SKKN linguistics features of prepositional phrases denoting positions in english and vietnamese equivalents

THANH HOA EDUCATION &TRAINING DEPARTMENTHAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE INITIATIVES LINGUISTICS FEATURES OF PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES DENOTING POSITIONS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

THANH HOA EDUCATION &TRAINING DEPARTMENT

HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVES

LINGUISTICS FEATURES OF PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES DENOTING POSITIONS IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(Đặc điểm ngôn ngữ của cụm giới từ biểu thị các vị trí trong tiếng Anh và

tiếng Việt tương đương)

The writer : Tran Thi Linh Possition : Teacher

Shool Unit: Ham Rong High school The field of the experience initiative : Foreign language

THANH HOA 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1: INTRODUCTION

- Aims and objectives

- Scope of the study

2.4.2 Internal structure of prepositional phrases

3: FEATURES OF PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES DENOTING POSITIONS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

3.1 Syntactic features of prepositional phrases denoting positions

3.2 Semantic features of prepositional phrases denoting positions

3.3 Prepositional phrases denoting positions and their Vietnamese equivalents3.4 In terms of similarities and differences between prepositional phrasesdenoting positions in English and Vietnamese equivalents

* Applying research on teaching

* Results of the research

* Conclusion

* Reference books

1 Rationale

Prepositions have begun to attract the attention of many languageresearchers over the past few decades Besides, English prepositions pose a bigchallenge for the acquisition of second language Learners of English as aforeign language often face with huge difficulties in actively mastering thelanguage Generally, they seemingly hold the view that English notionalcategories, namely nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are crucial, hencestriving to learn as many of them as possible and functional categories asprepositions are of minor significance because they are limited in number andtheir meanings are not important to the meaning of the whole sentence

In terms of syntactic function, prepositions and prepositional phrases arewords used to connect nouns or noun phrases to other phrases in a sentence.They exist in both English and Vietnamese language systems, in which theircharacteristics and usages, however, are quite different Mastering prepositionsand prepositional phrases cause a great deal of troubles for Vietnamese nativespeaker learners when learning English The noticeable point that makesVietnamese learners easily cope with difficulties to understand and translate is agroup of prepositional phrase denoting position It is not simple to understandthese words by just relying on their literal meanings, their positions, or theirfunctions Therefore, an effective way of mastering prepositional phrasesdenoting position should be found to help learners overcome their difficulties in

acquiring English For all mentioned above reasons, the topic “Linguistic

features of prepositional phrases denoting positions in English and Vietnamese equivalents” has been chosen for my graduation initiatives.

2 Aims and objectives

The three main objectives of this study are:

(1) Identifying the prepositional phrases denoting positions in English

(2) Find out the similarities and differences between prepositional phrasesdenoting positions in English and Vietnamese equivalents English andVietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features

(3) Proposing some implications for teaching and learning ‘prepositional phrasesdenoting positions in English in an effective way

3 Scope of the study

This study focuses mainly on analyzing the syntactic and semanticfeatures of prepositional phrase denoting positions in English and investigatingthe equivalents when translated into Vietnamese Therefore, in scope of thisthesis, authors only concentrated on the prepositional phrase with “in”, “on”,

“at” The implications of the study are to help Vietnamese learners of English ingeneral and the students at in particular master prepositional phrases denotingpositions in English effectively

4 Research questions:

The study is carried out to find out the answers to the following questions:

(1) What are the syntactic and semantic features of prepositional phrasesdenoting positions in English?

(2) What are the similarities and differences between prepositional phrasesdenoting positions in English and Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntacticand semantic features?

(3) What are common mistakes made by students when translating

‘prepositional phrases denoting positions in English? What are suggestionsmade by the author for learners?

6 Proposed Research Methodology

In order to deal with the research subject effectively a flexiblecombination of methods is employed This thesis is basically carried out withthe descriptive and comparative analysis methods First, the descriptive method

is utilized to give a deep and detailed description of prepositional phrasesdenoting positions and their Vietnamese equivalents

Second, the comparative analysis method is used to analyze prepositionalphrases denoting positions and their Vietnamese equivalents, hence suggesting

some implications for mastering these particular phrases Last but not least,other supporting method such as statistic technique is also used for the datacollection and analysis process.

1.7 Structure of intiatives

The intiatives starts out with Introduction chapter where rationale, aimsand objectives, research questions, methods, scope, significance, and design ofthe study are presented The tables of main contents of the initiatives are asfollows

1 Introduction

2 Literature review

3 Features of prepositional phrases denoting positions in English andtheir Vietnamese equivalents

4 Applying research on teaching

5 Results of the research

6 Conclusion

7 Reference books

2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous studies

2.1.1 Previous studies oversea

According to Otto Jesperseen , who is one of the prominent traditionallinguists and grammarians, groups prepositions as a subclass of particles and

defines them very briefly in “ Essentials of English Grammar” as elements

which signal different types of relationship in the sentence as follows: in, at, through, for, etc As a traditional grammarian, Curme (1935) pays special

attention to preposition as an indeclinable word of relation; he also considers theitem governed by the preposition, which must be a noun phrase Many studieshave been done to examine the use of prepositions by second language learners.However, the present study has focused on errors particularly in the use ofprepositions of place, of time and of direction

The researcher found that the errors with spatial prepositions were morefrequent than those with temporal prepositions The findings of the studyshowed that the secondary school students faced difficulties in learningprepositions of time and were confused while using prepositions in their writing.The studies on prepositions mentioned above showed that many studies havebeen done on prepositions from different perspectives

2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam

Prepositions and prepositional phrases have been also studied deeply bymany Vietnamese linguists such as Dinh Van Duc, Diep Quang Ban, Bui DucTinh In Vietnam, the oldest material which mentioned preposition may be “Báocáo vắn tắt về tiếng An Nam và Đông Kinh” in a dictionary that was called

“Viet – Bo - La” of Alexandre de Rhôdes (1651) Nguyen Kim Than in “Nghiêncứu về ngữ pháp tiếng Việt” separated preposition as one types of part of speechand definite that prepositions is a kind of empty words that are used to connect

to link the sub – word with the main word to show the relationship between thetwo words From the basis of the previous studies, it can be seen that theinvestigation of prepositions of place ‘in’, ‘at’, ‘on’ and their Vietnameseequivalents have not discussed so far in both languages, English andVietnamese A research relating English prepositions of place ‘in’, ‘at’, ‘on’with reference to Vietnamese equivalents has been chosen for my thesis

2.2 Overview of syntax and semantics

The basic syntactic properties and semantic functions differ in manylanguages In other languages, the prepositions occur after the complement(subject-object-verb) They are called post positions In English language, theyare usually placed before a noun or a noun equivalent (subject-verb-object)

For instance, the author of the book – the prepositions on, to, and of aredetermined by rely, similar and author respectively While learning, the variousmeanings and meaning extensions of repositions are perhaps the greatestchallenge A pedagogical strategy is essential for students to pay attention to theco-occurrence, collocation, and discourse behavior of prepositions.

2.2.1 Syntax

The word “syntax” is derived from the Greek “syntaxis”, which means

“arrangement” Syntax in linguistics deal with the ways the elements of asentence or phrase can be arranged to express different meanings In the other, it

is set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentence in agiven language, specifically word order For this reason, discovering thesyntactic rules common to all languages in the goal of many syntacticians

Syntax is one of the major components of grammar Traditionallylinguists have recognized a basic distinction between syntax and morphologywhich is primary concerned with the internal structures of words However, thisdistinction has been somewhat disrupted by recent research in lexico grammar.Syntax allows speakers to communicate complicated thoughts by arrangingsmall, simply units in meaningful ways For example, in English, a sentence can

be simple as a one-word interjection, or it can be a lengthy composition withmultiple clauses strung together Syntax plays important roles in language, itmakes human language unlimited Humans can create news sentences or phrases

to express different meanings with the rules of syntax

2.2.2 Semantics

The word semantics was first used by a French philologist, Michel Breal

In international scientific vocabulary semantics is also called semasiology Thesimple definition of semantics is the study of the meaning of linguisticexpressions The formal study of semantics intersects with many other fields ofinquiry including lexicology, syntax, pragmatics, etymology and others Itcontrasts with syntax, the study of the combination of units of a languagewithout reference to their meaning, and pragmatics-the study of the relationshipsbetween the symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of thelanguage In linguistics, semantics the subfield that devoted to the study ofmeaning, as inherent at the levels of words, phrases, sentences, and larger units

of discourse It is also closely linked to the subjects of representation, referenceand denotation In traditionally, semantics has included the study of sense anddenotative reference, truth conditions, argument structure, thematic roles,discourse analysis, and the linkage of all these to syntax.

2.3 An overview of the prepositions

2.3.1 Concepts of prepositions

A preposition is traditionally defined in some following ways:

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary a preposition “is aword or group of words used before a noun or pronoun to show place, position,time or method” Agoi (2003) described preposition as a word or group of wordsused with a noun or noun equivalents to show the link between that noun which

it governs and another word According to Richard Nordquist, he definespreposition as “a word that show relationship between a noun or pronoun andother words in a sentence”

A preposition is a word that indicates a relation between the noun orpronoun it governs and another word, which may be a verb, an adjective oranother noun or pronoun

E.g: She was dependent on us.Or: Her opinion of us improved.

E.g: Jock, with several of his friends, was drinking till 2 am

The preposition with in the example expresses the relation between the rep-ositional complement several of his friends and the noun Jack.

2.3.2 English preposition

2.3.2.1 Classification according to structure: According to structure,

prepositions are classified into 2 kinds: simple and complex prepositions.

*Simple prepositions

*Monosyllabic prepositions: As, at, but, by, down, for, from, in, like, near, of,

off, on, out, past, per, pro, qua, re, round, sans, since, than, through, till, to, up,

via, with.

Polysyllabic prepositions:

About, above, across, after, against, along, amid(st), among(st), anti, around, atop, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, beyond, circa, despite, during, except, inside, into, notwithstanding, onto, opposite, outside, over, pace, pending, throughout, toward(s), under, underneath, unlike, until, upon, versus, vis-a-vis, within, without.

(Quirk, et al, 1985: 665-667)

Table 2.1 List of simple preposition

E.g: Granted his obsequious manner, I still think he's ambitious enough to

do the job

(Quirk, et al, 1985: 667)

* Complex prepositions: The prepositions, consisting of more than

one word, are called complex prepositions They may be subdivided into two- and three- word sequences

* Two- word sequences: In two- word sequences the first word is an

adverb, adjective, or conjunction, and the second word is a simple preposition (usually for, from, of, two, with)

Table 2 2 List of some two word prepostions

Adv/ Adj/ Conjunction+ for as for, but for, except for, save for

Adv/ Adj/ Conjunction+ from across from, apart from, as from, aside

from, away from Adv/ Adj/ Conjunction+ of ahead of, as of, back of, because of, devoid of,

exclusive of, inside of, instead of, irrespective of, off of, out of, outside of, regardless of, upwards

of, void of Adv/ Adj/ Conjunction+ to according to, as to, close to, contrary to, due to,

near to, next to, on to, opposite to, owing to, preliminary to, preparatory to, previous to, prior

to, pursuant to, subsequent to, thanks to,

up to Adv/ Adj/ Conjunction+ with along with, together with

Other types up against, on board, as per, other

than, up until,

* Three- word sequences:The most numerous category of complex

prepositions is the type consisting of three words, as in: Prep 1+ NOUN+ Prep

Table 2 3 List of some three word prepositions

In+ noun+ of In+ noun+ with by+ noun+

2.3.2.2 Classification according to meaning

In the survey of preposition meanings, to which most of this chapter isdevoted, place and time relations will be dealt with first, and will be followed by

a more cursory exemplification of other relations such as cause, goal, origin, etc