A study on syntactic and semantic features of english physical appearance adjectives with reference to their vietnamese equivalents

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTICS FEATURES OF ENGLISH PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

(Nghiên cứu đặc điểm cú pháp và ngữ nghĩa của nhóm tính từ tiếng Anh miêu tả

diện mạo và những tương đương trong tiếng Việt)

NGUYEN MINH PHUONG

Field: English language Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2017

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

(Nghiên cứu đặc điểm cú pháp và ngữ nghĩa của nhóm tính từ tiếng Anh miêu tả

diện mạo và những tương đương trong tiếng Việt)

NGUYEN MINH PHUONG

Field: English language Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Dr Trần Thị Thu Hiền

Hanoi, 2017

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

entitled A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTICS FEATURES OF ENGLISH PHYSICAL APPEARANCE ADJECTIVES 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

Secondly, I would like to give my thanks to all lecturers of Postgraduate Faculty at Hanoi Open University for their valuable teaching and tremendous assistant throught my study path

A special word of thanks goes to the teachers and students at Hanoi Technology and Business University, without their support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my friends for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

ABSTRACT

The present thesis has been carried out on the background of the achievement and deficiencies in the existing studies on English adjectives with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents The thesis, as mentined in its name, “ A study on syntactic and semantic features of English physical appearance adjectives with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents”, is an investigation of the syntactic and semantics features of English physical adjectives, and from that results, the auhor refers these characteristics to their Vietnamese equivalents The thesis fills

a gap in the system of language works as there hasnot got a study working on the syntactic and semantic features of English physical appearance adjectives before With the aim of providing a general and deeper view of English physical appearance adjectives for English learners as a foreign language in Vietnam, the thesis is carried out The author employs some methods during the process of studying Descriptive method seems to be the major with others as the quanlitative analysis, comparative and contrastive methods are the supporting

methods The English data source of the study is from the books “Andersen’s fairy tales ” of H.C Andersen (1993) and “100 selected stories” of O Henry (2012) The Vietnamese data source used in the thesis is from the book “100 truyen ngan hay Viet Nam the ky 20” of Literature Punlishing House(2014) The result of the thesis finds out 6 similarities and 3 differences in terms of syntactic features; and 4 similarities and 2 differences in terms of semantic features From that result, the author suggests some implications using in teaching English adjectives denoting people appearance

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Engish idioms using simile with their Vietnamese equivalence 44 Table 4.2 Engish idioms using metaphor with their Vietnamese equivalence 45

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ASTRACT iii

ABBREVIATIONS iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the research 2

1.3 Objectives of the research 2

1.4 Scope of the research 3

1.5 Significance of the research 4

1.6 Structural organization of the research 4

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Review of previous studies 6

2.2 An overview of syntax and semantics 8

2.2.1 Syntax 8

2.2.2 Semantics 8

2.3 An overview of English and Vietnamese adjectives 10

2.3.1 A brief description of English adjectives 10

2.3.1.1 What is an adjective? 11

2.3.1.2 Syntactic functions of English adjectives 12

2.3.1.3 Syntactic subclassification of English adjectives 14

2.3.1.4 Semantic subclassification of English adjectives 17

2.3.1.5 Semantic functions of English adjectives 19

2.2.1.6 Classification of English adjectives in terms of their usage 21

2.3.2 A brief description of Vietnamese adjectives 21

2.3.2.1 Definition of Vietnamese adjectives 22

2.3.2.2 Classification of Vietnamese adjectives 22

2.4 English physical appearance adjectives 26

2.5 Chapter summary 26

Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 27

3.1 Research-governing orientation 27

3.1.1 Research questions 27

3.1.2 Research settings 27

3.1.3 Research approach 28

3.1.4 Principle/ criteria for intended data collection and data analysis 28

3.2 Research methods 29

3.2.1 Major methods versus supporting methods 29

3.2.2 Data collection techniques 30

3.2.3 Data analysis techniques 30

3.3 Chapter summary 30

Chapter 4 THE SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH PHYSICAL APPEARANCE ADJECTIVES WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 32

4.1 The syntactic features of English physical appearance adjectives 32

4.2 The semantic features of English physical appearance adjectives 34

4.3 The comparison between English physical appearance adjectives and Vietnamese physical appearance adjectives 35

4.3.1 In terms of syntactic features 35

4.3.2 In terms of semantic features 42

4.4 Implications for teaching 47

4.5 Chapter summary 49

Chapter 5 CONCLUSIONS 50

5.1 Recapitulation 50

5.2 Concluding remarks 51

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 52

5.3.1 Limitations 52

5.3.2 Suggestions for further studies 52

REFERENCES 54

APPENDIX A 56

APPENDIX B 58

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

This introductory chapter of the thesis introduces the research with detail information of the reasons to choose the topic; the aim and objectives of the author through the process of doing the thesis; the scopes that limit the study; the significance from cerrying out the thesis; and the structural organization of the whole research

