A study on syntactic and semantic features of english motion verbs in comparison with the vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY PHAN THI THANH BÌNH A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH MOTION VERBS IN COMPARISON WITH THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVA

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

PHAN THỊ THANH BÌNH

OF ENGLISH MOTION VERBS IN COMPARISON WITH THE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

PHAN THI THANH BÌNH

A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH MOTION VERBS IN COMPARISON WITH THE

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA ĐỘNG

TỪ CHUYỂN ĐỘNG TIẾNG ANH SO SÁNH VỚI TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled : „STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF MOTION VERBS IN ENGLISH IN COMPARISON WITH THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS‟ submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Student

Phan Thi Thanh Binh

SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh

Hanoi: 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like primarily to thank Assoc prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh for helping me complete this study This paper would not have been possible without her constant support and encouragement Her patience and helpful criticism help me confidently express my ideas into this paper I regard myself extremely fortunate in having her as my dissertation supervisor

I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all all of the teachers

of the Faculty of Postgraduate studies – Hanoi Open University for their valuable lectures , which have help me a great deal in gaining a lot of theoretical

as well as practical acknowledgements

I would also like to send my thanks to all my classmates of NNA3 for these -good ideas and helpful assistance

Last but not least, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my family members who have constantly supported, inspired and encouraged me to complete the graduation paper

Hanoi, November, 2015

Phan Thi Thanh Binh

ABSTRACT

This study is an attempt to uncover the syntactic and semantic features of the MOTION verb group in English, especially ARRIVE motion verbs as well as the similarities and differences in using the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English and Vietnamese based on the theoretical framework of componential analysis Special attention is paid to different senses governed by contexts where these twelve verbs are used In order to help Vietnamese learners of English to have a deep understanding of other nuances of meanings conveyed by these English verbs, their Vietnamese equivalents are examined

The participants of the study are twelve English verbs beginning with ARRIVE

is central, followed by go,come, return, enter, cross, travel, pass, escape, reach, approach and visit which are taken from different sources such as dictionaries, books,

novels in English and Vietnamese The data are collected by the activities of reading the materials, identifying and classifying They are quoted the certain phrases and sentences from the texts The data in this study are analyzed by explaining them in terms of their meanings and syntactic features

The results of the study show that the twelve English verbs of the ARRIVE motion verb group in English under discussion can occur in the same syntactic patterns, but may have different meanings depending on the situation in which they are used and they can occur in different syntactic patterns that reflect various meanings in real-life communication They also reveal that the meaning of a verb is determined by its relations with other words, that is why if we want to identify exactly the meaning of any word, we have to put it in a certain context

A further pedagogical implication resulting from the findings included in this study could be equally beneficial for teachers and learners who would like to expand their knowledge concerning the most typical ways of perspectivizing the linguistic scene by means of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 4.1: Sentence patterns of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English Table 4.2: Sentence patterns of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English and Vietnamese

Table 4.3: Sentence elements of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English and Vietnamese

Table 4 4: Sentence elements of the verb type in English and Vietnamese Table 4 5: Subtypes of the ARRIVE motion verbs in English and Vietnamese

Table 4.6: Types of the ARRIVE motion verbs in English and Vietnamese (group 1)

Table 4.7: Types of the ARRIVE motion verbs in English and Vietnamese (group 2)

Table 4 8: Types of the ARRIVE motion verbs in English and Vietnamese (group 3)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

List of tables and figures v

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Objectives of the study 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Design of the study 3

Chapter 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Review of the motion verbs group in English and Vietnamese 5

2.2 Review of theoretical framework 7

2.2.1 Theoretical framework 7

2.2.1.1 Theory of syntax 7

2.2.1.2 Theory of semantics 9

2.2.2 Theoretical background 11

2.2.2.1 Definition of a verb 11

2.2.2.2 Definition of motion verb 12

2.2.2.3 Classification of motion verbs in English 14

2.2.2.3.1 Path verbs 14

2.2.2.3.2 Manner of Motion Verbs 14

2.2.2.4 Syntactic features of motion verbs in English 15

2.2.2.5 Semantic features of motion verbs in English 17

2.3 Summary 17

Chapter 3: METHODOLORY 3.1 Research-governing orientations 19

3.1.1 Research questions 19

3.1.2 Research setting 19

3.1.3 Research approach 19

3.1.4 Principles for intended data collection and data analysis 20

3.2 Research methods 20

3.2.1 Major methods vs supporting methods 20

3.2.2 Data collection techniques 21

3.2.3 Data analysis techniques 22

3.3 Summary 22

Chapter 4 : FINDING AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Syntactic and semantic features of the ARRIVE verb group in English 23

4.1.1 Syntactic features of the ARRIVE verb group in English 23

4.1.1.1 In terms of their sentence patterns 26

a SV type 27

b SVO type 28

4.1.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements 39

4.1.2 Semantic features of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English 35

4.1.2.1 Group 1: GO, COME, ARRIVE and RETURN 37

4.1.2.2 Group 2: ENTER, CROSS, TRAVEL, PASS and ESCAPE 39

4.1.2.3 Group 3: REACH, APPROACH and VISIT verb in English 41

4.2 Similarities and differences between English and their Vietnamese equivalents 42

4.2.1 Similarities between English and their Vietnamese equivalents 42

4.2.1.1 In terms of syntactic features 42

4.2.1.2 In terms of semantics features 46

4.2.2.1 Group 1 in English and their Vietnamese equivalents 48

4.2.2.2 Group 2 in English and their Vietnamese equivalents 50

4.2.2.3 Group 3 in English and their Vietnamese equivalents 51

4.2.2 Differences between English and their Vietnamese equivalents 53

4.2.2.1 In terms of syntactic features 53

4.2.2.2 In terms of semantics features 54

4.3 Some possible implications for teaching the ARRIVE verbs group in English and Vietnamese to Vietnamese learners of English 57

