direct object (the participant which instigates/causes the happening denoted by theverb) (Quirk et al., 1985:740-742)

- Affected participant is the most typical role of the direct object (a participant

directly involved in some other way in the happening):

- Recipient participant: the most typical role of the indirect object (the

animate being that is passively implicated by the happening or state)

- Attribute is the typical semantic role of a subject complement and an object

complement; it has two subtypes of role: identification and characterization

In this study, I would like to focus on researching syntactic functions andsemantic roles of the subject, the verb and the adverbial

1.2.4.1 Syntactic and semantic functions of the subject.

Syntactic functions of the subject:

According to Quirk et al., (1985, p724-726), the subject in English can be:

- A noun phrase; the head of any noun phrase may be a common noun(common to a class of referents), a proper noun (names of particular persons,individually or as a group; the referent is defined experientially) or a (personal)pronoun (unique reference as proper nouns)

- A subject clause (finite clauses or nonfinite clauses)

According to Quirk et al., (1985, p171-173)

- A subject is a compulsory element in finite clauses In imperative sentences

it is absent, but semantically it is implied

- The subject triggers the subjective forms (nominative case) for pronouns that

have distinctive case forms in English We can see example

(37) He sat in sullen silence

The subject determines the number and person in finite clauses We can see

examples:

(38) She loves life.

(39) She is my best friend.

- The subject determines the number and the gender of the subject complement

[Cs] when that is a noun phrase We can see example:

(40) Johnny and Alice are my grandchildren

- The subject determines the number, person and gender of the reflexivepronoun as direct object (Od ), indirect object (Oi), subject complement (Cs), or

prepositional complement/ object (Cp) We can see example:

(41) Peter considers himself a poet

- There is a systematic correspondence between active and passive clauses: thedirect object and the indirect object of an active sentence can become the subject of

the passive sentence We can see examples:

(42) He can repair your car.

(43) Your car can be repaired by him

- A subjectless nonfinite clause has an implied subject which is identical withthe subject of the regent clause

In the book “ Contrastive linguistics” (2004, p.205- 206), Le Quang Thiem

stated the subject in English can be a noun, a noun phrase, a pronoun It oftenprecedes the verb in the affirmative and negative form but follows the auxiliary inthe interrogative

According to Le Quang Thiem (2004, p.205), the subject in Vietnamese hastwo types: subjects consisting of the verb and subjects consisting of the copula “là”.The subject consisting of the verb can be a noun, a pronoun or a subject-verbstructure and always precedes the verb The subject consisting of the copula “là”can be a noun, pronoun or verb and can change its position in the sentence

Subjects consisting of the verbs

- Subject is a noun We can see example:

(46) Chân anh ta gãy rồi

- Subject is a subject- verb structure We can see example:

(47) Nhà cháy làm bị thương hai người

Subjects consisting of the copula “là”

- Subject is a noun We can see example:

Semantic roles of the subject.

Semantic roles are the standard devices used for organizing predicateargument structures within the lexicon

First, its most usual role is Agent, which refers to that entity which performs

an action consciously and is responsible for it We can see example:

(51) I opened the door.

The Agent causes the process expressed by the predicate

However, the Subject may act as Patient (also called Affected), a participant

which the verb characterizes as having something happen to it, and as beingaffected by what happens to it We can see example:

(52) The curtains disappeared.

Another important semantic role played by Subject is as Experiencer which

appears with verbs of physical perception, cognition and emotional verbs Mainlythe experiencer is a participant who is characterized as aware of something We cansee example:

(53) She saw the accident.

Other roles played by the Subject are:

Beneficiary that refers to that entity benefited by the process or the action of

the verb We can see example:

(54) She has a car.

Instrument, entity used by an agent to perform the action (agent: terrorists,

who used the explosion for their purpose) We can see example:

(55) An explosion destroyed the city.

Locative, Positioner and Time which express the semantic ideas of location,

space and time respectively We can see examples:

(56) Sahara is hot.

(57) Rose was lying on her bed

(58) Last night was fine.

Drop-IT subject role: little or no semantic content: no participant, the subject

function is occupied by IT We can see example:

(59) It is getting late

1.2.4.2 Syntactic and semantic functions of the Verb

Syntactic functions of the verb

The verb plays a significant part in most English sentences; it determines themeaning of a sentence

In English, the verb may be classified into various types according to theircomplementation Where no complementation occurs, the verb is said to have anintransitive use According to Quirk et al., (1985, p1170-1171), types of verbcomplementation and their variants are as follow:

(60) Copular: John is only a boy.

(61) Mono transitive: I have caught a big fish

(62) Complex transitive: She called him a hero

(63) Ditransitive: He gave Mary a doll

Berk (1999) found that in English sentences, the verb is the main part of theverb phrase The verb in English always combines with tenses to indicate the time

of the action or state Moreover, the verb in English is conjugated to showagreement with the subject There are three kinds of verb in English: intransitive,transitive and stative verbs

- The intransitive verbs are verbs that do not need to be followed by an object

- The transitive verbs are verbs that are followed by an object

- The state verbs are verbs that are used to describe state In this type, we donot use the continuous tense

In “Fundamentals of English Grammar” (3rd ed.), Professor Kelly Isern stated an intransitive verb is one that does not require an object to complete itsmeaning The sentence may end with the verb, an adjective, or an adverb Thequestions one may ask with these forms are “when, where, how, why” We can seeexample:

Kennedy-(64) The children sat at the table.

For Biber et al (2002, p459-460), the predicate also represents the 'logical

center of a clause, consisting sometimes of a verb, and sometimes of a copular verbplus predicative:

(65) I thought he was there.

According to Le Quang Thiem (2004, p.207-208), the verb in Vietnamese isdivided into three types:

- Verbs combining with the subject without the copula “là” We can seeexamples:

(66) Sinh viên đọc sách/ Sinh viên không đọc sách

(67) Họ xem phim/ Họ không xem phim

- Verbs combining directly with the subject in the affirmative form and in the

negative form they have the copula “là” We can see example:

(68) Cô ấy 20 tuổi/ Cô ấy không là 20 tuổi

(69) Áo này 40 nghìn/ Áo này không phải là 40 nghìn)

- Verbs that go with the subject having the copula “là” in both the affirmative

and negative form We can see example:

(70) Cô ấy là sinh viên/ Cô ấy không là sinh viên

(71) Nhà này là ký túc xá/ Nhà này không phải là ký túc xá)

Semantic roles of the Verb

Verbs are essential when dealing with semantic roles According to Cook, W

A (1979) there are four semantic types of verbs which he links with semantic roles

- Basic verb types which involve the role of Agent and/or Patient, such as dry,

die, laugh, kill, etc

- Experiental verb types in which an experiencer may be the subject or the object of the sentence, example: doubt, amuse, know, praise, tell, etc

- Benefactive verb types that convey a Beneficiary object or subject: have,

help, give, etc

- Locative verb types that involve a Locative in the sentence like stay, walk,

place, etc.

1.2.4.3 Syntactic and semantic functions of the adverbial.

Syntactic function of the adverbial

The adverbial is normally an adverb phrase, prepositional phrase, or adverbialclause It may also be a noun phrase In general, the adverbial is capable ofoccurring in more than one position in the clause Constraints on its mobility

depend on the type and form of the adverbial The adverbial in the SVA type

normally follows the subject and verb

Adverbials, in English, are elements of a sentence which provide informationabout the verb They can have a number of forms and can be found in variouspositions within a sentence Adverbials in English can modify a verb, an adjective

or another adverb

According to Quirk et al.,(1985: 348-349), an adverbial is capable of

occurring in more than one position in the clause; is generally optional and it may

be added or removed from a sentence without affecting its acceptability

According to Martin (2005), adverbial means a word or group of words thatsay when, where, how, etc something happens They may consist of an adverb, aprepositional phrase, a noun phrase, or an adverbial clause, an adverb phrase and aninfinitive They act like adverbs – that is, they modify verbs, adjectives and other

adverbs Adverbials answer such questions as “How?”, “Where?”, “When?”,

“Why?”, “How far?”, “How much?”, “How often?”, “How long?”

In Vietnamese, adverbials are subordinate parts of sentences Most ofadverbials in Vietnamese are not single words They are almost expressed in phraseforms They have defining structures In other words, any phrases which are related

to narration, govern or continuity with or without prepositions following can befunctioned as adverbials Vietnamese adverbials mostly modify a whole sentences

or main parts of sentences

Adverbials – the parts of sentences – have an unstable position in sentences.They can be in front of or behind main clauses, even between subjects and verbs.Adverbials express the time, place, space, purpose, reason, and means for state ofaffairs in sentences

According to Hoang Trong Phien (1962), adverbials in Vietnamese can be infront, mid and end position; however, front position is the most popular.Additionally, adverbials can transform positions There are many kinds ofadverbials in Vietnamese because of various classifications

Le Quang Thiem (2004) based on the appearance of preceding prepositions inadverbials, he said that there are two main kinds: marked adverbials (adverbialswith preceding preposition) and unmarked adverbials (adverbials without precedingpreposition)

According to Diep Quang Ban (2007), he used the term “bổ ngữ của câu(sentence complement)” to replace adverbial He also divided into complement oftime, complement of place, and complement of situation

Semantic roles of the adverbial

The adverbial refers to the circumstances of the situation (adjunct andsubjunct), comments on the form or content of the clause (disjunct), or provides alink between clauses (conjunct) A more specific semantic characterization relates

to the semantic subtypes of adverbials The term 'adjunct' is sometimes applied byothers to all types of adverbial

According to Quirk et al., (1972, p.1972), adjuncts are integrated into thesentence or clause where they appear They usually appear in the predicate andmodify some or the entire verb phrase Adjuncts express time, place manner, orcondition Adjuncts provide circumstantial information about the action, event orprogress in the sentence or clause in which they happen Adjuncts can give answersfor questions such as where, when, how, why

Disjuncts are “disjoined” from the rest of the sentence and the sentence can becomplete without it, though some specific meaning of the writer/speaker could be

lost in the process There are four main kinds of disjuncts discussed in English

syntax from word to discourse (1999, p.209): attitude disjuncts, style disjuncts,

point of view disjuncts and epistemic disjuncts

Conjuncts serve to link one clause or sentence to another Additionally,conjuncts can join elements of an utterance together They can also be used toemphasize or indicate various types of “meaning connection” We can see example:

(72) You really insulted me yesterday Furthermore, you insulted my

boyfriend by calling him a fraud (Lynn, 1999).

1.2.5 The common contrastive analysis of word order.

According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1978), acontrastive study is “the comparison of the linguistic systems of two languages, forexample sound system or the grammar system”

Contrastive analysis was developed and practice as an application of structurallinguistics to language teaching and is based on the following assumptions:

- The main difficulties in learning a new language are caused by interferencefrom the first language

- These difficulties can be predicted by contrastive analysis

- Teaching materials can make use of contrastive analysis to reduce the effect

of interference

According to Robert Lado’s book (1957), “Linguistics Across Culture.” somemajor objectives of contrastive analysis are:

- Providing insights into similarities and differences between languages.

- Explaining and predicting problems in second language learning

- Developing course material for language teaching

Randal Whitman (1970) noted that contrastive analysis involved four differentprocedures

- Description: The linguist or teacher, using the tools of formal grammar,explicitly describes the two languages in question

- Selection: A selection is made of certain forms -linguistic items, rules,structures- for contrast, since it is virtually impossible to contrast every possiblefacet of two languages Whitman admits that the selection process “reflects theconscious and unconscious assumptions of the investigator”, which in turn affectexactly what forms are selected

- Contrast: The mapping of one linguistic system onto the other, and aspecification of the relationship of one system to the other which, like selection,

“rests on the validity of one’s reference points.”

- Prediction: You formulate a prediction of error or if difficulty on the basis ofthe first three procedures-that prediction can be arrived at through the formulation

of a hierarchy of difficulty or through more subjective applications ofpsychological and linguistic theory

Practice of contrastive analysis hypothesis within any one language and withinmore languages would certainly help us not only understand their language, but alsohelp us perceive an insight of philosophical cultural and other human characteristicsand lives of the involved people

By Contrastive analysis we get aware of certain characteristic difficulties intranslating grammatical structures

By making contrastive study on the structures of two languages we get theknowledge of grammatical transposition, that is, we meet a given part of speech inthe source text by some other part of speech in the target language

It is contrastive analysis which helps us see the identical features in languages

as well as the differences

CHAPTER 2 SENTENCE COMPONENTS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE SVA

STRUCTURE AND THEIR ORDERS

English SVA structure

According to R.Quirk and S.Greenbaum (1976) the sentence including threecomponents S, V and A is one of seven English basic sentences and it is the firststructure in seven basic sentences

In English SVA structure, the only verb that allows an adverbial to be modifier

is copular verb “be” A part from that, we can also use other intransitive verbs such

as: come, live, get, etc.

There are some types of intransitive verb which need an adverbial to followsuch as:

- Verbs having passive meaning are derivative from transitive verbs: sell,

unlock, etc.

- Intransitive phrasal verbs: be on, be off, go out, and take off, ect.

2.1.1 Copular verb “Be”

In English, according to Biber, Conrad and Leech (1999), a copular verb isused to associate an attribute with the subject of the clause The attribute is usuallyexpressed by the subject predicative following the verb

According to Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svarivik (1985, p.1171), acopular, (copular verb, linking verb and intensive verbs is used to refer to “ a verbwhen it is followed by a subject complement or a predicate adjunct and when thiselement can not be dropped without changing the meaning of the verb”

In Vietnamese, Nguyen Kim Than (1977, p.217) called these verbs with thename “copular verbs” According to him, these verbs often require a subjectcomplement following the verb and they are used to denote the changing of a thing.Diep Quang Ban (1996) and Le Bien (1998) have considered copular verbsand named them Dependent Verbs They belong to the sub-group of stative verbs

denoting the changing.

Obligatory adverbials are commonly required as complementation for copular

verb “be” in the SVA type

- Adverbials following verb “ be” are often adverbial of place We can see

example:

(73) Your children are outside (Các con bạn đang ở bên ngoài)

- Adverbials of time following verb “be” is also very popular In case, verb “

be” is the same verb “ take place” We can see example:

(74) The next meeting is on Monday (Buổi họp sau sẽ vào ngày thứ hai)

A part from that there are some other kinds of adverbial following verb “ be”

- Adverbials of recipients We can see example:

(75) This car is for you (Chiếc xe này là dành cho em)

- Adverbials of purpose We can see example:

(76) The clothes are to support the poor (Chỗ quần áo đó là để chi viện cho

người nghèo)

- Adverbials of reason We can see example:

(77) The death of inhabitants in this village was because of the epidemic (Cái

chết của người dân trong làng là do bệnh dịch)

- Adverbials of means We can see example:

(78) Transporting to abroad is often by plane (Việc vận chuyển ra nước

ngoài thường là bằng máy bay)

A part from copular verb “be”, we would like to present some intransitive verbswhich are used in English SVA structure Now we can study some of these verbs

2.1.2 The intransitive verb “LIVE”

The verb requires an obligatory adverbial to modify it

- With meaning “ stay/ resist/ inhabit”, it requires an adverbial of place Wecan see example:

(79) I live in Viet nam (Tôi sống ở Việt nam)

With meaning “maintain life/ exist” it requires an adverbial of process We can

see example:

(80) They live in comfort (Họ sống rất sung túc)

- With meaning “be alive” it often requires an adverbial of time We can seeexample:

(81) We are now living in a small village (Chúng tôi đang sống tại một làng

nhỏ)

