Syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER AND ADVICE verb groups in english and their vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY ========**********======== NGUYỄN THỊ THU HƯƠNG SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF REQUEST ORDER AND ADVICE VERB GROUPS IN EN

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

========**********========

NGUYỄN THỊ THU HƯƠNG

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF

REQUEST ORDER AND ADVICE VERB GROUPS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM VỀ CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG TỪ REQUEST ORDER VÀ ADVICE TRONG TIẾNG ANH

VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A THESIS

Field: English Language Code: 8220201

Hanoi, 2018

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

========**********========

NGUYỄN THỊ THU HƯƠNG

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF

REQUEST ORDER AND ADVICE VERB GROUPS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM VỀ CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG TỪ REQUEST ORDER VÀ ADVICE TRONG TIẾNG ANH

VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

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

“The syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups

in English and their Vietnamese equivalents” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference

is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2018

Nguyen Thi Thu Huong

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc.Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh Date:………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During the completion of this work, I have received a great contribution from my teachers and my friends They always encourage and support me and give their comments to the perfection of my paper

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank my supervisor Mrs Hoang Tuyet Minh who instructed me directly, shared experiences and removed difficulties which arose during the process of writing my thesis

Secondly, I sincerely thank all the lecturers of the Hanoi Open University, especially the lecturers in Faculty of Post Graduate Studies who have been teaching and conveying to me the enthusiastic guidance and valuable teaching and tremendous assistance and skills in the learning process

Thirdly, I also send my deep gratitude to my friends, colleagues and students at Hai An high school in Hai Phong city who have assisted me in collecting data and provided valuable resources to help me complete my thesis

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family members who supported me and contributed to the completion of my study

ABSTRACT

The study aims at clarifying the features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and making a comparison of this verb group with their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features to help the Vietnamese learners of English to learn this verb group effectively Within this study, the author focuses on analyzing them(concerning syntactic and semantic features of these verbs), and just brief the similarities and differences between them

To serve the purpose of the study, some implications will be suggested to help Vietnamese learners of English have a better understanding of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups and then use them in daily communication effectively This study

is designed and investigated the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, so descriptive and contrastive method are chosen This study analyzes and synthesizes to some syntactic, semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents The present study highlights the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in Vietnamese and English during their grammarians Practically, the study helps teachers and students to get some useful suggestions in teaching and learning this verb group because the

REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups consist of many verbs and vocationally

make people confused when its syntactic and semantic features are under consideration Although the research can be useful in some ways as mentioned, there are still many undiscovered sub-areas which provide a ground for further studies This thesis has focused only on studying the semantic and syntactic features of thinking verbs in English and Vietnamese Therefore, there are still some aspects related to this problem left for

further researches - “The syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and

ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents”

1.2 Aims of the study

1.3 Objectives of the study

1.4 Scope of thestudy

1.5 Significance of thestudy

1.6 Structure of thestudy

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Speech act verbs

2.1.1 Definition of speech act verbs

2.1.2 Syntactic features of speech act verbs

2.1.3 Semantic features of speech act verbs

2.2 An overview of sentence in English

2.2.1 Classification of sentences in terms of sentence elements

and verb complementation

2.2.2 Sentence elements

2.2.2.1 Syntactic features of sentence elements

i

ii iii

2.2.2.2 Semantic features of sentence elements

3.4 Data collection techniques

3.5 Data analysis techniques

3.6 Summary

Chapter 4: The syntactic and semantic

features of REQUEST, ORDER AND ADVICE verb

groups in English and their Vietnamese

equivalents

4.1 Syntactic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE

verb groups in English

4.1.1 In terms of their sentence patterns

4.1.1.1 SVO type

4.1.1.2 SVOO type

4.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements

4.2 Semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE

verb groups in English

4.2.1 ORDER verb in English

4.2.2 COMMAND verb in English

4.2.3 DEMAND verb in English

4.2.4 TELL verb in English

4.2.5 DIRECT verb in English

4.2.6 INSTRUCT verb in English

4.2.7 REQUIRE verb in English

4.2.8 ADVISE verb in English

4.2.9 COUNSEL verb in English

4.2.10 RECOMMEND verb in English

4.2.11 SUGGEST verb in English

4.2.12 PROPOSE verb in English

4.2.13 ADVOCATE verb in English

4.2.14 REQUEST verb in English

4.2.15 ASK verb in English

4.2.16 BESEECH verb in English

4.2.17 PLEAD verb in English

4.2.18 APPLY verb in English

4.3 REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English

and their Vietnamese equivalents

4.3.1 In terms of their syntactic features

4.3.1.1 In terms of their sentence patterns

4.3.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements

4.3.2 In terms of their semantic features

4.3.2.1 ORDERmeaning and their Vietnamese equivalents

4.3.2.2 TELLmeaning and their Vietnamese equivalents

4.3.2.3 DEMAND meaning and its Vietnamese equivalents

4.4 Some possible implications for teaching and learning

REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

In English, speech act verbs play an important role in the way we perceive the world we live in - the world of human relationships and human interaction And yet the meaning of such verbs has never been systematically investigated

There have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations into speech act verbs in both English and Vietnamese

For speech act verbs in English, Anna Wierzbicka (1987) studies about the semantic features of English verb groups such as: REQUEST group, ORDER group, ADVICE group,.etc

About Vietnamese speech act verbs, Lê Biên with Từ loại tiếng Việt hiện đại and Nguyễn Kim Thản with Động từ trong tiếng Việt, these two authors studied about the

classification of words in Vietnamese including REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb

groups in Vietnamese The thesis of Nguyễn Thị Thái Hòa with Cấu trúc ngữ nghĩa của động từ nói năng nhóm KHUYÊN, RA LỆNH, NHỜ developed and improved to the study

of semantic structures of Vietnamese speech act verbs The author‟s aim is to create new theorical bases and apply them in analyzing the verb groups scientifically

All these studies above thoroughly describe about the semantic features of the ORDER, ADVISE and REQUEST verb groups but they have not been exploited in terms

of their syntactic features yet Moreover, the contrastive comparison between two languges English and Vietnamese has not been implemented yet In the process of teaching English verbs in general, and teaching REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in particular, it is recognized that these verb groups make students confused much especially their syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups and their Vietnamese equivalents

As a result, that is why the subject “The syntactic and semantic features of

REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents” is chosen to study We hope to contribute a small part in studying and

teaching REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English In this study, REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English is described in a variety of contexts and situations We 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 speech act verbs

1.2 Aims of the study

- To help Vietnamese learners have a better understanding of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and Vietnamese in terms of their syntactic and semantic features effectively

- To use them correctly and appropriately in their spoken and written discourse

1.3 Objectives of the study

To achieve the aims, some objectives can be put forward:

- Describing the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English

- Pointing out the similarities and differences of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features

- Suggesting some possible implications for teaching and learning REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and Vietnamese

1.4 Scope of the study

In this study, the major point is to focus on REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups 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 REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English are compared with their Vietnamese equivalents

On this basis, some suggestions for Vietnamese learners of English are proposed

to make their learning REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups more effective Also, the study supplies the Vietnamese equivalents which hopefully help learners overcome difficulties when speaking and using the words

1.5 Significance of the study

Theoretically, the study will provide a comprehensive and overal knowledge about the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups 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 REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups consists of many verbs and occationally make people confused when its syntactic and semantic features are under consideration

1.6 Structure of the study

This thesis consists of five main parts:

Chapter1, Introduction, gives the reasons why this topic: “The syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents” has been chosen for the study as well as its aims and objectives, scope, significance and organization of the study

Chapter2, Literature Review, presents an overview of the previous studies related

to REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups both in English and Vietnamese and a review of theoretical background that can be considered as a foundation for conducting the whole study

Chapter3, Methodology, describes the research-governing orientation and methods applied for implementing this research

Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, gives a detail description and discussion on the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English in terms of their sentence patterns and sentence elements Then the comparison with their Vietnamese equivalents is also given in accordance with some possible implications for teaching and learning English

Chapter 5, Conclusion, summaries the whole content of the study, indicating the limitation, thus giving some recommendations and suggestions for a further research

References come at the end of the study

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The following issues are to be dealt with in this chapter: An overview of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and Vietnamese; Theory of speech act verbs; Classification of sentences and sentence elements These theories are the basis of the study in chapter IV

2.1 Speech act verbs

REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English belongs to speech act verbs So, in order to carry out studying about the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English, it is really necessary that speech act verbs are taken into consideration first

2.1.1 Definition of speech act verbs

Wierzbicka (1987) states that verbs referring to speech constitute one of the most important areas of the vocabulary of any language This is particularly true, however, of English, and of the other languages which function as vehicles of life in complex modern societies It is enough to open a daily newspaper to see to what extent „news‟ consists of

speech acts Phrases such as “X accuses Y for stealing his book”, “X predicts…”, “X blames Y…”, “X offers Y…”, “X threatens…”, “X vows…”, “X demands Y…” or “X condemns Y…” seem more common than any other category of headlines It would not be

an exaggeration to say that public life can be conceived as a gigantic network of speech acts History itself seems to consist largely in acts of speech

But people‟s private lives, too, consist to a phenomenal extent of speech acts From morning to night, we ask, answer, quarrel, argue, promise, boast, scold, complain, nag, praise, thank, confide, reproach, hint - and so on and so on Moreover, from morning

to night, we seek to interpret what other people are saying, i.e what kinds of speech acts they are performing Virtually every time someone opens his or her mouth in our presence, we seek to categorize their utterance as this or that kind of speech act Was this

a threat? Or just a warning? Was this a suggestion or rather a request? Was this a criticism or just a casual remark? Was this a hint?

Speech act verbs, i.e words such as suggest, request, criticize, hint, boast, complain or accuse, are crucially important to the way we perceive the world we live in -

the world of human relationships human interaction And yet the meaning of such verbs has never been systematically investigated For example, if foreigners or migrants

studying English wanted to find out the difference between suggest and demand, between demand and request, between object and protest, or between question and interrogate,

they would not find it anywhere - despite the endless rows of books on English which fill

the shelves of libraries and bookshops The difference between a thread and a warning may be a matter of life or death: the difference between demand and suggest may be a

matter of bad relations or good relations with another person And yet the differences in

meaning between threaten and warn, or between suggest and demand have never been

adequately described

2.1.2 Syntactic features of speech act verbs

In the past, syntactic clues sometimes were utilized in lexicography as an aid to establish polysemy In theoretically oriented linguistic literature, too, the claim had often been made that a difference in meaning (cf.Dixon, 1985) In the present work, however, a stronger claim has been tried to explore that a syntactic similarity is likely to reflect a similarity in meaning, so that shared syntactic patterns are likely to reflect shared semantic components To the extent to which this claim is validated, shared syntactic properties can be seen as evidence for postulated semantic structures

According to Wierzbicka (1987), syntactic clues have to be treated with care, and the relevant syntactic categories must be established empirically, not determined a priority For example, if we ask about the semantic correlate of the pattern “X thanked Y for helping him”, we will probably discover nothing of significance Consider, for

example, the following group of verbs, which can all occur in that frame: ask, thank, criticize, beg, reproach, praise What could all these verbs have in common (that some

other verbs, unable to occur in this frame, would not have)? On closer inspection, however, it emerges that two different syntactic patterns are in fact involved: (1)„X criticized Y for being lazy‟ paraphrasable as „X sked Y to do all the homework‟ and (2) „

X asked Y for money‟ paraphrasable as „X asked Y for making money‟ The first of these

two patterns singles out verbs such as ask, beg and implore (X begged Y for money - X begged Y to make money); the second, verbs such as reproach, reprimand, rebuke, reprove, praise, criticize and thank (X reproached Y for money - X reproached Y for

making money) This time, significant semantic correlates do emerge:

1 I want you to do the test

I know that you don‟t have to do it

2 You have (has) done something bad/good

The pattern „X asked Y for money‟ which is paraphrasable as „X asked Y to make money‟ is particularly worth comparing with the closely related pattern „X asked to Y for money‟, as in the sentences „X appealed to Y for money‟ and „X applied (to Y) for money‟ This pattern, too, correlates with the components „I want you to make money‟ and „I know that you don‟t have to do it‟ But the fact that the addressee phrase is treated as an

indirect object, rather than as a direct object, implies a more indirect approach to the

addressee In the case of ask, beg and implore, one might say that the speaker is trying to

„twist the addressee‟s arm‟, to prevail upon the addressee to act In the case of apply or appeal, the addressee is not similarly confronted with a direct personal approach; and to

extent to which he is personally addressed he is expected to consider the matter rather

than to act immediately The difference in question can be reflected in the following

semantic formula: „I say this because I want to cause you to do it‟ (ask, beg, implore) vs

„I say this because I want to cause you to think about it (and do it)‟ (apply, appeal)

Generally speaking, if the addressee phrase is treated as a direct object, the (implied) effect of the action on the addressee is always greater and more direct than in the otherwise comparable cases when the addressee phrase is treated as an indirect object

For example, of the two verbs suggest and advise, suggest is clearly more tentative; this semantic difference is reflected in the syntactic one: „X suggested Y (that money)‟ vs „X advised Y (to make money)‟ But the differences in the syntactic treatment of the

addressee may also reflect differences in the agent‟s goal For example, if a verb implies that the agent wants to achieve a certain state of affairs and that the role of the addressee

is rather instrumental, then it is the desired state of affairs, rather than the addressee, which is treated as a direct object Hence, for example, the following contrasts:

He demanded the release of the prisoners

*He asked the release of the prisoners

He asked them to release the prisoners

*He demanded them to release the prisoners

(Wierzbicka, Anna,1987: 25) With ask, the focus is (semantically) on the addressee, and so the addressee phrase is treated (syntactically) as a direct object; with demand, the focus is (semantically) on a

certain state of affairs, and so it is this state of affairs, not the addressee phrase, which is treated (syntactically) as a direct object

Accordingly, the contrasts illustrated above point in exactly the same direction as the following ones do:

They asked for the release of the prisoners

*They asked the release of the prisoners

They demanded the release of the prisoners

*They demanded for the release of the prisoners

(Wierzbicka, Anna,1987: 26)

Of course, if we want to investigate the validity of the correlations between syntactic and semantic properties, we must also seek to validate semantic components independently (not on the basis of syntactic clues) However, once the validity of such correlations between syntax and meaning has been established, syntactic properties can be used as invaluable clues to semantic structure I am not suggesting that syntactic properties should be treated as „proofs‟ for, or against, a given semantic analysis I maintain, above all, that syntactic properties possess an inestimable heuristic value In combination with other evidence, however, they can be used in the justification of semantic formulae

2.1.3 Semantic features of speech act verbs

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 that “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 Morries 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 problem of distinguishing language and language use has centered 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.”

David Crystal (1992:347)defines 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 antonymy 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 fields views vocabulary as organized into areas, within which words (lexical items) interrelate and define each other

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

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

A set of verbs is grouped together as one semantic type partly because they require

the same set of participant roles 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 women‟s Institutes supplied the soldiers 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

For examples:

John rubbed the glass (with a soft cloth)

Mary sliced the tomato (with her new knife)

Tom punched Bill (with his left fist)

There are about thirty semantic types associated with the verb class Some verbs,

such as those in the giving and affect types, have three semantic roles

These semantic features of speech act verbs are the basis of analyzing the semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English in chapter 4

2.2 An overview of sentences in English

2.2.1 Classification of sentences in terms of sentence elements and verb complementation

Sentence classification is carried out in order to get the foundation of studying the sentence types in REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and Vietnamese in chapter 4 By eliminating optional adverbials from the clause structures,

we have seven clause types in the classification of the essential core of each clause structure Of the obligatory elements, the main verb is the one that wholly or largely determines what form the rest of the structure will take From the examples [1-7] the following seven clause types emerge:

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

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

[6a]

Type

SVOA

You must put all the toys upstairs [7a]

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

The sun is shining

They are talking (Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721)

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

That lecture bored me (SVO)

Your dinner seems ready (SVC)

My office is in the next building (SVA)

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721)

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

I must send my parents an anniversary card (SVOO)

Most students have found her reasonably helpful (SVOC)

You can put the dish on the table (SVOA)

(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 REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English

2.2.2 Sentence elements

2.2.2.1 Syntactic features of sentence elements

Quirk, Randolph (1985) states that Subject is the most important element of the

clause elements other than the verb 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 Cutting across above three

folds classification are three main verb classes:

Intransitive verbs (laugh in [1a]), are followed by no obligatory element, and occur in type SV

Transitive verbs (enjoy in [2a], give in [5a], consider in [6a], put in [7a]) are followed by

an object and occur in types SVO, SVOO, SVOC and SVOA respectively

Copular verbs (become in [3a], be in [4a]) are followed by a subject complement or an adverbial, and occur in types SVC and SVA

In general sense, the term transitive is often applied to all verbs which require an

object, including those of clause types SVOO, SVOC, and SVOA It is, however, 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 clause from

an object such as the visitor in [5a] (Mary gave the visitor a glass of milk), and this has been traditionally recognized by applying the term direct object to the former, and indirect object to the latter We give priority here to the distributional fact that whenever

there are two objects (in type SVOO), the former is normally the indirect object, and the latter is direct object But although it is more central with regard to position, in other respects the indirect object is more peripheral than the direct object: it is more likely to be

optional, and may generally be paraphrased by a prepositional phrase functioning as adverbial

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

complements: subject complement (Cs) and object complement (Co) We can distinguish

between the types of complement found in the SVC pattern; i.e.: totally independent in:

The country became totally independent [3a]

And the type of complement found in the SVOC pattern; i.e.: rather expensive in:

Most people consider these books rather expensive [6a]

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

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

applies some attribute or definition to the subject, whereas in SVOC clauses it applies an attribute or definition to the object This distinction is usually denoted by the terms

subject complement and object complement respectively In these cases, the complement

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

Type SVC: The country became a separate nation

Type SVOC: Most people considered Picasso a genius

In the SVC sentence, a separate nation is understood to be a definition of the subject, the country, while in the SVOC sentence, a genius is understood to be a definition of the object, Picasso

Obligatory adverbial is an integral element in sentence patterns SVA and SVOA The

adverbial is normally an adverb phrase, prepositional phrase, or adverbial clause It may also be a noun phrase

Except for the obligatory adverbial in the SVA and SVOA types, adverbials are optional: they may be added to or removed from the clause without affecting its acceptability and without affecting the relations of structure and meaning in the rest of the clause

Obligatory adverbials are a subclass of predication adjuncts that belong to SVA and SVOA types In as much as they are obligatory, they are central elements of the clause, part of the clause nucleus They may be adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, or adverbial clauses Some obligatory adverb phrases and prepositional phrases may be analyzed as complements belonging to the SVC and SVOC types

Type SVA: I have been in the garden

Type SVOA: You must put all the toys upstairs

This close analysis is the background of analyzing the syntactic feature of sentence elements of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English in chapter 4

2.2.2.2 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

With intransitive verbs, the subject also frequently has the affected role elsewhere typical

of the direct object:

The pencil was lying on the table

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 743)

Besides, the subject may have a recipient role with verbs such as have, own, possess, benefit (from); the role of positioner with intransitive stance verbs such as sit, stand, lie, live, stay, remain, and with transitive verbs related to stance verbs such as carry, hold, keep, wear; the locative, temporal and eventive role

Direct object has several roles in sentences The most typical role of the direct object is

that of the affected participant: a participant (animate or inanimate) which does not cause the happening denoted by the verb, but is directly involved in some other way:

Many MPs criticized the Prime Minister

James sold his digital watch yesterday

(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

We paid them the money

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 741)

It occasionally 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

We gave the baby a bath

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 742) Complement is also a very important element in sentences The typical semantic role of a

subject complement and an object complement is that of attribute We can distinguish two subtypes of role for the attribute: identification and characterization We can further subdivide attributes into current or existing attributes (normally with verbs used stativity) and resulting attributes, resulting from the event described by the verb (with verbs used dynamically)

Branda became their accountant (Identification)

Dwight is an honest man (Characterization)

He is my brother (Current attribute)

The heat turned the milk sour (Resulting attribute)

(Quirk,Randolph,1985: 728)

2.3 Previous studies

There have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations into speech act verbs in both English and Vietnamese For speech act verbs in English, Anna Wierzbicka (1987) studies about the semantic features of English verb groups such as: the ORDER group, ASK group, ADVISE group, TALK group.etc This book has two purposes: one purpose is practical: it is meant to be of service to the general public, both to native speakers of English and to people learning or teaching English as a second language The other purpose is scholarly: it is meant to be a study of an important section of the English vocabulary, a study of a kind which has never been undertaken before The present dictionary can be regarded as a justification of the semantic theory on which it is based This does not mean, however, that the practical lexicographic purpose is subordinated to

a theoretical linguistic goal On the contrary, the semantic theory is viewed here as a lexicographic enterprise, which will be also useful as a reference book According to Anna Wierzbicka (1987), REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups includes eight

English verbs: order, command, demand, tell, direct, instruct, require and prescribe

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

Searle (1989) posits a set of adequacy criteria for any account of the meaning and

use of performative verbs, such as order

Central among them are: (a) performative utterances are performances of the act named by the performative verb; (b) performative utterances are self-verifying; (c) performative utterances achieve (a) and (b) in virtue of their literal meaning He then argues that the fundamental problem with assertoric accounts of performatives is that

they fail (b), and hence (a), because being committed to having an intention does not guarantee having that intention Relying on a uniform meaning for verbs on their reportative and performative uses, we propose an assertoric analysis of performative utterances that does not require an actual intention for deriving (b), and hence can meet (a) and (c)

Explicit performative utterances are those whose illocutionary force is made explicit by the verbs appearing in them as:

I(hereby) order you to be there at five (is an order)

You are (hereby) ordered to report to jury duty (is an order)

(Austin, 1962) Three sentences above look and behave syntactically like declarative sentences in every way Hence there is no grammatical basis for the once popular claim that I promise/ order spells out a „performative prefix‟ that is silent in all other declaratives This research is not dealed with the syntactic features and the study is only concerned

with the verb order

On the other hand, English dictionaries are also the very good reference materials

during the study such as Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, 2003; Oxford Advanced encyclopedia, 2002; Sematic Dictionary, 1987; English-Vietnamese Dictionary, 2008

These dictionaries analyze fully about the word classifications, structures, semantics and give precise examples as well

In Vietnamese, many authors have done long researches and given out worthy

collections such as Lê Biên (1998) with Từ loại tiếng Việt hiện đại and Nguyễn Kim Thản (1999) with Động từ trong tiếng Việt, these two authors study about the

classification of modern Vietnamese words including REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in Vietnamese This verb group is described in term of its structures and

semantics Besides, Hồng Mây, Tạ Minh Ngọc, Ngọc Lương (2011) with Từ điển tiếng Việt have given full description and examples about the verbs belonging to REQUEST,

ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in Vietnamese Moreover, there are some more

authors‟ researches such as Đinh Thị Hà with Cấu trúc ngữ nghĩa của động từ nói năng nhóm BÀN, TRANH LUẬN, CÃI (Master thesis, 1996) and Lê Thị Thu Hoa with Cấu trúc ngữ nghĩa của động từ nói năng nhóm KHEN, TÂNG, CHÊ (Master thesis, 1996)

Although both of the studies focus on researching the different Vietnamese speech act verbs, the authors see the same characteristics: The popularity of these verbs in daily life They give remarks: Almost the previous researches only pay attention to the grammatical features of the speech act verbs, the semantic structures are not carefully concerned with So, these theses have the same purpose: studying the semantic structures

of the Vietnamese speech act verbs Nguyễn Thị Thái Hòa‟s thesis with Cấu trúc ngữ nghĩa của động từ nói năng nhóm KHUYÊN, RA LỆNH, NHỜ develops and improves to

the study of semantic structures of Vietnamese speech act verbs The author‟s aim is to create new theorical basis and apply them in analyzing the verb groups scientifically The author finds new trand of the tittle in order to improve the good points, as well as to cut down the limitation of the prior thesis

The researches above are the background that the theory part of the study will be carried out

2.4 Summary

In this chapter, an overview of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and Vietnamese are given to briefly review what has been found and discussed the related studies by describing their approaches and key findings, but then identify weaknesses in the approach and limitations in the findings Finally the study discusses what the next study will be done

Moreover, the definition of speech act verbs, the syntactic and semantic features of speech act verbs, sentence classification and sentence elements are analyzed thoroughly

in order to use for the background of analyzing the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English

- What are possible implications for teaching and studying REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and Vietnamese?

3.2 Research setting

Normally, it is realized that people easily make mistakes when they use REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups because they do not know which verbs should be chosen in different contexts So, this study is carried out through dictionaries, stories, encyclopedia, reference books, story, magazines at library and on some websites to help the them to identify more clearly about the differences in syntactics as well as in semantics between REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

3.3 Research approach

The qualitative and quantitative approaches, contrastive analysis in English and Vietnamese equivalents are combined to implement this study In reference with quantitative approach, the study collects data for the study including both REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents from semantic dictionaries, Advance learner‟s encyclopedia, English and Vietnamese grammar books and Internet resources

3.4 Data collection techniques

The data are collected from different sources such as dictionaries, namely, Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2003); Oxford Advanced encyclopedia (2002); Sematic Dictionary; A new approach to English grammar on semantic principles; English- Vietnamese Dictionary(2008); Vietnamese - English Dictionary (2000); Word classification of modern Vietnamese (1998); Verbs in Vietnamese (1999); some national

daily newspapers, International weekly newspaper and National weekly news magazine,

namely, The Australian; The Guardian Weekly; The Bulletin and some grammar books

such as English grammar in use by Murphy, R.; A comprehensive grammar of the English language by Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J (1985)

After identifying different senses of the twenty verbs in English together their Vietnamese equivalents, these senses are brought into consideration The following part represents the data analysis techniques used to analyze the data

3.5 Data analysis techniques

After collecting more than 400 sentences including 200 English verbs and 200 Vietnamese sentences expressing from English and Vietnamese grammar verbs and literature books, novels, dictionaries and storiesstorieswe categorize them into two main aspects: syntactic and semantic one

Syntactically, the classification of data is mainly based on the different structural categories, namely: SVO, SVOO and grammatical features of each sentence element

Semantically, the classification is carried out on the basis of the typical semantic features of ORDER, ADVISE and REQUEST verb groups in both languages

3.6 Summary

This chapter determines methodology of the study.The methods are used in this study including descriptive and contrastive analysis methods The data are collected from different sources such as the bilingual dictionaries, encyclopedia, English grammar books, the newspapers, magazines that are used for this study because they are well known and are confirmed by reliable publishing houses Based on this plentiful source of materials, the research will be executed as below

Chapter 4: SEMANTIC AND SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF REQUEST, ORDER AND ADVICE VERB GROUPS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE

EQUIVALENTS

In this chapter, the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English are analyzed in detail and, simultaneously, the comparison with their Vietnamese equivalents is also done thoroughly in order to help readers (especially teachers and students) to have a comprehensive view of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English

4.1 Syntactic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English

4.1.1 In terms of their sentence patterns

After studying the background, it is found out that REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English is divided into two sentence patterns according to their

syntactic feature: SVO and SVOO

The following table can account for the sentence patterns of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups

Table 4.1: The sentence patterns of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups

The sentence patterns of ORDER verb group

Type order command demand tell direct instruct require

The sentence patterns of ADVISE verb group

Type advise counsel consult recommend suggest propose advocate

The sentence patterns of REQUEST verb group

Type request ask beg beseech plead apply

As we can see from the table of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups,

among seven verbs above, there are ten verbs (order, command, direct, instruct, require, counsel, consult, recommend, propose, advocate) belong to the both sentence patterns Ten remained verbs (demand, tell, advise, suggest, request, ask, beg, beseech, plead, apply) occur in only one pattern

And from the table of ORDER verb group, among seven verbs above, there are

five verbs (order, command, direct, instruct, require) belong to the both sentence patterns Only two remained verbs (demand, tell) occur in only one pattern

And from the table of ADVISE verb group, among seven verbs above, there are five

verbs (counsel, consult, recommend, suggest, propose, advocate) belong to the both sentence patterns Only two remained verbs (advise, suggest) occur in only one pattern

And from the table of REQUEST verb group, among seven verbs above, there are five

verbs (ask, beg) belong to the both sentence patterns Five remained verbs (request, beseech, plead, apply) occur in only one pattern

In the following parts, each of the above sentence patterns will be analyzed more

in detail

4.1.1.1 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 Almost all of the verbs in REQUEST,

ORDER and ADVICE verb groups belong to this type

The chairman ordered silence (identified as a noun)

(Jonathan Crowther, 1995: 816)

Mr Bumble instructed Oliver that all he would have to do, would be to look very

happy

(Charles Dickens, 1837-1838)

The tribunal has commanded that all copies of the book (must) be

destroyed.(identified as a that clause)

The owners directed (that) the factory be closed

(Jonathan Crowther, 1995: 326)

Pulling out the nerves with red-hot pincers requires more coolness than knocking

on the head

(Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, 1847)

I advised her to value him the more for his affection

(Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, 1847)

This suggested itself as the very best thing that could possibly be done with him

(Charles Dickens, 1837-1838)

I requested my young lady to forego her ramble

(Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, 1847)

We've applied to a charitable organization for a grant for the project

(Cambridge English Dictionary)

(Cambridge English Dictionary)

I beseech them even at this late stage to think again about that

(Cambridge English Dictionary)

In REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups, there are seven verbs, those are

order, command, demand, tell, direct, instruct and require Among these, only command sometimes has the type SV as well In this case, command is an intransitive verb and is

not followed by an object, a complement or a closely linked adjunct

Do as I command (you) (Object is optional in context)

4.1.1.2 SVOO type

The verbs: demand, suggest, advise, request, beseech, plead, apply in these

REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups do not belong to the type SVOO This pattern has a double-transitive verb followed by an indirect object and a direct object Both objects can consist of a noun or noun phrase:

The teacher requires students a good preparation for new lesson

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

phrase, or a that-clause

They have instructed her that she should follow the doctor’s ADVISE

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 1993: 469)

Sometimes it is a finite clause or non-finite clause beginning with(i) A „wh-element‟, which can be a pronoun (who(m), whose, which, what), a determiner + noun (what time, which roads, etc) or an adverb (why (finite clauses only), when, where, how); or (ii) One

of the conjunctions if (finite clauses only) or whether

They have not instructed us where to go

In some cases, the direct object is a non-finite clause, consisting of or containing a

to-infinitive

We ordered him to leave immediately

(Jonathan Crowther, 1995: 816)

The officer commanded his men to fire

Beside the structure SVOiOd, REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups has also the pattern S+V+O1+pre+O2 In this pattern, the verb which is a transitive verb is closely linked in grammar and meaning to a prepositional phrase

We do not have the book in stock but we can order it for you

(Jonathan Crowther, 1995: 816)

They instructed him about his duties

The school required reading Hamlet for the course

4.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements

Subject (S)

In REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups 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 Subject can be realized by a noun phrase

I have instructed them to keep the room locked (S is realized by a pronoun)

The Subject can be realized by a nominal clause:

For example:

Anyone whom she met that day instructed her to finish her work

Verb (V)

Verbs belonging to REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English have only one main verb class, that is transitive verbs They are followed by an object and occur in types SVO and SVOO In transitive verb group, monotransitive verbs occurring in type

SVO are order, command, demand, direct, require, advise, counsel, consult, recommend, suggest, propose, advocate, request, ask, beg, beseech, plead and apply (except tell) The Verb can be realized by SVO

For example:

The ship‟s captain commands all the officers and men

(Albert Sydney Hornby, 1993: 179)

We require extra help

Ditransitive verbs occurring in type SVOO are order, command, tell, direct, instruct, require counsel, consult, recommend, propose, advocate, ask and beg (except demand, tell, advise, suggest, request, beseech, plead and apply)

The Verb can be realized by SVO

For example:

The manuscript requires an expert to understand it

Object (O)

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

An object such as silence in: The chairman ordered silence clearly has a different role in the clause from an object such as an expert in: The manuscript requires an expert to

understand it, and this has been traditionally recognized by applying the term direct object to the former, and indirect object to the latter We give priority here to the

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

Verbs from REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups relate to a Message

directed at the Addressee The Addressee is followed by the Message which can be a that clause (generally including a Modal) or a Modal (for) to or wh-to complement

Alternatively, the Message may be direct speech The addressee may be omitted in the

presence of direct speech or a that clause The complement clause subject is sometimes not coreferential with main clause object If this is so then for must be retained in a Modal (for) to clause (recall that it may only be omitted when the complement clause

immediately follows the main clause verb) Let‟s see the following examples:

The general ordered all officers for their men to parade at dawn (A fair number

of speakers find this ungrammatical, and might instead use a that construction):

The general ordered all officers that their men should parade at dawn

(Dixon, R.M.W, 1985: 125)

How do you tell when to change gear?

(Jonathan Crowther, 1995: 1229) Typically, someone is ordered or instructed or recommended to do something himself (rather than for someone else to do something); the expectation with ORDER verbs is for

the subject of a Modal (for) to complement clause to be coreferential with main clause object and then the complement clause subject (and for) are omitted:

The general ordered all officers to parade at dawn

(Dixon, R.M.W, 1985: 125)