Relative clauses in English and Vietnamese, and how to translate them into Vietnamese

Relative clauses in English and Vietnamese, and how to translate them into Vietnamese

Relative clauses in English and Vietnamese, and

how to translate them into Vietnamese

I am interested in learning English so much English, as mentioned overand over again, is an international language In Viet Nam, English, now, is thecompulsory subject for pupils in most of primary and secondary school It isalso an important subject for students at all universities Particularly English isone of the essential requirements for those who want to find a good job

However it is not simple We have to pay attention not only to grammar,structure, vocabulary, and pronunciation but also the culture of the newlanguage It is easy to make mistakes and often find a lot of difficulties intranslation and when dealing with grammar, especially relative clause You willsee that, knowing relative clause in English is a matter, understanding andaccurately translating them from English into Vietnamese is another one which

is not as easy as some people might think In order to help people who arelearning English have deep understanding of relative clauses in English as well

as in Vietnamese, I decide to choose the subject “ Relative clauses in Englishand Vietnamese, and how to translate them into Vietnamese” for my graduationpaper

II SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Due to the limitation of time and space, in this paper I just focus on mainpoints of relative clauses and some methods for the translation of relativeclauses from English into Vietnamese in the hope of helping learners ofEnglish have better insight in this part and use it effectively

III AIMS OF THE STUDY

I have been learning English for a long time; however, I sometimes makeconfusion of using and translating relative clauses in sentence Like me, manystudents also do the same For the above reason, my study deals with “ Relativeclause in English and Vietnamese, and how to translate them into Vietnamese”The study is concerned with:

- The definition and classification of relative clause

- The theories that are relevant with relative clause

- The definition of translation and its role

- Common problem in translating relative clause, causes and solutions

- Translating relative clauses into Vietnamese in “ Harry Potter and theSorcerer’s Stone”

IV METHOD OF THE STUDY

To complete this paper I have conducted the following methods:

+ Collecting information from many materials in English and Vietnamese

+ Classifying and analyzing basic data relating to the study

+ Discussing with supervisor and other teachers

V DESIGN OF THE STUDY

This graduation paper is divided into …chapters:

Chapter I:

Chapter II:

Reference is come to the end.

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 An overview of relative clause

1.1.1: Definition of relative clause

A relative clause is a subordinate clause which relates or refers to a word

in the clause before it Some grammarians call it adjective clause or attributiveclause.So among other kinds of clauses, how can you recognize a relative one?

First, it will contain a subject and verb Next, it will begin with a relativepronoun (who, whom, whose, that or which) or a relative adverb (when, where

or why) Finally, it will function as an adjective, answering the questions: Whatkinds? How many? Or Which one?

In addition, relative clauses can be added to nouns in just about any part

of a sentence at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of sentences Let's analyze the location and type of relative clause in each of the followingsentences:

1 I bought a book that was highly recommended by my sister

2 I bought a book that my sister recommended

3 The book that is required for this workshop comes highly

recommended

4 The book that my sister recommended was quite useful.

1-I bought a book that was highly recommended by my sister.

Core sentence I bought a book.

Sentence that became the

relative clause

The book was highly recommended by my sister.

Relative Pronoun Function subject of the relative clause

Location of the relative clause it's at the end of the sentence attached to

the noun that's the direct object part of the large noun phrase that is the direct object

2- I bought a book that my sister recommended.

Sentence that became the relative

clause

My sister recommended the book.

Relative Pronoun Function direct object of the relative clause

Location of the relative clause it's at the end of the sentence attached to

the noun that's the direct object part of the large noun phrase that is the direct object

3- The book that is required for this workshop comes highly recommended.

Core sentence The book comes highly recommended.

Sentence that became the

relative clause

The book is required for this workshop.

Relative Pronoun Function subject of the relative clause

Location of the relative clause it's at the beginning of the sentence attached

to the noun that's the subject part of the large noun phrase that is the subject of the sentence

4- The book that my sister recommended was quite useful.

Core sentence The book was quite useful.

Sentence that became the

relative clause

My sister recommended the book.

Relative Pronoun Function direct object of the relative clause

Location of the relative clause it's at the beginning of the sentence attached

to the noun that's the subject part of the large

noun phrase that is the subject of the sentence

1.1.2: Classification

There are two types of relative clause

1.1.2.1: Defining relative clause: with other names in different books

that you can encounter: restrictive clause (mệnh đề quan hệ hạn định), essentialclause (mệnh đề quan hệ thiết yếu)

Definition

Defining relative clause gives essential information about the noun ornoun phrase it modifies, the purpose of a defining relative clause is clearlydefine who or what we are talking about Without this information, it would bedifficult to know who or what is meant Obviously, this is only necessary ifthere is more than one person or thing involved

The following relative pronouns are used in defining relative clauses:

e

Reason

Subject who/that which/that

Object who/whom/that/ø which/that/ø where when why

Possessiv

e

1 The relative pronoun stands in place of a noun This noun usually appears at

the beginning of the sentence:

The book which you lent me was very interesting.

“the book”

verb + rest ofrelative clause verb + rest of main clause

2 Who, whom and which can be replaced by that This is very common in

spoken English

3 The relative pronoun can be omitted (ø) when it is the object of the clause:

The flowers which/that I cut this morning are still fresh.

OR The flowers I cut this morning are still fresh.

Both of these sentences are correct, though the second one is more common inspoken English

The flowers which/that/ø I cut this morning are still fresh.

Noun, subject

of main clause

relative pronoun,referring to “theflowers”

verb + rest of relativeclause

verb + rest of mainclause

(You can usually decide whether a relative pronoun is an object because

it is normally followed by another subject + verb.)

4 Whose is used for things as well as for people.

The woman whose child has just been lost is crying The house whose windows are broken is mine.

5 Whom is very formal and is only used in written English You can use

who/that, or omit the pronoun completely :

The doctor whom/who/that/ø I was hoping to see wasn't on duty.

6 That normally follows:

+ words like : all, any, only, the first, the last, and sometimes follows: It is/It

was.

- I have said all that I want to say

- Any paper (that) you read will give you the same story

- He is the only boy that can answer all the questions in the test

- It is his wife that makes the decisions in his family

- It was the first time that John heard of it

+ superlatives

- He was the best man that I have ever seen

- He is the most courageous man that ever lived

+ indefinite pronouns: noone, nobody, nothing, someone, somebody,

anything,…

- She always had everything that she wanted

- He never says anything that is worth listening to.

- It was not for nothing that he studied carpentry

1.1.2.2: Non- defining relative clause ( mệnh đề quan hệ không hạn định hay

mệnh đề quan hệ bổ túc)

Other materials can refer this kind of clause as non- restrictive clause or:

+) Parenthetical clause (mệnh đề quan hệ chêm)

+) Amplifying clause (mệnh đề quan hệ giải thích)

+) Non- essential clause ( mệnh đề quan hệ không thiết yếu)

Definition

Non- defining relative clause provides interesting additional informationwhich is not essential to understanding the meaning of the sentence It tells usmore about someone or something, but do not define it

non-For example

 My friend John, who went to the same school as me, has just written a

best-selling novel

Relative pronouns in non-defining clauses

- He gave me the letter, which was in a blue envelope.

- He gave me the letter, which I read immediately

3 The preposition in these clauses can go at the end of the clause, e.g

- This is Stratford-on-Avon, which you have all heard about.

This pattern is often used in spoken English, but in written or formal Englishyou can also put the preposition before the pronoun:

Eg: Stratford-on-Avon, about which many people have written is

Shakespeare’s birthplace.

4 Non-defining clauses can be introduced by expressions like all of, many of +

relative pronoun:

Person Thing

Examples:

a There were a lot of people at the party, many of whom I had knownfor years

b He was carrying his belongings, many of which were broken

5 The relative pronoun which at the beginning of a non-defining relative

clause, can refer to all the information contained in the previous part of thesentence, rather than to just one word

a Chris did really well in his exams, which was a big surprise (= the fact

that he did well in his exams was a big surprise)

b An elephant and a mouse fell in love, which is most unusual (= the

fact that they fell in love is unusual)

1.1.3: Some notes on relative clause and other cases

1.1.3.1: Commas in relative clause

Commas are very important in relative clause.The meaning of the wholesentence can be changed when commas are inserted.

Look at two examples:

(a) The travellers who knew about the floods took another road

(b) The travellers, who knew about the floods, took another road

As you can see, In (a) we have a defining relative clause, which defines

or limits the noun travellers This sentence therefore tells us that only the

travellers who knew about the floods took the other road, and implies that therewere other travellers who did not know and who took the flooded road In (b)

we have a non- defining clause, which does not define or limit the noun itfollows This sentence therefore implies that all the travellers knew about thefloods and took the other road

1.1.3.2: Preposition and relative clause

Relative clause structure gets more complicated when a prepositionalphrase is involved The basic problem is deciding what to do with thepreposition where does it go when the clause is put into the sentence Here's

an example:

1: At TESOL, I bought a book

2: I got new ideas about teaching from the book

Relative clause creation step 1 insert the pronoun as the object of the

preposition: I got new ideas about teaching from that

Relative clause creation step 2 front the pronoun: but what to front? Where does the preposition go? Actually, you have two choices:

Choice 1: Leave the preposition at the end: that I got new ideas about

teaching from

At TESOL, I bought a book that I got new ideas about teaching grammar from

Choice 2: Move the preposition with its object to the front But notice

that if you use this approach, you cannot use that You have to use which

At TESOL, I bought a book from that I got new ideas about teaching grammar

At TESOL, I bought a book from which I got new ideas about teaching grammar

As many students struggle with making this type of combination, you'llfind students leaving the preposition out altogether:

At TESOL, I bought a book that I got new ideas about teaching grammar.

1.1.3.3: “That” in relative clause and appositive clause

Appositive clauses look a lot like relative clauses, but they arefundamentally different in structure Remember that a relative clause is achanged sentence: a relative pronoun is subsituted for some noun phrase in thesource sentence and thus the relative pronoun has a dual role to connect theclause to a noun but also to be a structural part of the clause itself Look at this

example: that is the subject of the relative clause: How do I know that? Well,

figure out the sentence that is the source for the relative clause

I bought the book that is required for this course

This is the sentence that is changed to make the relative clause: The book

is required for this course To make the relative clause, that is put into the

subject position: that is required for this course

So, that in a relative clause is not just a connecting word; it must be subject or object And that (like all relative pronouns) must have some meaning that is understandable in its sentence In our example, that = the book.

An appositive is a phrase that names (or labels) a noun as in theseexamples with the appositive in bold type Appositives are "postmodifiers" ofnouns; they mean the same thing as the noun they are attached to Sometimes

an appositive is given without commas, sometimes with commas

Appositives

the word appositive

the book Gone with the Wind

the writer Flannery O'Connor Coach Steve Spurrier

The teacher of my sound system course, John Murphy, is from New Jersey

An appositive clause is a subordinate clause that has the same kind offunction with a noun as other types of appositives It names or labels orspecifies the noun

In contrast to a relative clause, an appositive clause involves a simple

connection: that connects a clause without being a part of the subordinate

clause

My belief that English grammar is fascinating lies behind my career

What sentences are combined?

1 My belief lies behind my career

2 English grammar is fascinating

That combines the two, but it isn't a part of the second clause These

appositive clauses are related to similar noun clauses: I believe that English

grammar is fascinating = my belief that English grammar is fascinating The

process of changing verbs into nouns is called nominalization

Appositive clauses involve nouns like belief, thought, knowledge,

conclusion; these words are the noun forms of related verbs believe, think, know, conclude that often take noun clauses as their objects

So remember in appositive clause, “that” is a conjunction, not a relativepronoun

1.1.3.4 “As” and “but” used as relative pronouns

Let’s look at some examples:

Sometimes “but” is used as a relative pronoun.

Eg: There wasn’t one boy in the class but knew (= that didn’t know) exactlywhat the teacher was referring to

(B.D Graver, Advanced English Practice, p 186)

“As” may introduce a defining relative clause, commonly after “the

same” or “such”