Syntactic and semantic features of the liking verb group in english and their vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY PHAN THỊ THÙY NINH SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE “LIKING” VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS ĐẶC

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

PHAN THỊ THÙY NINH

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE

“LIKING” VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG

TỪ LIKING 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

PHAN THỊ THÙY NINH

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE

“LIKING” VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS ( ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG

TỪ LIKING TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG

TIẾNG VIỆT)

Field: English Language Code: 8220201 Supervisor:Assoc Prof Dr Phan Văn Quế

Hanoi, 2018

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

“SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE LIKING VERB GROUP AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2018

Phan Thi Thuy Ninh

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Phan Văn Quế Date:………

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

During the whole process of conducting this study for her MA thesis, the writer has received the support as well as encouragement from a number of people Thus, it will probably be an unacceptable mistake if this invaluable contribution to the accomplishment of this thesis is not mentioned

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc Prof Dr Phan Van Que, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported

me through the periods of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestion have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher

My special word of thanks goes to all the lecturers in the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, Hanoi Open University for their very useful and interesting lecturers which have laid the foundation for my thesis

Last but not least, my sincere thanks are delivered to my beloved family and friends, who unlimited love and support enabled me to complete this paper

ABSTRACT

This present thesis aims at dealing with investigating syntactic and semantic features of the LIKING verb group and their Vietnamese equivalents The methods selected to analyze the syntactic and semantic features are Descriptive method (to describe liking verb group in terms of their structures and meanings to draw some conclusions on the syntactic and semantic features), and Contrastive method (to detect the similarities and differences in the syntactic and semantic features of liking verb group in English and Vietnamese) The data were collected from five bilingual novels and short stories From theses novels and short stories, 96 examples are quoted, analyzed and used as the chief source for the qualitative evidence The received result is that, in terms of syntactic features , this verb group is used in only three sentence patterns (SVO, SVOC, SVOA) among seven sentence patterns; in terms of semantics, the liking verb group can be used with a variety of meaning in Vietnamese Theoretically, the study will provide a comprehensive and overall knowledge about the syntactic and semantic feature of the LIKING verb group in English Moreover, the similarities and differences between this verb group in English and In Vietnamese are very helpful in contrasting two languages Practically, the study will help the Vietnamese learners of English as foreign language use the English LIKING verbs effectively in daily communication It also helps the Vietnamese teachers teach the syntax and semantics of the liking verb group flexibly and sufficiently The findings of the study is hopefully to be beneficial to those who are engaged in teaching English as well as those who want

to learn English as foreign language

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Co Object complement

Cs Subject complement E.g For example

1.6 Significance of the study 3

2.2 An overview of syntax and semantics 6

2.3.2 Classification of English verbs 9 2.4 Overview of Vietnamese verbs 10 2.4.1 Definition of Vietnamese verbs 11 2.4.2 Classification of English verbs 11 2.5 Overview of the Liking verb group in English and in Vietnamese 12 2.5.1Overview of the Liking verb group in English 12 2.5.2Overview of the Liking verb group in Vietnamese 14

4.1 Syntactic features of Liking verb group in English 19 4.1.1 In terms of their sentence pattern 19 4.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements 21

4.3.1.2.2 Object 36 4.3.2 In terms of their semantic features 36 4.4 Implication for teaching and learning Liking verb group in English 48 4.5 Summary 49

5.1 Conclusion remarks 50 5.2 Limitations of the research 51 5.3 Suggestions for further research 52 REFERENCES

APPENDIX

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rational

Nowadays, English is regarded as the language of modernization and technological advancement all over the world Learning English is also problematic for native speakers in general and foreign learners in particular because they are affected by their mother tongue during the process of studying grammar, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, etc

On grammatical aspect, verbs have always been one of the most complex class words Verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence A verb states what is happening in the sentence There are many verbs in English and the Liking verbs play an important role in the sentence However in communication, we have difficulties in expressing our ideas, especially in transferring of words from a language to another one, in our case from English to Vietnamese

There have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations into the liking verb group in both English and Vietnamese: in English R.M.W Dixon (1991), Gilbert Ryle (2009), Concept of Mind, Beth Levin (1993), English Verb class and alternations, and in Vietnamese, Hoang Tue (1962), Giáo trình Việt Ngữ, Nguyễn Kim Thản (1977), Động từ trong tiếng Việt, Hoàng Phê (1998), Vietnamese dictionary These studies thoroughly describe about the semantic features of Liking verbs group but they have not been exploited in term of syntactic features yet Moreover, the equivalents between two languages English and Vietnamese has not been implemented yet

