SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF DECIDING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

This paper is to study the DECIDING verb group terms of syntactic and semantic features in English and their Vietnamese equivalents.. For these reasons, we would like to choose the study

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A Thesis

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF

DECIDING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM VỀ CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG TỪ DECIDING TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ

TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

PHAM THI YEN

Field: English Language Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2017

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A Thesis

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF

DECIDING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM VỀ CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG TỪ DECIDING TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ

TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

PHAM THI YEN Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor: NGUYEN THI THU HUONG

Hanoi, 2017

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “The syntactic and semantic features of DECIDING verb group in English and their 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, 2017

Pham Thi Yen

Approved by SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

Date:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank my supervisor Mrs Nguyen Thi

Thu Huong who instructed me directly, shared experiences, and removed difficulties which arose during the process of writing my thesis

Secondly, my special gratitude goes to Assoc.Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh

for support and encouragement

Thirdly, I sincerely thank all the lecturers of the Hanoi Open University,

especially the lecturers in the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies who have been

teaching and conveying to me the enthusiastic guidance and valuable teaching and

tremendous assistance and skills in the learning process

Fourthly, I also send my deep gratitude to my friends, colleagues and

students at Lao Cai high school for gifted students who have assisted me in

collecting the data and provided valuable resources to help me complete my thesis

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to family members who

supported me and contributed to the completion of my study

ABSTRACT

DECIDING verb group is used regularly and flexible in daily communication, but the significant meaning of the concept of DECIDING verb group is still misunderstood by Vietnamese people Therefore, the author thinks the study on the subject of DECIDING verb group in Vietnamese and English is helpful for improving the knowledge of learners as well as the students learning English in general This paper is to study the DECIDING verb group terms of syntactic and semantic features in English and their Vietnamese equivalents To compensate for this, we need to develop the DECIDING verb group for learners to raise their awareness of how words are formed and related to each other, such as synonyms, antonyms and uses of DECIDING verb group Nevertheless, teaching the DECIDING verb group as a discrete topic or introducing learning strategies is still rare in High Schools Sum up, the thesis is expected to help Vietnamese learners of English learn, translate and use the DECIDING verb group in English effectively

* Wrong sentence

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the research 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the research 1

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Method of the study 2

1.5 Scope of the research 3

1.6 Significance of the study 4

1.7 Design of the study 4

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Previous studies 6

2.2 Semantic and syntactic features 7

2.2.1 Theory of syntax 7

2.2.2 Theory of semantics 8

2.3 Overview of English verb 9

2.3.1 Definition of English verb 9

2.3.2 Classification of English verb 10

2.4 Classification of sentences 12

2.4.1 In terms of sentence pattern 12

2.4.2 In terms of sentence elements 13

2.4.2.1 Syntactic features of sentence elements 13

2.4.2.2 Semantic features of sentence elements 15

2.5 Overview of DECIDING verbs 16

2 6 Summary 17

Chapter 3: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF DECIDING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 18

3.1 Syntactic and semantic features of the DECIDING verb group in English 18

3.1.1 Syntactic features of the DECIDING verb group in English 18

3.1.1.1 In terms of sentence pattern 18

3.1.1.1.1 SV type 18

3.1.1.1.2 SVO type 19

3.1.1.1.3.SVOC type 20

3.1.1.1.4 SVOA type 20

3.1.1.1.5.SVOO type 20

3.1.1.2 In terms of sentence element 21

3.1.2 Semantic features of DECIDING verb groups in English 24

3.1.2.1 Decide verb in English 25

3.1.2.2 Determine verb in English 26

3.1.2.3 Resolve verb in English 27

3.1.2.4 Plan verb in English 27

3.1.2.5 Choose verb in English 28

3.1.2.6 Select verb in English 29

3.1.2.7 Pick verb in English 30

3.1.2.8 Appoint verb in English 30

3.1.2.9 Elect verb in English 30

3.1.2.10 Vote verb in English 32

3.2 DECIDING verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents 32

3.2.1 In terms of their syntactic features 32

3.2.1.1 In terms of their sentence patterns 32

3.2.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements 33

3.2.2 In terms of their semantic features 35

3.2.2.1 Decide meaning and their Vietnamese equivalents 37

3.2.2.2 Determine meaning and their Vietnamese equivalents 38

3.2.4.3 Resolve meaning and their Vietnamese equivalents 39

3.2.2.4 Plan meaning and their Vietnamese equivalents 39

3.2.2.5 Choose meaning and their Vietnamese equivalents 39

3.2.2.6 Select meaning and their Vietnamese equivalents 40

3.2.2.7 Pick meaning and their Vietnamese equivalents 40

3.2.2.8 Appoint meaning and their Vietnamese equivalents 40

3.2.2.9 Elect meaning and their Vietnamese equivalents 40

3.2.2.10 Vote meaning and their Vietnamese equivalents 40

3.3 Summary 41

Chapter 4: COMMON ERRORS MADE BY STUDENTS AT LAO CAI HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS WHEN USING DECIDING VERB GROUP

IN ENGLISH 42

4.1 Survey questionnaire 42

4.1.1 Subject 42

4.1.2 Questionnaires 42

4.1.3 Procedure 43

4.2 Common errors made by students at Lao Cai High School For Gifted Students when using DECIDING verb group in English 45

