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

This paper is to study the ATTENTION verb group in terms of syntactic and semantic features in English and their Vietnamese equivalents.. In the process of teaching English verbs in gene

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

M.A THESIS

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ATTENTION

VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE

EQUIVALENTS

(ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG

TỪ ATTENTION TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG

TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYEN THI KIM THOA

Field: English Language Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2017

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

- -M.A THESIS

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ATTENTION

VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE

EQUIVALENTS

(ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG

TỪ ATTENTION TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG

TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYEN THI KIM THOA

Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr HOANG TUYET MINH

Hanoi,2017

i

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

entitled “Syntactic and semantic features of ATTENTION verb group 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 acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my

supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Hoàng Tuyết Minh who has patiently and constanly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher

A special word of thanks goes to all the lecturers in the Faculty of graduate studies Hanoi Open University and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

Post-Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband and

my two loving sons for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

iii

ABSTRACT

ATTENTION verb group is used regularly and flexible in daily communication, but the significant meaning of the concept of ATTENTION verb group is still misunderstood by Vietnamese people Therefore, the author thinks the study on the subject of ATTENTION 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 ATTENTION verb group in terms of syntactic and semantic features in English and their Vietnamese equivalents We have used the combination of descriptive and contrastive methods in this study The findings show that the similarities and differences between two languages and remarkable syntactic and semantic features We also dealt with the implications for teaching and learning the ATTENTION verb group as well as for further study and understanding the meaning of the ATTENTION verb group in general and the usages of them in particular is the first difficulty of learners and the second one is the way of using the ATTENTION verb group in each specific context The ATTENTION verb group is divided into subtypes and focuses on seven subtypes:

see, show, recognize, discover, witness, look and watch subtypes The thesis is

expected to help Vietnamese learners of English learn, translate and use the ATTENTION verb group in English effectively

v

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGUGRES

Table 3.1: The sentence patterns of the ATTENTION verb group 22Table 3.2 Syntactic properties of the main ATTENTION verbs 27

Table 3.3: Sentence patterns of the ATTENTION verb group in English and

Vietnamese 31

Table 3.4.: Types of the ATTENTION verbs in English and Vietnamese 36

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGUGRES v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the research 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Methods of the study 2

1.5 Scope of the study 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 Theory of syntax and symantics 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 11

2.4 Classification of sentences 13

2.4.1 In terms of sentence pattern 13

2.4.2 In terms of sentence elements 14

2.5 Overview of ATTENTION verbs 17

2.5.1 Definition of ATTENTION verbs 18

2.5.2 Classification 18

2.6 Summary 19

Chapter 3: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ATTENTION VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 20 3.1 Syntactic and semantic features of the ATTENTION verb group in English 20 3.1.1 Syntactic features of the ATTENTION verb group in English 20

vii

3.1.2 Semantic features of ATTENTION verb groups in English 27

3.2 The ATTENTION verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

29

3.2.1 In terms of their syntactics 29

3.2.2 In terms of their semantic features 34

3.3 Summary 42

Chapter 4: COMMON ERRORS MADE BY STUDENTS AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY WHEN USING ATTENTION VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH 44

4.1 Survey questionnaire 44

4.1.1 Subject 44

4.1.2 Questionnaire 45

4.1.3 Procedure 45

4.1.4 Preliminary results 46

4.2 Common errors made by students at Hanoi University of Industry for students when using ATTENTION verb group in English .47

4.2.1 Common errors made by learners of English 47

4.2.2 Causes of committing errors……….50

4.3 Suggestions for teaching and learning when using ATTENTION verb group in English 51

4.3.1 Suggestions for teaching ATTENTION verb group in English 51

4.3.2 Suggestions for learning ATTENTION verb group in English 54

4.4 Summary 54

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 56

5.1 Concluding remark 56

5.2 Limitations 57

5.3 Suggestions for further researchers 57

REFERENCES 58

APPENDIX EXERCISE IN THE STUDY OF STUDENTS’ ERRORS IN USING ATTENTION VERB GROUP 60

POSSIBLE ANSWERS FOR SURVEY TESTS 62

1

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the research

The verb is perhap the most important part of the sentence A verb states what is happening in the sentence There are many verbs in English and ATTENTION verbs play an important role in sentences However, in communication, we have difficulties in expressing our ideas, especially in transferring meanings of words from a language to another one, in our case from English to Vietnamese