a Avoiding Language transfer mistakes 57

b Mistakes of using ARRIVE motion verbs group with prepositions 59

c Mistakes of using ARRIVE motion verbs group with sentence structures 60

4.4 Summary 63

Chapter 5 : CONCLUSION 5.1.Recapitulation 64

5.2 Concluding remarks 65

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 66

5.3.1 Limitations 66

5.3.2 Suggestions for further studies 66

REFERENCES

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

Nowadays, English is considered as one of the most popular language for everyone all over the world There are many problems in learning English as listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, lexicology, etc Grammar plays a very important role in English, it is not easy for English learners to study Moreover, learners are affected by their mother tongue during the process of studying that causes much confusion to them However, it is not so difficult that English learners cannot study because English grammar is also systematic

Theoretically, verbs are very important constituents of every sentence Particularly, the main features of verbs or motion verbs in English are dealt with

in every general grammar book such as: Quirk, et al (1985), Biber et al (2000)

or Huddleston et al (1985) There exist a large number of publications dealing solely with verbs, their characteristics and their semantic behavior (for example:

Palmer, F.R (1985), Sinclair, J.ed (1998) or Levin, B (1993) It is also possible

to find many publications dealing with specific types of verbs, for example publications specialized in modal verbs, particle verbs, phrasal verbs or motion

verbs: Kudrnacova, N (2008), Tenny, C (1995) and also publications dealing

only with certain characteristics of the verbs such as aspect: Comrie (2006)

In Vietnamese, the main features of verbs or motion verbs are dealt with

in every general grammar book such as Nguyễn Lai (1976) and Nguyễn Lai

(1984) It is also possible to find many publications dealing with specific

motion verbs And Nguyễn Kim Thản (1984), with Động từ trong tiếng Việt,

these two authors studied about the classification of words in Vietnamese including the MOTION verbs group in Vietnamese

Practically, we hope to contribute a small part in studying and teaching the MOTION verb group in English In this study, the MOTION verb group in English is described in a variety of contexts and situations We hope that with the thesis, we can contribute a small part to help students of English as well as Vietnamese people who learn English and who are interested in motion verbs

As has already been said above, this construction can be labeled as understudied Therefore, the study will be to shed more light on syntactic and semantic features of some English motion verbs in comparison with the Vietnamese equivalents

1.2 Aims of the study

This study is aimed at Investigating syntactic and semantic features of certain ARRIVE motion verbs group in English; making a comparison between ARRIVE motion verbs group in English with their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features and giving implications for teaching English ARRIVE motion verbs group to Vietnamese EFL learners

1.3 Objectives of the study

In order to achieve the aims, some objectives can be put forward:

- Identifying syntactic and semantic features of ARRIVE motion verbs group in English

- Finding out similarities and differences between English ARRIVE motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features

- Giving some implications for teaching the ARRIVE motion verbs in English to Vietnamese learners of English

1.4 Scope of the study

In English, there are seven subtypes of Motion verbs: 1 the RUN subtype,

2 the ARRIVE subtype, 3 the TAKE subtype, 4 the FOLLOW subtype, 5 the CARRY subtype, 6 the THROW subtype, 7 the DROP subtype (R.M.W Dixon, 1991), but within the framework of this study, we focus on ARRIVE subtype in terms of their syntactic and semantic features with three subtypes:

Group 1 go, come, arrive, return; Group 2 enter, cross, pass, travel, escape; Group 3 reach, approach, visit

In this study, English is considered as the source language, and Vietnamese is the target language, so syntactic and semantics features of ARRIVE motion verbs in English are analysised and made comparison with their Vietnamese equivalents

1.5 Significance of the study

Theoretically, this study seeks to contribute to the theoretical basis of the characteristics of the syntactic and semantic features of the group from the movements in general and verb ARRIVE group in particular and the similarities and differences in their Vietnamese equivalents

Practically, the study is expected to be used as a good reference for learning and researching language The result of the study through analysis and comparison between two languages may be of great benefits for teachers and learners of English, as well as helpful in using the language effectively in life Suggestions for teaching and learning from this group are given more effectively Besides that, this research is conducted with the hope that in the foreseeable future, teachers of English will get to know more about ARRIVE motion verbs and realize the importance of them in teaching ARRIVE motion verbs so that they can adapt it to their own teaching conditions

1.6 Structural organization of the thesis

To gain the above goals, the study is divided into five chapters:

Chapter I, Introduction, deals with the rationale to choose the thesis, the

aims, the objectives, the scope, the significance of the thesis

Chapter II, Literature Review, summarizes the results of the previous studies in

Vietnam and overseas in order to build the theoretical background for the study

Chapter III, Methodology, points out the research orientations, describes the

methods and materials used in doing the research including data collection and analyzing techniques

Chapter IV, Findings and discussion, points out syntactic and semantic features

of English ARRIVE motion verbs, and comparison between syntactic and semantic features of English motion verbs and the Vietnamese equivalents is made Implications for teaching English motion verbs and difficulties in teaching and learning English motion verbs are given

Chapter V, Conclusion, summaries the whole contents of the study, indicating

the limitation, thus giving some recommendations and suggestions for a further study

Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

The following issues are to be dealt with in this chapter: An overview of the MOTION verb group in English and Vietnamese; theory of motion verbs; classification of sentences and sentence elements These theories are the basis of the study in chapter IV

2.1 Review of the motion verb group in English and Vietnamese

Verbs are very important constituents of every sentence Particularly, the main features of verbs or motion verbs are dealt with in every general grammar

book such as “A Comprehensible Grammar of the English Language” (Quirk, et

al, 1988), “Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English” (Bibber et al, 2000) or “The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language” (Huddleston et al,

2006) There exist a large number of publications dealing solely with verbs, their

characteristics and their semantic behavior (for example: Palmer, F.R, 1985)

“The English Verb; Sinclair, J.ed Grammar Patterns 1: Verbs” or (Levin

B,1987) “English Verb Classes and Alternations : a Preliminary Investigation”

(1993) It is also possible to find many publications dealing with specific types

of verbs, for example publications specialized in modal verbs, particle verbs, phrasal verbs or motion verbs (for example: Kudrnacova.(2008) “Directed Motion at the Syntax-Semantic Interface or article How motion verbs are

special” (Tenny, 1995) and also publications dealing only with certain

characteristics of the verbs such as aspect (e.g Comrie, 2006) “Aspect: An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related Problems”

There have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations into speech act verbs in both English and Vietnamese For speech act verbs in English, R.M.W.Dixon (1991) studies about the semantic and syntactic features of English verb groups such as the MOTION group, AFFECT group, GIVING group, CORFOREAL group.etc This book has two purposes: one purpose is

practical: it is meant to be of service to the general public, both to native speakers of English and to people learning or teaching English as a second language The other purpose is scholarly, it is meant to be a study of an important section of the English vocabulary, a study of a kind which has never been undertaken before The present dictionary can be regarded as a justification

of the semantic theory on which it is based This does not mean, however, that the practical lexicographic purpose is subordinated to a theoretical linguistic goal On the contrary, the semantic theory is viewed here as a lexicographic enterprise, which will be also useful as a reference book According to R.M.W.Dixon(1991), the MOTION verb group includes twelve English verbs:

go, come, arrive, return, enter, cross, travel, pass, esape, reach, approach and visit These verbs are analysed thoroughly in terms of their meanings and using

in daily life Given the necessary limitations of scope, the clues offered by the syntactic properties of the individual verbs have not been exploited as fully and

as systematically as it was hoped

Randolph Quirk (1985) gives a description about the syntactic and semantic functions of words in simple sentence, complex sentence, clause structure and seven clause types (SV, SVO, SVA, SVC, SVOO, SVOA, SVOC)

as well Especially, in chapter 10, he researches in the simple sentence that stressed on the syntactic functions and the semantic roles of clause elements such as subject, verb, object, adverbial

In Vietnamese, many authors did long researches and gave out worthy

collections such as Nguyen Lai (1976) with “ Động từ chỉ hướng trong tiếng

Việt” and Nguyen Lai (1996) with “Nhóm từ chỉ hướng vận động trong tiếng Việt hiên đại” Although both of the studies focused on researching the different Vietnamese Motion verbs, the authors saw the same characteristics: The popularity of these verbs in daily life They gave remarks: Almost the previous researches only paid attention to the grammatical features of the speech act verbs, the semantic structures were not carefully concerned with So, these

studies have the same purpose, that is studying the semantic structures of the Vietnamese motion verbs

Moreover, Nguyễn Lai (1984) with Động từ trong tiếng Việt is the basis of

this thesis in the comparison between the MOTION verb group in English and Vietnamese In this thesis, the author developed and improved to the study of semantic structures of Vietnamese motion verbs The author‟s aim is to create new theoretical basis and apply them in analyzing the verb groups scientifically The author found new trend of the tittle in order to improve the good points, as well as to cut down the limitation of the prior thesis

The books above are the background that the theory part of the study will

be carried out

2.2 Review of theoretical framework

2.2.1 Theoretical farmework

2.2.1.1 Theory of syntax

In the past, syntactic clues have sometimes been utilized in lexicography

as an aid to establishing polysemy In theoretically oriented linguistic literature, too, the claim had often been made that a difference in meaning (Dixon, 1985)

In the present work, however, a stronger claim has been tried to explore: that a syntactic similarity is likely to reflect a similarity in meaning, so that shared syntactic patterns are likely to reflect shared semantic components To the extent

to which this claim is validated, shared syntactic properties can be seen as evidence for postulated semantic structures

According to R.M.W Dixon (1991), syntactic clues have to be treated with care, and the relevant syntactic categories must be established empirically, not determined a priori For example, if we ask about the semantic correlate of the pattern “X Ved Y for Z”, we will probably discover nothing of significance

Consider, for example, the following group of verbs, which can all occur in that

frame: go, come, arrive, return, enter, cross, travel, pass, esape, reach,

approach and visit What could all these verbs have in common (that some other

verbs, unable to occur in this frame, would not have)? On closer inspection, however, it emerges that two different syntactic patterns are in fact involved: (1)

„X Ved Y for Z‟ paraphrasable as „X Ved Y to do Z‟ and (2) „X Ved Y for Z‟ paraphrasable as „X Ved Y for doing Z‟ The first of these two patterns singles

out verbs such as go, come, arrive and return ; the second, verbs such as enter,

cross, travel, pass and esape: the third, verbs such as , reach, approach and visit

