LV COMMON LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF CIRCUMSTANCES OF MANNER IN ENGLISH AND IN VIETNAMESE FUNCTIONAL GRA

Aims The study is expected to present a contrastive analysis of the Manner circumstances used in English and in Vietnamese context, through this analysis, the study aims to give a descr

Each language in the world has its own linguistic devices to express the ways in which the action is carried out Circumstances of Manner are some

of those devices Beside Participants and Processes, Circumstances in general and Circumstances of Manner in particular, syntactically, are considered to be

an optional part of the clause, they can be omitted without changing grammatical structure of the clause However, semantically, their functions are more important; they are used to make clauses fully and thoroughly by adding information about how the action happens and feeling of the agent who does the action as well Manner Circumstances are illustrated as follows:

(1) He looked at her with a soft smile on his lips [49, p 26]

(2) His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon the living

(3) Như con ngựa bứt khỏi yên cương

Phóng điên cuồng tơi bời thảo nguyên

Anh thét lên sung mãn: Anh - yêu - em

Em có nghe không?

Như dòng sông từ bỏ đại ngàn Lao thẳng về miền em khô khát Anh gầm lên sôi sục: Anh - yêu - em

( Ngo Mai Phong ) [44, p 153]Therefore, we should note that there will be no communication about how action happens, how the people’s feelings during the description are without the appearance of Circumstances of Manner For that importance, circumstances of manner are always encouraged in using to convey meaning

of the clause more completely

Manner Circumstances play a variety of semantic and syntactic roles, however, they are least studied For that reason, what I would like to do in

my research paper is to help Vietnamese learners of English have a clear view

of common linguistic features of English Circumstances of Manner versus Vietnamese ones in the light of functional grammar

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

1.2.1 Aims

The study is expected to present a contrastive analysis of the Manner circumstances used in English and in Vietnamese context, through this analysis, the study aims to give a description of syntactic and semantic features of Manner circs in both languages Theoretically, the thesis is intended to identify the similarities and differences of Manner circs in the two languages semantically and syntactically In practice, the study aims to supply not only a theoretical insight into the Manner circs in English and in Vietnamese for learners of English but also some implications in language

teaching and learning so that they can use them effectively in writing and in

speaking English as well

1.2.2 Objectives

- Based on the view of functional grammar, the study aims to identify,

describe and compare semantic, syntactic features of Circumstances of manner as

well as find out their similarities and differences in English and in Vietnamese

- Providing a theoretical insight into Circumstances of Manner used in

English so that students can recognize this potential element in the clause

-The final objective is to make some implications for using

Circumstances of Manner in written and spoken speech in both languages

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1 What are common syntactic and semantic features of the

Circumstances of manner in English and in Vietnam?

2 What are the main differences and similarities between English

circumstances of manner and Vietnamese ones?

3 What are implications for teaching and learning circumstances of manner?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study focuses on Semantic and Syntactic features of Circs of

manner in English and in Vietnamese novels, short stories, newspapers,

academic prose and poetry Due to time and reference source constraints, in

this study, many attempts have been made to focus on some certain syntactic

and semantic features of three subtypes of Manner Circumstances – Means

and Quality and Comparison

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The study consists of 5 chapters:

Chapter 1 is the general introduction of this paper, including the

rationale, aims and objectives, literature review, research method, research questions Scope of the study

Chapter 2 is concerned with the Theoretical background In this chapter,

the notions of circumstances are defined Concepts and terms of them are presented All types of English and Vietnamese circumstances are introduced General view of Circumstances as well as Circumstances of manner in English and in Vietnamese In this chapter, Manner Circumstances in both languages are presented simultaneously

Chapter 3 focuses on the Research Methodology and Procedure

including the research design and the steps to collect and analyze data

Chapter 4 will concentrate on the contrast and analysis of semantic and

syntactic features of Manner circumstances In this chapter, English circumstances are discussed fully and thoroughly in comparison with Vietnamese ones in order to draw out the similarities and differences of the circumstances in both languages

The study closes with Chapter 5 This chapter is the final conclusion

of the whole work that is carried out Some implications and suggestions for the teaching and learning are discussed in this chapter Some suggested ideas are mentioned for further research

in the cover term Circumstances of Manner which are used to indicate their functions in the clauses

A number of classifications of manner adverbs have been proposed in the literature, among them, those are of Bartsch (1976), Dik (1989), and Quirk

et al.(1985) These classifications although all based on semantic and syntactic factors, differ in many ways Quirk et al identify a subcategory of a verbal modifiers that they call process adjuncts They define process adjunct

as adjuncts that restrict in some way the process denoted by a verb They distinguish manner adjuncts from other process adjuncts such as means modifiers (independently, pictorially, etc.) and instrument modifiers (with a knife, by hand) Manner adjuncts are those process adjuncts that specify the way of manner in which the process denoted by the verb occurs Quirk et al, offer a number of syntactic diagnostics for distinguishing manner adverbs from other types of process adjuncts For example, they can serve as the focus

of clause comparison and can be premodified by how, so and however

(5) They sprayed tears gas indiscriminately on the protesters [32, p 221] (6) She replied to question with great courtesy [32, p 221] (7) He spoke in a way that reminded me of his father [32, p 221] (8) You should write as I tell you [32, p.221]

(9) How independently Jill published her novel [32, p.221] Bartsch identifies five subcategories of Manner adverbs based on their semantic and syntactic behavior, including those that characterize the process denoted by verb, those that characterize the agent of the process and those that compare the process to some other things like a plan according to plan or expectation (as expected) Dik identifies three subcategories, which he ties, at least in part to a semantic subcategorizations of verbs: controller oriented, soa (state of affair) oriented and the goal oriented

