CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE Perhaps verbs occur in English sentence as the most important critical component of sentence meaning and completeness It denotes the notion of process, action or activity and also has a temporal component (tense) There are also verbs which have some intrinsic spatial meaning These include motion verbs and existence verbs Motion verbs are ones of the verbs that posses the biggest quantity of meanings and highest used frequency in English In the book “Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English” by Quirk [47, p.365], we have found it useful to classify verbs into seven major semantic domains, in which activity verbs(or motion verbs) are the most common verbs In the distribution of semantic domains, the most common verbs (i.e verbs that occur at least 50 times per million words) are far from evenly distributed across the seven semantic domains 50% of all common verbs are activity verbs (139 out of 218 common verbs) They occur almost in conversation, fiction, news and academic prose Overall, activity verbs (or motion verbs) occur much more commonly than verbs from any other semantic domain In the book “Word Frequencies in Written and Spoken English”( based on the British National Corpus) by Leech [39,p.215], motion verbs are considered as the most common ones with high frequency However, motion verbs are kinds of fairly complicated words For Vietnamese students, the differences in two languages cause a lot of difficulties in using words They may feel confused when encountering such verbs or may not use them effectively For example, in English we say “I will go to Hanoi, tomorrow”, although speaker can stay at any position But in Vietnamese we can say “Ngy mai täi s âi H Näüi”, “Ngy mai täi s H Näüi”, “Ngy mai täi s vãư H Näüi” When we say “Ra, âi and vãư” in English, we can use “ go” to express our thought But in Vietnamese, “Ra” is used when speaker is staying or living in the South or Middle land , “vãư” is used when speaker has fatherland is Hanoi Therefore, “go” in English can be translated into Vietnamese “ Ra, âi and vãư”.Or to express “ Anh ta âi lo âo ngỉåìi say”, in English it is said “he was staggering along as if drunk” but in Vietnamese for English learners at the beginning stage of efficiency will use the structure “Go + adverbial phrase of manner” to describe the motion Thus, English learners, especially Vietnamese students find it very difficult when they meet such cases in their communication and studying From the examples above, we can see that there must be semantic and syntactic differences in motion verbs uses in English and Vietnamese The difficulties that Vietnamese learners may meet are not only in semantic form but in syntactic form as well Moreover, motion verbs occur frequently They are popularly used Therefore, I would like to choose motion verbs as my study to help learners use these verbs effectively 1.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY The research does not focus on all the motion verbs in English and Vietnamese but on commonly used verbs in English come, arrive, leave, run , walk, and their equivalent expressions in Vietnamese âãún, tåïi, råìi , chảy, âi bäü Due to time, length limit of the thesis and the ability of our own, the paper is just intended to investigate the syntactic and semantic features of these verbs 1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The thesis is designed to study the syntactic and semantic characteristics of motion verbs in English and Vietnamese In order to this, the following theoretical and practical matters are taken into considerration in this thesis: how English motion verbs are classified , what the commonly used English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents are and how these kinds of verbs are used in different types of discourses From this, the thesis analyzes the syntactic and semantic features of the English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents In practice, the study aims to supply some implications to language teaching, language learning as well as in translating the English motion verbs The practical information is hoped to raise the language users’ awareness of the differences between the two languages in terms of motion verbs uses so that they can be successful in language communication in English 1.4 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.4.1 Aims The study is expected to provide Vietnamese learners with a description of syntactic and semantic characteristics of English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents 1.4.2 Objectives • To identify syntactic and semantic features of motion verbs in English and Vietnamese • To find out the differences and similarities between English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents • To suggest some implications for teaching, learning and translation of English motion verbs 1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS The studies try to answer the following questions : What are the syntactic and semantic features of the motion verbs in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in novels and short stories ? What are the similarities and differences between English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents ? What are the implications for teaching, learning and translating English motion verbs ? 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY The thesis is divided into five chapters as follows Chapter 1, the Introduction, which includes the rationale, the scope of the study, the aims and objectives, purpose of the study, research questions and organization of the study Chapter briefly reviews previous research works related to the topic and presents the theoretical background of the study Chapter presents the methods of collecting and analyzing data Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion which studies the syntactic and semantic features of English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents The last chapter summarizes the results of the tasks done in Chapter This part also provides some implications for teaching and learning English motion verbs and some suggestions for further research CHAPTER THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 PREVIOUS RESEARCH WORKS Motion verbs have been the subject of several studies by linguists because they present particularly interesting syntactic and semantic characteristics In particular, even if that are often considered as being a coherent semantic class, we can find verbs displaying different semantic features and syntactic behavior Many linguists have done researches into this linguistic field In “ Semantic Structures”, Jackendoff [35] presents some verbs of manner of motion and configuration “A New Approach to English Grammar on Semantic Principles” by Dixon [24] mentions seven subtypes of motion: the RUN subtype which refers to a mode of motion, the ARRIVE subtype which deals with respect to a definite Locus, the TAKE subtype which refers to causing something to be in motion with respect to a Locus, the FOLLOW subtype refers to motion with respect to something which is moving, the CARRY subtype refers to motion in juxtaposition with some moving object, the THROW subtype which describes causing something to be in motion , and the DROP subtype which refers to unwanted motion Brala Maria [15] in “Location in Motion” supply us with some information about verbs of motion She mentions that verbs of motion include classes: Inherently directed motion, Leave verbs, Manner of motion, Manner of motion using a vehicle, Waltz verbs, Chase verbs and Accompany verbs Levin, B.[42] classifies verbs of motion into two sub-classes : verbs of inherently directed motion, and verbs of manner of motion In Vietnamese, there are a number of linguists interested in motion verbs H Quang Nàng [7] not only mentions motion verbs with different forms of movement ( chạy, nhảy, bò, bay, đi, leo, trèo, trườn, lê, bơi ) but also talks about a group of motion verbs with particular semantic and syntactic features, they are motion verbs with direction: ra, vào, lên, xuống, qua, lại, về, đến, tới For Hỉỵu Âảt , Tráưn Trê Di , Âo Thanh Lan [3] present that motion verbs are the ones expressing movement in space such as; đi, chạy, bò, leo, trèo, and motion verbs with the direction of movement such as ra, vào, lên, xuống, qua, lại, về, đến, tới Besides, the matter has been discussed by Nguùn Kim Thn [10] with a special group of motion words with direction: ra, vào, lên, xuống, qua, lại, về, đến, tới Nguùn Vàn Thnh [11] with verbs with movement meaning such as: ra, vào, lên, xuống, qua, lại, về, đến, tới, đi, chạy, bò, leo, trèo, or Nguùn Lai [6] with words denoting direction of movement in Vietnamese According to him, in modern Vietnamese, words denoting motion are of great interest because of their theoretical and practical values.Words expressing motion are verbs themselves (Nam sân) or they have another functions beside verbs (Nam nhìn sân ) There also have been many researches that focus on verb groups Tráưn Thë Phỉåïc Hảnh [2002] analyzed the semantic and syntactic features of four English verbs such as say, tell, speak and talk and their Vietnamese equivalents Âinh Thë Diãûp Tho [2002] studied verbs denoting existential process in English and Vietnamese Causative verbs in English and Vietnamese are studied by Lỉång Kim Thỉ [2003] Nguùn Thë Häưng Âỉïc [2005]with English spatial verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents in the light of cognitive grammar Lã Thë Tuút Hoa [2005] investigated motion verbs However, she mainly focused on linguistic and cultural characteristics of the verb “To Go” not all the motion verbs 2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND In order to solve the question of meaning , it is very necessary to get the basic information given by semantics as well as its detailed questions such as semantics, meaning, components of word meaning, semantics features, meaning relations, semantic field, componential analysis, syntactic features of motion verb, semantic roles, grammartical roles and syntactic relations 2.2.1 Semantic Features 2.2.1.1 Semantics In general, semantics can be defined as the study of meaning It is central to the study of communication In addition, there is no doubt that communication is a crucial factor in our life, which is why the need to understand semantics becomes more and more pressing Many authors hold the idea that semantics is the meaning place of various cross current thinking and various disciplines of the study Philosophy, psychology and linguistics all claim a deep interest in semantics, but their interests are diverse because of their different starting points According to John Lyons [43,p.xii], semantics is by definition the study of meaning, and linguistic semantics is the study of meaning in so far as it is systematically encoded in the vocabulary and grammar of natural languages This definition of linguistic semantics, as far as it goes, is relatively uncontroversial But it is also almost wholly uninformative unless and until one goes on to say, first, what one means by “meaning” and, second, what exactly is meant by “encoded” in this context He also adds that those who draw a terminological distinction between “semantics” and “pragmatics” and take narrower view of meaning than he does will see his book as introduction to a broader field of linguistic semantics and pragmatics But Jack Richards, John Platt, Heidi Weber [52,p.172] say “ the study of meaning is called semantics Semantics is usually concerned with the analysis of the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences, and sometimes with the meaning of utterances in discourse or the meaning of a whole text ” In order to make a thorough study of meaning, we have to understand other concepts such as meaning, components of word meaning, semantic features, componential analysis and so on 2.2.1.2 Meaning Meaning plays an important part in communication Meaningless utterances have no value in communication; they can only make their language user a laughing stock, which is why understanding the meaning is very important for the language user It is not easy to identify the meaning expressed by a word or but an utterance because it depends on many factors concerned For example, the word “spring’ could have different meanings in the following sentences : He was born in the spring of 1944 (spring here means the season between winter and summer) She is full of energy, like a coiled spring (spring here means a twisted piece of metal that can be pushed, pressed or pulled but which always returned to its original shape or position afterwards There is a mountain spring near here (spring here means a place where water comes naturally to the surface from the ground) Where on earth did you spring from? (spring here means to appear suddenly unexpectedly from a particular place) According to Lesley Jeffries [37,p.3] meaning is a kind of invisible unclothed being waiting for the clothes of language to allow it to be seen, which is why it is very necessary to take off the clothes of language to understand the real meaning of words, phrases, and sentences e.g.,” the red flag at the seaside of a resort” means “danger” Through this example, a conclusion can be drawn that the meaning of the word is not all the time decided by itself but its relation with the others That is why John Lyons [43,p.4] states that the noun “meaning” and the verb “mean”, from which it is derived, are used, like many other English words, in a wide range of contexts and in several distinguishable senses The idea of meaning given by David Crystal [23,p.102] is as follows: ”In modern linguistics, meaning is studied by making detailed analysis of the way words and sentences are used in a specific context It is an approach shared by several philosophers and psychologist.” And David Crystal [23,p.247] also states: “Meaning is a basic notion used in language study in two main ways First determining the signification of a message is the chief end of linguistic enquiry: above all, language is concerned with the communication of meaning Second, meaning is used as a way of analyzing the structure of language, through such notions a contractiveness and distinctiveness.” 2.2.1.3 Components of word-meaning In the study of meaning, the denotational meaning and connotational meaning cannot be avoided The meanings are defined in the Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics [52] as follows: a Denotation is a part of the meaning of a word or phrase that relates it to phenomena in the real world or in a fictional or possible world For example, the denotation of the English word bird is a two-legged, winged, egg-laying, warm-blooded creature with beak In a meaning system, denotation meaning may be regarded as the “central” meaning of a lexical item It is often equated with referential meaning and with cognitive meaning although some linguists and philosophers make a distinction between these concepts b Connotation is the additional meanings that a word or phrase has beyond its central meaning These meaning show people’s emotions and attitudes towards what the word or phrase refers to For example, child could be defined as a young human being but there are many other characteristics which different people associate with child, e.g affectionate, amusing, lovable, sweet, mischievous, noisy, irritating grubby But some connotation may be shared by a group of people of the same cultural or social background, sex, rage; other may be restricted to use or several individuals and depend on their personal experience In a meaning system, that part of the meaning, which is covered by connotation, is sometimes referred to as affective meaning, connotation meaning, or emotive meaning Whereas, Charles W.Kreidler [38,p.58] states the denotation is the relation to phenomena outside of language, including imaginary phenomena; the connotation is the cluster of attributes that the lexeme may evoke About the connotation meanings, Mildred L.Larson [44,p.131] states: a word, which has a positive connotation in one culture, may actually have negative connotation in another For example, the English word tribe In some parts of the world, ethnic group reacts very positively to being called tribe, but in other parts of the world, the same word has the negative connotation and people not want to be called members of a tribe Referentially, the word tribe would be referring to an ethnic group, but the positive and negative For instance: (69) The man stopped when captain Humble came near [58,p.90] (Người đàn ơng ngừng nói thuyền trưởng Humble tiến lại gần.) (74) Years ago, while unearthing an ancient Egyptian tomb, an archaelogist came upon seeds buried in a piece of wood [63,p.98] (Nhiãưu nàm vãư trỉåïc, khai qût mäüt ngäi mäü cäø â tçm tháúy nhỉỵng hảt giäúng vi mäüt miãúng gäù.) (77) The boat came up on top of the wave, with white water all around it [58,p.130] (Chiếc thuyền trồi lên đầu sóng, nước bọt trắng tung t chung quanh.) (79) From the ships intercom came a familiar tune [63,p.28] (Tỉì loa phọng ca tu chåüt vang lãn mäüt giai âiãûu quen thüc ca bi hạt.) (80) He opened another door, and a great cloud of steam came out [58,p.88] (Anh ta mở cánh cửa khác; đám nước to tướng trào ra.) (83) “The storm is worse The wind is coming from the north now, and it’s stronger.” [58,p.94] (‘Cơn bão dội Gió từ bắc thổi xuống mạnh hơn’.) (89) He went and stood behind her chair and enjoyed a feeling of happiness that never come into hostels [69,p.102] (Cậu đến đứng sau lưng ghế bà ngồi khoan khối với cảm giác hạnh phúc khơng đời có lưu xá) (91) From her trust and confidence came one of the greatest novels of American literature, the Scarlet Letter [63,p.148] (Våïi sỉû tin tỉåíng v kç vng ca våü, mäüt nhỉỵng tiãøu thuút vé âải nháút ca vàn hc M âåìi, tiãøu thuút chỉỵ A mu â.) On the syntactic level, while the structure To - infinitive is used in sentences containing English motion verbs, there is no Vietnamese equivalents in using this form among all of the motion verbs investigated For instance: (44) She ran to look at them, and opened the top book [57,p.117] (Cä bẹ chảy âãún nhçn máúy cún sạch.) (9) If you’ve come to steal, go ahead There are a few things you can take.” [ 68,p.136] (Nãúu anh âãún àn träüm thç lm âi Cọ vi âäư váût anh cọ thãø láúy.”) (22) Romeo, in Mantua heard the sad story of his Juliet”s death, before friar Lawrence’s messenger could arrive to tell him that this was an imitation funeral, [57, p 48] (ÅÍ Mantua, Romeo â nghe tháúy cáu chuûn thỉång tám vãư cại chãút ca Juliet trỉåïc ngỉåìi âỉa tin ca tu sé Lawrence tåïi cho chng biãút âọ chè l mäüt tang lãù gi , ) In order to express the manner of motion, after a motion verb, English people use an adverb of manner after motion verb In constrast, inVietnamese, we can use an adverb of manner after or before the motion verb to express the manner of motion For instance: 54) He walk slowly home [5,p.2005] (Anh ta âi vãư nh mäüt cạch cháûm ri) (55) Soapy walked slowly away, now unsuccessful a second time [68,p.114] (Tháút vng, Soapy cháưm cháûm b âi, giåì âáy tháút bải láưn thỉï hai.) Moreover, difference in English, in Vietnamese, verbs of motion have two grammatical function in sentence: + They can be the directed motion verbs For example: (70) She came into the kitchen once, to speak to her old one, but he was gone [60,p.63] (C« vμo bÕp mét lÇn, ®Þnh nãi chun víi cËu b¹n cò, nhng nã ®i ®©u mÊt råi.) In sentence (70), “vμo” is the verb of motion It contains both motion and direction of motion +They can be directional adverbs when combining with verbs of motion‘đi’ (66) After a moment, my mother came in, a little red in the face [58,p.12] (Một lát sau mẹ tơi vào mặc ửng hồng ) In sentence (67), “vào” is directional adverbs It combines with verbs of motion ,bỉåïc ,chạy to describe the directions of motion Therefore, in Vietnamese some verbs of motion “ ra, vo, lãn, xúng,vãư, qua can be verbs of motion and directional adverbs CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1 CONCLUSION In conclusion, based on the theoretical background and the analysis of over eight hundred samples taken from such sources as novels, short stories, the study has discussed the syntactic and semantic features of motion verbs, pointed out the similarities and differences between English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents, and also found out the frequency of these verbs and expressions in different discourses The study has five chapters Chapter one is the Introduction, Chapter two presents Theoretical Background Chapter three includes the Method and Procedures, Chapter four deals with the Findings and Discussions The last chapter, Chapter Five, consists of the Conclusion and Implications The matters studied are the syntactic and semantic features of English motion verbs Also, the study provides their Vietnamese equivalents From these, the thesis has given some comments on the frequency of the English motion verbs investigated in the stories and novels, on the similarities as well as the differences between English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents After collecting the data and examining the statistics on the frequency of the English motion verbs, we have the conclusion that while the verb Arrive appears 41 times and takes the percentage of 5%, the other verbs such as Run, Walk, Leave and Come are 101 times with 12%, 113 times with 13%, 174 times with 21%, 409 times with 49% respectively The verb Come is the most commonly used verb with 409 samples, and Arrive is the least commonly used with only 41 samples Semantically, the meaning of motion verbs are very plentiful They express the meaning of movement Due to their concrete context in each sentence, they could have different translational meanings However, each of their Vietnamese equivalents can show only one kind of those meanings There is not a clear regulation for each structure Syntactically, most of the Motion Verbs in English and Vietnamese can be transitive, taking a direct object, or intransitive, or without any object Verb of motion can be a single verb or verbal phrase, ec Besides, we can see that while the three verbs Come, Arrive, Leave are verbs denoting directed motion, the rest two verbs Run, Walk are verbs denoting manner of motion In order to describe the manner of the motion, adverbs of manner are used to combine with verb of motion However, manner of motion are already made clear without having any other modifiers As for the two verbs denoting directed motion Come and Arrive, English people tend to use the verb Come ( 49%) more than the verb Arrive (5%) Last but not least, in the last chapter of the paper, the research tries to give some implications with the aim to help learners to know how to use Motion verbs in English correctly 5.2 IMPLICATIONS FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING ANDTEACHING With the scope of this paper, we have dealt with some basic knowledge of word meaning, sense relations, semantic field, semantic role and syntactic relations The finding of the study may be in one way or another beneficial for the language learners For the language teaching, this study may be another sign to imply the need of encouraging students to exploit the diverse meanings of verbs for the purpose of using verbs flexibly and sufficiently When studying the distribution of meanings possessed by motion verbs, I have discovered the number of meanings of English motion verbs are abundant in meaning Therefore, when teaching motion verbs to Vietnamese learners, the teacher has to know to exploit the meanings of the verbs and show them how to use the meaning appropriately The language teachers should create condition for leaners to practise English motion verbs in context, which help them get acquainted with many motion verbs, distinguish between different motion verbs structures, and know how to translate them into Vietnamese So, their learners can use the knowledge as well as produce it perfectly, which can be carried out by constant practice in class with the guide of teacher at school and with students’ self study at home During the process of learning a foreign language, learners often impose the use of their mother tongue on that of the target language is an inevitable habit To help learners avoid such problem, it is teachers’ duty to point out all of the similarities and differences between the two languages in respect of the concerning issue In other words, contrastive analysis teaching is indispensable in such situation In translation, with the understanding of the use of language structures, it is easy to translate languages Translation exercises from Vietnamese into English and vice versa should be given to learners to help them use English motion verbs and their Vietnamese Equivalents properly Suggested exercises: Fill in the blanks with the suitable forms of COME/ARRIVE/BOTH: How did you .into this place? Lawrence’s message couldn’t .to tell him that this was an imitation funeral As I began to open the door, a man out from behind the side of my house Soon they at Miss Minchin’s school for Girls Kiad stands in front of the Commender Just then, Rilla So, when Juliet’s messenger , according to her promise, Romeo sends back a message with him, telling her to quickly to the little room of friar Lawrence Are you going to with me? One day a very exciting letter Don’t force a fit If something is meant to be, it will together naturally 10 When they , she said “ Please find the Witch of the South.” Translate into English: Khi tråí xúng Mẻ täi âang báûn bëu åí bãúp Cúi bỉỵa tiãûc Romeo råìi bỉỵa tiãûc cng cạc âäưng hnh Räưi h âi ngang qua ngäi nh kãú bãn Chè cn lải cọ bäún chiãúc lạ thäi Chụng ta s mau chọng âãún âỉåüc ga Vo mäüt ngy âäng giạ lảnh, mäüt cä gại cng våïi bäú âàût chán âãún London Anh tråí lải to nh cáu lảc bäü âãø chøn bë vãư Hanno bắt đầu chạy đến mặt thành chuồng H leo xúng mäüt càn phng låïn 10 Đây khu rừng câ y cổ thụ Nơi chẳng có người lui tới 5.3 LIMITATIONS Lack of time, reference materials and reseacher’s knowledge make it impossible for the researcher to provide more sufficient and intensive focus on motion verbs Therefore, mistakes and shortcomings are unavoidable 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH This thesis has made an investigation into the semantic and syntactic features of motion 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features are Descriptive method (to describe motion verbs in terms of their structures and meanings to draw some... The semantic structure of vocabulary of a language can be studied in a precise and systematic way by means of componential analysis of which the theory of semantic field greatly leans The assumption of lexical field analysis or semantic field analysis is that lexemes can be grouped together into semantic fields on the basis of shared meaning and that most, if not all the vocabulary of a language, can... that a much smaller number of features would be needed in writing grammar description But Jack Richards, John Platt and Heidi Weber [52,p.254] say semantic features are “the smallest units of meaning in a word The meaning of a word may be described as a combination of semantic features According to David Crystal [23,p.346], semantic feature is a minimal contrastive element of a word’s meaning, in. .. Death of Karen Silkwool by Hamman Joyce From theses novels and short stories, 838 examples are quoted, analyzed and used as the chief source for the qualitative evidence - Analyzing data: Firstly, the syntactic features of the 5 English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents are presented through clear and understandable examples Then the semantic features of the 5 English motion verbs and their. .. their Vietnamese equivalents are presented in turn After that the frequency of the 5 English motion verbs are investigated After presenting the syntactic and semantic features of English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents, the discussions of findings are carried out in order to find out the differences and similarities of each matter mentioned to state the differences and similarities in English. .. Vietnamese equivalents in novels and short stories ? What are the similarities and differences between English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents ? What are the implications for teaching, learning and translating English motion verbs ? Basing on the materials collected, I can get some valuable theoretical background as well as practical evidence The theoretical background on the motion verbs and. .. meanings because of their different syntactic arrangements As Dixon (1991) claims, there is a principled interaction between the meaning of a word and its grammartical properties Once a learner knows the meaning and grammartical behaviour of most of the words in a language, then from the meaning of a new word he can infer its likely grammatical possibilities, or from observing the grammatical use of. .. The study procedures are as follows: - Choosing the topic to investigate by reviewing the previous works carefully Moreover, in order to have findings on semantic and syntactic features of English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents, the study tries to seek the answers to the following questions: What are the syntactic and semantic features of the motion verbs in English and their Vietnamese. .. types of the verbs that occupies their semantic and syntactic core Verbs, in turn, are divided into semantic according to the kind of involvement of the participants in the state or event coded by the clause The array of semantic roles typically associated with each verb defines the propositional frame of the verb and thus the semantic type of the verbal clause In Givon.T [31,p.91] terms the major semantic. .. example, “hospital” relates to both the semantic field of health (as in I was in hospital last week) and that of buildings ( as in The hospital needs a new roof )” 2.2.1.8 Componential analysis Componential analysis analyzes words for their semantic components because the semantic components of a word can affect the meaning of the whole sentence and determiner the possible thematic roles and grammatical ... the study also uses qualitative and quantitative approaches that help to analyse the data in a reliable way The data on motion verbs in English and Vietnamese are collected, described and analysed,... and semantic features of the English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents In practice, the study aims to supply some implications to language teaching, language learning as well as in. .. thay ®ỉi ý kiÕn.) 4.2.2 Semantic Features of ARRIVE Here is a summary of semantic features of ARRIVE Table 4.2: Summary of semantic features of ARRIVE VERB SEMANTIC FEATURES To reach a destination