It is known that the ability to express freely in communication is of great importance for future career, especially in modern societies where contacting with foreigners often occurs In addition, there still exist many difficulties in learning and teaching English in Vietnam Many Vietnamese learners can write and read English quite well but they do not use it correctly and fluently in real-life communication

There have been a lot of researchers conducting investigation into ATTENTION verbs in both English and Vietnamese In English with these studies: Anna Wierzbicka (1972) Susanna Karlsson (2008), R.M.W.Dixon,(1991)

He studies about the semantic features of verbs such as: see, show, and recognize, discover, witness, look, and watch In Vietnam with studies: Hoàng Tuệ( 1962),

Nguyễn Kim Thản ( 1977), Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh ( 2007), Diệp Quang Ban (2002) These studies thoroughly describe about the semantic features of the ATTENTION verbs but they have not been exploited in terms of their syntactic features yet Moreover, the equivalents between two languages English and Vietnamese has not been implemented yet

In the process of teaching English verbs in general, and teaching the ATTENTION verbs in particular, it is recognized that this verb group makes students confused much especially their syntactic and semantic features of the ATTENTION verb group and their Vietnamese equivalents

As there are a lot of ATTENTION verbs, learners can use different words to express their ideas However, a great number of learners make mistakes when they use the ATTENTION verbs in different situations to communicate To compare the syntactic and semantic features of the ATTENTION verbs are important to learners, so that they can have good knowledge to use these ATTENTION verbs correctly

verbs see, show, recognize, discover, witness, look and watch we do hope that

with the thesis, we can contribute a small part to help students of English as well

as Vietnamese people who learn English and who are interested in English ATTENTION verb

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study is aimed at finding out the syntactic and semantic features of English ATTENTION verb group in order to help learners of English use these verbs effectivelly

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

1 Describing the linguistic semantic features of the ATTENTION verb group in English

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

3 Suggesting some possible implications for teaching and learning the ATTENTION verb group in English and Vietnamese

1.3 Research questions

On the basis of the abovementioned aims and objectives, the study is conducted to answer the following questions

1 What are the syntactic and semantic features of ATTENTION verb group

in English and their Vietnamese equivalent?

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

3 What are suggestions for Vietnamese learners of English to learn ATTENTION verb group in English?

1.4 Methods of the study

The study is planned to describe and analyse some syntactic and semantic features of the ATTENTION verb group in English as well as their Vietnamese

The verbs are analyzed in detail beginning with see verb followed by show, recognize, discover, witness,look and watch 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 seven English verbs The componential analysis will be applied to analyze the data

1.5 Scope of the study

In this study, the major point is to focus on the ATTENTION verb group in terms of the syntactic and semantic features in English English is considered as source language, meanwhile Vietnamese is target language So, the syntactic and semantic features of the ATTENTION verb group in English are compared in Vietnamese translation version

On this basis, some suggestions for Vietnamese learners of English at Hanoi University of Industry are proposed to help them learn the ATTENTION verb group more effectively Also, the study supplies the Vietnamese equivalents which hopefully help learners overcome difficulties when learning the ATTENTION verb group

The applications of this work will, hopefully, contribute greatly to find out appropriate methods of teaching English ATTENTION verb group in Vietnam and make changes how Vietnamese learners of English not only in their study at school 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

