A study on subordinators in english and vietnamese

The process can be divided into two stages: First, materials containing relevant information for the study such as grammar book, previous studies, information on the internet…in both lan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Đặng Nguyên Giang, M.A for his valuable guidance, helpful advice, suggestions and encouragement in the process of writing my graduation paper

I am thankful to all of my teachers in the Foreign Language Department for their kindness and assistance during the process of the study

My sincere thanks also go to my friends who have given me useful advice and ideas

I greatly appreciate the support and encouragement from my family

ABSTRACT

In this study, I used of the English as the source language and the Vietnamese language as the target one The process can be divided into two stages:

First, materials containing relevant information for the study such as grammar book, previous studies, information on the internet…in both languages will be collected, and the main characteristics of subordinators in English and Vietnamese are described Then, techniques of analysis and statistics are applied

to find out the positions, grammatical features and semantic implication of subordinators in both languages

Then, basing on the results from the stage 1, comparison and contrastive analysis are applied to find out the similarities and the differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of subordinators

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT……….….………iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study 2

3 Research Questions 2

4 Scope of the Study 2

5 Methodology 3

6 Materials Used 3

7 Design of the Study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1 Theoretical Background 5

1.1 What is Meant by “Subordination”? 5

1.2 What is Meant by “Subordinator”? 6

1.3 Subordinators in the Relationship with Other Connectors 8

1.3.1 Subordinators Versus Coordinators 8

1.3.2 Subordinators Versus Conjunctive Adverbs 9

2 Review of Previous Works 11

3 Summary 13

CHAPTER 2: SUBORDINATORS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 14

1 Subordinators in English 14

1.1 Simple Subordinators 14

1.1.1 Subordinators of Time clause 14

1.1.2 Subordinators of Cause and Effect 16

1.1.3 Subordinators of Concession 17

1.1.4 Subordinators of Condition 19

1.2 Compound Subordinators 21

1.2.1 Compound Subordinators Ending with that 21

1.2.2 Compound Subordinators Ending with Optional that 23

1.2.3 Compound Subordinators Ending with as 25

1.3 Correlative Subordinators 27

2 Subordinators in Vietnamese 29

2.1 Subordinators of Concession 29

2.2 Subordinators of Reason 31

2.3 Subordinators of Purpose 33

2.4 Subordinators of Condition 34

3 Summary 35

CHAPTER 3: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IN TERMS OF SUBORDINATORS 36

1 Features of Subordinators Found in Both languages 36

1.1 Positions of Simple Subordinators in Sentences 36

1.2 Semantic Implication of Subordination by Subordinators 37

2 Features of Subordinators Unique to English 39

3 Features of Subordinators Unique to Vietnamese 39

3.1 Subject Ellipsis 40

3.2 Forming Simple Subordinators into Correlative Subordinators 40

4 Summary 40

PART C: CONCLUSION 41

1 Recapitulation 41

2 Conclusions 41

3 Implementations for language teaching and learning 42

4 Suggestions for further studies 43

REFERENCES 44

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

It cannot be denied that the role of English in our lives has got much importance It is used as the most common language for all parts of the world nowadays Moreover, it is a means to link all cultures and bring a huge treasure

of knowledge to human being, especially in science and technology Awaring of the role of English in modern world, English has been taught for every educational level In the recent years, the quality of teaching and learning has been improved a lot by some educational reform policies of Ministry of Education and Training

It is believed that the purpose of learning foreign language is to communicate successfully with foreigners However, it seems difficult for people to be successful in communicating in any foreign languages if they do not understand clearly and exactly its grammar In other words, und erstanding the grammar is the base of the success in using foreign language However, English appears much different from Vietnamese in variety of aspects This causes many difficulties for Vietnamese learners and teachers in teaching and learning this language

Subordinators are regarded as a kind of connectors that are used to connect different parts in sentences Subordinators play a very important role in building successful sentences in particular and in writing English in general However, it can be said that Vietnamese learners have many troubles in writing and translating English, especially using subordinators in sentences To my best of

my knowledge, this problem has not been found in any works on subordinators before This is the reason why the author decides to make a minor study on this topic with the hope that this would give a small part to help teachers and learners to get the best result in teaching and learning English subordinators

