An investigation into the linearity to simple sentence in English and Vietnamese

The thesis focuses on contrastive analysis to find out the similarities and differences in linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement.. In my study, first of all, I presen

An investigation into the linearity to simple

sentence in English and Vietnamese

Nguyễn Thị Thu Quỳnh

Trường Đại học KHXH&NV Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: M.A Nguyễn Hương Giang

Năm bảo vệ: 2011

Abstract: This paper investigates into the linearity in simple sentence in English and

Vietnamese However, there is a limited time; my study only focuses on the linearity in affirmative statement It offers theoretical knowledge of linearity in affirmative statement

in both English and Vietnamese The thesis focuses on contrastive analysis to find out the similarities and differences in linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement Finally, the author discusses some implication in teaching and learning English for Vietnamese learners

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Câu đơn; Tiếng Việt; Ngữ pháp

Content

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Method of the study 2

PART 2: DEVLOPMENT Chapter 1: Theoretical background 3 1.1 What is linearity? … 3

1 2 What is a simple sentence? 4

1.3 Classifications of simple sentences according to

their communicative purpose 5

1.3.1 Statement 5

1.3.2 Question 5

1.3.3 Command 6

1.3.4 Exclamation 6

Chapter 2: Linearity in the English affirmative statement 8 2 1 Elements and patterns of the English simple sentence 8

2 2 Traditional positions of these five elements in English 10

2 2 1 Position of Subject 10

2 2 2 Position of Verb 10

2 2 3 Position of Object 11

2 2 4 Position of Complement 12

2 2 5 Position of Adverbial 13

2 3 Inversion in Affirmative statement 15

2.3.1 Subject – verb inversion 16

2 3.1.1 Auxiliary verbs before Subject 16

2 3.1.2 Main verb before Subject 17

2 3 2 Subject - Object Inversion 18

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2 3 3 Subject - Complement Inversion 18

2 3 4 Subject - Adverbial Inversion 18

Chapter 3: Linearity in the Vietnamese affirmative statement 20 3 1 Elements and patterns of the Vietnamese affirmative statement 20

3 2 Positions of elements 23

3 2 1 Position of Subject 23

3 2 2 Position of Verb 23

3 2 3 Position of Object 24

3 2 4 Position of Complement 24

3 2 5 Position of Adverbial 24

3 3 Inversion in Vietnamese affirmative statement 25

3.3.1 Verb before subjects 25

3.3.2 Complement at the beginning 26

3.3.3 Object before Subject and Verb 26

3.3.4 Adverbial at the beginning 27

Chapter 4: Contrastive analysis of linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement 28 4.1 Similarities 28

4.1.1 Elements and structure of affirmative statement 28

4.1.2 Inversion in the emphasized sentence 31

4.2 Differences 33

4.2.1 Verb Phrase 33

4.2.2 Transformational relation 34

4.2.3 Inversion 36

Chapter 5: Implication for teaching and learning English 37 5.1 Typical mistakes made by Vietnamese learners 37

5.2 Suggested types of exercises 39

Reference

Appendix

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PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

With integration of Vietnam in globalization, the need of learning foreign languages, learning English in our society is in great demand One of the effective approaches that learners do not really seem to notice is the comparative analysis between foreign languages and native language This will help learners acquire foreign languages easily

In the English language, the position of elements is essential to the meaning of a sentence in general and the meaning of a simple sentence in particular A change in element position may bring about a fundamental change in meaning

Like in Vietnamese and some other languages, in English, linearity in a simple sentence plays an important role We can depend on it to find out whether it is a statement (affirmative

or negative one), a question, a command or an exclamation Thus an all – round understanding

of element position in the simple sentence also contributes a great deal to the study of language both theoretically and practically

Many Vietnamese learners (especially beginners and intermediate learners) cannot avoid making common mistakes in placing elements at the right position in the statement of simple sentence

The position of sentence elements in English and Vietnamese are not the same partly because different languages use different lingual and cultural habits

For the above – mentioned reasons, research on linearity in sentence should be given special attention by those who use English as a foreign language, especially by not only all of

us, who are working as teachers of English, but also our students who are learning English as a compulsory subject

2 Aims of the study

In the Investigation into the Linearity to simple sentence in English and Vietnamese as

an M.A thesis, the author has the following aims:

- to find out the similarities and differences of the linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement

- to help Vietnamese learners avoid some common mistakes in using English

In order to realize these aims, the study supports to answer the following research questions:

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1 What is linearity of sentence?

2 What are similarities and differences of the linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement?

3 What are common mistakes in linearity made by Vietnamese learners?

3 Scope of the study

According to communicative purpose, there are four kinds of simple sentence They are statement, question, command and exclamation Each kind of simple sentence has two forms: affirmative and negative However in my study, I only focus on the linearity in affirmative statement

In my study, first of all, I present linearity in affirmative statement of English simple sentence and Vietnamese one Next, I discuss Linearity in both languages and then make comparison between linearity in affirmative statement of English simple sentence and Vietnamese one

My study is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1 is the theoretical background of my subject Chapter 2 and chapter 3 present the possible linearity in the English and Vietnamese affirmative statement In chapter 4, there is a contractive analysis of linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement Last but not least, in chapter 5, the implication in teaching and learning English of the study will be mentioned

4 Method of the study

Contrastive analysis is the main linguistic method applied in my study in which the linearity in affirmative statement in English and Vietnamese is considered its objective Reading English Grammar books and Vietnamese books is carried out to get as much knowledge of the subject as possible Most of examples are taken from books widely used in English and Vietnam Moreover in my study I make contractive analysis to find out similarities and differences in the linearity in the affirmative statement between two languages

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PART 2: DEVLOPMENT Chapter 1: Theoretical background

1 1 What is linearity?

1 2 What is a simple sentence?

1.3 Classifications of simple sentences according to their communicative purpose

1.3.1 A Statement/ A Declarative sentence

1.3.2 A Question/ An interrogative sentence:

1.3.3 A Command/ an Imperative sentence:

1.3.4 An Exclamation/ An exclamatory sentence:

Chapter 2: Linearity in the English affirmative statement

2 1 Elements and patterns of the English affirmative statement

2 2 Traditional positions of these five elements in English

2.2.1 Position of Subject

2.2.2 Position of Verb Phrase

2.2.3 Position of Objects

2.2.4 Position of Complement

2.2.5 Position of Adverbial

2 3 Inversion in Affirmative statement

2.3.1 Subject – verb inversion

2 3.1.1 Auxiliary verbs before Subject 2.3.1.2 Main verb before Subject

2 3 2 Subject - Object Inversion

2 3 3 Subject - Complement Inversion

2 3 4 Subject - Adverbial Inversion:

Chapter 3: Linearity in the Vietnamese Affirmative Statement

3 1 Elements and patterns of the Vietnamese Affirmative Statement

3 2 Positions of elements in affirmative statement

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3.2.1 Position of Subject

3.2.2 Position of Verb

3.2.3 Position of Objects

3.2.4 Position of Complement

3.2.5 Position of Adverbial

3 3 Inversion in Vietnamese Affirmative Statement

3.3.1 Verb before subjects

3.3.2 Complement at the beginning

3.3.3 Object before Subject and Verb

3.3.4 Adverbial at the beginning of affirmative statement

Chapter 4:

Contrastive analysis of linearity in English and Vietnamese

affirmative statement

In this part, I would like to focus on the similarities and differences of linearity in the English affirmative statement and in the Vietnamese ones

4.1 Similarities

4 1 1 Sentence elements and their positions in affirmative statement

In both English and Vietnamese, sentences are composed of words, and, in addition, often of words combined into phrases within sentences that are a combination into a string of speech following the linear dimension Obviously, we can definitely be sure that both English and Vietnamese affirmative statements, to some extent, have five obligatory elements and they have common linearity in the sentence patterns

Considering in syntactic features and types of sentence structure in the languages, we can find that the elements in English affirmative simple sentence are equivalent to ones in Vietnamese: S V O C A although the name of them are different (Trần Hữu Mạnh 2007: 394)

Subject (S), Object (O), Complement (C) in English and Chủ ngữ, Tân ngữ, Bổ ngữ in Vietnamese are noun, noun phrase or pronoun

 Subject (S) stands at the beginning of the affirmative simple sentence

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 Object normally appears after subjects and verbs in pattern SVO and NP1 + V +

NP2 in which NP1 is subject and NP2 is object

In the case that there are two object (direct object and indirect object) in the sentence pattern S V Oi Od and NP1 + V + NP2 + NP3 (NP1 is subject and NP2 is indirect object and NP3

is direct object), Oi usually stands before Od Sometimes, Oi stands after Od and separated by

preposition to or for

Equivalent with Vietnamese

 Verb (V) in English and Động từ in Vietnamese follow Subject

 Complement (C) in English and Bổ ngữ in Vietnamese are also presented by adjectival phrase They follow subject in the pattern S V C and NP1 + Adj

 Adverbial (A) in English and Trạng ngữ in Vietnamese is often adverb or prepositional phrase They usually stands at the end of the sentence in pattern S V A and S V O

A or NP1 + V + NP2 + Prep + NP3 in which NP3 is Adverbial ( Trạng ngữ)

The position of adverbial in English as well as Trạng ngữ in Vietnamese is very mobile; they can get initial, medial or final position in affirmative simple sentence

