a contrastive analysis of english and vietnamese verb phrases

They may be word phrases such as noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase and adverb phrase, etc.. all the similarities and differences of the verb phrase in English and Vietnamese so

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In our globalization, the need for developing the relationship between Vietnam and other countries has resulted in a great demand for language studying, especially English studying throughout the country However, English and Vietnamese are two different languages English has different characteristics from those of Vietnamese, for example the grammar, the vocabulary, the pronunciation, the meaning, etc Anyway, whenever talking about characteristics of any language, we should mention the components forming the sentence of that language They may be word phrases such as noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase and adverb phrase, etc Therefore,

in order to have a deep look about the verb phrase of English as well as of

Vietnamese, I decide to make a research with the topic “A contrastive

analysis of English and Vietnamese verb phrases” In this topic, I will

present some general characteristics of the verb phrase in English and Vietnamese The purpose of presenting them is to discuss the similarities and differences between them in two aspects: form and meaning Also, I provide some implications for studying the verb phrase effectively in Vietnam I hope that this research will help you distinguish the similarities

as well as the differences between verb phrases of the two languages Above all, I do this research with the hope that it can help my readers clearer about

all the similarities and differences of the verb phrase in English and Vietnamese so that they can avoid making mistakes in their translation between these two languages

2 Scope of the assignment

Due to the duration of time and the length as well as the references available, this assignment does focus on the forms and meanings of the verb phrase in English and Vietnamese The scope of contrastive analysis is based on the following principles and aspects:

- Contrastive analysis of signs and appearances

- Contrastive analysis of meanings of components

- Contrastive analysis of forms

3 Methods of the study

In studying process we have discussed and decided together some methods such as collecting information and data from the Internet, books, websites and finding document from the library Apart from that, we have done exercises and discussed in group In addition, we also consult suggestions from the teacher and ask for advice from the friends To achieve the above aims, we also used to analyze and contrast a lot of verb phrases in English and Vietnamese

II PART B

DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1

LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Theoretical Background

1.1 What is the verb phrase?

There are many definitions of verb phrases in every aspect Firstly, it is necessary to understand what is verbs and phrase According to Fundamentals of English Traditional Syntax adapted by Tran Huu Manh indicates “A verb is a word (or a part of speech) used to denote action or state, or, otherwise help to complete the meaning of the verb phrase” (Tran,

2008, p.35) In addition, a phrase is a group of words that have a function in

a sentence; however, it does not have a subject and verb If it had a subject and a verb, it would be a clause Phrases can function in the sentence like nouns, adverbs, or adjectives Moreover, as Wikipedia in 2009 defined that

in linguistics, a verb phrase is a syntactic structure composed of the predicative elements of a sentence and its function is to provide information about the subject of the sentence In the generative grammar framework, the verb phrase is a phrase headed by a verb A verb phrase may be constructed from a single verb; often, however, the verb phrase will consist of various combinations of the main verb and any auxiliary verbs, plus optional specifiers, complements, and adjuncts Especially, a verb phrase concludes three parts: the main verb, the pre-additive elements and the post-elements that express an action or state of being

1.2 The verb phrase in English

According to Kies (2009), an English verb phrase consists of a head verb, its

auxiliaries, its complements, and other modifiers In general, it has two

functional parts: the auxiliary verbs and the main verbs (lexical verbs).

1.2.1 The auxiliary verbs

The auxiliary verb is the grammatical morpheme carrying information about mood, tense, modality, and voice

The mood system in English is divided into four subcategories.

+ The indicative mood conveys to the listeners that the speaker is making

a statement, referring to the real world in an honest, direct, relevant way One way in which it’s easier for learner to realize the indicative mood is thanks to the word order When the auxiliaries take their "usual" position following the “subject”, we consider a clause as being in the indicative mood

For example:

A: When will you stop by?

B: Sometime after dinner

+ The interrogative mood signals the speakers' desire for information by

asking a question or interrogating the listeners The interrogative is marked by starting a clause or a sentence with an auxiliary verb (can,

could, may, might, should, etc) or an interrogative pronoun (who, what, etc) Another signal that can help us realize the interrogative is the question mark at the end of the sentence

Can Rachel recognize him?

Who will dance with Rachel?

+ The imperative mood expresses the speaker’s sense of a command, a

request, or an exhortation If it is seen a base verb in a clause or a sentence in the initial position, it will be an imperative:

Forget that!

