A study on syntactic and semantic features of the thinking verb group in english and their vietnamese equivalents

ABSTRACT This study is an attempt to uncover the syntactic and semantic featuresof the English THINKING verbs think, assume, ponder, remember, know and believe from the analysis of their

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

HOANG BICH NHUNG

A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE THINKING VERB GROUP IN

ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE THINKING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESEE QUIVALENTS” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2015

Hoàng Bích Nhung

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Đặng Ngọc Hướng

(Signature and full name)

Date:………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to

my supervisor, Dr Dang Ngoc Huongwho has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher

A special word of thanks goes to all the lecturers in the Faculty ofPost-graduate studies, Hanoi Open Universityand many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband and my loving daughter for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

ABSTRACT

This study is an attempt to uncover the syntactic and semantic

featuresof the English THINKING verbs think, assume, ponder, remember, know and believe from the analysis of their syntactic and

semantic features based on the theoretical framework of componential analysis Special attention was paid to different senses by contexts where these six verbs are used In order to help Vietnamese learners of English to have a deep understanding of other nuances of meanings conveyed by these English verbs, their Vietnamese translational equivalents are examined

The result of the study showed that the six English verbs under discussion can occur in the same syntactic patterns, but may have different meanings depending on the situation in which they are used and they can occur in different syntactic patterns that reflect various meanings

in real- life communication They also reveal that the meaning of verb is determined by its relations with other words That is why we can only identify exactly the meaning of any word when we have to put it in a certain context

A further implication resulting from the findings included in this study could be equally beneficial for teachers and learners who would like to expand their knowledge The most typical ways of perceptivity the

linguistic is analyzed by means of the six English thinking verbs think,

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1 Complement clause possibilities for THINKING verbs 32 Table 2 Frequency of types of structures in English THINKING

verbs and Vietnamese THINKING verbs

Table 5 A summary of the meaning nuances of ASSUME and

their Vietnamese equivalents

51

Table 6 A summary of the meaning nuances of PONDER and

their Vietnamese equivalents

52

Table 7 A summary of the meaning nuances of REMEMBER and

their Vietnamese equivalents

52

Table 8 A summary of the meaning nuances of KNOW and their

Vietnamese equivalents

53

Table 9 A summary of the meaning nuances of BELIEVE and

their Vietnamese equivalents

53

Table 10 A Summary of the comparison of the meaning nuances

of THINK, ASSUME, PONDER

54

Table 11 A summary of the comparison of the meaning nuances

of REMEMBER, KNOW andBELIEVE

54

Table 12 A summary of THINKING verbs and their Vietnamese

equivalents

55

4.1 Syntactic features of the THINKING verbs in English and their

Vietnamese equivalents

24

4.1.2 The THINKING verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents with

respect to syntactic features

33

4.1.2.1 THINK and their Vietnamese equivalents 33 4.1.2.2 ASSUME and their Vietnamese equivalents 34 4.1.2.3 PONDER and their Vietnamese equivalents 35 4.1.2.4 REMEMBER and their Vietnamese equivalents 36

4.1.2.6 BELIEVE and their Vietnamese equivalents 38 4.2 The THINKING verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents with

respect to semantic features

40

4.2.1 Semanticfeatures of the THINKING verbs in English 40 4.2.2 The equivalents of semanticfeatures of the THINKING verbs in

REFERENCES

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence A verb states what is happening in the sentence.There are many verbs in Englishand the THINKING verbs play an important role in the sentence However, in communication, we have difficulties in expressing our ideas, especially in transferring meanings of words from a language to another one, in our case from English to Vietnamese

It is known that the ability to express freely in communication is of great importance forfuture career, especially in modern societies where contacting with foreigners often occurs In addition, there still exist many difficulties in learning and teaching English in Vietnam Many Vietnamese learners can write and read English quite well but they do not use it correctly and fluently in real-life communication

There have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations into THINKING verbs in both English and Vietnamese In English with these studies:Anna Wierzbicka (1972) she studies about the semantic features of

verbs such as: think, know, and want;R M W Dixon (1991),A new approach

to English grammar on semantic principles ; Gilbert Ryle (2009), Concept of mind ; Richard Faure (2009), Verbs of thinking and speaking;Susanna Karlsson (2008), Re-thinking THINK in contrastive perspective In Vietnam with studies: Hoàng Tuệ (1962), Giáo trình việt ngữ ; Nguyễn Kim Thản (1997),Động từ

of Science and technology Lê Minh Giang and Ngũ Thiện Hùng (2011), Sự khác nhau giữa động từ thực hữu và không thực hữu trên cứ liệu tiếng Anh và

đối dịch tiếng Việt; Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà (2012), Ngữ nghĩa của động từ nghĩ trong tiếng Việt These studies thoroughly describe about the semantic features of the THINKING verbs but they have not been exploited in terms of their syntactic features yet Moreover, the equivalents between two languages English and Vietnamese has not been implemented yet

In the process of teaching English verbs in general, and teaching the THINKING verbs in particular, it is recognized that this verb group makes students confused much especially their syntactic and semantic features of the THINKING verb group and their Vietnamese equivalents

As there are a lot of THINKING verbs, learners can use different words to express their ideas However, a great number of peoplemake mistakeswhen they usethe THINKINGverbsin different situations to communicate To compare the syntactic and semantic features of the THINKING verbsare important to learners, so that they can have good knowledge to use these THINKING verbs correctly

For the above reasons, the topic “A Study on syntactic and semantic features of the THINKING verb groupin English and their Vietnamese equivalents” is chosen with the purpose of finding out the equivalents of

English and Vietnamese THINKING verbs.Especially, the study only focuses

on six English THINKING verbs think, assume, ponder, remember, know and

students of English as well as Vietnamese people who learn English and who

are interested in English THINKING verbs

1.2Aims of the research

The thesis is aimed at investigating the syntactic and semantic features of English THINKING verbs in English and their Vietnamese

equivalents with a view helping Vietnamese learnershave a better understanding of the THINKING verbs andsuggesting some implications for teachingand learning these English verbs

1.3 Objectives of the research

To achieve the mentioned aims above, following objectives can be put forward:

1 Pointing out the syntactic and semantic features of the THINKINGverbs

in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

2 Finding outthe similarities and differences of the THINKING verbs in English and their Vietnamese equivalentsin terms of syntactic and semantic features

3 Providing some implications forteachingand learning the THINKING verbs

1.4 Scope of the research

Within the framework of a master thesis, only the syntactic and semantic features of the English THINKING verbs will be taken into consideration Other features will be out of the scope of this study

To serve the purpose of the study, some implications will be suggested to help Vietnamese learners of English have a better understanding of the THINKING verbs and then use them in daily communication effectively

1.5 Significance of the research

i) Theoretical significance

Theoretically, the study will provide a full description of syntactic and semantic features of the English verbs, so other researchers and linguistics could take it as a reliable reference to make further studies in this field.Moreover, the similarities and differences between these verbs in English and in Vietnamese are very helpful in contrasting two languages

ii) Practical significance

Practically, the study will help the Vietnamese learners of English as

a foreign language use the English THINKING verbs effectively in daily communication The findings of the study is hopefully to be beneficial to those whose are engaged in teaching English as well as those who want to learn English as a foreign language

Chapter2 – Presents theLiteratureReview including all the previous studies related to the research area and a review of theoretical background,which is considered as a foundation for conducting the whole research

Chapter 3 – Methodology – describes all the research-governing orientation and methods applied for implementing this research

Chapter 4 – Findings and Discussion – gives a detail description and discussion on the syntactic and semantic feature of THINKING

verbstogether with some possible implications for teaching and learning the English THINHKING verbs

Chapter 5 – Conclusion – summaries the whole content of the research, indicate the limitation, thus giving some recommendation and suggestion for a further research

References come at the end of the study.

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The following issues are to be dealt with in this chapter: Previous studies; Review overview oftheoretical background These theories are the basis of the study in the chapter four

2.1 Previous studies

There have been many researchers conducting investigations into THINKING verbs in both English and Vietnamese

For THINKING verbs in English, Anna Wierzbicka (1972) she studies

about the semantic features of verbs such as: think, know, and want etc, Besides, according to R M W Dixon (1991),A new approach to English

verbs include eight English verbs: think, assume, ponder, remember, know,

these verbs in terms of semantic features

Gilbert Ryle (2009), Concept of mind discusses the definition of the mind Richard Faure (2009), Verbs of thinking and speaking The author has already

discussed the similarities and the differences between verbs of thinking and speaking Although the research has mentioned the syntactic as well as the semantic features, it has only mentioned the equivalents of these verbs in English and French

Susanna Karlsson (2008), Re-thinking THINK in contrastive perspective In his study, he discussed eight verbs: think, know, feel, see, hear, see, want anddoin terms of syntactic and semantic features in English and

Swedish equivalents

About Vietnamese THINKING verb group, Hoàng Tuệ (1962), Giáo

authors studied about the classification of words in Vietnamese including the

THINKING verbs in Vietnamese Hoàng Phê (1998), Vietnamese dictionary

analyzed and improved to the meaning and the structures of the THINKING verbs In addition, some authors of Journal of Science and technology in Da nang and Journal of Science of Hue University such as: Lê Minh Giang and

Ngũ Thiện Hùng (2011), Sự khác nhau giữa động từ thực hữu và không thực hữu trên cứ liệu tiếng Anh và đối dịch tiếng Việt. These researchers studied about the distinction between factive verbs and non- factive verbs in English and

Vietnamese translational equivalents Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà (2012), Ngữ nghĩa của động từ nghĩ trong tiếng Việt She has only mentioned the meaning of think verb in Vietnamese The author did not discuss or contrast the equivalents of the think verb in English

Although all the studies above thoroughly describe about the semantic

or the meaning features of the THINKING verbs, they have not been exploited in terms of their syntactic features yet Especially, the equivalents between two languages English and Vietnamese has not been implemented yet Moreover, the implications for teachingandlearning the THINKING verbs from English into Vietnamese have not carried out yet

As a result, that is why this research studies about the THINKING verb group The THINKING verb group of this study consists of six verbs as

follows: think, assume, ponder, remember, know and believe In this paper,

the features of syntactic as well as semantic of the THINKING verbs will be analyzed clearly from many different resources

2.2 Review of theoretical background

2.2.1 Theoretical framework

2.2.1.1 Theory of syntax

Syntax is a set of rules in language It dictates how words from different parts of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought According to R.M.W Dixon (1991), syntax deals with the way in which words

are combined together Verbs have different grammatical properties from language to language but there is always a major class verb, which includes word referring to motion, rest, attention, giving and speaking

Syntax is understood to be the theory of the structure of sentences in a language This view has its direct antecedents in the theory of immediate constituents, in which the function of syntax is to mediate between the observed forms of a sentence and its meaning

Bloomfield (1993), he states “we could not understand the form of a language if we merely reduced all the complex forms to their ultimate constituents” He argued that in order to account for the meaning of a sentence,

it is necessary to recognize how individual constituents such words and morphemes constitute more complex forms

Syntax is now the study of the principles and rules that govern the ways

in which words are combined to form phrases, clauses and sentences in a language Syntax, which is a subfield of grammar, focuses on the word order of

a language and the relationships between words In other words, morphology deals with word formation out of morphemes whereas syntax deals with phrase and sentence formation out of words

Syntax structures are analyzable into sequences of syntactic categories or syntactic classes, these being established on the basic of the syntactic relationships and linguistic items have with other items in a construction

Every language has a limited number of syntactic relations Subject and object are probably universal of syntactic relations, which apply to every language However, just as the criteria for the major words class noun and verb differ from language to language, so do the ways in which syntactic relations are marked

2.2.1.2 Theory of semantics

Semantics is a branch of linguistics, which deals with meaning or the content of communication According to Hurford and Heasley (1983:1), “semantics is the

study of meaning in language” Language is a means of communication, and people use language to communicate with others by making conversations, giving information, and other things to make social relationship Human beings have been given the capacity to talk, to communicate with each other, to make meaningful utterances, so that they are understood by other human beings They communicate about the world in which they live, about themselves, about their thought and feeling, about what has happened, about what might happen or what they would like to happen, and a lot more

Hurford and Heasley (1983:5) state, “the giving of information is itself an act of courtesy, performed to strengthen social relationships” This is also part of communication There are some linguists that try to define semantics Moreover,

as quoted by Lyons (1977) at first defines semantics as the study of the relations

of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable And then he revises his definition, saying that, semantics is that portion of semiotic which deals with the signification of sign in all modes of signifying

Semantics is usually connected with pragmatics Carnap (Lyons, 1977:116) says that descriptive semantics (i.e the investigation of the meaning of expressions in

“historically given natural language”), may be regarded as part of pragmatics The reason why descriptive semantics is part of pragmatics seem to have been that he believed that difference in the use of particular expressions were not only inevitable in language - behaviour, but must be taken account of in the description or context Smith, as quoted by Lyons (1977:116) states that

“semantics studies how these signs are related to things And pragmatics studied how they are related to people” According to Leech (1983:5) in practice, the

problem of distinguishing language and language use has centred on a boundary

dispute between semantics and pragmatics Hurford and Heasley (1983:14) further explain that the study of semantics is largely a matter of conceptually and exploring the nature of meaning in a careful and thoughtful way, using a wide range of examples, many of which we can draw from our knowledge But Jack

Richards, John Platt, Heidi Weber (1987:172) state that “the study of meaning is 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.”

David Crystal (1992:347) defines that “semantics is the study of meaning in language” Structural semantics applied the principles of structural linguistics to the study of meaning through the notion of semantic relations (also called sense relation), such as synonymy and antonyms In generative grammar, the semantic component is a major area of the grammar’s organization, assigning a semantic representation to sentences, and analyzing lexical terms of semantic features The theory of semantic field views vocabulary as organized into areas, within which words (lexical items) interrelate and define each other

Theory of syntactic and semantic is carried out first with main purpose to decide the theoretical framework of the study in the chapter four

2.2.1.3 Overview of English verbs

2.2.1.3.1Definition of the verb

In most languages, verbs are part of speech expressing existence, action,

or occurrence Moreover, verb is considered to be the king of all parts of speech

in English At the heart of every sentence is a verb, an action word that is generally indicates what someone or something is doing or perhaps merely indicates being

R.M.W.Dixon (1991) defines that “a verb is the center of a clause” A verb refer to some activity and there must be a number of participants who have

roles in that activity as: Sinbad carried the old man; or it may refer to a state, and there must be a participant to experience the state as: My leg aches

A set of verbs is grouped together as one semantic type partly because

they require the same set of participant roles All giving verbs require a Donor, a

Gift and a Recipient, as in:

John gave a bouquet to Mary, Jane lent the Saab to Bill.

John rubbed the glass (with a soft cloth)

Mary sliced the tomato (with her new knife)

Tom punched Bill (with his left fist)

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 9) L.G Alexander (1983) points out a verb is a word or a phrase which expresses the existence of a state or doing an action

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic (1998) states that a verb is a word or

a phrase indicating an action, an event or state

According to Borahash (1975), the verb is a part of speech denoting an action or

a process

According to Jack C Richards & et al (1992), a word is a verb when it satisfies these following criteria:

- Occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence

- Caries markers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number, and mood

- Refers to an action or state

Generally in English, the verb tense shows the time of the action or state; the aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state

Thompson (1965), states that verbs are not affected by number, person, gender, mood, voice, and tense

My office is in the next building (SVA)

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721)

b Extensive verbs

Extensive verbs are most other verbs, they do not have subject compliment Extensive verbs are used to say what the subject is doing It coversa wider area; it takes the information away from the subject Words or phrases, which are followed by an extensive verb work as the verb’s object They apply

to the verb, not the subject as in:

He stayed very quiet

You can put the dish on the table (SVOA)

(Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721) The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence A verb states what is happening in the sentence Finite verbs locate the condition or action of the verb in a specific time frame: past, present or future and have a

specific tense and a subject with which they grammatically agree A complete sentence must contain a finite verb Verbs create the relationship between the subject and the object of the verb

In a command, there is still this relationship with the subject and

object understood “Go!” (Subject –you– understood, verb “go!” object away– understood.)

The form of the verb must agree with the number of its subject, which will be a noun or noun group, for example 'They were not home' (as opposed to 'They was not home') Confusion can arise when deciding

whether the subject is singular or plural, for example 'This group of students

strawberries are delicious' (not 'is delicious')

2.2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.2.1Overview of the THINKING verbs

In general, in English, there are thinking verbs whose frequency of use is very high in both English and Vietnamese Besides, thinking verbsare found in English as: Anna Wierzbicka (1972) studies about the semantic features of

verbs such as: think, know, and want On the other hand, in another study of

R M W Dixon (1991),A new approach to English grammar on semantic principles These studies studied on the semantic of these verbs in terms of semantic features

Gilbert Ryle (2009), Concept of mind Richard Faure (2009), Verbs of thinking and speaking The authors have already discussed the discusses the definition of the mind and similarities and the differences between verbs of

thinking and speaking Susanna Karlsson (2008), Re-thinking THINK in contrastive perspective The research studied on syntactic and semantic features

of eight verbs: think, know, feel, see, hear, see, want anddo in English and their

Swedish equivalents

In Vietnam, the THINKING verbs found by these authors such as:

Hoàng Tuệ (1962), Giáo trình việt ngữ and Nguyễn Kim Thản (1997),Động

từ trong tiếng Việt, these authors studied about the classification of words in Vietnamese including the THINKING verbs in Vietnamese Hoàng Phê

(1998), Vietnamese dictionary analyzed and improved to the meaning and the

structures of the THINKING verbs In addition, some authors of Journal of Science and technology in Da nang and Journal of Science of Hue University

such as: Lê Minh Giang and Ngũ Thiện Hùng (2011), Sự khác nhau giữa động

từ thực hữu và không thực hữu trên cứ liệu tiếng Anh và đối dịch tiếng Việt.

These authors studies about the distinction between factive verbs and non-

factive verbs in English and Vietnamese translational equivalents For the author Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà (2012), Ngữ nghĩa của động từ nghĩ trong tiếng Việt The

author has only mentioned the meaning of think verb in Vietnamese The author

did not discuss or contrast the equivalents of the think verb in English

Although all the studies above thoroughly describe about the semantic

or the meaning features of the THINKING verbs, they have not been exploited in terms of their syntactic features yet Especially, the equivalents between two languages English and Vietnamese has not been implemented yet Moreover, the implications for teachingand learning the THINKING verbs from English into Vietnamese have not carried out yet

The researches above are the background that the theory part of the study will be carried out

2.2.2.2Concepts of the THINKING verbs

According to Susanna Karlsson (2008), the THINKING verbsare known

as follows: We use thinking verbs to refer to cognitive processes such as thinking, wondering, knowing and remembering:

Miss Lee wondered why the children were so tired

"This looks like a job for Granny Gong!" thought Miss Lee

(Susanna Karlsson, 2008)

On the contrary, he said that THINKING verbs tell the reader what the characters are thinking about the event or what they were thinking at the time, as in:

“I wonder what’s for lunch?” he thought

(Susanna Karlsson, 2008)

THINKING verbs may be included: believe, consider, contemplate, decide, dream, forget, forgive, guess, idea, imagine, know, notice, realize, remember, see, suppose, think, understand, and wonder

THINKINGverbs require using your brain, rather than physically using your body as in:

I pondered the situation

I fretted about the situation

I wondered about it

I thought about it

I worried about it

(Susanna Karlsson, 2008)

According to Ryle (1971),states that the verb “think” can refer to both beliefs and opinions

On the other hand,Ryle (1978), dismissively compares this interpretation

of thinkingverb: “describing a journey as constituted by arrivals, searching as constituted by findings, studying as constituted by examination triumphs, or, in a word, trying as constituted by successes”

Like English the concepts of the THINKING verbs in Vietnam, It also has many different meaning aspects

According to Hoàng Phê (1998), the concept of the THINKING verbsare known as follows:

1 Brainstorming on what was perceived; draw awareness to new

ideas, Judgement, and attitude (Think stratagem Think how to respond.)

2 Having in mind, remember, think of (Go away, always thinking about the homeland, thinking of your parents.)

3 To be / that after thought (I think what he's about.)

For the author,Nguyen Thi Thu Ha in Journal of Science of Hue University mentioned to the meaning of the think verb in Vietnamese, which shows the think verb is seen as a primary word Moreover, Hoang Tue,the author has also pointed that the thinking verb is a word that stands for perceptive activities

2.3 Summary

In this chapter, theLiteratureReview includesprevious studies, review

of theoretical background In the previous studies, the studies of authors in oversea and in Vietnam are given.In the theoretical background, theory of syntax and semantics are analyzed thoroughly in order to use for the background of analyzing the syntactic and semantic features of the THINKING verbs in English Moreover, the definition of the verb and classification of verb are pointed out in details.Finally, theoretical background is given briefly review what has been found and discussed the related studies by describing their approaches and key findings, but then identify weaknesses in the approach and limitations in the findings

All the parts of this chapter thatcan be considered as a foundation for conducting the whole research

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

In order to fulfill the aim of the study, some pedagogical implications, this chapter deals with the study of the thesis, the methodology It focuses on the data collection This chapter is carried out with a view to mapping out the ways

to conduct the whole study It comprises of two parts: the first part is governing orientations and the second part is research methods

research-3.1 Research governing orientations

3.What are possible implications for teachingandlearning the THINKING verbs?

dictionaries, encyclopedia, reference books at library and on some websites

to help the teachers and learners more clearly about the differences in syntax

as well as in semantics between the THINKING verbs in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

3.1.3 Research approach

The thesis is conducted by combining the three research approaches of quantitative, qualitativeand comparative, which are carried out following orientations Firstly, the thesis is started with data collection by using a various sources of printed publications as books, articles, journal, English Vietnamese Dictionary and Vietnamese grammar books or from the internet After finishing the collection of data, they are qualitatively described, analyzed and illustrated

by corpora in terms of the structural and semantic features The data collected from the reliable sources then are quantitatively computed and compared with Vietnamese equivalents under a process of statistical analysis to find the answers

to the research questions Finally, certain conclusions and implications for using the THINKING verbs in English in an effective way are withdrawn

3.1.4 Principles/criteria for intended data collection and data analysis

The research is analyzed and collected the data from reliable sources with clearlyprinciples.The data, the samples and the evidences, they are showed in logically and unified from the first chapter to the final chapter

Data types which are chosen to implement this study are derived from Oxford Advanced learner’s dictionary, Oxford Advanced Encyclopedia, English Vietnamese Dictionary, English semantic dictionary, Vietnamese grammar books and Internet resources.etc These are used as reference books and citation materials in the study

Sources of data are from finding books at libraries, bookshops and on the Internet

Data analysis techniques are collecting the materials, investigating the syntactic and semantic features of the THINKING verbs in English and contrasting with their Vietnamese equivalents

3.2 Research methods

3.2.1Major methods and supporting methods

This study is designed and investigated the syntactic and semantic features of the THINKING verbs in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, so the qualitative, descriptive and comparative method is chosen This study analyzes and synthesizes to some syntactic, semantic features of the THINKING verbs in English and their Vietnamese equivalents Therefore, in the process of the study, the THINKING verbsare main sources for the research, so English is considered the source language, and Vietnamese is the target one

First of all, the qualitative method is referred the meanings as well as the definitions or the concepts of the THINKING verbs in English and in Vietnamese Then, the descriptive method is described the characteristics and equivalents of semantic and syntactic structures of the English THINKING verbs in English and in Vietnamese Besides, the comparative method is compared the syntactic and semantic structure of the THINKING verbs in English and Vietnamese to make clear the similarities or differences between them Moreover, analysis or synthesize have also been used as supporting methods The analysis is analyzed the similarities and differences of the THINKING verbs in English and Vietnamese and the synthesize is synthesized some verbs belong to the THINKING verbs as well as examples

to illustrate from different sources such as from books, dictionaries, literary works, newspapers, magazines, native speakers and websites As a matter of the fact, to investigate in details in the structures of the THINKING verbs with their different components and semantic features with various nuances

of meanings, analytical method is also employed, and then the synthetic method is used for grouping them on the basic of certain criteria according

to structural and semantic features In addition, quite a few of research techniques have been combined, such as statistics, and contrastive analysis

to find the equivalents of the THINKING verbs in Vietnamese

Finally, in the conducting of the investigation, last but not least, setting up a regular consultancy with supervisor for a guidance and academic exchange is critical technique to find out a right direction for doing the research successfully

3.2.2Data collection techniques

The data are collected from different sources such as dictionaries,

namely, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2003); Oxford Advanced

verb(1974 ); The Vietnamese verbs (1997); Vietnamese dictionaries (1998;

English language by Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J (1985) Some Journals of Science and technology(2011), (2012) by Le Minh Giang, Ngu Thien Hung and Nguyen Thi Thu Ha The reason for choosing these materials as the sources of the data is that according to R.J Rees (1973:1-2): literature is divided into two senses: broad sense and narrow sense The former means anything that is written such as tables, catalogues, text, books, brochures, etc while the latter means a writing that expresses

and communicate thought, feelings, ideas, and attitudes, towards life in the serious fuller and deeper sense of the words Moreover, these sources are found to provide the most fertile examples for the lexical items under study

The bilingual dictionaries, encyclopedia, the novels are used for this study because they are well known and are confirmed by reliable publishing houses

After identifying different senses of the six verbs in English together their Vietnamese equivalents, these senses are brought into consideration The following part represents the data analysis techniques used to analyze the data

3.2.3 Data analysis techniques

In this study, these following data analysis techniques are used to do the best for the result of the thesis, such as placing information into arrays; Creating matrices of categories; Looking at the data in many different ways

to avoid premature; Dividing the data by type across all cases investigated; Treating the evidence fairly to produce analytic conclusions answering the original "how" and "why" research questions; Using representative audience

groups to review and comment on the draft document

dealing with the THINKING verbs and how can they avoid making mistakes in using them Besides, in this chapter with the research approach and the research methods, the main methods of this study are quantitative, qualitative and comparative The datacollected by using a various sources of printed publications as books, articles, journal, bilingual dictionaries and thesis

or from the internet After that, the data is going to contrasted, analyzed in structure of syntactic and semantics

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the syntactic and semantic features of the THINKING verb group in English as wellas in Vietnamese are mentioned separately Moreover, the Implications for teaching, learning and translating the THINKING verbs for Vietnamese learners are discussed detail

4.1Syntacticfeatures of the THINKING verbs in English and their

Vietnamese equivalents

4.1.1 Syntactic features of THINKING verbs

After investigating all the materials, it is classified into sixverbs of

THINKING verbsin English such as the thinkverb, the assumeverb, the ponder verb, the rememberverb, the knowverb,and the believeverb

After studying the background, it is found out that the THINKING verbs

in English is all transitive verbs In this study, the structure of a sentence, which belongs the THINKING verbs are discussed with the pattern at the end of a sentence

In this pattern, the verb is a transitive verb The verbs always occur with

direct objects The direct object may be a noun, noun phrase, pronoun or clause, finite clause/ non-finite clause The conjunction that can sometimes be omitted but in this case the ponder verb do not have that clause This verb belongs (weather or what clause) The direct object is a finite or non-finite clause beginning with either A ‘wh-element’, which can be a pronoun (what,

type except tell and instruct

Only the verb assume in this THINKING verbsdo not belong to the type

SVOO This pattern has a double-transitive verb followed by an indirect object and a direct object Both objects can consist of a noun or noun phrase

4.1.1.1 Objects as NP and object omission

An NP is a possible alternative, but for many verbs this must have non- concrete reference as in:

We assumedhis cooperation

He proved the truth of the theorem

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 134) Some verbs may have a concrete noun as head of the NP, but this leaves something unsaid about that thing, which the addressee may be assumed to be aware of Let’s see the following examples:

She understands John (the reason he acts as he does)

They speculated about the house (what price it would fetch at the forthcoming action)

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 134) The most common verbs from the THINKING verbs may more

frequently have a concrete NP in thought role as in: think (of/about), remember, forget, believe, but even here some amplification may be implicit in these

sentences:

I am thinking of Odette (of how much I love her)

I forgot John (forgot to invite him to my party)

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 134) Know has a special sense ‘be acquainted with a person or place’ as in:

I know Paris/ Peter Trudgill well

I believe Mary (what she said)

I believe (inthe existence of) the Christian god)

I believe(in the wisdom and goodness of (my boss)

Most verbs of the ponder verbthat take a preposition before a though NP

(this does or drop before that as in:

I reflected on John’s deciding to withdraw

I reflectthat John had decided to withdraw

That decision by the Vice- Chancellor has been wondered at in every

committee room of the university

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 135) Nevertheless, as some support for the intransitive analysis, the

preposition- plus- no can be freely omitted after most ponder verbs as in:

She is meditating/ brooding/ reflecting

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 135)

Thinkverb has cross- membership of corporeal type Like many other corporeal verbs,a cognate NP may follow it Let’s consider the following example:

She has a tendency to think really evil thoughts

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 135) Note that these cognate NPs, which may not have the full syntactic status

of ‘object’, immediately follow the verb Think (of/about), as thinking verbs,

involve an inherent preposition before the O NP (which can readily be passive)

as in:

That change in the plans has been thought about for an awfully long

time

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 135)

Some thinking verbs, such as think, dream and learn, may omit an object

NP only in the habitual or progressive

I dream every night

I’m learning (gradually)

These think, assume verbsmay use so in place of the thought role where

this could be inferred as in:

(R.M.W.Dixon,1991: 135)

4.1.1.2 Complements

The indirect object can also be a personal pronoun The direct object can

be a noun/ noun phrase, or a that-clause In this case, the direct object is that/ wh and wh- to complements as in this part follows:

a)That, wh- and wh- to complements

All thinking verbs may take a that compliment in O slot except perhaps for some from the other verbs that belongs the THINKING verbs as ponder verb (brood, mediate) Only the assume and believeverbs, and certain members of solve, do not accept some instance of wh- or wh- to (doubt is an exception- it takes a whetherclause as a near- paraphrase of a that complement (see A that

complement refers to some definite event or state) and as in:

I doubt that/ whether John will win

(R.M.W.Dixon, 1991: 135)

b) - ing complements

Verbs from think and rememberverbs, which may have an -ing clause for

the thought role; the subject of the complement clause can be identical to the subject of the main clause and will then be omitted Let’s consider the following example:

I thought of/ imagined/ speculated about/ remember (Mary’s) being

attacked when on holiday in Nigeria Understand

(R.M.W.Dixon ,1991: 136)

From the know verb that may also have an -ing clause in O slot Here the

complement clause subject in unlikely to be the same as the main clause subject;

if it is, it would not normally be omitted

I understood Mary’s/ my being denied promotion

(R.M.W.Dixon,1991: 136)

c) Tocomplements