INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN THE BILINGUAL NOVEL ‘THE GREAT GATSBY’ INVESTIGATED FROM SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC PERSPECTIVES

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN THE BILINGUAL NOVEL ‘THE GRE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGO THI THU HA

INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN THE BILINGUAL NOVEL ‘THE GREAT GATSBY’ INVESTIGATED FROM

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC PERSPECTIVES

(CÂU NGHI VẤN TRONG CUỐN TIỂU THUYẾT SONG NGỮ “THE GREAT GATSBY” VÀ SỰ TƯƠNG ỨNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT TRÊN PHƯƠNG DIỆN CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA)

M.A THESIS Field: English Language

Code: 8220201

Hanoi, 2018

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGO THI THU HA

INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN THE BILINGUAL NOVEL ‘THE GREAT GATSBY’ INVESTIGATED FROM

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC PERSPECTIVES

(CÂU NGHI VẤN TRONG CUỐN TIỂU THUYẾT SONG NGỮ “THE GREAT GATSBY” VÀ SỰ TƯƠNG ỨNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT TRÊN PHƯƠNG DIỆN CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA)

M.A THESIS Field: English Language Code: 8220201

Supervisor : Dr DANG NGOC HUONG

Hanoi, 2018

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

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

entitled INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN THE BILINGUAL NOVEL ‘THE GREAT GATSBY’ INVESTIGATED FROM SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC PERSPECTIVES submitted in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the English language Except where the reference is indicated, no other persons’ works have

been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Dang Ngoc Huong of Dai Nam University for his helpful advice, support and valuable comments for the study

I would also wish to extend my sincere thanks to the organizers of the M.A course and the whole staffs of the Department of Post–Graduate Studies of Hanoi Open University for their help, precise guiding, and assistant encouragement

I highly appreciate the helpful advice, assistance from teachers of Hanoi Medical College and participation from my colleagues, friends and students I could not have finished the thesis on time without their helps

Finally, I am so indebted to my family for supporting and encouraging me during the course

Hanoi, October 2018

Ngo Thi Thu Ha

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Table of contents

Lists of tables

List of abbreviations

Abstract

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationales of the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.2.1 Aims of the study 2

1.2.2 Objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Significance of the study 5

1.6 Design of the study 6

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE QUESTIONS 7

2.1 Review of previous studies 7

2.2 Theoretical background 10

2.2.1 Theory of Syntax 10

2.2.2 Theory of semantic 11

2.3 Theoretical framework 13

2.3.1 Overview of English sentence 13

2.3.2 Definition of questions 13

2.3.3 Syntax and semantic features of questions 14

2.3.4 Overview of questions in Vietnamese 20

2.4 Summary of the chapter 22

Chapter 3: DATA AND METHODS 23

3.1 Research questions 23

3.2 Research approach methods 23

3.2.1 Research approaches 23

3.2.2 Research methods 24

3.3 Data collection technique 25

3.3.1 Subjects 25

3.3.2 Instrumentation 25

3.3.3 Procedures 26

3.3.4 Statistical Analysis 26

3.4 Summary of the chapter 32

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 34

4.1 The syntactic and sematic features of English questions and their equivalents in the novel 34

4.1.1 Major classes 34

4.1.1.1 Yes- no questions 34

4.1.1.2 Wh questions 44

4.1.1.3 Alternative questions 46

4.1.2 Minor types of questions 47

4.1.2.1 Exclamatory questions 47

4.1.2.2 Rhetorical questions 47

4.2 The syntactic and semantic comparison between English question and their equivalents in the novel and their translation 49

4.2.1 Similarities 49

4.2.2 Differences 51

4.2.3 The equivalence of the translation 55

4.3 Implication in teaching and learning English question for Vietnamese learners of English 56

4.3.1 Consideration in teaching English questions 56

4.3.2 Consideration in learning English questions 57

4.3.3 Consideration in translating English questions 58

4.4 Summary 59

Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS 61

5.1 Summary of findings 61

5.2 Concluding remarks 62

5.3 Limitations 64

5.4 Recommendations for further study 64

REFERENCES 66

APPENDIX 1 70

APPENDIX 2 71

APPENDIX 3 84

LIST OF TABLES

1 Table 3.1 Types of English questions in the novel The Great Gatsby

2 Table 3.2 Test result of Test 1 made by students at Hanoi medical college when

using yes /no question

3 Table 3.3 Test result of test 2 made by students when matching interrogative

sentences with their communicative purposes

4 Table 3.4 Test result of Test 3 made by students when translating from

Vietnamese into English and vice versa

5 Table 4.1 Types of yes/no English questions in the novel

6 Table 4.2 Sentence structure of genuine yes/no questions in the novel

7 Table 4.3 Sentence structures of declarative questions in the novel

8.Table 4.4 Structures of tag-questions in the novel The Great Gatsby

9 Table 4.5 Different forms of the elliptical Yes/No questions in the novel

10 Table 4.6 Structures of Wh-questions in the novel The Great Gatsby

11 Table 4.7 Structures of rhetorical questions in the novel The Great Gatsby

12 Table 4.8 Syntactic and semantic similarities and differences between English

questions and their Vietnamese equivalents in the novel The Great

Gatsby

ABSTRACT

This research focuses on analyzing the interrogative sentences found in the

bilingual novel the Great Gatsby in the perspectives of syntax and semantics in the

