Exclamations in english and vietnamese – a contrastive analysis”

Aims and scope of the study This study is aimed to answer the questions such as: whether the culture background in Vietnam and Britain has an impact on the ways people exclaim, whether t

I Rationale

Man is a mixture of social relations, his mental life is really many-sided, and the levels of emotion tones are abundant, too The fundamental tones of emotions can be ranked according to the following three categories:

(+) Positive: interest, joy

(−) Negative: sadness, anger, contempt, fear, shyness and guilt

(∅) Neutral: surprise (since speaker’s surprise maybe negative or positive)

In daily conversations, expressions showing the speaker’s feelings in these cases have function (i.e expressing what the speaker feels) but in other ones they function differently They

mono-do not only cover the earlier mentioned functions but they also reveal what the speaker really means and would like through their exclamations This desire of researching on functions of exclamations will be fueled most effectively

Through exclamations, the speaker’s feelings are expressed effectively In Vietnamese settings, one of the four types of sentences is exclamations and that type recieves little attention from learners and thus, there have not been many studies on exclamations So far, the research of interrogatives, of imperatives and of the like have dominated, studying exclamations becomes our interest then

(1997) with his thesis entitled “Hành ng Ngôn ng bi u l trong câu c m thán

c a ti ng Vi t hi n i” set the first stage of exclamation studies What he was interested in is the expressives in Vietnamese exclamations Later on, in the thesis of “

(2001), the consideration of Vietnamese exclamations is taken into seriously But actually, this thesis deals with the scope of

a study of conversation interactions She focused on the exclamative function of each move in each conversation without paying much attention to illocutionary force of exclaiming though it

is an illocutionary act in speech acts

Moving on to the research of exclamations in English, most of them are done under the considerations of syntax and the one of semantics Especially, Porrtner P & Zanuttini (2005) have developed a series of research studying the semantic features of exclamations such as:

“Exclamative Clauses: At the Syntax-Semantics Interface”, “The Semantics of Nominal

Exclamatives” or “Clause typing: From Syntax to Discourse Semantics-Exclamatives” In terms

of pragmatics, there is only the research of Beijer F (2001) entitled “Syntax and Pragmatics of Exclamations and other Expressive/Emotional Utterances”

All the above research shows that the writers have completed their work with most enthusiasm and they have set a very good foundation to a better step_making research of exclamations under three dimensions: syntax, semantics and pragmatics

Knowing that language as a mirror of culture and ‘national character’, and that language is the address of culture Using Vietnamese, English or any other languages, people have thoughts and emotion in common They have also the same tones of emotion such as: anger, joy, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, despeakerair … However, the ways of expressing it out are different One can use gestures to show their attitude or feelings while the others may use facial expressions but the most common and important means is language Through utterances, people express their shock, surprise, fear, anger, admiration … and these utterances are called exclamations Studying functions of exclamations in terms of linguistic dimension in general and in English as well as Vietnamese in particular to find out equivalents and differences leads to the topic:

“Exclamations in English and Vietnamese_A Contrastive Analysis”

II Aims and scope of the study

This study is aimed to answer the questions such as: whether the culture background in Vietnam and Britain has an impact on the ways people exclaim, whether the features of syntax, of semantics and of pragmatics in exclamations of the two language are the same…

Concerning the scope of this study, exclamations in the two languages are considered in terms

of syntax, of semantics and of pragmatics

It is necessary to narrow the scope of this writing like that: the exclamations of the two languages in written forms are mainly based on, but not in the oral ones Therefore, when studying the intonation of exclamations, the focus is on the clues of exclamation marks (!) which appear at the end of exclamations

III Methods of the study

In order to have the theoretical background knowledge for this topic, some typical methods are used:

- Induction: data collected from sources: literature review of the subject, theoretical

background and survey’s results

- Descriptive: used to describe the particular mistakes when people exclaim and the features

of syntax and pragmatics of exclamations in English and Vietnamese

- Contrastive analysis: this method is applied to point out the differences and similarities in

the ways people from different culture background exclaim

- Questionnaire: this is used to collect the reliable data from non–native language learners

and study the habits in using exclamations of Vietnamese students

IV Research Questions

1 Under the same feelings of anger, joy, disgust, surprise, fear… do English and

Vietnamese express their emotion in the same ways?

2 Are there any similarities and differences in the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic

features of exclamations in English and Vietnamese?

3 Do the differences of culture background have an impact on the ways people

exclaim?

4 Which kinds of English exclamations are Vietnamese students interested in ?

V Design of the study

Part A: Introduction

The introduction presents the rationale of the study, the scope, the method and the design of the study

Part B: Development

Chapter 1: An overview of exclamations

The literature on exclamations is reviewed including the literature on sentence type and on illocutionary force of exclamation devices

Chapter 2: Exclamations under the syntactic consideration

This chapter investigates the syntactic feature of exclamation It is concerned to examine classifications and the main forms of exclamations in the two languages

Chapter 3: Exclamations under the semantic consideration

The criteria and the semantic meanings of exclamations are explored in English and in Vietnamese respectively

Chapter 4: Exclamations under the pragmatic consideration

This chapter deals with the pragmatic features of exclamations as well as the roles of exclaiming

in different situations for the pragmatic use

Chapter 5: Survey’s results and suggested solutions

Based on the questionnaires, the information of the habit of using exclamations of Vietnamese students are presented clearly and provide some suggestions on language teaching process, especially teaching how to form exclamations in English for the Vietnamese

Part C: Conclusion

This part summarizes the features of exclamations under the considerations of syntax, of semantics and of pragmatics And the survey’s results are made concise in this part, too

Chapter 1: An overview of exclamations

In this chapter, the research on the background of sentence in general and on exclamation in particular is done A brief review of the latter will be studied on, too

1.1 Literature review of sentences

Alexandra Grammatical School (300 – 200 BC) has considered that sentences are the combination of words to express complete thoughts Sentences are the largest unit of grammatical organization within parts of speech (e.g noun, verb, adjective…) are said to function

From the above definitions, the following are some main features of sentences:

- the largest unit of grammatical organization

- the basic unit of written English language communication

- constructed by grammatical rules

- express a thought and the speaker’s feelings and attitude

1.2 Sentence classifications in English and Vietnamese

In English and Vietnamese, most of the grammaticians share similar classifications of sentence

in terms of structures and of purposes

1.2.1 In terms of structure

In terms of structure, sentences are divided into three categories:

+ Simple, compound and complex

(1) She is a good teacher (Simple sentence)

(2) I bought her some flowers, but she did not like them (Compound sentence) (3) The film that interested me was about a petition (Complex sentence) + Complete and incomplete

(4) I’m glad to see you (Complete sentence) (5) Glad to see you (Incomplete sentence)

+ Major and minor

(6) Hands up! (Minor sentence)

(7) We like to parties (Major sentence)

1.2.2 In terms of purposes

Sentences may be classified in terms of purposes:

A declarative sentence is used to make a statement

An interrogative sentence is used to pose a question

An imperative sentence is used to give a command or to implore or entreat

An exclamatory sentence is used to express astonishment or extreme emotion (8) How happy we were when the dawn came and our flag was still there!

