A contrastive study of structural and semantic features of english yes no questions and their vietnamese equivalents

In the study, English and Vietnamese Yes- No questions are analyzed in terms of its form and features to find out the similarities and differences between the questions in the two langua

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF STRUCTURAL AND

SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH YES-NO QUESTIONS

AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐẶC ĐIỂM CẤU TRÚC VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA CÂU HỎI NGHI VẤN TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ SỰ LIÊN HỆ TƯƠNG

ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT

NGUYỄN THỊ LINH

Hanoi, 2016

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled :“A contrastive study of structural and semantic features of English Yes-No questions and their Vietnamese equivalent” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English

Language Except for the indicated reference, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2016

Nguyen Thi Linh

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Date:………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could not have been completed without the help and

support from a number of people I would like, hereby, to extend my

profound gratitude to my supervisor Nguyen Dang Suu who 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

Also, I am very grateful to all the teachers at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies of Hanoi Open University for their interesting and useful lectures which have built in me a firm foundation with immense ideas for the fulfillment of this paper

In particular, my special thanks go to my parents who have, as it always goes, encouraged and supported me so much in all respects

Last but not least, I should also express my heartfelt thanks to my dear friends who have shared with me a lot during my studies and my research work as well

ABSTRACT

The study is aimed at characteristics of English Yes- No questions and equivalent questions in Vietnamese by using Contrastive Analysis as the major method This contrastive analysis is mainly based on different research into Yes- No questions by many English and Vietnamese linguists

In the study, English and Vietnamese Yes- No questions are analyzed in terms of its form and features to find out the similarities and differences between the questions in the two languages These similarities and differences are clearly shown by the contrastive analysis of forms which include intonation, inversion and question particles, features of Yes/No Question content, and features of Yes/No Question in English and Vietnamese under some linguists’ points of view It is put the focus on defining the Yes/No questions which are classified in this thesis In the last chapter, based on the work “An Ideal Husband” by Oscar Wilder and its Vietnamese version translated by Hoàng Nguyên which contain Yes/No questions, characteristics of English and Vietnamese yes – no questions are emphasized Furthermore, some mistakes are listed and classified Additionally, some suggested possible solutions for the translating of English and Vietnamese Yes/No Question are withdrawn to gain an insight into how to understand the question for the daily communication and translating work

NCP Những cuộc phiêu lưu của Slerlock Holmes

2.3.1.4. Rhetorical question 11 2.3.2. Semantic characteristics of English Yes – no question 12 2.4 Characteristics of Vietnamese Yes – no question 13 2.4.1. Structural characteristics of Vietnamese Yes – no question 13

2.4.2. Semantic characteristices of Vietnamese Yes – no question 17 2.5 The classification of yes- no questions in this study 17 2.5.1. The classification of English yes- no questions in this study 17 2.5.1.1. Affirmative yes – no questions 18

2.5.2. The classification of Vietnamese yes- no questions in this study 22

4.1 Contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese Yes/No

Questions

27

4.2 Contrastive analysis of yes – no questions in “An Ideal 49

Husband” “Một người chồng lý tưởng”

4.3 Similarities and differences of Yes/No questions in English and

Vietnamese

56

4.4 Show some mistakes in translating and suggested solutions 57

4.5 Implication on teaching Yes/No questions 60

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION

1.1.Rationale

Questions had been divided into types whose Yes/No Question is considered popular in languages including English and Vietnamese However, characteristics of Yes/No question are not clearly understood by almost language learners, especially, it is rather difficult for Vietnamese learners to translate English (Vietnamese) Yes/No question correctly into the target language This sometimes causes mistakes in translation The thesis provides the general look into definition and characteristics of English and Vietnamese Yes/No questions as well as analyzes contrastively English and Vietnamese Yes-No questions

Based on the analysis, factors causing common mistakes of Vietnamese learners in translating Yes/No questions, as well as the similarities and differences of yes-no questions in the two languages, are going to be shown

1.2 Aims of the study

The research aims at finding out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese Yes/No questions Furthermore, Yes/No questions

in the bilingual novel will be selected and mistakes in translation found out for proper solutions The research results will help Vietnamese students of English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners translate the Yes/No questions from English into VietNamese in an effective way

1.3 Objectives of the study

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

(i) Describing the features of Yes/No questions in English and

Vietnamesse

(ii) Finding out the similarities and differences between Yes/No

question in English and Vietnamese in terms of its form and meaning

(iii) Suggesting some solutions to the mistakes in translating Yes/No

questions from English into Vietnamese

1.4 Scope of the study

The scope of this study is defined as an investigation into Yes/No question

in English and Vietnamese Therefore, the study is limited to this type of question, not other kinds The extracted texts in the work: An Ideal Husband” by OscarWilder and its Vietnamese version “Một người chồng lý tưởng” translated by Hoàng Nguyên going to include in the analysis to not only demonstrate the similarities and differences of Yes/No questions in English and Vietnamese but also find out mistakes in the questions’ form and meaning between the two books

1.5 Methods of the study

The study mainly uses the contrastive method to analyze forms, contents and other features of Yes/No questions, , and to contrastively analyze English -Vietnamese Yes/No questions in translated version

1.6 Design of the study

The thesis is divided into three parts which are listed as Introduction, Development, and Conclusion Among which, part 2 – Development comprises three chapters:

Chapter 1, Introduction:

Presenting about rationale, aims, objectives, scope of the study

Chapter 2, Literature Review :

Clarifies the definition of Yes/no questions and characteristics of English and Vietnamese Yes/no questions

Chapter 3 Methodology:

Refer to research-governing orientations and research methods of the the study

Chapter 4 Findings and discussion

Analyses the data collected to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese Yes/No questions

Furthermore, Yes/No questions in the bilingual novel will be selected and mistakes in translation found out for proper solutions

Chapter 5 Conclusion

Presenting the review of the study and the references will put the end of the graduation paper

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Review of previous studies

Dr.Le Dong (1996) carried out a study on “true questions” on the view of semantics and pragmatics The author provided some theoretical background of questions and their common characteristics based on different aspects

Assoc.Prof.Vo Dai Quang (2000) conducted a study to compare and contrast “true questions” on the fields of semantics and pragmatics in English and Vietnamese In the study, the author used both English and Vietnamese as source and target language in order to find out the similarities and differences of semantic and pragmatic features of English and Vietnamese questions He also dealt with the contrast of different types

of true questions as well aspragmatic means which is often seen in those questions kinds

Dr.Nguyen Dang Suu (2002) carried out a study of English questions in the contrast with Vietnamese ones In details, the author figured out the features

of questions in both English and Vietnamese to have a clear understanding about ways to form a question and their equivalent meaning in the two languages Then, the author studied and compared the pragmatic – semantic structure to find out the similarities and differences between questions in English and Vietnamese language He also conducted surveys to investigate the understanding of Vietnamese students of questions in the two languages, then came to some conclusions about the students’ mistakes and suggested solutions in language teaching Questions in some books are used as illustrated examples and as the source to display the mistakes in question translation in English – Vietnamese

2.2 Review of theoretical background

2.2.1.What is contrastive linguistics :

“Contrastive linguistics is the systematic comparison of two or more languages , with the aim of describing their similarities and differences”

(Johansson, 2000)

The basis of contrastive analysis is found via similarities and differences between the objects If contrasted languages are similar, lots of similar features will be found On the contrary, if contrasted languages are different, a lot of differences will be found Contrastive analysis mainly focuses on similarities and differences of two or more than two languages

2.2.2.Overview of questions

A question is a linguistic expression used to make a request for information,

or the request made using such an expression The information requested should be provided in the form of an answer

Questions have developed a range of uses that go beyond the simple

eliciting of information from another party.Rhetorical questions, for

example, are used to make a point, and are not expected to be answered Many languages have special grammatical forms for questions (for example,

in the English sentence "Are you happy?", the inversion of the

subject you and the verb are shows it to be a question rather than a

statement) However questions can also be asked without using

these interrogative grammatical structures – for example one may use

an imperative, as in "Tell me your name".There are many kinds of

questions

2.2.2.1 Yes – no question

According to Richard Nordquist, PH.D in English at Armstrong Atlantic State University, a Yes-No question is “an interrogative construction that expects an answer of "yes" or "no."” (Cited in About.com Grammar and Composition) Basing on characteristics of the question or the answer, with the idea that a question is “the unknown”, Yes - No question is defined to contain “opposite choices” in which the affirmative and negative sides are distinguished (H.T.P, 1980)

2.2.2.2.Wh- questions

According to Elson and Pickett (1988), A Wh-question is a question that contains an interrogative pro-form to request There are basic forms of this kind of question : Where, when, while, what, who, how Beside that, these interrogative questions will be extended into different forms in order to ask for the information : which, whose, whom, how much, how long, how many, how far

2.2.2.3.Alternative questions

According to Richard Nordquist, Grammar and Composition Expert , an alternative question is a type of question (or interrogative) that offers the listener a closed choice between two or more answers

For example :"Would you rather have some wind farms off the Cape Cod coast, or would you rather have an oil spill? "

(Bill Maher, Real Time With Bill Maher, April 30, 2010)

2.2.2.4.Tag questions

The tag question in the English language is a grammatical structure which can be added to the clause in conversation or in written representations of speech The tag question is mainly added to a declarative sentence, but it can also be added to imperative sentences According to Richard Nordquist, Grammar and Composition Expert , question tags are not independent clauses, but they do require a response, and are highly interactive

Structurally, interrogatives are abbreviated yes/no

interrogatives consisting of an operator (either positive or negative) and

a pronoun, which repeats the subject or substitutes for it Question tags are attached to one of the following clause types

For example :

She's living in London, isn't she? /

She isn't living in London, is she?

2.3 Characteristics of English Yes – No question

2.3.1 Structural characteristics of English Yes – No question

According to William Bright in his book “International Encyclopedia of Linguistics” (1992) [vol 3, 310], Yes – No questions contain certain specific syntactic features (in form) as follows:

- Rising intonation at the end of the question

- Inverting word – order: the verb standing after the subject in statements is inverted to stand before the subject in the questions

English Yes – No question is divided into many small kinds:

+ Tag question

+ Genuine yes – no question

+ Glide up declaretive question

+ Rhetorical question

2.3.1.1.Tag question :

In English, tag question has a main clause and we are not sure that it is true

or false So we use the question to check the information or want to seek an agreement of someone If we rise intonation at question tag, it means that

we do not know or not sure about the answer On contrary, if we fall

intonation at question tag, it means that we are seeking an agreement of person we are talking to

Tag question is divided into two parts by a comma If the main clause is negative, question tag is affirmative and vice versa

Ex: You were there, weren’t you?

She went to school yesterday, didn’t she?

Structure:

Negative clause, affirmative tag?

Affirmative clause, negative tag?

Subject auxiliary not main verb auxiliary Personal pronoun

it?

Sometime, we can use tag question for effect, when we want to emphasize

or make a strong point Moreover, we can use adverb or adverbial to show the purpose instead such as right? ok? eh? surely?

Ex: We go out for dinner, ok?

Chúng ta ra ngoài ăn tối nhé?

Chúng ta ra ngoài ăn tối, được chứ?

When we want to show our interest, surprise, happy, anger,…, ect, we can use tag question with structure negative clause – negative tag,

affirmative clause – affirmative tag

Ex: You think that’s good, do you?

You don’t like my mom, don’t you?

2.3.1.2 Genuine Yes – No question

According to Le (2004), in English we do not use question words, but

question operators (be, can, may…) and intonation in this kind of Yes – No question

Ex: Is there any book on the table?

Có quyển sách nào trên bàn không?

Structure:

Op S V…… ?

Question operators in English are plentiful (auxiliary and model verbs, to be) We also make question in negative form and people will expect the answer is positive rather than negative

Ex: Aren’t you at home?

Cậu có ở nhà không?

2.3.1.3 Glide up declarative question

Declarative question is declarative sentence which use rising intonation at the end to form the question It has the same grammartical form as a

statement (perfectyourenglish.com) It can be used when the speaker is sure that he understood what he said before He just wants to make sure again In glide up declarative questions, a rising intonation at the end is common In English, there is a special element that is intonation (Le, 2004)

Ex: You opened the door?

She went to shopping again?

When you ask a question in affirmative form, it means that you expect the answer is “yes” On contrary, if you use negative form, it means that you expect the answer to be “no”

Ex: You have never been to HaNoi?

You have been to all the other Asian capitals?

We use positive form to express surprising If we want to turn a statement to

a question, we will repeat what we said before and rise intonation at the end

2.3.1.4 Rhetorical question

Rhetorical question is a simple one like any kind of interrogative sentences However, it does not require the answer because the answer is obvious and there is no need to state or the answer is implied within the question This kind of question is used for effect rather than to seek information It makes the reader to think about the answer

Ex: Why me?

Why are you so silly?

Rhetorical question may be ended by a question mark, full stop or

exclamation mark It has two main functions: negative assertion and

metaphors When the question is difficult or impossible to answer, the function is negative assertion When the question shows humorous, the function considered as metaphor (Wikipedia)

Ex: what have you ever done for your family? → Negative

assertion

Is snow white? → Metaphor

2.3.2 Semantic characteristics of English Yes – no question :

William Bright indicated in “International Encyclopedia of Linguistics” (1992) that question is a kind of general – structured sentence, it has at least

a general function – requiring a certain amount of information In term of structure, the author classified question into two main kinds in which Yes –

no question is called general question He said there is a considerable similarity on how languages use intonation, word-order and morphology to distinguish questions and statements

In term of semantics, questions are different from statements A question is not confirmative; therefore it cannot be trueor unreal As a speech act, questions are like commands which are expected to be replied in any cases Yes – no questions require the answer “yes” or “no” Some kinds of this question should be answered “yes” more often than “no”, and vice versa, for example:

o Has anything happened? (Có chuyện gì không?)

Along with the function of providing a certain amount of information, a Yes – no question has several other functions It can be the confirmation without the answer in words Semantically, questions express a desire for more information, usually requesting a reply from the hearer (exceptions include rhetorical questions (e.g Isn’t that awful?))

In his book “A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics” 6th edition (2008), page 400, David Crystal defined yes – no question as “a sentence with inversion of the subject and first verb in the verb phrase”:

A term used in the classification of sentence functions, typically used to elicit information or a response, and defined sometimes on grammatical and

sometimes on semantic or sociolinguistic grounds Syntactically, in English,

a question is a sentence with inversion of the subject and first verb in the verb phrase (yes–no questions, such as “Is he going?”)

Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech and Jan A Svanrtvik indicated in their book “A Grammar of Contemporary of English” (1972, 128) that question, in general and yes-no question, in particular is firstly used to display information shortage of certain thing and usually request a reply in words from the hearer

2.4 Characteristics of Vietnamese Yes – no question :

2.4.1 Structural characteristics of Vietnamese Yes – no question :

Yes – no questions are either “real” questions or “untrue questions” depending on different communicative purposes Yes – no questions are true questions which express speaker’s doubt The questions require an answer

to make “the unknown” clear (Nguyen Kim Than, 1964) The author also put the questions into types of self-asking questions and confirmative questions Self-asking ones can be confidences of the speakers; confirmative questions are used to confirm matters which appear in true-questions, to help speaker to decide whether he should accept / confirm the certain amount of information in the sentence

Yes-No question is divided into many small kinds :

Con chị vừa đậu đại học phải không?

intonation at the end And word order of question tag in English is

conversion The auxiliary and model verbs are converted before the subject and there is rising intonation at the end Moreover, when we want to make a strong point, in Vietnamese we can convert question tag to the beginning They are converted to the beginning with the emphasized intention of

speaker

Ex: Có đúng là em đã lấy chồng?

Có phải em vẽ bức tranh này?

The question tags are đúng không? được không? có phải không?They can be linked or seperated from main clause to become another sentence This is another different point between English and Vietnamese tag question

Ex: Em lấy chồng rồi, đúng không?

Em lấy chồng rồi.Đúng không?

Em lấy chồng rồi.Đúng thế không?

Em lấy chồng rồi.Có phải thế không?

2.4.1.2 Genuine Yes – No question :

In Vietnamese, we use the structure with Có – Không (Yes –No means Có – Không)

Structures:

S có V không?

S có phải V không?

S đã V chưa?

In Vietnamese, the word order in this kind of Yes – No question like

declarative statement, subject is put in front of verb and combine with có….không, có phải… không, đã….chưa

In addition, in the form with đã….chưa, it is not similar in English We often use:

Did you do it?

Rather than:

Did you do it yet?

This form is not shown clearly in English

Beside that when we use model verb to make question, it is the same in Vietnamese structure with có thể? được phép? to show the ability and

permission

Ex: May I ask you a question?

Tôi có thể hỏi một câu được không?

2.4.1.3 Glide up declarative question

Declarative question in Vietnamese is quite limited Whenever we want to form a question, we still need question elements

Ex: Anh đã từng đi Hà Nội chưa?

However, we also have a special case, the use of interrogative sentence based on intonation with structure “còn” This kind of question is similar to English, rising intonation at the end

Ex: Anh trình bày rõ them về từng nguy cơ

- Anh nói tiếp nguy cơ thứ hai

- Nhiều đoàn thể quốc gia…… (Hữu Mai)

The tendency of using question is increased gradually in Vietnamese

However, becauseofour language characteristics, this tendency seems to be developed slowly and not sure that it is a good respect

flexible According to Diep (2000), rhetorical question is considered one kind of fate interrogative sentence In addition, it is used to present feeling

or make reader thoughtful (Nguyen, 2008)

Ex: (lạ quá, chim chóc chẳng nghe con nào kêu) Hay vừa có tiếng chim ở một nơi nào xa lắm, vì không chú ý mà tôi không nghe được chăng? (Đoàn Giỏi)

Biết đi đâu bây giờ?Về thì đâm đầu vào đâu? (Ngô Tất Tố, Tắt Đèn)

So we can see that the different between English and Vietnamese rhetorical question is that the degree of using in literature and in daily life

2.4.2 Semantic characteristices of Vietnamese Yes – no question :

Author Diep Quang Ban classified yes – no questions, so called un-focus

questions, as questions with particles such as: à, ư, nhỉ, nhé, ạ, hả, hở…

These particles usually take the final position in Vietnamese yes-no questions They are often used with a certain purpose of the speaker Another type of yes – no question, according to Diep Quang Ban, is questions combining with intonation The pitch of this type of question is put at its focus when there is no sentence final falling tune Questions which express opposite meaning commonly begin with “còn” and they have final rising tune, for example: “Còn nguy cơ thứ ↑ ba?” (DQ Ban, 1989)

2.5 The classification of yes- no questions in this study

There are some ways to classify yes – no questions into types, however, the questions are divided into affirmative and negatives ones in this thesis

2.5.1 The classification of English yes- no questions in this study

2.5.1.1 Affirmative yes – no questions

In terms of form, affirmative yes – no questions are created by inverting the auxiliary verb into the initial position – before the subject of the sentence followed by the main verb and other sentence elements This type of yes –

no question has final rising intonation, or falling intonation first and then rising at the end of the sentence Followings are some illustrated examples:

- Do you like the red dress? (Cậu thích chiếc váy đỏ à?)

- Had Anja bought that? (Anja đã mua nó à?)

- Will you go shopping with me? (Anh sẽ đi sắm đồ cùng em chứ?)

English question, in contrast, using inversion in forming question by placing Operator (Op: auxiliary, modal verb, and “to be”…) before subject, and it is more complex than Vietnamese one:

Op + S + V……… ?

To form a question from a statement, first count the number of verbs

Mary is a singer One verb: is (be) Peter rides a bicycle One verb: rides

- Are you OK? (Bạn không sao chứ?)

- Is she your girlfriend? (Cô ấy là người yêu của anh à?)

- Am I your wife? (Tôi có phải vợ anh không?)

If the main verb is also the predicate, “do, does, did” are often at the initial position – before the subject of the question:

- Do you have any questions? (Các em có thắc mắc gì không?)

- Did you write any letters to him? (Em có viết lá thư nào cho cậu ta không?

- Does anyone tease you? (Có ai đùa con ư?)

When “to have” is understoodas possession, “have” or “has” can be put at the beginning of the question, for example:

- Baa Baa black sheep, have you any wool?

If “have got” or “has got” is used, “have” or “has” is at the first position – before the subject, “got” stands afterward:

- Have you got a bike? (Ấy có xe đạp chứ?)

It should be noted that not all of yes – no questions requires auxiliary verbs inverted to stand before subject This kind of question, in form, is like a statement with a question mark and final rising tune

For example :

- You didn’t finish your ↑ milk? (Cháu còn chưa uống sữa xong à?)

- Sam spoke to you ↑ of course? (Dĩ nhiên là Sam đã nói với em rồi chứ?)

Using this type of question, the speaker would like to guide the hearer to agree with their affirmation or negation, for example:

- You have bought something to drink, mom?

Mẹ đã mua đồ uống gì đó rồi phải không ạ?

- You have bought nothing to drink, mom?

Mẹ không mua đồ uống gì ạ?

This type of question sometimes has neutral intonation when the speaker wants to express their agreement with the truth:

- You have bought anything to drink, mom?

Mẹ có mua đồ gì uống không?

The answer for this question may be “yes” or “no” depending on the

context Therefore, the answer is considered a forecasted conclusion

Echo questions are occasionally used in communication The speaker can use partly or totally echo questions to confirm the certain amount information in speaker’s utterance This type of question has final rising tune:

A: I am hungry (Con đói bụng.)

B: You are ↑ hungry? (Con đói bụng á?)

Sometimes, the phrase “did you say” is added by the end of the question to make it clearer in meaning:

- Turn up the TV volume, did you say? (Chị bảo là cho vô tuyến to hơn à?)

2.5.1.2 Negative Yes-No questions :

There are some types of negative yes – no questions in English

- Can’t you give me any chance? (Em không thể cho tôi cơ hội nào ư?

- Isn’t that printer working? (Có thật cái máy in không in được không?)

- Does no one in class tell me the truth? (Không em nào trong lớp chịu nói sự thật cho cô phải không?)

Leading the hearer towards negative points is very complicated because there can be the existence of surprise and belief shortage, which contributes

to create affirmative meaning of the sentence Therefore, the second

example above can be: “Có thật bạn định nói rằng cái máy in không thể in được phải không? Tôi cho rằng nó in được” It is the combination of both

affirmative and negative meaning which are considered as previous hypothesis (affirmative) and new hypothesis (negative) This is due to the fact that the old hypothesis is often formed based on speaker’s hope and will Negative yes – no questions often express disappointment:

- Can’t you go faster? (Anh không thể đi nhanh hơn được sao?) This sentence should be understood that: “I think you can go faster but you don’t want to do so”

It is obviously seen that form and meaning of yes – no question in English are various in different contexts The speakers are able to lead hearers to provide a certain amount of expected information if they combine the form and suitable intonation in certain contexts and situations

2.5.2 The classification of Vietnamese yes- no questions in this study

Vietnamese yes – no questions can be divided into true questions and untrue questions As stated above, true yes – no questions are questions which require an answer from hearers, provide a certain amount of information expected Untrue yes – no questions are not related to the answers These questions, which are used as an emotion transforming means, help the speakers to transfer their opinion and to show their purpose In the scope of form and meaning, only yes – no questions are going to be studied in this thesis to display the similarities and differences in form and meaning between those in Vietnamese and English

CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research-governing orientations

3.1.1 Research questions :

The thesis is to contrast the English and Vietnamese Yes-No questions based on the semantic and structural features The research is to look for answers to the following three questions

1 What are the features of Yes/No questions in English and Vietnamese?

2 What are the similarities and differences between Yes - No question in English and Vietnamese in terms of its form and meaning?

3 What are the suggested solutions to the mistakes in translating Yes/No questions from English into Vietnamese?

3.1.2 Research setting

The thesis design is based on the combination of both techniques namely descriptive and contrastive analysis The descriptive approach is applied in the theory revision to come to the nature of conditionals in English and Vietnamese The constrastive approach is used in describing and analyzing data to find out the distinctive features of Yes-No questions as well as the similarities and differences in terms of semantic and structural features Thanks to both approaches, the researcher can describe and analyze, then makes comparison and draws conclusions in order to reach the goals already

Secondly, the two selected languages are equally paid attention to This case can be called bilingual contrastive analysis in which features of the selected languages are equally researched This helps to find out the similarities and differences of studied languages

This thesis is carried out with the use of the second approach above

3.1.4 Principles/criteria for intended data collection and data analysis

Description of sample in order to prepare data for research, I proceeded to collect data as follows Firstly, I determined some criteria to select the

samples, namely samples Yes-No questions in English and Vietnamese They must be dialogues from some novels and stories Secondly, with such set criteria I collected samples of Yes-No questions in English and

Vietnamese Then, the distinctive features of English and Vietnamese

Yes-No questions were found and analyzed

Since the samples of Yes-No questions collected from written materials for this study are a totally authentic source of data, not invented examples, the quality of the data is quite reliable Additionally, in this study, the researcher sets out the work from the analysis of evidence, statistics, frequencies, then comes to conclusions, so she is not driven by some set results In other words, the objectivity of study is assured The results of study, on the one

hand, provide some theoretical background for studying one phenomenon in semantics, on the other hand, make a contribution to the learning and

teaching of English Thus, the research result is significant not only in

theory and but also in actual practice

3.2 Research Methods :

3.2.1 Major method vs supporting methods

With the aim of achieving the set goal of the study, it is impossible to use a single method, but several methods such as descriptive, contrastive, analytic and inductive methods are simultaneously employed However, descriptive and contrastive methods are chosen as the dominant ones which are most frequently used in the thesis

3.2.2 Data collection techniques

Data collection for the English data I selected samples of Yes/No question from sources as follows: English teaching textbooks, a lot of grammar

English books, the novel “ An ideal husband” by Oscarwilder and translated into Vietnamese by Hoàng Nguyên For the Vietnamese data, I selected samples of Yes/No questions from sources such as Vietnamese stories, course books

3.2.3 Data analysis techniques

Data analysis in this study samples of Yes/No questions in English and those in Vietnamese selected for the analysis are in the form of written texts

in the sources provided They are analyzed in terms of semantic and structural features and then compared and contrasted in order to find out the similarities and differences between them The study suggest some solutions

to the mistakes in translating Yes/No questions from English into Vietnamese

3.3.Summary :

The purpose of this chapter was to describe the research methodology of this study, explain the sample selection, describe the procedure used in collecting data and provide an explanation of the statistical procedures used

to analyze the data Besides, major methods, supporting methods and techniques used in this study have been presented

CHAPTER IV : FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese Yes/No Questions

Questions in languages share a number of the same characteristics in general; however, question forms are different in each language all over the world This chapter deals with the similarities and differences in terms of forms and meaning of Yes - no questions in both English and Vietnamese via contrastive analysis between the two languages Contrastive analysis is a method of explaining why some features of a target language are more difficult to acquire than other ones Contrastive analysis investigates the differences between pairs of languages against the background of similarities and with the purpose of providing inpuy to applied disciplines such as foreign language teaching and translation studies

As stated earlier, this chapter aims at contrastively analyzing so as to point out the similarities and differences of true Yes – no questions between the two languages of English and Vietnamese in terms of form and meaning All the examples used to illustrate are cited in English works and their translated version

The similarities and differences of yes – no questions in English and Vietnamese could be clarified via seven yes – no questions’ equivalents forms and their meaning in certain contexts

4.1.1 Form 1:

English: S + Operator + Predication?

Yes - no questions require an answer to confirm whether a clause is reasonable or not In term of structure, this type of question has auxiliary verb, modal verb or the main verb "to be", "to have" which are put into the right form and tense and converted to stand before the subject The auxiliary verb, modal verb or "to be" here can be called "operator" which combine with rising intonation to form a true yes - no question in English With convert word - order in the sentence, yes - no question in English can be form with the formula: "Operator + S + Predication?", and its equivalent Vietnamese questions are formed as: "Có phải + CN + VN + không?"

With the final rising intonation, structure of English yes - no question is: "S + Operator + Predication", and its equivalent Vietnamese question form is:

"CN + VN + à / ư / nhỉ / nhé / hả / hở ?"

These two forms of Vietnamese yes - no questions exist because thefact that

it is unnecessary for the questions in Vietnamese to have the conversion of sentence elements' position Along with that, this classification of

Vietnamese yes - no questions contain question particles such as: à, ư, nhỉ,

Operator +S + Predication?

Vietnamese: CN + VN + à/ư/nhỉ/nhé/hả/hở…?

Có phải + CN + VN + không?

nhé, chưa, hả and other pairs of particles including có phải không?; phải không?;đã chưa?

Followings are illustrated examples:

`“Are you Miss Kay Adams? (GF 232)

Cô có phải là Kay Adam không? (BG 352)

But were you ever married, Peggoty (DC.16) Chị Peggoty ơi, chị đã bao giờ lấy chồng chưa? (DC.55))

Did she make em, now? Said Mr Markis (DC.61)

Có phải chị ấy làm bánh đấy không? Anh Mackit hỏi (DC.135)

In term of meaning, English yes - no questions may contain certain elements playing the role of focus question elements The focus can be displayed by grammatical means or by intonation and stress The different word takes the stress in one sentence can make the meaning of that sentence change For example, the sentence "John carefully search the room." may have three different stresses in to each word: "John", "room" or "someone", which cause changes in meaning

a Was it John that searched the room?

Có phải chính John đã lục soát căn phòng không?

b Was it the room that John search?

Có phải chính căn phòng ấy là căn phòng John đã lục soát không?

c Did John search the room?

Có phải John đã lục soát căn phòng ấy không?

(or did he kill some other animal?)

The focus element in a yes – no question can also be marked by word-order

or morphology (Tivon, 1990) Those examples above show multi-meaning

of English yes-no questions The meaning of a declarative sentence “Tim killed the goat” disappears after any element becomes the focus It can be obviously seen that when optional adverbials are present in a declarative clause, the focus of assertion tends to be obligatorily attracted to them Such obligatory focus attraction also occurs in yes – no questions

a Is it the case that someone carefully searched the room but that it

was not John?

Chính ai đó đã lục soát kỹ căn phòng mà không phải là John thì

phải?

b Is it the case that John searched the room but not carefully?

John đã lục soát chính căn phòng nhưng không lục soát kỹ có phải không?

c Is it the case that John carefully searched something but not the

John chắc chắn đã làm gì đó rất cẩn thận cho căn phòng chứ không phải

lục soát căn phòng có phải không?

(or for Susan?)

Furthermore, the sentence “John carefully searched the room” loses its meaning if one of the elements, or all of them are unknown or become the focus such as: Someone searched the room but not John

In fact, the question “Did John carefully search the room?” may not be used because of two reasons:

If we do not know whether John searched the room, after that, we are not to try to see whether he searched the room carefully

If the speaker use a yes – no question for all sentence elements, the adverb

“carefully is often put at the end of

Main stress of the question can be used in a yes – no question to highlight question focus The focus may be put into any element in the questions to transfer a certain amount of information which the hearer has not known yet

a Was he a famous actor in those days?

When “that time” is the focus, this question can be understood that “I know

he used to be famous; however, was he famous at that time or later?”

b Was he a famous actor in those days?

When “famous” is stressed, the question means: “I know he was an actor; however, was he famous?”

Those examples help to draw important conclusions about yes – no question To avoid multi-meaning, yes – no question should be short and should raise only on factor / event, for example:

- Is this the room?

- Did anyone search it?

- Was it John?

There is no stable form of yes – no question in English which is equivalent

to a form of Vietnamese question including: phải không, có phải… không, đã…chưa? …à?…ư? … nhỉ? … hả?

The driver said, “I pick up a lot of people at the clinic

Did you go there for check up? (FS.71)

Người lái xe nói, “Tôi đón nhiều người ở quãng đường này

Ông đến để kiểm tra phải không? (CC.75)

(1) “Is that your mistress, nurse?” AskedMarketing Lloyd (JE.26)

Bà chủ về đấy phải không, chị bảo mẫu? –Ông Lôi hỏi (JE.59)

(2) “And this is Jane Eyre? Are you coming from Millcote, and on foot”

(JE.256)

Jane Erơ đấy phải không?Cô đị bộ từ Mincot về đấy à? (JE.50-2)

Yes – no questions in English often contain question particles or modal verbs used as question particles (called operator) The particles are converted into the beginning of the question, before the subject These operators express the time of actions, for example:

(3) “Will you be this mistress? (JE 374)

“Cô có bằng lòng làm cô giáo không? (JE 259-2)