4

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 conversations, in contexts Therefore, this study suggests them about the definitions of ATTENTION 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, the study will provide a comprehensive and overal knowledge about the syntactic and semantic features of the ATTENTION verb group in English Moreover, the similarities and differences between this verb group in English and in Vietnamese are very helpful in contrasting two languages Practically, the study will help teachers and students to be able to master some suggestions and hints in teaching and learning this verb group effectively because the ATTENTION verb group consists of many verbs and occationally make people confused when its syntactic and semantic features are under consideration

1.7 Design of the study

This study is organized into five chapters

Chapter 1: Introduction - gives the reason why this topic has been chosen for the

research as well as its aims and objectives, scope, significance and organizational structure

Chapter 2: Literature review – presents the previous studies relating to the

research area and theoretical background employed for conducting the thesis

Chapter 3: Syntactic and semantic features of ATTENTION verb group in

English and Vietnamese equivalents

Show syntactic and semantic features of the ATTENTION verbs group in English and compare similarities and differences of ATTENTION verbs group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

Chapter 4: Common errors made by students at Hanoi University of industry

when using ATTENTION verb group in English

5

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

6

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 ATTENTION verbs group These later would further highlight the features conducted of the study as well as suggest

an array of possible implications for teaching the English ATTENTION verbs group in general and teaching them to Vietnamese students at Hanoi University of Industry

2.1 Previous studies

There have been many researchers conducting investigations into ATTENTION verbs in both English and Vietnamese The description and analyses are based on the starting from Chomsky The other description of syntactic and semantic view are through different ages in the history of linguistic

as William Bullokar in ( 1785)

According to R M W Dixon (1991), he pointed that the ATTENTION

verbs include seven English verb group: see, show, recognise, discover, witness, look and watch The author studies about the semantic of these verbs in terms of

semantic features

About Vietnamese ATTENTION verb group, Nguyễn Kim Thản (1997), the Author studied about the classification of words in Vietnamese including the ATENTION verbs in Vietnamese English- Vietnamese Dictionary, analyzed and improved to the meaning and the structures of the ATTENTION verbs

Although all the studies above thoroughly describe about the semantic features of the ATTENTION verbs, they have not been exploited in terms of their syntactic features yet Especially, the equivalents between two languages English and Vietnamese has not been implemented Moreover, the implications for teaching and learning the ATTENTION verbs in English have not carried out yet

As a result, that is why this research studies about the ATTENTION verb group The ATTENTION verb group of this study consists of seven subtypes as

followed: see, show, recognize, discover, witness, look and watch In this paper,

the syntactic features as well as semantic features of the ATTENTION verbs will

be analyzed clearly from many different resources

Within traditional grammar, the syntax of a language is described in term

of a taxonomy of the range of different types of syntactic strucures found in the language The central assumption underpinning syntactic analysis in traditional grammar is that phrases and sentences are built up of a series of constituents, each

of which belongs to a specific grammatical category and serves a specific grammatical function

Syntax is a set of rules in language It dictates how words from different parts of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought According

to R.M.W Dixon (1991), syntax deals with the way in which words are combined together Verbs have different grammatical properties from language to language but there is always a major class verb, which includes word referring to motion, rest, attention, giving and speaking Syntax is understood to be the theory of the structure of sentences in a language This view has its direct antecedents in the theory of immediate constituents, in which the function of syntax is to mediate between the observed forms of a sentence and its meaning

Bloomfield (1993) states “we could not understand the form of a language

if we merely reduced all the complex forms to their ultimate constituents” He argued that in order to account for the meaning of a sentence, it is necessary to recognize how individual constituents such words and morphemes constitute more complex forms

Syntax is now the study of the principles and rules that govern the ways in which words are combined to form phrases, clauses and sentences in a language Syntax, which is a subfield of grammar, focuses on the word order of a language and the relationships between words In other words, morphology deals with word formation out of morphemes whereas syntax deals with phrase and sentence formation out of words

Syntax structures are analyzable into sequences of syntactic categories or syntactic classes, these being established on the basic of the syntactic relationships and linguistic items have with other items in a construction

