Luận văn thạc sĩ: A study on syntactic and semantic features of English verbs of senses with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A study on syntactic and semantic features of English verbs of senses wit

INTRODUCTION

Rationale

Of all parts of the sentence, the verb is often hypothesized to be the semantic variant in linguistics (Gentner, 1982) The language of the world has many variations related to the verb information of SENSE, as well as its singular forms Accordingly, all SENSE verbs have a certain common meaning (Schultze, 2000)

In addition to exploring the semantic differences derived from the SENSE verb, this thesis also considers the internal organization of the SENSE verb through its meaning investigation based on close attention to the structure grammar structure and semantic characteristics of these vocabularies Another fundamental aspect of the current approach is the basis of vocabulary data in the broad sociological context Language and human culture are combined, from which they gradually adapt (Levinson 2003) Thus, the author not only confines to observations of purely linguistic characteristics, the author also attempts to clarify the field of sociology in which semantic distinctions between verbs SENSE in both English and Vietnamese Historically, there have been no hypotheses regarding the link between culture and language or vice versa Thus, in this paper, the author shows that there is a relationship between the semantic structure of the SENSE verb and ecological context in which this verb is used

Perception verbs are complex problems for learners in both their grammatical form and lexical meaning Learners tend to avoid expressing their ideas with perception verbs because they are not confident of using them Many perception verbs carry more than one meaning Thus, it is difficult for learners to determine accurately the meaning of perception verbs From many researches and experiences of author, this research found it is difficult for Vietnamese learners to use perception verbs in speaking and writing English accurately Meanwhile, not much of research on perception verbs has been done For that reason, I hope that this work will be a start for further studies on syntactic and semantic features of English verbs denoting senses with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents

Recently, with the support of technology and Internet, global communication has become common, and thus English is more important all over the world Nevertheless, it is sometimes difficult for learners of English to find the right words when expressing their opinions and feelings due to the different meaning in different contexts, especially when transferring meanings of words from English to Vietnamese and vice versa The verbs maybe the most important part of the sentence since they state what is happening in the sentences’ context

English verbs are grouped into different classifications based on various criteria in order to help English learners to understand and use them easily One of the most important groups of verbs may be the group of verbs denoting senses, such as: to see, to seem, to taste, to touch, to sound, to hear, to listen

These verbs are considered as having the high frequency of appearance in the usual daily conversations They have a wide range of meanings, and if English users and translators do not pay attention or understand deeply the context, they can misunderstand and be confused Trying the best to find the right answer for the difficulties in order to motivate teaching, learning and translating is one of the most necessities, which Vietnamese users take for granted Investigating into the syntactic and semantic features of English sensory verbs to see; to hear; to touch; to smell; to taste with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents is of great help for

Vietnamese users in using these verbs effectively and correctly

For all the above reasons, the author has decided on the topic for her thesis A Study on Syntactic and Semantic Features of English Verbs of Senses with Reference to Their Vietnamese Equivalents The thesis is aimed at syntactically and semantically analyzing the five English sensory verbs together with their Vietnamese equivalents The study is also expected to provide Vietnamese users of English with better mastering how to apply the verbs in general and verbs of senses in sensible ways, how to understand comprehensively and how to translate them effectively and correctly.

Aims and objectives of the study

As the title indicates, this paper aims to investigate the linguistic features of English verbs denoting senses with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents The verbs include: to see, to hear, to touch, and to taste The thesis sets up as its tasks to investigate how the verbs combine with other words and what they mean in English sentences On the basis of what they are in English and how they are translated into Vietnamese, the writer expects to point out possible similarities and differences in terms of syntax and meanings of these verbs in English and Vietnamese in order to assist Vietnamese learners to study and to use these verbs effectively and correctly

In order to achieve the above aims, the study focuses on the following objectives:

 To analyze the syntactic features of verbs of senses in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents;

 To find out semantic features of verbs of senses in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents;

 To suggest some recommendations on the improvement of English teaching and learning those verbs.

Research questions

On the basis of the mentioned aims and objectives, the researcher will seek to answer the following questions:

 What are the syntactic features of English verbs of senses with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents?

 What are the semantic features of English verbs of senses with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents?

 What are the recommendations for learning, teaching those verbs of senses?

Methodology of the study

The thesis employs mainly qualitative research method in order to describe and analyze syntactic and semantic features of English verbs of senses On the basis of the features found, the author goes on to use the comparative method to point out the similarities and differences between English verbs of senses with their Vietnamese equivalents

In order to find out the errors Vietnamese learners of English may make with English sensory verbs and then to propose suggestions for avoiding making mistakes, the author resorts to survey methods, testing students of a school where the author is working as an English teacher to detect what difficulties they encounter in learning the English sensory verbs under study

Together with those methods mentioned above, in order to describe the study results the author uses several research techniques such as: statistical techniques to deal with numbers and percentage of data, designing tables and figures for illustration of arguments under discussion, etc

 Primary data of the research are collected from the direct survey by qualitative method

 Secondary data are collected from many sources, such as: grammar books, dictionaries, research reports of universities, articles in newspapers and academic journal, documents and scientific publications related the research, etc

 Collecting and classifying into groups based on grammar

 Examining syntactic features of English and Vietnamese perception expressions through data collected

 Examining semantic features of English and Vietnamese perception expressions through data collected and finding out translational equivalents in Vietnamese.

