an analysis of lexical cohesion of english and vietnamese economic news discourse = phân tích các phương tiện liên kết từ vựng trong diễn ngôn tin kinh tế tiếng anh và tiếng việt

The centrality and importance to the text of any particular sentence within the text will be determined by the number of lexical connections that sentences have to other sentences in the

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ TUYẾT

AN ANALYIS OF LEXICAL COHESION OF ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE ECONOMIC NEWS DISCOURSE

Phân tích các phương tiện liên kết từ vựng trong diễn ngôn

tin kinh tế Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CODE: 60.22.15

HA NOI - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER II: A COMPARISON OF LEXICAL COHESION IN ENGLISH AND

II.1 Frequency of occurrence of two major types of lexical cohesion 17

III Implications for teachers and EFL learners 40 III.1 Implications for teaching and learning ESP 40 III.2 Implications for teaching and learning translation 41

APPENDICES

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Frequency of occurrence and percentage of contribution of

two major types of lexical cohesion in English and Vietnamese

economic news

……… 17

Table 2: Frequency of occurrence and percentage of contribution of

sub-categories of reiteration in English and Vietnamese economic news ……… 18

Table 3: Frequency of occurrence and percentage of contribution of

sub- categories of repetition……… ……… 20

Table 4: Frequency of occurrence and percentage of contribution of

subtypes of antonym ……… ……… 29

Table 5: Frequency of occurrence and percentage of contribution of

subtypes of lexical collocation……… ……… 36

PART I: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale of the study

Nowadays, the need of international communication has been increasing rapidly and English is regarded as a predominant means of international communication, particularly

in transferring written information Most of magazines, newspapers, internet sites, etc of both English speaking countries and non-English speaking countries are published, exchanged in English Vietnam is not an exception

Lexical competence is indispensable part of communicative competence because it indicates the ability to use language in different contexts Lexis helps to make texts coherent and cohesive by establishing grammatical and lexico-grammatical relations Actually, knowing how to select appropriate vocabulary to deal with specific topics in specific genres means knowing how to create coherent and cohesive texts This can be

achieved by utilizing lexical cohesive devices Hoey (1991) claims that ―lexical cohesion

is the single most important form of cohesion, accounting for something like forty percent

of cohesion ties in text‖[28] and that ―various lexical relationships between the different sentences making up a text provide a measure of the cohesiveness of the text The centrality and importance to the text of any particular sentence within the text will be determined by the number of lexical connections that sentences have to other sentences in the text‖ [31]

As a learner, a teacher, and a beginning researcher of English, the author would like to

choose An analysis of lexical cohesion of English and Vietnamese Economic news discourse as the topic of this study with the hope to deeply understand how lexical

cohesion is achieved in economic news discourse and the importance of lexical cohesion

in English and Vietnamese in general and in economic news discourse in particular

Studying and analyzing economic news discourse is of the author‘s high interest because

(i) economic news is widely available and easily accessible data that provide

rich sources for research, studying, teaching and learning

(ii) economic news discourse not only represents speech communities' use of

and attitudes towards languages but also influences them

(iii) economic news helps us to understand a lot about social meanings and

stereotypes embedded in, produced and reproduced through discourse and

communication Through reading economic news we can also learn more about other nations in cultural side

(iv) coherence and cohesion in general and lexical cohesion in particular play

such an important role in understanding economic news discourse because

of their function of binding texts together by creating sequences of meaning

II Scope of the study

Within the framework of a minor M.A thesis, the present study will not take up all items involved in cohesion The writer will focus only on lexical cohesion of English and Vietnamese Economic News discourse taken from some mainstream newspapers The comparison between lexical cohesion in English and Vietnamese economic news discourse will reveal the similarities and differences between these two languages It is hoped that this study will help the teachers and students to gain an insight into the use of lexical cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese economic news

III Aims of the study

The inter-related aims of this thesis are:

(i) to make comparative analysis of lexical cohesion between English and

Vietnamese economic news discourse to help readers surmount difficulties

in using and understanding the lexical cohesive devices

(ii) to figure out how these cohesive devices are used in English and

Vietnamese economic news discourse

(iii) to give a systematic and comprehensive description of lexical cohesion

features in English and Vietnamese

(iv) to help the teachers and students to gain an insight into the use of lexical

cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese economic news

IV Research questions

In order to analyse lexical cohesion of English and Vietnamese in economic news the

thesis raises a question “What are the similarities and differences between the use of lexical cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese economic news discourse?”

This research question will be clarified by three other sub-questions as follows:

(i) How is lexical cohesion via lexical devices realized in English and Vietnamese economic news discourses?

(ii) What are the most frequently used lexical cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese economic news discourses?

(iii)What are the overall features of English and Vietnamese economic news discourse

in terms of lexical cohesion?

V Research Methods

Research methods of description, analysis and statistics in linguistics have been used

to fulfill the objectives of the study Specifically, document analysis is the primary research method used in this study, which focuses on analysis of lexical cohesion in the economic news

Halliday and Hasan‘s(1976) model is mainly adopted to identify lexical cohesive ties

in the data Yet, the definition and classification of lexical cohesive ties are carefully explained and illustrated

The data for the present analysis have been selected from mainstream newspapers

written in English including Economics, Real Life Economics, The Times, Times online, The Sunday Times, The Wall Street Journal… and Vietnamese such as Thời Báo Kinh

Tế Việt Nam, Tiền Phong, Người Lao Động, Thanh niên, Kinh tế Tài chính và Thị trường Chứng khoán, … The study aims at collecting ten pieces of English economic

news and ten pieces of Vietnamese ones written by different journalists All lexical cohesive ties in these news discourses are picked up, the type of lexical cohesive devices are noted However, only outstanding examples are used to illustrate, the percentages of various type of lexical cohesion in each language are calculated and the results are compared and contrasted within and between text groups of the same genre in both English and Vietnamese

VI Organization of the study

The thesis consists of three parts, references and appendices

This part presents rationale, scope, and objectives of the study Research methods, research questions and organization of the thesis are also given clearly in this part

This is the focus of the study which consists of two chapters

This chapter provides fundamental and theoretical concepts related

to the purpose of the study It deals with theories of discourse, discourse analysis, coherence and cohesion, register and discourse genre

CHAPTER II: A COMPARISON OF LEXICAL COHESION IN ENGLISH

AND VIETNAMESE ECONOMIC NEWS DISCOURSE

This chapter not only investigates lexical items but also presents the description and exemplification of lexical cohesion in English and Vietnamese economic news to find out the similarities and differences between these two languages Main features of lexical cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese economic news are also indicated in this chapter

This final part gives the overall answers for the research questions

of the study, implications for teaching and learning, and some suggestions for further studies

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 Discourse and Discourse Analysis

I.1.1 Discourse Analysis

In his book An introduction to Discourse Analysis, Nguyen Hoa (2000) defined

discourse analysis as ―a study of how and for what purposes language is used in a certain context of situation.‖ Yule (1996: 139) stated: "In the study of language, some of the most interesting questions arise in connection with the way language is 'used', rather than what

its components ( ) We were, in effect, asking how it is that language-users interpret what other language users intend to convey When we carry this investigation further and ask how it is that as lan uage-users, make sense of what we read in texts, understand what speakers mean despite what they say, recognize connected as opposed to jumbled or incoherent discourse and successfully take part in that complex activity called conversation, we are undertaking what is known as discourse analysis."

It is clear that discourse analysis is the examination of language used by members of a speech community It involves looking at both language form and language function and includes the study of both spoken interaction and written texts It identifies linguistic features that characterize different genres as well as social and cultural factors that aid in our interpretation and understanding of different texts and types of talk A discourse analysis of written texts might include a study of topic development and cohesion across the sentences, while an analysis of spoken language might focus on these aspects plus turn-taking practices, opening and closing sequences of social encounters, or narrative structure

The study of discourse has developed in a variety of disciplines— sociolinguistics, anthropology, sociology, and social psychology Thus, discourse analysis takes different theoretical perspectives and analytic approaches: speech act theory, interactional sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, pragmatics, conversation analysis, and variation analysis (Schiffrin, 1994) Although each approach emphasizes different aspects

of language use, they all view language as social interaction

A significant contribution to the evolution of discourse analysis has been made by British and American scholars British discourse analysis has been mainly influenced by M.A.K Halliday's functional approach to language Halliday's framework emphasized the

social function of language and the thematic and informatio al structure of speech and

writing De Beaugrande (1980), Halliday and Hasan (1976), Van Dijk (1972) as well as Prague School of linguists have made a significant contribution to this branch of linguistics

by indicating the connection of grammar and discourse On the other hand, the American discourse analysis has produced a large number of descriptions of discourse types along with social limitations of politeness and thorough description of face-preserving acts in speech

I.1.2 Discourse and text

Different linguists have different ways to define discourse Brown and Yule (1983:18) pointed out that ―discourse is lan uage material, either spo en or written, in actual uses by speakers (and writers) of the lan uage.‖ Cook (1 89:156) considered discourse as

"stretches of language perceived to be meaningful, unified, and purposive" Crystal (1992: 72) had a similar perspective of discourse when he defined discourse as "a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) lan uage larger than a sentence, often consttuting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, jo e, r narrative.‖

So far, many linguists share the same view that the term discourse and text can be used interchangeably Halliday & Hasan (1976:1) found no distinction between them when they stated ―a text may be spoken or written, pose or verse, dialogue or monologue.‖ For them, the term ―text‖ is referred to as a ―semantic unit‖ characterized by cohesion They stated: ―A text is a passage of discourse which is coherent in two regards: It is coherent with respect to the context of situation, and therefore consistent in register; and it is coherent with respect to itself, and therefore cohesive‖ (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:23) For some other linguists, ―discourse‖ is different from ―text‖ Brown and Yule (1983:6) argued that ―discourse is lan uage material, either spo en or written, in actual uses by speakers (and writers) of the lan uage.‖ while text is ―the representation of discourse and the verbal record of communicative act.‖ In Widdowson‘s viewpoint (1984) ―Discourse is

a communicative process by means of interaction Its situational outcome is a change in a state of affairs: information is conveyed, intension made clear, its linguistic product is text.‖ (quoted in Nguyen Hoa, 2000: 14) According to Cook (1989: 156), discourse is considered as ―stretches of language perceived to be meaningful, unified, and purposive‖ whereas text is ―a stretch of language interpreted formally, without context.‖ Crystal (1992:72) considered discourse as "a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) lan uage

larger than a sentence‖ while text is ―a piece of naturally occurring spoken, written, or signed discourse identified for purposes of analysis.‖ It is clear that these linguists see discourse as a process and text as a product

For the sake of the study, the writer of this thesis would take the viewpoint that discourse is the process of communicating via language Text is the record of the process

of communication Text may exist in written or spoken form

I.1.3 Spoken and written discourse

Spoken and written languages present different modes of expressing language meanings These two mediums of discourse share some similar features but they also have some differences in terms of forms and function

Halliday (1985a) stated ―speaking does not show clearly sentence and paragraph boundaries or signal the move into direct quotation‖ He also pointed out that ―talking might be spontaneous which results in mistakes, repetition, sometimes less coherent sentences where even grunts, stutters or pauses might be meaningful.‖ Accordingly, this is because of the fact that the speaker and the listener know each other or at least the speaker

is aware of the fact that he is being listened to, which helps him to adjust the register Another feature of spoken discourse is it may consist of nonsense vocabulary, slang, or contracted forms (I‘ll, you‘re, he‘s…) Rhythm, intonation and speed of utterance are other important features of oral discourse (Crystal 1992:291)

On the contrary, written discourse is considered as well organized, well planned or transactional According to Crystal (1995:291) ―writing develops in space in that it needs a means to carry the information The writer is frequently able to consider the content of his work for almost unlimited period of time which makes it more coherent, having complex syntax.‖ and ―the reader might not instantly respond to the text, ask for clarification, hence neat message organization, division to paragraphs, layouts are of vital importance to make comprehension easier.‖ He also indicated another feature only writing discourse has- that

is the organization of tables, charts, or formulas

David Nunan (1993:12) distinguished spoken and written discourse based on three features: grammar, lexical density and situation Although the two share the same functions: the transactional function and the interactional function (Brown and Yule 1983: 13), the written language has certain features that are not actually shared with the spoken language In spoken language grammar is not as important as information, but in written

language, it is essential to maintain enough information, appropriate grammatical structures as well as rational organization of sentences The lexical density indicates the information presented Evidently, written language seems to have more information packed into it With written language, there is no common situation as there in face-to-face interaction The situation therefore has to be inferred from the text

I.2 Discourse context

I.2.1 Context

Discourse analysis involves many aspects such as cohesion, coherence, adjacency pair, turn-taking, text type, and so on so forth Among them context plays a key role in the analysis According to David Nunan (1993:7), ―Context refers to the situation giving use

to the discourse and within which the discourse is embedded.‖ For him, context has meanings at two levels, namely, the linguistic level and the non-linguistic level At the linguistic level, context is referred to as any linguistic item or content surrounding or accompanying the piece of discourse under analysis At the non-linguistic level, context includes the type of communicative events, the topic, the purpose of the event, the setting, the participants and the relationship between them and the background knowledge and assumptions underlying the communicative event

Obviously, context plays such an important role in understanding a discourse It is impossible to understand a person‘s response basing on only the combination of separate response In order to understand it wholly and fully, we need to take into account not only the specific utterances, but also the context in which the discourse is embedded

I.2.2 Context of situation

The context of situation was formulated by the anthropologist Malinowski in 1923 Lately, Halliday and Hasan (1976) focused on context of situation when they reported the study of Malinowski (1923) Halliday pointed out the reason why Malinowski introduced the notion of context of situation when he stated that ―He understood that a text written by these people into this language could not be understood by any foreigners or by people living outside this society even if translated into their own languages because each message brought more meanings than those expressed through the words, meanings that could only be understood if accompanied by the situation.‖ (Halliday, 1985:6)

According to Halliday and & Hasan (1976:23) the three headings field, mode, and tenor which had been proposed for these are considered highly general concepts for

describing how the context of situation determines the kinds of meaning that are expressed Yet, for them, the linguistic features, which are typically associated with a configuration of situational features - with particular values of the field, mode, and tenor, constitute a register

Eggins (1994:30) shared the same point of view as Halliday & Hasan (1976) when he stated that ―context of situation is usually discussed under three variables: what is talked about, what the relationship between the communicators is, what role the language plays.‖

It is concluded that we can only understand thoroughly someone‘s discourse if we know the context of situation in which the discourse occurs

I.3 Cohesion and coherence

I.3.1 Cohesion vs coherence

Cohesion and coherence are both considered to have a role in contributing to the unity

of the discourse It is therefore worthwhile to consider some of the definitions given for

cohesion and coherence

In their book “Cohesion in English” Halliday & Hasan (1976:4) used the term ―cohesion‖

to refer to ―relations of meaning that exist within a text and that define it as a text‖ Cohesion refers to possibilities to link something with what has been mentioned before Since this linking is achieved through relations in meaning, we can, therefore, interpret it as the set of semantic recourses for linking sentences Halliday & Hasan (1976:5) considered cohesion

as ‗part of the language system‖ Cohesion can be realized through grammar and vocabulary; thus, it can be sub-divided into grammar and lexical cohesion According to them, ―grammar and lexical ties become cohesive only when they are interpreted through their relation to some other elements in the text.‖(1976: 31-33)