2.1.3 The intransitive verb “GET”

The verb also requires an obligatory adverbial to follow it, and so often isadverbial of direction We can see examples:

(82) He got out of this burning car in accident last night (Anh ta đã thoát

khỏi chiếc xe đang bốc cháy trong vụ tai nạn tối qua)

(83) We got off the train (Chúng tôi xuống tàu)

2.1.4 Some other intransitive verbs

Verbs which have passive meaning are derivative from transitive verbs: sell,unlock…They are also followed by an adverbial We can see examples:

(87) This kind of shoes sells well (Loại giầy này bán rất chạy)

(88) This wine unlocks very hard (Loại rượu này mở rất khó)

2.1.5 Some intransitive phrasal verbs

They are verbs including two parts: the main verb and the particles In whichthe particles plays the role of adverbial in the sentence We can see examples:

(89) The milk seems off (Sữa bị chua rồi)

(90) The performance is over (Buổi diễn kết thúc rồi)

(91) That girl’s hair must be cut off (Tóc cô gái ấy phải được cắt trụi đi).

(92) The cars are away (Mấy chiếc xe đi hết)

Almost intransitive verbs often require an adverbial They are not quiteobligatory, however, in a specific context; a sentence is not completed withoutadverbials Besides, according to M Hewing (1999), he stated that a component,which supplements meaning for the verb, can be an adverbial or a prepositional

phrase They are some verbs such as: originate, belong, aspire (to), alternate, ect.

We can see examples:

(93) This expensive bag belongs to Mr Pike (Chiếc túi đắt tiền này là của

2.2.1 ASV structure

According to statistic materials, there are three cases of word order in whichthe adverbial appears at the initial in ASV structure:

- Here + subject +verb

- There + subject + verb

- Prepsitions of direction + subject + verb

And now, we would like to analysize each case

2.2.1.1 “Here + subject (pronoun) + verb”

Here are some specific examples

(95) The sorrowing mother stooped down over all the tiniest plants and

listened inside where the human heart was beating, and among millions of others she recognized her own child’s “Here it is!” she cried, stretching out her hand over a little blue crocus that was drooping and looked quite ill.

[66, p134]

(96) This made little Gerda quite frightened, and she started to cry But no

one heard her except the sparrows, and they couldn’t carry her ashore, though they flew along the bank, singing as though to comfort her: “See, here we come! See, here we come!” [61, p221] (Gerda sợ quá khóc òa lên, nhưng chẳng ai nghe thấy, ngoài đàn chim sẻ Chim chẳng thể mang em vào bờ được Chúng vừa bay dọc hai bên bờ vừa hót để

an ủi em: “Có chúng tôi đây! Có chúng tôi đây!”)

[66, p13]

(97) I nodded, and nervously watched him leave the room I could hear him

turning the key in the lock So here I was, in the middle of the night, locked in with

a bleeding, dying man, and a wild, murdering woman only the other side of a door!

[77, p162]

(Tôi gật đầu và hồi hộp nhìn ông ta ra khỏi phòng Tôi nghe ông quay chìa khóa trong ổ khóa Thế là tôi ở đây, giữa đêm khuya, bị khóa cửa nhốt với một người đàn ông đang dãy chết, máu chảy và một người đàn bà giết người dã rợ chỉ cách một cánh cửa.

[77, p163]

According to statistic material, in English ASV structure, “here” is an

adverbial appearing at the initial of sentence This variant has the largest number intotal of all sentences of ASV structure It includes 41 sentences of 105 ones andaccounts for 7,5% in total 550 sentences which have the change of word order inSVA structure (in which there are 105 sentences of ASV structure and 445sentences of AVS one)

In ASV structure, the adverbial is “here” having position of the initial of

sentence, we can see:

- When the subjects are pronoun and the verbs are often “be” or other verbs in

the simple present tense, this structure is used to emphasize the presence ofsomeone or something that are looking forward to be come We can see in examples

{95}, {96}.

