SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF BEGINNING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY - - M.A THESIS SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF BEGINNING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG TỪ BEGINNING TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT) PHẠM THỊ NHUNG Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Assoc Pro Dr LE VAN THANH Hanoi,2017 Contents CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Methods of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 10 1.6 Significance of the study 11 1.7 Design of the study 11 Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 13 2.1 Previous studies 13 2.2 Overview of syntax and semantics 14 2.2.1 Theory of syntax 14 2.2.2 Theory of semantic 15 2.3 Overview of English verb 17 2.3.1 Definition of English verb 17 2.3.2 Classification of English verb 18 2.4 Classification of sentences 20 2.5 Overview of BEGINNING verb group 23 Summary 24 CHAPTER 3: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF BEGINNING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 26 3.1 Syntactic features of the BEGINNING verb group 26 3.2 Semantic features of the BEGINNING verb group in 30 3.3.1 In term of their sybtactic features 45 3.3.2 In terms of their semantic features 46 CHAPTER IV: APPLICATIONS FOR VIETNAMESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH WHEN USINGBEGINNING VERB GROUP 50 4.1 Survey 50 4.2 Common errors made by students at Tong Duy Tan High School when using BEGINNING verb group in English 53 4.3 Suggestions for teaching and learning BEGINNING verb group in English 57 4.4 Summary 61 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 62 5.1 Concluding remark 62 5.2 Limitations 63 5.3 Suggestions for further researches 63 REFERENCES 64 APPENDIX 66 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “Syntactic and semantic features of BEGINNING verb group and their Vietnamese equivalents” 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 Hanoi, 2017 Pham Thi Nhung Approved by SUPERVISOR Assoc Prof Dr Le Van Thanh Date ……/12/2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Assoc Prof Dr Le Van Thanh who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher A special word of thanks goes to all the lecturers in the Faculty of Postgraduate studies Hanoi Open University and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would have never been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband and my two loving sons for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work ABSTRACT BEGINNING verb group is used regularly and flexible in daily communication, but the significant meaning of the concept of BEGINNING verb group is still misunderstood by Vietnamese people Therefore, the author thinks the study on the subject of BEGINNING verb group in Vietnamese and English is helpful for improving the knowledge of learners as well as the students learning English in general This paper is to study the BEGINNING verb group in terms of syntactic and semantic features in English and their Vietnamese equivalents We have used the combination of descriptive and contrastive methods in this study The findings show that the similarities and differences between two languages and remarkable syntactic and semantic features We also present the implications for teaching and learning the BEGINNING verb group as well as for further study and understanding the meaning of the BEGINNING verb group in general and the usages of them in particular is the first difficulty of learners and the second one is the way of using the BEGINNING verb group in each specific context The BEGINNING verb group includes verbs: begin, start, continue, keep (on), stop, finish and complete The thesis is expected to help Vietnamese learners of English learn, translate and use the BEGINNING verb group in English effectively LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A Adverbial C Complement E English NP Noun phrase O Object S Subject sb somebody sth Something V Verb Vi Vietnamese Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale It cannot be denied that the verb is one of the most important parts in any kinds of sentences According to De Capua (2017), the verb is considered the “heart” of a sentence as it is the verb that provides the central meaning to a sentence Through the verb, information about actions or states of being is expressed, making it the crucial element of the predicate of a sentence There have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations into BEGINNING verb group in both English and Vietnamese In English, there are different researchers with books such as: Anna Wierzbicka (1972) studied about the semantic features of verbs such as: start, continue, finish; R M W Dixon (1991), A new approach to English grammar on semantic principles; Gilbert Ryle (2009); Susanna Karlsson (2008) In Vietnam with studies: Hồng Tuệ (1962), Giáo trình Việt Ngữ; Nguyễn Kim Thản( 1997), Động từ tiếng Việt; Hoàng Phê (1998), Vietnamese dictionary These studies thoroughly describe about the semantic features of the BEGINNING verb group but they have not been exploited in terms of their syntactic features yet Moreover, the equivalents between two languages English and Vietnamese have not been implemented yet In the process of teaching English verbs in general, there is a fact that my learners have faced many problems when they use this group of verbs They are often confused to choose the right verb and make errors in using them Therefore, a study has been carried out to find out how to use these verbs accurately and correctly from the analysis of their syntactic and semantic features with reference to their equivalents in Vietnamese As there are a lot of BEGINNING verb group, learners can use numerous