DSpace at VNU: An experiment of investigating syntactic behavior of nouns and verbs in Vietnamese in terms of iconicny

VNU J O U R N A L O F S C IE N C E , soc S C I H U M A N , N 01E 2002 \ N E X P E R I M E N T O F IN V K S T IÍỈA T IN ÍỈ S Y N T A C T IC B E H A V I O R O F N O U N S A N D VKRBS IN V IETNAMESE IN TERMS O F I C O N I C n Y N guyen V an H ie p (’’ Abstract are because, like d iagram s, they resem ble the conceptual structures they are used to convey; This paper deals with syntactic behavior of or, that linguistic structures resem ble each nouns and verbs in Vietnamese Generally, in our other because the different conceptual dom ains language nouns differ from verbs in that they are they represent are thought in the sam e way" different in compound with such other words as những, các, này, no (as for nouns) or đà, dang, [12, p 1] A rm ed with a special concern, some sẽ, xong, rói (as for verbs) However, in some functional cases, a noun or a verb may lack these abilities research on the Iconicity in language The prototypically or conducting be resum ed as - M anv linguistic universals are tendencies in Vietnamese are determined by the way they either been following: syntax, the syntactic behavior of nouns and verbs used have result o f this research can According to the hypothesis of iconicity in are linguists rather than absolute restrictions; non- prototypically The categories of nouns and verbs - T he universals c a n be explained actually In manifest themselves only when the discourse requires them to: the less a linguistic element is required details, two types of iconicity in language are advanced as hypotheses: by the discourse either to + Isom orphism : report an discrete discourse event or to introduce the tendency for there to be a one-to-one corre sp o n d en c e betw een form a discrete entity participating in the state of and m eaning affairs, the less saliently it will be marked as verbs + M otivation: the reflection in linguistic or nouns structure o f som e aspect o f the structure o f l.T h e iconic features in syntax reality The study o f linguistic universals in the In the s u m m e r o f 1983, a c onference about 60s m ade m any linguists surprised when they iconicity in syntax took place in Stanford, realized that natural lan g u a g e s in the world gathering resem ble each other in s o m e aspects This fact them , Tai d iscussed the tem poral sequence o f led them to suspect the so-called arbitrariness c o m pound o f language Som e o b servations show ed that linearity m anifest o f iconicity, recalling Caesar' "linguistic forms are frequently the way they s "veni, vidi, vici" Dealing with so m e reduced m an y sentences Assoc Prof Dr Department of Linguistics College of Social Sciences & Humanities VNU 55 fam ous in linguists C hinese A m ong as one Nguyen Van Hiep 56 e x p ressions, Cỉivón a rg u e d that reduced e x p re s s io n s of in principle describe sentence o f such an isolating language predictable as V ietnam ese is to use model T h e m e-R h e m e m ore in form ation is a n icon o f the lesser attention Sporadically som e c o n ic aspects of paid to su ch in form ation Bybee m a d e the point Vietnamese syntax were mentioned such as the that the c lo se n e ss b e tw e e n a verb stem and s y m m e try o f proverbs, the role o f ord er of inflectional words c a te g o rie s tends to reflect the relevance o f c o n c e p tu a l c lo s e n e s s that these H ow ever, in V ietnam ese no one officially pays attention to iconicity in syntax inflectional c a te g o rie s c a rry to su c h verb stem She c o n firm e d that the p ro x im ity o f e lem ents in a clause follow s s o m e iconic principle w hose result is that e le m e n ts g o in g The iconicity in sjntactic behavior of noun and verb in Vietnamese together se m antically tend to o c c u r close to g eth e r in the In this paper, in term o f iconicity we deal clause A W ie rz b ic k a sh ow ed that se em in g ly w ith syntactic behavior of nouns and verbs, two arbitrary singular/ m ost important parts o f speech in Vietnam ese w heat are in fact T herefore, we w ould like to provide data from m otivated by a set o f co g n itiv e principles an isolating language to confirm the