Common errors in the use of compound nouns made by students of course 37 biology faculty at HaNoi Pedagogical university No.2

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N,.2 NGO THUY LINH COMMON ERRORS IN THE USE OF COMPOUND NOUNS MADE BY STUDENTS OF COURSE 37-BIOLOGY FACULTY AT HANOI PEDAG

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N,.2

NGO THUY LINH

COMMON ERRORS IN THE USE OF COMPOUND NOUNS MADE BY STUDENTS OF COURSE 37-BIOLOGY FACULTY AT HANOI

PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY No.2

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF

THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH)

SUPERVISOR: MAI THI VAN ANH, M.A

Hanoi, May 2013

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this chance to express my greatest gratitude to Mrs MAI THI VAN ANH, M.A, my supervisor, for her patience in providing continuous and careful guidance as well as encouragement, indispensable suggestions and advices

I am greatly indebted to the teachers of English at Hanoi Pedagogical University N,.2

I wish to thank all the lecturers at Hanoi Pedagogical University N,.2, especially the lecturers in the Foreign Language Faculty for their dedicated instructions during my years of university work

I am particular grateful to my close friends for their enthusiasm and kindness

in helping me collect valuable reference documents and data for my research

Last but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to my beloved family, for their

whole-hearted encouragement and endless support

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ABSTRACT

The compound noun is an interesting category of English grammar A grammatical element is combined with a word, stem, or phrase to produce derived and inflected forms A compound noun is the combining form of two words or stems (green house, beautiful girl) However, the uses of the compound nouns referred to in some books have not been dealt with in full and sometimes cause

confusion to learner of English

As a result, students of English often make errors when they use the

compound nouns Therefore, this research work entails studying the uses of the compound nouns and conducting a survey for error analysis

Based on the results of the survey, the types of errors and causes have been found

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Title: Common Errors in the Use of Compound Noun

(Graduation paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Bachelor of

Arts in English)

I certify that no part of this report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other person’s work without acknowledgments and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance from my supervisor

Date submitted: May 2013

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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V RESEARCH TASKS 3

VI RESEARCH METHODS .csesesseceseseeeeseseeeeeeseseseeceacaceecacaceeeaeeceeeseseaeneeees 4

VỊI SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH - «‹ 4 VIIL DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH WORK Ăn Sài 4

PART TWO

DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 LITERATURE REVIEW IN BRIEE St Hee, 6

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In ae 9 1.2.2 Word-class combinafion compound nOu1n6 .- - 5 «<< <++++++ 9

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1.2.4 Pronun€14fiOT - - << 3xx TT TH TH TT Hà Hàn rệt 10 1.2.5 Plural forms of compound nOU1§ - - s- 5+5 ++s+++s£+e+eex+ex+e+eess II I0 7 13

1.2.7 Possessive of compound nouns

II.1.4 Construction Of the SUTV€Y SG SH HH ng rệt 16

IL.1.6 Administration of the †Ty-OU - 5 S5 tt +*EEEerrsersreerre 18

II.1.7 Method of data anaÏySIS - «6 << k1 TH HH TH HH 18

T1.2 Common errors and Causes cececesseseseseesesescseeeeseseeeeesseseeecseeeessceneeeeaes 22 II2.1 Errors in use of stress in the compound nou1s - «5+2 22 IL2.2 Errors in combining words to make the compound nouns 22 II.2.3 Errors in using plural forms of compounds nouns - 22

II.2.4 Errors in using compound nouns as other parts of speech 23

II2.5 Errors in using hyphens between two elements of compound nouns 24 II.2.6 Errors in using possess1ve of compound nouns ‹ - -s 24 E0 4-00008.001.0 0n 24 IENRSNS- i00 000i 17a 24 E2 02(2 2 TT 25

PART THREE CONCLUSION

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SUGGESTED EXERCISES

Vii

PART ONE INTRODUCTION

I RATIONALE

Nowadays, English becomes the most widely used language in the world Eighty percent of world information was stored in English (vietbao.vn/Giao-

duc/Tieng-Anh-thong-tri-the-gioi/30174410/202/) English also is an international

language used in all aspects like: education, medicine, economy, science, tourism,

culture, etc In my opinion, English is not easy but very profound and it’s

interesting to study English learners always understand that in our life, English is vital Thanks to English, different nations with different languages and culture could close together Grammar is an essential part of every language L.G

Alexander (2009:p1) denoted that we should learn grammar because "there is no

point in learning grammar for the sake of learning grammar Grammar is the

support system of communication and we learn it to communicate better Grammar explains the "why" and "how" of language We learn it because we just can't do without it." In English, nouns account most proportion and types of nouns are various but compound nouns seem to be most attractive In Vietnam as well as in other countries, there is a greater and greater need to learn English, from young to old, and from male to female No one can deny the importance of English in

Vietnam at present Therefore, English is being taught at every educational level

However, learning a language is difficult, because each language has its own

system which is different from that in the learner’s native language The

differences in the system of language may bring about learning problems for foreign language learners Hence, it is inevitable that in learning English as a foreign language Vietnamese students usually have problems on account of the differences between Vietnamese and the target language It is proved that English grammar is causes embarrassment to students The concord in general and the complex and often compound nouns in specific is one of the language categories that students at high schools have to learn much Due to its various uses, it is

assumed that there are many errors which may be made In fact, many students confess that the compound noun is one of the biggest problems of English grammar and they often make errors in compound nouns

Moreover, as a prospective teacher, I would like to make a contribution to the English teaching in Vietnam For the reasons above, this study is conducted, which focuses on errors in compound nouns among the students of Course 37- Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N, 2

II RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITION

With regard to the errors quoted above, the problem is with the use of compound nouns in the sentence and the ways to combine words to make a compound noun

Some questions are raised:

1) What kind of errors in the use of compound nouns are made by the student of Course 37-Biology Faculty in Hanoi Pedagogical University N,.2 in the academic year of 2012/2013?

2) What kind of errors in the use of compound nouns are the most often made by the students of Course 37-Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N,.2 in the academic year of 2012/2013?

3) What are the causes of the errors in the use of compound nouns by the

students of Course 37-Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N, 2 in the

academic year of 2012/2013?

Il RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The study aims at the following goals:

1) To find out the kinds of errors made by the students of Course 37-Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N,.2 in the academic year of 2012/ 2013

4) Provide learners some characteristics and classification of compound nouns in order to facilitate the effective use of these compound nouns

5) Point out the structure of compound nouns to classify these compound nouns more easily and exactly

6) Identify some problems related to compound nouns used and give some suggested solutions to overcome

IV RESEARCH SCOPE

The general research area of this study is grammar

The phenomenon is errors in compound noun done by the students of Course 37-Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N,.2 in the academic year of 2012/2013 Others relating to compound noun are also briefly mentioned

The population involved in the study is one hundred students of Course 37- Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N,2

V RESEARCH TASKS

The study involves fulfilling the following task:

1) To study the information and rules of compound noun

2) To research into the types and characteristics of compound noun

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3) To compare and contrast the compound nouns with other part of speech 4) To conduct a survey to find out error types and causes On the basis of the findings possible solutions to the problems are sought to minimize the students’

errors

VI RESEARCH METHODS

To achieve the objectives of the study, the following methods have been applied:

1) Collecting documents from books listed in the references

2) Consulting the supervisor, experienced teachers and friends

3) Synthesizing theoretical documents on English grammar

4) Conducting a survey and analyzing the results

VII SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH

Errors in any language teaching and learning, particularly in English as a foreign language, are sometimes predictable and sometimes unpredictable It is, therefore, essential for teachers to have better treatment to anticipate errors After the research, it is hoped that the result will be helpful to provide:

1) Input for learners of English in order to minimize their error in compound

nouns

2) Input for teachers of English with information on error types and solutions

to the problems so that they can have good methods of teaching the compound

nouns

This study is also beneficial to anyone who is interested in the compound nouns in English

VIII DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH WORK

The research work has three main parts, namely: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion The part “Development” consists two chapters Chapter one is

entitled “Theoretical Background” It consists two sections Section one reviews literature in brief The second one deals with things related to the compound nouns

such as definition, types, and rules of the compound nouns

Chapter two is named “Common Errors in Compound Nouns” It has three sections Section one is devoted to the survey The second one deals with error types and causes The last one is on solutions to the problems and suggested exercises about the compound nouns

PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 LITERATURE REVIEW IN BRIEF

Compound nouns have been described by many grammarians like Steven Pinker (1999), David Crystal (2002), Elisa Sneed (2002), Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy, Cambridge Grammar of English, Cambridge University Press (2006) and so on They each have their own way to describe the compound nouns

Generally, they focus their attention on the definition, functions, formation of the

compound nouns, modifiers of compound nouns in sentences, phrases and their uses

Steven Pinker (1999) deals with the formation of the compound nouns He

also introduces the noun phrases, another name for the compound nouns, and classifies the compound nouns into two kinds: singular and plural