4.2.1 Common errors made by learners of English 45

4.2.2 Causes of committing errors 47

4.3 Suggestions for teaching and learning when using DECIDING verb group in English 49

4.3.1 Suggestions for teaching DECIDING verb group in English 49

4.3.2 Suggestions for learning DECIDING verb group in English 52

4.4 Summary 52

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 54

5.1 Concluding remark 54

5.2 Limitations 55

5.3 Suggestions for further researchers 55

REFERENCES 56

IN VIETNAMESE 57

APPENDIX 58

POSSIBLE ANSWERS FOR SURVEY TESTS 60

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the research

The misunderstanding of using the DECIDING verb group causes many problems to English users In addition, the wide diversity of DECIDING verb group sometimes makes them confused and they have difficulties when using them effectively to get target communication in speaking as well as writing Among verbs

of English, we find that the verbs decide, determine, resolve, plan, pick, select,

choose, elect, appoint and vote are quite frequently used These verbs can occur in

different syntactic patterns that reflect various meanings in communication They can occur in the same syntactic patterns, but may have different meanings depending on the situation in which they are used

Many problems have been faced by learners when they use this group of verbs They often feel confused to choose the right verb and make errors in using them

Moreover, some researchers have been done about many kinds of verbs but research of DECIDING verb group has not been done For these reasons, we would like to choose the study of DECIDING verb group for my thesis topic to study more about the DECIDING verb group with the hope of helping Vietnamese users to find out how to use these verbs accurately and correctly from the analysis of their syntactic and semantic features with reference to their equivalents in Vietnamese That is why the subject “SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF DECIDING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS” is chosen to study for the thesis We hope to contribute a small part in studying and teaching these verbs in English In this study, DECIDING verb group is described and analyzed in contexts and situations Hence, we do hope that the thesis will be an useful reference, to the extent possible, for teaching and learning English and Vietnamese as foreign languages

1.2 Aims and objectives of the research

This research is conducted to achieve the targets of finding out syntactic and semantic features of English DECIDING verb group and Vietnamese equivalents as well as suggesting some possible implications for teaching them to students at Lao Cai high school for gifted students who study English as a foreign language

Objectives of research

To achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following objectives can be put forward:

+ To point out the syntactic and semantic features of DECIDING verb group in English in order to help learners of English use these words effectively

+ Pointing out the similarities and differences of the DECIDING verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features

+ To suggest some possible implications of teaching, learning and translating English DECIDING verb group at Lao Cai high school for gifted students

1.3 Research questions

In this study, the author is going to investigate the semantic and syntactic

features of the English DECIDING verb group as well as their equivalents in

Vietnamese by reading through a great number of sources such as books, dictionaries… While analyzing the entire terms, conclusion will be pointed towards what these above-mentioned features are and what pedagogical applications should

be suggested Such knowledge has to base on the ways grammarians and linguists

of each time study the DECIDING verb group particularly and it is what the study

aims at in the first place In order to gain the aims of the study, the thesis is expected to find out the answers for the following questions:

1 What are the syntactic and semantic features of the English DECIDING verb group in English?

2 What are the similarities and differences of the DECIDING verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features?

3 What are suggestions of teaching and learning English DECIDING verb group for Vietnamese learners of English at Lao Cai high school for gifted students?

1.4 Method of the study

The study is planned to describe and analyse some syntactic and semantic features of the DECIDING verb group in English as well as their Vietnamese equivalents To meet the demand of the objectives, this study is going to choose English as the source language and Vietnamese, the target one

The methods are used in this study include descriptive and contrastive analysis ones

The descriptive method is exploited to search for the syntactic and semantic features of the eight verbs of the DECIDING verb group

Besides, the contrastive analysis method is useful to uncover the Vietnamese equivalents of these eight English verbs with different senses In particular, the data were collected from different sources such as dictionaries, novels, news, books

The verbs are analyzed in detail beginning with DECIDING followed by

decide, determine, resolve, plan,pick,select, choose, elect, appoint and vote Each of

these verbs is described in a seperate section, and the anlysis was conducted with a view to discovering such aspects of each verb as its syntactics, semantics performed

by each of these verbs The analysis is believed to contribute to a deeper understanding of the eight English verbs The componential analysis will be applied

to analyze the data

1.5 Scope of the research

The study is an attempt to explain the meanings conveyed by the DECIDING verb group in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents within traditional theoretical framework The prototypical sense, derived meanings, and metaphorical extensions of the verb are taken into account This investigation is based on the author’s manual corpus of structure SV, SVO, SVOC and SVOO of DECIDING verb group in English in terms of semantic and syntactic features In addition, the applications of this work will, hopefully, contribute greatly to find out appropriate methods to teaching English DECIDING verb group in Vietnam and make changes how Vietnamese learners of English not only in their study at school as a compulsory subject but also in their daily use of English as a foreign language As mentioned previously, regarding English lexical terms, students often learn English words’ definitions separately with their actual uses In fact, teachers and students often make their own examples without collecting and analyzing examples of collocations indicating how native speakers combine some words with each other while others are not used frequently They also have difficulty in using the words in the conversation, in contexts Therefore, this study suggests them about the definitions of DECIDING verb group, different syntactic and semantic types of verb and discovers the rules to make use of them The effects will be vital to students and should be encouraged to be applied at school as well as for learners of English

1.6 Significance of the study

Theoretically, it is true that lexical aspect has been given little decision so far and teachers instead only pay attention to grammar or other aspects In order to overcome such a trouble, the research is carried out in order to offer needed knowledge as to syntactic and semantic features of the English DECIDING verb group By providing an innovative approach to learning English lexical terms, the author expects to change how students learn English words as well as how teachers change their traditional methods of teaching vocabulary If words are separated from their specific contexts and are exposed to students only through their meanings

in dictionaries, it is not easy for these 2nd language users to obtain the real meanings of the words in different cases This study also contributes to verifying significance related to semantic theory in componential analysis by working on a certain synonymic group of verbs It proves that lexical semantics is an important area in linguistics