words to express their ideas However, a great number of people make mistakes when they use the BEGINNING verb group in different situations to communicate To compare the syntactic and semantic features of the BEGINNING verb group are important to learners, so that they can have good knowledge to use the BEGINNING verb group effectively A great numbers of studies on verbs with certain linguistic units has been researched; however, there is no study of BEGINNING verb group For the above reasons, the topic “Syntactic and semantic features of BEGINNING verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents” is chosen with the purpose of finding out the equivalents of English and Vietnamese BEGINNING verb group The study only focuses on seven English BEGINNING verbs begin, start, continue, keep (on), finish, stop, complete with the hope that thesis will be a useful reference, to the extent possible, for teaching and learning English as foreign language in Vietnam 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at describing the features of BEGINNING verb group in English and making a comparison between this verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents In order to gain the above aims, the study carries out the following objectives: (i) Identifying syntactic and semantic features of BEGINNING verb group in English (ii) Comparing the syntactic and features of these BEGINNING verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features (iii) Offering some implications for teaching and learning BEGINNING verb group in English 1.3 Research questions On the basis of the above mentioned aims, the study is conducted to answer the following questions: What are the syntactic and semantic features of BEGINNING verb group in English? What are the similarities and differences of BEGINNING verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents? What are the suggestions for teaching and learning English BEGINNING verb group? 1.4 Methods of the study This study is designed and investigated the syntactic and semantic features of the BEGINNING verb group in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, so the qualitative, descriptive and contrastive methods are chosen This study analyzes and synthesis to some syntactic, semantic features of the BEGINNING verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents Therefore, in the process of this study, the BEGINNING verb group is main resources for the research making English the source language and Vietnamese the target one First of all, the qualitative method is referred the meaning as well as the definitions or the concepts of the BEGINNING verb group in English and in Vietnamese Then, the descriptive method is used to describe the characteristics and equivalents of semantic and syntactic structures of the English BEGINNING verb group in English and Vietnamese Additionally, the contrastive method is used to compare the syntactic and semantic features of the BEGINNING verb group in English and Vietnamese to make clear the similarities and differences between them Moreover, analysis and synthesize are also utilized as supporting methods Though analysis method, the similarities and differences of the BEGINNING verb group are analyzed and with synthesize method, some verbs belong to the BEGINNING verb group are synthesized to illustrate from different sources such as books, dictionaries, literary works, newspapers, magazines and websites As a matter of fact, to investigate the structures of the BEGINNING verb group with their different components and semantic features Analytical method and synthetic method is also used for grouping them on the basic of certain criteria according to structural and semantic features Finally, in the conducting of the investigation, setting up a regular consultancy with supervisor for a guidance and academic exchange is critical techique to find out a right direction for doing the research successfully 1.5 Scope of the study Within the frame work of the study, seven BEGINNING verb group are analyzed in terms of syntactic and semantic features Data were collected from books, dictionaries and internet Some implications will be suggested basing on the survey on 90 students at Tong Duy Tan high school in order to help Vietnamese learners of English have a better understanding of the BEGINNING verb group and then use them in daily communication effectively Sentence/answers 10 11 12 13 14 15 Correct sentence 8.33 20.83 8.33 8.33 8.33 8.33 4.16 8.33 41.66 75.00 16.66 12.50 54.16 0 verb 8.33 0 12.50 62.50 other 12.50 12.50 0 0 12.50 29.16 Omission of 4.16 BEGINNING verb group Wrong choice of 87.50 BEGINNING verb group Errors in form Misusing verbs as BEGINNING verb group Miscellaneous errors 4.2 Common errors made by students at Tong Duy Tan High School when using BEGINNING verb group in English 4.2.1 Common errors made by learners of English Type 1: Errors in omission of form with verb infinitive When a learners has not learnt something and consistently “get it wrong”, an error A child acquiring his own language sometimes consistently makes the same error In the same way, when a learner of English as a second or foreign language makes an error systematically, it is because he has not learnt the correct form An common example is that learners know the verbs begin (to) But they often ignore “to” when it links two verbs in a sentence Students often ignore “to” That’s not correct * They began talk 30 minutes ago Type 2: Errors due to the wrong choice of BEGINNING verb group Sometimes a learner will use one form and sometimes the other, quite inconsistently This inconsistent derivation we shall call a mistake: sometimes the learner “get it wrong” but sometimes he makes a mistake and uses the wrong form The errors may probably be made because in BEGINNING verb group such as start, in certain context share the same meaning as “begin”, hence the name resulting BEGINNING verb group Therefore, in their translated texts we may notice such mistakes Sometimes a learner will use one form and sometimes the other, quite inconsistently This inconsistent derivation we shall call a mistake: sometimes the learner “get it wrong” but sometimes he makes a mistake and uses the wrong form The errors may probably be made because in BEGINNING verb group such as start, in certain context share the same meaning as “begin”, hence the name resulting BEGINNING verb group Therefore, in their translated texts we may notice such mistakes Type 3: Errors due to the wrong use of noun phrases after BEGINNING verb group These errors may also be based on the argument that there may be structures in Vietnamese similar to those in English This argument may be made also on account of the use of the English noun phrase after BEGINNING verb group Type 4: because of the restricted use of certain prepositional phrases after a very small number of BEGINNING verb group, learners may analogize and make mistakes of this type Type 5: Errors in translation with Vietnamese equivalents About translation word by word of idiomatic expression in the learner’s first language can produce classic howlers.) Most speakers of English seem to be well aware of these pitfalls and, indeed, derive much innocent fun from them It should be made clear at this point that the distinction between interference and translation from the first language as causes of student error is a fine one The implication of the term interference is that what takes place is largely unconscious in the mind of the learner 4.2.2 Causes of committing errors It is usual in error analysis to identify the following principal causes of errors: Mother tongue transfer: One of the major factors that cause students of English to commit errors may be that they communicate their ideas under the influence of their mother tongue Each language has its own systems of structures, words and sounds It sometimes occurs that on the way to generalizing target language rules the students impose on the target language acquisition their knowledge and skills of their mother tongue in many aspect In terms of order, for instance, the students may think, especially at the beginner’s stage, that word order in English and Vietnamese are similar The first example on the similarity between two languages is word order in the sentence The order SVO is basically the same in the sentences of both English and Vietnamese However, it is the similarity between the two languages that sometimes causes troubles for the learners Over-generalization of rules The second root cause for learner’s committing errors can be traced down by the termed intralingua interference One of the common error learners of English can make is that verb conjugation is sometimes over-generalized with the third person singular pronouns in the simple present or present perfect tense So it is quite accountable if you can see: This error is largely due to the fact that Vietnamese words never change their forms in the sentence A considerable amount of difficulty in the second language learning is related to selected restrictions and to surface structure and contextual rules of the languages Both mother tongue interference and over-generation errors confirm that previous learning may influence later learning Environment of practicing English As for the lack of language environment, Vietnamese learners of English study language in a low motivation They not have much exposure to many situations where they can practice speaking and writing in English As a result, they think and speak or write in the way they communicate their ideas in Vietnamese They lack confidence and willingness to open their heart to other people, and errors repeat themselves Lack of exposure to natural communication in English also makes it hard for learners of English to distinguish between spoken and written language Not few learners think that when they have been able to speak English well, they can write in English well That’s why it is all right when they say: Ability to produce language: Another consideration that should be mentioned here is that the poor ability to produce speech in some learners also causes them to make mistakes Some learners may be good at memorizing words or patterns but bad at using them creatively and flexibly The fact is that some poor language performers cannot use different words or structures to express themselves freely; they stick rigidly to known patterns or structures and they cannot respond quickly and effectively to different situations when needed This explains why they cannot adapt to a variety of language context For example, if they could use different kinds of words to express the same meaning, then they would use Stability of learner’s approximate system: The learners’ approximate system can also produce errors in usage of regular and irregular verbs in the past That is why some learners may say and write: choiced for chose It is also noteworthy that language production is a flexible and creative act of human beings In many situations, speakers and writers of a target language have to accept the fact that there are always exceptions in languages in general and in English in particular That also means that system activity is just relative, not quite stable In Vietnamese words not change their form in the sentence whereas words in English change in different positions in the sentence This accounts for the mistakes Some learners make as they think those words are the same when they share the same form or function Inherent difficulties: This factor is concerned with the inherent difficulty for students of semantic items The student’s comprehension and efforts at comprehension may now be compared with his production They made sentences in the way they found it easiest That also explains why in many situations the students cannot use correctly such verbs as begin, start, finish, complete etc as motransitive, ditransitve or complextransitive as the differences between those verbs are not clearly distinguished in Vietnamese This factor is concerned with the inherent difficulty for students of semantic items The student’s comprehension and efforts at comprehension may now be compared with his production They made sentences in the way they found it easiest That also explains why in many situations the students cannot use correctly such verbs as begin, start, finish, complete etc as motransitive, ditransitve or complextransitive as the differences between those verbs are not clearly distinguished in Vietnamese Therefore, errors made by students are never limited because of many reasons, so in the process of teaching/learning BEGINNING verb group we should have appropriate methods or strategies to get achievements effectively The next section is some suggestions for overcoming the problems and some applications in teaching BEGINNING verb group 4.3 Suggestions for teaching and learning BEGINNING verb group in English 4.3.1 Suggestions for teaching BEGINNING verb group in English In order to help students to use BEGINNING verb group correctly, the teacher’s role is crucial in the process of improving students’ abilities For teachers, the following suggestions would be helpful: First of all, it would be suggested that teachers not only need to be aware of all basic BEGINNING verb group and know how they can be used, but also to have good knowledge about English and Vietnamese BEGINNING verb group in terms of structures and meanings as well Teacher should distinguish the BEGINNING verb group from other kinds of English verb group like BEGINNING verb group, BEGINNING verb group etc, for example, the differences between intransitive and transitive verbs of each verb in BEGINNING verb group Secondly, teachers should be trained to improve their techniques in teaching BEGINNING verb group For example, teachers should give systematic introduction of two Subgroups of BEGINNING verb group They give possible structure with BEGINNING verb group: SV, SVO, SVOC and SVOO by using combination between the direct method-focusing on explaining and analyzing the rules of grammar and the audio-lingual method-essentially a process of habit formation through repetition, imitation and drill in terms of stimulus and response Thirdly, while teaching, teachers should make a contrastive with Vietnamese The differences as well as the similarities pointed out in the study will, to some extent, help the teacher to predict those areas of BEGINNING verb group which will cause a lot of difficulties fro Vietnamese learners They may also help him to diagnose errors by pinpointing the sources of errors that have been committed by the learners when learning The contrastive analysis may provide the teacher with understanding of the nature of the mother tongue and the foreign language and it will enable him to find ways to deal with any problems raised by the nature of the differences and similarities and to take account them when teaching It is a fact that not all students learn in the same way Neither all teachers teach in the same way However, the teachers should teach what the students need, not what he knows When teaching BEGINNING verb group, together with teaching the types of it, teachers should point out the differences and similarities between English BEGINNING verb group with their Vietnamese equivalents This will help the learners avoid committing intralingua errors The teachers should also help the learners avoid committing developmental errors by pointing out the differences between English BEGINNING verb group and their Vietnamese equivalents Fourthly, as far as the problem of error correction is concerned, it is important for teacher to adopt a positive attitude toward student’s error and its treatment Our aim is to help students to use BEGINNING verb group effectively The teacher should be a guide to help students to participate in learning process, and the teacher should cooperate with learners in teaching and learning process to get a good result Finally, to help students practice by preparing some types of exercises covering the areas of difficulties which students may commit errors when learning BEGINNING verb group Types of exercises: The following suggested exercises most selected from different books and range from low level to upper level may be suggested helping practice with BEGINNING verb group 4.3.2 Suggestions for learning BEGINNING verb group in English In order to help students to use BEGINNING verb group correctly, the teacher’s role is crucial in the process of improving students’ abilities For teachers, the following suggestions would be helpful First of all, it would be suggested that teachers not only need to be aware of all basic verb group and know how they can be used, but also to have good knowledge about English and Vietnamese BEGINNING verb group in terms of structures and meanings as well Teacher should distinguish the BEGINNING verb group from other kinds of English verb group like DECIDING verb group, THINKING verb group etc, for example, the differences between intransitive and transitive verbs of each verb in BEGINNING verb group Secondly, teachers should be trained to improve their techniques in teaching BEGINNING verb group For example, teachers should give systematic introduction of seven Subgroups of BEGINNING verb group They are: SEE Subgroup and SHOW Subgroup, RECOGNIZE Subgroup, DISCOVER Subgroup, WITNESS Subgroup LOOK Subgroup, WATCH Subgroup give possible structure with BEGINNING verb group: SVO, SVC, SVA SVOC, SVOA and SVOO by using combination between the direct method-focusing on explaining and analyzing the rules of grammar and the audio-lingual method-essentially a process of habit formation through repetition, imitation and drill in terms of stimulus and response Thirdly, while teaching, teachers should make a contrastive with Vietnamese The differences as well as the similarities pointed out in the study will, to some extent, help the teacher to predict those areas of BEGINNING verb group which will cause a lot of difficulties from Vietnamese learners They may also help him to diagnose errors by pointing the sources of errors that have been committed by the learners when learning The contrastive analysis may provide the teacher with understanding of the nature of the mother tongue and the foreign language and it will enable him to find ways to deal with any problems raised by the nature of the differences and similarities and to take account them when teaching It is a fact that not all students learn in the same way Neither all teachers teach in the same way However, the teachers should teach what the students need, not what he knows When teaching BEGINNING verb group, together with teaching the types of it, teachers should point out the differences and similarities between English BEGINNING verb group with their Vietnamese equivalents This will help the learners avoid committing intralingua errors The teachers should also help the learners avoid committing developmental errors by pointing out the differences between English BEGINNING verb group and their Vietnamese equivalents Fourthly, as far as the problem of error correction is concerned, it is important for teacher to adopt a positive attitude toward student’s error and its treatment Our aim is to help students to use BEGINNING verb group effectively The teacher should be a guide to help students to participate in learning process, and the teacher should cooperate with learners in teaching and learning process to get a good result Finally, to help students practice by preparing some types of exercises covering the areas of difficulties which students may commit errors when learning BEGINNING verb group In order to overcome the problems when learning BEGINNING verb group, the following suggestions should be good for students to: - become familiar with English BEGINNING verb group and their basis structures and know how to realize their Subgroups and their complementation - look out for the forming the rules themselves and organize these rules in a way that are clear to them - share knowledge, experiences, feelings…with the teachers and classmates - show no fear of making mistakes; try to understand why they consistently make a certain kind of mistakes They can avoid making them by checking the text book, or by asking the teacher - accept correction from both teacher and classmates - practice a lot because “practice is perfect” 4.4 Summary In this chapter, we have dealt with the actual errors made by students when using BEGINNING verb group and shown that Vietnamese students made errors in using BEGINNING verb group both surface and deep structure Then some sources of errors have been suggested to justify why certain errors made, mother tongue is one of the most important factor that affects the process of learning second language Some suggestions for overcoming these problems were given and the teacher’s role is very important It is necessary for English teacher to have a good knowledge of English They have to improve their techniques in teaching English and they should know how to deal with each type of errors, what exercises or activities should be provided and so on One of the most important things is the student’s attempt in overcoming problems The teacher should cooperate with students to get good achievements effectively These suggestions are intended to improve the quality of teaching and learning English BEGINNING verb group at Tong Duy Tan high school, problematic to some extent CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Concluding remark From the investigation, the BEGINNING verb group can be generalized as having a wide range of meanings They combine with other word-classes to form lexico-grammatical structures in which various manifestations of meaning could be expressed Syntactically, most of the BEGINNING verb group can be transitive, taking direct objects, indirect objects, or intransitives verbs, without any object Semantically, from analyzing the examples taken from literary works, we can conclude that the differences in meaning between BEGINNING verb group are not great In addition, the choice of these English Matching Verbs is based not only on the semantic meanings but also on the special relation between Subjects and Objects to decide which BEGINNING verb group is appropriate In sum, the study has provided learners of English with detailed description of BEGINNING verb group in syntactic, semantic features and Vietnamese translational equivalents This can be carried out by constant practice in class with the guide of the teacher and with students’ self-study at home This study may imply the need of encouraging students to exploit the diverse meanings of these verbs to use them flexibly and properly Therefore, learners should be provided with more opportunities to practice BEGINNING verb group in context, which help them get acquainted with many matching verbs or distinguish different matching verb structures To help learners avoid this problem, it is teachers’ duty to point out the similarities and differences between the two languages in respect of the related issue In other words, contrastive analysis teaching is indispensable in such situations In translation, with the understanding of language structures, it is easier to translate languages Therefore, translation exercises from Vietnamese into English and vice versa should be given to learners to help them use BEGINNING verb group and their Vietnamese equivalents properly Although the study has shown that there are a large number of BEGINNING verb group, it only investigates some commonly used ones Thus, teachers should help learners be aware of the meanings of these verbs and use them effectively in communication Last but not least, the thesis is carried out to provide learners with the language device, which is the verb to express the meaning of suitability As a result, learners know how to use different BEGINNING verb group to express the proper meanings they want to convey in a certain context 5.2 Limitations As mentioned in the scope of the study, the thesis undoubtedly has some limitations though we have tried our best to complete it Due to limitation of time and data collected, there are unavoidable weaknesses in the study, for example, the thesis investigates some BEGINNING verb group, not all, therefore, there are still other verbs which needs studying or the verbs of Decoding were not comprehensively studied so that the results would be more convincing 5.3 Suggestions for further researches For further study, which may be very interesting and useful, some suggestions are: - The BEGINNING verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents from the point of view of culture and pragmatics - The BEGINNING verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents from the point of view of speech act verbs REFERENCES 1.A new Approach to English Grammar on semantic principles (R.M.Dixon)(1991) Allerton, D J (1979) Essentials of Grammatical Theory Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd Bolinger D (1975), Aspects of Language, Harcourt Brave Jovanovich Inc Press Cruse, D.A (2004) Meaning in Language An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics, Oxford University Press Cruse D.A (1986), Lexical Semantics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Gairns R & Redman S (1986), Working with words: A guide to teaching and learning vocabulary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Halliday M.A.K (1966), Lexis as a linguistic level, w C.E Bazell, J.C Catford, M.A.K Halliday & R.H Robins (Eds.), In memory of J.R Firth (148-162), London: Longman Halliday M.A.K (2004), An introduction to Functional Grammar, Hodder Arnold Hurford, J R and Heasley B (1983).Semantics: A Course Book London, Cambridge University Press 10 Heid, U et al (1996) A lexicographic and formal description of the lexical classes of perception and speech act verbs Deliverable D-III-1 of DELIS Draft 11 Nguyen Hoa (2004) Understanding English Semantics Hanoi National University of Vietnam Publishing House 12 Nguyen Hoa (2002) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis Hanoi National University of Vietnam Publishing House 13 Murphy, R (1994) English Grammar in Use Cambridge University Press 14 McCarthy M (1990), Vocabulary, Oxford: Oxford University Press 15 McCarthy M & O’Dell F (2005), English collocations in use, Cambridge University Press 16 PGS.TS Tran Huu Manh (2008).Fundamentals of English traditional syntax, Ha Noi national university publication 17 Nguyen Van Phuoc, Le Ngoc Phuong Anh (1995) The “right wrong word T _úng, tsai”, Ho Chi Minh publication 18 Palmer F.R (1965), The English Verb, London: Longman Group Limited 19 Quirk R et al (1972), A Grammar of Contemporary English, Essex: Longman 20 Richards J.C et al (1992), Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, Longman Press, Malaysia 21 James, C (1980) Contrastive Analysis Longman Group Ltd, Colchester 22 Jeffries, L (1998) Meaning in English: An introduction to Language Study Macmillan Press LTD 23 Jackson, H (1988) Words and Their Meaning Longman: London VIETNAMESE 24 Nguyễn Kim Thản.1999 Động từ tiếng Việt Viện ngôn ngữ học - Trung tâm Khoa học xã hội Nhân văn Quốc Gia 25 Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh 1994 Tiếng Việt đại Nhà xuất Hà Nội APPENDIX EXERCISE IN THE STUDY OF STUDENTS’ ERRORS IN USING BEGINNING VERB GROUP This questionnaire aims to investigate your intuition about BEGINNING verb group Your response to this questionnaire will be kept strictly confidential and will be used for research purpose only Exercise 1: Use the correct form of the verbs in bracket: Please stop (talk) We will stop (eat) lunch in ten minutes By working day and night, he succeeded in (finish) the job in time Stop (argue) and start ( work) A good way to stop (to talk) to your customers is to thank you for their time Exercise 2: Choose the best answer to complete the sentences: 1.My car wouldn't this morning, so I had to come by bus a begin b start c either could be used d none of them could be used It off well, but I soon got bored a began b started c Either could be used d none of them could be used Losing the contract was the of the end of his career a beginning b start c Either could be used d none of them could be used The race at three o'clock a begins b starts c Either could be used d none of them could be used Possible answer for the test Exercise 1: Talking – to eat Finishing Arguing – to work Talking Exercise 2: b b a c ... OF BEGINNING VERB GROUP IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 26 3.1 Syntactic features of the BEGINNING verb group 26 3.2 Semantic features of the BEGINNING verb group. .. of BEGINNING verb group in English (ii) Comparing the syntactic and features of these BEGINNING verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features. .. Syntactic and semantic features of BEGINNING verb group in English and their Vietnamese equivalents is chosen with the purpose of finding out the equivalents of English and Vietnamese BEGINNING