SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF NEGATIVE STATEMENTS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THU HƯƠNG SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF NEGATIVE STATEMENTS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS ĐẶC ĐIỂM CẤU TRÚC VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA CÂU TRẦN THUẬT PHỦ ĐỊNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT M.A THESIS Field: English Language Code: 8220201 Hanoi, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF NEGATIVE STATEMENTS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS ĐẶC ĐIỂM CẤU TRÚC VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA CÂU TRẦN THUẬT PHỦ ĐỊNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT Student‟s name : NGUYỄN THU HƯƠNG Supervisor: Dr ĐẶNG NGỌC HƯỚNG Hanoi, 2018 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the background of the study, reasons for choosing the topic, statements of the problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study, and outline of the study 1.1 Rationale for the study English is the powerful business language It has become a necessity for people tospeak English if they want to enter a global environment Most of the information on the internet is in English Knowing English will allow people to access to an enormous amount of information We can see that English is also a valuable language to learn and can create many opportunities Most international events use English as their official language Learning English is essential if the job or hobby is to get involved in such events Not only it helps to understand the many activities in the event, but also take advantage of opportunities to develop the career “Grammar has always been playing a role in foreign language teaching and learning This may probably be one of the reasons leading to the debates of teaching grammar The debates result in fresh cognition of grammar: it is very important in that not only does it help improve learners writing, but also it helps learners better in reading comprehension and listening alike; more significantly, the problem of how to teach grammar has been raised The finding from the survey is that middle school students from China believe that grammar is very important and necessary There are several reasons for its importance and necessity, one of which is that they have few opportunities and little time to get enough input inside and outside the class.” (Shengmei Wang, 2010) This paper plans to show some differences and similarities of simple negative statements in English and Vietnamese, improve Vietnamese English-as-foreignlanguage students‟ knowledge in English and Vietnamese negative phrases and make a comparison between English and Vietnamese negative phrases To achieve the aim of the paper, the objectives are set: describing the structure of negative phrases in Vietnamese and English sentences, contrasting to find out the similarities and differences in the structure of negative forms in English and Vietnamese sentences and drawing practical applications and conclusions of the study The study concentrates on simple negative sentences in English and Vietnamese However, this study just focuses on some conventional forms and constructions of the negative forms of the two languages because of the restricted scope The study wishes to point out the language tools denoting negative in English and the corresponding language tools denoting negative in Vietnamese Base on that, the study presents the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in the simple sentences of negative forms The syntactic and semantic features of negative phrases will be referenced in the bilingual book: “The World is flat” by Thomas L.Friedman, translated by Nguyen Quan A, Nguyen Hong Quang, Vu Duy Thanh, La Viet Ha, Le Hong Van and Ha Thi Thanh Huyen, published in 2010 For the above mentioned reasons, the thesis has the title: NEGATIVE STATEMENT IN ENGLISH WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 1.2 Aims and Objectives of the study This thesis is aimed to analyzing of syntactic and semantic features of English negative statements with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents and find out the similarities and differences between them Base on the result found, the author will give the suggestions for teaching, learning English negative statements to Vietnamese learners of intermediate level who can successfully using English on a day to day basic at work and still want to advance their foreign language skill There are three main objectives in this study The first objective is to identify syntactic and semantic features of negative statements in English and their Vietnamese equivalents The second one is to find out the syntactic and semantic similarities and differences between English negative statements and their Vietnamese equivalents And last but not least, it is to offer some implications for teaching and learning and English negative statements 1.3 Research questions To achieve the aims and objectives of the thesis, the following research question is put forward: What are the syntactic and semantic features of the negative statements in English and their Vietnamese equivalents? What are the syntactic and semantic similarities and differences between English negative statements and their Vietnamese equivalents? What are the implications for teaching and learning English negative statements? 