In addition, Julia B St John in the research “ On the Semantics of

English Manner Adverbs” investigates the semantic properties of English

manner adverbs and subject modifiers and the verbs they modify The purpose of the study is to determine which of these semantic properties are relevant to manner adverb modification and to enable a comparison of those properties to the semantic properties relevant to the syntactic phenomenon of argument realization and to other semantic phenomena such as the temporal and aspectual properties of verbs

Besides, Angela Downing and Philip Lock (1992) also express their concerns about the classifications and positions of adverbs in general and adverbs of manner in particular In the book “A University Course in English Grammar” (1992:572), adverbs of manner, according to them are highly expected to use in literature description (1992:553)

Furthermore, T.Givon has also touched on the matter in the book “A Functional based Introduction - Volume 1” During the discourse he suppose that adverbs is the least homogeneous class and the hardest to define (1993:71) And this heterogeneity is deeply reflected through the complexity

of adverbs of manner in syntax, semantics and morphology Clearly, he

argues that “the semantic range of adverbs of manner is wide and

heterogeneous and depends on the specific meaning of the verb” (1993:71)

What about syntactic construction , “the syntactic heterogeneity of manner

adverbs also is evident in the flexibility of their positioning the clause”

(1993:72) From their explanation, a closely related conclusion has been reached in order to consider adverbs of manner in a range of semantic- syntactic diversity in English grammar system

In Vietnamese, in the book “Thành phần câu Tiếng Việt” Nguyễn Minh Thuyết and Nguyễn Văn Hiệp (p.288) have the research on elements of sentences and kinds of adverbs in Vietnamese They categorize types of adverbs from the point of view of semantic function such as time, place, manner purpose, constrain, limit

According to the scholars, adverbs of manner can be further described

in terms of various functional roles such as means, quality, comparison, concession and agentive adverbs:

(10) Hắn thừ mặt ra, như một kẻ phải đi đày, một buổi chiều âm thầm kia, ngồi trong một làn khói nặng u buồn kia mà nhớ quê hương

Circumstances (Manner Circs) in particular are mentioned sufficiently and thoroughly According to the researcher, Vietnamese circumstantial transitivity can be subclassified into eight subtypes Those are Extent (Spatial

& Temporal), Location Manner (Means, Quality, Comparison), Cause, Accompaniment, Matter, Role and Angle Besides, he offers a number of semantic and syntactic diagnostics for distinguishing Manner Circs from other circumstances Manner Circs are illustrated as bellow:

(14) Chú phải đi bằng xe Volga đen (Manner: Means) [10, p.429]

(15) Tôi đã đọc rất kỹ cuốn sách này ( Manner : Quality) [10, p178]

(16) Máy bay đang bay vun vút như những con én, trên bầu trời.(Manner:

Factually, the notions of manner circumstances are understood differently by grammarians Those can be realized in classification of these elements, hence, there are some overlaps in distinguishing between subtypes

of manner circs

In addition, in Vietnamese, researches on grammar lack in formality criteria to identify adverbs and distinguish them from other components of a sentence Therefore, Hallidayan’s theory as well as his terms are used as a guideline into investigate Manner Circumstances

For that reason, we propose that the research on Manner circumstances (Manner circs) should be a contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese to

yield more fruitful information for Vietnamese learners of English

2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In this section, the fundamental theoretical background relating to

Circumstances in general and Manner circs in particular will be referred

2.2.1 Semantics and Semantic field

Questions of 'semantics' are an important part of the study of linguistic structure They encompass several different investigations: how each language provides words and idioms for fundamental concepts and ideas (lexical semantics), how the parts of a sentence are integrated into the basis for understanding its meaning (compositional semantics), and how our assessment of what someone means on a particular occasion depends not only

on what is actually said but also on aspects of the context of its saying and an assessment of the information and beliefs we share with the speaker In the book “Semantics: A Coursebook” Hurford, J.R and HeasleyB gave the

definition of semantics: “Semantics is the study of Meaning in Language”

Then this question will natuarally come up What is meaning? The word

“meaning” and corresponding verb “mean” were once focus of a great deal of discussion among linguists interested in semantics

In some cases, the same word can have more than one sense

(17) I have an account at the Bank of Scotland [27, p.29] (18) We steer the raft to the other bank of the river

(19) The DC-10 banked sharply to avoid a crash

(20) I bank the furnace up with coke last night

The word bank here has at least 4 different senses

However, we talk about not only the sense of word, but also of longer expression such as phrases and sentences

The following pairs mean the same thing:

(21) Harriet wrote the answer down

(22) Harriet wrote down the answer

(23 ) Bachelors prefer redheads

(24) Girl with red hair are preferred by un married men [27, p28]

On the relationship between sense and reference: reference of an expression is often a thing or a person in the world; whereas the sense of an expression is not a thing at all

2.2.1.2 Word Meaning

One point all linguists probably agree on is the centrality of words to language All aspects of language are tied in some ways or other to words Words have two aspects, their forms and their meanings, actually we'll only

be considering words in one category, those words that refer to things in the world How people use words to refer is just one aspect of the question of what it means, which turns out to be an enormously complicated topic, one where linguists and other cognitive scientists still have a long way to go But the idea of meaning is at the heart of what language is, so we can't really put it off Even just scratching the surface of this topic, as I'll do in this chapter, will lead us to look at notions that seem to be beyond language: how people categorize objects in the world and how people use one kind of situation to help them understand another kind of situation But to say anything at all about the meanings of words seems to require an account of where those meanings come from and what good they are for us