1.1 Rationale

In our modern life today, as in a “global village”, English plays the role of an international language, a very important international means of communication for people all over the world in almost fields of life such as economy, politics, culture and education Consequently, mastering English has been the desire and need of people who need to join the international community in order to broaden their knowledge, promote their professional career and have a wider network of relationships

As other languages, to master English, learners need to obtain the basic knowledge of grammar and a certainly number of vocabularies as well as skills such as listening, speaking, etc Having a wide range of vocabularies helps learners gain the effect in writing and speaking as well as in communication Having the basis knowledge of grammar helps learners communicate effectively, avoids the misunderstanding in communication And adjective is a part of grammar Along with noun, verb, adjective is one of three main parts of speech

in English grammar

Adjective is the specific device used in describing people Describing people

is one of the very first topics for language learners And describing people is also

a functional requirement in daily life From the beginners to the advanced learners, they sometimes still need to describe someone for some purposes And

in my process of working, I sometimes see the sentences written by my students:

I love my mother She is skinny with her black long hair and red lips With me,

she is always the most beautiful women in the world. The sentence is true according to grammar rules but it seems not natural in the vocabulary meaning

The word skinny should be replaced by slim to make the sentences more suitable

Besides, it seems that students lacks of vocabularies to express their thought They use again and again some common adjectives as thin, fat, old, young, etc that make the writing/speaking become normal and not imaginable So, in this study, the author collects some common adjectives and suggests some other expressions by idioms or fixed expressions with the view to help English learners can use the correct vocabulary to express their ideas

Making comparison between English Adjective groups describing people appearance with their Vietnamese equivalents helps English learners have a full understanding about the similarities and differences in the expressions of the two languages Consequently, English learners can choose the correspondent expressions with their ideas in the foreign language

They are the reasons why the author decided to make a further study on the

topic “A study on syntactic and semantic features of English physical appearance adjectives with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents” with

a view to provide English learners some groups of English adjectives that share the same denotation but different connotation The author hopes it will be an interesting and helpful material for teachers and learners of English and for people who are interested in English vocabulary

1.2 Aims of the research

The M.A thesis is carried out with a view of helping Vietnamese learners have

a general and deeper view of English and Vietnamese physical appearance adjectives and show how these adjectives used in sentence/utterance in English Having insight into the syntactic and semantics features of English and Vietnamese physical appearance adjectives as well as the similarities and differences in terms of syntactic and semantics features helps students more understand and use a wide range of vocabularies more flexible

1.3 Objectives of the research

The thesis is carried out to pursue these following specific objectives:

- To analyze syntactic and semantic features of English physical appearance adjectives

- To find out the similarities and differences in terms of syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese physical appearance adjectives

- To provide possible suggestions in teaching English physical appearance adjectives for 1st students at HUBT

1.4 Scope of the research

The study has academic scope and social scope

(i) Academic scope

In terms of academic scope, as in the tittle of the thesis mentions, the research only focuses on the syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese physical appearance adjectives So, the thesis exists some academic scopes:

- The thesis only considers the syntactic and semantic features other features, such as grammatical or cutural features, etc, are not considered in in thesis

- The author only studies the adjectives denoting people physical appearance,

so the other parts of speech, with other characteristics of description, are not mentioned in the research

- The study only focuses on the English and Vietnamese adjectives The adjectives from other languages are not the data for this thesis

- In the limitation of the thesis, the author only consider the denotation meaning of the English adjectives, in the comparison with their Vietnamese equivalents The other meaning, connotation or derivation are not mentioned in this research In terms of semantic, besides considering the denotation of the English adjectives only, the author also has a comparison between the meaning

of the English idioms denoting people physical appearance with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents

(ii) Social scope

The population and novels, books,etc are too large to measure so the author only considers the “standard English” – the English from the nations with English as their official language, not the English from all over the world

1.5 Significance of the research

In terms of theoretical significance, the thesis is expected to contribute an depth description of English and Vietnamese adjectives in general, and English and Vietnamese physical appearance adjectives in particular, with the clearly discrimination about the syntactic features, and about the semantic with rhetorical devices denoting physical appearance

in-In terms of practical significance, the author hopes the results of the reaserch will partly influence the adjectives denoting people appearance teaching programs for teachers The author also hopes to supply for the Vietnamese learners of English as a foreign language with a number of adjective vocabularies describing people appearance with the specific meaning As a result, Vietnamese learners can improve their vocabularies and their writing and speaking skills as well

1.6 Structural organization of the research

This thesis is designed with five chapters: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings and Discussions and Conclusion

Chapter 1 – Introduction – represents a brief account of relevant information for carrying out the study such as the rationale for choosing the topic; the aims and objectives of the issue; the scope, the significance and the structural organization of the research

Chapter 2 – Literature Review – provides the readers with the knowledge background of the thesis, which attempts to present some previous studies as well as the theoretical background including the syntactic and semantic functions and classifications of English adjectives This part also presents an over view of Vietnamese adjectives: the definition and classification of Vietnamese adjectives from the perspective of some Vietnamese linguists

Chapter 3 – Methodology – includes the information related to the governing orientation and methodologies (major methods and supporting methods) employed in the process of carrying out the research In detail, it comprises the research questions, research settings, research approach and

research-principle/criteria for intended data collections and data analysis The chapter also includes the techniques for data collection and data analysis as well

Chapter 4 – Findings and discussions – presents the three main issues The first one discusses the similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese physical appearance adjectives in terms of syntactic feature The second is about the similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese physical appearance adjectives in terms of semantic feature The last part is the implication of the study in teaching English – some suggestions in teaching Engish physical appearance adjectives for freshmen at HUBT

Chapter 5 – Conclusions – includes 3 parts: The recapitulation summarizes the whole study and the whole process of the study; shows the significance of the research for knoledge in the discipline: what is new and important about the thesis The second part, concluding remark, presents the remarks on the three objectives of the research The limitations and suggestions for further study, as the name, points out the short comings of the thesis and some recommendations for further studies

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review has 2 main sections: The review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis; and the review of theoretical background In this chapter, the author surveys scholarly articles, books, theories and other sources relevant to the area of the thesis and by so doing, providing the description, summary and the critical evaluation of these works The chapter also establishes a framework for the thesis and places the work within the existing body of literature

2.1 Review of previous studies

Up to now, many significant studies have been carried out with the aim of doing the contrastive analysis between the English and Vietnamese language components In this part, the author reviews some works overseas and in Vietnam related to the theme of the thesis

There are a lot of works overseas have a look at syntactic and semantic features of English adjectives In this thesis, the author mainly reviews the knowledge from the investigation of Quirk (1985)

In his work named ‘A comprehensive grammar of the English language”, Quirk (1985), has a fully insight into English grammar with all of the word classes, including adjectives Quirk (1985) has described an in-depth investigation into the English adjectives in the system of English grammar with the syntactic and semantic features of adjective In this thesis, the author uses the knowledge of Quirk (1985) as the framework for the English adjective

Besides of using the knowledge of Quirk (1985) as the framework of the thesis, the author also have a look at the investigation of Gunter Radden and René Dirven (2007) The work, as its name, presented the English grammar in a new perspective, the cognitive

Alexander (1990) is also a reference source for the author to refer to in the process of carrying out the thesis

Another work that must be listed as the guidance for the author to make a

reference to is the work of M.A.K Halliday (2004) The work presented English

grammar from the functional grammar perspective

In terms of Vietnamese previous studies, the author reviews some works

written in English and some works in Vietnamese

Take a look at “Grammatical and semantic features of some adjectives

denoting happiness – the felling of pleasure” by Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong and

Nguyen Thi Van Lam (2008) The authors discussed five adjectives denoting

happiness alternately in terms grammatical and semantic features, idioms and

words formed then gave some suggestions for teaching

Another work is “Functions of English adjectives and their equivalents in

Vietnamese language” by Ho Thanh An (2010) The findings concludes there are

some similarities and differences between semantic and syntactic function of

adjectives in English and Vietnamese, but the common point is the attitude on

which adjectives are based to form noun phrase

It seems that there only have some studies written in Vietnamese compare and

contrast the sentence structures There are not much studies investigating the

parts of speech The author mentions two in a number of researches that related

to the topic of the thesis

Doan Van Hien with the paper “Đối chiếu từ loại Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt”

(2009) In his study, he compares and contrasts the English and Vietnamese parts

of speech, with the purpose of finding out the similarities and differences in the

two languages The major perspective of the author is studying 5 parts of speech:

noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, number, conjunction and compares the frequency

of them appear in contexts This study only examines the parts of speech in

general, not in specific, and the author does not investigate the syntactic and

semantic features of each parts of speech

After reviewing some studies overseas and in Vietnam, the author recognizes

there is not a study investigating the syntactic and semantic features of English

adjectives denoting physical appearance So, the author decided to carry out this

thesis, with the purpose of examining the syntactic and semantic features of

English physical appearance adjectives, then, making a contrast with their Vietnamese equivalents to find out the similarities and differences between them, and making some suggestions for teaching

2.2 An overview of syntax and semantics

2.2.1 Syntax

Syntax is the grammatical structure of words and phrases to create coherent sentences The study of syntax is the investigation of the rules, principles, and processes which determine the structure of sentences in human languages Syntax can be seen as the governing principles defining which combinations of linguistic symbols are deemed to be correctly structured by natural language speakers

The scientific study of natural language syntax can be found as early as

the Aṣṭādhyāyī, the 4th-c BC Sanskrit grammar of the Indian grammarian

Pāṇini In the Western world, the systematic study of syntax was largely neglected or conflated with other objects such as logic, until the late 1950s, with the rise of theories of generative grammar developed by Noam Chomsky and others

There are some definitions of syntax

Oxford dictionary defines syntax as the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language It is a set of rule for or an analysis of the syntax of a language It also is a branch of linguistics that deals with syntax The knowledge of this part provides the base to determine the syntax of the English adjectives

In terms of word meaning, there are denotative, connotative, structural and categorical meaning But in the cope of this thesis, the author only considers the denotative

Denotative is the meaning of word acquires by virtue of what it refers to The denotative has conceptual and referential meaning

In terms of considering idioms meaning, the author also has an investigation

of rehrtorical devices, such as simile and metaphor, using in idioms denoting people physical appearance

According to Wikipedia, a rhetorical device, or resource of language, is a technique that an author or a speaker uses to convey to the listeners or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from

a different perspective, using sentences designed to encourage or provoke an emotional display of a given perspective or action Rhetorical devices can be used to evoke an emotional response in the audience, but that is not their primary purpose

The Free Dictionary defines rhetorical devices as expressive stylistic locutions that are historically evolved means of organizing a sentence and that utilize chiefly the emotional and imperative qualities of speech; an obsolete terms for figures of speech In a narrow sense, the term applies to three figures of speech; rhetorical exclamation, rhetorical appeal, and rhetorical question (a statement in the form of a question)

Simply speaking, a rhetorical device is a use of language that is intended to have an effect on its audience through spoken or written forms Especially, in traditional grammar, rhetorical was the study of style through grammatical and logical analysis

There are many linguistics studed the rhetorical devices such as R Taylor with “Understanding the elements of literature; its forms, techniques and cultural conventions” (1981), G Little with “Approach to literature: An introuction to critical study of content method in writing” (1985), J Lyons with “Linguistic semantics An introduction” (1995) The way they define and classify the different rhetorical devices are almost the same

In this thesis, the author mentions three common devices that often used in expressions denoting physical appearance

Simile

A simile is a figure of speech which derives from classical rhetoric It is used

to make a “direct comperison” Similes may be confused with metaphors, which

do the same kind of thing Simile use comparisons, with the words “like” or

“as” Metaphor use indirect comparisons, without the words “like” or “as” There are some illustrated examples:

Rain like cats and dogs (very heavy rain)

Eat like a horse (eat a lot of food)

Eat like a bird (eat very little food)

Metaphor

Metaphor is an expression, often found in literature, that describes a person or object by rferring to something that is considered to have similar characteritics to that person or object

Let’s have a look at these following examples:

Mắt nai (beautiful eyes)

To fall in love (love somebody)

Golden love (a beautiful love)

Hyperpole

Hyperpole is an exaggerated statement not meant to be uderstood literally, but with powerful effect

There are some examples using hyperpole:

It was a nightmare to meet him again

I had to wait an eternity for the file to download

2.3 An overview of English and Vietnamese adjectives

2.3.1 A brief description of English adjectives

Adjective is an important part of speech in English grammar Up to now, there has a vast of works studied English adjectives such as Traditional grammar of

Randolph Quirk et al (1985); Functional grammar of M.A.K Halliday (2008); Chomsky’s Universal grammar of V.J.Cook and Mark Newson(2007); Cognitive grammar of Gunter Radden and René Dirven (2007) The knowledge in this part mainly collected from the book: A comprehensive grammar of the English language of the author Randolph Quirk et al (1985)

2.3.1.1 What is an adjective?

The Oxford dictionary defines adjective as a word naming an attribute of a

noun, such as sweet, red or technical, etc The Cambridge dictionary defines Adjective as a word that describes a noun or pronoun, such as big, boring, purple, etc

According to Randolph Quirk (1985) in the work “A comprehensive grammar

of the English language”, we can not know whether a word is an adjective or not

if we only look at it in isolation, because the form of a word does not necessarily indicate its syntactic function For example, some suffixes typically found only with adjectives, as shown below:

adjectives inflect for the comparative and superlative” for example: big – bigger – biggest

In some cases, many adjectives do not have inflected form, for example,

beautiful – *beautifuler – *beautifulest. Moreover, some adjectives are also have the inflected form, that may disturbs the learners with adjectives, for example,

hard – harder – hardest

Furthermore, in most of case, an adverb can be derived from an adjective by

adding the suffix –ly as in clear –clearly But, some of the adjectives do not

allow to add the suffix to form an adverb as in old - *oldly And some adjective can form by adding –ly to an existing adjective, for example, kind – kindly

To sum up, adjective is one of the most important parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) in grammar that describes an attribute of a noun, expresses the quality, quantity, size, color, characteristics, etc

2.3.1.2 Syntactic functions of English adjectives

From the perspective of Randolph Quirk (1985), the English adjectives have some syntactic functions as below:

The children are happy with the presents

The man looks tired from the work

Adjectives with complementation

Adjectives with complementation normally cannot have attributive position but require postposition Let’s consider the following examples:

a suitable man But not: *a suitable for the part man

The complementation can be a prepositional phrase or a to-infinitive clause: There are some illustrated examples:

I know an actor suitable for the part.

She has a car more expensive than mine

Adjectives as heads of noun phrases

Adjectives are typically used as heads of noun phrases to refer to certain fairly

well-established clauses of persons, e.g: the brave, the weak

There are three types of adjectives functioning as noun-phrase heads:

(3) She admires the mystical

Type (1), adjectives can premodify personal nouns(the young people) can be phrase heads (the young) with plural and generic reference denoting classes,

noun-categories, or types of people The adjective can itself be premodified or

postmodified In this type, adjectives can be modified by adverbs, e.g: the very wise

Type (2): Some adjectives denoting nationalities can be noun-phrase heads

Unlike type (a), adjectives cannot be modified by adverb, e.g: *the very English,

but they can be modified by adjectives, which are normally nonrestrictive, e.g:

the industrious Dutch

In type (1) and (2), adjectives take plural concord

Type (3): The adjectives function as noun-phrase heads with abstract reference Theyy include, in particular, superlatives, in which case we can

sometimes insert a general noun like thing in its abstract sense E.g: The latest

(thing/news) is that he is going to run for re-election

The adjectives in (3) take singular concord and they can be modified by adverbs, like in (1)

Contingent adjective clauses

The contingent adjective is a special type of supplementiev adjective clause The contingent adjective clause expresses the circumstance or condition under which what is said in the superordinate clause applies The contingent clause is

elliptical with ellipsis of an appropriate form of be, and (sometimes) of the

subordinator Let’s see the example:

The contingent clause can also refer to the object of the superordinate clause, though only a few adjectives are available for this use

There is an illustrated example:

I can’t drink it hot.

Exclamatory adjective clauses

Adjectives, especially those that can be complement when the subject is

eventive, for example: That’s excellent! , can be exclamations, with or without

an initial wh-element

There are some other examples:

(How) nice!

(How) good of you!

Such adjectives phrases need not be dependent on any previous linguistic context, but may be a comment on some subject or activity in the situational context

2.3.1.3 Syntactic subclassification of English adjectives

There are some adjectives that restricted to attributive or to predicative use The restrictions are not always absolute, and sometimes vary with individual speakers

Let have a look at these examples:

a red apple (red: Attributive) ~ The apple is red (red: Predicative)

my old friend (old >< new) (old: Attributive only)

an old friend of mine

He felt ill (ill: Predicative only)

*He ill felt

Attribute only

In general, adjectives that are restricted to attributive position or that occur predominantly in attributive position, do not characterize the referent of the noun directly

(i) Intensifying adjectives

Some adjectives have a heightening effect on the noun they modif, or the

reverse, allowing effect At least three semantic subslasses of intensifying adjectives can be distinguished

Let’s have a look at the example:

Amplifier are non-inherent, they are attributive only as in these examples:

a complete fool ≁ The fool is complete

(complete refers to the completeness of the folly, and firm refers to the

firmness of the friendship, in which sense it is asterisked here)

(3)Downtoners

Downtoners have a lowering effect, usually scaling downwards from an

assumed norm They are relative few (eg: slight in a slight effort) and can be

ignored for our present purpose, since they are generally central adjectives Many of the intensifying adjectives can be related to intensifying adverbs, for example:

He is a true scholar ~ He is a truly scholar

It was a clear failure ~ It was clearly a failure

(ii) Restrictive adjectives

There are some restrictive adjectives that have the grammar role as attributive

only in a sentence: certain, principal, same, only, particular, specific, very, etc

These adjectives are often appear in noun phrases, restrict the reference of the noun exclusively, particularly, or chiefly For example:

the very man

a particular child

But these adjectives sometimes have homonyms For example:

It is the main reason ~ It is mainly the reason

That was the precise reason ~ That was precisely reason

(iii) Other adjectives related to adverbs

Many of non-inherent adjectives have a relationship with adverbs by adding

the suffix –ly are attributive only but not all of them are within the case of

intensifying or restrictive adjectives With the rest of adjectives that do not belong to the two above groups, linguists put them into the group of adjectives that related to adverbs

From the work “A comprehensive grammar of the English grammar”, Randolph Quirk had listed a number of adjectives belong to this group:

past students [strudents in the past]

an occasional visitor [occasionally a visitor]

To see more examples, the readers can read the study the work “A comprehensive grammar of the English grammar” of Randolph Quirk, page 431

(iiii) Adjectives related to nouns

There are some nouns that are derived from adjectives by adding some suffixes Let’s have a look at these examples:

crime (N)
criminal (Adj): A criminal court

medicine (N)
medical (adj): A medical school

Many such denominal adjectives are non-gradable and restricted to attributive position

I’m aware of that

She was glad that everything was all right

2.3.1.4 Semantic subclassification of English adjectives

Quirk (1985) stated that English adjectives can be divided into three types in terms of semantic features

Stative and dynamic adjectives

As the name mentions, the stative adjectives refer to the states, for example, the experiences or the conditions, so this kind of adjectives are not usually used

in progressive aspect However, the dynamic adjectives own their characteristics They usually refer to actions, or in other words, dynamic adjectives can be used

in progressive

The stative and the dynamic adjectives differ syntactically in some other ways

- A stative adjective (such as tall) cannot be used with the imperative while the dynamic can (such as careful)

For example, we do not say: *He’s being tall Or *Be tall

But we can say: He’s being careful Or: Be careful

- A general semantic feature of dynamic adjectives is they denote qualities that are thought to be subject to control by the possessor and hence can be restricted temporally

There are some adjectives that can be used dynamically include:

There are some other more dynamic adjectives the readers can find in the work “A comprehensive grammar of the English language” (1985, p.434) of Randolph Quirk et al

Gradable and non-gradable adjectives

Most adjectives are gradable Gradability is manifested through comparison, for example:

nice – nicer - nicest

clever – more clever – most clever

Gradability is also manifested through modification by intensifiers, i.e adverbs

which convey the degree of intensity of the adjective:

All dynamic and most stative adjectives (for example: tall, old) are gradable; some stative adjectives are not, principally denominal adjectives like atomic scientist and hydrochloric acid, and adjectives denoting provenance, e.g: British

Inherent and non-inherent

When adjectives characterize the referent of the noun directly (that old man,

my friend is rather old), their use is called inherent When they do not (an old friend of mine), it is called non-inherent

Most adjectives are inherent They characterize the referent of the noun

directly For example, the inherent ajective in a wooden cross applies to the referent of the object directly: a wooden cross is also a wooden object On the

other hand, in a wooden actor, the adjective is noninherent because a wooden actor is not (presumably) a wooden man There are some more examples for inherent and noninherent:

If the adjectives is inherent, it is often possible to derive a noun from it, for example:

However, with a non-inherent adjective no such derivation is possible There are some illustrated example to compare:

There are, however, exceptions to this generation, since we find instances like:

2.3.1.5 Semantic functions of English adjectives

Quirk (1985) stated that there is an analogy between the semantic functions and the semantic subclassification of English adjectives

Stative and dynamic adjectives

Adjectives are characteristically stative Many adjectives, however, can be seen as dynamic In particular, most adjectives that are susceptible to subjective measurement are capable of being dynamic Stative and dynamic adjectives differ syntactically in a number of ways For example, stative adjectives such as

tall/ short cannot be used with the progressive aspect or with the imperative, while the dynamic adjectives can

Almost all of English people physical appearance adjectives are stative There only have tidy/untidy are dynamic

Gradable and non-gradable adjectives

Most adjectives are gradable Gradable adjectives have comparison form, for

example: slow – slower - slowest; handsome – more handsome – most handsome; while nongradable cannot used in comparison

All dynamic and most stative adjectives are gradable And all the English adjectives denoting people physical appearance are gradable

Inherent and non-inherent

There are some adjectives can be classified into inherent and non-inherent Most attributive adjectives denote some attribute of the noun which they

modify For instance, a clever boy can be rewrite as a boy who is clever Such

adjectives denote an attribute or quality of the noun like that are called inherent There are some more examples:

However, not all adjectives are related to the noun in the same way For

example, a big fool cannot be rewrite as a fool which is big Big here is a inherent which has a meaning os the degree of foolishness, contrast a bit of a fool

non-An adjective can be a inherent only, or non-inherent only But some can be both inherent or non-inherent, which is in accordance with their meaning in contexts

There are some illustrated examples:

2.2.1.6 Classification of English adjectives in terms of their usage

Besides the classification in terms of their syntactic and semantic function, the English adjectives can be divied into ten types according to their usage (Alexander, 1998,106)

These ten types one by one are: Dimension - Physical property – Speed – Age – Colour - Value – Difficulty – Qualification – Human propensity – Similarity There also has another classification of adjectives: Opinion – Size – Age – Shape – Color – Origin – Material – Purpose

To conclude, the English adjective has the syntactic functions as an attributive and predicative, a postpositive, adjectives with complementation, adjective as heads of noun phrases, supplementive adjective clauses, contingent adjective clauses and exclamatory adjective clauses

From the perspective of Traditional grammar, the syntactic subclassification

of Adjectives is Attributive only (intensifying adjectives, restrictive adjectives, other adjectives related to adverbs, adjectives related to nouns) and Predicative only

According to the semantics subclassification of this grammar school, three semantics scales are applicable to adjectives: stative/ dynamic, gradable/ non-gradable and inherent/ non-inherent

2.3.2 A brief description of Vietnamese adjectives

As in English, Vietnamese adjective is one of the most important work classes

in grammar And as other languages, Vietnamese grammar is studied by some linguists and taken note in some works, in which, there are Diep Quang Ban (2005), Diep Quang Ban and Hoang Van Thung (1991), Do Huu Chau (1985),

etc In this thesis, the author mainly considers the theory of Vietnamese adjective from the perspective of Diep Quang Ban

2.3.2.1 Definition of Vietnamese adjectives

As mentioned above, there are many linguists studied on Vietnamese grammar as well as adjectives in this grammar system, so there exist many different definitions on what is a Vietnamese adjective under their perspectives According to Nguyen Huu Quynh (2001: 145), adjective is a word describe the characteristic as well as the feature, shape, color of something or somebody,

such as: hạnh phúc, mệt mỏi, xinh đẹp, cao, thấp, xanh đỏ, etc

From the perspective of Nguyen Tai Can (2001), the linguist defines adjective

as a word expressing characteristic of quality, property, color, smell, taste and

the relationship between noun and pronoun For example: tốt, xấu, giàu, nghèo, tím vàng, thơm, ngon, etc

In terms of characteristic of Vietnamese adjectives as a relationship between noun and pronoun, in some recent studies and article, some linguists has mentioned about the tendency of Vietnamese adjectives in combining to adverbs

to form verbs

The last definition of Vietnamese adjective considered in this thesis is of the

linguist Diep Quang Ban In the work named Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt, Diep

(1991:115) acknowledged Vietnamese adjectives as a group of words with the meaning of characteristic (object characteristic or process characteristic) The characteristic of Vietnamese adjectives are shown with the quality of polarize opposition (that shapes the pairs of opposite meaning words) or of gradable (comparison and description) According to him, adjectives can combine with

adjuncts, but can not go with “hãy, đừng, chớ” They can also combine with

noun, verb of other adjectives to modify the noun and verb

2.3.2.2 Classification of Vietnamese adjectives

The classification of Vietnamese adjective is less complicated than Vietnamese noun and verb From the perspective of Diep Quang Ban,

Vietnamese adjectives are divided into 2 groups: gradable and non-gradable adjectives

Non-gradable adjectives

This group includes the adjectives of characteristic of non-display the

meaning self-gradable These words often go with Adjuncts like: rất, hơi, khí, quá, lắm, cực kỳ, …

The group of non-gradable adjectives comprises:

- The adjectives of quality: tốt, đẹp, xấu, héo, vụng, tầm thường, quan trọng,

There are some examples for this group of adjectives:

Tôi bước theo anh vào gian phòng khách khá lịch sự với bộ bàn gỗ mun mặt

đá chạm trổ rất đẹp Mắt tôi lướt một vòng khắp phòng rồi dừng lại ở một tấm

ảnh lớn của một phụ nữ trẻ Đó là một người đàn bà đẹp một cách dữ dội và lôi

cuốn

(Ngô Thị Kim Cúc, 45 truyện ngắn 1975 – 1975, 65)

Con cái có cái miệng dũi bùn rất giỏi, nhưng lại quá nhẹ, không thể tự mình nhìn xuống đáy nước Con đực miệng lại bằng phẳng phải nhờ con cái dũi bùn quần lên mới có cái ăn Được cái con đực bao giờ cũng nặng lên giúp con cái chìm xuống bùn tốt

(L ý Biên Cương, 45 truyện ngắn 1975 – 1985, 79)

Ăn xong bữa cơm chiều, Cừ pha một bình trà đặc, lấy ra một cái bánh nướng,

và ít kẹo để trên bàn Và khi gian buồng nhỏ bé lên đèn anh càng thấy nỗi vui sướng ngấm ngầm trong lòng mình lớn lên mãi

(Nguyễn Khải, 100 truyện ngắn hay Việt Nam thế kỉ 20, 129)

Gradable adjectives

This group contains the adjectives have the meaning of characteristic and the level of characteristic in itself meaning, often in an absolutely level These

adjectives do not go with Adjunct as rất, hơi, quá, khí, lắm,… and do not need

the modification of an accompanied noun or verb

The gradable adjectives comprise:

- The adjectives display the absolute characteristic The quantity of this class

is very limited: riêng, chung, công, tư, chính, phụ, độc nhất, công cộng These

adjective is always accompanied by nouns or verb to supplement the meaning for them These are some illustrated examples:

Dưới mỗi phát biểu góp bàn công tác chung, dường như đều ẩn một ý tứ riêng

(Bùi Hiển, 33 truyện ngắn chọn lọc 1945 – 1975, 151)

Còn đây là chuyện riêng của dì…

(Lê Văn Thảo, 45 truyện ngắn 1975 – 1985, 399)

Hai anh, anh nào là thợ chính, thợ phụ?

(Nguyễn Thanh, 45 truyện ngắn 1975 – 1985, 424)

- The adjectives display the absolute characteristic but they do not have the words with opposite meaning The word in this group is usually repeated or is a

compound word For example, đỏ lòm, trắng phau, đen sì, xanh mượt, xanh xanh, đo đỏ, vàng vàng, vàng giòn, nâu sẫm,… These words do not go with adjunct of level

There are some examples using the adjectives of this group:

Giữa cái màu xanh lặng lẽ của lá lạc, lá cỏ nghệ, và rút đồng, nổi lên một

miếng vàng sẫm của mấy mảng cỏ gianh và lá cót đan lẫn lên nhau

(Nguyễn Khải, 100 truyện ngắn hay Việt Nam thế kỷ 20, 67)

Mặt trời đã lặn từ lâu Trời trong xanh như ngọc thạch, những vệt mây màu

khói, màu hồng nhạt, màu tím nhạt cứ ưng ửng lên ở bốn phía, đan vào nhau,

tô điểm cho nhau rồi lại nhạt dần đi, trong mãi, thành một màu xanh mờ mờ cao

tít

(Nguyễn Khải, 100 truyện ngắn hay Việt Nam thế kỷ 20, 74)

Hồng Ngài năm ấy ăn tết giữa lúc gió thổi vào cỏ gianh vàng ửng, rét càng

dữ Nhưng trong các làng Mông Đỏ, những chiếc váy hoa đã được phơi ra mỏm

đá, xòe như con bướm sặc sỡ Hoa thuốc phiện nở trắng lại nở màu đỏ hau, đỏ

thậm rồi nở màu tím man mát

(Tô Hoài, 100 truyện ngắn hay Việt Nam thế kỷ 20, 237)

- The adjectives denote the meaning of imitate characteristic These words in

this group often imitate the sound of things or actions For example: ào ào, đùng đùng, lè tè, lênh khênh The adjectives in this group can go with the adjunct hơi

There are some examples to illustrate for this group:

Đấy là điểm sinh động nhất của toàn bãi: tiếng chân đạp lên bàn gỗ rình

rịch, tiếng vòng trục quay ù ù của ba cái máy tuốt lạc, tiếng bào cào rê lạo xạo

trên mình vỏ lạc thu gọn lại ở khoanh giữa; mùi hăng của thân lạc mới nhổ xếp lớp lớp trên các cáng và mùi ẩm ướt nồng nồng của những cây lạc đã tuốt đánh đống phơi mưa suốt đêm qua

(Nguyễn Khải, 100 truyện ngắn hay Việt Nam thế kỷ 20, 67)

Đang giữa lúc đau, Huệ không biết cái gì, cũng không nhìn thấy mà chỉ cảm

nhận được qua cái âm thanh ken két lúc rộ lên, lúc như nén lại để rồi lại kêu rộ lên to hơn, não nề và riết róng hơn – của chiếc bánh gỗ to kềnh càng quay lử khử trong một cái trục cũng bằng gỗ

(Nguyễn Minh Châu, 100 truyện ngắn hay VN thế kỷ 20, 189)

Phúng trằn mình trong lao động khổ sai: chặt gỗ, hái củi, đánh gianh, nhặt trám, lấy măng đem bán ở chợ huyện Bịt cái khăn rằn trên đầu theo kiểu người

Giáy, kẽo kẹt gánh đôi sọt giang đến khu chợ gần Hoặc lóc cóc theo con ngựa

thồ đến những chợ xa hơn, hạ nạng thồ xuống, ngồi bên hai cái hũ sành nút lá

chuối, ngước hai con mắt lờ ngờ lên, cất giọng khàn khàn

(Ma Văn Kháng, 100 truyện ngắn hay Việt Nam thế kỷ 20, 303)

As a conclusion, it seems Vietnamese adjective is not as much complicated as

in English In Vietnamese grammar, the adjective in Vietnamese is divided into only 2 elements: Non-gradable and gradable adjectives

2.4 English physical appearance adjectives

Appearance is defined as the way someone or something looks These adjectives describe the way a person, place or things look

In this scope of the thesis, the author only has an investigation into the English people physical appearance adjectives It means only the adjectives describe the way people look

The group of English physical appearance adjectives as the study data of this thesis is listed in the appendix A

2.5 Chapter summary

There are a lot of theories as well as studies related to the topic of the thesis but there is not a research investigating the similarities and differences between the syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese adjectives denoting people appearance

Studying the syntactic and semantic features features of English physical appearance and their Vietnamese equivalents, the author recognizes there are some characteristics that adjectives of the two languages share, but there are some specific features that only appear in adjectives of one language Finding the similarities and differences between them can helps Vietnamese learners copes with the difficulties facing in learning English in general and in learning adjectives, in specific The results will be displayed in chapter 4 of the thesis