Practically, this study's findings and conclusion would make great contributions to raise the importance of studying DECIDING verb group with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents First of all, when students study about collocations, they might learn them by heart, however, the main problem will lie in applications of these words in appropriate contexts Therefore, learning about the syntactic and semantic features of these verbs is the beginning of the whole process The main step is to understand comprehensively how they are applied in diverse situations and students can only do this by analyzing examples made by native speakers, not their own This research offers them a method to do this Secondly, regarding translation, students will have problems with understand the meanings if they learn the words’ definitions separately with its locations and meanings This study’s implications are to deal with these issues in hope that will help students overcome their troubles

1.7 Design of the study

This study is organized into five chapters

Chapter 1 – INTRODUCTION – gives a brief overview of the research with the rationale for choosing the topic of the research, aims, objectives, scope, significance of the thesis and structural organization of the thesis

Chapter 2 – LITERATURE REVIEW – presents the previous studies relating

to the research area and theoretical background employed for conducting the thesis and describes in detail all research-governing orientations and research methods

Chapter 3 – SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF DECIDING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS – shows syntactic and semantic features of the DECIDING verb group in English and compare similarities and differences of DECIDING verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

Chapter 4 COMMON ERRORS MADE BY STUDENTS AT LAO CAI HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS WHEN USING DECIDING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH: shows the research implications for teaching and learning English and common errors made by students as a foreign language can be found as the last part of this chapter

Chapter 5 – CONCLUSION – makes a brief summary of the whole thesis, points out some limitations and give recommendation as well as suggestions for a further study

References come at the end of the study

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides an overview of the theoretical background as well as relevant knowledge and summaries of previous research’s findings and conclusion associated with the theme of the research In other words, the review is to explain several related terms and definitions as to semantics, syntax, collocation, lexical unit and approach, verb and structures with the DECIDING verb group These later would further highlight features conducted of the study as well as suggest an array

of possible implications for teaching the English DECIDING verb group in general and teaching them to Vietnamese students at Lao Cai high school for gifted students

in particular

2.1 Previous studies

In English, R.M.W DIXON (1991) studied the broad sense and narrow sense of these verbs in new approach to English grammar on semantic principles In Vietnam, Professor Tran Huu Manh (2008) analyzed the fundamentals of English traditional syntax, Hanoi National University publication Some studies of Vietnamese researchers have found and tend to make comparisons between ways of using verbs they chose Moreover, thanks to this, when these authors presented their conclusion, their findings can be viewed on a more comprehensive scale

First of all, Do Thi Toan (2016) investigated deeply into the lexical and semantic verbs: look, see and watch as she still saw greater opportunities to open more details about the analyses of structures and functions of verbs despite various studies came previously and compare with Vietnamese Toan pointed out how Vietnamese learners of English and examiners paid their attention to the differences between syntactic and grammatical errors while acquiring English DECIDING verb group, figuring out they almost consider these notions one type of error

Secondly, the researcher TRẦN VĂN CHƯƠNG (2010) provides Vietnamese learners with a comprehensive description and analysis of the semantic and syntactic features of saying verbs used in political documents in English and Vietnamese The writer also studied and analyzed ten verbs in English, including assure, tell, promise, pledge, ask, urge, declare, announce, congratulate and thank and a number of their Vietnamese equivalents Semantically, saying verbs are used

to convey the speaker’s message to the receiver in a verbal or non-verbal way And

these verbs are classified into five different groups, such as asserting, committing, directing, declaring, and expressing

Thirdly, NGUYỄN THỊ XUÂN THỨ (2011) focused on eight SVs in syntactic and semantic features and it can be seen that we have taken English to be the target language and Vietnamese the source language Besides, there are some dissertations of Vietnamese learners about verbs and some related issues to our study which can be listed as Trần Thị Diệu Anh , Lưu Thị Mỹ Hạnh Lê Lan Phương and Nguyễn Thị Tố Nga In addition, there have been a great number of dictionaries such as: Từ điển Anh-Anh-Việt”(2008); Từ điển Anh-Anh-Việt” (2000); published by Publishing House of Cultural and Informatics, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2003); Dictionary of Contemporary English (2003)

in which mentioned about DECIDING verbs.However, none of the above studies focus on the syntactic and semantic features of DECIDING verb group in detail and find out how to use DECIDING verb group in the sentence That is the reason why decided to research is conducted with title: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF DECIDING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

