An analysis of english adjectives describing human skin colours and their equivalents in vietnamese

PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE OF BINH DUONG PROVINCE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY QUANG VAN VIET CUONG AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH ADJECTIVES DESCRIBING HUMAN SKIN COLOURS AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN VIETNAMESE MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE CODE: 22 02 01 MASTER THESIS BINH DUONG - 2020 0 PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE OF BINH DUONG PROVINCE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY QUANG VAN VIET CUONG AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH ADJECTIVES DESCRIBING HUMAN SKIN COLOURS AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN VIETNAMESE MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE CODE: 22 02 01 MASTER THESIS SUPERVISOR: LE THANH HOA, PhD BINH DUONG - 2020 0 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this thesis and neither any part of this thesis nor the whole of the thesis has been submitted for a degree to any university or education institution I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard of referencing practices SIGNATURE QUANG VAN VIET CUONG Page | i 0 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Mr Le Thanh Hoa (PhD), for his guidance and continuous support during this process His motivation, advocacy, and knowledge insight have helped me develop, organize, and persist in producing this product that first started as an idea I would also like to thank all the faculty of the foreign languages at Thu Dau Mot University, Binh Duong Province for giving me the tools to look critically at the world and participate as a change agent through education The final thesis would not have been possible without the enthusiastic support and encouragement from my friends, especially those in Cohort of English language, Thu Dau Mot University I am particularly grateful to all foreign lecturers of English at Eastern International University and all Vietnamese lecturers of English at Thu Dau Mot University for their participation in the study Without their support, the study would not reach such a convincing conclusion as it should Finally, to my mother, my wife, and my sons, who have made all things possible in my life and inspire me through their love, compassion and wholehearted support This is for you Page | ii 0 ABSTRACT The current study aimed to investigate how 23 English adjectives were used to describe human skin colours by English and Vietnamese people The research data was collected using questionnaires and interviews with a group of 20 English lecturers working for Eastern International University and another group of 20 Vietnamese lecturers working for Thu Dau Mot University in Binh Duong Province The findings of the study revealed that Vietnamese people addressed the skin colours of other people more than English people and they did not use the 23 English adjectives to describe human skin colours to the degree of frequency as English people did The findings of the study also supported Jablonski’s (2012) claim that people living in places closer to the equator had darker skin than those living in the colder climates Based on the analysis of the 23 English adjectives collected from linguistic dictionaries, the researcher suggested the equivalents in Vietnamese The study has implication in terms of the usage of these adjectives for English teachers, learners, translators, dictionary writers, and machine translation Keywords: human, skin colours, English, Vietnamese, frequency Page | iii 0 TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF CHARTS ix CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study 1.1.1 Theoretical Background 1.1.2 Practical Background 1.2 Statement of the Problem 1.3 Significance of the Study 1.3.1 Theoretical Significance 1.3.2 Practical Significance 1.4 Aims and Objectives of the Study 1.4.1 Aims 1.4.2 Objectives 1.5 Research Questions and Hypotheses 1.5.1 Research Questions 1.5.2 Hypotheses 1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study 1.6.1 Scope of the Study 1.6.2 Limitations of the Study 1.7 Research Framework 1.8 Thesis Structure CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 10 2.1 Introduction 10 2.2 Definitions of Related Linguistic Terms 10 2.2.1 Human Skin Colours 10 2.3 English Adjectives Used to Describe Human Skin Colours and Its Vietnamese Equivalents 16 2.4 Word Frequency 24 2.5 Reviews of Related Studies 25 2.5.1 Universal Classification of Skin Type on Skin Colours 25 Page | iv 0 2.5.2 Studies on Colours and Skin Colours 28 2.6 Summary 30 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 31 3.1 Introduction 31 3.2 Research Design 31 3.3 Population and Sample 32 3.3.1 Population 32 3.3.2 Sample 33 3.4 Methods of Data Collection 