An investigation into the linearity to simple sentence in English and Vietnamese

An investigation into the linearity to simple sentence in English and Vietnamese Nguyễn Thị Thu Quỳnh Trường Đại học KHXH&NV Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15 Người hướng dẫn: M.A Nguyễn Hương Giang Năm bảo vệ: 2011 Abstract: This paper investigates into the linearity in simple sentence in English and Vietnamese However, there is a limited time; my study only focuses on the linearity in affirmative statement It offers theoretical knowledge of linearity in affirmative statement in both English and Vietnamese The thesis focuses on contrastive analysis to find out the similarities and differences in linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement Finally, the author discusses some implication in teaching and learning English for Vietnamese learners Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Câu đơn; Tiếng Việt; Ngữ pháp Content iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Method of the study PART 2: DEVLOPMENT Chapter 1: Theoretical background 1.1 What is linearity? … What is a simple sentence? 1.3 Classifications of simple sentences according to their communicative purpose 1.3.1 Statement 5 1.3.2 Question 1.3.3 Command 1.3.4 Exclamation Chapter 2: Linearity in the English affirmative statement Elements and patterns of the English simple sentence 2 Traditional positions of these five elements in English 10 2 Position of Subject 10 2 Position of Verb 10 2 Position of Object 11 2 Position of Complement 12 2 Position of Adverbial 13 Inversion in Affirmative statement 15 2.3.1 Subject – verb inversion 16 3.1.1 Auxiliary verbs before Subject 16 3.1.2 Main verb before Subject 17 Subject - Object Inversion iii 18 iv 3 Subject - Complement Inversion 18 Subject - Adverbial Inversion 18 Chapter 3: Linearity in the Vietnamese affirmative statement 20 Elements and patterns of the Vietnamese affirmative statement 20 Positions of elements 23 Position of Subject 23 2 Position of Verb 23 3 Position of Object 24 Position of Complement 24 Position of Adverbial 24 3 Inversion in Vietnamese affirmative statement 3.3.1 Verb before subjects 25 25 3.3.2 Complement at the beginning 26 3.3.3 Object before Subject and Verb 26 3.3.4 Adverbial at the beginning 27 Chapter 4: Contrastive analysis of linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement 28 4.1 Similarities 28 4.1.1 Elements and structure of affirmative statement 28 4.1.2 Inversion in the emphasized sentence 31 4.2 Differences 33 4.2.1 Verb Phrase 33 4.2.2 Transformational relation 34 36 4.2.3 Inversion Chapter 5: Implication for teaching and learning English 37 5.1 Typical mistakes made by Vietnamese learners 37 5.2 Suggested types of exercises 39 PART 3: CONCLUSION 41 Reference Appendix iv PART 1: INTRODUCTION Rationale With integration of Vietnam in globalization, the need of learning foreign languages, learning English in our society is in great demand One of the effective approaches that learners not really seem to notice is the comparative analysis between foreign languages and native language This will help learners acquire foreign languages easily In the English language, the position of elements is essential to the meaning of a sentence in general and the meaning of a simple sentence in particular A change in element position may bring about a fundamental change in meaning Like in Vietnamese and some other languages, in English, linearity in a simple sentence plays an important role We can depend on it to find out whether it is a statement (affirmative or negative one), a question, a command or an exclamation Thus an all – round understanding of element position in the simple sentence also contributes a great deal to the study of language both theoretically and practically Many Vietnamese learners (especially beginners and intermediate learners) cannot avoid making common mistakes in placing elements at the right position in the statement of simple sentence The position of sentence elements in English and Vietnamese are not the same partly because different languages use different lingual and cultural habits For the above – mentioned reasons, research on linearity in sentence should be given special attention by those who use English as a foreign language, especially by not only all of us, who are working as teachers of English, but also our students who are learning English as a compulsory subject Aims of the study In the Investigation into the Linearity to simple sentence in English and Vietnamese as an M.A thesis, the author has the following aims: - to find out the similarities and differences of the linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement - to help Vietnamese learners avoid some common mistakes in using English In order to realize these aims, the study supports to answer the following research questions: 1 What is linearity of sentence? What are similarities and differences of the linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement? What are common mistakes in linearity made by Vietnamese learners? Scope of the study According to communicative purpose, there are four kinds of simple sentence They are statement, question, command and exclamation Each kind of simple sentence has two forms: affirmative and negative However in my study, I only focus on the linearity in affirmative statement In my study, first of all, I present linearity in affirmative statement of English simple sentence and Vietnamese one Next, I discuss Linearity in both languages and then make comparison between linearity in affirmative statement of English simple sentence and Vietnamese one My study is divided into five chapters: Chapter is the theoretical background of my subject Chapter and chapter present the possible linearity in the English and Vietnamese affirmative statement In chapter 4, there is a contractive analysis of linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement Last but not least, in chapter 5, the implication in teaching and learning English of the study will be mentioned Method of the study Contrastive analysis is the main linguistic method applied in my study in which the linearity in affirmative statement in English and Vietnamese is considered its objective Reading English Grammar books and Vietnamese books is carried out to get as much knowledge of the subject as possible Most of examples are taken from books widely used in English and Vietnam Moreover in my study I make contractive analysis to find out similarities and differences in the linearity in the affirmative statement between two languages PART 2: DEVLOPMENT Chapter 1: Theoretical background 1 What is linearity? What is a simple sentence? 1.3 Classifications of simple sentences according to their communicative purpose 1.3.1 A Statement/ A Declarative sentence 1.3.2 A Question/ An interrogative sentence: 1.3.3 A Command/ an Imperative sentence: 1.3.4 An Exclamation/ An exclamatory sentence: Chapter 2: Linearity in the English affirmative statement Elements and patterns of the English affirmative statement 2 Traditional positions of these five elements in English 2.2.1 Position of Subject 2.2.2 Position of Verb Phrase 2.2.3 Position of Objects 2.2.4 Position of Complement 2.2.5 Position of Adverbial Inversion in Affirmative statement 2.3.1 Subject – verb inversion 3.1.1 Auxiliary verbs before Subject 2.3.1.2 Main verb before Subject Subject - Object Inversion 3 Subject - Complement Inversion Subject - Adverbial Inversion: Chapter 3: Linearity in the Vietnamese Affirmative Statement Elements and patterns of the Vietnamese Affirmative Statement Positions of elements in affirmative statement 3.2.1 Position of Subject 3.2.2 Position of Verb 3.2.3 Position of Objects 3.2.4 Position of Complement 3.2.5 Position of Adverbial 3 Inversion in Vietnamese Affirmative Statement 3.3.1 Verb before subjects 3.3.2 Complement at the beginning 3.3.3 Object before Subject and Verb 3.3.4 Adverbial at the beginning of affirmative statement Chapter 4: Contrastive analysis of linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement In this part, I would like to focus on the similarities and differences of linearity in the English affirmative statement and in the Vietnamese ones 4.1 Similarities 1 Sentence elements and their positions in affirmative statement In both English and Vietnamese, sentences are composed of words, and, in addition, often of words combined into phrases within sentences that are a combination into a string of speech following the linear dimension Obviously, we can definitely be sure that both English and Vietnamese affirmative statements, to some extent, have five obligatory elements and they have common linearity in the sentence patterns Considering in syntactic features and types of sentence structure in the languages, we can find that the elements in English affirmative simple sentence are equivalent to ones in Vietnamese: S V O C A although the name of them are different (Trần Hữu Mạnh 2007: 394) Subject (S), Object (O), Complement (C) in English and Chủ ngữ, Tân ngữ, Bổ ngữ in Vietnamese are noun, noun phrase or pronoun  Subject (S) stands at the beginning of the affirmative simple sentence  Object normally appears after subjects and verbs in pattern SVO and NP1 + V + NP2 in which NP1 is subject and NP2 is object In the case that there are two object (direct object and indirect object) in the sentence pattern S V Oi Od and NP1 + V + NP2 + NP3 (NP1 is subject and NP2 is indirect object and NP3 is direct object), Oi usually stands before Od Sometimes, Oi stands after Od and separated by preposition to or for Equivalent with Vietnamese  Verb (V) in English and Động từ in Vietnamese follow Subject  Complement (C) in English and Bổ ngữ in Vietnamese are also presented by adjectival phrase They follow subject in the pattern S V C and NP1 + Adj  Adverbial (A) in English and Trạng ngữ in Vietnamese is often adverb or prepositional phrase They usually stands at the end of the sentence in pattern S V A and S V O A or NP1 + V + NP2 + Prep + NP3 in which NP3 is Adverbial ( Trạng ngữ) The position of adverbial in English as well as Trạng ngữ in Vietnamese is very mobile; they can get initial, medial or final position in affirmative simple sentence According to Tran Huu Manh (2007: 388), seven patterns in English are equivalent to those in Vietnamese English Vietnamese NP1 + V ( Chủ ngữ + Động từ) Pattern 1: S V The bird sang Con chim hót The sun is shining Mặt trời chiếu sáng The plane has taken off Máy bay cất cánh Pattern 2: S V O NP1 + V + NP2 (Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Tân Ngữ) The lecture interested me Bài giảng hút They gave off smoking Họ bỏ (hút) thuốc We depend on your help Chúng trông cậy vào giúp đỡ bác Pattern 3: S V C NP1 + V + NP2 (Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Bổ Ngữ) Your dinner seems ready Bữa chiều anh sẵn sàng They will become teachers Họ trờ thành giáo viên Pattern 4: S V A NP1 + V + NP2 (Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Trạng Ngữ) My office is in the next building Phòng làm việc tơi tịa nhà They were here last night Họ đêm qua We got off/ on the bus Chúng (trèo) xuống/ lên xe buýt Pattern 5: S V O O NP1 + V + NP2 + NP3 (Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Tân ngữ + Tân ngữ 2) I must send my parents a card Tôi phải gửi cho bố mẹ bưu ảnh She gave me a book Nàng đưa sách They informed him of the news Họ (thông) báo cho tin Pattern 6: S V O C NP1 + V + NP2 + NP3 (Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Tân ngữ + Bổ ngữ) Most students have found her Đa số sinh viên thấy bà giáo hỗ trợ hợp lý Họ bỏ lại nhà trống rỗng reasonably helpful They left the house empty Pattern 7: S V O A NP1 + V + NP2 + Pep + NP3 (Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Tân ngữ + Trạng ngữ) You can put the dish on the shelf Bạn để đĩa lên giá They took him up the stairs Họ đưa lên gác Inversion in the emphasized sentence In English as well as in Vietnamese, when speakers want to emphasize some parts of the utterance without adding any other elements, they often put the verb, object, adverbial and complement before subject This called inversion Inversion is really effective in both English and Vietnamese - In Vietnamese, there is the pattern NP1 + Adj This pattern is often changed into Adj + NP1 in which Adj is emphasized It is very popular in Vietnamese written text or poetry This pattern is similar to the pattern in English CVS or CSV, but this pattern requires verbs E.g.: - Bleak and barren C (AdjP) is the moon V (W.M Thackeray 1979) Vietnamese equivalent:  Ảm đảm u ám mặt trăng C (AdjP) - Bạc phơ S (NP1) mái tóc người cha C (AdjP) S (NP1) Ba mươi năm Đảng nở hoa tặng Người (Tố Hữu) English equivalent:  Snow white the father’s hair C S is V Thirty years of Communist Party presents You) - Moreover, we have also patterns NP1 + V + NP2 inverting into NP2 + V + NP1 or NP2 + NP1 + V in Vietnamese and SVO inverting into OVS or OSV in English This means to get much more attention to object (or NP2) than to subject - This he did O S V Vietnamese equivalent: - Việc này, anh O (NP2) làm S (NP1) V - Besides, the structure A V S is similar to the structure NP2 + là/ có + NP1 (in which NP1 is adverbial of position or time and NP2 is subject of the sentence Adverbial of position E.g.: - At the top of the hill stood A the tiny chapel V S Vietnamese equivalent: - Trên đỉnh đồi A (NP2) nhà thờ nhỏ S (NP1) In general, all these similarities of linearity in the English affirmative statement and ones in Vietnamese make it very possible and comfortable for Vietnamese learners to master English, and in turn, for English learners to study Vietnamese as the second language However, there are still some differences between the linearity of both 4.2 Differences English is partially an inflectional language while Vietnamese is not, so the linearity of affirmative simple sentence in English is different from those in Vietnamese 4.2.1 Verb Phrase In comparison with Vietnamese; it is a complicated problem in English, the verbs with forms cause difficulties (the distinction in verb phrase structure of infinitive, s – form, ing – form, past form (ed1) and past participle (ed2) English verbs change the forms to express time – distinctions: past, present, and future Verb phrase structures express tense and aspect Meanwhile, the verbs in Vietnamese are always unchanged Also the five forms of verbs in English are expressed by functional words (đang, đã, sẽ, + main V) in Vietnamese For example: In English: I loved you In this affirmative statement, loved has form V_ed1 which expresses past action However, the Vietnamese equivalent statement is Anh yêu em, the time expression word “đã” + V expresses past action The similarities in the verb “live” in the following example: He is living here Anh ta sống He will live to be hundred Anh ta sống đến 100 tuổi He lived here in his childhood E.g.: Khi nhỏ sống In contrast to the same form of verb “sống” (live) in Vietnamese together with subordinate components as: đang, đã, sẽ, (và đang)… Another point that counts is the irregular forms of English verbs 4.2.2 Transformational relation Transformational relation is the change of syntactical functional of sentence elements In English, transformational relation, or relation between active and passive sentence is paid much attention The pattern SVO, O (direct object) can get the function of subject and Subject will become optional element with preposition “by” and can be abbreviated as (A) The pattern of passive sentence in English: S V S O be + V_ed (PII) =S E.g.: by O V (passive voice) I can make this cake S V A O This sentence can be changed into  This cake by me V (passive voice) S (O) can be made (A) In this example, object in the active sentence is this cake turning into subject in the passive sentence and verb in the active one becomes verb of passive V (passive voice) = be + V_ed Some other patterns in English S V O C; S V O A; S V Oi Od can be also changed into passive sentence S V (passive voice) C (A); S V (passive voice) A (A); S V (passive voice) Od (A) E.g.: - They S left the house V O  The house was left S can put S empty S must send V by them C (A) the dish V (passive voice)  The dish S C V (passive voice) - You -I empty on the shelf O A can be put on the shelf V (passive voice) A my parents a card Oi  My parents S by you (A) Od must be sent a card by me V (passive voice) Od (A) Transformational relation is the most typical feature in English; meanwhile, in Vietnamese there is not form of passive verb In the Vietnamese language, verb is changed in passive sentence, there are group of words such as: bị, combined with main verbs in order to express passive meaning with pattern NP + bị, + V E.g.: - Nó NP bị phạt bị V - Giáp NP1 tặng V khen NP2 In English, the pattern of passive sentence is S + V (passive voice) by O, the agent of action is always put after preposition by E.g.: I was bitten by a snake S V (passive voice) by O However in the Vietnamese language, the agent of action is more usually put between bị or and verb E.g.: Tôi bị rắn S (NP2) bị cắn O (NP1) V Less usually: Tô bị cắn chó In the Vietnamese language, adverbial of place can be subject in passive sentence E.g.: Tường treo đầy tranh Phòng ngủ kê hai giường Besides, in passive voice in English, it is more usual to put an adverbial of manner immediately in front of the past participle it qualifies E.g.: They make S this chair V  This chair is well O A well made Equivalent in Vietnamese: Cái bàn làm cẩn thận 4.2.3 Inversion Only some cases of inversion occur in the Vietnamese affirmative statements With the case subject – verb inversion, Vietnamese verbs can stand before subject without adverbial, but this does not happen in English For example, English: Down came the rain A V S 10 Vietnamese - Đến bất ngờ giơng V S (NP1) Đi nhẹ nhàng gió V S (NP1) Trơi êm đềm dịng sơng V S (NP1) Tuôn ào thác đổ V S (NP1) To sum up, besides the similarities which help English learners study easily, the differences in verb phrase, transformation relation and some cases in inversion between English and Vietnamese make the learner more confused Chapter 5: Implication for teaching and learning English 5.1 Typical mistakes made by Vietnamese learners 5.2 Suggested types of exercises 11 PART 3: CONCLUSION Learning English grammar is essential to the mastery of a language Actually, the linearity is considered one of the most important aspects of English grammar That is why I decided to study The Linearity to simple sentence in English and Vietnamese Through the contrastive analysis as well as applying some methods such as: collecting method, observation etc In my study, I have presented the linearity in English and Vietnamese: common position of sentence elements in an affirmative statement and inversion for emphasis in English and Vietnamese Then, I have done contrastive analysis of the linearity between two languages to answer question why it is very difficult for Vietnamese learners to study English in general and linearity of English affirmative statement in specific In fact, the similarities such as the number of sentence elements and their positions in affirmative statement or mobile adverbials and using inversion for emphasis, are conclusive for Vietnamese learners to practice English In the meantime, some differences existing in linearity of both English and Vietnamese affirmative simple sentence such as: the differences in verb phrase structure, transformation and inversion in some cases existing in Vietnamese but not in English have tendency to decline learners’ interest and confidence of themselves Also these differences often make students confused where to put elements at right place in the affirmative statement They normally make mistakes that have been expressed in chapter Honestly speaking, my paper is only a very small aspect of linearity in the sentence that has been paid much attention by many grammarians and linguists as well There are still some other aspects related to the term of linearity such as: linearity in negative statement, in other types of question, command, exclamation, in complex sentence, in compound sentence etc… I, any way, hope that readers will get a great deal from my paper of linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement, to communicate in English and Vietnamese effectively Because of my limited experience and knowledge, mistakes are unavoidable I would like very much to get useful advice and suggestions from my teachers and my friends to make my study better 12 41 REFERENCES Alexander, L G (1988) Longman English Grammar London Longman, Diệp Quang Ban, (2004) Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt, NXB Giáo dục Douglass Biber, Sussan Conrad, Geoffrey Leech, (2009) Longman 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between linearity in affirmative statement of English simple sentence and Vietnamese