(9) How did you do your hair! (exclamation formed as a question)

(10) I just won 500 dollars! (exclamation formed as a declarative sentence)

The same classifications of sentence are found in the sentence theory of Quirk et al (54: 6), sentences may be divided into four major clauses, whose use correlates with different communicative functions: statements, questions, commands and exclamations

(11) We’ve got a new motor (statement)

(12) Have you got a new motor? (question)

(13) Buy us a new motor (command)

(14) We’ve got a new motor! (exclamation) 1.3 Minor types of simple sentences

Most grammarians have chosen to describe exclamatives as either one of the major clause types

on par with declaratives, interrogatives, and imperatives, or as a minor clause type This is not surprising since utterances lacking inversion, beginning with “what” and “how” do not function

in the same way as ordinary declaratives or interrogatives

We know, however, that declarative clauses, for instance, can be used to fulfill many different functions in natural languages, i.e there is no one–to–one relation between language form and language function Consequently, exclamations need not be of a clause type, but may instead be

a pragmatic phenomenon, a claim comes from the fact that those who consider exclamations to

be of a sentence type (e.g Quirk et al 1972, 1985) have to introduce minor sentence types having the same exclamatory function as the sentences they call exclamations

Quirk et al (1972) recognize four major classes in which simple sentences may be divided, and the division seems to have been made on the basis of (syntactic) form and (pragmatic) function:

(i) Statements: sentences in which the subject is always present and generally precedes

the verbs such as “Kama will come here today”

(ii) Questions: sentences marked by one of the following criteria:

a The placing of the operator in front of the subject, as in “ Will Kama come here today?”

b The initial positioning of a wh – element as in “When will Kama come here?”

c Rising question intonation as in “Kama will come here today?”

(iii) Commands: sentences which normally have no overt grammatical subject and whose

verbs are in the imperative mood, e.g “Come here today!”

(iv) Exclamations: sentences that have an initial phrase introduced by “what” or “how”

without inversion of subject and operator, e.g “What nice clothes she wears!” 1.4 Definitions of terminologies

One of the most important steps is to take all the definitions of terminologies concerning exclamations into a consideration Most of them are listed as follows:

Exclamations: They are sentences that express strong feelings (for example how you feel when you are happy, angry or surprise…) They begin with a capital letter and end with an exclamation mark (!)

Exclamatives: Radford (1997:506) has defined an exclamative as a “a type of sentence used to exclaim surprise, delight, annoyance etc.”

Expressive: in Searle’s speech acts, they principally express social interactions with the hearer

Emotive: they are directly emotive utterances lending some features from expressives Interjections: they are exclamations used to express emotion in a natural, uninhibited way, and are not part of speech in the same sense as the words we have discussed; that is, entering into the structure of a sentence

Emotional / Expressive utterances: they are utterances in which the speaker in question

is emotionally involved, and in which this involvement is linguistically expressed by means of intonation or by the use of performative expressions

(15) - What a beautiful house you have!

(16) - It is such a nice house!

(17) - Your house is so nice!

(18) - Nice house!

(19) - How nice a house!

(20) - Isn’t the house nice!

(21) - So nice a house!

All the above sentences are exclamations because they convey strong feelings of speakers towards something And here, it is a nice house

1.6 Exclamations with illocutionary force indicating devices

Exclamation in written form is mainly discovered and studied in this study and due to this written form, the interlocutors can get many useful hints when communicating These hints are IFIDs ( Illocutionary force indicating devices), and as suggested by the term, they are the ones that transfer illocutionary force to both the speaker and the hearer Based on these tokens, IFIDs help interlocutors to the appropriate strategy for everyday conversations

1.6.1 Basic structures: “How + Adjective!” and “What + a/ an + Adjective + Noun!”

Once mentioning hints of exclamations, “How” and “What” are regarded as master keys to learn their derived forms such as:

“How + adjective + S + verb!” as in “How tall she is!”

“How + adjective!” as in “How generous!”

“What + a/an + N!” as in “What a nuisance!”

“What + noun!” as in “What luck!”

“How” and “What” are known as the basic components of exclamations Positioning right at the beginning, their function is to monitor the remaining components in sentences It is the structures of “how” and “what” that are the basic hints to know its sentence type These wh–elements have an utmost significant role so communicators make best use of these hints in their interactions

1.6.2 Interjections

Interjection is a big name for a little word In other words, interjections are short exclamations like “Oh!”, “Um!” or “Yeah!”… When interjections are inserted into sentences, they have no grammatical connection to the sentences They often express emotions in a natural, uninhibited way and they are more recognizable in their written forms as they tend to be accompanied by exclamation marks(!)

It is noteworthy that almost any words may be used as an exclamation, but they still retain their identity as noun, pronoun, verb…

(21) - Books! Lighthouses built on the sea of time (noun)

(22) - Halt! The dust brown ranks stood fast (verb)

(23) - Up! For same! (adverb)

(24) - Impossible! It cannot be (adjective)

Next, we will study the interjections in detail through the following table:

Expressing realization “Ah! Now I understand”

Expressing resignation “Ah, well, it can’t be helped”

Ah

Alas Expressing grief or pity “Alas! She’s dead now”

Dear

Expressing surprise “Dear me! That’s a surprise”

Expressing greeting “Hello Khanh! How are you today?”

Hello

Expressing surprise, joy… “Hey! What a good idea!”

Hmm Expressing doubt, hesitation or

disagreement

“Hmm, I’m not sure”

Oh

Expressing pleading “Oh, please say ‘yes’!”

Uh Expressing hesitation “Uh…I don’t know the answer to that”

Well

Introducing a remark “Well! What did he say?”

Table 1: Types of interjections (49: 23) 1.6.3 Intonation

Intonation is one of the factors that make great contributions to create exclamations in both

English and Vietnamese Compared with statements, melodic contour of exclamations is not

greatly different The differences stay in words that carry the lexical meaning in which people

show their emotion or feelings…

(25) - That’s so funny!

(26) - What a beautiful day!

As far as exclamations concerned, depending on the falling tone or rising one, one can read the

speaker’s mind (whether he means well or not) and his emotion (whether he is happy or

disappointed with something) The following utterance is an example to discover levels of

emotion according to layers of tones: You home!

If the speaker uses a falling tone, it shows that the speaker’s friendly attitude and

we know he means a goodbye in saying that

If the speaker uses a rising tone, there can be two ways to understand this utterance

It might be a question to ensure the addressee’s leave and it might also show the

speaker’s upset and he makes no bone to ask the addressee to leave immediately

1.6.4 Exclamation mark (!)

If intonation is a signal of exclamations in spoken language, in written one it is an exclamation mark (!) Exclamation mark is one kind of punctuations, which helps writers express their intention exactly and logically

(27) - She is so tall!

(28) - How much I love Khathy!

However abundant forms of exclamations are, they convey one force, that is exclamatory force (29) - We are the champions! (as declarative sentence)

(30) - How do you risk? (as interrogative sentence)

1.7 Summary

In this part, it is significant to discover that the most common thing shared by the two languages

is that: when classifying sentence types, the criteria of purpose and of structure are on focus, thus there are no differences of sentence subtypes between English and Vietnamese, the detailed subtypes are complete or incomplete, major or non-major, simple, complex or compound (ranking of structure) and statements, questions, commands or exclamations (ranking of purpose) Then exclamations are studied in detail In terms of exclamations, different scholars have different opinions, however the most prominent one is cited from David Crystal’s work (49: 20) According to this scholar, exclamations are sentences, which show that a person’s feeling has been impressed or roused by something

Thanks to researching in detail on exclamations’ definition, we are really enlightened by encountering main IFIDs ( Illocutionary force indicating devices) in most of exclamations The importance of IFIDs is so high and everything comes from structures and no doubt, the ones such as : “How + adjective!” and “What a + (adjective) + noun!” in English and “Adjective + Particle!” in Vietnamese are the stable basements for learners to study further on exclamations These structures as useful hints, hence, they gain much attention Besides structures, IFIDs are also interjections, intonation, exclamation marks…

Chapter 2: Exclamations under the syntactic consideration

Chapter 1 presents the first and foremost literature review of sentences and exclamations in general so that in this chapter, exclamations will be studied in details, especially in terms of syntactic functions

2.1 An overview of exclamations

Exclamations are complete sentences that express surprise, excitement, or other strong emotion, and this type of sentence always ends with an exclamation mark

(31) - What a long time it has been!

(32) - How wonderful to see you!

(33) - What tall trees grow here!

Studying what exclamations are lead to the question whether the order of the sentence is generally inverted The subject and verb are placed near the end and followed by an exclamation point

(34) - How wonderful that is for you!

(35) - What a storm that was!

(36) - How beautiful is his wife!

(37) - What lovely teeth do you have, my dear!

However, exclamations do not always have a subject and a verb Following are exclamations that have no subject or verb

(38) - What a lovely day!

of the sentence; the remainder of the sentence follows in normal declarative order An exclamation as a declarative sentence have the following clues:

Verb position: The finite verb comes second

Verb form: The finite verb is usually in the indicatives

Intonation: The voice is falling at the end of the sentence;

one word in the sentence bears a strong stress

(51) - I hurt my head!

(52) - I just won 500 dollars!

2.2.1.2 Interrogative sentence

Concerning the above ideas, Sadock and Zwicky (1985:155) have claimed that exclamations is

of another minor sentence type; in form they resemble interrogatives

(53) - How did you do your hair!

(54) - Wow, can he knit!

2.2.1.3 Imperative sentence

As another type, we may mention their imperatives, which in their turns, resemble imperatives: (55) - Shit on you!

(56) - Screw you!

2.2.2 Classifications of English exclamations

Different scholars have different classifications, however in this writing we draw our attention

to the one of Beijer Fabian (2001) entitled “Syntax and Pragmatics of Exclamations and other Expressive / Emotional Utterances” According to his classification, English exclamations can

be divided into 6 subcategories: prototypical, ones with “so” and “such”, ones with “that”–clauses and “to”–infinitive, one with DPs, exclamatory questions and derived forms

2.2.2.1 Prototypical exclamations

Exclamations as a formal category of sentences are restricted to the type of exclamatory utterances introduced by “what” or “how” and the two wh–words can be used to form the wh–element in exclamations: “what” as predeterminer in a noun phrase and “how” as intensifier of

an adjective, adverb or clause Wh-exclamations share some significant similarities with interrogatives in requiring the initial placement of an exclamatory wh–element The syntactic order is therefore upset to the extent that the wh- elements (which may be object, complement,

or adverbial as well as subject) may be taken from its usual (statement) position and may be

placed initially For more and more similarities and differences, this demand will be met when taking a look at the study of base forms of wh–exclamations

A Base forms “How + ADJ!” and “What + a/an + ADJ + N!”

“How” and “what” are the wh - elements and their parts of speech in particular situations are analyzed clearly by Quirk et al (1985: 833-834) as follows:

a Wh – element as complement:

(57) - How delightful her manners are! (Cs S V)

b Wh – element as adverbial:

(58) - How I used to hate geography! (A S V Od)

(59) - How quickly you eat! ( A S V)

(60) - What a long time we’ve been waiting! (A S V)

c Wh – element as subject:

(61) - What an enormous crowd came! (S V - the rarest type)

d Wh – element as object:

(62) -What a time we’ve had today! (Od S V A)

e Wh – element as prepositional complement:

(63) -What a mess we’ve in!

(64) How foolish you must have thought I was!

From these above ideas, it shows that exclamations as a formal category, resemble wh–questions when they begin with a wh–word (“what” or “how”), but differ from them in retaining the regular declarative order of subject and verb It is essential to have a comparative analysis of wh–exclamations and wh–questions

(66) - What beautiful the flowers she has!

(67) - How fast she runs!

Clearly, both exclamations and wh–questions share the presence of a wh–operator, reflecting their shared need to denote a set of alternative propositions, but differ in whether a presentation

of factivity is present

As we discussed above, there is generally no subject–operator inversion in English exclamations However, we still find the occasional inversion of subject and operator in literary English, particularly with a proposed adverbial, subject complement, or direct object:

(71) - How often have I bitterly regretted that day!

(72) - What magnificent characters does she present in her latest novel!

B Variants of “How + ADJ!” and “What + a/an + ADJ + N!”

It is concluded that the variable forms of “How” and “What” are plentiful

a Derived forms of “How”

Clearly, the base form of “How” is: “How + adj!”

(74) - How fantastic!

(75) - How sweet his music!

And in practice, there are many variants of “how” and the following are these variants in brief a1 How + adjective + a /an + noun + (S + V)!

(76) - How fascinating a story!

(77) - How interesting the film we’ve seen!

a2 How + adjective / adverb + S + V!

(78) - How cold he is!

a3 How + S +V!

(80) - How you have grown!

(81) - How her foot bleeds!

b Derived forms of “What”

And the same for exclamations with “What”:

b1 What + a / an + (adjective) + singular countable noun!

(82) - What a rude man!

(83) - What a surprise! (43: 103)

b2 What + (adjective) + uncountable noun / plural noun!

(84) - What nice weather!

(85) - What beautiful diamonds! I can get a lot of money from them (43:103)

2.2.2.2 Exclamations formed with “So / Such”

A function similar to that fulfilled by “what a” in prototypical exclamation can be fulfilled by

“such a” and almost the same function as that fulfilled by “how” in prototypical exclamation can

be fulfilled by “so”

(86) - You are such a boy! (What a boy you are!)

(87) - We drank so much beer today! (How much beer we drank today!)

The constructions with “so” and “such’ are pragmatically similar to the constructions with

“what” and “how” The words “so” and “such” in themselves indicate extreme positions on scales and the utterances are regarded as exclamations though the structures with “so” and

“such” obviously declarative sentences

“So” and “such” are intensifiers that premodify a noun phrase The noun phrase is normally indefinite and the intensifiers precede any determiners “So” and “such” precede the indefinite article but they require the noun phrase to contain a gradable adjective and the head of noun phrase to be a singular countable noun In this use, adjectives precede articles:

(88) I didn’t realise that he was so big a fool!

