Syntactic and semantic features of the take motion verbs group in english with reference to vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ LAN HƯƠNG SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE TAKE MOTION VERBS GROUP IN ENGLISH WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE EQU

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ LAN HƯƠNG SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE TAKE MOTION VERBS GROUP IN ENGLISH WITH REFERENCE TO

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG TỪ CHUYỂN ĐỘNG TAKE TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ NHỮNG 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 LAN HƯƠNG

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE TAKE MOTION VERBS GROUP IN ENGLISH WITH REFERENCE TO

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG TỪ CHUYỂN ĐỘNG TAKE TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ NHỮNG TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A THESIS Field: English Language

Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr HOANG TUYET MINH

Hanoi, 2018

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

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

“Syntactic and semantic features of TAKE motion verbs with reference to 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

Furthermore, I am also greatly indebted to all the lecturers in Faculty of Post Graduate, Hanoi Open University for their enthusiasm, expertise and support I would like to say a special word of thanks to Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Văn Đạo, the Head of the Department of Post –Graduate Studies, My sinsere thanks go to Ms Lê Phương Thảo and the whole staff of the department of Post Graduate Studies of Ha Noi Open University for their help, encouragement, assistant and valuable advice

I highly appreciate the helpful advice, assistance and participation from my colleagues, friends and students at Ky Son high school My work could not be in good progress without them

A final word of gratitude is to my family, without whose support and encouragement, this paper would not have been completed

However, the study still has limitations, so all suggestions and recommendations would be welcomed

ABSTRACT

This study comparatively analyses the syntactic and semantic features of three

TAKE motion verbs: take, bring and fetch in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

The paper uses both qualitative and quantitative methods as the main ones Furthermore, a descriptive method is also used to clarify the features of these three verbs in terms of syntax and semantics Also, a comparative method is used to establish the similarities and differences between three English TAKE motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents The findings show that these three verbs in English occur in only 4 out of 7 sentence patterns including SVO, SVOO, SVOC and SVOA syntactically While Object is an obligatory element, others are considered optional Semantically, these three verbs can possess more than one semantic role As motion verbs, moving role is always required with these verbs whereas Giving role and Locus role are optional and sometimes omissible These verbs in English are similar to and also different from their Vietnamese equivalents regarding syntactic and semantic features Finally, this study gives some practical implications to help Vietnamese teachers to teach these TAKE motion verbs effectively

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract ii

List of abbreviations iv

List of tables and figures v

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Scope of the study 3

1.6 Significance of the study 4

1.7 Design of the study 4

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Previous studies 6

2.2 An overview of syntax and semantics 8

2.2.1 Syntax 8

2.2.2 Semantics 9

2.3 An overview of English verbs 10

2.3.1 Definitions of English verbs 10

2.3.2 Classifications of English verbs 11

2.3.2.1 In terms of sentence patterns 12

2.3.2.2 In terms of sentence elements 14

2.4 An overview of motion verbs in English and Vietnamese 16

2.4.1 Motion verbs in English 16

2.4.1.1 Definitions of motion verbs 16

2.4.1.2 Classifications of motion verbs in English

17

2.4.1.3 Syntactic features of motion verbs in English 19

2.4.1.4 Semantic features of motion verbs in English 20

2.4.2 Motion verbs in Vietnamese 23

2.5 Summary 26

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 27

3.1 Setting of the study 27

3.2 Research approach 27

3.3 Research questions 28

3.4 Research methods 28

3.5 Data collection and data analysis 29

3.6 Summary 29

CHAPTER 4: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF TAKE MOTION VERBS WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 30

4.1 Syntactic and semantic features of TAKE motion verbs group in English 30

4.1.1 Syntactic features of the TAKE verbs group in English 30

4.1.1.1 In terms of their sentence patterns 30

4.1.1.2 In terms of their elements 36

4.1.2 Semantic features of the TAKE motion verbs- group 1 40

4.2 Comparison between the TAKE motion verbs- group 1 and their Vietnamese equivalents 45

4.2.1 In terms of syntactic features 45

4.2.1.1 In terms of sentence patterns 45

4.2.1.2 In terms of sentence elements 48

4.2.2 In terms of semantic features 51

4.3 Some possible implications for teaching TAKE motion verbs group in English 56

4.4 Summary 58

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 60

5.1 Recapitulation 60

5.2 Concluding remarks 60

5.3 Recommendations for Further Study 62

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Verb classes in terms of sentence patterns 12

Table 4.1 TAKE motion verbs group and their sentence patterns 35

Table 4.3 The combination of mang and other directional semi-

verbs

52

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

There are thousands of languages amended and used in the world, each of them has differences and uniqueness; among which English can be seen as one of the international languages to serve people‟s daily-life communication English is considered as one of the most popular language for everyone all over the world In fact, English has been recommended to be a compulsory subject in training curriculum of every school and university in Vietnam

Plenty of Vietnamese children may get accustomed to spoken English as soon as they begin learning how to read and write in their mother tongue This mean that people have reconignized the importance and necessity of English as well as the advantages that English may bring about However, learning English is always a big challenge for Vietnamese native speaker learners There are many problems in learning English as listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, lexicology, etc Grammar plays a very important role in English, it is not easy for English learners to study Theoretically, verbs are very important constituents of every sentence Particularly, the main features of verbs or motion verbs in English are dealt with in every general grammar book such as: Quirk, et al (1985), Biber et al (2000) or Huddleston et al (1985) There exist a large number of publications dealing solely with verbs, their characteristics and their semantic behavior (for example: Palmer, F.R (1985), Sinclair,

J.ed (1998) or Levin, B (1993) It is also possible to find many publications dealing

with specific types of verbs, for example publications specialized in modal verbs,

particle verbs, phrasal verbs or motion verbs: Kudrnacova, N (2008), Tenny, C (1995)

and also publications dealing only with certain characteristics of the verbs such as aspect: Comrie (2006)

In Vietnamese, the main features of verbs or motion verbs are dealt with in every

general grammar book such as Nguyễn Lai (1976) and Nguyễn Lai (1984) It is also

possible to find many publications dealing with specific motion verbs And Nguyễn Kim Thản (1984), which studied about Vietnamese Grammar

As has already been said above, this construction can be labeled as understudied Therefore, the study will be to shed more light on syntactic and semantic features of some English motion verbs in comparison with the Vietnamese equivalents Therefore,

the thesis entitled The syntactic and semantic features of take motion verbs group in

English comparison with the Vietnamese equivalents was chosen

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

This study is aimed at helping the teachers and learners of English master English TAKE motion verbs group effectively

In order to achieve the aims, the objectives of the study can be put forward as follows:

(i) To identify syntactic and semantic features of take motion verbs group in English

and Vietnamese

(ii) To find out similarities and differences between English take motion verbs group

and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features

(iii) To give some implications for teaching the take motion verbs group in English

1.3 Research questions

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

1 What are the syntactic and semantic features of the take motion verbs group

in English and their Vietnamese equivalents?

2 What are the similarities and differences between English take motion verbs group

and their Vietnamese equivalents?

3 What are the implications for teaching and learning English take motion verbs

group?

1.4 Methods of the study

In order to deal with the subject effectively, a flexible combination of methods

is employed

First, the descriptive method is used to describe the syntactic and semantic

features of motion verbs take, bring and fetch in English and Vietnamese

Second, a comparative method is used to find out the similarities and differences

between motion verbs take, bring and fetch in English with reference to the

Vietnamese equivalents

1.5 Scope of the study

In English, there are seven subtypes of Motion verbs: 1 the RUN subtype, 2 the ARRIVE subtype, 3 the TAKE subtype, 4 the FOLLOW subtype, 5 the CARRY subtype, 6 the THROW subtype, 7 the DROP subtype (R.M.W Dixon, 1991), but

within the framework of this study, the writer only focuses on group 3 including take,

bring and fetch in terms of their syntactic and semantic features In this study, English

is considered as the source language, and Vietnamese is the target language So in this

study, syntactic and semantics features of take motion verbs group in English are

analyzed and put in comparison with their Vietnamese equivalents

In addition, the data sources for analysis are taken from 2 dictionaries including Oxford dictionary by Jonathan Crowther (1985) and Cambridge dictionary by Walter E (2005), 1 grammar book “Advanced grammar in use” by Hewings M (2015) Also, some examples are cited from 2 books by such grammarians as R.M.W Dixon ( 1971) and Quirk R (1985) The Vietnamese equivalents of these three verbs are taken from short stories and novels by Nam Cao (1941) and some articles retried from the Internet

In total, there are 50 examples are taken out in order to investigate the syntactic and

semantic features of the take motion verbs group and find out the similarities and

differences between them

1.6 Significance of the study

Theoretically, this study seeks to contribute to the theoretical basis of the

characteristics of the syntax and semantics of the motion verbs in general and verb take motion verbs group in particular and the similarities and differences with their

Vietnamese equivalents

Practically, the study is expected to be used as a good reference for learning and researching language The result of the study through analysis and comparison between two languages may be of great benefits for teachers and learners of English, as well as helpful in using the language effectively in life Suggestions for teaching and learning from this group are given Besides that, this research is conducted with the hope that in

the foreseeable future, teachers of English will get to know more about take motion verbs group and realize the importance of them in teaching take motion verbs group so

that they can adapt it to their own teaching conditions

1.7 Structure of the study

To gain the above goals, the thesis is divided into five chapters as follows :

Chapter 1, Introduction, gives a brief overview of the research with the rationale for

choosing the topic of the research, the aims and objectives, scope of the research, research questions and organization of the study

Chapter 2, Literature Review, briefly reviews previous research works related to the

topic and presents the theoretical background of the study

Chapter 3, Methodology, points out the research orientations, describes the methods

and materials used in doing the research including data collection and analyzing techniques

Chapter 4, Syntactic and semantic features of TAKE motion verbs group, points out

syntactic and semantic features of English take motion verbs group and comparison

between syntactic and semantic features of English motion verbs group and the Vietnamese equivalents is made Implications for teaching English motion verbs are given

Chapter 5, Conclusion, summarizes the results of the study This part also provides

some implications for teaching and learning English motion verbs group and some suggestions for further research

Appendix and references come at the end of the study

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides an overview of the theoretical background as well as relevant knowledge and summaries of previous researches‟ findings and conclusion associated with the theme of the investigation In other words, the review is to explain several related terms and definitions of syntax, semantics, an overview of the MOTION verbs group in English and Vietnamese; definitions and classifications of motion verbs in terms of syntactic and semantic features These theories are the basis

of the study in chapter 4

2.1 Previous studies

Verbs are very important constituents of every sentence Particularly, the main features of verbs or motion verbs are dealt with in every general grammar book such as Quirk, et al (1988), Bibber et al (2000) or Huddleston et al (2006) There exist a large number of publications dealing solely with verbs, their characteristics and their semantic behavior such as Palmer, F.R (1985); Sinclair, J ed or Levin B (1987) It

is also possible to find many publications dealing with specific types of verbs, for example publications specialized in modal verbs, particle verbs, phrasal verbs or motion verbs including Kudrnacova (2008), Tenny ( 1995) and also publications dealing only with certain characteristics of the verbs such as aspect such as Comrie (2006)

There have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations into speech act verbs in both English and Vietnamese For speech act verbs in English, R.M.W.Dixon (1991) studies about the semantic and syntactic features of English verb groups such as the MOTION group, AFFECT group, GIVING group, THINKING group, CORFOREAL 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

In Vietnamese, many authors did long researches and gave out worthy collections such as Nguyen Lai (1976) and Nguyen Lai (1996) Although both of the studies focused on researching the different Vietnamese Motion verbs, the authors saw the same characteristics: The popularity of these verbs in daily life They gave remarks: Almost the previous researches only paid attention to the grammatical features of the speech act verbs, the semantic structures were not carefully concerned with So, these studies have the same purpose, that is studying the semantic structures of the Vietnamese motion verbs

Moreover, Nguyễn Lai (1984) is the basis of this thesis in the comparison between the MOTION verb group in English and Vietnamese In this thesis, the author developed and improved to the study of semantic structures of Vietnamese motion verbs The author‟s aim is to create new theoretical basis and apply them in analyzing the verb groups scientifically The author found new trend of the tittle in order to improve the good points, as well as to cut down the limitation of the prior thesis

Recently, there have been some research papers that have close relationship with the thesis such as: “Syntactic and semantic features of English expressions

containing the verbs take and bring and their Vietnamese equivalents”, by Le Thi Soan Duong (2016), “Collocations of the English verb take and their Vietnamese equivalents”, etc… However, the investigation into take motion verbs group containing the verbs take, bring and fetch haven‟t been carried out Therefore, through

the reading of those works in English and Vietnamese, the writer would like to make a syntactic and semantic description and analysis of this verbs group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

2.2 An overview of syntax and semantics

2.2.1 Syntax

Syntax is defined as a set of rules in language It indicates how words from different parts of speech put together with their 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 theory of the structure of sentence in a language Verbs are different gramatical properties from language to language but there is always a major class verb, which includes word referring to motion, rest, notice, giving, speaking and linking

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 regconize how individual constiuents such words and morpheres constitue more complex forms

Linda Thomas (1993) states that language is 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

According to R.M.W Dixon (1991), syntactic clues have to be treated with care and the relevant syntactic categories must be established empirically, not determined a priori For example, if we ask about the semantic correlate of the pattern “X Ved Y for Z”, we will probably discover nothing of significance

In the past, syntactic clues have sometimes been utilized in lexicography as an aid to establishing polysemy In theoretically oriented linguistic literature, too the claim had often been made that a difference in meaning (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

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

2.2.2 Semantics

Semantics is a branch of linguistics, which deals with meaning or the content of communication According to Hurford and Heasley (1983:1), semantics is the study of meaning in language Language is a means of communications, and people use language to communicate with others by making conversations, giving information,

and other things to make social relationship Human beings have been given the capacity to talk, to communicate with each other, to make meaningful utterances, so that they are understood by other human beings They communicate about the world in which they live, about themselves, about their thought and feeling, about what has happened, about what might happen or what they would like to happen, and a lot more Hurford and Heasley (1983:5) state that the giving of information is itself an act of courtesy, performed to strengthen social relationships This is also part of communication There are some linguists that tried to define semantics Morries was 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 revised 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 - behavior, 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 antonym In generative grammar, the semantic component is a major area of the grammar‟s organization, assigning a semantic representation to sentences, and analyzing lexical terms of semantic features The theory of semantic fields views vocabulary as organized into areas, within which words (lexical items) interrelate and define each other

The concepts of syntax and semantics are basic of the study to study syntactic

and semantic features of the take motion verbs in English

2.3 An overview of English verbs

2.3.1 Definitions of English verbs

As has already been mentioned, verbs are very important constituents of sentences Because of the complexity of the verbal characteristics and also because of the complexity of the verbal characteristics and also because of the existence of an extensive number of publications dealing with their characteristics in great depth, this part of the thesis does not, by any means, intend to give a comprehensive description of verbal characteristics and behavior of verbs

The opening short definition of a verb from Longman English Grammar states

that: “a verb is a word run or a phrase run out of which expresses the existence of a state love, seem or the doing of an action take, play ( Alexander 1988)

2.3.2 Classifications of English verbs

A very general division of verbs is provided by Quirk et al (1985), who divide verbs as a class of words into three principal categories They classify them according

to their function within the verb phrase and label them full or lexical verbs such as

leave, primary verbs consisting of be, have and do and modal auxiliary verbs such as

will, might, ect Primary and modal auxiliary verbs form closed classes (it is not

possible to easily add new words in such groups) whereas the class of full verbs is an open class Full verbs function in sentences as main verbs, and the primary verbs can act either as main verbs or as auxiliary verbs

When describing verbs in more detail, many publications use the term „verb

phrase‟ for them A verb phrase might be simple such as She lives opposite me (R.M.W Dixon, 1971) or complex, consisting of two or more words such as I can’t

swim (R.M.W Dixon, 1971) English verb phrases give information of different kinds

Verb phrases indicate: tense, which gives information about time such as I speak (

present tense ) versus I spoke ( past tense); aspect, which gives information about the speaker‟s perspective on time such as I spoke ( simple aspect) versus I was speaking (

progressive aspect ); voice, whether active such as She destroyed it or passive such as

It was destroyed, which gives information about agents and recipients of verb

processes ( Carter and McCarthy 2006)

Due to extensiveness of verb as a class of words, it is possible to divide them into many various categories depending on the features of verb phrases which are being examined When the feature of (in) definitiveness is taken into consideration, verb phrases can be divided into definite (tensed) and infinite (non-tensed) verb; when the main focus is on the inflection of verb, we distinguish verb regular and irregular The verb may also be divided into active or stative verb, or, as Lakoff (cited in Frawley, 1992) calls them non-stative and stative Kudrnacova (2005) mentions also a division

of verbs from the lexical aspect into four groups: States such as knowing the answer,

Activities such as running, accomplishment such as running a mile and achievements such as reaching the border Many more other classifications are possible Frawley (1992, 140), for example, divides verbs into four principal classes, namely: acts, states, causes, and motion Main objective of this thesis is to serve as the primary research sources from motion

In this study, the writer will focus on the classification according to Quirk R (1985) in terms of sentence patterns and sentence elements as follows:

2.3.2.1 In terms of sentence patterns

According to Quirk, R (1985), a sentence can be classified into 7 patterns: SV, SVO, SVC, SVA, SVOO, SVOC, SVOA

Table 2.1 Verb classes in terms of sentence patterns

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

a two – element pattern: SV

three – element patterns: SV + O/C/A

three four – element patterns: SVO + O/C/A

Cutting across this threefold classification are three main verb classes:

Intransitive verbs (e.g.: laugh in (1a), are followed by no obligatory element, and occur

in type SV

Transitive verbs (e.g.: 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 (e.g.: become in (3a), be in (4a) are followed by a Subject, Complement,

or Adverbial, occur in type SVC and SVA

In a 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:

- Monotransitive verbs occur in type SVO

Transitive verbs => - Ditransitive verbs occur in type SVOO

- Complex transitive verbs occur in type SVOC

and SVOA

2.3.2.2 In terms of sentence elements

According to Quirk, R (1985), a typical simple sentence contains 5 main categories: S, V, O, A, C These elements can be subclassified once again For

example, Ao ( object- related adverbial), As ( subject- related abverbial), Cs ( object complement), Co ( object complement), Od( direct object), Oi (indirect object) Each element will be described and exemplified in more details as follows:

(i) Subject

This sentence element is characterized by three following criteria:

- First, a subject is a noun phrase or a clause with nominal function

A noun phrase can be a proper noun such as Tom, Paris, a pronoun such as I,

we, you, they, or common nouns (either count nouns or mass nouns)

I like cakes -> pronoun

The girl is my sister -> common noun

John likes her -> proper noun

In many cases, Subject can also be a clause as in the example below:

Whether we need it is a different matter -> nominal clause

- Second, a subject occurs before the verb phrase in declarative clauses, and immediately after the operator in question clauses

He had given the girl an apple

Subject verb phrase

Will he ask any questions?

Operator Subject

- Third, a subject has number and person concord, where applicable with the verb phrase

The child is playing on the slide

The children are playing with the sand

(ii) Object

An object is like a subject, is a noun phrase or clause with nominal function

My mother enjoys parties -> noun phrase

I don’t know whether we need it -> nominal clause

An object can be either a direct object or indirect one An indirect object, where both objects are present, precedes the direct one A direct object may occur without an indirect object

(iii) Complement

A complement is a noun phrase, an adjective phrase or a clause with nominal function

Most people consider these books rather expensive -> adjective clause

The country became a separate nation -> noun phrase

The problem is whether we need it -> nominal clause

A compliment usually follows the subject, verb phrase and (if one is present) object It doesn‟t become subject through the passive transformation

We’ll stay next door -> noun phrase

We’ll stay where it is convenient -> adverbial clause

An adverbial is generally optional, for example, it can be added to or removed from a sentence without affecting its acceptability

2.4 An overview of motion verbs in English and Vietnamese

2.4.1 Motion verbs in English

2.4.1.1 Definitions of motion verbs

As is apparent from the term, motion verbs are those verbs that express a kind of

motion such as go, walk, run and hurry and so on The category of motion verbs is very broad As Pablo and Gutierrez (2001,207) explain a directed motion event refers

to a situation in which an object, the Figure, moves with regards to a reference point, the Ground, following a trajectory, the Path This description is based on Talmy‟s description (cited in Kudrnacova 2005, 54) of a motion situation, where he clarifies the individual component as follows: The Figure (i.e the object moving with respect to another object, called the Ground), the Path (i.e the course followed by the Figure) and Motion (which refers to the presence per se of motion in the event of motion) To describe this terminology more clearly, Kudrnacova (2008, 33) offers a sample sentence John ran to the house where John represents the Figure, the house represents the Ground, to expresses the Path, and walk presents the Motion and Manner

Kudrnacova (2008, 33) further states, that deixis embodied in verb roots (as in come and go) is termed „Direction‟ “The path may also be expressed in particles (called

„satellites‟) such as in John went off‟ ( Kudnacova 2008, 33 )

Motion verbs are also dealt with by Frawley (1992) He describes a motion as a displacement of an entity However, even though his work is based on Talmy‟s characterisation of motion events, he does not use entirely the same semantic factors as Talmy to describe the displacement Fawley‟s factors are Them, Source, Goal, Path, Site, Cause, Manner, and Conveyance (Frawley 1992, 170) The Theme, the displaced entity, corresponds with Talmy‟s Figure The Source represents the origin of the movement and the Goal represents its destination, the Site denotes the location of the movements and the Conveyance represents the means by which the motion is carried out Manner and Path will be described in more detail in the following sections

2.4.1 2 Classifications of motion verbs in English

There may exist several possible ways of classification of motion verbs

First, the category of motion verbs can be further divided into two subcategories with their own specific properties and behavior These subcategories are manner of motion verbs and path verbs and will be described in greater detail in the following parts

(i) Path verbs

The class of path verbs cover all verbs which incorporate the direction of the movement Because directionality represents a constitutive feature of this category,

path verbs are sometimes called verbs of inherently directed motion or verbs of

direction as an opposite to verbs of displacement In the work of Levin and Rappaport

Hovav (1992), this sub- category is labeled arrive class after one of the members of

this class: Path verbs are mute about the manner of motion and only encode

information about the direction of the motion: John left, John arrived (Kudrnacove,

2008, 7) Or, in Levin‟s words, the meaning of these verbs includes a specification of

the direction of motion, even in the absence of an overt directional complement

(Kudrnacove, 1993,236)

(ii) Manner of Motion Verbs

Manner of motion verbs encode information about the physical modality of motion but, in contrast to the so-called path verbs, do not provide information about a

specific direction of motion (He ran, He walked) unless they combine with an explicit directional phrase such as in He ran to the store, He walked to the store (Kudrnacove,

2009, 143)

These verbs inherently include the notion of the transmission of energy from one participant to another, this may be the same participant whose „self‟ is divided into

the acting self and the acted upon self, as in John walked himself to the station

(Kudrnacove, 2008, 10), and thus are used in different constructions than path verbs

Second, motion verbs can also be divided into subgroups For example, according to Dixon ( 1991), motion verbs are divided into 7 subtypes as follows : (1)

Motion –a, the Run subtype, refers to a mode of motion, e.g., run, walk, crawl,

slide, spin, roll, turn, wriggle, swing, wave, rock, shake, climb, dive, stroll, trot, gallop, jog, dance, march, jump, bounce, swim, fly and one sense, of play ( as in the child is playing in the sand )

(2) Motion – b, the Arrive subtype, deals with motion with respects to a definite

Locus, e.g (i) arrive, return, go, come; (ii) enter, cross, depart, travel, pass, escape;

come in, go out; (iii) reach, approach, visit

(3) Motion – c, the Take subtype, refers to causing something to be motion with

respect to a Locus, e.g (i) take, bring, fetch; (ii) send; (iii) move, raise, lift, steal

(4) Motion – d, the FOLLOW subtype, refers to motion with respects to something

which is moving, e.g (i) follow, tract, lead, guide, precede; accompany; (ii) meet

(5) Motion – e, the CARRY subtype, refers to motion in juxtaposition with some

moving object, e.g carry, bear, transport, cart

(6) Motion – f, the THROW subtype, these are transitive verbs with the thing

moving as O and the causer as A e.g Mary pushed the bed

(7) Motion – g, the DROP subtype, refers to unwanted motion These verbs may be used intransitively with the moving thing in S function The motion may be due to a combination of natural forces such as gravity

2.4.1.3 Syntactic features of motion verbs in English

According to R.M.W Dixon (1991), motion verbs can be transitive or intransitive ones

A fair proportion of motion verbs are intransitive Some of them may be used transitively in a causative sense (i.e S=O) as in some examples below:

The horse trotted around the ring

Or He trotted the horse around the ring

The plant stood on the window- sill

Or He stood the plant on the window- sill

(R.M.W Dixon 1991, 95) Others are basically transitive Only some of these may omit an object NP if it can be inferred from context and/or surrounding dialogue:

We followed him as far as the minefield

Or We followed as far as the minefield

Or The dog walked

However, some RUN verbs can also be used in transitive constructions, e.g

spin, roll, rock, trot, march, slide …

He slid the dog down the icy track

(R.M.W Dixon 1991, 95)

These syntactic features of motion verbs are the basis of analyzing the syntactic

features of the take subtype in English and in Vietnamese in chapter IV

2.4.1.4 Semantic features of motion verbs in English

According to R.M.W Dixon (1991), each semantic type associated with the verb class takes a number of semantic roles For example, a GIVING verb involves Donor, Gift, and Recipient; a SPEAKING verb can demand reference to Speaker, Addressee, Message and Medium, …

MOTION verb group, can also possess a number of semantic roles such as Moving, Locus, a Causer and Giving role However, not every verb from this group necessarily requires all of the roles

(I) Moving role

First, some MOTION verbs take just one role, the thing Moving as follows:

John is running -> Subject (Moving)

Mary tracked the car

Subject (Moving) Object (Moving)

(R.M.W Dixon 1991, 99)

They followed the river

Subject (Moving) Object (Moving)

(R.M.W Dixon 1991, 99)

(ii) Causer role

The Causer role is usually mapped by the Subject (normally human) There are two possibilities with this semantic role The Locus is likely to be some part of the human‟s body.; the actual body part involved can be specified by a prepositional NP

John carried the banana with his hand/ teeth -> Causer

(iii) Locus role

The Locus role involves the place where the motion take place

Mary passed the school -> Locus

However, with most of the MOTION verbs, a Locus can be included, but this is optional In other words, it can be specified in the sentence or can be absent but still be inferred by the context in which the sentence is used

He loves strolling (in the park)

(R.M.W Dixon 1991, 95)

Mary pushed the bed (out from the wall)

John carried the baby (to the bathroom)

(R.M.W Dixon 1991, 101)

(iii) Giving role

This semantic role usually involves Donor, Gift and Recipient

John gave all his money to Mary

Donor Gift Recipient

(R.M.W Dixon 1991, 86)

Mary sent the doctor a present

Donor Recipient Gift

(R.M.W Dixon 1991, 86)

These semantics features of motion verbs are the basis of analyzing the semantic

features of the take subtype in English and in Vietnamese in chapter IV

2.4.2 Motion verbs in Vietnamese

Our notion of motion verbs focuses mainly on the viewpoints proposed by Nguyễn Lai (1990), Diệp Quang Ban (2004), Nguyễn Tài Cẩn (2004), Nguyễn Kim Thản (1977) and some other studies on Vietnamese verbs by Nguyễn Đình Hoà (1979), Sophana Srichampa (1997) and Henry Beecher (2004) etc… Nguyễn Lai (1999) proposed 11 motion verbs such as 1 ra, 2 vào, 3 lên, 4 xuống, 5 đến, 6 tới, 7 sang, 8 qua, 9 lại, 10 về, 11 đi Some other grammarians added some more verbs into this group while others took out some of them Hence, this group of Vietnamese motion verbs can be labeled 11* The difference in grouping these verbs can be illustrated in the table below:

Table 2.2 Motion verbs in Vietnamese

đi về ra vào lên xuống tới sang qua lại theo khỏi

Anh ta đi Thái Nguyên

(Nguyễn Lai 1999, 60)

Nó lên giường

(Nguyễn Lai 1999, 59)

In the two examples above, đi and lên function as the main verbs of the sentence

which encode the motion However, these verbs can also function as semi- verbs At this point, Nguyễn Kim Thản (1977: 79) confirms that these directional verbs are originally full verbs but when they are placed after another verb, they bleach their full meanings and grammatical features, and become functional words denoting directional meanings He states that this word group only acts as „grammatical tool‟ that adds directional meaning to the main verbs and calls them „phó động từ phương hướng‟

Đinh Văn Đức (1986), Diệp Quang Ban (2004) agrees that these verbs are not full directional verbs any more, but become „từ phụ‟ (complement word) encoding Path of the preceding motion verb Nguyễn Lai (1990) considers these words „trạng-giới từ‟ (prepositional adverbs) which connect the main verb and its complement and confine

in themselves two semantic meanings of motion verbs: Motion and Direction

Xe đã qua cầu (The car ran across the bridge)

Motion + Direction

In Vietnamese, both path verbs and directional complement verb Vietnamese are categorized according to spatial orientation The path motion verbs and the motion verbs which take path complement verbs may be followed by either the source (Lan

bước ra khỏi nhà/ Lan ra khỏi nhà or the direction (Thằng cu Bé chạy về nhà/Thằng cu

Bé về nhà) or the destination of the action (Hắn đi tới nhà cụ Bá/ Hắn tới nhà cụ Bá) In

addition, these verbs denote more semantic meanings in Vietnamese For example, „ra‟ (go/come out) goes from a narrow point and moves to a wider point It refers to direction, not personal relations The schema for this verb may be diagrammed as follows:

Rộng (wide)

hẹp (narrow) These verbs in Vietnamese have wider usages especially when there is an implication of geographic direction of movement Vietnam is divided into three regions: The North, the Centre and the South So, the direction from a „northern

province‟ to a „southern province‟ is vào (come/go in), movement in the opposite direction with the verb ra (come/go out) For example, a person in Hanoi (in the North)

will say:

Mai tớ sẽ đi vào Huế - I will go to Huế tomorrow

Mai tớ sẽ đi lên Sa Pa/ Lạng Sơn - I will go to LạnSơn tomorrow

Mai tớ sẽ đi sang Lào - I will go to Laos tomorrow

Mai tớ sẽ đi xuống Ninh Bình - I will go to Ninh Bình tomorrow

In some examples above, we can see that motion verbs in Vietnamese can be used after another verb to encode the motion or clarify the path It is one of characteristic features of Vietnamese motion verbs

2.5 Summary

In sum, this chapter has provided a detailed presentation on the literature of the topic under discussion First, a review of previous studies has been made to see what this paper can inherit from the findings of those studies, both in Vietnam and other countries and what might make this research different from them Next, syntax and semantics theories have been presented respectively Finally, an in- depth review on the verb and motion verb has been done; their definitions as well as the possible ways

of classification in terms of syntactic and semantic features have been clearly

described In terms of syntax, the current paper will examine take motion verbs group based on the sentence pattern and elements while the semantic features of take motion

verbs group will be examined according the semantic roles they carry

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter is designed with a view to mapping out the ways to conduct the whole study It gives the information about the setting of the study, the approach which the writer of the paper will follow during the process of carrying out this investigation Three research questions will also be presented in this chapter, which act as an anchor

on which the analysis and investigation will be based on Finally, the methods of the study as well as the process of data collection and analysis will also be included

3.1 Setting of the study

This current paper is conducted mainly through the analyzing the data collected from written sources In the paper, a large number of examples have been taken out in order to make a clear and detailed description of the syntactic and semantic features of

take motion verbs group and establish the similarities and dissimilarities between three

English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents Most of the English sentence examples containing three English motion verbs come from English dictionaries by such renowned publishers as Oxford and Cambridge and a reference book by Cambridge University Press A significant number are taken out from grammar books

by two well- known linguists such as Quirk, R (1972, 1985) and R.M.W Dixon

(1971) The Vietnamese equivalents of these take motion verbs group are cited from

grammar books by famous Vietnamese authors such as Nguyễn Lai (1999), Nguyễn Kim Thản (1977), Đinh Văn Đức (1986), Diệp Quang Ban (2004), … Moreover, some

of the examples are taken from short stories and novels by such Vietnamese writer as Nam Cao, …

3.2 Research approach

The quantitative and qualitative approaches are combined to implement this study Given the fact that quantitative research is used to quantify the problem by way

of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into usable statistics, this

study employs this approach to summarize the countable syntactic features of take

motion verbs group In addition, a qualitative approach is also adopted.The purpose of qualitative research is to explore the meaning of the people‟s experiences, the meaning

of people‟s culture, and how the people view a particular issue or case The purpose of the quantitative research is to examine the relationship between variables, such as the dependent, independent variables, and extraneous (Creswell, 2009) In this study, this

method will result in the relevant comparison between three English take motion verbs

group and their Vietnamese equivalents

3.3 Research questions

In order to gain the aims of the study, the thesis is expected to find out the answers for the following questions:

1 What are syntactic and semantic features of the take motion verbs group in English?

2 What are similarities and differences between English take motion verbs group in

English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of their syntactic and semantic features?

3 What are the implications for teaching the take motion verbs group?

3.4 Research methods

The current paper uses a number of methods First, a descriptive method is used

by the author in order to shed light into the syntax and semantic features of three

English take motion verbs The analysis is believed to contribute to a deeper understanding of English take motion verbs group

Besides, a comparative method is also employed in this paper to find out whether there are any similarities or differences between syntactic and semantic features of take motion verbs group in English and their equivalent in Vietnamese: English is considered as the source language while Vietnamese is regarded as the target one

3.5 Data collection and data analysis

Data which are chosen to implement this study are derived from dictionaries by Oxford and Cambridge Press University Furthermore, numerous example sentences

containing the English take motion verbs group are taken from grammar and reference

books by two famous linguists such as Quirk R (1972, 1985) and J.M.W Dixon (1971) The Vietnamese equivalents mainly come from grammar books by Vietnamese grammarians such as Nguyễn Lai (1990), Nguyễn Kim Thản (1977), Diệp Quang Ban (2004), … and from the collection of short stories and novels by Nam Cao Some of them come from several articles retrieved from some Vietnamese newspapers