Word order in english and vietnamese SVC structures (a constrastive analysis)

The basic word order and the changes of word order in English and Vietnamese SVC structures will be presented in the examples of the literature works from 19th century up to now.. This c

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

-



-

TRAN THI HUONG

WORD ORDER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

SVC STRUCTURES (A contrastive analysis) TRẬT TỰ TỪ TRONG CẤU TRÚC SVC

TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

(Phân tích đối chiếu) M.A THESIS

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that no part of the enclosed Master Thesis has been copied or reproduced 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, 30 - 10 - 2013

Candidate

APPROVED BY

I owe deep gratitude to my supervisor: Ms Pham Thi Tuyet Huong, (Ph.D) whose endless guidance and insightful assistance helped me throughout the writing of this research

Additional thanks go to the students who actively participated in this study and willingly shared their experiences with me

My heartfelt thanks and a special debt of gratitude go to my family and my friends for their love and support to a daughter, a friend whose mind was not always free to give the attention they needed

I would like to thank all people who took part in achieving this work

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research question 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1 5

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1.Review of the previous study 5

1.2 Theoretical background 9

1.2.1 Definition of word order 9

1.2.2 Definition of simple sentence 9

1.2.3 Basic English and Vietnamese simple sentence structure 10

1.2.3.1 Basic English simple sentence structure 10

1.2.3.2.Basic Vietnamese simple sentence structure 12

1.2.3.2 Summary 16

CHAPTER 2WORD ORDER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESESVC STRUCTURES 18

2.1 Word order in English SVC structures 18

2.1.1 English SVC structure 18

2.1.1.1 Syntactic features and semantic roles of Subject (S) 18

2.1.1.2 Syntactic features and semantic roles of intensive verb (V) 24

2.1.1.3 Syntactic features and semantic roles of Complement (C) 25

2.1.2 The variants of word order in English SVC structure 29

2.1.2.1 The variant of word order: CSV 29

2.1.2.2 The variant of word order: CVS 35

2.1.2.3 Summary 38

2.2.Word order in Vietnamese SVC structure 39

2.2.1 Vietnamese SVC structure 39

2.2.2 The variants of word order in Vietnamese SVC structure 42

2.3 The similarities and differences of word order between English and Vietnamese SVC structure 43

2.3.1 The similarities of word order between English and Vietnamese SVC structure 43

2.3.2 The differences of word order between English and Vietnamese SVC structures 45

2.4.Summary 45

CHAPTER 3MAIN REASONS OF THE CHANGES OF WORD ORDER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE SVC STRUCTURES 47

3.1 The speaker/writer wants to emphasize the topic of the sentence 47

3.2 The speaker/writer wants to express his/her feelings 50

3.3 The speaker/writer wants to give the cohesion of content in the discourse 54

3.4 Summary 57

CHAPTER 4IMPLICATION OF THE STUDY 59

4.1 Prediction of some types of errorsin the study of word order and causes of these errors 59

4.1.1 Definition of error 59

4.1.2 Some mistakes of learners in translating English into Vietnamese and vice versa 60

4.2 Some suggestions for learning and teaching word order in SVC structures to Vietnamese students and teachers 64

4.3 Some suggested exercises for teaching word order to Vietnamese students

65

PART III: CONCLUSION 69

1 Recapitulation 69

2 Limitations of the study 71

3.Suggestions for a further study 72

REFERENCES 73

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays, learning and teaching English play an essential role in education and training When we study any foreign language, the study of grammatical structure in general and sentence structure in particular is very important, no matter how much the rules change, as it is what makes it possible for us all to communicate and understand what we see, and what we say The English language is made up of structures such as Subject – Verb – Object, Subject – Verb – Complement, Subject – Verb – Indirect object – Direct object, etc Technically, one needs to know these structures in order to write and speak English well

In the study of grammar structure, the word order is universal concept

of linear structure in any analytical languages such as English Word order in general term is used in linguistics and literature to refer to the arrangement of words in a given linguistic structure It is one of grammatical means that attracts the attention from many English linguists

Moreover, the word order in English sentence structure in general and SVC structure in particular is one of the most important parts in English grammar Beside word order, the reasons of the changes of word order in English SVC structure have not been paid much attention to And hence the similarities and differences of word order in English and Vietnamese SVC structures have not been written about

In addition, word order in English sentence structure is a difficult topic for teachers and students to teach and learn in English grammar Therefore, some teachers and students have omitted or have notprovided fully necessary

knowledge for this kind of structure On the other hand, in process of teaching English, we realize that Vietnamese students often make mistakes when using the word order in English SVC structure In order to overcome this situation

we need to distinguish the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese SVC structures We hope the results of this study will help learners write and speak both languages effectively; especially they will have

a good knowledge about word order of SVC structures

For this reason, I would like to carry out my research on the topic: WORD ORDER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE SVC STRUCTURES

(A contrastive analysis)

2 Aims of the study

The main aims of the thesis are to:

• Present word order in English SVC structures and the main reasons for the changes of word order

• Present word order in Vietnamese SVC structures and the main reasons for the changes of word order

• Point out some similarities and differences between the word order in English and Vietnamese SVC structures

• Predict some errorsin the study of word order in English SVC structures and give solutions

• Give some suggestions in learning and teaching English SVC structure including: How to learn and teach SVC structure and some suggested exercises for teaching word order to Vietnamese learners

3 Research question

• What are word orders of English and Vietnamese SVC

structures?