36 3.5 Data Collection 36 3.5.1 Questionnaires 36 3.5.2 Interviews 38 3.6 Data Analysis 38 3.6.1 Quantitative Data 39 3.6.2 Qualitative Data 43 3.7 Summary 46 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 47 4.1 Introduction 47 4.2 Findings 47 4.2.1 From Questionnaires 47 4.2.2 From Interviews 60 4.3 Discussion 62 4.4 Summary 63 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 64 5.1 Conclusion 64 5.2 Implications 66 5.3 Suggestions for Further Study 67 REFERENCES i PUBLISHED WORKS iv APPENDICES v Page | v 0 TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS Order Abbreviation Full form EIU Eastern International University TDMU Thu Dau Mot University FP Foreign Participants (used in tables, charts, and figures for the purpose of convenience) VP Vietnamese Participants (used in tables, charts, and figures for the purpose of convenience) Notes: In this thesis, italics are intentionally used to highlight key terms American Psychological Association (APA 7th edition) referencing is applied in the thesis Page | vi 0 LIST OF TABLES Order Content Page Table 2.1 Basic colours of languages 11 Table 2.2 English and Vietnamese basic colours 12 Table 2.3 English adjectives describing human skin colours and 22 Vietnamese equivalents Table 2.4 Classification of skin type on skin colours 25 Table 2.5 Classification of skin type on skin colours 26 Table 2.6 Sudanese skin colour terms 28 Table 3.1 Question for the degree of use 38 Table 3.2 Scores of English participants 38 Table 3.3 Example of an uncleaned data 41 10 Table 3.4 Example of an uncleaned data 42 11 Table 4.1 Frequency of adjectives by English participants 51 12 Table 4.2 Frequency of adjectives by English participants 52 13 Table 4.3 Frequency of adjectives by English and Vietnamese 53 participants Page | vii 0 LIST OF FIGURES Order Content Page Figure 2.1 Schematic representation of the skin structure 10 Figure 2.2 Range of human skin colours 14 Figure 2.3 Human skin colours distribution 15 Figure 2.4 The degree of darkness of the adjectives 23 Figure 3.1 Part of Google form questionnaire 39 Figure 3.2 Example of participant answer 41 Figure 3.3 Example of participant answer 42 Figure 4.1 Three-level model of vocabulary development 50 Page | viii 0 Quang Van Viet Cuong Chapter Conclusion and Implications equivalents (provided in brackets): black (đen), bronzed (rám nắng), brown (nâu), dark (sẫm màu), dusky (sẫm màu), fair (trắng), florid (đỏ ửng), golden (vàng óng), gray (tái nhợt), 10 green (tái xanh), 11 jaundiced (vàng da), 12 milky (trắng s ữa), 13 pale (1 trắng, trắng bệch), 14 pallid (tái xanh), 15 pasty (xanh xao), 16 rosy (hồng hào), 17 rubicund (đỏ ửng), 18 ruddy (hồng hào), 19 sallow (vàng vọt), 20 swarthy (ngăm), 21 tanned (rám nắng), 22 white (trắng), and 23 yellow (vàng) Both English and Vietnamese people talked about the skin colours of other people, but a considerable difference between the two groups was found The research data revealed that English people did not pay attention to the skin colours of other people as much as Vietnamese people These findings were believed to be useful for Vietnamese people in communicating with foreigners, particularly with those who come from colder climates Together with other factors, taking this matter into account might contribute to effective communication with people coming from colder climates in general and English people in particular English and Vietnamese people used adjectives to describe human skin colours differently By applying the three-level model of vocabulary development developed by Beck, McKeown and Kucan (2013), the researcher found that Vietnamese people did not correctly use the English adjectives in the three levels of frequency put in by English people For example, Vietnamese people used exactly half of the low frequency adjectives and one third of the medium frequency adjectives as high frequency adjectives established by English people A special case in the use of adjectives was found in the study While English people considered pale as a highest frequency adjective with a score of 535 (see Table 4.1 and Appendix 4), Vietnamese Page | 65 0 Quang Van Viet Cuong Chapter Conclusion and Implications people use it as the lowest frequency adjective with a score of 238 (see Table 4.2 and Appendix 5) The data and data analysis presented in the study indicated that Vietnamese users of English should learn clearly about how English people use adjectives and what adjectives they use to address the skin colours of others as well as the colour of their own skin The use of the right adjectives with a suitable degree of frequency as a nativelike way would help Vietnamese users of English communicate confidently and successfully with English people 5.2 Implications The findings of the study are believed to be useful for many people in the field of English and Vietnamese languages Firstly, according to Le (2016),