David Crystal, et.al (2002) in On plural Compound nouns refers to the singular and plural of compound nouns They just name the functions of compound nouns: subject, direct object, subject complement, appositive and object complement They specify the use of the genitive case in compound nouns and the use of compound noun However, they do not pay much attention to the structures

in which compound nouns are used

In the book “The Acceptability of Regular Plurals in compounds”, Elisa Sneed (2002) gives a quite understandable picture of the compound nouns She gives the forms of the simple compound noun, complex compound nouns and the compound nouns Moreover, she pays much attention to patterns with the compound noun and the noun phrase (adjective + noun)

The copy for Garner’s Modern American Usage, the successor to the similarly titled classic reference work by H.W Fowler, when I found what I felt to

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be an ironic instance: an error The book’s description refers to its attention to

“questions of word-choice” and the uses of hyphenation of word pairs was rampant: to-day, co-operate, tea-cup, and so on Why on earth, I thought, did the

copywriter think that word-choice merits hyphenation?

The novel "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte, one of four famous works

we have learnt in the subject "English-American literature", was written with many compound nouns With students of English, recognizing and analyzing compound nouns is not simple and may cause some problems

Martin Hewing (1999) In the book Advanced Grammar in Use only focuses author’s attention on verbs and adjectives that are followed by noun phrase forms and infinitives

In the book A Reference Grammar for Students of English, R.A Close (1979) describes the functions of the compound noun as well as the difference between the compound nouns and other parts of speech

“Words can be combined to form compound nouns These are very common, and new combinations are invented almost daily They normally have two parts The second part identifies the object or person in question (man, friend, tank, table, room) The first part tells us what kind of object or person it is, or what its purpose is (police, boy, water, dining, bed)”

Compound nouns often have a meaning that is different from the two separated words Stress is important in pronunciation, as it distinguishes between a compound noun (e.g greenhouse) and an adjective with a noun (e.g green house)

In compound nouns, the stress usually falls on the first syllable In addition, he concentrates on cases where compound noun are obligatory, cases in which the gerund and the infinitive are either acceptable and cases in which the compound nouns and the noun phrases are possible but with different meanings

Kam Chuan Aik & Kam Kai Hui (1992) in the book Longman Dictionary of Grammar and Usage give a definition of the compound noun and noun phrase They also mention the difference between the compound noun and the functions of compound nouns According to them, the differences between here is that the

Compound nouns are written as separate words (grapefruit juice), as words linked

by a hyphen (sister-in-law), or as one word (schoolteacher) A compounded noun whose form no longer clearly reveals its origin (such as bonfire or marshall) is sometimes called an amalgamated compound Many place names (or toponyms) are amalgamated compounds: e.g., Norwich (north + village) and Sussex (south + Saxons)

"The compound noun structure is extremely varied in the types of meaning relations it can indicate It can be used to indicate what someone does (language teacher), what something is for (waste-paper basket, grindstone), what the qualities of something are (whiteboard), how something works (immersion heater), when something happens (night frost), where something is (doormat), what something is made of (woodpile), and so on." (Ronald Carter and Michael

McCarthy, Cambridge Grammar of English Cambridge University Press, 2006)

"An interesting property of most compounds is that they are headed This means that one of the words that make up the compound is syntactically dominant

In English the head is normally the item on the right hand of the compound The

syntactic properties of the head are passed on to the entire compound Thus, if

we have a compound like easychair which is made up of the adjective easy and the noun chair, syntactically the entire word is a noun." (Francis Katamba, English Words: Structure, History, Usage, 2nd ed Routledge, 2005)

In brief, much research has been done on the compound noun but only Ronald Carter & Michael McCathy (2006) point out the errors in the use of

compound noun In fact, there are far more errors that learners of English often

make when they use the compound nouns Therefore, it is essential to have a comprehensive study of common errors in the use of compound nouns

1.2 Compound nouns

1.2.1 Definition

Compound noun is a word made up of two or more words put together to

make a word with its own meanings

The words tooth and paste are each nouns in their own right, but if you join them together they form a new word — toothpaste

The word black is an adjective and board is a noun, but if you join them together they form a new word- blackboard

They normally have two parts The second part identifies the object or person in question (man, friend, tank, table, room) The first part tells us what kind

of object or person it is, or what its purpose is (police, boy, water, dining, bed)

1.2.2 Word-class combination compound nouns

Compound nouns can be formed using the following combination of words:

1 Noun + Noun: toothpaste, bedroom, water tank, motorcycle, printer

cartridge, rainfall, bus stop, fire-fly, football

Example: Is this the bus stop for the number 12 bus?