Richard et al (1992) seemed to have the same viewpoint with the two scholars when defining cohesion as ―grammatical and/ or lexical relationships between different elements of a text This may be the relationship between different sentences or between different parts of a sentence.‖

However, the definition provided by Halliday and Hasan is slightly unclear They stated that ―cohesion means the coherence of a text itself, while coherence is the coherence

of the text with its context of situation‖ (Halliday and Hasan 1976: 23)

Hasan (1984) defined coherence as a phenomenon which is capable of being measured

by the reader or the listener of a text The perceived coherence depends upon the

interaction of cohesive devices, which Hasan called ―cohesive harmony‖, the denser the cohesive harmony of a text is, the more coherent it will be judged

On the contrary, Widdowson (1978) indicated that coherence can be created without cohesion Let‘s look at this example

A: That‘s the phone

B: I‘m in the bath

A: O.K

(Widdowson 1978:29)

Obviously, there is no cohesive links in this dialogue However, we can still understand it if these three utterances are taken together Thus, in this example, A‘s utterance about the telephone can be considered as a request and B‘s response as an excuse for not being able to comply with A‘s request A‘s second utterance is then understood as

an acceptance of B‘s excuse

The example above points out that even when a text does not have surface textual cohesive links we may still understand it by ―inferring the convert propositional connections from an interpretation of the illocutionary acts.‖ (Widdowson 1978:29) Brown and Yule (1983) shared the same viewpoint with Widdowson They argued that cohesion was not necessary to all to make a text appear a unified whole and that without coherence, a set of sentences would not form a text, no matter how many cohesive links there were between sentences

From all mentioned above, it is clear that although cohesion and coherence are significantly different from each other, it is important to realize that the two phenomena are closely related-The presence of cohesive devices in a text makes it easy to recognize its coherence

I.3.2 Cohesive devices

Halliday & Hasan (1976) made a detailed classification of the cohesive devices in English basing either on semantic relations in the linguistic system or on lexico-grammatical relations In other words, these authors distinguished between grammatical and lexical cohesion

I.3.2.1 Grammatical cohesion

According to Halliday & Hasan (1976) grammatical cohesion embraces four different devices:

a, Reference

In Halliday & Hasan‘s viewpoint (1976:31), references functions to retrieve presupposed information in texts and must be identifiable for it to be considered as cohesive They stated ―instead of being interpreted semantically in their own right, they make reference to something else for their interpretation.‖ (1976:31)

It is clear that reference relates one element of the text to another one for its interpretation Since it is a semantic relation ―the reference item is in no way constrained

to match the grammatical class of the item it refers to.‖ (Halliday & Hasan 1976:32)

In the following example, they refers to children

All children, except one, grow up They soon know that they will grow up, and the way

Wendy knew was this

Halliday & Hasan (1976:33) distinguished between situational and textual reference: Situational reference, which is called exophora, refers to information outside the context or conversation It is independent of the context

Textual reference, which is considered as endophora, is subdivided into anaphoric reference and cataphoric reference

Anaphoric reference is a process where a word or phrase refers back to another word

or phrase used earlier in a text or conversation

Cataphoric reference is the use of a word or phrase to refer forward to another word or

phrase which will be used later in the text or conversation

b Substitution

Substitution is the replacement of a word or phrase by another one to avoid repetition

In the following example one substitutes for gulf

The Lion was about to reply when suddenly they came to another gulf across the road But this one was so broad and deep that the Lion knew at once he could not leap across it

There are three types of substitutions: nominal, verbal, and clausal substitution

c Ellipsis

Ellipsis is an omission of certain elements from a sentence or a clause and can only be recovered by referring to an element in the proceeding text The former is non-cohesive

and the latter is cohesive In this example Dormouse is elided after two

There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and

the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and

the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its

(i) additive (e.g and, besides, furthermore, in addition, etc.)

(ii) adversative (e.g but, yet, on the other hand, however, etc.)

(iii) causal (e.g because, so, therefore, for this reason, as a result, in this respect, etc.)

(iv) temporal (e.g first, then, next, finally, from now on, formerly, in the end, etc.)

I.3.2.2 Lexical cohesion

Lexical cohesion was first discussed in terms of collocation by Firth (1957) and later studied seriously by Halliday & Hasan Lexical cohesion is defined as ―the cohesive effect achieved by the selection of vocabulary‖ (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:274) Halliday & Hasan‘s viewpoint is shared by David Nunan (1993:28) when he stated that ―lexical cohesion occurs when two words in a text are semantically related in some way.‖

Halliday & Hasan (1976) classified lexical cohesion into two main categories: reiteration and collocation A reiteration may be a repetition, a synonym or near-synonym,

a superordinate, or a general word (1976:278) For Halliday & Hasan, superordinate and general word are considered as two separate categories However, a general word is called general superordinate according to Mc Carthy‘s classification (1991:66) In this thesis, thus, superordinate and general words are treated under the heading superordinate

Halliday & Hasan (1976) also point out that the lexical relationship that features as cohesive force can be extended as there is cohesion between any pairs of lexical items that stand to each other in some word-meaning relation Therefore, this would include not only repetition, synonym/ near-synonym, and superordinate but also pairs of opposites which are put under the heading antonyms; or pairs of words indicating part to whole relation which is termed as meronymy, or part to part relation which is called co-meronymy

In this thesis, to be clarified, synonym/near-synonym will be treated under the heading synonym; any relations related to superordinate or meronym will be treated under the heading superordinate/ meronymy Specifically, reiteration is divided into four subtypes, namely, repetition, synonym, antonym, superordinate/ meronymy

The main characteristics as well as frequency of occurrence of each type of lexical cohesive devices will be discussed in detail in the next chapter

I.4 Register and genre

It is clear that cohesion consists of the mutual connection of components of surface text within a sequence of sentences, and this process is signaled by a lexico-grammatical system of language Thus, cohesion is then concerned with the selection from options available in the lexico-grammatical system of language However, what factors determine this selection?

The function of particular forms of language to create different types of texts is determined by text type and register In other words, genre/ register theory is closely connected with the principle of choice Thus, the notion of genre and register is one of the most important factors in determining different language choices

I.4.1 Register

Register is defined in different ways by different linguists

Register, in Halliday‘s viewpoint, "is the set of meanings, the configuration of semantic patterns that are typically drawn upon under the specific conditions, along with the words and structures that are used in the realization of these meanings" (1985:23) It is considered as one of the two defining concepts of text, as stated by Halliday (1985:23)

―The concept of cohesion can be supplemented by that of register since the two together effectively define a text‖

In Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, Richards et al

(1992) defined register as ―a speech variety used by particular group of people, usually sharing the same occupation (e.g doctors, lawyers) or the same interests (e.g stamp collectors, baseball fans)‖ These scholars also argued that ―a particular register often distinguishes itself from other registers by having a number of distinctive words, by using words or phrases in a particular way (e.g in tennis: deuce, love, tramlines) and sometimes

by special grammatical constructions (e.g legal language)‖

For the purpose of this research the term register is being employed because of its

underlying concepts, such as field, tenor, and mode

I.4.1.1 Field

Field, according to Halliday & Hasan (1976:22), refers to ―the total event, in which the text is functioning, together with the purposive activity of speaker or writer‖ Halliday (1978:62) claim that field is ―on-going activity and the particular purpose that the use of language is serving within the context of that activity‖ In other words, utterances or words employed reveal the kind of activity that is going on Field is concerned with the communicative purpose, the nature of social action that is taking place as well as its subject matter

I.4.1.2 Mode

Mode is ―the function of the text in the event, including therefore both the channel taken

by language - spoken or written, extempore or prepared, - and its genre, rhetorical mode, as narrative, didactic, persuasive, 'phatic communion' and so on.‖ (Halliday and Hasan, 1976:22)

It describes the way the language is being used in the speech interaction, including the medium (spoken, written, written to be spoken, etc.) as well as the rhetorical mode (expository, instructive, persuasive, etc.)

I.4.1.3 Tenor

Tenor refers to ―the type of role interaction, the set of relevant social relations, permanent and temporary, among the participants involved.‖ (Halliday & Hasan 1976:22) It is again mentioned by Halliday (1978:62) as ―the interrelations among participants in terms of status and role relationships.‖ In other words, it refers to the social relation existing between the interactants in a speech situation It includes relations of formality, power, and affect (manager/clerk, father/son) Thus, tenor influences interpersonal choices in the linguistic system, and thereby it affects the structures and the strategies chosen to activate the linguistic

exchange

In brief, register is the linguistic feature of the text that reflects the social context in which

it is produced It reflects the degree of formality of the particular text by using a characteristic set of lexical and grammatical features that are compatible with the particular register The three dimensions of register: field, mode and tenor are in a dialectical relationship - ―These three variables are independent: a given level of formality (tenor) influences and is influenced

by a particular level of technicality (field) in an appropriate channel of communication.‖ (Hatim and Mason, 1990:51)

I.4.2 Genre

The definition of genre focuses on its conventionalized nature and on the fact that its characteristic structure and specific linguistic feature are determined by the particular purpose the genre is intended to serve

According to Swales (1990) ―A genre comprises a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes These purposes are recognized by the expert members of parent discourse community, and thereby constitute the rationale for genre.‖

Bhatia (1993), who is in the lines of Swales (1990), described genre as a communicative event characterized by a defined structure and purposiveness:

it is a recognizable communicative event characterized by a set of communicative purpose(s) identified and mutually understood by the members of the professional or academic community in which it regularly occurs Most often it is highly structured and conventionalized with constraints on allowable contributions in terms of their intent, positioning, form and functional value These constraints, however, are often exploited by the expert members of the discourse community to achieve private intentions within the framework of socially recognized purpose(s) (Bhatia 1993: 13)

From all mentioned above it is obvious that genre is staged, goal-directed and purposeful Genre can be defined as a cultural specific text-type which results from using language (spoken or written) to accomplish something

I.5 Economic news discourse

Economic news is one type of press used in everyday newspapers, magazines to carry out the informing function and the influencing function According to Nguyễn Thị Vân Đông (2001), the function of press is ―informing and provoking reader‘s curiosity and satisfying their choice.‖

In this thesis, the mode of economic new is in the form of written language, thus it has several features:

 it uses a number of noun phrases modified by various adjective phrases, sentences are

in the form of subject - predicate structure

 Information provided in this type of discourse must be exact, current

 The economic news consists of a number of paragraphs

 The main idea of the economic text is expressed in the headline and in the topic sentence

 The economic news is registered by mixture of language Firstly, plain and neutral lexis is employed to transfer information directly and effectively It is registered by official, formal and expressive lexis as well

 The tenor of the economic news is interpersonal between the writers and readers as they are working on the discourse

CHAPTER II: A COMPARISON OF LEXICAL COHESION IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE ECONOMIC NEWS DISCOURSE

In this chapter, the lexical cohesive ties employed in ten English economic news discourse and ten Vietnamese ones will be identified and the number of them was calculated and the percentage of each subtype will be discussed Also, the description and exemplification of lexical cohesion in English and Vietnamese economic news will be given As mentioned previously, the taxonomies provided by Halliday and Hasan (1976) will be adopted Specifically, Lexical cohesive ties are subdivided into two broad categories: reiteration and collocation The former is further classified into repetition, synonym, antonym, superordinate/ meronymy The later is sub-classified into resultative collocation, modificational collocation, and contextual collocation The economic news was taken from some mainstream newspapers

in English such as Economics, Real Life Economics, The Times, Times online, The Sunday Times,… and in Vietnamese such as Thời Báo Kinh Tế Việt Nam, Tiền Phong, Người Lao Động, Thanh niên, Kinh tế Tài chính và Thị trường Chứng khoán, …

II.1 Frequency of occurrence of two major types of lexical cohesion

Table 1: Frequency of occurrence and percentage of contribution of two major types of

lexical cohesion in English and Vietnamese economic news

Lexical cohesive ties In English economic news In Vietnamese economic news

is subcategorized into four types and the investigation of the random selected economic news in English and Vietnamese reveals that the four sub-types of reiteration do not occur with equal frequency Therefore, the frequency of occurrence and the main features of each sub-type of reiteration ties will be discussed in detail in the next part

II.2 Reiteration

Reiteration is defined by Halliday & Hasan (1976: 319) as ―the repetition of a lexical item, or the occurrence of a synonym of some kind, in the context of reference; that is, where the two occurrences have the same reference Typically, therefore, a reiterated

lexical item is accompanied by a reference item, usually ‗the‘ or a demonstrative‖

These scholars emphasize the role of a reference item, together with a related lexical,

as in the following examples:

 I turned to the ascent of the peak The ascent is perfectly easy (repetition)

 I turned to the ascent of the peak The climb is perfectly easy (synonym)

 I turned to the ascent of the peak The task is perfectly easy (superordinate)

Obviously, a reiterated lexical item is accompanied by a reference item the The complex consisting of the plus reiterated lexical item is therefore cohesive by reference

They also state that cohesion occurs ―where the interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependent on that of another‖ However, in their opinion, the two lexical items may cohere whether or not they have the same referent or whether or not a referential relationship exists between them, and the second occurrence may be identical, inclusive, exclusive or unrelated, in terms of reference

Reiteration consists of four sub-types Frequency of occurrence and percentage of contribution of each type is shown in the table below:

Table 2: Frequency of occurrence and percentage of contribution of sub-categories of

reiteration in English and Vietnamese economic news

proportion of this lexical tie is much higher than all the other lexical reiteration ties in both languages Synonym is ranked the second in economic news of both languages However, this type of reiteration occurs more frequently in English economic news: 14.1% in English and 11.9% in Vietnamese

Antonym is ranked the third with 6.3% in English economic news while in Vietnamese ones antonym is ranked the last with the percentage of 3.7 % In English economic news, the last type in a list of the range of reiteration tie in descending order is superordinate/ meronymy which accounts for only 5.9%

As shown in table 2, the distribution of different categories of lexical reiteration tie is roughly the same in English and Vietnamese economic news Among all types of reiteration only repetition is used more frequently in Vietnamese economic news (80.3%) while all the other types are employed more in English economic news

In Hoey‘s viewpoint (1991), complex lexical repetition comprises cases when two lexical items share a lexical morpheme but are not completely identical or when they are identical but have different grammatical functions In other words, a lexical item can be repeated in different parts of speech within and between sentences in the text For example, deliver (v) – delivery (n)

rise (v) - rise (n)

Trần Ngọc Thêm (1985) also mentioned cases when a verb is repeated in the form of a noun or an adjective is repeated in the form of a noun…This phenomenon is the same as what Hoey (1991) called ―complex lexical repetition‖ Therefore, in this study, to be clarified, any lexical items repeated with different functions will be treated as complex lexical repetition

The frequency of occurrence of sub-categories of repetition is shown in the table below:

Table 3: Frequency of occurrence and percentage of contribution of sub- categories of

repetition

Sub- categories of

repetition in English economic news in Vietnamese economic news

Simple lexical repetition 342 (88.6%) 406 (97.3%)

Complex lexical repetition 44 (11.4%) 11 (2.7%)

As presented in table 3, in both English and Vietnamese economic news the number of simple lexical repetition is much higher than complex ones However, simple lexical repetition is used more in Vietnamese economic news with the total number of appearance

up to 406 (97.3%), whereas complex lexical repetition is employed more in English economic news at 44 (11.4%)

The investigation result indicates that the most natural and common simple lexical repetition in both English and Vietnamese economic news is repetition of nouns or noun phrases

Following are some examples:

Inflation

It‘s commonly observed that although money incomes keep going up over the years,

we never seem to become much better off Prices are rising continuously This condition is called inflation The money supply is being inflated so that each unit of it becomes less

valuable In recent years we have gotten used to higher and higher rates of inflation What

could be bought twenty years ago for $1 now costs well over $2 Present trends indicate that this rate of inflation is tending to rise rather than to fall if in the real world our money incomes go up at the same rate as prices, one might think that inflation does not matter But it does

(Real Life Economics February 25, 2009) High earners hit as 50p tax rate goes ahead

… Introduced to stem the burgeoning public deficit, the higher rate of income tax provoked an outcry among business groups

The Institute of Directors warned that the tax will simply drive top earners abroad, while the CBI decried the tax as "economic vandalism"

(The Times April 6, 2010)

It should be noted that, in English, in most cases, the repeated noun or noun phrase is

accompanied with a reference item, typically ‗the‘ or demonstrative ‗this‘, or ‗that‘ as

illustrated in the two examples above However, when nouns being used to mention things

or concepts in general are repeated among sentences in texts, the reference items are not

used before them For example, ‗money income‘, ‗prices‘, ‗inflation‘

The following example illustrates repetition of nouns or noun phrases in Vietnamese economic news

Châu Âu thống nhất kế hoạch giải cứu Hy Lạp

Đồng Euro thời gian gần đây đã suy yếu nhanh chóng vì cuộc khủng hoảng nợ tại Hy

Lạp Các nước sử dụng đồng Euro (Eurozone) vừa đi tới một kế hoạch hỗ trợ tài chính cho Hy

Lạp, quốc gia đang chìm sâu trong khủng hoảng nợ công

Kế hoạch bao gồm sự tham gia của các chính phủ trong khối và Quỹ Tiền tệ Quốc tế (IMF), nhằm mục đích chặn sự lan rộng của cuộc khủng hoảng nợ đang xói mòn sức mạnh của đồng Euro

Hãng tin AP cho biết, kế hoạch trên sẽ chỉ được triển khai trong trường hợp Hy Lạp không còn có thể tiếp cận được các nguồn vốn từ thị trường tài chính như phát hành trái phiếu chính phủ Khi đó, 16 quốc gia còn lại trong Eurozone và IMF sẽ tung ra các khoản vay cho nước này

Ngoài ra, kế hoạch cũng kêu gọi khối Eurozone có những quy tắc chặt chẽ hơn đối với hoạt động chi tiêu của chính phủ để tránh tình trạng thâm hụt ngân sách vượt tầm kiểm soát và tạo ra mầm mống cho khủng hoảng Đồng Euro thời gian gần đây đã suy yếu nhanh chóng vì cuộc khủng hoảng nợ tại Hy Lạp

(“Kinh te tai chinh va thi truong chung khoan” Saturday, April 4, 2010)

Reference ‗the‘ is equivalent to the demonstrative ‗này‘, ‗đó‘, ‗ấy‘ in Vietnamese However, in English ‗the‘ is used obligatorily to indicate the relation of the same reference between repeated nouns/ noun phrases in text while in Vietnamese ‗này‘, ‗đó‘, ‗ấy‘ can

sometimes be omitted without losing the meaning of the sentence In the example above,

‗kế hoạch‘ is repeated several times without the use of demonstrative; however, the reader

can still understand what it is intended basing on the context

Among nouns and noun phrases, a large number of the repetition of proper nouns is found in English economic news For example,

EC deal drops „free competition‟

The European Union‘s competition authorities have been among the most aggressive

in the world at breaking up monopolies …(3 sentences)

But that liberalization often put the European Union into conflict with national government, such as France and German, whose natural instinct was to protect industries that employed of thousands people

Now the national governments are re-writing the EU‘s governing treaty and the draft version being considered by the EU‘s leaders in Brussels appears to scale back the commitment to a level playing field Where the EU‘s previous treaties aspired to an ‗open market economy with free competition‘, the new version describes a ‗sociable market economy aiming at full employment‘

Fears are growing that Europe could drop its 50-year commitment to a level playing field for business in a new treaty to reform the Europe Union

….(3 sentences)

The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, used a late night press conference to confirm that the EU‘s 50-year old commitment to an ‗open market economy with free competition‘ had been dropped from the draft treaty If the treaty is approved by the EU‘s heads of Governmentand comes into force, it will be treated by the European Court Justice as the ultimate guide to what is legal in the twenty seven states which are members of the bloc

(BBC news June 25, 2007)

In this example the proper name of an organization EU is repeated 9 times and this abbreviation is used instead of the full name Europe Union as a kind of repeated lexical

item without changing or losing the meaning of the text

As in English, in Vietnamese economic news, this type of repetition accounts for a lot For example,

Từ 19h hôm nay (3/3), Tổng công ty Xăng dầu Việt Nam (Petrolimex) sẽ đồng loạt giảm giá các mặt hàng dầu từ 300-500 đồng/lít (kg)…

Quyết định trên được áp dụng trên toàn hệ thống phân phối gồm các cửa hàng xăng dầu Petrolimex và các trung gian thương mại (đại lý và tổng đại lý Petrolimex)

Việc điều chỉnh giá dầu lần này của Petrolimex được thực hiện theo Nghị định số 84/2009/NĐ-CP ngày 15/10/2009 của Chính phủ về kinh doanh xăng dầu, các văn bản

hướng dẫn của liên Bộ Tài chính - Công Thương và bám sát diễn biến giá xăng dầu thành phẩm trên thị trường thế giới

Trước đó vào ngày 21/2, Petrolimex đã tăng giá xăng bán lẻ thêm 590 đồng/lít

(―Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam” Wednesday, March 3, 2010)

Another type of repetition of proper nouns used most frequently in economic news is the name of countries For instance,

Trung Quốc thâm hụt thương mại lần đầu trong 6 năm

Cán cân thương mại của Trung Quốc đã đảo chiều trong tháng 3/2010 Đây là thâm hụt thương mại theo tháng đầu tiên của nước này trong vòng 6 năm qua, Tổng cục Hải quan Trung Quốc cho biết hôm 9/4 …

Cụ thể, kim ngạch xuất khẩu hàng hóa và dịch vụ của Trung Quốc trong tháng báo cáo tăng 24,3% so với cùng kỳ năm 2009, lên 112,11 tỷ USD…

Tính chung cả 3 tháng đầu năm, Trung Quốc vẫn đạt thặng dư thương mại 14,49 tỷ USD

Thặng dư thương mại của Trung Quốc đã thu hẹp trong vài tháng qua do nhu cầu nội địa tăng mạnh khiến nhập khẩu tăng trưởng nhanh hơn xuất khẩu

Tổng kim ngạch xuất nhập khẩu của Trung Quốc trong quý 1/2010 là 617,85 tỷ

USD…

(―Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam”, March 15, 2010)

In English economic news, not only nouns, proper names but also verbs, adjectives are

repeated In the example below ‗helped‘ is used three times; ‗to push‘, ‗hit‘ are employed two times, and rose is repeated four times

Resurgent services sector pulls sterling from the edge

An unexpected bounce back in Britain‘s crucial services sector helped to push sterling back above $1.50 yesterday as hopes rose that the economy will continue growing during the first three months of this year

It also helped to push the FTSE 100 share index, barometer of Britain‘s largest companies, to within 5 points of its highest this year The index rose 49.15 to 5533.21 The purchasing managers index (PMI) for the services sector, a closely watched measure

of activity at businesses ranging from hotels to accountants, hit a three-year high of 58.4 in February…

The figures were much better than economists had predicted and, along with a separate survey from Nationwide showing that consumer confidence hit a two-year high in February, helped sterling The pound rose by as much as 1.6 cents to $1.51287 at one stage and also rose more modestly against the euro

…

(The Times March 4, 2010)

Like in English, In Vietnamese economic news this type of repetition is very common

The verb ‗giao‘ occurs five times in the following example

Airbus lại qua mặt Boeing

Quý 1/2010, Airbus đã giao được 122 chiếc máy bay cho khách hàng, trong khi Boeing chỉ giao được 108 chiếc Quý 1/2010, tập đoàn sản xuất máy bay thương mại châu

Âu, Airbus, tiếp tục vượt qua đối thủ Boeing (Mỹ) trên thị trường máy bay quốc tế Theo hãng tin Bloomberg, 3 tháng đầu năm nay, Airbus đã giao được cho khách hàng 122 chiếc máy bay, tăng 6 chiếc so với cùng kỳ năm 2009 còn Boeing giao được 108 chiếc, giảm

tới 13 chiếc so với quý 1/2009

Trước đó, ngày 15/1, Airbus công bố đã vượt qua Boeing, trở thành nhà sản xuất máy bay lớn nhất thế giới với lượng giao hàng cả năm 2009 đạt mức kỷ lục, 498 chiếc Trong khi, Boeing giao được ít hơn 17 chiếc

(―Tien Phong” January 12, 2010)

A lexical item may be repeated in the form of different parts of speech with different functions In compared with the simple repetition, this type of repetition, termed as complex lexical repetition by Hoey (1991), accounts for a small portion, as shown in table

3, in both English and Vietnamese economic news However, the number of complex repetition is higher in English economic news Here are some examples:

Resurgent services sector pulls sterling from the edge

….Markit, which compiles the figures, said that combining data from the services, manufacturing and construction sectors suggested the economy was on track to grow by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter — up from the disappointing 0.3 per cent growth seen in the last three months of 2009

(The Times, March 4, 2010)