A contrastive analysis on lexical cohesive devices used in business news on english and vietnamese online newspapers

CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A Contrastive Analysis on Lexical Cohesive Devices Used in Business News on English and Vietnamese Online Newspap

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.02.01

HA NOI, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.02.01

Supervisor: Dr Ngô Tự Lập

HA NOI, 2014

CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A Contrastive Analysis on Lexical

Cohesive Devices Used in Business News on English and Vietnamese Online Newspapers” is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree

of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Hanoi, 2014

Phạm Thị Tố Loan

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Ngô Tự Lập for his profound knowledge, constant encouragement and invaluable advice without which the study would not have been possible

My heartfelt thanks also go to my colleagues at Vietnam University of Commerce for their substantial help and unconditional support

I especially owe a debt of gratitude to my adorable son, my caring husband, and my thoughtful parents who give me ample inspiration, strength and willpower

in the completion of my thesis

Lastly, my gratefulness is also extended to linguists in reference section whose ideas and viewpoints significantly enlighten me and lead me to the right track

ABSTRACTS

The purpose of this study is to work towards the similarities and differences between lexical cohesive devices used in business news on English and Vietnamese online newspapers With this aim, 30 news items are taken from prestigious websites, such as BBC, CNN, Vneconomy, Cafef for calculating, synthesizing and analyzing the use of lexical cohesive devices in both languages The result shows that the repetition proves to be the most effective and predominant device in both English and Vietnamese news It is also revealed that the Adjective+Noun collocation in English news appears to exert its dominance over Vietnamese one However, Vietnamese news has the tendency to use the largest portion of Noun+Noun pattern among all types of collocation The results will facilitate English majors to write cohesive essays and produce accurate translation between English and Vietnamese news Additionally, the study also put forth some suggestions for further research in the future It is hoped that the findings and implications for learning and teaching English in this thesis will ensure a surefire success for English majors in the pursuit of advanced English

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgment ……… ii

Abstract……… ….iii

Tables of contents ……….…… iv

List of Abbreviations ……….……… vi

List of tables ……… ……… vii

List of figures……… ……… viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION………1

1 Rationale ……… …1

2 Aims of the study……… 2

3 Research questions of the study…………….……….2

4 Scope of the study …………… ………3

5 Methods of the study ………….…….…3

6 Design of the study ……… 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT …………… ……… …5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW………5

1.1 Cohesion……… 5

1.1.1 The concept of cohesion……………… … 5

1.1.2 Cohesion vs Coherence……….6

1.1.3 Types of cohesion……….6

1.1.4 Lexical cohesion……… 8

1.1.4.1 Reiteration……… 9

1.1.4.2 Collocation……… ….11

1.2 Online newspapers………

… 12

1.2.1.Definition of online newspaper………12

1.2.2 Features of online newspapers………13

1.3 News ……… 14

1.3.1 Definition………14

1.3.2 Characteristics of news……… 15

1.3.3 Business news……….15

1.4 Related studies……….….16

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHOD……… ….18

2.1 The subjects of the study……… …….18

2.2 Methodology……… …… ….22

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ……… …… ……23

3.1 Frequency of using lexical cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese online newspapers ……… ….22

3.1.1 Reiteration………….……… ….23

3.1.2 Collocation……… …….25

3.2 Similarities and differences in the use of lexical cohesive devices in business news on English and Vietnamese online newspapers.……… ……28

3.2.1 Similarities……… ……… ….28

3.2.2 Differences……… ……… …….32

PART C: CONCLUSION…………….… …….35

1 Recapitulation ……… ……… …… ……35

2 Implications……….37

3 Limitations of the study……….……….38

5 Suggestions for further research……… ……….39

REFERENCES ……… ……….40 APPENDICES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.2: Grammatical and Lexical Cohesion……… 8 Table 2.1: List of business news on English online newspapers………… 19 Table 2.2: List of business news on Vienamese online newspapers……… 21 Table 3.1: The frequency of reiteration in business news on Vietnamese

Table 3.3: The frequency of reiteration in business news on English and

Vietnamese online newspaper………

Table 3.6: The frequency of collocation in business news on English and

Vietnamese online newspapers………

27

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1: Logos of some prestigious English online newspapers 12 Figure 1.2: Logos of some famous Vietnamese online newspapers 13

PART A - INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Nowadays, the widespread use of the Internet has made it possible for people

to update news anywhere and anytime through online newspapers Apparently, online newspaper is a crucial part of our life as it keeps us well-informed about what is happening around us within one click An enormous amount of news on daily newspapers provides us with the latest national and international events on a wide range of topics such as: business, sports, education, society, politics, culture, etc News not only helps to increase our knowledge but also serves as a source of entertainment With this in mind, the author has made an attempt to do research concerning with news, staying focus on online news due to the ubiquitous of the Internet

Additionally, as an English teacher at Vietnam University of Commerce, the author has many chances to approach business English and takes interest in teaching business English to students in general and English majors in particular In an effort

to improve business English to students, the author has adopted authentic materials including business online news which proves to be very effective and convenient in class Besides, students are also encouraged to spend time reading business online news at home as it is very beneficial to them in many ways The most recognizable benefits involve the increased knowledge and extended vocabulary in business

However, there is a strong likelihood that students often encounter a lot of troubles in comprehending the news due to the complicated semantic relation between the lexical items in the text or numerous new words in the news Thus, understanding cohesive devices within a text gives students more insight into how writers organize what they want to say since lexical cohesion deals with meaning in text Halliday and Hasan (1976) claimed that “cohesive effect is achieved by the selection of vocabulary” To some extend, an acquisition of lexical cohesive devices will facilitate understanding of business news among students

Furthermore, the writer has the ambition to make a distinction of the lexical cohesive devices used in business news between English and Vietnamese online newspapers with the aim to figure out the similarities and differences of business

news in both languages Thus, the study entitled “A contrastive analysis of lexical

cohesive devices used in business news on English and Vietnamese online newspapers” was conducted to achieve this aim The findings of the study will

hopefully lay a solid foundation to both teachers and learners in the mastery of business English news; more importantly, create background for translation between the two languages and consequently, enhance the teaching and learning of business English

2 Aims of the study

The main aims of the thesis are as follows:

- To figure out the types of lexical cohesive devices in business news on English and Vietnamese online newspapers

- To identify the frequency and roles of lexical cohesive devices that attribute to the success of business news in Vietnamese and English online newspaper

- To pinpoint the similarities and differences between lexical cohesive devices used

in English and Vietnamese online business news

3 The research questions of the study

In order to achieve the aforementioned aims, the study is intended to find out the answer to three following research questions:

1 What are the types of lexical cohesive devices used in business news on English and Vietnamese online newspapers?

2 How frequent are lexical cohesive devices used in English and Vietnamese online business news and their corresponding roles?

3 What are the similarities and differences in the use of lexical cohesive devices between English and Vietnamese online business news?

4 Scope of the study

Currently, online newspapers offer a large number of issues namely: Sport, Entertainment, Political, Technology, Health, Business, etc However, within the framework of this minor thesis, the author only has intention to focus on the use of lexical cohesive devices in online Business news

It is noted that the ubiquitous Internet has made it easier for readers to access

to a wide range of online newspapers than ever before Multitude of newspapers in English consist of BBC, CNN, AP, AFP, CNBC, ABCNEWS, REUTERS, BLOOMBERGE, etc Likewise, newspapers in Vietnamese comprise a number of sites like VNEXPRESS, VNECONOMY, CAFEF, DANTRI, VIETNAMNET, THANHNIEN, TUOITRE, LAODONG, and the list goes on Due to countless sites with numerous articles released and updated every minute daily, the author merely desire to select business news from two prestigious agencies in English including BBC (www.bbc.com) and CNN (www.edition.cnn.com) and two business oriented websites in Vietnamese namely, VNECONOMY (www.vneconmy.vn) and CAFEF (www.cafef.vn)

As clearly stated above, the focus of the study work towards the similarities and differences of lexical cohesive devices used in business news on English and Vietnamese online newspapers

5 Methods of the study

In the completion of the study, a variety of methods has been adopted, among which the main methods are qualitative and quantitative The data is taken from 30 business articles on both English and Vietnamese online newspapers (15

articles on English online newspapers and 15 articles on Vietnamese ones) to distinguish the similarities and differences This method involves three steps: first, identify common types of cohesive devices used in English and Vietnamese online business news, then figure out the frequency of occurrence of such lexical cohesive devices and finally, compare and contrast to pinpoint how the two languages resemble and differ from each other Invariably, other techniques such as reference

to materials, consultation with the supervisor, and personal observations also count

6 Design of the study

The study is composed of three main parts organized as follows:

Part 1 – INTRODUCTION specifies the background of the study which covers a wide range of information such as rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methods, and design of the study

Part 2 – DEVELOPMENT is broken into three chapters

Chapter 1 provides an overview of literature on cohesion, lexical cohesion,

online newspapers, news in general and business news in particular

Chapter 2 discusses the research method of the study

Chapter 3 deals with the findings and discussion of the study

Part 3 – CONCLUSION summarizes the main issues of the study, accompanied by limitations and suggestions for further study Additionally, some possible implications for language teaching, learning and translations when using business news as materials in classroom are presented

PART B - DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Cohesion

1.1.1 The concept of cohesion

Cohesion is involved with lexical, grammatical, and other relations which connect different parts of a text Halliday and Hasan (1976) hold the view that the primary factor of whether a set of sentences do or do not constitute a text depends

on cohesive relationships within and between the sentences, which create texture Halliday and Hasan (1976) stated that:

Cohesion occurs where the interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependent on that of another The one presupposes the other, in the sense that it cannot be effectively decoded except by recourse to it When this happens, a relation of cohesion is set up, and the two elements, the presupposing and the presupposed, are thereby at least potentially integrated into the text (Halliday and Hassan 1976:4)

The concept of cohesion is thus a semantic one, and like all the components

of semantic system cohesion is realized through grammar and vocabulary Cohesion can therefore be broken into grammatical and lexical cohesion Grammatical cohesion includes devices such as reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction, whereas lexical cohesion is divided into reiteration (repetition, synonymy, near synonym, and superordinate) and collocation (co-occurrence of lexical items) (Halliday and Hasan 1976)

In a word, cohesion refers to the linguistic constituents that make a discourse semantically coherent; or according to Hoa (2000: 23) “cohesion refers to the formal relationship that causes texts to cohere or stick together”

of all”, “then” and “finally” are used to create the sequence of a discourse

“However”, “moreover”, or “in addition” link ideas and arguments in a discourse

On the other hand, coherence refers to the unity created between the ideas, sentences, paragraphs and sections of a piece of writing It also gives the reader a sense of what to expect and, therefore, makes the reading easier to follow as the ideas appear to be presented in a natural way

In other words, cohesion is considered as glue that sticks together from sentence and sentence, and from paragraph and paragraph Meanwhile, coherence is concerned with sequences of ideas which relate to each other and it places much emphasis on meaning

1.1.3 Types of cohesion

As mentioned above, cohesion is divided into two types, namely grammatical cohesion (reference, substitution, ellipsis, and conjunction), and lexical cohesion which include “reiteration” or “collocation” Reiteration is not only the repetition of the same lexical item but also the occurrence of a related item which may be a synonym, a near synonym or a superordinate (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:279), and collocation is achieved through the association of lexical items that regularly co-occur (Halliday & Hasan 1976:284)

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), cohesion is classified according to linguistic form Types of cohesion depends either on semantic relation in the linguistic system or on lexico-grammatical relations In other words, the cohesive relation can be interpreted as being either lexicogrammatical in nature or semantic

It can be illustrated clearly in the following description:

collocation Relatedness of reference Reference; lexical reiteration

(Haliday and Hasan, 1976:304)

Table 1.1: Types of Cohesion Reference, substitution and ellipsis and conjunctions are four types of grammatical cohesion while lexical cohesion encompasses reiteration and collocation We can refer to grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion as follows:

(Halliday and Hasan, 1976; Benson et al, 1986)

Table 1.2: Grammatical and Lexical Cohesion 1.1.4 Lexical cohesion

Lexical cohesion refers to close relationships in meaning between lexical items in a text and, more precisely, content words and the relationship between them Apparently, cohesion occurs when the interpretation of some components in the discourse is dependent on that of another There are two main kinds of lexical

cohesion which are reiteration (including repetition, synonym, near-synonym, superordinate) and collocation

1.1.4.1 Reiteration

Reiteration is a form of lexical cohesion which comprises the repetition of a lexical item, or the use of words which have similar meaning, so-called synonym or near-synonym, or the use of words which have specific – general relation as in superordinate

Repetition

Repetition is concerned with words that are repeated in a text This involves words which are inflected for tense or number and words which are derived from particular items such as Stu and Stuart

In the following example, mushroom is repeated twice to ensure the cohesion

of the text:

There was a large mushroom growing near her, about the same height as herself;

and when she had looked under it, it occurred to her that she might as well look and see what was on the top of it

She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom,…

(Halliday and Hassan 1976:278) Needless to say, this is the most occurring form of lexical cohesion since it is merely identical to the preceding lexical items

Synonym

Synonym refers to words which are similar in meaning such as ascent and

climb in the below illustration:

“Accordingly … I took leave, and turned to the ascent of the peak The climb is

perfectly easy …” (Halliday and Hassan 1976:278)

Climb refers back to ascent in a way that both terms have the same level of generality and are therefore synonym in a narrower sense

Near-synonym

Near synonyms are words that have the same meaning but differ in lexical nuances Hassan and Halliday (1976) exemplified this issue with the following extract:

Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,

And leaping down the ridges lightly, plung’d

Among the bulrush beds, and clutch’d the sword

And lightly wheel’d and threw it The great brand

Made light’nings in the spendour of the moon…

In this example, brand refers back to sword, of which it is a near synonym

1.1.4.2 Collocation

Collocation refers to the natural combination of words, the way in which English words are closely associated with each other

Benson, Benson and Ilson (1986a-b) defined collocation as follows:

In English, as in other languages, there are many fixed, identifiable, non-idiomatic phrases and constructions Such group of words are called recurrent combinations, fixed combinations, or collocations Collocations fall into two major groups: grammatical collocations and lexical collocations (1986b: ix)

Examples of grammatical collocations include: account for, by accident, take over, etc They consist of a noun, an adjective, or a verb, plus a preposition of grammatical structure such as an infinitive or clause Lexical collocations, on the other hand, do not contain prepositions, infinitives, or clauses, but consist of various combinations of nouns, adjectives verbs and adverbs Benson (1986) categorizes several types of lexical collocations:

1 Verb + Noun: make decision, run a company,

2 Adjective + Noun: strong coffee, profitable business

3 Noun + Verb: economy grows, sales increase

4 Noun1 + Noun2: a herd of buffalo, business trip

5 Adverb + Adjective: slightly different, hugely profitable

6 Verb + Adverb: change rapidly, spend lavishly

Within the scope of this minor thesis, the author has no ambition to cover both grammatical and lexical collocation Instead, she just makes an attempt to

explore the use of lexical collocation in business news on both English and Vietnamese newspapers

1.2 Online newspapers

1.2.1 Definition of online newspaper

An online newspaper is the online version of a newspaper, either as a alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical Online newspapers stand many good chances of competing with broadcast journalism (such as radio and television) in updating breaking news in a more timely manner Actually, online newspapers share some common features with printed newspapers, such as having legal boundaries regarding libel, pricacy and copyright

stand-Nowadays, there is an increasing number of online newspapers offering news about all aspects of life ranging from education to business Most visited newpapers

in English include: BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, etc The logos of some best-known sites in English are presented below

Figure 1.1: Logos of some prestigious English online newspapers

Regarding online newspapers in Vietnam, on November 19th 1997, our country officially joined global information network as a direct consequence of radical growth in online newspapers worldwide In February 1998, the online

version of “Que huong” became the first electronic Vietnamese

newspapers on the Internet Up to the present days, Vietnam has witnessed a boom in the development of hundreds of online newspapers The following logos represent prestigious sites of Vietnamese online newspapers:

Figure 1.2: Logos of some famous Vietnamese online newspapers

1.2.2 Features of online newspapers

Online newspapers have the following noticeable features:

 Online newspaper can be published in real time, updating breaking news and events every minute

 Online newspaper can comprise multimedia elements such as: text and graphics (newspapers and books), sound, music, motion video, and animation (broadcast radio, TV, film), 3D, etc

 There is a high interactivity on online newspapers Precisely, hyperlinks help to link various elements of a lengthy and complex work, introduce numerous points of view, and add depth and detail Sometimes online newspapers comprise of hyperlinked set of web pages which can themselves include hyperlinks to other websites

 Readers can respond instantly to articles presented by the online journalists; this response can take several forms Email to the reporter or editor resembles the traditional letter to editor of print publications, but email letters can be published much sooner online than in print

 Online newspapers can also take advantage of threaded discussions that let readers respond immediately to an article, and to the comments of other readers,

in a bulletin board-style discussion that can be accessed at any time

1.3 News

1.3.1 Definition

According to Richard Campbell (2013), news was defined as follows:

“News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.”

Oxford Advanced Learners’ dictionary explains that news is “reports of recent events that appear in newspapers or on television or radio”

Another noteworthy definition specifies that news is all of the following:

- information, especially information you haven’t heard before,

- something interesting or important to you,

- something that has or will have an impact on you and others,

- what the media report

(James Schaffer, 2009)

Putting it all together, we say news is information we haven’t had before that

is delivered through a mass medium and has some impact on our lives

1.3.2 Characteristics of news

People, events and information that are newsworthy share common identifiable characteristics Not all characteristics are present in every news story, but every item that is newsworthy will have one or more of these characteristics: timeliness, prominence, proximity, conflict, impact and human interest

 Timeliness: an event is reported as soon as it happens An accident, a fire, the signing of a peace treaty or the result of an election is news when it happens

 Proninence: is about someone whose name or job (such as the president of the United States) is well known and easily recognized by the public

 Proximity: refers to a news story that happens close to home

 Conflict: involes two sides engaged in a “battle” from which one will emerge the winner, such as a story about war, an athletic competition or an election

 Impact: is based on the effect or cosequence the story will have on the audience

 Human interest: refers to story that satisfies your curiosity about other people and what happens to them

1.3.3 Business news

It is without a doubt that business news involves news about business and investment The Telegraph online specifies that business news involves “what is happening in the economy, companies, share and money markets and how you can make the most of your personal finances.”

With regards to business news on English online newspaper, there is a wide range of topics such as Markets, Economy, Investing, Small business, Entrepreneurship, Companies, Stock markets Likewise, business news on

Vietnamese online newspapers is commonly categorized into various groups like: Stock Market, Entrepreneur, Real Estate, Market, Tech, Companies, Finance and Banking, Macro-economics

Obviously, all the articles on both English and Vietnamese online newspapers share the same visible features For instance, both present financial facts and figures, analyze and evaluate current situations and give prediction to the future

1.4 Related studies

Cohesion in general and lexical cohesive devices in particular has long been of great interest to many researchers For instance, in her graduation paper, Bui Thi Nhung (2007) has made an attempt to analyse lexical cohesive devices used in English letters of enquiry The paper draws some conclusions about the frequently used devices including reiteration and collocation in letters of enquiry in English and makes some suggestions for further studies Likewise, Tran Thi Thanh Hai (2001) has conducted a study entitled: “A Contrastive Analysis of English and Vietnamese Sales Letters” to identify the similarities and differences between the use of lexical cohesive devices, namely reiteration (including repetition, synonyms, near-synonyms, superordinate) and collocation (comprising Noun-collocations and others) in English and Vietnamese sales letters It is also worth mentioning a another research by Pham Phuong Lan (2012) which analyses lexical cohesive devices from some reading texts of the course book "English for Business Study" Pham points out some common lexical devices used in several selected texts in Business English course book based on the taxonomy of cohesion by Halliday and Hasan The result of study shows that of all the devices, repetition occurs most frequently in creating the cohesion of the texts

Apparently, among previous studies, none has been talked about the use of lexical cohesive devices in business news, to be more specific, in business online

news in English and Vietnamese newspapers This encourages the author to do research on this issues with the hope to bring to light the similarities and differences

in the use of lexical cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese business online news

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHOD 2.1 The subject of the study

The subjects of the study comprise 30 pieces of news of which 15 pieces come from English online newspapers and the same amount are taken from Vietnamese ones With regard to English news, two world-wide prestigious news agencies, namely BBC and CNN are fully exploited Specifically, the author gathered news in business section on http://www.bbc.com/news/business/ and http://money.cnn.com/ In an effort to compare and contrast the use of lexical cohesive devices between English and Vietnamese online news, two Vietnamese sites: http://vneconomy.vn/ and http://cafef.vn/ are taken advantage of

The length of these news items varies from 126 to 500 words and covers a wide range of business-related topics As seen from the homepage display of BBC, the business section on http://www.bbc.com/news/business/ is categorized into: Market Data, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Business of Sport, Companies, Technologies of Business, and Knowledge of Economy Whereas, business news on http://money.cnn.com/ is composed of Market, Investing, Economy, Tech, Personal Finance, Small Business, Luxury, Media Regarding Vietnamese news on http://vneconomy.vn/, the following sections are displayed on homepage: Breaking news, Finance, Stock Market, Real Estate, Market, World, Tech Meanwhile, http://cafef.vn/ offers to readers various sections including Stock Market, Real Estate, Companies, Finance and Banking, International Finance, Macroeconomics, Mechandise, Data

To ensure the reliability and validaty of the study, a variety of topics on the above mentioned newspapers are exploited and examined thoroughly for later calculation and synthesis of lexical cohesive devices

The following tables state the code, headlines, source and the date release of

30 selected news in English and Vietnamese online newspapers

released BNE01 Boeing raises 2014 profit forecast http://www.bbc.com/news/business-

27126940

23 April

2014 BNE02 Microsoft set to axe 18,000 jobs http://www.bbc.com/news/business-

28348223

17 July

2014 BNE03 US car makers report strong sales

figures for May

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27687909

3 June

2014 BNE04 Hewlett-Packard to cut up to 16,000

workers

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/18/n ews/economy/executive-pay-uk/

August

18, 2014 BNE06 Wages are falling in this booming

economy

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/13/n ews/economy/wages-uk-economy/

August

13, 2014 BNE07 Another fruit company wants to merge

with Chiquita

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/11/n ews/companies/chiquita-banana/

August

11, 2014 BNE08 Sony reports first annual profit in five

rises

europe-28849726

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-19 August

2014 BNE10 Billionaire buys $201 million life

insurance policy

http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/16/n ews/billionaire-life-insurance/

March 16,

2014 BNE11 U.K bank hit with $300 million New

York fine

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/19/n ews/companies/stanchart-money- laundering/

August

19, 2014 BNE13 Google revenue helped by ads as

business boss leaves

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28359349

18 July

2014 BNE14 Eurozone inflation falls to 0.5% in

BNE15 French business output grew in

March, PMI survey says

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26712891

24 March

2014

Table 2.1: List of business news on English online newspapers

mạnh thứ 2 thế giới

khoan/quy-i-chung-khoan-viet- nam-tang-manh-thu-2-the-gioi- 2014040217012558712ca31.chn

http://cafef.vn/thi-truong-chung-02/04/2014

http://vneconomy.vn/tai-chinh/o- hang-20140408021845373.htm

8/4/2014

giá điện

truong/evn-lai-vuot-ke-hoach- nho-tang-gia-dien-

http://vneconomy.vn/thi-30/05/2014

BVN05 “Lãi suất có điều kiện để tiếp tục

giảm”

chinh/lai-suat-co-dieu-kien-de- tiep-tuc-giam-

http://cafef.vn/tin-tuc-toi-05/08/2014

Nam “vượt kỳ vọng”

nhan/doanh-thu-cua-starbucks-o- viet-nam-vuot-ky-vong-

http://vneconomy.vn/bat-dong-18/4/2014

kiểm toán

nghiep/hud1-loi-nhuan-tang-23-

http://cafef.vn/doanh-08/04/2014

201404080013278677ca36.chn

lợi nhuận sau thuế năm 2013 thêm

1,4 tỷ

nghiep/hud1-loi-nhuan-tang-23- sau-kiem-toan-

/08/2014

dầu Dung Quất

dau-tu/nga-muon-rot-3-ty-usd- vao-loc-dau-dung-quat- 201408221124012077ca33.chn

http://cafef.vn/doanh-nghiep/vst-201408181450250303ca36.chn

23/08/2014

http://vneconomy.vn/bat-dong- gap-doi-

Step 1 - Qualitative method: description and interpretation of some notions

based on the works of gurus and outstanding authors related to cohesion, lexical cohesion, online newspapers and news are revealed Alongside, the author’s observation through a number of articles on online newspapers also helps to envision the overall features of online news in genreral and the use of lexical cohesive devices in both English and Vietnamese news in particular

Step 2 - Quantitative method: Each type of cohesive devices in both English

and Vietnamese news are discovered, then counted separately, and finally calculated into the form of percentage for comparison

Step 3 - A combination of Qualitative and Quantitative methods: the

percentage of each type of cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese news are categorized in groups for comparing and contrasting It is through this process that the significant level of each lexical cohesive devices used in business news is explored thoroughly

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Frequency of using lexical cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese online newspapers

3.1.1 Reiteration

The following tables will demonstrate clearly the frequent use of repetition, synonym, near-synonym and superordinate of business news on English and Vietnamese online newspapers The figures are then calculated in the form of percentage for further comparing and contrasting between English and Vietnamese news

BNE Repetition Synonym Near synonym Superordinate

BNVN Repetition Synonym Near synonym Superordinate

Table 3.3: The frequency of reiteration in business news on English and

Vietnamese online newspapers

As shown from tables above, repetition constitutes the largest portion of all, which respectively accounts for 79.1% and 80% in English and Vietnamese news

Accordingly, synonym, near-synonym, and superordinate merely make up a small percentage It is noticeable that English news employs twice as many synonyms as Vietnamese one; the former occupies 7.3% and the later only make up a modest percentage of 3.6% Additionally, there is a slight difference in the use of near-synonym in English and Vietnamese news: 5.2% in English as compared to 6% in Vietnamese Lastly, the percentage shows that superordinate ranks second after repetition in terms of frequency of occurrence Business Vietnamese news has the tendency to use more superordinate rather than English one Precisely, about 8.4%

of superordinate is adopted in creating the cohesion of the text in English whereas, a higher percentage of 10.4% is utilized in Vietnamese news

In general, the above figures unfold the fact that repetition is by far the most frequently used in business news in both English and Vietnamese Needless to say,

it proves to be the most effective tool to maintain the cohesion in any text Furthermore, other lexical cohesive devices like synonym, near-synonym and superordinate also play vital roles in the creation of united meaning for the whole text

3.1.2 Collocation

The tables below will elaborate the frequency of occurrence of collocation in English and Vietnamese news Six components of collocation namely Verb+Noun, Adj+Noun, Noun+Verb, Noun1+Noun2, Adverb+Adjective and Verb+Adverb are counted and expressed as a percentage Obviously, the figures will serve as a source

to identify which subtype is mostly used in English and Vietnamese news and then the contrast between the two will be analyzed

BNE Collocation V+N Adj+N N+V N1 + N2

(N1 of N2)

Table 3.6: The frequency of collocation in business news on English and

Vietnamese online newspapers The table 2.8 reveals that in English news, Adjective+Noun is the most frequently used among all subtypes of collocation with the percentage of 28.9% On the contrary, a very low portion, approximately 5.3% of Adjective+Noun is used in Vietnamese news Another aspect concerning Noun+Noun collocation shows that Vietnamese news has the highest usage of this type which represents 43.9%; whereas only 26.7% is practised in English news As far as Verb+Noun collocation

is concerned, there is a considerable rate of Verb+Noun collocation in English and

Vietnamese with 25.6% and 29.6% respectively Although Noun+Verb collocation appears to take a small percentage of 12.2% in English and 10.6% in Vietnamese, the proportion of Adverb+Adj is even lower than Noun+Verb which makes up 4.4%

in English and 1.5% in Vietnamese It is noteworthy that Verb+Adverb collocation merely constitutes 2.2% in English news; however in Vietnamese news the percentage is nearly five times as much as English one

It can be concluded that in English business news, Adjective+Noun is likely preferable than any other types of collocation Meanwhile in Vietnamese business news, Noun+Noun collocation is deemed the most effective tool to maintain the cohesion of the text

3.2 Similarities and Differences in the use of lexical cohesive devices in business news on English and Vietnamese online newspapers

3.2.1 Similarities

The first noticeable similarity is that the mostly used cohesive device in both languages is the repetition of the content words or sometimes key words throughout the articles In English news, the frequently occurred words are listed as follows:

Profit, earning, quarter, share, revenue, firm, sales, jobs, business, employee, company, economy, etc

Meanwhile, Vietnamese news inclines to use the following words at high frequency:

doanh nghiệp, doanh thu, khách hàng, thị trường, lãi suất, ngân hàng, lợi nhuận, thuế, dự án, đầu tư, etc

Actually, such words in both languages occurred so frequently due to the fact

that they are associated with key issues in business such as profit, revenue,

company, etc These common terms are always of great concern for readers as well

as firms or those who take interest in economy

The second common thing in lexical cohesive devices between English and Vietnamese news is the repetition of proper nouns including proper names, company names, countries, cities, etc For instance, the following words are mentioned repeatedly in some English and Vietnamese news items:

CEO Howard Schultz, Boeing, Microsoft, UK, US, HP, Sony, Russia, , Hud1, Bánh kẹo Hải Hà, VietJet, Nga, Gazprom Neft, VST, Hà nội

The third prominent similarity is easily recognizable through the use of superordinate Truly, superordinate in both English and Vietnamese rank second after repetition in forming the unity of the whole text Superordinate is commonly known as a word that includes the meaning of more specific words

The following cases are good examples of superordinate found in some English and Vietnamese news items:

o Car makers: General motor, Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen (BNE03)

o Income: pay, bonus, salary, wage (BNE06)

o Fruit: oranges, apples, peaches, lemons (BNE07)

o Currency: yen, US dollar (BNE08)

o City: Moscow, St Petersburg (BNE09)

o Country: Russia, Ukraine, US, China (BNE09)

o Quốc gia: Việt Nam, Dubai, Philippines, Ai Cập, Quartar, Indonesia, Nga, Trung Quốc (BNVN01)

o Ngân hàng: HD bank, Ocean bank, AB bank, Ngân hàng Nhà nước (BNVN02)

o Luật: Luật nhà ở, luật kinh doanh bất động sản (BNVN04)

o Giá: giá lương thực thực phẩm, giá hàng hóa cơ bản (BNVN05)

o Vay: vay nội tệ, vay ngoại tệ (BNVN05)

o Thành phố: London, New York, Hồ Chí Minh, Bangkok (BNVN07)

Finally, in terms of collocation, English and Vietnamese share one thing in common which is clearly seen from the figures above Both languages make use of

a small percentage of Noun+Verb pattern, and both even use smaller portion of Adverb+Adjective collocation Undoubtedly, not much attention is given to these two types in the process of unifying the whole text in both English and Vietnamese news

Some examples of N+V in English news are:

Examples of Adv+Adj in English business news include: