A contrastive analysis of the meanings expressed via the modal verbs can, may, must in english and the equivalent expressions in vietnamese

A Contrastive analysis of the meanings expressed via the modal verbs can, may, must in English and the equivalent expressions in Vietnamese...25 2.2.1.. In Vietnam,there are several Eng

Certificate of originality

I, Nguyen Minh Hue, hereby claim the originality of my study Unless otherwise indicated, this is my own piece of academic accomplishment.

Signature

I am sincerely grateful to Assoc Prof Dr Vo Dai Quang, my supervisor,for his wisdom, critical comments and precious advice spared for me.Without his guidance, encouragement and critical comments the workwould have never been completed

I owe a debt of gratitude to all my lecturers at the University ofLanguages and International Studies - Vietnam National University,Hanoi, for their enthusiastic teaching and tremendous knowledge thathave directly or indirectly enlightened my research paper

I would like to express my gratitude to all of my colleagues at the ESPDepartment, ULIS -VNU, Hanoi for their constant encouragement andthe favourable conditions spared for my study

Finally, my warmest thanks go to my parents, my husband for their love,support and share of housework and childcare Without their help thisthesis could not have gained the current status

Hanoi, December - 2006

Nguyen Minh Hue

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality i

Acknowledgements ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

Part A Introduction 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Methodology 4

5 Design of the study 4

Part B: Development 6

Chapter 1: Theoretical background 6

1.1 Concept of modality in English 6

1.1.1 Definition of modality 6

1.1.2 Types of modality 8

1.2 Modal verbs in English 9

1.2.1 Concept of modal verbs 9

1.2.2 Morphological and syntactic features of modal verbs 10

1.2.3 Semantic features of modal verbs 10

1.3 Modal verbs in Vietnamese 11

1.3.1 Some features of the Vietnamese language 11

1.3.2 Different views on the modal verbs in Vietnamese 12

1.3.3 Words or phrases having modal meanings 14

1.4 Contrastive analysis (CA) 14

1.5 Summary 15

Chapter 2: Investigation 16

2.1 Conventional meanings of English modals can, may, must 16

2.1.1 Conventional meanings of “Can” 16

2.1.2 Conventional meanings of “May” 21

2.1.3 Conventional meanings of “Must” 23

2.2 A Contrastive analysis of the meanings expressed via the modal

verbs can, may, must in English and the equivalent expressions in

Vietnamese 25

2.2.1 Can, may, must and their equivalents in Vietnamese 25

2.2.2 A contrastive analysis of the modal meanings expressed via can, may, must in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese 30

2.3 Summary 32

Chapter 3: Implications 34

3.1 Challenges in teaching English modals 34

3.2 Implications for teaching English modals can, may, must 34

3.3 Summary 37

Part C: Conclusion 38

1 Recapitulation 38

2 Concluding remarks 38

3 Suggestions for further research 39

References 40

Part A Introduction

1 Rationale of the study

In everyday communication, both the speaker and writer do not simplydescribe events, processes or states of affairs By means of language,they also wish to express their emotions and attitudes; or to influence insome way the addressee’s beliefs, behaviours Usually, the speaker notonly says something true, something that will definitely happen orhappened, but also says something he/ she does not know for sure

1 Tom is happy

2 Tom seems (to be) happy

3 I think Tom is happy

4 Perhaps Tom is happy

While statement (1) expresses the speaker’s assertion of a fact,statements (2), (3) and (4) show his indefinite commitment to the

proposition “Tom is happy” The area of semantics that concerns this

expressive and social information of statements is modality

In comparison with absolute commitments where the speaker definitelyasserts, relative commitments play a very important role incommunication In fact, using too many absolute commitments probablylessens communicative effects because the speaker will be seen as arude or imposing person, disobeying politeness strategies That’s why

the speakers often hedge, using modalized phrases such as I think (that), I suppose (that) first to express their subjective attitudes and

second to show their politeness to listeners

Hence, it becomes very interesting and essential to study modality ingeneral and to investigate how much a speaker commits to what hesays in particular Modality has gained much popularity among linguists.The different ways in which different langauges allow speakers to insertthemselves into their discourse, expressing their desires or opinionshave become a common subject of study From syntax to prosody, the

study of modality has spawned innumerable academic papers, namelyBybee (1985), Lyons (1977) and others Vietnamese modal system hasalso been studied by Hoµng Phª (1984) and §ç H÷u Ch©u (1989).

According to Lyons, a speaker’s qualification of his commitment to thetruth of his/ her proposition becomes an important issue In Vietnam,there are several English-written M.A theses on this issue, for example,

Modality and Modal Auxiliaries: A systemic comparison of English and Vietnamese by §ç H÷u HuyÕn (1996), English Epistemic Markers in Contrastive Analysis with Vietnamese by Ngò ThiÖn Hïng (1996), A Contrastive Study of the Modal Devices Expressing Possibility in Modern English and Vietnamese by §inh Gia Hng (2001) Hoµng Thu Giang

(2001) also makes a comparison between different types of modalexpressions in English and their Vietnamese equivalents NguyÔn D¬ngNguyªn Ch©u (1999) sets for the discussion on pragmatic interpretation

of obligation meanings expressed particularly by English modals must, should, have to.

The researches in English focus on analyzing both the most commonform and content of modality As a result, a full and specific description

of syntactic and semantic features of English modal verbs can, may, must and the equivalent expressions in Vietnamese has not been given

yet Thus, a research on the meanings expressed by the modal verbs

can, may, must in English in contrastive analysis with Vietnamese

seems to be necessary

Though many pages, chapters, books have been written about theEnglish modal system, it still remains a complicated and troublesomearea of language for linguists and learners of English The problem can

be traced to the polysemy/ ambiguity of modal meanings Semantically,

a modal can convey either deontic or epistemic modality In the

sociophysical (deontic) world, the must in “John must go to all the department parties” is taken as indicating an obligation imposed upon

the person realized by the subject of the sentence by the speaker (or by

some other agents) In the epistemic world, the must in the same

sentence could be read as a logical necessity according to the reasoning

“I must conclude that it is John’s habit to go to all department parties (because I see his name on the sign-up sheet every time, and he’s always out on those nights)” In addition, there is considerable overlap

between modals It is hard to discern any semantic difference among

them since modals are almost sustitutable in most contexts, e.g can and may in “You can/ may leave” Pragmatically, we can talk about

modal meanings in terms of such logical notions as “permission” and

“necessity”, but this done, we still have to consider ways in which thesenotions become remoulded by the psychological pressures of everydaycommunication between human beings: factors such as condescension,politeness, tact and irony

The learning of meanings expressed by modals and how to use themcorrectly has not been, then, an easy task for learners of English.Learners are often confused in choosing the appropriate modal to makethemselves understood This problem is especially more embarrassingwhen they encounter different modals conveying similar meanings Also,they can produce grammatically correct utterances, but do notunderstand properly the social and cultural information each modalmeaning conveys Furthermore, due to the structuralist approach togrammar teaching, learners can memorize modals with their meaningsgiven, but do not know how to use them to improve theircommunicative competence, say, to mitigate directness, to expresspoliteness, to make assertions in social interaction

Despite the fact that earlier researches on modality contribute greatly

to helping acquire English modality usage, it is still considered one ofthe most difficult aspects of learning English The topic of this study wasprompted at first by my guide to my students in improving reading skilland in doing some English-Vietnamese translation I found that studentsstill have many problems in understanding the texts, and especially ininterpreting the writer’s opinion and attitude expressed by such typical

modals as can, may, must With all these reasons, I made up my mind

to choose and to go further into the topic: A contrastive analysis of the

meanings expressed via the modal verbs can, may, must in English

and the equivalent expressions in Vietnamese.

2 Aims of the study

This study - A contrastive analysis of the meanings expressed via the

modals can, may, must in English and the equivalent expressions in

Vietnamese – is focused on investigating the semantic analysis of modal

meanings expressed by can, may, must in English and their equivalents

in Vietnamese It is aimed at:

- studying some preliminaries and features of modal auxiliaries inEnglish and in Vietnamese

- making a comparison between modal meanings expressed by can, may, must in English and their Vietnamese equivalent expressions.

- offering some suggestions for the application of the study to theteaching of English modals

3 Scope of the study

This study is confined to the meanings expressed via the three modal

verbs can, may, must in English, their semantic features and the

equivalent expressions in Vietnamese

English modals are widely utilized in both spoken and written discourseand cover various functional styles It would be interesting to investigatetheir uses in them all However, in order to make our tasks manageable

in keeping the aims of the study, within the time allowance, it isintended that the most attention is paid to written discourse

4 Methodology

A combination of different methods of analysis will be used in this study

The first is the descriptive method English modals can, may, must will

be described in turns in order to find out their semantic features

However, the major method utilized in this study is the contrastive

analysis between the meanings expressed via the modal verbs can, may, must in English and the equivalent expressions in Vietnamese.

English modal verbs are chosen as the references and we base on theseinstruments to find out all the equivalents in Vietnamese

To apply these methods and to achieve the study goals, translation isthe main technique for comparison between English modal verbs andthe equivalent expressions in Vietnamese

With written discourse, data employed for analysis will be extracted

from the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte – a famous writer in the

nineteenth century realistic literature of England This novel is takenfrom the website http://www.online_literature.com/brontec/janeeyre/

The reason for choosing Jane Eyre is that it is a well-known literary work

in which can, may and must are widely used so that the contrastive

analysis can be easily done Based on thirty - eight chapters of thisnovel and its translation by TrÇn Anh Kim (1996), the data are chosen atrandom Then the data are analyzed and systematized to work out a

fresh insight into the meanings expressed by can, may, must and their

equivalents in Vietnamese

5 Design of the study

The study is composed of three parts

Part A is the introduction which presents rationales, literature review,aims, scope of the study as well as the methodology for the research.Part B is the main part which consists of three chapters

Chapter one is about the theoretical background for the research Thischapter is aimed at establishing the framework of investigation Itchiefly deals with modality and modal verbs in English and inVietnamese.

Chapter two is focused on investigating the meanings expressed by can, may, must and on contrastive analysis of the meanings expressed by can, may, must and the Vietnamese equivalents cã thÓ, ph¶i.

Chapter three deals with the applicability of the study results to the

teaching of can, may, must to Vietnamese learners of English It

discusses some challenges in teaching and learning English modals Italso puts forward some suggestions for the teaching of English modals The final part is the conclusion which presents a recapitulation of thestudy and provides possible concluding remarks and suggestions forfurther research

Part B: Development Chapter 1: Theoretical background

1.1 Concept of modality in English

1.1.1 Definition of modality

From the Latin word modalitas, the quality of modality relates tomanners (a way of acting or speaking), forms (shape, structure), andlimits (something that restrains) The term is used to cover linguisticexpression of these concepts other than through the modal auxiliaries:

‘It will possibly rain later this evening’, ‘I am sure that the plane haslanded by now’, ‘You have my permission to smoke now.’

Modality is central to research done in many disciplines, but rarelyreceives unified treatment in logic, in (western) philosophy, or inlinguistics In modern logic, for example, one generally analyses a single

semantic value for a modal verb such as can, may, or must in English or

cã thÓ, cã lÏ or nªn in Vietnamese As these verbs occur in different

contexts and are sensitive to interaction with time and aspect markers,they can receive different values

The modal value of a statement is the way, or ‘mode’, in which it is true

or false: e.g certainly so, currently so, necessarily so In logic, modalityusually means ‘logical modality’, that is the logical necessity orpossibility of a statement’s truth or falsity

Nevertheless, logic begins but does not end with the study of truthvalues Within truth, there are modes of truth, ways of being true:necessary truth and contigent truth When a proposition is true, we maysay whether it could have been false If so, then it is contigent true Ifnot, then it is necessarily true; it must be true; it could not have beenfalse Falsity has modes as well: a false proposition that could not havebeen true is impossible or necessarily false; one that could have beentrue is merely contigently false The proposition ‘New York is a rich city’

is contigently true; the proposition that ‘Two and two is four’ isnecessarily true; the proposition ‘Her husband is female’ is impossible,and the proposition that ‘Women don’t give births’ is contigently false.

In logic, modality is concerned with how what is said is related to thefact that rather than with what purpose, attitude or judgement aspeaker has in uttering It is because of this reason that modality inlogic is considered objective modality

While traditional logic has been more concerned with objectivemodality, which excludes speakers, modality in language seems to beessentially subjective, i.e it refers to the speaker’s opinion or attitude.This is reasonable because in everyday conversation and in differentcontexts, all utterances show the purpose, attitude or assessment of thespeaker

Modality in language is, then, concerned with subjectiveness of anutterance In subjective modality, speakers express the fact with theirown intention or judgement The subjectivity is seen in differentaspects: speakers’ commitment toward the factuality of what is said,speakers’ judgement toward a proposition, whether it is positive ornegative, advantageous or disadvantageous etc It is modality thatgives more meanings to utterances Together with fast development ofsemantics and pragmatics, modality has received more linguists’concerns

Lyons (1977) says that modality is the speaker’s opinion or attitudetowards ‘the proposition that the sentence expresses or the situationthat the proposition describes.’

Palmer (1986) defines modality as semantic information associated withthe speaker’s attitude or opinion about what is said

According to Frawley (1992), modality semantically reflects a speaker’sattitude or degrees of awareness of the content of a proposition

In Vietnam, for the past few years, modality has been the focus of manylinguists and researchers such as Hoµng Phª, §ç H÷u Ch©u and others.Hoµng Träng PhiÕn broadly explains modality as a grammaticalcategory which appears in all kinds of sentence.

From the definition of modality mentioned above, we can see that tosome extent linguists have one thing in common seeing that modalitydescribes the speaker’s attitude or judgement toward the propositionand not the proposition itself

The notional content of modality highlights its association with entirestatements Modality concerns the factual status of information; itsignals the relative actuality, validity, or believability of the content of

an expression Modality reflects the overall assertability of anexpression and thus takes the entire proposition within its scope In theutterance ‘It may be raining’, for example, the speaker is notcommitting himself wholeheartedly to the truth of the proposition He isnot making a categorical assertion, but rather modifying his commiment

to some degree by expressing a judgement of the truth of the situation

Types of modality in Halliday’s view

Halliday’s view on types of modality could be summed up as follow

“Polarity is the choice between positive and negative, as in is/ isn’t, do/ don’t.

However, the possibilities are not limited to a choice between yes and

no There are intermediate degress: various kinds of indeterminacy thatfall in between, like “sometimes” or “maybe” The intermediate degreesbetween the positive and negative poles, are known collectively asmodality” (Halliday, 1985: 85-86)

He further expresses the commodity exchanged & the speech function and the types of intermediacy in this chart

Modality Probability (possible/

probable/ certain) Frequency (sometimes/ usually/ always)

anxious/ determined)

As can be seen from the chart, in a proposition, the meaning of positiveand negative poles is asserting “It is so” and denying “It isn’t so” Heobserves two kinds of intermediate possibilities: (1) degree ofprobability (possible -> probable -> certain) which is equivalent to may

be “yes”, may be “no” with different degrees of likelihood attached and(2) degree of usuality (i.e sometimes “yes” sometimes “no”)

In a proposal, there are two kinds of intermediate possibilities: (1) in acommand, the intermediate points represent degrees of obligation and(2) in an offer, they represent degrees of described duty

However, the classification made by Sweetser and Palmer, in myopinion, seems the most acceptable for its clarity and generalization

which can be applied to the linguistic study from different angles:semantic, logic and pragmatic They are Epistemic & Deontic modality.

Analyzing such a sentence as “He must be in his office”, we can see this

may have two interpretations, depending on the modality assigned to

the modal verb “must”.

In one sense, it means “I am certain that he is in his office” (By my

reasoning and judgement) In another sense, it has the interpretation of

“He is obliged to be in his office” (He has no choice but to be in his

office) In the formal sense, the modal auxiliary “must” is epistemic and

in the latter it is deontic

Lyons (1977: 793) (in conjunction with other scholars) states: “Epistemic modality is concerned with matters of knowledge, belief” or “opinion rather than fact” Palmer (1990:7) considers that epistemic modality in

language is often, may be always, subjective in a way it is associatedwith the deduction of the speakers and not only simply interest in thesubjective judgment in the light of reality

And “Deontic modality is concerned with the necessity of possibility of acts performed by morally responsible agents” (Lyons 1977: 823) By

means of this, speakers intervene in or bring about changes in events

1.2 Modal verbs in English

1.2.1 Concept of modal verbs

Language is not always used just to exchange information by makingsimple statements and asking questions Sometimes, we want to makerequests, offers, or suggestions We may also want to express ourwishes, intentions or indicate our feelings about what we are saying In

English, we do all these things by using a set of verbs called modal verbs or modal auxiliaries The modal auxiliaries such as can, could, may, might, will, would, must, should and ought to express different

types of modal meanings These modal auxiliaries or modals for short

are one of the most complicated problems of the English verbs MichaelLewis (1986: 99) quoted Palmer’s remarks about the modals:

“There is no doubt that the overall picture of the modals is extremely

“messy” and untidy and that the most the linguists can do is to imposesome order, point some regularities, correspondences, parallelisms…This subject is not one that lends itself to any simple explanation.”

Semantically, modal auxiliaries allow the speaker to introduce apersonal interpretation of the non-factual and non-temporal elements ofthe event In other words, modals are one way for a speaker to encodemodality into what (s)he says – such ideas as necessity, possibility,obligation, etc Some of the modals may also express the same kinds ofsemantic colourings in the subjunctive mood

1.2.2 Morphological and syntactic features of English modal verbs

(a) Modals do not inflect This means they have no “-s” form in the thirdperson singular of the present tense, or no “-ing” and “-ed” forms

E.g She can swim very well (not: She cans …) (19: 121)

(b) They occupy the first place in a complex verb phrase and followed

by the form base of a verb They do not co-occur

E.g I can speak a little Arabic (19: 121)

You could have let me know you were going out tonight (19: 121)

(c) Both the present and past forms of modals can be used in past tensesequence

E.g I think he may/ might stay now (19: 331)

(d) They are used as operators in the formation of, for example,questions and negatives

E.g negatives We might not be home before midnight (19: 329)

questions May I help you? (19: 329)

1.2.3 Semantic features of English modal verbs

The primary semantic characteristics of modals is that they allow thespeaker to express an attitude to the non-factual and non-temporalelements of the situation This means s/he can introduce elements ofmodality such as possibility, necessity, desirability, morality, doubt,certainty, etc For example, in making such a statement as “Mr Wilkinsmust be the oldest person in the village”, the speaker not only gives thefact about Mr Wilkins, but also indicates how certain he is about thetruth or correctness of the information through the use of the modal

must In the case of a question, the listener’s opinion is involved, as well

as the person obviously referred to by the sentence “What should Ido?” for example, is clearly about the speaker, but is also equallyimportantly about the listener’s judgement or opinion Verb phrasescontaining a modal, therefore, are not about the facts alone, but alsoexpress the speaker’s or listener’s judgement or opinion Generallyspeaking, each modal is fundamentally grounded in the moment ofspeaking, at the point Now They are present form, not in the traditionalsense, but because the meaning of each modal may be paraphrased “inthe present circumstances, my judgement is that it is possible/necessary/ desirable that…” This is different from the conventional view

that, for example could is “the past tense” of can.

In the consideration of meanings of modals, Palmer (1979) assumes thatthis is a messy area While dismissing the idea of the search for a “basicmeaning” attributed to each individual modal he believes that it ispossible to search for a set of closely related meanings: “(This) must not

be taken to imply that we cannot look for a fairly generalised commonmeaning or a set of closely related meanings for each modal It is onlywhen precision is demanded or invariance postulated that the notion of

a basic meaning becomes unrealistic”

In another approach to modal semantics, Dixon (1991: 170) points outthat each modal has a fair semantic range, extending far beyond thecentral meanings that are indicated There is in fact considerable

overlap between modals For instance, the central meaning of can refers

to inherent ability, e.g John can lift 100 kilos, and of may to the possibility of some specific event happening, e.g We may get a Christmas bonus this year But both modals can and may refer to a pemitted activity, e.g John can/ may stay out all night and to some possibility, e.g The verb ‘shout’ can/ may be used both transitively and intransitively The best approach to meanings of modals, according to

Lewis (1990: 103) is to look for a single central meaning while at thesame time accepting that this may involve recognising a number ofmarginal examples

1.3 Modal verbs in Vietnamese

1.3.1 Some features of the Vietnamese language

In order to examine the modal auxiliaries and modality in Vietnamese, it

is necessary to present here some features that are peculiar to theVietnamese language as these features are reflected via the modalauxiliaries in Vietnamese

Firstly, we are all aware that Vietnamese is a non-inflectional language

A word keeps its own form in various places in a sentence This feature

is also recognized by most linguists dealing with Vietnamese (Trơng VănChình 1970, Nguyễn Kim Thản 1977, Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh 1994,Nguyễn Tài Cẩn 1977, etc.) Verbs in Vietnamese have no endings toshow the categories of tense, person and finiteness When necessary,these categories are expressed by “form word” such as pronouns oradverbs Vietnamese grammar is limited in rules of word usage Theaction is understood as taking place in the past or at present depending

on the adverb of time or adverb of tense – aspect in the clause or on thecontext

U nó đã sang nhà cụ Nghị Quế cha?

(Have you gone to see Deputy Quế?) Ngô Tất Tố (1977: 44)

đã: adverb of tense – aspect (Nguyễn Kim Thản 1977: 180)

Sang: verb

Secondly, some sentence elements may be missing without changingthe meaning when the context is obvious.

Đi đâu? (Cậu đi đâu đấy? Where are you going?)

Học (Tớ đi học I’m going to school.)

Thirdly, in Vietnamese there exists a number of words whose meaningsare very difficult to define Some of these words work as markers of

tense – aspect đang (happening at the moment), sẽ (will for future) etc.

(Nguyễn Kim Thản 1977: 178), some others as markers of the

imperative hãy (Diệp Quang Ban 1989: 143) e.g Hãy nói tất cả những gì bạn biết về cô ấy (Say all you know about her) The combination of

these markers with other groups of words helps to distinguish one groupfrom another This is the reason why these forms attracts attention fromlinguists

Last but not least, Vietnamese is a tonal language The arrangement ofsix tones has great influence on the intonation and accent ofVietnamese Intonation exists in every language But Vietnameseintonation plays a special role in dividing the grammatical units andsentences into different types

1.3.2 Different views on the modal verbs in

Vietnamese

Unlike English, in Vietnamese it is difficult to give the criteria fordistinguishing the modal auxiliaries from other auxiliaries, from mainverbs or particles

Linguists hold different views of Vietnamese modal auxiliaries However,most of them declare that there do exist modal auxiliaries inVietnamese

According to Hữu Quỳnh in his book entitled “Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt hiện

đại”, modal verbs are used to express the speaker’s attitude towardsfactual events Only under some certain context can main verb becombined with modal verbs

Trơng Văn Chình (1970) states that a sentence with a modal auxiliarycontains objective and subjective statements as well By using themodal auxiliary, the speaker expresses his idea, notion of certainty,doubt or obligation, volition etc He identifies a number of words thatare considered as modal auxiliaries but he hardly suggests any criteriafor identification Modal auxiliaries, according to him, are identified by

their meanings Some verbs such as tin (believe), lo (regret) are modal

Nguyễn Văn Hào (1988) divides modal auxiliaries into two types (i) the

modal auxiliaries expressing volition such as có thể (can), không thể (cannot), dám (dare), toan (intend), định (intend), phải (must), cần (need), nên (should), muốn (want)… (ii) the modal auxiliaries receiving actions such as bị (usually be + past participle with adversative meaning), đợc (usually be + past participle with beneficial meaning), chịu đựng (bear, stand)… He distinguishes the modal auxiliaries from

other groups of words just as they must be followed by anothersubordinate element

E.g Bạn Tú đợc cô giáo khen.

(Tu was complimented by the teacher)

Nguyễn Văn Hào (1988: 205)

(đợc: modal auxiliary, cô giáo khen: subordinate element)

Nguyễn Kim Thản, in “Động từ tiếng Việt”, offers a quite clear andconvincing argumentation on Vietnamese modal verbs As for him,modal verbs do not indicate actions or states but the ability, necessity

or intention of doing something or the maintenance of the state

expressed by the main verb Nguyễn Kim Thản lists some of the modal

auxiliaries in Vietnamese such as cần (intend), chịu (bear), có thể (can), dám (dare), định (intend), nên (should), nỡ (have the heart to force), chực (be about to), khỏi (not have to), phải (must), toan (intend), muốn (want), cố (attempt)…(Nguyễn Kim Thản 1977: 166, 169)

1.3.3 Words or phrases having modal meanings

Besides modal verbs, words belonging to other parts of speech and

phrases with modal meanings can be used These are có lẽ, chắc, dễ ờng, tất nhiên, thỉnh thoảng, đôi khi, luôn luôn, thờng xuyên…

th-E.g Có lẽ ông lên tỉnh trên với cụ nghị nhà tôi (34: 251)

Chắc mình lại ngờ tôi đi buôn với chị ấy thì cũng đánh bạc với chị

ấy, phải không? (33:

266)

Thỉnh thoảng chúng lại nhìn nhau mà cời (32: 89)

In short, as in other languages, modal verbs in Vietnamese are alsowidely used as a basic means to express modal meanings But they donot act as head element in the verb phrase They have to be combinedwith other verbs to create verb phrases in the sentence

1.4 Contrastive analysis (CA)

As one of the main aims of this paper is to carry out a contrastive

analysis on the meanings expressed via the modals can, may, must in

English and the equivalent expressions in Vietnamese Hence, thetheoretical account on Contrastive Analysis is necessary

Regarding the definition of CA, Jame (1980: 3) states: “CA is a linguisticenterprise aimed at producing inverted two-valued typologies (a CA isalways concerned with a pair of languages), and founded on theassumption that languages can be compared”

Of the two types of CA – theoretical CA and applied CA, Jame focuses onthe second type “which are preoccupied with the problem of how the

universal category X realised in language A as Y, is rendered inlanguage B” He considers CA as a form of interlanguage study and as acentral and substantial component of applied linguistics As a matter offact, CA has had much to offer to practical teaching as well astranslation theory, the description of particular languages, languagetypology and language universals In relation to bilingualism, CA isconcerned with how monolingual becomes bilingual or in other words, itdeals with the effects exerted by the first language (L1) on the foreignlanguage being learnt (L2) This is because of the fact that thesimilarities and differences between two languages have muchcontribution to foreign language teaching.

According to Jame (1980), Lado (1957), the psychological foundation of

CA is Transfer theory (Transfer is defined as the hypothesis that thelearning of L1 will affect the subsequent learning of L2) They claim that

CA is founded on the assumption that L2 learners will tend to transfer totheir L2 utterances the formal features of their L1

There are two types of transfer which may occur during the process oflearning a foreign language by learners who have already possessed aconsiderable degree of competence in their first language The first type

is Positive Transfer (or Facilitation) This transfer enables the learners toacquire the language easier The second type is Negative Transfer (orInterference) which is the constraint of L1 or the borrowing of a firstlanguage pattern or rule that leads to an error or inappropriate form inL2

As one of the goals of CA is the effective teaching and the learning ofthe L2, to minimize the negative transfer it would be necessary forteachers to realize the potential transfer problem areas and supportstrategies that would help the learners to avoid errors

In a nutshell, CA plays an important role in the teaching and learning of

a foreign language It is CA which can work out the similarities anddifferences between two languages involved, and as a result, it makes it

possible to predict trouble areas due to L1 interference, and therefore, ithelps learners overcome the predictable problems.

1.5 Summary

In short, Chapter 1 has briefly referred to the notion of modality andsome other notions related to this Modality in language is the speaker’sattitude to the proposition of the utterance, of the utterance contextand to the reality There are generally two types of modality: epistemicand deontic modality Epistemic modality is concerned with matters asknowledge and belief, expressing judgments about states of affairs.Deontic modality, on the other hand, is concerned with the necessity orpossibility of acts performed by morally responsible agents Moreover,modality can be expressed by verbs and by other linguistic andparalinguistic devices Also, in this chapter, basic knowledge aboutmodal verbs in English and in Vietnamese is provided And finally, toconsolidate the analysis and comments in the later chapters, someissues related to contrastive analysis theory are taken into account

(Ngồi vào một chỗ, cho đến khi nào mày biết nói năng ý tứ, giờ thì hãycâm mồm đi! (1:26))

(2)… and eyes like Miss Scatcherd's can only see those minute defects, and are blind to the full brightness of the orb (3: Chapter VIII)

(Và những con mắt nh cô Xcatsơ thì chỉ có thể nhìn thấy nhữngkhuyết điểm vặt vãnh, chứ nhìn sao thấy nổi ánh sáng rạng rỡ của vìtinh tú (1: 135))

(3) You think I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love

or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity (3: Chapter IV)

to say that someone has a particular skill or ability

In this use can is more like a full verb than any other modal There is a past tense form with past time reference We use could for general

ability to say that somebody could do something at any time, wheneverhe/ she wanted

E.g (4) She boasted of beautiful paintings of landscapes and flowers by them executed; of songs they could sing and pieces they could play, of purses they could net, of French books they could translate; (3: Chapter

III)

(Betxi tán dơng những bức họa phong cảnh và hoa lá do chính tay họ

vẽ, những ca khúc họ có thể hát, những vở kịch họ có thể đóng,những cái túi họ có thể đan, những sách Pháp văn học họ có thể dịch

đợc (1: 58))

We also use can if we are declaring now about the future.

E.g (5) "If I had anywhere else to go, I should be glad to leave it; but I can never get away from Gateshead till I am a woman." (3: Chapter III)

(Nếu cháu có một nơi khác thì cháu rất vui lòng từ bỏ nơi đây, nhngcháu không bao giờ mong ra khỏi Gatơhet nếu cha khôn lớn (1: 56))

Can is also used to say that someone is aware of something through one

of their senses In this case, can is used with verbs of sensation but can

here seems often to add nothing to the meaning of the sentence

without can It loses the sense of modality If someone does something,

he has an ability to do it The function of can turns into the one of

helping the main verb to denote a state rather than an event

E.g (6) Children can feel, but they cannot analyse their feelings; (3:

Chapter III)

(Trẻ con có những tình cảm mà chúng không thể phân tích đợc (1:55))

Similarly, could is used to say that someone was aware of something

through one of their senses on a particular occasion in the past

E.g (7) Leaning a little back on my bench, I could see the looks and grimaces with which they commented on this manoeuvre: it was a pity

Mr Brocklehurst could not see them too; (3: Chapter VII)

(Ngồi trên ghế hơi ngả ngời về đằng sau, tôi trông thấy những cáinhìn và nhăn mặt của họ trong khi họ làm theo lệnh; thật đáng tiếc

ông Brôchơn-hơc không đợc chứng kiến cảnh ấy; (1: 128))

Can and could are also used to say that something or someone is

capable of having a particular effect, or of behaving in a particular way

F.R Palmer (1974: 117) writes: “There is also a use of can to refer to

characteristic, but sporadic patterns of behavior, often in a derogatorysense.”

E.g (8) "Whenever I can be useful, sir." (3: Chapter XX)

(Bất cứ khi nào tôi có thể giúp ích cho ông (1:421))

The passive with can is possible if the agent is unspecified, ie in

agentless passives or when the agent is “anyone” (althoughsemantically it is the agent not the subject of the passive sentence thathas or does not have ability)

E.g (9) "The human and fallible should not arrogate a power with which the divine and perfect alone can be safely intrusted." (3: Chapter XIV)

(Con ngời yếu đuối không đợc tự ban cho mình một quyền lực mà chỉnhững bậc thần thánh vạn toàn mới có đợc (1: 271))

Last but not least, ability can bring in the implication of willingness(especially in spoken English)

E.g (10) "Can I help you, sir? I'd give my life to serve you." (3:

Chapter XIX)

(Tôi có thể giúp đỡ ông điều gì chăng! Tôi có thể hy sinh cả cuộc đờitôi để phục vụ ông (1: 390))

 Possibility

One common use of can is to express theoretical or general possibility,

not the chances that something will actually happen or is actually true

at this moment

a) Theoretical or general possibility

We use can to say whether situations and events are possible

theoretically, in general

E.g (11) "Because I have less confidence in my deserts than Adele has: she can prefer the claim of old acquaintance, and the right too of custom;…” (3: Chapter XIII)

(Bởi vì tôi không coi mình có quyền nh Ađen đợc Ađen có thể dựavào chỗ đã biết ông từ lâu, và cũng do thói quen nữa… (1: 239))

(12) "That sounds a dangerous maxim, sir; because one can see at once that it is liable to abuse." (3: Chapter XIV)

(Đó có thể là một châm ngôn nguy hại, ông ạ, vì ngời ta có thể nhậnthấy ngay rằng nó có thể đa đến sự lạm dụng (1: 270))

b) Logical possibility

We use can in questions and negative sentences to talk about the

logical possibility that something is true or that something is happening

E.g. (13) "Can it be you, Jane?" she asked, in her own gentle voice (3:

"It can never be, sir; it does not sound likely (3: Chapter XXIV)

(Phải, bà Rôchextơ - ông nói – bà Rôchextơ trẻ tuổi, ngời vợ trẻ sắp cớicủa Fefâc Rôchextơ

Không bao giờ có thể nh vậy, tha ông, điều ấy có vẻ nh không thực (2:78))

 Permission

Can is used to say that someone is allowed to do something.

E.g (17) “… you can go and inquire in about a week after you send your letter, if any are come, and act accordingly." (3: Chapter X)

(… sau khi gửi một tuần, mình có thể lại đấy mà hỏi; nếu có th đến,mình sẽ cứ việc theo đấy mà tiến hành công việc (1: 172))

(18) As he was returning the box to his waistcoat pocket, a loud bell rang for the servants' dinner; he knew what it was "That's for you, nurse," said he; "you can go down; I'll give Miss Jane a lecture till you come back." (3: Chapter III)

(Lúc ông bỏ hộp thuốc lá vào túi thì vừa lúc tiếng chuông báo giờ ăncủa các gia nhân réo vang, ông cũng biết hiệu chuông này

- Chuông gọi chị đấy, chị bảo mẫu ạ, chị xuống đi Trong lúc không cóchị ở đây, tôi sẽ giảng giải cho cô Jên nghe (1: 54))

In (18), in Vietnamese the words do not show any sense of permission

but can itself implies permission as this is what Mr Lloyd, an

apothecary, sometimes called in by Mrs Reed when the servants wereailing, talks to Bessie – a servant

Could is used to say that someone was allowed to do something in the

past

E.g (19) "Oh! I daresay she is crying because she could not go out with Missis in the carriage," interposed Bessie (3: Chapter III)

(Chị Betxi nói chêm vào:

“ồ, tôi cho rằng cô ấy khóc chỉ vì không đ ợc đi xe với bà chủ đấy thôi.(1: 53))

G N Leech states that linguistic law-makers of the past have

considered may to be the correct auxiliary of permission, and have condemned the use of can English-speaking schoolchildren used to be rebuked for saying Can I….? instead of May I….? Yet in fact, can is much