Linguistic features of life quotes and sayings in english and in vietnamese

ABTRACT The purpose of this research is to find out the similarities and differences between syntactic and semantic features of famous life sayings and quotes in English and in Vietnames

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF LIFE QUOTES

AND SAYINGS IN ENGLISH AND IN

VIETNAMESE

( ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGÔN NGỮ CỦA NHỮNG CÂU NÓI VÀ CHÂM NGÔN VỀ CUỘC SỐNG TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF LIFE QUOTES

AND SAYINGS IN ENGLISH AND IN

VIETNAMESE

( ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGÔN NGỮ CỦA NHỮNG CÂU NÓI VÀ CHÂM NGÔN VỀ CUỘC SỐNG TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

VU MINH TRANG

Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh

HANOI - 2020

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF LIFE QUOTES AND SAYINGS IN ENGLISH AND IN VIETNAMESE 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

A special word of thanks goes to all the lecturers of Postgraduate Faculty at Hanoi Open University, who gave me opportunities to study and do my thesis and many others without whose support and encouragement it would never been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband and my son for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work Without the help and the support of these particular people, I would face many difficulties while doing this study I have little experience and knowledge, therefore

I would like to receive more useful comments from lecturers and others

ABTRACT

The purpose of this research is to find out the similarities and differences between syntactic and semantic features of famous life sayings and quotes in English and in Vietnamese In addition, it helps learners and translators learn English well and use them in daily communication The methods of this research are descriptive and comparative approach to describe the syntactic and semantic features of famous life sayings in English and in Vietnamese and compare the similarities and differences between both languages The data is collected mainly from the Internet and some quotations books: Famous sayings topic (Nguyen Van Trung), 3600 câu danh ngôn Việt Nam (Dương Văn Thoa), Châm ngôn cuộc sống (Lê Ngọc Sáng)…I have collected 237 sentences including 124 sentences in English and 113 sentences in Vietnamese The results show that in terms of syntactic features, there are 7 patterns

of simple sentences in English but only 5 structures used in Vietnamese In terms of semantic features, famous sayings in English usually have 9 meanings that express social and cultural characteristics while Vietnamese also mentioned 9 meanings but they are 7 in commons and 2 differences Thus research results indicate that this can: Theoretically, it will apply to more in-depth study of famous sayings in English and Vietnamese The second is to teach English learners to understand the meaning

of a sentence and use it in everyday life

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… ……….iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES viii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and objectives 2

1.3 Scope of the study 3

1.4 Research questions 3

1.5 Methods of the study 4

1.6 Significance of the research 4

1.7 Structure of Thesis 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Previous studies 6

2.2 An overview of English sentences 7

2.2.1 Definition of sentence 7

2.2.2 Classification of English sentences 7

2.3 An overview of simple sentences 9

2.3.1 English simple sentences 9

2.3.2 Vietnamese simple sentences 19

2.4 Meanings of English sentence 26

2.4.1 Definition 26

2.4.2 Classification 26

2.5 Socio-cultural features in English and in Vietnamese 29

2.5.1 Culture 29

2.5.2 Language 30

2.5.3 The Relationship between Language and Culture 31

2.5.4 The Differences between British and Vietnamese Cultures 33

2.6 An overview of quotes and sayings 36

2.6.1 Definitions of famous sayings 36

2.6.2 Definitions of life 37

2.6.3 Definitions of famous life sayings 37

2.6.4 Famous sayings and other language units 38

2.7 Summary 38

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 40

3.1 Research approach 40

3.2 Research methods 41

3.3 Data collection and data analysis 41

3.4 Research questions 41

3.5 Summary 41

CHAPTER 4 A COMPARISON OF LINGUISTIC FEATURES BETWEEN FAMOUS LIFE SAYINGS AND QUOTES IN ENGLISH AND THOSE IN VIETNAMESE 43

4.1 Syntactic and semantic features of famous life quotes and sayings in English 43 4.1.1 Syntactic features of famous life quotes and sayings in English 43

