SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH VERB ‘GET’ WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS IN THE NOVEL ‘VANITY FAIR’ BY w m THACKERAY

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY LÊ BÍCH DIỆP SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH VERB „GET‟ WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS IN THE NOVE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

LÊ BÍCH DIỆP

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH

VERB „GET‟ WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS IN THE NOVEL „VANITY FAIR‟ BY W.M.THACKERAY

ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA ĐỘNG TỪ

„GET‟ VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT TRONG

TÁC PHẨM „HỘI CHỢ PHÙ HOA‟ CỦA W.M THACKERAY

M.A Thesis

Field: English Language Code: 8220201

Hanoi, 2018

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

Student‟s name: LÊ BÍCH DIỆP Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr LÊ VĂN THANH

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH

VERB „GET‟ WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS IN THE NOVEL „VANITY FAIR‟ BY W.M.THACKERAY

ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA ĐỘNG TỪ

„GET‟ VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT TRONG

TÁC PHẨM „HỘI CHỢ PHÙ HOA‟ CỦA W.M THACKERAY

M.A Thesis

Field: English Language Code: 8220201

Hanoi, 2018

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH VERB „GET‟

WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS IN THE NOVEL „VANITY FAIR‟ BY W.M.THACKERAY submitted in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr Lê Văn Thanh

Date ………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Lê Văn Thanh, for his enthusiastic and useful guidance, insightful comment and encouragement without which this thesis would not have been completed

My special thanks go to all my lecturers in Faculty of Graduate Studies, Hanoi Open University for their precious assistance, knowledgement and enthusiasm Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, especially my parents and my lover for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate the syntactic and semantics features of

English verb get with reference to Vietnamese equivalent in the novel “Vanity Fair”

by W.M Thackeray The study is aimed at three point: (1) finding the syntactic and

semantics features of the verb get with reference to Vietnamese equivalent in the

novel “Vanity Fair” by W.M Thackeray, (2) finding the similarities and differences

between the verb get in English and their equivalent in Vietnamese and (3)

providing some recommendation for the teaching and learning as well as translation

of verb get into the target language.This study was designed as a descriptive

research with the method of contrastive and componential analysis According to

the data analysis, the result of the study show that the verb get coincide in their general meaning However, the verb get in Vietnamese seems to have much more

meanings than that in English In practice, the study not only supplies some implications to language teaching, learning as well as translating but also raises

language users‟ awareness of the differences between the verb get so that they can

use them exactly and be successful in their real life communication in English

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Sentence partern……… ……… ………….… p10 Table 2.2 Classification of transitive verb……… …….………… … p13 Table 2.3 Summary of syntactic feature of verb „get” and their Vietnamese

equivalent ………… ……… ….…… …p15 Table 2.4 Summary of syntactic feature of verb „get” and their Vietnamese

equivalent……… …….……p15

Table 2.5 Summary of syntactic feature of verb „get” and their Vietnamese

equivalent……… ………….……p16 Table 2.6 Summary of syntactic feature of verb „get” and their Vietnamese

equivalent……… ……… ………….……p17 Table 2.7 Summary of meaning of verb “get”……….… ……p18

TABLE OF CONTENT

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

TABLE OF CONTENT vii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the Study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1

1.3 Research question 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Significance of the Study 2

1.6 Design of the study 3

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Previous study 4

2.2 Theoretical background 5

2.2.1 Theory of syntax 5

2.2.2 Theory of semantic 6

2.2.3 Overview of English verb 7

2.3 Theoretical framework 14

2.3.1 Syntactic feature of verb “get” 14

2.3.2 Semantic feature of verb “get” 18

2.4 Summary 19

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 21

3.1 Subject 21

3.2 Instruments 21

3.3 Procedure 22

3.4 Statistical analysis 23

3.5 Summary 24

CHAPTER 4 SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH VERB „GET‟ WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS IN THE NOVEL „VANITY FAIR‟ BY W.M.THACKERAY 25

4.1 The syntactic and semantics features of the English verb “Get” with reference to Vietnamese equivalent in the novel “Vanity Fair” by W.M Thackeray 25

4.1.1 Syntactic feature of verb “get” 25

4.1.2 Semantic feature of verb “get” 34

4.2 The similarities and differences between English verb “get” in the novel “Vanity Fair” by W.M Thackeray and their Vietnamese translation versions 40

4.2.1 Similarities 40

4.2.2 Differences 42

4.3 Some recommendation for the teaching and learning as well as translation of verb “Get” into the target language 44

4.4 Summary 47

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 48

5.1 Summary of Findings 48

5.2 Conclusion 49

5.3 Suggestions for a further study 50

REFERENCES 51

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study

Nowadays, English is regarded as the language of modernization and technological advancement all over the world Learning English is also problematic for native speakers in general and foreign learners in particular because they are affected by their mother tongue during the process of studying grammar, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, etc Moreover, the reason is there are some words that have many meaning categories and their meanings sometimes are very different from each

other, as the English verb get

The verb get is one of the commonest verbs in English; therefore structurally, it can

be detected in seven basic clause patterns presented by Quirk et al (1972:343) and

verb get, semantically, conveys a lot of meanings Thus, the verb get is most

complicated Due to their insufficient knowledge of all semantic component coded

in each lexeme, learners of English often have trouble in choosing the right word in the target language for the translational equivalent We assume that the semantic features of these verbs reveal more complicated and interesting issues to linguists

Learning to interpret and express the idea with the verb get and also, the confusion

in the choice of words and their meaning is difficult task for Vietnamese learners of English Awareness of the meanings of these verbs will help learners get better understanding of their usage, find out English- Vietnamese as well as Vietnamese- English translational equivalent, avoid producing word-for-word translation in language transfer

Therefore, a study for the successful way to translate the verb get in the novel

“Vanity Fair” by W.M Thackeray and their equivalent in its translation “Hội chợ phù hoa” translated by Trần Kiệm will be a contribution to the teaching and learning the two languages Similarities and differences found from the analysis between English and Vietnamese will be of great benefit to Vietnamese learners of English and foreign students of Vietnamese as well

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The thesis is aimed at analyzing the syntactic and semantic features of verb get and raising Vietnamese learners‟ awareness of this verb, so that they could be able to

use them exactly and successful in their real world communication in English There are three main objectives of this study The first objective is pointing out

some syntactic and semantics features of verb get in the novel “Vanity Fair” by

W.M Thackeray and their equivalent in its translation “Hội chợ phù hoa” translated

by Trần Kiệm; the second is finding out the similarities and differences between them, and the last one is suggesting implications for teaching, learning and

translating English verb get

1.3 Research question

In order to gain the above aims, the studies try to answer the following questions

1 What are the syntactic and semantic features of English verb get with

reference to Vietnamese equivalent in the novel “Vanity Fair” by W.M Thackeray?

2 What are the similarities and differences between English verb get in the

novel “Vanity Fair” by W.M Thackeray and their Vietnamese translation versions?

3 What are the implications for teaching, learning and translating English

verb get?

1.4 Scope of the study

It is unfeasible to discuss the verb get in details Therefore, within this study, the

author focuses on analyzing them (concerning syntactic and semantic features of the

verb get) through more than 100 examples in the novel “Vanity Fair” by W.M

Thackeray, and above 70 examples from other books, novels and dictionaries… and just briefs the similarities and differences between them

To serve the purpose of the study, some implications will be suggested to help

Vietnamese learners of English have a better understanding of the verb get and then

use them in daily communication effective

1.5 Significance of the Study

Theoretical significance

Theoretically, the study will provide a full description of syntactic and semantic features of the English verbs, so other researchers and linguistics could take it as a

reliable reference to make further studies in this field Moreover, the similarities and differences between these verbs in English and in Vietnamese are very helpful in contrasting two languages

Practical significance

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

language use the verb get effectively in daily communication The findings of the

study is hopeful to be beneficial to those whose are engaged in teaching English as well as those who want to learn English as a foreign language