According to Tran Huu Manh (2007: 388), seven patterns in English are equivalent to those in Vietnamese

The bird sang

The sun is shining

The plane has taken off

Con chim hót Mặt trời đang chiếu sáng Máy bay đã cất cánh

The lecture interested me

They gave off smoking

We depend on your help

Bài giảng cuốn hút tôi

Họ bỏ (hút) thuốc Chúng tôi trông cậy vào sự giúp đỡ của bác

Your dinner seems ready

They will become teachers

Bữa chiều của anh hình như sẵn sàng rồi

Họ sẽ trờ thành giáo viên

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My office is in the next building

They were here last night

We got off/ on the bus

Phòng làm việc của tôi ở trong tòa nhà này

Họ ở đây đêm qua Chúng tôi (trèo) xuống/ lên xe buýt

ngữ 1 + Tân ngữ 2)

I must send my parents a card

She gave me a book

They informed him of the news

Tôi phải gửi cho bố mẹ tôi một bưu ảnh Nàng đưa tôi một cuốn sách

Họ (thông) báo cho anh ta cái tin đó

ngữ + Bổ ngữ)

Most students have found her

reasonably helpful

They left the house empty

Đa số sinh viên đã thấy bà giáo hỗ trợ rất hợp lý

Họ bỏ lại ngôi nhà trống rỗng

Tân ngữ + Trạng ngữ)

You can put the dish on the shelf

They took him up the stairs

Bạn có thể để cái đĩa lên giá đó

Họ đưa hắn lên gác

4 1 2 Inversion in the emphasized sentence

In English as well as in Vietnamese, when speakers want to emphasize some parts of the utterance without adding any other elements, they often put the verb, object, adverbial and complement before subject This called inversion Inversion is really effective in both English and Vietnamese

- In Vietnamese, there is the pattern NP1 + Adj This pattern is often changed into Adj +

NP1 in which Adj is emphasized It is very popular in Vietnamese written text or poetry This pattern is similar to the pattern in English CVS or CSV, but this pattern requires verbs

E.g.: - Bleak and barren is the moon

(W.M Thackeray 1979)

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Vietnamese equivalent:

 Ảm đảm và u ám là mặt trăng

Ba mươi năm Đảng nở hoa tặng Người

(Tố Hữu) English equivalent:

 Snow white the father’s hair is

Thirty years of Communist Party presents You)

- Moreover, we have also patterns NP1 + V + NP2 inverting into NP2 + V + NP1 or NP2

+ NP1 + V in Vietnamese and SVO inverting into OVS or OSV in English This means to get much more attention to object (or NP2) than to subject

Vietnamese equivalent:

O (NP2) S (NP1) V

- Besides, the structure A V S is similar to the structure NP2 + là/ có + NP1 (in which

NP1 is adverbial of position or time and NP2 is subject of the sentence

Adverbial of position

E.g.: - At the top of the hill stood the tiny chapel

Vietnamese equivalent:

A (NP2) là S (NP1)

In general, all these similarities of linearity in the English affirmative statement and ones in Vietnamese make it very possible and comfortable for Vietnamese learners to master

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English, and in turn, for English learners to study Vietnamese as the second language However, there are still some differences between the linearity of both

4.2 Differences

English is partially an inflectional language while Vietnamese is not, so the linearity of affirmative simple sentence in English is different from those in Vietnamese

4.2.1 Verb Phrase

In comparison with Vietnamese; it is a complicated problem in English, the verbs with

5 forms cause difficulties (the distinction in verb phrase structure of infinitive, s – form, ing – form, past form (ed1) and past participle (ed2) English verbs change the forms to express 3 time – distinctions: past, present, and future Verb phrase structures express tense and aspect

Meanwhile, the verbs in Vietnamese are always unchanged Also the five forms of

verbs in English are expressed by functional words (đang, đã, sẽ, + main V) in Vietnamese

For example:

In English: I loved you In this affirmative statement, loved has form V_ed1 which expresses past action However, the Vietnamese equivalent statement is Anh đã yêu em, the time expression word “đã” + V expresses past action

The similarities in the verb “live” in the following example:

E.g.: He is living here Anh ta đang sống ở đây

In contrast to the same form of verb “sống” (live) in Vietnamese together with subordinate components as: đang, đã, sẽ, đã (và đang)… Another point that counts is the irregular forms of

English verbs

4.2.2 Transformational relation

Transformational relation is the change of syntactical functional of sentence elements

In English, transformational relation, or relation between active and passive sentence is paid much attention

The pattern SVO, O (direct object) can get the function of subject and Subject will become optional element with preposition “by” and can be abbreviated as (A)

The pattern of passive sentence in English: