A study on english substitutions of synonym with reference to the vietnamese equivalents

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled A STUDY ON ENGLISH SUBSTITUTIONS OF SYNONYM WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAME

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

(NGHIÊN CỨU THAY THỂ TỪ ĐỒNG NGHĨA TRONG TIẾNG ANH

ĐỐI CHIẾU VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT)

TRẦN HÀ ANH

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A STUDY ON ENGLISH SUBSTITUTIONS OF SYNONYM WITH REFERENCE TO THE

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU THAY THỂ TỪ ĐỒNG NGHĨA TRONG TIẾNG ANH

ĐỐI CHIẾU VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT)

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report

entitled A STUDY ON ENGLISH SUBSTITUTIONS OF SYNONYM WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master

in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2016

Trần Hà Anh

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Le Van Thanh, Ph.D

Date:………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could not have been completed without the help and

support from a number of people

Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor

Assoc Prof Dr Lê Văn Thanh for the continuous support of my M.A study

and research, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing

of this thesis I could not have imagined having a better advisor

and mentor for my M.A study

A special word of thanks goes to all my lecturers in Postgraduate Department of Hanoi Open University and my classmates, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents, for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

ABSTRACT

This article is an attempt to identify substitution of synonym in both English and Vietnamese as a discourse cohesive device Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are used in the thesis Besides, the thesis is carried out based on the research methods such as statistical research, methodology description, analysis and synthesis methods, comparing and contrasting methods With the corpora from stories and novels, the study classifies substitution of synonym in English and Vietnamese into three types: dictionary substitution of synonym, temporary substitution of synonym and descriptive substitution of synonym Then, the study explores the linguistic features of these types of substitution of synonym in English and Vietnamese

in term of syntax and semantics This aims to help learners to identify the type

of vocabulary and semantics common synonyms used in rather a synonym, at the same time learners can have a better use of synonyms as a way of forming cohesion The findings of the study show frequency and diversity in the relationship of the emergence of substitute synonyms in English and Vietnamese In addition, on the basic of the findings, some suggestion are put forward to help Vietnamese teachers and learners of English master substitution of synonym

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESS English Substitutions of Synonym

SI(s) Substitute Item(s)

SS Substitutions of Synonym

VSS Vietnamese Substitutions of Synonym

TABLE OF CONTENT

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 RATIONALE 1

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES 3

1.2.1 Aims 3

1.2.2 Objectives 3

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 4

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 4

1.5 SIGNIFICANCA OF THE STUDY 5

1.6 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS 5

1.7 PRGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 6

CHAPTER 2:LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 8

2.1 PREVIOUS STUDY 8

2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 10

2.2.1 Discourse and Text 10

2.2.2 Cohesion and Coherence 12

2.2.3 Reference 17

2.2.4 Substitution of synonym 19

2.2.5 Types of meaning 30

2.3 SUMMARY 33

CHAPTER 3: METHODS AND PROCEDURES 34

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN 34

3.2 RESEARCH METHOD 34

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS 36

3.6 PROCEDURES 36

3.7 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY 37

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSTION 38

4.1 TYPES ON SUBSTITUTION OF SYNONYM 38

4.1.1 Dictionary Substitution of synonym (Type 1) 38

4.1.2 Temporary Substitution of synonym (Type 2) 40

4.1.3 Descriptive Substitution of synonym (Type 3) 42

4.2 SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF SS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 44

4.2.1 Syntactic Features 44

4.2.2 Semantic Features 56

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 84

5.1 CONCLUSIONS 84

5.2 IMLICATIONS 86

5.3 LIMITATIONS 88

5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESREACH 88

LIST OF TABLE Table 4.1 Classification of SS 44 Table 4.2 Distribution of substitute items as subtypes of nouns in SS 47 Table 4.3 Distribution of substitute items as noun phrase in SS 49 Table 4.4 below: Relative frequency of substitute items in ESS and VSS in syntactic feature 54 Table 4.5 Relative frequency of substitute items in ESS and VSS in

semantic feature 80

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE

Communication, which is considered a “bridge” to bring people closer and closer, always plays an important role in human life People use language as

a vital means to communicative with each other Thanks to language, the most important means of communication in human society, people can exchange information, ideas and feelings In order to communicative successfully and effectively, people have to make use of language properly Thai is not merely

by putting one sentence after another to mean something, but that people should use cohesive devices seems to be one of the suitable ways The substitution via synonyms that can be also called substitution of synonym (SS) is one of those cohesive means (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

During the process of writing or speaking, over repetition of a lexical item may cause the boredom to the reader/hearer and may not convey the writer’s/ speaker’s message effectively In contrast, the use of synonym to replace some items of vocabulary can do better than this That means the employment

of synonyms not only helps to avoid over repetition, but also contribute to the effective expression of different shades of meaning Here are some examples:

(1.1) Swetman, much awed and surprised, returned the articles to the

closet, and went downstairs pondering Of his surmise he said nothing

to his daughters, merely saying to them that the gentleman was gone; and never saying that he had been an eye-witness of the unpleasant

scene in the orchard that was the immediate cause of departure

(1.2) Swetman, much awed and surprised, returned the articles to the

closet, and went downstairs pondering Of his surmise he said nothing

gone; and never revealing that he had been an eye-witness of the

unpleasant scene in the orchard that was the immediate cause of departure (Hardy)

