SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES IN SOME ENGLISH WORKS WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

M.A Thesis Field: English Language Code: 8220201 SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES IN SOME ENGLISH WORKS WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE... M.A Thesi

M.A Thesis

Field: English Language

Code: 8220201

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES

OF ENGLISH DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES IN SOME ENGLISH WORKS WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE

M.A Thesis

Field: English Language

Code: 8220201

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES

OF ENGLISH DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES IN SOME ENGLISH WORKS WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Syntactic and sematic features of English descriptive Adjectives in some English works with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents” (Đặc điểm cú pháp và ngữ nghĩa của tính từ miêu tả trong một số tác phẩm văn học Anh và liên hệ tương đương trong Tiếng Việt) 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

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

On the completion of this thesis, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my

supervisor, Dr Pham Thi Tuyet Huong, who gave me benefit of her wisdom and her

expert knowledge as well as her constant encouragement from the beginning stage

of working out the research proposal to the final stage of writing up the thesis

Without her critical comments and valuable suggestions this study could not have

been completed

I would like to express my appreciation to all my teachers at the Department

of Post Graduate Studies, Hanoi Open University for their teaching and very helpful

comments on earlier versions of the study

My thanks also go to my friends, who gave me documents and encouraged

me much while the work was in process

I am deeply grateful to students and my teacher, my colleague, Tran Dang

Ninh high school Without their help, my work would not be possible

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my beloved family who always

stands by and helps me overcome all the difficulties in studying and fulfil of this

academic work

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table: 2.1 Types of adjective 11 Table 2.2 Types of adjectives and their order 25 Table 3.1 Result of theory of descriptive adjectives 36

Diagram 3.1: Errors made by students when using order of descriptive adjectives 36 Diagram 3.2: Errors made by students when using descriptive adjectives 37 Diagram 4.1 Syntactic features of descriptive adjectives in Vietnamese 48

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

ABSTRACT vii

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Objectives of the study 2

1.4 Research questions 3

1.5 Methods of the study 3

1.6 Scope of the study 3

1.7 Significance of the study 3

1.8 Design of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Previous studies 6

2.2 An overview of adjectives in English 8

2.2.1 Definitions of adjective in English 9

2.2.2 Syntactic features of English Adjectives 11

2.2.3 Semantic functions of English adjectives 14

2.2.4 Classification of adjectives 18

2.4.5 Placement and order of adjectives 21

2.2.6 English Descriptive Adjectives 22

2.3 Vietnamese adjectives 25

2.3.1 Definition of Vietnamese adjectives 25

2.3.2 Features of Vietnamese adjectives 26

2.5 Summary of the chapter 32

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 33

3.1 Subjects 33

3.1.1 Sample collection 33

3.1.2 Participants 33

3.2 Instruments 33

3.3 Procedure 35

3.3.1 Data collection procedure 35

3.3.2 Questionnaires 35

3.4 Statistical Analysis 36

3.5 Summary of this chapter 38

Chapter 4: SYTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN WORKS WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 39

4.1 Syntactic and semantic features of descriptive adjectives in English 39

4.1.1.1 Syntactic features of descriptive adjective in English 39

4.1.1.1 Descriptive adjectives as compound adjectives 39

4.1.1.2 After adverbs of degree 40

4.1.1.3 Using in comparison form 41

4.1.1.4 Before a noun 43

4.1.1.5 Following some stative verbs 44

4.1.6 Function of a noun 45

4.1.1.7 Using in inverted sentences to emphasize characteristics of nouns or subjects in sentences 45

4.1.1.8 Using in compound adjectives expressing the determination of nouns 46 4.1.2 Semantic features of descriptive adjectives in English 47

4.1.2.1 Using in comparison structures expressing the reference, the changes of situations 47

4.1.2.2 Expressing the contrast 48

4.2 Syntactic and semantic features of descriptive adjectives in Vietnamese 49

4.2.1 Descriptive adjectives are often used after a noun 49

4.2.2 Using before a verb 49

4.2.4 Before a noun 50

4.2.5 Being used in comparison form 51

4.3 Semantic features of descriptive adjectives in Vietnamese 52

4.4 Similarities and differences of the syntactic features of descriptive in English and Vietnamese 53

4.4.1 Similarities of the syntactic features of descriptive adjectives in English and Vietnamese 53

4.4.2 Differences of the syntactic features of descriptive adjectives in English and Vietnamese 54

4.5 Similarities and differences of the semantic features of descriptive in

English and Vietnamese 55

4.5.1 Similarities of the semantic features of descriptive in English and Vietnamese 55

4.5.2 Differences of the semantic features of descriptive adjectives in English and Vietnamese 56

4.6 Errors and causes of committing errors by learners of English when using descriptive adjectives in English and Vietnamese 56

4.6.1 Common errors 57

4.7 Implication of the study 59

4.8 Summary 60

CHAPER 5: CONCLUSION 62

5.1 Summary of findings 62

5.2 Concluding remarks 62

5.3 Recommendation for Further study 64

Appendix 1 65

Appendix 2 69

REFERENCES 70

to be confused and this theme has not been adequately dealt with in some previous studies Moreover, adjectives are used regularly and naturally in everyday communication Being interested in adjectives, I choose the thesis with title

Syntactic and semantic features of English descriptive Adjectives in some English works with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents

On the other hand, reading is one of effective study methods There are a lot of

English learners who have problems with the comprehension of English and books, especially books in literature, because of the meanings of words in these books, specially, English descriptive adjectives In order to help learners to have a better understanding of the use of descriptive adjectives, this study will analyze sentences with descriptive adjectives in some Charles Dickens’ and Hans Christian Andersen’s stories to point out similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese descriptive adjectives in syntactic and semantic features The findings

of the thesis illustrate some implications for teachers, learners of English and translators from the use of English descriptive adjectives Hopefully, the study may help learners, teachers, and translators of English avoid difficulties in using English descriptive adjectives Numerous descriptive adjectives in English and stories have been analyzed cautiously by applying the qualitative approach; descriptive and contrastive methods are followed to achieve the set objectives

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

Language holds a crucial role in communication among people and English is considered an international language and used as means of communication in business, technology, scientific research, medicine, politics, etc As a result, a need for learning English as a second or foreign language is increasing in many countries including Vietnam where English is learned by both very small children and retired people and becomes a compulsory subject at all levels “ For the first time in the country’s many thousand – year- long history, English emerged as the most important foreign language, which was chosen by most students’ (2007) Additionally, “More English language books became available in the country and a greater desire for specialized study of English became apparent as more Vietnamese desired these language skills for specific work environment’’ (Shapiro, 1995) Anh states that the number of students choosing to learn English to complete the compulsory foreign language component in the curriculum has risen overwhelmingly (as cited in Le, 2011)

Any language in the world serves the demand for communication of human beings However, each language has its origin, characteristics and values English and Vietnamese are two vastly different languages Thus, in communication, we have difficulties in expressing our ideas, especially in transferring meanings of words from a language to another one, in our case from English to Vietnamese and vice versa and especially when we want to describe characteristics of humans or things There are many problems in learning English as listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, lexicology, etc In grammar, the adjective is one of the essential parts of speech to form a sentence Adjectives are frequently used in daily life such

as describing people, things, objects, or expressing feelings, emotions, etc English adjectives are diversified in many forms, meanings as well as usage It takes learners quite a long time to understand grammar deeply, especially adjectives It

therefore seems that the semantic and syntactic functions of adjectives are still too difficult for students Moreover, there are a lot of kinds of adjective, such as: Quantitative adjectives, demonstrative adjective, possessive adjectives, descriptive adjectives It is not easy for English learners who learn English as a second language to express something if they don’t understand the syntactic and semantic features of adjectives, especially, the use of descriptive adjectives In fact, most learners often feel confused with adjectives when they are used in various contexts since they fail to grasp the contextual meanings that are central to the interpretation

of meaning There can be no denying that the general sense of one adjective can be adjusted by virtue of contextual factor and each context can make certain aspects of meaning vary interestingly This is the reason why we would like to carry out this

thesis titled “Syntactic and semantic features of English descriptive adjectives in

some English works with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents.”

1.2 Aims of the study

With this study, the writer wants to make a general view on discriptive adjectives in English and Vietnamese equivalents in some English works, focus on syntactic and semantic features to find out the similarities and differences in English and Vietnamese descriptive adjectives The best methods for teaching and learning English will be expected to find out in this reaseach

1.3 Objectives of the study

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

- To investigate the syntactic and semantic features of English descriptive adjectives with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents

- To find out the similarities and differences between descriptive adjectives in

English and Vietnamese equivalents in term of syntactic and semantic features

- To propose some implications for teaching and learning English descriptive

adjectives at Tran Dang Ninh high school

1.4 Research questions

1 What are the syntactic and semantic features of English descriptive adjectives?

2 What are the similarities and differences between English descriptive adjectives and their Vietnamese equivalents?

3 What are the implications for teaching-learning English descriptive adjectives and their Vietnamese equivalents in an effective way?

1.5 Methods of the study

In order to complete this study, some different research methods will be applied:

Firstly, the descriptive method is used to describe in details the syntactic and

semantic features of descriptive adjectives in English and Vietnamese equivalents Secondly, the contractive analysis method is used to identify the similarities and differences between English descriptive adjectives and their Vietnamese equivalents

in terms of syntactic and sematic features

Thirdly, qualitative method is used to identify the relationship between syntactic and semantic features of English descriptive adjectives with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents from the novel “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens and some short stories by Hans Christian Andersen with a view to design a test to find out the common errors made by students at Tran Dang Ninh high school when using English descriptive adjectives

1.6 Scope of the study

The study mainly focuses on syntactic and semantic features of English descriptive adjectives to their Vietnamese equivalents to find out the similarities and difference between them Through some English Works and Vietnamese fairy tails, syntactic and semantic features of descriptive adjectives will be found in 300 sentences that containing descriptive adjectives This research will carry out a survey in Tran Dang Ninh High School in Ung Hoa, Ha Noi with 60 students in

three classes of grade 10

1.7 Significance of the study

The analysis of syntactic and semantic features of English descriptive adjectives in some English works, such as “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens and stories

by Hans Christian Andersen, and Two Grim Brothers, etc… has provided a profound and convincing explanation to manifest the viewpoints of the native speakers more logically, vividly and clearly The systematic contrastive analysis of the language of the two communities has demonstrated the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese descriptive adjectives

Practically, the results of this study can be applied to assist English learners in general and students at Tran Dang Ninh high school in particular know how to master descriptive adjectives properly in daily life, and especially avoid confusing interferences in translating descriptive adjectives into Vietnamese This study can also help the learners and the teachers have the best method to teach and learn English descriptive adjectives Furthermore, other researchers and linguistics could take it as a reliable reference to make further studies in this field

1.8 Design of the study

The thesis consists of 5 chapters, excluding the appendixes and references: Introduction, Literature review, Methodology, Syntactic and semantic features of English descriptive adjectives in the novel “David Copperfield” by Dickens’s and stories by Hans Christian Andersen with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents and Conclusion

Chapter 1 - “Introduction” a brief account of relevant information for carrying out

the study such as rationale for choosing the topic, aims, objectives, scope, significance, and design of the study

Chapter 2 - “Literature review”- presents overview of previous researchers related

to the thesis topic, the related concepts such as: definition of adjective in English, classification based on the general syntactic and semantic features of adjectives

Chapter 3: “Data and Methods”-This chapter will feature research methods,

participants and procedures of research

Chapter 4: “Syntactic and semantic features of English descriptive adjectives in

English works with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents”- describes and

analyses syntactic and semantic features of descriptive adjectives and finds out

similarities and differences of descriptive adjectives between two languages and

find out common errors made by English learners, proposes possible solutions for

teaching and learning descriptive adjectives Chapter 5: “Conclusion”- summaries the major findings above, concludes remark,

presents limitation of the study and provides some recommendations for further

research on this subject

References and Appendices come at the end of the thesis

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Previous studies

Adjectives are very familiar to us in language in English Grammar and in daily conversation There have been studies about adjectives and their syntactic and semantic functions in varied aspects and attracted the attention of both English and Vietnamese researchers such as: Meja Kyto and Suzanne Ramaine (1996), Eatword (1999), Frances Peck (2008), Nguyen Huu Quynh (1980), Le Bien (1999), Dinh Van Duc (2001), Nguyen Van Thanh (2003), Luu Quy Khuong (2001), Diep Quang Ban (2005) They have their own ways to describe adjectives Generally, they focused on the definition, classification, position, order and formation of adjectives About syntactic functions of adjectives, almost grammarians mention their functions as predicative and attributive

The prosperity of language in form and content not only has the beauty of language but also deeply contributes to successful daily communications Every language in the world has large numbers of adjectives Indeed, adjective takes an important role

in enriching language by its abundance and potentially descriptive qualities and characteristics In English, the adjective is multi-functional It is used essentially to describe an object but, in general, it is meant to enrich and clarify ideas and lead the interlocutors to communicate eloquently Being aware of the important role of adjectives in daily communication in the society as well as teaching and learning languages, many researchers have taken studies on adjectives in various fields such

as syntax, semantics and translation, etc…

In recent decades, the semantics aspects of English adjectives have become one of the more focusing in studies of language use So it said above that adjectives introduce properties Two kinds of facts suggest that adjectives also denote properties Firstly, as people have already seen, adjectives may provide the main predicate in a sentence Secondly, they often seen entailments from the attributive form to the predicative form

More radically, Travis (1985, 1994 and 1997) has used judgments about the truth of sentences containing color adjectives to argue against the view that sentences determine truth conditions Instead, according to him, the semantics value of a sentence at most imposes some necessary conditions under which it may be true (as well as conditions under which it may be used), but those conditions need not be sufficient and the content of the sentence does not define a function from contexts

to truth

Adjectives are also a matter of concern of many Vietnamese researchers They are Cao Xuân Hạo (1998), Đinh Văn Đức (1986), Nguyễn Tài Cẩn (1999), Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh (2001), Phạm Hồng Hải (2012), etc

According to Đinh Văn Đức (1986) in Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt, “General speaking,

adjectives are the kind of words that show the characteristics of all the concepts that can be expressed in noun and verbs”

In Từ Loại Tiếng Việt (2002), Le Bien particularly describes adjectives in

Vietnamese He defines adjective as a type of words having positive ability to create other word Next, he gives grammatical functions of adjective with attributive, predicative, subject and combination to different types of word Lastly, he points out that there are two types of adjectives (This classification is of many Vietnamese grammarians) He classifies the adjectives into nine types as following: Quality, colors, characteristic, temperature, state, gender, relationship, age and origin In addition, he presents the comparison of Vietnamese adjectives with three levels the same as English ones The most important thing is he indicates that the adjectives have three functions of attributive, predicative and subject (as a head of a noun phrase) in comparison with those in European languages

Diep Quang Ban in Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt (2015) begins this study with definition

of adjective and emphasizes the functions of main components in a phrase He classifies Vietnamese adjectives into two kinds that are quality adjectives and

relative adjectives A new thing in his study is distinguishing between adjectives

and verbs relating to state of mind, to sum up, Diep Quang ban focuses much on

classification of adjectives

With Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt (2009) written by Nguyen Ly Kha, the features of

adjectives are described in detail Firstly, she defines Vietnamese adjectives as a

major part of the speech denoting quality of nouns Then she shows their ability to

combine with adjuncts Different from Nguyen Van Thanh, she classifies it so

clearly and completely According to her, Vietnamese adjectives are used as

attributive predicative, subject and verbless clause (adverbial)

We would have a comprehensive view on adjectives in Vietnamese with Cẩm Nang

Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt (2010) written by Tran Ngoc Dung Firstly, he gives a simple

definition of adjective Secondly, he represents types of adjectives and special

adjectives Secondly, he represents types of adjectives in Vietnamese including

impartial adjectives, partial adjectives, semi-partial adjectives and special

adjectives His classification is not like other authors Then, He shows one new

thing in comparison to other Vietnamese grammarians, that is forms of adjective

consisting of dimple adjectives, compound adjectives and complex adjectives In

addition, he describes the position of adjectives before and after a noun His final

points out comparison of adjectives

In Tiếng Việt 3 (2003), Hoang Thung points out that Vietnamese adjectives

function as subject, attributive and predicative He continues describing adjective

with its conversation into nouns In this study, he mentions adjectives generally

It can be said that mentioned authors appear to have made good use of adjectival

characteristics in the hope of bringing about their semantic recognition profoundly

Though linguist have written much on adjectives, and chiefly focused on their

meaning and use there so far has not been a specific study which is designed for

semantics features of range of descriptive adjectives For these reasons, I have made

attempt to make an investigation into this matter

2.2 An overview of adjectives in English

2.2.1 Definitions of adjective in English

According to L G Alexander (1998, 106), a word is considered as an adjective

when it describes the person, thing,… which a noun refers to or describes the ideas

contained in the whole group of words

However, as the opinions of Quirk et all, “we usually can not tell a word as an

adjective by looking at it in isolation because the form of a word doesn’t necessarily

indicate its syntactic function Nor can we identify a word as an adjective merely

from its potentials for inflexion ” (1973,114) As for them, a word is commonly

considered an adjective if it has at least one of four criteria:

- It can freely occur in ATTRIBUTIVE function, i e they can premodify a

noun, appearing between the determiner and the head of a noun phrase:

an oval face; a beautiful girl; the round table

- It can freely occur in PREDICATIVE function, i e they can function as

subjective complement or as object complement:The girl is attractive; I guess

the girl attractive;

- They can be modified by the intensifier very For example: The new house

is very large; She is very happy now

- It can take COMPARATIVE and SUPERLATIVE forms The comparison may

be by means of inflections (-er, -est), or by the addition of the

premodifiers more and most or called periphrastic Let’s see the following

examples: Ho Chi Minh is the most wonderful city in Vietnam; Lan is more

charming than other classmates; The children are happier now ( Quirk et al,

1973:115 )

