Features of “IN” prepositional phrases in the novel “ if tomorrow comes” by sidney sheldom and their vienamese translation versions

THESIS FEATURES OF "IN" PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES IN THE NOVEL " IF TOMORROW COMES" BY SIDNEY SHELDOM AND THEIR VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION VERSIONS Ngữ cố định chứa giới từ “IN” trong tác phẩ

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

(Ngữ cố định chứa giới từ “IN” trong tác phẩm nếu còn có ngày mai của Sydney Sheldom và bản dịch

tương đương tiếng Việt)

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

oOo

M.A THESIS

FEATURES OF "IN" PREPOSITIONAL

PHRASES IN THE NOVEL " IF TOMORROW COMES" BY SIDNEY SHELDOM AND THEIR VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION VERSIONS

(Ngữ cố định chứa giới từ “IN” trong tác phẩm nếu còn có ngày mai của Sydney Sheldom và bản dịch

tương đương tiếng Việt)

VŨ VĂN ĐỘ

Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor:

Hanoi, 2020

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

FEATURES OF " IN" PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES IN THE NOVEL " IF

VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION VERSIONS 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

my growth as an academic researcher

A special word of thanks goes to our colleagues, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

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

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

CA Contrastive Analysis

CDA Critical Discourse Analysis

ESL English as a Second Language

EFL English as a Foreign Language

PDA Post-structuralist Discourse Analysis

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2.1: List of simple prepositions (Carter and McCarthy, 2006) 8

Table 2.2: The 30 most frequent complex prepositions (Hoffmann, 2005) ……… 10

Table 2.3: Prepositional phrases as post-modifier (Biber et al., 2007) 12

Table 2.4: Structural classification of meanings (adjuncts) (Quirk et al., 2005) 17

Table 2.5: Structural classification of meanings (subjuncts) (Quirk et al., 2005) 18

Table 2.6: Structural classification of meanings (disjuncts) (Quirk et al., 2005) 19

Table 2.7: List of Vietnamese prepositions (Tran, 2007) 21

Table 2.8: A comparison between English and Vietnamese prepositions (Tran, 2010)……….26

Table 4.1: Frequency of the prepositional phrase “IN” in the novel "If tomorrow comes" by Sidney Sheldom and their Vietnamese translation versions………… 34

Table 4.2: Prepositional complements of IN prepositional phrases inthe novel “If tomorrow comes”……… 35

Table 4.3: Syntactic features of IN prepositional phrasesin the novel 36

Table 4.4: Semantic features of IN prepositional phrases in the novel 36

Table 4.5: The frequency of IN prepositional phrases as spatial prepositionsin the novel "If tomorrow comes" ……… 37

Table 4.6: Semantic features of Spatial prepositions on “If Tomorrow Comes”… 37 Table 4.7: Semantic features of temporal prepositions on “If Tomorrow Comes” 38

Table 4.8: Structural classification of meanings (adjuncts) from the novel… 39

Table 4.9: Structural classification of meanings (subjuncts) from the novel 41

Table 4.10: Structural classification of meanings (disjuncts) from the novel 42

Table 4.11: Syntactic features of IN prepositional phrases in the novel “IfTomorrow Comes”by Sidney Sheldom and their Vietnamese translation versions………43

Table 4.12: The frequency of IN prepositional phrases as adverbials in the novel 44

Table 4.13: Adverbials in two versions of the novel 44

Table 4.14:The frequency of IN prepositional phrases as modifiers in the novel 46 Table 4.15:The frequency of IN prepositional phrases as complements in the novel.………49Table 4.16: Complements in two versions of the novel 49Table 4.17: Semantic features of IN prepositional phrases in the novel “If Tomorrow Comes”by Sidney Sheldom and their Vietnamese translation versions.51Table 4.18: The frequency of IN prepositional phrases with spatial meanings in the novel "If tomorrow comes"……….52Table 4.19: The frequency of IN prepositional phrases with temporal meaningsin the novel "If tomorrow comes"……….53Table 4.20: “If Tomorrow Comes” – Vietnamese and English prepositions 54

Figure 2.1: Tree diagram: complements versus adjuncts (Carnie, 2008) 13

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATION iv

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale to the study 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 Significance of the study 3

1.7 Structure of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Previous studies 5

2.1.1 Foreign studies 5

2.1.2.Vietnamese studies 6

2.2 Theoretical background 7

2.2.1 English preposition and prepositional phrase 7

2.2.1.1 Definition……… 7

2.2.1.2 Structure of a prepositional phrase 10

2.2.1.3 Syntactic features of prepositional phrases 12

2.2.1.4 Semantic features of prepositional phrases 15

2.2.2.Vietnamese preposition and prepositional phrase 19

2.2.2.1 Definition 19

2.2.2.2 Syntactic features of Vietnamese prepositions 22

2.2.2.3 Semantic features of Vietnamese prepositions 25

2.3 A comparison between English and Vietnamese prepositional phrases 25

2.4 Summary 27

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 28

3.1.Research approach 28

3.2.Methods of the study 28

3.3.Data collection and data analysis 31

3.4.Research procedures 32

3.5.Summary 32

CHAPTER 4: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ‘IN’ PREPOSITIONAL PRHASES IN THE NOVEL ‘IF TOMORROW COMES’ AND THEIR VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION VERSIONS 34

4.1 Syntactic features of IN prepositional phrases in the novel "If tomorrow comes" by Sidney Sheldom 35

4.1.1 Prepositional complements in IN prepositional phrases in the novel "If tomorrow comes" by Sidney Sheldom 35

4.1.2 Syntactic functions of IN prepositional phrases 35

4.2 Semantic features of prepositional phrase “IN” in sentences from the novel "If tomorrow comes" by Sidney Sheldom and their Vietnamese translation versions 36

4.2.1 Spatial Prepositions 37

4.2.2.Temporal Prepositions 38

4.2.3 Metaphorical Prepositions 39

4.3 A comparison between IN prepositional phrases inthe novel "If tomorrow comes" by Sidney Sheldom and their Vietnamese translation versions 43

