Conjunctions in some English and Vietnamese Newsletters A contrastive analysis

Conjunctions in some English and Vietnamese Newsletters: A contrastive analysis Nguyễn Thị Hoàng Huế Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: Ngôn ngữ tiếng Anh; Mã số: 60 22 15 Người hướng dẫn: TS. Phạm Thị Thanh Thùy Năm bảo vệ: 2012 Abstract: It is a fact that English has entirely become an international language on account of its highest effectiveness in communication. In effect, a prevalent phenomenon has been occurring in a great number of countries in the world where millions of people are attempting to use the language as native speakers. Nevertheless, it is inadequate to take care of the choice of words (adjectives, nouns, verbs, and articles…), grammar rules (voice, aspect, and tense…) alone for fruitful communication; using conjunctions is highly appreciated. Without conjunctions, it is rather hard to understand the content of a meandering speech. In addition, the given ideas are completely by no means cohesive, logical and unified. It is undeniable that conjunction is so complex a category that foreigners cannot help having trouble in use. Also, for its complexity, the writer has no ambition to present all aspects of conjunctions. The researcher merely focuses on contrastive analysis of the use of conjunctions in English and Vietnamese Newsletters. Through the study, readers not only understand deeply about conjunctions in general but also, more importantly, Vietnamese learners have clearer knowledge about the similarities and differences in conjunction usages between English and Vietnamese in particular so that difficulties can be dealt with by some suggestions. Keywords: Liên từ; Tiếng Anh; Kỹ năng viết Content PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study English is said to have played a very important role in the development of commerce, trade, education, technology, economics, etc. Therefore, having good knowledge of English grammar is of great importance, for one can express his/her ideas, feelings or emotions not only by separated words but also by meaningful sentences. The second reason the writer chooses conjunctions to study is that conjunctions, functioning as connectors and transition signals, actually play an important role in linking sentences, paragraphs, or clauses each other. Thanks to conjunctions, various kinds of grammatical sentences are formed such as compound sentences and complex sentences. 2 One more reason is that the researcher’s interest in English Commerce, especially in newsletters. Newsletters are also known as consultant letters, so they need to have the logic and coherence to attract customers. And conjunctions are seen as an essential means of linking so as to increase the persuasion in newsletters. Therefore, studying and finding the similarities and differences in using conjunctions in English and Vietnamese Newsletters will be of great help to the writer in teaching economic students at Hoa Lu University where the author is working. 2. Aims of the study The research firstly aims to study conjunctions used in English and Vietnamese marketing newsletters and then explore the similarities and differences based on the syntactic and semantic features between them. At the end of the study, some implications for teaching, learning and translation will be covered as useful resources. To fully achieve these aims, the study should answer the following questions: 1. How frequent are conjunctions in English and Vietnamese Newsletters? 2. What are the similarities and differences in conjunction usages in English and Vietnamese Newsletters? 3. Scope of the study Many topics relating to conjunctions as well as lots of types of newsletters in different fields need to be exploited. For the feasibility of a minor M.A. thesis, the writer narrowed the scope of the paper. The main focus is on the descriptive and contrastive analysis of conjunction usages in English and Vietnamese marketing newsletters with respect to the syntactic and semantic features. 4. Methods of the study The author has taken 40 samples of both English and Vietnamese marketing newsletters (20 English and 20 Vietnamese ones) to compare and contrast. The study has been carried out based on a combination of different methods, among which the main method is contrastive analysis. This method involves two steps: describing the syntactic and semantic features of conjunctions in English and Vietnamese marketing newsletters, then comparing and contrasting to point out the similarities and differences between these two languages. Together with this method, the writer also uses the quantitative method that is based on data to examine conjunctions used in both English and Vietnamese. Supporting techniques such as reference to the publication, consultation with the supervisor, discussion with colleagues, and personal observations are also of great significance. 