8

Every language has a limited number of syntactic relations Subject and object are probably universal of syntactic relations, which apply to every language However, just as the criteria for the major words class noun and verb differ from language to language, so do the ways in which syntactic relations are marked

Theory of syntax is a sourse of studying syntactic features in general and ATTENTION verb group in particular

2.2.2 Theory of semantics

Semantics is a branch of linguistics, which deals with meaning or the content

of communication According to Hurford and Heasley (1983:1), “semantics is the study of meaning in language” Language is a means of communication, and people use language to communicate with others by making conversations, giving information, and other things to make social relationship Human beings have been given the capacity to talk, to communicate with each other, to make meaningful utterances, so that they are understood by other human beings They communicate about the world in which they live, about themselves, about their thought and feeling, about what has happened, about what might happen or what they would like to happen, and a lot more

Hurford and Heasley (1983:5) state, “the giving of information is itself an act of courtesy, performed to strengthen social relationships” This is also part of communication There are some linguists that try to define semantics Moreover,

as quoted by Lyons (1977) at first defines semantics as the study of the relations of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable And then he revises his definition, saying that, semantics is that portion of semiotic which deals with the signification of sign in all modes of signifying

Semantics is usually connected with pragmatics Carnap (Lyons, 1977:116) says that descriptive semantics (i.e the investigation of the meaning of expressions in “historically given natural language”), may be regarded as part of pragmatics The reason why descriptive semantics is part of pragmatics seem to have been that he believed that difference in the use of particular expressions were not only inevitable in language - behaviour, but must be taken account of in the description or context Smith, as quoted by Lyons (1977:116) states that

“semantics studies how these signs are related to things And pragmatics studied how they are related to people” According to Leech (1983:5) in practice, the

9

problem of distinguishing language and language use has centred on a boundary

dispute between semantics and pragmatics Hurford and Heasley (1983:14) further explain that the study of semantics is largely a matter of conceptually and exploring the nature of meaning in a careful and thoughtful way, using a wide range of examples, many of which we can draw from our knowledge But Jack Richards, John Platt, Heidi Weber (1987:172) state that “the study of meaning is semantics Semantics is usually concerned with the analysis of the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences and sometimes with the meaning of utterances in discourse or the meaning of a whole text.”

But Jack Richards, John Platt, Heidi Weber (1987:172) state that “the study

of meaning is semantics Semantics is usually concerned with the analysis of the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences and sometimes with the meaning of utterances in discourse or the meaning of a whole text.”

According to David Crystal (1992:347), “semantics is the study of meaning

in language” Structural semantics applied the principles of structural linguistics to the study of meaning through the notion of semantic relations (also called sense relation), such as synonymy and antonyms In generative grammar, the semantic component is a major area of the grammar’s organization, assigning a semantic representation to sentences, and analyzing lexical terms of semantic features The theory of semantic field views vocabulary as organized into areas, within which words (lexical items) interrelate and define each other

Theory of semantic is a base that studies semantic features of ATTENTION verb group in chapter 3

2.3 Overview of English verb

2.3.1 Definition of English verb

As for dictionary of Merriam - 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 language is inflected for agreement with the subject, for tense, for voice, for mood or for aspect, and that typilally has rather full descriptive meaning and characterizing quality but is sometimes nearly devoid

of these especially when use an auxiliary or liking verb’’

In most languages, verbs are part of speech expressing existence, action, or Occurrence According to Jack C Richards et al ( 1992: 398), a word is a verb when it satisfies these following criteria: Occurs as part of the predicate of a

10

sentence; Caries markers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number, and mood; and refers to an action or state 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 state, and there must be a participant to experience

the state as: My led aches

As set of verbs is grouped together as one semantic type partly because they require the same set of participant roles All giving verbs require a Donor, a Gift and a Recipient, as in:

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

Or: The woman’s Institutes supplied the souldiers with socks

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 9) All attention verbs take a Perceiver and an Impression( that which is seen or heard), as in:

I heard the crash, I witnessed the accident, I recognized the driver’s face

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991:9) 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 Let’s see the following examples:

John rubbed the glass (with a soft cloth)

Mary sliced the tomato( with her new knife)

Tom punched Bill ( with his left first)

( R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 9) L.G Alexander ( 1983) points out a verb is a word or phrase which expresses the existence of a state or doing an action

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic( 1998) states that a verb is a word or a phrase indicating an action, an event or state

According to Borahash ( 1975), the verb is a part of speech denoting an action or a process

Generally in English, the verb tense shows the time of the action or state; the aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow ( or lack thereof) in the described event

or state In English, for example, the past- tense sentences “ I swam’ and

I was swimming ’differ in aspect ( the first sentence is in what is called the perfective or complective aspect, and the second in what is called the perfective

11

or completive aspect, and the second in what is called the imperfective or durative aspect); voice is used to show relationships between the action and the people affected by it; mood is one of a set of distinctive verb forms that are used to signal modality It is distinct from grammatical tense or grammatical aspect, although these concepts are conflated to some degree in many languages, including English

To some extent, the same word patterns are the attitude of the speaker about the verb currently identified moods include conditional, imperative, indicative, injunctive, optative, potential, subjunctive, and more Verbs can be affected by person and number to show agreement with the subject Some English verb like forms have properties of speech( e.g participles may be used as adjectives and gerunds as nouns)

2.3.2 Classification of English verb

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

a Intensive verbs

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)

12

b Extensive verb

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

( 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

13

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')

It 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 3

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

S(ubject) V(erb) O(bject(s)) C(omplement) A(dverbial)

14

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 ORDER 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

15

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:

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

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 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

17

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)

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 728)

2.5 Overview of ATTENTION verbs

ATTENTION verb group are found in English as R.M.W DIXON studied

about the semantic features of verbs such as see, show, recognise, discover, witness, look, and watch in A new approach to English grammar on semantic

semantic principles is one of the study to discuss the definition and semantic features of ATTENTION verb group The book shows seven subtypes

In Vietnam, the verb group was found by some authors such as Diep Quang Ban, (1992), Nguyen Kim Thản (1997), these authors studied about the classification of verbs in Vietnamese including ATTENTION verbs in Vietnamese Hoàng Phê (1998), Vietnamese dictionary anlysed and improved the meaning and the structures of ATTENTION verbs Moreover, some authors of Journal of Science of Hue University such as: Le Minh Giang and Ngu Thien Hung (2011), These authors studies about the distinction between factive verbs non factive verbs in English and Vietnamese translational Nguyen Thi Thu Ha(2012) The author has only mentioned the meanings of ATTENTION verb group in Vietnamese The author did not discuss or contrast the equivalents of the ATTENTION verb group in English 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

18

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

2.5.1 Definition of ATTENTION verbs

According to R.M.W DIXON(1991) ATTENTION verbs are the verbs

(such as see, watch, look, hear, listen, feel, and taste) that conveys the experience

of one of the physical senses Also called ATTENTION verb or perceptual verb

The verb of ATTENTION from a subclass of the verbs of sensory

cognition (henceforth: SVC) that include verbs referring to the five senses employed in the process of human sensory cognition (i.e sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste) That subclass consists of the following lexical items: see, watch,

look, hear, smell, feel and taste) In Kopytko (1986 a) I referred to the discussed

subclass of VSC as resultative SVC The reason for that was my attempt to account for the difference in meaning between the sentences

2.5.2 Classification

According to R.M.W DIXON (1991), the ATTENTION verb group includes

seven English ATTTENTION subtypes such as the see verb , the show verb the recognize verb, the discover verb , the witness verb , the look verb and the watch

verb

The see subtype, Involving straightforward description of an act perception (which

can be involuntary), see,hear, smell,taste, feel and observe

TheShow subtype, Describing how one person assists another to an act of

perception The main veb in this subtype, show, is lexical causative of see/ notice/ observe

The Recognise subtype, Refering to perception of something (by any sense) and

then knowing what it is , or what its significance is – recognise, spot

The Discover subtype, Refering to perception of something that was not

previously apparent, e.g discover, find

The Witness subtype, Referring to observation of some definite unit of activity;

witness may be the only member

19

The Look subtype, Referring to the perceiver directing his attention in order to

connect with some impression, e.g look(at), listen( to) and the more specific verbs stare ( at), glare (at), peep (at), peer (at), squint( at); eavesdrop (on); also seach (for), look ( for), hunt (for); inspect, study, investigate, scan, scrutinise.examine, check, view; explore, survey; visit

The Watch subtype, referring to deliberate perception over a period of time Watch may be the only verb uniquely belonging to this subtype

Verbs of this type have two core roles A perceiver ( which is HUMAN or higher animate) finds out something about an Impresion through use of eyes, or ears, or nose, or the taste – buds

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 syntacticproperties of the individual verbs have not been exploited as fully and as systematically as it was hoped

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 ATTENTION 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 But then identify weaknesses in the approach and limitation in the findings

All the parts of this chapter that can be considered as the source for conducting the whole rerearch

20

Chapter 3: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ATTENTION

VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

In this chapter, the syntactic and semantic features of the ATTENTION verb

group in English as well as in Vietnamese are mentioned separately in Vietnamese

equivalents are investigated through Vietnamese translation versions

3.1 Syntactic and semantic features of the ATTENTION verb group in English

3.1.1 Syntactic features of the ATTENTION verb group in English

3.1.1.1 In terms of sentence pattern

After studying the background, it is found out that the ATTENTION verb

group in English is divided into six sentence patterns according to their syntactic

feature: SVO, SVC, SVA, SVOC and SVOO

+ SVO type

In this pattern, the verb is a transitive verb The verbs always occur with

direct objects The direct object may be a noun, noun phrase, pronoun or

that-clause, finite clause/ non-finite clause The conjunction that can sometimes be

omitted The direct object is a finite or non-finite clause beginning with either (i)

A ‘wh-element’, which can be a pronoun (who(m), whose, which, what), a

determiner + noun (what time, which tutors, etc) or an adverb (why (finite clauses

only), when, where, how); or (ii) One of the conjunctions if (finite clauses only) or

whether All of the verbs In ATTENTION verb group belong to this type

He could see (that) she had been crying (identified as a that clause)

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, 1992: 245)

The photo shows her dressed in black(identified as a noun phrase)

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, 1992: 842)

Her laziness showed in her exam results(identified as a noun phrase)

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, 1992: 842)

Everyone recognized him to be the lawful heir (identified as non-finite

clause )

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, 1992: 753)

Colunbus discovered American (identified as a noun)

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, 1992: 254)

We were witnessing the most important scientific development of the century

identified as a noun phrase)

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, 1992: 1042)

21

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary , 1992: 532)

She watched the children across the road(identified as a prepositional

phrase)

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary , 1992: 1021) + SVC type

In this pattern, the verb is intransitive verb, the complement is an adjective

or adjective phrase which describe some quality or feature of the subject

That book looks interesting (identified as an adjective)

He looks tired

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary , 1992: 532) + SVA type

She is looking under the table

He looked at the girl

( R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 127)

+ SVOO type

Only the verb show in this ATTENTION verb group belong to the type SVOO

This pattern has an indirect object without to and a direct object Both objects can

consist of a noun or noun phrase:

He showed me the photo(identified as a noun)

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary , 1992: 842)

In this pattern, the direct object is a finite or non- finite clause beginning with either (i) A wh-element, which can be a pronoun(who(m), whose, which, what),or

a determiner + noun( which roads, what time), or an adverb( why , finite clause only), when, where, how)

A friendly guard showed the prisoner how he could escape (identified as non- finite

S V O O

clause)

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 1993: 842)