These studies can be considered as sources to analyze for details and based

on them to find out more features in DECIDING verb group

2.2 Semantic and syntactic features

2.2.1 Theory of syntax

Syntax A reasonable understanding of the evolution of language is that syntax developed slowly from minimally-syntactical utterances Syntax links names and actions as a simulation of the order of events in the real world Syntax is the basis of verbal reasoning Syntax has developed differently in different languages Increasing complexity of sentences accommodates an increasing need for more detailed communications Syntax provides selective advantage to humans who faced variable and complex demands and who made more flexible and complex statements to each other to cope with survival challenges Syntax is the form of language that admits any content The content may be literal or factual The content may be an invention, a fictional story that gains credibility by being inserted into proper syntax Humans are confused or alarmed by improper syntax, but will often accept fabricated contents with little resistance or with demonstrable appreciation You could argue that there are two main uses of language: one is to inform; the

other is to deceive Within traditional grammar, the syntax of a language is described in terms of a taxonomy of the range of the range of different types of syntactic structures found in the language at phrases and sentences are built up of a series of constituents (i.e syntactic units), each of which belongs to a specific grammatical category and serves a specific grammatical function Given this assumption, the task of the linguist analyzing the syntactic structure of any given type of sentence is to identify each of the constituents in the sentence, and (for each constituent) to say what category it belongs to and what function it serves For example, in relation to the syntax of a simple sentence like: Students protested vehemently It would traditionally be said that each of the three words in the sentence belongs to a specific grammatical category (students being a plural noun, protested a past tense verb, and vehemently an adverb) and that each serves a specific grammatical function (protested being a predicate, students being its sole argument and functioning as the subject of protested, and vehemently being

an adjunct – i.e an expression which provides additional information about the time, place or manner of an event) Theory of syntax is a source of studying syntactic features in general and DECIDING verb group in particular

2.2.2 Theory of semantics

Semantics is a branch of linguistics, which is the study of language; it is an area of study interacting with those of syntax and phonology A person's linguistic abilities are based on knowledge that they have One of the insights of modern linguistics is that speakers of a language have different types of linguistic knowledge, including how to pronounce words, how to construct sentences, and about the meaning of individual words and sentences To reflect this, linguistic description has different levels of analysis So - phonology is the study of what sounds combine to form words; syntax is the study of how words can be combined into sentences; and semantics is the study of the meanings of words and sentences

If not most, at least, many introductions to semantics begin by asking the following question This seems like a sensible way to start a course on semantics, so

we can begin by looking at some of the answers that different authors provide Something that can be noticed is that there is no complete agreement For some, semantics concerns the study of meaning as communicated through language, while for some others, semantics studies all aspects of meaning and they have to add the label “linguistic” to arrive at a more precise definition This distinction, however, is

not generally given much importance and leaving aside special formulations, probably all authors would agree with Kreidler’s definition (to choose just one of them): linguistic semantics is the study of how languages organize and express meanings This, however, leaves us with a second question: what do we understand

by “meaning”? What is that “meaning” that is organized and expressed by languages? In very general terms, speaking consists of communicating information: somebody (the speaker) has something in his/her mind (an idea, a feeling, an intention, whatnot), and decides to communicate it linguistically Vocal noises are then emitted that are heard by a second person (the hearer), who “translates” these noises back into ideas, with the result being that this hearer somehow “knows” what the first person had in mind That “something” that was at first in the speaker’s mind and now is also in the hearer’s mind is what we call meaning What can it be? The problem is that it can be virtually anything: objects (concrete, abstract or imaginary), events and states (past, present, future or hypothetical), all sort of properties of objects, feelings, emotions, intentions, locations, etc We can talk about anything we can think of (or perhaps almost) And if we were to arrive at a rough idea of what meaning is, we would nevertheless have another list of questions waiting in line Theory of semantic is a base that studies semantic features of DECIDING verb group

2.3 Overview of English verb

2.3.1 Definition of English verb

According to R.M.W.Dixon (1991) defines that “a verb is the center of a clause” A verb refer to some activity and there must be a number of participants

who have roles in that activity as: Sinbad carried the old man; or it may refer to a state, and there must be a participant to experience the state as: My leg aches

A set of verbs is grouped together as one semantic type partly because they require the same set of participant roles

John gave a bouquet to Mary, Jane lent the Saab to Bill

Affect verbs are likely to involve an Agent, a Target, and something which is

manipulated by the Agent to come into contact with the target which I call manip A manip can always be stated, although it often does not have to be For examples:

John rubbed the glass (with a soft cloth)

Mary sliced the tomato (with her new knife)

Tom punched Bill (with his left fist)

According to Merrian-webster, verb is a word that characteristically is the grammatical center of a predicate and expresses an act, occurrence, or mode

of being, that in various languages is inflected for agreement with the subject, for tense, for voice, for mood, or for aspect, and that typically has rather full descriptive meaning and characterizing quality but is sometimes nearly devoid of these especially when used as an auxiliary or linking verb

In most languages, verbs are parts of speech expressing existence, action, or occurrence Verbs are used to indicate the actions, processes, conditions, or states

of beings of people or things

2.3.2 Classification of English verb

According to R Quirk et al ( 1985), verbs are divided into two types They are intensives verbs and extensive verbs

Extensive verbs are most other verbs, they do not have subject compliment Extensive verbs are used to say what the subject is doing It covers a wider area; it takes the information away from the subject Words or phrases, which are followed

by an extensive verb work as the verb’s object They apply the verb, not the subject

as in:

He stayed very quiet

( Quirk, Randolph, 1985:55) Extensive verbs include three small types: monotransive, complex transitive and ditransitive

Ditransitive verbs are verbs which take a subject and two objects or have the strucures ‘ SVOO’’ According to certain linguistic consideration, these objectives may be called direct, indirect objectives, or primary and secondary objectives as in the following examples:

I must send my parents an anniversary card (SVOO)

In contrast, monotransitive verbs take only one object and appear in the

structure SVO as in the following examples

That lectures bored me (SVO)

( Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721) Verbs requires both a direct object and another object complement is complex transitive verbs Complex transitive verbs appear in the structure “ SVOC’’ or

‘SVOA’’ In a complex- transitive construction, the object complement identifies a quality or attributes pertaining to the direct object Let’s consider the following examples:

Most students have found her reasonably helpful (SVOC)

You can put the dish on the table (SVOA)

( Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721) The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence A verb states what is happening in the sentence Finite verbs locate the condition or action of the verb in a specific time frame: past, present or future and have a specific tense and a subject with which they grammatically agree A complete sentence must contain a finite verb Verbs create the relationship between the subject and the object of the verb

In a command, there is still this relationship with the subject and object

understood “Go!” (Subject –you- understood, verb “go!” object away– understood.)