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

The study, as entitled, focus on subordinators in English and Vietnamese; therefore, the main aim of this study is to work out the similarities and the differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of subordinators

In order to achieve the aims, the study is expected to reach the following objectives:

- to study how subordinators are organized structurally and semantically in English and Vietnamese;

- to establish the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of subordinators

4 Scope of the Study

This study does focus on the subordinator (used to connect clauses in sentences) in English and Vietnamese Due to the scope of the graduation paper

as well as the limited knowledge of the author, we would like to pay attention to the following aspects:

- Positions in sentences

- Grammatical features

- Semantic implication of subordination by subordinators

5 Methodology

Due to the main aims and objectives of the study, describing, analyzing, contrasting, and comparing would be mainly carried our throughout the process Also, the study makes use of English as the source language and the Vietnamese language as the target one The process can be divided into four stages

Stage 1: A theoretical framework suggested by Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) is applied in the present study

Stage 2: Materials containing relevant information for the study such as grammar books, previous studies, information on the internet, etc in both languages will be collected, and the main characteristics of subordinators in English and Vietnamese are described and analyzed

Stage 3: After collecting data, techniques of description and analysis are applied to find out the positions, grammatical features and semantic implication

of subordinators in both languages

Stage 4: Basing on the results from the stage 3, comparison and contrastive analysis are applied to find out the similarities and the differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of subordinators

6 Materials Used

In this study, the author uses the following materials:

- Monolingual English and Vietnamese books

- Bilingual English – Vietnamese books

- Information on internet

- Dictionaries

7 Design of the Study

The study consists of three parts, excluding the references

Part A, introduction, consists of the rational, the aims and objectives,

research questions, the scope, the method and the design of the study

Part B, development, is the main part of the study This part is divided into

3 chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review, Chapter 2: Subordinators in English and Vietnamese, and Chapter 3: The similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of subordinators

Part C, the last past, is the conclusion This part consists of recapitulation,

conclusions, implication for teaching and learning English subordinators and suggestions for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Theoretical Background

1.1 What is Meant by “Subordination”?

There are two most popular kinds of relationship in the sentences in both English and Vietnamese: subordination and coordination In other words, most sentences are formed by subordination and coordination of components Subordinations are definited by some grammarians

According to Quirk, Greenbaum (1973), subordination is a symmetrical relation, holding between two clauses in such a way that one is constituent or part of the other In linguistics, subordination is a principle of the hierarchical organization of linguistics units While the princ iple is applicable in semantics, syntax, morphology, most works in linguistics employs the term “subordination” in the context of syntax, and that is the context in which it is considered here The syntactic units of sentences are often either subordinate or coordinate to each other

Biber, Conrad and Leech (1999) pointed out some signals of subordination According to writers, subordination can be signaled by an overt link, in the form of a subordinator or Wh-word, and a non-finite verb phrase, that is, by a verb phrase introduced by an infinitive, present participle or past participle Finite clauses are marked for tense or modality Finite dependent clauses usually have an overt link, stating with a subordinator or Wh-word Look at this example:

(1) You can drink your orange [if you like]

In the example (1), we use if - one of subordinator to connect two

clauses, so the readers or listeners can base on subordinator to recognize subordination

According to Toán, B.M and Lương, N.T (2007), subordination is commonly expressed the relationship between subordinate clause and main clause in a sentence It has following characteristics:

First, it marks an unequal relationship between two clauses in subordinating compound sentences, drives one clause become main clause, and the other is subordinate clause For example:

(2) Hôm nay tôi nghỉ học vì trời mưa

(Today I don’t go to school because it rains)

Main clause subordinate clause

Second, in semantical relationship, two events in two clauses are connected

in a control relationship each other, such as this event happened because of another event, etc It can be seen in example (2)

The final signal characteristic is that all the subordinated components can

change their order in a sentence For instance, we can say Hôm nay tôi nghỉ học

vì trời mưa (Today I don’t go to school because it rains) or Vì hôm nay trời mưa nên tôi nghỉ học (Because it rains, I don’t go to school)

