Rationale for the study
Over the last few decades, the modern linguistics has seen the remarkable developments of functional linguistics in which the theory of systemic functional grammar developed by Halliday is said to have the greatest influences Vietnamese linguistics has also initiated new trends, basing on the functional grammars Some Vietnamese linguists, such as, Cao Xuan Hao with Sơ thảo ngữ pháp chức năng (1991), Hoang Van Van with Ngữ pháp kinh nghiệm của cú tiếng Việt: Mô tả theo quan điểm chức năng hệ thống
(2001), and Diep Quang Ban with Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt (2008) are the first to apply the theory of Systemic functional grammar into the interpretation of Vietnamese language
And their studies marked new important changes in the approaches to Vietnamese language
These works have settled a functional base for other further studies on Vietnamese under the light of the Systemic functional grammar In these works, functional aspects and relationships, such as the issues of Theme, Mood, and Process of transitivity of clauses have been described Besides, structures below clauses, such as, nominal groups, also have received some interpretations However, on Vietnamese language in general and Vietnamese nominal groups in particular, there have to be more functional studies because theory of functional grammar can be still considered "new" in Vietnamese linguistics
That, in other words, means the number of people who know and pay attention to it is still limited
On Vietnamese nominal groups, although there have been some studies, the issue still has some questions to be answered and some debates to be solved, and needs further investigations One question raised to be answered is: Can the experiential functions in Vietnamese nominal groups be clearly determined based on the systemic functional grammar? One debate that has not been solved completely is about the determination of the component element(s) of the Head and Thing in Vietnamese nominal groups
Furthermore, for Vietnamese learners of English, the full understanding of nominal groups in English and Vietnamese has been proved to be of the great importance, especially, when they want to develop skills of high proficiency, such as translation As a matter of fact, dense scientific terms, expressions of complicated abstract issues, etc are in the forms of nominalization, and their meanings are not easy to be grasped The understanding of the experiential functional components and the effects that each component can have on the whole meaning of the nominal group in the two languages can help much in this case
Those discussed above are the reasons for doing this thesis which is titled: The Experiential Structure of Nominal Groups in English and Vietnamese
The aims of the study are stated in the following research questions:
1 How are Nominal Groups in English and Vietnamese constructed in the light of Systemic Functional Grammar?
2 What are the similarities and differences in the functional construction of the Nominal Group in English and Vietnamese?
III Scope of the study
As can be inferred from the research questions, the study focused on the experiential functions of nominal groups in the two languages The study is to describe the experiential functional components of which the nominal group is comprised Based on the descriptions, the comparison between English and Vietnamese nominal groups will be made Due to limited time, the issue of reference of nominal group/noun phrase is put out of the study That will lead to the fact that some relevant structural features of the nominal group will not be discussed fully
The study is within the nominal group structure and the relations of its functional components Nominal groups that are used for the description and demonstration tend to be of the standard ones
IV Methods of the study
The basic methods used in this thesis are descriptive and contrastive methods of language research First, a description of NG in English is given in the chapter of theoretical background and literature review, and then that in Vietnamese will be done in the next chapter Nominal groups that are used as examples for analyses and descriptions are taken from books of different genres in English and Vietnamese The contrastive method is used to figure out the similarities and differences between nominal groups in the two languages
To answer the first question, with the Systemic Functional approach the study will look into the structures of the nominal groups in the two languages Each functional component of the nominal group will be described separately, and defined first in the interpretation of English nominal groups In the description of Vietnamese nominal groups, there will be marked positions in the structure; each position will be examined to determine the function that the element in that position realizes Examples of Vietnamese nominal groups will be used accompanied with their English translations
The answer to the second research question is obtained through comparing the typical orderings of the functional components of the nominal groups in the two languages
For the demonstration of the similarities and differences, examples of English - Vietnamese nominal groups are given The similarities and differences are intended for further studies and unstated implications for learning and teaching English for Vietnamese learners
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Systemic Functional grammar (SFG) developed by Halliday is a theory that is based mainly on the work of the British linguist J.K Firth It is also influenced by Hjelmslev, the anthropologist Malinowski, and the Prague School The theory is systemic because it is “a theory of meaning as choice, by which a language, or any other semiotic system, is interpreted as networks of interlocking options” (Halliday, 1994, xiv) It is functional because it is designed to explain “how the language is used”; “language has evolved to satisfy human needs, and the way it is organized is functional with respect to these needs.” (Halliday, ibid, xiii)
What Halliday made himself different and developed from Firth and Malinowski, is that he has put more concerns on social and cultural motivations than on psychological/cognitive processes “Indeed, the social dimension is more strongly developed in SFG than in any other functional theory” (An Encyclopedia of Linguistics, p.701)
Halliday‟s theory focuses firmly on meaning and he is opposed to the autonomous syntax when he tries to avoid using the term “syntax” and to use his term
“Lexicogrammar” as an alternative He claimed that grammar and lexis “are not totally different kinds of patterning but are part of the same level different in degree” Moreover, the line separating Lexicogrammar and Semantics in SFG is not made clear; that is why SFG is (called) the grammar which is pushed into the direction of semantics
In SFG, fundamental components of meaning in language are functional components, and the use and meaning of language are understood as the performance of the 3 metafunctions: the ideational, the interpersonal, and the textual These functions are realized in every units of language in use ranging from the whole text to phrases and groups and so on It can be said that the theory of 3 metafunctions is the thread line in SFG by Halliday It also helps to distinguish SFG from other functional theories
The ideational metafunction is divided into two subtypes: the experiential and logical metafunctions The experiential function is to reflect our experience and understanding of the world, which include all that come from our imagination The logical metafuntion works above the experiential It builds up our reasoning on the basis of our experience The second metafunction is the interpersonal metafunction which comprises the three component areas: the speaker/writer persona, social distance and relative social status, and which serves to establish and maintain social relations The textual metafunction is to provide links of building/setting up discourses By this function, we can tell a text from a set of sentences randomly mixed together It can be said that the theory of
3 metafunctions is the underlying background of SFG
II Noun Phrase or Nominal Group: The problem of labeling
In doing this thesis, we have run over the two terms: Noun Phrase and Nominal Group, which are used to refer to the same thing but in different respects of meaning For the sake of further investigations later into the issues, it is better to look into the two terms at the right beginning for any distinction to be made
Methods of the study
The basic methods used in this thesis are descriptive and contrastive methods of language research First, a description of NG in English is given in the chapter of theoretical background and literature review, and then that in Vietnamese will be done in the next chapter Nominal groups that are used as examples for analyses and descriptions are taken from books of different genres in English and Vietnamese The contrastive method is used to figure out the similarities and differences between nominal groups in the two languages.
Methods of Analysis
To answer the first question, with the Systemic Functional approach the study will look into the structures of the nominal groups in the two languages Each functional component of the nominal group will be described separately, and defined first in the interpretation of English nominal groups In the description of Vietnamese nominal groups, there will be marked positions in the structure; each position will be examined to determine the function that the element in that position realizes Examples of Vietnamese nominal groups will be used accompanied with their English translations
The answer to the second research question is obtained through comparing the typical orderings of the functional components of the nominal groups in the two languages
For the demonstration of the similarities and differences, examples of English - Vietnamese nominal groups are given The similarities and differences are intended for further studies and unstated implications for learning and teaching English for Vietnamese learners.
DEVELOPMENTS CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE I Systemic Functional Grammar
Noun Phrase or Nominal Group: The problem of labeling
In doing this thesis, we have run over the two terms: Noun Phrase and Nominal Group, which are used to refer to the same thing but in different respects of meaning For the sake of further investigations later into the issues, it is better to look into the two terms at the right beginning for any distinction to be made
Within the scope of this study, the two terms: Noun phrase and Nominal group are the two labels to refer to the same structural unit in language The thing that matters to be mentioned here is that each term is used in a certain context reflecting a certain choice
Noun phrase is a term of formal grammar; it has been used in formal traditional grammar for a long time and has become so popular in linguistics As a formal term, it is likely to be understood fully in terms of intrinsic formal features of structural constituents
To the term Nominal Group, it is easily understood that Halliday has his own reason for his choice As a functionalist, Halliday has always made himself a distance from formal grammar One of his ways of doing this is trying to avoid formal terms in SFG
Therefore, he uses Nominal Group Also, he makes a distinction between the concept of Group and of Phrase A group is defined as “an expansion of a word”, whereas “a Phrase is a contraction of a clause The choice of the term Phrase is more preferable when dealing with it as a larger unit in clausal relationship However, this distinction makes no meaningful differences to the content of our analysis in this thesis In other words, in the scope of our study, Noun Phrase and/or Nominal Group are interchangeable, but because the study is based on the Systemic Functional Grammar by Halliday the thesis will use the term Nominal Group.