22

+ SVOC type

The verbs in ATTENTION verb group: see,,recognize, look and watch belong to

the type SVOC

In this pattern, the object complement tell us how the direct object is regarded, etc,

or what he, she or it is chosen to act or serve as

( Tran Huu Manh, 2008: 62)

Doctors recognized Johnson as a leading authority (identified as noun phrase)

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary , 1992: 25)

I watched a pavement- artist drawing a portrait in crayons

(A grammar of English language, 1998: 59)

They watched the house broken into without doing anything (identified as

non- finite clause)

( Tran Huu Manh, 2008: 62) The following table can account for the sentence patterns of ATTENTION verb group

Type see show recognise discover witness look watch

Table 3.1: The sentence patterns of the ATTENTION verb group

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

verbs (see, show,recognize, discover, witness, look and watch ) belong to sentence

patterns: SVO Especially, Only verb (Look) occurs in SVC, SVA And only

show verb belongs to SVOO Four verbs ( see, recognize, look, and watch) belong

to SVOC Three verbs (see, look, watch) occur in SVOA

3.1.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements

Subject (S)

23

In the ATTENTION 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 children saw the cat steal the meat( S is realized by Noun phrase)

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, 1992: 24)

Research showeds that most people get too little exercise

(English-Vietnamese dictionary, 1996:1265)

We saw John in the garden( S is realized by a noun phrase)

(Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary , 1992: )

Police have appealed for anyone who witnessed the incident to contact them( S is realized by a nominal clause)

(OxfordAdvanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2000:1771) Verb (V)

Verbs belonging to the ATTENTION verb group in English have a main verb class, that is transitive verb Transitive followed by an object and occur in types SVO, SVOC, SVOA and SVOO In transitive verb group, monotransitive verbs occur in type SVO, ditransitive happens in type SVOO and complex transitive occurs in type SVOC/SVOA

The verb see, show, recognize, discover, witness, look, and watch are

monotransive verb that occur in type SVO

He watch to see what would happen

(English–Vietnamese Dictionary, 1993: 1983) The verb show is ditransitive verb that occur in type SVOO

A friendly guard showed the prisoner how he could escape

( Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, 1992: 10) Complex transitive occurs in type SVOC/SVOA

(Tran Huu Manh, 2008: 60)

24

Object (O)

In fact, there are two types of object (the same as the ATTENTION verb group in English): direct object (Od) and indirect object (Oi) In Vietnamese, this verb group requires two objects in a sentence The first one is the direct addressee

of the verb It is usually a noun, noun phrase or pronoun and is called direct object The second one refers to the content that is caused by the action of subject to impact on the direct object So, it is called indirect object It is often a verb or verb phrase This has been traditionally recognized by applying the term direct object to the former, and indirect object to the latter

The indirect object can also be a personal pronoun The direct object can be a

noun/ noun phrase, or a that-clause In this case, the direct object is that/ wh and wh- to complements as in this part follows

+ THAT and WH- clause

These two varieties of complement clause can fill the O slot for subtypes (e) and (g) Thus, I noticed/smelt/recognise/discovered that the meat was off/ where the cheese was hidden A THAT clause with see can refer to an inference from direct observation ( I saw that his leg was broken) or to a general mental assessment( I saw that his leg was broken) or to a general mental assessment(I saw that it was pointless to continue) Feel has similar properties

(a)-e.g I felt that the dough was sufficiently kneaded ( tactile observation) and I felt

that she was the right person for the Job(intuition) A THAT clause with hear almost always refers to something the perceive has been told, e.g I heard that John had cursed; for reporting direct observation a different variety of complement

would be preferred, e.g I heard John curve, I heard John (‘s) cursing

Subtype(g), with watch and one sense of listen(to), may take THAT and WH- clause which directly describe some activity, e.g I watched that he crossed the road safety, and She listened that he locked all the doors before going to bed + To clause

A smallish number of ATTENTION verbs may take a special variety of Modal ( for) to complement cause: the to is obligatorily omitted in an active construction, but obligatorily included in the passive

Everyone saw John kick Mary

John was seen to kick Marry

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 128)

25

It is important to distinguish this to complement contruction with the to omitted, from a THAT complement clause, which can omit the that when it comes directly after the predicate,

I noticed( that) John kicked Marry( every time he went past)

I noticed John hit Mary is ambiguous between THAT and no reading

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 128) This variety of to complement, where to is omitted in the active, occurs with

see,hear and notice and, less readily, with feel, smell, observe and perceive from the SEE subtype( but not with taste) It is also attested with subtype(g),WATCH, but only in the active,

e.g I watched John hit Mary, I listened to him sing(here to comes from listen to, rather than being the complementiser):there are no acceptable passives of these sentences Van Ek( 1966: 68) also mentions examples with find, from subtype (d), but these seem somewhat archaic; Bolinger( 1975b) quotes examples with show and look at,

Can you show it happen? And Look at him run!

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 129) The look example is only possible in the active.)

In addition, verbs in subtypes(a)-(d) may take a ‘Judgement’ to complement clause As mentioned in 2.7, Judgement TO clauses most frequently have their VP

beginning with be(although other possibilities do occur,

I noticed John to have lost some weight since last Christmas)

verbs from DISCOVER,SEE OR SHOW

I noticed/ discovered John( tobe) singing a hym

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 129)

26

+ ING clause

This occurs with verbs from the see,show,witness and watch subtypes

We observed /watched/witnessed John(‘s) stealing those apples

I can’t hear John(’) playing the trumpet

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 129)

The subject of the complement clause can take possessive marking, but this is most frequently omitted.(ATTENTION verbs seen particularly prone to loss of a complemensive; we just described a type of TO clause where to must be omitted

in the active.)

A construction like John noticed that tall man watching Mary, with the

complement clause subject followed by a verb in –ing form, can be derived in two ways: by omission of possessive marker from the subject of an ING clause, or by

omission of to be from a Judgement no complement whose VP begins with the progressive ausiliary be With some verbs there is no problem of ambiguity Watch and witness may only take an ING, not a Judgement TO clause, and so I watched/ witnessed that tall man(’s) saying his prayers in church( from two until four, so he couldn’t have committed the burglary which took place at three o’clock) must be

an ING complement, describing some durative event.Similarly, discover only takes a TO, not ING, complement, and so I discovered that tall man( to be) saying his prayers(just when I’d decided he must be an atheist) is also unambiguous, referring to the perception of some fact that was not previously known But verbs

from the see and show subtypes can take both ING and TO complement clauses;

an abbreviated sentence such as I noticed that tall man saying his prayers is thus ambiguos between the readings of the watch/ witness and of the discover sentences just given

From the characteristics of the ATTENTION verbs above, the table following that summarizes the more important syntactic properties of these ATTENTION verb

Is O omittable?

(For) to

Jusdgement

Watch, listen (to)

Table 3.2 Syntactic properties of the main ATTENTION verbs

3.1.2 Semantic features of ATTENTION verb groups in English

After investigating all the materials, it is classified into seven ATTENTION

subtypes in English such as the see verb, the show verb, the recognize verb, the discover verb, the witness verb, the look verb, and the watch verb After studying

the background, it is found out that the ATTENTION verbs in English is all transitive verbs In this study, the structure of a sentence, which belongs the ATTENTION verbs are discussed with the pattern at the end of a sentence

In the following sections, the ATTENTION verb group in English will be ananysed individualy according to their meanings

3.1 2.1 The SEE subtype in English

The see verb, Involving straightforward description of an act perception (which can be involuntary), see,hear, smell,taste, feel Also observe, which refers

to seeing or hearing something happening; notice,seeing or hearing something which stands out from its background; and perceive, which implies picking out some particular thing or state or event from its background; and perceive, which implies picking out some particular thing or state or event from its background( and is also used as a high-flown alternative to other verb from this subtype)