1.2 What is Meant by “Subordinator”?

According to Quirk and Greenbaum (1973), subordinators are perhaps the most important formal indicators of subordination Like preposition, which they resemble in having a relating or connecting function, subordinators form the core of the class consist of single word, and again, as with prepositions, there are numerous compound items which act, to various degrees, like a single conjunction (Quirk and Greenbaum 1973: 313) The writers also state that there are three types of subordinators (subordinating conjunction): simple subordinators, compound subordinators and correlative subordinators

Biber, Conrad and Leech (1999) show that subordinators differ in important ways from other clause links Subordinators are like coordinators, but

they are different from linking adverbial, because subordinators occur in a fixed position at the front of their clause

Oshima and Hogue (1998) claim that subordinators are words and phrases that signal subordinate clause, introduce dependent subordinate clauses and signal the relationship between the subordinate clause and the main clause

Another source shows that subordinators are applied to a grammatical distinct, close class of words whose primary role is to mark a clause as subordinate

In Vietnam, subordinators are considered as particles of empty words and sentences that show the subordinated relationship Like English, they are means

of connecting main element and subordinate element Therefore, subordinators are likely to connect with subordinate clause elements according to Ban and Thung (2001) For instance:

(4) Diệp bị đau đầu vì cô ấy suy nghĩ quá nhiều

(Diep got headache because she thought too much)

In example (4), because joins two clauses Diệp bị đau đầu and cô ấy suy nghĩ

quá nhiều The two clauses have subordinated relationship in which Diệp bị đau đầu is the main clause and cô ấy suy nghĩ quá nhiều is subordinate clause

Sharing the same idea, Toán and Lương (2007) state that subordinators are empty words and they do not denote things but show the grammatical relationship between two clauses (main clause and subordinate clause) They are considered as very important means in connecting two clauses in sentences Look at the example below:

Bởi tôi ăn uống điều độ và có chừng mực nên tôi chóng lớn lắm

(Tô Hoài, ‘Dế mèn phiêu lưu kí’)

(Because I eat in a diet regularly and moderately, I grow very well)

1.3 Subordinators in the Relationship with Other Connectors

1.3.1 Subordinators Versus Coordinators

Both subordinators and coordinators have the function of connecting units

in sentences However, there are many differences between them

The first difference between subordinators and coordinators is that while subordinators link unit(s) that is constituent(s) of larger one, units connected with coordinators stand on equal footing with each other

E.g

(1) Whenever we go to the park, I’m always get bitten by mosquitoes

(2) He was tired, so he went to bed

As we can see, in the example (1), the dependent clause we go to the park subordinates to the main clause by subordinator whenever It can’t stand

independently as a simple sentence but subordinates to the rest clause On the contrary, in the example (2), the two clauses are independent Each of them can stand separately and act as a simple sentence

The second difference need mentioning is that when clauses are connected with coordinators such as and, but, or, subject ellipsis is allowed, subordinators

do not allow subject ellipsis For example, we can’t say I didn’t buy it although

like it, but we have to say I didn’t buy it although I like it

In addition, while coordinators can introduce clauses, words, and phrases, most of subordinators introduce clauses Though the act area of subordinators is smaller than coordinators, in semantic term, subordinators are so variety Let’s look at these examples:

E.g

(3) Although she is fat, she eats candies so much (Concession)

(4) We hurried to school so that we wouldn’t be late (Purpose)

(5) Since he missed the first bus, he came ten minute late (Reason)

The above sentences illustrate some roles of subordinators in sentences in term of semantic

Besides, most of clauses which can change their position are introduced by subordinators, so they can precede or follow the main clause in complex

sentences Thus, we can say There are no polluting exhaust gases because it is

electric or Because it is electric, there are no polluting exhaust gases On the

other hand, the clauses are introduced by subordinators have restricted position; namely, it always follows the rest clause(s) in compound sentences Therefore,

we can’t change the sentence He didn’t want to be seen, so he carefully

sauntered off in the opposite direction into So he carefully sauntered off in the opposite direction, he didn’t want to be seen