Noun Phrase/Nominal Group in Different Schools of Grammar
In this part, we would discuss some typical points of view on Noun Phrase/Nominal Group from different schools of grammar with the aim to get an overview into all the studies on Noun Phrase/Nominal Group We will investigate the Noun Phrase in Structural Grammar and Generative Transformational Grammar Then we also look at the concept of Noun Phrase in Functional Discourse Grammar Finally, we discuss Halliday‟s point of view on Nominal Group
1 Noun Phrase in Structural Grammar and Generative Transformational Grammar
In schools of formal grammars, Noun Phrase is defined as a group of words with a Noun or Pronoun as the main part (the Head), and other words (coming before or after the Head) taking the role of modifiers
A Noun Phrase may consist of only one word, which means it has only the Head without any modifiers Dogs and cats in the following sentence are examples:
Dogs are more intelligent than cats
Noun Phrases can have a noun as the Head and some other words such as a Determiner coming before the Head and modifying it Because the modifying words come before the Head, they are called Premodifiers In the sentence below the Noun Phrase: The house consists of the Head house and the Premodifier the:
The house was pulled down yesterday
When a Noun Phrase has the modifiers that follow the Head, the modifiers in this case are called the Postmodifiers In the following sentence, the noun phrase taking the role of the subject consists of three parts: the Premodifier, the Head and the Postmodifier”
The girl who lives next door is now on holiday
The a determiner is the Premodifier, girl a noun the head, and who lives next door a relative clause is the Postmodifier
Going into the structure of the Noun Phrase, formalist have given a 3 part model as mentioned above and diagramed below:
Following this model, the analysis into the structure of the Noun Phrase can be continued by investigating the components of each part At the end of the process of analyzing, single word classes can be shown in the chart of the Noun Phrase structure, as in the following example:
In a quick conclusion for this part, Noun Phrase in Structural Grammar and Generative Transformational Grammar has been paid much attention The structure of Noun Phrase is analyzed into single constituents in the labels of word classes
2 Noun Phrase in Functional Discourse Grammar
Having its foundation of Functional Grammar which was developed by the Dutch linguist Simon Dik and his colleagues from the late 1970s onwards (An Encyclopedia of Linguistics, p 699), Functional Discourse Grammar was developed by Hengeveld In his theory, Hengeveld inherited a lot from Functional Grammar, and also added more new things which helped to make the Functional Discourse Grammar “a new research program in the linguistic landscape” (The Noun Phrase in Functional Discourse Grammar, edited by Daniel Garcia Velasco and Jan Rijkhoff, p.3)
In Functional Discourse Grammar, Noun Phrase gets a lot of discussion Although Hengeveld keeps using the label Noun Phrase, his way of looking into the structure of Noun Phrase is different from that of formalists He looks at Noun Phrases as discourse units which are analyzed at four distinct levels as follows:
- at the Interpersonal Level (IL)
- at the Representational Level (RL)
- at the Morphosyntactic Level (ML)
- at the Phonological Level (PL)
3 Nominal Group in Systemic Functional Grammar
As mentioned previously, Halliday claims that every discourse unit in a language can be analyzed by looking into 3 respects of meanings: ideational, interpersonal, and textual meaning, when he states: “the three functional components of meaning, ideational, interpersonal, and textual are realized through the grammar of a language.” In An Introduction to Functional Grammar half of what Halliday does is to investigate those three layers of meaning in one clause, and in part 2 of the book, he focus on the structures which (he calls) are above, below, and beyond the clause Nominal Group belongs to the structures below the clause
According to Halliday, it is still possible to analyze the three functional components of meaning in a Nominal Group, but there is some difference in the patterning when compared to a clause In a clause, each component of meaning makes a part of meaning structure; therefore, the meaning of a clause consists of three distinct combined meaning structures In a group, the 3 components of meaning are not seen as “separate whole structure, but as partial contributions to a single structural line.” That is why Halliday tends to analyze the structure of nominal group in one aspect of meaning, not in 3 as in analyzing the clause He states that: “The difference between clause and group on this respect is only one of degree; but it is sufficient to enable us to analyze the structure of the group in one operation, rather than in 3 operations as we did with the clause.” (Halliday, ibid, p.179)
In analyzing Nominal Group structure, Halliday splits the ideational meaning component into two: Experiential and Logical Hallidayan point of view in analyzing the structure of Nominal Group focuses on interpreting the position of each subset element and its functional contribution to the meaning of the Head – the semantic core of the group and the meaning of the group on the whole Describing the experiential structure of the Nominal Group, Halliday (ibid) sets up the following system of functions: Deictic (typically realized by Determiner), Numerative (typically realized by Numeral), Epithet (typically realized by Adjective), Classifier (typically realized by Noun/Adjective), Thing (typically realized by Noun), and Qualifier (typically realized by prepositional phrases and embedded clauses).
The Nominal Group in English
In this section, we will discuss the experiential structure of the nominal group As stated by Halliday, the ideational function can be divided into two functions: logical and experiential When the nominal group is seen as a univariate structure generated by iteration, we are discussing its logical structure The relationship of modification with familiar terms, such Head, Modifier, is of the logical function When the nominal group is seen as a multivariate structure in which components play different functional roles, we are dealing with its experiential structure Halliday (ibid) identified six experiential functions in a nominal group They are: Deictic, Numerative, Epithet, Classifier, Thing, and Qualifier which will be discussed in more details in this section
The first part of this section will look into some definitions of the nominal group/noun phrase over the history of linguistics with points of view from different schools of grammar The rest part is for the description of the experiential structure of the nominal group in English following the Hallidayan approach
For the sake of the analysis, the nominal group will be divided into three parts according to its logical structure: Premodifier, Head, and Postmodifier In this description, each part will be looked into further for its experiential functional components
1 An Overview of English Nominal Group
Over the development of linguistics, Noun Phrase/Nominal Group has received numerous definitions Each definition has a specific purpose when dealing with Nominal Group/Nominal Group
The noun phrase in English is defined concerning its functions in the sentences:
"The noun phrase is that element in the sentence which typically functions as Subject, Object, and Complement" (Quirk, et al, 1977:127)
Furthermore, we can find more explanations on the noun phrases through the definitions of the phrase and of the noun In other words, formal grammarians indirectly give definitions on the noun phrase when they discuss the phrase and the noun Huddleston
(1976) states about the phrase as follows:
A phrase is a group of two or more words It doesn't contain a finite verb It is functionally equivalent to a single word, and will thus be classified according to the part of speech of the kind of word to which it is equivalent
Noun Phrase in English is understood in Crystal's definition of the main syntactic features of English nouns:
1 The meaning and use of nouns are defined by one of the determiners, e.g a, the, some
2 Nouns act as the head of noun phrases
3 Nouns change forms to express singular and plural, or the genitive case
From the functional viewpoint, Bloor and Bloor (1995) 's definition of Nominal Group is as follows: "A nominal group is typically a group with a noun or pronoun as it has, and that noun may be modified, but it does not have to be modified in order to constitute a group in this technical sense." It seems that this definition by Bloor and Bloor is not very "functional"
As far as the structure is concerned, noun phrase is commonly and traditionally defined as consisting of 3 potential parts: the Premodifier, the Head, and the Postmodifier, in which the head, taken by a noun, is compulsorily required
A noun phrase can consist of only a noun or pronoun as in: Tom is a student, and Tigers are mammal animals A noun phrase can also have a noun as the Head and some elements coming before it (what we call Premodifiers) as in:
A noun phrase can have the full form of 3 parts: Premodifier Head - Postmodifier as in the following: - The pretty girl in the corner
On discussing groups and phrased, Halliday (ibid, p.180) states that: "a phrase is different from a group in that, whereas a group is an expansion of a word, a phrase is a contraction of a clause." From this statement, we can infer that a nominal group is an expansion of a noun Halliday (ibid) also asserts that it is still possible to recognize the same 3 functional components of meaning in the structure of a group as in a clause, but, because "they are not represented in the form of separate whole structure but rather as partial contributions to single structural line", it is sufficient to analyze the structure of a group in terms of one aspect of functional component of meaning In Systemic Functional Grammar, group structure in general is interpreted in terms of ideational metafunction which can be split into two subsets: logical and experiential
As a matter of fact, nouns have the nature of naming things and making the conception of the world That is why when we interpret the structure of the nominal group, we focus much more on the experiential function - the function that is to express our conceptions of the world and our consciousness
2 The experiential structure of the nominal group in English
As said in the previous part, Head, Premodifier, and Postmodifier fall within the logical structure However, for the sake of simplicity, we will discuss the experiential functional components in each part of the following will discuss the experiential structure of the nominal group, and there will be sections named: Premodifier, Head, and Postmodifier
In Nominal group in English, the Postmodifier can consist of the following experiential functional components: Deictic, Numerative, Classifier, and Epithet And the order of the functional components in the Premodification is as the following figure given by Halliday (ibid: 181)
Those two splendid old electric trains
Deictic Numerative Epithet Epithet Classifier Things
Deictic is the first functional element that can be found in the Premodifier part of the nominal group It has the function of pointing There are two subtypes of Deictic: The specific Deictic and the non-specific Deictic The specific Deictic helps to indicate that the subset of the thing is specific The subset of the thing is not specific if it is premodified by non-specific deictic
Deictic is usually realized by determiner, possessive nouns or possessive pronouns
The following tables given by Halliday (ibid) show how the specific deictic and non- specific deictic are realized:
(Table 6.1: Items functioning as specific deictic)
Demonstrative This, that, these, those, the Which(ever), What(ever)
Possessive My, your, our, his, her, its, their, one‟s,
Whose(ever) [which person‟s], etc
(Table 6.2) Items functioning as non-specific deictic
Total positive each every both all negative neither
Partial neither) selective one either some [s m] any non- selective a(n) some [sm]
Furthermore, a nominal group may have no deictic element in its structure, or it can have a second deictic element which adds further information to the identification of the subset in the question, and which is called post-deictic or deictic 2 The most common Post-deictic elements are: other, same, different, identical, complete, entire, whole, and above, etc The function of Post-deictic is to “identify a subset of the class of “thing” by referring to its fame, or familiarity, its status in the text, or its similarity/dissimilarity to some other designated subset.” (Halliday, ibid, p.183)
The function of Numerative is to indicate the feature of quality and ordering of the Thing in either an exact or inexact way In the nominal groups: two trains, four hotels, the numerative elements (two and four) express exact number of the Thing (trains and hotels); in many trains, several houses, the numeratives show inexact number (we cannot tell the exact numbers of the trains and houses referred.) Expressing ordering feature, numerative can indicate an exact position in an order (such as in the second corner) or an inexact position in an order (as in a subsequent train.)
