A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE VERB “MAKE” IN ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN VIETNAMESE

However, the knowledge of collocations is vast so this study only focuses on the semantic features of the collocations with the verb „make‟ in English and the verb „làm‟ in Vietnamese..

TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 602215

Hanoi – 2010

TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 602215

Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ

Hanoi - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………… ……… ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS……….iv

ABBREVIATIONS………… ………vi

LIST OF TABLES……… ………vii

PART I INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale……….……….1

2 Aims of the Study……… ……….………2

3 Scope of the Study……… ………2

4 Methods of the Study…… ………3

5 Designs of the Study………4

PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Semantic Features……….………5

1.2 A Brief Description of Verbs………6

1.3 Collocations……… 7

1.4 Summary……… ……… 11

CHAPTER 2 SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE VERB ‘MAKE’ IN ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN VIETNAMESE 2.1 Semantic features of the verb ‘make’ in English collocations……… …….12

2.2 Semantic features of the verb ‘làm’ in Vietnamese collocations………16

2.3 Findings……… ……… 21

2.3.1 Similarities…… ………21

2.3.2 Differences… …….………22

2.4 Summary……….29

CHAPTER 3 IMPLICATIONS FOR EFL TEACHING, LEARNING AND TRANSLATION

3.1 Test result analysis……… ……… 30

3.2 Implications……….………36

3.2.1 Implications of EFL teaching and learning……… 36

3.2.2 Implications for translation……… ……… 37

PART III CONCLUSION 1 Objectives of the study……… ……….39

2 Methods of the study……… ………… ……….40

3 Implications for Pedagogy……… … ………40

4 Contributions made by this study……… ……… 41

5 Limitations of the study……… ………41

6 Recommendations for further research……….……….42

REFERENCES……….43

SOURCES OF THE DATA……….45 APPENDICES

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Collocations vs idioms and free word combinations Table 2: The result of gap-filling (1) task

Table 3: The result of translation task

Table 4: The result of gap-filling (2) task

Table 5: The result of sentence transformation task

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

“While without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (Wilkins, 1972: 111) This argument has been supported by many researchers in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) who have emphasize the significance of vocabulary and agreed that vocabulary is equally, if not more, important than language structure in language acquisition This is why it was recommended to pay attention to the teaching of vocabulary in the same way as the teaching of grammar (Krashen, 1988) McCarthy (1990) summarizes the importance of vocabulary teaching for second language (L2) learners in the following statement:

No matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds

of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wide range of meanings; communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way (p viii)

Within the area of vocabulary research, collocations that are a transitional area between idioms and free combinations (Benson et al, 1986) have attracted the attention of language researchers And language researchers have pointed out many reasons why collocations are so important in language acquisition First, acquiring collocations is beneficial for EFL learners‟ lexical development (Ellis, 1996) and communicative competence (Nattinger, 1997) To gain overall language proficiency, learners need to gain collocational competence (Hussein, 1990)

At the same time, acquiring collocational knowledge may help overcome the problems of comprehending a sentence word by word thus learners‟ listening and reading abilities can be improved Also, by mastering collocations, learners‟ speech sounds more natural, and is more easily understood by native speakers With increasing knowledge of collocations, EFL learners may be able to speed up their thinking in speaking and getting their meaning across more effectively (Hill, 2000) According to Kjellmer (1992), the more accurately language learners are able to use collocations, the fewer pauses and hesitations they make during long chunks of discourse Furthermore, Benson and Ilson (1997) have stated that language learners must acquire how words collocate with each other to be able to produce language with native-like accuracy and fluency in both oral and written forms Thus, their vocabulary and overall

language proficiency level increases as their collocational knowledge increases Therefore, collocational knowledge is the essence of language knowledge However, the knowledge of collocations is vast so this study only focuses on the semantic features of the collocations with the verb „make‟ in English and the verb „làm‟ in Vietnamese We choose the study the semantic features of the „make‟ collocations and then make a contrast with the verb „làm‟ in Vietnamese because the verb „make‟ is one of the most commonly used verbs in English and when it collocates with other words, Vietnamese learners often feel confused, especially about meaning of the verb „make‟ collocations With the purpose of helping learners and teachers know general knowledge of collocations and the semantic features of the verb „make‟ collocations as well as the similarities and differences between the collocations with the verb

„make‟ and the verb „làm‟, we decided to carry out this study

2 Aims of the Study

The study is aimed at:

+ Finding the semantic features of the „make‟ collocations in English and those of the verb „làm‟ collocations in Vietnamese

+ Finding the similarities and differences between the „make‟ collocations in English and those of the verb „làm‟ collocations in Vietnamese

+ Providing some recommendations for the teaching and learning as well as translation

of „make‟ collocations and „làm‟ collocations into the target language

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

+ What are the semantic features of each verb in collocations and how are they similar and different in terms of these features?

+ What are the implications of the study for EFL teaching/ learning and translation?

3 Scope of the Study

This is a minor thesis As a result, it is unfeasible to discuss both the verbs in all aspects Therefore, within this study, the author focuses on analyzing semantic features of the collocations of both the verbs, and then gives a brief introduction about the similarities and differences between them

4 Methods of the Study

The study has been carried out based on a combination of different methods, among which the

main method is contrastive analysis For the contrastive analysis method, English is

considered to be the target language and Vietnamese- the source language – a means to contrast This method involves two steps: describing the semantic features of the verb „make‟ collocations in English and those of the verb „làm‟ collocations in Vietnamese and then juxtaposing them to point out their similarities and differences Another important method

used in this thesis is descriptive research method, which involves componential analysis and surveys Componential analysis is one of the most effective methods in identifying the

meaning because it involves the analysis of the sense of a lexeme into its component parts (semantic features or semantic properties) Surveys are used to collect data about the situation

of learning and teaching English collocations, especially those with „make‟ in English as well

as the students‟ knowledge of collocations in English in general and that of „make‟ collocations in English in particular in Lao Cai High School for Gifted Students Besides,

other methods are also exploited in this thesis: statistical (the author has collected data about

semantic features of the two verbs in collocations and carried out survey research to find out the situation of learning and teaching English collocations, especially those with „make‟ in English in Lao Cai High School for Gifted Students as well as the students‟ knowledge of collocations in English in general and that of „make‟ collocations in English in particular),

analytical ( the author has examined in detail the data obtained from the dictionaries and

examples in the stories to point out semantic features of the collocations of the two verbs as

well as the data obtained from the survey) and synthetical (the author has based on the

analysis to draw outstanding semantic features of the verbs in collocations, point out their similarities and differences and show the students‟ knowledge of collocations and the situation

of learning and teaching collocations in general and those with the verb „make‟ in particular The steps of the study are in the order as follows:

First, the author synthesized the meanings of „make‟ and „làm‟ collocations as well as examples from various sources such as dictionaries and literary works

Then, the author analyzed and contrasted each verb to make clear the similarities and differences between them

Lastly, the author suggested how to apply these findings to the language teaching/ learning and translation

5 Designs of the Study

The study consists of three parts organized as follows:

Part I entitled “INTRODUCTION” outlining the background of the study in which a brief account of relevant information such as the rationale, aims, scope, methods and design of the study is provided

Part II, the “DEVELOPMENT” is subdivided into three chapters Chapter 1 – THEORETICAL BACKGROUND, as its names suggests, provides the theoretical concepts for the main contents of the study, covering a series of concepts ranging from semantic features, an overview of verbs, types of meanings to an overview of collocations Chapter 2

focuses on “SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE VERB „MAKE‟ IN ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN VIETNAMESE” After pointing

out the semantic features, the author analyzes and contrasts each verb to make clear the similarities and differences between Chapter 3 deals with the errors made by the students at Lao Cai High School for Gifted Students, therefore some suggestions for English learning and teaching as well as translation should be presented Each chapter ends with a summary

Part III, the “CONCLUSION”, provides concluding remarks The “REFERENCES”,

“SOURCES OF DATA” and “APPENDIXES” mark the end of the thesis

According to Kamil Wiśniewski (2007), semantic features are considered basic elements which enable the differentiation of meaning of words This view is also shared by Cornelius

Puschmann: “Semantic feature analysis allow us to decompose words into bundles of attributes” and “semantic features can be used to describe differences between

antonyms, superordinates and their hyponyms, and near synonyms”

For example:

"GRAPE" "DOG" "PRAIRIE DOG"

"HAPPY" "SAD" "THRILLED"

+EXCITEMENT

In short, the analysis of word meaning is often seen as a process of breaking down the sense of word into its minimal components, which are known as semantic features or sense components

1.2 A Brief Description of Verbs

The verb is king in English The shortest sentence contains a verb We can make a one-word sentence with a verb, for example: "Stop!" We cannot make a one-word sentence with any other type of word

A verb is often defined as a word which shows action or state of being The verb is the heart of

a sentence - every sentence must have a verb Recognizing the verb is often the most

important step in understanding the meaning of a sentence In the sentence „The dog bit the

man’, „bit‟ is the verb and the word which shows the action of the sentence In the sentence

„The man is sitting on a chair’, even though the action doesn't show much activity, „sitting‟ is the verb of the sentence In the sentence „She is a smart girl‟, there is no action but a state of being expressed by the verb „is‟ The word „be‟ is different from other verbs in many ways but

can still be thought of as a verb

A verb always has a subject For example, in the sentence „John speaks English‟ John is the

subject and speaks is the verb In simple terms, therefore, we can say that verbs are words that tell us what a subject does or is; they describe:

- action (Ram plays football.)

- state (Anthony seems kind.)

According to Jack C Richards et al (1992:398), in English, a word is a verb when it satisfied these following criteria:

- Occur as part of the predicate of a sentence;

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

- Refers to an action or state

Almost verbs in English change in form in accordance with tense, mood, person, etc for

example: „Lower fares make it advantageous to travel in winter.‟; „I first made his

acquaintance in 2006’; „Please stop making that noise annoying’, etc

In Vietnamese, verbs are one of the two fundamental parts of speech like nouns Verbs in Vietnamese also play an important role in vocabulary as well as in forming sentences Contrary to verbs in English, 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 And in Vietnamese, verbs can combine with other auxiliary components to indicate tense, aspect like „sắp‟, „sẽ‟, „đã‟ , continuation like „còn‟, „vẫn‟, etc

There are many ways to classify verbs, however, in this thesis, the classification of verbs into transitive and intransitive verbs shall be applied, which would be convenient to compare the two verbs “make” in English and “làm” in Vietnamese

1.3 Collocations

1.3.1 Definition of Collocations

All languages have a large numbers of collocations, and linguists have defined collocation in different ways The concept of collocations was first identified by Palmer (1981) as a string of words that must or should be learned or is best or most conveniently learned as an integral whole or independent entity rather than by the process of piecing together their component parts Most of the researchers who define collocation agree that it is a lexical unit consisting of

a cluster of two or three words from different parts of speech (e.g Baker, 1992; Benson and Ilson, 1997) Most of the definitions are paraphrases of Firth (1957: 183) definition that collocations are “words in habitual company” Most of the definitions have at their core some sense of the „co-occurrence‟ of words For instance, Colin Mclntosh et al (2009) gives a general definition of collocation that collocation is the way words combine in a language to

produce natural-sounding speech and writing For example, in English we say strong wind but

heavy rain More specifically speaking, Robins (1989: 65), defines collocation as the habitual

association of a word in a language with other particular words in sentences but less closely connected extra-linguistic reference For example, „white race‟, „white coffee‟, etc all contain the word „white‟ with different meanings from the denotative meaning of the color However, one of the most detailed definitions is provided by Howard Jackson & Etienne Ze Evenla (2000:256) “collocation is a lexical relationship of mutual expectancy, the presence of a particular lexical item gives rise to the greater likelihood that other lexical items belonging to

the same area of meaning will also occur.” And collocation should be discussed in terms of continuum in which they are placed in the middle position At the two ends of the continuum are free word combinations which are phrases constructed using rules of syntax and idioms which allow little or no variation form and whose meaning cannot be determined by the literal meanings of individual words

In short, collocations are not easily defined As a teacher, I feel that students need a more transparent and practical definition And in my opinion, collocations have these features: (1) Collocations are arbitrary, which means that these are the combinations that students are not expected to produce in their free production of language (2) Individual words in a collocation can contribute to the overall semantics of the compound (3) Collocation is neither free word combination nor idiom, it is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum

1.3.2 Characteristics of Collocations

In discussion of the nature of collocation, linguists have been trying to generalize what characteristics collocations have in common Generally, collocations have two major features

as follow

1.3.2.1 Collocations are Arbitrary

According to Kathleen R McKeown and Dragomir R Radev, the notion of arbitrariness

captures the fact that substituting a synonym for one of the words in a collocational word pair

may result in an infelicitous lexical combination Thus, for example, a phrase such as make an

effort is acceptable, but make an exertion is not; similarly, a running commentary, commit treason, warm greetings are all true collocations, but a running discussion, commit treachery,

and hot greetings are not acceptable lexical combinations In short, there is no absolute rule

that can be learned for collocations Thus, they are best dealt with isolation as they arise or depending on notion of typicality to decide what acceptation and unacceptable collocations are

1.3.2.2 Collocations are Language-Specific

As Larson (1984:141) points out, every language interprets the physical words in its own way and has its own convention which governs the collocability of words In other words, combinations of words will differ from language to language For example, in Vietnamese we

say “earn money” but in English the equivalent phrase is “make money” Similarly, in

American English one says set the table and make a decision; whereas in British English, the corresponding phrases are lay the table and take a decision Therefore, what is perfectly acceptable collocation in one language may be unacceptable in another Take the case of make

in English and làm in Vietnamese as a typical example Although these two words are

equivalent to each other, they cannot go with the same range of nouns While such

collocations as làm trai, làm duyên làm dáng, làm lẽ are acceptable in Vietnamese, the verb

make in English actually cannot co-occur with these corresponding nouns Instead, the

equivalents phrases must be be a man, posture, be a concubine in which different verbs are

1.3.3.1 Free Word Combinations

In the point of view of Kathleen R McKeown and Dragomir R Radev, a free word

combination can be described using general rules; that is, in terms of semantic constraints on

the words which appear in a certain syntactic relation with a given headword Thus, examples

of free word combinations include put+[object] or run+[object] (i.e „manage‟) where the words that can occur as object are virtually open-ended In the case of put, the semantic

constraint on the object is relatively open-ended (any physical object can be mentioned) and

thus the range of words that can occur is relatively unrestricted In the case of run (in the sense

of „manage‟ or „direct‟) the semantic restrictions on the object are tighter but still follow a

semantic generality: any institution or organization can be managed (e.g business, ice cream

parlor, etc.) To put it in a nutshell, free word combinations have the properties that each of

the words can be replaced by another without seriously modifying the overall meaning of the composite unit and if one of the words is omitted, a reader cannot easily infer it from the remaining ones

1.3.3.2 Idioms

An idiom, on the other hand, is a rigid word combination to which no generalities apply; Neither can its meaning be determined from the meaning of its parts nor can it participate in the usual word-order variations (Fernado,1996)

An expression is an idiom, described by Jon Wright (1999:7) when it carries the following features:

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

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

- He put the cat among the pigeons

- Don’t count your chickens

According to Jack C Richard 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 Robins (1989), Palmer (1981), Jackson and Evenla (2000), Seidle (1978) and Cruse (1986) all treat idioms as

a special kind of collocation, however, meaning of an idiom cannot be deduced from the meanings of its constituents For example, „make it‟ – the collocation of „make‟ and „it‟ is an idiom meaning „succeed‟, which is not systematically determinable from the meanings of

„make‟ and „it‟

To sum up, idiom is a special kind of collocation in which the semantics of the whole cannot

be deduced from the meanings of the individual constituents and without knowing the idiom it

is often almost to understand it

1.3.3.3 Collocations versus Free Word Combinations and Idiomatic Expressions

Unlike free word combinations, a collocation is a group of words that occur together more often than by chance On the other hand, unlike idioms, individual words in a collocation can contribute to the overall semantics of the compound Collocations fall between these extremes and it can be difficult to draw the line between categories A word combination fails to be classified as free and is termed a collocation when the number of words which can occur in a syntactic relation with a given headword decreases to the point where it is not possible to describe the set using semantic regularities

More examples of the distinction between free word combinations and collocations are shown

in Table 1

to make good to make an appointment to be made of steel

to make it to make a promise to be made of iron

to make or break sb/st to make a mistake to be made from sugar

Table 1: Collocations vs idioms and free word combinations

1.4 Summary

This chapter has provided us with the theoretical background for the contrastive analysis of semantic features of the verb “Make” in English collocations and their equivalents in Vietnamese It covers an overview of semantic features, a brief introduction about verbs in English and in Vietnamese We have also discussed two types of word meanings: grammatical and lexical meanings Moreover, a short description of collocations as well as the distinction among free word combinations, idiomatic expressions and collocations is also mentioned Based on this theoretical foundation, we will commence chapter 2 and 3 to investigate

„semantic features of the verb “Make” in English collocations and their equivalents in Vietnamese‟ and then make a „contrastive analysis‟

CHAPTER 2 SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE VERB „MAKE‟ IN ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN VIETNAMESE

In this chapter, an attempt is made to draw an overall picture of the collocations of the two relevant verbs in the English and Vietnamese language In this part, we will deal with semantic features of the verbs in collocations We shall give examples in each case to illustrate the meanings

2.1 Semantic Features of the Verb “Make” in English Collocations

On talking about the semantic features, the author attempts to discuss different senses of the verb „make‟ collocations Like any other lexical verbs, „make‟ indicates an action or state, e.g

- I‟ve got to make some phone calls before dinner (18:18)

- She made a useful contribution to the discussion (18:18)

- We need more money if we are to make any further advances in this area of science (19:12)

According to Oxford Collocations Dictionary for students of English (2009 Oxford University Press); Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary of Current English (1995 Oxford University Press); Collins Pocket Thesaurus (2008 HarperCollins Publishers), Oxford Wordpower Dictionary (2008 Oxford University Press ); English-Vietnamese Dictionary (1993 Nhà Xuất Bản TP Hồ Chí Minh) when collocating with other words, the verb “make” has the following basic meanings

2.1.1 Make Conveys the Meaning of “produce or create something”

„Make‟ can be understood as to construct, create or prepare something by combining materials

or putting parts together Its Vietnamese equivalent expressions are: „làm‟, „tạo ra‟, „ chế tạo‟, sản xuất‟, „cắt may‟, etc e.g.:

- Shall I make a sandwich for you? (26: 443)

- This model is made of steel (26: 443)

- Her speech made a tremendous impact on everyone (5: 594)

- I first made his acquaintance in 2006 (19: 7)

Also referring to this meaning, „make‟ can be understood as to arrange a bed so that it is ready for use In Vietnamese, it means „dọn giường‟ See the following example:

- Please make your beds before you go out (5: 708)

„Make‟ also means to create or establish something Its Vietnamese equivalent is „đặt ra‟:

- These regulations were made to protect children (5:708)

- Who made this ridiculous rule? (5:708)

Besides, „make‟ expresses the act of writing, composing or preparing something In Vietnamese, it means „viết‟, „soạn thảo‟, „chuẩn bị‟, etc e.g.:

- Have you made your will? (5:1365)

- I‟ll ask my lawyer to make a deed of transfer (5:708)

2.1.2 Make Conveys the Meaning of “cause a state/ situation”

The next meaning is to cause a state or a situation In Vietnamese, it means „gây ra‟, „tạo ra‟, etc For example:

- Who‟s making those strange noises? (31: 1135)

- The children have made an awful mess in the lounge (31:1057)

There are 5 sub-groups relating to this sense of meaning of „make‟ First, „make‟ denotes the act of causing st to exist, happen or be done In this case, it can be understood as „gây ra‟, „tạo ra‟ in Vietnamese For example:

- Sh! Don‟t make a sound (5: 708)

- It makes a change to have the house to ourselves (5: 708)

- She tried to make a good impression on the interviewer (5: 708)

Second, „make‟ can be used to describe the act of causing somebody/something to be or become In Vietnamese, it means „làm cho‟, „nói‟

- She made clear her objections (5:708)

- The news made her happy (19:382)

- Can you make yourself understood in English? (5:708)

- I‟ll make it clear to him that we won‟t pay (26:443)

Third, when combining with infinitive verbs, „make‟ means to cause somebody/ something to

do something Its equivalents in Vietnamese are „khiến cho‟, „làm cho‟, etc e.g.:

- Onions make your eyes water (5: 709)

- Her jokes made us all laugh (5: 709)

- I couldn‟t make my car start this morning (5: 709)

- Nothing will make me change my mind (5: 709)

Fourth, „make‟ can be understood as to represent somebody or something as being or doing something In Vietnamese, it means „tả‟, „để cho‟, etc e.g.:

- You‟ve made my nose too big (5: 709)

- The novelist makes his heroine commit suicide at the end of the book (5: 709)

- He makes Lear a truly tragic figure (5: 709)

Last, „make‟ also means to elect or appoint somebody as something In Vietnamese, it means

„bầu‟, „bổ nhiệm‟, „lập‟, „cử làm‟, etc e.g.:

- He was made spokesman by the committee (5: 709)

- She made him her assistant (5: 709)

2.1.3 Make conveys the Meaning of “be or become something”

We can use the verb „make‟ when we want to express the meaning of being or becoming something And its Vietnamese equivalents are „thành‟, „trở thành‟, etc e.g.:

- Karen is very good at making friends (5: 473)

- That will make a good ending to the book (5:709)

2.1.4 Make Conveys the Meaning of “to gain or to win something”

Its Vietnamese equivalents are „kiếm được‟, „giành được‟, etc e.g.:

- He made a fortune on the stock market (5: 709)

- They make a profit of ten pence on every copy they sell (5:924)

- The company made a loss on the deal (5: 698)

- He makes a living by repairing secondhand cars (5:698)

2.1.5 Make Conveys the Meaning of “to calculate or estimate something to be something”

„Make‟ also means to calculate or estimate something to be something Its Vietnamese equivalents are „tính toán‟, „ước tính‟, etc e.g.:

- What do you make the time? (5: 709)

- I make the total exactly $50 (5: 709)

- I make it that we‟ve got about 70 miles to go (5: 709)

2.1.6 Make Conveys the Meaning of “to put something forward for consideration; to propose something”

When we want to mean that something is proposed or offered, then use „make‟ Its Vietnamese equivalents are „đề nghị‟, „đề xuất‟, „đặt giá‟, etc e.g.:

- Has she made an offer for you car? (5: 709)

- Various proposals were made for increasing sales (5: 1365)

- I made him a bid for the antique table (5: 1021)

2.1.7 Make Conveys the Meaning of “to ensure the success of something”

When we want to indicate that something can cause or ensure the success of something, we can use „make‟ In this case, „make‟ means „làm cho‟ E.g.:

E.g A good wine can make a meal (5: 709)

It was the beautiful weather that really made the holiday (5: 709)

This news has really made my day (5: 709)

2.1.8 Make Conveys the Meaning of “to do something”

In this case, „make‟ usually collocates with some nouns to mean that someone performs the

action of the noun „Make‟ is often used in a pattern with a, n, in which make and the n have the same meaning as a v similar in spelling to the n, for example „make a decision‟ = „decide‟;

make a guess (at something) = guess (at something) „Make‟ can be used like this with a number of different nouns One advantage of using this pattern is that if we use „make‟ + noun, we can use an adjective with it For example:

- He made the right decision (26: 443)

- They made a generous offer (26: 443)

When „make‟ has this meaning, it is very difficult to find a right equivalent in Vietnamese As

a result, we have to rely on the meaning of the noun to know the meaning of „make‟ See the following examples:

- I made a mistake about Julie – she‟s quite nice really (26: 746)

In this example, „make a mistake‟ means „get a wrong idea about somebody or something We cannot separate the meaning of „make‟ from the meaning of the rest The meaning is dominantly understood by the meaning of the noun in the phrase Similarly, we have:

- I realize that I made the wrong decision (26: 190)

(„to make a decision‟ = „decide to do something‟)

- Have you got any comments to make on the recent developments? (5: 227)

(„to make a comment‟ = „to give one‟s opinion‟)

- Several people made suggestions about how to raise funds (5: 1195)

(„to make a suggestion‟ = „to suggest somebody doing something‟)

- The patient is making slow progress after her operation (5: 925)

(„to make progress‟ = „to advance or develop towards a better or finished state‟)

- I‟d better make a start on the ironing (5: 1163)

(„to make a start‟ = „to begin doing something‟)

2.1.9 Make Conveys the Meaning of “Manage to reach or go”

The next meaning is to manage to reach or go to a place or position With this sentence of meaning, no passive is used though „make‟ is a transitive verb In Vietnamese, it means „có thể đến‟, „đạt được vị trí‟, „lên chức‟…See the following examples:

- I‟m sorry I couldn‟t make your party last night (31: 1021)

- Her novel has made the best-seller lists (31: 1021)

- She‟ll never make the team (31: 1021)

- He made sergeant in six months (31: 1021)

- The story made the front page of the national newspapers (31: 1021)

2.2 Semantic Features of the Verb „Làm‟ in Vietnamese Collocations

Generally, like other Vietnamese verbs, „làm‟ refers to an action, an activity, a progress, an impression and feeling, a change, a state, etc „Làm‟ is used by Vietnamese people in everyday communication in many contexts and usages In this section, we will bring out the following senses of the verb „làm‟ in Vietnamese language These senses and semantic features have been collected on the basis of Từ Điển Tiếng Việt (2006 Nhà Xuất Bản Đà Nẵng) The data for the realization of these semantic features are illustrated with the examples cited verbatim from this dictionary and stories

2.2.1 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „produce or create something‟

Like the verb „make‟ in English, „làm‟ in Vietnamese also denotes the act of producing or creating something that is non-existent before For example:

‘…Đã lâu, người mình làm thơ hầu hết chỉ làm những bài tám câu, mỗi câu bẩy chữ…’ (12:

18)

‘…Họ ước mong làm được một ngôi nhà gỗ tốt, có một cuộc sống yên bình ’ (5: 106)

‘Nước ở đây thở và kêu như cái giếng bê tông thả xuống để chuẩn bị làm móng cầu…’ (15:

169)

‘Chiếc cầu làm trong gần hai năm mới xong, xanh biếc và đẹp như một giấc mộng ’ (2: 247)

Here are some more examples:

„Chim làm tổ‟; „Làm cơm‟; „Làm thí nghiệm‟; „Làm thơ‟; „Làm tròn nhiệm vụ‟; Làm nên lịch sử…

2.2.2 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „cause a state or situation‟

First, we can use „làm‟ to reflect the state or situation caused by somebody/something For

example: ‘Làm đổ cây’; ‘Làm hỏng việc’; ‘làm náo động’; ‘Làm ngập’; ‘Làm nghẽn’; ‘Làm

tổn hại’; ‘Làm um’; ‘Làm nhặng xị’; etc

Secondly, „làm‟ describes the act of causing somebody to be or to do something For example:

‘Hắn còn làm mình bật cười hơn nữa cơ lúc hắn đeo lên người hắn đủ cả bộ lụa là, đủ cả bộ hạt cườm…‟ (10: 15)

Here are some more examples: „Làm vui lòng’; ‘Làm khó dễ’; ‘Làm ngạc nhiên’; ‘Làm yếu’;

‘Làm xước’; etc „

2.2.3 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „be or become‟

This sense of meaning in Vietnamese is similar to that in English „Làm‟ can combine with certain adjectives or nouns to indicate the state of being or becoming For example:

‘Nhà tôi nó mới về làm bạn với tôi đấy u ạ! Chúng tôi phải kiếp với nhau…‟ (7: 115)

‘…Sau này, nếu Mĩ-Diệm giết anh, Tnú phải làm cán bộ thay anh Không học chữ làm sao làm được cán bộ giỏi.‟ (13: 204)

Here are some more examples:

‘Làm duyên làm dáng’; ‘làm bạn’; ‘làm biếng’; ‘làm dáng’; ‘làm duyên’; ‘làm đỏm’; ‘làm giương’; làm phách’; ‘Làm mối’; ‘Làm mai’; ‘Làm mồi’; ‘Làm nghề’; ‘Làm người’; ‘Làm vua’; ‘Làm tôi’; ‘Làm trai’; ‘Làm tù binh’; etc…

2.2.4 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „make sb/st be or become sb/st‟

Similar to the verb „make‟ in English, the verb „làm‟ in Vietnamese can combine with adjectives or nouns and means make sb/st be or become sb/st

‘Một ngày lạ thói sai nha

Làm cho khốc hại chẳng qua vì tiền’ (3: 6)

‘Chúng đặt ra hàng trăm thứ thuế vô lí, làm cho dân ta, nhất là dân cày và dân buôn, trở nên bần cùng.‟ (8: 61)

‘Tình yêu ta như cánh kiến hoa vàng,

Như xuân đến chim rừng long trở biết

Tình yêu làm đất lạ hóa quê hương…’ (16: 125)

2.2.5 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „work‟

Probably, this is the most popular meaning of the verb „làm‟ in Vietnamese With this sense,

„làm‟ denotes the act of working to earn money to survive For example:

‘Hắn xăm xăm chạy ra giữa sân, hắn cũng muốn làm một việc gì để dự phần tu sửa lại căn nhà.’ (2: 118)

‘…Không biết có phải vì mới làm dâu mà thị tu chí làm ăn không?‟ (7: 118)

‘Vợ anh đi làm mướn, đi cấy, đi gặt để lấy công’ (11: 303)

‘Con gái, con trai bằng tuổi chúng ta

Cần cù làm lụng’ (4: 216)

Here are some more examples:

‘làm ở nhà máy’; ‘Đến giờ đi làm’; ‘Về quê làm ruộng’; ‘Làm nghề dạy học’; ‘Làm thầy thuốc’; ‘Làm việc khẩn trương’; ‘Làm mướn’; ‘Làm công’; ‘Làm tư’; ‘Làm thuê’; etc

2.2.6 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „do or carry out‟

„Làm‟ can mean to do or carry out a certain job

‘…làm như vậy ông sẽ được tất cả, được cho đất nước ông, được cho bản thân ông!’ (9: 32)

‘ Vả lại đâu có rủ được anh làm như tôi, khoác cái ba lô lên vai, đi hết làng nọ đến làng kia…‟ (1: 69)

‘…Hắn đoán họ ngồi đấy nhặt hạt rơi hạt vãi, hay ai có công việc gì gọi đến thì làm…’ (7:

113)

‘Nhìn công việc làm mỗi ngày tưởng như con người bất lực…‟ (6: 140)

‘Một người làm hai việc, làm luôn cả chính trị viên xã đội nữa.‟ (14: 198)

Moreover, „Làm‟ can denote the act of making effort to carry out something with a particular purpose For example:

‘…Té ra người nông dân nước mình vẫn có thể làm cách mạng, mà làm cách mạng hăng hái lắm…’ (1: 70)

Here are some more examples:

‘Làm nên sự nghiệp’; ‘Dám nghĩ dám làm’; ‘Làm mò’; ‘Làm ngầm’; ‘Làm nghĩa vụ’; ‘Làm xằng’; ‘Làm vườn’; ‘…

Also, with this sense of meaning, „làm‟ restrictedly combine with certain nouns to indicate daily routines such as eating, drinking, relaxing, entertaining The meaning of „làm‟ depends

on the meaning of the following noun For example: „Làm mấy cốc bia’; ‘Làm một giấc đến

sáng’; ‘Làm vài ván cờ’…

2.2.7 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „organize or hold a formal ceremony‟

Different form the verb „make‟ in English, „làm‟ in Vietnamese can convey the meaning of carrying out or holding a formal event when this verb combine with certain nouns in

Vietnamese For example: ‘Làm lễ khánh thành’; ‘Làm lễ chào cờ’; ‘Làm đám cưới’; ‘Làm

ma’…

2.2.8 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „pretend‟

In Vietnamese, „làm‟ can be understood as to pretend to be, which means that someone tries to behave differently in certain situations and this behavior does not reflect his/her true nature

For example: ‘Làm ra vẻ thông thạo’; ‘Làm như không quen biết’; ‘Làm ngơ’; ‘Làm vẻ’; etc

2.2.9 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „be added together‟

„Làm‟ can combine with phrases of quantity to indicate a quantitative result or the result of either combination or separation For example:

‘Đám tảng, đám hòn chia làm ba hàng chặn ngang trên song đòi ăn chết cái thuyền…’ (2:

171)

Here are some more examples:

‘Tách làm đôi’; ‘ Gộp chung làm một’; etc

2.2.10 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „kill‟

Different from the verb „make‟ in English, „làm‟ in Vietnamese can convey the meaning of

killing an animal for food For example: „Làm lợn’; ‘Làm vài con gà đãi khách’; etc

2.2.11 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „serve as something, be used as something or be regarded as something ‟

„„Làm‟ can also be used to describing the use of something For example:

‘…ít khi nhờ Xuân Diệu, Huy Cận đứng làm trung gian…‟ (13: 36)

‘Làm gương cho mọi người’; ‘Trồng làm cảnh’; ‘Chiếm làm của riêng’; ‘Lấy đêm làm ngày’;

‘Câu chuyện làm quà’, ‘làm mẫu’; ….The verb „make‟ in English do not convey this sense of

meaning

2.2.12 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „round st up or down‟

„Làm‟ when combining with the adjective „tròn‟ can mean to increase/ decrease a figure, price,

etc to the nearest whole number For example: ‘Làm tròn đến đơn vị là 184, làm tròn đến

hàng chục là 180’; ‘Làm tròn số’, etc

2.2.13 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „prepare‟

„Làm‟ can mean to prepare for doing something For example:

‘Kể có ra làm được dăm ba mâm thì phải đấy, nhưng nhà mình nghèo, cũng chả ai người ta chấp nhặt chi cái lúc này…‟ (7: 116)

‘Làm màu’, ‘Làm mùa’, ‘làm đất’; ‘Làm rẫy’; ‘Làm chiêm’; ‘Làm cỗ’; ‘Làm cơm’;

2.2.14 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „Calculate‟

„Làm‟ can also mean to calculate See the example: „Làm toán’;

2.2.15 „Làm‟ Conveys the Meaning of „earn‟

Similarly the verb „make‟ in English, the verb „làm‟ can also mean to earn like the example

„làm tiền‟ However, besides this meaning, the phrase „làm tiền’ can also mean to whore

2.2.16 Other meanings

In addition to the basic meanings of the verb „làm‟ mentioned above, we discover some minor ones in the following examples:

‘Làm tóc’, ‘làm đầu’…

In these examples, „làm‟ means to style the hair of somebody

In the phrase „làm nhục’, „làm‟ can convey the meaning of humiliating or raping somebody

In the phrase „làm cao’, the verb „làm‟ means to think above somebody‟s dignity

In the phrase „làm chính trị’, „làm‟ means to be involved or engaged in politics

In the phrase „Làm ác‟, „làm‟ means to commit an evil act

In the phrase „Làm bàn’, „làm‟ means to score a goal

In the phrase „Làm thinh’, „làm‟ conveys the meaning of remain silent or keep silent

In this example: „Huân ơi, làm một tiết mục văn nghệ chào bà chị, mày…‟ (6: 142), the verb

„làm‟ means to give a performance

In the example: ‘Vua Lê chỉ lên ngôi làm vì, quyền binh ở cả trong tay chúa Trịnh’ „Làm‟

means to have no power at all This sense of meaning is exploited when we want to indicate a position which is only important in paper and is nothing in reality

2.3 Findings

At first glance, people may believe that „make‟ collocations in English are the same as „làm‟ collocations in Vietnamese However, deep study on these two verbs‟ collocations has pointed out that they are similar but not exactly identical Here are some similarities and differences between them in terms of semantic features which the authors have found out after studying the two verbs‟ collocations

More specifically, they both refer to:

+ producing or creating something

- This table is made of wood

- Chiếc bàn này được làm bằng gỗ

- I first made his acquaintance in 2006

- Tôi lần đầu làm quen với anh ấy vào năm 2006

+ causing a state or situation

- The news made her happy

- Tin đó làm cô ấy vui

- I‟ll make it clear to him that we won‟t pay

- Tôi sẽ làm rõ với anh ấy là chúng tôi sẽ không trả

+ being/ becoming something

- Karen explains things very clearly – she‟d make a good teacher

- Karen giải thích mọi thứ rất rõ ràng Cô ấy có thể làm một giáo viên tốt

- That will make a good ending to the book

- Cái đó sẽ làm nên phần kết lý thú của cuốn sách

+ ensuring the success of something

- A good wine can make a meal

- Rượu ngon có thể làm cho bữa ăn ngon

- It was the beautiful weather that really made the holiday

- Chính thời tiết đẹp đã thực sự làm cho ngày nghỉ thú vị

+ earning

- He made a lot of money last year

- Hắn kiếm/làm được rất nhiều tiền vào năm ngoái

These similarities really help when we want to find out their equivalents in target languages in translating However, to choose the best equivalent which fits the nuances of meanings of each word is sometimes such a challenge as absolute synonyms require identical connotational and denotational meanings

3.2 Differences

The verb „make‟ collocations and the verb „làm‟ collocations differ in some meanings For

example, in English, people say „He made the right decision‟ and if we translate this sentence word by word into Vietnamese, we will have „Anh ấy đã làm quyết định đúng đắn‟ This

sentence sounds unnatural in Vietnamese and of course unsuitable Obviously, when translating the sentence like this, the translators misunderstood the actual meaning of the verb

„make‟ here in its collocation The translation should be „Anh ấy đã đưa ra quyết định đúng

đắn’ This misunderstanding is caused by mother tongue interference which a great number of

learners are affected when learning and using English