SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURESOF ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS CONTAINING THE VERB “KEEP” WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Function and Form of Adjective Phrase ...18 Table 2.2: Function and Form of Noun Phrase ...19 Table 2.3: Function and Form of Verb Phrase ...23 Table 4.1: Synta

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ CHÂM

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES

OF ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS CONTAINING THE VERB

“KEEP” WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement of authorship i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Abbreviation iv

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 3

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 Review of previous studies 6

2.2 Theoretical background 7

2.2.1 Theories of syntax 7

2.2.2 Theory of semantics 8

2.3 Theoretical framework 9

2.3.1 English collocation 9

2.3.1.1 The origin of the word ―collocation‖ 9

2.3.1.2 Definition of collocation 9

2.3.1.3 The distinction between compounds, idioms and collocations 10

2.3.1.4 Types of collocations 12

2.3.1.5 Characteristics of collocation 14

2.3.2 The concept of sentence components 16

2.3.2.1 The concept of phrase 16

2.3.2.2 English verbs 21

2.3.2.3 Phrasal Verbs 22

2.3.2.4 Classification of sentences in terms of sentence elements and verb complementation 24

2.3.3 Idioms 25

2.3.3.1 Definition of idioms 25

2.3.3.2 Features of English idioms 26

2.4 Summary 27

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 28

3.1 Setting of the study 28

3.2 Research questions 28

3.3 Research methods 29

3.4 Instruments 29

3.5 Data collection and Data analysis 29

3.5.1 Data collection 29

3.5.2 Data analysis 30

3.6 Summary 30

Chapter 4: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS CONTAINING THE VERB “KEEP” WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 31

4.1 Syntactic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep 31

4.2 Semantic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep 34

4.2.1 Conveying the meaning of staying in a particular place or condition .36

4.2.2 Conveying the meaning of continuing to do something .37

4.2.3 Conveying the meaning of having or continuing to have in your possession 38

4.2.4 Conveying the meaning of delaying somebody or preventing somebody from doing something .38

4.2.5 Conveying the meaning of providing yourself or supporting another person 38

4.2.6 Conveying the meaning of owning and managing a small shop .39

4.2.7 Expressing other meanings .39

4.3 Comparison between the English collocation containing the verb Keep and their Vietnamese equivalents .41

4.3.1 In terms of syntactic features 42

4.3.2 In term of semantic features 43

4.4 Implications for teaching, learning and translating the English collocation containing the verb Keep 47

4.5 Summary 49

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 50

5.1 Summary of finding 50

5.2 Concluding remarks 50

5.3 Recommendations/Suggestions for a further research 51

REFERENCES 52

APPENDIX 55

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Function and Form of Adjective Phrase 18 Table 2.2: Function and Form of Noun Phrase 19 Table 2.3: Function and Form of Verb Phrase 23 Table 4.1: Syntactic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep 32 Table 4.2: Semantic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep 35

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

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

“Syntactic and Semantic Features of English Collocations containing the verb

KEEP with reference to the Vietnamese Equivalents” submitted in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‘s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2018

Nguyen Thi Cham

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Dr Pham Thi Tuyet Huong

Date:………

Besides, I would like to thank all my respectable lecturers for teaching me all the courses that I have taken at Hanoi Open University

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

the syntactic and semantic features of the ―keep‖ collocations in English and those

of the verb ―giữ‖ collocations in Vietnamese, especially in the bilingual novels

―Gone With The Wind‖ by Margaret Mitchell and ―Jane Eyre‖ by Charlotte Bronte,

(2) finding the similarities and differences between the ―keep‖ collocations in English and those of the verb ―giữ‖ collocations in Vietnamese and (3) providing some recommendations for the teaching and learning as well as translation of

―keep‖ collocations and ―giữ‖ collocations into the target language Data used for analysis in this study were mainly collected from books, literary works, and dictionary Data analysis is based on descriptive, quantitative, qualitative and contrastive methods According to the data analysis, the results of the study show that the verb ―keep‖ and the verb ―giữ‖ collocations coincide in their general meanings However, the verb ―giữ‖ in Vietnamese collocations seems to have much more meanings than that in English collocations

ABBREVIATION

OAL‘ED : Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Encyclopedic Dictionary

EFL : English as a foreign language

SLA : second language acquisition

Sb : somebody

Sth : something

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study, reasons for choosing the topic, statements of the problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study, and outline of the study

1.1 Rationale for the study

In English language as well as any other languages in the world, collocations are one of the issues that have never been studied exhaustively due to their interestingness and popularity Collocations make the communication livelier and

probably more effective

British linguist Wilkins (1972:111) once stated ―While without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed‖ This argument has been supported by many researchers in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) who have emphasized the significance of vocabulary and agreed that vocabulary is equally, if not more, important than language structure in language acquisition

Although collocation has become the subject of a linguistic study only recently, it arouses a growing interest in numerous linguists and is defined in various ways Accordingly, there is no exhaustive and uniform definition or categorization of collocation Therefore, it tends to be one of the most problematic and important area

of vocabulary, especially for second language learners Hill (1999:5) goes so far as

to suggest: ―We are familiar with the concept of communicative competence, but perhaps we should add the concept of collocation competence to our thinking‖ He also claims that non-native speakers have problems ―not because of faulty grammar but a lack of collocations‖ Along with Hill, McCarthy (1990:12) claims that

―collocation deserves to be a central aspect of vocabulary study‖ These pieces of evidence done can show the great importance of collocation in acquisition of a language The author would like to investigate the possibility of combining words into fixed expressions

According to Palmer (1965:1), ―learning a language is, to a very large degree, how

to operate the verbal forms, the pattern and the structure of the verb in that language‖ There is a question which need to be answered is that how verbs collocate with other classes of word A verb can collocate with a noun, a

preposition, an adjective or even another verb Verb phrases are then created Investigating the combinations of verbs must be necessary for improving the students‘ knowledge and lessening their difficulties

However, the knowledge of collocations is vast so this study only focuses on

―Syntactic and Semantic Features of English Collocations containing the verb KEEP with reference to the Vietnamese Equivalents‖ We choose the study

―Syntactic and Semantic Features of English Collocations‖ because the verb ―keep‖

is one of the most commonly used verbs in English and when it collocates with other words, Vietnamese learners often feel confused, especially about meaning of the verb ―keep‖ collocations Besides, a great number of teachers have unsuitable way of teaching collocation due to the limited awareness of its importance, leading

to the limitation in using collocation of the students Without the knowledge of collocations, students are not bound to approach the native-like level of proficiency

in language In fact, students have not paid appropriate attention to learning collocations The collocations with ―keep‖ is very popular in English, however, students still have difficulty in using them To solve this problem, learners should

be fully aware of the importance of collocations, raising the awareness of teaching and using collocations For these reasons, I decided to choose this as the theme for

my MA thesis The study is so entitled ―Syntactic and Semantic Features of English Collocations containing the verb KEEP with reference to the Vietnamese Equivalents‖

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

This study aims at pointing out the syntactic and semantic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents in order to help to teach and learn the English collocation containing

the verb Keep more effectively

This study is intended to:

- Point out the syntactic and semantic features of English collocations containing the verb ―keep‖

- Figure out the similarities and differences in collocations containing the verb

―keep‖ in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

- Provide some suggestions for the teaching, learning and translation of English collocations containing the verb ―keep‖ in English

1.3 Research questions

In this study, the author is going to investigate the semantic and syntactic features

of English collocations with the word KEEP as well as its equivalents in Vietnamese by reading through a great number of sources such as newspaper and literature While analyzing the entire terms, conclusions will be pointed towards what these above-mentioned features are and what pedagogical applications should

be suggested Such knowledge has to base on the ways grammarians and linguists

of each time look at the word KEEP particularly and it is what the study aims at in the first place

In view of that, there are 3 questions prepared guardedly for this study They are listed as follows:

1 What are the syntactic and semantic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep?

2 What are the similarities and differences to their Vietnamese in term of syntactic and semantic?

3 What are implications and suggestions for teaching and learning the English collocation containing the verb Keep?

1.4 Methods of the study

- Descriptive method is used to describe in details syntactic and semantic features of English collocations through examples of English collocations containing the verb

―keep‖

- Contrastive method will be used to identify the similarities and differences between English collocations containing the verb ―keep‖ and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features

1.5 Scope of the study:

The study focuses on analyzing ―Syntactic and Semantic Features of English Collocations containing the verb ―keep‖ then Vietnamese equivalents of collocations of ―keep‖ will be later discussed through analyzing English- Vietnamese examples in different context It is better if English collocations with more verbs are analyzed and totalized, contributing considerably to English learning and teaching in Vietnam This study, therefore, suggests them to learn about

make use of them The effects will be vital to students and should be encouraged to

be applied at school as well as for self-learners of English

1.6 Significance of the study

With the aim of investigating the semantic features of English collocations verb

―keep‖ with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents, it could be a considerable contribution to different groups:

Firstly, the result of the research is expected to give a positive result for the readers

so that they will have a deeper understanding of collocations ―keep‖ found in this novel as well as enrich their vocabulary and apply those collocations in their writing and speaking activities The verb ‗keep‘ and the verb ‗giữ‘ are highly frequently used for Vietnamese learners, therefore, knowing semantic features of these two verbs in collocations as well as their similarities and differences can facilitate the learners‘ process of learning vocabulary

Secondly, this research would be beneficial to the novelists who will get important information about collocation expressions Therefore, this research is expected to make a useful contribution in helping novelist to choose the collocation expressions which are easily comprehended by the readers of the novel

The third contribution is the formulation of some implications for teaching collocations in general As a result, these implications can be applied as a general framework or model for teaching all collocations This is extremely significant for EFL learners in particular

Last but not least, since there is no study conducted to investigate the collocation

―keep‖ in our school context; hence, this study may be a springboard for those who want to do further research in the same area

1.7 Design of the study

The study is divided into 5 chapters:

Chapter I – Introduction: gives a brief overview of the research with the rationale

for choosing the topic of the research, aims, objectives, scope of the research, and the structural organization of the thesis

Chapter II – Literature Review: reviews the previous studies related to the research

topic, a variety of pragmatic concepts most relevant to the research topic such as

speech acts, cultural communication, politeness, etc and the framework, base on which the research is conducted

Chapter III – Methodology: presents the research-governing orientations and the

research methods used in implementing and developing the study This chapter focuses on research questions, research setting, approaches to investigate the research problem, the principles, techniques to collect and analyze data, etc

Chapter IV – Findings and Discussion: shows the findings which address the

research questions through the data gathered and analyzed This section also discusses the results obtained in relation to the research questions and some previous studies The research implications for teaching and learning English as a foreign language can be found as the last part of this chapter

Chapter V – Conclusion: summarizes major findings of the study, points out the

limitations and proposes some suggestions for further research

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review serves two main purposes The first part gives a review of previous study related to English collocation in general The second part presents and discusses the theoretical background which guide and inform this research

2.1 Review of previous studies

Collocations can be frequently encountered in daily conversation as well as written texts, and to a certain extent, they form a part of the core values of the culture Since collocations convey meaning quickly and enable language users express themselves more efficiently, they should be integrated into the translating and learning process

of foreign languages The ready-made production of these figurative expressions contributes to the fluency making it possible for the speaker to be more concentrated on the message that needs to be delivered than on the formation of a sentence with a long literal explanation

The author also realized that the errors being made were a result of the candidates' lack of knowledge of English collocations, whether they are grammatical or lexical Moreover, in the frame of M.A thesis at Vietnam National University, Hanoi – University of Languages and International Studies, there are also studies of collocations Works by Chu Thị Phương Vân (2005), Lê Thanh Hà (2007), Đào Thị Ngọc Nguyên (2007), Hồ quang Trung (2015), Bùi Thị Kim Anh (2016) and Nguyễn Thị Toàn (2016) are some of typical examples They are all interested in the collocation issue They investigated the collocations definition, classification and the students‘ knowledge about collocations

Chu Thị Phương Vân (2005) analyzed the collocations of one English textbook on Electronics and Telecommunications Pham Thi Nga (2012) carried out common errors related to the usage of ―do‖ and ―make‖ collocations by English non – major students at Thai Nguyen university of economics and business administration Together with the study on semantic features of English expressions with reference

to the Vietnamese equivalents (nghiên cứu đặc trưng ngữ nghĩa của các thành ngữ Tiếng Anh chỉ màu sắc trong sự liên hệ với tương đương Tiếng Việt) Nguyễn Thị Hòa (Hanoi Open University) makes clear the semantic features of color expressions, especially Red and Green, with the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese as well

However, a detailed investigation into the collocations of the verb keep has not been

taken There has neither been any works that gave the insights to the comparison between English collocations and Vietnamese ones In the frame of an M.A thesis, the author would like to contribute a very minor investigation focusing on the

collocation with the verb keep in order to facilitate students overcome difficulties

while translating and learning English as a foreign language Also, the Vietnamese equivalents are given to compare and contrast

2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.1 Theories of syntax

The word syntax comes from Ancient Greek word In linguistics, syntax is a collection of rules, standards as well as methods which regulate the structure of sentences in a certain language, specifically order of words (Oxford University Press, 2014)

The word of syntax had been written long before modern grammar official fixed and appeared In old times, syntax concept was ruled by a structure name by grammaire générale which was discovered by Antoine Arnauld in ―Grammaire Générale‖ in 1660 This framework states that human brain thinking processes will reflect straightly into language As a result ―there is a single, most natural way to express a thought‖ (Antoine, 1660) That framework lasts until the 19th century which been replaced by the development of linguistics and by the argument of progressive linguists They recognize that it is not true about the state ―there is a single, most natural way to express a thought‖ because of the impact of internal and external environment on human thinking And so theologic base for studying language‘s structure had been denied (Bickerton, 1992)

It only became clear when linguists discovered and adapted modern theories

of syntax in the late 20th century The famous work ―generative grammar‖ of professor Noam Chomsky is considered as the most popular framework to study and analyze about syntax with the main hypothesis that ―language is a configuration

of the human mind‖ and ―syntax is based upon the component structure of sentences‖, following the concept that syntax features certainly focus on the arrangement of a sentence more than its communication purposes (Chomsky, 2002)

Syntax is the grammar, structure or order of the elements in a language statement (semantics is the meaning of these elements) Syntax applies to computer languages

as well as to natural languages Usually, we think of syntax as ―word order‖

Syntax is also a set of rules in a language It dictates how word from different parts

of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought

In this research, syntax is used to convey the meaning of expressions and expressions containing the verb keep and explain the rules for grammatical arrangement of expressions

Syntax refers to the ways in which we order specific words to create logical, meaningful sentences While the parts of speech are all the different types of words that we can use, syntax is the set of rules, patterns, or processes by which we can put them together

2.2.2 Theory of semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning in language It primarily focuses on the correlation between the symbolic constituent of a sentence such as words and phrases and what they demonstrate for, their references First discovered by French linguist Michel Breal, the word semantics relates series of awareness from normal using to higher application In simple meaning, it describes a range of understanding which could carry out the word choice According to Breal (1890), the difference between semantics and syntax is syntax is just an formal arrangement

of constituents of a language without their own meanings, while semantics requires the critical meaning for every use of words

There are many theories of semantics which has been studied and analyzed for centuries and they could generally be classified into three basic concepts:

Model theoretic semantics: Discovered by Richard Montague in the late 1960s, this formal theory of ordinary language semantics is about how and in which expressions reflect their relational meaning among themselves And more amazingly, the truth values of a sentence and its reasonable denotations to other sentence are analyzed to a model (Montague, 1960)

Truth conditional semantics: First mentioned by the linguist Donald Davidson in 1973, the theory tries to find the language connection with the reality which differenates it from model theoretic semantics Its result shows that every component of a sentence must rely and reflect the truth conditions of itself in order

to carry out the true meaning of the combination There is a simple example for this theory: ―winter is cold‖ is true only when winter is cold, if two conditions of the meaning ―winter‖ and ―cold‖ are not logical with each other then the semantics could not be performed

Lexical semantics: is the theory of context It states that the meaning of a word is totally revealed by its situation Each component of the sentence must collaborate with others in terms of meanings which could depend on their own level and form in order to carry out the meaning of the sentence As a result, it would be easier for the speakers to conveniently deliver their thoughts depending on the current context (Levin, 1991)

2.3 Theoretical framework

2.3.1 English collocation

2.3.1.1 The origin of the word “collocation”

The term collocation was first introduced by Firth (1957), a British linguist He

was the first person to look lexis at its syntagmatic, left-to-right unfolding of language According to Firth (1957), the collocation is defined as a combination of

words associated with each other, for example to take a photo, to do homework, to play football The term collocation has it origin in the Latin verb collocate which means to set in order/to arrange

2.3.1.2 Definition of collocation

In Oxford Collocations Dictionary (2003), collocation is defined as the way words combine in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing [19] or a particular combination of words used in this way

―The term collocation refers to combinations of two lexical items each of which makes a distinct semantic contribution‖ (Stephan Gramley and Kurt – Michael Patzold, 2002) [10]

Cruise (1987) defines collocations as ―sequences of lexical items which habitually

co-occur, but which are nonetheless fully transparent in the sense that each lexical constituent is also a semantic constituent Such expressions as (to pick a semantic

area at random) fine weather, torrential rain; high winds are examples of

collocations

The semantic cohesion of a collocation is the more mark if the meaning carried by one (or more) of its constituent elements is highly restricted contextually, and different from its meaning in more neutral contexts From Cowie‘s viewpoint (1994), words which combine with other words, or with idioms, in particular

grammatical constructions are said to collocate with those words or idioms

Collocations are of two kinds:

b1 Restricted collocations: Restricted collocations are sometimes referred to as

‗semi-idiom‘ In such combinations, one word has a figurative sense not found outside that limited context The other element appears in a familiar, literal sense

For example, the verb and noun, respectively, in to jog one‘s memory and the adjective and noun in a blind alley Some members of this category allow a degree

of lexicon variation, for instance to have a cardinal error/ sin/ virtue/ grace and in this respect ‗restricted‘ collocations resemble ‗open‘ ones Another point of

similarity is that the literal element is sometimes replaced by a pronoun, or deleted altogether, in sentence where there is an earlier use of the full expression:

For example: The Board didn‘t entertain the idea, and the Senate wouldn‘t entertainit either (Cowie, Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms)

In other respects, however, restricted collocations are idiom-like The particular

sense which jog has in to jog one‘s memory occurs in no other text

b2 Open collocations: Most sharply and easily distinguished from idioms in the strict sense are combinations such as to fill the sink and a broken window The use

of the term ‗open‘, ‗free‘, or ‗loose‘ to refer to such collocations reflects the fact

that, in each case, both elements (verb and object, or adjective and noun) are freely

recombinable, as for example in to fill/ empty the sink and to fill the sink/ basin Typically also, in open collocations, each element is used in a common literal sense

2.3.1.3 The distinction between compounds, idioms and collocations

To attain a clearer understanding of collocations, it is helpful to try to distinguish

them from idioms on the one hand and from free combinations on the other

Apparently, collocations, free compounds and idioms share one important feature

in their form, that is to say they all refer to combinations of words that go together very often However, the case is that they differ from each other in both meaning and form

In terms of form, McCarthy (1990) claims that collocation items can be separated

by several words while words of a compound are always syntactically bound to one

another Such is the case, for example, in make a decision We could separate make and decision with some words:

He made an extremely important decision

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985)

On the contrary, as for compounds, we could never make any manipulation to

change its word order as in workshop Workshop could not be separated by a word

of any kind We can see that compounds function as a single unit while collocations remain a combination of words even if these words go together with very high frequency The collocational relationship, according to McCarthy, could appear in a variety of syntactic realizations as shown in the following examples:

They reject my appeal

The rejection of his appeal was a great shock

(McCarthy M & O‘Dell F, 2005)

Looking at idioms, Bolinger (1975) argues that some idioms are virtually unchangeable; others follow a limited amount of manipulation McArthur (1992) agrees with Bolinger when he makes the point that idioms are often fixed in form

It can rain cats and dogs but never dogs and cats According to them, collocations

are looser groupings than idioms Collocational items can be contiguous as with

head and ache in headache or proximate to each other as with cat and purr in The cat was purring

In terms of meaning, Benson, Benson & Ilson (1986) use combinations with the

noun murder to illustrate the main distinguishing features of the three categories The least cohesive type of word combination are the so-called free combinations The noun murder, for example, can be used with many verbs (to analyze, boast of, condemn, discuss, (etc.) a murder), and these verbs, in turn, combine freely with other nouns Idioms, on the other hand, are relatively frozen expressions whose

meanings do not reflect the meanings of their component parts An example

containing the noun murder would be to scream blue murder (to complain very

loudly) Between idioms and free combinations are loosely fixed combinations (or

collocations) of the type to commit murder The main characteristics of collocations

are that their meanings reflect the meaning of their constituent parts (in contrast to

idioms) and that they are used frequently, spring to mind readily, and are psychologically salient (in contrast to free combinations)

be considered lexical collocation and 29 grammatical (she thus largely accepts the structural view of collocation) A lexical collocation is a type of construction where

a verb, noun, adjective or adverb forms a predictable connection with another word,

as in:

Adverb + Adjective: e.g completely satisfied (NOT downright satisfied)

Adjective + Noun: e.g excruciating pain (NOT excruciating joy)

Noun + Verb: e.g lions roar (NOT lions shout)

Verb + Noun: e.g commit suicide (NOT undertake suicide)

In contrast to grammatical collocations, lexical collocations do not contain grammatical elements They can be classified into three types

Open collocations: are characterized by a combination of two words or more occurring together with no specific relation between them This means that the word can cluster with a large range of other words For example, the verb ―catch‖ collocates with bus, train, cold, and fire

Restricted collocations: are considered to be the most commonly used one That is, the word can collocate with limited and fixed words Restricted collocations are defined by Aisenstadt (1979, p.71) as ―combinations of two or more words used in one of their regular, nonidiomatic meanings‖ Restricted collocations differ from free combination collocations in that they co-occur with a small number of words Evelyn, et al (1986, p.253) provide ―to commit a murder‖ as an example where the verb collocates with a few nouns such as ―murder, crime‖

Bound collocations: are, as Cowie (1981, p.228) decribes them as ―a bridge category between collocations and idioms‖ The significant feature of this group is that one of the elements of the collocations is, as Emery states (1987, p.9), ―unique

selective‖ of the other One example is ―to shrug one‘s shoulders‖ Collocations are found in various types of syntactic configurations (Emery, 1987, p 8-9),

Subject/-Verb, e.g the water freezes

Verb/-Object, e.g break a code

Adjective/-Noun, e.g best wishes

Grammatical collocations

A grammatical collocation is a type of construction where, for example, a verb or an adjective must be followed by a particular preposition, or a noun must be followed

by a particular form of the verb, as in:

Verb + Preposition: e.g depend on (NOT depend of) Adjective + Preposition: e.g

afraid of (NOT afraid at)

Noun + Particular form of verb: e.g strength to lift it (not strength lifting it)

By Michael Mc Carthy and Felicity O Dell (2005: 9-12), collocations are classified

as following;

Adjectives and nouns

Some adjectives are typically used with particular nouns

―Jean always wears red or yellow or some other bright colour.‖

―We had a brief chat about the exams but didn't have time to discuss them properly.‖

Nouns and verbs

Some nouns and verbs often go together The following examples are all to do with economics and business

―The economy boomed in the 1990s.‖ [the economy was very strong]

―The company has grown and now employs 50 more people than last year.‖ ―The company has expanded and now has branches in most major cities.‖ ―The two companies merged in 2003 and now form one very large corporation.‖

―The company launched the product in 2002 [introduced the product]‖ ―The price increase poses a problem for us [is a problem]‖

―The Internet has created opportunities for our business, [brought new opportunities]‖

Mc Carthy, M & Felicity O Dell, F (2005:12)

Noun + noun

There are a lot of collocations with the pattern a of

―As Sam read the lies about him, he felt a surge of anger, [literary: a sudden angry feeling]‖

―Every parent feels a sense of pride when their child does well or wins something.‖

―I felt a pang of nostalgia when I saw the old photos of the village where I grew up.‖

Mc Carthy, M & Felicity O Dell, F (2005:12)

- Verbs and expressions with prepositions

Some verbs collocate with particular prepositional expressions

―As Jack went on stage to receive his gold medal for the judo competition you could see his parents swelling with pride, [looking extremely proud]‖

―I was filled with horror when I read the newspaper report of the explosion.‖

―When she spilt juice on her new skirt the little girl burst into tears, [suddenly started crying]‖

(Mc Carthy, M & Felicity O Dell, F (2005:12))

Verbs and adverbs

Some verbs have particular adverbs which regularly collocate with them

―She pulled steadily on the rope and helped him to safety, [pulled firmly and evenly]‖

―He placed the beautiful vase gently on the window ledge.‖

―I love you and want to marry you,' Derek whispered softly to Marsha

―She smiled proudly as she looked at the photos of her new grandson.‖

Mc Carthy, M & Felicity O Dell, F (2005:12)

Adverbs and adjectives

Adjectives often have particular adverbs which regularly collocate with them

―They are happily married.‖

―I am fully aware that there are serious problems [I know well]‖

―Harry was blissfully unaware that he was in danger [Harry had no idea at all, often used about something unpleasant]‖

Mc Carthy, M & O Dell, F (2005:12)

Collocations are arbitrary, a question often raised by speakers of English as a

foreign language is what underlies native speakers‘ choice of words or why they choose one word among a list of possibilities to combine with another so often that they become collocation Lewis (1997) points out that collocation is not determined

by logic or frequency but is arbitrary, decided only by linguistic convention In the first characteristic, words are not often combined with each other at random Collocation cannot be invented by a second language user A native speaker uses them instinctively

According to Gairns & Redman (1986), a statement on collocation is never absolute As they maintain, lexical items may co-occur simply because the combination reflects a common real world state of affairs Such is the case, for

instance, pass and salt which collocate since people want others to pass them the

salt However, they added, there may exist in collocation an element of linguistic convention or native speakers‘ habitual preferences in their choice of words among

a number of possibilities It is because lexical collocations bear linguistic convention that joining together semantically compatible parts does not always

produce a typical collocation A native English speaker, for example, would say the lion roared rather than bellowed

Sharing the point of view with Gairns & Redman, McCarthy (1990) states that

knowledge of collocation is a question of typicality The notion of typicality is

important, for without it we could not recognize untypical collocations, which are part of the creativity and the imaginative dimension we find in literature Definitely, there is no rule of collocation and it is difficult to group items by their collocational properties Thus, they are best dealt with isolation as they arise or depending on notion of typicality to decide what acceptable and unacceptable collocations are

Collocations are language-specific, as discussed earlier, the thing mat matters is

that the way words are chosen to combine together is conventional and lexical collocations in English bear their own linguistic convention Larson (1984) describes that English, like other languages, interprets the physical worlds in its own way and has it own convention; therefore, it governs different collocability of words Therefore, learners have difficulties when acquiring knowledge of

collocational appropriacy in cases where collocability is language-specific and does not seem solely determined by universal semantic constraints (McCarthy,

1990) English collocations are therefore specific to the English language itself The fact is that what is perfectly acceptable collocation in one language may be

unacceptable in another Take the case of the verb làm in Vietnamese as an example Vietnamese speakers say làm bánh and làm bài tập with the same verb làm but their equivalent meanings in English are make a cake and do the homework

by using two different verbs do and make Then, phrases such as do a cake and make the homework is unacceptable Also, instead of saying ride bicycle, Vietnamese learners sometimes says go bicycle because đi xe đạp is totally correct

in Vietnamese

In brief, an acceptable collocation is not always made by joining semantically compatible parts The ability of a word to combine with another is restricted by linguistic convention specific to the English language itself which is highly unlikely to totally overlap with any other languages

Collocations are not necessarily adjacent According to McCarthy (1990), collocations can be contiguous or proximate, not necessarily adjacent He presents that the collocational relationship still applies, even though several words may separate the collocating items The following extracts from a newspaper report concerning a planning application for a new shopping centre who collocation at

work over clause-boundaries:

The study of planning appeals for similar centres in the past, most of which were rejected, suggests that the furniture is more hopeful for developers Now that the

Secretary of State for the Environment has said that applications should be

approved unless there are good reasons against them, many more should succeed

The collocational relationship between reject and appeal; application, approve and succeed, as he argues, is strong, despite the intervening words

2.3.2 The concept of sentence components

2.3.2.1 The concept of phrase

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Dictionary (2005), ―A phrase is a group of words which have a particular meaning when used together‖ It is a syntactic structure that consists of more than one word but lacks the subject-

predicate organization of a clause The meaning of phrases, the free combinations of

words, is the free addition of the meaning of the words existing in a given phrase

Adjective phrases

According to Greenbaum in the English Grammar [14, p.288], the adjective

phrase has as its head an adjective, which may be preceded by pre-modifiers and

followed by post-modifiers."

An adjective phrase does the work of an adjective They describe, modify, or

give some information about a noun or a pronoun

The adjective phrase in English has four functional constituents:

constituents which precede the head

 The head, which is an adjective or participle serving as the focus of the

phrase

 Post-modification, that modifying constituent which follows the head

 Complementation, (the major subcategory of post-modification here) that constituent which follows any post-modification and completes the

specification of a meaning implied by the head

To see some examples of adjective phrases, examine the table below

Table 2.1: Function and Form of Adjective Phrase Functional

Quite worried about the results of the text

Unusually sunny for this time of year

FORM

Adverb

Adverb

(According to Greenbaum, in the English Grammar)

Notice that the order of constituents in the adjective phrase, like all other phrase structures in English, is relatively fixed, helping us determine the constituent elements

Noun phrases

According to Greenbaum [14], the noun phrase has as its head a noun, a

pronoun, a nominal adjective, or a numeral

Like all phrases, the constituents of the English noun phrase can be analyzed into both functional constituents and formal constituents From a functional point of

view, the noun phrase has four major components, occurring in a fixed order:

 The determinative, the constituent which determines the reference of the

noun phrase in its linguistic or situational context

 Pre-modification, that comprises all the modifying or describing constituents

before the head, other than the determiners

 The head, around which the other constituents cluster

 Post-modification, those which comprise all the modifying constituents

placed after the head

Some of the possible arrangements of form and function in the noun phrase are

presented in the table below:

Table 2.2: Function and Form of Noun Phrase

The information age

each of the pupils Some badly needed time with the family

Now some detailed information below about noun phrases, adverb phrases, adjective phrases and verb phrases will be analyzed to make clearer the function and the uses of syntactic features of expressions containing the verb ‗keep‘

 Noun phrases: A noun phrase is a phrase that plays the role of a noun The head word in a noun phrase will be a noun or a pronoun Like any noun, a noun phrase can be a subject, an object, or a complement E.g.: The best defense against the atom bomb is not to be there when it goes off

In the above example, there is a noun phrase within a noun phrase The noun phrase ―the atom bomb‖ is the object of the preposition ―against‖ The prepositional phrase against the atom bomb modifies defense

 Adverb phrases: An adverb phrase is simply two or more words that act as an adverb It can modify a verb, adverb, or adjective and can tell ―how‖, ―where‖, ―why‖, or ―when‖

E.g.: Bob nodded as if he understood

Meet me at the mall

 Adjective phrases: An adjective phrase is a group of words that describe a noun or a pronoun in a sentence The adjective in an adjective phrase can appear at the start, end, or in the middle of the phrase The adjective phrase can be placed before, or after the noun or pronoun in the sentence

E.g.: The final exams were really difficult

The highly emotive actor gave a wonderful performance

 Verb phrases: A verb phrase consists of a main verb alone, or a main verb Plus, any modal and/or auxiliary verbs The main verb always comes last in the verb phrase A simple verb phrase consists of a main verb The verb in the simple verb phrase shows the type of clause (Your camera takes fantastic pictures) Complex verb phrases may include one modal verb and one or more auxiliary verb before the main verb A modal verb always comes before any auxiliary verbs (You may have played this game before)

2.3.2.2 English verbs

First of all, it is without a doubt that verb is the most vital part of a sentence in English since without this type of word, no complete sentences will be made Secondly, verb is a part of speech that in syntax conveys the meanings of an action,

an occurrence, or a state of being and there are various kinds of verbs Last but not least, a verb has to agree with sentence components such as subject or object, gender or number Therefore, verbs must have tenses, but it is too far upon the scale

of this section Regarding types of verbs, there are four different types in total:

Do you eat dog meat?

English Modal Verb is the third type of verb in the English language that expresses modality and often occupies only the initial position in a verb phrase Some

common modal verbs are can, may or must For example:

You must wear a helmet

English Main Verbs is the fourth type to mention in this part Main verbs are dynamic or stative verbs that function as the head of the verb phrase All other verbs that are not auxiliary or modal verbs are main verbs in English For example:

He broke my arm

I killed the man yesterday In summary, there are four types of

verbs as listed in the table below:

A List of Types of Verbs

Types

Copular Verb Modal Verb

Auxiliary Verb Main Verb

auxiliaries (or auxiliary verbs)

The verb phrase (VP) in English has a noticeably different structure, since the information it carries about mood, tense, modality, aspect, and voice is quite different from the information carried by a noun phrase The verb phrase has two

functional parts:

 The auxiliary, a grammatical morpheme carrying information about mood,

tense, modality, and voice

 The main verb, a lexical morpheme carrying its lexical information and,

usually, an inflection

Another way to illustrate some of the relationships between form and function in the

verb phrase is presented in the following table

Table 2.3: Function and Form of Verb Phrase

Modal Perfect Progressive Passive Auxiliary

Support Main Verb

(According to Greenbaum, in the English Grammar [14])

The verb phrase can be expressed both as an experiential structure and logical structure While the experiential structure is extremely simple, most of the semantic load is carried by the logical structure There is not a regular distinction between finite and non-finite verb forms in Vietnamese language like the way English is

+ Phrasal Verbs

A phrasal verb is a compound verb formed by one of the following combinations:

 verb and adverb, e.g break out

 verb and preposition, eg break in

 verb with both adverb and preposition, eg break out in

English verbs are divided into three groups: normal verbs, non - continuous verbs, and mixed verbs:

Normal verbs: Most verbs are "normal verbs." These verbs are usually physical

actions which you can see somebody doing These verbs can be used in all tenses

such as to run, to walk, to eat, to fly, to go, to say, to touch, etc

Non - continuous verbs: These verbs are usually things you cannot see somebody

doing These verbs are rarely used in continuous tenses They include three types:

sub Abstract verbs: to be, to want, to cost, to seem, to need, to care, to contain,

to owe, to exist

- Possession verbs: to have, to possess, to own, to belong

- Emotion verbs: to like, to love, to hate, to dislike, to fear, to envy…

Mixed verbs: These verbs have more than one meaning In a way, each meaning is a unique verb Some meanings behave like "Non - continuous verbs," while other

meanings behave like "Normal verbs" such as to appear, to feel, to have, to hear, to look, to see, to weigh

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

Sentence classification is carried out in order to get the foundation of studying the sentence types in the order verb group in English and Vietnamese in chapter IV By eliminating optional adverbials from the clause structures, we have seven clause types in the classification of the essential core of each clause structure Of the obligatory elements, the main verb is the one that wholly or largely determines what form the rest of the structure will take From the examples, the following seven clause types emerge:

First, SV structure For example:

Prices rose

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 56) SVA is the second type For example:

I have been in the garden

My sister lives next door

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 56) Third, SVC structure For example:

The country became totally independent

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 53) Fourth, SVO structure See the following example:

My mother enjoys parties

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 53)

Fifth, SVOA structure See the following structure:

You must put all the toys upstairs

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 53) The sixth type is SVOC structure For example:

Most people consider these books rather expensive

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 53) The last type is SVOO structure See the following example:

Mary gave the visitor a glass of milk

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 53) This set of patterns is the most general classification that can be usefully applied to the classification of sentence patterns of the order verb group in English

2.3.3 Idioms

2.3.3.1 Definition of idioms

An idiom is a combination of words and functions as a single unit These words are taken from the general vocabulary of a given language To have true concepts for this aspect of language, many linguists both in English and Vietnamese try to define the term ―idiom‖ in many ways

In English, idioms may be treated as a type of collocation involving two or more words in context However, since the meaning of an idiom can not be predicted from the meaning of its constituents, idioms may be considered as a type of multi-word lexeme In most general term, an idiom may be defined as ―a phrase and meaning of which can not predicted from the individual meaning of the morpheme

it comprises‖ (Howard Jackson and Etiene‘ze‘ A‘nivela, 2002:66) An idiom also is defined by Johnathan Crowth (1995) as ―a phrase whose meaning is difficult or sometimes impossible to guess by looking at the individual word it contains (from Advance Learner‘s Dictionary)

In English, idioms also have been defined by Jennifer Seild and W.Mc.Mordie (1988) as ―a number of words which, when taken together, have different meaning from the individual meaning of each word‖ Therefore, an idiom is a multi-word construction that is a semantic unit whose meaning can not deducted from the meaning of constituents and has a non-productive syntactic structure

For example, when we say ―kicked the bucket‖, it does not imply that they necessary hit a certain type of container for liquid with their foot, what it means is

that they ―died‖ in English, expression ―to kick the bucket‖, a listener knowing only the meaning of kick and bucket would be unable to deduce the expression actual meaning, which is to die Althoughn it can refer literally to the act of string a specific bucket with a foot, native speakers rarely use it that way Thus, idioms are not literal expressions They are fixed expressions and they can be syntactic phrases

or sentences

In Viet Nam, according to Hoang Van Hanh (1994), an idiom is defined as ―a stable word group with solid information and structure, and a complete and figurative meaning used in everyday communication, especially in spoken language‖ For example, trên chín tầng mây (on cloud nine) or nhƣ ở trên mây (in seventh heaven) are used to refer a person who is very happy, or ―khóc đứng khóc ngồi‖ (sob your heart out) refer to a person who cries nosily for a long time because you are very sad

Phan Van Que in ―Ngữ nghĩa của thành ngữ, tục ngữ có thành tố chỉ động vật trong tiếng anh‖ (1996) defined idiom as ―a group of words combined together to express something whose meaning is different from its constituent‖

Hoang Phe (1997), an idiom is considered to be ―a set of expression whose meaning is generally inexplicable simply through the meaning of individual word it contains‖

Although idioms are defined in different ways, they still have things in common that can help us understand what an idiom is These definitions are clues for us to identify idioms in using and studying

2.3.3.2 Features of English idioms

An idiom is a multiword expression Individual components of an idiom can often be reflected in the same way individual words in a phrase can be inflected This inflection usually follows the same pattern of inflection as the idiom‘s literal counterpart For instance, idiom ―have a bee in one‘ bonnet‖ can be put in sentence like this ―he has bees in his bonnet‖ In this case, ―a bee‖ from singular can be change into plural ―bees‖

An idiom behaves as a single semantic unit It can be often be replaced by a literal counterpart that is made up of a single word For example, ―kick the bucket‖ means ―die‖

An idiom resists interruption by the other word whether they are semantically compatible or not We can not change idiom ―put one‘s leg‖ like this ―pull hard on one‘ leg‖ or ―pull on one‘ left leg‖ It also resists reordering of it component parts For example, ―let the cat out of the bag‖ can not be reordered ―the cat got out of the bag‖

An idiom has a non-productive syntactic structure Only single particular lexemes can collocate in an idiom construction Substituting other words from the same lexical relation set will destroy idiomatic meaning of expression For instance,

we can not say ―kick the pail‖ instead of ―kick the bucket‖ although bucket and pail are synonyms We can not say ―eat one‘s sentence‖ or ―swallow one‘s word‖ instead of idiom ―eat one‘s words‖

Therefore, what is and what is not an idiom is a master of degree (Fernando and Flavell, 1981) For instance, ―make up a story‖, ―make up a fire‖, ―make up one‘s face‖ The first expression is used in its literal meaning; the second is a partial meaning, while the last is full idiomatic

According to Howard Jackson and Etiemne‘ Ze‘Anivela (1995) in book ―Words, Meaning and Vocabulary‖, idioms may be characterized by several features but they may be summarized under 2 main heading: ambiguity, and syntactic peculiarities Since most idioms are constructed from morphemes, that are also used non-idiomatically They may either a literal or an idiomatic meaning Hence, they are ambiguity Idioms also have special syntactic properties that can distinguish them from word phrases, proverbs, collocates, etc

2.4 Summary

This chapter has provided us with the theoretical background for the contrastive analysis of syntactic and semantic features of the verb Keep in English collocations and their equivalents in Vietnamese It covers an overview of syntactic features, semantic features, a brief introduction about verbs in English and in Vietnamese

We have also discussed two types of word meanings: grammatical and lexical meanings Moreover, a short description of collocations as well as the distinction among free word combinations, idiomatic expressions and collocations is also mentioned Based on this theoretical foundation, we will commence chapter 3 to choose the suitable research orientations and research methods for this study

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes in details about the method of investigation It consists of five parts namely setting of the study, data of the study, method of collecting data, classification of data, and method of analyzing data

3.1 Setting of the study

With the experience of having taught English for more than fourteen years, I realize that my students often make mistakes when they learn and use the English collocation containing the verb Keep Therefore, this study intends to be carried out through dictionaries, novels, stories and internet to help my students more clearly about syntactic and semantic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep

In order to obtain the above-said aims, the study is carried out basically through the descriptive and qualitative methods The descriptive method is employed to give in depth and detailed description of collocations of lexical verb

―keep‖ in English The work starts with a review of existing study results on collocations to provide a better understanding of the topic Then different meanings

of collocations of lexical verb ―keep‖ are described, and then examples are provided

to illustrate the description

3.2 Research questions

This study aims at pointing out the syntactic and semantic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents So, this study has three questions needed to be studied:

1 What are the syntactic and semantic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep?

2 What are the similarities and differences to their Vietnamese in term of syntactic and semantic?

3 What are implications and suggestions for teaching and learning the English collocation containing the verb Keep?

3.3 Research methods

In this study, various methods are used to achieve the objectives such as descriptive method, contrastive and comparative methods Each step of the study requires another relevant method However, as the title of the thesis suggests, the method which works best in this study is contrastive analysis Only by using this method, in which English is considered to be the target language and Vietnamese - the source language – a means to contrast can semantic features of the two verbs in collocations as well as their similarities and differences be brought to light

3.4 Instruments

The data used in the study is collected from dictionaries; English- English dictionary, English- Vietnamese dictionary, English- Vietnamese novels, English- Vietnamese stories and the internet

After reading the materials collected, the study focus on the English collocation containing the verb Keep and their Vietnamese equivalents All of the collocations containing the verb Keep are selected from dictionary, novel and stories, so they are reliable for research results

3.5 Data collection and Data analysis

Secondly, statistics on the number of the collocation containing the verb Keep

Classifying them into the group means, group structures And then determining the

frequency of occurrence of each collocation containing the verb Keep

3.5.2 Data analysis

In this study, from 246 English collocations containing the verb Keep and their Vietnamese equivalents, we choose the most interesting and noticeable one which can clearly illustrate syntactic and semantic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep and their Vietnamese equivalents

After collecting 246 English collocations containing the verb Keep and their Vietnamese equivalents, we categorize them into syntactic features and semantic features Then the syntactic and semantic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep are presented through clear and understandable examples After that the finding and discussions are carried out in order to state the differences and similarities in English and Vietnamese

3.6 Summary

In brief, descriptive and qualitative methods are used in the study with research methods of contrastive analysis and componential analysis Describing, analyzing and contrasting grammatical and semantic features of collocations containing the verb ―keep‖ in English and in Vietnamese require collecting corpora of literature work and Web corpus to be analyzed and studied

Since the whole research work relied on the corpora, it was important that these works should be carefully read and that examples should be cautiously selected to ensure a satisfying reliability of the results It is required that the study should be verified if there are inaccuracies The patterns from the data collection are used from oxford dictionaries and grammar books for confirming the reliability and validity of the study

Chapter 4: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES

OF ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS CONTAINING THE VERB “KEEP” WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

4.1 Syntactic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep

Firstly, the verb ―keep‖ is always used in the function of a transitive verb When it

is a transitive verb, it requests a direct object For example:

You can keep that dress if you like it

(OAL‘ED, 2005) Secondly, the verb ―keep‖ can be followed an adjective

My diets never work but I keep trying

(OAL‘ED, 2005)

Thirdly, the verb ―keep‖ is used in the form of present participle

The antique desk was in keeping with the rest of the furniture in the room

(OAL‘ED, 2005)

Besides, the verb ―keep‖ is used as a phrasal verb For example:

She was walking so fast I couldn‘t keep up with her

(OAL‘ED, 2005)

Moreover, the verb ―keep‖ can be an intransitive verb

Do finish off the fish pie It can‘t keep

(OAL‘ED, 2005)

Lastly, The verb ―keep‖ is used in an idiom For example:

I can‘t play jokes on people because I can‘t keep a straight face

Table 4.1: Syntactic features of the English collocation containing the verb Keep

Syntactic features of the collocation containing the verb keep are expressed through

the following seven types of clauses They are: SV, SVO, SVC, SVA, SVOA, SVOC and SVOO:

1 Type SV

This clause structure is illustrated in the following examples:

These apples do not keep

That business can keep

The match will go ahead provided the rain keeps off

(OAL‘ED, 2005)

In these cases, keep are intransitive verbs, goes after the subject these apples, that business the match and has no object after

2 Type SVA

Keep is used as a transitive verb It goes after the subject we, I, your mother and it

is followed by the adverbs well, silent any longer, How in the following examples:

We are all keeping well

I could not keep silent any longer

How is your mother keeping?

(OAL‘ED, 2005)