4.3.1 In terms of their syntactic features 43

4.3.2 In terms of their semantic features 51

4.4 The characteristics of “IN” prepositional phrases between English and Vietnamese may be considered as problematic for EFL Vietnamese learners 55

4.5 Summary 57

CHAPTER5: CONCLUSION 59

5.1 Recapitulation 59

5.2 Concluding remarks 59

5.3 Limitation of the research 60

5.4 Suggestions for further research 61

REFERENCES 62

APPENDIX 66

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale to the study

According to Tyler and Evans (2003), prepositions and prepositional phrases are one of the most challenging language components for language teachers and learners Agoi (2003) described preposition as a word or a group of work used to connect nouns or noun structures to additional structures in a sentence while a prepositional phrase includes a preposition, its object, and any modifiers of the object (Alexander, 1993) Prepositional phrases can function as either adjective phrases or adverb phrases to modify other words in a sentence It is emphasized by Hoffmann, S (2007) that prepositions and prepositional phrases have different attributes and usage in each vocabulary Prepositions according to Lawal (2004) indicate various relationships between words or phrases in sentence The relationship includes those of time, points, position, direction and various degrees of mental or emotional attitude (Cuyckens et al., 2003) Due to the diversity in attributes, usage and relationship of prepositions and prepositional phrases, how to properly and effectively use preposition and prepositional phrases is a challenging task to language learners

Prepositions and prepositional phrases are inevitable components in both English and Vietnamese language systems; however, prepositions have different characteristics and usage in each language (Tran, 2010) Prepositions and prepositional phrases in English pose a wide range of meanings that causes a number of problems since it has different functions in a sentence The utilization of prepositional phrases may cause plenty of trouble for Vietnamese persons when learning English and vice versa (Hai et al., 2006) Particularly, “IN” prepositional phrases are amongst the most popular prepositional phrases used in both English and Vietnamese; however, the variance of meanings sometimes may cause misunderstanding and miscommunication Hence, it is critical and meaningful to explore and analyze the similarities and differences in linguistic features (semantic and syntactic) of “IN” prepositional phrases in English and Vietnam to facilitate language learning of these two languages

For all the explained above reasons, this current study aims at investigating

“Linguistic features of “IN” prepositional phrases in the novel “If tomorrow comes” by Sidney Sheldom and their Vietnamese translation versions” from a

contrastive view provide English teachers with many teaching implications in using

spoken and written English and translating texts from English to Vietnamese and vice versa

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

Given the significance of prepositional phrases in general and the complexity

of use and meanings of prepositional phrases to be more precise, especially when it comes to the comparison between English and Vietnamese“IN” prepositional phrases, this research firstly aims at investigating how prepositional phrases are used in English and Vietnamese; as well as the similarities and differences based on the syntactic and semantic features between them In order to obtain the overall aim

of the study, the following specific objectives are formulated:

- To explore syntactic features of “IN” prepositional phrases in the novel “If tomorrow comes” by Sidney Sheldom;

- To explore semantic features of “IN” prepositional phrases in the novel “If tomorrow comes” by Sidney Sheldom;

- To identify similarities and differences in syntactic and semantic features of

“IN” prepositional phrases in the novel “If tomorrow comes” by Sidney Sheldom and their Vietnamese translation versions;

- To investigate and conclude on the uses of “IN” prepositional phrases in English and Vietnamese

1.4 Methods of the study

This current study employs a descriptive and qualitative research design through the analysis of a bilingual corpus comprising English and Vietnamese equivalent instances of sentences containing “IN” prepositional phrases sourced from the novel “If tomorrow comes” by Sidney Sheldom and their Vietnamese translation versions attained from different literature books and the websites on the

Internet A contrastive analysis (CA) approach is employed to analyze collected data in response to research questions.In top of this, the qualitative method is implemented based on the applied linguistics based on the literature review to identify and determine the studied characteristics of the propositional phrase of this research

1.5 Scope of the study

This current study only selected “IN” prepositional phrases in English and Vietnamese as subjects of the study Furthermore, all examples containing “IN” prepositional phrases usedthe findings and contrastive analysis of data of the corpus (chapter 4) are sourced from the novel “If tomorrow comes” by Sidney Sheldom and their Vietnamese translation versions However, under time constraints the researcher only focuses on exploring two aspects of linguistics features of “IN” prepositional phrases, including semantic and syntactic features

The data and information used for the purpose of this study is from the novel

“If tomorrow comes” in English and their Vietnamese translation versions English

is considered to be the first source of data Vietnamese is the target language Once the author has located the primary data set, it needs to make sure that it will meet the scope as well as object of this study For textual data or newspaper data to provide knowledgeable basis for this study, the easiest way is to take and evaluate a sample of data and a detailed description of how this data was collected

1.6 Significance of the study

It is expected that this current study provides both theoretical and practical contributions in the field of English language and linguistics

Theoretically, there is a dearth of significant studies exploring linguistic features of prepositional phrases in English and Vietnamese equivalents; therefore, research findings of this current study concerning similarities and differences in semantic and syntactic features of “IN” prepositional phrases in English and Vietnamese will fill this literature gap

Practically, the study gives some useful implications for teaching, learning and translating prepositional phrases from English into Vietnamese and vice versa

in general As a result, these implications can be applied as a general framework or model for teaching prepositional phrases which is meaningful for English learning and teaching in Vietnam

1.7 Structure of the study

This current study is organized into five chapters, including:

Chapter 1 – Introduction– presents the rationale for choosing area of

research, research aims and objectives, research questions, a summary of research methods, scope of the study, significance of the study, and the design of study

Chapter 2 – Literature Review – gives a relevant and concise literature

review of previous studies as well as some theoretical aspects related to prepositions and prepositional phrases in English and Vietnamese

Chapter 3 –Methodology– describes research approach, research design, data

collection and analysis, and reliability and validity

Chapter 4 –Findings and Discussion – presents illustration, interpretation

and discussions based on the theoretical background and analyzed data to answer research questions concerning similarities and differences in semantic and syntactic features of “IN” prepositional phrases in English and Vietnamese equivalents

