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In this study, I would like to shed a new light on compound nouns in English and Vietnamese as well as give a comparison and contrast about this aspect between two languages.. Besides, t

Language is like a forest, with trees, branches and leaves These are the patterns, phrases and words of the language Language always plays an important role in human life and there are abundant kinds of languages in our world In addition, a different language is a different vision of life because language is likely to attach to a unique culture of each region Hence, learning a language is not an easy process at all, particularly vocabulary Vocabulary is an inevitable part in learning a language Wilkins (1972: 11) comments:

‘without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” As a significant part of vocabulary, compound words seem to become a challenge for a lot of leaners, compound noun is a typical example This is the reason why I decide to pick up this topic-compound noun In this study, I would like to shed a new light on compound nouns in English and Vietnamese as well as give a comparison and contrast about this aspect between two languages This paper will give readers a general view of compound noun in both English and Vietnamese Besides, the similarities and differences between English compound nouns and Vietnamese compound nouns are about to be mentioned These will provide reader a wide knowledge of compound nouns and contribute a better way to enrich learner’s vocabulary sources as well, which also helps them confront problems when learning compound nouns

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract

Table of Contents

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 3

1 Rationale 3

2 Aim of the study 4

3 Methods of the study 5

4 Scope of the study 5

PART II: DEVELOPMENT/ THE STUDY 6

2.1 Theoretical backgrounds 6

2.1.1 An introduction to compounding 6

2.1.2 Overview of English compound nouns 6

2.1.2.1 Definition 6

2.1.2.2 Structure of compound nouns 7

2.1.2.3 Characteristics of compound nouns 8

2.1.3 An overview of Vietnamese compound nouns 10

2.2 Literature review 11

2.3 The study 12

2.3.1 Similarities 12

2.3.1.1 Syntactic characteristics 12

2.3.1.2 Semantic characteristics 12

2.3.1.3 Componential relationship 13

2.3.1.4 Combination 14

2.3.2 Differences 16

2.3.2.1 Syntactic and grammar characteristics 16

2.3.2.2 Semantic characteristics 17

2.3.2.3 Combination 17

2.3.2.4 Phonetics 18

PART 3: CONCLUSION 19 REFERENCES 19

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

The importance of language is essential to every aspect and interaction in our everyday lives Language has been defined as “the body of words and methods of combining words used and understood by a considerable community” Specifically, English is a common language in the world Therefore, teaching and learning English language become a vital activity in our society However, the process of learning English not only practice the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing skills needed in communication but also have a close relationship with grammar structures, sounds and vocabulary And vocabulary is a crucial part in acquiring a new language As a result, enhancing one’s vocabulary of language is necessary to enable learners to speak and write concisely Unfortunately, each language has its own distinctive trait and dealing with new English words is one of the trickiest dimensions for any language learners, which causes some difficulties for learners

English word formation has some various ways namely affixation, shortening, conversion, sound imitation or compound words

Among which, compounding has a large impact on learning language Especially, compound nouns are used popularly in both written and spoken style The term

“compound nouns” seems to be too familiar with us Nevertheless, it still becomes a quite big challenge for learner, especially for foreign language learners Compound nouns have specific and sophisticated features that many learners of English find it hard to use while

we really need compound nouns for our communication Because of its significance and complication, linguists and researchers are keen on doing a study on compound nouns In reality, there have ever been a number of researches at compound nouns, which creates a lot of benefits for leaners to solve difficulties during their leaning process as well as get a better understanding of compound nouns Moreover, research is useful source for other researchers and linguist And to author, I will widen my knowledge and have more experience in researching I also am inclined to give suggestions for dealing with

For above reasons, as a role of language leaner and an English teacher in the future,

I would like to do a research on “A contrastive analysis of compound noun in English and Vietnamese” With the expectation that my study will provide efficiently the features of English compound nouns and find out appreciate approaches to help my future job-English teaching

2 Aim of the study

My purposes on the study are:

Firstly, I would like to give general information about compound words and then I will go into detail about overview of compound nouns in both English and Vietnamese All aspects related to compound nouns like definition, form or characteristics are going to

be talked about This part will give learners full information about compound nouns in both two languages

Secondly, I would rather make a comparison and contrast between compound nouns in English and Vietnamese To gain this aim, initially, the study will focus on describing the characteristics of compound nouns in terms of syntactic and semantic features as well as their classifications and types in English and Vietnamese From these points, similarities and differences between English compound nouns and Vietnamese compound nouns will

be found out

Finally, I want to give recommendations for ways to improve learners’ qualification about learning compound words The suggestions for teaching and learning English compound nouns will be given based on the findings

Thus, the following research questions are raised for guided research?

1) What are English and Vietnamese compound noun?

2) What are similarities and differences of compound nouns in English and Vietnamese?

3) What are suggestions for teaching and learning compound nouns as well as vocabulary?

3 Methods of the study

This study uses the combination of some different methods:

First of all, descriptive method is used to give reader an overview about definitions, characteristics and form of compound nouns in both these languages And then a compare and contrastive analysis is taken to give explanation for phenomenon

Another method is the quantitative procedures that ground on facts and principles to investigate common things and differences between English compound and Vietnamese compounds as well

4 Scope of the study

Although Compounding is a complex subject matter, it appeals a lot of linguists’ interests There are various aspects that related to compounding for researchers However, within minor research, the author will concentrate on the similarities and differences between compound words in English and Vietnamese in terms of form, semantic, syntactic feature and their classification With these, the study will provide teachers of English and students a sufficient knowledge on the issue so that teacher can have suitable teaching methods and students can have appropriate learning method to compound nouns

PART II: DEVELOPMENT/ THE STUDY

2.1 Theoretical backgrounds

Compounding is one of types of word formation In linguistics, a compound is

a lexeme (less precisely, a word) that consists of more than one stem Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes That is, in familiar terms, compounding occurs when two or more words are joined to make one longer word (Wikipedia dictionary) Compound words are formed by combining two or one words with a new meaning They can function as different parts of speech, which can dictate what form the compound takes on This is one on three most productive ways of producing new words

in English (affixation and conversion are the other two)

For example: cowboy, blackmail and underpaid are compound words

2.1.2 Overview of English compound nouns

2.1.2.1 Definition

Compound constructions are widely used and common in everyday speech in many

languages In addition to this, they are usually used in written texts, especially professional texts And compound nouns seem to have the largest in number and variety among others such as compound adjectives and compound verbs

Compound noun is a kind of compound word that it is made up of two or more words Most compound nouns are made with nouns that have been modified by adjectives or other nouns

For example, the words girl and friend are nouns but if we combine them together, we have the new word girlfriend And “girlfriend” is a compound noun

Another example is the word pick which is a verb, pick is a noun, but if we join them together, we have pickpocket

We can see that both of two compound nouns have the different meaning with single words that constitute them Besides, compound nouns normally have two parts The first part tells us what kind of an object or a person, sometimes its purpose or how it is while the second one identifies that object or person We can take look at this table below:

Turning back girlfriend and pickpocket examples, we can see more obviously about this feature In the word pickpocket, we can make it clear like this What is the object? It is pocket, a small piece of material like a small bag sewn into or onto a piece of clothing so that you can carry things in it How it is? It’s used to describe a person who steals money

2.1.2.2 Structure of compound nouns

Compound nouns can be formed in many ways Almost all compound nouns are built by

a modifier (noun, verb, etc.) and a head (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.) These are many other ways of constructing a compound noun:

Modifier Head Compound

Noun Noun Goods train, sea bird, lady killer, toothpaste

Adjective Noun monthly ticket, greenhouse

Adjective Verb dry-cleaning, public speaking, white collar

preposition Noun Underground, offline

Adverb Noun outsider, onlooker, afterthought, in-crowd

Verb Adverb Drawback, breakfast, drop-out, fallout

Gerund Noun Washing machine, sleeping pill, fishing rob

By this way or other way, compound nouns are formed Therefore, there are

abundant English compound words Even an adjective with a verb or preposition with a

verb can make a compound noun, which makes English vocabularies become richer and develop through period

2.1.2.3 Characteristics of compound nouns

- Compound nouns often have a meaning that is different from the two separate words

Or some compound nouns have meaning that combining two meanings of separate words “If the meaning of the whole cannot be deduced from the meaning of the element separately, then we have a compound” (Jesperson 1942:137)

For example: eggplant: egg+ plant

(Egg: a small oval object with a thin hard shell produced by a female bird and containing

a young bird

Plant: a living thing that grows in the earth and usually has a stem, leaves and roots Eggplant: a vegetable with shiny dark purple skin and soft white flesh)

Bed room: bed + room (bed: a piece of furniture for sleeping on room: a part of a building that has its own walls, bedroom: a room for sleeping in)

In fact, we cannot infer meaning of compound word from the meaning of each single component It often has one fixed meaning

-Some compounds have ungrammatical or unusual word order in English Maybe a noun can come before an adjective for example: timeout

-In a sentence, function and position of compound nouns are the same as nouns A compound noun also represents a person, a place, or a thing A compound noun may be used as a subject of a sentence, as a direct object, as an indirect object, or it may be used

as the object of a preposition Compound nouns often come after a determiner (a determiner is a word like a, an, the, this, my, such) or after adjectives or verbs Because there is a similarity between compound noun and noun about function and position, compound noun can be countable or uncountable

For example: my boyfriend has just bought dining tables

In this example, boyfriend is a subject and dining table is an object Moreover,

“boyfriend” come after determiner “my” and “dining table” comes after a verb

-In a compound noun, stress is very important because it helps to distinguish between compound noun and noun phrase in speaking or listening Stress in compound nouns usually falls on the first syllable

A greenhouse = place where we grow plant

A green house= house painted green

Sometimes, it’s very difficult to distinguish between compound noun and phrasal noun because they are alike in some way So these above characteristics in term of phonological, syntactic, and semantic will be typical points help us recognize a word is compound noun or noun phrase

2.1.3 An overview of Vietnamese compound nouns

According to Nguyễn Hữu Đạt (2000), Vietnamese compounding is the combination of

two or more morphemes which may be meaningful or meaningless according to a certain relationship Most Vietnamese compounds are also of binary structure-the head and modifier The compound of more than two components can be constructed from the two elements compound Vietnamese compounds constituents may be dependent or independent, meaningful or meaningless Their combination mechanisms are various

From those points of view, we can see that compounding is a highly productive word formation in Vietnamese Like English, Vietnamese compounds are words that consist of two or more words which have relationship of meaning and have different meaning from that of individual words

“Vietnamese vocabulary consists a large number of borrowed words from other languages, especially Chinese Compound nouns in Vietnamese are mostly built base on Chinese words It can be two Han Viet words in which their meaning is independent of each other such as sơn hà, giang san…or two or more Han Viet words in which one word has the main meaning, the other modifies principal meaning like thiên thư, thạch mã, ái quốc, hàng không mẫu hạm, Nam quốc sơn hà…”

Besides, Nôm words can be used in this situation We have compounds include two Nôm words with general meaning like bát đĩa, nhà cửa, ruộng vườn…Another way of forming compound nouns is to combine one word and one idiomatic phrase like “kẻ rày đây mai đó”, “bọn mãi quốc cầu vinh”…(Văn Phạm Việt Nam 1992)

“Vietnamese belongs to the group of isolating languages where there are no inflectional endings (- s/es; - ed, - ing …) and all the words are invariable Grammatical relationships are expressed not by changing the internal structure of the words but by the use of auxiliary words (những, các, nhiều, một, hai, ít; đã, đang, sẽ…) and word order”