Scope of the study

So far, many researchers have expressed particular views concerning perception verbs However, this has hardly been a subject of study in linguistic semantics, mainly; it seems, because of its apparent ‘technical’ and thus marginal status It appears that from the point of view of natural language semantics, perception verb behaves, in fact not that exceptionally, but are in full conformity with independently established semantic generalizations This study defines as its tasks to limit itself to the analysis of syntactic and semantic features of five English verbs of senses with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents The verbs of senses under study of the research are the verbs: to see; to hear; to touch; to smell; to taste In spite of the fact there are many sensory verbs in English, such as: to watch, to find, to observe, to feel, to savor…The main reason is that the English program of the 11th grade introduces only these five basic verbs; these verbs are also the most common and widely used words in basic communication in high school

In carrying out the research, this study is basically drawn on the works of the English and Vietnamese authors as has been cited in the list of references The author also confines itself to a small group of secondary school students where the author works as an English teacher to conduct a small survey to see what difficulties they may encounter in learning these verbs so that possible pedagogical solutions may be put forward for those students in particular and for Vietnamese learners of English in general.

Significance of the study

The study describes and analyzes the linguistic features of English verbs of senses, including "to see; to hear; to feel; to smell; to taste” This study is expected to focus on the syntactic and semantic features of those verbs, and create a comparison with Vietnamese translational equivalents to see the differences and similarities between two languages (in terms of five verbs) to facilitate the using and translating those verbs

Based on this study, Vietnamese learners and translators can have understanding that is more comprehensive on sensory verbs, and then differentiate those verbs to choose the most suitable verbs to express their opinions or feelings without creating mistakes Thus, the target objective of this paper is to study the syntactic and semantic features of verbs denoting senses

The researcher would like to contribute the study to developing the quality of learning and training at the school It is a strong hope that it can be considered as a useful companion of all people who are interested in translation subject and want to improve their translation skills.

Design of the paper

 Chapter 1: Introduction indicates the background, objectives, significance of the research and research question as well as research scope, methodology and data overview, limitations on the research problem

 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Theoretical Models emphasizes key concepts and theoretical framework, which go along with the proposed framework

 Chapter 3: The verbs of senses in English and their Vietnamese equivalentspresents the syntactic and the semantic features of English denoting the verbsto see, to hear, to smell, to touch, to taste in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese

 Chapter 4: Common errors made by learners of English when using the verbs of senses in English show results, discussions and some suggestions for common errors when learners useto see, to hear, to smell, to touch and to taste in English

 Chapter5: Conclusion provides the conclusion, limitation of the research for and suggestions for further study

LITERATURE REVIEW

Previous studies Error! Bookmark not defined 2.2 Theory of syntax Error! Bookmark not defined 2.3 Concepts of semantics Error! Bookmark not defined 2.4 An overview of English Verb Error! Bookmark not defined

According to Vendler (2001), the verbs are placed into four classes: activities, accomplishments, achievements, and states In “Semantic Structure”, Jackendnoff also presents some verbs of manner of motion and configuration Moreover, in the study of Biber (1998), verbs are classified into seven major semantic domains, although many verbs have more than one meaning Marcella Frank in “Modern English a practice reference guide” classifies verbs by complement of verb or by form of verb The types of verbs described have difference according to the kind of complement they may have According to George A Miller (2012) verbs are divided into 15 files largely based on semantic criteria All but one of these files corresponds to what linguists have called semantic domains verbs of bodily care and functions, change cognition, communication, competitions, etc

Viberg’s research results of the 20 most frequent verbs in European 7 language (English, German, Swedish , French, Spanish, Finnish, Hungarian show that the field of perception is represented by the verb denoting visual perception, namely the verb “see”

In Vietnam, Nguyen Kim Than (1977) mentions the formation of Vietnamese verbs and their classification Moreover, there are also some studies on semantic and lexical features of verbs For example, Nguyen Van Chien (2004) studies the semantic features of verbs as “ăn” in Vietnamese Truong Thi Hue (2005) also studies verbs denoting the concept of eating Huynh Vu Chi Tam (2004) has a study on semantic features of state related verbs in English and their Vietnamese equivalent expressions There have been many studies that focus on verb groups Tran Thi Phuoc Hanh (2002) analyzed the semantic and syntactic features of four English verbs: Say-Tell-Speak-Talk and their Vietnamese equivalents Luu Thuy

My Hanh (2006) with the title of “A Study of Semantic and Syntactic Features of Motion Verbs in English and Their Vietnamese Equivalents” studied on semantic and syntactic features of motion verbs in English and Vietnamese equivalent There have been studies of Nguyen Thi Mai (2008) with an investigation into linguistic features of the English verbs “carry, bring, take” and their Vietnamese translational equivalents, Le Lan Phuong (2007) with the title “Verbs Denoting the Concept of

“SEEING” in English and Vietnamese” with verbs denoting the concept of seeing in English and Vietnamese, Nguyen Thi Hong Duc (2005) with the title of “English Spatial Verbs and Their Vietnamese Equivalents” English spatial verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents in the light of cognitive grammar

So far, to the author’s knowledge there appears to have no work related to the study of the five sensory verbs to see, to hear, to smell, to touch, to taste in English This is a strong motivation for the author to select the topic for her MA thesis

As far as how syntax is defined, it is common knowledge that syntax is the study of structure of language In other words, its main targets are said to be the study of the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language To this end, the goal of many syntacticians is to discover the syntactic rules common to all languages They are to dictate how words from different parts of speech are put together to convey a complete thought

It is also said that syntax is a form of grammar and it is concerned primarily with word order in a sentence and with the agreement of words when they are used simultaneously For example, the syntax is about which order subject, verb, and object have in a sentence to form a well-formed sentence A sentence like like it I is not considered a well-formed sentence, basing on the English syntax, even if people would understand that the correct sentence is I like it It is also true that every language has developed a specific mechanism that is similar to syntax to make a boundless number of sentences This is a common feature that can be witnessed in all languages

In the past, syntactic clues have sometimes been utilized in lexicography as an aid to establishing polysemy In theoretically oriented linguistic literature, too, the claim had often been made that a difference in meaning (Dixon, 1985) In the present work, however, a stronger claim has been tried to explore that a syntactic similarity is likely to reflect a similarity in meaning, so that shared syntactic patterns are likely to reflect shared semantic components To the extent to which this claim is validated, shared syntactic properties can be seen as evidence for postulated semantic structures

As has been discussed above, syntax refers to the rules that govern the ways in which words combined to form phrases, clauses, and sentences Therefore, studying the syntactic features means studying the properties of words and their relationships when they combine together in specific patterns of arrangement in a sentence

Semantics is a branch of linguistics, which deals with meaning or the content of communication According to Hurford and Heasley (1983:1), semantics is the study of meaning in language Language is a means of communication, and people use language to communicate with others by making conversations, giving information, and other things to make social relationship It is also said that human beings have been given the capacity to talk, to communicate with each other, to make meaningful utterances, so that they are understood by other human beings They communicate about the world in which they live, about themselves, about their thought and feeling, about what has happened, about what might happen or what they would like to happen, and a lot more

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary (2010: 1583) defines that semantics is the study of the meaning of words and phrases in language Structural semantics applies the principles of structural linguistics to the study of meaning through the notion of semantic relations (also called sense relation), such as synonym and antonym In generative grammar, the semantic component is a major area of the grammar’s organization, assigning a semantic representation to sentences, and analysing lexical terms of semantic features The theory of semantic fields views vocabulary as organized into areas, within which words (lexical items) interrelate and define each other

Apart from that Jack Richards, John Platt, Heidi Weber (1987:172) state that “ the study of meaning” is semantics Semantics are usually concerned with the analysis of the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences and sometimes with the meaning of utterances in discourse or the meaning of a whole text

Meanwhile, from a communicative perspective, Hurford and Heasley (1983:5) state that the giving of information is itself an act of courtesy, performed to strengthen social relationships This is also part of communication In line with this approach, some linguists tried to define the semantics which is supposed to study the relations of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable and in this way of investigation, semantics is sometimes connected with pragmatics Carnap (cited in Lyons, 1997:116) says that descriptive semantics (i.e The investigation of the meaning of expressions in “ historically given natural language”), may be regarded as part of pragmatics The reason why descriptive semantics is part of pragmatics seems to have been that he believed that differences in the use of particular expressions were not only inevitable in language-behaviour, but must be taken account of in the description or context Smith, as quoted by Lyons (1977:116) states that semantics studies how these signs are related to things And pragmatics studies how they relate to people Hartford and Heasley (1983:14) further explain that the study of semantics is largely a matter of conceptuality and exploring the nature of meaning in a careful and thoughtful way, using a wide range of examples, many of which we can draw from our knowledge

From what has been discussed so far, semantics should be looked at from linguistic and communicative perspectives; semantics is the study of meaning of what words or phrases mean literally and pragmatically

2.4 An overview of English Verb

The syntactic features of English verbs denoting senses in English and their

As mentioned in Chapter 2, according to Richard et al (1976),although there are many different approaches to syntax, it can still be generally understood as a term used in linguistics to study how to combine words into units such as phrases, clauses, and sentences In this section, the author will analyze the syntactic features of English verbs denoting senses in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

Syntactically speaking, the verb TO SEE can be used in several structures as follows:

To see verb is also an intransitive verb, not followed by the direct object The learner can say that “I see” in order to indicate that he/she understands what someone is telling him/her For example:

Ex: He / came / home / in / my car / I / see

(Source: Oxford English Dictionary at www.oed.com)

The subjects of the TO SEE verb can be the personal pronouns, person nouns and animal nouns:

Ex: She / looked for /him /but /could not see /him / in / the crowd

S V1 O V2 O Prep O (Source: Oxford English Dictionary at www.oed.com)

This is a sentence composed of two single clauses with the conjunction "but" The subject of all single sentences is a pronoun “She”, and one verb is “looked for” in sentence 1 and the other is “could not see” in sentence 2 There are also 2 components in the second verb phrase of the sentence, “could not” is auxiliary and

“see” is a main verb The TO SEE verb is written with the meaning of being aware of somebody/something by using the eyes Besides, it is also used under the form of bare-infinitive

In the above example, it can be said that TO SEE verb is an transitive verb, followed by the direct object, the preposition “in” and the object of preposition “ the crowd” In addition, when being followed by the direct object, the TO SEE verb can be used with two structures as follows:

Structure 3: See + Object (somebody / something) + V (bare infinitive)

In this structure, To SEE verb is used to describe the action that the subject sees is complete It can be shown in detail with the example:

Ex: I /saw / him / fall off / the wall

Structure 4: See + Object (somebody / something) + V-ing

This structure TO SEE someone doing something is used to describe the action we see happening and is still going on at the moment of speaking For example:

Ex: I /saw / the burglar / climbing over / the fence

Between structure 2 and 3, sometimes there is not much difference in English In Vietnamese, the SEE verb tends to have no difference between the two structures Therefore, depending on the intonation, it can be used with either structure