iconic [12] In France, m a n y rese a rc h papers with the aspect o f the tw o parts of speech, which has sam e spirit w ere colle cte d and pu b lish e d in b een studied a lot by functional gram m arians "Faits dc L a n g u e s" N o 1/1993 in inflectional lan g u a g e s (14] d istinctions in term s plural b e tw e en oats an d of In V ie tn a m e s e g m m a r, P h a n N g o c has Nouns and verbs in V ietnam ese as well as are in other languages are two m a jo r classes that co nsidered as a rg u m e n ts for a n e w app ro a c h to have sem antic correlation with the two most g m m a r important c oncepts [11, p.320-321] As for sh o w n so m e iconic of phenom ena V ie tn a m e s e that on sem antic principles F o r e x a m p le , in serial verbs the one nouns takes one prototypicaiiy like "thing" or "object” and is d e scrib in g the e a rlie r event (M ời ố n g cỉi lên Ị.lập considered as "tim e-stability" V erbs, on the ông o th er hand, are considered to report something prec e d in g g iám m odifiers đốc) or the o rd e r be of the attribute is something d e g re e o f a b stra c tn e ss ( Q u y ể n sá ch lịch sử Việt are used to sym bolize concepts that lack time- N am bìa vủm> in ch dò) He m a d e the point stability T he distinction be tw e en nouns and that ignoring that rule w ould c re a te long and verbs is a linguistic c u m b e rs o m e se n te n c e s [6, p -3 ] W hile prevailing all over the world T h at is why in strongly criticizing the plausibility o f m odel V ietnam ese as well as in o th er languages, the Subject “P redicate "general m eaning" criterium is often used for Cao aspect is d e te rm in e d it presents prototypicaily like "actions" o r "events"; they iconic V ie tn a m e s e will entity by sentences, in position the for d e s c rib in g X uan of Hao V ie tn a m ese m e n tio n e d V ie tn a m e s e sy n ta x universal phenom enon one distinguishing nouns and verbs: nouns have by general n e a n in g about things or objects, verbs co n firm in g that the o n ly ap p ro p riate w ay to have general m e a n in g a b out actions or events r v r Joirnalof Science, Soc., Sci., Human., S o l E, 2002 An experiment of investigating syntactic behavior 57 been 'T h e m o re a form refers to a discrete supported from the form al distinction: If in d isc o u rs e entity o r reports a d isc re te d iscourse inflectional languages nouns d iffe r from verbs event, the m o re distinct will he its linguistic in trappings on gender, n um ber, tense, aspect, form m ood, voice then in such p a d ig m a tic a lly I'll is as c ontent V ie tn a m ese distinction that has isolating languages nouns and verbs are different in the way ihev are c o m p o u n d e d with from Ly, the list o f "evidential w o r d s ” used for d istin su ish in g nouns and verbs is c o n firm e d in alm ost hooks about parts of speech as following: a) and form s, both sy n ta g m a tica lly " [1 ,p 151] F o llo w in g from w hat m en tio n e d above, the hypothesis seem s to be unchallenged another parts o f speech have until now been agreed by m ost linguists Initiated by Le V an n e ig h b o rin g H o w e v er, fro m all o f what m en tio n e d abo v e it is a ls o e a sy to realize that th ere is an e x tre m e te n d e n c y s e m a n tic fea tu re s reg a rd in g th ese by of focu sin g nouns inherent and verbs, features as d e c isiv e factors w hich d e te r m in e sy n ta c tic b e h a v io r o f nouns Such words as and verbs So rese a rc h e rs m u st be fu se d such w h e n they c o n fro n t the c a se s in that n o uns and determ iners as "này, ấy, nọ, kia" afte r a noun verbs lack the o w n c h a c te ristic ability o f For exam ple, c o m p o u n d in g S o m e instances c a n be cited as "những, c c ” can for plural he put m a rk e r b e fo re and "Cúc han ấ y nói c h u y ệ n với suốtfollow ing: - n s a y ’TITiesc students are always talking in class) b) Such function w ords for tense, aspect, -As for nouns: -L a c k of ability of c o m p o u n d in g as mood, negation as "đã, d a n s , sè, k h ô n gc , chảng, Cr c m e n tio n e d in (a), e.g ability to g o a lo n g with chưa, " can be located b e fo re and such " n h ữ n g ’, "các" (put before) a n d "này", "ấy", words as "xong, ròi" after a verb F o r ex a m p le: "nọ", "kia" (put after) and existence o f tendency -"Hm chưa làm x ong tập" (M y For e x a m p le : "N gười Việt N a m án d ũ a '\ brother hasn't n e his h o m e w o rk yet) The distinction se m a n tic a lly to inco rp o rate in the prior verb has be e n s u p p o rte d by (T h e V ie tn a m e s e cat w ith ch o p stic k s) "Anil ta làm ruộng" He d o e s the fa rm in g ).W e m any studies on noun phrases and v e rb phrases can not say: in V ietnam ese The fact that g e n e lly in com paring with a n o th e r parts o f s p e e c h nouns sharply differ from verbs in term o f syntactic behavior (for an su c h isolating la n g u a g e as V ietnam ese it m e a n s the ability to c o m p o u n d with another hypothesis w ord) about the m ee ts the iconicity follow ing of lexical categories principle: - Người V iệt N am ăn * n h ữ n g /* c c dũa *này - A n h ta làm *nhĩfng/*các ruộng *dó -L a ck of m e n tio n e d in a bility (a) of w hile c o m p o u n d in g e ith e r as playing attributive role in c o p u la s e n te n c e s (Bỏ g iáo viên) (M y fath e r is a tea cher) o r playing the role o f o b ject in su c h s e n te n c e s in w hich I \( Journal of Science Soc , Sci Human , \ ,11:, 2002 Nguyen Van Hiep 58 transitive verbs are used in a special w ay as - L a c k o f ability o f com p o u n d in g as "Chị làm ỵ tú đà m ấ y n ã m nay"( She has be e n a m entioned in (b) while playing the ro le o f nurse for several years) W e c a n not say: m o d ifie r to predicate in su c h type o f se n te n c e as "Chiếc d n g hổ trông đẹp" (T his - Bô giáo viên *đó w atch looks very nice), "Chuối àn k h ô n g - C hị làm V tá *ấy d ã m n ăm ngon” - N o u n refe rrin g to a n "attac h e d " body k in d o f bananas don't taste d e l i c i o u s ) W e c a n not say: part lack ability o f c o m p o u n d in g as m en tio n e d in (a) w hile go in g a lo n g w ith its o w n e r, as in (This - C hiếc đ n g hồ *đã/?đang/*sẽ trông đẹp sentence 'T ô i đau đ ầ u " ( I have a headache), "Tai nạn làm gây tay nó" ( H e broke his arm in -Chuối *đã/*đang/*sẽ ân không ngon the accident) W e can not say: Shortly speaking, in the foregoing study casesx nouns and verbs in V ie tn a m ese lacked - T ôi đ a u đầu *này - Tai nạn làm gãy *những/*các tay (cúa) the characteristic which As for verbs: - Lack would be ability used of as c o m p o u n d in g , criteria to their differentiation o f ability of c o m p o u n d in g as m en tio n e d in (b) w hile play in g the role of H o w w ould these seem ly odd p h e n o m e n a be e xplained by linguists? subject in se n tence, for e x a m p le : "Yêu chết W e think that these phe n o m e n a s h o w an lòng m ột ít" ( L ove is blue ), "77?/ dua yêu nước" (E m u la tio n is patriotisiin) W e aspect o f the iconicity in syntax in V ietnam ese, spectacularly perform ed by nouns and verbs ca n not say: Its nature consists in the distinction betw een - * Đ ã /* d a n g /* s ẽ yêu c h ế t lòng m ột - L ack prototypical/non- o f ability o f nouns and verbs C onsequently, only o f c o m p o u n d in g as m en tio n e d in (b) in the s o -c a lle d existential se n te n c es, for e x a m p le : " Đ u làng trồng đ a to" ( T h e re is a tall tree at th e d g e o f the 'T r ê n tư ng treo m ộ t tranh" - "Đ u làng * đ ă /* d a n g /* s ẽ trồiìiị m ộ t đ a to a prototypical noun would be m ax im a lly distinct from a prototypical verb [15, p.30] Because those nouns and verbs in the study c ase are used non-prototypically so their distinction in term o f syntactic behavior is not clearly shown (There is a picture on the wall) W e can not say: T hen the question is: in what situation will a noun or a verb be sid e red being used prototvpicaily? A functional point o f view c a n shed light - T rê n tường * d â /* d a n g /* s ẽ treo m ộ t tranh or prototypical in respect o f the syntactic behavior - * Đ ã /* đ a n g /* s ẽ thi đ u a y ê u nước village), central/peripheral on that issue and give an reasonable explanation: it is the role o f a n e le m en t in I'XU Journal o f Science, Soc., Sci., Human., No IE, 2002 An experiment ol investigating syntactic behavior _ _ _ discourse that d e term ines Its n atu re, and by They that de te rm in e s its form So the subjectivity function in s e n te n se T h a t is w hy they lose and c o m m u n ic a tiv e intention plays a crucial ch a c te ristic role and if saving in term of functionalism we c o m p o u n d in g can confirm that Pragm atics are not nouns and play in g potential prototypical ability o f nou n d e te rm in e s T his e x p la in a tio n is a ls o a p p lie d for nouns S em antics and in its turn, Sem antics d e te rm in e s that Syntax [ 10 p 13], play e ith e r a ttributive role in c o p u la se n te n c e ("B ỏ g iá o v iê n ”) o r object role In o th er words, in respect of prototypically, intrinsic sem antic features are relevant, but not e n o u g h to a ssign a form to in s e n te n c e w h o se v e rb -p re d ic a te is used in a special w a y ("C hị tỏi làm y tá đ ã m năm n a y ” ) noun or verb category W e have to resort to the ultimate reason: the prototypicality in n o u n s and verbs respective is ultim ately derivative functions sentence in o f their A nd the A s for s u c h s e n te n c e s as "Tôi đau đầu", "Tai nạn làm g ã y tav nó" the situation b e c am e m ore c o m p lic a te d T h e o re tic a lly , it is not intrinsic sem antic fe a tu re s o f nouns and verbs difficult to realize that b o d y -p a rt nou n is used arc ultim ately derived from their functions in as referring e x p re s s io n s H o w e v e r, its referent sentence By will is not a u to n o m o u s but is treated as dep e n d en t, explain the syntactic beh a v io r o f n o uns and unin v id id u ate d en tity in relation w ith its ow ner verbs in V ie tn a m ese in turn So, using this statem ent As for noun, the we prototypical use is to denote a disc re te entity involving in d isc o u rse as a participant [14, p 156] D ue to that, the categorical status o f n o u n s will display in a scale reflecting the iconic degree h o w they are used to that aim In o t h e r words, the m o re a form is to be used to d e n o te a disc re te entity, the more a form has ca te g o ric a l status o f nou n with all of its ow n characteristic in d e s c r ib in g fra m e of predicate- participants c o n s tr u c tio n it is n o u n referring the possessor" that is d is c o u r s e salient entity In fact, so m e th in g w h ic h h a p p e n s to a body part is n o rm a lly d o n e by the b o d y -p a rt possessor, so the b o d y -p art n o u n s in q u e s tio n really are not used pro to ty p ic a lly a n d c o n s e q u e n tly they will lose c h a c te ris tic fea tu re s o f n o u n s in respect o f potential c o m p o u n d in g ability form al features A s for verbs, the pro to ty p ic a l use is to report an actual a c tio n o r event D ue to that, the In such se n te n c es a s "Người Việt N am ăn categorical status o f v erbs will d isplay in a đũa", "Anh ta làm ru ộ n g " the objects arc non- scale reflecting the ico n ic d e g re e h o w th ey are referring nouns, that m e a n s bv using th e m the used to that aim In o th e r w o rd s, the m o re a speaker/w riter has no intention to asso c ia te form is to be used to report an actual action or with any discrete, s e p a te entity at all T h u s, event, the m o re a fo rm h a s c a te g o ric a l status o f from the functional view point, these n o u n s a verb with all o f its o w n c h a c te ristic form al not denote participants in any state o f affairs features IM Journal o f Science, Sac., Sci., Human., No IE, 2002 Nguyen Van Hicp 60 In su c h s e n te n c e as "Y c h ế t lòng A n o th e r distintction on c o m p o u n d in g m ộ t ít”, "Thi dua y ê u n c " , the verbs "yêu", ability is also obserw ed betw een verbs u se d to ' thi đua" (in the role o f s u b je c t) a re not used to present a foregroundied action o r event and the report e ith e r a c tion o r event So they d o not sam e used to presentt a ba ckgrounded action or function event L o o k at how tlhe state o f affairs "Cô li as p ro to ty p ic a l verbs; and c o n s e q u e n tly th ey lose c o m p o u n d in g potential dị m en tio n e d differently in followiing sentences: in (b) T h is e x p la n a tio n is also suitable to the verbs th at fu n c tio n as m a n n e r c o m p le m e n t to p re d ic a te s in s u c h se n te n c es as "Chiếc đ n g h ổ trông đẹ p ", "C hu ối chổng" (She hias divorced) is used + C ô li dị c h n g (foregrounded) + C ô ấ y *dà li (dị chổng k h iến m ọi người kinh ng c (backgrouinded) ân k h ô n g ngon" + V iệ c cô *cđă li dị chồng khiến m ọi S uch s e n te n c e s as " Đ u iàng trổng m ột c â y đa to", "T rên tường treo m ộ t tranh" người k in h ngạc ( b a c k g ro u n d e d ) T h e distinction betw een prototypical and m ay g e n e lly be c a lle d e x is te n tia l sentences non-prototypical usatge help us to understand T h e y are c o n s id e re d to be used to c o n firm the som e c a se s w hen a tform, w hich is not a noun, e x iste n ce o f identity o f s o m e entity, so the tem porally has s y n ta c tic behavior o f a noun verb-predicate in th e m (trổ n g , treo) is not used For e x a m p le , adjectdves "rắc rối", "khó khản" in function as nou n in f ollow ing sentences: prototypical w ay In V ie tn a m e s e , one m e n tio n e d s o m e c o n s tra in ts to v e rb -predicate in e x istential se n te n c es: the v e rb -p re d ic a te lose - N hững rắc rối ấ y k h iến ông phát k h ù n g (The troubles m a d e him m ad ) the ability o f c o m p o u n d in g w ith su c h function [1] T h e se - N hững kh ó k h ă n k h n g dề khắc constraints, in o u r view , a re c o n s e q u e n c e s o f phục thời giam n g ắ n (It is not easy to the fact that the verbs in q u e s tio n w ere not solve these d iffic u ltie s im short tim e.) w ords for tense, a sp ec t, result prototypically used Som e re s e a rc h e rs a rg u e d that there was a c h a n g e in status o f w o rd classes: "rắc rối", H o w e v er, as we have ju st said, prototypically is a d e g re e c o n c e p t T hus, there are som e c a se s w here n o u n s o r verbs ju st partly lose their o w n ability o f c o m p o u n d in g For instance, stative verbs loses the ability to go along with s o m e fu n ctio n w o rd s for a spect or result, but m a in ta in the a b ility to g o a lo n g with function w ords for tense C o m p a re : "khó khăn" w ere n o l o n g e r adjectives, they b e c am e nouns A c c o r d in g to o u r view such interpretation is too m e c h a n ic a l W e incline to another interpretation: i n that foregoing cases, the adjectives t e m p o r a lly fu n ctio n in the way an prototypical nou n fuinctions, e.g to present discrete entities p a rtic ip a tin g in frame predicate-participants off sentence Thus, they + A n h ta y ê u * x o n g /* đ ợ c c ả b a cô tem p o rally gain ability o f co m p o u n d in g o f a prototypical noun + A n h ta đ ã /đ a n g y ê u b a cô YNU Journal o f Science, Soic., Sci., Human., No IE, 2002 All experim ent of investigating syntactic behavior 61 C o n c l u d i n g nouns and verbs lose, at diffe re n t d e g re e , their ow n ability o f c o m p o u n d in g W e think that the F ro m som e foregoing rough e x p e rim e n ts, foregoing we have reason to confirm that syntactic iconic principle on syntactic behavior o f n o uns a n d verbs w ould criticize behavior o f nouns a n d verbs in V ie tn a m e s e IS any not b e v o n d the general iconic a to m ic view g ram m aria n s, nouns and verbs in natural on prototypical nouns syntactic and circle of V ie tn a m ese w h ic h led to m an y languages The m is u n d e rs ta n d in g distinction in principle o f verbs b e h a v io r of reflects the m ea n w h ile for w ould a long c o n firm tim e and principles and interpreting c a p a c ity o f F u n c tio n a l G r a m m a r distinction in c o m m u n ic a tiv e intention: a that pro fe sso r C a o X u a n H a o firstly represent prototypical noun inclines to be used to present in m o n o g p h "T iếng V iệt- Sơ thảo N g ữ pháp a discrete entity in d isc o u rse, a prototypical chức nàng, q u v ể n I" (V ie tn a m e s e - a sketch o f verb inclines to be used to report an actual F unctional G ram m ar, v o lu m e 1) [4] action o r event in discourse O th e rw ise , both REFERENCES Cao Xuân Hao, Vietnamese- a sketch OÍ Functional Grammar, volume 1, 1991 Diẽp Quang Ban Some issues on existential sentences in modern Vietnam ese (Ph D Dissertation , Teaching training college of Hanoi I, 1980 Nguyền Tài cấn Vietnamese grammar: Morphem- Compound word- Phrase 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