A study on english expressions denoting time with reference to their vietnamese equivalents

THESIS A STUDY ON ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS DENOTING TIME WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE... ABSTRACT As the tittle of the thesis indicates: A Study on English Expressions Denoting Time

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A STUDY ON ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS DENOTING TIME

WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

(Nghiên cứu các biểu đạt tiếng Anh chỉ thời gian trong sự liên

hệ tương đương với tiếng Việt)

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master

in English linguistics Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

A special word of thanks goes to all my lectures and officers of Falcuty of Graduate Studies, Hanoi Open University and 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 daughter and son for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this

academic work

ABSTRACT

As the tittle of the thesis indicates: A Study on English Expressions Denoting

Time with Reference to their Vietnamese Equivalents, the purpose of the study is

to point out the semantic and syntactic features of English expressions denoting time and their Vietnamese equivalents To carry out this research, the writer used such methods as descriptive, statistical and analytical In addition, a survey questionnaire was carried out for the first year students of mechanical courses at Hanoi University of Industry In the end, the research worked out the reasons for those mistakes which the students had made in using time denoting expressions in English and proposed the implications on teaching and learning English

expressions of time

LIST OF TABLES

Figure 4.1: The percentage syntantic of English expressions denoting time 43

Figure 4.2 :The percentage of semantic features of English expressions denoting time. 51

Figure 4.3: Result of Results of survey 52

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLES iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the research 1

1.2 Aims of the research 2

1.3 Objectives of the research 2

1.4 Scope of the research 3

1.5 Significance of the research 3

1.6 Structure organization of the thesis 3

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Review of previous studies 5

2.1.1 Previous studies overseas 5

2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam 6

2.2 Review of theoretical background 7

2.2.1 Theoretical framework 7

2.2.1.1 Definition of time 7

2.2.1.2 Tenses in English 8

2.2.1.3 Aspects in English 12

2.2.2 Theoretical background 15

2.2.2.1 Phrases in English 15

2.2.2.1.1 Definition of phrases 15

2.2.2.1 2 Characteristics of phrases 15

2.2.2.1.3 Functions of phrases 16

2.2.2.2 Clauses in English 23

2.2.2.2.1.Definition of clauses 23

2.2.2.2 2 Characteristics of clauses 24

2.2.2.2 3 Functions of clauses 25

2.2.2.3 Adverbials of time 28

2.2.2.3.1 Definition of adverbials of time 28

2.2.2.3.2 Characteristics of adverbials of time 28

2.2.2.3 3 Functions of adverbials of time 30

2.2.3 Chapter summary 31

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 32

3.1 Research orientations 32

3.1.1 Research questions 32

3.1.2 Research setting 32

3.1.3 Research approach 32

3.1.4 Data-related issues/criteria for intended data collection 33

3.2 Research methods 34

3.2.1 Major methods 34

3.2.2 Supporting methods 34

3.2.3 Data collection techniques 34

3.2.4 Data analysis techniques 35

3.3 Chapter summary 36

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 37

4.1 Syntactic features of expressions denoting time in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese 37

4.1.1 English time expressions as single words 37

4.1.2 English time expressions as phrases 39

4.1.3 English time expressions as clauses 41

4 2 Semantic features of expressions denoting time in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese 43

4.2.1 English expressions denoting a point of time 44

4.2.2 English expressions denoting a boundary of time 46

4.3 Suggestions on teaching and learning expressions denoting time for Vietnamese learners of English 51

4.3.1 Common mistakes in time expressions by Vietnamese learners of English 52

4.3.2.Some suggested solutions to improve teaching and learning expressions denoting time 54

4.4 Chapter summary 56

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION 58

5.1 Recapitulation 58

5.2 Concluding remarks 58

5.3 Limitations of the research 59

5.4 Suggestions for a future research 60

REFERENCES 61 APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1

APPENDIX 2

APPENDIX 3

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the research

In the globalization era, foreign languages play an important role in communication and social, economic development as well Foreign languages bring endless values and opportunities for learners; provide them with confidence and activeness in all interactive, interpersonal relationship More than that, foreign languages also open a new life for learners to discover and challenge their new horizons Being able to work and communicate with people from different backgrounds and cultures is not only a strong movivation but also

a qualified requirement for all the modern labor force However, learning a foreign language requires learners a lot of efforts and obviously learners encounter many difficulties when they often meet differences between the target language and their mother tongue One of them is understanding set expressions

As the special form of language, set expressions play a great role of retaining, passing traditional culture down to the next generation They not only help to enrich the language and culture, but it also reflects the social life Set expressions are the combination of culture, language usage and creative competence, personality and mark of time Moreover, they benefit people in communication thanks to the provision with the way of expressing concepts linguistically that is the ability to convey meanings without verboseness As a result, exploring, comparing and contrasting set expressions in native as well as

in target language will surely bring about a treasure of valuable knowledge and a more convenient condition for foreign language learning process

Understanding the meaning of set expressions in general and expressions denoting time in particular is the first difficulty of learners and the second one is the way of using set expressions denoting time in each specific context Moreover, studying set expressions which contain word denoting time is a part

of language learning and it can help learners use language more naturally and effectively

This thesis is intended as a tutorial for the study of how time is expressed

in natural languages Temporality, for example, is reflected in the lexical meaning of verbs, in grammatical marking of tense and aspect, in time adverbials, in special particles Much attention has been paid to expressions used

to encode temporal information, which range from prepositional phrases ( e.g,

before the dawn ), verb suffixes ( e.g, “ ed” in the English regular simple past) to

noun phrases ( e.g, this late afternoon)

I am interested in the way English and Vietnamese people use set expressions to satisfy their own need in daily communication Here and there, there are several studies on set expressions with certain linguistic units However, in range of Ha Noi Open University, there is no study of set

expressions containing words indicating time Thus, the topic “ A study on English expressions denoting time with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents” Hopefully, doing a research of English expression denoting time

will be the combination of all the facts mentioned above and is the reason for the thesis In the thesis, I have made an attempt to study English set expressions containing time from different aspects

1.2 Aims of the research

This study is conducted to aim at demonstrating syntactic, semantic features of English expressions denoting time in English and the Vietnamese

equivalents In addition to that, it is expected to helpVietnamese learners of

English better and supplies Vietnamese learners with a deeper understanding of English expressions denoting time

1.3 Objectives of the research

To achieve the aims, the study is mandated to persue the following objectives: (i) To analyze the syntactic features of English expressions denoting time

(ii) To analyze the semantic features of English expressions denoting time (iii) To supply some suggested implications on teaching and learning how to use expressions denoting time for Vietnamese learners of English

1.4 Scope of the research

*Academic scope

The study will focus on expressions denoting time in English the Vietnamese equivalents which are taken from outstanding sources in English: English grammar books, previous researches, dictionaries, stories, novels We pay much attention on English and Vietnamese novels and short stories when analyzing syntactic and semantic features of English expressions denoting time and the Vietnamese equivalents will be later discussed through analyzing English - Vietnamese examples in different contexts As has been said above, verb suffixes and main verb forms as well can be used to express time in the sentence However, within limited scope, the study excludes this phenomenon and just focuses on the analysis of English time expressions as single words,

phrases and clauses

* Social scope:

This study is expected to help Vietnamese learners of English understand the meaning and the usage of the English expressions denoting time and

translate them better

1.5 Significance of the research

The study helps Vietnamese learners of English have ability of varied conversation and interesting communication, create the combination of culture, language usage and creative competence personality and mark of time and give contribution to language teaching and learning It may help Vietnamese learners

of English find their mistakes which they often make in learning, as well as have some effective methods to learn better

1.6 Structure organization of the thesis

For a clear organization, my thesis is divided into five main chapters:

Chapter 1, Introduction , presents a brief account of relevant information for

carrying out the study, including the rationale, the aims, the objectives, the scope, the significance as well as the structural organization of the thesis

Chapter 2, Literature review, presents the overview of the previous researchers

related to the thesis topic and covers a review of theoretical background related set expressions denoting time in English and Vietnamese

Chapter 3, Proposed research methodology, provides the methodology

underlying the research and focuses on the methods of data collection

Chapter 4, Finding and Discussion, this part gives a detailed presentation of

semantic and syntactic features of set expressions in English and the Vietnamese equivalents, and presents some explanations and interpretations of the finding

of the study

Chapter 5, Conclusion, emphasizes the implication of the study and points out

the limitations of the study and provides some suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review serves two main purposes Firstly, it gives a review of previous studies related to English expressions denoting time Secondly, it presents and discusses the theoretical background which guides and informs this research

2.1 Review of previous studies

English expressions in general and English expressions containing time which are an important factor in English grammar have attracted great attention

of linguists all over the world so far Hence, it is not surprising that a large number of studies on English expressions denoting time in terms of various fields of language have been undertaken

2.1.1 Previous studies overseas

A number of English researchers are interested in making researches of time expressions and they bring different viewpoints Some of them could be cited as below:

Time, in the linguistic sense of the word, is a complex category, so some elementary distinctions are necessary to be made Kiefer (1980: 1-2) says in his

paper that “ sentences may exhibit two different types of temporal categories

Resaerch The first type situates the sentence with respect to utterance time ”

while “ the second type of temporal categories does not situate the event at hand with respect to the time of utterance, it rather describes the time during which this event takes place.” Kiefer calls the first category external time specification and the second one internal time specification

As far as the first category is concerned, it seems to be useful to adopt Reichenbach’s (1947) notions of temporal specification He distinguishes

between Speech time, Reference Time, and Event Time Speech Time is the

time at which a given a sentence is uttered, that is, the moment of utterance ( or: moment of speaking) Reference time is the time indicated by the sentence Event Time refers to the moment at which the relevant even or state occurs

So far, we have been concerned with external time specification, ie We have been examining how events are situated with respect to the time of speaking However, events do not only take place in time but they also take time

to take place According to Bull (1960:17) internal time specification, as it has already been mentioned, describes the time during which and event take place From this point view, of events are not all alike.( It has to be emphasized that ‘ event’ is used throughout this paper as a cover – term for the lexical meaning that a full – verb expresses in an utterance.) It seems to be neccessaryto have a look at the various kinds of events, too, in order to be able to investigate the time expressed by the verb ( henceforth verbal time)

Linguists such as Lyons (1974), Leech (1987) and Downing and Lock ( 1992) belived that all tenses of the English verb map time of points of orientation ( or point of reference ) which roughly indicate the relation of one time to another The primary point of orientation is either the present moment “ now” When the speaker is actually speaking, or sometimes the moment at which

he imagines himself to be speaking

2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam

Temporal adverb, adverbial phrases are also the words to “ mark” time In

Vietnamese these are the words, for example, : tuần trước, tháng sau, ngày mai,

the reader, the listener easily determine the time of events.Trần Trọng Kim, Bùi

Kỷ, Phạm Duy Khiêm stated that Vietnamese verbs as well as other parts of

speech, do not change the form Therefore, “ When people want to perform a

job doing in the present, past or future, they use adverbs…”. However, the determination of current, past or future of the event must also base on the position of speaker of time ( the observer) Here are a few examples:

1 Present event: - Dạo này, đêm Cà mau, gió mưa cứ tầm tã [ Anh Đức]

2 Past event:- Hồi ấy hắn hai mươi [ Nam Cao]

3 Future event: - Rồi mai đây, giữa một buổi xuân đào

Ta sẽ tới ru mình trong vịnh bạc [ Tố Hữu]

Similarly, according to many linguists such as Thuyet M.N (1990) Thành

be functioning and tell about the time at which an action occurs As in English, they do not affect the sentence structurally; however, their grammatical meaning

of expressing the time is necessarily required to the profoundness and copiousness of the sentence

Like in English, adjuncts in Vietnamese also answer the question words

‘bao giờ?’ (When?) or ‘ bao lâu?’ ( How long?)

Examples:

1 Ngày mai tôi sẽ trở lại ( Tomorrow, I’ll come back)

2 Bao lâu anh sẽ trở lại? ( When will you come back ?)

In short, it can be seen that many researchers study syntactic, semantic features of English expressions; however, nobody focuses on syntactic and semantic features of Englisht expressions containing time and their Vietnamese equivalents For these reasons, in my thesis I will focus on this subject

2.2 Review of theoretical background

2.2.1 Theoretical framework

2.2.1.1 Definition of time

Accoding to Elisabeth Eaves ( 29 - 02 -2008 , What is time? Retriveved:

25 - 04 - 2009) defines time as something obvious She says: “ We all know what time is It is the ticking of the clock, the whine of alarm, the calendar on the wall And since we all agree about how those things work, time can seen as solid as a rock.”

In accordance with Wikipedia (Wikipedia.org/wiki/Time), time is a dimension in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them Time has long been a major subject of study in religion, philosophy, and science, but sefining it in a manner applicable to all fields without circularity has

consistently eluded scholars Nevertheless, diverse fields such as business, industry, sports some notion of time into their respective measuring systems Some simple, relatively uncontroversial definitions of time include “ time is what clocks measure ” and “ time is what keeps everything from happening at once ”

It can be pointed out that time is an observed phenomenon, by means of which human beings sense and record changes in the environment and in the universe A literal definition is elusive Time has been called an illusion, a dimension, a smooth – flowing continuum, and an expression of separation among events that occur in the same physical location

2.2.1.2 Tenses in English

Accoding to Hornby,A.S (1987), guides to patterns and usage tense are a grammatical category of verb indicating the time of an action The main divisions of time: present, past and future are presented in English by English by the primary tenses (indefinite and continuous) They are also called absolute tenses.Besides the primary tenses, there are the so – called secondary tenses in English ( perfect and perfect continuous) As English has adverbs like yesterday, last Thursday etc….none of which falls under the category of tense These are different views on the category of tenses

The traditional concept: Aristotle is said to have been the first to

recognize the category of tenses He observed that there were systematic variations in the forms of Greek verbs, variations that could be correlated with time notions such as past and present Although English has many fewer such form than classical Greek there are still syntactic connections

Grammarians treated these notions as simple and obvious This tradition was based on practices of Latin and Greek grammarians thought in important respects English is quite different

Traditional Latin and Greek grammarians listed in tables below now known as paradigms The form for each verb is used in a large numbers of tenses The table gives forms for the first, second and third person, singular and plural Here are the present tense forms of the Latin verb portare (to carry)

Person Singular Plural

1st porto ( I carry) portamus (we carry)

2nd portas ( you carry portatis (you carry)

3rd portat ( he, she, it) carries portant ( they carry)

In addition to the present tense , tenses distinguished in Latin include the future, the perfect tense ( meaning “ have + V – ed or just “ V – ed” ) the future perfect tense ( will + have + V-ed), the pluperfect or past perfect ( had + V – ed) and the imperfect tense ( was, were + V – ing)

These tenses were all in the indicative mood ( corresponding fairly closely

to finite verb forms in English ) There was another set of four tenses in what is called the subjunctive mood ( meaning something like ( “ might + verb” and “ might have + V – ed”)

In the seventeenth and eighteenth language should be described in the same way as Latin and Greek However, there are a number of problems facing such an approach First, in no language do the verb forms directly correspond to the semantic properties of time reference An accurate and insightful grammar must be based on more than logical criteria

Second, English differs from Latin and Greek in having only two infections on verbs to show tenses The past tense is usually but not always agreement suffix for third person singular forms Corresponding to other Latin

and Greek verbs, inflections are auxiliary verbs such as will and should To

some early grammarians, English seemed an impoverished language, one lacking the range and precision of tense forms in the classical languages

A typical attempt to remedy the defects of English was made by S.W Clark, the principal of the Cortland Academy in New York in the mid 1800s In his textbook, A Practical Grammar went into many printings combination of auxiliaries, verbs and other forms to fill in gaps in the tense system His

paradigms for the verbs “work” alone take up four pages of small print The

present subjunctive paradigms, for example, consist of six identical verb forms preceded by if ( if was working now…)

Later writers and languge teachers developed more versions of this Latin based on the classification, which reflected more accurately the English verb data Though still relying more on semantic or logical criteria than on the actual combinations and verb forms of English, the newer version turned out to be a useful frame – work for familiarizing learners with the range of verb forms available to express time relationship The version listed twelve forms Here is a listing of the different form of the verbs “work” with the first singular person

The tenses are categorized according to past, present and future, in combination with aspects, which will be discussed later

4 Present progressive: I am working.

5 Past progressive: I was working.

6 Future progressive: I will be working.

7 Present perfect I have worked

9 Future perfect I will have worked.

10 Present perfect progreesive: I have been working.

11 Past perfect progressive: I had been working.

12 Future perfect progressive: I will have been working.

Towards an account based on language forms, the twelve – form approach was put into use This description of the English tense system assumes that tense and time are really the same devices to form additional tenses But this

assumption is still in question First, considering “ past tense” and its relation to

past time it very often refers to past time, but not always

Example:

- If Ann came home tomorrow, she would find everything new exactly the same

Clearly in this example, the time reference is to the future The word

“tomorrow” makes this explicit, but even without “ tomorrow” the word “ if” and “ would” indicate that the speaker is referring to a hypothetical situation

rather than to one that has already happened

The following example also has a past tense form but refers to a hypothetical situation

Example:

- If John examined recent Supreme Court decisions, he would feel depressed

Again the time reference is not past though here it is present rather than

future It is the hypothetical character of the situation ( marked with if ) that

allows the past tense to be used this way In this use, something parallels the use

of past tense in the following situation When a professor asks a person standing outside her office a question like:

Example:

- Did you see my secretary?

“ Did you ” is not used to ask about the past time showing the time

reference for past tense forms, which is not as straight forwardly determined The present tense form are less obvious The only overt maker is the – s, - es, which show the agreement between the verb and the personal singular subject,

as in these sentences:

Examples:

1 Tom drives a Toyota

2 Lan often watches TV in the evening

The other present tense is marked by a zero (0) ending:

- ( I, we, you, they) drive a Toyota

But this is not to claim that the present tense always corresponds to present time The present tense of verb usually refers to a habitual action, only

the present tense of verbs like “know” representing states, normally refers to

present time The same sentence can refer to future time, especially if an appropriate time adverbs is used for events that are scheduled in advance and it suggests nothing would change It can be called prearranged present usage

To refer to future time, many kinds of verb forms and combinations are used, and most of which are also used to express notions not connected with future time reference On this account, English has no special future tense forms Traditional grammar searching for a future tense corresponding to those in Latin

and Greek, noted that the modal will (and sometimes shall) could be used with a verb to refer to future time So they decided that the will + verb combination ( and sometimes the shall + Verb combination ) was the English future tense

In short, once grammatical tense is distinguished, the shall + verb

combination was sometimes seen as the English future tense And it is necessary

to mention that once grammatical tense is distinguished from semantic reference, Michael Lewis’s ideas about tense can be considered to be a precise definition

As for linguists, tense is a grammatical term It means that there is morphological change in the base form of the verb A verb form, which is used with an auxiliary, is not, in this grammatical meaning, a “ tense”

In view of this grammatical term, English verbs have only two tenses: The

present tense (see) and the past tense (saw) Past tense does not always refer to

past time In the same way, the present tense does not often refer to the time at which the utterance is produced From this viewpoint, Vietnamese has no tenses

at all Different languages have evolved in different ways so that a grammatical distinction existing in a language is quite different from the others

2.2.1.3 Aspects in English

Halliday and Hasan (1976) points out the verb forms, which are regarded

as tenses; there are many other verb forms in English These other verb forms are used with auxiliaries:

Be and Have

Examples:

1 I am teaching English

2 He has been there before

3 You would have asked me first

4 She must next have been trying to ring you

5 Lan will have finished her work by next month

These forms include what is called aspect It is the general name given to verb forms used to signify certain ways in which an event is viewed or experienced This event can be seen as in progress or as a completed whole

-Progressive aspect is indicated by using [be + V-ing] to say the action is in

progress or temporary or in completed (Example:1)

- Perfect aspect is indicated by using [have + V- ed 2] or [have + the past

participle], in general, to say the action referred by the verb is in some way

completed or achieved, though still relevant (Example: 2)

Both present tense and past tense are unmarked for aspect, but aspect can not exist without tense In the construction with aspect, tense is shown by the primary auxiliary:

Examples: 1 and 2 by the modal auxiliary

Examples: 3.4.5 Tense and aspect can be combined in various ways,

giving different types:

+Type one: Present progressive

The verb be is in the present tense

Examples:

1.Minh is sleeping now

2.They are playing tennis now

+Type two: Past progressive:

The verb be is in the past tense

Examples:

1 This time last month I was living in Ho Chi Mi

2 What were you doing at 5 p.m yesterday?

+ Type three: Present perfect

The verb Have is in the present tense

Examples:

1 I have learnt English for 25 years

2 He has already done all exercises

+Type four: Past perfect

The verb Have is in the present tense

Examples:

1 How long have you been waiting for ?

2 Has she been sleeping all day?

+ Type five: Past perfect progressive

The verb Have is in the past tense

Examples:

1 He had been walking in the street all evening

2 Had he been there when you came?

In short, a set of students used to denote aspect can be summarized as follows:

1 (To) be + V – ing

2 (To) have + V ed2

3 (To) have been + V-ing

All of these verb forms can be preceded by a modal auxiliary and to is not used

Examples:

1 She will be having lunch at 11 p.m

2 I will have finished this course by the edn of this year

In terms of the role of Aspect, these two sentences suggest a difference in meanings between the two forms used for the sane action

Examples:

1 I last met him 3 months ago

2 I haven’t seen him for 3 months

They are of the same action There are, however, various reasons why the speaker chooses one form rather than the other In (1) he is interested in the past action, he means 3 months is a short time, so it does not matter whether they meet again or not In (2) the speaker is interested in the period of time up to now, he suggests that they should meet each other again as three months for him

is a long time Aspect gives the speaker the opportunity to interpret the temporal nature orientation of an action, or the fact that concerns a definite period of time

2.2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.2.1 Phrases in English

2.2.2.1.1 Definition of phrases

According to ( Alexander 1998, 243 ), a phrase is a group of words acting

as a single part of speech and not containing both a subject and a verb It is a

part of a sentence, and does not express a complete thought

For example, the phrases in the first two sentences of this page are

italicized In which the first sentence contains five phrases: “ of words”, “ acting

as a single part of speech,” “ as a single part of speech, ” and “ not containing

both a subject and a verb. “ Except for the phrase beginning with as, allthe

phrases are acting as adjectives The phrase beginning with as is adverbial

According to http://www.thefreedictionary.com., a group of words, which

makes sense, but not complete sense, is called a Phrase It is a group of related words without a Subject and a Verb

2.2.2.1 2 Characteristics of phrases

Accoriding to Sidney Greenbaum (1963:234), the five types of phrases are named after the class of word that is the head of the phrase The phrase types are exemplified below :

1 Noun phrase recent deluges of reports (head: deluges)

2 Verb phrase might have been accepted (head: accepted)

3 Adjective phrase surprisingly normal (head: normal)

4 Adverb phrase more closely (head: closely)

5 Prepositional phrase for a moment ( head: for)

Prepositional phrases always consist of two constituents: a preposition and the complement of the preposition In the prepositional phrase for a moment, the constituents are the preposition for and its complement a moment, a noun phrase with two constituents – the indefinite article a and the noun moment Other phrase types may consist of just one word as head (cf 3.1); for

example, in examples from 1 to 4 below, the noun phrase lectures, the verb phrase brought, the adjective phrase cold, and the adverb phrase badly

Examples:

1 Lectures begin at nine

2 They bought me a box of chocolates

3 I’m feeling cold

4 They are behaving badly

2.2.2.1.3 Functions of phrases

A Functions of noun phrases:

Accoriding to Sidney Greenbaum (1963:236), a noun phrase has as its

head a noun, a pronoun,a nominal adjective, or a numeral See 4.3 ff for nouns, 4.32 for nominal adjectives, and 4.46 for numerals The possible functions of noun phrases are listed below:

5 Object complement

- I call this little talk a survey of global bifurcations

6 Complement of a preposition

- Uhm but why isn’t it is in French

7 Premodifier of a noun or noun phrase

- Simon’s on this revision course

- So a lot of my friends were in one parent families as well

8 Vocative

- You’re a snob Dad

There are a number of other functions performed by restricted ranges of noun phrases

9 Adverbial

Noun phrases function as adverbial in expressions of time, location direction, manner, and intensification:

- But you have to wait a long time

- The flag goes up far side

- Some of it’s coming out this way

- And would certainly not have been designed that way

- The loss in nineteen seventy hit him a great deal

10 Premodifier of adjectives

- The plane was 4 hours late

11 Premodifier of preposition

- He revealed that Washington had informed the Kremlin an hour before

the start of the assault

- Two sleek, grey bodies were effortlessly riding our bow wave just a root

or so beneath the surface

12 Premodifier of adverb

Now Mercedes have always been good at insulating their car but they’ve

gone a stage further with this

13 Premodifier of noun

Women may suffer from lack of “ acceptable partners” because too many

of the men their age are dead […][Betty Friedan, ‘ Intimacy’s Greatest Challenge’, The Times, 19 October 1993, p.2]

14 Premodifier of adjective

- We’re fifteen dollars short

Pronouns and nominal adjectives can perform the first six of the functions listed above for noun phrases Clauses that serve the functions performed by noun phrases are termed nominal clauses (or noun clauses) (cf 6.12)

Functions of verb phrases: A verb phrase has as its head a main ( or lexical)

verb The main verb may be preceded by up to four auxiliaries ( or auxiliary verbs), but see 5.33 for semi auxiliaries

The auxiliaries fall into two major sets

1 The primary auxiliaries

2 The modal ( or modal or secondary auxiliaries ( cf 4.29)

The primary auxiliaries are be, have and do Auxiliary be has two

function: (1) it forms the progressive in combination with a following –ing

participle, eg Is playing; (2) it forms the passive in combination with a

following – ed participle, eg is played Auxiliary have forms the perfect aspect

in combination with a following – ed participle, eg has played Auxiliary do is

the dummy operator: it functions as the operator to form ( for example ) interrogative and negative sentences in the absence of any other operator, eg

Did they play? They didn’t play ( cf 5.18)

The modal auxiliaries are can, could, may, might, shall, should, will ,

They must be there), or of control, such as permission ( e.g You may play outside) They are followed by infinitive (cf.5.24)

The auxiliaries appear in a set sequence:

Modal – perfect have – progressive be – passive be – main verb

It is not usual for all to be present in one present in one verb phrase, though it is certainly possible, as in 1

1 should ( modal) have (perfect) been ( progressive) being ( passive) played ( main verb)

In 1 each of the auxiliaries is followed by the required verb form:

Should ( modal ) have ( infinitive)

have ( perfect) been ( -ed participle)

been ( progressive) being ( - ing participle)

being ( passive) played ( -ed participle)

Here are examples of verbs phrases with combinations of three auxiliaries:

2 Those who had parents who slapped their faces if they misbehaved

would have been making judgements about my behavior which were influenced by their own childhood memories ( modal perfect progressive)

3 Well there’s no doubt at all that we would have wanted to see

sanctions run on for a longer period to see if Saddam could have been removed from Kuwait without war ( modal perfect passive)

4 If he were still alive, he would, at the very least, now be being questioned very searchingly by Scotland Yard ( Evening Standard, 26 June 1992 p 8 ) ( modal progressive passive)

As 4 illustrate, the sequence of the verbs in the verb phrases may be interrupted by intervening adverbials

5 Now I’ve just been working on this and the problem has been to a

certain extent the printer

6 But uh if you had the choice would you prefer to have a meal which has

been freshly prepare with uh fresh ingredients and so on

7 The agreement could not even have been considered further unless it

had been signed by all the members back in May

In questions the operator precedes the subject and its therefore separated from the rest of the verb phrase:

8.Was the Sharptor mine being worked the way it should have been ,

before it went out of business?

The first or only verb in the verb phrase is obligatorily marked for tense –

a main verb in 9 and 10 and an auxiliary in 11 and 12

9 Doug makes quince jelly sometimes doesn’t he

10.There’s one I was going to show you because it is made by hair stand

on end

11 But time is going slowly

12 Officially I was doing a unit of English

The first or only verb in the verb phrase is also marked for person and number where relevant:

13 I am a secretary ( 1 st person singular)

14.They are very very concerned ( 3 rd person plural)

The first or only verb in the verb phrase can function as the operator, for example in forming questions:

15 Can you remember that

The dummy operator do ( cf 5.18) is followed only ( if at all) by the main

verb in the infinitive:

The only auxiliary that can be in the subjunctive ( cf 5.25f.) is auxiliary be,

which nmay functions as the progressive auxiliary or the passive auxiliary:

Semi- auxiliaries that begin with he ( cf.5.33) can also be in the subjunctive:

Were I to tell you

If he were going to write

See 3.11 for negatives and 3.12 for passives

B Functions of adjective phrases:

The two major functions of adjectives phrases are as premodifier of a

noun and as subject predicative They are listed first below, followed by other functions

There would still be eyes watching and wondering from a distance but

brief, there was no one close.

5 Postmodifier of a noun

To outsiders London seems one of the most vibrant cultural capital of the

word (.) a city bright with theatres cinemeas ballet opera art galleries and great museums

6 Nominal adjective

Tonight I hope you’ll not mind if I eschew the academic and pursure a

more earthy albelt reflective tack analyzing the soll within which citizenship can roof and thrive

7 Complement of a preposition

Kay doesn’t finish till late

C Functions of adverb phrases:

The major functions of adverb phrases are as premodifiers of adjective

and adverb and as adverbials and complement of a verb They are listed first below, followed by other functions

1.Premodifier of an adjctive

We’re far too close to it

2 Premodifier of an adverb

I’m going to give you a prescription to clear up the infection (,) then you

need to have your teeth extremely thoroughly cleaned (,) as soon as

But I have a feeling they might be right by the door but if they’re not then

it’s not worth it

6 Premodifier of a pronoun

When I look around at my friends, virtually all of them seem to have got

careers

7 Premodifier of a determiner

Everybody knows that the results in fact have absolutely no meaning and

can be interpreted any way you like

8 Premodifier of a numeral

The chaps around forty to forty – five are all called Jonh

9 Premodifier of a noun phrase

This is really quite a problem I imagine

10 Premodifier of a noun phrase

Your friend here does she doole a lot

11 Postmodifier of an adjective or adverb

Well right that’s fair enough then

And oddly enough it’s not only outsiders who ask it

12 Suject predicative

At least we’re outside

13 Object predicative

Shall I move these away

14 Complement of a preposition

On I should have thought he’d ’ve had one before now

These functions are discussed elsewhere, as indicated

D Functions of prepositional phrases:

Every Tuesday I stood there waiting by the door expecting you to come

Prepositional verb and phrase – prepositional verbs can be analysed alternatively as verbs with prepositional phrases In that case the prepositional phrase is also a complement of the verb:

sentence usually consists of a single finite clause with a finite verb that is independent More complex sentences may contain multiple clauses Main

clause (= matrix clauses, independent clause) are those that could stand as a sentence by themselves Subordinate clauses (= embedded clauses, dependent

clauses) are those that would be awkward or nonsensical if used alone

2.2.2.2 2 Characteristics of clauses

A clause is normally understood as a group of words containing a subject and finite verb, forming a sentence or part of sentence, and often doing the work

of a noun, adjective or adverb

In the traditional view, clauses are sentences that are part of larger sentences.That is to say, clauses are seen as the minimalsentences while the term sentence is used for the larger or maximalsentence (Palmer (1994: 11))

To put it in another way, the “traditional” clause is a component of the sentence Though arbitrary, this conception has indicated what is meant and illustrated a very important characteristic of natural language

Quirk et al (1972: 42) give simple explanation, more structurally and

formally biased, of the clause A clause is a unit that can be analyzed in to the elements: S, V, O, C, and A (subject, verb, object, complement and adverb) Later Leech and Svartvick (1992) modify this conception, proposing that clauses are the principal structures of which sentence are composed They also put forward three important ways in which clauses may be described and classified + In terms of clause elements (subject, verb etc.) from which they are constructed and the verb patterns which are formed from the elements

+ In terms of the use in which a clause is made by verb phrase structure to help distinguish between finite clauses, non-finite clauses, and verbless clauses

+ In terms of clause function (the function of a clause performs in a sentence), such as nominal clause, adverbial clause, etc Thus, Later Leech and Svartvick work out some criteria for their explanation of clause on the ground proposed by Quirk et al, the formal and structural view of clauses proves to be clearer and more precise than the traditional one for it also touches other aspects of

linguistics and serves as a better tool to do linguistic research More concerned with language function, Halliday (1985: 67) defines clause is a functional unit with a triple construction of meaning In his explanation, a clause functions simultaneously

- As the expression of the phenomena of experience

- As the expression of speech function

- As the bearer of message, this is organized in the form of theme plus exposition

In the view of speech function, Halliday’s “clause” has a two-part structureconsisting of modal element and proposional elements In whichever approach, traditional, structural or functional, there is always a widespread agreement that a clause typically consists of five elements: S, V, O, C and A In addition, clauses belong to the three types: adverbial clause, adjective clauses and noun clauses An adverbial clause is considered as modifying the verb of the main clause or sometimes as modifier of the entire sentence The adjective clauses modifies a preceding noun or pronoun and a noun clause can function as subject, subjective complement, object of verb, object of preposition and appositive In this study, we are going to deal with adverbial clause with the features,functions of each kind of them

2.2.2.2 3 Functions of clauses

A clause can be analyzed into five different types of clause elements:

(subject, verb,object, complement and adverb)

Clauses are classified into two main categories: Independent clauses and dependent clauses They are also called “main clause” and “subordinate clause” Anindependent clause is a clause “capable of constituting a simple sentence” (Quirk,Randolph et al (1972: 721)) or “that can start alone as a sentence” (Bửu (1994:65)) A dependent clause is a clause “which makes up a grammatical sentence only if subordinate to a further clause” (Quirk, Randolph et al (1972: 721)) or which does not stand on it is own as a sentence (Bửu (1994: 65)) In the traditional view,there are threes types of dependent clauses, which are named, In general terms according to their functions in the sentence: adverbial clause, adjective clauses and noun clauses

Later, dependent clauses are also functionally classified, in more specific terms, into subject, direct object, disjunct, conjunct The structures of them are verydiverse Therefore, the analysis will be done in this study

Analyzed by structure type, clauses are of three main classes: finite clause, nonfinite clause, and verbless clause

A finite clause is defined as one containing a finite verb while a non-finite clause containing a non-finite verb is named a non-finite clause The non-finite verb can be infinitive with “to”, an infinitive without “to”, an –ing participle or an- ed participle A clause which has no verbal element at all is a verbless clause One of the main differences between the finite clause and the other two

is that the former always contains a subject while there is frequent absence of a subject in the latter.The kind of ellipsis found in non-finite clause and verb- less clause serve stylisticpurposes, especially in the written language

The clause can also be viewed in another perspective, in the light offunctional approach Halliday’s idea (1995: 73) is the typical of this view In hisopinion,“every clause is also structured as a message It consists of two parts:

a Theme, which is the point of departure- what the message is about, and another lement that constitutes the body of the message, known as the Rhyme ” and theTheme usually come first in the message structure when we extend our analysis beyond the syntactic scope, though only occasionally, The Theme- Rhyme structureis based on to work out a sound explanation

2.2.2.3 Adverbials of time

2.2.2.3.1 Definition of adverbials of time

An adverbial is a word or a group of words that modifies or explains us something about the verb and the sentences In simple terms, adverbials are words and sentences that act as adverbs in a sentence Adverbs, adverbial phrases, and adverbial clauses fall into the category of adverbials.We can use adverbials to say how, where, when, how often, how long and why something happens Consequently, they can be categorized as adverbials of manner, adverbials of time and adverbials of place

Examples:

- I went to Moscow last year

( When did you go to Moscow?)

-They intend to stay here for a month

( How long do they intend to stay there?)

2.2.2.3.2 Characteristics of adverbials of time

a One – word adverbials:

Most of time adverbials comprise one word only, e.g yesterday,

tomorrow, now, lately, recently, once, twice, hourly, daily, since, ago… Of this group, a large number are formed by the addition of - ly suffix, as a majority of adverbs, e.g eventually, formerly, lately, gererally, regularly, frequently… particularly, a handful of nouns denoting the date, month, or year

become time adverbs owing to the – ly addition, such as, hour(ly); daily ( from “

day” ); night(ly); week (ly); month (ly); year (ly)…

b Adverbial phrases:

Many time adverbials appear in phrases, such as last night, hardly ever, at once, at last…The combinations between an adjective such as “ every”, “ last”

or an adverb, normally “ during”, “ since”, “ until” or a pronoun like “ this” and

a noun are commonly used to form adverbial phrases of time

Examples:

- Every day, every night, every week, every month, every year, every Monday, every season, every morning……

- This week, this month, this year, this Monday, this summer, this century

- During the summer, during September, during the course…

- Since Tuesday, since January, since 1980……

- Last night, last month, last summer, last holiday…

- Until / till Monday, until / till Christmas…

Sometimes, two adverbials of time are put together to form an adverb phrase

denoting time, such as, since then, before then , after tomorrow, just then, hardly

ever, scarcely ever………

Besides, it is possible that an adverbial phrase is formed with a

preposition plus a noun, e.g at the moment, at time, in a moment, on

Monday/Tesday…., in March / April…., in spring / winter…, for months / years/

Other adverbial phrases of time include: now and then, now and again,

from time to time, form now on, once upon a time……

c Adverbial clauses:

The most common adverbials which can begin a clause denoting time are

“ since”, and “ until” “ before”, “ after”

-They haven’t talked to each other since they had aquarrel

- I didn’t realize that she love me until she left for England

- She didn’t know anything about the plan before he asked her

- After he died, his money was offered to the poor in his home village Additionally, nonfinite and verbless clauses can be introduced by these adverbs

-Before taking this course, you should have a knowledge of higher

mathematics

- I didn’t realize her until seeing her name in the list

- After ripe, these apples will be delious

A part from those above, the following adverbials are frequently used to make clauses of time: when, wherever, while, as soon as…

- When machines are improved, his factory earns much profit

- While she was cooking, her husband was reading a daily paper

Also, they can introduce non – finite and verbless clauses

- When seeing the natives, he ran away

2.2.2.3 3 Functions of adverbials of time

Because we are going to discuss adverbials of time in greater detail in chapter 4, it is unnecessary to say much about this part

Common adverbials of time: today, tomorrow, tonight, yesterday, recently,

always, soon, weekly, daily, yearly, usually, frequently, after, soon, later…

These adverbials of time are often put at the beginning or at the end of clause or sentence

Examples:

- There was an accident happening in this high way yesterday

- He ‘s going to the barber but will be back here later

It is common to divide adverbials of time into 4 main groups, which therefore make a distinction with other kinds of adverbials in that time adverbials are quite various and complex

a.Time when adverbials: Today, tomorrow, just, yesterday

- The weather is so hot today

b Time duration adverbials: since, recently, always, during, lately, etc

- His parents haven’t lived together lately

c Time frequency adverbials: daily, usually, always, often, everyday, etc

- You should learn new words everyday

d Time relationship adverbials: already, then first later, next……

- The police have already found the missing men