a contrastive analysis between the verb fall in english and the verb ngã in vietnamese = phân tích đối chiếu động từ fall trong tiếng anh và động từ ngã trong tiếng việt

A Contrastive Analysis between the verb „Fall‟ in English and the Verb „Ngã‟ in Vietnamese in terms of Microlinguistics 2.1.1.. A Contrastive Analysis between the verb „FALL‟ in Englis

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

NGUYỄN THỊ NGÂN

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE VERB

‘FALL’ IN ENGLISH AND THE VERB ‘NGÃ’ IN

VIETNAMESE

(PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐỘNG TỪ ‘FALL’ TRONG TIẾNG ANH

VÀ ĐỘNG TỪ ‘NGÃ’ TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215

HANOI – 2010

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

NGUYỄN THỊ NGÂN

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE VERB

‘FALL’ IN ENGLISH AND THE VERB ‘NGÃ’ IN

VIETNAMESE

(PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐỘNG TỪ ‘FALL’ TRONG TIẾNG ANH

VÀ ĐỘNG TỪ ‘NGÃ’ TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215

Supervisor: Assoc Prof.Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ

HANOI - 2010

4 Scope of the study

5 Methods of the study

6 Design of the study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 An overview on Contrastive Analysis

1.2 MiCA versus MaCA

1.3 A brief description of verbs

2.1 A Contrastive Analysis between the verb „Fall‟ in English and the

Verb „Ngã‟ in Vietnamese in terms of Microlinguistics

2.1.1 An investigation into the Verb “Fall” in English

Page

i

ii iii

2.2 A Contrastive Analysis between the verb „FALL‟ in English and the

verb „NGÃ‟ in Vietnamese in terms of Macrolinguistics

1 Recapitulation

2 Implication of the study

2.1 To EFL Teaching and Learning

2.2 To translation from English to Vietnamese and Vice Versa

3 Recommendations for further Research

ABBREVIATIONS

CA: Contrastive Analysis

MiCA: Microlinguistic Contrastive Analysis MaCA: Macrolinguistic Contrastive Analysis EFL: English as a Foreign Language

L1: First Language

L2: Second Language

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Nowadays, English is widely used and has been especially important in the world In

Vietnam, it is not an exception and has become a compulsory subject in schools, colleges and universities However, learning English is really a big problem to learners because they are affected by their mother tongue during the process of studying grammar, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, etc

On the part of grammar, verbs have always been one of the most complex classes of words, which have most widely used and consequently, have played an important role in any language system so far As a result, many final thesises on contrastive analysis between verbs in native language and target language have been conducted to provide teachers and learners thorough view on those verbs and have good way to use them Among verbs, the verb „fall, one of which Vietnamese equivalent is „Ngã‟, is one of the common and confusing words to learners

Conducting the minor thesis entitled “A Contrastive Analysis between the Verb „FALL‟ in

English and the Verb „NGÃ‟ in Vietnamese” also arose from difficulties that the author face

in her daily teaching related to the usage of the verbs

For the above reasons, this thesis has been made with an attempt to contribute the author‟s own knowledge and experience in dealing with the problems of Vietnamese beginners It‟s also hopeful that this minor thesis will be of some help to those who are interested in this aspect of English grammar and vocabulary

2 Aims of the study

The study is aimed at:

- Finding the similarities and differences between the verb “fall” in English and the verb “ngã” in English mainly in terms of Mirolinguistic Contrastive Analysis (MiCA) and partly in terms of Macrolinguistic Contrastive Analysis (MaCA)

- Providing recommendations for teaching, learning and translating „fall‟ and „ngã‟ into the target language

3 Research questions

To fully achieve these aims, the study should answer the following questions:

(i) What are the grammatical and semantic features of each verb and how are they similar and different in terms of these features?

(ii) What are their synonyms and what are the idioms and proverbs with these two verbs?

(iii) What are the implications of the study for the EFL teaching, learning and translation?