5. Design of the study 3 The study consists of three main parts organized as follows: Part 1: “INTRODUCTION” giving a brief account of relevant information such as rationale, aims, scope, methods, and designs of the study Part 2: “DEVELOPMENT” is subdivided into two chapters. Chapter 1 – Theoretical background. Chapter 2 - “Contrastive analysis of conjunctions in English and Vietnamese Marketing Newsletters”. Part 3: “CONCLUSION” - summarizes what has been done, what has not been covered, accompanied by suggestions for further study. PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1. An overview of Newsletters 1.1.1. Definitions of Newsletters According to Edward A. Hamilton (1996) in the book “Newsletters Design”, a newsletter is an ambiguous term. It is defined as a condensed periodical used to communicate specialized editorial information. He explains briefly that “condensed” means it is shorter than the average newspaper or magazine and provides lots of information in limited space; “periodical” means it is published regularly; “specialized” means it focuses not on a broad subject area such as finance, but on a subject-within-a-subject such as real estate finance, not on organizations in general, but a specific organization. 1.1.2. Types of Newsletters In his book “Design it Yourself Newsletters” written by Chuck Green (2002), he describes three basic types of Newsletters or models of newsletters including Marketing Newsletters, Relationship Newsletters, and Expert Newsletters. 4 The first type is Marketing Newsletters. They are commonly used by businesses to promote a product or a kind of service. It is also known as a company newsletter. The marketing newsletter tries to turn prospective customers into patrons. The second type is Relationship Newsletters. Some examples about this type are club newsletters, employee newsletters, church newsletters, and school newsletters. They focus on the shared interests of the target audience or reinforcing a relationship. The last type is Expert Newsletters. This type can be very exclusive or be paid. These newsletters generally focus on a specific topic and the recipient is someone who has specifically requested the information in the newsletters and is willing to pay for the information. 1.1.3. Formats of Newsletters According to Janice Byer in the article “Newsletters are smart marketing” published on August 12 th , 2010, newsletters can be produced in several formats. For businesses, the most economical and most readily acceptable newsletter formats are plain text emails, HTML emails, and HTML page on the website, PDF, and print. In comparison with English newsletters formats, the writer realizes that HTML and PDF are the widely used formats in Vietnamese newsletters. 1.1.4. English and Vietnamese Marketing Newsletters According to Nadeem Hussain (2008), marketing newsletter is a form of advertising that is sent periodically. It is a document that notifies, reminds, advises, communicates and advertises about a business to its target audiences and customers. In addition, it is also a good way to build an effective connection with clients. Companies can motivate customers to buy their products through informative marketing newsletters. Both English and Vietnamese marketing newsletters are being widely used by many companies with a view to promoting their businesses. However, there is still a slight difference that English marketing newsletters content is often longer than that in Vietnamese. 1.2. English and Vietnamese Conjunctions 1.2.1. English conjunctions 1.2.1.1. Definitions of English conjunctions 5 Conjunction is a word rooted from two Latin oniunctio or coniunctions meaning “to join together”. 1.2.1.2. Classification of English conjunctions According to Mallery (1967), conjunctions can be arranged into three principal groups: coordinating, correlative and subordinating conjunctions. (i) Coordinating conjunctions  Definitions and functions of coordinators  Kinds of coordinators Collin Cobuild (1990) lists the most common coordinators: and, nor, but, or, then, for. According to Oshima Alice and Hogue Ann, for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so are called FANBOYS in order to help learners easier to remember. (ii) Subordinating conjunctions  Definitions and functions of subordinators  Kinds of subordinators a. Simple subordinators b. Compound subordinators c. Correlative subordinators (iii) Correlative conjunctions 1.2.2. Vietnamese Conjunctions 1.2.2.1. Definitions of Vietnamese conjunctions According to Hoàng Trung Thông (1998), conjunctions are words expressing the grammatical relations used to join the components in sentences or in phrases. Conjunctions do not make sense in terms of vocabulary and grammar, especially they never keep functions as subject or predicate in a sentence. 1.2.2.2. Classifications of Vietnamese conjunctions From the view of Diệp Quang Ban (1993), Vietnamese conjunctions are arranged into two principal groups: subordinating and coordinating conjunctions. 1.3. Related studies As shown above, opinions about conjunctions, newsletters in general and English and Vietnamese ones in particular are given by many different researchers. Closely related to this thesis, there are some researches. In the Graduation Paper named “A contrastive analysis of English coordinators “and/or/but” and Vietnamese equivalents” Le Thi Bich (2000) merely contrasted the typical coordinating conjunctions “and/ or/ but” in English and Vietnamese equivalents. At the end of the study, the author came to a conclusion that there are similarities and differences of using the conjunctions “and/ or/ but” in English and in Vietnamese 6 equivalents based on semantic and syntactic perspective. Another research concerning conjunctions by Nguyen Thanh Huong (2002) in her graduation paper, she provided an overview of all kinds of English conjunctions. More importantly, in this paper, the author listed some difficulties faced by Vietnamese learners in understanding and using conjunctions. At the end of the graduation paper, some suggested solutions to Vietnamese learners’ difficulties in learning conjunctions were given as an effective source for learners. 1.4. Summary CHAPTER 2: CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF CONJUNCTIONS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE MARKETING NEWSLETTERS 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Contrastive analysis of conjunctions in English and Vietnamese Marketing Newsletters 7 2.2.1. Frequency of using conjunctions in English and Vietnamese Marketing Newsletters The first thing that the researcher would like to mention in the study is the frequency of occurrence of conjunctions in English and Vietnamese marketing newsletters. N0 English Newsletters No of words No of conjunctions Percentage (%) 1 GET International Newsletter 921 34 3.7% 2 Exellerator Newsletter 1014 33 3.3% 3 Tuga CR Newsletter 1262 68 5.3% 4 Technical Newsletter 1550 82 5.2% 5 Power 2 Transform Newsletter 635 36 5.6% 6 "In the Black" Newsletter 1520 60 3.7% 7 Power Team Newsletter 536 23 4.2% 8 Mind Set Newsletter 728 23 3.0% 9 Rooney's Root Newsletter 1493 50 3.3% 10 The Edge Newsletter 1117 42 3.4% 11 IBM Company Newsletter 1657 77 4.6% 12 "Keeping the Best" Newsletter 829 24 2.9% 13 Mosiac Xpressions Newsletter 1167 40 3.4% 14 Numbalums Newsletter 1495 51 3.4% 15 Turrisi Insights Newsletter 1253 47 3.0% 16 NS Charney Newsletter 871 29 3.3% 17 Toyota Newsletter 1383 54 3.9% 18 Douglas Newsletter 1207 39 3.2% 19 Michelin Company Newsletter 932 36 3.9% 20 Givenchy Company Newsletter 806 26 3.1% Total 874 Table 2.1: English conjunctions in English marketing newsletters N0 Vietnamese Newsletters No of words No of conjunctions Percentage (%) 1 Thai Son Tien Phong Company’s Newsletter 454 17 3.7% 2 RMIT Newsletter 552 28 5.2% 3 Bourjois Company’s Newsletter 393 13 3.3% 4 Hapaco Group’s Newsletter 456 15 3.2% 5 Seabird Tours Company’s Newsletter 306 12 3.9% 6 Vina-Giay Company’s Newsletter 411 9 2.1% 7 Vinalands Company’s Newsletter 577 26 4.5% 8 EXPO Newsletter 449 13 2.9% 9 Hong Ngoc Advertising’s Newsletter 315 8 2.5% 10 Lan Anh Computer Company’s Newsletter 343 7 2.0% 11 Fiditour Company Newsletter 435 16 3.7% 12 Trung Thuc Trade and Services Limited Company's Newsletter 384 18 4.6% 13 Sac Mau Printing and Advertising Limited Company's Newsletter 369 15 4.0% 8 14 Trung Son Cement Newsletter 497 19 3.8% 15 Bao Tin Construction Company's Newsletter 386 18 4.7% 16 T&C International Travel Newsletter 388 14 3.6% 17 Anh Son Freight Services Newsletter 588 31 5.2% 18 Khang Nghi Package Printing Limited Company's Newsletter 428 16 3.7% 19 Trung Chinh Audio Devices Limited Company's Newsletter 529 25 4.7% 20 Telecommunications Joint - Stock Company 505 21 4.2% Total 341 Table 2.2: Vietnamese conjunctions in Vietnamese marketing newsletters From the above results, it can be said that the frequency of occurrence of conjunctions in English and Vietnamese marketing newsletters is equivalent. Based on the frequency of conjunctions used in both languages, the writer gives an account of the conjunctions which are of greater occurrence frequency than the others in both English and Vietnamese. N 0 English conjunctions No of conjunctions Percentage (%) 1 And 465 53.2% 2 Or 56 6.4% 3 But 38 4.3% 4 When 27 3.1% 5 Because 25 2.8% 6 However 25 2.8% 7 Both … and 25 2.8% 8 Though/ although 22 2.5% 9 Not only … but also 19 2.2% 10 Neither … nor 16 1.8% Table 2.3: English conjunctions in English marketing newsletters N 0 Vietnamese conjunctions No of conjunctions Percentage (%) 1 Và (and) 186 54.6% 2 Hoặc (or) 46 13.5% 3 Nhưng (but) 27 7.9% 4 Vì vậy, chính vì vậy, chính vì lẽ đó (so/ hence/ therefore) 15 4.3% 5 Hơn thế nữa (What’s more/ moreover) 12 3.5% 6 Tuy … nhưng (Although … but) 10 2.9% 7 Không chỉ … mà còn (not only … but also) 8 2.3% 9 8 Vì, bởi vì, bởi lẽ (because) 7 2.0% 9 Vì … nên (because/since…so) 6 1.8% 10 Nếu … thì (if… so) 6 1.8% Table 2.4: Vietnamese conjunctions in Vietnamese marketing newsletters It can be seen from Tables 2.3 and 2.4 that the most frequent occurrence of English conjunctions in marketing newsletters are “and”, “or”, “but”, the Vietnamese equivalents most in use are “và, hoặc, nhưng”. The reason why these conjunctions are popular in both English and Vietnamese marketing newsletters is that they are widely used in daily communication. Moreover, using the simple sentences can help customers fully understand the writer’s purposes in such a fast way. 2.2.2. Similarities and Differences in conjunction usages in English and Vietnamese Marketing Newsletters 2.2.2.1. Similarities  Syntactic features: Concerning syntactic features, it goes without saying that conjunctions used in English and Vietnamese marketing newsletters have the function as connectors or linking devices. Another similar syntactic feature is that conjunctions in English as well as Vietnamese are used as transition signals of ideas and sentences in order to create the coherence in a paragraph. One more similar thing lies in the classifications of conjunctions. Through comparison, the researcher agrees that both English and Vietnamese conjunctions can be divided into: coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. Interestingly, it is easy for the writer to recognize that the position of conjunctions used in English and Vietnamese marketing newsletters are very alike. They are highly flexible and can occur in different positions: initial, medial or final  Semantic features Regarding semantic features, it is undoubtful that all conjunctions in English and Vietnamese have the same literal senses. In other words, their meanings are equivalent. More interestingly, conjunctions in both languages are used as the means of expressing meanings such as alternative, contrast, reason, concession, purpose, and condition – consequence. Another similarity is concerned with the means of expressing meanings. There exist many conjunctions representing the same semantic relationship in both English and Vietnamese. For example, in English when expressing the concession relation, it is possible to use the conjunctions such as “though/ although/ even though” 10 Furthermore, through comparison, it can be seen that the order expressing of meaning in cause-effect relation and concessive relation (conjunctions expressing cause-effect, concession) in both languages are similar. 2.2.2.2. Differences  Syntactic features The first striking difference lies in the way of using conjunctions. In fact, in English, there are conjunctions whose structures are quite different from those in Vietnamese. From our own observations, English newsletters writers are likely to use one conjunction as a linking word in a sentence rather than two as in the Vietnamese ones. For example, in Vietnamese, “nhưng” can also combine with tuy/ mặc dù/ dù to form pairs of subordinate conjunction tuy … nhưng/ mặc dù … nhưng/ dù … nhưng. And “nếu” often comes together with “thì” to form double conjunction “nếu … thì”. Nevertheless, it is impossible in English to have although … but/ though … but, if … so. In other words, the pairs never exist in English. The second difference can be found in the classifications of conjunctions. As in English, conjunctions are divided into three main types: coordinators, subordinators, and correlatives while Vietnamese conjunctions only have two main types including coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. Correlative conjunctions belong to subordinators. Another different point is concerned with functions of conjunctions. In English, there exist some words whose functions are both conjunctions and prepositions, for example, “since, for”.  Semantic features With regard to semantic features, in the first place, it appears that Vietnamese conjunction meanings tend to be more flexible than those in English. For instance, English has conjunctions “moreover, furthermore” and they are translated into “hơn nữa, vả lại”, but in Vietnamese, these conjunctions can be variously interpreted as “hơn thế nữa, hơn vậy nữa, với lại/ vả lại …” This flexible usage is hardly seen in the English language which possesses a range of fixed conjunctions because English pays much attention to grammar while Vietnamese people often focus on semantic form. The second noticeable difference is that in English there appear conjunctions expressing positive meanings or negative meanings because looking at English conjunctions readers can guess their functions and expressive nuances. For example, some conjunctions express positive meanings such as “and, in addition, what’s more,” and those express negative meanings such as “neither … nor”. [...]... usages in some English and Vietnamese Newsletters, concerning syntactic features, we see the following similarities: (i) both English and Vietnamese conjunctions have the function as joiners or linking devices (ii) conjunctions in two languages are used as transition signals of ideas and sentences to create the logic and coherence in a paragraph (iii) coordinators and subordinators do exist in both English. .. a contrastive analysis of syntactic and semantic features of English conjunctions as well as Vietnamese conjunctions to find out the similarities and differences unveiled in Marketing Newsletters so that readers, particularly students major in Economic Study can deeply understand how to use conjunctions in both languages Last but not least, the study gives some useful implications for teaching, learning... agree that conjunctions play an important role in creating cohesion in sentences and paragraphs Therefore, the study was conducted with hope that students major in Economics study as well as English lecturers at Hoa Lu University will get benefits from the study that is presumably a necessary source for teaching and learning conjunctions 2 Implications 2.1 Implications for EFL teaching and learning In the... of using conjunctions in English and Vietnamese Marketing Newsletters, as previously discussed, frequency of occurrence of conjunctions in English and Vietnamese Marketing Newsletters is equivalent The most frequently English conjunctions found in marketing newsletters are and , “or”, “but”, the Vietnamese equivalents most in use are “và, hoặc, nhưng” Regarding the similarities and differences in conjunction... first place, teachers should emphasize important transitions so that students have more chance to recognize those transitions and understand how the semantic relationships between sentences and paragraphs are manifested by conjunctions Secondly, based on dividing conjunctions into 3 types (coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions and correlatives) teachers can give explicit explanations... and Vietnamese (iv) positions of conjunctions used flexibly in English and Vietnamese However, some differences have been also worthily noted: (i) English newsletters writers are likely to use one conjunction as a linking word in a sentence rather than two as in the Vietnamese ones (ii) English conjunctions are divided into three types (coordinators, subordinators, and correlatives) whereas there are... vì…nên….” As discussed above, these couple conjunctions are popularly used in Vietnamese sentences, but they never exist in English to have: Although … but/ though … but, because … so Secondly, translators should analyze the connotative meaning of conjunctions and find an alternative means of translation; if possible, understanding cross - cultural notes between English and Vietnamese are helpful hints... conjunctions Lastly, English learners had better investigate the use of conjunctions in authentic materials so that they can learn how to use conjunctions in such an effective way 2.2 Implications for translating Through the comparison between English and Vietnamese, it is advisable for interpreters and learners is that they should pay much attention to using two couple conjunctions “Tuy/mặc dù…nhưng…” and “bởi... learning and translating conjunctions in general As a result, these implications can be applied as a general framework or model for teaching conjunctions This is extremely significant for EFL learners in particular 4 Limitations of the study One thing that the researcher left unresolved in this study is that owing to the time constraints and the requirement of the minor M .A research, the writer has been... unable to explore other features of conjunctions to help teachers and learners of English have a thorough understanding of their usages The second limitation of the study is that the number of English and Vietnamese marketing newsletters taken to analyze does not really cover all kinds of conjunctions Therefore, there can be some more similarities and differences in the use of conjunctions in both languages . English, conjunctions are divided into three main types: coordinators, subordinators, and correlatives while Vietnamese conjunctions only have two main types including coordinating and subordinating. author has taken 40 samples of both English and Vietnamese marketing newsletters (20 English and 20 Vietnamese ones) to compare and contrast. The study has been carried out based on a combination. there are some researches. In the Graduation Paper named A contrastive analysis of English coordinators and/ or/but” and Vietnamese equivalents” Le Thi Bich (2000) merely contrasted the typical