Structure 5: S + See (Present Continuous) + O + ADV

To SEE is used in this structure when the meanings of the TO SEE verb is something meaning TO MEET rather than TO PERCEIVE This can be seen in this sentence:

Ex: I / am seeing / the same therapist / for many months

Moreover, sensory verbs when doing a stigma in a language that can be a situation:

English: Seeing that he seemed nervous, I did not dare to press further

However, if learners use it with the meaning of perceiving with their eyes and use it in the continuous tenses, it will be considered wrong

The subjects of to hear verb can be the personal pronouns, person nouns and animal nouns It can be used with the same structure like this: “Aladdin could not hear anything” (Source: Oxford English Dictionary at www.oed.com) In this sentence, the subject is “Aladdin”, the auxiliary verb is “could”, the main verb is “hear” and

“anything” is object The verb TO HEAR in this sample shows the aware of sounds with ears

TO HEAR is usually a transitive verb, followed by the direct object with two structures as follows:

Structure 1: Hear + Object (somebody / something) + V (bare infinitive)

When the verb TO HEAR is used in the structure like “Hear someone or something”, its aim is to describe the action that we hear is complete For example:

Ex: I /heard / a car / drive off

Structure 2: Hear + Object (somebody / something) + V-ing

The general structure is “Hear someone doing something” to describe the action which we hear, is happening and is still going on

Ex: I /heard / my brother / singing / in / the bathroom

Similar to the verb TO SEE, the verb TOHEAR can also be used as a V-ing when it is a gerund or verbal noun For example: Hearing from you soon (Source: Oxford English Dictionary at www.oed.com) Or when ‘HEAR’ is used to mean

‘experience’ then we can use it in the progressive form, such as:

Ex: She / was always hearing/ voices / in / her head

As it is a stative verb, TO HEAR is rarely used in the continuous form It is more usual in the simple present : I hear Or, as with other verbs of perception, people often use it with “can” : I can hear/I can't hear/ Can you hear ? People occasionally use the continuous form only in informal comments For example: “I can't believe what I'm hearing”

In Vietnamese, the corresponding verb to the verb TO HEAR seems to be used more flexibly than in English Specifically, it is used with the following functions:

Firstly, a sensory verb has a predicate function in a sentence with a typical subject noun or pronoun refers to person For example: Chủ nhà đã phải nghe rất nhiều những lời phàn nàn từ dịch vụ của anh ấy This sentence could be roughly translated as “The owner has to hear a lot about the complaint of his services” Finally, some cognitive verbs appear in a lack of subject structure with a special semantics, for example, “Nghe đâu nó đã lấy chồng” in Vietnamese (http://tratu.soha.vn) and(translate something tentatively as) “ Hearing that she got married” in English

In the next part, the authors will show the syntactic features of English denoting senses in English with the verb of TOUCH to know the structure and function of the verb of TOUCH in English

The subjects of the verb to touch can be the personal pronouns, person nouns and animal nouns, for example, “Mary can touch her toes” (Source: Oxford English

Dictionary at www.oed.com) In this sentence, Mary is the subject, “can” is auxiliary verb, “touch” is main verb, “her” is possessive adjective and “toes” is noun TO TOUCH is a transitive verb, followed by the direct object With this structure, it means to put your hand or another part of your body onto somebody/something Besides, TO TOUCH is also an intransitive verb, not followed by the direct object when the learner can say that “I touch” in order to indicate that he/she makes physical contact with a thing such as: “Please can I have a look, if I promise not to touch” (Source: Oxford English Dictionary at www.oed.com)

Similar to other verbs of senses, this verb cannot be used in the continuous form with the meanings of perceiving with the hands It can only be used in the form of V-ing when it is a gerund or verbal noun, such as: “ Touching me, please!” (Source:

Oxford English Dictionary at www.oed.com)

The verb to smell shows the aware of sounds with noses

The subjects of the TO SMELL verb can be the personal pronouns, person nouns and animal nouns and it is usually used as a transitive verb, followed by the direct object with the two following structures:

This structure is used to notice or recognize a particular smell by a nose (not used in the progressive tenses; the verb is often used with “can” or “could”) For example:

Ex: He / could smell /gas / when he entered the room

Structure 2: Smell + Object (something) + V-ing

The general structure is “Smell something doing something” used to describe the smell which we smell, is happening and is still going on like this sentence:

Ex: I / can smell / something / burning

The semantic features of English denoting senses in English and their

The semantic features play a very important role in distinguishing the combination of words and meanings To do this job requires a huge amount of features Nevertheless, linguists believe that there should be a smaller number of features in grammar Moreover, the semantic characteristics of English denoting senses in English and their Vietnamese equivalents The author will analyze further through the following sections:

According to the Oxford dictionary (2010), the verb TO SEE in English shows the main following meanings:

The first meaning is to become aware of somebody/something by using your eyes, for example: “If you watch carefully, you will see how it is done” (www.oed.com)

It could be translated “Nếu bạn nhìn ngó cẩn thận, bạn sẽ biết nó được hoàn thành như thế nào” in Vietnamese Or “I saw you put the key in your pocket”

(www.oed.com) The sentence could be translated into Vietnamese: “Tôi nhìn thấy bạn đã để chìa khóa vào túi áo khoác”

The second meaning is to have or use the power of sight The author will set an example for this meaning such as: She will never see again (= she has become blind) (www.oed.com) And its Vietnamese equivalent may be “Cô ấy sẽ không bao giờ có thể nhìn thấy được nữa”

Sometimes, it is used to describe the action of watching a game, television programmers, performance, etc For example, “In the evening, we went to see a movie” (www.oed.com) The Vietnamese meaning of this sentence may be “Vào buổi tối, chúng tôi cùng nhau đi xem phim”

The next meaning is to visit somebody, like in this sentence: “Come and see us again soon” (www.oed.com) – “Đến thăm và gặp lại chúng tôi lần nữa nhé” in Vietnamese

Finally, it can also be used with the meaning of understanding something For example, the English sentence is “it’s broken.’ ‘Oh yes, I see what you mean.”(www.oed.com) And the Vietnamese equivalent could be“Nó bị vỡ rồi.” “Ồ vâng, tôi hiểu bạn muốn nói gì.”