2 Adjective + Noun: monthly ticket, software, redhead, blackboard, full moon, software

3 Verb + Noun: swimming pool, washing machine, driving license, swimming pool, breakfast

Example: We always have breakfast at 8 a.m

4 Preposition + Noun: underground, underworld

Example: Do you think the police accept money from the underworld?

5 Noun + Verb: haircut, train-spotting, sunrise

Example: His hobby is train-spotting

6 Noun + Preposition: hanger-on, passer-by, mother-in-law, love-in Example: My mother-in-law lives with us

7 Adjective + Verb: dry-cleaning, public-speaking

8 Adverb + noun: onlooker, bystander

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9 Verb + preposition; take-off, drawback, take-out, check-in, lookout

10 Preposition + Verb: output, overthrow, upturn, input

1.2.3 Form

The two parts may be written in :

1.2.3.1 Closed or solid

Example: tooth + paste = toothpaste

Bed + room = bedroom 1.2.3.2 Hyphenated- hyphen between words

Example: check-in six-pack

1.2.3.3 Open or spaced

They appears as two separate words, space between words

Example: full moon, tennis shoe

1.2.4 Pronunciation

Compound nouns tend to have more stress on the first word: ‘golf ball

Stress is important in compound nouns Stress is important in pronunciation,

as it distinguishes between a compound noun (e.g greenhouse) and an adjective with a noun (e.g green house)

For example, it helps us know if somebody said “GREENHOUSE”(a house which is painted green) or “a GREENhouse’(a building made of glass for growing plants inside)

Compound nouns often have a characteristic stress pattern (accent pattern) The main stress (position of heaviest accent) comes on the leftmost member of the compound Certainly the majority of what are usually considered compound words exhibit this feature

The compound movie star is pronounced MOVIEstar (where capital letters indicate the location of the heaviest accent), not movieSTAR; the compound bathroom is pronounced BATHroom, not bathROOM The American President's

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residence is the WHITEhouse, which is a compound, as opposed to WHITE

HOUSE

The stress pattern can sometimes be a clue to whether a sequence of two words is a compound noun or not For example, the sequence high and chair can be pronounced either HIGHchair, in which case it is a compound noun denoting a special kind of chair that babies sit in; or it can be pronounced highCHAIR, in which case it is simply the noun chair modified by the adjective high, denoting some chair that happens to be high

Unfortunately, the stress criterion is not found in all compounds There are compounds like APPLE PIE, MANMADE and EASY-GOING which show no accent reduction

A purely phonologically based division would make BLACKberry a

compound but blackPUDDING free sequence, BLACKlist a compound but black

MARKET a free sequence Equally striking is the fact that whereas Oxford ROAD (also Oxford AVENUE, etc.) would be a free collocation, OXFORD Street would

be a compound These inconsistencies underline the fact that the category of compounds is a grammatical one, and that, although there is a tendency for it to be

phonetically marked in a certain way, such marking is not perfectly regular

1.2.5 Plural forms of compound nouns

In general we make the plural of a compound noun by adding —s to the “base word” (the most significant word)

a tennis shoe three tennis shoes

one assistant headmaster five assistant headmasters

the sergeant major some sergeants major

a mother-in-law two mothers-in-law

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an assistant secretary of state three assistant secretaries of state

a doctor of philosophy two doctors of philosophy

a passerby, a passer-by two passersby, two passers-by

1.2.5.1 Pluralize the principle word

The vast majority of compound nouns form their plurals by adding “s” to the

principle word

Example:

He now has two mothers-in-law (plural of mother-in-law)

They were visited by the Knights Templar (plural of Knight Templar)

Jerry had attended over a dozen courts-martial (plural of court-martial)

1.2.5.2 No principle word

«3 Ss

When there is no obvious principal word, add “‘s” or “es” to the end of the compound nouns

Forget-me-nots make a wonderful present (plural of forget-me-not)

Pack two toothbrushes (plural of toothbrush)

Some compound nouns have no obvious base word and you may need to consult a dictionary to find the plural:

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With compound nouns made of noun + noun, the second noun take an -s for plural The first noun acts like an adjective:

100 trees with apples 100apple trees

1000 cables for telephones 1000 telephone cables

1.2.6 Hyphens

Use a hyphen to eliminate ambiguity:

There are no specific rules on forming compound nouns For example “ink-

well” can also written “ink well” or “inkwell”-all are correct spellings However,

you should use hyphen to eliminate ambiguity Ambiguity is particularly prevalent when the first word of the pairing is a substance (like water or ink)

Examples:

e Ice-axe makes it clear that the axe is not made of ice

e Paper-clip/ paper clip

If the clip were made of paper, paper clip could be used

e Plastic wire-fastener

A fastener made of plastic not wire

There is also ambiguity when the first word of the pairing ends “ing”

Examples:

e Changing-room/ changing room

Changing-room makes it clear that the room is not changing

e Laughing-gas/ laughing gas

Laughing-gas makes it clear that the gas is not laughing

1.2.7 Possessive of compound nouns

The basic rules of possessive nouns:

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Rule 1: Add an ‘s to make a singular noun possessive

Example: I pick up my father-in-law’s backpack off the floor

Rule 2: Add an ‘ to make a plural noun possessive

Example: the young soldiers’ uniforms were ready to be worn

Rule 3: add an ‘s to a plural noun that does not end in s

For example: these women’s bedrooms were very untidy

1.2.8 Function

1.2.8.1 As a subject

According to Randolph Quick (1976) in the book A University Grammar of

English, a subject is normally a noun or a clause with a nominal function

The bathtub in the kids’ bathroom is full

An appositive is a word that renames a noun that it is adjacent to, such as:

“Suzie, my lovely dog, ran down the street.”

1.2.8.5 As an object complement

A compound noun can be an object complement, which follows the noun or pronoun it modifies An example is “We elected his son-in-law mayor.”

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CHAPTER TWO: COMMON ERRORS IN COMPOUND NOUNS

This chapter presents the finding of the practical research with the students

of Course 37-Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University number 2 It falls into three sections Section II.1 deals with the survey questionnaire, which was designed to map out some common errors made by the students of Course 37- Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University number 2 Section II.2 presents common errors and causes Section II.3 provides students and teachers with some suggested solutions to minimize the errors in compound nouns

II.1 Survey

As it was mentioned in chapter one, the study does not only help students of

English have deep insight into the compound nouns but also find out errors in the

use of compound nouns Due to the framework of a thesis, to show all the mistakes made students at all educational level is impossible Therefore, this thesis is only focused on common errors in compound nouns made by the students of Coursse 37-Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University number 2 To find out the errors made by those students, a survey questionnaire was conducted

II.1.1 Purpose of the survey

The overall objectives of the survey questionnaire are to test students’ understanding of the compound nouns and find out common errors made by the

students of K37-Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University N,.2 in the

school year of 2012/2013

11.1.2 Population of the survey

The number of students joining in the survey questionnaire is one hundred at Hanoi Pedagogical University N,.2 They have to learn English as a compulsory subject Most of them have been learning English for 5 years Some have learnt English for 8 years Therefore, the expected English level among them is

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intermediate Naturally, they have been taught the rules of compound nouns Some

of them are really good at grammar, but some of them are bad at grammar in

general and compound nouns concord in particular

11.1.3 Type of the survey

To collect data, a completion test was used It involves such activities as choosing the correct answer, supplying the correct form of the verb, rewriting the sentence and indicating the word having different spelling way

11.1.4 Construction of the survey

The material used in the test was taken from grammar books high-school finals and other exams concerned with the compound nouns The survey has seven

exercises

1) Exercise 1: Choose the underlined word spelled different from others This exercise consists of five items

2) Exercise 2: Choose the correct answer

There are five items in this exercise

3) Exercise 3: Match a word from the left with a word from the right to form compound nouns

This exercise has six items

4) Exercise 4: Give plural forms of these compound nouns

This exercise consists of nine items

5) Exercise 5: Choose the best answers

There are ten items in this exercise

6) Exercise 6: Choose one suitable words

There are ten items in this exercise

7) Exercise 7: Choose and circle the ten compound nouns from the list

There are ten items in this exercise

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H.1.5 Preparation of the survey

11.1.5.1 Test items

There are many possible errors in the use of compound nouns that a survey

can not find out Thus, it is necessary to predict possible errors and include them in

the survey In this survey, possible errors were classified into the following categories

1) Errors in the use of using stress in the compound nouns

2) Errors in the use of combining words to make the compound nouns

3) Errors in the use of using plural forms of compounds nouns

4) Errors in the use of compound nouns as other parts of speech

5) Errors in the use of hyphens between two elements of compound nouns 6) Errors in the use of possessive of compound nouns

11.1.5.2 Arrange of the survey

After being classified, the test items were arranged into the following numbers:

1) Test on the use of stress in the compound nouns, number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 2) Test on combining words to make the compound nouns, number 6, 7, 8, 9,