Effectiveness of cognitive lessons on helping twelfth graders at u minh thuong high school acquire the use of definite the and generic the

5 will be compared with the approach being used in the current English textbook applied in grade 12 in teaching the aspects of definite „the‟ and generic „the‟.. Significance of the stud

EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE LESSONS ON HELPING TWELFTH- GRADERS AT U MINH THUONG HIGH SCHOOL ACQUIRE THE USE OF

DEFINITE “THE” AND GENERIC “THE”

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Department of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By

HO VAN HAN

Supervised by NGUYEN THU HUONG, PhD

HO CHI MINH CITY, NOVEMBER 2011

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE LESSONS ON HELPING TWELFTH- GRADERS AT U MINH THUONG HIGH SCHOOL ACQUIRE THE USE

OF DEFINITE ‘THE’ AND GENERIC ‘THE’

In terms of statement of Requirements for Thesis in Master’s Program issued by the

a degree

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2011

HO VAN HAN

I hereby state that I, Hồ Văn Hận, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Thesis deposited in the University Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the University Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan or reproduction of thesis

Ho Chi Minh City, September, 2011

HỒ VĂN HẬN

I am grateful to the many people who have helped me undertake this study

First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Nguyen Thu Huong, Ph.D who provided insightful discussions, valuable comments, criticisms and support in the preparation and completion of this thesis

Second, my special thanks goes to the organizers of this master course and teachers of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities for their instructions

Third, I also would like to thank teachers and students at U Minh Thuong high school for helping me to have enough information for the thesis

I also express my warm thank to my best friends who have supported me in positive works

Finally, I am indebted to all the support that my family has so lovingly offered me Without their support, the whole thesis would not finish

The English article system is not only so complex that philosophers and linguists have difficulties in agreeing on the underlying notions designated by the different forms, but also so different from the Vietnamese system that it must be almost impossible for students to recognize and remember its rules and conventions

This research aimed at examining the effectiveness of cognitive lessons written by (Nguyen Thu 2005) on helping twelfth-graders at U Minh Thuong high school

acquire the use of definite ‘the’ and generic

This is a quantitative research approach, so the researcher mainly uses a pretest to analyze the errors of using English articles before treatment, and a post-test to determine which group performed better (the control group or the experimental group) after treatment of 80 twelfth-graders at U Minh Thuong high school

The research compared traditional approaches (which were drawn by (Alexander 1998))

and cognitive lessons (which were written by (Nguyen Thu

2005))

Finally, the results were found and discussed, and recommendations were made by the author with the hope that they will be helpful for teaching and learning English articles, namely definite ‘the’ and generic ‘the’ at high schools

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 9

I THE MEANING AND USE OF DEFINITE ‘THE’ AND GENERIC ‘THE’ ……… 9

1 Theories of the meaning of definite ‘the’ 9

2 Theories of the meaning of generic ‘the’ 16

3 The differences and similarities between definite ‘the’ and generic ‘the’ 21

4, Approaches To Teaching English Articles 23

II THE MEANING OF DEFINITE ‘THE’ AND GENERIC ‘THE’ IN COGNITIVE GRAMMAR 27

1 Theories of the meaning of definite ‘the’ ………… 27

2 Theories of the meaning of generic ‘the’ in cognitive grammar 30

3 The differences and similarities between definite ‘the’ and generic ‘the’ ……… 31

4 Approaches to teaching the article ‘the’ 32

III THE MAIN PROBLEMS FACED BY LEARNERS WHEN ACQUIRING THE

ENGLISH ARTICLES ….33

IV PREVIOUS STUDIES ON EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVE GRAMMAR ……… …36

V CONCLUSION .37

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 39

3.1 The aim of the study .39

3.2 The research questions 39

3.3 The student sample 40

3.4 Instruments 43

3.4.1 A survey questionnaire 43

3.4.2 A pretest 44

3.4.3 A post-test 45

3.4.4 A scoring method 46

3.4.5 Validity and Reliability Tests 46

3.4.6 Descriptive statistics 47

3.4.7 Research hypothesis 47

3.4.8 Procedure .48

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 50

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 63

APPENDICES

Appendix 2: Norm-references test 72

Appendix 3: Pre-test on the English articles 77

Appendix 4: Using the English article ‘the’ in the current-English 12 ………81

Appendix 5: The cognitive lesson to using definite ‘the’ and generic ‘the’ 88

Appendix 6: Lesson plan 100

Appendix 7: Lesson plan 115

Appendix 8: Post-test 130

References ……… 134

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter establishes the scene by presenting some basic issues and ideas, which will be investigated in greater depth in the support of the study It begins with the background to the study in which the main problem for the use of definite „the‟ and generic „the‟ is anal yzed This chapter also establishes the tentative points such as the aim, significance, delimitations and structure of the study, and the definition of terms

1.1 Background of the study

The English article is one of the determiners used to describe the grammatical element that comes at the beginning of a noun phrase Since every noun requires a determiner, it is not surprising that determiners constitute some of the most

Goodman 1987:33, Sinclair 1990:143) agree that „the‟ is the most frequent word

in the English language However, one grammatical point that is universally acknowledged to be of great difficulty for non-native speakers of English is also the determiners, particularly those that constitute the English article system

In other words, according to a number of authors such as Hawkins (1978), Master (1987), Langacker (1991) cited in Nguyen Thu (2005), the English article system contributes to not only understanding what is said, but also playing an important role in making oneself understood in the discourse that one is engaged in A

person may not understand the professor in an utterance like “Where‟s the

professor? if he or she does not share the discourse uttered in this sentence The

intricacy of the system is reflected through the problems that second language learners encounter when mastering the system

In fact, the meaning of the English article used in pragmatic theories assumes that the speaker must share with the hearer in the common ground view of the presuppositions in the discourse The common ground of view can arise naturally from the recognition that utterances typically contain parts that are similar or old information, and parts that are new All new information must be asserted so that anything that is not asserted is old “Old information, then is the sum of

„knowledge‟ …evoked in a sentence which a speaker assumes to be already available in the hearer‟s mind at the time of utterance - „the old‟, „the given‟, or

„the presupposed‟, … - while „new information‟ is the information added to that

knowledge by the utterance itself.” (Lambrecht, 1994: 50)

Furthermore, research into the meaning of definiteness has generally be

„identifiability‟, „uniqueness‟, and „inclusiveness‟ However, neither approach alone can account for all felicitous uses of the definite article For example, a unique but unfamiliar entity, or a familiar but non-unique referent, an identifiable but unfamiliar entity, etc may be felicitously referred to through the use of „the‟

In contrast, in cognitive grammar, meaning construction involves two processes: (1) the building of mental spaces; and (2) the establishment of mappings between those mental spaces Moreover, the mapping r elations are guided by the local discourse context, which means that meaning construction is always context- bound The fundamental insight this theory provides is that mental spaces are distinct conceptual regions into which meaning is partitioned when we think and talk (Fauconnier 1985) These theories have provided grounds the elaboration of the meaning of definiteness and genericity under the umbrella of cognitive grammar (These issues will be treated in detail in chapter two)

screen‟ is used as a result of the unique relationship between a TV and a screen That

is, a TV has a screen, whereas „the elephant‟ in (3) is definite generic because it refers to

the whole class of elephants In fact, although the English article has been taught in

low-grades such as in units 2, 7 of the Tieng Anh lop 6, and in units 4, 13 of the Tieng

Anh lop 10 and in unit 8 of the Tieng Anh lop 12, published by the Ministry of

Education and Training in Vietnam The sentences above present difficulties for students at U Minh Thuong High school (abbreviated to UMT high-school) They cannot recognize which one is definite or generic as well as how to use them correctly

Also, from a survey in the form of a questionnaire (Appendix 1) carried out randomly with the twelfth-graders at UMT high-school on their knowledge of the English articles, although the students completely knew the pattern of the structure

of a noun phrase used with English articles, the meaning of English articles, and

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some basic ways to use them, they could not distinguish between the definite „the‟ and the generic „the‟ Hence, from these sources of problems, we attempt to find out a suitable approach for teaching article „the‟ (whether cognitive approach or traditional approach) If students acquired the use of definite „the‟ and generic „the‟, they could

understand the utterance that the speaker used in the discourse and applied this knowledge in the national examination for the General Certificate of Secondary Education

Up to now, little research has been found concerning the cognitive grammar on the mastering of English articles except that one conducted by Ngu yen Thu (2005) (More detailed discussion will be provided in chapter 2.) Although the population in his study was students at university level, not those in the secondary level, he propounded an approach to teaching the English article system which can be outlined as follows

Non-definiteness and different ways to

3

Some and Zero article with

express generic use Other determiners

4

plural and uncountable

The, Zero article, and a/an in the

Count versus non-count noun5

general

From these five cognitive lessons, the researcher, in this study, attempts to adapt the 5 lessons into 4 ones which include the following issues: count versus non - count noun, definiteness, genericity and proper nouns and names These lessons

5

will be compared with the approach being used in the current English textbook

applied in grade 12 in teaching the aspects of definite „the‟ and generic „the‟

(Readers are referred to chapter 2 and appendix 4, 5 for details.)

1.2 Aims of the study

The main purpose of the study is to find out the effectiveness of cognitive lessons on helping high-school students (i.e twelfth-graders at UMT high-school) acquire the use of

the definite „the‟ and the generic „the‟ This study seeks to answer the ensuing

questions:

a What kinds of errors do students in the two groups make before the

treatment? In terms of using „the‟, do errors in using the generic „the‟

outnumber those in using the definite „the‟?

b Does the experimental group significantly outperform the control group after the treatment of the cognitive lessons?

c What are the aspects of English articles that the experimental group outperforms the control group? Do they significantly outperform the control group in using generic „the‟ and definite „the‟?

1.3 Significance of the study

If cognitive lessons turned out to be potential, they could ease high school teachers‟ burden of teaching the English articles (particularly definite „the‟ and generic „the‟) for students at high schools And if this approach turned out to be promising, this would also make the process of learning the articles become less

1.4 Definitions of the terms

Since this study is connected with cognitive grammar, a definition of the term

cognitive grammar may be beneficial The term cognitive lessons as advocated by

Nguyen Thu (2005) are based on a cognitive approach to language developed by

Langacker (1991b) This approach considers symbols to be the basic units of language This also suggests that there is a conventional combination of a semantic structure with a phonological label In terms of semantic structures, the structures are not modeled as propositions but as schemas The reason lies in the close binding with the phonological label Cognitive grammar, in turn, develops the notion of symbolic units into the grammar of languages Langacker has based his theory much on principles of gestalt psychology On that basis, analogies can

be drawn between linguistic structures and aspects of visual perception This may explain the reason why linguistic structures should have much influence from general cognitive processes

In cognitive lessons, the kind of schema used is mental spaces Mental spaces refer to the area of thinking that each person may possess during the process of talking or thinking

To achieve effective reference in using the article „the‟, it is important for the speaker and the listener share the same mental space These notions will be treated in detail in chapter two

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1.5 Delimitations of the study

As far as the definite „the‟ and the generic „the‟ are concerned, we firstly did not

concern ourselves with other aspects of English articles such as „a/an‟ and „zero‟ because the English article system is too complex and difficult to deal with within the time frame allotted for carrying out this study Secondly, this thesis was done

at UMT high-school with the involvement of 80 twelfth-graders studying in the first semester of the year 2011-2012 Finally, the researcher selected the target sample at UMT high-school because this school could be a representative of the population of the students in remote areas The researcher also hopes that the results of the thesis could be adapted for students at other schools, those who have been faced with similar problems in using English articles, particularly definite

„the‟ and generic „the‟

1.6 Structure of the study

This thesis consists of five chapters:

The first chapter introduces the objectives, rationale, definitions of the terms and significance of the study

Chapter 2 reviews the literature on the English article „the‟ in terms of the theories

involved and presents the niche for carrying the study

Chapter 3 presents issues of methodology such as how the subjects will be selected and the ways the data will be analyzed

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, we present the notions involved in article „the‟ in two notions definite and generic, then we present the approaches for solving the problems of mastering definite „the‟ and generic „the‟ We also consider the main problems faced

by learners when learning the English articles Before establishing the niche for our study, we also go through related studies in the field so that a conceptual framework of our study can be engendered

I THE MEANING OF DEFINITE „THE‟ AND GENERIC „THE‟

1 Theories of the meaning of definite „the‟

Based on some linguists and philosophers such as Lyons (1999), Heim (1982), Christophersen (1939), etc., the notion of definiteness can be developed into such concepts as familiarity, identifiability, uniqueness and inclusiveness

According to the familiarity h ypothesis, for an object to be definite, it must be familiar to both the speaker and the hearer

(1) Mary saw a movie last week The movie was not very interesting

In the mini discourse in (1), the indefinite NP a movie is used to introduce a new

entity into the discourse context Subsequently that ent ity is referred to with a

definite the movie Heim (1982) grouped pronouns and definite descriptions

together as being governed by a familiarity condition: use of a definite is only

10

permitted when the existence of the reference to entity has been established in the particular discourse Lyons (1999) also noted that the familiarity hypothesis fails in certain conditions when the object is not familiar to the hearer

(2) A: I‟ve just seen the professor again

B: Which professor?

A: Oh, didn‟t I tell you?

Familiarity theories, on the other hand, claim that felicitous use of „the‟ requires

only that the referent has already been introduced into the discourse: “The article

„the‟ brings it about that to the potential meaning (the idea) of the word is attached

a certain association with previously acquired knowledge” (Christophersen

1939:72) Or “A certain aversion to the use of a “the” form immediately after the word

is introduced The greater the distance between the first mention and the resumption

of a word, the easier it is to use it in the-form the second time.” (Christophersen 1939: 29)

Because of this shortcoming, another concept was introduced That is identifiability hypothesis, which maintains that the definite article directs the hearer

to an object by signaling to him that he is in a position to locate it (Lyons 1999: 5-6)

In (3), the hearer walks into a room, and the speaker may ask the hearer a particular object, as in the example below:

(3) Pass me the hammer, will you?

The hearer has no prior idea of the hammer, but he/she can find it on a chair after

looking around The definite article in the hammer tells the hearer that he/she can

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identify the hammer that the speaker is talking about (Lyons 1999) Thus, where

familiarity is tenuous, identifiability can take its place

Familiarity and identifiability are not equivalent notions, they are nonetheless very closely related: “There is a great deal of overlap between the set of entities that are (presumed to be) familiar to a hearer and the set of entities that are (presumed to be) uniquely identifiable to the hearer, since an entity typically must be familiar in

a given discourse in order to be identifiable.” (Birner and Ward, 1994: 96)

To illustrate this hypothesis, the researcher considers the sentences in (4):

(4) a There‟s a cat in the yard It‟s eating a mouse

b There‟s a cat in the yard # The cat is eating a mouse

The referents of both „it‟ in (4a) and „the cat‟ in (4b) are uniquely identifiable/ familiar by virtue of their having been previously introduced with the NP „a cat‟, yet „the cat‟ in (4b) is quite unnatural The problem is that „the cat‟ is the topic of the initial sentence in (4) Therefore, at this stage in the discourse, the referent is highly accessible To refer back to „the cat‟ with a NP in the subject position of the very next sentence generally requires an anaphoric expression indicating high accessibility, most likely a pronoun, as in (4a) The definite article is inappropriate

in (4b) because it indicates a low degree of accessibility The contrast between (4a) and (4b) shows that neither familiarity nor unique identifiability alone are sufficient for determining when the definite article will be appropriate Given that

we have already seen that they are not factors necessary for felicitous use of „the‟,

it is clear that something else must be at work when the speaker chooses articles

The familiarit y/identifiability h ypothesis also fails when the object is not familiar/identifiable at the time of the utterance To account for such situations, Lyons (1999) introduced the uniqueness and inclusiveness hypotheses

Under the uniqueness hypothesis, the definite article signals that there is only one entit y that satisfies the description that the speaker used In other words, the object which the speaker refers to is unique Notice how this entity can be familiar or identifiable, but it needn‟t An example that an utterance is neither familiar nor identifiable is:

(5) I‟ve just been to a wedding The bride wore pink

The hearer can infer that there is one bride at a wedding Yet the hearer cannot

possibly identify the bride In addition, since the bride is still unknown, the hearer cannot

possibly be familiar with him/her However, it is common knowledge that there is a tie

because a wedding usually has a bride Therefore, in the hearer‟s mind, even though

the bride has yet to be determined, he/she will be unique based on the fact that a wedding

usually has a bride

The uniqueness criterion is particularly attractive in cases where the reference is hypothetical, potential, or in the future (Lyons 1999:9)

(6) The winner of this competition will get a week in the Bahamas for two

(7) The man who comes with me will not regret it

Assuming the competition in (6) is not yet over and no one has yet agreed to

accompany the speaker in (7), the winner and the man are certainly not yet

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(8) a I‟ve washed the dishes

b I‟ve washed all the dishes

(9) No you haven‟t, you‟ve only washed some of them

Lyons proves that (8a) and (8b) are equally false if there are still some dishes

unwashed, and in (9) would be a reasonable retort to either So „the‟ (in some uses) and „all‟ are very close in meaning, and the difference between them may be that „all‟ is simply more emphatic But it seems unsatisfactory to say that „the‟

signals uniqueness with singular noun phrases and inclusiveness with plural and mass noun phrases In fact, uniqueness can be assimilated to inclusiveness When

a noun phrase is singular, inclusiveness turns out to be the same as uniqueness because the totality of the objects satisfying the description is just one

(10) (Nurse entering the operating theatre)

I wonder who the anaesthetist is today

The definite is possible in (10) because we take it for granted that operations

involve anaesthetists But it is clear from what is said that the speaker can not

identify the referent of the definite noun phrase, and he/she does not necessarily expect the hearer to be able to The participants know there is or will be such an individual, but that is not identification Therefore, the speaker in (10) is assuming

14

there will be only one anaesthetist, so the total number of anaesthetists assumed to be

involved is one (Lyons 1999:7)

Consider another case:

(11) Mary‟s gone for a spin in the car she just bought

In (11) the relative tells the hearer something about the car (the fact that Mary just bought it), but it does not help the hearer to identify it The hearer still would not know the car in question if he/she saw it (unless Mary was driving it) (Lyons 1999:8)

The definite article signals that there is only one entity satisfying the description used This uniqueness is generally not absolute, but it is to be understood relative

to a particular context Thus in (5) there is just one bride at the weddin g which triggers the association In (10) the assumption is that there is just one anaesthetist taking part in the operation, but the hearer is not known who the anaesthetist is And in (11) „the‟ conveys that Mary bought one car In contrast, if Mary just bought more than one car, „the‟ in (11) could be substituted by an indefinite article

„a‟ However, it does not mean that indefinite article signals non-uniqueness because in some cases indefinite article is neutral respect to uniqueness

Finally, uniqueness is modified by constituents of the noun phrase which are incompatible with the indefinite article; among these are superlatives, first, same, only and next

(12) Nam is the/ (*a) tallest in this class

(13) You are the/ (*a) first teacher to our class

(14) He is only the/ (*an) student who dislikes English

15

(15) I have got the/ (*a) same problem as you

(16) I offered a discount to the/ (*a) next customer

In (12) „the tallest‟ means „taller than all the others‟, and in (13) „first‟ means before all the others; so uniqueness can be argued to be involved here In (15), if the hearer has a single problem, or a single salient problem, „as‟ seems to be implied, then the speaker can have only one problem which is the same as the hearer‟s „Next‟ in (16) means „immediately following‟, and given that customers are generally dealt with one

by one, there can be only one customer who immediately follows the preceding one (Lyons 1999:10)

Also, the definite article has involved count nouns in the singular, but the definite article can occur equally well with plural count nouns and mass nouns, and the obvious question is: How can a definite noun phrase which is plural or mass have a referent which is unique (in the context)? The noun phrases „the pens‟ and „the butter‟ (the latter occurring with its usual mass value and not recategorized as count) cannot refer to just one pen and just one butter Let us loo k at examples corresponding to those examined above, but with plural (the (a) sentences) and mass (the (b) ones) definite noun phrases:

(17) a We‟ve just been to see John race The Queen gave out the prizes

b We went to the local pub this lunch time They‟ve started chilling the

beer

(18) a Beware of the dogs

b Beware of the electrified wire

As a first attempt at a solution, one might propose that uniqueness still applies, but

it may be sets and masses rather than individuals Thus the set or mass referred to

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a definite noun phrase which is the only set or mass in the context satisfying the description In (17a) is that the Queen gave out all the prizes, not some subset of the total; similarly in (17b), we assume that all the beer at this pub is now served chilled (Lyons 1999:11)

This points us to the proposal that definiteness, at least with plural and mass noun phrases, involves not uniqueness but inclusiveness (Hawkins 1978) What this mean is that the reference is to the totality of the objects or mass in the context which satisfy the description So in (18a), the reference would be taken to be to all the dogs guarding the property In (18b), it is to all the electrified wire surrounding the property as a whole

In sharp contrast to the uniqueness hypothesis, the inclusiveness hypothesis applies to groups of items With this hypothesis, the speaker refers to a totality or an aggregate of objects that satisfy his or her description The referenced object is not unique because it refers to a group of objects

To sum up, from the concepts of definiteness, the researcher thought that although they are good properties in explaining the meaning of „the‟, each of them has a restriction

in explaining its meaning as hypothesis because there is no single factor proposed: familiarity, identifiability, uniqueness, or inclusiveness can alone account for the full distribution of the English article „the‟

2 Theories of the meaning of generic „the‟

Generics are sentences that express generalizations without the use of an explicit quantifier, for example, “dogs have four legs”, “a tiger is striped”, and “the kangaroo hops” because generic statements provide the mean for

17

talking about whole kinds or classes of things, they provide insight into the nature of the conceptual mechanisms available for representing such multiplicities and the distinct ways in which they may be characterized in language and thought Leslie (2007)

According to many linguists such as Lawler (1973), Burton-Roberts (1977) Master (1987), Thomas (1989), Krifka et al (1995), and Prasada, S., &

Dillingham, E (2006) state that generics in English come in three distinct syntactic forms: (19)-(21) below exemplify these three forms:

(19) a A tiger is striped

b The tiger is striped

c Tigers are striped

(20) a A lion is a dangerous animal

b The lion is a dangerous animal

c Lions are dangerous animals

(21) a * A dodo bird is extinct

b The dodo bird is extinct

c Dodo birds are extinct

Although they didn‟t distinguish the meaning between singular indefinite generics (19a-21a), singular definite generics (19b-21b) and bare plural generics (19c-21c), we thought that the three types of generics are in fact not interchangeable: as shown in (21), definite singulars and bare plurals, but not indefinite singulars, can be used with kind predicates such as extinct

Krifka et al (1995) captures the facts in (20-21) by showing that generics can arise from two different sources: kind reference by the subject versus the reading of a

sentence as “characterizing” Characterizing sentences contrast with particular

sentences while A dog is barking makes a statement about a particular dog, its counterpart A dog barks makes a statement about dogs in general Krifka et al

(1995) also states that singular indefinites receive generic readings only when they occur in characterizing sentences: for instance, the characterizing sentence in (20a)

can be paraphrased as “A lion is characteristically (typically/usually/as a rule) a

dangerous animal” In contrast, the sentences in (21) are not characterizing: (21a)

cannot be paraphrased as “A dodo bird is characteristically (typically/usually/as a rule) extinct” The source of generic in (21) is different: since „be extinct‟ is a kind

predicate (only kinds, not individuals, can be extinct), the subject must denote a kind This denotation is available for both singular definite and bare plurals: (21b,c) can be paraphrased as “members of the kind „dodo bird‟ are extinct”

Lawer (1973) states that the definite generic refers to the prototype of a species, roughly the image we associate with lion The lion, as a prototype, has all the properties of anything we would call a lion, except that it doesn't exist in an individual physical sense, like all real lions do This is a very abstract concept, and its use signals that the speaker is theorizing The lion is a dangerous animal means the speaker believes that „dangerousness‟, in some comparative contexts, the lion is a

characteristic property of lions that we expect this to be true of any lion, whereas the plural generic refers to the norm of a species over its individuals, as perceived, of

course, by the speaker, who is unlikely to have conducted lions surveys, so the

„statistics‟ here are very vague Lions are dangerous animals means the speaker believes that, on the average, any lion is likely to be „dangerous‟ This does not mean all lions are dangerous, though that is close This is potentially a less abstract

concept, since its use implies a generalization based on experience of several individuals

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In the history both of philosophy of language and of linguistics, there have been two quite distinct phenomena that have been referred to or classified as „generic‟ The first is reference to a kind-a genus-as exemplified in (22) The underlined noun phrases in (22) do not denote or designate some particular potato or group of potatoes, but rather the kind of potato itself In this usage a generic noun phrase is

a noun phrase that does not refer to an „ordinary‟ individual or object, but instead refers to a kind, Carlson and Pelletier (1995) cited in Lyons (1995)

(22) a The potato was first cultivated in South America

b The Irish economy became dependent upon the potato

Lyons calls a noun phrase like the potato in these sentences are kind-referring

noun phrases, and express a kind of general property or set of kind predications

The second phenomenon commonly associated with genericity are propositions which do not express specific episodes or isolated facts, but instead they report a kind of general property, they report a regularity which summarizes groups of particular episodes or isolated facts In (23) can be found in the natural reading Here (23a) does not report a particular episode but a habit - some kind of generalization over events; and (23b) does not state something about a specific potato but about potatoes in general - a generalization based on properties of individual potatoes This second notion of genericity is clearly a feature of the whole sentence or clause, rather than of any one noun phrase in it; it is the whole generic sentence that expresses regularities which transcend particular facts

(23) a John smokes a cigar after dinner

b A potato contains vitamin C, amio acids, protein and thiamine

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As neither (kind-referring) generic noun phrases nor (characterizing) generic sentences are typically marked in clear and unambiguous way, it seems appropriate to list a fairly simple diagnostic test and typical property to distinguish between them This test determines which types of noun phrases can be used as kind-referring terms There are some predicates with argument places that can be filled only with kind-referring noun phrases The examples (in 24) are the subject argument of „die out‟ or „be extinct‟ and the object argument of „invent‟ or

„exterminate‟ The reason is, of course, that only kinds (not objects) can be „died out‟ or be „invented‟ Lyons calls predicates which favor a kind-referring interpretation of an argument kind predicates; and he observes, for example, that definite singular noun phrases such as (24a), bare plural noun phrases such as in (24b), and bare singular noun phrases such as (24c) pass the test, whereas

indefinite noun phrases such as in (24d) fail, except in the taxonomic reading in (24e)

(24) a The lion will become extinct soon

b Lions will become extinct soon

c Bronze is a metal/ was invented as early as 3000 B.C

d * A lion will become extinct soon (non-taxonomic reading)

e A (certain) lion (namely the Berber lion) will become extinct soon (taxonomic reading)

This result is quite important, as definite noun phrases like „the lion‟, base plural noun phrases like „lions‟, and indefinite singular noun phrases like „a lion‟ have often been considered the three main types of „generic noun phrases‟

To sum up, from these notions, first, there are many notions of genericity such as the prototype of a species, a kind, etc to explain the meaning of genericity

20

21

Second, some linguists such as Lawer (1973), Krifka et al (1995), and Lyons (1999) in this issue have ways to hypothesize the three forms of generic, and they state that the three forms of generic are different in meaning

3 The differences and similarities between definite „the‟ and generic „the‟

Lyons (1999: 188) stated that generics are entities that are treated as unique and are consequently, definite This occurs mainly with the definite singular generic, but it can also arise with the definite plural generic For example, generics, such

as the dodo and the equator, are unique but not familiar or identifiable There is only one dodo bird or equator, but the hearer is not familiar with either one, since the dodo is extinct, and the equator is an imaginary line on a world map

and does not occur in the real world However, from general knowledge and experience, the hearer knows exactly to what the speaker refers In addition,

such generics, with the exception of the equator seem to be used to refer to a

collective group Thus, the inclusiveness hypothesis must be used to interpret the sentence correctly

(25) The dodo is extinct

In (25), „the dodo‟ cannot possibly refer to only one dodo but must refer to the entire

species in general This sentence is analogous to the previously mentioned

sentence, „the beer is in the refrigerator‟, which could only be defined as definite

under the inclusiveness hypothesis

As several authors, including Ojeda (1991) and Strawson (1950), noted that „a noun‟ can sometimes encode a generic statement about „that noun‟ Let us

consider the following sentences:

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(26) The whale is a mammal (definite generic)

(27) a Babbage invented the computer (definite generic)

b Babbage repaired the computer (definite only)

On the most likely reading, what is asserted in (26) clearly has nothing to do with any specific whale, but is rather about a property associated with whale hood (of course, (26) also admits the reading about a specific whale, as well) (27a) is, for similar reasons, argued to have two readings, one on which a specific computer at hand was invented by Babbage, and one on which the invention of computers in general is to be attributed to Babbage, whereas (27b) seems only to have a reading analogous to the first of these Citing examples like (27), where „the‟ appears able

to take distinct “generic” and “descriptive” readings, Ojeda (1991) concludes that

there are two fundamentally distinct meanings of „the‟ (in essence that „ the‟ is

lexically ambiguous) Ojeda (1991) agreed that a definite noun phrase may be taken either as a definite description or as a definite generic

(28) a The dodo is dead (definite description)

b The dodo is extinct (definite generic)

Ojeda (1991) noticed that the ambiguity between definite descriptions and definite

generics can be resolved in certain contexts Thus, the definite noun phrase the

dodo is taken only as a definite description in (28a), a statement about an

individual dodo; it is taken only as a definite generic in (28b), a statement about dodos

in general

Another approach to sentences like (27a) might be to say that sometimes the most salient computer is not any individual physical computer but rather the kind of computers (where some analysis of kinds like the one advocated by Carlson

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(1979) is adopted) On this view, there would be no lexical ambiguity for „the‟, and

pragmatic principles would be invoked to account for the contrast between (27a) and (27b) In fact, the meaning of (27a) and (27b) depend not only the linguistic

knowledge the computer of the speaker and the listener, but also in the context of the utterance, knowledge about the status of those involved, invented the computer and

repaired the computer the inferred intent of the speaker, so they are able to overcome

apparent ambiguity

In addition to Pérez-Leroux et al (2004), he had a Truth Value Judgment Task in a form

of true or false in the context of the stories to explain the different meaning of English articles Now, we observed a story below:

“In our zoo, we have two very unusual tigers We always think that tigers eat

meat all the time But our two tigers are vegetarian: they love to eat carrots, and they hate meat.”

Possible target sentences:

The tigers in (a) and (c) refer to the two tigers in the context, they like carrots and dislike meat, and the tiger in (b) refers to the whole class of tigers

4 Approaches to teaching English articles

There are some different approaches to teaching English articles such as Whitman‟s approach, McEldowney‟s approach cited in Nguyen Thu (2005) and

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Alexander‟s approach found in a grammar book First, we are going to investigate what these approaches can explain (whether form, meaning or use) about English articles Second, we also present the strengths and drawbacks of these approaches Each of the approaches is described as follows

According to Whitman (1974), teaching English articles can be based on a sixsequence process with an emphasis on quantification and determination

1 Quantity (singular/plural distinction)

This is a book vs Those are three books

2 Generic plural:

All apples are red > Apples are red

3 Non-count nouns (count nouns vs non-count nouns)

A lot of books vs A lot of water Many books vs Much water

4 Determiners: (Which-NP question; second mention)

Which books are green?, the books on the table

I saw a book The book was called “Moby Dick.”

5 Quantity and determiner:

One of the books on that table is blue

6 Generic articles

A mouse is smaller than a rat

The mouse is smaller than the rat

Mice are smaller than rats

Whitman (1974) first showed that English articles were used in nouns/noun phrases Second, he focused on the use of English articles in quantity, counting, determiners, and three types of generic articles Although he revealed which form

of English articles was used before a noun/noun phrase, he firstly ignored to explain how a noun/noun phrase was used with English articles and what the meaning of a noun/noun phrase when it was used with English articles He secondly introduced the English article used with “first mention and second

mention" This notion was still restricted to determine which English articles were used This notion was discussed in this chapter on page 10 from Birner and Ward (1994:96)

McEldowney (1977) offered an approach of four stages in teaching English articles However, his approach can be amalgamated into a three-step approach (Nguyen Thu, 2005)

Stage 1: count nouns used in the sense of “any one” and “the special one.”

Stage 2: uncountable nouns distinguished by “the substance in general” and

“the special substance” (e.g mud vs the black mud)

Stage 3: generalizations conveyed through the three markers (i.e a + N;

the + N; the + N + s)

McEldowney (1977) showed which nouns/noun phrases were used with English articles He focused on the distinctions the meaning between count nouns and non- count nouns, as well as in uncountable nouns distinguished by “the substance in general” and “the special substance”, and the three forms of generic use („a‟ before

a singular noun, „the‟ before a singular noun, and „the‟ before a plural noun) Although he established rules which kinds of nouns (count/non-count) were used with the English article, and how to distinguish their meaning, this approach was rather complex to manage it because it was not enough information to develop all

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the details of using English articles and it also lacked the variety of format how to use the English article system

A survey found in a grammar book is Longman English Grammar Practice Alexander (1998) This book is basically used for intermediate students It is available in bookstores in Vietnam and teachers at high schools in Kien Giang use it to teach grammar in English

In this book, Alexander (1998) showed an approach of two stages in teaching English article „the‟

Stages 1 Countable nouns vs uncountable nouns

Stages 2 The definite „the‟:

- Using „the‟ to refer to something that is known

- Using „the‟ to refer to things that are unique

- Using „the‟ with nationality nouns to refer to all people in general

- Using „the‟ to refer to a type of things in general

Alexander (1998) first showed that which article („a/an‟, „the‟ or „zero‟) was used with count nouns and non-count nouns Second, he also focused on the use of concepts quantity and determiners to distinguish countable nouns from uncountable nouns Final, he offered an approach to teaching English article „the‟ with four main rules ((1) something that is known (2) things that are unique (3) nationality nouns that refer to all people in general (4) a type of things in general) In these rules, the rule

„something that is known‟ is still restricted in using the concept „first mention‟ and

„second mention‟

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To sum up, Alexander‟s approach is rather similar with Whitman and McEldowney in some explanations (e.g., before teaching the definite „the‟, he also focused on distinctions between count nouns and non-count nouns) A good point

of this approach is that it has the rules for teaching English article „the‟ However,

it is not clear enough to explain the meaning of definite „the‟ in the immedi ate context

Now, let us consider how cognitive grammar expresses the meaning of definite „the‟ and generic „the‟, then we also consider what approaches to teaching the article „the‟

II THE MEANING OF DEFINITE „THE‟ AND GENERIC „THE‟ IN COGNITIVE GRAMMAR

1 Theories of the meaning of definite „the‟

In cognitive grammar, definiteness is constructed in the notions of mental space, the current discourse space, and mental contact (Fauconnier 1985)

According to Fauconnier, mental spaces are partial assemblies constructed as we think and talk, for purposes of local understanding and action They contain elements and are structured by frames and cognitive models However, a mental space is a conceived situation of any degree of complexity, comprising a set of elements and relations holding among them

construction involves two processes: (1) the building of mental sp aces; and (2) the establishment of mappings between those mental spaces Moreover, the

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mapping relations are guided by the local discourse context-bound Fauconnier defines mental spaces as „partial structures‟ that proliferate when we think and talk, allowing a fine-grained partitioning of our discourse and knowledge structures In other words, mental spaces are regions of conceptual space that contain specific kinds of information They are constructed on the basis of generalized linguistic, pragmatic and cultural strategies for recruiting information However, because mental spaces are constructed „on-line‟, they result in unique and temporary „packets‟ of conceptual structure, constructed for specific purpose

to the ongoing discourse The principles of mental space and the relations of mappings established between mental spaces have the potential to yield unlimited meanings

According to this theory, when we think and speak we set up mental spaces Mental spaces are set up by space builders, which are linguistic units that either prompt for the construction of a new mental space or shift attention back and forth between previously constructed mental spaces What is „special‟ about space builders is that they require the hearer to „set up‟ a scenario beyond the „here and now‟, whether this scenario reflects past or future reality, reality in some other location, hypothetical situations, situations that reflect ideas, beliefs, and so on

Mental spaces contain elements which are either entities constructed on -line or pre-existing entities in the conceptual system Elements are noun phrases that can have a definite interpretation or an indefinite interpretation Briefly, noun phrases that have a definite interpretation include those that occur with the definite article

„the‟ whereas noun phrases that have an indefinite interpretation include those that occur with the indefinite article „a/an‟ and „zero‟ Noun phrases with

indefinite interpretation typically introduce new elements into the discourse: elements that are unfamiliar or have not already been mentioned in the

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conversation (e.g I have bought a new sofa!) Noun phrases with definite

interpretation are said to function in the pre -suppositional mode because they presuppose existing knowledge This means that they refer to elements that are already accessible: elements familiar to the speaker and the hearer, or already part of the

conversation (e.g The new sofa clashes with the curtains)

In mental space theory, elements introduced in the pre -suppositional mode are said

to be propagated, which means that they spread to neighbouring spaces This process of propagation is governed by the optimization principle This principle allows elements, together with their properties and relations, to spread through the network or lattice of mental spaces, unless the information being propagated is explicitly contradicted by some new information that emerges as the discourse proceeds This principle enables mental space configurations to build complex structures with a minimum of explicit instructions

Consider the following example

(29) In the movie Orson Welles played Hitchcock, who played a man at

the bus stop (Fauconnier 1985)

containing the characters Hitchcock and the man at the bus stop As we have

seen, a mental space either represents the base space or is constructed relative to a base space The base space contains default information currently available to the discourse context, including contextually relevant background frames, so the base space in (29) relates to the film set, which includes the director, the actors, and so

on This information is not provided by specific linguistic expressions in (29), but

it is supplied by specific arising from our knowledge of the „movie‟ frame which also sets up connectors between actors and the characters they play

To sum up, in cognitive grammar, the meaning of definiteness lies in a mental space which is shared by the speaker and the hearer

Now, let us consider how cognitive grammar hypothesizes the meaning of generic „the‟

2 Theories of the meaning of generic „the‟ in cognitive grammar

Based on Langacker (1991) cited in Nguyen Thu (2005:55-57) (All of the

information given in this part were taken from his discussion), “generic the used with a singular noun considers the structure as denoting a type (i.e genus or

notion of a type hierarchy For example, my cat Tommy belongs to the species

cat, but at the same time, it can be considered a mammal, an animal or a thing The categories can be sequenced in an order referred to as a type hierarchy (e.g

thing > animal > mammal > cat) The nominal „the cat,‟ for instance, is construed

to be unique if it does not refer to instances (i.e individual members) of

the type or genus cat, but as a type having only one instance (i.e the only

species).”

To make clearer these issues, we attempt to find out differences and similarities between definite „the‟ and generic „the‟ based on the concepts the meaning of definite „the‟ and generic „the‟ in cognitive grammar

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3 The differences and similarities between definite „the‟ and generic „the‟

In cognitive grammar, the distinction between definite „the‟ and generic „the‟ is

based on a unique instance and a unique type through a result of the mental

contact coordinated by the speaker and the hearer (e.g in an instance, the speaker

shares a space with the hearer about a type, an immediate context or a world)

Radden (2007) states that the various instances of things brought up in discourse need to

be shared by speaker and hearer The speaker therefore tries to make the things she has

in mind accessible to the hearer She may relate them either to the ongoing speech

situation or to the hearer‟s state of knowledge, as assessed by the speaker Technically,

the speaker “grounds” the instance of a thing in an act of reference If the speaker

deems that the hearer has as yet no access to the instances mean, the speaker uses

indefinite reference expressed in indefinite noun phrases If the hearer can be supposed to

be able to access the instances of the things meant, the speaker uses definite reference A

special case occurs when the speaker refers to the class as a whole, which is called generic

reference

thing: „pub‟

speaker

hearer

Figure 1: An act of reference: the pub, Radden (2007)

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4 Approaches to teaching the article „the‟

Nguyen Thu (2005) propounded an approach which is based on Langacker‟s cognitive grammar (1991b) The approach, which suggests two steps, is based on what Langacker termed as “grounding” and “boundedness.” According to this approach, students will have to discover whether a noun is used in a definite sense

or not (i.e grounding) And if a noun is not used in a definite sense, the second step will be to determine whether or not a noun is countable (i.e boundedness) The approach also seems to oversimplify the distinction between specific and generic „the‟ This suggests that when a noun phrase is definite, it also implies that

it is specific Also specific „the‟ is not different from generic „the.‟ The only

difference lies in the two notions: the physical domain of instantiation and the abstract domain of instantiation If generic „the‟ may denote a type (i.e species) as

a whole, then the „type‟ mentioned should be specific to the speaker and the hearer who share the same mental contact of the same type (Nguyen Thu, 2005: 153)

Once students master the general principle, they are in troduced to an elaborate principle of discovering the sense of definiteness, described as follows

immediate surroundings)

- When there is only one that can be meant in the immediate context (text or conversation)

- When only one can be logically meant

- When a class as a whole is referred to (this is also called a generic sense)”

He firstly showed which nouns/noun phrases were used with English articles, and

he emphasized whether or not the noun/noun phrase had a definite sense in order