- To sum up, adjective is one of four elements of open class items (noun,

adjective, adverb, verb) which belongs to part of speech in English grammar,

and adjectives are describing words expressing quality, quantity, size,

colour, characteristics, etc

In The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Adjectives are

characterized as expressions “that alter, clarify, or adjust the meaning contributions

of noun”, in order to allow for the expression of “finer gradations of meaning” than are possible through the use of nouns alone (Huddleston and Pullum 2002, p.526)

At the general level adjectives gain this capability in virtue of two main characteristics, one of which is semantic and syntactic One semantic side, they introduce properties (Whether they actually denote properties is a question we will address in detail below.) On the syntactic side, they are able to function as modifiers, and so may (with some restrictions) combine recursively with nouns The result of this combination is a new property which is typically (though not always) true of a subset of the entities that the original properties are true of, thereby providing a “finer gradation meaning” than is possible using the noun alone This simple picture hides many important and interesting complexities, however, which provide insights on several topics of central interest to both linguists and philosophers, include: vagueness, contextualism, relative, compositionality, and the semantic analysis of significant phenomena such as modality

Adjective is one of the most common catalogues of the English words Adjectives can simply be defined by Richard et al (1993) as ‘a word that describes a noun, or referred to more specific notion as ‘a word that describes the thing, quality, state or action which a noun refers to’

An adjective is a part of speech which describes, identifies, or qualifies a noun or pronoun So basically, the main function of an adjective is to modify a noun or a pronoun so that it will be become more specific and interesting Instead of just one word, a group of words is called an adjective clause

So the English adjective is various They typically denote properties- most centrally

in the domains of opinion, size, age, and origin Hence, the learners have many choices using adjectives based on their purposes

4 origin It’s an USA apple

5 material It’s a square house

6 Opinion It’s a beautiful house

Table: 2.1 Types of adjective

In The Little, Brown Handbook (2011:315), an adjective modifies a noun or

pronoun by providing descriptive or specific detail Unlike adverbs, adjectives do

not modify verbs, other adjectives, or adverbs Adjectives usually precede the noun

or pronoun they modify Adjectives do not have to agree in number or gender with

the nouns they describe Adjectives answer the following questions: What kind?

How many? or Which ones?

For example:

-Tom bought a used car (used describes what kind of car Tom bought.)

-Sally baked ten pies for the school bake sale (ten tells how many pies Sally

baked.)

-Bob climbed that tree in the backyard (that specifies which tree Bob climbed.)

2.2.2 Syntactic features of English Adjectives

Adjectives may have different functions in the sentence The most common are

those of an attribute or a predicative The attributes (pre-modifying and

post-modifying) may be closely attached to their head-words (a good boy, the delegates

present), or they may be loose (detached) (Clever and ambitious, he schemed as

well as he could) In the first case the adjective forms a group with the noun it

modifies; in the second case the adjective forms a sense-group separate from the

head-word and the other parts of the sentence A detached attribute is therefore

separated by a comma from its head-word if it adjoins it, or from other parts of the

sentence if it is distant from the head-word As predicates, adjectives may form a

part of a compound nominal or double predicate (he was alone, the window was

open Old Jolyon sat alone, the dog went mad) Predicative adjectives may be

modified by adverbials of manner, degree, or consequence and by clauses, forming long phrases as, in:

He is not so foolish as to neglect it

She is not so crazy as you may imagine

It is not as simple as you think

Adjectives may also function as objective or subjective predicates in complex

constructions:

We consider him reliable

I can drink coffee hot

He pushed the door open

Better eat the apples fresh

I consider what he did awful

 Objects + objective predicates

The fruits were picked ripe

The windows were flung open

 Subjective predicates

Adjectives may be used parenthetically, conveying the attitude of the speaker to the

contents of the sentence (strange, funny, curious, odd, surprising), often

pre-modified by more or most

Strange, it was the same person

Most incredible, he deceived us

A certain type of exclamatory sentence is based on adjectives, often modified by

other words: How good of you! How wonderful! Excellent! Just right!

In the sentence the adjective performs the functions of an attribute and a

predicative Of the two, the more specific function of the adjective is that of an

attribute, since the function of a predicative can be performed by the noun as well There is, though, a profound difference between the predicative uses of the adjective and the noun which is determined by their native categorical features

Namely, the predicative adjective expresses some attributive property of its

noun-referent, whereas the predicative noun expresses various substantival characteristics

of its referent, such as its identification or classification of different types This can

be shown on examples analyzed by definitional and transformational procedures

You talk to people as if they were a group → You talk to people as if they formed a

group Quite obviously, he was a friend —» His behaviour was like that of a friend

Cf., as against the above:

I will be silent as a grave → I will be like a silent grave Walker felt healthy →

Walker felt a healthy man It was sensational → That fact was a sensational fact

When used as predicates or post-positional attributes, a considerable number of

adjectives, in addition to the general combinability characteristics of the whole

class, are distinguished by a complementive combinability with nouns The

complement expansions of adjectives are effected by means of prepositions

E.g fond of, jealous of, curious of, suspicious of; angry with, sick with; serious

about, certain about, happy about; grateful to, thankful to, etc

Many such adjectival collocations render essentially verbal meanings and some of

them have direct or indirect parallels among verbs Cf.: be fond of — love, like; be

envious of - envy; be angry with — resent; be mad for, about — covet; be thankful

to — thank Alongside of other complementive relations expressed with the help of

prepositions and corresponding to direct and prepositional object-relations of verbs,

some of these adjectives may render relations of addressee Cf.: grateful to,

indebted to, partial to, useful for

To the derivational features of adjectives, belong a number of suffixes and prefixes

of which the most important are: -ful (hopeful), -less (flawless), -ish (bluish), -ous

(famous), -ive (decorative), -ic (basic); un- (unprecedented), in- (inaccurate), pre-

(premature) Among the adjectival affixes should also be named the prefix a-,

constitutive for the stative subclass which is to be discussed below As for the

variable (demonstrative) morphological features, the English adjective, having lost

in the course of the history of English all its forms of grammatical agreement with

the noun, is distinguished only by the hybrid category of comparison, which will form a special subject of our study

