An analysis of lexical cohesion of English and Vietnamese economic news discourse

An analysis of lexical cohesion of English and Vietnamese economic news discourse Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

An analysis of lexical cohesion of English and

Vietnamese economic news discourse

Nguyễn Thị Tuyết

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: M.A Trần Thị Thu Hiền

Năm bảo vệ: 2010

Abstract The main aim of this study is to investigate the similarities and differences

between English and Vietnamese economic news with regard to the utilization of sub-types of lexical cohesion To fulfill this objective, ten English economic news and ten Vietnamese economic news of equal types were selected and analyzed The percentages of sub-categories of lexical cohesion in both English and Vietnamese economic news were calculated and the results

were compared and contrasted between and within text groups

Keywords Tiếng Anh; Phân tích diễn ngôn; Liên kết từ vựng; Tin kinh tế; Tiếng Việt Content

I Rationale of the study

Nowadays, the need of international communication has been increasing rapidly and English is regarded as a predominant means of international communication, particularly in transferring written information Most of magazines, newspapers, internet sites, etc of both English speaking countries and non-English speaking countries are published, exchanged in English Vietnam is not an exception

Lexical competence is indispensable part of communicative competence because it indicates the ability to use language in different contexts Lexis helps to make texts coherent and cohesive

by establishing grammatical and lexico-grammatical relations Actually, knowing how to select appropriate vocabulary to deal with specific topics in specific genres means knowing how to create coherent and cohesive texts This can be achieved by utilizing lexical cohesive devices

Hoey (1991) claims that “lexical cohesion is the single most important form of cohesion,

accounting for something like forty percent of cohesion ties in text”[28] and that “various lexical relationships between the different sentences making up a text provide a measure of the cohesiveness of the text The centrality and importance to the text of any particular sentence within the text will be determined by the number of lexical connections that sentences have to other sentences in the text” [31]

As a learner, a teacher, and a beginning researcher of English, the author would like to

choose An analysis of lexical cohesion of English and Vietnamese Economic news discourse

as the topic of this study with the hope to deeply understand how lexical cohesion is achieved in economic news discourse and the importance of lexical cohesion in English and Vietnamese in general and in economic news discourse in particular

Studying and analyzing economic news discourse is of the author’s high interest because

(i) economic news is widely available and easily accessible data that provide rich

sources for research, studying, teaching and learning

(ii) economic news discourse not only represents speech communities' use of and

attitudes towards languages but also influences them

(iii) economic news helps us to understand a lot about social meanings and stereotypes

embedded in, produced and reproduced through discourse and communication Through reading economic news we can also learn more about other nations in cultural side

(iv) coherence and cohesion in general and lexical cohesion in particular play such an

important role in understanding economic news discourse because of their function of binding texts together by creating sequences of meaning

II Scope of the study

Within the framework of a minor M.A thesis, the present study will not take up all items involved in cohesion The writer will focus only on lexical cohesion of English and Vietnamese Economic News discourse taken from some mainstream newspapers The comparison between lexical cohesion in English and Vietnamese economic news discourse will reveal the similarities and differences between these two languages It is hoped that this study will help the teachers and students to gain an insight into the use of lexical cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese economic news

III Aims of the study

The inter-related aims of this thesis are:

(i) to make comparative analysis of lexical cohesion between English and

Vietnamese economic news discourse to help readers surmount difficulties in using and understanding the lexical cohesive devices

(ii) to figure out how these cohesive devices are used in English and Vietnamese

economic news discourse

(iii) to give a systematic and comprehensive description of lexical cohesion features in

English and Vietnamese

(iv) to help the teachers and students to gain an insight into the use of lexical cohesive

devices in English and Vietnamese economic news

IV Research questions

In order to analyse lexical cohesion of English and Vietnamese in economic news the thesis

raises a question “What are the similarities and differences between the use of lexical cohesive

devices in English and Vietnamese economic news discourse?”

This research question will be clarified by three other sub-questions as follows:

(i) How is lexical cohesion via lexical devices realized in English and Vietnamese economic news discourses?

(ii) What are the most frequently used lexical cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese economic news discourses?

(iii)What are the overall features of English and Vietnamese economic news discourse in terms of lexical cohesion?

V Research Methods

Research methods of description, analysis and statistics in linguistics have been used to fulfill the objectives of the study Specifically, document analysis is the primary research method used in this study, which focuses on analysis of lexical cohesion in the economic news

Halliday and Hasan’s(1976) model is mainly adopted to identify lexical cohesive ties in the data Yet, the definition and classification of lexical cohesive ties are carefully explained and illustrated

The data for the present analysis have been selected from mainstream newspapers written in

English including Economics, Real Life Economics, The Times, Times online, The Sunday

Times, The Wall Street Journal… and Vietnamese such as Thời Báo Kinh Tế Việt Nam, Tiền Phong, Người Lao Động, Thanh niên, Kinh tế Tài chính và Thị trường Chứng khoán, … The

study aims at collecting ten pieces of English economic news and ten pieces of Vietnamese ones written by different journalists All lexical cohesive ties in these news discourses are picked up, the type of lexical cohesive devices are noted However, only outstanding examples are used to illustrate, the percentages of various type of lexical cohesion in each language are calculated and the results are compared and contrasted within and between text groups of the same genre in both English and Vietnamese

VI Organization of the study

The thesis consists of three parts, references and appendices

PART I: INTRODUCTION

This part presents rationale, scope, and objectives of the study Research methods, research questions and organization of the thesis are also given clearly in this part

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

This is the focus of the study which consists of two chapters

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter provides fundamental and theoretical concepts related to the purpose of the study It deals with theories of discourse, discourse analysis, coherence and cohesion, register and discourse genre

CHAPTER II: A COMPARISON OF LEXICAL COHESION IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE ECONOMIC NEWS DISCOURSE

This chapter not only investigates lexical items but also presents the description and exemplification of lexical cohesion in English and Vietnamese economic news to find out the similarities and differences between these two languages Main features of lexical cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese economic news are also indicated in this chapter

PART III: CONCLUSIONS

This final part gives the overall answers for the research questions of the study, implications for teaching and learning, and some suggestions for further studies

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học Xã hội