Be polite with your teacher

+ The subjunctive mood expresses the speakers’ sense of the unlikely things

such as a wish, a prayer or a hope It describes hypothetical or unreal situations Speakers signal the subjunctive by using an auxiliary to begin subordinate clauses or using subordinators that overtly mark hypothetical conditions

Had I seen you at the party, I’d have introduced you my boyfriend.

If I had a lot of money, I’d opened a café.

- Tense systems mark time Tense is an inflection on the verb that indicates

the time reference of the expression

In English, the first verb of a verb phrase is marked for tense, called “finite” verb Verbs that do not carry a tense inflection (such as participles) are called “nonfinite” verbs English has three tenses: past, present and future In

most English verbs, the -ed inflection marks the past tense, the -s inflection

marks the present tense Meanwhile, before the base verb, modal auxiliary

verbs (like will) or phrasal verbs (like is going to - often phonologically reduced to gonna) are used in order to refer to the future tense Actually,

looking at the formation of the future tense, people commonly call the

“future” in English is really a part of the modality system of the language

She went to school yesterday ( Past tense) She often goes to school by bus ( Present tense)

She will go to school tomorrow ( Future tense)

Verbs, using both the -s and -ed forms are known as “regular” verbs.

According to marking time, those verbs employ the most common and

productive inflection, such as look/ looked, like/ liked, try/ tried “Irregular

verbs”, on the other hand, fall into seven subcategories For examples, they

employ a number of inflections (such as -en for the participle inflection as in

broken, written, taken) or in some classes employ no participle inflections at

all (such as put as in “ Rachel put the book on the table yesterday”/ “Rachel

puts the book on the table”/ “Rachel has put the book on the table”)

- The modality system expresses the speakers’ sense of obligation, volition,

probability, permission, and ability When you see a formation including modal auxiliary and base verb, it is a modality

Rachel (must/ should) go ("Obligation")

Rachel will stop that immediately! ("Volition")

Rachel (may/ might) go ("Probability")

Rachel (can/ may) go ("Permission")

Rachel (can/ could) do it ("Ability")

Rachel will do it tomorrow ("Future") (The modal will also express a

'future' sense.)

The modality system also includes a class of auxiliary verbs called semi-auxiliaries (or semi-modals or quasi-modals) They often take the form of

BE + PARTICIPLE + TO The semi-auxiliaries, starting with be, do not

need do in order to support in negation or question formation, but most of

the others do

- Aspect expresses either the completion or the continuation of the process

indicated by the verb in English

- The perfect aspect which expresses the speakers' sense of completion, is signaled by the use of a form of the auxiliary have and the -ed participle or irregular participle (have + V-ed/3).

Rachel has just finished her homework.

Rachel had gone to bed before her parents went home.

- The progressive aspect, which expresses the speakers' sense of

continuation, is signaled by the use of a form of the auxiliary be and the -ing participle (be + V-ing)

Rachel is listening to music at the moment.

- Voice systems allow speakers to view the action of the sentence in different

ways without changing the meaning

English has two voices, active and passive The passive voice is signaled by

the use of a form of be and the -ed participle (be + V-ed)

Rachel has read the book four 2 days (Active voice)

The book has been read in four 2 days by Rachel (Passive voice)

In the active sentence, we can see the event from the perspective of the doer (Rachel), but in the passive sentence, we see the event from the perspective

of the goal (the book)

- English also employs the verb do to function as a supporting auxiliary in verb phrases In other words, we need do in negation and question

formation

Rachel loves Joe

Rachel doesn’t love Joe.

Does Rachel love Joe?

1.2.2 The main verbs

The most important part in a verb phrase is the head word We call them main verbs or lexical verbs The main verb is a lexical morpheme carrying its lexical information and, usually, an inflection In English, the main verb includes five types:

- Intransitive verbs are the verbs used without direct object such as come, go, move and so on; for example, “Rachel has just move”

- Intensive verbs are the verbs used with complement or adverb such as to

be, become

Rachel becomes more attractive than ever

- Monotransitive verbs are the verbs used with direct object such as buy, sell

Rachel has just sold her house

- Complex transitive verbs: the verbs are used with direct object and

complement or adverb such as paint, call, vote, appoint, elect

Rachel calls her dog Jack

Rachel paints her room black

- Distransitive verbs: the verbs are used with indirect object and direct object such as give, offer, bring

Rachel gives Joe a piece of cake

+ Distransive verb: gives

+ Direct object: Joe

+ Indirect object: a piece of cake

To sum up, in any English verb phrases, auxiliary is an optional component but main verb is always an obligatory component

1.3 The verb phrase in Vietnamese

Verb phrases in Vietnamese include three elements: central element, pre-additive element and post-pre-additive element

- The central element of Vietnamese verb phrases is divided into five groups

Group 1: This kind of verb usually goes with other verbs, not standing

alone It includes many different types:

● Modal verbs: phải, nên, cần, dám, có thể, sẽ, định

Anh ta cần mua một cái bàn.

Cần is the central element.

● Passive: bị, được, mắc, phải

Cô ấy được tuyên dương.

Được is the central element.

● Verb phrases with two parallelly existential actions: đứng khóc, nằm ngủ,

đi học, đi chơi, ngồi nghe

Anh ta nằm ngủ trên ghế sofa.

Nằm ngủ is the central element.

● Verb phrases with two actions described by two verbs but the second verb

is an additive element in sense: ăn đứng, ngã ngồi, đặt nằm, chết đứng

Vấp hòn đá, nó ngã ngồi.

Ngã is the central element and ngồi is the additive element.

Group 2: Verbs always go with additive elements.

● Verbs describing sense of moving: mở, dậy, kéo, đến, xuống, đi, bưng…

Chị tôi đi đến câu lạc bộ tiếng Anh.

Đi is the central element and đến is additive element.

● Verbs describing sense of achieving results: hiểu ra, đọc xong, bay mất, nhặt lấy, thu được, tìm thấy

Tôi đã tìm thấy cái ví.

Tìm is the central element and thấy is the additive element.

● Verbs describing sense of affecting two objects: cho, tặng, biếu, lấy, mượn, vay, cầm, xin, gửi

Minh mượn Trí chiếc xe đạp.

+ Central element: mượn

+ Object 1: Trí

+ Object 2: chiếc xe đạp

● Verbs describing sense of governing two objects The subject orders the object: bảo, sai, bắt, cho phép, buộc, khiến

Cô ấy bắt tôi nói ra sự thật.

Bắt is the central element.

● Verbs describing sense of governing an object and connecting with

another object: trộn, pha, nối, chắp, hòa

Pha cà phê với sữa.

+ Pha is the central element.

+ Cà phê and sữa are objects

● Verbs describing sense of governing additive elements The structure which is used is “A is B” with the meaning of evaluating: coi, bầu, lấy, xem, cử…

Xem anh là đối tác

Lấy anh làm gương

Group 3: Combination verbs: chạy ra chạy vào, bàn qua bàn lại, đi ngược

về xuôi, trèo lên tụt xuống

Cô ấy chạy ra chạy vào phục vụ khách.

Group 4: Verbs describing sense of the state or a period of an action: bắt

đầu học, tiếp tục đi, thôi nói, hết chạy, ngừng học

Cô ấy ngừng học piano.

Group 5: Verbs describing sense of mood: lo lắng, bồn chồn, thoi thóp, thấp

Cô ấy bồn chồn đứng ngồi không yên.

- Pre -additive element includes following groups:

● Words indicating sense of continuation of activity or state: đều, cũng, vẫn,

cứ, lại, mãi, tiếp tục

Họ tiếp tục thảo luận về đề tài đó.

Tiếp tục is the pre-additive element of the verb phrase “tiếp tục thảo luận”.

● Words indicating the time of action or state: từng, đã, vừa, mới, đang, sẽ

Mẹ tôi đang nấu ăn.

Đang is the pre -additive element of the verb phrase “đang nấu ăn”.

● Words indicating the frequency: thường, hay, năng, ít, đôi khi, thỉnh thoảng

Anh ta ít khi gọi cho tôi.

Ít khi is the pre-additive element of the verb phrase “ít khi gọi”.

● Words indicating the negation or affirmation: không, chưa, chẳng, chỉ

Tôi không muốn liên quan gì với anh ta.

Không is the pre-additive element.

● Words indicating the order: hãy, đừng, chớ

Chớ xem thường người khác

Chớ is the pre-additive element of the verb phrase “chớ xem thường”

● Words indicating the level: rất, hơi, khí, quá

Anh ta quá nóng tính khi cư xử như vậy.

Quá is the pre -additive element.

- Post - additive element of verb phrases is very complicated in terms of word, formation and meanings

● Words: Noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, adverb, number can stand after verb