It can be seen in examples (1.1) and (1.2) that there is not any difference in the content of the two strings of sentences However, the writing style in the second one is more fascinating In (1.2), due to the different nuances of

meaning of “said”, “declaring” and “revealing”, different messages of writer

is also exposed through this string This does not exist in (1.1) due to the

repetition of the same word “said-saying-saying” Besides, the cohesion

among the sentences in (1.2) is still preserved because all of the three words are similar in their basic meaning

That is to say, the perception of using synonyms for substitution as a cohesive device is very essential for most learners of English including Vietnamese leaners of English With a good knowledge of this cohesion device, leaners know how to employ synonyms properly to create cohesion among strings of sentences to make their language output less boring instead of abusing the unnecessary repetition, and especially to convey the various shades of meaning through synonyms

What is more, nowadays, the traditional way of learning and teaching English that focus on learning and teaching vocabulary, grammar, and etc is not the only focus of Vietnamese leaners and teachers of English Besides, they also pay more attention to important aspects of language in use like how a text is cohesive and coherent Therefore, the use of devices including replacement mount synonyms to focus students' English and Vietnamese teachers

For these reasons, I have decided to choose the topic “A study on English substitutions of synonym with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents”

for my master thesis

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

1.2.1 Aims

This research focus on finding out different types of English and Vietnamese substitution of synonym as well as describing the features of their language syntax and semantics The study aims at helping Vietnamese leaners of English to be more aware of the role of substitution of synonym as a linguistic means Besides, the thesis is done to help Vietnamese leaners of English to use synonyms suitably and persuasively in communicating and give some implications for teaching English

This research focuses on finding different kinds of English and synonyms replace Vietnam as well as describe the features of their language syntax and semantics This study aims to help Vietnam's English learners to be more aware of the role of alternative synonyms as a means of language Besides, the thesis is done to help Vietnam's English learners to use appropriate synonyms and persuasive communication and give some suggestions for teaching English

1.2.2 Objectives

The objectives of this study are:

- to identify different types of SS in English and Vietnamese;

- to describe some linguistic features of SS in terms of syntax and semantics;

- to find out some similarities and differences of SS in English and Vietnamese in the fields of syntax and semantics;

- to offer some suggestions to the teaching and learning of English to Vietnamese teachers and learners

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Through this study, the nature of SS in English and Vietnamese will be clarified via the exploration of some of its linguistic features The study, however, will not cover all the linguistic features but it just focuses on syntactic features and semantic features

In terms of syntactic features, the focus is on the analysis of the lexical forms

of substitute items and how frequently they appear in SS under the forms of different parts of speech

With respect to semantic features, these will be described via the analysis of different kinds of synonyms used in SS Thanks to that, the study is analyzed

to see how sequences are cohered via synonyms, how the attitude and message of writers’/ speakers’ are conveyed via synonyms which can contain different shades of meaning To do so, the classification of synonyms is based mainly on the similarity in meaning or the identity in reference I do not delve into the degree of synonymity of synonyms in SS will not be mentioned in the study

Moreover, the data of the thesis do not come from all genres They are collected only from English and Vietnamese novels, short stories

1 How many kinds of SS are there in English and Vietnamese?

2 What are the syntactic and semantic features of SS in English and Vietnamese?

3 What are the similarities and differences of SS in English and Vietnamese in term of syntax and semantic?

4 What are some suggestions to the teaching and learning of English to Vietnamese teachers and learners?

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Substitution of synonym is one of the cohesive devices used to create cohesive and coherent language products In fact, synonyms can be popularly employed in both informal language (in everyday conversations) and formal language (in speeches, reports, etc.) Thus, when conducting this thesis, I am always aware that this will be necessary work Because of some important function of SS as follows:

- SS is a way of avoiding unnecessary repetition;

- Via SS, speaker/ write can diversify ways of using synonyms;

- Via different shade of synonyms used in SS, speaker/writer can show their attitude towards character lively

1.6 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

- Substitution of synonym:

There are some ways of naming the cohesive device in discourse that use synonyms for substitution In English, Halliday and Hasan [38, p 318] call this reiteration by using synonyms, superordinates, general words In Vietnamese, this device is named as substitution of synonyms (phép thế đồng nghĩa) by Trần Ngọc Thêm [20, p.114]

In order to ensure the unity for the whole thesis, in this research “substitution

of synonym” is understood as the use of lexical items that are in some sense synonyms with the items substituted

- Substitute item:

In fact, there are many kinds of substitution in English and Vietnamese as classified by Halliday and Hasan [38] and Trần Ngọc Thêm [20] such as substitution, ellipsis, repetition, etc They can be grammatical cohesion or lexical cohesion Thus, substitute items can also be regarded as grammatical items or lexical items

Since the study investigates how synonyms are used for substitution, substitution item is also understood as lexical items which are used to replace other ones

1.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The content of the study is divided into five chapters, which are presented as follows:

Chapter 1 is the introduction, which states the rationale of the study, the aims

and objectives, the significance, the scope, the research questions, the significance, the definition of terms and the organization of the study

Chapter 2 is the review of previous studies and theoretical background,

which presents some necessary studies related to the study and the basic theory for the study

Chapter 3 is the methods and procedures, which includes research design,

research methods, selection of sample, methods of collecting and analyzing

data, procedures for carrying out the study The reliability and validity of the study will be the final part in this chapter

Chapter 4 is the findings and discussions, which present the findings of

different kinds of SS, the findings of linguistic features of SS in the fields of syntax and semantics together with the discussion of the findings

Chapter 5 is the conclusions and implications where a summary of findings

is presented; besides, some practical implications and some suggestions for

further research are put forward

“Cohesion in English” by Halliday and Hasan [28] is considered one of the valuable books on this linguistic aspect in the English language In this book, Halliday and Hasan discuss and divide cohesion into five types of devices: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical ties Lexical cohesion, to which synonym belongs, is also explained by Halliday later in

“An introduction to Functional Grammar” [29] Besides, cohesive devices have also been paid much attention to by Cook in “Discourse” [22] He studies such cohesive devices as verb form, parallelism, repetition, lexical chains and formal links

In “Discourse Analysis” [21], Brown and Yule have stated the nature of reference in text and discourse as a cohesive device They talked about exophoric and endophoric to support the idea of text cohesion In

“Pragmatics” [46], Yule points out lexical substitution related to the two term

“anaphora” and “cataphora”

Nunan in “Introducing Discourse Analysis” [38] also mentions lexical cohesion He bases on the view of Halliday and Hasan and states that reiteration with repetition, synonym, near synonymy, superordinates, general words and collocation are the main categories of lexical cohesion

A Vietnamese researcher who regards the use of synonyms as lexical cohesion is Nguyễn Hòa in “An Introduction to Discourse Analysis” [37] According to him, the usage of synonyms or near synonym is very frequent

in English This is to avoid unnecessary repetition

In Vietnam, cohesion, especially substitution in cohesion, has also been investigated in detail by Trần Ngọc Thêm in “Hệ thống liên kết văn bản tiếng Việt” [20] He categorized it into two types: pronoun substitution and substitution of synonym Besides, Diệp Quang Ban with “Văn bản và liên kết trong tiếng Việt” [1] considers substitution of synonym as a cohesive device-lexical cohesion Substitution of synonym is also discussed in term of speech

by Nguyễn Thị Việt Thanh with “Hệ thống liên kết lời nói tiếng Việt” [17] One more investigation in this field is of Phan Văn Hòa with “Phương tiện liên kết phát ngôn – Đối chiếu ngữ liệu tiếng Anh – Việt” [11] He describes the pragmatic effects of various cohesive devices for different semantic relations with specific examples

Besides the works above, there are two related M.A thesis including

“Substitution and Discourse – English versus Vietnamese” by Trần Thị Thủy Hương [44] and “Substitution in English and Vietnamese Brief News” by Nguyễn Phỉ Đính [36] Both of them focus on substitution as a grammatical cohesive device in English and Vietnamese Through the corpora collected from novels, plays, short stories, brief news, etc., they explore some grammatical features of substitution such as nominal substitution, verbal substitution, adverbial substitution and clausal substitution

Briefly, the works above analyze the nature of cohesion in discourse of the two language – English and Vietnamese, in which some kinds of cohesive devices are categorized and clarified such as reference, pronoun substitution, substitution of synonym, ellipsis, conjunction, etc However, a contrast

analysis of a certain device between the two languages seems to be still rare Consequently, I choose SS as one cohesive device to study in my thesis I try

to clarify some linguistic features of SS in English and Vietnamese, in which syntactic and semantic features are mainly focused With the findings of my

thesis named “Substitution of synonym in English and Vietnamese”, I

hope that my study will be of some help for the teaching and learning English

of Vietnamese teachers and leaners

Cook [22, p 156] defined discourse as “a stretch of language perceived to be

meaningful, unified and purposive’

Besides, discourse is “a communicative process Its situation outcome is a

change in a state of affairs: information is conveyed, intentions made clear, its linguistic product is text” which stated by Widdowson [45, p.100]

As discussed by Brown & Yule [21, p.12], discourse is language in use

From a number of sources about discourse, David Nunan [38, p 5] also made

an extract as follows: “discourse is a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as sermon, argument, joke or narrative” (Crystal 1992:25)

more heavily on observation of language used during interaction in natural sequences of sentences, Based on the definitions above, I view discourse in this study as follows:

- Discourse is language in use, for communication

- Discourse is a language unit which has meaning, unify and purpose

- Discourse can be constituted by the combination of many sentences

2.2.1.2 Text

Text is also differently defined by different linguists

Brown and Yule [21, p 6] see text as “verbal record of communicative act.”