This study appeared as a result of difficulties that author faces in daily teaching related to the usage of these verbs Theoretically, the problem is that how

to make sentence having the verb like, enjoy, love, admire, prefer, dislike, hate, regret, fear and in which patterns are used Practically, translators are confused when choosing these verbs to make English sentences and translate it into Vietnamese From these above reasons, the topic “Syntactic and semantic features of the Liking verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents” has been chosen Hopeful, the result of the study will be useful for learners of

English and Vietnamese and contribute a small part into the teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam.

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study is expected to provide Vietnamese learners with a description of syntactic and semantic characteristics of English liking verb group and their Vietnamese equivalents

In order to achieve the aims, the following objectives are put forward:

- Pointing syntactic and semantic features of liking verb group in English

- Finding the similarities and differences between English liking verb group and their Vietnamese equivalents

- Suggesting some implications for teaching and learning English liking verb group in English and Vietnamese

- What are possible implications for teaching and learning English liking verb group?

1.4 Methods of the study

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

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

The descriptive method is exploited to search for the syntactic and semantic features of the liking verb group in English Besides, the contrastive analysis method is useful to uncover the Vietnamese equivalents of these nine English verbs

with different senses In particular, the data were collected from five novels and short stories, and dictionaries

The verbs are analyzed in detail beginning with like followed by enjoy, love, admire, prefer, hate, dislike, fear, regret Each of these verbs is described in a separate section, and the analysis was conducted with a view to discovering such aspects of each verb as its syntactic, semantics performed by each of these verbs The analysis is believed to contribute to a deeper understanding of the nine English verbs The componential analysis will be applied to analyze the data

1.5 Scope of the study

It is unfeasible to discuss the Liking verb group in details Therefore, within the study the author focuses on analyzing them (concerning syntactic and semantic features of these verbs) and just brief the similarities and differences between them

The relevant data are taken from five English novels, short stories and their Vietnamese translational versions From theses novels and short stories, 99 examples are quoted, analyzed and used as the chief source for the qualitative evidence

On this basis, some suggestions for Vietnamese teachers and translators are proposed to support their using the LIKING verb group more effectively

1.6 Significance of the study

Theoretically, the study will provide a comprehensive and overall knowledge about the syntactic and semantic feature of the LIKING verb group in English Moreover, the similarities and differences between this verb group in English and in Vietnamese are very helpful in contrasting two languages

Practically, the study will help the Vietnamese learners of English as foreign language use the English LIKING verbs effectively in daily communication The findings of the study is hopefully to be beneficial to those who are engaged in teaching English as well as those who want to learn English as foreign language 1.7 Design of the study

This study consists of five chapters namely: Introduction, Literature review and theoretical background, Methodology, Findings and Discussion, and Conclusion, of which major contents are as follow:

Chapter 1, Introduction, gives the reasons why this topic : “The syntactic and semantic features of the LIKING verb group 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

Chapter 2, Literature review, presents an overview of the previous studies related

to the LIKING verb group both in English and Vietnamese and a review of theoretical background that can be considered as a foundation for conducting the whole study

Chapter 3, Methodology, shows some issues of methods and outline the research design, data collection instruments, procedure of data collection

Chapter 4, Finding and Discussion, presents the syntactic and semantic features of liking verb group in English and Vietnamese and find out the similarities and differences between them

Chapter 5, Conclusion, summarises the whole content of the study, indicating the limitation, thus giving some recommendation and suggestions for further research References come at the end of the study

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous studies

English verbs have been the subject of several studies by linguists because they present particularly interesting syntactic and semantic characteristics In particular, even if that are often considered as being a coherent semantic class, we can find verbs displaying different semantic features and syntactic behavior

In English, Dixon (1991) has a study on semantic types of words and grammatical word classes Bases on semantic roles, he classifies verbs into two sort: primary and secondary sort As stated in the A New Approach to English Grammar

on Semantic Principles, he mentioned the primary – B verbs including 10 verb groups Among this verb group, he claims there are nine verbs: like, love, hate, prefer, fear, dislike, admire, regret, enjoy in the liking verb group Beth Levin (1993), also has a study on semantic types of verb class In English Verb class and alternations, he claimed that the verbs like, enjoy, love, admire, prefer belong to positive admire verb and fear, hate, dislike, regret are the negative admire verbs Angela Downing and Philip Locke (2002) agree that the liking verb group is mental process with two semantic roles These studies mention to the verb groups based on the semantic relations but not syntactic relations

In Vietnamese, Nguyen Kim Than (1977) examines the Vietnamese verbs

on the grammatical features in his study As he also gives a list of liking verb group including thích, yêu, ghét, muốn, ng−ìng mé, sợ hãi, không thích, tiếc,… Le Bien (1999), the Vietnamese liking verbs are state verbs belonging to independent verbs However, both the studies still do not mention to the semantic features of the liking verbs yet

In brief, there above works all study on the liking verb group in the semantic features or on their denoting meanings, there is not any researches on the liking verb group in both syntactic and semantic features and in comparison between English and Vietnamese equivalents as well as From these reason, the study on semantic syntactic and semantic features of the liking verb group in English and in Vietnamese equivalents has been chosen, with the hope that this research can partly

facilitate teachers, and translators to be more awarded of the meanings and sentence patterns including the liking verb group

2.2 An overview of syntax and semantics

Firstly, syntax is defined as a set of rules in language It dictates how words from different parts of speech put together with the aim of conveying a complete thought According to R.M.W Dixon (1991), syntax deals with the way in which words are combined together Syntax is considered to be the theory of the structure

of sentence in a language Verbs are different grammatical properties from language

to language but there is always a major class verb, which includes word referring to motion, rest, notice, giving, speaking, and liking

According to Bloomfield (1993), “We could not understand the form of a language if we merely reduced all the complex forms to their ultimate constituents”

He pointed that in order to account for the meaning of a sentence, it is necessary to recognize how individual constituents such words and morpheres constitute more complex forms

Linda Thomas (1993) states that language are by nature extremely complex and describing a language, any language is not an easy task Syntax seeks to describe the way words fit together form sentence or utterances

Syntax is now the study of the principles and rules that govern the ways in which words are combined to form phrase, clauses and sentences in a language Syntax, which is a subfield of grammar, focuses on the word order of a language and relationships between words In other words, morphology deals with word formation out of morphemes whereas syntax deals with phrase and sentence formation out of words Every language has a limited number of syntactic relations Subject and object are probably universal of syntactic relations, which apply to every language However, just as the criteria for the major words class noun and verb differ from language to language, so do the ways in which syntactic relations are marked

Secondly, semantics is a branch of linguistics, which deals with meaning or contents of communication Hurford and Heasley (1983) state that “semantics is the study of meaning in language.” Language is a mean of communication and used to communicate with others by making conversations, giving information and other

things to make social relationship Human beings have been given the ability to talk,

to communicate with each other, to make meaning utterances, so that they are understood by other human beings

Semantics defined in “The study of language” by George Yule is 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 usually connected with pragmatics Cernap (Lyons, 1977) says that descriptive semantics (i.e the investigation of the meaning of expression in

“historically given natural language”) may be considered 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 - behavior, but must be taken account of in the description or content

According to David Crystal (2008) expresses his study as follow: Semantics

is a branch of linguistics devoted to the study of meaning in language In particular, the approach called structural semantics applies the principles of structural linguistics to the study of meaning through the notion of semantics relations between lexical items In generative grammar, the semantic component is a major area of the organization of a grammar, which assigns a semantic representation to a sentence and analyses lexical items of semantics features

In brief, semantics is one of the most fundamental concepts in linguistics The theory of semantic field includes the study of how meaning is constructed, interpreted, clarified, covered, illustrated, simplified, negotiated, contradicted and paraphrased

Theory of syntax and semantics is carried out first with main purpose to decide the theoretical framework of the study in the chapter three

2.3 Overview of English verbs

2.3.1 Definition of the verb

The Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (2010) defines verb is a word which occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence carries markers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number and mood, and refers to an action or state

For example:

He closed the door

Jane likes swimming

Borahash (1975) defines that the verb is a part of speech denoting an action

or a process

According to Jack C Richards & et al (1992), a word is a verb when it satisfies these following criteria: occurs as a part of predicate of sentence; carries markers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number and mood, and refers to an action or state

As stated by R.M.W Dixon (1991), the definition of English verb is “A verb

is the center of a clause” A verb refers 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 verb groups is grouped together as one semantic type partly because they required the same set of participant roles All liking verbs require an Experiencer, a Stimulus as in:

Fred likes proposal

(R.M.W Dixon, 1991: 156)

Mary hates riding horses

(R.M.W Dixon, 1991: 260) According to David Crystal (2008), verb is a term used in the grammatical classification of words, to refer to a class traditionally defined as doing or action words The formal definition of a verb refers to an element which can display morphological contrasts of tense, aspect, voice, mood, person and number Functionally, it is the element which, singly or in combination with other verbs as a verb phrase, is used as the minimal predicate of a sentence, co- occurring with a subject (for example: he / laughed) If the predicate contains other elements ( e.g

object, complement, adverbial), then it is the verb which more than any other is the unit which influences the choice and extent of these elements; (e.g the verb put takes both an object and a locative adverbial, as in he put the book on the table.) In many grammatical theories, accordingly, the verb is considered the most important element in sentence structure

2.3.2 Classification of English Verbs

There are many different classifications of an English verb depending on different categories

In “A new approach to English grammar on semantics principles”, R.M.W Dixon states that verbs fall into board subclasses- those that require only one role (intransitive verb) and those which require two or more roles (transitive verbs) There is considerable difference between intransitive subject and transitive subject

In term of the function within the verb phrase, R Quirk et al (1985) states that verbs are divided into open class of full verbs ( or lexical verbs such as leave) and closed classes ( be, have, do) of primary verbs and of modal auxiliary verbs (will, might) Of these three classes, the full verbs can act only as main verbs, the modal auxiliaries can act only as auxiliary verbs, and the primary verbs can act either as main verbs or as auxiliary verbs

In term of sentence patterns, R Quirk et al (1985) classify verbs into two types: intensive verbs and extensive verbs

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

by a noun, or a noun phrase, and adjective or prepositional phrase Intensive verbs are used to describe the subject It means that the focus is on one thing, the subject only Intensive verbs appear in the structure SVC or SVA Words or phrases, which are followed by an intensive verb works as the subject compliment and they apply

to the subject, not the verb Let’s consider the following examples:

The country became totally independent (SVC)

I have been in the garden (SVA)

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985:53) Extensive verbs are most other verbs, they do not have subject compliment Extensive verbs are used to say what the subject is doing It covers a wider area; it takes the information away from the subject Words or phrases, which are followed

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

He stayed very quite

We all wish you a happy birthday.(SVOO)

or an adverbial is complex transitive verbs Complex transitive verbs appear in the structure SVOC or SVOA In a complex- transitive construction, the object complement identifies a quality or attributes pertaining to the direct object Let’s consider the following examples:

The president declared the meeting open (SVOC)

The doorman showed the guests into drawing room (SVOA)

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985:56) 2.4 Overview of the Vietnamese verbs

Up to now, there has been a vast amount of research on the linguistic field

in Vietnamese grammar and parts of speech Vietnamese is an isolating and analytic language in which grammatical meanings are shown chiefly through word order and function words (grammatical words) Also, Vietnamese words have the same forms

in different positions in sentences As a result, several grammatical structures are similar in form- organization but different in grammatical meanings

For example:

Tôi đi làm bằng xe máy (I go to work by motorbike.)

Hôm qua tôi đi làm bằng xe máy (Yesterday, I went to work by motorbike.)

In contrast with verbs in English, verbs in Vietnamese do not have the concord with other parts of speech In other words, they are not affected by number, gender, mood, voice, and tense In Vietnamese, a sentence refers to the basic time of the context- that is the time which has been made clear in the context up to that point In addition, when playing function as central components before it to indicate scope of the action or activity such as cũng, đều, cứ, etc to indicate continuation like còn, vẫn, etc.; to indicate tense, aspect such as sắp, đang, sẽ, đã, etc.; to refer to negative meaning, for example: chưa, không, chẳng, etc.; to indicate advice of prohibit such as: hãy, đừng, chớ, and so on However, as Cao Xuan Hao suggested, such auxiliary components, especially sắp, đang, sẽ, đã should be used with great care because in some cases these auxiliaries do not at all indicate tense For instances, a soldier reunited with his family for five days, and the next day when he had to come back to his military unit His wife said to him: Ngày mai anh đã đi rôì

à, đã here does not indicate tense; it just helps to show regret Obviously, in Vietnamese, context holds the key factor to define tense of the verbs

2.4.1 Definition of Vietnamese verbs

According to Le Bien (1990:70), and Diep Quang Ban (2001:21), Vietnamese verbs are substantives referring to progress, forms of movements They may be activities (1), states (2), changing progress (3), and movement (4), etc For example: (1) Cô ấy đọc sách

(2) Nó nhớ nhà

(3) GS Ngô Bảo Châu đã trở thành nhà bác học nổi tiếng thế giới (4) Bạn tôi đi thành phố Hồ Chí Minh rồi

2.4.2 Classification of Vietnamese Verbs

With regards to linguistics, there have been many different ways to classify verbs in each language by different authors However, the classification of the verbs

by Diep Quang Ban and Hoang Van Thung will be applied in this thesis The two linguistics study and classify Vietnamese verbs into two kinds: independent verbs and dependent verbs The independent verbs are verbs followed by a direct object

(thing or person that receives the action of the verb) The independent verbs cannot stand alone to complete the meaning of the sentences including these verbs Let’s see the following example:

Lan đưa tôi cuèn sách

Tôi yêu Hà Nội

In contrast, dependent verbs stand alone in a sentence without any help verbs For example: Trời mưa, cô ấy hát, etc However, some verbs can be both dependent verbs or independent verbs depending the way they are used, such asthe verbs “có” and “làm”, let’s see the following examples:

Bác có tiền không? - Tôi có

In each major type, he subdivides them based on several factors The independent verb is divided into modal, relation subtypes and the dependent verb is classified into verbs followed adjunct, notional words

2.5 Overview of the LIKING verb group in English and in Vietnamese

2.5.1 Overview of the LIKING verb group in English

Regarding to clause types, Quirk et al (1985: 53) state that the liking verb group belong to transitive verbs Quirk et al claim that the term transitive is often applied to all verbs which required an object, including those of clause types SVO, SVOO, SVOC and SVOA The patterns below give a further classification In clauses, the liking verb group can be monotransitive verbs, ditransitive verbs or complex transitive verbs

In a sentence (a simple sentence or multiple sentence), a verb belongs to the liking verb group must be followed by a direct object

For example:

She likes expensive present (SVO)

Furthermore, Quirk et al (1985:754) gives the semantic functions of the elements S, O in sentence patterns having the liking verb group as following:

Table 2.1: The chief semantic function for each clause type

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 754)

Type S Oi Od Cs Co A Example

SVO agentive recipient/

affected

He threw the ball

SVOC recipient affected attribute I found it strange SVOA recipient affected locative I prefer them on

toast

On the semantic aspect, Angela Downing and Philip Locke (2002) agree that the liking verb group is mental process with two semantic roles:

Example:

Jill liked the present (p140)

Experiencer Process Phenomenon

The Experiencer is the participant who sees, feels, thinks, likes, etc., and is typically human, but may also be an animal or even a personified inanimate object (The rider heard a noise, the horse sensed danger, your car knows what it needs) The second participant in a mental process, that which is perceived, known, liked, etc., is called the Phenomenon Mental processes are typically stative and non-volitional

Mental processes can sometimes be expressed with the Phenomenon filling the Subject slot and the Experiencer as Object, although not necessarily by means of the same verb

R.M.Dixon (1991) states that verb from liking verb group has two core roles being mapped onto transitive object, for example:

Fred likes the proposal

Experiencer Stimulus

In the two semantic roles, the subject- transitive is Experiencer, the object is Stimulus, and these verbs are transitive verbs which must have NPs

2.5.2 Overview of the Liking verb group in Vietnamese

According to Le Bien (1999), the Vietnamese liking verbs are independent verbs which cannot used to make a full sentence itself without any other help verbs

He also gives structure of the liking verbs in sentence

A-V-A1

(A are nouns or pronouns, V is verb, and A1 is thing or people)

Example:

Tôi yêu con trai bé bỏng của tôi

In this structure, it requires one complement He gives the list of liking verbs such as: yêu, thích, muốn, ghét, thích hơn, tiếc…

According to Nguyen Kim Than (1977), the liking verbs belong to group

5, verbs of emotion This kind of verb often combines with adverb la
i Let’s see the examples:

Ô-tên- lô cũng yêu lại nàng

Em thương anh ruột thắt gan bào

Biết anh có thương em lại chút nào không?

He also gives structure of the liking verbs in sentence

(1) N1 V N2 Nam yêu tranh

(2) N2 do N1 V

(3) N2 mà N1 V Cái tranh mà Nam yêu

(4) N2, N1 cũng V Tranh, Nam cũng yêu

He gives the list of liking verbs such as: yêu, thích, ton hót, mến, thương, dọa, mặc kệ, ghét

2.6 Summary

In this chapter, the Literature Review include previous studies, review of theoretical background In the previous studies, the studies of authors in oversea and Vietnam are given In the theoretical background, theory of syntax and semantics are analyzed thoroughly in order to use for the background of analyzing the syntactic and semantic features of the LIKING verbs in English

Moreover, the definition of the verb and classification of verb are point out

in details Finally, theoretical background is given briefly reviewed what has been found and discussed the related studies by describing their approaches and key finding, but then identify weaknesses in the approach and limitations in the finding

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

In order to fulfill the aim of the study, some pedagogical implications, this chapter deals with the study of the thesis, the date and methods It focuses on the data collection This chapter is carried out with a view to mapping out the ways to conduct the whole study

3.1 Setting of the study

This thesis is conducted by using various sources as well as applying the physical, social, and cultural site in each part of the research Normally, it is realized that the students easily make mistakes when they use the LIKING verbs because they do not know which verbs should be chosen in different contexts So, this study is carried out through dictionaries, encyclopedia, reference books at library and on some websites to help the teachers and learners more clearly about the differences in syntax as well as in semantics between the LIKING verbs in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

3.2 Research questions

To achieve the aims and objectives of the thesis, the following questions are put forward:

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

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

3 What are possible implications for teaching and learning English liking verb group?

3.3 Research methods

This study is designed and investigated the syntactic and semantic features

of the LIKING verbs in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, so the descriptive and comparative method is chosen This study analyzes and synthesizes to some syntactic, semantic features of the LIKING verbs in English and their Vietnamese equivalents Therefore, in the process of the study, the LIKING verbs are main sources for the research, so English is considered the source language, and Vietnamese is the target one

First of all, the descriptive method is described the characteristics and equivalents of semantic and syntactic structures of the English LIKING verbs in English and in Vietnamese Besides, the comparative method is compared the syntactic and semantic structure of the LIKING verbs in English and Vietnamese to make clear the similarities or differences between them Moreover, analysis or synthesize have also been used as supporting methods The analysis is analyzed the similarities and differences of the LIKING verbs in English and Vietnamese and the synthesize is synthesized some verbs belong to the LIKING verbs as well as examples to illustrate from different sources such as from books, dictionaries, literary works, newspapers, magazines, native speakers and websites As a matter of the fact, to investigate in details in the structures of the LIKING verbs with their different components and semantic features with various nuances of meanings, analytical method is also employed, and then the synthetic method is used for grouping them on the basic of certain criteria according to structural and semantic features In addition, quite a few of research techniques have been combined, such

as statistics, and contrastive analysis to find the equivalents of the LIKING verbs in Vietnamese Finally, in the conducting of the investigation, last but not least, setting

up a regular consultancy with supervisor for a guidance and academic exchange is critical technique to find out a right direction for doing the research successfully 3.4 Data collection and Data analysis

3.4.1 Data collection

The data are collected from different sources such as dictionaries, namely, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2003); Oxford Advanced encyclopedia (2002); Semantic primitives (1972); A new approach to English grammar on semantic principles(1991);English-Vietnamese Dictionary(2008); Vietnamese - English Dictionary (2000); The English verb(1974 ); The Vietnamese verbs (1997); Vietnamese dictionaries (1998; Giao trinh Viet ngu (1962),grammar book: A comprehensive grammar of the English language by Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J (1985)

The relevant data are taken from five English novels, short stories and their Vietnamese translational versions They are:

“An idea husband” by Oscar Wilde

“The thorn birds” by Colleen McCullough

“Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell

“Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte

“Vanity Fair” by William Makepeace Thackeray

From theses novels and short stories, 99 examples are quoted, analyzed and used as the chief source for the qualitative evidence

3.4.2 Data analysis

Firstly, the syntactic features of the nine English liking verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents are presented through clear and understandable examples Then the semantic features of the five English liking verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents are presented in turn

After presenting the syntactic and semantic features of English liking verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents, the discussions of findings are carried out in order to find out the differences and similarities of each matter mentioned to state the differences and similarities in English and Vietnamese liking verbs Lastly, author suggests some implications for teaching and leaning liking verb group in English and Vietnamese as a foreign language

3.5 Summary

To sum up, this chapter gives an overview of how to carry out the research

It has four main parts The first one is subjects which is present research questions need to be dealt with in the study and the process of doing this research The second part is instruments which present The third part are procedures which describe all aspects pertaining to the entire process conducted Careful consideration should be paid to approval of methods and treatment of human or animal subjects All treatments should be carefully described as well as notification of risks for participation The final part is statistical analysis which presents a clear description

of the statistical process used for analysis of data

Chapter 4

A COMPARISON BETWEEN ENGLISH LIKING VERB GROUP AND

THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

4.1 Syntactic features of Liking verb group in English

4.1.1 In terms of their sentence pattern

According to R Quirk et al (1985: 53), there are seven sentence patterns, however; among these patterns, the liking verb group appears in only three patterns Obviously, the liking verb group does appear in the pattern (1), SV, (3) SVC, (4) SVA because they are transitive verbs and need an object followed In this thesis, the author also does not find the liking verb group is used in the pattern (5) SVOO

As a result of analyzing sentence patterns in quotes of the dictionary, six novels and short stories, verbs can be used in different patterns depending on the different contexts The verb like can be used in the pattern: SVO, SVOC Similarly, the verb love appear in two pattern: SVO and SVOC In addition, the verb fear, regret, dislike, hate and enjoy can be used in pattern SVO and SVOA The verb admire, prefer appears in the pattern SVO, SVOC and SVOA

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

The liking verb group does not occur in the pattern (1) SV, (3) SVC, (4) SVA and (5) SVOO The verbs in these patterns must be intransitive verbs However, all sentences having these nine verbs require direct objects because these liking verb group are transitive verbs

In the (2) SVO pattern, the verb is a transitive verb (monotransitive verb) The verbs always occur with one direct object There are nine verbs (like, love, enjoy, admire, prefer, regret, dislike, hate, fear) belong to this type

I really admire your enthusiasm

(Sally Wehmeier, 2015:19) She is nice I like her

(Sally Wehmeier, 2015:903)

I really love summer evenings

They all enjoy themselves at the party

(Sally Wehmeier, 2015: 509)

I prefer them on toast

(Randoph Quirk, 754:38)

4.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements

4.1.2.1 Subject

In the Liking verb group in English, subject is the element that is most

often present It is also the element for which we can find the greatest number of

characteristic features

The subject in this group is normally a noun phrase:

Mary hates horses (S is realized by a noun phrase)

(R.M.W Dixon, 1991:260)

Becky admired little Matalda (S is realized by a noun phrase) [11, p.833]

The subject in this group is also normally a pronoun

I like singing the blues (S is realized by a pronoun) (R.M.W Dixon, 1991:260)

They all love her (S is realized by a pronoun) [18, p.733]

4.1.2.2 Verb

Verbs belonging to the LIKING verb group in English can appear as

monotransitive verbs, complex transitive verbs They are followed by a direct

object, and sometimes an adverbial is followed Monotransitive verbs occur in type

SVO type and complex transitive verbs occur in SVOA, SVOC types

The verbs like, enjoy, love, prefer, admire, regret, dislike, hate, fear play roles as

monotransitive verbs appear in type SVO Besides, there are five ditransitive verbs

like, love, prefer, hate, admire occur in SVOC type The verb prefer and enjoy,

hate, fear, admire, dislike, fear occur in SVOA type

4.1.2.2.1 Syntactic features of LIKE

In the study of using the verb like in the five novels and short stories, in

dictionaries, there are many examples listed out to illustrate the structures of the

sentences using this verb The verb like has two sentence patterns, they are SVO

and SVOC, for example:

I like Cathleen [7, p.13]

S V Od

I like looking at geniuses [9, p.56]

S V Od

I like you to be serious [6, p.130]

S V Od Co

4.1.2.2.2 Syntactic feature of ENJOY

During the study on syntactic features of the verb enjoy, the author found that

verb is used in the two patterns They are SVO and SVOA, for example:

I shall enjoy your campaign intensively [11, p.730]

S V Od A

4.1.2.2.3 Syntactic features of LOVE

Through analyzing the sentences having the verb love, it is easy to recognize

that this verb also occurs in two structures They are SVO and SVOC, for example:

She loved horses [22, p.71]

The verb prefer is found in the sentences belong the three patterns They are

SVO, SVOC and SVOA, for example:

I prefer politics [25, p.38]

S V Od

I prefer my coffee black

S V Od Co (Sally Wehmeier, 2015:1208)

I prefer them on toast

S V Od A (Randoph Quirk,754:38) 4.1.2.2.5 Syntactic features of ADMIRE

Through the quotes on the five novels and short stories, and Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the verb admire is found to be used in the three structures of sentence They are SVO, SVOC and SVOA, for example:

They admires our garden [30, p.55]

4.1.2.2.6 Syntactic feature of REGRET

The verb regret is found in the sentences belong the two patterns They are SVO and SVOA, let’s see the following examples:

Through the quotes on the five novels and short stories, and Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the verb dislike is found in the two structures They are SVO and SVOA, for example:

You dislike me [14, p.156]

4.1.2.2.8 Syntactic feature of HATE

The verb hate is found in the sentences belong the three patterns They are SVO, SVOC and SVOA, for example:

I hate the whole house [13, p.19]

4.1.2.2.9 Syntactic feature of FEAR

Through analyzing the sentences having the verb fear, it is easy to recognize that this verb also occurs in the two patterns They are SVO and SVOA, for example:

All his employees fear him

S V Od

(Sally Wehmeier, 2015: 566)

I feared Emmie would die too [6, p.54]

S V Od

I fear for her safe in this weather [17, p.636]

S V Od A

In short, the syntactic feature of the Liking verb group will be demonstrated

in the following table

Table 4.1: The sentence patterns of the Liking verb group

No Type like enjoy love prefer admire regret dislike hate fear

The manuscript required an expert to understand it

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:

I bought her a gift

It can be a straight concrete NP as in an example:

Fred likes horses/ Mary/ your uncle/ the wet season

(R.M.W Dixon, 1991: 156)

Or it can be an -ing complement:

Fred likes playing baseball

(R.M.W Dixon, 1991: 156)

Or Object can be a to infinitive complement

I hate to go

(R.M.W Dixon, 1991: 157)

Or object can be realized as a that complement

I fear that she may return home

(R.M.W Dixon, 1991: 158) 4.2 Semantic features of Liking verb group in English

On the semantic aspect, R.M.W Dixon (1991:155) states that liking verb

group involves two roles: an experiencer get a certain feeling about a Stimulus

These verbs are transitive with the Experiencer in A relation and the

Stimulus-which cannot be omitted – in O relation

4.2.1 Semantic features of LIKE

After the author’s investigation of the quotations from the five bilingual

English novels, and short stories, the verb like is realized to have five meanings:

Firstly, like can be used to express that someone find somebody or something

pleasant, attractive or of a good enough standard, or enjoy something, for example:

Everyone liked the four Jarletton boys and the three Fontaines [22, p.15]

I don’t know that I like being watched when I am eating [12, p.60]

Secondly, like can be used to denote that someone prefer to do something, or

prefer something to be made or to happen in a particular way, for example:

I did not stay away longer I like being missed [8, p.46]

Thirdly, like also denotes someone wants something, for example:

You are the one person in London I really like to have to listen to me

He did not like to ask her why she was so sad [6, p.567]

I don’t like the carving-knife, Mr Hindley [13, p.62]

Lastly, like can be used with “should, would” as a polite way to say what you want or to ask what somebody want, for example:

Would you like to live with your soul in the grave? [4, p.133]

I should like to see her [15, p 232] 4.2.2 Semantic features of ENJOY

After the author’s investigation of the quotations from the five bilingual English novels, and short stories, the verb enjoy is found to have four meanings:

First, enjoy can be used to express that someone gets pleasure from something, for example:

I have enjoyed my talk with him immensely [25, p.76]

He was the only one who seemed to enjoy sitting talking to her [12, p.64] Second, enjoy can be used to express that someone is happy or gets pleasure from what he is doing, for example:

Jim, attracted to the window by the romantic appearance of the ocean and the heavens, thought he would futher enjoy them while smoking [2, p.690] Scarlett, hating the bright hard blue they wore, enjoyed snubbing them all the more because it so bewildered them [2, p.746]

Next, enjoy can be used to express someone has something good that is an advantage to you, for example:

People in this country enjoy a high standard

(Sally Wehmeier, 2015: 509)

Last, enjoy can be used to say that you hope somebody gets pleasure from something that you are giving them or recommending to them, for example:

Still enjoying this magnificent inner vision… [20, p.88]

4.2.3 Semantic features of LOVE

After the author’s investigation of the quotations from the five bilingual English novels, and short stories, the verb love is remarked to have three meanings:

First, love can be used to denote that someone has very strong feelings or affection for somebody, for example:

I know it, and for that I love you Robert [19, p.96]

Oh, sweety, I love you so much [1, p.124]