Quirk et al (1985) also note in this regard that there is a distinction between adjectives and participial adjectives According to him, adjectives that “have the same suffixes as participles in -ing or -ed are called participial adjectives (Quirk et

al 1985) and they are indistinctly used in attributive or predicative function, although participial adjectives are more commonly used in attributive function: His views were very surprising  his surprising views (Quirk et al, 1985) (18) The man seemed very offended  the offended man (Quirk et al, 1985)

A white parsley sauce is unappetizing purely because of its boring appearance

It is never dry or boring

I was bored and lonely

2.2.3 Semantic functions of English adjectives

Basing on “A comprehensive Grammar of the English Language” of Randolph Quirk published in 1973, the writer found that adjectives are classified into stative and dynamic, gradable and non- gradable

*Stative and dynamic adjective: As their name suggests, stative adjective denote a

state or condition, which may generally be consider permanent, such as big, red, tall, etc Stative adjectives can not normally be used in imperative constructions:

Be big/ red/ tall

He is being red/ big/ tall

( Quirk et al, 1973, p124)

In contrast, dynamic adjectives denote attributes which are, to some extent at least, under the control of the one who possesses them For instance, brave denotes an attribute which may not always be in evidence( unlike red, for example ), but which may be called upon as it is required For this reason, it is appropriate to use it in an imperative

Be brave

Don’t be afraid (Quirk et al, 1973, p124)

Adjectives that can be used dynamically include: awkward, brave, calm, careless, cruel, funny, good, noisy, timid, etc.(Quirk at al, 1973, p124)

All dynamic adjectives can be used in imperatives such as be careful, don’t be cruel, and they can also be use predicatively in progressive tense:

Your son is being disruptive in class

He is being careful

We are being very patient with you

The majority of adjectives are stative The stative or dynamic contrast, as it related

to adjectives, is largely a semantic one, though as we have seen it also has syntactic implications

* Gradable and non- gradable adjectives

According to Longman English grammar (1988, p108) adjectives can be also divided into gradable and non- gradable

Gradable adjectives mean a large class of words which can be graded, or in other words, they can be modified by intensifiers and include comparison such

as very young, young, younger, the youngest…

An adjective is gradable when: We can imagine degrees in the quality referred to and so can use it with words like very, too and enough Let’s see the followings examples:

Your work is good

Your work is very good

Mary has been very ill

We can form a comparative and superlative from it as big, bigger, biggest, etc Non- gradable adjectives are a small class that can not be graded or in other words, principally technical adjectives and adjectives denoting provenance such as atomic, hydrochloric, British…

According to Longman English grammar (1988, p108) an adjective is non- gradable when: We can not modify it, it means that we can not use it with very, too,…

We can not make a comparative or superlative from it such as daily, dead, medical, unique, etc

* Inherent and non- inherent

Based on English grammar of Quirk et al(1973,125), some adjectives are classified into inherent and non- inherent

Most attributive adjectives denote some attribute of the noun which they modify For instance, the phrase a red car may be said to denote a car which is red In fact most adjective- noun sequences such as this can be loosely reformulated in a similar way, for example:

an old man ~ a man who is old

difficult questions ~ questions which are difficult

round glasses ~ glasses which are round

This applies equally to postpositive adjectives as:

Something understood ~ something which is understood

The people responsible ~ the people who are responsible

In each case the adjective denotes an attribute or quality of the noun, as the reformulations show Adjectives of this type are known as inherent adjectives The attribute they denote is , as it were, inherent in the noun which they modify

However, not all adjectives are related to the noun in the same way For example, the adjective small in a small businessman does not describe an attribute of the businessman It can not be reformulated as a businessman who is small Instead, it refers to a businessman whose business is small We refer to adjectives of this type

as non- inherent adjectives They refer less directly to an attribute of the noun than inherent adjectives do

Whether or not an adjective is inherent or non- inherent, it may involve relation to

an implicit or explicit standard, such as in a big mouse, the adjective big is inherent, the meaning is the relative size of mice, contrast a little mouse and in a big fool, the adjective big is non- inherent, the meaning is degrees of foolishness, contrast a bit

of a fool

Here are some more examples, showing the contrast between inherent and non- inherent:

( wikipedia.com viewed on July 10, 2018)

Some adjectives can come before or after nouns, which may change meaning or may not change meaning of adjective The following is come cases denoting the position of adjectives ( with or without change in meaning)

Adjectives come before or after nouns, which may not change in meaning: some adjectives, mostly ending in –able and –ible can come before or after nouns and usually with no change in meaning such as available, eligible, imaginable, taxable, possible, impossible, etc Let’s consider the above examples:

I doubt whether we can complete our contract in the time available/ in the available time.(1)

We have to exploit all available potential/ all potential available in our country (2)

As we know that when changing the position of adjective available in the example1 and 2, there is no change in meaning of adjective

However, some adjectives sometimes have different meanings if they modify

different nouns, for example, old can be either a central adjective or an adjective restricted to attributive position as in an old friend of mine means a longstanding friend In this case, old is the opposite of new The person referred to is not identified as old , but it is very his friend that is old

Furthermore, some adjectives come before or after nouns with a change in meaning,

in some case a few adjectives change in meaning depending on whether they are

used before or after a noun Some of these are concerned, elect, involved, present,

proper, responsible.They would be illustrated as follows:

The concerned doctor rang for an ambulance

~ The worried doctor rang for ambulance

The doctor concerned is on holiday

(Longman English Grammar, 1988, p.111)

Some adjectives such as present, absent, concerned, involved and responsible are

used with most frequency in post-modification Sometime, they are also used in

post-modification but then their meanings are different, for example:

There were ten members of staff present (there)

Our present problems are much worse (now)

The person concerned must be fined (relevant)

2.2.4 Classification of adjectives

According to A.J Thomson and A.V Martinet presented in the book A Practice

English Grammar, English adjectives will be classified 6 types (demonstrative,

distributive, qualitative, interrogative, positive, quality adjectives)

Demonstrative adjectives point out which person or thing is meant They contain

this, that, these, those

For example: I love this book

Distributive adjectives are used with singular nouns to identify them There are 4

distributive adjectives: each, every, either, and neither

E.g: Every member in my family loves playing badminton

Quantitative: This is the family of numeral adjectives and identified ones which is

used to answer the questions “How many/much and which order” They can be

some, any, no, a little, etc (numeral adjectives or one, two, the first, the eight, etc.)

E.g: Would you like some apples

Interrogative: are used to ask questions and including which, what, whose

E.g: which pen do you like?

Possessive: A positive adjective modifier a noun by telling to whom something or

somebody belongs These positives are popularly used such as my, his, her, their, our, your

E.g I love my family so much

Quality: The adjectives of quality show the quality state thing which contains color,

size, shape classification and emphasis

E.g: In the fall, all leaves turn yellow

In The Little, Brown Hand book (2010), written by H Ramsey Fowler, Jane E

Aaron, Janice Okomian, there are 7 types of adjectives:

Descriptive Adjectives

A descriptive adjective names a quality of the noun or pronoun that it modifies

Example: brown dog bigger house fluffy cat

Proper Adjectives A proper adjective is derived from a proper noun

Example: French class Spanish food, European car

Limiting Adjectives

A limiting adjective restricts the meaning of the word it modifies

Example: that car this room the tree

Interrogative Adjectives

An interrogative adjective is used to ask a question

Example: Whose book is this?

Coordinate Adjectives

A coordinate adjective consists of two or more adjectives separated by a comma instead of by a coordinating conjunction

Example: a cold, rainy day

To determine if you can replace the coordinating conjunction with a comma, see if the adjectives can be reversed or if and can be added between the adjectives without changing the meaning If the adjectives can be reversed, they are coordinate and a comma can be used

Example: The clowns arrived in a bright, shiny car

The clowns arrived in a shiny, bright car (Reversing bright and shiny does not change the meaning.)

The clowns arrived in a bright and shiny car (Adding and between bright and shiny does not change the meaning.)

However, if the adjectives cannot be reversed or if and cannot be used, a comma cannot be used

Example: The clowns arrived in two colorful cars

The clowns arrived in colorful two cars (Reversing two and colorful changes the meaning.)

The clowns arrived in two and colorful cars (Adding and between two and colorful changes the meaning.)

Compound Adjectives

Compound adjectives consist of two or more words that function as a unit Depending on its position within the sentence, the compound adjective is punctuated with or without a hyphen When a compound adjective comes before the noun it modifies, use a hyphen to join the adjectives When a compound adjective follows the noun it modifies, do not use a hyphen to join the adjectives For example:

She is taking a class on nineteenth-century literature

(The adjective nineteenth-century precedes the noun literature so a hyphen is used) She is studying literature from the nineteenth century

(The adjective nineteenth century comes after the noun literature so no hyphen is

used.)

Determiners as Adjectives

Determiners, such as articles, pronouns, and numbers, can function as adjectives When a determiner is used as an adjective, it restricts the noun it modifies, like a limiting adjective Determiners functioning as adjectives tell Which one? How many? and Whose?

Articles (a, an, the)

Possessive pronouns (my, our, your, his, her, its, their)

Relative pronouns (whose, which, whichever, what, whatever)

Demonstratives (this, these, that, those)

Indefinite pronouns (any, each, other, some, etc.)

Cardinal Numbers (one, two, three, etc.)

Ordinal Numbers (last, first, second, etc.)

Possessive proper nouns (Bob’s, Sarah’s)

Example: Bob’s house is only three blocks from that house (Bob’s answers the question: Whose house? Three answers the question: How many blocks? That answers the question: Which house is three blocks from Bob’s house?)

2.4.5 Placement and order of adjectives

A single noun can be described as a list of adjectives When more than one adjective is used to modify a noun, it is important to consider the order in which the adjectives appear Generally, the adjectives most important in completing the meaning of the noun are placed closest to the noun Following is the usual order of adjectives in a series:

1 Determiners: articles (a, the), demonstratives (this, those), and possessives (his, our, Mary’s, everybody’s), amounts (one, five, many, few), order (first, next last)

2 Coordinate adjectives (subjective evaluations or personal opinions): nice, nasty, packed, pitiful

3 Adjectives describing:

- Size: big, huge, little, tiny

- Shape: long, short, round, square

- Age: young, old, modern, ancient

- Color: blue, green, red, white

- Nationality: Italian, French, Japanese

- Architectural style or religion: Greek, Gothic, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim

- Material: cardboard, plastic, silver, gold

4 Nouns functioning as adjectives: soccer ball, cardboard box, history class

Example: a big brick house (article, size, and material)

These old brown cardboard boxes (demonstrative, age, color, material)

A beautiful young Italian woman (article, personal opinion, age, nationality)

(H Ramsey Fowler, Jane E Aaron, Janice, 2010)

In Advanced Grammar in Use (2005;132) Michal Hewing points out that: “Many

adjectives can be used either before the noun they describe or following the linking

verbs such as appear, be, become, feel, get, and seem.”

In this part, some general information of the English adjectives positionare

presented More details it in the section of English adjectives due to relationship

between the position and the syntactic functions of English adjectives are much

closed

2.2.6 English Descriptive Adjectives

The descriptive adjectives can be simply defined as the type of adjectives that are

used to express the size, color, or shape, character, mood… of a person, a thing, an

animal, or a place They are used to provide more information to a noun by

describing or modifying it

Explanation of Descriptive Adjectives

From the definition above, it can be said that a descriptive adjective adds meaning

to the noun that it modifies This kind of adjective describes a noun in detail by

giving an attribute to that particular word You should know that descriptive

adjectives usually express things that are observable through the five senses (touch,

taste, sight, smell, and sound) If you find it hard to spot the descriptive adjectives in

the sentence, you can ask the question: “Which one?” or more appropriately, “What

does it look like?” in reference to a noun

Examples of Descriptive Adjectives

The underlined words in the sample sentences below are some examples of

descriptive adjectives

 The slender man appeared out of nowhere

Examples of Descriptive Adjectives in Literature

The underlined words in the sentences below are all examples of descriptive adjectives used in literary pieces

 “This isn’t a romance You’re not a damsel in distress and I’m not

the handsome prince come to save you.” – C.J Roberts, Captive in the Dark

 “A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance, particularly if the library is very tall and the surrounding area has been

flooded.” – Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid

 “I learned a long time ago not to judge people by what they look like, sound like, or by the clothes they wear Just because a house is nice and shiny out

front doesn’t mean it’s not rotting on the inside.” – Sherrilyn Kenyon, Infinity

 “O Never give the heart outright,

For they, for all smooth lips can say,

Have given their hearts up to the play.”

– W.B Yeats, In the Seven Woods: Being Poems Chiefly of the Irish Heroic Age

 “His dark hair was swept to one side, like he’d just come from a walk on the beach He looked even better than he had six months ago –

tanner and taller, leaner and more muscular.” – Rick Riordan, The Mark of

Athena

 “My skin is kind of sort of brownish pinkish yellowish white My eyes are greyish blueish green, but I’m told they look orange in the night My hair

is reddish blondish brown, but it’s silver when it’s wet, and all the colors I am

inside have not been invented yet.” – Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk

 “I am not pretty I am not beautiful I am as radiant as the sun.” – Suzanne

Collins, The Hunger Games

 “I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story From the tip of every branch, like a fatpurple fig, a wonderful future beckoned

and winked.” – Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

 “Science and religion are not at odds Science is simply too young to

understand.” – Dan Brown, Angels and Demons

Functions of Descriptive Adjectives

As the name suggests, the descriptive adjective is a kind of adjectives which is used

to describe a noun It does not only add meaning or provide additional information

to a noun, but adds color to the entire text in general Since there are a lot

of nouns in the English language, there is also a very long list of descriptive adjectives available that can modify them

Imagine changing the temperature on your air conditioner The air conditioner has different degrees of temperature you can select Adjectives have different degrees,

as well

The three degrees of an adjective are positive, comparative and superlative When

you use them depends on how many things you’re talking about:

 A positive adjective is a normal adjective that’s used to describe, not

compare For example: “This is good soup” and “I am funny.”

 A comparative adjective is an adjective that’s used to compare two things

(and is often followed by the word than) For example: “This soup is better than that salad” or “I am funnier than her.”

 A superlative adjective is an adjective that’s used to compare three or more

things, or to state that something is the most For example: “This is the best soup in the whole world” or “I am the funniest out of all the other bloggers.”

These three degrees only work for descriptive adjectives

2.3 Vietnamese adjectives

2.3.1 Definition of Vietnamese adjectives

In Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt (2006) by Diep Quang Ban and Hoang Van Thung,

adjectives in Vietnamese are defined as following:

Adjectives are words that describe the characteristics, colors, shapes, size, quality, quantity, dimensions, materials of things, etc

Table 2.2 Types of Vietnamese adjectives

To sum up, adjective is one of four elements of open class items (noun,

adjective, adverb and verb) which belongs to part of speech in Vietnamese

grammar, and adjectives are describing words expressing quality, quantity, size,

color, characteristics, etc

2.3.2 Features of Vietnamese adjectives

The Vietnamese language is an inflectional one, so the adjectives can be combined with nouns, verbs and other parts of speech to create significant phrases For this reason, adjectives in Vietnamese are classified into rather many different types basing on different criteria In this part, the two ways to divide Vietnamese adjectives are presented

*Classification based on the general meaning and the ability of adjectives to combine with adjuncts of degree

From Diep Quang Ban and Hoang Van Thung’s point of view in Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt (2006) and other grammarians, there are two types of adjectives such as gradable adjectives (adjectives of degree) and non-gradable adjectives basing on the above criteria

Gradable adjectives

They are words indicating the characteristics of something, people and actions which can be used to compare the degree of these characteristics In

addition, they are able to combine with adjuncts of degree as follows: rất (very), hơi

(quite, a bit), quá (so), etc

For example: ngắn (short), dài (long), cứng (solid), mềm (soft), đẹp (pretty), etc

Cái quần dài này của em trai tôi hơi ngắn (1)

(My brother’s trousers are a bit short.)

Cô giáo tôi có mái tóc rất dài và đen (2)

(My teacher has very long and black hair)

The gradable adjectives such as ngắn, dài and đen denoting the external feature of thing and people are preceded by the adverbs hơi and rất

Mentioning the class of gradable adjectives, Le Bien in Từ Loại Tiếng Việt

Hiện Đại (1999) only mentions features of this class while Diep Quang Ban and

Hoang Van Thung in Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt (2006) focus on the classification of

gradable adjectives with adjectives of quality, adjectives of quantity, adjectives of characteristics, and adjectives of intensity

Adjectives of quality: chăm chỉ (hard), khéo léo (clever), thông minh (intelligent), giỏi (good), trang trọng (formal), etc

Adjectives of quantity: nhiều (many, much), ít (little, few), rậm (thick), thưa (sparse), đông (crowed), etc

Adjectives of characteristics: xanh (green), béo (fat), thơm (perfumed),

ồn ào (noisy), đắng (bitter), etc

Adjectives of intensity: mạnh (strong), yếu (weak), nóng (hót), sáng (bright), tối (dark), mát mẻ (cool), etc

While non-gradable adjectives have no comparison, the gradable adjectives can be used to make comparison, particularly in proverbs

For example: Nhanh như cắt

Khỏe như trâu

The gradable adjectives “nhanh” and “khỏe” appear in proverbs with the comparison form “như” However, the non-gradable adjective “khỏe khoắn”

cannot be used as “khỏe khoắn như trâu”

We can easily realize this type of adjectives by making couples of antonyme

For instance: Short long;

For instance: riêng (private), chung (common), trắng tinh (spotlessly white), tím

ngắt (dark purple), etc

Hoang Van Thung and Diep Quang Ban continue classifying non-gradable adjectives into two smaller kinds as following: absolute adjectives and absolute

adjectives without building pairs of absolute antonyms The difference between

them is directly shown in their names, in which the absolute adjectives will have couples of absolute opposite whereas the absolute adjectives without building pairs

of absolute antonyms will not

Absolute adjectives are usually placed after nouns and verbs to act as

attributive or adverbs like công (public)><tư (personal), chính (main)>< phụ

(secondary), duy nhất (only)><vô số (countless), etc., most of them have equivalent antonym adjectives

For example:

Mỗi nhà văn, nhà thơ đều mang những hơi thở rất riêng của họ vào trong mỗi

tác phẩm

(Any poem and writer transmits their particular stype into their works.)

The phrase rất riêng completely describes the different styles of the poems and

writers Due to this, thousands of works from thousands of authors are not similar

This example shows the case of absolute adjectives in combination with “rất”

Với một số đồng nghiệp ở công ty, Hải hay lấy việc công trả thù riêng

(Hai is a narrow-minded and lasting hatred person to his colleagues.)

Trụ sở chính của Liên Hợp Quốc đặt tại New York

(The official foundation of United Nations is located in New York.)

In the first example, the absolute adjective “riêng” placed after the verb “trả thù” indicating a bad behavior In the second example, the adjective “chính” modifying the noun “trụ sở” become an attributive

About absolute adjectives without building pairs of absolute antonyms, they are normally compound words and reiterative words mainly placed after nouns

For example: đỏ lỏm (gaudy red), trắng phau (very white), đen sì (very black), xanh

mượt (deep blue), xanh xanh (greenish), etc

Take the following examples for illustration:

Khuôn mặt

(After a night of drawing up a net without sleeping, her face seemed tired,

sleepy and became death vale)

“Tái ngắt” is an absolute adjective without absolute antonym, desorbing the

woman’s tiredness after hard working

Non-gradable adjectives can completely describe nouns by itself It means these adjective cannot be compared in any degree

*Classification basing on the semantics and ability of adjective to control adjuncts after the adjectives

Many Vietnamese grammarians recognize this criterion to classify adjectives

and some of them only concentrate on it In Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt Hiện Đại (1980),

there are 2 types of Vietnamese adjectives which are adjectives of external features

of things and adjectives of internal characteristics and states of things basing on the semantics and ability of adjective to control adjuncts

*Adjectives expressing external features of things

With these adjectives, users can draw a portrait of person or object It pays attention to the color, appearance, quantity and size; therefore, there are following adjectives:

Adjectives of color: đỏ (red), tím (violet), vàng (yellow), hồng (pink), da cam

(orange), etc

Adjectives of appearance: cơ bắp (muscular), gầy (thin), mảnh mai (slim),

xoăn (curly), cao (high), etc

Adjectives of quantity: dày (full), trống rỗng (empty), một nửa (half), ít (few),

nhiều (many), etc

Adjectives of size: nhỏ (small), lớn (big), to (huge), rộng (large), vừa (fit), etc

They regularly function as the attributive of nouns and verbs

For example:

Chiếc váy đỏ của Loan thật bắt mắt (Modifying noun)

(Loan’s red dress is very eye-catching.)

Mai bị mọi người chú ý khi nĩi chuyện to trong văn phịng (Modifying verb)

(Some people looked at Mai when she spoke loudly)

The adjectives describe the quality of a person, a thing or an object so they can function as both attributive to nouns and predicative in the sentence For

example: tốt (kind), xấu (bad), hiền (gentle), dữ (violent), to gan (daring), mau

miệng (voluble), etc

Tan Da compliments his writing style in the poetry “Hầu Trời” by using

adjectives of internal characteristics of things

For example: Nhời văn chuốt đẹp như sao băng!

Khí văn hùng mạnh như dây chuyền!

Êm như giĩ thoảng tình như sương!

Đầm như mưa sa, lạnh như tuyết!

(Hầu trời, Tản Đà, 1921)

The author utilizes the adjectives “chuốt đẹp”, “hùng mạnh”, “Êm”,

“tình”, “đầm”, and “lạnh” together with comparison estimated as a wonderful

scenery picture

Occasionally, the adjectives are able to combine with adverbs đang (be Ving), đã

(the verb in the past simple), đừng (don’t), hãy (let’s), etc., in order to increase the ability to become predicative For example:

Em tưởng trên mình khơng cĩ bọn ác ơn hay sao Đừng ngây thơ như thế

(Do you believe that here are no evil-doers? Do not be so nạve.)

(Giang Nam)

In summary, there are two main ways to classify Vietnamese adjectives Because of being an inflectional language, Vietnamese has its classes of adjectives almost based on the meaning of the adjectives and its ability to combine with other parts of speech

*Position of adjectives

Like other parts of speech, adjectives need to have suitable positions to show their functions and meanings Due to the fact that Vietnamese adjectives modify

nouns and verbs; they will have two major positions which are after nouns and verbs and before nouns or we can say postposition and preposition

After nouns and verbs

Unlike English adjectives, Vietnamese ones are mostly placed after nouns

and verbs The following sentences in Mùa lá rụng trong vườn (1985, p.87) written

by Ma Văn Kháng will explicit it

E.g.: ([…] ông Bằng lâng lâng trong những hoài niệm hư ảo, thoát trần Nhưng ông chỉ ở trong dòng tình cảm trôi lững lờ đó trong giây phút”

([…], Mr Bang is very light in illusory and peaceful thoughts However, he

is only in that sluggish emotion just a few moments)

It is evident that the adjectives “hư ảo (illusory)” and “thoát trần

(peaceful)” are after the noun phrase “những hoài niệm (thoughts)” and the

adjective “lững lờ (sluggish)” is placed after the verb “trôi” to describe the action

In another example, the adjectives are combined with adjuncts in postposition

E.g.: “Với người vô sản, ở quá rộng là một cái tôi, trong khi cán bộ và gia đình phải

ở chen chúc trong những khu nhà tập thể, […] cái mặc cũng sang trọng quá

(For proletarians, it will be a sin if they stay in a house so large, while their family and cadres had to hustle in a collective quarter, […] Their dress is also too formal.)

(Một người Hà Nội, Nguyễn Khải)

The adjective “rộng” and “chen chúc” both describe the verb “ở”

However, in English they become attributive to nouns (“large” is an attributive of

house) or verbs in the clause (“chen chúc” mean “hustle”) Only the adjective

“sang trọng” (formal) still keeps its post-position in English