Text is “the linguistic product of a communicative process” according to Widdowson [45] In the field of syntax, text is a unity of many sentences (rarely one sentence) linked together by ideas and lexical devices-grammar

Then, Nunan [38, p 6] uses the term text to refer to any written record of a

communicative event which conveys a complete message; he says that texts may vary from single words to books with hundreds of pages

Cook [22, p 158] mentions text as a stretch of language which can be

interpreted in its form, outside the context

In Vietnamese, Trần Ngọc Thêm states that text, ingeneral, is a system in

which sentences are constituents Beside the sentence-constituents, this system has some structures that identify the position of sentences and their relationship among nearby sentences and the ones in the whole text

With the definition of text above, in this study, I understand text as:

- a written record of a communicative event which conveys a complete message

- a stretch of language which can be interpreted in its form, outside the context

- a system in which sentences are constituents, and this system has some structures that identify the position of sentences and their relationship

in the whole text

2.2.2 Cohesion and Coherence

Up to now, many English and Vietnamese writers have been investigating various cohesive devices which help to create cohesion and coherence The two terms “cohesion” and “coherence” have become very popular in discourse analysis and textual linguistics They mentions the way in which sentences, whether in spoken or written form, cohere together to form a meaningful text

2.2.2.1 Cohesion

Cohesion, a term popularized by Halliday and Hasan [28], refers to the way sentences and parts of sentences to ensure that there is propositional development in a written or spoken discourse They suggest that cohesion is

a semantic relation Cohesion occurs where the interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependent on that of one another

Galperin [27] shows that cohesion is lexical, grammatical forms of connection between concrete parts of discourse It indicates the transition from a division of these contextual variants to another Cohesion, therefore,

is expressed on the surface of a discourse, making a link between utterances

Nguyễn Hòa [37, p 23] says that “cohesion refers to the formal relationship that causes text to cohere or stick together It is indicated by grammatical, logical and lexical relationships found among or between the sentences of a text”

Trần Ngọc Thêm [20] has investigated the dialectical relationship between the two facets of cohesion: content cohesion and form cohesion Content cohesion is manifested through a system of form – cohesion devices; form cohesion is embodied in content cohesion As a result, a cohesive discourse should own these two facets because they are the major factors to distinguish what is called discourse from disconnected jumbles

Let us consider the following examples:

(2.1a) Jane is American Jane has lived in Britain for three years Jane first drove a car in Britain Jane found it very difficult Jane had to drive on the left instead of on the right

(2.2a) Cắm đi một mình trong đêm Trận địa đại hội hai ở phía bãi bồi bên một dòng sông Hai bố con cùng viết đơn xin đi lính ra mặt trận Mùa thu hoạch lạc đã vào chặng cuối (Trần Ngọc Thêm, 1985)

Each of the separate sentences in (2.1a) and (2.2a) is a complete sentence in both grammar and meaning However, these sentences have not created a text yet In (2.1a), we may have a sequence of jumbles especially when we invert the sentence order In (2.2a), the sentences extracted from different stories also give a sequence of jumbles

What are the factors making a sequence of sentences to be a text?

In some cases, some necessary linguistic devices can be used to turn these

(2.1b) Jane is American but she has lived in Britain for three years When she first drove a car in Britain, she found it difficult because she had to drive

on the left instead of on the right (Murphy, 1996)

Taking the two examples (2.1a) and (2.1b) into consideration, we can easily realize that they almost have the same meaning However, (2.1b) sounds smoother and better while (2.1a) sounds rather odd although all the sentences

in (2.1a) are grammatically well-formed It is the force of cohesion that leads

to the difference between the two pieces In (2.1b), the sentences are linked

by various cohesive devices: anaphoric items (she), conjunctions (but, when, because), Meanwhile, each sentence in (2.1a) is a self-contained unit and its

existence is dependent on the others

In other cases, it can be seen that the text containing those separate sentences

(2.2b)(a) Cắm đi một mình trong đêm (b) Đúng như báo Đảng nói, đêm nay trời ít mây và có gió nhẹ (c) Mùa xuân về trên rẻo cao đã làm nở những thứ hoa chỉ thơm ban đêm, kín đào như nụ cười tình của một cô gái Mèo (d) Tiếng kêu của một con hoẵng lạc bầy trong rừng khuya nghe như tiếng gọi tha thiết cuat một con người (e) Cắm nghĩ chưa bao giờ anh nghe báo nói về tiếng kêu của con hoẵng đó (f) Nhưng nói làm gì, trên khắp đất nước ta, có nơi nào mà một đêm mùa xuân lại không nghe thấy tiếng kêu tha thiết của một con hoẵng con? (g) Cắm xốc lại cây sung, nhưng không phải để bắn (h) Anh đi nhanh trong đêm quen thuộc

When (2.2a) and (2.2b) are compared, it is clear that the sentences in (2.2a) are unrelated Meanwhile, the sentences in (2.2b) have a lose connection

From the act of đi trong đêm, “Cắm” comments on thời tiết ban đêm The typical weather of mùa xuân makes “Cắm” to notice hoa đêm trên rẻo cao,

Đảng – con hoẵng) The anxiety in (e) is replied though the content in (f)

The fact Cắm – súng – không bắn in (g) is related to con hoẵng in the previous

sentences and đi nhanh in (h) All of these complex relations among the sentences create a net which helps to stick those sentences to be a text

Obviously, cohesion plays an important role in discourse and thanks to cohesion, we can distinguish discourse from others Cohesion is part of the system of a language and Halliday and Hasan [28] systematize this concept

by classifying it into five subtypes: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion

To sum up, my view on cohesion in this research paper is represented as follows:

- Cohesion is a semantic relation

- Cohesion is a lexical and grammatical forms of connection between concrete parts of discourse;

- A cohesive discourse should shows two facets: content cohesion and form cohesion

2.2.2.2 Coherence

The factor that makes a product of language become a discourse or a text is coherence, which is the semantic, implicit connection inside the discourse itself Some linguists say that coherence is the most essential characteristics

of the discourse and it can be explained as a sequence of particles and a field

of networks of information ideas Hence, to be coherent, any text or discourse must make sense, have unity and so be well-formed

Richards [42, p.45] defines coherence á “the relationships which link the meaning of utterances in a discourse or of sentences in a text” These links

may be based on the speaker’s or listener’s shared knowledge, and as much possible with no grammatical or lexical signal

Diệp Quang Ban [2, p 297] states that “coherence is a logical connection in meaning and function, which is represented during the deploying of a text (such as a story, a conversation, a speech, etc.), so as to create connected facts rather than connection between sentences and sentences” For example: (2.3) A: Have you got a light?

B: Sorry, I don’t smoke (Trần Thị Thùy Hương, 2002) This exchange shows that the text can be easily understood by anyone although there is no cohesion This is because it has overall coherence B’s answer makes A understand that B does not have a light because he does not smoke Hence, the conversation is still coherent without cohesion

(2.4) Giáp: Tối nay đi nghe nhạc với tớ đi! (a)

Bính: Có trận bóng đá vô địch toàn quốc mà (b)

Giáp: Đành vậy (c)

The utterance (a) is an invitation so it can get two answers: accepting the

invitation (Cảm ơn) or refusing it (Xin lỗi) Through the utterance (b), Bính

apologizes Giáp for the refusing of Bính’s invitation As for Giáp, because he

knows that Bính likes watching football, he only says “Đành vậy” with the implicature that he accepts Bính’s apology The acts of speech such as Mời,

Cảm ơn, Xin lỗi or Chấp nhận lời xin lỗi are connected together and make the

coherence of the conversation although there is no cohesive device among the sentences

The concept of coherence in discourse is so important that any two sentences

or utterances are produced in a sequence, a semantic relation between them will be assumed “A coherent text is one where the interpreter can readily reconstruct the speaker’s plan with reasonable certainty, by inferring the relations among sentences, and their individual relations to the various sub-goals in the inferred plan for the entire to be understood at hand” (Halliday & Hasan, 1976)

In this study, coherence is understood as:

- the relationships which link the meaning of utterances/sequences in discourse;

- a logical connection in meaning and function;

Briefly, there is a close relationship between cohesion and coherence in discourse analysis Coherence is built via the material of cohesion and conversely, cohesion is the foundation on which coherence is expressed

2.2.3 Reference

In Richards’ view, [42, p 241], the term “reference” is defined as the relationship between words and things, events, actions and qualities which they stand for Also, it is an act in which a speaker, or a writer uses linguistic forms to enable a listener, or a reader to identify something as stated by Brown and Yule [21, p 28] The linguistic forms are referring expressions which can

be proper nouns (for example, Tom, Susan), definite noun phrases (for example, the bird, the mouse) or indefinite ones (for example, a girl, a room) and pronouns (for example, they, her, it)

There are two different ways in which reference items can function within a text According to Halliday and Hasan [28], they are anaphora (to preceding

text) and cataphora (to following text) We can summarize reference with a diagram to make it easier to grasp:

2.2.3.1 Anaphora

Anaphoric reference is a process of continuing to exactly identify the same identity as denoted by the antecedent [21, p 192] In technical terms, the anaphor is the second or subsequent expression and the antecedent is the initial expression Some information that is necessary for the expression’s interpretation can be provided by the antecedent In the following sentences, the relationship between the pronoun she and Ellen O’Hara, between chàng and Lê Vân are examples of anaphora:

(2.5) Ellen O’Hara was thirty-two years old, and according to the standards

of her day, she was a middle-aged woman… (Mitchell, 1993)

(2.6) Lê Vân đáp xong bạn, mím môi quay mặt vào tường Chàng tuy rất

khốn khổ, nhưng không muốn chịu lụy bạn nữa (Vũ Trọng Phụng, 2008)

Cataphora is the reference of one expression with another expression which follows it In other words, it is a reversal of the antecedent anaphor patterns

It is a cohesive device which points the reader or listener forwards – it draws

us further into the text in order to identify the elements to which the reference item refer [21, p 192] The sequences below contain some examples for

cataphora, in which he refers forward to Rhett, nàng refers forward to Bích

Nga

(2.7) She was indignant that he had read her mind She liked to believe herself

a thing of mystery to men, but she knew Rhett thought her as transparent as

glass

(2.8) Chỉ độc một lần là tôi ngờ vực, hơi hơi ngờ vực Tối chủ nhật ấy nàng lên phủ Vĩnh mà chẳng thấy về Tôi thất vọng quá! Làm thế nào đây? Đáp

ngay tàu lên phủ Vĩnh tìm nàng chăng? Nếu thế thì cuộc duyên kín đáo kia

lộ mất Ấy thế mà sau một đêm trằn trọc, tôi quyết định ra đáp tàu lên phủ

Vĩnh thì Bích Nga đẩy cửa, mặt mày xám ngắt, bước vào (Vũ Trọng Phụng,

Webster’s new dictionary of synonym [34, p 24] provides the following definition: “A synonym, in this dictionary, will always mean one of two or more words in the English language which have the same or very nearly the same essential meaning Synonyms, therefore, are only such words as may be defined wholly, or almost, in the same terms Usually they are distinguished from one another by an added implication”

According to O’Grady [39, p 212], synonyms are words or expressions that have the same meanings in some contexts Here are some examples: youth –

adolescent, automobile – car, purchase – buy, big – large, etc Although youth and adolescent both refer to people of about the same age, only the latter word has the meaning of “immature” in a phrase such as He’s such an adolescent!

Therefore, many linguists believe that it would be inefficient for a language

to have two words or phrases whose meanings are absolutely identical in all contexts, and that complete synonym if therefore rare or non-existent

Synonyms in Vietnamese, based on the results obtained by Đỗ Hữu Châu [8,

p 1983-185], can be defined as words that belong to a class of meaning, have the majority of identical aspect of meaning and do not contain opposite

aspects of meaning, for example: máy bay – phi cơ, lợn – heo, phát biểu – nói

context In the context of literary work “Tắt đèn” of Ngô Tất Tố, Chị Dậu can

be synonymous with descriptive expression such as người đàn bà lực điền,

Another opinion of synonymy is given by Diệp Ban Quang [1, p 383] He emphasizes that synonyms in cohesion can be understood not only as narrowly as defined in dictionary but also more widely

In general, the nature of synonymy is the comparison of aspects of meaning and typical context, not the comparison of words The points of view above share some common features between synonyms in English and that in Vietnamese In this research, we define synonyms as follows:

- Synonyms are words or expressions that have at least one identical meaning and do not contain opposite meaning;

- Depending on a certain context, words or expressions can be synonyms

if they indicate the same referent in that context;

- Both members of pairs of synonyms can be in the same or different parts of speech;

2.2.4.2 Substitution of synonym

Halliday and Hasan [28, p 318] state that substitution via synonyms is one

of the two direct forms of lexical cohesion It is he occurrence of a synonym

of some kind, in the context of reference; that is, where the two occurrences have the same referent; the substitute item is often accompanied by a reference item, usually the demonstrative Halliday and Hasan give out some following examples which using synonyms for substitution:

- By using cohesive items as synonyms of the same level (pure synonyms), without necessary identity of reference, the occurrence of synonym even where there is no particular referential relation is still cohesive

(2.14) Everyone cheered The leader acknowledged the applause

(2.15) I wish I hadn’t cried so much! I shall be punished for it, I suppose, by

being drowned in my own tear! (Halliday & Hasan, 1995)

Sometimes, the synonyms may not be in the same word class (cheered…

applause; cried… tears):

(2.16) … He jumped into a hawthorn bush

… He jumped into a quickset hedge (Halliday & Hasan, 1995)

The quickset hedge is not the same entity as the hawthorn bush but there is

still cohesion between the synonyms hedge and bush

- By using cohesive items as synonyms of some higher level or generality, with identity of reference, synonyms can be superordinates,

general items usually accompanied by the reference item the Below is

an example:

(2.17) Four-twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie…

When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing

… the creatures began to sing

Here, we have two pairs of synonyms (blackbirds … birds, blackbirds …

creatures) However, “birds” is at a higher level of generality than blackbirds,

it is a superordinate item “Creature” which does not carry the information

focus refers to a superordinate member of some taxonomic class of entity; hence it is called general term Such instances are typically accompanied by

the reference item “the”

In Vietnamese, the phenomenon of substitution by using synonyms is also

Trần Ngọc Thêm [20, p 114 – 119] defines substitution of synonym as a cohesive device, in which different syntagms (word of phrase) with the same meaning and same referent are used in main speech (chủ ngôn) and cohesive speech (kết ngôn) He states that substitution of synonym has two cohesive items which are called main items and substitute items He also says that the identity of meaning (denotative meaning or connotative meaning) of main item and substitute one is the foundation for the function of cohering utterance Besides, substitution of synonym has the functions of giving extra information and avoiding word repetition

The following examples are extractes to illustrate Trần Ngọc Thêm’s view:

(2.18) Một cái mũ len xanh nếu chị sinh con gái Chiếc mũ sẽ đỏ tươi nếu chị

đẻ con trai

(2.19) Người Pháp đổ máu đã nhiều Dân ta hy sinh cũng không ít

(2.20) Ông lão há miệng ra như bị bò cạp chích Ông biết thừa là bọn cúng chẳng lạ gì gia đình ông, nhưng ông vẫn cứ phải ngạc nhiên như vậy

(2.21) Trâu đã già Trông xa, con vật thật đẹp dáng

(2.22) Sài Gòn đã làm cho thế giới kinh ngạc (Sài Gòn là một thành phố) Sức sống của thành phố mãnh liệu không sao lượng nổi

Obviously, substitution of synonym is not only the usage of pure synonyms for substitution, it is also the usage of words or expressions that are in some sense synonymous with the previous referents In the examples above, words

or expressions that are synonymous can be pure synonyms (sinh – đẻ, đổ máu

– hy sinh), supprordinates (trâu – con vật), general items (Sài Gòn – thành phố) or free expressions (há miệng ra như bị bò cạp chích – ngạc nhiên)

In sum, substitution of synonym in this thesis is defined as a lexical cohesion This is the choice of a lexical substitute item that is in some sense synonymous with the preceding one or has the identical referent with the preceding one in main speech and cohesive speech

2.2.4.3 Forms of Substitute Items in Substitution of synonym

Based on the examples of SS explained by Halliday and Hasan [38] and Trần Ngọc Thêm [20] as stated in the two parts above, substitute items in SS which are considered as cohesive items can be in different kinds of word classes and phrases In terms of word classes, substitute items can be noun phrases or verb phrases

a Noun

Noun in English and Vietnamese can be classified into two main kinds In

English, Quirk et al [40, p 60] classify nouns as proper nouns (John, Marry,

Whitehouse, etc.) and common nouns (bottle, furniture, cake) Also, in

Vietnamese, nouns are classified as proper nouns (Nguyễn Ái Quốc, Hà Nội,

etc.) and common nouns (cái, chiếc, ngày, hôm, cha, mẹ, cam, quýt, etc.)

In substitution of synonym, substitute items can also be words under the form

of nouns

In sum, nouns in this study are understood as words with general meaning of lexicon denoting persons, things, event, substances, quality or other abstract notion; nouns include two main kinds: proper nouns and common nouns

b Noun Phrase

According to Quirk et al [41, p 62], “a noun phrase consists of a head, which

determine the head and (optionally) modify the head, or complement another elements in the phrases” For example:

(a) Girl (Head);

(b) The girl (pre-modifier + Head)

(c) The blonde girl (pre-modifier + Head)

(d) The blonde girl in blue jeans (pre-modifiers + Head + post-modifiers)

(e) The blonde girl wearing blue jeans (pre-modifiers + Head + modifiers)

post-The examples given by Quirk et al [41, p 245] means a head can have modification and/or port-modification In other words, it can be preceded by pre-modifier(s) and/or followed by post-modifier(s)

pre-According to Diệp Quang Ban [41, p 245], a noun phrase consists of three elements: “Phần trung tâm”, “phần phụ trước” which precedes the head and

“Phần phụ sau” which follows the head For examples:

In the nominal group above, we see that elements in “Phần phụ trước” are mainly used to indicate the quantity of “Phần trung tâm”; meanwhile, those

in the “Phần phụ sau” are used to indicate the head’s quality and definiteness

Considering the English equivalence of (4.47) “all (of) those red dresses”, we

can see the difference between the structures of noun phrase in Vietnamese

and in English This difference mainly lies in the position of pre-modifiers

and post-modifiers

c Verb

Verb is “a word or phrase that describes an action, condition or experience”

(Cambridge Advanced leaners Dictionary, 2008)

According to Quirk et al [40, p 26], verbs are divided into two kinds based

on the function of items in the verb phrase: lexical verbs (walk, write, play,

etc) and auxiliary verbs (do, be, can, may, etc)

In Vietnamese, according to Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh [16, p 127-128], verbs are

words that have general meaning of lexicon and indicate activities or certain

state of things Verbs cam be realized based on the words that they can

combine with, such as: words adding meaning of continuing (còn, vẫn, cứ

…), meaning of time (đã, đang, sẽ …), meaning of negation (không, chưa,

chẳng …), meaning of ordering (đừng, chớ, hãy…)

In this research, verbs appear as one of the form of substitute items in

substitution of synonym They are used to replace other words, usually verbs,

that have identical meaning in some certain contexts

d Verb Phrase

In A grammar of Contemporary English, Quirk et al state, “verb phrases

consist of a main verb which either stands alone as the entire verb phrase, or

is preceded by auxiliaries”

In Delahunty & Garvey’s view [24, p 181], “a verb phrase contains a head

and the compulsory and optional elements” expresses as followed:

(Auxiliary) + Head + [(Object(s)/ Complement) + Modifier(s)

Mary cooked the meal in the kitchen

In Vietnamese, Diệp Quang Ban [4, p 62] also states that verbal phrase has three parts: “Phần trung tâm”, “Phần phụ trước”, và “phần phụ sau” as expressed in the example below:

Phần phụ trước Phần trung tâm Phần phụ sau

According to Diệp Quang Ban [4, p 62], “Phần phụ trước” basically qualifiers the relation of time, habitus of action or state indicated by “Phần

trung tâm” It includes modal verbs (cần, nên, có thể, không thể, etc.) or adverbs (đều, cũng vẫn, cứ, còn, đã, etc) “Phần phụ sau” widens the lexical

content of the head

In a word, a verb phrase consist of three elements: auxiliary, head and object/complement and/or modifier(s), among which, the compulsory element is the head and the optional ones are auxiliary, object/complement, modifier(s)

e Adjectives and Adverbs

In English, “adjective” is defined as “a word that describes a noun or pronoun” It can be recognized by some typical endings, such as: happy, careful, understandable, possible, general, etc “Adverb” is defined as “a word

that describes or gives more information about verb, adjective, adverb or

phrase” (Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)

In Vietnamese, according to Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh, adjectives are words that indicating quality, characteristic of things such as shape, colour, capacity,

size, feature, etc (là những từ chỉ tính chất, đặc trưng của sự vật như hình

thể, màu sắc, dung lượng, kích thước, đặc trưng) Adverbs are words

accompanying with others words to modify them (từ đi kèm với các từ vựng

khác để bổ sung ý nghĩa cho từ đó) (Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh, 2007)

In my thesis, the concept of adjectives and adverbs are understood as follow:

- Adjectives are words that indicate quality, characteristic of things, people

- Adverbs are words that indicate the manner, the frequency of an action

or give more information about quality, characteristics of things, people via their actions, states

2.2.4.4 Classification of Substitution Items as Synonyms in Substitution

of synonym

Based on the view of synonyms stated by John Lyons [32], Diệp Quang Ban [1], Đỗ Hữu Châu [5] as mentioned in 2.2.4.1, it is obvious that synonyms relate to each other not only in their identical lexical meaning but synonymous with the lexical items they replace in terms of their meaning or reference Hence, substitute items as synonyms in SS, in this study, are classified into two groups as follows: synonyms in narrow sense (từ đồng nghĩa hiểu theo nghĩa hẹp) and synonym in broad sense (từ đồng nghĩa hiểu theo nghĩa rộng)

a Synonyms in Narrow Sense

Synonyms in narrow sense are those which has identical relation in terms of lexical meaning which shown in dictionaries However, they can differ in denotation or connotation, which create different kinds of synonyms in narrow sense discusses in this thesis

- Semantic synonyms (Từ đồng nghĩa ý niệm): are those which are neutral in stylistics but differ in denotation (basic meaning of words)

For example, glance (a quick and stolen look) and look (turn one’s eyes

in a particular direction in order to see); mang (an action bringing something without restricting the act of parts of body) and khiêng (an

action of bringing something with the cooperation of another), etc

- Stylistic synonyms (Từ đồng nghĩa phong cách): are those which are identical in their basic meaning bit differ in terms of their connotation

For example, policeman – cop, father – dad, toán lính – bầy lính, etc

The previous words are used in formal language while the latter are used in informal language

b Synonyms in Broad Sense

Synonyms in broad sense are those which are context-bound due to the reference in its structure They are always context – dependent, so they are temporary synonyms, Superordinates, general words ỏ descriptive synonyms are the three kinds of synonyms in broad sense in the study

- Superordinates (từ trên bậc): are words with the relation of breed and

species, e.g dog, horse, etc – animal; hoa hồng, hoa cúc, hoa huệ - hoa (animal and hoa are superordinates of dog, pig, horse and hoa

hồng, hoa cúc, hoa huệ)

- General words (từ khái quát) are words that has more/ the most general

meaning in comparison with the others, e.g dog, bird, etc – creature,

bút chì – đồ vật (creature and đồ vật are general term of dog, bird and bút chì)

Synonyms as hyponyms and superordinates always have sến relation ò

hyponymy For examples: spider, butterfly (hyponyms) – insect

(superordinate) Whereas, the sense relation of hyponymy of synonyms in

general terms may not exist The generality of general terms is at higher level

than that of superordinates For examples: spider, butterfly (hyponyms) –

animal, creature (general terms)

- Descriptive synonyms [32, p 63]: two expression have the same descriptive meaning (i.e are descriptively synonymous) if, and only if, propositions containing the one necessarily imply otherwise identical propositions containing the others, and vice versa, e.g Mrs Thatcher – the iron woman In Vietnamese, descriptive synonyms are expressions that denote the same referent in a certain context E.g

người đàn bà lực điền, chị chàng con mọn are synonyms of chị Dậu (in

the context of “Tắt đèn” of Ngô Tất Tố), etc

2.2.5 Types of meaning

In order to distinguish what a word ỏ an expression denotes from what it can

be used to refer to, linguists have point out the difference between denotation and reference, denotation and sense, denotation and connotation

2.2.5.1 Sense and Reference

According to Lyons, sense is sometimes distinguished from meaning The meaning of a word is seen as part of the language system; whereas, sense is the realization of this meaning in speech For example:

To which the answer is obviously “yes” A new question is created when the

morning star is substituted as follows:

Is the evening star the morning star?

Most people would say “yes”, based on their experience rather than the meaning of the expression Hence, some phrases may have sense but no reference

Sense and denotation are generally interdependent in that one would not normally know the other without having at least some knowledge of the other For example, if one does not know the denotation of “computer”, one would find it difficult to understand the utterance: “I bought a computer yesterday” Furthermore, they are also in reverse relation The larger denotation, the smaller the sense, and conversely

Reference, in John Lyons’s traditional view, is the relationship that holds

between a words or expression (words refer to things) Yet, according to his

modern view [1977, p 177], reference is the speaker who refers (by using

some appropriate expression), he invests the expression with reference by the

act of referring Thus, reference is treated as an action on the part of the speaker/writer For example, the expression my uncle and he are used to refer

to one individual and my mother’s sister and she are used to refer another It can be said that he refers to my uncle

A: My uncle’s coming home from Canada on Sunday + he’s due in +

B: How long has he been away for or has he just been away?

A: Oh no they live in Canada eh he was married to my mother’s sister ++ well she has been dead for a number of years now +