Chapter 5 – Conclusions– summarizes major findings of the investigation

and provides implications for learning and teaching English Limitations and suggestions for further studies are also generated in this last chapter

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The study aims at exploring linguistic features of “IN” prepositional phrases with reference to syntactic and semantic approaches in English and Vietnam and identifying how they are different from each other Firstly, the researcher critically reviews previous concerning prepositions and prepositional phrases, both foreign and Vietnamese contexts to find out how these previous studies addressed issues related to syntactic and semantic features of prepositional phrases Then, the theoretical background for prepositions and prepositional phrases in English and Vietnamese concerning definition, classification, and usage from syntactic and semantic approaches is discussed Lastly, depending on literature review, the researcher addresses similarities and differences in linguistic features of English and Vietnamese prepositions

2.1 Previous studies

As an important component of English and Vietnamese sentences, prepositions have begun to attract the attention of many language researchers over the past few decades Such studies not only focuses on exploring definition, types and usages of prepositions but also comparing and contrasting linguistics features of English preposition and other source languages

Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) state that most of the common English

prepositions, such as at, in, and for, are simple, i.e consist of one word Other prepositions, consisting of more than one word, are called complex e.g apart from,

out of, owing to, together with, except for, because of, instead of, in view of, in addition to, in spite of, on behalf of (Morley, 2000) Those various form of

prepositions are changing over the time and it makes either ESL (English Second Language) or EFL (English Foreign Language) learners are still confused in determining the correct preposition Although they have achieved a high level of

proficiency in English, they still get difficulty to study even memorize it There are some causes that make learners have difficulties in understanding preposition such

as: many English prepositions have nearly the same meaning: e.g besides, by near,

next to, or: above, on top of, over, many of the words described as prepositions can

also be used as other parts of speech and it make ambiguous in interpreting

meaning, as exemplified in this sentence: She swept off the stage departed

majestically This sentence can have either of two meanings, depending on whether off is analyzed as part of the particle swept off which means ‘cleaned’, or is a

preposition heading a prepositional phrase off the stage

Besides, Boquist (2009) added that “certain prepositions can be applied in

one form, but not another” For instance: class can meet on Tuesday at 7:40, but it cannot meet at Tuesday on 7:40 Additionally, one could leave out the preposition

on from this phrase but could not omit at (class will meet Tuesday at 7:40)

Similarly, I can meet you in but not on the house, while I can meet you on the

corner, but not in it With these spatial examples, if you do tell someone you will

meet him or her on the house; he or she will expect to find you on the roof If you

tell someone to meet you in the corner, he or she might assume you are in time-out

in the corner of a room On is a rather tricky preposition We can say, “Be on time” but we cannot say, “Arrive on 3:00.” We can say “Christmas is on December 25th” but we cannot say, “Christmas is on December.” We can say “On Friday” but not

“On the morning.” In all of these cases, on is substituted with in or at It would be nice if we could say that the three words are on a continuum, such as in is the most specific and on is the most general (Boquist, 2009)

2.1.2.Vietnamese studies

In Vietnam, the issue of prepositions has been mentioned by Nguyễn Đức Dân (1987) Nguyễn Kim Thản (1997) and Dư Ngọc Ngân (2006) with focus on challenges to properly use English and Vietnamese preposition and prepositional phrases in respect to the translation works between these two languages

Phạm Thị Hằng (2016) investigated the syntactic and semantic features of English prepositions of place “in”, “at” and “on” with reference to Vietnamese equivalents The descriptive and comparative method was chosen to carry out this study Many examples are used in the study to illustrate and analyze the syntactic and semantic feature of these preposition, then making a comparison between two languages to find out equivalents The results show that these prepositions in both

languages have some similarities and differences in terms of syntax and semantics However, the main difference is in terms of semantics Many students have not distinguished the use of these prepositions yet They are not sure about the equivalents of these prepositions in Vietnamese Through the result of this study, the author hoped that it can help Vietnamese students learn English easier

As mentioned above, there is not any work studying IN prepositional phrase

in English separately, especially there is no study on IN prepositional phrases in English and their Vietnamese translation versions, that is the room left the current study

(2004), the word preposition comes from Latin, a language in which such a word is

usually placed before its complement Preposition is defined as “connecting word showing the relation of a noun or a noun substitute to some other word in sentence” (Agoi, 2003, p.1)

In this regard, “phrases” can be defined to be group of words combined together to create meaning but not fully completed There can be multiple different type of phrases such as verb phrases, noun phrases, etc (Flick, et al 2018).Units serve as the basis for sentence creation - the unit of communication - not just words

In addition to words, there is also a type of unit called a fixed phrase (Geertzen, Blevins, and Milin, 2016) A simple concept can be stated for a typical fixed phrase

as follows: Fixed phrase is a unit combined by a number of words, existing as an available unit such as words, with structural elements and semantics are as stable as words.That is why a fixed phrase is called equivalent unit of word They are equivalent in terms of the qualifications of the units made available in the language, and are equivalent in the identification function, and the function of participating in sentence creation (Hendrix, Bolger, and Baayen, 2017) For example, phrases: to hold the balance even between two patties, to speak by the book, and so on of English; are all fixed phrases They are reworked and recreated the same way

In fact, Biber et al (2007) maintain that “prepositions are links which introduce prepositional phrases The most typical complement in a prepositional

phrase is a noun phrase; they can be regarded as a device which connects noun phrases with other structures” (p.74) Similarly, Quirk et al (2005) define prepositions by claiming that “central prepositions in English can be defined negatively with three criteria They cannot have as complement:

in inside into like near

of off

on onto opposite outside

over past round since than through

to toward towards under underneath unlike until

up upon via with within without

Carter and McCarthy (2006) note that some prepositions like upon, into, etc are no other than pairs of words that have “over time become fused as simple prepositions”

(p.251) The fusion in the case of simple prepositions is different from that in complex prepositions since the latter are separate two or three words that operate, in terms of meaning and syntactic function, as single prepositions

Complex Prepositions

Complex prepositions are composed of more than one element They can be two- or three-word prepositions Two-word sequences are made up of an adverb, adjective, or conjunction as the first word and a simple preposition as the second

word (Quirk et al., 2005, p 669) Examples of two-words prepositions are: ahead

of, apart from, as for, as of, because of, but for, due to, except for, inside of, instead

of, near to, out of, outside of, owing to, prior to, subsequent to, such as, thanks to,

up to, and so on (Carter and McCarthy, 2006, p 252)

Three-word sequences mainly follow the pattern: “Prep1 + Noun + Prep2” (Quirk et al., 2005, p 670) Quirk et al (2005) claim that these are the most frequent compared to the other types of complex prepositions Three-word sequences are classified according to which preposition is Prep 1 or Prep 2 The patterns can be: “in + noun + of; in + noun + with; by + noun + of; on + noun + of” (Quirk et al., 2005, p 670) Three-word sequences seem to share some elements with lexical words; it is the noun which is between the two prepositions However,

this form can be a grammatical sequence of words (e.g on the shelf by the door)

(from Quirk et al., 2005, p 671) In this context, Quirk et al (2005) propose “a scale of ‘cohesiveness’ running from a sequence which behaves in every way like a

simple preposition, (e.g.in spite of the weather), to one which behaves in every way

like a set of grammatically separate units” Quirk et al (2005) suggest changing the nominal element in order to distinguish complex prepositions from free sequences

In this case, three-word sequenced prepositions can be used as prepositional phrases Halliday and Matthiessen (2014) claim that these prepositions “have evolved” from other simpler prepositions (p 423) The phenomena whereby lexical items change so as to serve grammatical functions is what scholars such as Hopper and Traugott call “grammaticalization” (Hopper and Traugott, 2003, p 1) Hoffmann (2005) listed the most popular complex prepositions in the following table:

Table 2.2: The most frequent complex prepositions (Hoffmann, 2005)

can also be, an adverb phrase (usually one of place or time), a verb in the -ing form

or, less commonly, a prepositional phrase or a wh-clause

2.2.1.2 Structure of a prepositional phrase

According to R.Quirk et all (1985), a prepositional phrase consists of two components: preposition and prepositional complement

The prepositional complement is the second obligatory item in the prepositional phrases Morley (2000) claims that it is “integral to the structure of the phrase” (p 56) The link between the preposition and its complement is so sound that grammarians such as Ouhalla (1994), Radford (2009), and Van Valin (2004) claim that a preposition functions like a predicate In fact, prepositions are said to be [-N] elements since they assign case to their objects, just like verbs do (Van Valin,

2004, p 115) Most of the time, a complement is realized by a noun phrase (Biber et al., 2007; Downing and Locke, 2007; Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004; Quirk et al., 2005; Saint-Dizier, 2006) However other elements may function as a prepositional complement Greenbaum (1996) and Downing and Locke (2006) identify seven possible complements for a preposition

 NP: at home, after which, on account of his age

 Adj P: in private, at last, for good

 Adv P: since when, until quite recently

 PPs: except in here, from out of the forest

 Finite Wh-clause: have you decided about when you‘re

(Downing and Locke, 2006, p 536)

The prepositions but, except, and save may, however, be followed by

infinitive clauses:

Governments, whatever their own inclinations, will have no choice [but to fashion childcare policies]

(Biber et al., 2007, p 103) These prepositions can also precede that-clauses, unlike the other prepositions, but they are treated as exceptions The seven possible syntactic forms can be classified into two main sets: phrasal and clausal realizations Biber et al (2007) claim that a clausal unit is “structured around a verb phrase” and that this verb denotes either an action or a state (p 120)

What makes a clause different from a phrase is the elements that can be added around the verb such as the participants, the circumstances, and the attitude

of the speaker/writer Among the clausal forms, three possibilities are also present depending on whether the clause is finite or not The choice of a non-finite construction over a finite one results in the loss of medium, mood, subject and tense, while with the choice of a phrasal construction, there is no transitivity, no mood and no tense Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) describe this phenomenon as being a case of “gradual loss of information”, which is a direct result of what Quirk

et al call “syntactic compression” (Quirk et al., 2005)

 (On) reaching the monument, [ ]

 At the monument, [ ]

(Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014, p.490) Comparing the sentences, the second one is more condensed than the first, which may result in ambiguity since a condensed expression is least explicit Therefore, the prepositional complements can be placed on a scale ranging from the least explicit, that is the phrasal realization to the most explicit which is the clausal realization Among these seven possibilities, the most probable, in addition to the

noun phrase, are the finite wh-clause and the –ing clause (Biber et al., 2007, Quirk

et al., 2005)

That is the foundation for the current study to identify the structure of IN prepositional phrases in the scope of the study

2.2.1.3 Syntactic features of prepositional phrases

When used in a clause, a prepositional phrase can function as a post-modifier

of a noun, an adverbial or a complement The following sub-sections study each function in detail, in addition to certain possible, but minor functions

Post-modifier

Quirk et al (2005) claim that there is always a relation to a more explicit modifier, and therefore a prepositional phrase functioning as a post-modifier can be seen as a reduction of a more complex, mainly clausal, post-modifier These post-modifiers are naturally linked to be-sentences (p.1274)

 The car outside the station the car is outside the station This shows that the elements of a complex noun phrase can be matched with those of a clause

Table 2.3: Prepositional phrases as post-modifier (Biber et al., 2007)

Of

In For

On

To with

to N’ (N + modifier) According to Carnie (2008), the first category of modifiers (sister to N) are said to be complements, while the second ones are adjuncts, as can be seen in the following sentence

post-Figure 2.1: Tree diagram: complements versus adjuncts (Carnie, 2008)

The structural proximity of complements to the head noun is translated into a proximity in terms of meaning, which means that “the complement will be both adjacent to the head and more importantly closer to the head than an adjunct” (Carnie, 2008, p 123) According to Keizer (2004), the distinction between adjunct (or post-modifier prepositional phrases) and complement is not clear cut as it is rather gradual Furthermore, post-modification by prepositional phrases can be classified according to the restrictive /nonrestrictive and appositive/ non-appositive distinctions (Quirk et al., 2005, p 1285)

 The course on English grammar starts tomorrow

 The children, behind the fence, jeered at the soldier

 Behind the fence, the children jeered at the soldier

(Quirk et al., 2005, p 1288) These examples show that the same prepositional phrases can be a non-restrictive modifier (first example) or an adverbial (second example) because of its position in the clause This shows that the nonrestrictive modification is an optional one since adverbials are optional

Adverbial

Adverbials are different from the other functions (Subject, Object, and Complement) since they are most of the time optional Quirk et al (2005) identify these elements as having: (1) range of semantic roles; (2) propensity for multiple occurrence in the same clause; (3) range of realization forms; (4) range of possible positions in the clause; (5) distinctive grammatical functions; and (6) flexibility for use in information processing and in displaying textual connections (Quirk et al.,

2005, p 478)

Modal adjuncts can be either mood or comment adjuncts Mood adjuncts are linked to the mood system: they represent modality (certainly, definitely, usually, always, never, etc.), temporality (eventually, soon, just, still, already, and so on) and intensity (totally, utterly, scarcely, and so on) (p 126) Comment adjuncts “express the speaker’s attitude either to the proposition as a whole or to the particular speech function” (p 129) Examples of comment adverbs are:

 Propositional: naturally, wisely, cleverly, etc

 Speech-functional: truly, actually, on the whole

Conjunctive adjuncts “set up a contextualizing relationship with some other (typically preceding) portion of text” (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004, p 132)

Examples of conjunctive adjuncts are: on the other hand, in addition, etc They

represent the “logico-semantic relations” expressed between clauses, and are therefore cohesive (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014, p 611)

Moreover, Biber et al (2007) maintain that prepositional phrases are the most common syntactic realization of adverbials which is due to their overuse in circumstance adverbials However, among all stance (interpersonal) adverbials, prepositional phrases account for 15 to 20 per cent only, which is almost the same distribution for linking (conjunctive) adverbials (p 768)

Complement

Complementation is defined by Quirk et al (2005) as the “part of a phrase or clause which follows a word and completes the specification of a meaning relationship which that word implies” (p 1150) Particularly, this section focuses on the complementation of verbs and adjectives by PPs Verbs can have different relations with prepositions, as there are three types of verbs: phrasal, prepositional and phrasal prepositional verbs In the case of phrasal verbs, the preposition is

rather seen as a particle related to the verb, rather than to the complement Prepositional phrases functioning as verb complements may have one of these patterns:

 Copular verbs: The children are at the zoo

 Mono-transitive verbs: They agreed on the meeting

 Complex transitive verbs: We considered him as a

genius

In fact, prepositional phrases can function as prepositional complements, adverbs post-modifiers and nominal

 Prepositional complement: He picked up the gun from

under the table

 Complement of an adverb: Unhappily for Tanya, the

telephone was in a corner of the living room

 Nominal: Between 6 and 7 may be convenient

(Quirk et al., 2005, p 658) This is the foundation for the current study to identify the syntactic features

of IN prepositional phrases in the scope of the study

2.2.1.4 Semantic features of prepositional phrases

The different meanings expressed by prepositional phrases are studied by scholars such as Roberts (1986), Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, 2014), Hofmann (1993), and Quirk et al (1985, 2005) Most semantic accounts are designed for those prepositional phrases functioning as adverbials This study will investigate the different meanings regardless of their functions, in order to see if any correlations between meaning, function and structure occur

Spatial Prepositions

Different studies on prepositional meanings revealed that the same preposition can have different meanings; but place is the most basic (Biber et al., 2007; Downing & Locke, 2006; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004; Quirk et al 2005)

In fact, most PPs express place and most place adjuncts are prepositional phrases

Different classifications are offered, the most detailed description is offered

by Quirk et al (2005), who speak about destination and position from negative and positive perspectives These distinctions are also classified according to dimension, since “when we use a preposition to indicate space, we do so in relation to the dimensional properties, whether subjectively or objectively conceived, of the

location concerned” (p 673) This means that a preposition implicitly carries the point of view of the writer/speaker since it situates an entity with respect to another one as seen from the angle of the writer

The model offered by Halliday & Matthiessen (2004, 2014) construes the different meanings as a system of pair choices Space is first of all seen as either extent (walk for seven miles) or location (work in the kitchen) Each of which can

be definite (at home) or indefinite (near) Locations can be either absolute (in Australia) or relative (near) And finally, Location can show either rest (in Sydney)

or motion (to/from Sydney) However, this functional perspective does not account for the positive/negative dimension mentioned earlier Although Quirk et al.’s (2005) model contains more details; the functional classification highlights the different choices by presenting all the possible meanings as networks in a system of choices

Temporal Prepositions

At, on, in, over, during, for, since and until are prepositions used to denote

time Most of these prepositions are used primarily to express space The link between temporal and spatial prepositions is attributed to the link between these notions philosophically and physically

Different classifications of temporal references have been advocated by grammarians According to Quirk et al (2005) “[t]emporal relations are especially

dependent for their expression upon figurative extension of locative items such as in and at… As with space, several sub-roles can be distinguished, some of them

closely analogous to those of space” (p 481) The sub-roles distinguished by Quirk

et al (2005, p.72)) are:

 Fixed position: on Sunday, last week

 Duration: until, up to, since, from

 Frequency: frequently, three times

 Relationship: still, already

Similar to this classification is the classification given by Biber et al (2007, p.33), who maintain that time circumstantial may express:

 Position in time: tomorrow, in January, nowadays

 Duration: for a week, years, for fifteen years

 Frequency: every single day, very often

 Relationship: before, after, still

These two classifications seem to be similar; however, the model offered by Halliday and Matthiesen (2014) is different as it includes more details It also clarifies the parallel drawn between the spatial and temporal meanings, where for some meanings (position) the same prepositions are used whether to denote space or time The merit of such classification is that it draws a clear parallel to spatial references

Metaphorical Prepositions

Despite their limited numbers, prepositions can express different meanings The same prepositions used to construe spatial experience are also used to talk about other domains through metaphorical extension Meanings of prepositions are also explained from the structural and functional perspective

From a structural perspective, they are four types: adjuncts, subjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts According to Quirk et al (2005), prepositional phrases’ functioning as adjuncts can have the following meanings, in addition to space and time:

Table 2.4: Structural classification of meanings (adjuncts) (Quirk et al., 2005)

Means/agentive Manner: She performed the operation with great skill

Means: They left by plane

Instrument: She tried to open the lock with a knife Agentive: They were noticed by no one

Stimulus: I’m astonished at your reaction

Cause/purpose Cause: She lost her job because of her age

Reason: He was fined for drunken driving

Motive: She did it out of kindness

Purpose: Everyone run for shelter

Destination: I’m leaving for Seattle

Target: This novel is aimed at a young audience

Accompaniment: I'm so glad you're coming with us

Support and opposition He's always arguing with his sister/ against nuclear

power

Having A man with a red nose / of courage

Concession I admire him in spite of/despite/ for all/ for all his

faults

Respect She is advising them with respect to law

Exception and addition We had a pleasant time except for/ with the exception

of the weather

Subject matter She is lecturing about / on new techniques of

management

Material/ingredient This cake is made with eggs

Standard He is good at games He is not bad for a youngster

Reaction I was surprised at his refusal

Table 2.5: Structural classification of meanings (subjuncts) (Quirk et al., 2005)

Subject-oriented With great pride, he accepted the award

Emphasizers I can't tell you for sure

Intensifiers Downtowners

I didn't enjoy it in the least

Focusing restrictive The workers, in particular, are dissatisfied

with the government

Additives in addition

The third category is that of disjuncts which have ‘a superior role as compared with the sentence elements’ (Quirk et al, 2005, p 613) These adverbials are meant to comment on the style or the content of the whole sentence

Table 2.6: Structural classification of meanings (disjuncts) (Quirk et al., 2005)

Style Modality and

Manner Respect

In short, he is mad but happy

Mildred seemed to enjoy the concert, from

what her brother told me

Content Degree of or

condition for truth of content

Value judgment of content:

He won the race in spite of/ despite his

injured leg

Of course, nobody imagines that he will

repay what he borrowed

Finally, the last type of adverbials is that of conjuncts, which “have the function of conjoining independent units rather than one of contributing another facet of information to a single integrated unit” (Quirk et al, 2005, p 631)

 Listing: in the first place

 Summative: in conclusion, in sum

 Appositive: in other words

prepositional phrases in English and their Vietnamese translation versions

2.2.2.Vietnamese preposition and prepositional phrase

2.2.2.1 Definition

Like English, Vietnamese also has a category of word which similar to prepositions We may call this category Vietnamese equivalent of English preposition According to Tuc (2003), “although the distinction between prepositions and serial verbs in Vietnamese is not always clear-cut, Vietnamese do

exist” (p.69) For example: trong (in, inside), ngoài (out, outside, out of), trên (on,

over), dưới (under, beneath, below), trước (before), sau (behind), bên (by), giữa (among, between)

Vietnamese prepositions link nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in

a sentence The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition

According to Tran (2007) Vietnamese prepositions have two main kinds: prepositions of time and location And there are some other prepositions called miscellaneous ones

Here are some prepositions of time: trong or trong suốt (during), vào (in, on,

at), trước (before), sau (after), kể từ khi (since) and cho tới khi (until)

For example:

Tôi thường ăn sáng lúcbảy giờ(I usually have breakfast at 7 o’clock)

Ba tôi phục vụ quân đội trong suốt chiến tranh(My father was in the army

during the war)

Tôi không gặp cô ấy kể từ khi cô ấy xuất ngoại (I haven’t met her since she

went abroad)

Prepositions of location: trên (on, above, over), trong (in, inside), chung quanh (around), bên trái (on the right of), cạnh (next to, beside), đối diện (opposite) and so on

For example:

Tôi sống tại thành phố Hồ Chí Minh ( I live in Ho Chi Minh city )

Nhà sách nằm đối diện nhà thờ ( The bookstore is opposite the church )

Prepositions of miscellaneous: cho (for), với (with), về (about), nhờ (thanks to), bởi (by)

Table 2.7: List of Vietnamese prepositions (Tran, 2007)

English

Prepositions

Vietnamese Prepositions

English Prepositions

Vietnamese Prepositions One word preposition One word preposition

of của as far as xa như…

2.2.2.2 Syntactic features of Vietnamese prepositions

In a Vietnamese sentence, prepositions show the relation of one word to another word Prepositions require an object to complete them, typically a noun or a pronoun There are many kinds of functions of prepositional phrases in Vietnamese, including as modifier of other phrases, as complement of other phrases, and as nominal functions

The function of prepositional phrases as modifier of other phrases can be appeared in noun phrases, adjective phrases, and verb phrases Prepositional phrases

as complement of other phrases can complement noun phrases, adjective phrases, and verb phrases Prepositional phrases function as nominal function : as a subject,

as a subject complement, as a direct object, and as an indirect object

As Modifier of Other Phrases

Functioning as modifier of other phrases is the grammatical function of prepositional phrase in Vietnam Prepositional phrases modify noun phrases,

adjective phrases, and verb phrases

For example:

Con chó với bộ lông trắng đang sủa ầm lên (The dog with white fur barked) Thời tiết vào tháng năm rất ấm áp (The weather in May is warm)

Pho mai từ Pháp có lợi khuẩn (Cheese from France with live bacteria)

The prepositional phrases với bộ lông trắng, vào tháng năm, and từ Pháp modify

the NOUN PHRASES Con chó, Thời tiết và Phô mai

Cái thảm bị bẩn ở gần cửa (The carpet is dirty near the door)

The prepositional phrase ở gần cửa modifies the ADJECTIVE PHRASE “bẩn”

Đứa bé đã khóc trong suốt lúc xem phim (The baby was crying during the

movie)

The prepositional phrase trong suốt lúc xem phim modifies the VERB PHRASES

“khóc”

As Complement of other phrases

Functioning of complement other phrases is the grammatical function of function of prepositional phrase in Vietnamese Prepositional phrases complement, noun phrases, adjective phrases, and verb phrases For example, the following

prepositional phrases complement other phrases

For example:

Tác giả của bộ tiểu thuyết vừa mới tới (The writer of the novel just arrived) Những điều chỉnh cho đạo luật mới đã được ban hành (The amendments to

the constitution have been launched)

The prepositional phrases của bộ tiểu thuyết and cho đạo luật mới function

as complement of the NOUN PHRASES “Tác giả” and “The amendments”

Tên tôi phạm đã ý thức được về hậu quả (The criminal was aware of the

consequences)

The prepositional phrase về hậu quả functions as complement of the

ADJECTIVE PHRASE “ý thức”

Anh ấy khăng về việc ở nhà (He was insisting on staying home)

Trẻ em thường phụ thuộc vào cha mẹ của mình (Children rely on their

parents)

The prepositional phrases về việc ở nhà and vào cha mẹ của mình function

as complement of the VERB PHRASES, was “khăng” and “phụ thuộc”

As Nominal Function

Vietnamese prepositions and prepositional phrases can also perform six nominal functions Nominal function are grammatical function prototypically performed by nouns, noun-phrases, and noun clauses, prepositional phrase of location and time most often perform nominal functions Also note that, although grammatically possible, prepositional phrases infrequently function as subjects, subject complement, direct objects, object complement, indirect object, and prepositional complement The six nominal functions of prepositional phrases include examples to illustrate use

As Subject

A subject is a word, phrase, or clause that performs the action of or acts upon the verb The following examples of prepositional phrase as a subject, as in:

Phía sau nhà kho cần sửa chữa (Behind the shed needs repairing)

Sau 10 giờ tối là thời gian không thích hợp để gọi cho tôi (After 10 p.m is a

bad time to call me)

The prepositional phrases phía sau nhà kho andsau 10 giờ tối function as a

subject of those sentences

As Subject Complement

As a subject complement is a word, phrase or clause that follows a copular verb and describe the subject The following examples demonstrate prepositional phrases as subject complement For example:

Khoảnh khắc kỳ diệu nhất của ban đêm là nửa đêm (The most magical time

of night is after midnight)

Phần it lý thú nhất trong công việc hàng ngày của tôi là vào buổi chiều (My

least favorite part of the work day is during the afternoon)

The prepositional phrases của ban đêm and trong công việc hàng ngày

function as subject complements of “Khoảnh khắc kỳ diệu nhất” and “Phần it lý thú

nhất”

As Direct Object

A direct object is a word, phrase, or clause that receives the action of a transitive verb The following examples of preposition at phrase as a subject complement.E.g.:

Chúng ta phải dọn dẹp dưới giường ( We must clean under the bed )

Bố tôi sẽ trang trí trên nóc nhà (My mother will decorate on top of the roof)

The prepositional phrases dưới giường and trên nóc nhà function as direct

objects that receive the action of transitive verbs “dọn dẹp” and “trang trí”

As Object Complement

An object complement is a word, phrase or clause that follows and describes the direct object The following examples of preposition at phrase as object complement

Các hướng dẫn viên cảnh báo về địa điểm nguy hiểm nhât khi bơi dọc theo

bờ biển phía Nam (The tour guides announced the most dangerous place to swim along the southern shore)

Giáo viên chỉ ra phần hiệu quả nhất trong dự án của tôi (The teacher

pointed out the most effective part in my project)

The preposition phrases dọc theo bờ biển phía Nam and trong dự án của tôi

function as object complements that describe the direct objects “địa điểm nguy hiểm

nhât” and “phần hiệu quả nhất

2.2.2.3 Semantic features of Vietnamese prepositions

In Vietnamese, the preposition phrase functions to illustrate a logical, temporal, or spatial relationship between the object of the prepositional phrase and the other components of the sentence

A spatial relationship

Firstly, the prepositional phrase is used to demonstrate a spatial relationship between components of sentences

Con chó nằm ngủ trong vườn(The dog is asleep in the garden)

In this example, the prepositional phrase trong vườn indicates a spatial

relationship between the subject “con chó” and the object “vườn” If the preposition

on was replaced with under or beneath the spatial relationship would be altered

A temporal relationship

A prepositional phrase is also employed to indicate a temporal relationship

Thành phố này đã không còn như xưa kể từ sau chiến tranh

(The town hasn't been the same since the war)

In this sentence, the prepositional phrase kể từ sau chiến tranh indicates a

temporal relationship between the verb phrases “đã không còn như xưa” and the object “chiến tranh”

A logical relationship

Lastly, a logical relationship can be created through using a prepositional phrase

Gia đình đó đã tự đặt mình vào nguy hiểm

(The family put themselves in danger)

The prepositional phrase vào nguy hiểm in this sentence indicates a logical

relationship between “gia đình đó” and “ nguy hiểm”

2.3 A comparison between English and Vietnamese prepositional phrases

Prepositional phrases belong to a small class of formatives which are difficult to define For example, a non-native speaker of English finds it hard to distinguish between “on the streets” and “in the street” This section provides some basic differences between English and Vietnamese prepositions (Table 2.8)

Table 2.8: A comparison between English and Vietnamese prepositions (Tran, 2010)

Meaning English prepositions Vietnamese prepositions

back of, in the back of sau

BÊN

by, near, next to, close to, beside, alongside, to the right/left

bên, cạnh, sát, gần, kề, bên phải, bên trái

GIỮA

within, among, between,

in the middle of, in the midst of

giữa

Table 2.8 reveals that if Vietnamese people want to describe the meaning

“trước”, they say that “Bạn con đang ở trước nhà” (Your friend is in front of the house), or “Có xe đằng trước kìa” (There is a car ahead), as we can see, when being translated into English, there are varied prepositions according to the positions of the subjects and objects “Trước” – “in front of”, “ahead”, and so on That’s why Vietnamese people find it difficult to use correct English prepositions

According to Tran (2010), Vietnamese people don’t pay attention to trajector (đối tượng định vị) and landmark (đối tượng qui chiếu) when describing the higher position Meanwhile, English people take these into consideration They distinguish among “on/ over/ above” while Vietnamese people just use “trên”

When describing the “above” and “under” relation, Vietnamese people aren’t aware of distinguishing whether the trajector is in the vertical reference (dung qui chiếu thẳng đứng) of the landmark’s area They just divide the space into two areas: trên (above)/ dưới (under) Meanwhile, English people are always aware of this

aspect That’s why we can see in the table, to describe “trên”, they have more

prepositions than Vietnamese – “on, upon, above, on top of, over, atop”, and “dưới” – “under, underneath, beneath, below”

Additionally, when translated into Vietnamese, some English prepositions can be removed in terms of meanings Some examples are presented as follows:

In love : đang yêu

In fact : thực vậy

In need : đang cần

In trouble : đang gặp rắc rối

In general : nhìn chung

In the end : cuối cùng

In danger : đang gặp nguy hiểm

In debt : đang mắc nợ

In time : kịp lúc

In other words : nói cách khác

In short : nói tóm lại

In brief : nói tóm lại

In particular : nói riêng

In turn : lần lượt

Based on the theoretical background, the current study is to identify the syntactic and semantic features of “IN” prepositional phrases in English and theirVietnamese translation versions

2.4 Summary

To sum up, this section has provided working conditions of preposition and prepositional phrases in English andVietnamese followed by examples Semantic features of prepositional phrases such as logical, temporal, or spatial relationship between the object of the prepositional phrase and the other components of the sentence and syntactic features such as functioning as adjective, adverb and nominal are also discussed A comparison between English and Vietnamese preposition are provided to create theoretical foundation for the study

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research approach

According to Saville-Troike (1982), one of the best methods of getting to know one’s own “ways of speaking” is by comparing and contrasting with those of others This process will reveal the shared and unshared features of linguistic patterns and their meanings Thus, contrastive linguistics with its associated research method – Contrastive analysis (CA) - will be used as the primary research framework for this study

Contrastive Analysis (CA) is a linguistic enterprise aimed at producing inverted (that is, contrastive, not comparative) two-valued typologies (a CA is always concerned with a pair of languages) It is not concerned with classification because the term contrastive implies, more interest in differences between languages than in their likenesses CA is founded on the assumption that languages can be compared (James, 1980) According to Filha (1997), Contrastive Analysis (CA) is the comparison of the native language (NL) with the target language (TL), i.e the language being learnt with the purpose of determining similarities and differences between the two Furthermore, Johansson (2008) defines Contrastive analysis as the systematic comparison of two or more languages, with the aim of describing their similarities and differences, and it has often been done for practical/pedagogical purposes However, there is more to CA than this: when we compare two languages, we often see things more clearly Speaking on the beauty

of CA, Johansson quotes Firbas as saying that “The contrastive method proves to be

a useful heuristic tool capable of throwing valuable light on the characteristic features of the languages compared” (Firbas, 2013, p.13) In other words, when we compare across languages, we can see the characteristics of each language more clearly, and the comparison can contribute to a better description of each individual language Contrastive analysis (CA), over the years, has had various designations such as comparative linguistics, contrastive grammar and differential description According to Hamp (2011), no matter what terminology is used for CA, it is basically the juxtaposing of accounts of two languages and the extraction of certain observation of learning difficulty

3.2 Methods of the study

As Seliger and Shohamy (1989; DeVaus, 2002), among many others, suggest, the research methods and techniques adopted in any research project

depend upon the questions and the focus of the researcher However, this may suggest a rather ‘instrumental’ stance which does not always capture the philosophical and conceptual underpinning as well as theoretical debates and complexities of the ‘approach’ researchers choose, thus reducing it to ‘what works’ (Sunderlandand Litosseliti, 2008; Tashakkori and Teddlie, 2003) Even though the uneasiness deriving from a ‘what works’ position is rather straightforward, the extent to which it is relevant to the mixed methods paradigm is debatable In fact, over the last few years an increasing volume of work has appeared (e.g Bryman,2006; Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004) which illustrates (a) the conceptual decisions researchers make in choosing a particular design within this paradigm, and (b) the robustness of the paradigm itself In addition, there is great variety in mixed methods designs; Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003) have identified over 40 types of designs within their recent handbook Hence mixed methods ‘is not

to be mistaken for an “anything goes disposition”, (Dörnyei,2007: 166) and should not be seen as an unstructured ‘fusion’ of quantitative and qualitative research or as just the additive ‘sum’ of both paradigms

Within the linguistic field, Sunderland and Litosseliti (2008) provide clear examples of how ‘affiliation’ to certain epistemological approaches may influence the approach taken and methodologies selected In the case of discourse analysis, for instance, there are widely recognized approaches (including Conversation Analysis (CA), Interactional Sociolinguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Discursive Psychology, Interpretative Discourse Analysis, and Post-structuralist Discourse Analysis (PDA), each with a recognizable associated set of methodological tools These different approaches often stay somewhat insulated within specific disciplinary boundaries, each working with distinctive conceptions

of discourse, as well as distinctive tools and processes (e.g regarding the operationalization of the context of interactions forth interpretation of discourse data)

In the editorial of the Journal of Mixed Methods Research, Tashakkori and Creswell (2007) provide a useful overview of the conceptual and epistemological challenges in ‘bridging’ quantitative and qualitative research designs While recently the mixed methods paradigm was defined as ‘the class of research where the researcher mixes or combines’ (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004: 17)quantitative and qualitative elements, according to Bryman (2007) the key issue