TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ HÀ NỘI ĐỀ KIỂM TRA (KẾT THÚC HỌC PHẦN) MÔN: PHƯƠNG PHÁP LUẬN NGHIÊN CỨU KHOA HỌC Mã môn: EN05 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Chọn một đề tài nghiên cứu khoa học theo chuyên ngành ngôn ngữ Anh; trình bày kết quả nghiên cứu khoa học theo dạng thức của một Luận văn tốt nghiệp. Chú ý: 1. Đề tài phải đúng chuyên ngành Ngôn ngữ Anh; 2. Bài làm viết bằng tiếng Anh, theo mẫu đính kèm trong buổi Vclass 2; 3. Bài làm có độ dài từ 12 – 15 trang khổ A4, phông chữ Times New Roman, cỡ chữ 13, cách dòng 1.3; canh lề trên, dưới, phải, trái 2,5 cm. 4. Bài làm không được giống nhau; tuỳ theo mức độ giống nhau sẽ bị trừ điểm từ 1 – 10 điểm.
Trang 1MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
TRAN …
Verbs in English and Vietnamese (Động Từ Trong Tiếng Anh Và Tiếng Việt)
B.A THESIS
Field: English Language
Code: 7220201
2024
Trang 2MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
TRAN …
Verbs in English and Vietnamese (Động Từ Trong Tiếng Anh Và Tiếng Việt)
B.A THESIS
Field: English Language Code: 7220201
Supervisor: ASSOC PROF DR HOÀNG TUYẾT MINH
Hanoi, 2024
Trang 3TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ HÀ NỘI ĐỀ KIỂM TRA (KẾT THÚC HỌC PHẦN)
MÔN: PHƯƠNG PHÁP LUẬN NGHIÊN CỨU KHOA HỌC
Mã môn: EN05
………
………
Chọn một đề tài nghiên cứu khoa học theo chuyên ngành ngôn ngữ Anh; trình bày
kết quả nghiên cứu khoa học theo dạng thức của một Luận văn tốt nghiệp
Chú ý:
1 Đề tài phải đúng chuyên ngành Ngôn ngữ Anh;
2 Bài làm viết bằng tiếng Anh, theo mẫu đính kèm trong buổi Vclass 2;
3 Bài làm có độ dài từ 12 – 15 trang khổ A4, phông chữ Times New Roman, cỡ
chữ 13, cách dòng 1.3; canh lề trên, dưới, phải, trái 2,5 cm
4 Bài làm không được giống nhau; tuỳ theo mức độ giống nhau
sẽ bị trừ điểm từ
1 – 10 điểm
Trang 4MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
NGUYEN THI
VERBS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (ĐỘNG TỪ TRONG TIẾNG ANH
VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)
B.A THESIS
Field: English Language
Code: 7220201
Supervisor: ASSOC PROF DR HOÀNG TUYẾT MINH
Hanoi 2024
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled "Verbs in English and Vietnamese (Động Từ Trong Tiếng Anh Và Tiếng Việt)." submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person's work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis
Hanoi 2024
Trần …
Approved by
SUPERVISOR
Assoc Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh Date:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the following people for their great support during my two-year time for the MA course First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to
my supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh for her enthusiastic and useful guidance, insightful comments, and encouragement
without which my thesis would not have been completed
My special thanks go to all my lecturers at Hanoi Open University for their precious assistance, knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm in their lectures from which I have acquired valuable knowledge and inspiration to fulfill this minor thesis
I also would like to express my indebtedness to my family, my
friends, and colleagues who have given me constant support and love during the completion of the thesis
Last but not least, my sincere thanks are for the people who will give
me the precious comments after reading the graduation thesis
Trần …
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to investigate the syntactic and semantic features of English verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents The study employed two major methods: the descriptive method is used
to describe mainly the syntactic and semantic features of verbs in English and the similarities and differences between these and their Vietnamese equivalents, and the comparative method is used to
Trang 5make a comparison between verbs in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in order to point out the similarities and differences
between them
The findings pointed out that: (i) In terms of syntactic features based
on sentence patterns, verbs in English have a wide range of
structures that include tense, aspect, and modality, which can be quite flexible Vietnamese verbs, on the other hand, tend to follow a simpler structure that often relies on context rather than inflectional changes (ii) In terms of semantic features, English verbs can express nuances of action and state through the use of auxiliary verbs and verb phrases, while Vietnamese verbs often rely on word order and context to convey meaning (iii) In terms of comparison between English verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents based on the English-Vietnamese dictionaries, therefore, the structures of the verbs in the source language are translated and transferred with adaptations to fit the target language structure The study hopefully supplies some implications for teachers of English teaching English as a second language in Vietnam
List of Abbreviations (If any)
A adverbial
C complement
Co object complement
O object
Od direct object
Oi indirect object
S subject
V verb
List of tables and figures (If any)
Table 2.1: Summary of verb structures in English and Vietnamese Table 2.2: Comparative analysis of verbs in English and Vietnamese Table 2.3: Examples of complex verb phrases in English
Table 4.1: Syntactic features of verbs in English
Table 4.2: Semantic features of verbs in English
Table 4.3: Comparison of syntactic features of verbs in English and Vietnamese
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Certificate of originality
Acknowledgements
Abstract
List of abbreviations
List of tables and figures
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
Rationale
Aims and objectives of the study
Research questions
Scope of the study
Trang 6Methods of the study
Significance of the study
Structure of the study
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Previous studies
An overview of syntax and semantics
Theory of syntax
Theory of semantics
An overview of verbs
Definition
Classification of verbs according to their structures
Intensive verbs
Extensive verbs
Summary
Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY
Research design
Methods of the study
Data collection and data analysis
Summary
Chapter 4: VERBS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS Syntactic features of verbs in English
Structure of verbs
Tense and aspect in verbs
Modality in verbs
Semantic features of verbs in English
Contextual meaning of verbs
A comparison between verbs in English and their Vietnamese
equivalents
Implications for teaching verbs in English to Vietnamese learners of English
Implications for teachers of English
Implications for learners of English
Summary
Chapter 5: CONCLUSION
Concluding remarks
Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study
REFERENCES
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
Rationale
Nowadays, English is considered one of the most popular languages for everyone all over the world There are many challenges in
learning English, such as listening, speaking, reading, writing,
grammar, lexicology, etc Grammar plays a very important role in English; it is not easy for English learners to study Moreover,
learners are affected by their mother tongue during the process of studying, which causes much confusion to them However, it is not so
Trang 7difficult that English learners cannot study because English grammar
is also systematic
Theoretically, verbs are very important constituents of every
sentence Particularly, the main features of verbs in English are dealt with in every general grammar book, such as Quirk et al (1985), Biber et al (2000), or Huddleston et al (1985) There exist a large number of publications dealing solely with verbs, their
characteristics, and their semantic behavior (for example, Palmer F.R (1985), Sinclair J.ed (1998), or Levin B (1993) It is also possible to find many publications dealing with specific types of verbs, such as those that specialize in modal verbs, auxiliary verbs, and more
In Vietnamese, the main features of verbs are dealt with in every general grammar book, such as Nguyễn Lai (1976), Nguyễn Lai
(1984), and Nguyễn Kim Thản (1984) It is also possible to find many publications dealing with specific verbs
Practically, in the process of teaching and learning English in general and verbs in English and Vietnamese in particular, there is no specific material for them; therefore, both teachers and learners of English meet difficulties in the process of teaching and learning them
As has already been said above, this construction can be labeled as understudied Therefore, the study will shed more light on syntactic and semantic features of English verbs and their Vietnamese
equivalents
Aims and Objectives of the Study
This study aims to help Vietnamese teachers and learners of English master verbs in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of their syntactic and semantic features effectively
In order to achieve the aims, some objectives can be put forward: Identifying syntactic and semantic features of verbs in English
Finding out the similarities and differences between English verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features
Giving some implications for teaching and learning verbs in English effectively
Research Questions
What are the syntactic and semantic features of verbs in English? What are the similarities and differences between English verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features?
What are implications for teaching and learning verbs in English
effectively?
Scope of the Study
In English, verbs can be categorized into several types, including action verbs, linking verbs, and auxiliary verbs This study focuses on the verb group, which includes structures such as tense, aspect, modality, and their roles in sentence structures
Trang 8All the verbs of this group are investigated in English-English
dictionaries and English-Vietnamese dictionaries
In terms of syntactic features, all the verbs are identified according
to their structures and components
In terms of semantic features, the meanings of verbs in various
contexts are determined, which means the meanings of these verbs are explored in terms of their usage in different contexts
In terms of their Vietnamese equivalents, these verbs are examined according to English-Vietnamese dictionaries in order to make a
comparison in terms of their syntactic and semantic features to find out the similarities and differences between them
In this study, English is considered the source language, and
Vietnamese is the target language, so in this study, syntactic and semantic features of verbs in English are analyzed and compared with their Vietnamese equivalents
Methods of the Study
In this study, the major methods used are descriptive and contrastive analysis The descriptive method is used to describe the syntactic and semantic features of verbs in English The contrastive analysis is used to point out the similarities and differences between English verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features
Significance of the Study
Theoretically, this study seeks to contribute to the theoretical basis
of the characteristics of the syntax and semantics of verbs in general and verbs in particular and the similarities and differences with their Vietnamese equivalents
Practically, the study is expected to be used as a good reference for learning and researching language The result of the study, through analysis and comparison between two languages, may be of great benefit for teachers and learners of English, as well as being helpful
in using the language effectively in life Suggestions for teaching and learning verbs are given more effectively Besides that, this research
is conducted with the hope that, in the foreseeable future, teachers
of English will get to know more about verbs and realize the
importance of them in teaching verbs so that they can adapt it to their own teaching conditions
Structure of the Study
To gain the above goals, the study is divided into five chapters:
Chapter I: Introduction deals with the rationale to choose the thesis, the aims, the objectives, the scope, and the significance of the
thesis
Chapter II: Literature Review summarizes the results of the previous studies in Vietnam and overseas in order to build the theoretical background for the study
Trang 9Chapter III: Methodology points out the research approach, describes the methods and materials used in doing the research, including data collection and analyzing techniques
Chapter IV: Verbs in English and Their Vietnamese Equivalents points out syntactic and semantic features of English verbs and a
comparison between syntactic and semantic features of English
verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents are made Implications for teaching English verbs are given
Chapter V: Conclusion summarizes the whole contents of the study, indicating concluding remarks, and limitations, thus giving some recommendations and suggestions for further study
References come at the end of the study
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Previous Studies
There have been several studies focusing on verbs in English, such
as the works of Quirk et al (1985) and Huddleston et al (1985), which have detailed the structural complexity and variability of verbs
in English These studies highlight the importance of tense, aspect, and modality in forming verb phrases and how they contribute to meaning and grammatical function
In Vietnamese linguistics, researchers like Nguyễn Lai (1976) and Nguyễn Kim Thản (1984) have explored verbs extensively, discussing how the Vietnamese language uses word order and context to create meaningful and grammatically correct verb phrases
Previous studies often focused on the structural components of
verbs, analyzing how they form the backbone of sentences English verbs are known for their complex inflectional morphology, which allows speakers to convey a wide range of meanings and
grammatical nuances Vietnamese verbs, by contrast, are less
inflectional, relying more heavily on context and specific particles to express tense and aspect
Key Studies:
Quirk et al (1985): This seminal work on English grammar provides a detailed analysis of verb structures, examining how verbs interact with other sentence elements to convey meaning
Nguyễn Lai (1976): Focuses on the syntactic role of verbs in
Vietnamese, highlighting the importance of verb placement and modifier use in sentence construction
Biber et al (2000): Explores the role of verbs in both spoken and written English, emphasizing their dynamic nature and adaptability across different contexts
2.2 An Overview of Syntax and Semantics
Understanding the syntax and semantics of verbs is crucial in both English and Vietnamese Syntax refers to the arrangement of words
to create meaningful sentences, while semantics focuses on the meaning conveyed by these structures
Trang 10Theory of Syntax
In English, verbs often include a base form, tense, aspect, and
modality, with the flexibility to include auxiliary verbs This allows English speakers to construct complex ideas through intricate verb structures
The syntactic role of verbs involves their interaction with subjects and objects, forming the core of predicate structures Verbs
determine the arrangement of these elements, establishing
relationships between them
Vietnamese, however, employs a simpler structure, often requiring the use of context and specific word orders to maintain grammatical correctness This reflects the cultural and linguistic nuances present
in Vietnamese grammar
Vietnamese syntax prioritizes verb placement to indicate the function within a sentence Without inflectional endings, Vietnamese relies on other sentence elements to clarify meaning, often using particles to express nuances
Theory of Semantics
The semantics of verbs is deeply connected to their syntactic
structure In English, auxiliary verbs and modifiers can drastically change the meaning of a verb phrase For example, "run" vs "has been running" not only changes the tense but also the aspect
English semantics involves verb alternations and semantic roles, with verbs determining the thematic roles of subjects and objects This allows verbs to convey specific meanings and nuances, often
modified by adverbs or auxiliary verbs
Vietnamese relies more heavily on context to convey meaning, often using verbs in a way that reflects social and cultural understandings
In Vietnamese, semantics is shaped by the interaction of verbs with contextual elements, emphasizing the use of word order and
particles to convey meaning
2.3 An Overview of Verbs
Verbs are an essential part of language structure, acting as the
action, state, or occurrence within a sentence Their structure can vary significantly between languages, reflecting different linguistic and cultural practices
Definition
A verb typically consists of a base form that expresses action, state,
or occurrence, often accompanied by auxiliary elements to convey tense, aspect, or modality
In English, verbs are often classified into various categories, including transitive, intransitive, linking, and auxiliary verbs Each category has distinct functions and roles within a sentence
In Vietnamese, verbs are less morphologically complex but are
integral to sentence meaning, often accompanied by particles that indicate tense and aspect