CONTRASTIVE STUDY ON ENGLISH VERB PHRASES IN COMPARISON WITH VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

CONTRASTIVE STUDY ON ENGLISH VERB PHRASES IN COMPARISON WITH VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS As far as we know, verb phrases have important role in linguistics. Verb phrases are important word groups carrying much semantic weight, but verb phrases in Vietnamese seems not similar. This research seeks to perform a contrastive analysis of the verb phrase in English and Vietnamese. It intends to compare and contrast verb phrases in both languages, and to attempt to establish the areas which might pose problems to learners of English as a foreign language with Vietnamese as a first language. The study aims at giving the theory of the of verb phrases, analyzing the verb phrase in English then comparing with Vietnamese equivalents in order to find out the similar and dissimilar characteristics of verb phrases in English and Vietnamese. Besides, the study suggests some possible solutions for teachers and learners when teaching and learning English verb phrases. The study uses the framework developed by Quirk, et al. (1985). To gain the above aims, some main methods as descriptive, contrastive, analytical and synthetic methods are used. The findings of the study are hoped to be able to help both Vietnamese teachers and learners seek the suitable ways to use English verb phrases accurately.

A CONTRASTIVE STUDY ON ENGLISH VERB PHRASES IN COMPARISON WITH VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU CỤM ĐỘNG TỪ TRONG TIẾNG ANH

TRONG SỰ SO SÁNH VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT) Introduction

As far as we know, verb phrases have important role in linguistics Verb phrases are important word groups carrying much semantic weight, but verb phrases in Vietnamese seems not similar This research seeks to perform a contrastive analysis of the verb phrase in English and Vietnamese It intends to compare and contrast verb phrases in both languages, and to attempt to establish the areas which might pose problems to learners of English as a foreign language with Vietnamese as a first language The study aims at giving the theory of the of verb phrases, analyzing the verb phrase in English then comparing with Vietnamese equivalents in order to find out the similar and dissimilar characteristics of verb phrases in English and Vietnamese Besides, the study suggests some possible solutions for teachers and learners when teaching and learning English verb phrases The study uses the framework developed by Quirk, et al (1985) To gain the above aims, some main methods

as descriptive, contrastive, analytical and synthetic methods are used The findings of the study are hoped to be able to help both Vietnamese teachers and learners seek the suitable ways to use English verb phrases accurately

1 Theoretical background

1.1 Overview of the contrastive analysis

Contrastive analysis, a term coined by Lado (1957), seeks to establish the similarities and differences between languages with the assumption that the areas of similarities will be easier to study in a target language while differences will pose learning difficulties (Bouton, 1970; Gradman, 1971; James, 1976, 1980)

Contrastive analysis (CA) is a method to distinguish between what are needed and not needed to learn by the target language (TL) learner by evaluating languages (M.Gass & Selinker, 2008) In addition, CA is a technique

to identify whether two languages have something in common, which assess both similarities and differences in languages, conforming to the belief in language universals (Johnson, 1999) Both statements indicate that CA holds a principle which is important in order to identify what are required by the TL learner to learn in TL and what are not If there is no familiar characteristic in the languages, it indicates that the learner might have difficulty in learning the

TL While much could be said about comparing languages, a more important aspect is about the influence from TL in first language (L1)

“Contrastive analysis stresses the influence of the mother tongue in learning a second language in phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactic levels It holds that second language would be affected by first language” (Jie, 2008, p 36)

1.2 Definition of verb phrase

There are many definitions of the verb phrases in every aspect Involving English grammar, there are a large number of scholars defining verb phrases

based on its structure, components, rules or functions from different perspectives

In functional grammar, Halliday looks Verbal group as the expansion of a verb, consists of a sequence of words of the primary class of verb A verbal group is typically a group with a verb as its Head That verb is likely to be modified either before the verb (pre-modification) with auxiliary verbs or after the verb (post- modification or qualification) or both Here are some examples:

 He goes

 He should not have gone

Verbal group serves different functions in the clause in term of experiential & logical structure

From traditional perspective, phrases are functioned as elements of clause and Verb phrase operates as the verb element in a clause, the most central and indispensable part of the clause

A verb phrase can be the predicate of a sentence or a clause In this case, there will usually be a helping verb in addition to the verb Here are some examples of a verb phrase:

 My sister is doing her homework.

 He might eat the cake.

 John was walking to school today.

 They played games yesterday.