Furthermore, subordinators can be put after coordinator and, but, or and

for, e.g I don’t go out at night but only if I can use the car In the following

sentence, two subordinated clauses are joined together with and which precedes the second subordinator because: He asked to be transferred because he was

unhappy and because he saw no prospect

The final difference between subordinators and coordinators is that coordinators usually form looser connections than subordinators do

E.g

Mary was late for work and she received a cut in pay (Very loose)

Mary was late for work; she received a cut in pay (Loose)

Because Mary was late for work, she received a cut in pay (The

subordinator because creates a tighter link between the ideas)

1.3.2 Subordinators Versus Conjunctive Adverbs

Subordinators and conjunctive adverbs are two kinds of conjunction among units in sentences and they are often employed in academic writing However, they are different from each other in many points Students usually meet

difficulties in distinguishing them To make it become clearer, the author would like to give out some main differences between them

Firstly, subordinators can show that one idea is more important than another The idea in the main clause is more important, and the idea in the

subordinate clause is less important while conjunctive adverbs such as however,

moreover, nevertheless, consequently, as a result,…etc are used to join two

independent clauses A conjunctive adverb is a word (phrase) that shows how such sentences, sections of a paragraph, or entire paragraphs are related They add a lot of emphasis

E.g

(1) Although Diana’s life should have been a happy life, it was not to be (2) Natalie loved strawberries; however, they gave her a rash

It can be seen in the first sentence, subordinator although shows that

Diana’s life should have been a happy life is less important, and the idea It was not to be is more important On the other hand, in the second example, however

links two independent clauses Natalie loves strawberries and they gave her a

rash to emphasize that They gave her a rash is contrary to Natalie’s favorite

Secondly, subordinators are usually a single word, but there are also a number of multi–word subordinators that function like single subordinating conjunctions Subordinators make the clause depend on the rest of the sentence

in order to make sense A comma at the end of an adverbial phrase when it precedes the main clause is needed

E.g Although she doesn’t like him, she still go out with him

Usually, no comma is needed before a subordinating conjunction if the dependent clause follows the independent clause

E.g Mary never likes chocolate although it smelled delicious

To conjunctive adverbs, a semicolon and a comma are used when a conjunctive adverb separates two clauses, and the conjunctive adverb is set off

by a comma when it begins a sentence

E.g Mary loves Michael; however, Michael loves Diana

A contrary is to make two sentences: Mary loves Michael Michael loves

Diana, however

When conjunctive adverbs are within an independent clause, they are set off by commas

E.g Natalie ate strawberries, however, without a second thought

Conjunctive adverbs can be often moved around in the sentence without loosing of meaning This can not be done with ‘true’ conjunctions like the coordinating conjunctions

E.g Helena’s car is making strange noises; therefore, she will take it to be

serviced

When a conjunctive adverb is used as an introductory word (at the beginning of a sentence), it needs a comma after it:

Naturally, Kyle has a cosmopolitan view on many topics

Finally, the subordinator is different from the conjunctive adverb in connecting clause While subordinators are used to make a subordinate relationship between two clauses, conjunctive adverbs connect two independent clauses

2 Review of Previous Works

Subordinators play an important role in forming sentences In fact, in both English and Vietnamese there have been several authors who pay attention to

subordinators such as Quirk and Greenbaum (1973), Biber, Conrad and Leech (1999), Oshima and Hogue (1998), Ban, Thung (2001), etc

Quirk and Sydney Greenbaum (1973) partly present subordination formal indicators of subordination, subordinators Subordinators, according to the authors, can be divided into three types: simple subordinators, compound subordinators and correlative subordinators

Oshima and Hogue (1998) consider subordinator is one of three tools to connect clauses They also list out the popular subordinators that are usually used in connecting clauses

Biber, Conrad and Leech (1999) partly discuss about subordination and subordinators The authors also compare between subordinators and coordinators Furthermore, they give out some signals of subordination, and positions of subordinators in sentences

Cobuild (2003) gives a definition of subordinators, and compares between coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions The writer shows specific subordinators in term of semantic and syntactic

Murphy (2001) partly presents about conjunction and preposition, and the author considers subordinator is one of means to connect clauses in a sentences

He gives out some kinds of compound sentences that use subordinators to link two clauses

Ban and Thung (2001) claim that subordinators are often presented in sentences which have subordinate relationship According to the authors, subordinators contain two groups: restrictive subordinators and dependent subordinators based on their effect area Additionally, the writers affirm that depending on different situations, contexts or the intension of the speakers or writers, different subordinators are applied and the order of clauses in sentences

is set up

Toán and Lương (2007) state that subordinator is a means to signal subordinate clause in a sentence The writers also discuss about the usage of some kinds of sentences that use subordinators

In short, although subordinators have been primarily presented in many works, they are only considered as connectors used to links clauses that have the same grammatical function in the sentences Up to now, there have not been any works giving a comparison between English and Vietnamese in terms of subordinators

3 Summary

There are many subordinators in English; however, in Vietnamese, the number seems to be much more than that There are many things in common between the two languages, but they are also different from each other in some points The next chapter will help us to understand more about the grammatical features, positions as well as semantic characteristics of subordinators in the two languages, the similarities and difference between the two languages in terms of subordinators

CHAPTER 2: SUBORDINATORS IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE

1 Subordinators in English

In English, subordinators are very useful means of forming sentences With the role of clause connectors, subordinators always stand at the beginning of subordinate clause Of a sentence is begun with subordinators, a comma after the subordinating clause is needed However, if the subordinator comes in the middle of a sentence, there is no need to put a comma before it It’s when the clauses they join are relatively subordinate another clause Because there are many subordinators in English, we just focus on some kinds of subordinators in English The following will give more details about each kind of subordinators

in English In my own of thinking, the classification of Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) is very easy to follow, so the authors base on their classification to give more detail information about subordinators

1.1 Simple Subordinators

1.1.1 Subordinators of Time clause

Time clause is dependent clauses used to indicate when something

happened The most common subordinators that introduce time clause are: after,

as, before, until, when, while Each subordinator has its own function, but in

general, all of those subordinators imply time

First, when is one of the most popular which is used subordinator of time in

English It is used as a means to connect clause of time to refer time with

dependent clause In other words, when shows that one event happens slightly

after another For example:

E.g The workers ended strike when management agreed to give them a pay raise

It is easy to see that the clause When management agreed to give them a

pay raise mentions about the time that The workers ended strike In a different

word, the strike ended after management agreed to pay a rise When is a signal

to mark the time of the next event in sentence

When when is connected with other tenses, when-clause can express

second connection or it can be put after dependent clause that is interrupted by preceded event For instance:

E.g When the phone rang, he was making himself a cheese sandwich

Semantically, we can use other phrases such as on the day, at the moment followed by that- clause as in: So do you ever go to the college of an evening on

the days that you are working?

The phrase On the day + that-clause tells reader (listeners) the time since

You are working and link two clauses into one sentence And in this example, on the day has the same meaning with when

Generally, when expresses that one event or status follows another

Another subordinator of time is after After is used to express that one

event or status follows another Study the following example:

E.g The workers ended strike after management agreed to give them a pay raise

In above example, it can be understood that first, the management agreed

to give a pay rise, and then the workers ended the strike Hence, after is an

useful tool to tell readers (listeners) about the time and tell them how to express

a sequence of events that this event is followed by other event

On contrary to after, before is used to express that one event precedes

(come before) another The following is example for illustration:

The workers ended the strike before management agreed to give them a pay raise

In this example, first the workers ended the strike, then management

agreed to give them a pay raise

Until is also used to express a time from the past to the present It focuses

on the time when an action or an event began

E.g The workers continued the strike until management agreed to give

them a pay raise

This example has the same meaning to: The strike would continue up to the

time when management would agree to pay a rise

One more subordinator of time is whenever It can be understood as

everytime as in: whenever there is heavy rain and flooding, the New York subway system malfunction means every time there is heavy rain and flooding, the New York subway system is serious affected

While is one of subordinator of time to indicate an action in progress This

action is sometimes interrupted

E.g While the politician was speaking to a large crowd at a rally, he

fainted from heat exhaustion

We can express the above example in a different way like: the politician’s

speech was interrupted when he fainted because of excessive heat While is used

to indicate action in progress The politician was speaking, but this action is interrupted because he fainted from heat exhaustion Thus, while plays an

important role in expressing an event in progress

Last but not least, as is used to express an action in progress that might be interrupted by something else Though as has smaller act area than other subordinators, it cannot be denied that as has its own function in expressing

meaning in sentence including time clause

E.g As the politician was speaking to a large crowd at a rally, he fainted

from the heat exhaustion (The politician fainted in the middle of his speech)

1.1.2 Subordinators of Cause and Effect

Subordinators of cause and effect are also popular in English due to the

semantic implication they show Because, since, and as are three most popular

subordinators express reason We can begin a clause with because, since, as to

give a reason for a particular situation We consider these examples below:

E.g

As it was getting late, I decided I should go home

We must be near the beach because I can hear the waves

Since he missed the first bus, he came ten minutes late

In three examples above, it is easy to recognize that the clauses include as,

since, because give the reason for another event in the main clause The clause can be put before main clause as in: Because the weather is bad, Rescue attempts were temporarily Or it can stand after main clause as in: She stayed at home because she was sick However, it is more usual when as- clause and since- clause stand before main clause We shouldn’t say that: she phoned the police as she saw the wanted man in a small coffee shop We had better if say: As she saw the wanted man in a small coffee shop, she phoned the police

Because-It is also common and acceptable for because to begin a sentence as in:

Because everything looked different, I had no idea where to go

Because is often used to give reasons in spoken English

Semantically, we can use coordinator so to covey reason meanings This creates the variety in using language and avoids the repetition of because/since/as

E.g

Because my mother has arrived, I won’t be able to meet you on Thursday after all

My mother has arrived, so I won’t be able to meet you o Thursday after all

Hence, to avoid repetition, using subordinators should be flexible

1.1.3 Subordinators of Concession

Subordinators of concession include although, though, even though They

are used when we want to say there is a unexpected contrast between what

happened in the main clause and what happened in the adverbial clause The following examples are the illustrations:

E.g

Although he is very rich, he isn’t happy

Though she is very intelligent, she can’t answer my question,

Even though his life is hard, he is determined to study well

We can use one of subordinator of concession among three, but though and

even though are often less formal than although However, though, but not although

or even though, can also be used as an adverb to say that the information in a clause

contrast with information in a previous sentence Moreover, we can give special

emphasis to an adjective of adverb by putting it before though or as, especially when followed by a linking verb such as be, appear, become, look, seem, sound, etc in this pattern, although cannot be used Compare:

Although/though the night air was hot, they slept soundly

Generally, though, although and even though express the concession

meaning However, it is not only these subordinators indicate concession, we can use many transitions to mark concession such as conjunctive adverbs

(however, nevertheless), coordinating conjunctions (but, yet), or other phrases (in spite of/ despite followed by a noun/noun phrase/ gerund phrase)

E.g

Although he often tells lie, many people believe him

He often tells lie, but many people believe him

Many people believe him despite/in spite of telling lie

Thus, there are so many words that have functioned as though, although,

even though, writers or speakers should be flexible when using them

1.1.4 Subordinators of Condition

Two typical subordinators of condition are if and unless If is the most popular conjunction in condition clause When if-clause is preceded, the main

clause is usually emphasized by then especially when it expresses logical result

Unless is similar to if …not

Sometimes the condition happens regularly or happened in the past, if means when or whenever

E.g

(1) If you tell a man of ordinary build and strength what needs doing, he does it (2) Unless the case is settled out of court, it can often take years before it comes to trial

So, in the first example, the event happens after you tell a man of ordinary

build and strength what needs doing is he does it It means that if and when, whenever have same meaning in this situation Similarly, in the second example, unless has the same meaning to when…not

If-clause can be used with noun clause in instruction or imperatives

E.g Work together, if possible

In some cases, if is used when speaker (writer) is not sure whether a past

event happened or not