2.3 SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

2.3.1 What is Systemic Functional Linguistics ?

Systemic-Functional Linguistics is concerned with understanding how the ways in which language is used for different purposes and in different contexts and situations that shape its structure

The key argument is that to understand linguistic meaning we have to appreciate the function of items in a structure

The ways in which human beings use language - the meanings that we can make with language - are classified by Halliday (1978, pp 36-58) into

three broad categories or metafunctions (Bloor & Bloor, 2004, pp 10-11)

2.3.1.1 Metafunctions

The grammar is the central processing unit of a language, where meanings accepted from different metafunctional inputs and spliced together

to form interpreted outputs ( Halliday, 1985, pp 34-35)

Language is used to organize, understand and express our perceptions

of the world and of our own consciousness This function is known as the

ideational function The Ideational metafunction is about the natural world in

the broadest sense, and is concerned with clauses as representations The Ideational function can be classified into two subfunctions: the experiential and the logical The Experiential function is largely concerned with content or ideas The Logical function is concerned with the relationship between ideas Language is used to enable us to participate in communicative acts with other people, to take on roles and to express and understand feelings, attitude and

judgments This function is known as the interpersonal function The

Interpersonal metafunction is about the social world, especially the relationship

between speaker and hearer, and is concerned with clauses as exchanges

Language is used to relate what is said (or written) to the real world and

to other linguistic events This involves the use of language to organize the

text itself This is known as the textual function The Textual metafunction is

about the verbal world, especially the flow of information in a text, and is

concerned with clauses as messages

Table 2.1: The three Metafunctions with Subfunctions

Experiential Metafunction is one of the most important parts in his three metafunctions (The other two are: interpersonal metafunction and textual metafunction.) Experiential metafunction is composed of many semantic systems, among which, the transitivity is the most important The term transitivity refers to a system for describing the whole clause, by using several processes to express the experience of the real worlds and the world in

people’s mind, and label the participants involved and the circumstantial element

2.3.2 The main Units of SFG

The main units recognized by SFL are: sentence, clause, group, word and morpheme These can be hierarchically organized in a rank scale from the largest to the smallest so that items higher up the scale consist of items below

Unit Sentence Clause Group Word Morpheme

Members of a unit are grouped and assigned to a particular class For example, there are nominal, verbal, adjectival and adverbial groups, and nouns, verbs, adjectives as classes of word Within a unit, systems of choices are available

Within the scope of the study we just mention Nominal groups, Adverbial groups, Prepositional phrases and Clauses, which are often used to express Manner Circumstances

2.3.2.1 Nominal Groups

Nominal groups are the groups which are centered round a headword

which is either some kind of noun or pronoun

The Nominal groups function in providing additional elements of meaning,

such as by identifying, classifying, quantifying, describing, and by relating the thing to the speaker in terms of proximity or attitude We may describe this

function of the Nominal group as the expression of Experiential meaning

We have seen also that nominal groups function as units within the clause as subjects, objects, complements and as adjuncts This function is the

expression of representational meaning, which is what the message is actually about, the identification of particular referents as participants or circumstantial

elements in the process

E.g Small children often insist that they can do it by themselves

To read quickly and accurately is Eugene's goal

The arctic explorers were caught unawares by the spring breakup

[ 19, p.149]

2.3.2.2 Adverbial Groups

The adverbial group, like any other group, can be one word or several words It has an internal structure that allow some premodification and postmodification The Postmodifier in the adverbial group may be an embedded clause or, less commonly, a prepositional phrase, and its function

to extend the definition of the Headword in the group or to pine down its meaning more specifically

Table 2.2 Adverbial groups

Adverb(s) Adverb prepositional phrase / embedded clause / adverb much more quickly than I could count

2.3.2.3 Prepositional phrases

A prepositional phrase consists a preposition as head plus a nominal group

Preposition + Nominal group With both hand

In confused silence

According to Halliday, a preposition can be regarded as a minor verb

On the interpersonal dimension it functions as a Predicator having a nominal group as its Complement

Likewise on the experiential dimension the preposition functions as a minor Process The nominal group corresponds in function to one or other of the participants Range, Goal or Attribute, though without any very clear distinction among them Hence, it can be interpreted in all cases as a Range but the constituency is the same whether we represent the prepositional phrase Interpersonally, as in table 2.2 or Experientially as in table 2.3 below

Table 2.3 Interpersonal representation of the prepositional phrase

The boy stood on the burning desk

Subject Finite (past) Predicator (stand) Adjunct

Table 2.4 Experiential representation of the prepositional phrase

The boy stood on the burning desk

Actor Process Place Circumstance

‘Process’ ‘range’

Halliday has made a clear cut in distinguishing between prepositional Group and Prepositional Phrases He states that Prepositional phrases are phrases, not groups: they have no logical structure as Head and Modifier, and can not be reduced to a single element In this respect they are clause-like rather than group-like (Halliday (1985) p.189-190) Thus, when we interpret the preposition as ‘minor predicator and ‘minor process’ we are interpreting Prepositional phrases as a kind of minor clause A prepositional phrase occurs either:

i) As Adjunct in a clause

(25 ) I heard the news on the radio [25, p.190] With this function, PP may also occur initially, as marked Theme as in:

On the radio I heard the news

ii) As Qualifier in Nominal Groups

(26 ) The news on the radio was good [25, p.190] The first function of PP will be concerned in the scope of the study

2.3.2.4 Clause structure

The most important unit for a functional grammar analysis is the clause Analyzing clause structure involves identifying the functional parts of the clause from each of the three different perspectives: ideational, interpersonal and textual In each metafunction, an analysis of a clause gives a different kind of structure composed from a different set of elements In the ideational metafunction, a clause is analyzed into the functional parts:

Process, Participants and Circumstances The participants element can be

further described in terms of various participant roles such as Actor, Agents, Goal, Carrier or Sayer The process divides into three basic process types: Material, Relational & Projecting

For example, if we take an ideational approach to the clause:

(27) Recently Microsoft has expanded in China [45, p.7]

We can identify four functional parts (Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (1997, pp.7-8) as the table 2.4 given below

Table 2.5 Clause structure in Experiential metafunction

Recently Microsoft has expanded In China

The labels in bold print provide functional names for the parts of the

clause when viewed as an ideational structure This kind of labelling is

semantically oriented The functional parts of the clause take the form of

various kinds of the clause For example the Process part is realized by a

verbal group, Circumstance part is realized by an Adverb, an Adverbial group

or Prepositional phrase and Clauses

i) Kinds of clauses:

a.Finite: 'Finite' in grammar means 'tied to a particular time that is

known in relationship to the moment of speaking or writing' A finite clause

has a tense marker in it: a main verb or helping verb that indicates, through a

suffix or through its form, the time at which the event, action, or state took

place When you hear a finite clause, you can tell whether the event described

by the clause happened before the moment the clause is said (past), or is true

at the moment the clause is said (present) or is going to happen after the

clause is said (future)

(28) Marla has written her essay for the grad school application [23, p.145]

(29) Americans vote for President every four years on the first Tuesday in

Notice that tense sometimes is shown by the main verb if it is alone ( as

with vote), and sometimes by a helping verb (an auxiliary verb) such as has in has written

b Nonfinite: If finite means 'tied to a particular time that is known in

relationship to the moment of speaking or writing', then nonfinite must be its opposite: 'NOT tied to a particular time that is known in relationship to the moment of speaking or writing' A nonfinite clause has a subject and a predicate, but no tense indicator: we may be able to tell whether a process or finished act is talked about, but we can't necessarily tell when it took place Nonfinite clauses play the same roles as phrases in sentences: they can be subject, adverbial, direct object, etc However, non-finite clauses in the role of adverbial phrases are particularly suited to use as circumstances

Non finite clauses include four major sub-classes:

(33) One practice is to designate protons as if less than this [21, p 254]

ii) Enhancing clauses

According to Angela Downing and Philip Locke (pp 291-291), an enhancing clause is a secondary clause which adds the meaning of the primary clause by reference to some circumstantial feature: Time, Place

Manner, Condition, Purpose, Cause, Concession, etc In the relationship to the primary clause, the enhancing clause can be divided into Paratactic enhancement and Hypotactic enhancement

A great variety conjunctions and conjunctive expressions are available

to express circumstantial meanings Non- finite verb forms are also used

The various types of enhancements that create cohesion are: temporal, manner, causal-conditional, and matter

spatio-2.3.3 Participants, Processes and Circumstances

When describing the experiential metafunction, M.A.K Halliday (1989: p.101) states that the basic semantic framework for the representation of processes is simple A process consists potentially of three components:

- the process itself;

- participants in the process;

- circumstances associated with the process

They provide the frame of reference for interpreting our experience of what

goes on

2.3.3.1 Processes and Process types

According to Butt D (1994), processes are realized in the grammar by

verbal groups Here verbal groups model the experience of event in English- whatever is happening, acting, doing, sensing, saying or simply being As with the nominal group, the verbal group may consist of one word or of group

of word The process is divided into Material, Behavioural, Mental, Verbal and Relational

a Material Processes

A process involves physical actions, such as running, throwing, cooling, and sitting down, and so on Any material process has at least one

participant, and in many cases, the action may be represented as affecting or being done to a second participant (goal)

d Behavioral processes

This process requires a conscious participant to be performing the action Behavioural process share some of the characteristics of Mental process, but also rather like Mental process

e Verbal processes

Verbal processes have the ability to project another clause It involves

some kinds of speech act, representing either speech act directly like said,

yelled, whispered or as a performative

f Existential processes

These processes present that something exists or happens

2.3.3.2 Participants

The basic principle is that participants are realized by nominal groups

A participant can be a person, a place or an object (this is the notion of

‘thingness’) Each process type has its own set of participant roles Functional grammar distinguishes number of different participant roles to give it more accurate picture of the relationship between participants and process

Corresponding to each types of Processes, participant roles can be Actor, Goal, Senser, Phenomenon, Carrier, Attribute, Token, Value, Behaver, Sayer, Existent

Participants are interrogated by means of who, what, which;

2.3.3.3 Circumstances

The circumstance in process is realized adverbial groups or prepositional phrases ( sometimes by nominal groups)

Table 2.6 Typical functions of group and phrase classes

Type of elements Typically realized by

(i) Process

(ii) Participant

(iii) Circumstance

Verbal group Nominal group Adverbial group or Prepositional phrase

components: the Process itself, Participants in the configuration, and

Circumstances associated with the configuration Circumstances is any kind of contingent fact or subsidiary situation which is associated with the process or the main situation (Angela Downing, 1995, p 3) In the book entitled

“Grammar of Spoken and Writing English” written by co-authors,

Circumstances are defined as “Circumstance adverbials are the most varied

class, as well as the most integrated into the clause structure Circumstance adverbials add information about the action or state described in the clause, answering questions such as ‘How?, When?, Where?, Why? How much? To what extent? They include both obligatory and optional adverbials,

circumstance adverbials can have scope over differing amounts of the clause They may modify an entire clause Or they can have scope only over the predicate of the clause”

+ Obligatory Circumstance adverbials

(34 ) Her skin bruises easily

(35) Where were you this morning then? You weren’t in Geography

+ Optional Circumstance adverbials

(37) The man came to stay [with them] [for a few weeks] each year

+ Modify an entire clause

(38) Widely varying types of land are cultivated [19, p.767]

+ Modify the Predicate of the clause

(39) I hope you will go quietly [19, p.767]

2.4.2 The classification of Circumstances

Up to now, researchers who have studied Circs have done it in their own way by looking at only one of many aspects of this part of speech and each one of them has come up with a some what distinct classification

Classification of Circumstance elements according to their semantics differs from one researcher to another The difference between their classes is either in the subclasses they recognize or in how detailed their classification tend to be However, all of these classifications have a lot of similarities as well They all have classes in common, these being Time, Place, Cause, and Manner

According to M.A.K Halliday, semantically the principal types of circumstantial elements in English are as follows: Extent and Location in time and space, including abstract space: Manner ( including three subtypes means, quality and comparison); Cause (reason, purpose, and behalf ); Accompaniment; Matter; Role

Based on the classification of M.A.K Halliday in English Hoàng

Văn Vân in the book ‘ Ngữ Pháp Kinh Nghiệm Của Cú Tiếng Việt Mô Tả

Theo Quan Điểm Chức Năng Hệ Thống’ classifies Vietnamese Circumstances

in the following subtypes: Chu cảnh Phạm vi, Định vị, Phong cách, Nguyên nhân, Đồng hành, Vấn Đề, Vai diễn, và Quan điểm

Table 2.7 Types of Circumstances in English

She’ll arrive on Thursday

She lives in Birmingharm

She has lived there for eight year

It slid halfway over the floor

I mend it with a fusewide

It’s cheaper by bus.

Daddy went off quite happily at 7.40 Snow lay like a blanket on the ground Cause

We have to be there early as it’s Friday

He popped over for a chat

He’s doing the shopping for me

Accompaniment Who with?

What with?

not who/what?

She returned with her friend

Jane set out with her umbrella

I came without my key

Role What as? He returned and remained at the hotel as

an inoffensive tourist

Matter What about? I worry about her health

2.4.3 The Typical Characteristics of Circumstances

i) The preposition + nominal group could answer a question about the

circumstances : Where? When? How?

(40) Something sparkled at the bottom of the trunk [ 22, p 92]

Where did something sparkle? At the bottom

ii) Both preposition and nominal group can be omitted and the clause will still be grammatical and the basic meaning of the verbs will not change: Something sparked

iii) The preposition and nominal group can be moved to the beginning

of the clause:

At the bottom of the trunk, something sparkled

iv) The nominal group following the preposition cannot become the Subject of a passive version of the clause

? The bottom of the trunk was sparkled at (by somebody)

These characteristics confirm that:

- At and the bottom of the trunk go together to form a prepositional phrase

- The prepositional phrase represents a circumstance which is peripheral to process

- The nominal group the bottom of the trunk is not a participant in the process

2.4.4 Distinguishing between Participants and Circumstances

Participants tend to be more centrally involved with the Process than Circumstances, which are consequently said to be attendant, more peripheral,

or obliquely related to the process Hence, the difference between Participants and Circumstances in English is fairly clear , broadly speaking

(i) The basic principle is that Participants are realized by nominal groups and Circumstances are realized by prepositional phrases or adverbial groups For instance:

We had breakfast with Tiffany in the afternoon

The Participants are We (Actor), breakfast (Range); and the Circumstances are with Tiffany (Accompaniment), in the afternoon (Locative-time)

(ii) Participants can serve as Subject, but Circumstances cannot

whom/ who for)

ENGLISH AND IN VIETNAMESE

2.5.1 Definition of Manner Circumstances in English and in Vietnamese

2.5.1.1 Manner Circumstances in English

Manner is a circumstantial role of a process that describes the manner

in which the process' actualization is achieved Commonly realized by adverbs in English, although there are other possibilities, for example, within the current grammar, it is realized through patterns of the form:

<verb> + by, like, with as if, as though, as + <clause>

(41) I mend it with a fusewide [26, p 139]

(42) They sat there in complete silence [26, p 139]

(43) She shuffled like an old lady [17, p 309]

In the book titled An Introduction to Functional Grammar, Halliday gives the

definition of Manner Circumstances in detail like this: The circumstantial element of Manner comprises three subcategories: Means, Quality and Comparison.( M.A.K Halliday1989: 139)

a Means refers to the means whereby a process takes place; it is

typically expressed by a Prepositional phrase with the preposition by and with

The interrogative forms of Means are

How? What with?

(44) They usually go to work by bus [21, p159] (45) By working the pumps, we kept the ship afloat for another 40 hours

b Quality expressions characterize the process in respect on any

variable that makes sense ( Halliday 1985, p.139) In other words, Quality is used to describe the way in which something is done and the feeling of the person who does it (Collin Cobuild, 1990, p.294) The interrogative forms are:

How? How + appropriate adverb?

(46) I found myself writing slowly [2, p.250]

(47) He always writes in a careless manner [16, p 132]

c Comparison is typically expressed by a prepositional phrase with

like , unlike , an adverbial group or clause of similarity or difference

The interrogative forms

What like?How?

(48) And then Della jumped up like a kitten and said “oh, oh!” [49, p.69] (49) Everything went on as we had planed [45, p.95]

2.5.1.2 Manner Circs in Vietnamese

In Vietnamese Manner Circs are defined by Hoang Van Van like that Manner Circumstances are used to concretize the manner in which a process can be carried out by a certain participant This kind of circumstances involves three subcategories: Means, Quality and Comparison In

Vietnamese, these subcategories are interpreted as Chu cảnh phong cách

Phương tiện, Chu cảnh phong cách Chất lượng, Chu cảnh phong cách So sánh ( Hoang Van Van 2002: 429)

a Phương tiện (Means)

Bằng cái gì? Thông qua cái gì?

(50) Khách đến toàn bằng xe Vol-ga đen ` [10, p 429]

(51) Hồ Chủ tịch, bằng thiên tài trí tuệ và sự hoạt động cách mạng của mình, đã kịp thời đáp ứng nhu cầu bức thiết của lịch sử (Võ Nguyên Giáp)

giống như / không giống như ai ? cái gì?thế nào?

(54) Ăn như rồng cuốn Nói như rồng leo [10,p 432]

2 5 2 Common semantic features of Manner circumstances (Manner Circs)

- In literature (especially in fiction), Manner Circs are often used to create an imaginary setting and narrate characters’ action

(55) He touched her skin, the skin of her forehead with his fingertips

(56) He was strong enough to do that without effort [ 18, p.785]

- Manner Circs provide information about how actions were undertaken

(57) He wrenched up a piece of the road with splintering finger-nails

(59) This approach is then illustrated conceptually by discussion of a central issue in Marxist anthropology, the analysis of work [18,p.785]

Table 2.8 Summary of English Manner Circs

Means How? What with? Mend it with fuse wire

Quality How? They sat there in complete silence

Comparison What like? She signs her name differently

Table 2.9 Summary of Vietnamese Manner Circumstances

Phương tiện Bằng/Qua cái gì? Cuộc tranh chấp được giải quyết

bằng đối thoại

Chất lượng Như thế nào? Tôi lặng lẽ ra khỏi hang

So sánh Như thế nào?

Như ai/cái gì?

Ăn như rồng cuốn

Sự sống đi như hương bỏ hoa chiều

2.6 SUMMARY FOR CHAPTER II

In this chapter, the general view of functional grammar, its metafunctions, experiential meaning, English and Vietnamese circumstances with their subtype- circumstances of manner- have been defined

Due to the limitation of time and documents, my study tries to focus on the role of Manner Circs with their syntactic and semantic features Syntactic realizations of Manner Circs are expressed by single Adverbs, Adverbial groups, Prepositional phrases and Clauses Semantically, study tends to concentrate on three subtypes of Manner circumstances, those are Quality , Means and Comparison

Circumstances of manner are described on the semantic as well as syntactic characteristics and analyzed under the view of functional grammar

Functional grammar selected in priority for this contrastive analysis is the model of functional grammar suggested by M.A.K Halliday

In Vietnamese, the notion a bout Vietnamese Manner circs suggested

by Hoang Van Van is selected as a basis for this study

The theoretical background is built up with reference to both Vietnamese and foreign publications Data are collected and analyzed for the purpose of comparing and contrasting Manner Circs in English and in Vietnamese to highlight the similarities and differences between the two languages in the issues under investigation In the study, main methods are descriptive comparative and deductive

Firstly, the finding part starts with the description of Manner circs in English and then Manner circs are compared and analyzed to find out the similarities and differences in both languages

3.2 PROCEDURES

The research work is carried out with many phases as follows:

Phase 1: After identifying the research topic, the main points are

outlined to be researched, data is collected, time is planned and procedure is estimated to finish this paper according to the general scheme

Phase 2: The second phase is to find as many documents relating to

Manner circs in English and in Vietnamese as possible

Phase 3: Documents are planned to read thoroughly, or to be used as quotation Phase 4: This is the important phase in the research Based on the

theoretical basis, English circumstances of Manner are described carefully with the help of many samples from the data collected; the syntactic and semantic features are found in English and in Vietnamese Theses features are analyzed in contrast with each other in both languages in order to have a clear comparison between two languages

Phase 5: This is the last phase in which similarities and differences are

drawn from the work done In this phase, conclusion of the whole work and some implications for learning and teaching are also given

Between each phase, the checking procedure is crucial Without constant check and advice by the supervisor, the work could not be carried out successfully

3.3 DATA COLLECTION

3.3.1 A corpus - based study

The main interest of this research is how Manner Circs are used in present- day English and Vietnamese One needs to know about the theoretical possibilities - i.e the types of Manner Circs that exist and the positions in the clause that may be filled by an adverbial of manner – but also the ways in which the possibilities are exploited by native speakers of both

languages Thus, the main material for the present research is a collection of Manner Circs taken from various sources in English and in Vietnamese

3.3.2 Data Collection and Data Analysis

With the purpose of collecting sufficient data for the study, first of all I read all relevant materials relating to the investigated problem to draw out theoretical basis The main material used in the study are colleted from the sources including :

- the bilingual magazines, novels and short stories,

- the grammar books written by English and Vietnamese linguists,

- the English – Vietnamese and Vietnamese – English dictionaries,

- the studies published in linguistic journals,

- the academic writing such as linguistic research papers…

- the internet sources

Specifically, the data in English mainly taken from the novels Vanity

fair by Thackeray W.M [52], The Life of Sharlotte Bronte by Elizabeth

Gaskell [47], and some other short stories like The Most Interesting Short

Stories in the World by O Henry [49], The General Retired and Other Stories (A translated version of the book Tuyển Tập Truyện Ngắn by

Nguyến Huy Thiệp)[48] and a lot of interesting samples have been taken

from internet source like British National Corpus [56] Besides, there are a

large amount of reliable samples in various kinds of theoretical books

The data in Vietnamese is mainly taken from Thời Xa Vắng by Lê Lựu [39], Dế Mèn Phiêu Lưu Kí by Tô Hoài [35], Chân Dung và Đối Thoại by

Trần Đăng Khoa, and there are a lot of samples from other interesting short stories written by Nam Cao, Nguyễn Huy Thiệp, Nguyễn Thị Thu Huệ …

Then based on the theoretical background, I read all above documents

to pick out the samples of Manner circs In order to classify manner circs into

suitable categories, 500 sentences in English and 500 sentences in Vietnamese containing Manner circs were examined meticulously They are chosen according to their syntactic functions expressed by linguistic units such as Nominal groups, Adverbial groups, Prepositional phrases and Clauses ( Non-finite and Finite) and their semantic functions such as Means, Quality and Comparison used as Manner circs These two 500-sentence corpora have been used for the description and contrastive analysis of grammatical devices expressing manner circs in English and in Vietnamese in terms of syntactic and semantic categories

Once, I have got enough necessary data, I describe, analyze and contrast them to find out the similarities and differences in the use of Manner circs in both languages From these results I realize that Manner circs that are used in context are not different from those in theory Therefore, the results that have been made in the thesis are relatively reliable and valid

Chapter 4

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

MANNER CIRCS

4.1.1 Syntactic features of Manner Circs in English

As we have mentioned in previous chapters, this study focuses on the Manner circs, which is used to convey the manner or circumstances of an event or situation The most common way of this expression is by using Adverbs of manner, which give more information about the way in which an event or action takes place

Besides, Manner circs can be realized by a variety of syntactic forms Those are Nominal groups, Adverbial groups, Prepositional phrases, and Clauses This section shows how manner Circs are realized syntactically

Specifically, manner Circs come from many structure levels : words ( slowly, beautifully, fast), phrases ( in a manner, in a style, in a way…) and finite clauses ( as, as if, as though) or non- finite clauses ( ing- clauses, ed clauses) Within the scope of the study, I will concentrate on Manner Circumstances expressed by Adverbs, Nominal groups, Adverbial groups, Prepositional phrases and Clauses

4.1.1.1 Linguistic realizations of Manner Circs

a Manner Circs that come from adverbs

- Manner adverbs that end in ‘-ly’

We use the term ‘manner adverbs’ in a relative standard way, namely for adverbs which provide information on how a process is carried out Manner adverbs can be the adverbs ending in -ly- This is a typical type of manner adverbs, which may be recognized by the “ly” suffix that has been

attached to a descriptive adjective: peacefully, cheaply, politely, fluently,

carefully, urgently, suddenly, etc , and expressing human feelings, such as expectantly, happily, sincerely, eagerly, desperately, angrily, enthusiastically, seriously, etc

(60) We sincerely hope you enjoyed your stay with us [48,p 108]

(61) He sat expectantly on the edge of his chair until the announcements

(62) I asked angrily as I parried his blows: “ Are we wrestling on boxing”

(63) But though I can't enthusiastically endorse her plan to enter a PhD program in English literature, I can certainly wish her well [45,p 74]

- Adverbs of manner that do not end in ‘-ly’

This type of adverbs can be called ‘monosyllabic manner adverbs’ or ‘light

adverbs’ (e.g hard, well, fast, loud, flat…) They occur mostly only in postverbal

position; the preverbal position is uniformly ungrammatical in English

(64) My boss told me flat that I could not leave early [46, p 172] (65) Recorded interviews and reports of observations were transcribed

verbatim and checked for accuracy before analysis [56]

(66) Thing didn’t go well for the company at first, but everything is fine now.

suddenly, strongly, well, verbatim… in the above samples can be paraphrased

by in an expectant manner, in a strong way,… However, where an adverb form exists, it is usually preferred over a corresponding prepositional phrase with manner or way Hence, “ I found myself writing slowly…” is more usual

than “ I found myself writing in a slow way” Prepositional phrases will be discussed more in next part of this section

- Manner Circs come from compound adverbs

These adverbs are usually formed with words linked by hyphens

( tax-wise, radio-style, flat-out, first-hand, cat-wise, cowboy-style,

peasant-fashion)

Manner compound adverbs, which are formed by the way of adding

the suffixes like –wise, -style, -fashion to a noun, can be paraphrased by corresponding prepositional phrases in the manner of , in the style of…,in the

fashion of…in some cases few other suffixes can be added to adverbs and

adjectives to form manner adverbs as backwards, fordwards, northwards,

crossways, lengthways, sideways, lengthwise, suffix wise is often used to

make new adverbs with meanings relating to the noun: moneywise, taxwise

The manner adverbs of this type are mostly placed in final position of

the clause

(68) You could move with cat-like grace, but not move cat - wise [56] (69) He is a famous model He walked across the T platform style-wise [56]

Sentences (68) &(69) can be written in a similar way with

prepositional phrase in the manner of:

(68’) You could move with cat-like grace, but not move in the manner of cat (69’) He is a famous model He walked across the T platform in the manner

b Manner Circs come from Nominal groups

Nominal groups are not a typical realization of Circumstances in general and Manner Circs in particular

(70) The way he told it, it took maybe five minutes [56] (71) The service is something special and I might as well spend my money

(72) This way they at least get a chance to see good, moving, beautiful and

interesting things, to lengthen their sense of history (notoriously short in the

Such Nominal groups in the examples illustrated above can be regarded

as having omitted the prepositions in

c Manner Circs come from Adverbial groups

Adverbial groups expressing manner can be combinations between Degree

adverbs( such as too, very, so, rather…) and Manner adverbs These longer

Adverbs of manner prove to be more effective on the role of giving extra information to verbs

Too, very, rather, so, extremely…+ Manner adverbs

These adverbs are phonologically heavy, and their occurrences mostly occupy the final position

(73) A young gentleman from Cambridge college sheltered me very kindly in

one of his several great coats [52, p.63]

(74) It happened so quickly that many did not know what had occurred

[45, p,172]

d Manner Circs come from Prepositional phrases

Syntactically a preposition combines with an NP to form a larger phrase, called a prepositional phrase (PPs)

Manner Circs can be expressed by means of using PPs, which have some advantages One of the advantages of PPs is their adaptability to different specific context PPs are one of the common forms expressing Manner Circs

NP Preposition +

Ing- Clauses

The following prepositions are often used to refer to manner:

with, without, by, in, on, like,

The length of PPs depends on the length of NP In common cases, PPs are placed in final position

(75) and she seated in some artless and agreeable posture ready to receive him

[52, p 394]

(76) He earned a little money by serving as a model for young artists in the colony who could not pay the price for a professional model [49, p 27] (77) Then they looked at each other for a moment without speaking

[49, p.108] (78) But a few of the teachers are progressive and approach literature with a sensitivity and intelligence born of a sound training and dedication to the

In some certain cases, PPs can be placed in initial position for emphasis

(79) With counting incomplete, triumphant water minister Michael Howard

has already announced that up to 1.4 million people have applied for water shares, and the figure could well top 2 million

[The South- West News, 9/7/04, p 6]

(80) By substituting tar ( like a thick black oil) for paint, he intends to

prompt thoughts about tar as both preservative and something more sinister

[56]

e Manner Circs come from Clauses

In English, clauses expressing manner can be Finite or Non –Finite Clauses Manner clauses usually occupy the end position of a clause However, they are sometimes placed at the beginning of the clause with emphasized meanings

- Non Finite Clauses of Manner

Mostly, non- finite Manner Clauses can be realized by following structure

+ Nonfinite Manner clauses without subordinators:

Ing-Clauses

(81) The orphan little Laura Martin ( who was just in round- hand), took her

friend’s hand and said, looking up in her face wistfully [52, p.14]

(82) Paying no attention to the song of the birds, the green branches of the trees waving in the air, or the smell of flowers, Jimmy headed straight

for a restaurant [49, p.88]

+ Non- finite Manner Circs with subordinators :

As if, As though + ing- clause

(83) She ran off to the house as if escaping [49, p 362]

(84) He rubbed his eyes and yawned as though walking up after a long

- Finite Clauses

Finite clauses of Manner can be realized by using the following subordinators:

Like, as, as if, as though + clause

(85) Mrs Miller felt as if she was in dream as she carried the heavy box

(86) He swiftly laid out his shinning, strange-looking instruments, whistling

softly, as he always did while at work [49, p.107] (87) His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon on

the living and the dead [48, p 156]

(88)… and you quite often find that then very quickly the children grow up speaking in a same way as the parent of that sex talked to them [56]

It should be noted that the manner clauses premodified by

subordinators As if , As though, use past tense

(89) He threaded his way among the tables with a sort of rolling walk as though he were accustomed to traverse long distances on foot [45, p.128]

4.1.1.2 Positions of Manner Circs in English

a Positions of Adverbs of manner

English adverbs of manner are usually single words, often ending in

-ly, and as stated above, they give us information directly related to the verb

We can consider these to be the most 'important' of the other types of adverbial They are usually closely related to the verb both in meaning and position They can be placed in middle, final, or initial positions:

- Final position

The adverbs of manner mostly occupy the end position of a clause, in which they have scope over the predicate other than the whole clause and they occur after the verb and any objects that might be required by the verb used

(90 ) Sue looked curiously out the window [49, p 18]

(91) “ Can you work in the other room ?” Johnsy asked coldly [49, p.12] (92) She asked him so frequently and pathentically [52, p.355]

Longer expressions, such as “so frequently and pathentically”, can not

be placed between the subject and verb, so we would tend to move them to the end of the sentence In spoken English the final position might also be used, with a variation in emphasis to show more clearly that it refers to the verb Finally, if a one-word adverbial is used in combination with a prepositional phrase, it might be placed alongside the phrase at the end of the sentence Consider:

(93) Arabella exclaimed, madly in haling her salts-bottle [52 p.107]

- Initial position

Initial placement can have the effect of making the scope of the manner adverb seem to be the entire clause, including the subject, rather than just predicate

(94) Patiently she waited beside the ticket collector till Gloria came running

breathlessly across the station towards her [56]

(95) Swiftly John probably ran, over hill and dale [56]

This position gives the sentence a literary sound Adverbs of manner should be used with care in this position as not all of them can be used like this

This option seems restricted to those adverbs which truly describe how

the action was done slowly, quietly Other adverbs, such as those of degree

completely cannot be placed in this position: