Determiners in english noun phrases and their vietnamese translation in the work the great gatsby

THESIS DETERMINERS IN ENGLISH NOUN PHRASES AND THEIR VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION IN THE WORK “THE GREAT GATSBY” Từ hạn định trong cụm danh từ tiếng Anh và cách dịch của chúng sang tiếng Vi

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

DETERMINERS IN ENGLISH NOUN PHRASES AND THEIR VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION IN THE WORK “THE GREAT GATSBY”

(Từ hạn định trong cụm danh từ tiếng Anh

và cách dịch của chúng sang tiếng Việt trong

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

DETERMINERS IN ENGLISH NOUN PHRASES AND THEIR VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION IN THE WORK “THE GREAT GATSBY”

(Từ hạn định trong cụm danh từ tiếng Anh

và cách dịch của chúng sang tiếng Việt trong

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

“Determiners in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese translation in the work

“The Great Gatsby” 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, 2020

Chu Thị Hạnh

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Dr Dang Ngoc Huong

Date: 4/7/2020

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to show my sincere gratitude to Dr Dang Ngoc Huong, my supervisor who has given me the inspiring and invaluable guidance, advice, encouragement and instructions during the preparation as well as the correction of this study, and everything that I learnt from him throughout my work Without him, this thesis would not have been possible I would like to express my special thanks to Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh for her help and encouragement

My thanks are also sent to all other lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at Hanoi Open University for their helpful lectures, assistance and enthusiasm during my course

Special acknowledgement is also given to my lecturers at Hanoi Open University for their precious knowledge, useful lectures in linguistics, which lay the foundation for this study

Finally I am also indebted to my family, my colleagues and friends who always support and encourage me a lot

Because of my limited experience, it is invitable to have mistakes in this study, so I hope to be overlooked Thank you!

Hai phong, May 2020 Chu Thi Hanh

ABSTRACT

This thesis conducts a study of syntactic and semantic features of determiners

in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese translation in the work “The Great Gatsby” Both descriptive and contrastive methods are used combined with the qualitative and quantitative approach In order to collect the data, a hand search approach of the grammar books in both languages has been conducted, which helps

to find out then analyze 295 examples containing the words denoting determiners in English and about 200 examples in Vietnamese together with a numerous number of examples taken from various linguistics books, dictionaries, newspapers and from the Internet From the study’s results, the thesis gives a remarkably detailed description of semantic and syntactic features in English speeches containing the words denoting determiners in noun phrases with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents and points out some similarities and differences between them The findings also aim at offering some practical implications for teaching and learning English and Vietnamese as a foreign language Finally, some suggestions for further studies are put forward

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv

ABSTRACT v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Methods of the study 2

1.5 Scope of the study 3

1.6 Significant of the study 3

1.7 Structure of the study 3

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Previous research 5

2.2 Theoretical background 6

2.2.1 Concept of a phrase 6

2.2.2 Concept of a noun phrase 7

2.2.3 Function of noun phrase 9

2.3 Determiners in English 13

2.3 4 Order of determiners 16

CHAPTER 3 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

3.1 Research approach 25

3.2 Methods of the study 25

3.3 Data collection and data analysis 27

3.3.1 Data collection 27

3.2.2 Data analysis 27

3.3 Summary 29

CHAPTER 4 STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF DETERMINERS IN ENGLISH NOUN PHRASES AND THEIR VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION IN THE NOVEL “THE GREAT GATSBY” 30

4 The structural and semantic features of determiners in noun phrases in the novel “The Great Gatsby” 31

4.1 Pre determiner Pre-determiner includes: 32

4.1.1 Multiplier: once,twice, three times 32

4.1.2 Fraction: half (a mile), one-fourth 33

4.1.3 Intensifier: what(a nice surprised), such(an interesting book), quite(along trip) 33

4.1.4 Quantifier: 33

4.2 Central determiner Includes: 36

4.2.1 Article 36

4.2.2.Demonstrative: 40

4.2.3 Possessive: my,your,his 42

4.3 Post determiner Post determiner includes: 43

4.3.1 Cardinal number 43

4.3.2 Ordinal number 44

4.3.3 Interrogative: What, which whose 45

4.4 Implications for teaching and learning English determiners for Vietnamese learners of English 51

CHAPTER 5 : CONCLUSION 52

5.1 Recapitulation 52

5.2 Concluding remarks 52

5.3 Implication on teaching and learning 53

5.4.Limitation and suggestions for further studies 53

5.4.1.Limitation 53

5.4.2 Suggestions for further studies 54

REFERENCES 55

APPENDIX 57

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Vietnam is on the path of development and integration not only with the countries in the region but also with countries around the world It is easy to realize that English language has been common in the world and more and more linguists have been studying it In fact, studying English language has become one of the essential demands of people

Therefore, learning and using English in communication becomes very important and necessary All English learners in general and Vietnamese learners in particular desire to master English as native speakers However, people often face to a lot of difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations One of the reasons of these problems is that they meet difficulty in understanding and using determiners in English noun phrases in communication

In English grammar, the structure of a noun phrase especially the determiners in

a noun phrase bring difficulties to teachers and learners of English since they have many subclasses with different features as well as usages Therefore, studying determiners in a noun phrase is necessary to improve knowledge of English of the leaners

Theoretically, according to standard semantic accounts, a determiner is taken to denote some function that yields a generalized quantifier qua noun phrase denotation from 1 the (restriction) set or property denoted by the nominal head 1 A generalized quantifier

is a set of sets in extensional systems

Besides, a noun phrase constitutes a heterogeneous class of items with numerous subclasses Thus, its scope is very large

Practically, many researchers have analyzed the structural, functions and the semantic features of determiners However, the semantic and structural features of of determiners in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese translation in a novel have not been studied so far There is a need to study the semantics and structures of determiners in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in a novel In the hope that the result of this study can help Vietnamese learners of English improve their understanding of determiners and apply them in communication so that their speech is

more adequate and effective Thus, the topic “Determiners in English noun phrases

and their Vietnamese translation in the work ‘The Great Gatsby’ ” is chosen for my study Because of the limitation of time, my research only concentrates on basic noun

phrases not on complex ones All the illustrations in my research are collected and analyzed from the novel“ The Great Gatsby”

Moreover, I am a teacher of English, studying the theme "Determiners in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese translation in the work ‘The great Gatsby’" will bring me good advantages; I have more chances to improve my knovvledge and I can also use determiners more effectively

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study is expected to help learners of English master determiners in the English noun phrases in terms of structural and semantic features effectively

The paper is aimed at achieving the following objectives:

* To identify structural and semantic features of determiners in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese translation in the work “The Great Gatsby”

* To find out the similarities and differences between determiners in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese translation in the work “The Great Gatsby” in terms of their structural and semantic features

* To suggest some implications for teaching and learning determiners in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese translation

1.4 Methods of the study

The following methods are used in the research process:

+ Description: describing the syntax characteristics and meanings of determiners

+ Material analysis: reading reference books to find and collect needed information On the other hand, collecting the specific examples from the novel “The Great Gatsby” for the study

+ Consultations: having discussion with the supervisor, other lecturers and friends

+ Comparison and contrast: selecting, comparing and contrasting examples in determiners in English and Vietnamese from grammar books, the internet, and as well

as from the novel “The Great Gatsby” in order to find the most similarities and

differences between determiners in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese translation equivalants

1.5 Scope of the study

The study focuses on analyzing determiners in English noun phrases with reference to equivalents in Vietnamese

The English and Vietnamese determiners in this study are collected from books, the Internet,linguistics books, dictionaries, newspapers and from the Internet discuss in the novel “The Great Gatsby”

1.6 Significant of the study

This research refers to English and Vietnamese determiners in noun phrases to find out their Vietnamese equivalent meanings

From the study’s results, the thesis gives a remarkably detailed description of semantic and syntactic features in English speeches containing the words denoting determiners in noun phrases with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents and points

out some similarities and differences between them

Hopefully, the result of the study will be useful for learners of English and contribute a small part into the teaching and learning English as a foreign language in

Vietnam

1.7 Structure of the study

The study consists of five chapters, namely: Introduction, Literature review,

Methodology, Finding and discussion, and Conclusion, of which major contents are as

follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter gives the rationale for the research, the aims, the scope of the research the questions for the study as well as the structural organization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter presents the previous studies related to the research area and a review of theoretical background, which is considered as a foundation for conducting the whole research

+ discusses issues of methodology and outline the research design, data collection instruments, procedure of data collection

+ presents the structural and semantic features of determiners in noun phrases

in the billingual novel, finds out the similarities and differences between determiners

in English and their Vietnamese translation equivalents in the novel, and give some implications for teaching and learning them

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review is divided into two main parts The first part presents and discusses the previous research works on derterminers in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese equivalents The second one gives a review of theoretical background and framework of idioms in English and Vietnamese on which the whole

research has been based

2.1 Previous research

As we all know, premodifiers modify the head noun and they are divided into 3 classes: predeterminers, determiners, post-detenniners Among them, determiners co-occur with the head noun more commonly Determiners appear before the head noun and make the meaning of the head noun clearer Linguists in the world have classified them in different ways and also divided them into different subclasses Some linguists, basing on the most common function of determiners, have divided them into 2 classes The first class includes words which help to classify or identify It has 4 subclasses: indefinite article, definite article, demonstrative and possessive The second includes words which enable us to indicate quantity with 2 subclasses: number and quantifiers Other linguists do not keep the same idea In their points, the English determiners include 4 classes They are article, demonstrative, identifier and possessive expression The last can be divided into 2 subclasses: possessive and nominal expression

it is clear that studying determiners is not new; nonetheless, it has never been old There have been a number of studies on different kinds of English determiners The other descriptions of syntactic and semantic views are through different ages in the history of linguistics as H Sweet in “New English Grammar” (1891), Martha Kolln (1994) or Veerenda “English Grammar Determiners” (2019) and Jeffrey Blokzijl (2017)

In Vietnamese, determiners have only been recognized, collected and explained systematically by some grammarians, post-graduators and authors of English centres, such as: “Tìm hiểu về từ hạn định trong tiếng Anh”,(2018) by Lư Khúc Thành, from VITINFO.COM page In his writing, the author listed the English determiners, gave their strutures, usages and some notations of using them; “A study on possessive determiners in English and its equivalents in Vietnamese”,(2017) by Nguyễn Thị Thảo

Ly In the study, the author gave the functions, strutures and semantic features of English determiners and their Vietnamese equivalents

In short, determiners in English are studied in terms of several aspects such as grammar, semantics, rhetoric, pragmatics, etc which are investigated from different views However, the majority of scholars pay their attention to the two approaches Scholars who adopt the first approach are more structurally orientated They describe kinds of determiners, functions of determiners and their positions in terms of one or

more structural properties

Atter studying several English grammar books written by foreign and Vietnamese linguists, I totally agree with Randolph Quirks’s classification According

to him, there are 6 classes of determiner with respect to their co- occurrence with the noun classes: singular count, plural count and non - count noun The classes are shown

Thus, the topic “Determiners in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese

translation in the work “The Great Gatsby” is chosen for my study

2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.1 Concept of a phrase

The term phrase is widely used in linguistic community but rarely a concrete definition about it can be found in a grammar book In most dictionaries and researches, phrases are defined in a rather similar way The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language, for example, defines phrases as “syntactic construction which typically contains more than one word' but which lacks the subject-predicate structure usually found in a clause” (p.222) while the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics gives another definition that “Phrase is a group of words which form a grammatical unit A phrase does not contain a finite verb and does not have a subject-predicate structure For example:

- my job

of a finite verb, because this will make a phrase become a clause or a sentence Phrases are usually classified according to their head or central element and named after that element

2.2.2 Concept of a noun phrase

According to R.Quirk,(A university grammar of English,59) “A noun phrase typically function as subject, object, complement of sentences and as complement in prepositional phrase They are used to refer to things that people want to talk about people, objects, processses and all kinds of entities in a way that is possibly redundant” The first type of phrase is noun phrase Noun phrases consist of a head, which is typically a noun and of elements which (either obligatorily or optionally) determine the head and (optionally) modify the head, or complement another element in the phrase Besides, noun phrase in English, in the book “Analyzing English” (1980), Howard said that “The noun phrase in English is composed potentially three parts The central part of the noun phrase, the head, is obligatory: it is the minimal requirement for the occurrence of a noun phrase

Let’s analyze the examples below:

a He loves beer (NP analysis)

b His love of beer (DP analysis)

On the NP-analysis, his is a dependent of love in the same way that he is a dependent of loves The result is that the NP his love of beer and the clause He loves

beer are mostly parallel in structure, which seems correct given the semantic

parallelism across the two In contrast, the DP analysis destroys the parallelism,

since his becomes head over love The same point is true for a constituency-based

analysis:

These trees again employ the convention whereby the words themselves are used

as the node labels The NP-analysis maintains the parallelism because the

determiner his appears as specifier in the NP headed by love in the same way that he appears as specifier in the clause headed by loves In contrast, the DP analysis

destroys this parallelism because his no longer appears as a specifier in the NP, but

rather as head over the noun

In English and many closely related languages, constituents on left branches underneath nouns cannot be separated from their nouns Long-distance dependencies are impossible between a noun and the constituents that normally appear on left branches underneath the noun This fact is addressed in terms of the Left Branch Condition.Determiners and attributive adjectives are typical "left-branch constituents" The observation is illustrated with examples of topicalization and wh-fronting:

(1a) Fred has helpful friends

(1b) * and helpful Fred has friends - The attributive adjective helpful cannot be topicalized away from its head friends

(2a) Sam is waiting for the second train

(2b) * and second Sam is waiting for the train - The attributive adjective second cannot be topicalized away from its head train

(3a) Susan has our car

(3b) *Whose does Susan have car? - The interrogative determiner whose cannot

be wh-fronted away from its head car

(4a) Sam is waiting for the second train

(4b) *Which is Sam waiting for train? - The interrogative determiner which cannot be wh-fronted away from its head train

These examples illustrate that with respect to the long-distance dependencies of topicalization and wh-fronting, determiners behave like attributive adjectives Both cannot be separated from their head noun The NP-analysis is consistent with this observation because it positions both attributive adjectives and determiners as left-branch dependents of nouns On a DP-analysis, however, determiners are no longer on left branches underneath nouns In other words, the traditional NP-analysis is consistent with the fact that determiners behave just like attributive adjectives with respect to long-distance dependencies, whereas the DP-analysis cannot appeal to left branches to account for this behavior because on the DP-analysis, the determiner is no longer on a left branch underneath the noun

The NP-analysis is consistent with the observation that genitive case in languages like Vietnamese can have the option to appear before or after the noun, whereby the meaning remains largely the same, as illustrated with the following examples:

a Nhà của anh trai tôi ‘the house of.my brother’

b Nhà của anh trai tôi 'my brother's house'

In English the position and the number of words in snetence ‘a’ and ‘b’ are different The definite article ‘the’ must be used but in sentence ‘b’ it must be dropped Whereas, in Vietnamese, the number and position of words stay the same without changing their meaning

While the b-phrases are somewhat archaic, they still occur on occasion in

elevated registers The fact that the genitive NPs “the house of my brother”or “My

brother’s house” can precede or follow the noun is telling, since it suggests that the

hierarchical analysis of the two variants should be similar in a way that accommodates the almost synonymous meanings On the NP-analysis, these data are not a problem because in both cases, the genitive expression is a dependent of the noun The DP-analysis, in contrast, is challenged because in the b-variants, it takes the genitive expression to be head over the noun In other words, the DP-analysis has to account for the fact that the meaning remains consistent despite the quite different structures across the two variants

As far as we know, language is the specific communication device of human Although each language has differences from others, they almost have the same parts

of speech such as: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective Among them, nouns play an important role in grammar and receive interests from linguists as well as grammarians As a result, there are several notions of noun

According to L.G.Alexander{l988}: a noun tells us what something or someone

is called And nouns are the names given to people, things, places in order to identify them For example: a noun can be the name of a person {John}, a job title {doctor }, the name of thing {radio},the name of place{London},the name of a quality {courage } or the name of action {laughing}

Similarly, other linguists also claim that a noun is usually defined as a word denoting a thing, place, person, quality or action functioning as subject,object, complement

2.2.3 Function of noun phrase

Noun phrases including nouns and pronouns perform eleven main grammatical

functions within sentences in the English language The eleven functions of nouns and noun phrases are:

 Noun phrase head

 Subject

 Subject complement

Nouns are traditionally defined as “persons, places, things, and ideas.” Noun

phrases are defined as phrases that consist of a noun or pronoun and any number of

constituents including adjectives, determiners, prepositional phrases, verb phrases, and adjective clauses

Noun Phrase Head

The first grammatical function that nouns perform is the noun phrase head A noun

phrase consists of a noun including a pronoun plus any determiners, modifiers, and complements For example, the following italicized nouns function as noun phrase heads:

 the small white ball

 someone to respect

 an old man who lived in a cottage

Subjects

The second grammatical function that noun phrases perform is the subject A subject is

a word, phrase, or clause that performs the action of or acts upon the verb For

example, the following italicized noun phrases function as subjects:

 The baby cried

 Dogs and cats make excellent pets

 I will have extensively studied English grammar

Subject Complements

The third grammatical function that noun phrases perform is the subject complement

A subject complement is a word, phrase, or clause that follows a copular, or linking,

verb and describes the subject of a clause The terms predicate nominative and

predicate noun are also used for noun phrases that function as subject complements

For example, the following italicized noun phrases function as predicate nominatives:

 My grandfather is a farmer

 Our favorite pets are dogs with short hair

 The woman whom you are looking for is she

Direct Objects

The fourth grammatical function that noun phrases perform is the direct object A

direct object is a word, phrase, or clause that follows a transitive verb and answers the question “who?” or “what?” receives the action of the verb For example, the

following italicized noun phrases function as direct objects:

 The children ate all the cookies

 My professor recommended an extremely captivating book

 The woman has always hated mice and rats

Object Complements

The fifth grammatical function that noun phrases perform is the object complement

Object complements are defined as nouns, pronouns, noun phrases, adjectives, and adjective phrases that directly follow and modify the direct object For example, the following italicized noun phrases function as object complements:

 We consider our puppy our baby

 My aunt calls my uncle sweetheart

 America recently elected Barack Obama president

Indirect Objects

The sixth grammatical function that noun phrases perform is the indirect object An

indirect object is word, phrase, or clause that indicates to or for whom or what the action of a ditransitive verb is performed For example, the following italicized noun phrases function as indirect objects:

 My husband bought me flowers

 The child drew his mother a picture

 The salesman sold the company suffering from the scandal new computers

 My husband bought flowers for me

 The students studied during their spring break

 Because of the lengthy delay, we missed our flight

Noun Phrase Modifiers

The eighth grammatical function that noun phrases perform is the noun phrase

modifier A noun phrase modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that modifies or

describes a noun including a pronoun or a noun phrase For example, the following italicized noun phrases function as noun phrase modifiers:

 The child actor won an award

 The carpenter fixed the broken table leg

 We reserved twenty hotel rooms

Determinatives

The ninth grammatical function that noun phrases can perform is the determinative

Determinatives provide information such as familiarity, location, quantity, and

number Possessive nouns — which are a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase and the possessive clitic (apostrophe s or s apostrophe) — function as determinatives

Possessive nouns indicate possession of or some other relationship to another noun or noun phrase For example, the following italicized noun phrases function as possessive modifiers:

 My brother’s apartment is small

 I found everyone’s reports informative

 The man who stole my purse’s car has been towed

Appositives

The tenth grammatical function that noun phrases perform is the appositive An

appositive is a word, phrase, or clause that modifies or explains another noun phrase For example, the following italicized noun phrases function as appositives:

 My great-grandfather, the farmer, bought more farm land

 The teacher of English, my cousin, assigns a lot of homework

 The musician Stevie Nicks is a singer in the band Fleetwood Mac

Adjunct Adverbials

The eleventh grammatical function that noun phrases perform is the adjunct adverbial

An adjunct adverbial is a word, phrase, or clause that modifies an entire clause by providing additional information about time, place, manner, condition, purpose,

reason, result, and concession For example, the following italicized noun phrases function as adjunct adverbials:

 Today the children woke up early

 Yesterday the children slept in late

 We decided to go home

The eleven functions of noun phrases are noun phrase head, subject, subject

complement, direct object, object complement, indirect object, prepositional

complement, noun phrase modifier, determinative, appositive, and adjunct adverbial

In short, nouns rarely appear alone They often co-occur with other elements to form noun phrases Thus, a noun phrase is a phrase or a group of words with a noun as the head It means that in the phrase or the group of words, the noun is the most important element Beside it, there are a lot of other elements which help to make the meaning of the head noun clearer A noun phrase may be an indeterminately long and

a complex structure A head noun can be preceded by words such as an article, an adjective, other nouns and, or followed by a prepositional phrase, relative clause These items are summed up as premodifiers and postmodifiers

Premodifiers are words or phrases which precede a head noun and modify it

Eg - While Polho was still talking to me, I saw a young woman

Whereas postmodifiers have the same function, it means postmodifiers also modify the head noun, but follow the head noun

Eg - A young woman who has not known a man must die so that the country may have rain

The other two parts are optionally occurring That is pre-modification and the post-modification, shown as the following:

Determiner + pre-modifier + head noun + post modifier

Let's take a look at the following examples:

- The handsome man in the second row

Here, the is determiner, handsome is pre-modifier, man is the head noun and in

the second row is post modifier

- The husband and the wife were both very scared

In this sentence, the definite article determiner the precedes the headnoun

husband and wife to emphasize the headnoun in order to describe the state of the

couple in the circumstance

2.3 Determiners in English

2.3.1 Definition of determiners

There have been a lot of points of view on determiners all over the world

According to Merriem Webster, determiner is a word (such as “a,” “the,” “some,”

“any,” “my,” or “your”) that comes before a noun and is used to show which thing is being referred to

Or ESL shared on the internet on January 17th, 2018 that “A determiner is a word which is used to introduce a noun or a noun phrase.”

Wwriteawriting also shared on the ineternet on May 1st, 2014 that “A category of words that come with nouns in order to clarify the meaning of the noun are called the

determiners” and so on

In summary, I think the following definition on determiners will be the best one:

identifies whether the noun or noun phrase is general or specific”

We will come across these very often when studying the English language and it is very important that we are aware of how to incorporate them into our own speech

2.3.2 Functions of determiners

There has also been lots of definitions on determiners in English, for example,

In 1980, Plateau idetified that: “Function of determiner in general is to “pick out a certain element or certain elements from a certain set of entities over which the hearer intends to quantify” or the function of determiner is to “modify the scope of the set designated by the noun that follows to restrict or widen, to specify or generalize the meaning of the modified noun” (Stephanides,1978) Barrie (1971) describes the determiner as “aspectual and/or modal particles [that gives] a particular colouring to the noun they introduce, in much the same way as the different forms or auxiliaries of the English verbs serve to convey aspectual or modal information, and enjoying a semi-autonomous extence, in the sense that they sometimes modify strongly the value

of the noun they preface and sometimes merely reinfoce it” Klegr (1987) concludes that “the function of determiner appears to be to provide grammatical status combined with specific semantic reference” We can see definitions of unknown authors on the internet like the followings:

“An important role in English grammar is played by determiners – words or

phrases that precede a noun or noun phrase and serve to express its reference in the

context to give more information about the noun”

“A determiner clarifies specific or general It also identifies the relationship of

an item to the speaker.”

“Determiners are used in every case to clarify the noun Determiners may be used

to demonstrate or define something or someone The function of a determiner is to express proximity, relationship, quantity, and definiteness.”

2.3.3.Kinds of determiners:

Linguists have dissected that there are about 50 different determiners in the English language Atter studying several English grammar books written by foreign and Vietnamese linguists, and searching information on the internet, .I totally agree with Randolph Quirks’s classification According to him, there are 6 classes of determiners

The table below will indicate which noun classes will co-occur with members

of determiner class concerned

Determiners

The head noun

Examples

Singular count noun

Plural count noun

Non- count noun

1 Article

1.1 Indefinite article

- He needs an extra pen

1.2 Definite article + + + - I like to live in the countryside

1.3 Zero article — + + - Tigers are dangerous animals

3 Demonstrative

3.1.This /That

3.2 These / those

+ + — - This girl is very beautiful

- These tables are made of wood

- Those girls come from Vietnam

4 Interrogative {who / which

/what}

+ + + - Whose car is it ?

- Which girl do like best ?

- What colour do you like ?

5.Indefinite

5.1 Some / any {unstressed}

—

+ + - There are some people here

- There is not any water in the

bottle 5.2 Some / any {stressed } + + + - A derivational suffix is only

applies to any morpheme

5.3 Every / each / either + — — - Each student has to study

harder

6 Quantifier {much,all,both} — — + - I have not got much money

{+}: go with the noun class {- }: do not go with the noun class

These contents are analyzed basing on their syntactic meaning However, each kind of determiner has its own usages so we will study them in more detail in next part

2.3.4 Order of determiners

Pre-determiner + central determiner + noun phrase + post determiner

2.3.4.1 Pre-determiner

Pre-determiners include;

* quantifier: all, both, each

* Multiplier: once, twice, three times

* Fraction: half, one-fourth

2.3 4.1.1 Quantifier:

Quantifiers are used to ask a question, such as which, what, and whose (personal possessive determiner) These determiners also depend on a

noun.

* The use of “all”

- All lions are animals, but not all animals are lions

- People were coming from all directions (= every direction)

- All the food you ordered is on the table

- All my homework has been completed

- All this mail must be answered

- He has lost all his money

“All” can also be used with singular nouns showing something has been happening for a whole period of time

Ex: - We’ve worked hard all year

- He was out of work for all that time

* The use of both

Both is used with plural nouns to mean ‘the two’ or ‘the one as well as the other’ For example:

- She liked them both

- We were both married

- Both of us were married

“Both… and…” have the meaning “not only… but also…”

- Both her mother and her father went to her wedding

- To be employed you will need a good knowledge of both English and

Vietnamese

* The use of half

‘Half” is used with an amount equal to half of something/somebody

- I'll be in your house in half an hour

- Half (of) the street was badly damaged

- Half of the money belonged to me

- He has a half share in the restaurent

- Out of 36 candidates, half completed their graduation thesis protection

* The use of each

“Each” is used to refer to every one of two or more people or things, when you are thinking about them separately

- Each answer is worth 5 points

- Each of the answers is worth 5 points

“Each” is used for emphasis every single one

- I look forward to seeing each and every one of you soon.

* The use of some

Some is used with uncountable nouns or plural countable nouns to mean ‘an amount of’ or ‘a number of’, when the amount or number is not given

- There's still some coffee in the jar

- Would you like to have some more vegetables?

* The use of any

In negative sentences and questions any is usually used instead of ‘some’:

- I don't want any more vegetables

- Is there any pepper left?

However, some is used in questions that expect a positive reply:

- Would you like some salt in your coffee?

- Didn't you borrow some books of mine?

“Some” is also used to refer to certain members of a group or certain types of a thing, but not all of them

- Some people find this more difficult than others

- I like some Korean films (= but not all of them)

“Some” has the meaning of a large number or amount of something

- It was with some surprise that I heard the news

- We've known each other for some years now

“Some” with the meaning of a small amount or number of something

- There is some hope that things will improve

“Some” used with singular nouns to refer to a person, place, thing or time that is not known or not identified

- There must be some mistake

- He's in some kind of trouble

- I'll see you again some time, I'm sure

“Some”used to express a positive or negative opinion about somebody/something

- That was some money!

- Some experts you are! You know even less than me

* The use of any

“Any” is used with uncountable or plural nouns in negative sentences and

questions, after if or whether, and after some verbs such as prevent, ban, forbid,

etc to refer to an amount or a number of something, however large or small

- We didn't eat any meat

- Are there any markets near here?

- You can't go a long way without any shoes

- The teacher asked if we had any questions

It is also used in questions that expect a positive answer

- Would you like some milk in your tea?

“Any"used with singular countable nouns to refer to one of a number of things or people, when it does not matter which one

- Take any book you like

- Any colour will do

Although they function as predeterminers "all" and "both" {not "half”}can occur

immediately after the head or within the predication

Eg: - The villagers all know people like that

- The husband and the wife were both very scared

Especially, the predeterminer "both" and determiners "either' "neither" are not

plural proper but "dual" it means that all of them can refer only to two

Eg: - Both the students were excellent = The two students were excellent

In the example, when we use "both" instead of 'two”, it means we want to emphasize the head noun "students”

Through the examples above, we find out that "All" and "half' can occur with all noun classes such as singular count, plural count and non- count nouns while "both"

can occur only with plural count noun In addition, these premodifiers only appear before an article or a demonstrative but when they are themselves quantifiers, they

do not occur with these"quantitative" determiners: every, neither, each, some, any,

no, enough

2.3 4.1.2 Multipliers {double, twice, three, four times}

Multipliers are words and expressions that modify uncountable nouns and plural

countable nouns by multiplying quantity For example:

- He now earns double his previous wage

- For this recipe, we need three times the flour

Multipliers occur with non - count, plural count nouns and singular count nouns in order to denote number or amount They belong to second subclass of predeterminer Let me take some examples for illustration

Beside, "three, four times" can occur with the determiners:"every, each" and

"per" is less usually to form "distributive"expressions In such cases, a temporal

noun is the head

Eg Moved at the will of the disable girl, Miss Luu came to her house to

teach her English twice a week

2.3.4.1.3 Fractions: one-third/ two- fifth

Fractions are made up of two numbers: the numerator and the denominator

The denominator is the bottom number, and represents how many parts are possible—in

other words, how many parts go into a whole

The numerator is the top number, and represents how many parts you have It might be less than the whole!

If the denominator is a 0 that is bad We are not allowed to divide by zero

If the denominator is a 1, our fraction is actually an integer This suggests that we can add, subtract, multiply, or divide fractions Adding and subtracting fractions is trickier, especially if we don't have common denominators But it can be done

.For example:

- He did it in one - third of the time it took me

- One third of my money comes from my extra job

- He spends two quarters of his free time on doing sports

In short, a fraction is a number of the form:abwhere a and b are integers and b≠0

A fraction represents the division of two numbers The fraction symbol means the same thing as ÷

The number on top is called the numerator and the number on the bottom is called the denominator This provides an alternative to writing a number with a decimal point

If you perform long division, you may get a decimal In many cases, the fractions are easier to write

2.3.4.2 Central determiner

Central determiner includes:

2.3.4.2.1 Articles:

* indefinite article: The indefinite article takes the forms of a and an in English It

is mostly synonymous with one, but the word one is usually used when emphasizing

singularity

+ a: precceded before a singular count noun, initiated by a consonant

e.g: - “Who is he,anyhow, an actor?” [10:216]

(Ông ta làm nghề gì, diễn viên à?) [10:217]

- “No.”[11:216]

(Không) [11:217]

- “A dentist?” [12:216]

(Thợ chữa răng?) [12:217]

+ an: precceded before a singular count noun, initiated by a vowel

e.g: - He was a person of some undefined consequence, had gradually faded

and he had become simply the proprietor of an elaborate road-house next door

[11:190]

* Definite article: The definite article in the English language is the word the

It denotes people, places, and things that have already been mentioned, implied, or presumed to be known by the listener

Definite article can precede a singular, plural countable noun or uncountable noun to emphasize the noun which is the second time mentioned in the circumstance Definite article is also used before nouns those are the only in a particular circumstance, for example: the sun, the monitor of a class or the atmosphere in a place, so on Definite article is even used with the superlative form Let me take some examples for illustrating:

- The husband and the wife were both very scared

In this sentence, the definite article determiner the precedes the noun phrase

husband and wife to emphasize the headnoun in order to describe the state of the

couple in the circumstance

Or in the sentence:

- The children, who are playing on the playground over there, belong to my sister

The definite article determiner the stands before the plural noun children to

indecate the number of children that the speaker wants to talk about

In 1991 Roger Berry pointed out that articles occur after each ten words; although they have a high frequency, articles remain an area of chaos due to the learners little attention for this issue The uncertainties may have source in the old English, when articles didn’t exist Studies say that from “one” emerged this new category of articles: a/ an/ the and zero article Parish (1987) and Master (1997)

found zero article first acquired, probably as a result of the history line or simply because it’s easier to avoid article usage There are many studies that tried to decode the way in which L1 transfer alters the correct usage of articles in L2 or to imagine

“excellent” drills that master comprehension, but achievements have been lower than it was expected Depending on the nature of L1, difficulties may increase or vary but no matter level of L2, students keep having problems with determiners, precisely definite and indefinite articles

The most probably articles are not the first priority in any English classroom and this is a plausible situation because few article errors may beget the whole message misunderstanding English learners face this problem because theory provides deficient canon, in this case too many exceptions, or examples and also when it comes to practice there are multiple rules which collide ahead Nowadays teachers pay less attention to the concept of fossilization instead of communicative competence Obviously, the last one cannot be developed in the near presence of a

“correction” system where students are stopped every time they say something wrong No doubt that school helps students reach a higher level of education, but first we must take into account the fact that they may become frustrated and refuse

to use in this case articles at all Even when they learnt their first language they did mistakes so that the second language acquisition should not be total different from

In brief, articles always challenge theoreticians all over the world, linguists and teachers, but no one has reached a clear conclusion I knew from the start that this study won’t bring any significant reference; my purpose was to reflect upon details absolutely imperative for a perfect commandment of English Everybody has the best arguments for a lexical issue or for a grammatical problem, but what about articles? Can you convince yourself or the others that you are “the master” of articles? The final conclusion, don’t stop until the answer is yes, learning and teaching a foreign language improve with every moment we pay attention to details

pragmatic-2.3.4.2.2 Demonstrative: This, that, these, those

* This: Goes with singular noun

e.g: - This is Mr Gatsby, Mr

Buchanann [16:218]

(Đây là ông Gatsby,ông Buchanann)

[17:219]

* That: Goes with singular noun

e.g: - Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay

[4:232]

(Gatsby mua tòa nhà kia cốt được ở cách Daisy một cái vịnh nhỏ) [4:233]

* These: Goes with plural count noun

e.g: - But women run around too much

these days to suit me [23:302]

(Nhưng thời nay phụ nữ đi rông dài

loăng quăng quá lắm, thật không hợp

với tôi) [21:303]

* Those: Goes with plural count noun

- I’d like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you

around [9:276]

(Em chỉ muốn lấy một cuộn mây hồng kia, đặt anh lên đó rồi đẩy đi khắp nơi)

[8:277]

2.3.4.2.3 Possessive: my, your,his,her,its,our,their

Possessive determiner is a type of function word used in front of a noun to express possession or belonging

For example:

- It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have

expended your own powers of adjustment

In the sentence above, the possessive determiner your precedes the noun phrase own

powers of adjustment to emphasize the trength of the speaker’s

- The man bending over her is her director

In this sentence, the possessive her goes before the noun director to emphasize the head nounphrase the man bending over her

2.3.4.3 Post determiner

* Cardinal number: one,two,three used before count nouns to indecate the

amount of the noun in the circumstance

e.g: - He had been coasting along all too hospitable shores for five years

- I perceived after a moment, that other eyes were regarding us with peculiar

intensity from less than twenty feet away

* Ordinal number: first, second, third are numbers we use when we want to put

things in order

* Interrogative: who, what, where They are used to frame a question

Interrogative determiners usually ask questions about a noun Often it has no antecedent because the antecedent is unknown

+ Who: used to ask about a person

e.g: - Who wants to go to town? Demanded Daisy insistently [22:344]

(Ai muốn ra thành phố nào? - Daisy cứ một mực hỏi) [22:345]

+ What: used to ask about a thing

- What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon? Cried Daisy [9:344]

(Chúng ta biết làm gì đây trong chiều nay?, -Daisy kêu lên) [10:345]

+ Where: used to ask about a place

- “Remember Biloxi,” Jordan waned her “Where’d you know him, Tom?” [1:374]

(Hãy nhớ đến Biloxi, - Jordan nhắc nhở nàng - Anh Tom, anh quen hắn ở đâu

2.4 Summary

From the illustration above, we can say that: Determinatives in English grammar are words that express additional information such as definiteness, proximity, quantity, and relationships about a noun phrase or verb phrase in the form of a present participle They have grammatical functions and they have six types of determiners, such as: articles, demonstrative determiners, possessive determiners including the possessive interrogative determiner, interrogative determiners, numerals, and quantifiers Possessive nouns, which are nouns and noun phrases plus the possessive clitic (apostrophe s or s apostrophe), also function as determinatives

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research approach

The thesis is carried out by combining the two research approaches of quantitative and qualitative, which are carried out with the following orientation First, it is started with data collection by using a various source of the sources of books, dictionaries and the Internet At the same time, collecting examples printed in the novel “The Great Gatsby” After the collection of data completed, they are qualitatively described, analyzed and illustrated in term of syntactic and semantic features The data collected from reliable sources then quantitatively computed and compared with Vietnamese equivalents under process of statistical analysis to find the answers to the research questions Lastly, conclusions and implications for teaching and learning English determiners in English nuon phrases are withdrawn

3.2 Methods of the study

This study is designed to investigate the determiners in English noun phrases with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, so the descriptive and comparative methods have been chosen as major ones

In the study of language description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how determiners are applied in community speeches and in the work “The Great Gatsby” All academic research in linguistics

is descriptive; like all other scientific disciplines, its aim is to describe the reality as

it is, without the bias of preconceived ideas about how it ought to be Modern descriptive linguistics is based on a structural approach to language, as exemplified

in the work of F.Scott Fitzgerald

Linguistic description is often contrasted with linguistic prescription, which is found especially in education and in publishing Prescription seeks to define standard language norms and give advice on effective language use, and can also draws on more subjective aspects of language aesthetics Prescription and description are complementary, but have different priorities and sometimes are seen to be in conflict Description is sometimes distinguished from "descriptivism", which is then defined as the belief that description is more significant or important to teach, study, and practice than prescription

Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations It provides insights into the problem or helps develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research Qualitative Research is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem Qualitative data collection methods vary using unstructured or semi-structured techniques The sample size is typically small, and respondents are selected to fulfill a given quota

Qualitative research approaches are employed across many academic disciplines, focusing particularly on the human elements of the social and natural sciences Qualitative methods are an integral component of the five angles of analysis fostered by the data percolation methodology These methods may be used alongside quantitative methods, scholarly or lay reviews of the literature

Therefore, the first the descriptive method is utilized in order to give a full account

of syntactic and semantic features of determiners in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese translation in the work “The Great Gatsby”

Secondly, the comparative method is applied to identify the similarities and differences in term of syntactic and semantic features of determiners in English noun phrases with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents

Some other methods such as analytical, synthetic have also been used as supporting ones Furthermore, to investigate in details the syntactic features of determiners in English noun phrases with their different components and semantic features with various nuances of meanings, analytical method is also employed, and then the synthetically method is used for grouping them on the basis of certain criteria according to syntactic and semantic features Moreover, quite a few of research techniques have been combined, such as statistics, componential analysis and contrastive analysis

In conducting the investigation, last but not least, setting up a regular consultancy with supervisor for a guidance and academic exchange is a critical technique to find out a right direction for doing the research successfully

3.3 Data collection and data analysis

3.3.1 Data collection

The selective material related to determiners in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese translation in the work “The Great Gatsby” plays a crucial role in terms

of supplement data for the study

A large number of determiners in English noun phrases are collected as many as possible from books in which determiners are carefully collected and categorized

into types arrangement, such as in: Veerenda, 2019, English Grammar Determiners,

L G Alexander, 1988, Longman English Grammar, Longman Group UK Limited and John Soars, 1996, Headway, Oxford University Press, Practical English Grammar, Oxford University Press or A University Grammar of English Longman

Group UK Limited have been chosen because they not only interpret the meanings

but also illustrate a number of examples with a view to help readers understand the origin of determiners in English noun phrases Besides, sources from printed grammar books, novels and Internet are also collected to make the corpus of determiners for the study

The corpus with samples of determiners in English noun phrases collected are put together in English and Vietnamese for easier understanding

In short, the monolingual and bilingual novel of determiners in English noun phrases in two languages are useful instruments for collecting data Google search should be accounted because a large number of reference materials have been taken, thanks to this tool Tables are also helpful for stating the results of analysis and percentage as well Moreover, frequent talks with the supervisor, lecturers on the field have proved to be a very useful way for completing the study Also, the study

is carried out on the basis of the author's personal experience

3.2.2 Data analysis

After being collected, determiners in the two languages are selected and grouped to

be independently observed All determiners are analyzed, classified in order to meet the need of analysis Data analysis is done in terms of syntactic, semantic and stylistic features

Syntactically, the analysis and classification are mainly based on the different structural categories of determiners such as: noun phrases, verbs phrases, adjective

phrases, and prepositional phrases The results of the steps are summarized in statistical tables By examining the distribution rates of each type in English and Vietnamese, the researcher would look for the special characteristics for each of them; generalize the results so as to have a complete overview about the structure of determiners in English and Vietnamese

Next, the obtained data in the two languages are synthesized and compared in detail

to sort out the similar and different features between them Then the research results are comprehensively analyzed in order to find out possible explanations for these similarities and differences

Semantically, the classification is carried out on the basis typical features of determiners in English language Each feature will be illustrated by some extracted from both English and Vietnamese speeches Then description and comparison are provided with different groups of themes by applying some other basic techniques such as comparative analysis, componential analysis and statistical techniques

To achieve the aims and objectives of the study are stated in the first chapter, the process of data collection and analysis has come through three major stages First is the period of gathering material selection from different sources related to main topic of the paper was implemented with a view to picking up the necessary and useful materials Second stage was a long course that took over three months The last stage is for analyzing the selected data to draw the conclusions of the findings

In terms of reliability, the data which is used in this study is collected from trustworthy dictionaries, books and internet source Any information quoted in this study is exactly the same as the original materials with clear references of the authors, the name of publishers, the time and place of publication

In terms of validity, all English and Vietnamese determiners in English noun phrases that are picked up from the bilingual novel “The Great Gatsby” by the translator Hoang Cuong to ensure that the origins and translation versions are correct

From the results of the analysis, the researcher also suggests the ways to handle the English determiners in general and some effective ways for language users in teaching and learning them

3.3 Summary

With the purpose of making an investigation into the structural and semantics features of determiners in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese translation in the work “The Great Gatsby”, this study is carried out through a descriptive, comparative analysis The method of the study is as follows:

Firstly, we present some basic theoretical concepts relating to semantic, syntactic and stylistic aspects of determiners in English noun phrases For this method, many reference books and materials are used for analysis

Secondly, we use the comparative analysis in qualitative and quantitative approach

to analyze and describe the collected data for finding out the linguistic features of determiners in English noun phrases and their Vietnamese translation in the work

“The Great Gatsby” The collected data for this study will be taken from various sources The sample will include a number of examples The samples are taken from grammar books, reference books, internet and in the work “The Great Gatsby” To illustrate for this study, I also take some extract from internet source, daily conversation The comparative analysis will be used to create reliable and convincing findings

In the next section, the findings emanating from data collected will be discussed

CHAPTER 4 STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF

DETERMINERS IN ENGLISH NOUN PHRASES AND THEIR

VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION IN THE NOVEL “THE GREAT GATSBY”

Most determiners have been traditionally classed along with either adjectives or pronouns, and this still occurs in classical grammars: for example, demonstrative and possessive determiners are s ometimes described

as demonstrative adjectives and possessive adjectives or as (adjectival) demonstrative pronouns and (adjectival) possessive pronouns respectively

These classical interpretations of determiners map to some of the linguistic properties related to determiners in modern syntax theories, such as deictic information, definiteness and genitivity

However, modern theorists of grammar prefer to distinguish determiners as

a separate word class from adjectives, which are simple modifiers of nouns, expressing attributes of the thing referred to This distinction applies particularly in languages like English that use definite and indefinite articles, frequently as a necessary component of noun phrases – the determiners may then be taken to be a class of words that includes the articles as well as other words that function in the place of articles.The composition of this class may depend on the particular

language's rules of syntax; for example, in English the possessives my

book, your car key etc are used without articles and so can be regarded as

determiners, whereas their Vietnamese equivalents quyển sách của tôi, chiếc chìa

khóa xe của bạn etc are used together with articles and so may be better classed as

adjectives Not all languages can be said to have a lexically distinct class of determiners

Universal grammar is the theory that all humans are born equipped with grammar, and all languages share certain properties There are arguments that determiners are not a part of universal grammar and are instead part of an emergent syntactic category This has been shown through the study