In brief, the meanings of this verb can be compiled into the following table:

Table 3.1: Summary of the Semantic Features of TO SEE

Use eyes Watch Visit Understand

VIETNAMESE TRANSLATIONAL EQUIVALENTS OF TO SEE

From the study of semantic features, we see that the meaning of SEE is very plentiful Due to its concrete context in each sentence, it could have different meanings Therefore, its Vietnamese translational equivalents also are abundant:

Table 3.2: English verb TO SEE and Its Vietnamese Translational

English Verb to see Vietnamese Translational Equivalents

Nhìn thấy (bằng mắt) Xem ca nhạc/ phim/ TV Viếng thăm

It can be said that the main meaning ofthe verb TO HEARcould correspond to the verb "nghe thấy" in Vietnamese There are three main meanings of the verb TO HEAR in English

The first meaning is to be aware of sounds with your ear, for example, “ He could hear a dog barking” (www.oed.com) And the Vietnamese translation could be

“Anh ta có thể nghe thấy tiếng chó sủa” Or“Did you hear him go out?”-“Bạn có nghe thấy tiếng anh ta đi ra ngoài không?” (www.oed.com)

The next meaning is to listen or pay attention to somebody/something, such as:

“Did you hear that play on the radio last night” in English (www.oed.com) and

“Bạn có nghe thấytiếng radio vào tối qua không?” in Vietnamese

Besides, it is also used to be told about something English sentence is “Haven't you heard?She resigned” (www.oed.com).Vietnamese translation of the sentence may be“Bạn có nghe tin gì chưa? Cô ấy đã từ chức rồi” Therefore, the semantic features of the verb TO HEAR can be summarized in the following table:

Table 3.3: Summary of the Semantic Features of TO HEAR

Use ears Listen/ pay attention

To be told about something

VIETNAMESE TRANSLATIONAL EQUIVALENTS OF TO HEAR

Like TO SEE, TO HEAR also has different Vietnamese translational equivalents for all semantic meanings Furthermore, it is important to pay attention to Subjects and Objects in the sentences with the verb to hear We can compare the combination between them:

Table 3.4: The English to hear and Its Vietnamese Translational Equivalents

English to hear Vietnamese Translational Equivalents

Nghe thấy bằng tai Lắng nghe/ chú ý Nghe tin tức về điều gì đó

For the following analysis, the English verb TO TOUCH will be used with five main meanings The first meaning indicates the action of putting your hand or another part of your body onto somebody/something: to touch somebody/something For example, “I touched him lightly on the arm”

(www.oed.com) This sentence could have the Vietnamese meaning “ Tôi đã chạm nhẹ nhàng vào cánh tay của anh ấy”

The next meaning shows the action is or comesso close together that there is no space between (of two or more things, surfaces, etc.) “Do not let your coat touch the wet paint” and its Vietnamese meaning could be “Đừng để áo khoác của bạn chạm phải vệt sơn còn ướt” (www.oed.com)

Sometimes, it can be used to touch something/somebody to move something, especially in such a way that you damage it; to hit or harm somebody (often in negative sentences) For example, “I told you not to touch my things” in English and “Tôi đã bảo rằng bạn đừng di chuyển bất cứ thứ gì của tôi” in Vietnamese (www.oed.com)

The fourth meaning of TO TOUCH is to reach a particular level like “The speedometer was touching 90” The Vietnamese meaning of the sentence may be

“Máy đo tốc độ đã đạt đến con số 90” (www.oed.com)

Summary

This chapter has dealt with the syntactic and the semantic features of the five English sense verbs, namely TO SEE, HEAR, TOUCH, SMELL and TASTE The examples used in the analyses have been taken from sources as already touched upon in the Chapter 2 The discussion of findings on the syntactic and semantic features of TO SEE, HEAR, TOUCH, SMELL and TASTE include the analyses of the similarities and differences in aspects of syntax and semantics of these verbs.

Research survey

To obtain the above stated purpose, the survey test has to answer the following questions:

What are the common mistakes Vietnamese learners may make and what are the recommendations for learning, teaching, and translating those verbs of senses?

Subjects of the research: 100 students of the grade 11 at Le Quy Don Gifted High School in Lai Chau with GPA ranging from 5.5 to 9.5 over grade 10

Time of the research: in Summer time, 2017

It took about a long time to finish the survey First, the researcher started to choose the exercises and then decided on the questions After the test papers were designed, they were delivered to the students; the test papers were used to collect data for the study The test papers are attached as in the Appendix The survey includes 3 exercises, one with Grammar test, one translation test into Vietnamese and the other translation test into English

Finally, the study was completed to find out the common errors on the verbs of sense in English by the students in grade 11 at Le Quy Don Gifted High school and some suggested solutions were given as well.

Data collecting instruments and analysis

As seen in the appendix, in order to survey the difficulties Vietnamese learners may face when learning and using the five verbs of senses in English, the author used two written tests: one is a grammar and the other is a translation test In the former, there are ten sentences in which the students are supposed to recognize which form of the sensory verb is used correctly or incorrectly All the students have to do in the first test is underline whether the answer is C or I In the latter test, there are two short stories for the students to translate: one into Vietnamese and the other into English In these two translation tests, the students were not obliged to translate the whole texts; instead, they only had to translate the sentences which contained the verbs of senses (they are bold-typed) The other sentences were only for them to follow the contents of the stories The two survey tests were done by by 100 students in grade 11 at Le Quy Don Gifted High School in Lai Chau province.

Data analysis

After the survey, the table below shows the results collected:

Table 4.1: The results of common errors made by learners of English when using the verbs of senses in English

Common errors Grammar errors related to verbs tense of sense

Vocabulary errors related to words of sense choices Percentage of Having-mistakes test papers/total test papers 99% 89%

Table 4.1 shows that 99% of grammar errors are related to verb tense form and 89% of vocabulary errors related to wordchoice This means that the errors of vocabulary of students are less than the errors of grammar errors of students in this school

Table 4.2: The results of grammar and vocabulary mistakes with each sensory verb

No Errors of Grammar Grammar errors Vocabulary errors

1 She is touching her puppy every morning

2 I have seen him walk since 6:00 am

3 I saw him fall off the wall

4 This cake tastes so sweet

6 I were seeing the burglar climbing over the fence

7 See the mistake, she corrected it immediately

8 I have seen things that are not there

9 I am hearing a car drive off

She is tasting the cake

The table 4.2 could show that the highest percentage of grammar errors is in the sentence “This cake tastes so sweet” and the lowest percentage of errors in the sentence “I am hearing a car drive off” Moreover, the highest percentage of vocabulary errors is in “This cake tastes so sweet” and the lowest percentage of vocabulary errors is in “I saw him fall off the wall”

Table 4.3: The percentage of Grammar and Vocabulary errors of sensory verbs

Table 4.3 shows that the grammar errors related to verb tense form including

“Taste” with the highest percentage of 37 percent, the errors percentage of

“Touch”’ of 23 percent, the errors percentage of “Smell” of 19 percent, the error percentage of “See” with 12 percent, and the lowest percentage of “Hear” with 8 percent

Moreover, in the vocabulary errors related to verbs tense form including “Touch” with the percentage of 31 percent, the errors percentage of “ Smell” of 19 percent, the percentage of “Hear” with 15 percent, the percentage of “See” with 13 percent, and the lowest errors of “Taste” with 11

Table 4.4: The results of Test paper with Translation errors of students

No Errors of Translation Percentage (%)

Verbs of senses in Story

The above table could show that the result of translation errors of students in the English story is 99%, in Vietnamese story 1, 98%, and Vietnamese story 2,99% which is very high percentage of errors

Furthermore, the meaning of words in translation of “Smell”, “Biết”, “Hiểu” with the error translation percentage is 93% of “Smell”, the percentage of “Biết” with the error translation percentage, 90%, and the error percentage of “Hiểu” is 89% Based on the results of the analysis above of the test paper in Appendix of this thesis, students and then teachers could reflect on the most common errors through the exercises of grammar and translation of the test paper to select appropriate ways of learning, translating and teaching the verbs of senses in English

4.4.1 Common errors made by learners of English when using the verbs of senses in English

4.4.1.1 Grammar related to verbs tense of sense:

Referring to grammar, the errors in using English sensory verbs may be categorized as follows:

 Subject-Verb Agreement Errors occur when the subject does not agree with the verb in person or number

Ex: She touch her puppy every morning

Correction: She touches her puppy every morning

 Verb Tense Errors occur when an incorrect time marker is used The verbs of sense are usually not used in the present continuous form

Ex: *I was seeing him walking since 6:00 am

Correction: I have seen him walking since 6:00 am

 Verb Form Errors occur when a verb is incorrectly formed

Ex: I will seen you in next week

Correction: I will see you in next week

 Sentence Structure Errors refer to a broad range of errors that occur for a variety of reasons: wrong word form, word loss or redundancy, wrong word order, etc The following examples are just a few among the many:

Ex: Correct: I saw him fall off the wall Wrong: I saw him falling off the wall

Ex: : Correct: The food smelt of onion Wrong: The food smelt onion

4.4.1.2 Vocabulary errors related to word choice

This part only focuses on analyzing the vocabulary errors related to word choices Errors, which are related to grammar points and others points of vocabulary will not be analyzed in detail in this part

 Word Form Errors occur when the wrong part of speech is chosen

Ex: This cake smells so sweetness

Correction: This cake smells so sweet/ this cake smells of sweetness

 Word Choice Errors refers to a broad range of errors, from completely incorrect word use, to connotation being off, to substitution of antiquated forms for more common ones, to using words together that do not typically appear with each other

Ex: The Vietnamese phrase “Ngửi thấy mùi hương” was incorrectly translated by the students into English For example:

4.4.1.3 Translation errors related to meaning of those verbs in English and Vietnamese

The most common errors students made in translation in the test paper is that they do not understand the context and the meaning of words in translating

The students might not fully understand the aspects of styling in a script Due to unfamiliarity with target language, they interpret a test text without knowing its appropriate style

Ex: He bent down, pinched a sprig of lavender, put his thumb and forefinger to his nose and smelled it

Almost all students translate that: Ông ấy cúi người, ngắt một nhánh hoa oải hương, đặt ngón tay cái mà ngón tay trỏ vào mũi và ngửi nó

Correction:Anh ấy uốn mình, ngắt lấy một nhành hoa oải hương và đặt chúng lên ngón tay cái và tay trỏ của mình và đưa gần đến mũi và hít lấy mùi hương của nó

Because the context here is that in a natural and peaceful surrounding, the man shows his gesture to Laura to let her also care about the smell of lavender

In translation, usually students care about the meaning of the translation, but they have not got the skills for diction; they do not pay much attention to word form and word class Consequently, they make errors in translation

Ex: Cái hồn của anh nó hình thù ra sao, vuông hay tròn, hả?

Almost all students translate into English like:

Ex: Does your soul like square or circle? (like: preposition)

In this case, the students translate word for word, without caring whether or not the sentence has got a verb predicate; they choose the wrong word class

Correction: How does your spirit look like, like a square or a circle ?

4.4.2 Causes of common errors made by learners of English when using the verbs of senses in English

 Causes of grammar errors related to verbs tense form:

From the errors mentioned above, it can be said that the majority of students focus only on Vietnamese structures without regard to the transmission of all the basic meanings of English

Ex: * She touch her puppy every morning

The students just care about the grammar in Vietnamese and not care much about the grammar in English so they write with “touch” excluding “–es” for this sentence in English as the simple tense form

Correction: She touches her puppy every morning

The most important thing is that English translation must be done based on the grammar of the English language The reason for this error is that the students did not notice the difference between the two languages, English and Vietnamese The English has got the specific rules of use and form They do not only notice the form of the verb but also use the right function of the word in the sentence All of these errors are aggregated for grammatical errors related to verb sense form

 Causes of errors on word choice:

Some students use the word-for-word technique and largely depend on the meaning of the word in the dictionary

Ex: Cái hồn của anh nó hình thù ra sao, vuông hay tròn, hả?

The students already cared about the grammar for the question, but they did not care to choose the word in the sentence and just translate word by word

Ex: Wrong: Does your soul like square or circle?

They also choose synonyms without paying a lot of attentionto the context In fact, pairs of synonyms only share at least one common meaning but not all of their senses Therefore, students must recognize that a word is appropriate only in certain situations and that in other cases other words cannot be used appropriately even though they have a close meaning In other words, to a certain extent, they are not interchangeable and most synonyms have the same meaning in certain contexts For that reason, if students use synonyms that are not contextual, they can make their translations funny and pointless Their weaknesses in background knowledge and mother tongue are also difficulties in choosing appropriate words to translate Vietnamese-English In addition for the above reasons, one important thing for this is that most students seem to spend little time learning independently and do not focus on translation

 Causes of errors in translation

Survey tests also show that the students might not fully understand the aspects of styling in a script Due to unfamiliarity with target language, they interpret a test text without knowing its appropriate style Another reason is that they do not know to choose the right words in terms of meaning and parts of speech.

Suggestions for teaching and learningto see, to hear, to touch, to smell and to

To answer the research question number 3: What are the recommendations for teaching and learning those verbs of senses? The author gives some suggestions concerning the teaching and learning of the verbs under investigation

4.5.1 Suggestions for teaching those verbs for Vietnamese learners of English

In order to teach the sense verbs see, hear, touch, smell, taste to the learners, teachers are supposed to do a gear number of tasks, one of which is that they should point out the similarities and differences of the sense verbs” The following should be made clear to the learners:

Firstly, the teacher should help learners realize that all sense verbs in English are lexical verbs In other words, when they are used in negative statements or questions, they need to go with auxiliary verbs For this reason, the following sentence is incorrect “You see a car over there?” (Correct: Can you see a car over there?)

Next, In English grammar, word form is very important English learners should be instructed that two of the five sense verbs are regular verbs: touch, taste and the other three see, hear, smell are irregular The following example is incorrect *

Suddenly, she heared a noise outside (Correct: Suddenly, she heard a noise outside) since the writer or speaker has broken the rule

Teachers are expected to help learners to realize that all the sense verbs under study are dynamic verbs, they indicate actions For illustration of this feature, firstly, they can go with adverbs: I can’t see it clearly (Incorrect: *I can’t see it clear)

Secondly, they can be used in –ing form: The cook is tasting the soup and require objects in the sentence The example sentence that follows is incorrect * He is smelling; the meaning of the sentence is incomplete: smelling what? (Correct: He is smelling the food) Not all the five sense verbs can be used as stative verbs; only two of them smell, taste can It is not correct to say, for example: My mum's food tastes deliciously Instead, we say My mum's food tastes delicious

Another important thing is that teachers should make sure that learners can distinguish the concepts of voluntary and involuntary perception or action Semantically, the sense verbs can involve voluntary actions; they can be used in – ing form, and it is correct to say, for example:

Ex: I’m seeing him off at the airport tonight (= go and say good bye)

Ex: The cook is tasting the soup

Apart from that, sense verbs can also be used to refer to involuntary actions or states In this usage, they are not used in progress form Therefore, instead of saying

I'm seeing the ocean from my window We use can or could with them: I can see the ocean from my window Instead of saying, for example, This is smelling awful, we say This smells awful since the sense verb does not describe actions, they indicate state

As for the form of the verbs that follow the sense verbs, when indicating involuntary perception, it should be pointed out that the verb hear or see can be used with another verb that follows in base form or –ing form For example: the sentence I saw her play football means that I saw the whole game of football or I saw the whole action (the action is complete at the moment of speaking) whereas I saw her playing football indicates that when I saw her, she was playing football

We assume that the speaker did not watch the whole game The game probably continued after the speaker stopped (the action is incomplete, is happening at the moment of speaking)

As has been described above, the five sense verbs are all dynamic verbs However, not all of them are transitive verbs; teachers should instruct learners to distinguish when to use them transitively and intransitively In most cases, sense verbs are transitively used, but the verb see, hear and touch can be used intransitively since they indicate involuntary actions The examples are:

Ex: As far as I can see, you've got an excellent chance of getting that job Ex: I haven’t heard from her recently

Ex: As our glasses touched, he said ‘Cheers!’

The verb smell and taste can be used intransitively, too However, they cannot stand by themselves; they are usually used with preposition + objects:

Ex: Her breath smelled of onions

Ex: This drink tastes like sherry

In order to fulfill those tasks as has been described above, teachers could employ a variety of strategies with their students Their students could learn from rules to sentence making or from sentences to making rules However, the best strategy appears to be that learners should expose themselves to the use of sense verbs in context by doing various tasks and practice using them in specific situations

4.5.2 Suggestions for learning those verbs for Vietnamese learners of English

To improve the ability to use the sense verbs, learners are supposed to do a great number of things:

First, they should be aware of the fact that they are learning English In other words, they are learning to develop another habit of language usage, which is to some extent influenced by the mother tongue One of the basic things in English learning is that English is an inflectional language; words change their forms when used to build English sentences, some changing their forms regularly and some irregularly For example, in the past tense form the verb touch or taste have –ed endings whereas the verb see or hear do not follow the rule In order to master the form and meaning of the sense verbs, in addition to understand about the rules of using the verbs through teachers’ instructions, learners are supposed to read English grammar books or reference books, which contain not only the types but also the uses of all the sense verbs There are some grammar books available in the bookshops and the libraries, which are suitable for every level of learners; such as “English grammar in use – Ngữ pháp tiếng Anh thực hành” (Raymond Murphy), “Collins Co build English grammar”, “Văn phạm tiếng Anh thực hành” (Trần Văn Điền), “The grammar book” (Marianne Celce, Diane Larsen – Freeman) and “the good grammar book” (Oxford) It is a strong hope that these suggested grammar books can help the students to improve grammar in general and better understanding about the sense verbs in particular easily and quickly

Secondly, they should do many exercises related to sense verbs since : practice makes perfect” Related exercises are of various types: Filling in the blank with the right word form, selecting the right word to finish the sentence, translating sense verbs containing sentences, etc For example, learners are expected to select the answer C to put in the question: Did you see my sister ………….? (A go out, B going out, C to go out), select the right word to fill the blank of the sentence: The drink smells … coffee /……of coffee or translate into English: Con dao này có mùi tỏi (The knife smells of garlic)

Summary of the chapter

In this chapter the author presented the methodologies used to find out common errors in using English sensory verbs through a case study It includes research questions, research participants, data collection instruments and research procedure Then it has pointed out the common errors on verbs of sense and word choices in Vietnamese-English translation made by the students Those errors are related to both grammar related to verb tenses and vocabulary about word choices The grammar errors related to verb tenses include misuse of verb tenses, misuse of verb forms and incorrect verbs Most of the students chose incorrect and inappropriate words when they translated Vietnamese phrases in the texts as the examples mentioned above Finally, the research shows some suggestions for teaching and learning the verb to see, to hear, to touch, to smell, to taste in English.

CONCLUSION

Concluding remarks

From the investigation, the English SENSE verbs can be generalized as having a wide range of meanings in both Vietnamese and English They combine with other word-classes to form lexicon-grammatical structures in which various manifestations of meaning could be expressed

Syntactically, most of the English SENSE verbs can be transitive, taking direct objects, indirect objects, or intransitives verbs, without any objects Besides, it is necessary to notice that they can combine with some types of adverbials to create diverse syntactic structures The adverbials can be an Adverb (Adverb phrase), Noun (Noun phrase) or Prepositional Phrase

Semantically, from analyzing the examples taken from the above parts, it can be concluded that the differences in meaning between English SENSE verbs and Vietnamese SENSE verbs are not great In addition, the choice of these 5 English SENSE Verbs, which include: TO SEE, TO HEAR, TO TOUCH, TO SMELL and

TO TASTE is based not only on the semantic meanings but also on the special relation between Subjects and Objects to decide which English SENSE Verb is appropriate

After analysing the syntactic and sementic features of English verbs denoting senses in English and their Vietnamese equivalents, the author collected and did descriptive statistics on the responses to the test questions by test papers with the sample of 100 students in grade 11 at Le Quy Don Gifted High School in Lai Chau province The results of this survey help the author to find out two types of common errors on verb tenses and word choices in using the verbs of senses in English Causes of those errors and some suggestions have also been pointed out It is recommended that the learners have to focus on their ways of self-study and apply the strategies for themselves as many as possible so that they will find their own suitable ways for learning the sensory verbs in English It will be easier and smoother in their study if the learners spend time on studying carefully the source language text, to do analysis of it, and then to look for the equivalent way in which the same message is expressed naturally in the receptor’s language At that time their uses of texts will become more and more adequate and appreciate One of their important devices to avoid mistakes is that literalisms should be avoided and language users should strive for a truly idiomatic expressions in receptor’s language text.

Limitation of the study

As mentioned in the scope of the study, the thesis undoubtedly has some limitations though the researcher has tried her best to complete it Due to limit of time and data collected, there are unavoidable weaknesses in the study, for example, the thesis investigates some English SENSE verbs, not all; therefore, there are still other verbs which need studying or other verbs of SENSE could be more comprehensively studied.