A verb phrase can also be a phrase that functions as an adverb or adjective that has a verb and its complements, objects, or modifiers These following examples will explain for this:

 Running on the staircase, the child fell to the ground.

 To make a cake, you need eggs, flour and sugar.

 I have saved enough to buy a house.

 She practices regular to become a famous dancer.

1.2 The modification

According to Quirk, et al (1985), modification can be restrictive or non-restrictive The modification is restrictive when the reference of the head is a class which can be identified only through the modification that has been supplied The reference of a noun phrase may be viewed as unique or as a member of a class that has been independently identified Any modification given to such a head is additional information which is not essential for identification, it is called non-restrictive Example:

Linda, who is standing up, is John’s girlfriend

Who is standing up is non-restrictive because Linda’s identity is

independent of whether or not she is standing up

The value of the distinction between restrictive and non-restrictive modification has been pointed out that modification at its most restrictive tends

to come after the head and tends to be given more prosodic emphasis than the head In contrast, non-restrictive tends to be unstressed in pre-head position while in post-head position; its parenthetic relation is endorsed by being given a separate tone unit

1.3 Parts of noun phrase

1.3.1 The premodification

The premodification comprises all the items placed before the head-notably adjectives, nouns and determiners

Example: Some expensive computers

Some very expensive computers

1.3.2 The head

The head is around which (for the most part) the other constituents cluster and which dictates concord with other parts of the sentence See the sentences:

The slim girl near the sofa is my daughter

But: The slim girls near the sofa are my daughters.

1.3.3 The postmodification

The postmodification consists of all the items placed after the head-notably prepositional phrase, non-finite clauses and relative clauses

For example:

The boy in the street (prepositional phrase)

The boy walking in the street (non-finite clause)

The boy who walked in the street (relative clause)

1.4 Premodification of noun phrase in English and Vietnamese

2 Premodification of noun phrases in English and Vietnamese

2.1 Premodification in English

Lexical and syntactic items of a wide range of complexity can precede a noun head to form a noun phrase The premodification can be formed by:

2.1.1 Predeterminers

The predeterminers can occur before certain determiners include all, both, half, the multipliers as double, twice, three times…, the fractions such as one-third, one-fifth…, and such, what.

All, both, half can occur only before articles or demonstratives but when

they are themselves quantifiers, they do not occur with the following

“quantitative” determiners as every, either, neither, some, any, no, and enough.

The multipliers occur with nouns denoting quantity See the following:

double the amount

three times the sum

The fractions can be followed by determiners Unlike the multipliers, the

fractions have the alternative of-construction, example: one-third of the time

2.1.2 Determiners

The kind of reference a particular noun phrase has depends on its determinative element This function is realized by a set of closed-class items or determiners which occur before the noun or before its premodifiers

Determiner production involves the selection of a set of grammatical features that jointly specify a determiner type, followed by the selection of a specific phonological form For example, the production of the determiner “a” (as in “a car”) requires the selection of the features indicating non-definite, singular and count noun Some of the features are context specific and others are specified lexically (mass or count, gender) These features jointly specify the type of determiner that will be selected for production

Determiners consist of articles (a, an, the), possessive adjectives (my, our, your, his, her…), interrogative pronouns (who, whom, which, that…),

demonstrative pronouns (this, that…) Determiners come first in noun phrases,

before adjectives and noun modifiers

2.1.3 Postdeterminers

Cardinal numerals tell how many of something there are such as one, two, three… “One” can co-occur only with singular count noun while all cardinal numerals co-occur with plural count nouns

Ordinal numerals notify the position of something on a list All ordinals precede any cardinal numbers in the noun phrase For example:

The first two students in the queue are Mrs Nhung’s daughters.

Quantifier is a type of determiner that expresses a relative or indefinite

indication of quantity Quantifiers usually appear before nouns as in many people.

2.1.4 Adjective

Adjectives describe the qualities or features of a noun Such as: a big dog, a spotted dog…

There are four criteria for adjectives First, they can freely occur in attributive function Second, , they can freely occur in predicative function

Third, they can premodified by the intensifier very Last, they can take

comparative and superlative forms

2.1.5 Participle

There are two types of participles in English including present participles

(known as -ing form) and past participles (known as -ed form).

A built supermarket

A building supermarket

2.1.6 S-Genitive

Let’s see the following phrase:

The woman’s house

This sentence can be interpreted as:

The house of the woman

In English, there is a genitive premodification with the deletion of the head especially when this denotes premises or establishment

Go to the dentist’s.

This refers to the dentist’s professional establishment

2.1.7 Adverbial phrase

Another minor type of premodification is the adverb phrase as in:

John travels to many far-away places.

There is a merely of other premodifying phrases, some of which are common expressions

2.1.8 Multiple premodification

With single head, there is more than one modification which may be related to adjective single head

With multiple heads, there is one modification which applies to more than one head For example:

The new hat

The new dress

 The new hat and dress

With modified modifier, see the example:

The small office furniture

2.2 Premodification in Vietnamese

There are following types of premodification of noun phrases in Vietnamese:

2.2.1 The classifier “cái”

It is used to express the individual and it is in the position of head one This classifier is often placed before words denoting things which belong to the same class It cannot be, in this case, replaced by any other word Examples:

Một chiếc bàn này Cái chiếc bàn này

The word “cái” can be replaced before head 2 which denotes things only E.g: cái bàn, cái ghế, cái xe But the classifier cái can be replaced before any

head 2 For example: cái cậu học sinh này, cái ghế này, cái ngôi nhà này…

When the word “cái” is used as premodification, it has some connection with the word order of the whole noun phrase Whenever the classifier “cái”is used as premodification, head 1 must be added as in “cái cậu học sinh này” When the word “cái” is used as head 1, the classifier “cái” cannot be used as premodification

2.2.2 Quantity words

Quantity word can be used as premodification of noun phrases

Words denoting cardinal numbers such as, một (one), hai (two),

Words denoting indefinite numbers, for example: vài, mấy, dăm (some)

…

Words denoting distribution such as mỗi một, mỗi (each), mọi (every)… Quantity words used as premodification can influence the order of the noun phrase They can be placed before classifier “cái” If there is no quantity word before it, the head will be interpreted as singular See the below examples:

Cái tủ chén này (This cupboard)

Những cái tủ chén này (These cupboards)

When quantity words are used, classifier or words denoting units are also obligatory Thus, we cannot say:

năm đường (five sugar)

vài vịt (some ducks)

mấy tre (some bamboos)

Quantity denoting totality can be use as premodification of noun

phrase.For example: Tất cả các thầy cô giáo (all teachers)

2.2.3 Fixed order words

Classifier cái always stand after the quantity words Quantity words stand after words denoting totality

Numbe

r

Position

Examples

Note: 1-classifier cái

2-number/quantity

3-totality

3 Contrast the premodification in English noun phrases with Vietnamese equivalents

Although, English premodification is formed by many mentioned items, only some following typical items are discussed when comparing with Vietnamese equivalents

3.1 In terms of adjectives

If noun phrase contains one adjective, there is parallelism between English and Vietnamese For example:

A large house

Một ngôi nhà rộng

Nevertheless, they are mostly different when noun phrase contains more than one adjective With noun phrases holding more than one adjective, they have constant structure, but there are assorted orders in Vietnamese Therefore,

the noun phrase “a slim beautiful girl” can be translated into Vietnamese by

“một cô gái mảnh dẻ xinh đẹp” or “một cô gái xinh đẹp mảnh dẻ”.

In addition, adjectives are typically used as premodification in English, they are used as post-modification in Vietnamese

A slim girl (1)

Một cô gái mảnh dẻ (2)

In example (1), “slim” is an adjective used as premodification The role of

adjective differently changes into post-modification in Vietnamese, see (2)

“Mảnh dẻ” stands after the head “cô gái”.

3.2 In terms of quantity

Number and quantity words are used as premodification in both English and Vietnamese The word order in the noun phrases in English is the same as order in Vietnamese See these examples:

Năm quốc gia vs five countries

Or:

Three hundred students took part in the parade.

Ba trăm học sinh tham gia diễu hành.

However, “every” and “all” in English do not co-occur In Vietnamese,

“tất cả”, “mỗi một” are used together.

Tất cả mọi người đều mặc đồng phục

We cannot say: All every people also wear uniform.

In short, Vietnamese premodification is much more widely used than English ones It is much varied than English premodification in its meanings and its positions

3.3 In terms of genitives

In English, genitives are typically used as premodification, but there is no site comparable to this in Vietnamese To express possession, the word “của”

-“of” is added See this noun phrase: “a girl’s dress” = “a dress of a girl” vs.

“váy của cô gái” The head in English noun phrase is put at the end, but in

Vietnamese, it is located at the beginning of the noun phrase See the underline words in the above example