4.1.2 Semantic features of famous life sayings and quotes in English 49

4.2 Syntactic and semantic features of famous life quotes and sayings in Vietnamese 56

4.2.1 Syntactic features of famous life sayings and quotes in Vietnamese 56

4.2.2 Semantic features of famous life sayings and quotes in Vietnamese 62

4.3 A comparison between famous life sayings and quotes in English and in Vietnamese 70

4.3.1 In terms of their syntactic features 71

4.3.2 In terms of their semantic features 76

4.4 Summary 78

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS 79

5.1 Recapitulation 79

5.2 Concluding remarks 79

5.3 Limitation of the research 80

5.4 Suggestions for further research 82

REFERENCES 84

APPENDIX 1: ENGLISH FAMOUS LIFE QUOTES AND SAYINGS 87

APPENDIX 2: VIETNAMESE FAMOUS LIFE QUOTES AND SAYINGS 89

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Sentence patterns (Quirk, Randolph, 1985) 18

Table 4.1 Sentence elements in famous life quotes and sayings in English 43

Table 4.2 Sentence patterns in famous life quotes and sayings in English 48

Table 4.3 Semantic features of famous life quotes and sayings in English 56

Table 4.4 Sentence elements in famous life quotes and sayings in Vietnamese 57

Table 4.5 Sentence patterns in famous life quotes and sayings in Vietnamese 61

Table 4.6 Semantic feature of famous life quotes and sayings in Vietnamese 69

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 Syntactic features of famous life quotes and sayings in English 46

Figure 4.2 Syntactic features of famous life quotes and sayings in Vietnamese 59

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter gives some overall information about the topic which has been chosen to investigate by the writer First, it describes a general background of the topic, the reason as well as the necessity of the study Then, aims and objectives of the research are also clearly presented and they are followed by three research questions, which will be answered in Chapter 4 After that, this chapter provides a brief explanation about the methods utilized during the research process, the scope and the significance of the investigation of the topic Finally, it indicates the overall plan of the thesis and the way how this paper is structured

1.1 Rationale

Theoretically, famous life sayings and quotes are used a lot in everyday life However, most of these maxims of life are transmitted orally, so there is very little official research on it Famous sayings and quotes are mainly on websites In English, author Nguyen Van Trung who is Vietnamese has published the book

"Famous sayings topic", in Vietnamese, author Duong Van Thoa with "3600 Vietnamese quotations" or author Le Ngoc Sang with The book "Life maxim" are also statistics There has been a study by Le Thi Thuy, a study of the semantic and syntactic of English famous love sayings and their Vietnamese translator However,

no one has studied the famous life sayings and quotes No one has studied in depth the syntactic and semantic features of famous life sayings and quotes This is exactly why I chose the topic

Practically, every language has famous sayings Learning and understanding them

is an important aspect of the mastery of language English language is no exception

as it contains a large number of famous sayings, which are extensively used as the wisdom of people English language learners, often struggling with a limited vocabulary, find these memorable famous sayings easy to learn and fun to use Famous sayings add familiarity and comfort to an often strange and stressful situation for older English learners Famous sayings can capture a point of view in

vivid words We learn famous sayings our entire lives - from our relatives, our teachers, our friends, the media, and our literature These classic sayings contain folk wisdom gathered through time and experience They often capture a common human experience across cultures and languages

Hence, using famous sayings in the language teaching not only provides learners with rich vocabulary but also equips them with a good basis of cultural knowledge reflected in the famous sayings themselves Through their keen observation of the world, hundreds of human generations have created famous sayings and used them The condensed nature of famous sayings allows them to be interpreted repeatedly, across time and in different situations They are interesting because they not only tap into universal themes in the human condition, such as the physiological rhythms

of the human life cycle, but they also vary in ways that appear to reflect specific cultural differences In the home and in other community settings alike, famous sayings are used to pass on rich cultural traditions, to transmit folklore, and to communicate expected codes of behavior

In order to understand the meanings of these Famous life sayings or quotations, the readers not only have experience in life but also understand the syntactic and semantic features and the underlying cultural features of English famous life sayings and their Vietnamese translation Otherwise, readers in general and learners

of English as a foreign language in particular could get confused in learning English, especially in translation and literature

In conclusion, hardly any research has been carried out the syntactic and semantic features of famous life sayings in English and in Vietnamese Therefore, the thesis

is carried out this matter of the syntactic and semantic features of famous life sayings and quotes in English and in Vietnamese

1.2 Aims and objectives

The aim of the study is to find out the linguistic features of life quotes and sayings

in English and in Vietnamese to help learners and translators learn and use them effectively

To fulfill the aims of the study, the objectives are:

(1) To investigate the syntactic and semantic features of life quotes and sayings in English and in Vietnamese

(2) To compare the syntactic and semantic features of life quotes and sayings in English and in Vietnamese

(3) To suggest some implications for Vietnamese learners and translators use the life quotes and sayings in English and in Vietnamese

1.3 Scope of the study

Within the scope of this study, the approach is syntactic features of sentence and semantic features of life quotes and sayings in English and in Vietnamese Research materials are mainly in the Internet and some books of author Duong Van Thoa with "3600 Vietnamese quotations" or author Le Ngoc Sang with The book "Life maxim‖ 124 English life famous sayings and 113 Vietnamese famous life quotes and sayings are taken from these documents This study is about the syntactic and semantic features of life famous sayings and quotes in English and in Vietnamese

In terms of syntactic features, our research focuses on simple sentences including sentence elements and sentence patterns In terms of semantic features, we focus on the connotation with cultural and social meanings

1.5 Methods of the study

This paper uses a number of methods and techniques so as to offer a profound investigation of syntactic and semantic features in simple sentences of famous life sayings in English and in Vietnamese

First of all, the descriptive method is used to describe syntactic and semantic features of life quotes and sayings in English and in Vietnamese With the use of this method, each category of structures will be described in a clear and detailed manner

Secondly, the contrastive analysis methods used to compare and contrast the linguistic systems of two languages in order to bring out points of contrast as well

as points of similarities between English and Vietnamese It will collect, summarize, and analyze the variable numerical data from some quotation books of famous life sayings

1.6 Significance of the research

It is generally agreed that sentence translation, including simple sentences, present great difficulties for foreign language learners Various reasons have been highlighted, which include the nature of simple sentences themselves Syntactic and semantic features in simple sentences are among these troublesome ones Theoretically, the current paper can provide types of simple structures of the syntactic and semantic features of famous life sayings and quotes Practically, it is hoped that the findings of the present study will be useful to everyone involved in doing translation of the English and Vietnamese language It cannot be denied that famous life sayings or quotations are an important part in our daily communication

as well as in the process of learning a foreign language Unintentionally or intentionally, we have used them as a habit for conveying our intention, attitude and assession which reflects the cultural features of the country Accordingly, Famous life sayings or quotations are culture - bound The lack of knowledge of linguistic features of the famous life sayings or quotations could cause some problems to the

understanding and translating these famous life sayings to find out the similarities and differences by translators and learners in both English and Vietnamese This study of syntactic and semantic features of famous life sayings and quotations in English and in Vietnamese could hence to some extent help learners have a good insight into their syntactic and semantic features, which is beneficial for translators and learners of the two languages

1.7 Structure of Thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters

Chapter 1, introduction, presents the background of the study In this part, a brief

account of relevant information including the rationale, aims, research question, scopes, methodology, and organization of the study is provided

Chapter 2, literature review, introduces a brief overview of some previous

papers on the same subject in English At the same time, it provides the theoretical framework concerning discourse analysis, quotes and sayings as well

as some linguistic means used in life quotes and sayings

Chapter 3, research methodology, provides the methodology underlying the

research and focuses on the methods of data collection

Chapter 4, finding and discussion, gives a detailed presentation of syntactic and

semantic features of life quotes and sayings in English and in Vietnamese, finds the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese life famous sayings, and presents some explanations and interpretations of the findings of the study

Chapter 5, conclusion, provides the implications of the study to the creating

process of life quotes and sayings, and some suggestions for further studies

The study ends with References and Appendix

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is devoted to the presentation of the literature which has already been done up to now First, it provides a brief review of previous studies, which were similar to the study on the topic under discussion The purpose of doing so is to see how word order in simple sentences has been investigated so far, which aspects of word order in simple sentences has been studied and whether there is any gap for further research or not After that, the outline of theoretical background and framework which the writer drew herself to in this study will be described

2.1 Previous studies

In English, there is a number of great and useful dictionaries of quotations, and some of them have good reputations, for example: ―John‘s Dictionary of Quotation (first published in 1855), and revised and augmented in 1937, for its eleventh edition by Christopher and Louella), Jehiel‘s Dictionary of Quotation (first published in 1881, and revised and enlarged in 1927 by Kate) and Mencken with

―A New Dictionary of Quotations (1962)‖ Through their studies, we could see the persuasiveness of Famous life sayings or quotations in writen and spoken

language

Also, several Vietnamese researchers have paid attention to the study of famous life sayings or quotations, among them are Le Ngoc Tu (2004), Thanh Van, Nguyen Duy Nhuong (2004) Since then, there has been a great number of collections by Thanh Hương (2005), Bao Ngan (2005), Thien Kim (2005), Phan Mật (2006), Nguyễn Văn Hấn (2006), Nguyen Van Ba (1999), Hoài Thương (1999), … There has been a study by Le Thi Thuy (2012), a study of the semantic and syntactic of English famous love sayings and their Vietnamese equivalents This thesis is aimed at investigating the syntactic and semantic features of famous life sayings in English and in Vietnamese In order to achive the aims and objectives

of my research, descriptive and contrastive methods are used for English is chosen

as the source language and Vietnamese as the target one After collecting 124 English famous life sayings and 113 Vietnamese sentences from books, dictionaries

or websites , we categorize them into two main aspects: syntactic and semantic features The study is carried out basing on the qualitative and quantitative approach

to find down the similarities and differences in syntactic and semantic features of famous life sayings and quotes in English and in Vietnamese The result of study shows that there are great differences in sentence structures when translating English famous life sayings into Vietnamese It is caused by changes in the translation process, maybe culture or habits of using languages of Vietnamese translators It means that the translation process is a complicate process Therefore, the learners and the translators of English may encounter a lot of difficulties in their translation process and they, as a result could commit unspected error Therefore, this thesis is carried out this matter of the syntactic and semantic features of famous life sayings in English and in Vietnamese not only in Vietnamese equivalent and it

will be focus on the structure of the sentences

2.2 An overview of English sentences

2.2.1 Definition of sentence

Sentences are indeed the basic units of language The members of each language conammity speak mostly in terms of these units, linguists divide these units into smaller units, and analyse their constituent structure in order to find out how

sentences are constructed and understood by native speakers

According to (Smart 1940: 114): ―A sentence is a group of words which

expresses a complete thought‖ According to (Sweet19: 1552): ―A sentence is a word or group of words capable of expressing a complete thought or meaning‖

According to (Curme 193:170): ―A sentence is an expression of although or feeling

by means of a word or words used in such form and manner as id convey the meaning intended‖

In short, a sentence must include a subject and a verb

2.2.2 Classification of English sentences

According to (Quirk and Greenbaum, 1973: 166), simple sentences are sentences

consisting of only one independent clause According to these two authors, simple sentences may be divided into four major syntactic classes including declarative, imperative, interrogative and exclamatory sentences (Quirk and Greenbaum, 1973: 191)

 Imperatives

According to Biber et al (1999:219), imperatives usually lack a subject, modals

and tense as well as aspect markers The omission of the subject is understandable since the context contributes to making it apparent that the omitted subject refers to the listener or the reader Leech (1966: 79-80) also agrees that the frequency of imperative clauses is considerably high in quotations and sayings In famous life quotes and sayings, the imperative sentences did not used

 Interrogatives

This type of sentence often contains presuppositions which convey implicit assumptions of power and gender relations (Fairclough, 1995) In famous life quotes and sayings, the interrogative sentences did not used

 Declaratives

It can be said that declarative sentences widely appear in famous life quotes and sayings since they are primarily used to convey information and the ultimate aim of life sayings is to inform people of the rules of life or the lessons it may bring For example:

Nine tenths of education is encouragement

The right way is not always the popular and easy way

Based on inner complexity, all sentences can be divided into simple, consisting of

a single clause and multiple, consisting of several clauses (Quirk et al., 1985:40)

Multiple sentences include complex sentence and compound sentence (Quirk et al,

1985:719)

 Complex sentence

A complex sentence is a sentence which consists of a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses

Life is trying things to see if they work

You cannot heal the world until you heal yourself

 Compound sentence

A compound sentence comprises two or more simple sentences linked by co-

ordinating conjunctions (and, or, but) and each clause is a main clause

In famous life sayings, the use of multiple sentences is limited because they can make an opposite intention for its creators Since long sentence structures would not

be read for their extent, it is also possible that readers

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated

Change your thoughts and you change your world

In short, in this thesis, we focus on simple sentences The following simple

sentences will be described carefully

2.3 An overview of simple sentences

2.3.1 English simple sentences

2.3.1.1 Definition

According to Warriner J.E (1997: 26) ―Simple sentence is a sentence that has one subject and one verb‖ However, this definition is insufficient because in a sentence there may be one or more subject and a verb or, in turn, one subject with one or more verbs, for example:

Mary and her boyfriend are doctors

S V C

According to Quirk, R and S, Greenbaum (1990: 166): ―A simple sentence is the sentence that consists of only one clause‖

According to Alexander (1988:4), ―The smallest sentence unit is the simple sentence A simple sentence normally has one finite verb It has a subject and a predicate‖ It is possible to make sure that the last definition by L.G Alexander is considered the most sufficient and satisfying one

According to Quirk (1971), ―A sentence is a group of words containing a subject and a finite verb (other parts if necessary) expressing a statement, a question, an explanation or a command.‖

According to Quirk et al (1972), a clause may be finite or non-finite depending upon the finiteness or non-finiteness of the verb it contains A simple sentence always contains a finite clause with just one finite verbal element But if there is a string which contains a non-finite verb form, that constitutes a non-finite clause if its own right, and it cannot, therefore, be a constituent of a simple sentence

In short, all these definition have not given us a satisfactorily acceptable or workable set of criteria to make a complete definition Anyway, they can help each

of us have a general idea of what a sentence is In term of communicative purposes, there are four kinds of simple sentence: statement, question, command and exclamation

2.3.1.2 Syntactic features of English simple sentence

 Sentence elements

As for modern grammarians, Quirk R.et al, (1990: 35 – 40, 53), a sentence may have five units called elements of sentence structure: Subject, Verb Phrase, Complement, Object and Adverbial, here abbreviated as: S, V, C, O, A

Predicate may consist of Verb Phrase, Complement, Objects or Adverbial

All the elements of sentence are realized by phrases Subject and Object are both realized by noun phrase (NP)

For example:

That picture is beautiful

S (NP)

He gave his wife a book

Subject usually goes before the verb The verb must agree with the subject, so the subject dictates the form of the verb (e.g.: I think, she thinks, etc.)

This ―agreement‖ between subject and verb is often called concord

Subject is usually at the beginning in ordinary affirmative sentence

For example:

Mary often goes to school by bus

S V

Generally, in all seven simple sentence patterns, subject always stand the beginning of the sentence before the verb It is the person, place, thing, quality or idea that you want to mention when you form a sentence

Lexical verbs: make, speak, eat …

Auxiliary verbs: { Primary: do, have, be Modal verb: can, may, could, etc

According to R Quirk (1990), many English verbs have five forms: the BASE, the – S form, the PAST, the – ING participle, and the – ED participle But irregular

lexical verb forms vary form three (eg: put, puts, putting) to eight (eg: be, am, is,

are, was, were, being, been) The modal auxiliaries are defective in not having

infinitive (to may), - ing participle (maying), - ed participle (mayed)

The position of modal auxiliaries: the modal auxiliary always stands before the main verb and after the subject in the sentence

Transitive verbs

Monotransitive verbs occurs in type SVO

Ditransitive verbs occur in type SVOO

Complex transitive verbs occur in types SVOC and SVOA

Nam asks me some questions

The complement often follows the subject, verb phrase and object in the structure S V C or S V O C

For example: She made me angry

(AdjP)

- The subject complement usually follows the subject and verb in the pattern SVC

It renames the subject

an adjective, another adverb, a clause or a sentence

For example:

We will stay there

Adverbial of place

The adverbial in a sentence can be an adverb phrase, a noun phrase, a preposition phrase, or a clause

Like subject, verb, and complement, adverbial is necessary to complete the meaning of the sentence or complete the sentence grammatically Sometimes, adverbial is optional sentence element

Some adverbials can only occur in fixed positions in the simple sentence pattern SVA, SVOA, but most adverbials are mobile, they can appear at difference positions in the simple sentence

We can distinguish three positions: initial, medial, and final position

- The initial position (before subject) with order: (A) SV; (A) SVO; (A) SVOC

(A) is an optional element in the sentence

For example:

Naturally, they are walking (Quirk, p167)

(A) S V

- The medial position in the patterns: S (A) V; S (A) VO; S (A) VOO; S (A)

VOC; S (A) VOA

- The final position in all seven sentence patterns as optional elements, but they are

obligatory elements in two patterns SVA and SVOA

After an intransitive verb: He speaks quickly

After any object: The girl is a student at a large university

After complement: He makes me angry many times

Therefore, adverbial, both optional and obligatory element can appear at difference positions in the simple sentence

In conclusion, it is certain that five elements have fixed positions in the simple sentence, subject stands at the beginning of sentence, just before verb Object has positions right after verb and subject in SVO, SVOA (there are two types of object:

Oi and Od, Oi precedes Od in the pattern SVOiOd) Complement appears after subject and verb in SVC or after object in SVOC Adverbial can take the positions after verb or after object in SVA and SVOA

+ Pattern 4: SVOA I put the plate on the table

S (NP) Vcomplex trans Od(NP) Aplace (Pre + NP)

+ Pattern 5: SVOC We have proved him wrong

S(NP) Vcomplex trans Od (NP) Co (AdjP)

+ Pattern 6: SVOiOd She gives me expressive presents

S(NP) Vditrans Oi(NP) Od(NP)

+ Pattern 7: SV The child laughed

She kindly sent us some photographs

Table 2.1 Sentence patterns (Quirk, Randolph, 1985) Type S(ubject) V(erb) O(bject(s)) C(omplement) A(dver

[4a]

a glass of milk

[6a]

This is the basis for us to determine the syntactic features of famous life quotes and sayings in English

2.3.2 Vietnamese simple sentences

2.3.2.1 Definition

As mentioned above, finding the answer to the question of the single question is,

we cannot be separated from the opposing positions, in which the concept of a simple sentence is formed To get an overview of the problem, first of all, we would like to point out some explanations about the simple sentence of an arithmetic fake when studying this problem

According to (Trương Văn Trình, Nguyễn Hiến Lê 1963: 479, 620), in a sentence that describes many things, a combination to describe a situation, we call it a owl) The sentence describing a situation is a simple sentence (What is the sentence that represents a simple sentence

According to (Nguyễn Kim Thản 1969: 25), the simple sentence is a sentence in your city that does not have subordinate clauses but only one subjective structure)

A simple sentence is a sentence made up of only one word or phrase

According to (Lưu Van Lang 1970: 50), a simple sentence is a complete sentence

of two components: subject and discourse; When these parts are in reduced form, the sentence is in the form of nuclear structure

According to (Hoang Trong Pha 1980: 104), simple sentences are the most common base type of verbal communication The majority of Vietnamese simple sentences correspond to the Master-Position structure The number of factors involved is not greater than the compound sentence (the number of elements is not

a sign of a simple sentence with a compound sentence) A type of sentence that carries semantic information itself

According to (Hữu Quỳnh 1980: 137), the simple sentence is a simple sentence consisting of a predicate unit, with a subject relationship as the core is a core unit

of two subjective and predicate components The predicate unit is related to the Host (C-V for short) with different relations

According to (Socialist Committee 1983: 167), a simple sentence is a type of sentence consisting of one sentence, one simple core and the most normal is the single core case with the theory that the core N = a + b

According to (Diệp Quang Ban 1984: 6), a simple sentence is a sentence made up

of a cluster of Masters - Persons, in an independent position and bearing an end tone

The review of the explanations presented above can be seen, basically, the researchers agree that normal simple sentences (two components) are basically structured sentences: c - V (master - taste) is often called another name: D-T (theory - theory) Thus, the name of a simple sentence is not outside of its structure (simple or complex) However, the consensus of the researchers in calling this unit

is not necessarily has ensured consistency in their specific handling situations

2.3.2.2 Syntactic features of Vietnamese simple sentence

 Sentence elements

There are also five main elements in the Vietnamese simple sentence: Subject, Verb, Objects, Complement, and Adverbial These elements are realized by phrase

In Vietnamese, sentences are divided into 3 components: main component, auxiliary component and isolated component Main components include subject and predicate Additional components include proverbs and complements Isolated components include mood components, call and answer components, annotation components and exclamation components A simple sentence consists of the main and auxiliary components:

 Subject

Subject is the main component of the sentence stating the phenomena with phenomena, characteristics, status, described in the predicate The subject usually

answers questions Who, What?

Subjects are usually nouns, pronouns, or noun phrases Sometimes adjectives, adjective phrases, verbs, and verb phrases can also be subjective

For example:

Lão nhà giàu ngu ngốc ngồi khóc

Noun phrase

 Predicate

The predicate is the main component of the sentence that is able to combine

with time-related adverbs and answer questions for What to do? How? or What?

Predicates are usually verbs or verb phrases, adjectives or adjectives, nouns or noun phrases

Adverbs can be a word, a phrase or a subject-predicate phrase Adverbs usually stand at the beginning of a sentence At the beginning of the sentence, it is separated

by a comma Sometimes the adverb stands in the middle of the sentence or at the end of the sentence At the end of a sentence, the adverb usually has a matching word

Between adverbs and main components of sentences are usually separated by commas (when writing) and breaks (when speaking)

Types of adverbs:

- Adverbs of time: Sáng nay, chúng em đi lao động.

- Adverbs of place: Trong lớp, Đạt là học sinh giỏi nhất

- Adverbs indicating cause: Vì rét, những cây bàng rụng hết lá.

- Adverbs of purpose only: Để đạt học sinh giỏi, Nam đã cố gắng chăm chỉ học tập

Function: raising topics in sentences with emphasis

Ability to combine: behind the relations from: về, mà, còn, với, đối với…

+ Pattern 1: NP1 + là/ bằng/ tại + NP2/ Verb

(i) NP1 + là + NP2: (equivalent to the pattern SVC in English) It indicates

relational process For example:

Anh ta là thợ mộc (Diệp Quang Ban, 2004)

(iii) NP1 + tại/ bởi/ do + NP2: It indicates causing relation For example:

Việc này tại nó (Diệp Quang Ban, 2004)

NP1 tại NP2

(iv) NP1 + để + Verb + NP2: (as pattern SVO in English; NP1 is Subject (S)

and NP2 is Object (O)) It is used for intended relation For example:

Bàn ấy để uống nước (Diệp Quang Ban, 2004)

S (NP1) để V O (NP2)

(v) NP1 + của + NP2: It expresses dependent relation For example:

Cái này của mẹ

NP1 của NP2

Xe này của Giáp (Diệp Quang Ban, 2004)

NP1 của NP2

(vi) NP1 + ngoài/ trên + NP2: (equivalent to the pattern SVA in English): It

expresses relation of places or position For example:

Ông tôi ngoài vườn (Diệp Quang Ban, 2004)

NP1 ngoài NP2

(vii) NP1 + như + NP2: (equivalent with pattern SVC in English): It

indicates comparatives relation For example:

Anh ấy như người ốm (Diệp Quang Ban, 2004)

S (NP1) như C (NP2)

+ Pattern 2: NP1 + Adj: (like the pattern SVC)

(i) NP1 + Adj in which complement is an adjective of space, time or quantity For example:

Phố // vắng

S (NP1) C (Adj)

Đêm // khuya

S (NP1) C (Adj)

(ii) NP1 + Adj of quality, or character

For example: : Từ vào thu đến nay: (Tản Đà)

Máy bay // cất cánh

S (NP1) V

(ii) NP1 + V + NP2: indicates actions that affects other actions directly

(equivalent to pattern SVO)

(A); like SVA)

(iv) NP1 + V + NP2 + NP3 (NP1 is Subject (S); NP2 is indirect Object (Oi);NP3

is direcr Object (Od); equivalent to the pattern SVOO in English)

Xe này máy hỏng

NP1 NP2 V

Cây này lá vàng (Diệp Quang Ban, 2004)

NP1 NP2 Adj

+ Pattern 5: NP1 + Idiom (Ngữ cố định) (NP + fixed phrases)

Let‘s consider the following examples:

Anh ấy “ba voi không được bát nước sáo”

In non-functional linguistics, a sentence is a textual unit consisting of one or

more words that are grammatically linked In functional linguistics, a sentence is a

unit of written texts delimited by graphological features such as upper case letters

and markers such as periods, question marks, and exclamation marks

2.4.2 Classification the meanings of English sentence

2.4.2.1 Denotative

Barthes in Piliang (1999) explains, the denotative is signification level which

describes the relationship between signifier and signified, or between the mark the

reference to the reality, which generates explicit meaning, direct meaning, and

definite meaning Denotative meaning is also referred to as first order signification Denotative is the most conventional signification level in society, namely the elements of sign in which meaning tend to be agreed socially

Simply, the denotative is described as the meaning of words that do not contain additional feelings So, it is called denotative Denotative have some other term, such as referential meaning, the meaning of conceptual, or ideational meaning

Meanwhile, according to Pierce in Noth (1995), denotative level is writing all the visual sign which exist For example, there are images of humans, animals, trees, houses The color is also noted, such as red, yellow, blue, white, and so on At this step, only date information which is submitted While Saussure identify that the denotative meanings is meaning which can be learned on the physical objects (anatomical principles, materials, functional) For example, the principles of anatomy, a snake, the snake anatomically will have a meaning that snakes are one of reptiles which does not have legs And the meaning of snake will be agreed by all the people, because nature of denotative meaning is conventional

So, something that we see definitely denotative, connotative is what we see

in the picture, in other words, the image itself raises denotation Denotative in itself would be a connotation, and then connotative become denotative When connotative

of sign has been general used and understood as a definite meaning

―snake‖ is an elongate, legless, carnivorous reptile The connotation is that it is a symbol of evil or danger

Connotative is signification level which explains between signifier and signified which in both operates meaning that is not explicit, indirect and indefinite

(opened for all interpretation) (Barthes in Sobur, 2006: viii) Connotative opens the possibility of broad interpretation In general, the connotation has relation with personal experience or community speakers that react and give meaning emotive connotations For example: smooth, rough / not, polite, pejorative, familiar, childhood, fun, scary, danger, calm, etc This kind is not limited The aim of this connotation dismantles hidden meanings

For example, there is a picture truncated triangular then denotative of

truncated triangular will be same truncated triangular While connotative meaning

is subjective, varieties, and depends on personal experience or culture Thus, if there

is a picture truncated triangular, someone may interpret it as a symbol of world

conspiracy or Zionist etc So, connotative emphasizes to interpretation, breaking off

of everything which exist behind sign based on each experience

Bathes create second order signification, which is formed when the signifier is associated with a variety of psychological aspects, such as feelings, emotions, or beliefs, which is called the connotative meaning The purpose of the psychological signifier associated with this is, when someone saw a sign on the object, and then the sign has a meaning where the meaning has relation with feelings, beliefs and emotions at definite moment Therefore, connotative meanings contained on a sign will not always be the same

Connotative meanings include all suggestive significance of the symbol more than the referential meaning According to Pierce, in connotative level, we read something‘s implied For example, picture of smiling people, it can be interpreted as

an expression of friendliness or happiness But vice versa, smile could be interpreted as an expression of humiliation to someone To understand connotative meaning, the other elements of which must be understood anyway

Barthes explains in Malik (2009), in connotative level, meaning is resulted with relation between signifier and culture widely which involve belief, habits, framework and ideology of a social formation In this level, subject signifies a sign based on what is in his or her mind, in the concept of Pierce; denotation in this case

is located on subject view as definition of representment

Connotative meaning can be subjective in the sense that there is a shift from the general meaning, namely denotative That is why, connotative also can be said

as an emotion or feeling which is believed by a group of people Thus, connotative can be a figurative of denotative itself or hidden meaning

2 5 Socio-cultural features in English and in Vietnamese

―denotes a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes

toward life.‖ (p 89)

To make it laconic and easier to understand, culture can be seen as ―a set of widely accepted behaviour patterns, fundamental assumptions and values as well as common experience‖ It is said to profoundly shape or strongly influence social structures, communication styles and even stipulate behaviour or etiquette of all people in a particular society Actually, it is culture that has an enormous influence

on the way we act and respond, the way we produce, send and normally interpret different kinds of information Li (2005, p 23) noted that according to many cultural experts, culture has these four basic and noteworthy attributes:

Firstly, culture is not a kind of biological and natural inheritage but is learnt or inherited socially and gradually Hudson (1980, p.74) concurred with this point, saying that culture should be taken as ―socially acquired knowledge‖

Secondly, culture does not ever belong to any individuals in particular Absolutely, it‘s shared by all members of a community

In addition, as buttressed by Geertz (1973, p 89), culture is ―a symbolic meaning system‖ In that special system, language is one of the most crucial parts which can

be likened as a key factor, playing the role of an essential medium to transmit much

2.5.2 Language

The linguistic concept of language is the central focus, not the metaphorical uses

of the language concept that one meets in other cultural and societal studies, not least those with a semiotic or formal orientation, and in everyday language

Stuart Hall described language like this:

How does language construct meanings? How does it sustain the dialogue