An overview of studies on Vietnamese Nominal Group
1 Noun Phrase/Nominal Group (NP/NG) in Vietnamese has received a lot of researches and studies over the last 50 years, and there have been remarkable achievements on explaining the structure of Noun Phrase/Nominal Group Some famous Vietnamese who have paid much attention and great efforts into NP/NG can be mentioned are: Nguyen
Lan (1956), Nguyen Tai Can (1975), Cao Xuan Hao (1991), Dinh Van Duc (2001), Hoang Van Van (2001), and Diep Quang Ban (2008) The studies and researches by the Vietnamese linguists are based on different viewpoints of different school of grammar
Hence, though there have been a lot of agreements on the structure of NP/NG in Vietnamese, the issue still has some debates
In general, it can be said that most of the investigations into the structure of NP/NG in Vietnamese are formal descriptions The two things that these descriptions have done are (1) to classify the constituents of NPs/NGs according to their meanings and parts of speech, and (2) to clarify the formal relationship between the Head and other constituents The last 4 decades have seen the development and influence of Functional Linguistics in general, and the Systemic Functional Grammar in particular in the linguistics over the world That makes one new trend in modern linguistics And of course, Vietnamese linguists can ignore that new trend Some linguists have made great efforts applying the new theory in interpreting Vietnamese Cao Xuan Hao, Hoang Van Van and
Diep Quang Ban are typical authors using the Functional Grammar into Vietnamese with lots of high appreciated achievements
Though standing on different points of view, Vietnamese linguists all agree that a NP/NG of fully potential form in Vietnamese is made up with three parts: the Head- the centre of the NP/NG, the Premodifier – the modifier occurring before thee Head, and the Postmodifier – the modifier occurring after the Head A fully potential form NP/NG in Vietnamese appears in the following pattern:
In terms of logical structure, Vietnamese NP/NG has the same structural components as English one with the Head in the centre and the modifiers locating before and after it
2 Coming back to the debates on the structure of NP/NG in Vietnamese, we discuss some different viewpoints below It can be said that the debates on the structure of NP/NG in Vietnamese mainly come from the disagreements on the determination of the Head structure when in the NP/NG there appears a classificator (loại từ) – a class of word in Vietnamese coming right before the noun and generally sorting/classifying it as in một con chuột (a mouse), con is a classificator informing that the noun (chuột) following belongs a class of animals There are 3 different treatments on the structure of the Head which will be discussed below:
2.1 In the NGs with the structure involving a classificator + a noun (1 loại từ +
1 danh từ) such as một bác nông dân, hai cuốn cuốn sách, những bức tranh the classificators, bác, cuốn, bức are considered as the Head of the NGs
This treatment is given by Nguyen Tai Can (1970)
2.2 The second point of view is to consider the NGs having the Head composed of 2 elements: a classificator + a noun which are termed T1+T2; bác nông dân, cuốn sách, and bức tranh are the Heads in those NGs This point of view is proposed by Nguyen Tai Can (1975)
2.3 The last viewpoint is to treat the nouns in these cases as the Heads In those
NGs, nông dân, sách, and tranh are the Heads This viewpoint is proposed by Dinh Van Duc (2001) and Diep Quang Ban (2008)
3 It should be remembered that all the points of view discussed above are related to the aspect of logical structure Within the scope of this study we cannot go into the rationale of each viewpoint However, we choose the last point of view to investigate the NP/NG The reason is that this thesis is based on Systemic Functional Grammar, which focuses on the meaning much more than the syntax, and that our aim is to investigate the experiential structure of NG.
Nominal Group in Vietnamese
In this section, we try to discuss the experiential functions of the NG in Vietnamese in the three parts of its logical structure We choose to investigate the Head first because it poses some debates as mentioned previously
In determining the Head of the NG in Vietnamese there are two cases: in one case, it is easy to point out the Head; in the other, it is difficult to do and needs some careful analysis
The Head of the NG is easy to identify when there is only a noun/pronoun or a complex noun in the NG, and in these cases the noun/pronoun is the Head Some examples of the NGs which have the Heads easy to identify are:
In the examples above, there are no classificators (loại từ) coming before the nouns which are completely accepted to be the Heads And in these cases, the Head and the Thing conflate
The Head of the NG is difficult to identify when as said previously there is a classificator coming before a noun, as in ba anh sinh viên, những cuốn sách, những bức tranh này, mấy con mèo nhà Thanh As discussed in the preceding section, in these cases, 3 treatments have been proposed The first is to consider the fist element as the Head The classificators anh, cuốn, bức and con are the Heads The second is to consider that the
Head consists of two subheads which are termed: T1+T2; anh sinh viên, cuốn sách, bức tranh, and con mèo are the Heads The last treatment which is used in this thesis is to determine the noun to be the Head and the classificators are the modifier elements (which will be discussed later) The nouns, Sinh viên, sách, tranh, and mèo are the heads Treating the nouns as the heads in this case, we can also claim that the Thing and the Head coincide, and it is unmarked
The problems arise where in the NG there appears a classificator with the omission of the noun, such as cuốn này and bức này The question here is how to determine the
Head in these cases It is easy to recognize that the main elements in these NGs are the classificators, cuốn and bức However, if we treat the elements as the Heads, is it contrary when the Heads in the full forms of those NGs (cuốn sách, bức tranh) are the nouns not the classificators? The answer here is “no” The explanation is that in the cases when the nouns are omitted, the classificators are the Heads but not the Things That means in terms of the logical structure, the classificators in those NGs can be the Head – the central part of the groups The nominal groups in these cases have no Thing Some examples are as follows:
Another situation in which the determination of the Head also poses some problems is when there are words of measurements placed before the nouns In Vietnamese words of measurements can be divided into two types: scientific words of exact measurements, such as lít (liter), mét (meter), tấn (ton), and traditionally conventional words of inexact measurements, such as, miếng (piece), thanh (bar), thìa (spoon)
In the NPs with the scientific words of exact measurements preceding the nouns, such as, hai mét vải (two meters of cloth), ba lít sữa (three liters of milk), hai tấn gạo (two tons of rice), the heads are the measuring words mét, lít, tấn, and the Things are the measured things (vải, sữa, gạo) According to Diep Quang Ban (ibid), that is because the scientific words of exact measurements are really abstract nouns; they are completely capable of being the heads of the NGs However, in terms of experiential functions, they are not the Things The Things in the cases are the things being measured (vải, sữa, gạo)
That means in the Thing does not conflate with the Head In English, the situation is the same And therefore, we can also treat the measuring words as the function of a complex Numerative which can continuously be analyzed into a Numerative and a Classifier The Thing and the Head here do not coincide The experiential structure of the NGs with measuring expressions can be interpreted as follows:
In the NGs with the traditionally conventional words of inexact measurements, such as, một thìa đường (a spoon of sugar), một miếng bánh (a piece of cake), the Thing conflates with Head, and is realized by the nouns following That is because the words (thìa, miếng) are not unit words for measurements They are used in the ways of metaphor and metonymy According to Dinh Van Duc (ibid), these words are closer to the particles
The experiential structure of those nominal groups with the traditionally conventional words of measurements can be interpreted as follows:
In general, in Vietnamese nominal groups, the Thing conflates with the Thing, and is realized by a noun/pronoun The Head of the NG is difficult to identify when there is a classificator in the nominal groups and when there is an expression of measurement before the noun In these, the Head can be found, but the Thing can be omitted Or the Head and the Thing do not coincide
For the sake of simplicity, we will take an example of a nominal group of a fully potential in Vietnamese and number the positions in which each element can occur:
Tất cả những cái cuốn sách mới âý
As can be seen from the table, the potential Premodifier part can be filled with four positions marked -1, -2, -3, -4; the Head position is marked 0 and the Postmodifiers are 1,
2, etc We will discuss the elements in each position
The position -1 is realized by classificators (loại từ) which can be categorized as follows
- Classificators to indicate man: vị, đứa, thằng
- Classificators to indicate animates and flora: con, cân, quả
- Classificators to indicate inanimate things: cái, chiếc, hòn
The type of classificators that appears depends on the noun of the Head It means that the classificator can signal the class of the Thing referred to As far as the experiential function is concerned, the classificator indicates a general class of the Thing Consider the following nominal groups: (1) một anh sinh viên, (2) một con cá, (3) một cái bàn Anh, con and cái are the classificators which inform that the Thing in (1) belongs to male human class, in (2) is an animal and in (3) is an inanimate thing, respectively
Besides, the classificator also has the function of indicating the number in particular According to Diep Quang Ban (ibid), “it helps to create the feature of countability of the Thing.”
STRUCTURAL SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF THE NOMINAL GROUP IN VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH I Similarities
NGs in English and Vietnamese have the same logical structure
Concerning the logical structure, English and Vietnamese NGs consists of 3 parts:
Premodifier, Head, and Postmodifier In the logical structure of NGs in the two languages there is a noun or pronoun that is the centre of the group, that carries the most meaning and that is called the Head of the NGs The elements are to modify the Head The logical structure pattern of NGs in the two languages can be summarized as follows:
This similarity points out that the logical construction of group and phrase in English and Vietnamese in general has much in common This can also be guidance for Vietnamese learners of English when they have to do the translation between the two languages, for example
As far as the experiential structure is concerned, the similarity can be seen is that Vietnamese NGs like English ones hold the full potential for having six experiential functions: Deictic, Numerative, Epithet, Classifier, Thing, and Qualifier It means that a Vietnamese NG is completely capable of expressing all what an English NG has To put it in another way, in translation between the two languages, an English NG can be completely interpreted by a Vietnamese one without the loss of meaning.
The similar realization of the experiential functions
Each experiential function in the structure of the nominal group is typically realized by one or two certain classes of word, by a certain type of phrase and clause In Vietnamese and English NGs, this is done similarly The Classifier in English is usually realized by a noun and/or an adjective In Vietnamese, nouns and adjectives also usually realize the function of Classifier Consider the NGs below:
(1) một giáo viên trẻ (a young teacher)
(2) một vài ý tưởng mới (some new ideas)
(3) vị Giáo sư mà anh gặp hôm qua (the professor who you met yesterday)
(4) những người công nhân làm việc cho bố anh ta (the workers working for his father) The italics show the functions which are realized in the same ways in the two languages.
The Numerative occurs before the Head
Like in English, in Vietnamese the NG also has the function of Numerative realized by elements occurring before the Head/Thing Look at some examples below:
(1) hai cuốn sách (two books)
(2) một vài nghi vấn (some doubts)
(3) tất cả những câu hỏi về sức khoẻ (all the questions on the health)
(4) một số phát minh mới (several new inventions)
As can be seen from the examples, apart from the same expressions of exact quantities coming before the Head/Thing, Vietnamese also has words and expressions to indicate inexact quantities, such as vài, dăm, một số, một vài, and words to express the single delivery such as mỗi, từng, mọi, which have their equivalences in English and which also precede the Head/Thing functioning as the Numerative.
The structural similarity in the post-position phrases and clauses
The Postmodifier of Vietnamese and English NGs can have verbal groups, prepositional phrases, and relative clauses which function as the Qualifier The thing worth mentioning here is the group, phrase or clause in the postmodifier in this language has the structure similar with that of its equivalence in the other language That means if we have a relative clause in the Postmodifier of an English NG, we also have a relative clause in its translation in Vietnamese Some examples are given below:
(1) người đàn ông mà chị gặp chủ nhật tuần trước (The man who you met last Sunday)
(2) các câu hỏi đặt ra cho vị giám đốc (The questions put for the manager)
(3) cậu bé đang chơi ngoài vườn (the boy playing in the garden)
(4) con đường đến ngôi làng (the path to the village)
(5) Các câu hỏi về sức khoẻ (the questions on health)
Differences
On the whole, it can be said that the main difference in the experiential of NG in English and Vietnamese is related to the ordering of the experiential functions In English NGs, moving from left to right (from Deictic >Numerative >Epithet > Classifier >
Thing > Qualifier), the specifying potential of the functional components goes from of the greatest to of the least, whereas in Vietnamese NGs the direction is reversed The specifying potential of the functional components increases when moving from left to right That means in English NGs the most specifying potential functions are put in the Premodifier In Vietnamese NGs, these functions come after the Head We will go into each function to clarify the differences
The Deictic is considered to have the greatest specifying potential, so in English nominal groups, it is put in the first position of the group In contrast, the Deictic elements in Vietnamese nominal group occur in the final place in the Postmodifier This difference reflects, in the clearest way, the distinction in the ordering of the experiential functions of NGs in the two languages The following NGs are ones in the case:
(1) chiếc thuyền ấy (that boat)
(2) nhà của cô ấy ( her house)
(3) những quan điểm này (these viewpoints)
(4) mấy sinh viên kia (those students) Another small difference concerning the Deictic is that in Vietnamese NGs, the Deictic element in the Postmodifier can be accompanied with Cái - a special element in the Premodifier to perform the special Deictic which gains some kind of interpersonal meaning Compare:
(5) anh sinh viên này with cái anh sinh viên này (this student)
(6) cô vợ của anh ta with cái cô vợ của anh ta (his wife)
(7) quả chuối đấy with cái quả chuối đấy (that banana)
Cái does not have any effects on the experiential meaning, and it can be absent With respect to the interpersonal, it is clear that Cái indicates some speaker‟s attitude towards the Thing It conveys much more interpersonal meaning
The Epithets in both Vietnamese and English NGs are typically realized by an adjective However, the function occurs in two different positions in NGs of the two languages In English, the Epithet element is placed before the Classifier in the Premodifier, whereas it comes after the Head in the Postmodifier Consider
(1) chiếc xe đạp đắt tiền the expensive bike
(2) một cái vườn rộng the large garden
(3) con mèo xinh đẹp này this beautiful cat
It should be noticed that there is one type of mistakes made by Vietnamese learners of English when they have to construct a NG in English Due to the mother tongue‟s influence, Vietnamese learners of English can put the Epithet in the wrong place, such as the bike expensive, the garden large, and the cat beautiful
The Classifier occurrence in the structure of the nominal groups in the two languages is difference The Classifier comes right before the Head/Thing in English NGs but after the Head/Thing in Vietnamese NGs, as can be seen from the following
(1) một sinh viên đại học (a university student)
(2) hai chiếc xe đạp Nhật (two Japanese bikes)
(3) những con mèo đen xinh đẹp (the pretty black cats)
(4) súng đồ chơi (toy guns)
Besides, the Classifier in Vietnamese NGs can consist of two functional elements: one generalizing element and one particularizing element The former is realized by a classificator (loại từ), and the later is realized by an adjective or a noun following the Head/Thing Consider the following NGs:
(5) con mèo đen này (this black cat)
(6) cô sinh viên đại học (a female university student)
Con and cô are classificators functioning as generalizing Classifiers Con in (5) helps to classify the subset of the Thing into an animal class Cô in (6) informs that the Thing belongs to a female subset Đen and đại học are particularizing Classifiers specifying the subsets of the Thing referred in the two cases
In general, most of the functions that locate in the Premodifier in English nominal groups occur in the Postmodifier in Vietnamese ones The functions in English NGs are mirror images of the functions in Vietnamese NGs.
Concluding Remark
We will give some summaries on the content discussed with the target of giving the answers to the research questions as follows:
1 The experiential structure of the nominal group in English and Vietnamese is made up of six experiential functions ordering in a fixed pattern The six experiential functions can be summarized as follows:
- Deictic: the function of pointing
- Numerative: indicating the features of quantitative and ordinative of the Thing
- Epithet: indicating some objective property of the Thing and some attitude of the speakers‟
- Classifier: pointing out a specific subset of the Thing
- Thing: the main experiential function holding the semantic core of the NG
- Qualifier: the function of characterizing the Thing adding some quality Most of the functions in NGs of the two languages are realized by the same class of words, types of phrases and clauses However, because Vietnamese is a non-inflectional language, there are a lot of grammatical markers to present grammatical changes In the construction of the NGs in Vietnamese, many particles are used to perform an experiential function
Therefore, when investigating the experiential functions in Vietnamese NGs, the functions of the particles should be clarified One example is the particle Cái, which is a sub Deictic element and which indicates some kind of speaker‟s attitude towards the Thing Besides, some particles help to make up not only one function, such as những/mấy which indicates inexact quantities, but also functions as the Deictic That is the reason why patterning the experiential structure of Vietnamese NGs is not easy Right below are the patterns for the experiential structure of NGs in English and Vietnamese
The general experiential structure of NGs in English can interpreted in the following table:
(Table 1: The Experiential Structure Pattern of English NGs)
Classifier Thing Qualifier Dei.1 Dei.2 Quantitative Ordertative Experiential attitudinal
(Table 2: The Experiential Structure Pattern of Vietnamese NGs)
2 The similarities in the experiential structure of English and Vietnamese nominal groups are related to the function of Numerative, the structure of post-Qualifier elements and the realization of the functions
The Numerative comes before the Head/Thing of the NG in the two languages, indicating both the exact quantities and inexact quantities The similarity is not only in the case of expressing exact quantities by universal number, but also in the case of inexact quantities in estimations by particles There is a nearly word-to-word equivalence of the Numerative elements between English and Vietnamese NGs
The post-Qualifier elements in English and Vietnamese NGs can be a phrase or clause Verbal groups, prepositional phrases, and defining relatives are typical elements in this position The similarity here is the English elements have their Vietnamese equivalences of the same structure, vice versa That means the translation in these cases can be made nearly perfectly
The realization of each function is similar in English and Vietnamese NGs For example, in Vietnamese NGs, the function of Classifier is typically realized by a noun or an adjective Similarly, this function in English NGs is also by a noun or an adjective
3 The differences in the experiential structure of English and Vietnamese NGs are in terms of the ordering of the functions In English nominal groups, the generalizing process moves from the left to the right; The Deictic which the greatest specifying potential comes in the first place whereas the Deictic in Vietnamese NGs locates in the final place That is because in Vietnamese NGs going the left to the right is the process of specifying This results in the differences in the positions of the experiential functional elements in English and Vietnamese NGs The Epithet, for example, precedes the Head/Thing in English NGs, but follows the Head/Thing in Vietnamese ones.
CONCLUSION
Systemic functional grammar is still very new to many linguists and many people who study Vietnamese linguistics Functional researches and studies on Vietnamese language are limited, and their implications and achievements are hardly found in the teaching of Vietnamese language in school and universities Done in that condition, this thesis on the nominal group is to describe the experiential structure of nominal groups in English and Vietnamese, and then to point out the similarities and differences concerning the experiential structure of English and Vietnamese nominal groups in the hope that it can bring about some implicit implications for the teaching-learning of English for Vietnamese learners
This thesis describes the experiential structure of English nominal groups from the point of Systemic functional grammar Basing on this description, we have tried to investigate Vietnamese nominal group and interpret its experiential structure The thesis found that like English nominal group, Vietnamese one also potentially consists of six experiential functions In other words, a Vietnamese nominal group can have the same expressing ability as an English one This helps to confirm that theoretically in translation, each English nominal group has an equivalence of a Vietnamese nominal group However, due to the limited time, some relevant aspects of nominal groups, such as REFERENCE which can be a good suggestion for further studies on nominal groups, have not been covered in the descriptions of English and Vietnamese nominal groups
Going into the experiential structure of nominal groups in the two languages, we can see some similarities as well as differences There are similarities in constructing the functions of Numerative and the post-Qualifier which is realized by a phrase or a clause In English and Vietnamese, the function of Numerative is typically realized by the pre- elements, and the phrase/clause Qualifier occurs in the post position of the NG
The difference is somehow much more worth mentioning when it can help to draw more implicit implications Through the patterns of the experiential structure of nominal group in English and Vietnamese, we can see the difference lies in the different ordering of experiential functions In English nominal group, the pattern can be shown as: Deictic ->
Numerative > Epithet > Classifier > Thing Qualifier, whereas in Vietnamese ones, the pattern is reversed As far as the difference is concerned, further studies can be done on
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