The form of the verb must agree with the number of its subject, which will

be a noun or noun group, for example 'They were not home' (as opposed to 'They was not home') Confusion can arise when deciding whether the subject is singular

or plural, for example 'This group of students is very clever', or when there are two subjects, for example 'Ice cream and strawberries are delicious' (not 'is delicious')

Intensive verbs are also called copular verbs, and they are usually followed

by a noun, or noun phrase, and adjective or prepositional phrase Intensive verbs are used to describe the subject It means that the focus is on one thing- the subject

only Intensive verbs appear in the structure SVC or SVA words or phrases, which are followed by an intensive verb work as the subject compliment and they apply to the subject, not the verb Let’s consider the following examples:

Your dinner seem ready( SVC)

My office is in the next building (SVA)

( Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721) Intensive verbs are not take any object It presents the relationship between the subject and the subject complementation The verb in sentenses with subject complement is a ‘’copular’’ or ( linking verb) , which of itself has littles meaning but functions as a link between the complement subject

There are two subgroups:

Current intensive: be, appear, look, feel, remain, keep…

(E Warrriner, J & Graham, L.S.1980: 108) Resulting intensive: become, come, get, go grow, turn…

She grew tired o his complaints (SVC)

(E Warrriner, J & Graham, L.S 1080: 108) This part is a source to analyze in the chapter three

2.4 Classification of sentences

2.4.1 In terms of sentence pattern

Sentence classification is carried out in order to get the foundation of studying the sentence types in the DECIDING verb group in English and Vietnamese in chapter III

By eliminating optional adverbials from the clause structures, we have seven clause types in the classification of the essential core of each clause structure

SVA been garden

Type

SVOO

A glass of milk

Table 2.1: Sentence patterns (Quirk, Randolph, 1985)

Each clause type is associated with a set of verbs The seven fall naturally into three main types There are:

1 A two-element pattern: SV

2 Three three-element patterns: SV + {O}

That lecture bored me (SVO)

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721)

3 Three four-element patterns: SVO + {O, C}

I must send my parents an anniversary card (SVOO)

Most students have found her reasonably helpful (SVOC)

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721) This set of patterns is the most general classification that can be usefully applied to the classification of sentence patterns of the DECIDING verb group in English

2.4.2 In terms of sentence elements

2.4.2.1 Syntactic features of sentence elements

Subject is the most important element of the clause elements other than the

verb according to Quirk, Randolph (1985) It is the element that is most often present It is also the element for which we can find the greatest number of characteristic features The subject is normally a noun phrase or a nominal clause, a pronoun, That-clause, To infinitive or V-ing A subject is obligatory in finite clauses except in imperative clauses, where it is normally absent but implied

Verb is also taken an extremely important role in sentences It is convenient

to make a further classification of the verbs in these patterns:

Transitive verbs

Monotransitive verbs occurs in type SVO Ditransitive verbs occur in type SVOO Complex transitive verbs occur in types SVOC and SVOA

Objects is an indispensable element in a sentence with a transitive verb.

In fact, there are two types of object: direct object (Od) and indirect object

(Oi) An object such as parties in [2a] (My mother enjoys parties) clearly has a different role in the lause from an object such as the visitor in [5a] (Mary gave the

visitor a glass of milk), and this has been traditionally recognized by applying the

term direct object to the former, and indirect object to the latter We give priority

here to the distributional fact that whenever there are two objects (in type SVOO), the former is normally the indirect object, and the latter is direct object But although it is more central with regard to position, in other respects the indirect object is more peripheral than the direct object: it is more likely to be optional, and may generally be paraphrased by a prepositional phrase functioning as adverbial

Complements is used in sentence patterns SVC and SVOC There are also

two types of complements: subject complement (Cs) and object complement (Co)

We can distinguish between the types of complement found in the SVC pattern; ie:

totally independent in:

And the type of complement found in the SVOC pattern; ie: rather expensive in:

Most people consider these books rather expensive [6a]

The distinction is effectively made by noting that in [3a] the country is

understood to have become a totally independent country, while in [6a] the books are understood to be considered rather expensive books In other words, in SVC

clauses the complement applies some attribute or definition to the subject, whereas

in SVOC clauses it applies an attribute or definition to the object This distinction is

usually denoted by the terms subject complement and object complement

respectively In these cases, the complement is an adjective phrase, but elsewhere, where the complement is a noun phrase, the same kind of distinction holds:

Type SVC: The country became a separate nation

Type SVOC: Most people considered Picasso a genius

2.4.2.2 Semantic features of sentence elements

Quirk, Randolph (1985) shows that the most typical semantic role of a

subject in a clause that has a direct object is that of the agentive participant: that is,

the animate being instigating or causing the happening denoted by the verb:

Margaret is mowing the grass

Besides, the subject may have a recipient role with verbs such as have, own,

possess, benefit (from); the role of positioner with intransitive stance verbs such as sit, stand, lie, live, stay, remain, and with transitive verbs related to stance verbs

such as carry, hold, keep, wear; the locative, temporal and eventive role

Direct object has several roles in sentences The most typical role of the direct object is that of the affected participant: a participant (animate or inanimate) which does not cause the happening denoted by the verb, but is directly involved in some other way:

Many MPs criticized the Prime Minister

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 741) The direct object may have a locative role with such verbs as walk, swim, pass,

jump, turn, leave, reach, surround, cross, climb

Besides, the direct object has a resultant, cognate, and instrumental object

Besides, the most typical role of the indirect object is that of the recipient

participant: i.e, of the animate being that is passively implicated by the happening or state:

I’ve found you a place

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 741)

It occationally takes an affected role with a few of the verbs that combine with an

eventive object The most common verb in the latter construction is give:

She gave me a push

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 742)

Complement is also a very important element in sentences The typical

semantic role of a subject complement and an object complement is that of attribute

We can distinguish two subtypes of role for the attribute: identification and characterization We can further subdivide attributes into current or existing attributes (nomally with verbs used statively) and resulting attributes, resulting from the event described by the verb (with verbs used dynamically)

Branda became their accountant (Identification)

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 728)

2.5 Overview of DECIDING verbs

In Enlgish, R.M.W DIXON(1991)who studied about the semantic features of DECIDING verb group such as decide, determine, resolve, plan, appoint, elect, choose, pick, appoint and vote In other words, A new approach to English grammar

on semantic principles is one of the study to discuss the definition and semantic features of DECIDING verb group The book shows two subtypes They are RESOLVE focusing on one particular Course such as decide( on), determine (on), resolve, plan (with intersects with wanting) and CHOOSE type refers to its hyponym such as select, pick (out), elect, vote For verbs in English R.M.W DIXON (1991) also studies about the semantic features of English verb groups such as: the BEGINNING group, ATTENTION group, DECIDING group, THINKING group.etc This book has two purposes: one purpose is practical: it is meant to be of service to the general public, both to native speakers of English and to people learning or teaching English as a second language The semantic theory is viewed here as a lexicographic enterprise, which will be also useful as a reference book There have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations into verb goups in

both English and Vietnamese For verbs in English, R.M.W DIXON (1991) studies about the semantic features of English verb groups such as: the BEGINNING group, ATTENTION group, DECIDING group, THINKING group.etc This book has two purposes: one purpose is practical: it is meant to be of service to the general public, both to native speakers of English and to people learning or teaching English

as a second language The other purpose is scholarly: it is meant to be a study of an important section of the English vocabulary, a study of a kind which has never been undertaken before The present dictionary can be regarded as a justification of the semantic theory on which it is based This does not mean, however, that the practical lexicographic purpose is subordinated to a theoretical linguistic goal On the contrary, the semantic theory is viewed here as a lexicographic enterprise, which will be also useful as a reference book According to R.M.W DIXON (1991), the

DECIDING verb group includes ten English verbs: decide, determine, plan,

resolvel, choose, select, pick, appoint,elect and vote These verbs are analysed

thoroughly in terms of their meanings and using in daily life Given the necessary limitations of scope, the clues offered by the syntactic properties of the individual verbs have not been exploited as fully and as systematically as it was hoped

In Vietnam, the verb group was founded by some authors such as Diep Quang Ban, (1992), Nguyen Kim Thản (1997), these authors studied about of words in Vietnamese including DECIDING verb group Moreover, some authors of Journal of Science of Hue University: (2011), These authors studies about the distinction between factive verbs non factive verbs in English and Vietnamese translation The author has only mentioned the meanings of DECIDING verb group

in Vietnam, not discuss or compare the equivalents of the DECIDING verb group in English

2 6 Summary

In this chapter, the Literature Review includes previous studies, review of theoretical background In the previous studies, the studies of authors in oversea and

in Vietnam are given In the theory of syntax and semantics are analyzed thoroughly

in order to use for background of analyzing the syntactic and semantic features of the DECIDING verb group in English Moreover, the definition of the verb and classification of verb are pointed out in details Finally, theoretical background is given briefly reviewing what has been found and discussed the related studies by

describing their approaches and key findings

Chapter 3: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF DECIDING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

3.1 Syntactic and semantic features of the DECIDING verb group in English 3.1.1 Syntactic features of the DECIDING verb group in English

3.1.1.1 In terms of sentence pattern

After studying the background, it is found out that the DECIDING verb group in English is divided into four sentence patterns according to their syntactic

feature: SV, SVO, SVOC and SVOO

3.1.1.1.1 SV type

In this pattern, the verbs are intransitive verb The verbs do not have an

object Among these, decide, determine, plan, choose, pick and vote have the type

SV as well In this case, decide, determine, resolve, plan, choose, pick and vote are

intransitive verbs and are not followed by an object, a complement, though it may

be followed by an ADJUNCT, an element which tell us about the time, place, manner, etc of the action of the verb

The judge will decide (the case) tomorrow (Object is optional in context)

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 233)

The verbs in DECIDING verb group belong to this type except select, appoint and

elect But Adjunct of determine, resolve and pick are only identified by a

prepositional phrase, not adverb of time or manner, etc

We determined on an early start (identified as a prepositional phrase)

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 245)

He resolved on an early start (identified as a prepositional phrase)

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 770)

Sparrows picked at the crumbs (identified as a prepositional phrase)

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 673) Other DECIDING verb group are realized by adjuncts: a prepositional phrase, adverb of time or manner, etc

He chose carefully

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 154)

You may do as you choose

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005152)

group belong to this type

The judge decided for the plaintiff (identified as a noun)

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 233)

Fred decided on red skirt (identified as a noun phrase)

She decided that Frank was dismissed (identified as a that clause)

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 233)

We haven’t decided what we ought to do next (identified as a finite clause)

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 233) However, verbs have direct object realized by a non finite clause (noun or noun phrase/ pronoun-toV)

That decided me to leave my job

S V O

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 233) The verbs decide, determine and choose have Object realized by finite or non-finite clause, but verb choose is not allow in the passive

We hadn’t decided what to do next/ we ought to do next

The verbs: decide, determine, resolve, plan and choose have the direct object

is a non-finite clause consisting of or containing a to-infinitive

He determined to learn Greek

S V O

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 245) The verbs: decide and resolve have the direct object is a that-clause The

conjunction that can sometimes be omitted When it can, that is usually shown in

brackets in the first or only example sentence in entries

She resolved that she would never see him again

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 770) 3.1.1.1.3.SVOC type

The verbs in DECIDING verb group: elect belong to the type SVOC There are two verbs: pick and vote have object complement realize by, an adjective or an adjective

phrase

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 286)

There are three verbs choose, select and appoint have object complement:

as+ noun(phrase)/ adjective(phrase)

They elected him chairman

S V O C

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 286)

3.1.1.1.4 SVOA type

The verbs in DECIDING verb group: elect belong to the type SVOC

She’s been elected Presidents twice

S V O A

3.1.1.1.5.SVOO type

the verb appoint, elect and vote in this DECIDING verb group belongs to the type

SVOO But the realization of direct object complement is different This pattern has

a double-transitive verb followed by an indirect object and a direct object Both objects can consist of a noun or noun phrase:

Mps have just voted themselves a pay rise

S V O O

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 1013) The following table can account for the sentence patterns of DECIDING verb group

Type decide determine resolve plan choose select pick appoint elect vote

Table 4.1: The sentence patterns of the DECIDING verb group

As we can see from the table, among ten verbs above, there are six verbs

(decide, determine, resolve ,choose, pick, vote and plan) belong to sentence

patterns: SV and SVO Especially, all DECIDING verbs occur in the pattern SVO

appoint elect and vote occur in SVOO And only elect verb is SVOA and SVOC

3.1.1.2 In terms of sentence element

Subject (S)

In the DECIDING verb group in English, subject is the element that is most often present It is also the element for which we can find the greatest number of characteristic features The subject in this group is normally a noun phrase or a nominal clause, a pronoun

A subject is obligatory in finite clauses except in imperative clauses, where it is normally absent but implied

The Appeal Court decided in their favor ( S is realized by Noun phrase)

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 395)

We set out to determine exactly (S is realized by a pronoun)

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 417)

They offer me free accommodation for a year decided me (S is realized by

a nominal clause)

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 395)

Verb (V)

Verbs belonging to the DECIDING verb group in English have two main verb classes, that are intransitive and transitive verbs Transitive followed by an object and occur in types SVO, SVOC and SVOO In transitive verb group,

monotransitive verbs occur in type SVO are all DECIDING verb group and

ditransitive happens in type SVOO and complextransitive occurs in type SVOC/SVOA

He chose a carpet

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2003: 154)

She selected a gift

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2003: 822)

The verb vote, select, appoint, pick and choose are ditransitive verb that

occur in type SVOO

The directors have just voted themselves a huge pay increase

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 1709)

The verbs pick, appoint, elect and vote are ditransitive verbs that occur in

type SVOO

We elected him president of the company

(Tran Huu Manh, 2008: 92)

Intransitive verbs occur in type SV They are decide, determine, resolve,

plan, choose, pick and vote

You choose, I can not decide

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 260)

He decided carefully

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2003: 233)

Object (O)

In fact, there are two types of objects: direct object (Od) and indirect object (Oi) An

object such as career in: He chose a career clearly has a different role in the clause from an object such as him in: We elected him president of the company, and this has been traditionally recognized by applying the term direct object to the former, and indirect object to the latter We give priority here to the distributional fact that

whenever there are two objects (in type SVOO), the former is normally the indirect object, and the latter is direct object

They take THAT or WH- complement clauses in both senses Corresponding to sense (b) there can be Modal (FOR) TO or a WH_TO construction

I decided to drive today

I will decide when to drive

(Dixon, R.M.W,1991:254)

The most typical pattern with verbs like decide- is for a THAT complement

to occur in a positive sentence and a WH- one in a negative one Thus, I don’t decide whether John is on duty today and I decide whether John is on duty today But all WH- complements can be used without a negative,e.g and THAt clauses may be used with a negative, as in:

I don’t decide that John is on duty today

I didn’t decide that John was on duty today

Some verbs which take both Modal(FOR) TO and THAT complements are seldom found without a Modal in the THAT clause But other may freely include or omit a Modal Alongside the example we get:

I decided that I was sick

There is no FOR TO correspondent of this example We do get I decided to

be sick, but this is most similar in meaning to I decided that I would be sick, which does include a Modal

The DECIDING verb group occurs with THAT, , Modal (for) TO,

WH-TO and ING complement clauses (the subject of a FOR WH-TO complement is most often

identical to the main clause subject, and is then omitted, together with the (for),

Tom resolved that he would not be beaten

Father will decide whatever we have lunch inside or out

Decide (on) and determine (on) may also take an ING complement, which normally has its subject identical to main clause subject, and then omitted

He decided on pruning the roses this weekend

(Dixon, R.M.W, 1991: 138)

Typically, someone decided, chose and resolved something; the expectation with DECIDING verb group for the subject of a Modal (for) to complement clause

to be coreferential with main clause object and then the complement clause subject

(and for) are omitted:

I chose (for) Marry to give the vote of thanks

(Dixon, R.M.W, 1991: 139)

A Modal (FOR) TO clause may be drop the FOR with the complement clause

subject still being retained; this then becomes syntactic object of the main verb

I chose for Mary to led the parade

I chose Mary to lead the parade

In the sentence “I chose Mary to lead the parade”, Marry is object of the main clause

verb chose (and can become passive subject: Marry was chosen to lead the parade.) The difference in meaning of those examples It would be appropriate for me to say “I

chose for Mary to led the parade” if, as organizer of the parade, i communicated my

decision to other people who would in turn inform Mary But if i stood before the participants for the parade and pointed to Mary as i made the choice, the in the sentence

“I chose Mary to lead the parade” would be appropriate construction to use

There are two kinds of NP possible, as Course, Decide(on) and determine(on)- but not, it seems, resolve or plan- may take a concrete NP in O slot

Fred decided on red skirt

John decided on the theater this evening

But this NP is effectively the O (or other post-predicate constituent) of a complement clause, and is used as main clause O when the verb of the complement clause could be inferred by the addressee from the context- thus, Fred may have decided to wear, or to buy, a red shirt, and John may have decided to go to the theater this evening

(Dixon, R.M.W, 1991: 139)

3.1.2 Semantic features of DECIDING verb groups in English

We can recognize two subtypes:

(a)The RESOLVE subtype, focusing on one particular Course such as decide( on), determine (on), resolve, plan (with intersects with wanting)

(b) The CHOOSE subtype refers to its hyponym such as select, pick (out), elect, vote

Decide(on) and related verbs have two senses:

(1)a reasoned judgement about the present or past

I decided that it was too cold to cycle to work today

(2) an intention regarding the future

I decided that I would drive instead

Decide, determine and resolve have a further, related meaning (similar to one sense

of settle), referring to someone indicating an appropriate Course where had been some difficulty or doubt

John decided the dispute

Marry determined the order of precedence

Einstein resolved the paradox

(Dixon, R.M.W, 1991: 139)

Note that in this sense they take an ACTIVITY or other abstract NP in O slot, with no preposition on When used in this sense Verbs from the RESOLVE subtype( decide, determine, resolve and plan) may have a non-human NP in A slot

That final speech determined the result of the debate

Fred’s penalty kick decided the match

(Dixon, R.M.W, 1991: 139) 3.1.2.1 Decide verb in English

Decide means to think carefully about the different possibilities that are

available and choose one of them

She decided (that) she wanted to live in France

It is also to consider and come to conclusion, make up one’s mind, resolve

With many choices, it’s hard to decide (what to buy)

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 395) Decide has further, relating meaning, referred to someone indicating an appropriate Course where there had been some difficulty or doubt

John decided the dispute

(Dixon, R.M.W, 1991: 139)

Decide is likely to refer to an act that involved considerable thought, and focuses on

the mental act; preposition on introduces the object that the decision finally rested

on The for may not then be omitted, after decide., since the main verb relates to the

complete activity referred to by the complement clause, not specially to its subject

He decided on the boat [8a] [page 13] which may mean “he chose the boat”

or “he made his decision while on the boat.” Both kinds of phrase appear in:

He decided on the boat on the rain [9a] that is, “he chose the boat while on

the rain.” Clearly, the second prepositional phrase in [9a] is simply a place adverbial which, like a time adverbial, has no particular connection with the

verb, but in fact modifies the entire verb phrase or perhaps the entire sentence It can be optionally proposed to the sentence, although the first prepositional phrase of [9a], which is close in construction to the verb, cannot-that is, the sentence “on the train, he decided” is unambiguous There are many other examples of the same kind (for example, “he decided at the office”, versus, “he decided at the job”;he laughed at ten o’clock” versus “he laughed at the clown”; “he run after dinner” versus “he run after John”).Obviously, time and place adverbials can occur quite freely with various types of verb phrase

“The boat was decided on” in the sense of “he chose the boat,” but not in the sense of “he decided while on the boat.” Thus the passive sentence corresponding to [8a] is unambiguous, though [8a] itself is ambiguous Many other factors can be explained in the same way The fact that we are able, in this way, to account for the non-imbiguity of “ the boat was decided

on by John” as contrasted with the ambiguity of “John decided on the boat,” along with many similar examples, provides an indirect justification for the proposal that strict subcategorization rules be limited to strictly local transformations In particular, where”on the boat” is a Verb complement in “ John decided on the boat” (meaning “John chose the boat”), it is subject to pseudopassivization by the passive transformation; but where “on the boat”

is a VP complement in “John decided on the boat” (meaning “ John decided while he was on the boat,” equivalently, “on the boat, John decided”), it is not subject to pseudopassivizationsince it does not meet the condition [8a] 3.1.2.2 Determine verb in English

Determine has the main meaning that is to discover the facts about something,

to calculate something exactly or determine something, determine what,

whether, etc… to make something happen in a particular way or be of a particular

type To that extent, Decide is like determine, and in the literature are usually

treated as synonymous

Age and experience will be determining factors in our choice of candidate

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 2005: 417) Determine verb has the Course role realized as a THAT, or WH-, or Modal(FOR)

TO or WH-TO complement clause(the subject of a FOR TO complement is most

often identical to the main clause subject, and then omitted, together with for)