1.4 Scope of the study As the title indicates, the thesis focuses on the study of the syntactic and semantic features of English negative sentences and their Vietnamese equivalents The research does not focus on negative phrases which appear in all types of sentence, but only in English statements and their Vietnamese equivalents in novels and short stories Due to time, length limit of the thesis and the ability of the writer, the paper intends to devote only to investigating the syntactic and semantic features of these negative phrases In other words, - The thesis only focuses on the investigation of negative statements, not other types of sentences (not questions and requests) - The term negative in the thesis means the shortage or nonexistence of something This meaning is expressed either with such words as NO, NOT, NEVER, etc or with words that imply negative meaning such as hardly, few, etc For this reseaon, the negative statements investigated in the thesis will deal with those sentences which have the meaning of the whole clause or parts of the clause - The thesis will not investigate negative meanings implied in other types of sentences That is why the sentences like I can‟t it is the subject for investigation; the sentences like *How can I it alone is outside the scope of study - The thesis does not attempt to make comparison between English negative sentences and Vietnamese ones since English and Vietnamese belong to different linguistic typology; English grammar is not the same as Vietnamese grammar Therefore, the thesis will compare negative sentences in English with their translated versions especially in terms of word order in the sentencee 1.5 Significance of the study Theoretical significance: Theoretically, the study will provide a full description of syntactic and semantic features of howEnglishnegative statementsareclassified, whatthecommonlyused English negative statementsand their Vietnamese equivalents are and how these kinds negative statements are used in different types of discourses From this, the thesis analyzes the syntactic and semantic features of the English negative statements at phrase level and their Vietnamese equivalents Practical significance In practice, the study aims to offer implications to language teaching and language learning of the English negative statements The practical information is hoped to raise the language users‟ awareness of the differences between the two languages in terms of negative statements from phrase point of view so that they can effectively apply in English communication 1.6 Design of the study The thesis is divided into five chapters as follows: Chapter 1: The Introduction, which includes the rationale, aims and objectives of the study, research questions, scope of the study, significance and organization of the study Chapter 2: The Literature Review review of related literature and the theoretical backgrounds of the study, in which theories of negative statements are discussed Negative statements will be also identified in terms of grammatical characteristics in structures at phrase level Also, this chapter presents and describes concrete cases of English negative statements with its Vietnamese equivalents in corresponding contexts Chapter 3: The Methodology, presents the research governing orientations and the research methods used in implementing and developing the study This chapter focuses on research questions, research setting, approaches to investigate the research problem, the principles, techniques to collect and analyze data, etc Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion, introduces the results of the survey which syntactic and semantic features of the English negative statements appear in the documentary book “The world is flat” Several similarities and differences of the negative statements are illustrated The research recommendations for learning English as a foreign language can be found as the last part of this chapter Chapter 5: Conclusion, provides concluding remarks Summarizes major findings of the study, points out the limitations and proposes some suggestion for further research CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous studies There are many articles and papers researching on negation in the sentence, both overseas and in Vietnam 2.1.1 Previous studies overseas There are some researches found considered relevant references: “Expression and Interpretation of Negation” (Henriëtte Swart,2010), often cited by many reseach papers as Negation in a Cross-Linguistic Perspective It explores the territory where logic, natural language and typology meet She in favour of the idea that: meaning of negation is not conveyed only through the expression of negatives, but also their interpretation De Swart deploys the framework of bi-directional Optimality Theory to develop a typology of the relationship between syntax and semantics in negation markers and negative indefinites In this model, syntactic and semantic constraints act in concert to define the grammar of a language Some languages are „double negative‟, some „negative concord‟, and others belong to subclasses identified by „strict negative concord‟ „nonstrict negative concord‟ or „negative spread‟ In addition the author analyses intermediate cases, and examines complex instances of double negation occurring in negative concord languages Her OT analysis of the Jespersen cycle brings together typological and diachronic variation This book‟s unique combination of theoretical precision and wide empirical coverage make it essential reading for any researcher approaching semantic typology from a logical, linguistic or cognitive perspective “Contrastive Analysis of Negation in Language and Its Implications for Mwaghavul and English” in Journal of language in India authored by Judith Makse Patrick, Nanbam Yuwana Ojo, Professor Mingcai Sui and Banenat Didampublished in 2014 This paper compared the negation in the language of two languages at the syntactic and lexical verb levels Besides, it was an effort to contribute to the field of contrastive analysis of the Mwaghavul-English language The scope of this study focused on the six personal pronouns in the sentence context presented in English and Mwaghavul in the present simple, simple past and future simple negative tenses 2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam Nguyen Thi Luong in “Câu tiếng Việt” (2006) mentioned a negative sentence is a sentence that uses negative words to confirm that there are no certain things, characteristics, properties and relationships or negate an opinion and a comment From this perspective, negative statements not only perform the ability to describe as definition of Diep Quang Ban but also able to perform the function of negating an idea “The negative statements correct a mistaken idea, such as the idea that the monster was called Frankenstein In general, we use negative statements to inform someone that what they might think or expect is “not” so.” (Eastwood, 1994) “Phân tích đối chiếu câu phủ định tiếng Anh tiếng Việt bình diện cấu trúc – ngữ nghĩa” (Tran, 2000) This study established the concept of the structure, the semantics of negative statement, analyzed the description, classified of negative statement models in English and similarities or differences in Vietnamese negative models, analyzed and contrasted the semantics structure expressed through grammar or vocabulary in two languages ―An investigation into negative sentences in English and Vietnamese: A word grammar perspective‖, M.A thesis in the English language at Da Nang University authored by Nguyen Vu Phong Van in 2012, under the guidance of Tran Quang Hai, analyzed the structures of sentences containing negative words extracting from Vietnamese and English works In addition, this paper identified negative devices in English and Vietnamese, the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese when using negative sentences; determined the aims of using negative sentences and found out the functions of negative sentences in context The aim of the study was to investigate the negative sentences in English and Vietnamese Based on the negative structure andthe negative words in Chinese and Vietnamese, “Câu phủ định tiếng Hántrong đối chiếu với tiếng Việt‖, M.A thesis in the linguistics, written by Ly Bao My in 2015 at Ha Noi National University showed the comparison of the negative structure between the two languages tofind out the differences between the two languages and to summarize the different elements about how to use negative in Chinese and Vietnamese sentences ―Câu phủ định tiếng Nga đốichiếu với tiếng Việt‖, M.A thesis in the linguistics, Academy of social sciences, authored by Nguyen Thi Thanh Hien in 2016 presented the similarities and differences on negative sentences of two languages As a result, it helped to image to read the specified type of the language type over the negative sentence This paper showed generalization of some research achievements on negative sentences in Russian and Vietnamese and the theoretical issues related to the thesis topic, performance the means of expressing negative in the negative sentences in Russian and Vietnamese, comparison of expressing negative meanings in Russian and Vietnamese to indicate the differences and similarities of negative sentences between the two languages The description method and the comparison method were used to conduct this study “A contrastive analysis of simple negative sentences in English and Vietnamese” (Chau, 2017) This research paper was issued in Magazine of Van Hien University, Volume 5, No.2, published in 2017 This is an application-oriented work into the similarities and differences in the formulation of negative sentences in English and Vietnamese based on the commonly used terms in these two languages The author in favour of Diep Quang Ban‟s view “The way to express the negation in both of languages is to use negative words Vietnamese has negative words like ―không‖, ―chẳng‖, ―chưa‖, ―chả‖, especially the word ―chả‖ is commonlyused in speaking” (Diep,2005) 2.2 Theoretical background 2.2.1 Theory of Syntax The study of syntax has had a chequered career In the heyday of IndoEuropean studies in the latter half of the 19th century syntax was neglected as linguists were mainly concerned with phonology and morphology With the advent of structuralism the situation looked better, particularly with the Prague school of linguistics in the 1920s, because syntagmatic relationships in language were discussed However, American structuralism in the inter-war years did not devote its attention to syntax chiefly because Leonard Bloomfield – the main figure in linguistics at the time 10 iii In order to express the language user’s attitude, the writer and specially the speaker usually employs some devices to emphasize the negativity For example, negative sentences can be used with the word NOT as a separate word from the operator to show formality: e.g They not see you so often these days (less formal: They don’t see you so often these days) (Maclin,p.204),the words whatever, whatsoever, or at all can be used right after the word or phrase we are emphasizing,e.g.She has shownno interest whatever in anything scientific Adverb fronting is also applied to emphasize something negative when adverbs are put at the beginning of the sentence followed by SV inversion (Never have I seen any ghost in my life) This meaning of emphasis is also expressed with the structure It -be NP or PP - that-clause to emphasize the duration of nonoccurrence of state or action For example: - It was not until 30 that my sister got married iv Expressing polite requests in spoken and written English: I’m not sure / I don’t know if you could tell me the way to the station (spoken) In order to express refusal to an offer or request the language users could use negative operators with such verbs as can, will, etc followed by verbs, depending on specific situations (written) For example: - Unfortunately, I will not be accepting the position as it does not fit the path I am taking to achieve my career goals v When expressing uncertainty the English use such mental process verbs as think, suppose, believe, expect What is special of the way they express the idea of uncertainty is English people normally say: e.g I don’t think (that) you are rightsince it is grammatically correct for the word not to go with the main verb and the word any is used in the that clause when negation is applied However, when they mean uncertainty about a particular thing or person in the that clause the word some, not any, is used Examples: - I don’t think anyone can it (no one can it) (RT: Tơi nghĩ khơng làm việc đó.) - I don’t think someone can it (a particular person) 49 (RT: Tôi không nghĩ có làm việc ấy) vi Prohibition can be expressed in English negative sentences To mean prohibition, the expressions such ascan’t or be not allowed is often used The meaning of prohibition becomes stronger when can’t is replaced by mustn’t or the expression be prohibited is employed For example, - We can’t come in now (RT: Chúng ta vào được) - You mustn’t tell the news to anyone (RT: Cấm cậu không nói tin với đấy) 4.2 The similarities and differences between negative statement in English and their Vietnamese equivalents 4.2.1 In term of syntactic features: 4.2.1.1 Syntactic similarities: Based on the descriptions and analyses as above, some syntactic similarities between of negative sentence structures in English and their Vietnamese equivalents could be pointed out as follows: As far as sentence structure is concerned, English negative sentences use various negative structures: words with negative meaning: denial (N), prohibitive (Adj), doubt (V), without (Prep) and nowhere (Adv) Words of this type generally have their Vietnamese equivalents For example: - I doubt whether he’ll come (VP) Tôi hồ nghi có đến khơng (EVD,p.475) - The cost of property in the city is prohibitive (Adj) Giá bất động sản thành phố đắt đỏ khó mua (EVD,p.1319) At phrase level, parts or phrases of English sentence structure in English seem to have their equivalents in Vietnamese and the word order of negative statements in English and Vietnamese is basically similar For example, the order of subject, verb, complement, object, adverbial is similar between the negative sentences of the two languages The following example is one of the illustrations - She will not it (SVO) (RT: Cơ khơng làm việc đó) 50 Apart from the similarity in word order, the position of the negative words in the sentence is basically similar For example, if the negative words in English have their equivalents in Vietnamese: never (không bao giờ), rarely (hiếm khi), not (không), not … any more/longer (khơng ….nữa), etc ; then, the position these words occupy in negative sentences in English and in their Vietnamese looks almost the same For example : Chris doesn’t like to eat bananas (RT: Chris không thích ăn chuối.) I can’t wait any longer Tơi khơng thể chờ đợi lâu chút (EVD, p.969) 4.2.1.2 Syntactic differences English Vietnamese Structurally, English negative sentences whereas in Vietnamese, the word use different negative prefixes or suffixes to express the negative meaning: dis-, un-, -less… and each affix has its syntactic features For example: un + Adj: unable, untrue, unpredictable… in + N: inability, … dis+N: disagreement,… không is mostly used to indicate the negative meaning non+N: noncooperation,… không +N: không hợp tác… Negative structures with the word not and no in English are different, not being an adverb, modifying a verb, not modifying a noun and noa determiner, Vietnamese has one and the same equivalent for noand notin English In Vietnamese, the negative word không stands right before the word it negates; For example: khơng+ Adj: khơng có khả năng, khơng thật, khơng dự đốn được…… khơng+N: khơng có khả năng, khơng +N: không đồng thuận,…… 51 standing before a noun; for example, I Vietnamese equivalent for no and that not have any money and I have no for not have no difference in these money patterns: not (không) + For example: verb/determiner; no (không) + noun For example: - Not many people here can speak - Khơng có nhiều người biết nói English tiếng Anh (*Not have many people here can speak English) - I have no money - Tơi khơng có tiền (*Tơi có khơng tiền) - I did not go anywhere last night - Tôi không đâu tối hôm qua (*Tôi không đâu tối hôm qua)/ As for the verb phrase structure, English However, the word không, its uses operators in different tense form Vietnamese equivalent, modifies any when the main verb is used in negative word which follows it: form; the word not stands between the operator and the verb Vietnamese has no equivalents for English operators The examples below illustrate this: - I‟m not hungry (the verb be as quasioperator) (Tơi khơng đói) - I not have any money / *I not have any money (Tơi khơng có tiền), In English negative sentences, the negative word not modifies the verb and Examples: - I’m not tired ( Tôi không mệt) - I don’t buy it / * I not buy it (Tôi không mua) - I not have any money / * I not have any money / *I have not any money (Tơi khơng có tiền ) stands after the operator, the supporter of the verb, which agrees with the subject in person and tense form; In English negative sentences, negative Their Vietnamese equivalents have no adjectives combine with noun phrases to indication of this element 52 make up adjective phrases by means of prepositions in between Examples: - The hospital is getting short of clean linen (Bệnh viện thiếu khăn trải giường sạch, EVD,p 1562) - At last she was free of pain (RT: Cuối bà khơng đau (LDCE,p.694) 4.2.2 In term of semantic features: 4.2.2.1 Semantic similarities: In terms of meanings The meanings of negative words in English have almost all their equivalents in their Vietnamese translations The meanings of the negative sentences in English and their Vietnamese equivalents indicate that the purposes for using negative statements in both languages are almost the same For example, - I find his rudeness unbearable.(Adj) Tôi thấy thái độ thô lỗ khơng thể chịu nổi, (EVD, p.1853) - He can hardly have arrived (Adv) Nó khó đến (EVD, p.749) - I can’t think what you men.(VP) Tơi khơng nghĩ anh muốn nói (EDV, 1780) Both negative sentences in English and their Vietnamese equivalents, in general, are used for the same communicative purposes: to give negative information, to give a refusal, to give prohibition, etc: - We can’t wear jeans at work (prohibition) Chúng ta khơng thể mặc quần bò làm việc (EVD, p.215) Last but not least, both negative sentences in English and their translated versions have one negative word with negative meaning in one and the same sentences When double 53 negative meanings are used in one sentence, the meaning of the sentence become positive and emphasized For example, - I don’t dislike fruits = I like fruits (RT: Tôi khơng thích hoa quả) I’m not an ungenerous man = I’m a generous man (RT: Tôi người khơng hào phóng) Although English negative statements and their Vietnamese equivalents share a number of similarities as have been described above, there are many differences between them - 4.2.2.2 Semantic differences: English Vietnamese In terms of meanings, in order to express the negative meaning of state or quality, English sentences employ the verb be followed by a negative adjective (e.g He is unhappy), the however, there does not seem to be an explicit Vietnamese equivalent for the verb be in English - This answer isn’t correct (Câu trả lời không đúng) word not followed by a noun or an - English is not so difficult (Tiếng adjective (e.g He is not a doctor; I’m Anh không khó) not tired) or no with a noun; There is some difference between benot-a N and be–no-N in English sentences; the former describing the negative state or status whereas the latter focuses on the quality of the noun: - He is not a teacher (Anh không giáo viên) -He is no teacher (RT: Anh khơng có phẩm chất người giáo viên), In the basic noun phrase structure, the Vietnamese equivalent for few is word few before plural count nouns often misleading since the 54 and little before non-count nouns have Vietnamese may be equivalent both negative meaning (not many and not to not many (negative in meaning) much respectively) and a small number / a few in English (positive in meaning) : - Few people live to be 100 ( Ít - người sống đến 100 tuổi) (EVD, p.593) Not a few of my friends are vegetarians (Khơng bạn tơi người ăn kiêng, EVD, p.593) As for the negative statement where the prepositional phrase is used with the word until The negative meaning of the verb or the whole process of whereas more focus is put on the point of time of the action in Vietnamese For this reason, there is a negative element in English; in the negative action is emphasized in Vietnamese translated versions there English sentences, the structure not- is no negative word until-that SV is emphatic, For examples: - She did not get married until35 / It was not until 35 that she got married (RT: Năm 35 tuổi chị lấy chồng) - It was not until mid night that he got home / He did not get home until midnight (RT: Mãi nửa đêm hôm qua cậu tới nhà) The last difference in meaning between English negative sentences and their Vietnamese equivalents is 55 that negative statements can be used to indicate uncertainty when such mental process verbs as think, suppose, believe, expect are used In these sentences, the mental process verbs usually goes with the negative operators and the word that can be left out; e.g I don’t think you are right / I think you are not right; the that clauses act like a direct object; However, the verb hope does not follow this rule since logically people hope for positive things expressed by the following that clause I hope it’s not raining tonight (NOT: I don’t hope) 4.3 Some recommendation for teaching and learning of negative statement into the target language Be aware of the fact that English is an infectional language and the form of word changes according to the function it does in the sentence In addition, one important thing is that English sentences are governed by grammar rules In order to build correct negative sentences in English, the learners of the language should be equipped with sufficient knowledge of parts of speech, especially with the ability to distinguish between the negative determiner No and the adverb not; the former modifies a noun but the latter does not The English word not can modify and stand before a verb, before an adjective (eg a very rich man) , before an adverb (e.g a not very rich man), sometimes before a preposition (e.g not in the morning) Learners of English in general and of negative sentences should be aware that in English different parts of speech combine with other words in the sentence in different 56 ways One typical example is that if a negative suffix can make a noun, an adjective negative in meaning (unable, non-existence) or the word no or not can make the meaning of the words that follow negative; however, the way the adverb not modifies the verb is different: the word not needs to go with the operator In speaking, the combination operator-not usually exist in contraction ( (e.g is not = isn‟t, not = don‟t) In English sentences the operator, not the verb, agrees with the subject in tense from and in person (e.g She doesn‟t know English /* She not know English) Learners of English negative sentences should develop the ability to realize the mismatch between positive form and negative of some words and use them correctly Some adverbs of this type include: hardly, scarecely, seldom… and some typical numerical determiners are few going with count nouns and little with non-count nouns It is noticed that when words of this type are used in the sentence, they affect the structure that follows according to the grammar rule for negation in English As for such words as nouns, verbs, adjectives which not have negative elements in form but have negative meaning, learners should be trained to master the use of their negative meaning This skill is essential for them to paraphrasing or to translate from English into Vietnamese or vice versa In the sentence, for example, Some elderly people suffer from iron defficiency in their diet (LDCE,2010, p.444) the phrase suffer from iron defficiency could be paraphrased as not take in enough iron and this sentence could be roughly translated into Vietnamese: Một số người già khơng có đủ / thiếu chất sắt phần ăn họ 4.4 Summary Above, witer of this thesis have endeavored to bring about the the contrastive analysis of the negative statements in English and Vietnamese at phrase level By comparing the examples, we are able to state the similarities and differences between the research population In general, the negative statements in English have more common points with Vietnamese corresponding than difference On the one hand, this offer Vietnamese learners of English better chance of studying and apply English negative statement for multiple use On the other hand, little difference between negative statement in the two languages allow negligent to take place, which mean users can make mistake of placing various elements in a sentence 57 CHAPTER CONCLUSION In this chapter, the final part of the thesis, the results of findings will be summarized, and then some conclusions from the discussions and analyses presented in the previous chapter and some suggestions for future research will be provided 5.1 Summary of Findings In the pursuit of the research objectives set up in Chapter One and on the basis of the theoretical framework defined in Chapter Two, the thesis has made an intensive investigation into the negative statements in English collected from a number of reliable bilingual resources The results of the study show that negative sentences in English are constructed by different negative structures which include negative noun phrase, negative adjective phrase, negative verb phrase, negative adverb phrase and negative prepositional phrases In those negative structures the negativity is expressed in different ways: by means of word, of affixation or by combination with other words in English negative sentences and by means of words with negative meaning or negative words that stand before the word they negate Each type of negative phrases is structurally and functionally featured by featured questions used in the novel The negative sentences in English and their Vietnamese equivalents are used to express different meanings according to different purposes of communication: to give negative answers to specific questions, to express the absence of nonexistence of something or somebody, to exert prohibition, etc In general, English negative sentences in English and their Vietnamese equivalents are similar in meanings but different in structure, which may be attributed to the difference in typology of language, English belonging to inflectional and Vietnamese to isolated language As a result, English employs different structures to express negative meanings whereas Vietnamese uses words as a major means to construct negative sentences Under the assumption that the syntactic differences between English negative sentences and their Vietnamese equivalents are likely to cause difficulties for those Vietnamese who wish to learn and use English negative sentences, the thesis offers a 58 number of pedagogical implications which are expected to make certain contributions in teaching, learning and using English negative sentences for Vietnamese learners 5.2 Conclusions From what has been described and analyzed in the thesis and especially in Chapter 4, it could be concluded that: As for the first research question on the syntactic and semantic features of English negative sentences, the data collected from both English and Vietnamese resources reveal that English negative statements are featured by different structures: negative noun phrases, negative adjective phrases, negative verb phrases, negative adverb phrases and negative prepositional phrases In the negative phrases, different patterns are used: the phrase can be made up by the words with negative meaning, acting as the head, or the head with negative independents; the negative meanings of the phrase can be expressed by the word itself, by means of affixation, or by combination with another word In English negative sentences the negative phrases perform different functions, depending on the word class of the head word: as subject, complement, object and adverbial In terms of semantic features, English negative sentences express different meanings: to inform the nonexistence of something or somebody, nonoccurrence of some activity; to give a negative answer to the question; to give a refusal or prohibition, etc As far as the second research question on the syntactic and semantic features of the negative sentences in English compared with those of their Vietnamese equivalents, the thesis has noticed that the negative meanings of English and Vietnamese negative sentences are almost the same However, the structures of expressing negativity between the two languages are different In Vietnamese the negative meanings are expressed by means of words: such words that indicate negativity as: thiếu, không, mất, vắng… are often used before the negated word in the sentence However, in English negative sentences, grammar rules are employed to govern the structure of the negative sentences; different word classes employ different grammatical patterns In terms of the third research question, some suggestions have been put forward, concerning the ways to learn English negative sentences Based on the syntactic and semantic differences between the negative sentences and their Vietnamese equivalents 59 together with what the author of the thesis knows and observes, it is noticed that when learning English as a foreign language Vietnamese learners cannot avoid the influence caused by their habit in thinking and in using their native language and that it is the syntactic differences in negative structures in English that cause difficulties for Vietnamese learners in learning English negative sentences The implication hereby is that the learners should use English negative sentences according to grammar rules in English, not according to the ways they use their Vietnamese negative ones In order to this, learners are advised to learn the ways of constructing English negative structures and of combining different parts to make up negative sentences At the same time, they practice and use them for different communicative purposes as they wish 5.3 Recommendations for Further Study In this study, the author based herself on a number of bilingual resources in English and Vietnamese to describe and compare the syntactic and semantic features of English negative sentences and their Vietnamese equivalents Due to limitations of time for study and limited knowledge of the author, there are still some aspects of English negative sentences which should be taken into further consideration Therefore, some suggestions for further studies could be put forward as below: - The negative sentences could be studied more extensively in different situations of communication where negation is used in both written and spoken language; they could be used for different purposes The differences in structures and uses in specific kinds of language and purposes of communication could be investigated in greater detail - Further study could be conducted in the aspects of other types of negative sentences, such as negative questions and requests in comparison with their Vietnamese equivalents Many structural and semantic similarities and differences between them could be detected - In the thesis, negative sentences were studied 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37 English-Vietnamese Dictionary (1993) Ho Chi Minh City Publishing House 63 ... concerning the ways of learning and teaching negative sentences in English to Vietnamese learners 4.1 Syntactic and semantic features of negative statements in English 4.1.1 Syntactic features of negative. .. the syntactic and semantic features of English negative sentences In some cases, when there are some typical syntactic and semantic features of Vietnamese equivalents against those in English negative. .. description of syntactic and semantic features of howEnglishnegative statementsareclassified, whatthecommonlyused English negative statementsand their Vietnamese equivalents are and how these kinds negative