- In examples {97} we used this structure to emphasize someone where he was

2.2.1.2 “There + subject + verb”

According to material that we collected, in this case, this kind of sentenceaccounts for about 8,5% (47 sentences in total 105 sentences of ASV structure).Below are examples:

(98) Early the next morning the king and queen, the old lady-in-waiting, and

all the Court officials went to see where it was the princess had been There it is! Cried the king, catching sight of the first door with a cross on it.

[61, p7]

(Sớm hôm sau, vua và hoàng hậu, người thị nữ gí và tất cả triều đình đổ xô đi tìm xem công chúa đã đi đâu Ngôi nhà này, nhà vua nói khi ngài thấy cánh cửa đầu tiên có dấu thập)

(99) She pushed me, resisting wildly, back into the red room and locked me

in There I was in the darkness again, with the silence and the ghosts.

[61, p20]

(Bà kháng cự kịch liệt đẩy tôi vào lại trong căn phòng màu đỏ và khóa cửa nhốt tôi trong đó Tôi lại chìm trong bong tối với cảnh vắng lặng và các hồn ma)

[66, p21]

(100) Off again they had to go, high up into the clouds, far away into the

wide world And there they flew into a big dark wood which stretched right down to the shore [61, p114] (Họ lại phải bay đi, bay tít lên mây, bay xa vào thế giới rộng lớn Cuối cùng

họ tới một khu rừng lớn âm u, trải dài thẳng tới bờ biển).

[66, p244]

(101) “A man can’t even speak his own mind now!” said the old portrait.

And there Hijalmar woke up

[61, p157]

(Không có quyền góp ý một tí hay sao? Bức tranh lẩm bẩm Giữa lúc đó Hijalmar thức giấc)

(103) The sun went down and the full moon rose up round and big, clear and

lovely in the blue air “There she comes again from another side” said the man, thinking it was the sun coming up again.

[61, p380]

(Mặt trời lặn, trăng lên tròn và to, trong sáng và đẹp đẽ trên bầu trời xanh.

Đó, nàng lại tới từ hướng khác, người tuyết nói Gã tưởng mặt trời xuất hiện một lần nữa) [66, p166]

Through the above examples, we can see that the subjects in this case are oftenpersonal pronouns On the other hand, these subjects are given from the previoussentences So, “there” is also a prounoun which replaces for a noun of location inthe previous sentence

In English ASV structure, when the adverbial (A) is attributive pronouns

“here” and “there”, they are translated into Vietnamese with the basic word order(SVA)

2.2.1.3 “Prepositions of direction + subject +verb”

In the statistic materials, although this structure has a small number, it showsclearly the differences between English and Vietnamese sentences in translating Itaccounts for about 3% (17 sentences in total 105 sentences of ASV structure) Wecan see some examples below:

(104) So Big Claus put down the sack with Little Claus in it at the church

door, thinking it would be rather nice to go inside and hear a hymn before going on his way; Little Claus wouldn’t be able to get out, and everybody else was in church.

So in he went [61, p20]

(Claus Nhớn đặt chiếc bị dựa vào cánh cửa của nhà thờ, nghĩ bụng vào nghe

một bài thánh ca cũng là điều hay trước khi tiếp tục đi, vi Claus Bé không thể trốn thoát, mà tất cả mọi người ở trong nhà thờ rồi Thế là hắn vào)

[66, p396]

(105) The sorccorer said he would take her there, so that they might be

together for a little while yet So off they flew into the storm, as the travelling companion wore out his faggots on their backs [61, p70] ( Lão yêu tinh bay theo để được ở bên nàng cho đến cùng Họ bay trong bão táp Anh bạn đồng hành quất lên lưng họ bằng ba bó củi) [66, p468]

(106) John had left the forest behind when a man called after him in loud

voice: “Hi there, friend! Where are you bound for?” “The wide world!” said John.

“I have neither father nor mother, and am just a poor lad, but the Lord will be sure

to help me!” “I’m bound for the wide world as well!” said the strange man “Let’s keep one another company!” “All right !” said John; and off they walked together.

[61, p56]

(John vừa ra khỏi rừng thì nghe có tiếng người kêu to sau lưng:

- Này anh bạn, đi đâu đấy?

- Đi chu du thiên hạ, John đáp Tôi không còn cha mẹ Tôi là một gã chẳng có

xu nào dính túi, nhưng Chúa sẽ giúp tôi Chắc chắn là như vậy.

- Tôi cũng muốn đi chu du thế giới, người lạ mặt nói Chúng ta cùng đi nhé.

Thế là họ ra đi ) [66, p456]

Through some above examples, we can see there are some prepositions of

direction (in, off, etc.) standing before the verbs of movement (go, flew, dash, etc).

In English, this kind of sentence often emphasize on the adverbial component, and

some conjunctions (so, and) which are before that prepositions of direction) are

used to connect with the previous sentence And this is quite different from theVietnamese sentences It is true that all prepositions of direction and place alwaysfollow the verbs in Vietnamese sentences So those sentences are translated intoVietnamese with the basic order (SVA)

2.2.2 AVS structure

According to Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa (2004), when researching on full verb

inversion (AVS structure), she gave a sequence of this structure “the first element +

verb + grammatical subject” which has some characteristics:

- The first element is often an adverbial of space or time Apart from that, itcan be a complement or non finite predication

- The verb is often “be” or some intransitive verbs which are often theexistence and the appearance of an object in a context

- Subject is always a noun phrase It is never a pronoun The subject in thisstructure often has the length of material or complex structural form These nounphrases often introduce new information and can be the topic of the next sentences

In researching process, we realized that when an adverbial appears at theinitial of a sentence, the adverbial is always an adjunct However not all adjunctscan be placed in this position, they are often adjunct of space, time and negativeadjunct

According to statistic materials, we present eight cases of word order in AVSstructure in which the adverbial (A) has grammatical and semantic characters

2.2.2.1 “Prepositions/ prepositional phrases of place/position + subject + verb"

This kind of sentence has a large number in total of AVS structure It accountsfor 20% (including 110 sentences in total 445 sentences of AVS structure) Now wepresent some examples for this case:

(107) We could see the line of the other railway ahead of us To the north was

the main road where we had seen cyclists; to the south there was a small branch road across the fields with thick trees on each side

[62, p165]

(Ở phía trước chúng tôi có thể nhìn thấy một đường sắt khác nữa Về hướng Bắc

là con đường cái mà chúng tôi đã trông thấy đoàn xe đạp chạy qua lúc nãy, và về hướng Nam một con đường nhánh băng ngang cánh đồng giữa hai hàng cây dày đặc)

[67, p343]

(108)…And while he spoke there arose a fragrance as of millions of roses, for

every faggot of the bonfire had taken root and grown branches, and there stood a sweet-smelling hedge, so very high and big, of red rose At the top was a single bloom, a white and glowing one which shone like a star

(109) In that case I shall have to sleep outside” said Little Claus; and the

farmer’s wife shut the door on him Near by stood a big haystack, and between this and the house a small shed had been built, with a flat thatched roof

[61, p11]

(Ồ cũng được, thế thì tôi phải kiếm một chỗ nằm ngoài cửa vậy Bà chủ đóng sập cửa trước mặt gã Gần đấy là một đống cỏ khô lớn, giữa đống cỏ và ngôi nhà người ta xây một cái lán nhỏ có mái rạ phẳng phiu)

[66, p387]

(110) They were a long way from land when Eliza woke up; and she thought

that she was still dreaming; so strange did it seem to her to be bornw across the sea, high up in the air By her side lay a spray of lovely ripe berries and a bunch of tastl roots [ 61, p121] (Chim đã bay xa bờ khi Elise tỉnh dậy Nàng tưởng mình nằm mơ, vì thật tuyệt vời khi được bay caotreen biển Bên mình nàng có một cành quả chín và một bó rễ cây vị rất ngon.) [66, p251]

(111) Near my place lived a mole-criket about my age He belonged to the

weaker kind of cricket, so I rather looked down on him.And he was truly afraid of me! [78, p115]