Stress is also applied to the determiner “such” and to the adverb “so” to give the exclamatory force to a statement, a question or a command

(89) - He’s such a nice man!

(90) - Why are you such a baby!

(91) - Don’t upset yourself so!

With reference to the wh–exclamations, the wh–word indicates an extreme position on some scale of value, and therefore can only appear at points in the sentence where an expression of degree is possible The same functions are fulfilled by the emphatic degree items “such” (as a determiner) and “so” (as an intensifier) in statement and question:

(92) - She has such a nice dog!

(93) - Why did you blame me so?

From above exclamatory utterances, it is concluded that “how” is like “so” in that when it is an intensifier, it cannot modify an adjective which itself has a premodifying function Thus, we may propose how bossy or use “what” or “such” as intensifiers of the noun phrase: “How bossy you are!” or “What / Such a bossy person you are!”

Once again, not only “how” and “what” but also “so” and “such” still have their particular variants Here are some common structures of exclamations using “so” and “such”:

a So + adjective / adverb (94) - So embarrassing!

(95) - She is so useless!

The above examples show that the variant structures of “so” do not only stay alone and function

as an exclamation but these also go with other elements in sentences and “so” now becomes an adverb in such exclamations

b So + adjective + a / an + noun (96) - That is so bad a teacher!

At the first stage, we focus on this example and think that its structure is problematic However, this one is really special and used most in every exclamation

c Such + a / an + adjective + singular countable noun (97) - He is such an intelligent boy!

(98) - Our headmaster is such a strict man!

From examples above, it may be wrong to conclude that the position of “such” is always in the middle of sentences and function as adverbs in such exclamations In fact, the above form “Such + adj + a/an + N!” can be isolated and it functions as an exclamation For instance, one can and more exactly often uses such a kind of exclamations in their everyday conversation

(99) - Such a silly girl!

d Such + (a / an )+ (adjective) + uncountable / plural noun (100) - Such bad weather!

(101) - He is such a lovely school boy!

“Such” can match with other elements so that it takes the middle position or stands right at the beginning of sentences

2.2.2.3 Exclamative “that” – clauses

According to Rosengen, sub clauses used, as independent clauses must be analysed in terms of the three sentence types Rosengen (1997: 173), that–clauses and to–infinitive clauses used as exclamations are actually declaratives used as exclamations They do not include adjectives or adverbs that indicate the extreme position on scales, but when someone utters exclamatory that–clause, he conveys that the very existence of the fact in question is a deviation from a certain norm Rosengren (1997:176) has held that exclamatory that–clause does not require the same stress pattern as other exclamations

(102) That he should have left without me!

Imagining whether the above example consists of no exclamatory mark “That he should have left without me”, seems impossible Clearly, the exclamatory mark indicates that this utterance

is spoken with an intonation contour that is different from the usual sub–clause intonation contour In addition, the scalar feature used to define exclamations above can be used to explain exclamative function of these kinds of subordinated clauses as well Exclamative that–clause and to–infinitive clause are scalar in that they refer to states of affairs that the speaker reacts emotionally to, since he finds them highly unlikely, extraordinary, or seemingly impossible 2.2.2.4 DPs used as exclamations

Quirk et al (1985: 11-53) have claimed that a DP can be used as exclamations as long as the NP

is modified by a restricted relative clause

(103) - The way they obey him! (41:849) (104) - The fuss they made! (41: 849)

According to them, these are non–sentences and the exclamative type naturally relies on the intonation contour Importantly, Quirk et al (1985) have affirmed that DP–exclamations generally express disapproval i.e the speaker does not approve of the fuss they made or the clothe style she wears It is clear that the speaker finds the clothes extraordinarily ugly or inappropriate, making reference to an extreme position on an imagined ugliness–scale The exclamatory interpretation is triggered by the intonation contour and the emphatic stress The speaker finds the states of affairs in question, i.e the status of the clothes, to be a deviation from

a norm relating to the style of clothes

2.2.2.5 Other forms of exclamations in English

a Exclamatory noun phrases

As far as the exclamatory noun phrases concerned, they are modified by a restrictive relative clause express disapproval

b Exclamatory phrases consisting of a noun phrases

A pronoun is generally included in these exclamatory phrases, and this is always followed by

“and” and another noun phrase with a matching possessive pronoun:

(108) - Him and his investigation! {I deplore the way he so frequently resorts to investigation} (the subjective case is less commonly used for the first pronoun: He and his investigation) (41: 849) (109) - You and your malicious gossip! (41:849)

c Exclamatory prepositional phrases

This type owns the phrase “of all” and this is used to express strong disapproval

d Exclamatory noun or adjective phrases

Approval as well as disapproval is expressed by the exclamatory noun or adjective phrases (112) - Big baby! (‘What a helpless person you are!) (41:850)

In terms of the more familiar relationship, the possessive adjectives are used commonly such as:

“My cute baby!” or “My poor fiance!” but articles are used then, and in this example the articles are omitted

e Exclamatory adjective clause

With or without wh–element, adjectives can act as exclamations

Quirk et al (1985: 825) the exclamatory questions are interrogatives in structure, but have the illocutionary force of an exclamatory assertion Commonly, it is a negative question with a final falling tone and the negation has to be clitic (n’t) in exclamations

The speaker has strong feelings and these utterances are to invite the hearer’s agreement to the speaker about that Though the negators appear in the above examples, it is clear that the meaning is totally positive and this is contrast to the appearance of “not” in the sentences

Moreover, in order to express a strong positive conviction, the speaker can use positive yes–no question with a falling tone as the following example:

Clearly, in spite of the negative or positive exclamatory questions, they share the falling tone in any cases (however, in American English an exclamatory question can be pronounced with a rising tone and uttered with the expectation of a response as in this example: “Wasn’t the concert terrific!”)

The following are two examples:

(120) (1) Has SHE grown!

(121) (2) Hasn’t she GROWN!

Through the above examples, the difference is that (2) has the feature that is an appeal for the listener’s confirmation, while the positive interrogative in (1) implies that the listener is in no position Also, Sadork et al.(1985) have come to conclusions that there is a slight difference between positive and negative exclamatory questions That is: the negative question has, as its feature of meaning, an appeal for the listener’s confirmation The positive, on the other hand, implies that the positive response is self–evident, and would therefore be more appropriate where the listener’s agreement would not be solicited, as in “Am I hungry!”

Lastly, in English, a lot of exclamation examples with the forms are collected as follows:

Operation + (not) + Subject + Verb / Adjective?

All told, the emotional utterances belonging to this category definitely do so, which means that exclamations with interrogative form are exclamations according to the definition

2.3 Vietnamese exclamations

2.3.2 Main forms of Vietnamese exclamations

Before coming to the opinions of Di p Quang Ban (2004:214), which are on focus in this part, stepping backwards to the main forms of English exclamations and it is shown that Vietnamese ones share the same Factually, in everyday conversations, exclamations are in declarative form

or in imperative one and even in interrogative one

(124) - Ng i âu mà p th ? ( Interrogative form)

(125) - Bài t p này khó th t! ( Declarative form)

(126) - ng ng ng n th ! ( Imperative form)

Moreover, these forms by setting a stable foundation of knowledge concerning exclamations enable to complete the study of exclamations in Vietnamese

Being discussed by a lot Vietnamese authors and when accessing to the work of “Ng pháp

ti ng Vi t - Ph n câu” Di p Quang Ban (2004:214) it provides a better insight of sentence types, especially exclamations That is the reason why we, in our writing, focus much on the opinions of Di p Quang Ban (2004:214) and it seems that his ideas rule out for the syntax of Vietnamese exclamations According to him, to study exclamations, we need to take syntax, communicative function, mood and structure, and text as well into consideration

In terms of syntax, exclamations consist of some minor clauses and they are the ones formed by exclamatory expressions that function as a sentence with no syntactic features Interjections are the factors that have no lexical meaning and they are used as an indefinite sound, which are used

to express physical or mental reactions and have no representative meaning For this reason, exclamations are ungrammaticalized to separate subject or predicate in sentences

In terms of communication, exclamations are used to express feelings caused by physical and mental impulse (including reprimand, compliment, swear, … which have no direct representative meaning )

In terms of mood and structure, exclamations consist of only mood expression but not residue

In terms of texts, exclamations are minor clauses and this type of sentence has no separation between theme and rheme

From the above three dimensions, it is affirmed that exclamations are special utterances and based on these, and that Vietnamese exclamation expressions can be divided into the following two types:

Firstly, they are exclamations used most commonly and purely This exclamations of these types are the words or expressions such as: ôi, i, ái, úi, úi chà, úi chà chà, , a…

!"#$ %Chà! C to y nh ! ng y hoá ra l i b …! &' "#$

!"($ %Ai chà! Nhà này có m cá ngon g m, chi u t ph i xin m t bát m y c ! "'&$

Special Vietnamese exclamations are phrases that have lexical meaning and idiomatic features (i.e the meaning hidden does not function directly) And the common expressions are “ i cha

m i”, “tr i i”, “tr i i là tr i”, “tr i t i”, “tr i cao t dày i”, “tr i ph t i”, “chúa i” or

… “b kh ”, “ch t”, “ y ch t”, “ch t ch a”, “ch t cha r i” … and the colloquial swears such as :

“m ki p”, “cái kh n ki p”, “cái ch t ti t”, “tiên s nhà nó”, “tiên s b nó”…

With regards to the second type, there are some common word classes reacting to bad news, for example for moaning, such as: “ông i”, “bà i”, “con i”… In these situations, people often use the added word “là” like “ông i là ông”, “bà i là bà”

!*+$ - i gi i i! Anh! Quý hoá quá! (surprise) (54:27)

(131) - Ch t ch a! Tôi c ng quên khu y i m t, ch y d!n c t" sang b bên kia th áy t hôm

(132) - M ki p! X b n v i c th ng mõ… (swear) (54:27)

The above constructions are the common ones Apart from these constructions, Vietnamese exclamations are also formed with strongly emotional expressions All exclamation expressions have their own forms and they are independent of the remaining parts of a sentence (so we can name them exclamation expressions)

Not all exclamation expressions function in the mood structure, but within the relation of mood structure, exclamation is categorized in terms of exclamatory factors Thus, we then pay much attention to the factors, which have an impact on the exclamation classifications

2.3.3 Classifications of exclamations in Vietnamese

2.3.3.1 Exclamations with major particles – “thay, cho, thay cho”

The particles “thay, cho, thay cho” function in order to bring the exclamative modality to the sentence and they exist as special elements forming expressions of exclamation mood These factors appear right after verbs or adjectives but there is no additional function for that verb or adjective and they just make exclamations When using “thay, thay cho”, the sentences have the following features:

+ “Thay” is used more commonly in arts and “cho” is in daily conversations

+ “Thay / cho” stand right after verbs, adjectives to express exclamatory content

+ Sentences with “thay/cho” are formed according to the structure:

Verb / Adjetive + thay / cho + Noun (2:299)

It is hard to find out sentences that have “thay / cho” situated before verbs When these two factors are absent, the exclamations marked with the word position in which verbs or adjectives standing before are words referring to a mental phenomenon

!**$ , Th ng thay c ng m t ki p ng i

H i thay mang l y s#c tài làm chi (57:45)

(134) - Kh" thân cho th ng bé!

(135) - Vinh quang thay các v anh hùng dân t c! (2: 300)

“Thay” in the above example is positioned in the middle of the sentence and it is regarded as mood expression Adjectives precede “thay” , it stands right before a phrase residue

It is noteworthy that “cho” can be representative for this type though this is optional and “thay / cho” can stand before verbs, which affirms that elements standing behind “thay / cho” are not inversion subjects but the objects referring to the addressor and the addressee In addition, marks

of objects like such elements are present in some sentences which are rare in modern languages (136) a Bà nh$c thay cho ông cha nhà bà! (2: 300)

“Bà s repeated and this title form refers to a third person It is, no doubt, a declarative and it is easy to use “thay cho” instead of only “cho” to form a new declarative as in:

- Bà nh$c thay cho ông cha nhà bà!

(a) and (b) are declaratives, however, interestingly when “bà” mentioned for the first time is omitted, the sentence becomes an exclamation as in :

- Nh$c thay cho ông cha nhà bà!

(c) is used when subject is the speaker and is to express a mental mood at the time of that exclamatory utterance

2.3.3.2 Exclamations with interjection group “nh ”

The word “nh is positioned at the end of a sentence and its function is really significant It appears at the end and is used to mark different levels of the speaker’s attitude The following examples prove this idea effectively

2.3.3.3 Exclamations with extra elements referring to quantity or quantity idioms

These elements or quantity idioms function as extra factors and exist to express exclamatory meaning for sentence Many quantity extra-elements are positioned at the end of a sentence and the most common ones are: l#m, quá, ghê, l th t, c%c k&, d ng nào, nh ng nào, bi t

m y…and even the pronoun “th ”- In Vietnamese, we also add some most–used idioms for this type such as: “h t ý”, “h t s y”, “ch t i c”… These elements show a high degree of an event and have meaningful relation with elements before them

(139) - Lão già t l#m (54:27)

(140) - Con này g m th t! (6+ "#)

(141) - Mà lòng tr'ng ngh(a khinh tài xi t bao (57:45)

(142) - T t mi)n chê / Không chê vào âu c! (4: 302)

In regards with the quantity element – “quá”, communicators use “quá” combining with

adjectives in order to show their extreme degree of emotion tones ( surprise, dismay, joy,

nervousness…), maybe “quá” is the common choice for them to express their utmost feelings (147) - Ph-c t p quá!

(148) - Yên t(nh quá!

In addition, it is remarkable that “quá” may be positioned at the beginning or at the end of sentences When the speaker uses the form “Quá + ADJ!” instead of “ADJ + quá!”, the content

of exclamations then becomes more and more emphatic

(149) - Phô tr ng quá! ~ Quá phô tr ng!

exclamatory element of that sentences

2.3.3.4 Exclamations with interjections or exclamatory idiom

The interjections or exclamatory idioms are present together with residue and have experiential meaning Interjections and some idioms are used to form exclamation expressions but they do not participate in the structure of mood structure They function individually as part of a complex sentence In other words, these interjections function individually as sentences or subordinates of sentences

In exclamation idioms, there are some formations used commonly in colloquial such as: “X i là

X i”, “X i là X” or “ i X i!”…which X is a proper noun referring to things or even proper names such as: “ tr i t , tr i , tr i ph t , chúa …” even “cha, m , làng n c…”

!&($ ,Tr i i! Tôi bi t tìm âu ra nhi u ti n th bây gi !

(159) - i làng n c i!

(160) - Con i là con, kh" thân con tôi!

Moreover, interjections can also go with adjectives and the interjection functions as predicate in the subjectless sentence

(161) - Hai gi r i mà nó v!n ch a n , l n h t c ru t! ( &"$

(162) - Nguy quá i m t!

In addition, interjections are used with a phrase or a sentence to form exclamations in particular settings

2.3.3.5 Some structures without interjections (Adjective + Adverb of degree)

(164) - M ng ch t i c

! $ , Sao mà cái i nó tù túng, nó ch t h p, nó b n ti n th ! (54:27) 2.3.3.6 Using interrogative structures

(167) - Ng i âu mà p th !

(168) - 1n gì to l n !y à làm sao! (57:13)

(169) - p xi t bao quê h ng cho ta chi c áo nhi m màu…!

2.3.3.7 Using intonation

(170) - “G2p, ng i ta ch a k p trông th y c u, c u ã chào ng i ta tr c bô bô C u h*i

ng i ta có phát tài không, lúa có khá không, cháu có ch u ch i không? Con ng i nh n

2.3.3.9 Exclamations as special utterances

In exclamation expressions, interjections or exclamation idioms exist and they become special utterances, thus it is impossible to separate their theme and rheme and they are known as the minor clauses

!#*$ - Ô hay, bà c- t ng con ùa! &' "#$

This is analysed as follows:

Exclamation Expression

Different scholars have different ideas about the classifications of Vietnamese exclamations; though they focus on the content or structure, or even with a combination of both content and structure, they give a remarkable contribution to clarifying the categories of exclamations 2.4 Equivalents and differences in terms of the syntactic feature

Admittedly, the syntax of each language is different and in terms of the syntactic feature, English and Vietnamese share a few similarities For that reason also, the differences of syntax

of the two languages are abundant However, due to the scope of this writing, the only focus is

on the prominent and significant differences of exclamations in English and Vietnamese under the syntactic consideration Together with different features, it is impossible to ignore the similar ones there is a study on that question, too There is no one-to-one relation between language form and language function, thus a contrastive analysis of exclamations in the two languages in terms of structure will be covered in the next part of writing

2.4.2 Some equivalents in terms of structure

2.4.2.1 Exclamatory structures formed by interjections

In both English and Vietnamese, interjections itself can be exclamations used to express sudden surprise, pleasure, annoyance… Under the structural features of exclamations in the two languages, interjections are considered to be an independent sentence which is followed by an exclamation mark though sometimes, it is replaced by a full stop Hereby, it is the form of interjections functioning as exclamations

Then, the equivalents on the types of interjections in the two languages are studied and there are some equivalent interjections of different kinds in both English and Vietnamese

Table 2: Interjection equivalents in English and Vietnamese

(49: 31)

More usually, in the syntax of the two languages, interjections are regarded as subordinate part

of an exclamation When they are inserted into sentences, they have neither real grammatical value nor grammatical connection with the other elements in these sentences and make the sentences exclamations

Expressing surprise Ah!, Dear!, Oh!, Well!,

God Heavens!, Eh!…

Ôi tr i!, !, A! 3! Ai chà chà! Ái chà!2

Expressing pain Oh!, Oo!, Ouch!, Ow!… Ôi!, A!, ái!, Ui da!

Expressing annoyance Damn!, Bloody hell!, Sh!,

god! Wow!, Oh!, …

Ôi!, Ôi chà!, Chà!, Oà!…

English examples: Vietnamese examples:

(174) - My god! I could hit you Did you

never think that some women may not only

say it but feel it? (37: 16)

- Ô hay, bà c- t ng con ùa! (54:27)

(175) - God heavens! I’m nervous (38: 60) - Than ôi! S#c n c h ng tr i!

Ti c cho âu b ng l c loài n ây! (8: 54)

From the examples above,“My god”, “Good heavens”, “Ô hay” and “Than ôi!” are interjections whose roles in exclamations are to increase the degree of feelings and attitude of the speaker to different referents or situations

2.4.2.2 Exclamatory questions

Some sentences resemble questions in their structures but they are actually used as exclamations There is no answer followed as a reply to these exclamatory questions And, though the negative element is present within that kind of exclamations, it is strongly positive in meaning They are exclamations so they express strong feelings of the speaker to the current entities or events

Although the ways to create exclamatory sentences in forms of questions in the two languages are different, the ways to use them are quite similar Once using an exclamatory question, no answer is awaited but just to express the extreme emotions and feelings in particular circumstances

Examples in English are as follows:

Operation + (not) + Subject + Verb / Adjective?

(176) - Aren’t you lucky? (How lucky you are!) (35:17)

(177) - Didn’t we laugh? (How we laugh!) (35:17)

Moreover, another characteristic type which is negative “yes/no” question with a falling tone instead of rising one as usual The question of this kind is also an exclamation and this special type tends to be reacted by the listener’s agreement to what the speaker has strongly positive special feelings and attitude on Using a positive “yes/no” question with a falling tone is another way to express our strong positive conviction but it is very formal Both operator and subject usually receive emphatic stress here

(178) - Did he look annoyed? (35:17)

It is noteworthy that Vietnamese has the same kind of questions functioning as exclamations compared with that in English And the combinations of the following elements usually form exclamatory questions in Vietnamese

Form: Bi t Wh – question

(180) - Bi t bao gi m l i v v i con? (9:17)

(181) - Bu n trông ng'n n c m i sa

Hoa trôi man mác bi t là v âu? *& "!$

No doubt, in many languages, especially in English and Vietnamese, exclamations have many shared characteristics when they are exclamatory questions And the following examples will prove this opinion

From the table above, there are no differences in the structure of the examples even though when they are exclamations which are exclamatory questions, or definitely questions What reveals differences here is the intonation or the facial expressions or whatever of such a kind If

we only base on the examples without paying attention to the context or intonation, or clues such as eye–contact, body language…, the demand of the successful conversation is surely not met

2.4.2.3 Exclamations with no modal verbs

When studying exclamations in daily conversations, it noteworthy that there are no modal verbs appearing in both English and Vietnamese Instead of using modal verbs, people have the habits

of using base forms regarded as the main verbs in the sentence

(182) - Khama runs so fast! ~ Khama ch y nhanh th !

(183) - How dexterous ! 3 Khéo tay th t!

Concerning the second example, “How dexterous he is!” can be shortened as in “How dexterous!” as “Khéo tay th !”; and “Anh ta khéo tay th t!” remarkably can be changed as “Anh

ta th t là khéo tay!” by adding “là” matching with “th t” to make the value of emphatic features

in that sentence It is remarkable that there is no modal verbs in such cases, which is proved much by the above ideas

There is no modal verbs in exclamations, and the tense aspect in exclamations are not paid much attention to, either That is because the exclamations uttered when the feelings of the speaker are extremely strong and they want to express how delighted or surprised, or sad… they feel to the entities or events at the time of speaking So that the tense aspect here in English exclamations as well as in Vietnamese ones seem to be a little bit neglected

2.4.3 Differences

Languages are different from each other and surely, exclamations in English and Vietnamese diferentiate from one another

2.4.3.1 Differences stay on the exclamatory structures

Syntax of each language is different from one another, therefore the exclamatory structures of the two languages are distinguished, too Firstly, from the following listed structures of exclamations in English and Vietnamese, exclamations in the two languages are in many forms with particular characteristics and often used to express the speaker’s strong feelings

Table 3: Different structures of exclamations in Engish and Vietnamese

+ Exclamations formed with “How” + Exclamations formed with particles

+ Exclamations formed with “What” + Exclamations formed with adverbs

+ Exclamations formed with “so” and

instead And, one of the considerable differences stays on the repetitive structure The Vietnamese use this structure very often even in formal situations or in informal ones, but there are no equivalents of repetitive structures in English However, what may be equivalent here is

“so” in English and “th t”, “nh ”, “th ”… in Vietnamese Furthermore, Vietnamese exclamatory questions need to have wh–elements such as “bi t”, “ âu”, “bi t âu”… or yes–no question elements like “ ” / “a” 4 65” but in English we find no equivalents English uses no wh–elements and it is found that is an exclamatory question due to the intonation or facial expressions or the like

Exclamatory

elements

What a nice shirt you have got

Mày có chi c áo s mi p th ! You have such a nice shirt ! What

What a brilliant goal! M t bàn th#ng r t thông minh!

Such a brilliant goal!

How sweetly she sings! Ch y hát hay làm sao!

She sings so sweetly!

How

How wonderful to see you! G2p c anh tuy t th !

Seeing you is wonderful!

We drank so much beer today!

Hôm nay chúng ta ã u ng r t nhi u bia

r i y!

Today we have drunk so much beer!

So He was so big a fool! - H#n ta ng c th !

He is so foolish

- H#n ta ng c làm sao!

How foolish he is!

She has such a nice cat! Ch y có con mèo d) th ng th !

She has a cat so nice!

Such

He is such a good man! Ông y th t t t!

He is so good!

Wasn’t it a marvelous CONcert!

Bu"i hoà nh c th t tuy t v i làm sao!

How marvelous the concert is!

Exclamatory

How lucky you are!

The way they obey him! H' vâng l i ông y th !

How obeyed they are to him!

I just won 500 dollars!

The clothes they wear!

- Tôi trúng 500 ôla r i!

I won 500$!

- 1n v i ch m2c!

How strange their clothe style is!

Table 4: Exclamatory elements in English and Vietnamese

Examples from the above table show many distinguished differences of exclamations under the syntactic consideration in both English and Vietnamese

2.4.3.2 Typical differences on structures

Different individual structures give best contributions to our better understanding of exclamation structures, so it is necessary to take a look at them

The form of prototypical exclamations like “How + Adjective + Noun + (S + V)!” and

“What + a /an + adjective + Noun (+ it + verb)! will be studied Compared with this, there is an equivalent form in Vietnamese like “Noun + (S + V) +Adjective + Adverb!”

(184) - How beautiful the flowers she

bought!

~ Nh ng bông hoa cô y mua p làm sao!

(185) - How white her skin is! ~ Làn da c a ch y tr#ng th t!

(186) - What a cute boy (he is)! ~ C u bé kháu kh nh làm sao!

The above examples show that the exclamatory elements in English always appear at the beginning of any utterances and this contrasts with exclamatory structure in Vietnamese in which, the exclamatory elements are positioned at the end of utterances In addition, because of the classifications of different languages, adverbs in English are not going together with adjectives as in Vietnamese It seems that adverbs are used to make the exclamatory function be more emphatic for that sentence, that is the reason why the Vietnamese make the best use of this form in their daily conversations

It is noteworthy that in Vietnamese there are some special means to express negation especially in exclamations as a rejection that is to cancel what has been said or implied in the context These forms will be analysed as follows

Negative yes–no interrogatives without non–assertives or assertive forms in English can be used and understood as a positive orientation in Vietnamese

(190) -Wasn’t it a marvelous concert! ~ ó là m t bu"i hoà nh c th t tuy t v i!

Positive additions to positive remarks can be expressed by either of the following structure:

And this can be rendered into Vietnamese as follows:

Form: 8 %c ng th / v y

(191) - The boy cheated! ~ B'n con trai ch i 6n gian!

The girls did too / So did the girls! ~ B'n con gái c ng th ! (40:121)

Absolute adverbs such as “absolutely”, “extremely”, “completely”, “definitely”,

“entirely”, “fully”, “greatly”, “highly”, “totally”, “deeply”, “exceedingly”… are not in the taste

of English However, it is true to say that these absolute adverbs cannot be used in exclamations, though most of which are made the best use to express extreme emotions or feelings On the other hand, besides adjectives the Vietnamese can use adverbs together with the emphatic purpose

(192) How thoughtful he is! ~ Anh y th t s% là chu áo!

Wh – element adjective subject verb Subject adverb verb adjective The norminal one of “The things he eats!” seldom appears in everyday conversations

In Vietnamese, it requires adverbs or adjectives within exclamations, or at least the clues of intonation, facial expressions… The equivalent example of the above one in Vietnamese here

“Nh ng th- h#n ta 6n kìa!” is surely implicit and it is only revealed as an exclamation when the addressors have the earlier clues

It is not necessary to invert exclamatory words to the beginning of the sentence, but the English does

(193) How expensive the shirt is! Chi c áo #t th !

(194) What a foolish man he is! M t lão ng c!

“What, how, so, such” in have many equivalents in Vietnamese and they are: “ th ”,

“th t”, “làm sao”, “h t s y”, “nh ”, “th t là”, “r t r t”, “r t i”…

- Bà y th t là hào phóng! (195) - Bà y hào phóng làm sao!

- How generous she is! - Bà y hào phóng th !

- What a generous person she is! - Bà y hào phóng th t!

- She is so generous! - Bà y r t hào phóng!

- She is such a generous woman! - Bà y c%c kì hào phóng!

- Bà y hào phóng l#m!

In Vietnamese exclamations, particles “nh ”, “th ”, “l#m”… are usualy used at the end

of exclamations to show the relation between the speaker and the hearer If that relation is

extremely closed, interlocutors can use particles freely but in the situations in which

conversations with superiors, certain strategies are set to use these particles in order not to

threaten the hearer’s face but to save it

(196) How thoughtful you are! ~ Mày chu áo nh ! (to friends)

~ Bác th t là chu áo! (to superiors)

There is subject – verb agreement in English exclamations while it is not necessary to

make a concord of subject and verb

(197) - How fast Kha runs! ~ Kha ch y nhanh làm sao !

The position of exclamatory elements in English exclamations is not as flexible as the

one of Vietnamese exclamations In Vietnamese, these elements can appear at the beginning or

jump in the middle and even come at the end of the sentences Vietnamese exclamations include

the repetition of exclamatory parts in order to make their saying more emphatic

(198) - She is so famous! ~ Cô y r t n"i ti ng!

Cô y n"i ti ng th !

Cô y n"i ti ng n là n"i ti ng!

In Vietnamese exclamations, the words or expressions such as “thay”, “cho”, “thay

cho”, “l#m”, “quá”, “ghê”, “l ”, “th t”, “c%c kì”, “d ng nào”, “nh ng nào”, “bi t m y”… are

often used to express the familiarity and different attitudes among interlocutors and no equivalents on this feature is found in English

2.5 Summary

Before doing research on exclamations under the syntactic consideration in the two languages,

we study simple sentence And, it is the four major classes derived from simple sentence that help to recognise that: to the syntactic feature, the exclamations are sentences which have initial phrases introduced by “How” or “What” or exclamatory expressions without inversion of subject and operator Especially, this type of sentence often ends with an exclamation mark (!) Languages are different from each other in terms of lexicology and syntax, and exclamations stay the same Differences on focus are the ones of exclamation structures in many of dimensions Firstly, while wh–elements in English are mainly used in almost every exclamation, Vietnamese use particles and adverbs instead Secondly, English requires subject–verb agreement, grammatical concord gain much attention Hence, the order of words and position of exclamation elements are not really as flexible as they are in Vietnamese In addition, a positive orientation in Vietnamese can be taken from negative yes / no interrogatives without non–assertives or assertive forms in English Related to this sense of negation, negation in Vietnamese exclamations can be regarded as a rejection to what is indicated

Chapter 3: Exclamations under the semantic consideration

Studying the semantic meanings of exclamations via some main criteria for identifying exclamations in the two languages is the main job which cannot be neglected in the major part

of this study

3.1 Semantics

Language is a tool for expressing meaning We think, we feel, we perceive and we want to express our thoughts, our feelings, and our perceptions due to language Usually, when the speaker’s feelings are extremely strong, these feelings need to be expressed to share with other people

Cliff Goddard (1998) has remarked that semantics-the study of meaning, is at the center of the linguistic quest to understand the nature of language and human language abilities for two reasons: Firstly, expressing meanings is what language is all about_everything from words to grammatical constructions and structures Secondly, semantics can shed light on the relationship between language and culture Therefore, there is much culture information of word meanings and grammar, too

In addition, Wilhem Von Humboldt (1903:36) “Each language … contains a characteristic worldview As individual sound mediates between object and person, so the whole of language mediates between human beings and the internal and external nature that effect them… The same act which enables him (man) to speaker in language out of himself enables him to speakerin himself into language, and each language draws a circle around people to whom it adheres which is possible for individual to escape only by stepping into a different one”

3.2 Semantic features of exclamations

Semantics is the study of meaning associated with the lexicon of a language and with the units and relations in sentence structures Languages are regarded as differing from one another almost exclusively in form, thus the lexicon of a language not as a unique system of categorization imposed on the external reality, nor as a ‘sharper ideas’, but essentially as a set of labels to be attached to concepts which are language–independent and are determined not culturally but biologically

Lewis (1992) has analyzed all sentences according to two components: “A sentence radical that specifies a state of affairs and a mood that determines whether the speaker is declaring that the state of affairs hold, commanding that it holds, asking whether it holds or what” Declarative

sentences denote true values, imperatives denote commands and exclamatory sentences denote exclamations

3.2.1 Exclamations in English

How to identify exclamations in English and the semantic meanings of exclamations are discussed Identifying exclamations is not really easy so that in order to make this job work well, it is necessary to look at criteria of English exclamations then another main task that can not be forgotten is taking the semantic meanings of exclamations into account

3.2.1.1 Criteria for identifying exclamations in English

Forms of exclamations are differently abundant in English, thus in daily communication the following ones encountered much:

(199) a What a nice house it is!

(200) b How very strange that was!

Both “a” and “b” have initial wh–constituents but they differ from interrogatives because they cannot occur with the subject–auxiliary inversion Moreover, the wh phrase contains an extra element not possible in interrogatives, a in “a” and very in “b”

Others can be:

(201) c The baby is so cute!

(202) d Isn’t he the cutest thing!

Based on the data from English, we examine this question focusing on a less-well studied clause type, exclamatives It is argued that there is no particular element in syntax responsible for introducing force Rather, there are two fundamental syntactic components which identify a clause as exclamative, a factive and a wh–operator These are crucial because they are responsible for two fundamental semantic properties characteristics of exclamations, namely that they are factive, i.e their propositional content is presupposed; and denote a set of alternative propositions, a result of the operator–variable structure These two semantic properties imply that the force of exclamations is widening Thus, the force of exclamations is derived indirectly, based on the semantic properties–factivity and extreme degree quantification

as well as inability to function in Question–Answer pairs No other examples can show the better ideas of factivity and of scalar implicature as the ones of Raffaelle Zanuttini and Paul Porner (39:2) do

a Factivity

For the better understanding of exclamations, it is unavoidable to set perspeakericuously the semantic properties of exclamative sentence type Firstly, the factivity should be dealt with in this study Exclamations are factive, i.e they presuppose their propositional content and this explains two facts:

• They can only be embedded under factive predicate:

(203) I know/ *think/ *wonder how very cute the baby is (30: 151)

“Think” and “wonder” are unacceptable in that example because no how-exclamation has to obey the restriction that they cannot be embedded under verbs such as: wonder, think, know… Non-factive predicates are incompatible with factive compliments in general and more noteworthy as it is, they are not merely non–factive, they are anti–factive

• When they are embedded under the verbs like know or realize, in the present tense and with the first person subject, this verb cannot be negated as in the following example: (204) * I don’t know / realize how very cute the baby is! (39:3)

This shows clearly that factivity is a major semantic property of exclamations

b Extreme degree quantification

The second semantic feature of exclamations which should be taken into account is the extreme degree qualification Exclamations convey that something is surprising or noteworthy in some way More precisely, they introduce a scalar implicature to the effect that the proposition they express lies at the extreme ends of some contextually given scale Thus, “How very cute the baby is!” indicates that the baby’s degree of cuteness is greater than the alternatives under consideration The property of scalar implicature explains two facts:

• They cannot be embedded under It isn’t amazing! though they can be embedded under its positive counterpart:

(205) a.*It isn’t amazing how very cute the baby is!

(206) b It is amazing how cute the baby is! (38: 15)

Clearly, “a” is unacceptable because if we negate “amazing”, domain widening cannot occur and this conflicts with the presence of widening in the embedded exclamations However, negation is fine if the experienced subject is present:

(207) a’: I’m not amazed at how very cute the baby is (38:15)