hope that certain findings may be found in relation to the descriptions of English questions in grammar books compared with their uses in communication, and possible difficulties those differences may cause for Vietnamese learners when they learn and use English questions The objectives of the study are firstly to describe the types of interrogative sentences found in the bilingual novel in terms of their syntactic and semantic features, compare the English questions with their Vietnamese equivalents and finally to suggest a number of ways for Vietnamese learners to master the use of English questions During the process of study, the thesis applies three research methods; the descriptive qualitative method used to describe the syntactic and semantic features of English questions; the comparative and contrastive methods to make syntactic and semantic similarities and differences between English questions and their Vietnamese equivalents and the survey methods to collect data for giving pedagogical implications for the ways of learning English questions The data collected for description and analysis of English

questions are from the bilingual novel the Great Gatsby and its Vietnamese

translation by Hoang Cuong, published 2016 by the The Gioi Publisher and the data used for giving pedagogical implications are from the survey with students from Hanoi Medical College The study results of the thesis are expected to make certain contributions not only to the theory and use of English questions in general but also

to the English language learning for the students in Hanoi Medical College in particular

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study

Language is a means of communication and interaction between one person to another person to find out the intention of meaning and to deliver or get some information Language expresses meaning by relating a sign to its meaning or its contents

It is a well-known fact that nowadays English is used in global communication even textual audio, visual media or novel Humans cannot be separated with the language because language is the most important thing of human life As an international language, English is used in many parts of the world People should master English language very well, learn it effectively and understand it easily Using English language, people get information about science and technology from other countries But Vietnamese people in which the mother tongue is not English sometimes have difficulties in learning and transferring the message using English

Every language has its own linguistic feature and rule It is important to learn how to use the language properly It is undeniable that interrogative sentence plays

a significant role in communication Le Quang Thiem (2004, p 222) states that the main purpose of question is to seek for unknown information Particularly, interrogative sentences plays the role of drawing the interlocutor’s attention, and getting him/her involved in the topic that the speaker is addressing But Nguyen Dang Suu (2002) analyses that when considering whether a statement is a question

or not, one has to look at two angles, form and content, because of the fact that the form of some questions in interrogative sentence but it is not used for asking, conversely, some statements are not questionable but are used to ask question

In addition, interrogative sentences appear a lot in conversation It is considered universal category of sentence divisions for speech purpose By using interrogative sentences, people aim to get information However, in everyday conversation, questions carry various meanings Based on certain situations, questions have different communicative functions to serve different purposes for language users

In teaching and learning English, the contrast of types of interrogative sentences in English is necessary to help students understand more about the similarities and difference in using grammar as well as translating text, novel

In this research, the writer introduces the previous study, which is related to a study of types of interrogative sentences, which was conducted by Anik Sulisva

Ningsih (2013) Her research is entitled A Subtitling analysis of interrogative sentence in Snow White and the Huntsman movie She analyzes the types of

questions from English language to Indonesian language

From the previous research, there is similarity to this research; the thesis is aimed at syntactically and semantically analyzing the interrogative sentences and

their equivalents in the bilingual novel - The Great The study is also expected to

provide Vietnamese users of English with better mastering how to apply interrogative sentences in sensible ways, how to understand comprehensively and how to communicate, translate effectively and correctly

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims of the study

As the title indicates this study is aimed at investigating syntactic and semantic features of interrogative sentences in the bilingual novel The Great Gatsby by American author F.Scott Fitzgerald The impetus for conducting the research is three-fold: there might be differences between theory and reality in the use of questions in English and between English and Vietnamese questions It is also assumed that the differences between them induce the fact that Vietnamese learners

of English questions might encounter some difficulties in learning and using English questions

1.2.2 Objectives of the study

In order to fulfill this task, the thesis attempts to set up as its foundation a theoretical framework with a number of basic concepts related to interrogative sentences in English which could be defined to assist the writer to take a deep insight into the structures and the meanings of the interrogative sentences used in the novel Since it is a bilingual literary product, the writer would like to take this opportunity to exploit the novel as a source of information to compare between

kinds of questions in English and their Vietnamese equivalences in terms of syntax and semantics to find out the similarities and differences between them Based on the study results, the thesis expects to give some implications for teaching and learning English questions to Vietnamese learners of English in general and the students of Hanoi Medical College in particular

1.4 Scope of the study

As the research questions indicate, the thesis aims to investigate the syntactic and semantic features of both English interrogative sentences and their Vietnamese equivalences in the bilingual novel The Great Gatsby (527 pages)

by F Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1925 It was translated into Vietnamese by Hoang Cuong and published by the The Gioi Publisher in 2016 In other words, the novel is the source of secondary information

In terms of form, English sentences have four types; Declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamative Basing on the position of subjects, verbs and punctuations (interrogatve has question mark, exclamative has exclamation mark ) However, in terms of meaning, English sentences have four funtions; Statement, questions, request and exclamation The thesis focuses on describing and

analyzing the meaning Firstly, the word question, according to Longman

Dictionary of Current English, has a number of meanings: a sentence or phrase to

ask for information, a subject, and problem or doubt (p.1423) In the thesis, question

is used with the first meaning: a sentence to ask for information For this reason,

interrogative sentences can be replaced by questions in the thesis

Secondly, in English, questions could be categorized into indirect and direct questions Indirect questions are featured by the fact that they do not have question

marks (?) at the end, for example: He asked me whether or not I knew the way

Questions of this type are not put under investigation In other words, the thesis only investigates direct questions in the novel Another point which is noteworthy is that the comparison of English interrogative sentences with their equivalences in terms of syntax and semantics inevitably involves a theory of equivalence In the thesis, the equivalents of English questions are just the sentences translated into Vietnamese by the translator The thesis did not make any attempt to investigate the type, relevance, applicability of equivalence or the translation techniques the translator ever used

The word equivalent (adj), equivalence (n) is defined in the Longman

Dictionary of Current English (2010) as having the same value, purpose etc as

something else (p.569) In other words, equivalence consists of the concept of

sameness and similarity; it has the same or a similar effect or meaning in translation Equivalence is defined differently by different translation theorists For example, Nida (1982) argues that there are two different types of equivalence: formal equivalence which focuses attention on the message itself, in both form and content, unlike dynamic equivalence which is based upon 'the principle of equivalent effect, triggering the same impact on the target culture (TC) audience as the original wording did upon the source text (ST) audience After all, equivalence can be of various categories: semantic, grammatical, textual, pragmatic, cultural, etc However, the thesis does not make any attempt and cannot have enough space and ability to investigate how equivalence has been achieved in the translated sentences in Vietnamese It accepts the Vietnamese equivalences of English questions as the target language to contrast with the source questions in English

1.5 Significance of the study

The thesis interrogative sentences and their equivalences in the bilingual novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ investigated from syntactic and semantic perspectives is

expected to make several contributions when it is completed

Theoretically, this study seeks to make a further investigation into the theory

of the interrogatives in English There have been a great number of grammar books and other documents referring to the topic so far However, there is still considerable amount of information concerning their syntactic and especially their semantic characteristics which have not yet been extensively explored in reality of use This study which is conducted in the context of a novel in English expects to make a certain contribution In addition, literature on the similarities and differences

in English and Vietnamese interrogatives has revealed that many related works have been done; however, to the best of the writer’s knowledge, the similarities and differences between theory and reality of use of questions in English and between English interrogatives and their equivalences have so far not yet been fully investigated, this study is hoped to point out some of them

Practically, by conducting an investigation into the use of questions in a great variety of situations in an English novel, the study expects to point out the uses of each type of English questions in communication and through analysis and comparison between questions in two languages the thesis may be of great benefit for teachers and learners of English as a good reference for teaching and learning English questions effectively

It is believed that if Vietnamese learners of English take it seriously to explore these features of English questions, they could not only gain a good knowledge of English questions in terms of structure and meaning but also have a better capability

of using them effectively in communication

1.6 Design of the study

Chapter 1: Introduction indicates the background, aims and objectives of the

study, significance of the research and research question as well as research scope

of the study

Chapter 2: Literature Review, The discussion of the theoretical preliminaries

which emphasizes key concepts and kind of questions in English , subtypes and futher features and theoretical framework, which go along with the proposed framework

Chapter 3: Data and methods, Data collection techniques and research questions

are cited as orimentation for the selection of different research approaches and methods for the study

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion, The analysis of syntactic and semantic

features of English questions and their equivalents in the novel, the comparision of English questions and their equivalents and implication in teaching and learning English questions for Vietnamese learners of English

Chapter 5: Conclusion, the summary of the study, limitation of the research and

suggestions for further study

The references and Summary of the novel and Appendix put an end to the study

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Review of previous studies

There have been many researchers studying about Interrogative sentences Theory of Frank is used to analyze the type of interrogative sentences Frank (1972: 221) defines that interrogative sentence ends with the question mark and the subject and the auxiliary are often reversed Frank (1972: 88) also suggests the kinds of question into three parts namely, Yes-No Question, Attached or Tag Question, and Interrogative Word Questions

In the book A University Course in English Grammar [91], Angela Downing and Philip Locke considered question has interrogative form, and distinguished in to three types: Yes – No question (polar question) , Tag question ( in tag question has declarative tag, exclamation tag and command tag), Alternative question and WH question ( Non-polar question)

Baker distinguishes two WH types in English: ‘questions’ and relative clauses Although Baker points out morpho-syntactic dissimilarities between ‘direct’ and

‘indirect ’questions (the absence of whether or if in direct questions; inversion in direct WH-questions), he concludes that the dissimilarities between direct and indirect questions are relatively minor compared to dissimilarities between

‘embedded’ questions and relative clauses

Randolph Quirk et al (1985) classifies English questions into major classes and minor types of questions according to the type of reply they expect (p.806-825)

In the major classes, in line with their classification, English questions are

categorized into three types: yes/no question, as in Have you finished the book? Yes/no questions expect affirmation or negation Wh-questions, for example, what

is your name? which expect a reply from an open range of replies And the third

type is alternative questions, as in Would you like to go for a walk or stay at home?

Such questions as this expect a reply as one of two or more options presented in the questions Exclamatory and rhetorical questions belong to the minor types of questions Exclamatory questions are interrogative in structure, but has the

illocutionary force of an exclamatory assertion; for example, Wasn’t it a marvelous concert!Questions of this type are used with a rising tone as in yes/no questions to

express strong positive feelings of the speakers that invite the hearer’s agreement

As the other type of minor classes of questions, the rhetorical question is interrogative in structure, but has the force of a strong assertion; normally it does not expect an answer Rhetorical questions are used in various situations for different purposes; one of the typical features of rhetorical is that a positive rhetorical yes/no question is like a strong negative assertion, a negative question

like a strong positive one; for example: Is that a reason for despair?(Surely no!)or Isn’t the answer obvious?(Surely yes!)