4 Scope of the study

In this minor thesis, it is difficult to discuss both the verbs in terms of MiCA and MaCA in details Consequently, the author mainly focuses on analyzing and contrasting them in terms of MiCA (concerning grammatical and semantic features of the two verbs), and just give a brief introduction about the similarities and differences between them concerned with MaCA

The verbs „fall‟ and „ngã‟ are rich in synonyms, the author could not discuss them all in details but give an overview on the most common ones

5 Methods of the study

To achieve the aims given, the author has combined different methods as follow:

- Analyze and contrast;

- Synthesize

The procedures of the study are:

- To synthesize meanings of „fall‟ and „ngã‟ and examples to illustrate from different sources such as dictionaries, literary works, newspapers, magazines, native speakers and websites

- To collect the synonyms of each verb and idioms/ proverbs with them

- To analyze and contrast each verb and draw out the similarities and differences between them in terms of MiCA and MaCA

- To suggest the ways to apply the findings of the study to the language teaching/learning and translation

6 Design of the study

This minor thesis consists of three main parts based on the following arrangement:

Part I entitled „INTRODUCTION‟ outlines the background of the study in which brief account of relevant information such as the rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study are provided

Part II, the „DEVELOPMENT‟ is subdivided into 2 chapters Chapter 1, „THEORITICAL BACKGROUND‟, supplies the general fundamental and essential theoretical concepts involving the subject under consideration It covers a series of concepts ranging from CA, guiding principles for contrastive study, MiCA, MaCA, verbs in English and in Vietnamese, a

brief introduction of synonyms, and idioms/ proverbs Chapter 2 entitled “A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE VERB „FALL‟ IN ENGLISH AND „NGÃ‟ IN VIETNAMESE” discusses the two verbs in terms of MiCA and MaCA in succession After that, the similarities and differences are drawn out Each chapter ends with some concluding remarks

Part III, the „CONCLUSION‟, provides recapitulation, implications of the study for EFL teaching and learning and translation from English to Vietnamese and vice versa, and recommendations for further research The „REFERENCES‟ comes next The study ends with the „APPENDICES‟

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 An overview on Contrastive Analysis

Contrastive analysis (CA) is the systematic study of a pair or more of languages with a view

to identifying their structural differences and similarities The term „Contrastive linguistics‟

was suggested by Whorf (1941) and was defined as “ a sub discipline of linguistics concerned

with the comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to

determine both the differences and similarities between them”, (Fisiak, 1981:1) CA is the

method of analyzing the structure of any two languages with a view to estimate the differential aspects of their systems, irrespective or their generic affinity or level of development CA of two languages becomes useful when it is adequately describing the sound structure and

grammatical structure of two languages, with comparative statements, giving due emphasis to the compatible items in the two systems

From 1940s to 1960s before the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) field as we know it

was established, Charles Fries (1945:9) wrote: “The most efficient materials are those that are

based upon a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner” Robert Lado, in 1957 wrote:

“Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and

meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture- both

productively and when attempting to speak the language and to act in the culture and

receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and culture as practiced by natives” In the 1960s and early 1970s, CA was used extensively in the field of Second

Language Acquisition Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) – this extension of the notion

of CA attributed the ability to predict errors to a CA of two languages, a predictability that practitioners associated with the degree of similarity between the two systems Robert Lado

wrote: “… those elements that are similar to this native language will be simple for him, and

those elements that are different will be difficult.”

CA emphasizes on the influence of the mother tongue in learning a second language in

phonological, morphological and syntactic levels Contrastive Analysis is not merely relevant for second language teaching and learning but it can also make useful contributions to machine translating and linguistics typology It is relevant to the designing of teaching materials for use

in all age groups Chaturvedi (1973) suggests the following guiding principles for contrastive study:

(1) To analyze the mother tongue and the target language independently and completely

(2) To compare the two languages item-wise-item at all levels of their structure

(3) To arrive at the categories of a/ similar features b/ partially similar features c/ dissimilar features – for the target language

(4) To arrive at principles of text preparation, test framing and target language teaching

in general

Theses principles coincide with what Carl James presented in Contrastive Analysis (1980:64)

to some extent

1.2 MiCA versus MaCA

These are broad terms which refer to two major types of linguistics Microlinguistics refers to

phonetics, phonology, grammar and semantics, whereas macrolinguistics covers sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and other related disciplines In sociolinguistics, the micro level is often equated with variation and face-to-face communication, whereas macro sociolinguistics involves language planning and sociology of language

According to the microlinguistics view, languages should be analyzed for their own sake without any reference to their social function, to the manner in which they are acquired by human beings, and to the literary or communicative function of language Thus, a MiCA often compares phonology/phonetics, grammar and lexis For example, a study of this kind often finds out what the consonant phonemes in languages X and Y are, how they differ in inventory, realization and distribution; what the tense system of language X and Y, etc

The main aim of a MiCA is a formal description of the language system based on the interrelationships and independencies of its elements without any source to external factors Obviously, the translation situation which evolves equivalent messages, that are speech units and texts in two different languages is not part of the system of either of these languages and can not be studied and described in terms of microlinguistics

Macrolinguistics which includes meanings, and especially sociolinguistics, studies how language and meaning function within human social systems

Carl James suggested that “the communicating individual must be able to identify the

situational constraints to which speech events are subjects and produce utterances that conform to them.”

Hymes (1974) identifies six variables which he suggests the ethnographer of speaking must

refer to in characterizing any particular event; they are setting, participants, purpose, key, content, and channel Whereas, Carl James (1980:101) simplified these six variables in to

“who says what to whom, where and when, how and why.”

1.3 A brief description of verbs

- Occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence;

- Carries markers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number, and mood; and;

- Refers to action or state

In the next part, such areas as forms of verbs, major grammatical categories and classifications of English verbs will be briefly discussed

As Randolph Quirk & Sidney Greenbaum (1973:26) put it: „Many English verbs have five

forms: the base, the –s form, the past, the –ing participle and the –ed participle‟ For example,

„play‟, „plays‟, „played‟, „playing‟ and „played‟ are five forms of the regular verb „play‟ when

„fall‟, „falls‟, „fell‟, „falling‟ and „fallen‟ are five forms of the irregular verb „fall‟ Each verb form has its own functions

The English verb has main grammatical categories such as tense – aspect – voice – mood which would be shortly discussed

Tense could be understood as the correspondence between the form of the verb and the time

of the action or state it describes Many modern grammarians claim that in the English

language, verbs have two tenses: the present tense and the past tense No marker of a future

tense exists on the verb in English; the futurity of an event may be expressed through the use of the auxiliary verbs „will‟ and „shall‟, by the structure „Be going to + infinitive‟, the present progressive, the simple present

With reference to aspect, it concerns the manner in which the verbal action is experienced or

regarded (as completed or in progress)

According to Randolph Quirk & Sidney Greenbaum, mood is the form of the verb that shows

the mode or manner in which a thought is expressed In English, there are three moods:

indicative, imperative and subjunctive Indicative mood expresses an assertion, denial, or

question Imperative mood expresses command, prohibition, entreaty, or advice as in Don‟t

smoke in this building ~Be careful! Subjunctive mood expresses doubt or something contrary

to fact: It is strange that he should have left so early

Voice is the way in which a language expresses the relationship between a verb and the noun

phrase associated with it When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the

active voice as in The cat ate the mouse When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of

the action, it is said to be in the passive voice as in The mouse was eaten by the cat

English verbs can be classified in many ways From Randolph Quirk and Sidney

Greenbaum‟s view, verbs can be classified according to the function of items in the verb

phrase This distinguishes lexical verbs from auxiliary verbs

Lexical: walk, fall, eat, play…

Primary: do, have, be

Auxiliary

Modal: can, may, shall, will

could, might, should, would,

must, ought to, used to, need, dare

Lexical verbs can be subdivided into dynamic and stative verbs When verbs will not admit

the progressive, they are called stative such as „love‟, „like‟ and „seem‟; when they admit it, they are called dynamic „teach‟, „visit‟, „go‟ are some instances of dynamic verbs Verbs are

also divided into one-word verbs and multi-word verbs which are illustrated in the examples below

- We are learning (one-word verb)

- The children fell down (phrasal verb, multi-word verb)

- They called on the man ( prepositional verbs; multi-word verb)

- He puts up with a lot of teasing ( phrasal- prepositional verb; multi-word verb)

When classified by their complementation, verbs fall into intensive or extensive The intensive verbs, or copula verbs, are used to join a noun, a pronoun, an adjective to the subject

for a sentence, such as: be, feel, look, seem, remain, appear, become, turn, grow, fall, get, go,

come … Others are extensive verbs

Verbs can be classified as intransitive and transitive verbs An intransitive verb like sleep, cry and rain do not require an object In contrast, a transitive verb like give, buy, take cannot stand

alone and need objects

1.3.2 Verbs in Vietnamese

Vietnamese is an isolating and analytic language in which grammatical meanings are

shown chiefly through word order and function words (grammatical words) Also, Vietnamese words have the same forms in different positions in sentences As a result, several grammatical structures are similar in form-organization but different in grammatical meanings For

example:

- Con tôi đang tập đi, nó hay ngã lắm (My son is toddling He usually falls down)

- Hôm qua con tôi bị ngã khá đau (Yesterday my son fell down and hurt himself badly.)

In Vietnamese Grammar by Huu Quynh (1980), Verb is defined as a word which refers to

an action, a behavior, an idea or an emotion, a state or a development of a state

Unlike English verbs, verbs in Vietnamese do not have the concord with other parts of speech In other words, they are not affected by number, person, gender, mood, voice and tense In addition, when functioning as central component of a verb phrase, verb can combine with other modal auxiliary components before it to indicate scope of the action or activity such

as cũng, đều, cứ, etc ; to indicate continuation like còn, vẫn, etc ; to indicate tense, aspect such

as sắp, đang, sẽ, đã, etc ; to indicate advice or prohibit such as hãy, đừng, chớ and so on Also,

as Nguyen Kim Than ( 1977:178 ) states that đã, đang, vừa, mới, sẽ, … are words indicating

aspect – time It means that they are used to show the carrying out or completion of an action

in a certain time and the use of adverbs of time belongs to the area of sentence structures

Besides, such words as bị, chịu, được, … which may be considered a sign of the passive voice

Verbs in Vietnamese can have different functions in a sentence The most popular one is

predicator as in: Nó ngã xe; Lớp tôi đang học toán Verbs can be subjects of a sentence as in:

Yêu là chết trong lòng một ít They can be complements, for example: Con tôi đang học hát;

Nhiều xe bị trượt ngã ở quãng đường này etc

Diệp Quang Ban and Hoàng Văn Thung classify Vietnamese verbs into transitive and intransitive verbs Intransitive verbs are ones that can stand alone with complete meaning

without help from others word, for example: Nó đang ngủ; Mọi người đều cười; Nó ngã xuống

ao Transitive verbs, in contrast, cannot stand alone, they need others word to complete their

meaning as in: Mai mua cái áo mới; Tôi phải đánh bài tối nay etc Those two authors have another way to classify Vietnamese verbs into independent verbs (động từ độc lập) and dependent verbs (động từ không độc lập) However, in this study the former classifications will

be used to compare the verb „fall‟ and „ngã‟

Baker (1992:12) stated that lexical meaning of a word may be viewed as the specific value it has in a particular linguistic system It is the most outstanding individual property of words, and in contrast with grammatical meaning, it can stand on it own

Leech, G (1981:23) classified lexical meaning into the following different types:

(1) Conceptual/ denotational meaning: Logical, cognitive, or denotative content

(2) Associative meaning

- Connotative meaning: What is communicated by virtue of what language refers to, above the conceptual value

- Social meaning: What is communicated of the social circumstances of language use

- Affective meaning: What is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speakers/ writers

- Reflected meaning: What is communicated through association with another sense of the same expression

- Collocative meaning: What is communicated through association with words which tend

to occur in the environment of another word

(3) Thematic meaning: What is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis

To discuss about word meanings in Vietnamese, Do Huu Chau (1999:111-130) uses the terms “ý nghĩa biểu vật” (denotational meaning) and “ ý nghĩa biểu niệm” (connotatonal meaning) According to him, entities and phenomena in the objective world are reflected in the mind as concepts and reflected in the language as the denotational meanings which lead

to the relevant meanings

It can be seen clearly that, in terms of lexical meaning, verbs in English and in Vietnamese are similar to some extent However, they are different in terms of grammatical meaning English verbs carry two kinds of meaning; meanwhile, Vietnamese verbs do not carry grammatical meaning such as tense, aspect, etc

1.5 Synonyms

Synonyms are actually words of the same part of speech which have similar meaning, but not identical meanings They may share a similar denotational or connotational meaning They may differ from each other in terms of denotation or connotation

Jack C.Richard et al (1992:368) defined synonym as a word which has the same meaning or nearly the same meaning as another word It should be noted that two words which are synonymous must belong to the same part of speech

Lyons (1995:60) divides synonyms into three kinds: absolute synonyms, near synonyms and partial synonyms According to him, two or more expressions are absolute synonyms if, and only if, they satisfy the following three conditions:

(i) All their meanings are identical;

(ii) They are synonymous in all contexts;

(iii) They are semantically equivalent (i.e their meaning or meanings are identical) on all dimensions of meanings and descriptive and non-descriptive

However, absolute synonyms are extremely rare in English A few pairs may be said to be absolute synonyms include „semantics‟ and „semasiology‟, „noun‟ and „substantive‟,

„functional‟ and „affix‟, „flexion‟ and „inflexion‟

Absolute synonyms also can be found in Vietnamese as in „sân bay‟ and „phi trường‟, „ti vi‟ and „máy vô tuyến‟, „bóng đá‟ and „túc cầu‟ etc

1.6 Idioms and proverbs

Idioms as well as proverbs are used widely in daily communication They can occur in formal style and in slang They can appear in poetry or in the language of journalist, the writer and the Bible

According to John Wright (1999:7), an expression is an idiom when it carries the following features:

1 It is fixed and it is recognized by native speakers You cannot make up your own!

2 It uses language in a non-literal-metaphorical-way

According to Jack C Richards et al (1992:172), idiom is an expression which functions as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts This view is shared by Robins (1989), Palmer (1981), Jackson and Evenla (2000), Seidle (1978) and Cruse (1986) For example, „fall flat on one‟s face‟- the collocation of „fall‟, „flat‟, „on‟, „one‟s‟ and

„face‟ is an idiom meaning „fail or make a mistake in an embarrassing way‟ which is not systemantically determinable from the meaning of its constituents

According to Palmer (1990), idioms as consequences of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meaning of the words themselves Semantically, idioms are single units, but they are not single grammatical units like words For example, if an idiom may be inflected, the inflectional affixes are carried by the grammatical appropriate elements within the idioms whether or not they are semantic constituents

Another term that usually goes with idioms is „proverb‟ In Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary „proverb‟ is defined as “a well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or says

something that is generally true, for example „Waste not, want not‟” Mieder (1993:24) stated

that „a proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorizable form and which is handed down from generation to generation‟

For Vietnamese definitions, according to „Từ Điển Tiếng Việt‟ by Nguyễn Đình Hùng,

„idiom‟ is „tập hợp từ cố định đã quen dùng mà nghĩa thường không thể giải thích được một

cách đơn giản bằng nghĩa của các từ tạo nên nó‟ For example, „Một nắng hai sương‟, „Rán

sành ra mỡ‟ are idioms Meanwhile, „proverb‟ is „Câu ngắn gọn, thường có vần điệu, đúc kết

tri thức, kinh nghiệm sống và đạo đức thực tiễn của nhân dân‟ „Đói cho sạch, rách cho thơm‟

is an example of proverb

However, it is difficult to distinguish the two terms For example, the verse „chó treo mèo

đậy‟ may satisfy the notion of idioms as well as proverbs They are fixed groups of words that

get their meaning from the whole, not by individual words Besides, together they also form a short rhythmic sentence, stating an advice for daily tasks of keeping food There are still many

more, such as „tức nước vỡ bờ‟, „kiến tha lâu đầy tổ‟, „trâu buộc ghét trâu ăn‟, etc They create

problems for researchers when trying to put them into two sections of idioms or proverbs

In fact, proverbs are also collected in idioms‟ books Such dictionaries as Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Tục Ngữ Việt Nam by Nguyen Bich Hang, Từ Điển Thành Ngữ - Tục Ngữ Việt Nam by Nguyen Lan, Tục Ngữ Thành Ngữ Nước Anh by Xuan Ba provide both idioms and proverbs without clear distinguistion between the two terms As the result, idioms and proverbs as fixed expressions with the verbs „fall‟ and „ngã‟ will be given in this minor thesis

CHAPTER 2: A STUDY ON THE VERB „FALL‟ IN ENGLISH AND THE VERB

„NGÃ‟ IN VIETNAMESE

2.1 A Contrastive Analysis between the verb „FALL‟ in English and the Verb „Ngã‟ in Vietnamese in terms of Microlinguistics

2.1.1 An investigation into the Verb „fall‟ in English

As we have mentioned in the early parts, in terms of microlinguistics the verb „fall‟ will be worked with three features: grammatical features (including syntactic and morphological features) and semantic features

2.1.1.1 Grammatical Features

2.1.1.1.1 Syntactic Features

„Fall‟ is a typical verb, so it shares the same syntactic functions of verbs:

(a) Occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence For example:

(6: 66)

- How she would throw herself upon him, and how her tears would fall like rain, and her lips pray God to give her back her boy and she would never, never abuse him anymore

(13:33)

(b) Derivates of “fall” have different grammatical functions such as subjects, objects, or complements, etc as in:

- I can‟t help falling in love with you (Elvis Presley‟s song)

(c) Carries markers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number and mood as in:

she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next (9:98)

- “Fall to, good friends”, said the joiner; and the guests, when they saw how it was, needed no second asking, but taking up the knife and fork fell to valiantly (3:154)

- But it must have fallen too short or gone too far; so he tried twice more (13:88)

(d) „Fall‟ is both a transitive and intransitive verb This means that „fall‟ can occur with or without objects

As an intransitive verb:

- Then he suddenly fell on to his knees and started crying loudly, his hands covering

As a transitive verb

- The father thought to himself, “It cannot surely be Aschenputtel”, and called for an

2.1.1.1.2 Morphological features

The verb „fall‟ consists of one morpheme as a root According to Quirk et al (1987), like many other English verbs, it has five forms: the base “fall”, the –s form “falls”, the past form

“fell”, the past participate “fallen”, the –ing participle “falling”

By means of derivation, the verb “fall” itself is also a noun as in

- Pride comes before a fall (Proverb)

- The young sleuth‟s sudden fall had caused the puppy to fly from her arms.(8:69)

Besides, it has some derivates as follows:

 Fallen (adjective):1 lying on the ground, after falling (used before noun), as in

„The road was blocked by a fallen tree‟ 2 (of a soldier) killed in a war

 Fallible (adjective): able to make mistakes or be wrong, as in „All human beings

are fallible‟

 Infallible (adjective): incapable of failure or error, for example

The truth was that a superstition of his had failed, here, which he and all his

 Falling (adj): coming down freely or becoming lower in number, amount and

degree, as in „Though a tree grows ever so high, the falling leaves return to the

ground.‟ (Malayan proveb)

„Fall‟ is also used in such many compounds as „downfall‟ (the loss of a person‟s money or power), „fallback‟ (a plan or course of action that is ready to be used in an emergency if other things fall), „falling-off‟ or „fall-off (a reduction in the number, amount or quantity of something, „falling star‟ (shooting star) and „fallout‟ (dangerous radioactive dust that is in the air after a nuclear explosion or the bad results of a situation or an action), „nightfall‟ (dusk),

„pitfall‟ (a hidden danger or difficulty), „rainfall‟ (the total amount of rain falling in an area in

a particular time), „snowfall‟ (an occasion when snow falls; the amount of snow that falls in a particular place in a period of time), „waterfall‟ (a place where a stream or river falls from a high place), „windfall‟ (an amount of money that somebody/something wins or receives

unexpectedly or a fruit, especially an apple, that the wind has blown down from a tree) etc

- He could sense the one silent man who always remained besides him, the flavour of his

breath when he bent down to unwrap him every twenty-four hours at nightfall, to examine his

- The water treatment was new, now, and Tom‟s low condition was a windfall to her

- Tom dodged hither and thither through lanes until he was well out of the track

2.1.1.2.1 General meanings

In accordance with http://www.word-origins.com/definition/fall.html , the verb fall comes from prehistoric Germanic *fallan, which also produced German fallen, Dutch vallen, and Swedish falla The noun is partly a survival of Old English feall, partly a borrowing from the related Old Norse fall, but probably mostly a new formation based on the verb

According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2000 Oxford University Press), Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture (1992.Longman Group), Lac Viet Mtd

2002-EVA dictionary,thefreedictionary.com, yourdictionary.com and some other dictionaries, the verb „fall‟ in English could be summarized and listed with the following basic meanings

(1) move downwards

In Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary and Longman Dictionary of English Language

and Culture dictionary, the first meaning of „fall‟ is to move or drop down from a higher

position to a lower position Vietnamese equivalents could be „rơi‟, „rớt‟, „đổ‟, „ngã‟ etc

- If you let one drop of his blood fall, you will lose all your land and money (5:11)

- Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself

- More snow fell in the winter than could melt away in the summer (14:174)

(2) Stop standing/ walking

„Fall‟ is understood as suddenly going down onto the ground after you have been standing, walking, or running, especially without intending to This kind of meaning is used to show the

action of people or animal In Vietnamese, it could be „ngã‟, „đổ‟, „té‟ Below are some

examples:

- Esme had come back; she was mopping the floor where I‟d fallen- with straight

Also referring to this meaning, „fall‟ can be understood as to throw oneself to the ground as

in the following example

- Your life is now at the mercy of the Duke, so fall on your knees and beg for mercy

(5:12)

(3) Decrease or decline

„Fall‟ is also used as to go down to a lower level, amount, quality and price etc, especially a much lower one

- Fewer people are visiting its shops, and demand for its holidays has fallen (1:20)

The verb „fall‟ is also used when the volume or the pitch of sound diminishes

- My friend's voice fell to a whisper

(4) Become

„fall‟ also functions as a linking verb, which means to start to be in a new or different state

In Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, the verb „fall‟ has the meaning of passing into a

particular state, condition or situation

- When the liquid from it is poured on the eyes of someone who is sleeping, it will make

- As soon as Titania fell asleep, the fairies left to do the things that the queen had

- There was once all old king, who having fallen sick, thought to himself, “This is very

(5) Belong to a group

The next meaning is to belong to or be part of a particular group, area of responsibility, range of things, or type of things In Vietnamese, it means „chia thành‟, „chia làm‟, „thuộc vào loại‟ etc

- The subject falls into two main areas

- Other copulas fall into two main classes, according to whether the role of the subject complement is that of current attribute or attribute resulting from the event described

(6) Start doing something

„fall‟ also means starting doing something or being involved with something, often without intending to:

- Mr Walters fell to “showing off”, with all sorts of official bustlings and activities, giving orders, delivering judgments, discharging directions here, there, everywhere that he

- As he sat on the grass and looked across the river, a dark hole in the bank opposite, just above the water's edge, caught his eye, and dreamily he fell to considering what a nice

(7) Hang down

When describing hair or material, „fall‟ denotes the meaning of hanging down loosely It might be translated as „buông xuống‟, „xõa xuống‟ or „rủ xuống‟ in Vietnamese

- Her hair fall over her shoulders in a mass of curls

- So now Della‟s beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of

(8) Happen/ occur

It could be understood as to happen or take place at a specified time as in

- My birthday falls on a Monday this year

or occur at a specified place as in

- The stress falls on the last syllable

(9) Be directed towards

This verb can be used to describe the light, shadow or someone‟s eyes or glance with the sense of moving in a particular direction or to come in a particular position In this case, its Vietnamese equivalents could be „hướng vào‟, „chiếu vào‟, „ngả vào‟, „bắt gặp phải‟, etc

- He knew that a yearning glance fell upon him, now and then, through a film of tears,

- Soon her eyes fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table; she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words “EAT ME” were beautifully

- But when the first beams of the sun fell on the garden he saw that the three sacks were all filled, standing one by the other, and not a even a grain was missing (3:100)

- An eclipse of the moon can be seen from half of the earth, but an eclipse of the sun

(10) Be given by assignment or distribution

In Vietnamese, it means „trao/giao cho‟, „đưa cho‟, „ phân cho‟, „ủy thác cho‟, „rơi vào‟, „trở

thành nhiệm vụ‟ etc See the following examples:

- The greatest task fell to me

- Her face was rather serious, and it was evident from her manner that responsibility

- It fell to me to notify the parents of the victims

It also means being given by right or inheritance

- The estate falls to the eldest son

- Now the King said to the queen one day, “If our thirteenth child should be a girl the twelve boys shall die, so that her riches maybe greater, and the kingdom fall to her

(11) Slope downwards

When describing scenery and land, we can use „fall‟ to show the way it slopes or drops

downwards as in:

- Beyond the hill, the land falls away sharply towards the river

In Vietnamese, the verb „fall‟ with this sense can be translated as „thoai thoải xuống‟ or „dốc

xuống‟

(12) Lose power

We can use „fall‟ to express the loss of power or office If a leader or a government falls, they

lose their position of power:

- The previous government fell after only 6 months in office

(13) Be taken by an enemy

If a place falls in a war or an election, a group of soldiers or a political party takes control of

it Its Vietnamese equivalents could be „rơi vào‟

- The Inca empire fell to the Spanish conqueror Pizarro a few years after the Aztecs

(14) Die in battle

One more meaning of the verb „fall‟, which is used literally, is to be killed or wounded at war

or in battle, for example

- Another wave of troops followed the first, running past those who had fallen

- When he saw Brutus strike, great Caesar fell O what a fall was there! Then I and you

In Vietnamese, we can use „hy sinh‟, „ngã xuống‟, „nằm lại‟, „thác‟, „chết‟ to denote this sense

(15) Yield to temptation

The next meaning is to do something wrong and yield to temptation or sin This meaning

usually refers to women We can translate it as „ngã lòng‟, „sa ngã‟, „mắc lỗi‟ or „phạm lỗi‟ in Vietnamese For example:

- It is their husbands' fault if wives do fall

- Yesterday, you fell low Let us see in the future how high you can rise (2:39)

(16) Cut

According to some electronic dictionaries like the freedictionary.com, „fall‟ is also a

transitive verb which means „cut down‟ or „fell a tree‟ This seems to be the old meaning of the verb

stroke, and the hatchet hit him in the arm, so that he was obliged to go home and get

2.1.1.2.2 Meanings in Some Idioms and Proverbs

Idioms and proverbs are of the most valuable treasures of a language In daily

communication and in written texts, we can see the frequent appearance of idioms The verb

„fall‟ is found with 80 idioms and proverbs The grid below discusses only some common ones

- Many institutions fall by the wayside for financial reasons

2

fall head over heels

- to fall deeply in love with someone, especially suddenly

-Kate Bosworth falls head over heels for her handsome co-star

3

let the chips fall

where they may

We shouldn't try to control events, because destiny controls them

-I'm going to tell Ellen the truth about her husband, let the chips fall where they may

4

into each life some

bad or unfortunate things will happen to everyone at some time

The rich man next to my house has just had a

terrible accident Into each

life some rain must fall

5

fall on deaf ears

go unheeded; be ignored completely

-All of Sally's good advice fell on deaf ears Walter had made up his own

- He would sack any of his staff who fell short of his high standards

- Breastfed babies are less likely to fall victim to stomach disorders

- People who fall victim to violence

8

be as easy as falling

off a log

Be very easy - She said writing stories

was as easy as falling off a log for her

10

pieces/bits

be in very bad condition, especially because of age

- The house is falling to pieces

11

somebody/something

to do something which makes someone angry

or which breaks a rule, with the result that you are punished

- He is worried that his teenage kids will fall foul

2.1.1.2.3 Synonyms of “fall”

Synonyms are words that mean about the same thing Synonyms add interest and life to reading and writing Synonyms can be classified into five main kinds: semantic synonyms, stylistic synonyms, semantic-stylistic synonyms, phraseological synonyms and territorial synonyms The verb „fall‟ has many synonymous words In this minor thesis, we would like to focus on its semantic synonyms

(1) The first meaning of “fall” is to move to a lower position It is synonymous with „drop‟,

„drip‟, „ plummet‟, „ plunge‟ , „ descend‟, „ tumble‟,‟ topple‟, „ sink‟ For example:

- The camera glanced off the tip of my finger, and tumbled toward the floor.(10: 22)

- She had vision of a child plunging into the water below, perhaps striking her head

(2) With the sense of stop standing, loose balance and collapse, „fall‟ has such synonyms as

„tumble‟, „collapse‟, „ stumble‟, „ trip‟ or „go down‟ For example:

- In an instant both boys were rolling and tumbling in the dirt, gripped together like

- The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup and bread-and-butter, and went

(3) When „fall‟ is used as to decrease, it might be replaced with „decline‟, „drop‟,

„decrease‟, „decline‟, „go down‟, „diminish‟, „lessen‟, and „subside‟

- The amount of homework decreased/lessened towards the end of the semester;

- The temperature is going down/dropping/decreasing

(4) With regard to the state of passing into a particular state, condition, or situation, „fall‟

can be substituted by „become‟, „go‟, „get‟ or „turn‟

- When the Princess of the Golden Palace heard this she became more trustful, and her heart inclined favorably towards him, so that she willingly consented to become his

(5) „ Fall‟ is synonymous to „be divided/ classified into‟, „form into‟, „group‟, „categorize‟,

„catalog‟, „sort‟, „organize‟ in case it refers to belong to a group

- The sample material has been classified into five categories

- The class will be grouped into two teams to play the game

(6) With the meaning „start doing something‟, „fall‟ partly has the similar meaning with

„begin‟, „start‟, „commence‟ and „set out‟

- I started to worry that I was traveling in a circle, a very small circle at that, but I

(7) Concerning the act of hanging down (of materials and hair), users can replace „fall‟

with „hang‟ or „flow‟

- Her long black hair flowed down her back

- Then the puppy… running a very little way forwards with its tongue hanging out

(8) Relating to the sense of happening, „fall‟ can be used instead of „occur‟, „happen‟,

„come about‟, „chance‟, „take place‟, „fall out‟, „befall‟, „go down‟ and „come to pass‟

- Faithful John had understood it all, and from that time he remained quiet and sad,

-“These coffins”, said she, “were intended for your twelve brothers, but they went away far from home when you were born”, and she related how everything had come

- As the day progressed, I considered ways to get out of whatever was going down

(9) When „fall‟ describes the way the light, shadow or the eyes directs to, it is similar with

„settle‟, „rest‟, „strike‟ or „shine‟

- Apparently the man noticed nothing amiss, because his eyes rested only casually

(10) When being understood as to be given by assignment or distribution, to be given

by right or inheritance, „fall‟ is synonymous with „light‟, „return‟, „pass‟, „devolve‟

- The burden of proof devolved upon the defendant

- The land returned to the family

(11) „Slope downward‟ and „drop downward‟ can replace „fall‟ to describe scenery

- Green turf sloped down to either edge, brown snaky tree-roots gleamed below the

(12) In order to show the fact of losing power, status or government, „fall‟ has such synonyms as „fail‟, „lose office/power‟, „leave office‟, „quit‟, „step down‟, „resign‟

- He was forced to leave office because of illegal business dealings

- I don't believe that I ought to quit because I am not a quitter (Nixon, Richard)