FINAL ASSIGNMENT CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS a CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE PRONOUNS

Therefore, this paper aims at exploring personal pronouns in English and Vietnamese in a contrastive view, especially in the ways they are used.. In term of case, in general, there are t

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

FINAL ASSIGNMENT CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

PRONOUNS

Lecturer: Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ Learner: Phạm Ngọc Duy Date of birth: 27/09/1985 Course: 2012 -2014 Class: English K21 – Thai Nguyen

Thai Nguyen, 2013

Question1: What is contrastive linguistics ? Is it the same as comparative linguistics ? How are they different ? What is the biggest diffrence between

“to compare” and “to contrast” in contrastive analysis ?

Narrowly defined, contrastive linguistics can be regarded as a branch of comparative linguistics that is concerned with pairs of languages which are ‘socio-culturally linked’ Two languages can be said to be socio-‘socio-culturally linked when (i) they are used by a considerable number of bi- or multilingual speakers, and/or (ii) a substantial amount of ‘linguistic output’ (text, discourse) is translated from one language into the other According to this definition, contrastive linguistics deals with pairs of languages such as Spanish and Basque, but not with Latin and (the Australian language) Dyirbal, as there is no socio-cultural link between these languages

More broadly defined, the term ‘contrastive linguistics’ is also sometimes used for comparative studies of (small) groups (rather than just pairs) of languages, and does not require a socio-cultural link between the languages investigated On this view, contrastive linguistics is a special case of linguistic typology and is distinguished from other types of typological approaches by a small sample size and a high degree of granularity Accordingly, any pair or group of languages (even Latin and Dyirbal) can be subject to a contrastive analysis

Contrastive linguistics invariably requires a socio-cultural link between the languages investigated, but that it is not restricted to pairwise language comparison Even though it is not a branch of applied linguistics, contrastive

linguistics thus aims to arrive at results that carry the potential of being used for practical purposes, e.g in foreign language teaching and translation As it provides the descriptive basis for such applications, its research programme can also be summarized as ‘comparison with a purpose’ (E König) The ‘objective of applicability’ is also reflected in the fact that contrastive studies focus on the differences, rather than the similarities, between the languages compared

Compare and contrast are words that are often used to talk about the similarities and differences between two things or objects These two words are very commonly used

Compare means to see the similarity and contrast means to see the difference According to various dictionaries, compare means ‘to represent things or objects

in respect of similarity’ and contrast means ‘to represent things in respect of differences.’

Apart from these meanings, one struggles to find any differences between the two

If a person is looking at the similarities between two objects or things, then he may

be comparing the two On the other hand, if a person is looking at the dissimilarity between two things or objects, then he may be contrasting the two

The word compare has been derived from the Latin word ‘comparare’, which means ‘to liken or to compare.’ The word contrast has been derived from the Latin words ‘contra’ and ‘stare’, which means ‘against’ and ‘to stand.’ In Middle English, contrast was used for meaning ‘fight against’ or ‘to withstand’ in a battle

Contrast lost its sheen during the end of 17th century but was later adopted in art forms

Compare is mainly used to demonstrate relative values of the objects in all qualities When comparing two things or objects, one can see the divergent views which could make one better than the other

Question 2: To the best of your knowledge and experiences, can you give example for illustration for the question mentioned above to show how you can apply it/them in your teaching situation ?

Pronouns are used to refer to someone or something in context so that we can avoid repetition in the process of communication Factually, most languages in the world, including English and Vietnamese, have this type of word However, each language has its own characteristics The use of Vietnamese pronouns, especially personal pronouns, may cause lots of confusion for English people who learn Vietnamese Therefore, this paper aims at exploring personal pronouns in English and Vietnamese in a contrastive view, especially in the ways they are used Then, I will suggest some implications for language teaching so that the process of L2 acquisition can be better

What are personal pronouns?

In general, “personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper

or common nouns” (Wikipedia, “Personal pronoun”) In the example following,

“her”, “she”, “it” and “me” are personal pronouns

Mary took out her book Then, she gave it to me

Personal pronouns in English

According to Heather MacFadyen, forms of English personal pronouns vary according to case, person, number, and gender (“What is a Pronoun?”)

In term of case, in general, there are three cases depending on the

grammatical role of the personal pronouns in a sentence: subjective, objective and possessive (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”)

- In subjective case, the personal pronouns are used as the subject of a verb,

such as I, you, we, he, she, it, and they (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun

Characteristics”) For example: I am a student.

- In objective case, they are used as the object of a verb or a preposition,

such as me, you, us, him, her, it, and them (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun

Characteristics”) For example: How can you stand living with them?

- In possessive case, they are used as markers of possession and define who

owns a particular object or person, such as mine, yours, ours, his, hers, its, theirs (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”) For example: Her clothes are always clear while his are always dirty.

In term of person, personal pronouns in English have three persons: first person, second person and third person (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun

Characteristics”)

- First personal pronouns refer to the speaker or writer, such as I

/me/mineand we/us/ours For example: Bob told us about his family.

- Second personal pronouns refer to the addressee of the speaker or the

audience of the writer, such as you/you/yours For example: You must tell me the truth.

- Third personal pronouns refer to anyone else or others, such as he/him/his,

she/her/hers, it/it/its/ and they/them/theirs For example: She loves him.

In term of number, English personal pronouns are divided into singular and plural ones (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”)

- Singular personal pronouns include I/me/mine, you/you/yours,

she/her/hers, he/him/his and it/it/its For example: It is a pen Or Are you a

doctor?

- Plural personal pronouns include we/us/ours, you/you/yours and

they/them/theirs For example: They will go with me tomorrow Or Are you

doctors?

In term of gender, English personal pronouns have three genders:

masculine, feminine and neuter (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun

Characteristics”)

- Masculine personal pronouns involve male sexual organs, such as

he/him/his For example:

Tom is a naughty boy He is always playing truant.

- Feminine personal pronouns involve female sexual organs, such as

she/her/hers For example: Mai is a good girl She usually helps me.

- Neuter personal pronouns are used when the sexual state of referents is

not mentioned, such asthey/them/theirs, it/it/its For example: They are the books that my father bought me last year.

Above are all English personal pronouns categorized in term of case,

person, number and gender To make it brief, I have summarized all in the

following table:

English Personal Pronouns

Subjectiv e

Objective Possessive

Subjectiv e

Objective Possessive

Third

They Them Theirs

Personal pronouns in Vietnamese

The system of Vietnamese personal pronouns is absolutely more

complicated than the one of English Not only age, gender, person but also the social context, attitude of the speaker to the listener as well as the relationship between the speaker and listener are indicated through the way Vietnamese choose personal pronouns in every day communication There are two branches in the system of Vietnamese personal pronouns: true personal pronouns and kinship terms (Wikipedia, “Vietnamese Pronouns”)

True personal pronouns are catergorised into first person, second person and third person

- First personal pronouns in singular forms include: tôi, ta, mình, tao… Tôi

is usually used in polite speech (Ex: This is a statement in a wedding: “Tôi xin chân thành cám ơn sự có mặt của quý vị trong buổi lễ ngày hôm nay”) Ta is often

used when someone talks to himself/herself (Ex: When someone is wavering

between coming back or staying on, he may ask himself: “Ta nên đi hay nên ở lại đây?”) or it can be used to indicate the higher status of the speaker to the

addressee (Ex: A boss may say to his charwoman: “Hãy chuẩn bị mọi thứ sẵn sàng cho ta”) Mình is also used for soliloquy (Ex: When someone encourage himself, he may say: “Mình cần phải cố hơn nữa!”) Tao is used in informal case

when the speaker and the addressee have a close relationship (Ex: A pupil want to

borrow his friend’s picture book, he may say: “Cho tao mượn cuốn truyện này nha”) or when the speaker is angry with the listener (Ex: “Tao sẽ đánh cho mày nhừ xương”).

- Second personal pronouns in singular forms include: mày, mi, bạn…Mày

is used in close relationship or informal social context (Ex: A sister may ask her

brother: “Mày đang làm cái gì đó?”) Mi is usually used for familiar relationship in the Middle area of Vietnam; it has the same function as mày Bạn is used to creat friendly atmosphere (Ex: An MC could ask a contestant in a gameshow: “Bạn có thể giớ thiệu về bản thân mình cho khán giả được biết không ạ?”).

- Third personal pronouns in singular forms include: nó, y, hắn, gã, ả…Nó

is often used to refer to animals, things or children (Ex: “Chiếc bàn này được làm

từ gỗ quý nên nó có giá rất cao”) Y and hắn are both used to refer to someone

scorned or untrustworthy (Ex: When you accuse someone as a criminal, you could

say: “Hắn là một tên tội phạm”) Gã and ả are both ofetn used to refer to someone unliked, however, Vienamese use gã for male and ả for female (Ex: A girl talks about a man who makes her annoyed: “Gã thật là phiền phức” while the man could say: “Ả thật là đánh đá”).

The plural forms of first, second and third personal pronouns can be created

by adding the words like “chúng”, “tụi”, “bọn” such as: chúng tôi, tụi nó, bọn

mày, bọn tao….(Ex: This is a statement in a wedding: “Chúng tôi xin chân thành cám ơn sự có mặt của quý vị trong buổi lễ ngày hôm nay”) However, we can also

use “họ” as the plural form of a third personal pronoun without adding any words

(Ex: Instead of saying: “Tụi nó là bạn của tôi”, one can say: “Họ là bạn của tôi”

with a more formal level)

The other branch of Vietnamese personal pronouns is kinship terms which are the most popular ways Vietnamese use to refer oneself and others Even

though the listener is not a family member or relative, kinship terms can also used

as pronouns to address and refer to friends and unfamiliar interlocutors (Luong, 1990) The system of these kinship terms is quite complicated and they can

different according to specific areas, so in this paper I just mention some typical ones

- Parents and children relationship: cha-con (father-children) and mẹ-con (mother-children) For example, a child talks to her mother: “Tối nay, mẹ và con

đi siêu thị nhé!” The term cha-con is also used in the relationship between parish

priests and Christian believers

- Sibling relationship: anh-em (older brother-younger brother/sister) and chị-em (older sister-younger brother/sister) For example, a little boy says to his sister: “Ba bảo chị một lát chở em đi học.” A person can also use anh/ chị to refer people who are in the same generation and older than him/her, and use em to

prefer people who are in the same generation and younger than him/her

- Grandparents and grandchildren relationship: ông-cháu (grandfather-grandson/granddaughter), bà-cháu (grandmother- grandson/granddaughter) For

example, an old man talks to his niece: “Để ông kể cho cháu nghe chuyện

Tấm-Cám nhé!” The terms ông-cháu and bà-cháu can also be used when a person talks

to people who seem to be as old as his/her grandparents

- Uncle and niece/nephew relationship: chú-cháu (father’s younger brother-nice/nephew), bác-cháu (parents’ older brother- brother-nice/nephew), cậu-cháu (mother’s younger brother- nice/nephew), dượng-cháu (ant’s husband- nice/nephew) For example, a man may talk to his nephew: “Cậu có quà cho cháu này.” The term chú-cháu is also used when a person talks to a male who is the same age or

younger than his/her parents whereas bác-cháu is used when a person talks to a

male who is older than his/her parents

- Ant and niece/nephew relationship: cô-cháu (father’s younger sister- nice/nephew), dì-cháu (mother’s younger sister- nice/nephew), bác-cháu (parents’ older sister- nice/nephew), mợ-cháu (uncle’s wife on the maternal

side-nice/nephew), thím-cháu (uncle’s wife on the paternal side- nice/nephew) For example, a woman may say to her niece: “Cháu của dì hôm nay giỏi quá!” The term dì-cháu or cô-cháu is also used when a person talks to a female who is

younger than his/her parents while bác-cháu is used when a person talks to a

female who is older than his/her parents

To make the third-person forms of the kinship terms above, the word “ấy”

is added behind them such as ông ấy, bà ấy, thím ấy, dì ấy, chú ấy, chị ấy, anh

ấy…For example: Lan là chị của tôi Chị ấy rất thương tôi.

Within this paper, I would like to discuss the contrast between English and Vietnamese personal pronouns in ways they are used

Firstly, there are different pronouns in English that indicate subject vs predicate position (eg “he” vs “him”) while Vietnamese pronouns remain the same without indicating subject vs predicate position (Erickson 199-203)

Example:

- He is Mary’s boyfriend I met him at Mary’s birthday party last week.

- Anh ấy là bạn trai của Mary Tôi đã gặp anh ấy trong buổi tiệc sinh nhật

của Mary vào tuần trước

Secondly, English has possessive pronouns to indicate the possessor of another noun (eg “mine”, “yours”, “his”, “hers”) In contrast, possessive pronouns