The observations we have made so far in this paper suggest that the notion of

‘question’ is necessarily distinct from the notion of ‘interrogative’ in syntax The

former focuses more on the form, the latter more on the meaning

In Vietnam, many Vietnamese grammarians and linguists studied Vietnamese questions, publishing their findings in a great numbers of documents Some names

of the famous author which could be listed here are Diệp Quang Ban, Cao Xuân Hạo, Lê Quang Thiêm, Nguyễn Kim Thản, Đinh Văn Đức, Hoàng Trọng Phiến, Lê Đông, etc For example, Nguyen Kim Than (1964, 254) and Ho Le (1976, 8) had some common opinions on questions One of which is that questions and statements are different in using interrogatives pronouns and interrogative particles in questions In Vietnamese Grammar Book (1983, p.202), the authors characterized

that making questions generally means requiring an answer

Based on the purpose of speaking, Professor Diep Quang Ban (1998, p.226)

claimed that question is an interrogative sentence that is used to seek an information

answer or an explanation from the questioned From another perspective, Professor Cao Xuan Hao (1998) based himself on illocutionary force, stated that the question has illocutionary act which requires an answer giving information on predicate or part of predicate which provides true presupposition Questions with illocutionary force do not always require an answer for what have been asked They have value

of command in these cases, no value of asking for information; for example: Con

có đưa cho mẹ không thì bảo? Could function as a command, which is similar to Đưa đây ngay!

Structurally, based on the study of Nguyen Kim Than (1975), questions in Vietnamese can be divided into three types: whole questions, partial questions, and alternative questions, each type of question having its own sstructural features In addition, Ngô Đình Phương (2007) classified Vietnamese questions based on functional grammar into four types: questions with interrogative pronouns; with

interrogative words such as không, chưa; with the connective word hay; and typical particles, such as: à, hả,…

Le Dong (1996) studied about “True Questions” based on the view of semantics and pragmatics The author provided some theoretical back ground of Question and their common character based on different aspects

Generally speaking, Vietnamese questions are described and analyzed on the basis of the fact that they are constructed by means of words; they function differently according to different contexts of communication

Recently, along with the foreign language learning development, a great number of researchers embarked on comparison between English with Vietnamese questions Some authors could be cited as illustrations Assoc Dr Nguyen Dang Suu (2002) conducted a study of English questions in the contrast with Vietnamese ones In which , the author figured out the features of question in both English and Vietnamese to have a clear understanding about way to form a question and their equivalent meaning in the two languages, then the author studies and compared the pragmatic – semantics featured to find out the similarities and differences between questions in English and Vietnamese language He also conducted surveys to investigate the understanding of Vietnamese student of questions in two languages Then came to some conclusion about student’s mistakes and suggested solutions in language teaching Questions in some books are used illustrate example and as the source to display the mistake in question translation in English – Vietnamese

Assoc Prof Vo Dai Quang (2000) conducted a study to compare and contrast

“true question” and the field of semantics and pragmatic in English and Vietnamese

In the study the author used both English and Vietnamese as source and target language in order to find out the similarities and differences of semantic, pragmatic features of English and Vietnamese He also deals with the contrast of different

types of true question as well as pragmatic means which is often seen in those question types

Based on what has been described as above, The English question classification of Randolph Quirk is the most outstanding for the thesis to apply The sentences in general could be concluded to be basic units of grammar and questions are basic units of communication Both English and Vietnamese questions have been studied vigorously in many aspects so far However, to the best knowledge of the author, there has not been much work investigating the structural and semantic features of English questions compared with their Vietnamese equivalents in a specific type of literary work where the use of questions is typically used in various contexts of communication This is a strong reason which motivates the author to

write up the thesis entitled “Interrogative sentences in the bilingual novel The Great Gatsby from syntactic and semantic perspectives”.

2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.1 Theory of syntax

Syntax is usually defined as a set of rules in language It dictates how words from different parts of speech are put together in order to covey a complete thought Dixon, R.M.W (1991) defines that syntax deals with the way in which words are combined together Syntax seeks to describe the way words fit together to form

sentences or utterances In other words, s yntax refers to the rules that govern the

ways in which words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences Therefore, studying the syntactic features means studying the properties of words and their relationships when they combine together in specific patterns of arrangement in a sentence

Regarding how syntax is defined, it is clear that syntax is the study of structure

of language In other words, its main targets are said to be the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language For this reason, the goal of many syntacticians is to discover the syntactic rules common to all languages They are to dictate how words from different parts of speech are put together to convey a complete thought It is also said that syntax is a form of grammar and it is concerned primarily with word order in a sentence and

with the agreement of words when they are used simultaneously It is also true that every language has developed a specific mechanism that is similar to syntax to make a boundless number of sentences This is a common feature that can be witnessed in all languages

So far, there have been numerous definitions of the sentence in English since different grammarians look at the sentence from different perspectives For example, A sentence is defined as a group of words that are put together to mean something A sentence is the basic unit of language which expresses a complete thought It does this by following the grammatical rules of syntax

A sentence is the largest independent unit of grammar: it begins with a capital letter

and ends with a period, question mark, or exclamation point Through the definition

of the sentence, it can be understood that the sentence comes first and then comes grammar and words as its elements are not categorized according to their word classes or the role they play in the sentence