The pattern „X Ved Y for Z‟ which is paraphrasable as „X Ved Y to do Z‟

is particularly worth comparing with the closely related pattern „X Ved to Y for Z‟, as in the sentences „X appealed to Y for Z‟ and „X applied (to Y) for Z‟ This pattern, too, correlates with the components „I want you to do Z‟ and „I know that you don‟t have to do it‟

Generally speaking, if the addressee phrase is treated as a direct object, the (implied) effect of the action on the addressee is always greater and more direct than in the otherwise comparable cases when the addressee phrase is

treated as an indirect object For example, of the five verbs enter, cross, travel,

pass and esape are clearly more tentative; this semantic difference is reflected in

the syntactic one: „X suggested to Y (that Z)‟ vs „X advised Y (to do Z)‟ But the differences in the syntactic treatment of the addressee may also reflect differences in the agent‟s goal For example, if a verb implies that the agent wants to achieve a certain state of affairs and that the role of the addressee is rather instrumental, then it is the desired state of affairs, rather than the addressee, which is treated as a direct object Hence, for example, the following contrasts:

Of course, if we want to investigate the validity of the correlations between syntactic and semantic properties, we must also seek to validate semantic components independently (not on the basis of syntactic clues) However, once the validity of such correlations between syntax and meaning has been established, syntactic properties can be used as invaluable clues to semantic structure I am not suggesting that syntactic properties should be treated as „proofs‟ for, or against, a given semantic analysis I maintain, above all, that syntactic properties possess an inestimable heuristic value In combination with other evidence, however, they can be used in the justification

of semantic formulae

2.2.1.2 Theory of semantics

Semantics is a branch of linguistics, which deals with meaning or the content of communication According to Hurford and Heasley (1983:1), semantics is the study of meaning in language Language is a means of communications, and people use language to communicate with others by making conversations, giving information, and other things to make social relationship Human beings have been given the capacity to talk, to communicate with each other, to make meaningful utterances, so that they are understood by other human beings They communicate about the world in which they live, about themselves, about their thought and feeling, about what has happened, about what might happen or what they would like to happen, and a lot more Hurford and Heasley (1983:5) state that the giving of information is itself

an act of courtesy, performed to strengthen social relationships This is also part

of communication There are some linguists that tried to define semantics Morries as quoted by Lyons (1977) at first defines semantics as the study of the relations of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable And then he revised his definition, saying that, semantics is that portion of semiotic which deals with the signification of sign in all modes of signifying

Semantics is usually connected with pragmatics Carnap (Lyons, 1977:116) says that descriptive semantics (i.e the investigation of the meaning

of expressions in “historically given natural language”), may be regarded as part

of pragmatics The reason why descriptive semantics is part of pragmatics seem

to have been that he believed that difference in the use of particular expressions were not only inevitable in language - behavior, but must be taken account of in the description or context Smith, as quoted by Lyons (1977:116) states that semantics studies how these signs are related to things And pragmatics studied how they are related to people According to Leech (1983:5) in practice, the

problem of distinguishing language and language use has centred on a boundary

dispute between semantics and pragmatics Hurford and Heasley (1983:14) further explain that the study of semantics is largely a matter of conceptually and exploring the nature of meaning in a careful and thoughtful way, using a wide range of examples, many of which we can draw from our knowledge

But Jack Richards, John Platt, Heidi Weber (1987:172) state that “the study of meaning is semantics Semantics is usually concerned with the analysis

of the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences and sometimes with the meaning

of utterances in discourse or the meaning of a whole text.”

David Crystal (1992:347) defines that semantics is the study of meaning

in language Structural semantics applied the principles of structural linguistics

to the study of meaning through the notion of semantic relations (also called sense relation), such as synonymy and antonym In generative grammar, the semantic component is a major area of the grammar‟s organization, assigning a semantic representation to sentences, and analyzing lexical terms of semantic features The theory of semantic fields views vocabulary as organized into areas, within which words (lexical items) interrelate and define each other

The concepts of syntax and semantics are basic of the study to study syntactic and semantic features of the ARRIVE motion verbs in English

2.2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.2.1 Denifition of a verb

As has already been mentioned, verbs are very important constituents of sentences Because of the complexity of the verbal characteristics and also because of the complexity of the verbal characteristics and also because of the existence of an extensive number of publications dealing with their characteristics in great depth, this part of the thesis does not, by any means, intend to give a comprehensive description of verbal characteristics and behavior of verbs

The opening short definition of a verb from Longman English Grammar

states that “a verb is a word (run) or a phrase (run out of) which expresses the existence of a state (love, seem) or the doing of an action (take, play) (Alexander

1988, 159) A very general division of verbs is provided by Quirk et al (1985), who divide verbs as a class of words into three principal categories They classify them according to their function within the verb phrase and label them

full or lexical verbs such as leave, primary verbs consisting of be, have and

do, and modal auxiliary verbs such as will, might, ect Primary and modal

auxiliary verbs form closed classes (it is not possible to easily add new words in such groups) whereas the class of full verbs is an open class Full verbs function

in sentences as main verbs, and the primary verbs can act either as main verbs or

as auxiliary verbs

When describing verbs in more detail, many publications use the term

„verbs phrase‟ for them A verbs phrase might be simple such as She lives

opposite me (R.M.W Dixon, 1971:24) or complex, consisting of two or more

words such as I can’t swim (R.M.W Dixon, 1971:25) English verbs phrases

give information of different kinds Verbs phrases indicate: tense, which gives

information about time such as I speak (present tense) versus I spoke (past

tense); aspect, which gives information about the speaker‟s perspective on time

such as I spoke (simple aspect) versus I was speaking (progressive aspect);

voice, whether active such as She destroyed it or passive such as It was

destroyed, which gives information about agents and recipients of verbs

processes (Carter and McCarthy, 2006, 405)

Due to extensiveness of verbs as a class of words, it is possible to divide them into many various categories depending on the features of verb phrases which are being examined When the feature of (in) definitiveness is taken into consideration, verb phrases can be divided into definite (tensed) and infinite (non-tensed) verb; when the main focus is on the inflection of verbs, we distinguish verbs regular and irregular The verbs may also be divided into active or stative verbs, or, as Lakoff (cited in Frawley, 1992, 146) calls them non-stative and stative Kudrnacova (2005, 54) mentions also a division of

verbs from the „lexical aspect‟ into four groups: States such as knowing the

answer, Activities such as running, accomplishment such as running a mile and

achievements such as reaching the border Many more other classifications are

possible Frawley (1992, 140), for example, divides verbs into four principal

classes, namely: acts, states, causes, and motion Main objective of this thesis is

to serve as the primary research sources from motion

2.2.2.2 Denifition of motion verb

As is apparent from the term, motion verbs are those verbs that express a

kind of motion such as go, walk, run and hurry and so on The category of

motion verbs is very broad

As Pablo and Gutierrez (2001,207) explain a directed motion event refers to

a situation in which an object, the Figure, moves with regards to a reference point, the Ground, following a trajectory, the Path This description is based on Talmy‟s description (cited in Kudrnacova 2005, 54) of a motion situation, where

he clarifies the individual component as follows: the Figure (i.e the object moving with respect to another object, called the Ground), the Path (i.e the

course followed by the Figure), and Motion (which refers to the presence per se

of motion in the event of motion) To describe this terminology more clearly,

Kudrnacova (2008, 33) offers a sample sentence John ran to the house where

John represents the Figure, the house represents the Ground, to expresses the

Path, and walk presents the Motion and Manner Kudrnacova (2008, 33) further states, that dixis embodied in verb roots (as in come and go) is termed

„Direction‟ “The path may also be expressed in particles (called „satellites‟)

such as in John went off’ (Kudnacova 2008, 33)

Motion verbs are also dealt with by Frawley (1992) describes a motion as a displacement of an entity However, even though his work is based on Talmy‟s characterisation of motion events, he does not use entirely the same semantic

factors as Talmy to describe the displacement Fawley‟s factors are Them,

Source, Goal, Path, Site, Cause, Manner, and Conveyance (Frawley 1992, 170)

The Theme, the displaced entity, corresponds with Talmy‟s Figure The Source represents the origin of the movement and the Goal represents its destination, the Site denotes the location of the movements, and the Conveyance represents the means by which the motion is carried out Manner and Path will be described in more detail in the following sections

The semantic properties of English motion verbs are complex and display several levels of organization (Kudrnacova, 2005) Motion verbs describe those activities which present progression in space and or progression in time Kudrnacova (2008) distinguishes between „pure motion‟ and motion as an activity The term „pure motion‟ denotes here motion as a change of location

over time – a strictly kinetic phenomenon (John walked to the store) and the

term „motion as an activity‟ denotes a motion event that fulfill a causative role

with respect to the change of the agent‟s state ( John walked himself to

exhaustion) It is possible to combine „pure‟ motion events with directional

phrases On the other hand, motion events presented as „activities‟ can be only

„non –directed‟ events

The category of motion verbs can be further divided into two subcategories with their own specific properties and behavior These subcategories are manner

of motion verbs and path verbs and will be described in greater detail in the following parts

2.2.2.3 Classification of motion verbs in English

2.2.2.3.1 Path verbs

The class of path verbs covers all verbs which incorporate the direction of the movement Because directionality represents a constitutive feature of this

category, path verbs are sometimes called verbs of inherently directed motion or

verbs of direction as an opposite to verbs of displacement In the work of Levin

and Rappaport Hovav (1992), this sub- category is labeled arrive class after one

of the members of this class: Path verbs are mute about the manner of motion

and only encode information about the direction of the motion: John left, John

arrived (Kudrnacove, 2008, 7) Or, in Levin‟s words, the meaning of these

verbs includes a specification of the direction of motion, even in the absence of

an overt directional complement (Kudrnacove, 1993, 236)

2.2.2.3.2 Manner of Motion Verbs

Manner of motion verbs encode information about the physical modality of motion but, in contrast to the so-called path verbs , do not provide information

about a specific direction of motion (He ran, He walked) unless they combine with an explicit directional phrase such as in He ran to the store, He walked to

the store ( Kudrnacove, 2009, 143 )

These verbs inherently include the notion of the transmission of energy from one participant to another, this may be the same participant whose „self‟ is divided

into the acting self and the acted upon self, as in John walked himself to the

station (Kudrnacove, 2008, 10 ), and thus are used in different constructions

than path verbs

2.2.2.4 Syntactic features of motion verbs in English

Syntax is the study of how combine to the form sentences and the rules which govern the formation of sentences However, syntactic structure is understood as the arrangement of words and morphemes into larger units( phrases, clauses, and sentences)

Meaning is associated with the way in which words are combines to make

phrases, clauses and sentences Compare The dog bit the postman and The

postman bit the dog, which involve the same word meanings but quite different

sentence meanings because of their different syntactic arrangements As Dixon (1991) claims, there is a principled interaction between the meaning of a word and its grammartical properties Once a learner knows the meaning and grammartical behaviour of most of the words in a language, then from the meaning of a new word he can infer its likely grammatical possibilities, or from observing the grammatical use of a new word, he may be able to infer a good deal about what it means

Every verb, in its capacity as the core of a clause, is defined semantically

in terms of the semantic roles of the participants in the state or event codes by the clause Within the clause, these participants occupy the grammatical roles of, most commonly, subject, direct object, indirect object, adverb or predicate These grammatical roles are marked in English by a combination of morphology and word-order But they also have other, more subtle, grammatical-behavioral properties, such as various constraints on their distribution in grammatical environment

According to the grammatical classification of verbs, verbs fall into three broad subclasses- those that require only one role ( intransitiv verbs), those which require two roles (copular) and those require two or more roles (transitive verbs) There is a considerable difference between intransitive subject and transitive subject

If a verb has only one role, at the semantic level, then it must be mapped onto intransitive subject relation , at the syntactic level Some of the roles in intransitive subject can control the activity in which they are involved (e.g walk, speak) but other intransitive subject roles exercise no control (e.g break, die, grow)

If a verb has two or more roles, one will be mapped onto transitive sub ject and another onto transitive object (e.g Mary cut the cake)

It is clear that verbs are one of the most central syntactic category in language They have deep relations with the other categories: nouns because they select arguments which are often nominals or adverbs because adverbs modify verbs, prepositions, which, in turn assign thematic roles to NPs Verbs associated with adverbs permit the computation of aspect

The role common to all motion verbs is (thing) „moving‟ (e.g Mary ran) There may also be specification of Locus - the place with respect to which motion takes place an NP in Locus role is most often marked by the appropriate preposition Certain motion verbs may allow the preposition to

be ommited, a slight semantic difference then resulting, e.g He jumped (

over) the river, She climbed (up) the mountai It is also possible in certain

circumstances to omit a preposition before a measure phrase, e.g he ran (for)

a mile [23,p.1991]

MOTION verb group in this subtype deals with motion with respect to a

definite Locus They are divided into three groups Group 1 arrive, return, go,

come; Group 2 enter, cross, travel, pass, escape; Group 3 reach, approach, visit

Since verbs from this subtype refer to motion with respect to a Locus, the Locus must normally be stated, either through an NP or an adverbial:

She hasn’t yet travelled to Spain/ there (R.M.W Dixon, 1985, 96 )

These syntactic features of motion verbs are the basis of analyzing the syntactic features of the ARRIVE subtype in English and in Vietnamese in chapter IV

2.2.2.5 Semantic features of motion verbs in English

According to R.M.W Dixon (1991), he defined a verb is the center of a clause A verb refers to some activity and there must be a number of participants

who have roles in that activity as Sinbad carried the old man; or it may refer to a state, and there must be a participant to experience the state as My leg aches

A set of verbs is grouped together as one semantic type partly because they require the same set of participant roles, for example:

He passed through the tunnel or funfair (R.M.W Dixon, 1985, 97) Pass can omit by, as in pass (by) the church, but not through

He escaped from prison (R.M.W Dixon, 1985, 97)

This can clearly be seen with escape- a preposition is required with the meanings get away from a place, where one was confined:

He escaped (being sent to) prison, escape punishment

(R.M.W Dixon, 1985, 97)

But not for the meaning, avoid confinement, or some other ill fortune

These semantics features of motion verbs are the basis of analyzing the semantic features of the ARRIVE subtype in English and in Vietnamese in chapter IV

2.3 Summary

In this chapter, an overview of MOTION verbs group in English are given to briefly review what has been found and discuss the related studies by describing their methods and key findings, but then identify theoretical background of syntactic and semantic features of sentence elements

Moreover, the definition of verb, the definition of motion verb, the syntactic and semantic features of motion verbs, are analyzed thoroughly in order to use as the background of analyzing the syntactic and semantic features

of the ARRIVE verb group in English Finally the study discusses what the next study will be done in the chapter 4

Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter is designed with a view to mapping out the ways to conduct the whole study It comprises of two main parts: research - governing orientations and research methods

3 What are the implications for teaching the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English to Vietnamese learners of English?

3.1.2 Research setting

Normally, it is realized that the students easily make mistakes when they

use the ARRIVE motion verbs group because they do not know which verbs should be chosen in different contexts So, this study is carried out through dictionaries, encyclopedia, reference books at library and on some websites to help the students at High School identify more clearly about the differences in syntactics as well as in semantics between the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

3.1.3 Research approach

The qualitative and quantitative approaches are combined to implement this study In reference with quantitative approach, the study collects data for

the study including both the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents from semantic dictionaries, Advance learner‟s encyclopedia, English and Vietnamese grammar books and Internet resources

3.1.4 Principles for intended data collection and data analysis

Data types which are chosen to implement this study are derived from Oxford Advanced learner‟s dictionary, Oxford Advanced Encyclopediate, Vietnamese dictionary, English semantic dictionary, Vietnamese grammar books and Internet resources.etc These are used as reference books and citation materials in the study

Sources of data are from finding books at libraries, bookshops and on the Internet

Data analysis techniques are collecting the materials, investigating the syntactic and semantic features of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English and comparing with their Vietnamese equivalents

3.2 Research methods

3.2.1 Major methods vs supporting methods

The methods are used in this study include descriptive and contrastive analysis ones

The descriptive method is exploited to search for the syntactic and semantic features of the twelve verbs of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English

Besides, the comparative method is useful to uncover the Vietnamese equivalents of these twelve English verbs with different senses In particular, the data were collected from different sources such as dictionaries, novels, news, books

The verbs are analyzed in detail beginning with go followed by come,

arrive, return, enter,cross, travel, pass, escape, reach, approach and visit Each

of these verbs is described in a seperate section, and the anlysis was conducted with a view to discovering such aspects of each verb as its syntactics, semantics performed by each of these verbs The analysis is believed to contribute to a deeper understanding of the twelve English verbs The componential analysis will be applied to analyze the data

3.2.2 Data collection techniques

The data are collected from different sources such as dictionaries, namely

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2003); Oxford Advanced Encyclopedia

(2002); Sematic Dictionary; A New Approach to English Grammar on Semantic

Principles; English-Vietnamese Dictionary(2008); Vietnamese - English Dictionary (2000); Word classification of modern Vietnamese (1998); Verbs in Vietnamese (1999); some national daily newspaper, International weekly

newspaper and National weekly news magazine, namely, The Australian; The

Guardian Weekly; The Bulletin and some grammar books such as English grammar in use by Murphy, R.; A comprehensive grammar of the English language by Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J (1985) The

reason for choosing these materials as the sources of the data is that according to R.J Rees (1973:): literature is divided into two senses: broad sense and narrow sense The former means anything that is written such as tables, catalogues, text, books, brochures, etc while the latter means a writing that expresses and communicate thought, feelings, ideas, and attitudes, towards life in the serious fuller and deeper sense of the words Moreover, these sources are found to provide the most fertile examples for the lexical items under study

The bilingual dictionaries, encyclopedia, the novels are used for this study because they are well known and are confirmed by reliable publishing houses

After identifying different senses of the twelve verbs in English together their Vietnamese equivalents, these senses are brought into consideration The following part represents the data analysis techniques used to analyze the data

3.2.3 Data analysis techniques

In this study, these following data analysis techniques are used to do the best for the result of the thesis such as placing information into arrays, creating matrices of categories, looking at the data in many different ways to avoid premature, dividing the data by type across all cases investigated, treating the evidence fairly to produce analytic conclusions answering the original "how" and "why" research questions, using representative audience groups to review and comment on the draft document

3.3 Summary

Research - governing orientations and research methods are two important elements to help the author to do the study The methods are used in this study include descriptive and comparative methods The data are collected from different sources such as the bilingual dictionaries, encyclopedia, English grammar books, the newspapers, magazines that are used for this study because they are well known and are confirmed by reliable publishing houses Based on this plentiful source of materials, the research will be executed as below

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the syntactic and semantic features of the ARRIVE motion verb group in English are analyzed in detail and, simultaneously, the comparison with their Vietnamese equivalents is also done thoroughly in order to help readers (especially teachers and students) to have a comprehensive view of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English Then we can implicate for teaching in order to find out Vietnamese learners‟ mistakes when using ARRIVE motion verb group in English

4.1 Syntactic and semantic features of the ARRIVE motion verbs group in English

4.1.1 Syntactic features of the ARRIVE motion verb group in English

Late traditional grammar classifies verbs into seven major semantic domains: activity verbs, communication verbs, mental verbs, causative verbs, occurrence verbs, existence verbs and aspectual verbs (Biber, 1999: 360) Verbs

of motion, which primarily denote actions, fall into the group of activity verbs

Examples are come, go, arrive and return etc

They come over a green paddy field ( R.M.W Dixon, 1985, 96 )

The ARRIVE motion verbs are the head alone in the verb phrase or head

of the verbal predicate and take a subject with the semantic role of Agent According to Biber (1999), every verb can occur with specific patterns of clause elements which contain a subject and can also include additional adverbials In the book „Longman grammar of spoken and written English', he proposes five valency patterns for single-word lexical verbs: Transitive, Intransitive, Monotransitive Generally speaking, ARRIVE motion verbs should be grouped into the following types:

-Intransitive: Intransitive motion verbs occur in the SV pattern with no object

or predicative complement For example:

Most people (S) came (V) ( R.M.W Dixon, 1985, 96 )

However, this type can occur with optional adverbials (in the form of a prepositional phrase) as in:

They (S) went (V) to Holyhead and onto Dublin

-Transitive: In terms of transitive verbs, motion verbs fall into the following types:

-Mono-transitive: Mono-transitive motion verbs occur with a single direct object in the pattern SVOd

Then you (S) should visit (V) your parents(Od) before

Some ARRIVE verbs have similar syntax:

He arrived at the station (R.M.W Dixon, 1985, 96)

They returned to Sheffield (R.M.W Dixon, 1985, 96)

Group 2 of ARRIVE verbs could also be regarded as intransitive with the Locus marked by a preposition, but this preposition may be omitted in

appropriate circumstances

She entered (into) the room (R.M.W Dixon, 1985, 97)

Cross can equally well retain or omit it:

He crossed (over) the road (R.M.W Dixon, 1985, 97)

Travel can occur with a variety of prepositions, just over can be omitted,

from a sentence like:

He travelled (all) over Africa from coast to coast

(R.M.W Dixon, 1985, 97)

Pass can omit by, as in pass (by) the church, but not through:

He passed through the tunnel or funfair (R.M.W Dixon, 1985, 97)

Group 2 of ARRIVE verbs, there is a few verbs are basically transitive,

they are in this group reach, approach and visit, as in :

They won’t reach the lake tonight (R.M.W.Dixon, 1985, 97)

ARRIVE verbs can generally not be used in a causative construction, but some exceptions Settle may be used causatively and then the Causer will generally be in position of authority:

Baby settled down for the night (R.M.W.Dixon, 1985, 97)

Return would normally have an animate NP in S function:

Fred has returned to work (R.M.W.Dixon, 1985, 97)

It can be used causatively, generally with a non-human O NP:

John returned the book to the library (R.M.W.Dixon, 1985, 97)

If the Moving role for pass is a manipulable object the verb can then be

used transitively:

They passed the port around the table (R.M.W.Dixon, 1985, 97)

(Where the Moving role is non- manipulable, and a causative construction is

implausible.)

4.1.1.1 In terms of their sentence patterns

After studying the background, it is found out that the ARRIVE verb group in English is categorized into two sentence patterns according to their syntactic features: SV, SVC and SVO Four others are SVA, SVOO, SVOA

and SVOC do not take part in this verb group

The following table can account for the sentence patterns of ARRIVE motion verbs group:

Verb Sentence patterns

Table 4.1: The sentence patterns of the ARRIVE motion verbs group

As we can see from the table, among twelve verbs above there are eight

verbs (enter, cross, pass, escape, reach, approach and visit) appears in two

patterns There are three verbs (come, travel and visit) occur in only one pattern

Below, each of the above sentence patterns will be analyzed more in detail

a SV pattern

In this patterns, the verbs are intransitive ones go, arrive, return and enter

Among these, four of the verbs have the type SV

Let’s go (R.M.W Dixon, 1971,97)

What time did you arrive? (R.M.W Dixon, 1971, 97)

They returned (R.M.W Dixon, 1971,97)

Don’t enter without knocking (Jonathan Crowther, 1995, 297)

All of these ARRIVE: go, come, arrive, return, travel, pass, escape and

approach belong to this sentence type In this pattern, the verbs go come,

arrive, travel and return which are intransitive verbs and are closely linked in

grammar and meaning to a prepositional phrase The exact choice of preposition

is shown in the example and in dictionary entries Besides that, other verbs are

transitive verbs In the pattern, the verbs are closely linked in grammar and

meaning

She passed through the square (Lê Khả Kế, 1991,432 )

A lion has escaped from its cage (Jonathan Crowther,1995, 302) They approached to the beach (Jonathan Crowther, 1995, 37)

In this pattern, the verbs go, come, arrive, travel and return which are

intransitive verbs and are closely linked in grammar and meaning to a

prepositional phrase

b SVO pattern

Some of these ARRIVE: cross, pass, escape, enter, reach, approach and

visit belong to this sentence In this pattern, the verb is a transitive verb The

verbs always occur with direct objects:

Electricity cables cross the valley (R.M.W Dixon, 1971,96)

The direct object may be a noun, noun phrase, pronoun or that-clause,

finite clause/ non-finite clause such as:

We passed her house about 7 o’clock last night (S is realized by a

pronoun) (R.M.W Dixon, 1971,96)

The conjunction that can sometimes be omitted:

She passed( that) my house (R.M.W Dixon, 1971,97)

Which can be a pronoun (who(m), whose, which, what):

He escaped the prison (R.M.W Dixon, 1971, 302)

Or a determiner + noun (what time, which tutors, etc) or an adverb (why (finite clauses only), when, where, how):

They entered a room (Lê Khả Kế, 1991, 199)

He can reach the bookshelf (Jonathan Crowther, 1995, 749) The train approached the main line (Jonathan Crowther, 1995, 37)

They visited the City (Jonathan Crowther,1995, 737)

Why did you return home so early? (Raymond Murphy, 2000, 293 )

Please reach me the attar down from the bookshelf

(Jonathan Crowther,1995, 749)

It is seen that in the ARRIVE motion verbs group, there are only two types of sentence patterns: SV and SVO

4.1.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements

In the sentences containing ARRIVE verb group, subject is the element

that is most often present It is also the element for which we can find the

greatest number of characteristic features The subject in this group is normally

a noun phrase or a nominal clause, a pronoun

A group of students crossed over the road (S is realized by a noun

phrase) (Jonathan Crowther, 1995: 215)

I return home about 6 o’clock everyday (S is realized by a pronoun)

(Jonathan Crowther, 1995: 774)

Intransitive verbs (go, come, arrive, return and travel) are followed by no

obligatory element, and occur in type SV and SVO Now each verb in ARRIVE

motion verb group is examined in details Firstly, the complementations of ARRIVE motion verbs are pointed out

Go verb doesn‟t have object, it often goes with adverbial of direction

She has gone to China(= She is now in China or She is on her way there

) (JonathanCrowther,1995,387)

Come is the same go, it doesn‟t have object Come means move or travel

towards or into a place thought of as near or familiar to the speaker such as:

He came into the kitchen (Jonathan Crowther,1995,177)

Arrive is the same go and come, it doesn‟t have object It reaches a place

at the end of a journey or a stage in a journey:

We arrived at his house and knocked at the door

(Jonathan Crowther, 1995, 177)

Return is the same arrive, it also doesn‟t have object It comes or goes

back to a place or person:

He returned to America in the late Autumn

( Jonathan Crowther, 1995,774)

Transitive verbs enter, cross, pass, escape, reach, approach and visit are

followed by an object and occur in types SVO respectively

is to a place:

She entered the kitchen (Jonathan Crowther1995, 297)

And it cannot have object, the object is understood in context:

The door opened and he entered (Jonathan Crowther1995, 297)

Besides that, enter used as a stage direction to indicate when a character

comes on stage:

They entered (Jonathan Crowther1995, 297)

Cross is the same enter, it has object or not:

We crossed over the bridge (Jonathan Crowther1995, 215)

Travel is the same go and come, it doesn‟t have object but it goes with

adverbial Travel makes a journey, typically of some length: