Some suggestions for the translation of the dummy subject it into vietnamese from the view of functional grammar

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES -H I - TRAN NGOC MAI SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR THE TRANSLATION OF THE DUMMY – SUBJECT “IT” INTO VIETNAMESE FROM THE VIEW OF FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in TESOL Supervisor NGUYỄN VĂN MƯỜI, Ph.D Hochiminh City,2006 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled “Some suggestions for the translation of the Dummy Subject “IT” into Vietnamese from the view of Functional Grammar” is my own work This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution Hochiminh City, April 9th, 2006 Tran Ngoc Mai ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Van Muoi, who has given me helpful advice, endless guidance, useful references for the accomplishment of the study I must acknowledge my great indebtedness to my teachers at The University of Social Sciences and Humanities for their lectures on the area of valuable knowledge which has helped to shape the ideas for my study I am also grateful to my friends for useful sources of materials and constant support while the work was in progress My special thanks go to Mr Dao Dat Cuong and Mrs Nguyen Thi Le Hang for their help with precious advice and constant encouragement for my thesis My sincere thanks are due to a number of colleagues and students for their help with the data collection for the study Last, but not least, I owe deep thanks to my family, my parents, brother and sister, for their love and support Without their understanding this thesis could not be finished WYŠZX ABSTRACT The thesis studies the expressions of dummy subject IT in English and its translation into Vietnamese The Prop IT, anticipatory It and Dummy Subject IT in cleft sentences were investigated from different viewpoints: semantic, syntactic and pragmatic So were their translations into Vietnamese The thesis was written for the purpose of identifying the students’ common problems in translating this dummy subject, as well as the causes of the problems A questionnaire was designed to survey the students’ understanding towards the Dummy Subject IT The result of the survey revealed that there was a lack of students’ knowledge in the Dummy Subject It The solution was to find out the common rules so that it was easier for students to memorize them The method mainly used in the study was inductive method The rules of using and translating Dummy Subject It drawn by observing many examples taken from novels, grammar books, textbooks, magazines and newspapers, were discussed in this study The findings indicated that the structures containing Dummy Subject IT expressed the modality very clearly in Vietnamese translation In addition, the translations from English into Vietnamese converge on some very clear formulas And from the study findings, solutions and implications to these problems were suggested as useful contributions to the teaching and learning of grammar and translation, that is, the translation in general and of the dummy subject in particular TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS GLOSSARY OF GRAMMATICAL TERMS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 12 The problem 12 Aims of the study and overview of the thesis 13 Scope of the Study 14 Design of the study 15 CHAPTER I: METHODOLOGY 16 Research design 16 Method 17 Procedures 17 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 19 THE TRANSLATION THEORY 19 PREVIOUS LITERATURE ON IT AS A SUBJECT 21 CHAPTER III: EXPRESSIONS OF “IT” IN ENGLISH 23 REAL SUBJECT “IT” 23 1.1 Definitions 23 1.2 Expressions 23 DUMMY SUBJECT IT 28 2.1 PROP IT 28 2.1.1 Definition 28 2.1.2 Expressions 29 2.1.3 Findings 31 2.2 ANTICIPATORY IT 38 2.2.1 An overview of Extraposition 38 2.2.1.1 Definitions 38 2.2.2.3 Expressions 39 2.2.2.3 Findings 46 2.2.2 Classifications of Extraposition 52 2.2.2.3 ‘It’ in general 52 2.2.2.3 ‘It’ in some special expressions 58 2.2.2.3 Obligatory It 68 2.3 CLEFT IT 79 2.3.1 Definitions 79 2.3.2 Expressions 80 2.3.3 Findings 82 2.3.4 Discussion of findings 85 CHAPTER IV: DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 91 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSIONS 105 BIBLIOGRAPHY 108 APPENDIX I 112 APPENDIX II 117 APPENDIX III 119 APPENDIX IV 120 APPENDIX V .Error! Bookmark not defined APPENDIX VI 121 APPENDIX VII 123 APPENDIX VIII 125 GLOSSARY OF GRAMMATICAL TERMS Hereafter are some terms from the points of view by different linguists This Glossary explains the meaning of grammatical terms These terms are introduced in order to give a unified view on all the things discussed in this thesis Most of the terms are defined by A Downing (1992), the others come from “The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics” (by R E Asher (editorin-chief) (1994) Pergamon Press) and “Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics.” (by J.C Richards, J.Platt & H.Platt (1992) Longman) adjunct: a word or combination of words added to a clause to give more information about time, place, or manner linking adjunct: a sentence adjunct used to introduce a comment or reinforce what is said; e.g moreover, besides sentence adjunct: an adjunct which applies to the whole clause, rather than to part of it; e.g We possibly have to wait and see agent: the person who performs an action attributes: that is, qualities and characteristics of the participants attributive: adjectives placed before nouns are in attributive position See also predicative position circumstance: that is, any kind of contingent fact or subsidiary situation which is associated with the process or the main situation clause: a group of words containing a verb copula: the verb be, used simply to link a subject to its complement My mother is in Jersey cleft sentence: a sentence in which special emphasis is given to either the subject or the object by using a structure beginning with ‘it’ ‘what’ or ‘all’ complement: a noun group or adjective which come after a link as ‘be’, and gives more information about the subject or object of the clause E.g She is a teacher … She is tired… dependent clause: a clause which must be used with another clause to form a complete grammatical construction It depends on the other clause and is subordinate to it independent clause : (also a main clause or a principal clause) does not depend on another clause, although it may be linked to another independent clause, or to a dependent clause infinitive: the base form of a verb It is often used with ‘to’ in front of it impersonal construction: a type of sentence in which there is no mention of who or what does or experiences something impersonal It: ‘it’ is an impersonal subject when it is used to introduced a fact, or when it is used in a cleft structure: e.g: it was raining; it was you who asked preparatory It: the same as anticipatory It; this term is used by M Swan (1996) When the subject of a sentence is an infinitive or a clause, we usually put it towards the end of the sentence and use the pronoun It as a preparatory subject (also called anticipatory or introductory subject) E.g It’s important to get enough sleep introductory It: is the same as Preparatory It and Anticipatory It finite: a finite verb is inflected according to person, tense, or mood rather than being an infinitive or a participle non-finite: the non-finite forms of a verb are the infinitive and participle forms; e.g to take, taking, taken modality: is the category by which speakers express attitudes towards the event contained in the proposition modal: any of the AUXILIARY verbs which indicate attitudes if the speaker / writer towards the state or event expressed by another verb, i.e which indicate different types of modality mood: there are three main moods in English: the declarative mood, the interrogative mood, and the imperative mood There is also a less common mood, the subjunctive mood object: see Direct Object, Indirect Object and Prepositional Object direct object: is the single Object in a transitive clause, not mediated by a preposition and having no prepositional paraphrase It can become Subject in a passive clause indirect object: is that clause constituent which immediately follows the Predicator in clauses with two Objects It can become Subject in a passive clause and has a prepositional paraphrase It is associated with the Recipient and Beneficiary roles prepositional object: is an Object mediated by a preposition The nominal element following the preposition can become Subject in a passive clause person: a term used to refer to the three classes of people who are involved in something that is said They are the first person (the person speaking or writing), the second person (the person being addressed), and the third person (the people or things that are being talked about) participant: that is, entities of all kinds, animate or inanimate, concrete and abstract, that are involved in the processes predicate: what is said about the subject of a sentence- that is to say, all of a sentence except the subject predicative adjectives placed after a verb like be, seem, look are in predicative position She looks happy; The house is enormous See also attributive predicator: is identified syntactically by position and concord It indicates the process type and is associated with the meaning expressed by tense, aspect, modality, voice and phrase It is realized by Verbal groups register: in extent of this thesis, we describe grammatical use with respect to just four major registers: conversation (CONV), fiction (FICT), news (NEWS), and academic prose (ACAD) These registers have the virtue of being (a) important, highly productive varieties of the language, and (b) different enough from one another to represent a wide range of variation reciprocal verb: a verb which describes an action which involves two people doing the same thing to each other; eg They met in the street; He met her yesterday source language: a language from which with been taken into another language target language: the language into which a translation is made subject: is a syntactic element of clause structure, of which the other elements are Predicator, Complements, Objects and Adjunct The Subject is identified syntactically by the features of position, concord, pronominalisation and reflection in tag question Semantically, almost all participant roles can be associated with the Subject theme: is an element of thematic structure, of which the other is Rheme Theme is the point of departure for the message and is realized in English by the first clause constituent topic: is a discourse category representing the notion “what the text, or part of the text, is about.” marked Theme: when a clause constituent is moved to initial position, this is called thematic fronting and the fronted element is a marked Theme 10 APPENDIX I Adjectives with anticipatory it as subject Group I: In THAT-CLAUSE that HAS INDICATIVE VERB ONLY These adjectives have to with truth or knowledge: It is true that she never comes on time apparent appropriate awful bad certain clear doubtful essential evident extraordinary fair funny good implicit important indubitable likely lucky natural obvious odd plain possible queer sad strange true untrue unlikely well-known wonderful : rõ rành rành, hiển nhiên, chối cãi : phù hợp, thích hợp : kinh khủng, khủng khiếp : xấu, không tốt : chắn : rõ ràng, sáng sủa, dễ hiểu : đáng ngờ, ngờ vực : cốt yếu, chủ yếu : hiển nhiên, rành rành : lạ thường, khác thường, phi thường : phải, đúng, hợp lý : buồn cười, ngộ nghónh : tốt, đẹp : ngấm ngầm, tiềm ẩn, tiềm tàng : quan trọng : hiển nhiên, rõ ràng : xảy ra, phù hợp : may mắn : tự nhiên : rõ ràng, rành mạch, hiển nhiên : kỳ cục, khác thường : đơn sơ, chất phác, rõ ràng, dễ hiểu : có thể, xảy : lạ lùng, kỳ quặc, khả nghi : buồn : kỳ lạ, khác lạ, không quen : đúng, có thật : không đúng, sai, trái với thật : không đúng, không thực, khả xảy : tiếng, biết : tuyệt vời 112 Group II: THAT-CLAUSE HAS PUTATIVE SHOULD, OR SUBJUNCTIVE VERB (or marginally, also, an indicative verb) These adjectives express concepts concerned with modality or volition: It is essential that the ban / should be lifted tomorrow be lifted tomorrow NON-PARTICIPIAL able : advisable :được khuyên dùng, nên, thích hợp, đáng theo admirable, : đáng khâm phục, đáng ngưỡng mộ, tuyêt vời anxious : lo lắng appropriate : thích hợp, thích đáng apt : thiên, dễ certain : chắc, chắn compulsory : có tính bắt buộc, cưỡng crucial : định, cốt yếu, chủ yếu curious : tò mò desirable : đáng thèm muốn, khát khao due : vì, do, tại, xứng đáng eager : háo hức, hăm hở eligible : đủ tư cách, thích hợp essential : cần thiết, mấu chốt, chủ yếu fit : thích hợp, vừa, xứng đáng, fitting : thích hợp, phù hợp free : tự greedy : tham lam hesitant : dự important : quan trọng impossible : imperative : cấp bách, khẩn thiết, bắt buộc, cưỡng chế impotent : bất lực yếu đuối improper : không phù hợp incomprehensible : hiểu nổi, khó hiểu irritable : dễ bị kích động, bẳn tính keen : sắc sảo, tinh nhạy liable : có trách nhiệm, có nghóa vụ pháp lý likely : chờ đợi, xảy loath :bất đắc dó, miễn cưỡng necessary : cần thiết obligatory : bắt buộc, cưỡng bách powerless :bất lực, quyền hành 113 possible probable proper preferable prone ready reluctant sure unable vital welcome worthy PARTICIPIAL determined disposed fated inclined poised prepared (all) set unqualified willing : : có lẽ : phù hợp : hay hơn, phù hợp : ngả về, thiên : sẵn sàng : miễn cưỡng : tin chắc, chắn : không thể, khả : sống còn, quan trọng : chào đón : đáng giá : quyết, kiên quyết, xác định rõ : sẵn sàng : định mệnh, số định : có khuynh hướng, có chiều hướng : điềm đạm, tự chủ, đónh đạc : chuẩn bị : chuẩn bị, đặt trước : không đủ tư cách, không đủ trình độ : lòng, vui lòng, sẵn lòng, muốn Group III: THAT -CLAUSE HAS INDICATIVE VERB OR PUTATIVE SHOULD This group consists mainly of emotive adjectives, and includes a large number of participial adjectives ending in –ing: It is strange / upsetting that she is / should be so late NONPARTICIPIAL awkward curious disastrous dreadful extraordinary fortunate irrational logical odd : vụng về, lúng túng : ham học, hiếu kỳ, tò mò : tai hại, thảm khốc, bất hạnh : dễ sợ, kinh khiếp : lạ thường, khác thường, phi thường : may mắn, tốt số : phi lý, lý trí : hợp lý, có tính logic : kỳ cục, kỳ quặc 114 peculiar sad tragic unfortunate PARTICIPIAL amazing alarming annoying commendable deplorable depressing despicable disappointing embarrassing frightening inconceivable irritating interesting lamentable shocking surprising pleasing perplexing remarkable understandable unjustifiable : kỳ lạ, khác thường , đặc biệt : buồn, : bi kịch, có tính thảm họa : rủi ro, bất hạnh : làm kinh ngạc, làm sửng sốt : làm hỏang sợ, gây hoang mang : quấy rầy, chọc tức, làm phiền : đáng ca ngợi, tán dương : đáng trách, tồi tệ, tệ hại : làm buồn phiền, chán nản : đáng khinh, ti tiện, hèn hạ : làm thất vọng : làm lúng túng, bối rối : đe dọa, hăm dọa, làm hoảng sợ : hiểu được, kỳ lạ, phi thường : làm bứt rứt khó chịu, chọc tức : thú vị, hấp dẫn : đáng thương, thảm thương, : gây sốc, gây choáng váng : làm ngạc nhiên : làm hài lòng, vui lòng : làm lúng túng, phức tạp rắc rối : đáng ý, khác thường, xuất sắc : hiểu được, thông cảm : vô lý, biện minh These adjectives can also occur with anticipatory it and an of-phrase as additional complementation: It was foolish of you to spend so much He is foolish to meet her again = It is foolish of him to meet her again Only “action” words could replace foolish in this construction: brave careful careless crazy : can đảm, dũng cảm : cẩn thận : vô ý, bất cẩn : điên khùng 115 clever cruel foolish generous good greedy kind mad nice polite reasonable rude selfish sensible silly stupid unwise wicked wise wrong : thông minh : tàn bạo,hung dữ, ác : ngốc nghếch, dại dột, ngu xuẩn : rộng lượng, hào phóng : tốt : tham lam, thèm muốn : hiền lành, tốt bụng : đở hơi, khùng : dễ thương, tử tế : lịch : có lý, hợp lý : thô lỗ : ích kỷ : biết điều : ngớ ngẩn, ngốc nghếch, ngu xuẩn : ngu ngốc : ngu ngốc, thông minh : xấu xa, độc ác : thông minh, thông thái : sai laàm 116 APPENDIX II A Here is the list of common adjectives that are used to describe the weather: bitter blowy blustery boiling breezy chilly cloudy cold cool damp dark dry fine foggy freezing frosty hot humid icy light lovely misty muggy rainy showery stormy sunny thundery warm wet windy : lạnh buốt : có gió : gió thổi dội : nóng khủng khiếp, nóng sôi : gió mát hiu hiu : lạnh lẽo, giá lạnh : đầy mây, u ám : lạnh lẽo : mát mẻ : ẩm ướt, ẩm thấp : tối trời : khô : đẹp trời, thời tiết tốt : có sương mù : lạnh cóng, đóng băng : băng giá, giá rét, phủ đầy sương giá : nóng, nóng nực : ẩm , oi : đóng băng : nhẹ nhàng, sáng sủa : đáng yêu, dễ thương : mù sương : nồm ấm, oi : có mưa : có mưa rào : có bão : nắng, có nắng : có sấm chớp : ấm áp : ẩm ướt : có gió, lộng gió 117 B The following verbs are used after ‘it’ to talk about the weather: drizzle hail pour rain sleet snow thunder : mưa phùn , mưa bụi : mưa đá : mưa trút : mưa : mưa tuyết, mưa đá : đổ tuyết : sấm 118 APPENDIX III Here is a list of nouns used in complements in the structure It’s + noun + to-clause / that-clause It’s a pity that you didn’t come on time disgrace marvel nuisance pity shame surprise wonder : tình trạng bị thất sủng, ghét bỏ : điều kỳ diệu, kỳ công : phiền toái : tiếc nuối : nhục nhã, xấu hổ : điều ngạc nhiên : điều kỳ diệu 119 APPENDIX IV Here are verbs to say what someone thinks about a fact The verb is followed by a noun group and a ‘that’ – clause amaze : làm kinh ngạc amuse : làm vui thích annoy : làm phiền appeal : yêu cầu khẩn khoản astonish : làm kinh ngạc astound : làm kinh hoàng, sửng sốt bewilder : làm bối rối, hoang mang bother : quấy rầy, làm phiền delight : làm vui thích disgust : ghê tởm distress : làm giảm stress grieve : làm đau buồn, đau lòng horrify : làm kinh hoàng interest : làm quan tâm , thích thú please : làm hài lòng, vui lòng shock : gây sửng sốt, gây choáng váng surprise : làm ngạc nhiên upset : làm thất vọng worry : làm lo lắng strike (one’s mind) : lóe lên óc cross (one’s mind) : nghó Here are verbs to say about a fact The verb is intransitive and is followed by a that-clause : Type SP appear chance come out emerge happen occur seem transpire turn out : : có khả là, may mà : hóa : hóa : chuyện : chuyện xảy : : chả là, chuyện làø : hóa 120 APPENDIX V Here is a list of reporting verbs which are used in the passive with ‘it’ as their subject: accept acknowledge admit agree allege announce argue assert assume believe claim comment concede conclude confirm consider decide decree discover estimate expect explain fear feel find foresee forget guarantee hold hope imply know mention : chấp nhận, chấp thuận, thừa nhận : công nhận, bày tỏ lòng biết ơn : chấp nhận, chấp thuận, thừa nhận : đồng ý : viện cớ, nại lý : thông báo : tranh luận, tranh cãi : đòi hỏi, xác nhận, khẳng định : cho rằng, thừa nhận : tin , tin tưởng : đòi, yêu sách, thỉnh cầu : nhận xét, phê bình : thừa nhận đúng, nhường : kết luận, kết thúc : xác nhận, chứng thực, củng cố : xem xét, cân nhắc, cho : định : ban bố, sắc lệnh : khám phá, phát : ước lượng : chờ đợi, trông đợi : giải thích : sợ : cảm thấy : tìm thấy : tiên tri, thấy trước : quên : đảm bảo : cầm, nắm giữ, tổ chức : hy vọng : ngụ ý : biết : ngụ ý, đề cập đến 121 note notice object observe predict propose realize recall reckon recommend record remember report request reveal rule rumour say state stipulate suggest suppose think understand : lưu ý : nhận thấy, để ý thấy : phản đối : quan sát : tiên đoán dự đoán : đề nghị : nhấn thức được, nhận : hồi tưởng, nhớ lại : tính tóan, : đề cử, tiến cử, giới thiệu : ghi âm : nhớ : báo cáo : yêu cầu : mở, lộ : điều hành , cai quản : đồn đại, đồn thổi : nói : trình bày : quy định, đặt điều kiện : đề nghị : cho : nghó, nghó : hiểu 122 APPENDIX VI: SOME COMMON MODAL THEMES IN VIETNAMESE Hình : Có lẽ : Có thể : Chắc : Nghe đâu : Phải : Hay : Đương nhiên : Tất nhiên : 10 Hiển nhiên : 11 Chắc chắn : 12 Dó nhiên : 13 Dường : 14 Gần : 15 Ngờ đâu : 16 Té : 17 Hóa : 18 Thì : 19 Có phải : 20 Y : 21 Đột nhiên : 22 May/ Hên là: 23 Rủi/ Xui : 24 Quả : 25 Thật : 26 Thật tình : 27 Bực : 28 Kẹt : 29 Đùng : 30 Ngặt nỗi : 31 Khó nỗi : 32 Đau : 33 Thua : 34 Oan nỗi : 35 Đúng : 36 May : It seems that It seems that It’s possible that It’s sure that It said that It is , isn't it?/ Is it true that Is it good if It’s clear that It’s obvious that It’s obvious that It’s certain that/ Surely that It’s certain that It seems that It’s almost that It’s unexpected that / It’s amazing that It turns out that It appears that It turns out that Is it true that It’s exactly like that It’s sudden that It’s lucky that It’s unfortunate that It’s true that It’s true that It’s true that It’s a nuisance that / It’s annoying that It’s a trouble that It’s a sudden that It’s difficult that It’s difficult that It’s (a) bitter that / It’s tragic that It’s bad that It’s injustice that It’s true that It’s on the chance that 123 37 Họa 38 Có tệ 39 Của đáng tội : : : It should be a chance that It’s not very bad that It’s in truth that 124 APPENDIX VII QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is carried out for a scientific research Please answer the questions according to your best knowledge Thank you very much Read carefully the following information and tick the box: - age: … 18-25 … 26-35 - grade : … freshman … sophomore - your high school is in: … city - you are … an employee … a student - Do you usually use English in your work? … yes - Your average score of Vietnamese at high school : … under … from 5-7 … over 35 … senior … other … no … over Translate the following sentences into Vietnamese (Note: you can look up the new words in dictionary but not to refer grammar books for the structure of sentences) If any sentence is new or too difficult for you, please circle the number Look at that bird It always comes to my window in the morning What’s a knife used for? It’s used for cutting Last winter was very severe It ruined the corn crop in Arizona Where is your baby? It’s drinking its milk in the room, isn’t it? A: They lost the game B: Yes, so I hear Isn’t it a shame? It’s half past five It’s only a hundred miles from here to Philadelphia 125 It’s terribly cold in the trucks It’s raining 10 How much is that coat? – It’s 200 dollars 11 It’s a nuisance that banks here are closed on Saturdays 12 It is true that she never comes on time 13 It’s difficult to understand what she’s talking about 14 It seemed that she had not been careful enough 15 It happened that he didn’t come on time 16 Is it worth reserving a seat? 17 It’s no use trying to explain – I’m not interested 18 It really hurts me to know the truth 19 It took me a year to save up for a new hat 20 It makes her happy to see others enjoying themselves 21 It’s time you came back 22 It is now believed that foreign languages are most easily taught to young 23 It was in Oslo that Jane bought me a jacket 24 It was Ted who broke the news to me 25 It’s money that they want Thanks a lot for your help! 126