• What are the similarities and differences of word order between

English and Vietnamese SVC structures?

• What are the main reasons for the changes word order in English

and Vietnamese SVC structures?

• What are the common errorsof learners in using SVC structures?

• What are some suggestions for learning and teaching English and

Vietnamese SVC structures?

4 Scope of the study

The study focuses on SVC structures in both languages in simple sentences The basic word order and the changes of word order in English and Vietnamese SVC structures will be presented in the examples of the literature works from 19th century up to now

5 Methods of the study

The main methods of this thesis are description, comparison and contrastive analysis The study will take English as the basic language and Vietnamese is the language to be compared

The data used for this study come from some English and Vietnamese novels and poems All the data are classified and organized in different groups of their syntactic structure

In addition, the translation exercises are chosen to identify what are some errors of students in the studying of word order? The research is done

on more than 100 Hanoi Open University students to find the result

6 Design of the study

This thesis is divided into three parts:

Part I: Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the research by firstly presenting rationale of the study, the aims and the research questions of the study Then, the scope of the study is pointed out Next, the methods of the study and the organization of the thesis are outlined

Part II: Development (consists of four chapters)

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

This chapter provides a theoretical framework for the study of word order in English and Vietnamese, including definitions of word order, definition and types of basic English and Vietnamese simple sentence structure in general and SVC structure in particular

Chapter 2: Word order in English and Vietnamese SVC structures

The study will emphasize on the changes of word order in English and Vietnamese SVC structures The word order variations in SVC structures will

be found and analyzed in literature examples

According to the word order variations, the study will analyze the similarities and differences of word order between English and Vietnamese SVC structures

Chapter 3: Main reasons of the changes of word order in English and Vietnamese SVC structures

The study will present some main reasons of the variants of word order

in English and Vietnamese SVC structures

Chapter 4: Implications of the study

This chapter predicts some problems in the used of word order in SVC structures and suggests some solutions and exercises for students and teachers

in learning and teaching English in general and word order in SVC structures

in particular

Part III: Conclusion

This part will give a brief summary of the thesis and some main conclusions of the thesis It also includes the limitations and suggestions for further study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Review of the previous study

In some languages, word order is almost as important as the words used

in specifying meaning while other languages permit a wide variety

of word orders because the words themselves carry the most meaning In literature, words are ordered differently in different situations in order to create a particular sound or rhythm, or to subtly alter the possible meaning of

a given phrase Poets, in particular, must often manipulate word order to achieve the desired rhyme and rhythm schemes It has been an interesting topic for study all over the world In fact, word order has been dealt with by many linguists in both English and Vietnamese

Quirk R & Greenbaum S (1976) in A University Grammar of English

wrote about sentence components word order They stated general rules about the construction of sentences and pointed out five elements of a sentence: Subject (S), Verb (V), Complement (C), Object (O) and Adverbial (A) In basic order, the subject precedes the verb, the object follows the verb The indirect object always precedes the direct object For example:

(1) He had given the girlan apple (7: 13)

Beside Quirk R & Greenbaum S (1976), Susan Steele(1976) in Word

order variation: A typological study research presented that “all languages have a dominant word order, a surface ordering of subject, object and verb

relative to one another is at least more common than other possible orders…… Most languages allow variations on their basic word order.” (9: 587) The author examined the word order variation in 63 languages all over the world The languages were selected with both genetic and typological diversity The research focused on main clauses – the word order of constituents in a phrase and the order of morphemes in a word The study focused on declarative and non – declarative main clauses (questions and imperative, etc.) Susan Steele examined the term variation in English sentence with a topicalized Object noun The author found that transitive sentences involving more constituents have more variations in word order She examined in the SOV languages and found not only the basic order SOV but also OSV, SVO, VSO and VOS On the other hand, in SVO languagesshe also found the word order variation including: VOS, VSO, SOV, and OSV Finally, in VSO languages she found some variations: VOS, SVO, OVS, and OSV

In addition, Laura Caballero Benito (2009) researched on topic:

study are to find Object and Complement fronting structures in contemporary English and main pragmatic aspects in discourse Construction of fronting is one of word order variations Benito divided the sentences in two groups: Object fronting (2) and Complement fronting (3) For example:

(2) People I’ve known for years (2: 28)

(3) Jack his name was anyhow (2: 33)

The study also found that the Object fronting structures are more used than Complement fronting structures

In Vietnamese, many linguists paid a lot of attention to the word order For example, in the book “Ly thuyet ve trat tu tu trong cu phap” (2004), Ly Toan Thang considered the word order theory in phrase, sentence and

utterance He researched the function of word order not only in syntactic but also in semantic and pragmatic features

Le Quang Thiem (2008) with the book “Nghien cuu đoi chieu cac ngon ngu” presented the contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese sentence components He pointed out the similarities and differences between two languages English and Vietnamese sentence has four elements which are similar including: Subject, Verb, Object, Adverb and Complement In addition, Vietnamese sentence has two elements: Theme and modality which are not in English

In addition to the study of word order, there are a number of authors studying about word order such as: Pham Thi Tuyet Huong (2001) studied on the word order in English and Vietnamese verb phrases She carried out a contrastive analysis in the syntactic aspect English is the basic language and Vietnamese is the language to be compared The thesis gave a systemic description of the word order in English and Vietnamese Verb phrases For example, in English Verb phrases preceding elements are auxiliary verbs These verbs have certain order without any changes Following elements of English Verb phrase are complicated They have open structures They can be

a noun, an adjective, an infinitive, an adverb etc After describing the word order in English and Vietnamese verb phrase, the thesis found some main similarities and differences between them and gave some suggestions for teaching and learning languages

According to Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa (2004) with Doctoral thesis:

“Structure and Meaning in English Inversion versus Vietnamese”, the nature

of English inversion on the domains of syntax, semantics and pragmatics was classified The thesis studied English inversion in declarative sentences The thesis emphasized on the word order in types of inversion in both languages Beside the thesis showed the similarities and differences between inversions

in English and Vietnamese The study found that in both languages there is a

similarity in “Prepositional phrase + Verb + Noun Phrase” In English and Vietnamese sentences, the initial position plays an important role in emphasis and cohesion On the other hand, the difference between two languages is on the syntactic structures and the role in sentence components The thesis systematizes the patterns of the inversion in English declarative sentences and also examined three functions of English inversion: the presentational function, the emphatic function, and the cohesive function Inversion is a syntax process and it makes the changes of word order in a sentence In her thesis, the change of word order in SVC structure in full inversion into CVS structure was presented

Generally, most of studies in English and Vietnamese are only investigations into the word order in general or in SVO, verb phrases, or inversion particularly Although considerable research has been devoted to the study of word order in English and Vietnamese sentence structure, less attention has been to the variants in word order of SVC structure In this thesis I would like to study the word order in English SVC structure more deeply It is hope that what comes out of this study might provide useful practical knowledge for teachers and learners of English

1.2 Theoretical background

1.2.1 Definition of word order

A http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sentence points out that word order is the way in which words are arranged in sequence in a sentence or smaller construction

Word order refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents

Ly Toan Thang (2004) stated that word order is not only in words but also in word – formation (morpheme and sound) in compound word For examples: comparing: vợ chồng – chồng vợ, ông cha – cha ông, etc On the other hand, word order is also in a group of words For example: comparing: róc rách chảy – chảy róc rách Finally, word order is the order of clause in compound sentence For example: comparing:

Nếu trời không mưa thì tôi sẽ đi

Tôi sẽ đi, nếu trời không mưa. (25: 8)

1.2.2 Definition of simple sentence

A Sentence is a grammatical unit of one or more words that expresses

an independent statement, question, request, command, exclamation, etc (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sentence)

According to Quirk, R & Greenbaum, S(1985) “A simple sentence consists of a single independent clause.” (8: 719)

Greenbaum, S (1996) defined that “A simple sentence consists of one

main clause, without any subordinate clauses: No fingerprints were found

anywhere in the house.” (4: 632)

According to Diep Quang Ban (1998, 2011), A sentence is the

language unit which has independent inner and outer grammatical structure and ending intonation It bears a relatively complete thought or the speaker’s attitude, or only displaying the speaker’s attitude, which helps form, show and communicate ideas and affection A sentence is the smallest information unit (11: 106)

1.2.3 Basic English and Vietnamese simple sentence structure 1.2.3.1 Basic English simple sentence structure

Traditionally, sentences have been divided into two parts: Subject and Predicate The predicate includes verb and its complements.For example: (4) John carefully searched the room (7:10)

Subject Predicate

Nowadays, there are many theories about sentence structure Modern English divides sentence with many components According to Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S (1976), the elements of sentence structure include five units: Subject (S), Verb (V), Complement (C), Object (O) and Adverbial (A) And there are three kinds of sentence: simple, compound and complex All the kinds can be analyzed in terms of S, V, O, C and A They stated seven basic sentence types:

(8)I put the plate on the table (7:167)

S V(complex trans.) Od A(place)

According to Greenbaum, S (1996), “A sentence consisting of just one clause is a simple sentence.” He pointed out five elements of sentence structure including: Subject (S), Verb (V), Object (O), Predicative (P), and Adverbials (A) – which is optional constituent of the sentence They encountered five basic sentence structures:

1.2.3.2.Basic Vietnamese simple sentence structure

In Vietnamese, there are some linguists who study sentence components deeply such as: Diep Quang Ban, Hoang Trong Phien, Nguyen Minh Thuyet and Cao Xuan Hao, etc According to Nguyen Minh Thuyet and Nguyen Van Hiep (2004) Vietnamese sentence has main components and

sub- components The main component includes: Subject (S), predicate (V) and Object (O) For example:

(17) Anh ấy 30 tuổi

sub Theme complement For example:

(20) Gã tình nhân vô liêm sỉ ấy, Từ đã yêu hắn bằng cả tấm lòng yêu

lúc ban đầu.

- Modal phrase For example:

(21)Cô nên vào trong nhà thì hơn

- Attribute For example:

(22) Đằng thằng ra, người khác chỉ học có ba năm

- Adverbial For example:

(23) Chị nhịn ăn đã hai ngày

Nguyen Minh Thuyet also presents kinds of basic sentence components He divided its kind into syntax structure and the representative function for whole sentence The division is shown in the table below

+ Complex basic two component sentence (26) Example: “Nếu trời mưa / thì tôi đọc

sách.”

2 The

representative function

for whole sentence

- Simple basic one component sentence (27) Example: “Sáng chủ nhật mưa.”

- Complex basic one component component

(28) Example: “Buổi chiều, nắng vừa

nhạt, sương đã buông khắp mặt biển.”

Nguyen Minh Thuyet (2004)

According to Panfilov V.S (2008), the division of Vietnamese simple sentences according to their morphology and semantics is based on the division of predicative groups and their ways of expression And this divison

is carried out with the first word order of sentence (23: 359) He divided into six kinds of Vietnamese simple sentence structures as the table below:

Simple sentence structures Examples

1 Intransitive structure

expresses the state of subject The

predicative group is ended by

predicator

(29) Nó ngủ

(30) Trong hầm vắng vẻ

2 Transitive structure

expresses interaction of subject and

object The predicate group is

expressed by a noun phrase

(31) Nó xây nhà

(32) Tôi tìm người quen

3 Existencial structure

expresses the things which the subject

cannot control The predicative group

(33) Nó hết tiền

(34) Cây rừng trọi lá

is expressed by group of predicate

quantitative meaning The predicate

has a set of numbers

(37) Nó hai mươi tuổi

(38) Thời gian học là 18

tháng

6 Strucuture expresses

positioning meaning The predicate

includes location words

(39) Bố tôi ngoài vườn

(40) Anh ta trong đội du kích

xã

Panfilov V.S (2008)

In “Ngữ pháp Việt Nam – phần câu” (2009), Diep Quang Ban divided

declarative sentence into twelve kinds of sentence The groups depend on clause syntactic structure and state of affairs of sentence components in Vietnamese Twelve kinds of sentence are divided into two main groups: sentence has subject and sentence has no subject

a) Sentence has subject

- Sentence with verbal, adjectival, and nominal meaning.For example:

(41) Bà Hai đi chợ

(42) Trăng sáng quá

(43) Anh này kĩ sư đấy

- Sentence with dependent, relative words; copular verb “là”,

prepositions such as tại, bởi, do, etc.For example:

(44) Cầu thủ giỏi nhất ở đây là người này

(45) Việc này tại Giáp

(46) Bài thơ này do một bạn thơ trẻ làm

- Causative sentence For example:

(47) Bão đổ cây

- Subjunctive sentence For example:

(48) Giám đốc buộc nó nghỉ việc

- Sentence with subject – instrument For example:

(49) Giấy này in báo

- The whole – part components sentence For example:

(50) Cây này vàng lá

- Sentence with inversion structure For example:

(51) Thùng đầy nước Nước đầy thùng

- Sentence with theme component For example:

(52) Tôi thì tôi xin chịu

- Passive sentence For example:

(53) Tranh được chủ nhà treo đầy tường

b) Sentence has no subject

- Existencial sentence For example:

(54) Trên tường treo mấy bức tranh

- Vocatives For example:

(55) Anh em ơi! Bất chấp gian nguy…

(56) Em gì ấy ơi!

(57) Sen đâu?

(58) Dạ

- Exclamation For example:

(59) Chà ! Cỗ to đấy nhỉ? Đằng ấy hóa ra lại …bở!

1.2.3.2 Summary

After studying Vietnamese sentence theory of some linguists, we found that:

- Vietnamese is anisolated and non-inflectional language

- Word order and functional grammatical words have an important

role in making Vietnamese sentence

- Word order in Vietnamese sentence is very strict, but the word

order can be changed It depends on the intentions of speakers or writers

According to the classification, we give out the similar structure of SVC sentence in English and Vietnamese In English, the role of subject complement is attribution of the subject The verb is copula For example:

(61) Sống trong cảnh giàu sang chắc chắn, Tâm không bao giờ nghĩ

đến quê nhà nữa Hoặc có nghĩ đến, chỉ để lại tự chế giễu mình Khi còn nhỏ,

đã cho cái đời ở thôn quê là giản dị và sung sướng. (36: 23)

- Basic two component sentence with nominal predicate (with copula or not) For example:

(62) Nó sẽ còn chà nhiều trận nữa chớ Tụi nó dư biết đấy là căn cứ

của mình Nó biết mọi cuộc đấu tranh tràn vô thị xã đều xuất phát từ đây Vả lại, Hòn Đất là một điểm nằm trong khu vực tập trận của khối xâm lược Đông

S V C Nam A.(33:

18)

- Sentence expresses career with copula “là” For example:

(63) Vợ anh là con bác khan thủ làng trên Anh là phu tuần Hai

người lấy

S V C

nhau, cả hai làng, ai cũng khen là vợ chồng kén chọn được chỗ xứng đáng. (34: 133)

CHAPTER 2 WORD ORDER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(64) For example: His brother grew happier gradually

“A Noun phrase has as its head a noun, a pronoun, a nominal adjective

or a numeral.” (4:221) Greenbaum (1996) states that a noun phrase has a noun as a head which is often introduced by article (a, an, the, and Ø) and other determiners A noun phrase also has modifier (pre - modification and post – modification) which add information for the head Subject is one of functions of noun phrase Other functions of noun phrase such as: direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object complement, etc For example:

(65) The book (23:19)

Determiner Head noun

(Definite article) (Countable noun)

(66) Double your salary (23:19)

Pre-determiner Determiner Head noun

(Multipliers) (Possessive) (Noun)

- Complex noun phrase:

(67) The pretty blackish girl who you met on the way here (23:

32)

Pre – modification Head Post – modification

Adjective Clause

(68) The pretty girl who became angry is Mary Smith (7: 59)

“Nominal clause can have a range of functions similar to those of noun phrase.” (4: 330) According to Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S (1976) nominal

clause has seven types and eight different syntactic functions such as: Subject, direct Object, subject Complement, Prepositional Complement, Appositive, object Complement, Adjectival Complement and Indirect Object However, Subject is one of the main functions of nominal clause.For example:

- Nominal relative clause:

(71) What he is looking for is a wife (7: 319)

S

- To – infinitive clause:

(72) For a bridge to collapse like that is unbelievable (4: 320)

S

- V-ing participle clause:

(73) Telling lies is wrong (4: 321)

S

2.1.1.1.2 The position of subject

Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S (1976, 1985) state that: “The Subject normally occurs before the verb in declarative clauses, and after the operator

in Yes – no interrogative clauses.” (8: 724) For example:

(74) She is very beautiful

S V

(75) Is she beautiful?

V S

In addition, Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S (1976) stated that a clausal

subject is often placed at the end of the sentence with introduction “it” The

simple rule for this order is:

“Subject + predicate It + predicate + subject” (7: 423)

2.1.1.1.3 Semantic roles of the subject

According to Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S (1976), subject has some

semantic roles such as: agentive, instrumental, affected, recipient, etc

The most important semantic role of Subject is agentive – “that is, the

animate being instigating or causing the happening denoted by the verb.” (7: 171)

(78) For example: John opened the letter (7: 171)

In addition, the Subject has an instrumental role which expresses

material cause of an event

(79) For example: The avalanche destroyed several house (7: 172)

The Subject also has the affected role that is “elsewhere typical of the

object” (7: 172) The affected role occurs with intransitive and intensive

verb.For example:

(80) The pencil was lying on the table (7: 172)

(81) The pencil was on the table (7: 172)

On the other hand, Subject may have a semantic role as recipient with

some verbs including: have, own, possess, etc.For example:

(82) Mr Smith has bought his son a radio (7: 172)

So now his son has the radio

Other roles of Subject are locative, temporal and eventive The locative role of Subject designs place or time For example:

(83) The bus holds forty people (=Forty people can sit in the bus.) (7:

173)

Temporal subjects can be replaced by “It” and “the temporal expression becoming adjunct.” (7: 173) For example:

(84) The winter of 1970was exceptionally mild (7: 173)

(= It was exceptionally mild in the winter of 1970.)

Eventive subjects have abstract noun heads which design arrangements and activities For example:

(85) The opera will be tonight (7: 240)

“Be” in above example is equivalent to “take place”

Finally, empty “it” subject is used especially with climatic predications.For example:

(86) It is getting dark (7: 173)

On the other hand, the “it” subject can replace a postponed clausal subject “A clausal subject is often placed at the end of the sentence, and the subject position is filled by the anticipatory pronoun it.” (7: 423) For example:

(87) It was nice seeing you (7: 174)

(= Seeing you was nice.)

To – infinitive clause V-ing participle clause

- Initial: The Subject normally occurs before the verb in declarative clauses

- In question: after the operator in Yes – no interrogative clauses

- Final: with empty “it”

subject

Agentive Instrumental Effected Recipient Locative Temporal Eventive Empty “It”

2.1.1.2 Syntactic features and semantic roles of intensive verb (V)

There are different types of verb but Intensive and Extensive are two main types of English verb Intensive verbs always have subject complements On the contrary, extensive verbs always require an object The verb in SVC sentence structure is intensive verb (copula)

The copula has two main classes according to “whether the role of the subject complement is that of current attribute or attribute resulting from the

event described in the verb” (7: 352) They are “Current” copulas such as:

“be, appear, feel, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, taste” and “Resulting” copulas such as: “become, get, go, grow, turn, etc”

According to Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S (1976), the common copulas that allow the widest range as subject complement are “be” for

current attribute and “become” for resulting attribute “Be” is used to

introduce a characterization, attribute of the subject or introduce an identification of the subject.For example:

(88) He was large and rather fat (41: 8)

(89) Perhaps I was wicked (41: 16)

(90) My heart is silent (41: 300)

(91) She is a big girl now (41: 25)

(92) My father is a famous hunter (30: 11)

Another copula is “become” which is used for resulting attribute On

the other case, copula “become” has the same meaning as “be” For example:

(93) She became a teacher at Lowood (41: 280)

(94) Thornfield Hall became quite busy the next day (41: 94)

Copula “feel” can be used with two meaning: “Have a sensation” (the

subject must be personal and the complement is an adjective or noun) (7: 353)

or “give a sensation” (the subject is concrete but without other restriction, the complement is adjective only.) (7: 353) For example:

(95) I feel cold and unhappy (41: 282)

(96) My legs felt warm and wet (41: 47)

(97) The table felt rough (7: 353)

Copula “look” requires a visual feature For example:

(98) He looked very serious (41: 116)

(99) Jane, you look well and smiling and pretty (41: 200)

Another copula such as: “turn” which is used to indicate a change of occupation or allegiance “Seem” to be restricted to change in political allegiance “Go”, when its complement is an adjective phrase According to

meaning The adjective phrase that follows usually describes a negative state For example:

(100) He turned plumber (7: 353)

(101) His face went white (41: 154)

(102)They seemed glad to see me (31: 23)

(103)She seemed upset and taut (31: 108)

2.1.1.3 Syntactic features and semantic roles of Complement (C)

2.1.1.3.1 The form of the complement

In English sentence, there are two kinds of complement include: subject complement (Cs) which has “a straightforward relation to the subjects of their respective sentence.” (7: 14) and object complement (Co) which “can be explained as having a similar relation to a direct object (which it follows)” (7: 14) In this thesis, we will only study on subject complement

According to Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S (1976, 1985), and Greenbaum, S (1996), the complement can be realized by a noun phrase.For example:

(104) John was a doctor (7: 353)

Cs(basic noun phrase)

(105) She is a teacher of Russian (14: 58)

Cs (complex noun phrase)

(106) She has a very interesting mind (7: 396)

Cs (complex noun phrase)

If complement is a noun phrase, the subject complement has concord of number with subject of singular and plural For example:

(107) The child was an angle (7: 181)

(109) Your daughter is pretty (7: 115)

The complement can also be realized by finite or non-finite adjective

clause The finite clause is commonly a That – clause or Wh-clause If the adjective is negative, the clause can be introduced by whether or if.For example:

(113) I am sure that he is here now (7: 355)

(114) I am not sure why he came (7: 355)

(115) I am not sure whether (if) he is here yet (7: 356)

The complement can be realized by To – infinitive clauses In this type, the adjective phrase is followed by a To – infinitive clause.For example:

(116) Bod is hesitant to agree with you (7: 356)

(117)They seemed glad to see me (31: 23)

2.1.1.3.2 The position of complement

According to Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S (1976), the subject complement normally follows intensive verb.For example:

Cs S V

(123) Relaxation you call it (7: 412)

Co S V Od

2.1.1.3.3 Semantic roles of the complement

The role of both subject and object complement are the attribution of the subject or direct object The subject complement attributes to the subject The role can be between current or existing attribute with stative verbs and resulting attribute with dynamic verbs For example:

-Adjective clause:

-Followintensive verb in SVC structure

-Initial position:

In question

In emphatic sentence

The complement is attribute of the subject :

-Current attribute

-Resulting attribute

Adj + Finite clause (that, Wh-)

Adj + Non – finite clause

2.1.2 The variants of word order in English SVC structure

The SVC structure is one of seven basic structures which is used in most cases We compiled and analyzed the English sentence examples from the literature works As the result, we found that the SVC structure has some variants in word order The subject complement can have initial position

before subject and verb: CSV This case is called “Fronting” The “Fronting”

is different from “Inversion” in English sentence The “fronting” is the change

of complement to the initial position without the change of word order between subject and verb On the other hand, inversion is the change of word order of both sentence components – the subject follows the verb phrase as:

CVS In this thesis, we called all fronting and inversion the variations of word

order

The data we found from the English literatures including 315 examples

of the word order variants in SVC structure sentences There are two kinds of

variants: CSV and CVS

The thesis will analyze in detail each variation of word order in SVC structure

2.1.2.1 The variant of word order: CSV

Through the data of English CSV sentences from the literature works

we found that the subject complement in this word order has three syntactic functions including:

- The subject complement is an adjective phrase

- The subject complement is a noun phrase

- The subject complement in exclamation

2.1.2.1.1 English CSV structure has subject complement as an adjective phrase

Through the result from the data of CSV structure sentences we found that the subject complement functioning as an adjective phrase accounts for 24,4% It is more than subject complements which function as a noun phrase

In the table below, there are some English CSV sentence examples:

(126) In the middle of the village lived the old cobbler woman She sat

making, as well as she could, out of some trips of old red cloth, a pair of little shoes Rather clumsy they were, yet well meant: they were for the little girl The little girl was called Karen (29: 261)

(Giữa làng có một người thợ đóng giày già sống Bà ta cố hết sức đóng

một đôi giày nhỏ xinh từ những mảnh đỏ vụn Đôi giày trông xấu nhưng ý định của bà ta lại rất tốt vì bà dành đôi dày cho cô bé có tên là Karen.) (38: 143)

(127) And she clasped the hawthorn tightly to her breast so as to warm

it thoroughly, and the thorns went right into her flesh and her blood flowed in big drops But the hawthorn put forth fresh green leaves, and flowers grew on

it in the cold wintry night, so warm it was by a sorrowing mother’s heart. (29: 317)

(Thế là bà mẹ liền ôm lấy bụi cây gai sát vào ngực để sưởi ấm cho cây Gai đâm vào người bà và máu chảy ròng ròng Nhưng bụi cây gai đã đâm chồi ra những lá xanh tươi và chúng trở thành hoa trong đêm đông giá lạnh

Ôi, trái tim người mẹ đau khổ kia sao mà ấm áp làm vậy.) (38: 509)

(128) “Oh St John, don’t choose me!” I begged But it was useless

appealing to a man who always did what he believed to be his duty, however unpleasant it was (41: 300)

(“St John ôi, đừng chọn tôi!” tôi van nài Nhưng thật vô ích khi kêu gọi một người vốn luôn luôn thức hiện điều mà y tin là bổn phận của mình, cho

dù nó gây khó chịu đến đâu chăng nữa.) (41: 301)

(129) No one had bought any from her all that day; no one had given

her a copper Hungry and frozen she went, looking so very, very sad, the poor little thing! (29: 279)

(Suốt cả ngày không một ai mua diêm cũng chẳng có ai cho cô lấy một

xu Người cô bé lạnh run lên vì đói và rét nên cô chỉ còn đủ sức bò lê người.) (35: 359)

(130) He could have broken me in two with one hand, but he could not

break my spirit Small and weak as I was, I stared firmly back at him. (41:

240)

(Cho dù ông có thể dùng một bàn tay để bẻ gãy người tôi làm đôi nhưng ông không thể bẻ gãy tinh thần của tôi được Dù nhỏ con và yếu ớt, tôi vẫn nhìn chăm chăm lại ông không chớp mắt.) (41: 241)

In this English CSV structure, the complement can be an adjective as in example (128), (129) On the other hand, the complement can have a word

“so” before the adjective phrase as in example (127) or is used the comparison structure as in example (126), (130)

The English CSV structure is a variant with the subject complement which is in initial position, but when translated into Vietnamese the CSV structure turn into basic word order: SVC as in the above examples

2.1.2.1.2 English CSV structure has subject complement as a noun phrase

The English CSV structure which has subject complement as a noun phrase occurs less than subject complement as an adjective phrase They account for 8,7% For example:

(131) There something shone out among the tree-tops and she thought

that it was the moon And a face it was, only it was the old soldier with the red beard (29: 264)

(Bỗng nhiên giữa lùm cây có một vật gì đó sáng bừng lên và trông nó như một cái mặt nên cô nghĩ đó là mặt trăng Nhưng đó chính là người lính với bộ râu đỏ.) (38: 147)

(132) A long way from here, in the land the swallows fly to when we

are having winter, there lived a king who had eleven sons and one daughter, called Eliza The eleven brothers – princes, they were – went to school with stars on their breasts and swords at their sides. (29: 113)

(Ở một miền đất xa xôi, nơi những con chim thiên nga thường bay đến khi mùa đông về, có một ông vua sinh hạ được mười một người con trai và một người con gái tên là Eliza Mười một người con trai kia là những chàng hoàng tử, và người nào đi học cũng đều đính một ngôi sao trên ngực và đeo một thanh gươm bên sườn.) (38: 197)

(133) If the creatures hadn’t been poisonous and been kissed by the

witch, they would have been turned into red rose; but flowers they had become, from settling on her head and at her heart (29: 115)

(Nếu những con vật đó mà không độc hoặc không bị mụ phù thủy hôn vào, chắc chúng đã biến thành những bông hồng rồi dẫu sao chúng cũng đã biến thành những bông hoa, bởi vì chúng đậu trên đầu và trên ngực của Eliza.) (38: 200)

(134) “Half – fish”, he said “Fish that you were I am sorry that I

went too far out I ruined us both But we have killed many sharks, you and I,

and ruined many others How many did you ever kill, old fish? You do not have that spear on your head for nothing.”(42: 156)

(Lão nói: Này, nửa cái thân hình xưa kia là cá kia ơi Tao thật tiếc là

đã ra khơi quá xa như thế Tao đã làm hại cả mày lẫn tao Nhưng dù sao mày với tao, hai chúng mình đã giết cả một lũ cá mập và đánh nhừ tử nhiều con khác Này, chú cá đã già đời kia, ta muốn biết trong đời chú, chú đã giết được bao nhiêu cá mập? Lưỡi kiếm chú mày mang trước mõm kia, theo ý ta, đâu có phải là một thứ đồ chơi.) (42: 157)

All the CSV sentences are also translated into Vietnamese with basic word order: SVC as in above examples

2.1.2.1.3 English CSV structure in exclamation

The thesis studies the word order in English and Vietnamese SVC structures in the simple sentence In addition, we found that there are many English CSV structures in exclamation sentences Therefore, in this part we will present the CSV structure in exclamation sentences The number of CSV structure in exclamation sentences account for 51,2% We illustrate it in the examples below:

(135) In the midst of all the other shoes was a pair of red one, just like

the shoes the princess had worn How beautiful they were! The shoemaker told them that they had been made for an earl’s daughter, but hadn’t fitted.

(29: 262)

(Trong đám dày có một đôi dày đỏ, giống hệt như đôi mà công chúa nọ

đã đi Trông đôi dày đẹp quá! Người thợ đóng dày đã nói rằng đôi dày đó được làm cho con gái của bá tước, nhưng cô ấy đi không vừa.) (38: 145)

(136) How miserable I felt! I was so crushed that I could have snapped

in two I knew I should be called bad and flung back, and, what is more, in the

sight of all those pennies and shillings with inscriptions and faces they could

(137) The emperor took off all his clothes, and the impostors pretended

to help him on with each of the new garments they were supposed to have made Then they put their hands round – that was the train And the emperor turned and twisted in front of the mirror How becoming they are! What a beautiful fit! They all of them cried What a pattern! What colors! What sumptuous robes they are! (29: 104)

(Hoàng đế cởi quần áo ra và những tên bịp bợm giả vờ mặc quần áo mới cho ông, hết bộ này đến bộ khác, rồi hoàng thượng liền đứng xoay người soi mình trong gương Trông đẹp quá! Vừa vặn quá! – tất cả quần thần đều tung hô – Hoa văn đẹp quá! Màu sắc thật lộng lẫy! Thật là một bộ quần áo tuyệt vời!) (38: 138)

(138) He cannot know that it is only one man against him, or that it is

an old man But what a great fish he is and what he will bring in the market if the fresh is good. (42: 62)

(Hắn ta nào có biết là vẻn vẹn chỉ có mỗi một người đang đối chọi với hắn ta, hơn thế nữa lại là một lão già Nhưng mẹ kiếp, thân nó lớn quá chừng! Nếu thịt nó còn tươi thì mang ra chợ bán tính kể biết bao nhiêu là tiền.) (42: 63)

(139) I was young and easily impressed, so when I saw her in the West

Indies, beautiful and elegantly dressed, I thought I loved her What a fool I