The thesis follows the definition in the dictionary in which the sentence is said

to be a group of words that usually contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete idea; in writing the sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a stop or question mark (Dictionary of Contemporary English, p.1587)

2.2.2 Theory of semantics

It is often believed that 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 antonym 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’s views vocabulary as organized into areas, within which words (lexical items) interrelate and define each other The concepts of syntax and semantics are basic of the study to study syntactic and semantic features of the interrogative sentence in English

Semantics contrasts with syntax, the study of the combinations of units of a language (without reference to their meaning), and pragmatics, the study of the

relationships between the symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of the language According to Dictionary of Contemporary English (2010), semantics has two meanings, one being the study of the meaning of words and phrases and the other the meaning of a word In the study of language by George Yule, semantics is defined as the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences In semantic analysis, there is always an attempt to focus on what the words conventionally mean, rather than on what a speaker might want the words to mean on a particular occasion Also, linguistic semantics deals with the conventional meaning conveyed

by the use of words and sentences of a language

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

of communication According to Hurford and Heasley (1983, p.1), semantics is the study of meaning in language Language is a means of communications, 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 that the giving of information is itself an act of courtesy, performed to strengthen social relationships This is also part of communication When meaning is understood in this way, semantics is usually connected with pragmatics: the investigation of the meaning of expressions in historically given natural language which may be regarded as part of pragmatics The reason seems to have been that differences in the use of particular expressions were not only inevitable in language - behavior, but must be taken account of in the description or context Hurford and Heasley (1983, p.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

Based on the way of understanding what semantics is about, the thesis accepts the fact meaning of the sentence should be conceived not only from lexical or grammatical perspectives; meaning should be put in a specific context of

communication In line with this cognitive orientation, questions should be

understood in the way of meanings they express and they indicate or imply

2.3 Theoretical framework

2.3.1 Overview of English sentence structure

Sentence structure is the way a sentence is arranged grammatically The

sentence structure of your writing includes where the noun and verb fall within an

individual sentence Sentence structure depends on the language in which you are writing or speaking It is common in English for a simple sentence to look like this:

"She writes novel." In this case, the sentence structure is "Subject – Verb - Object."

There are many ways to make the sentence structure much more complicated while still providing a framework for the information you are conveying and being grammatically correct Depending on the number and types of clauses they contain, sentences can be classified as simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex Clauses can be connected to form sentences by coordination, using a coordinating conjunction to connect two independent clauses, and by subordination, using a subordinating conjunction to connect one or more dependent clauses to an independent clause Depending on the purposes of their uses sentences can be statements or declaratives, requests or commands, questions and exclamations (https://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/sentence-structure.html)

2.3.2 Definition of the interrogative sentence

Interrogative sentence is a type of sentence that asks a question as opposed to sentences that makes a statement deliver a command or express an exclamation Interrogative sentences are typically marked by inversion of subject and importantly, an interrogative sentence ends with a question mark (?) Interrogative sentences can serve as yes/no question or as wh-question the latter being formed

using an interrogative word with who, which, where, how to specify the information

required Different languages have various ways of forming questions such as, word order or the insertion of interrogative particle Questions are frequently marked by intonation In particular a rising intonation pattern in some language This may the sole method of distinguishing a yes –no question from a declarative statement

Questions are used to ask for information or for confirmation or denial of a statement Questions in English usually change the word order between the subject and the operator so that the verb or part of the verb comes before the subject A question mark (?) is the proper ending punctuation for an interrogative sentence

(Cited from Wikipedia.org/wiki/interrogative)

2.3.3 Syntactic and semantic features of questions in English

a Types of English questions

Based on the categorizations of English questions, it can be generalized that English questions can be syntactically divided into major class consisting of yes/no questions, wh-questions (information questions), and alternative questions and minor types of question

b Structures of English questions

English questions normally require the inversion of the auxiliary verb to the position before the subject noun phrase (NP) Thus, the general constituent structure

of English questions can be illustrated as follows:

Figure 2.1 Constituent structure of English questions (Adapted from Finnegan, 2004)

+ Yes- No Question

In linguistics, a yes/no question, formally known as a polar question, is a question whose expected answer is either “yes” or “no” Formally, they present an exclusive disjunction, a pair of alternatives of which only one is acceptable In the English language, such questions can be formed in both positive and negative form (Wikipedia)

NP VP Aux

S

Examples: Will you come back tomorrow?

Won’t you come back tomorrow?

According to Richarch Nordiques P.H.D in English at Armstrong Atlantic state university, ayes/no question is an interrogative construction that expect an answer of yes-no (cited in about grammar and composition) For yes/no questions the structure is as follows:

Auxiliary verb + Subject (NP) + Verb (infinitive without to)

- Marry, can you do me a favor?

- Did you call me this morning?

- Don’t you watch News during dinner?

- Are you ready to answer me?

For each of the above questions, the answer will be either a yes or no answer

According to Randolph Quirk in his book “Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985, p806) yes-no questions contains specific syntactic feature

in form as follows:

1 Genuine yes/no questions (possitive/negative question)

2 Declarative questions

3 Tag questions

 Genuine yes/no questions

Genuine yes/no question are usually formed by replacing the operator before subject and giving the sentence a raising intonation Question operators (be, can, may, do, will…)

Possitive yes/no questions: - Did anyone call last night?

-Has the boat left yet?

Negative yes/no questions: - Don’t you believe me?

- Aren’t you joining us this evening?

Structure: Op S V…… ?

Question operators in English are plentiful (auxiliary and model verbs, to be)

We make questions in negative form and people will expect the answer is positive

rather than negative

 Declarative questions

Not all yes/no question have subject operator inversion The declarative question is a type of question that is identical in form to a declarative, except for the final rising question intonation

Affirmative clause: Subject + Verb + Object

Negative clause: Subject + auxiliary + not + verb + object

Examples: - You realize what the risks are?

- He hasn’t come back Vietnam?

When you ask a question in affirmative form, it means that you expect the answer is “yes” On contrary, if you use negative form, it means that you expect the answer to be “no”

Examples: -She has never been to Ha long Bay?

-You have been to Beijing?

 Tag questions

Tag question is in English language is grammatical structure which can be added to the clause in conversation or in written representations of speech Tag question is mainly added to declarative sentence, but it can be added to imperative sentences

According to Randolph Quirk, Tag question consists of operator and subject in

that order enclitic n’t, if present, is attached to the operator, is he?,didn’tshe, can’t I,

will you ?The operator is general the same as the operator of the preceding statement: I haven’t seen you before, have I? The subject of the tag must be a pronoun which either repeats or is in coreference with the subject of the statement, agreeing with it in number, person and gender.if the statement is positive, the tag is generally negative and vice versa

The structures are:

Negative clause, affirmative tag?

Affirmative clause, negative tag?

Negative clause Affirmative tag Subject

you?

+ WH- questions

Wh- questions are formed with the aid of one of the following simple interrogative

words (or Wh-words) Where, when, what, who, how, why, which, how, whose Wh-question are also called information questions The answer can be a simple response or complex explanation and normally have the structure as follows:

Question word + Auxiliary verb + Subject (NP) + Verb (infinitive without to)

Examples:

What are you reading?

Where do you work?

Who are whispering in the next room?

What is the meaning of this word?

Which books do you want?

However, when the question word is the subject of the verb, the question structure changes into:

Question word + Verb + (Complement/Object)

Example: Who absents from the class today?

+ Alternative questions

About rhetorical question, Randolph Quirk classified it in to two types The first resembles a yes/no question, and the second a wh –question

- Would you like chocolate, vanilla or strawberry?

- Which ice cream would you like, chocolate, vanilla or strawberry?

The first type differ from a yes-no question only intonation, instead of the final rising tone, it contains a separate nucleus for each alternative, a rise occurs on each iterm in the list The difference of intonation between alternative and yes-no questions is important, in that ignoring it can lead to misunderstanding- as the contrast between these replies indicates

Alternative: Shall we go by bus or by train? By bus

Yes/no : Shall we go by bus No, let’s take the car

The second type of alternative is really a compound of two separate questions, a wh –question follow by an elliptical alternative question Thus it might be taken as a reduced version of

Which ice cream would you like? Would you like chocolate, vanilla or strawberry?

These syntactic features of interrogative sentences are the basis of analyzing the syntactic features of the interrogative sentences in English and in Vietnamese in chapter IV

Minor types of questions

+ Exclamatory questions

The exclamatory question is interrogative in structure, but has the illocutionary force of an exclamatory assertion Typically it is a negative yes-no question with a final falling instead of rising tone

Hasn’t she grown!

Wasn’t it marvelous concert!

The invite the hearer’s agreement to something on which the speaker has strong feelings The meaning, contrary to the appearace of the literal wording, is vigorously positive

+ Rhetorical questions

The Rhetorical question is interrogative in structure, but has the force of a strong assertion It generally does not esxpect an answer because the answer is obvious and there is no need to state or the answer is implied within the question This kind of question is used for effect rather than to seek information It makes the reader to think about the answer Here is the sentence structure:

Question word / Auxiliary verb + Subject (NP) + Verb (infinitive without to)

Examples:Why me not her?

Why are you so ambiguous?

Rhetorical question may be ended by a question mark, full stop or exclamation mark It has two main functions: negative assertion and metaphors When the

question is difficult or impossible to answer, the function is negative assertion When the question shows humorous, the function considered as metaphor (Wikipedia)

Examples:

What have you ever done for your wife and son? → Negative assertion

Is snow white? → Metaphor

Unlike exclamatory questions, these rhetorical questions have the normal rising intonation of a yes-no question, and are distinguished chiefly by the range of pitch movement

2.3.4 Overview of interrogative sentences in Vietnamese

In Vietnamese language, many grammarians and linguists described, analyzed

and classified Vietnamese questions in different ways In Ngữ pháp tiếng Việtcompiled by The National Center for Social Sciences and Humanities,

published by the Publishing House of the Social Sciences (2000), a question in

Vietnamese is defined as follows: Nghi vấn là đặt ra câu hỏi để, nói chung, yêu cầu trả lời (p.233) (roughly translated: a question is the one which is asked, in general,

for an answer) Vietnamese questions are mainly classified into: questions with choice where the answerer can have different chances to choose his or her answer

Questions of this type use such words as hay:

- Anh hay tôi có phiên trực nhật hôm nay (RT: Are you or Am I on duty today?)

In addition, these questions use such words as có…không, đã chưa, or reduced

form: không, chưa at the end ò the sentences; for example, Anh đi không? (RT: Are

you going?)

The second type of questions includes questions without choice which use

interrogative pronouns: ai, gì… (who, what,…?); for example, Anh đi đâu bây giờ? (Where will you go now?)

The third type of is those questions which imply assumptions, using such

words as có không, có đúng không, à, chăng, phỏng, nhỉ… at the end of sentences;

for example, Câu thơ này là của Nguyễn Khuyến, đúng không?(RT: This sentence

is in a poem by Nguyen Khuyen, isn’t it?)

Diệp Quang Ban (2004) classifies Vietnamese questionsinto main types in his book: Ngữ pháp Việt Nam (p.276-294questions with interrogative pronouns asking

about different aspects: persons, time…, those using auxiliary words such as không, có….không, chưa, đã….chưa, the ones with the word of choice and the fourth type using common particles such as: à, ạ, hử, hả, nhỉ In another book Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt (2004, pp.226-235) Diệp Quang Ban groups Vietnamese questions into four types: 1 questions with interrogative pronouns, 2 those with the connective hay (with the meaning of choice) and with interrogative words: chăng, sao, thế nào;3 Questions with common particles: à, ạ, nhỉ, hở, hả; and 4 those with intonation.In her MA thesis entitled Cấu trúc và ngữ nghĩa của câu hỏi tiếng Việt (2000)

supervised by Assoc.Prof Cao Xuân Hạo, structurally, Lê Thị Mai classifies Vietnamese questions into four types: 1 Questions with declarative or request plus modal particle, 2 Questions with interrogative words or group of words, 3

Questions with the connective hay, and 4 Questions with interrogative pronouns

Vietnamese questions seem to be more clearly categorized when Cao Xuân Hạo (1998) when discussing presupposition in questions claims that Vietnamese

questions include yes/no questions: eg Có thượng đế hay không?special questions:

eg Anh đi đâu đấy?;

Alternative questions: eg Hôm qua nóng hay mát?; questions with modal particles: à, ư, sao, nhỉ, nhé,eg Sao giờ này nó chưa về nhỉ?(Pp.497-501)

In short, even though just a small number of documents have been cited, discussing the structural features of Vietnamese questions as above, it is as noticed from what has been done about the syntactic features of Vietnamese questions, Vietnamese questions are formed by means of words whose order is S-V The

interrogative words are: auxiliary words: (có)…không/chưa, có phải không; typical particles; à, ư, ạ….; interrogative pronouns; and words of choice There is no inversion of words and no such type of questions as tag questions as in English

2.4 Summary of the chapter

In this chapter, an overview of literature related to questions in English and Vietnamese written by previous authors which refers to what they have done, what they have thought about the topic is provided The chapter also touches upon a number of theoretical background issues concerning questions in terms of key aspects of syntax and semantics which serve as a foundation to realize the syntactic and semantic features of questions In addition, an overview of English and Vietnamese questions related to their classification, and their basic syntactic and semantic features is also discussed What has been done in this chapter lays a key foundation for the research to be done, which will be discussed in the next chapters

Chapter 3: DATA AND METHODS

This chapter presents the ways the author attempts to employ to obtain the study results Firstly, the research questions are cited as orientation for the selection

of different research approaches and methods for the study Under the guidance of research methods to address the related issues of the topic, the author moves on to describe the ways to collect the data to answer the research questions

3.1 Research questions

In this study, the author aims to investigate the linguistic features of the English questions in the novel as well as their Vietnamese equivalents, compare them syntactically and semantically and offer some pedagogical applications as to how to learn English questions for Vietnamese people who wish to use them well

In order to achieve the aims of the study, the thesis is expected to answer the following questions:

1 What are the syntactic and semantic features of English questions and their Vietnamese equivalents in the novel ‘The Great Gatsby’?

2 What are the syntactic and semantic similarities and differences of English questions and their Vietnamese equivalents in the novel?

3 What are the possible ways to assist Vietnamese learners of English to learn and use English questions effectively?

3.2 Research approaches and methods

3.2.1Research approaches

This study is conducted by employing qualitative research approach The reason for this approach to be selected is that the author seeks to answer the research questions to find out the syntactic and semantic features of English questions and their Vietnamese equivalents in the bilingual novel in the light of previous works by different linguists and grammarians related to the topic This approach is useful in collecting data in the novel and in language learning reality as evidence to prove the hypotheses the author holds about the topic In the end, the qualitative approach helps to produce the findings which cover all the results the author obtains in the study

+ The descriptive method: The author uses this method in order to describe the syntactic and semantic features of English questions and describe the differences between English questions and their Vietnamese equivalents

+ The comparative and contrastive method: This method helps to identify the syntactic and semantic similarities and differences of English questions with their Vietnamese equivalents

+ The survey method: The author employs this method to define the difficulties her students encounter when they are learning English questions and then suggest some ways to help the learners of English learn English well

Together with all the methods above, some other methods such as analytical and synthetic methods have also been used as supporting methods Last but not least, by being regularly employed during the process of study, the consultation

method appears to be very useful to the author since she gets all the devoted commentaries and guidance from her supervisor Without these valuable and major contributions, the author could not have done this research

3.3 Data Collection techniques

3.3.1 Subjects

The subjects involved in the study consist of two categories, the first being all the English questions and their Vietnamese equivalents in the bilingual novel Based on different kinds of questions found in the novel, the author attempted to describe and analyze their syntactic and semantic features and compare them with Vietnamese equivalents

In order to collect primary data concerning the problems Vietnamese learners

of English could meet with when learning English questions, the author selected two groups of students, each with 70 students at Hanoi Medical College The selection of subjects was based on the fact that the students of the first group had finished one term of general English, their level of general English is supposed to be good enough to deal with the understanding and the skills to build English questions, The second group was selected because they had studied general English for a longer time After three terms of English studies, they acquired quite good vocabulary and basic grammar structures to use questions in communication and translation

3.3.2 Instrumentation

As for secondary data collection, the author mainly did the reading to find out questions of all types in English together with their Vietnamese equivalents in the novel By means of grouping the English questions into different categories according to their forms and meaning of the questions from reading cards, the author was able to describe each type of English question syntactically and semantically together with their Vietnamese equivalents

As for primary data collection, the author designed three types of survey tests, the first focusing on the structure, the second on the meaning of English questions,

and the third on the translation skills in using questions in communication Based on the test results, the author was able to find out a number of common mistakes in building and using English questions for Vietnamese learners of English questions, which served as bases for the author to suggest possible solutions for the learners to ovoid them

3.3.3 Procedures

Due to the main aims and objectives of the study, the followings procedures are for data collection and analysis;

Stage1: Collecting all the possible literature related to the topic for study after

it is decided and approved by the authority;

Stage2: Collected all information available from topic-related literature which

is listed in the references at the end of the thesis in order to set up a review which deals with all the theories related to the topic;

Stage3: Collecting all the questions and their Vietnamese equivalents found in the

bilingual novel and classifying them according to the syntactic and semantic features of each type of question During this stage, careful considerations are taken

to make sure that all the indirect questions in English in the novel are excluded from the investigation since questions of this type are not within the scope of study;

Stage4: Conducting a survey to find out possible difficulties Vietnamese

learners of English questions might encounter when learning them;

Stage 5:Defining, by means of analyzing strategies, all the syntactic and

semantic features of English questions and their Vietnamese equivalents in the novel and possible pedagogical methods for Vietnamese learners to learn English questions well

3.3.4 Statistical Analysis

Datas of the study are collected and processed in two ways: After having been collected and categorized, all the questions in the novel The Great Gatsby are classified into three types of question (major classes) and minor types of question as follows:

Table 3.1 Types of English questions in the novel The Great Gatsby

Order Types of questions Number Percentage Major classes

a rising tone in speaking.However, Tag questions have some peculiarities The first special feature lies in its structure; a tag question has two parts, a tag with S-V inversion and the form of the verb in two parts is different from each other Even though both yes/no questions and tag questions expect the answers yes/no, tag questions expect something more; they expect confirmation, not only agreement or negation from the hearers as in yes/no questions In the latter case, tag questions require a falling tone in speakin As for wh-questions, the number of these questions

is second to yes/no questions Questions of this type which begin with wh-words:

what, who, why, where, when, and how are used to ask for information Both

alternative question and exclamatory questions accounts for the least percentage, 0,8% The last type of questions collected, the rhetorical accounts for 14, 69 %, which indicates that questions of this type are often used in communication, expressing various meanings related to the speakers’ attitude.The groups type of yes-no questions and wh- questions collected from the novel have full form and

reduced form (or elliptical form) they are will be presented in the findings and discussion

As for the primary data collected, below are the test results collected from a survey of 70 students at Hanoi Medical College The results are as follows:

Table 3.2: Test result of Test 1 made by students at Hanoi medical college when using yes /no question

Question Correct answers Incorrect answers Kinds of question

+ With WH questions: in Exercise 1, more than 30% of the students could not identify what interrogative words are used for the underlined words; they also make mistakes in organizing the order of words in an interrogative sentence

For example:

Sentence 2, Exercise 1:

Nurse Jane is working in the operating room

Many students translated “What is Nurse Jane working in the operating room?” in this sentence, they choose wrong interrogative word (WH), and misunderstood the meaning of the sentence Whereas, other students did like this

“Where Jane is working in the operating room?” obviously that they do not train the verb “is” before WH question “where”

With yes/no questions: in Exercise 2, this kind of question seems to be easier for the students, the percentage of right answers is higher than wh- questions, and the percentage of the students make mistakes is considerably high

However this sentence causes many difficulties for them in changing subject and using auxiliary verb

For example: Sentence 1, Exercise 2:

I love taking care of patients

They should write: Do you love taking care of patient? But many of them wrote

Do I love taking care of patient? or

Are you love taking care of patient?,

+ Tag question: in Exercise 3, this exercise shows the worst results, they were confused in using affirmative tag or negative tag and which auxiliary for the sentence

For example: Sentence 1, Exercise 3

He sometimes goes on duty, ?it should be: doesn’t he

[33/70(47.2%)] students were wrong at this sentence, they used “Do he, does

he, can he, is he ?”

+ Choice question: in Exercise 4: Most of the students are correct at this kind of question

They get high score in this part, 78% to 82% correct answers However, some

of them get low score at using auxiliary verb, preposition article to complete a question

For example: Sentence 2, Exercise 4

(She/ work / hospital/ clinic?)

They should do: Does she work in a hospital or in a clinic?

Some of them wrote: Is she work in hospital or /and clinic?

Do she work (in) (a) hospital or (a) clinic?

In short, in the table above, the percentage of errors made by students of learning English interrogative sentences is rather high and the percentage of error in each sentence is not equal This sentence is both wrong at auxiliary verb and lacks prepositions, articles, etc

Table 3.3.Test result of test 2 made by students when matching interrogative sentences with their communicative purposes

Question Correct answers Incorrect answers communicative purposes