1.6 Design of the study

The study consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Literature review

Chapter 3 Methodology

Chapter 4 Syntactic and semantic features of verb get with reference to their

Vietanmese equivalent in in the novel “Vanity Fair” by W.M Thackeray

Chapter 5 Conclusion

References come at the end of the study

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous study

Up to present, there have been a number of studies on different kinds of verb in English and Vietnam The description and analyses are based on the starting points from Chomsky The other descriptions of syntactic and semantic view are through

different ages in the history of linguistic as William Bullokar in “Brief Grammar for

English” (1785) Verb get are found in English as: in study of R M.W.Dixon

(1991), a new approach to English grammar on semantic principles These studies studied on the semantic of these verbs in terms of semantic features Gilbert Ryle

(2009), Concept of mind Kenneth Beare (2006) states that the verb get is used in

many senses in English and can be confusing at time (11, p.1) About multiple-class membership of verbs in the book, entitled “A Grammar of Contemporary English”

Quirk R et al (1985) defined six parterns of the verb get (22, p.348)

In Vietnam, Nguyen Kim Than [36] mentions the formation of Vietnamese verbs and their classification Moreover; there are also some studies on semantic and lexical features of verbs For example, Huynh Vu Chi Tam [9] has a study on semantic features of state related verbs in English and their Vietnamese equivalent expressions There also have been many studies that focus on verb groups Tran Thi Phuoc Hanh [23] analyzed the semantic and syntactic features of four English verbs: Say-Tell-Speak-Talk and their Vietnamese equivalents Bach Thi Duong [4] studied on semantic and syntactic features of thinking verbs in English and Vietnamese equivalent Dang Thi Thuy Van [6] with a study on form and meaning

of lexical verb “get” and Vietnamese equivalent Nguyen Thi Le Thuy [17] studied

“Get phrasal verbs in term of syntactic and semantic features with reference to Vietnamese equivalent”

Although all the studies above thoroughly describe about the syntactic and semantic

features of the verb get in general, the equivalents between two languages English

and Vietnamese has not been implemented yet, especially, in a novel “Vanity Fair”

Moreover, the implications for teaching and learning the verb get from English into

Vietnamese have not carried out yet As a result, that is why this research studies

about the verb get In this paper, the features of syntactic as well as semantics of the verb get will be analyzed clearly from the novel “Vanity Fair” by W.M.Thackeray

2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.1 Theory of syntax

Within traditional grammar, the syntax of a language is described in terms of taxonomy of the range of different types of syntactic structures found in the language The central assumption under pinning syntactic analysis in traditional grammar is that phrases and sentences are built up of a series of constituents, each

of which belongs to a specific grammatical category and serves a specific grammatical function Syntax is a set of rules in language It dictates how words from different parts of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought

According to R.M.W Dixon (1991), syntax deals with the way in which words are combined together Verbs have different grammatical properties from language to language but there is always a major class verb, which includes word referring to motion, rest, attention, giving and speaking Syntax is understood to be the 6 theory

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

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

in order to account for the meaning of a sentence, it is necessary to recognize how individual constituents such words and morphemes constitute more complex forms Syntax is now the study of the principles and rules that govern the ways in which words are combined to form phrases, clauses and sentences in a language Syntax, which is a subfield of grammar, focuses on the word order of a language and the relationships between words In other words, morphology deals with word formation out of morphemes whereas syntax deals with phrase and sentence formation out of words Syntax structures are analyzable into sequences of syntactic categories or syntactic classes, these being established on the basic of the syntactic relationships and linguistic items have with other items in a construction Every language has a limited number of syntactic relations Subject and object are probably universal of syntactic relations, which apply to every language However,

just as the criteria for the major words class noun and verb differ from language to language, so do the ways in which syntactic relations are marked

2.2.2 Theory of semantic

In general, semantics can be defined as the study of meaning It is central to the study of communication In addition, there is no doubt that communication is a crucial factor in our life, which is why the need to understand semantics becomes

more and more pressing

Many authors hold the idea that semantics is the meaning place of various cross current thinking and various disciplines of the study Philosophy, psychology and linguistics all claim a deep interest in semantics, but their interests are diverse because of their different starting points “Semantics is the study of meaning”- Lyons (1977) “Semantics is the study of meaning in language”- Hurford & Heasley

1983 “Linguistic semantics is the study of literal, decontextualized, grammatical meaning” Frawley (1992) “Linguistic semantics is the study of how languages organize and express meanings”- Kreidler (1998) “Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through language” - Löbner (2002)

Something that can be noticed is that there is no complete agreement For some, semantics concerns the study of meaning as communicated through language, while for some others, semantics studies all aspects of meaning and they have to add the label “linguistic” to arrive at a more precise definition This distinction, however, is not generally given much importance and leaving aside special formulations, probably all authors would agree with Kreidler‟s definition (to choose just one of them): linguistic semantics is the study of how languages organize and express meanings

Nowadays, there are two ways of approaching semantics The formal semantics approach connects with classical philosophical semantics, that is, logic It should not be forgotten that semantics was a part of philosophy for many centuries Formal semantics tries to describe the meaning of language using the descriptive apparatus

of formal logic The purpose is to describe natural language in a formal, precise, unambiguous way Related (though not identical) denominations for this type of semantics are truth-conditional semantics, model theoretic semantics, logical

semantics, etc In truth-conditional semantics, the goal is to describe the conditions that would have to be met for a sentence to be true Formal semantics follows Frege‟s principle of compositionality: the meaning of the whole is a function of the meaning of the parts This type of semantics has proposed very precise and detailed analyses of sentences and propositions, though at the price of abandoning many of the factors affecting meaning, such as etymological, cultural or psychological considerations, and neglecting a detailed analysis of the meaning of words (lexical semantics) The other approach to semantics we could call psychologically-oriented semantics or cognitive semantics This approach does not consider the logical structure of language as important for the description of the meaning of language, and tends to disregard notions such as truth-values or strict compositionality Cognitive semantics tries to explain semantic phenomena by appealing to biological, psychological and even cultural issues They are less concerned with notions of reference and try to propose explanations that will fit with everything that

we know about cognition, including perception and the role of the body in the structuring of meaning structures Throughout the years, only two plausible functions of language have been considered: a communicative function and a representational function; in both of them, semantics has to be placed at the very heart of the process

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

2.2.3 Overview of English verb

2.2.3.1 Definition of the English verb

A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes actions (“go”, “learn”), occurrence (“to decompose”, “to glitter”) or a state of being (“exist”, “live”)

Similarly, according to Crystal D, verb is a word class, which is traditionally defined as a “doing” or “action” word A verb can be formally identified in many languages as an element displaying contrast of tense, aspect, voice, mood, person and number In “The Functional Analysis of English” by Thomas Bloor and Meriel Bloor [14, p.18], verbs are traditionally defined as words which express an action or

state (a rather feeble definition), verbs show the greatest degree of various inform (morphology) of any of the word classes

According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary [2005], verb is “a group or a group of words that expresses an action, an event, or a state” [p.1636]

“Verb is a word which occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence: carries markers

of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number, and mood; and refers to an action or state” (Cambridge dictionary.com)

As for dictionary of Merriam-Webster “Verb is a word that characteristically is the grammatical center of a predicate and expresses an act, occurrence, or mode of being, that in various language is inflected for agreement with the subject, for tense, for voice, for mood, or for aspect, and that typically has rather full descriptive meaning and characterizing quality but is sometimes nearly devoid of these especially when use an auxiliary or liking verb”

2.2.3.2 Classification of Verbs

2.2.3.2.1 Classification of Verbs according to their complementation

According to According to R Quirk et al (1985), verbs are classified into two types: intensive verbs and extensive verbs

Your dinner seems ready (SVC)

My office is in the next building (SVA)

[Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721]

Intensive verb does not take any object It presents the relationship between the subject and the subject complementation The verb in sentences with subject complement is a “copular” (or linking verb), which of itself has little meaning but functions as a link between the complement subject

There are two subgroups:

Current intensive: be, appear, look, feel, remain, keep

Her rug is too small for her living room (SVC)

[E Warriner, J & Graham, L.S 1980:108]

Resulting intensive: become, come, get, go, grow, turn

She grew tired of his complaints (SVO)

[E Warriner, J & Graham, L.S 1980:108]

b Extensive verbs

Extensive verbs are most other verbs, they do not have subject compliment Extensive verbs are used to say what the subject is doing It coversa wider area; it takes the information away from the subject Words or phrases, which are followed

by an extensive verb work as the verb‟s object They apply to the verb, not the subject as in:

Extensive verbs include three small types: monotransitive, complex transitive and ditransitive

Ditransitive verbs are verbs which take a subject and two objects or have the structure “S V O O” According to certain linguistic considerations, these objectives may be called direct, indirect objectives, or primary and secondary objectives as in the following examples:

I must send my parents an anniversary card (SVOO)

[Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721]

In contrast, mono transitive verbs take only one object and appear in the structure

“S V O” as in the following examples:

That lecture bored me (SVO)

[Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721]

Verb requires both a direct object and another object or an object complement is complex transitive verbs Complex transitive verbs appear in the structure “S V O C” or “S V O A” In a complex- transitive construction, the object complement identifies a quality or attributes pertaining to the direct object Let‟s consider the following examples:

Most student have found their reasonably helpful (SVOC)

You can put the dish on the table (SVOA)

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

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

The form of the verb must agree with the number of its subject, which will be a

noun or noun group, for example “He was a singer (as opposed to “He were a

singer) Confusion can arise when deciding whether the subject is singular or plural,

for example 'This group of children is very intelligent', or when there are two subjects, for example „The farmer and his buffalo are in the field”

2.2.3.2.2 Classification of sentences in terms of sentence pattern

* Sentence pattern

The clause is the key unit of syntax, capable of occurring independently The following list presents examples of the basic clause patterns

S(ubject) V(erb) O(bject(s) C(omplement) A(dverbial)

Type

SVOC

Most people

consider these books rather

expensivie

Type

SVOA

Table 2.1 Sentence partern

Each clause type is associated with a set of verbs The seven fall naturally into three main types There are:

1 A two-element pattern: SV

The sun is shining

2 Three-element pattern: SV( O, C, A)

That lecture bored me (SVO)

Your dinner seems ready (SVC)

My office is in the next building (SVA)

[Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721]

3 Three four-element patterns: SVO + {O, C, A}

I must send my parents an anniversary card (SVOO)

Most students have found her reasonably helpful (SVOC)

You can put the dish on the table (SVOA)

[Quirk, Randolph, 1985: 721] This set of patterns is the most general classification that can be usefully applied to the classification of sentence patterns of the “Get” verb in English

* Sentence elements

Quirk, Randolph (1985) states that Subject is the most important element of the

clause elements other than the verb It is the element that is most often present It is also the element for which we can find the greatest number of characteristic features The subject is normally a noun phrase or a nominal clause, a pronoun, that-clause, to infinitive or V-ing A subject is obligatory in finite clauses except in imperative clauses, where it is normally absent but implied

Verb is also taken an extremely important role in sentences Cutting across above

three fold classification are three main verb classes:

Intransitive verbs (laugh in [1a]), are followed by no obligatory element, and occur

in type SV Transitive verbs (enjoy in [2a], give in [5a], consider in [6a], put in [7a]) are followed by an object and occur in types SVO, SVOO, SVOC and SVOA

respectively

Copular verbs (become in [3a], be in [4a]) are followed by a subject complement or

an adverbial, and occur in types SVC and SVA

In general sense, the term transitive is often applied to all verbs which require an

object, including those of clause types SVOO, SVOC, and SVOA It is, however, convenient to make a further classification of the verbs in these patterns:

Transitive verbs

Monotransitive verbs occurs in type SVO Ditransitive verbs occur in type SVOO Complex transitive verbs occur in types SVOC and SVOA

Table 2.2 Classification of transitive verb

Objects are an indispensable element in a sentence with a transitive verb

In fact, there are two types of object: direct object (Od) and indirect object (Oi) An

object such as parties in [2a] (The boy enjoys parties) clearly has a different role in the lause from an object such as the visitor in [5a] (The waiter gave the passenger a

cup of tea), and this has been traditionally recognized by applying the term direct object to the former, and indirect object to the latter We give priority here to the

distributional fact that whenever there are two objects (in type SVOO), the former is normally the indirect object, and the latter is direct object But although it is more central with regard to position, in other respects the indirect object is more peripheral than the direct object: it is more likely to be optional, and may general be

paraphrased by a prepositional phrase functioning adverbial

Complements are used in sentence patterns SVC and SVOC There are also two

types of complements: subject complement (Cs) and object complement (Co) We can distinguish between the types of complement found in the SVC pattern; ie:

totally independent in:

And the type of complement found in the SVOC pattern; ie: rather expensive in:

Most people consider these works rather expensive [6a]

The distinction is effectively made by noting that in [3a] the country is understood

to have become a totally independent country, while in [6a] the books are understood to be considered rather expensive works In other words, in SVC clauses

the complement applies some attribute or definition to the subject, whereas in SVOC clauses it applies an attribute or definition to the object This distinction is

usually denoted by the terms subject complement and object complement

respectively In these cases, the complement is an adjective phrase, but elsewhere, where the complement is a noun phrase, the same kind of distinction holds:

Type SVC: The country became a separate nation

Type SVOC: Most people considered Vangoh a genius

In the SVC sentence, a separate nation is understood to be a definition of the subject, the country, while in the SVOC sentence, a genius is understood to be a definition of the object, Vangoh

Obligatory adverbial is an intergral element in sentence paterns SVA and SVOA

The adverbial is normally an adverb phrase, prepositional phrase, or adverbial clause It may also be a noun phrase

Except for the obligatory adverbial in the SVA and SVOA types, adverbials are optional: they may be added to or removed from the clause without affecting its acceptability and without affecting the relations of structure and meaning in the rest

of the clause

Obligatory adverbials are a subclass of predication adjuncts that belong to SVA and SVOA types In as much as they are obligatory, they are central elements of the clause, part of the clause nucleus They may be adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, or adverbial clauses Some obligatory adverb phrases and prepositional phrases may be analyzed as complements belonging to the SVC and SVOC types

Type SVA: I have been in the garden

Type SVOA: You must put all the toys upstairs

2.3 Theoretical framework

2.3.1 Syntactic feature of verb “get”

- As a ditransitive, get permits both a direct object and an indirect object Usually

the indirect object refers to a person, and comes first

English S + get + Noun Phrase + Noun Phrase

Vietnamese S + làm cho / kiếm cho / chuẩn bị / mua cho / lấy cho + ai + Noun

[2] It‟s okay Don‟t be sad I can get you another glass of canberry juice

Không sao đâu con Đừng buồn Mẹ sẽ làm cho con một ly nước quất khác

nhé

- The verb get, when followed by adjectives, conveys different meanings and is

occasionally omitted in Vietnamese version This table below summarizes all the

cases with type SVC in which the verb get is followed by complement and their

+ Adjective

C = Past participle

+ Past participle

Table 2.4 Summary of syntactic feature of verb “get” and their Vietnamese

equivalent

[3] You will get sacked if you take more time off

[4] When the Vietnamese in the urban areas get married today, the bride and

groom both wear western clothes instead of traditional attire

Ngày nay khi những người Việt Nam sống ở thị thành làm đám cưới, cả cô

dâu và chú rể đều mặc âu phục thay cho y phục cổ truyền

làm cho + O + trở nên / bị + Adjective

nhờ / sai / thuyết phục / làm cho / …

+ ai + V ( làm gì / bị … )

Table 2.5 Summary of syntactic feature of verb “get” and their Vietnamese

equivalent

[6] Her mother warned her not to get her clothes too dirty

Besides, from Quirk‟s view (1973:367), get can take either an -ing participle or a

to-infinitive clause and it also disallows the genitive

Susan cố gắng thuyết phục giám đốc cho phép cô làm việc linh động theo

giờ

- In most cases, get permits obligatorily adverbial phrase

Table 2.6 Summary of syntactic feature of verb “get” and their Vietnamese

equivalent

Anh ta đã không nhận ra rằng mình đã mất nó cho đến lúc vể nhà

- With an object, this structure usually means “make somebody / something move”

[10] He got himself into trouble

[11] When Frank gets a job, I might get the money back that I lent him

Khi nào Frank kiếm được việc thì tôi có thể lấy lại số tiền đã cho anh ấy

mượn

- get functions as an intransitive verb in SV However, rarely does it appear alone,

as in:

[12] Don‟t ask, you don‟t get

Đừng hỏi nữa, anh không hiểu đâu

[5:p391]

2.3.2 Semantic feature of verb “get”

Verb “get” conveys difference meaning as follow

to receive / obtain something đạt được, giành được, kiếm được

to fetch something đi lấy, đi kiếm, tìm,

đi , sử dụng ( phương tiện gì )

to revenge on somebody giết, tóm, bắt, …

to buy something mua, kiếm, có, …

Table 2.7 Summary of meaning of verb “get”

[13] Christie got the gold medal in the 100 metres

Christie đã đoạt được huy chương vàng trong môn 100 mét

[2:p494]

[14] "All I get is fifty for it," he grumbled, "and I wouldn't do it over for a

thousand, cold cash."

Về món này, tôi chỉ lấy 50 thôi - gã lẩm bẩm - Có trả đến 1000 tiền mặt hẳn

[34:p225]

[15] … the boy said “Now I must get your sardines and mine …

…thằng bé nói “Bây giờ cháu phải đi lấy cá mòi của ông cháu ta …

[32:p27]

[16] If I listen to loud music, I get a headache

Nếu tôi nghe nhạc to là tôi (thường) bị nhức đầu

[17] Will Mary be in time if she gets the ten o‟clock bus?

Liệu Mary có đúng giờ không nếu cô đi chuyến xe buýt 10 giờ?

[2:p343]

[18] I cannot keep him from hitting me but maybe I can get him

Mình không thể ngăn nó đừng tấn công nhưng có lẽ mình sẽ giết được nó

[32:p101]

[19] To get a cheap ticket, you must book in advance

2.4 Summary

In this chapter, the Literature Review includes previous studies, review of

theoretical background and theorical framework of verb get In the previous studies,

the studies of authors in oversea and in Vietnam are given In the theoretical background, theory of syntax and semantics are analyzed thoroughly in order to use

for the background of analyzing the syntactic and semantic features of the verb get

in English Moreover, the definition of the verb and classification of verb are pointed out in details Finally, theoretical background is given briefly reviewed what has been found and discussed the related studies by describing their approaches and key findings, but then identify weaknesses in the approach and limitations in the findings

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

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Subject

For this chapter, the methodology applied in the study will be discussed in more details The instruments, the procedure of data collection and analysis which are all aimed at achieving the major aims of the study will be introduced

The thesis is conducted by combining the three research approaches of quantitative, qualitative and contrastive, which are carried out following orientations Firstly, the thesis is started with data collection by using a various sources of printed publications as novel, books, English Vietnamese Dictionary and Vietnamese grammar books or from the internet After finishing the collection of data, they are qualitatively described, analyzed and illustrated by corpora in terms of the structural and semantic features The data collected from the reliable sources then are quantitatively computed and compared with Vietnamese equivalents under a process of statistical analysis to find the answers to the research questions Finally,

certain conclusions and implications for using the verb get in English in an effective

way are withdrawn

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

Sources of data are from finding books at libraries, bookshops and on the Internet Data analysis techniques are collecting the materials, investigating the syntactic and semantic features of the verb get in English and contrasting with their Vietnamese equivalents