A study on english transitive verbs in comparision with vietnamese ones

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A Thesis A STUDY ON ENGLISH TRANSITIVE VERBS IN COMPARISON WITH VIETNAMESE ONES (SO SÁNH ĐỘNG TỪ NGOẠI ĐỘNG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT) BÙI VĂN TUẤN Field of study: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor: DR ĐANG NGOC HUONG Hanoi, 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT CHAPTER .1 INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aim and objectives 1.2.1 Aims of the study 1.2.2 Objectives of the study 1.3.3 Research questions 1.3 Methods of study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Structure of the thesis CHAPTER 10 LITERATURE REVIEW .10 2.1 Review of previous studies 10 2.2 Review of theoretical background 11 2.2.1 Concepts of syntax 11 2.2.2 Concept of semantics 14 2.2.3 An overview of the verb 16 2.3 Summary of the chapter 23 CHAPTER 24 TRANSITIVE VERBS IN ENGLISH IN COMPARISON WITH VIETNAMESE 24 3.1 Syntactic and semantic features of English transitive verbs 24 3.2 The comparison between English and Vietnamese transitive verbs 41 3.2.1 One-object transitive verb patterns 42 3.2.2.Two-object transitive verb patterns 43 3.2.3 Mixed-type transitive verb patterns 46 3.3 Summary of the chapter 43 CHAPTER Error! Bookmark not defined APPLICATIONS IN LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH TRANSITIVE VERBS FOR VIETAMESE LEARERS .51 4.1 Subjects of the survey 51 4.2 Survey test description 51 4.3 Survey results and discussion 53 4.4 Some suggested strategies relating to learning and teaching English transitive verbs to Vietnamese learners of English 56 4.5 Summary 62 CHAPTER 63 CONCLUSION 63 5.1 Recapitulation 63 5.2 Concluding remarks 64 5.3 Limitations of the study 66 5.4 Recommendations for further study 67 REFERENCES 69 APPENDIX 72 APPENDIX .65 APPENDIX 76 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I sincerely thank all the lecturers of the Hanoi Open University, especially the lecturers in the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies who have been teaching and conveying to me the valuable knowledge and skills in the learning process Secondly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Dang Ngoc Huong who guided me throughout my study Without his valuable supervision my thesis could hardly be completed I also wish to extend my deep thankfulness to my friends, colleagues and students who assisted me in collecting the data and provided valuable resources to help me complete my thesis Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for their encouragement and the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of my academic work ABSTRACT Among all the word classes of a language in general and English in particular, the verb could be considered the most important one Many areas of the verbs in English have been investigated so far and some are prioritized In the same vein, English dynamic verbs in English may have been concentrated on by many experts in the field of linguistics and language teaching over the last decades Two reasons have been put forward for this phenomenon: the importance of dynamic verbs and the difficulty of mastering this group of verbs It is clear that dynamic verbs in general, and transitive verbs in particular are not totally similar between English and Vietnamese in many aspects By investigating deeply into English transitive verbs in terms of their syntactic and semantic features, the thesis expects to go on to compare transitive verbs in the two languages In language learning, because of some discrepancy in transitive verbs in English and Vietnamese, there is a likelihood of committing errors on the part of learners of English-as-a-second or any foreign language The thesis is hoped to make contributions to the mastery of a high-frequency transitive verbs in English of the learners CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Verbs in the English language which are always regarded as essential elements in creating sentences which are basic units of communication of humans In grammar, verbs have become one of the subjects that receive special attention of linguists It is not doubtful that there is almost no scientific work of grammar that ignores researching into verbs and their relating aspects However, it is also the issue of disagreement among language researchers As far as verb classification is concerned, one set of terms used to describe verbs is transitive and intransitive Transitive verbs convey a sense of action and the sentence identifies whom or what the subject addresses Research on English transitive verbs which shows this part of speech has been approached from so many aspects Each of the approaches led to different findings Even in one approach, the characteristics and usages of transitive verbs are clarified differently by different authors So far a lot of linguistic research has based itself on different concepts and approaches when discussing grammar matters and verbs particularly Many authors have tried to define the criteria for identifying transitive verbs as well as proposing direction of describing and classifying them However, to date, very few authors have focused their attention on the survey of transitive verbs - an important category in the English language So far, there have been a great number of works written about English verbs Almost every grammar book in English discusses the verb, the most essential element of English sentences Everyone who learns English has got familiar with the grammatical terms: subject, verb, complement, adverb, etc In Longman English Grammar (1992,pp.4-5), the author claims that in English there are five simple sentence patterns: 1) subject-verb: My head aches, 2) subject-verb-complement: Frank is clever, 3) subject-verb-direct object: My sister enjoyed the play, 4) subject-verb-indirect object-direct object: The firm gave Sam a watch, 5) subject-verb-object-complement: They made Sam redundant According to the author, out of the five sentence patterns there are three patterns which include the transitive verbs going with objects: example 3, 4, and In A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, Randolph Quirk et al (1985, pp.) is famous for categorizing seven clause types: 1) SV: Someone was laughing, 2) SVO: My mother enjoys parties, 3) SVC: The country became totally independent, 4) SVA: I have been in the garden, 5) SVOO: Mary gave the visitor a glass of milk, 6) SVOC: Most people consider these books rather expensive, 7) SVOA: You must put all the toys upstairs In other words, in this grammar book, out of the seven types of clause structure, there are up to four clause structures which contain verbs and objects: structure number 2, 5, 6, and In reference to the number of elements of sentence structure, there might be the question about the number of clause structures in English which contain verb patterns composed of verbs and noun phrases as objects, three as Alexander or four as Quirk et al claimed or more than that Also, in everyday communication in English, some Vietnamese people who have learned English for a long time or even have got a good English proficiency, sometimes speak or write in English, using such expressions as: basing on …, contact with…, or discuss about… This carelessness in diction may result from the inadequate awareness of the structure of transitive verbs used in sentences As with language learning, in Vietnam, there is an undeniable fact that English is taught in many places, but people learn it mainly for language competence, not for performance; learners learn English mainly to pass the tests, not to communicate themselves in the language Therefore, a good knowledge of English grammar, especially of sentence structures could be considered to be most essential for the learners to understand and develop different skills in learning and using the language In the context as mentioned above, the thesis A study on English transitive verbs in comparison with Vietnamese ones is implemented for several purposes: to identify how transitive verbs in English combine with other elements in the sentence syntactically and semantically and also to make a comparison with their equivalents in Vietnamese to find out whether English transitive verbs are similar or different from Vietnamese ones By doing this, the study is hoped to offer some strategies for learning transitive verbs in English for Vietnamese learners of English effectively 1.2 Aim and objectives 1.2.1 Aims of the study As the title indicates, the thesis aims to analyze the transitive verbs in English Since there are a great number of aspects relating to verbs of this type, the thesis will confines itself to the study English transitive verb patterns based on the basic sentence structure SVO During the process of study the thesis will employ the constituent analysis method to point out the syntactic and semantic features of transitive verbs structures in English On the basis of the research into English transitive verbs, the thesis embarks on comparing them with transitive verbs in Vietnamese to find out if the transitive verb structures in two languages have something in common Because English and Vietnamese belong to two different types of language, English being a synthetic language whereas Vietnamese is an analytic language, the thesis will compare English verb patterns with their translational equivalents in Vietnamese, not English verb patterns with Vietnamese verbs patterns In Vietnamese grammar, in spite of many differences, as in English, Vietnamese words are also classified as verb, nouns, adjective, adverb… However, so far in Vietnamese there has not yet been a clear classification of preposition in the aspect of word class and of object and complement in the aspect of grammatical function Hence, the thesis follows the assumption that in English the terms: verb / verb phrase, noun and noun phrase, preposition and prepositional phrase, adverbial, object and complement correspond to the Vietnamese terms: động từ / cụm động từ, danh từ / danh ngữ, giới từ / giới ngữ, trạng ngữ, tân ngữ, bổ ngữ respectively In the process of describing the features of transitive verb patterns in English, the thesis will focus on the elements which stand after the verb: object, complement and adverbial in the sentence structure in the aspects of their syntax and grammatical meanings Aimed at the practical side of the study, on the foundation of the results in comparing the verb patterns in the two languages, the thesis is expected to offer some implications for learning and teaching transitive verbs for Vietnamese learners of English 1.2.2 Objectives of the study In order to achieve the aims of study above, the thesis sets up its specific objectives as follows: (i) To investigate the syntactic and semantic features of English transitive verbs (ii) To compare English transitive verbs with their equivalents in Vietnamese (iii) To find out the challenges which Vietnamese learners have to encounter when learning transitive verbs in English and suggest strategies for overcoming them 1.3.3 Research questions In order to implement the objectives established as above, the thesis find it as its tasks to answer the following research questions (i) What are the syntactic and semantic features of English transitive verbs? (ii) What are the syntactic and semantic similarities and differences between English transitive verbs and their equivalents in Vietnamese? (iii) What could be the applications in learning and teaching English transitive verbs for Vietnamese learners? 1.3 Methods of study This study aims to investigate the transitive verbs in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese equivalents in the aspects of syntax and semantics; therefore it adopts both qualitative and quantitative research approaches With qualitative research, the thesis primarily conduct exploratory to understand how transitive verbs have been and could be described syntactically and semantically in grammar books With quantitative research, the thesis quantifies the problems Vietnamese learners of English may face and the mistakes they may make with English transitive verbs by means of survey tests Following the two research approaches above, the thesis adopts as main methods of study the methods below: The componential analysis method is utilized to define the number of elements and the patterns of element combination of transitive verbs in English and their Vietnamese equivalents patterns, transitive verbs usually go with the direct object, except for the case when the direct object stands after the indirect object in Pattern (SVOiOd) In most cases, the objects are compulsory components in the pattern; however, sometimes when the communicative contexts permit, they not appear in the sentence In this case, transitive verbs can be said to go with zero objects In describing the transitive verb patterns syntactically and semantically, the thesis adopts the claim that English transitive verbs are of two types, one being one-word transitive verbs and the other two-word transitive verbs The second type of verb has two components but is one word, denoting one meaning, its meaning depends on that of the verb The thesis has also differentiated between the direct object and preposition object in the verb pattern Because there are two patterns with prepositions, the objects in Pattern SVOPO should be differentiated with that of Pattern SVPO, the object in the former pattern being the direct object whereas in the latter pattern the object being the prepositional object This distinction is necessary because of the fact that when the prepositional object, for some reason, change its position to stand after the verb, the proposition cannot be omitted whereas in Pattern SVOO when the indirect object moves to stand before the verb, the preposition should be removed With regard to the research question two What are the syntactic and semantic similarities and differences between English transitive verbs and their equivalents in Vietnamese?, during the process of comparing between their transitive verb in English and their Vietnamese equivalents by means of word order, it is noticed that basically the elements of verb patterns in both languages occupy the same positions in the sentences In general, the word order in English verb patterns are fixed However, the word order in their Vietnamese equivalents is considerably flexible, which is featured by the fact 65 that the connecting words, the preposition or conjunctions, can be used more flexibly This difference may be attributed to the grammatical features of each language: word order is one grammatical means in Vietnamese while in English, verb transitivity dictates the word combination in the verb pattern, In reference to the research question What could be the applications in learning and teaching English transitive verbs for Vietnamese learners?, the thesis has based itself on the results of a survey test on transitive verb patterns for a group of students at one institution Through the mistakes the students made in the test it is assumed that Vietnamese learners of English could master transitive verbs in building English sentences when they understand how the elements of a verb pattern are structured In order to this, they should be equipped with essential knowledge about the grammatical meanings concerning the function, position and relations between the elements of the patterns The learners should be made aware of the fact that English transitive verb patterns have many syntactic and semantic features in common with their Vietnamese equivalents However, it is the syntactic and semantic similarities between two languages that may make them unaware of the peculiarities of the Vietnamese language which interfere with their acquisition of English verb patterns To cope with the situation, Vietnamese learners should learn and use English verb patterns according to the English grammar rules rather than use English verb patterns through word-for-word translation 5.3 Limitations of the study Although the thesis has done a number of things, it cannot be denied that there are still many things undone with the study topic First of all, the sources for information collection are not so up-to-date and various There are still some more aspects of the syntactic and semantic features of the English transitive verbs which have not yet been dealt with There might be more verb 66 patterns than the pattern number the thesis has investigated English transitive verbs can be used both in active and passive form; however, because of limited space and time the thesis has only discussed their active form In addition, the thesis is limited to analyzing the grammatical meanings, not lexical meanings of verb structure elements Furthermore, the thesis confines itself to the comparison between the word order of English verb patterns with that of their examples translated into Vietnamese There are still many other aspects of English transitive verbs that could be put under investigation Another drawback is that the number of selective examples gathered and analyzed is limited, causing the insufficiency in findings towards semantic and syntactic features of English verb structures If there would be more time and efforts, the author believes that the results would reach a higher level and might make more linguistic and practical contributions There would be more syntactic and semantic features of verb patterns to be found if more examples are gathered and analyzed In order to suggest some implication for English transitive verb learning and teaching, the thesis conducted a survey However, the number of informants was not big, the number of test question was not so big, and only one test was done All of these limitations could affect the valid and reliability of the suggestions for transitive verb patterns in English for all the Vietnamese learning English Finally, the limited knowledge and time of the author might affect the quality of the findings and conclusion in the thesis However, the thesis is expected to make a number of theoretical and practical contributions in the study of English transitive verbs 5.4 Recommendations for further study As has been mentioned above that there are still a great number of aspects of transitive verbs in English that could be investigated: 67 Firstly, the thesis assumed that, morphologically, there are two types of transitive verbs: one-word transitive and two-word transitive in English If this categorization is accepted, there could be multi-word transitive verbs which could be worth investigation Secondly, a study of the passive form of transitive verbs could be taken into consideration In the thesis, semantic features of the transitive verb patterns refers to grammatical meanings only A great number of aspects concerning syntax and lexical meanings of English transitive verbs can be put under study Last but not least, the concept of valency is closely related to transitivity The valency of a verb considers all the arguments the verb takes, including both the subject and all of the objects In contrast to valency, the transitivity of a verb only considers the objects There are two kinds of valency in English: reduction and extension In this thesis, the author just focused on one kind of valency reduction, ellipsis, which is referred to as zero objects The concept of valency could be one of the topics for research not only in English alone but also in comparison with Vietnamese 68 REFERENCES ENGLISH Alexander, L G (1975) English Grammar Structure Longman Group Limited, London and New York Alexander, L G (1988) Longman English Grammar Longman Group U.K Limited, London and New York Angela Downing English Grammar: A University Course Routledge, 2006) Cobuild, C (1990).English Grammar William Colins Son & Co Limited, New Delhi Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2010) England: Pearson Education limited Dixon, R.M.W (1991) A New Approach to English Grammar on Semantic Principles Oxford University Press, United States East Wood, J (1994) Oxford Guide to English Grammar Oxford University press, Hong Kong English-Vietnamese Dictionary (1993) Ho Chi Minh City Publishing House Halliday, M A K and Hasan, R (1976) Cohesion in English London: Longman 10 Halliday, M A K (1994) An Introduction in functional Grammar London: Edward Arnold 11.Hopper, V et al (2000) Essentials of English Barron’s Educational Series, Inc 12 Hurford, J.R and Heasley B (1983).Semantics: A Course Book Cambridge University Press, London 69 13.Leech, G (1981) Semantics: The Study of Meaning Penguin, London 14.Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2010) England: Pearson Education Limited 15 Maclin, A (1992) Reference Guide to English- A Handbook of English as a Second Language The Office of English Language Programs, US Department of State 16 Marjolyn Verspoor and Kim Sauter, English Sentence Analysis John Benjamins, 2000 17.Martin J Endley, Linguistic Perspectives on English Grammar: A Guide for EFL Teachers IAP, 2010 18 Murphy, R (2010) English Grammar In Use Haiphong Publishing House 19 Quirk, R et al (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of English Language Longman Group Limited London, London 20.Quirk, R et al (1972) A Grammar of Contemporary English Longman Group Limited London, London 21.Quirk, R & Greenbaum, S (1990) A Student’s Grammar of the English Language Addison Wesley Longman Limited, London 22.Quirk, R & Greenbaum, S (1973), A University Grammar English, Longman Group Limited London, Harlow 23.Quirk, R & Greenbaum, S (1973) A University Grammar English, Workbook Longman Group Limited London, Harlow 24 The Collins English Dictionary (2015) Collins; Seventh edition 25.Yule, G (1996) The Study of Language Cambridge University Press, London 70 VIETNAMMESE 26 Diệp, Q.B (1989) Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt phổ thông NXB Đại học Giáo dục chuyên nghiệp, Hà Nội 27 Diệp, Q.B (1992) Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt, Tập NXB Giáo Dục, Hà Nội 28 Diệp, Q B (1998) Văn Bản Liên kết Tiếng Việt Ha noi: Nhà xuất Bản Giáo dục 29 Cao Xuân Hạo (1999).Tiếng Việt – Mấy vấn đề Ngữ âm, Ngữ pháp, Ngữ nghĩa NXB Giáo dục, Hà Nội 30 Hoàng Trọng Phiến (1980) Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt – Câu, NXB Đại học Trung học chuyên nghiệp, Hà Nội 31 Nguyễn Kim Thản (1977) Động từ Tiếng Việt NXB Khoa học Xã Hội Websites 32 http://community-2.webtv.net/solis-boo/Grammar1.html 33 http://www.brighthubeducation.com/learning-translating-latin/15229five-characteristics-of-latin-verbs/ 34 http://www.ehow.com/info_10065649_tips-determine-transitiveintransitive-verbs.html 35 http://www.ehow.com/list_7809208_transitive-intransitive-verbactivities.html 71 APPENDIX Survey tests on English transitive verbs Choose () the correct answer (A, B, or C) in the questions below as in the example She is …………… herself in the mirror A seeing  B looking at C looking They want to …………… that issue again A discuss B discuss about C to discuss Last night he enjoyed……………… at the party A immensely B together C himself He waited ………… her for a long time, but she did not come A for B with C on The girl was looking ………… the doll when her mother came in A for B at C to She explained …………… why she came late A me B to me C for me Basing … what she said, I believe she knows nothing about the story A on B myself on C me on She wants to give ……………………… A a book for him B him a book C to him a book She always cooks the meals ………………… A to her family B for her family C her family Nobody can make him …………… change his mind A change B to change 10 I will have somebody ……… it tomorrow 72 C changing A fix B to fix C fixed 11 Always remember to keep your room …………………… A tidy B tidily C tidying B you as my brother C you be my brother 12 I consider …………… A you my brother 13 He regarded his mother …………… the greatest idol in the world A to be B as C like 14 Remember to lock the door ……… before you leave A careful B carefully C care 15 She did the job very … and she succeeded in the end A hardly B hardest The end 73 C hard APPENDIX Answer Key for the survey tests Choose () the correct answer (A, B, or C) in the questions below as in the example They want to …………… that issue again A discuss B discuss about C to discuss Last night he enjoyed……………… at the party A immensely B together C himself He waited ………… her for a long time, but she did not come A for B with C on The girl was looking ………… the doll when her mother came in A for B at C to She explained …………… why she came late A me B to me C for me Basing … what she said, I believe she knows nothing about the story A on B myself on C me on She wants to give ……………………… A a book for him B him a book C to him a book She always cooks the meals ………………… A to her family B for her family C her family Nobody can make him …………… change his mind A change B to change 10 I will have somebody ……… it tomorrow 74 C changing A fix B to fix C fixed 11 Always remember to keep your room …………………… A tidy B tidily C tidying 12 I consider …………… A you my brother B you as my brother C you be my brother 13 He regarded his mother …………… the greatest idol in the world A to be B as C like 14 Remember to lock the door ……… before you leave A careful B carefully C care 15 She did the job very……… , and she succeeded in the end A hardly B hardest The end! 75 C hard APPENDIX List of transitive verbs in English (There are 364 verbs but the list is not complete.) accept beat bump chase acknowledge bend burn chastise admit bite call check aggravate bless cancel chill answer blow capture clean arrest bother carry close ask break catch clutch avoid brush change collect bash build charge comfort confuse eject grasp kill consume embarrass grease kiss contradict embrace grip knock convert empower handle lag copy enable hang lay correct enclose have lead cover encourage head lean crack enjoy help leave cross enlighten hide let cut enlist highlight lick dampen entertain hit lift dash escort hoist light daze examine hold lighten 76 dazzle excite honor limit deceive excuse hug link define execute hump list delay fascinate hurry load deny feed hurt lock derail feel imitate lose describe fight impress love destroy file include lower devastate fill indulge maintain dig find inform make discover finish insert mark discuss fire inspect marry dismiss fix inspire massage distinguish flick insure melt disturb flip interest mix drag follow interrupt mock draw force interview move dress forget intimidate munch drink forgive involve murder drive freeze irritate name drop frighten join notice drown fry jolt number dry furnish judge nurse dunk gather keep offend eat get key open 77 edify grab kick order own remind snap thank pack remove soak threaten page repel soften throw paralyze replace solve tickle park research sound tie pass retard specify tighten pay retire speed tip persuade reveal spell tire petrify ride spend toast pick ring spill toss pierce rip spit touch pin rob split tow place rub spoon transform play run spread try please satisfy squash turn poison save stab tweak poke scan stain twist possess scare stake underestimate post scold start understand pour scoop startle unload prepare scrub stay unlock press seat steer untie print see stir upgrade promise select stop use 78 protect sell store vacate pull send strike videotape punch set study vilify punish sew stuff violate purchase shake suck wake push shame surprise want puzzle shift survey warm question shoot swallow warn quit shove switch wash raid shut tape watch raise sink taste wear read slam teach widen reassure slap tease win recognize slice tell wipe reenter slow tend wrack refill smell terrify wrap 79 ... clear that dynamic verbs in general, and transitive verbs in particular are not totally similar between English and Vietnamese in many aspects By investigating deeply into English transitive verbs. .. focus on what the words conventionally mean, rather than on what a speaker might want the words to mean on a particular occasion Also, linguistic semantics deals with the conventional meaning conveyed... real tense of the verb in the verb meaning phrase) and not depending on another verb) 2.Based on lexical Dynamic verbs Stative verbs meaning (Indicating an action) (Indicating a state, situation