The common two word verbs denoting material and mental processes in english and their vietnamese equivalents

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THỊ DIỆU QUYÊN THE COMMON TWO-WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND MENTAL PROCESSES IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÁC ĐỘNG TỪ HAI THÀNH TỐ PHỔ BIẾN QUI CHIẾU TIẾN TRÌNH VẬT CHẤT VÀ TINH THẦN TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ NGHĨA TIẾNG VIỆT TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 HA NOI – 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THỊ DIỆU QUYÊN THE COMMON TWO-WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND MENTAL PROCESSES IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÁC ĐỘNG TỪ HAI THÀNH TỐ PHỔ BIẾN QUI CHIẾU TIẾN TRÌNH VẬT CHẤT VÀ TINH THẦN TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ NGHĨA TIẾNG VIỆT TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Lingguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Bích Ngọc, M.A HA NOI – 2010 TABLES OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Aims of the study Scope of the study Method of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Two word verbs 1.1.1 Definition of PVs and PreVs 1.1.2 Syntactic and semantic characteristics of PVs and PreVs 2.1.2.2 Syntactic and semantic characteristics of PreVs 1.2 Process types 1.2.1 Overview of process types 1.2.2 Material processes 1.2.3 Mental processes 1.2.4 Material vs mental processes CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Data collection instrument 2.2 Corpus choice 2.3 Data Analyses 2.4 The selection and extraction of two-word verbs CHAPTER 3: ENGLISH TWO-WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND MENTAL PROCESSES AND VIETNAMSESE EQUIVALENTS COME GIVE 3 GO MAKE HEAR SEE THINK PART C: CONCLUSION Conclusions Suggestions for teaching and learning two-word verbs Suggests for further studies REFERENCES APPENDIX APPENDIX APPENDIX APPENDIX APPENDIX APPENDIX APPENDIX Abbreviations B.E British English A.E American English PV Phrasal verb PreV Prepositional verb S Obligatory separable phrasal verbs inS Inseparable phrasal verbs Trans Transitive Intrans Intransitive NP Noun phrase V Verb LSWE Longman Spoken and Written English LOCNESS Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays BNC British National Corpus List of tables Table 1: PVs and PreVs dissimilarities Table 2: Number of two-word verbs and meanings in three sources of dictionary Table 3: Table 3: Frequent two-word verbs in studies of Gardner & Davies (2007), Liu (2003), Waibel (2002), and Biber (1999) PART A: INTRODUCTION "There is another kind of composition more frequent in our language than perhaps in any other, from which arises to foreigners the greatest difficulty." Samuel Johnson Preface, Dictionary of the English Language, 1755 Rationale of the study The two-word verbs, including phrasal verbs (PVs) and prepositional verbs (PreVs), are an interesting linguistic phenomenon in the English language Many English teachers have realized the importance of this multiword knowledge in helping their learners use English more fluently and naturally Paradoxically, these structures are never easy for nonnative learners to acquire, mostly because the semantic, grammatical and stylistic peculiarities that they possess The meanings of a two-word verb are not always likely guessed from its individuals Many non-native speakers of English must, therefore, memorize them to be able to understand and use them in the right context However, thousands of two-word verbs and many more times of their meanings make the massive learning unfruitful Consequently, pages are spent to find out which PVs to teach and in what sequences For example, Dilin Liu (2003) suggests 302 items to be most frequently used idioms, with 104 of them are PVs Gardner and Davies (2007) propose a smaller number - 100 frequent PVs, which the authors claim to be a manageable number to deal with The problem is two-word verbs are very polysemous, and corresponding with 100 frequent PVs proposed by Gardner and Davies, (2007), it is not 100 but up to 559 potential meanings (5.6 meanings per PV on average) learners have to deal with From this view, the number 100 is getting less manageable What ifIf we focus on senses that are used more often than the others? So, the load of learning English two-word verbs would be reduced This is also what this current study is aiming at Biber et al (1999) suggest that we classify multiword verbs according to their 10 core meaning called semantic domains: activity verbs, communication verbs, mental verbs, causative verbs, verbs of simple occurrence, verbs of existence or relationship, and aspectual verbs Halliday (1985,; 2004) approaches the matter with different term but the same nature Instead of ‗semantic domains; Halliday has term ‗processes‘ (See section 1.2.1 for types of processes); and what Biber (1999) names ‗activity verb‘ is labeled ‗material process‘ This study uses Halliday‘s terms for their clarity and systematic nature; and attends to material and mental processes since they are considered most common by both Halliday (1985,; 2004) and Biber (1999) Aims of the study The primary aims of this paper are: 1.to study English two-word verbs, specifically distinguish two kinds of twoword verbs: PVs and PreVs; 2.to study English processes, focusing on material and mental processes; 3.to investigate some common English two-word verbs denoting material and mental processes and find their Vietnamese equivalents; 4.to suggest some recommendations for teaching and learning two-word verbs Scope of the study As far as structural aspects of two-word verbs are concerned, the current study includes both PV (transitive and intransitive) and PreVs ‗Phrasal-prepositional verbs‘ would be beyond the scope of this paper Two-word verbs are rich in both number and meanings For example, in Oxford Phrasal verbs Dictionary, 6000 common British and American PVs are recorded; the verb ‗go‘ solely has 31 two-word verbs with 209 different meanings So, we are not ambitious to cover all of them Although some verbs have no single correct classification or have multiple meanings belonging to different semantic domains, Biber (1999) affirms that activity verbs and mental verbs are of most common Among the 12 most common lexical verbs that all occur over 1000 times per million words in the LSWE Corpus (Biber et al., 1999: 373), six are activity verbs (get, go, mzake, come, take, give), five are mental verbs 11 (know, think, see, want, mean) Also by means of corpus, Biber proposes lists of the most common lexical verbs in each semantic domain, including all verbs that occur over 300 times per million words in at least one register (cf Biber et al , 1999: 367-369) In domain of activity material verbs, we see the notable common of “make, go, give, come, put”, and “take‖; while ―see, think, know, want, feel, like‖ are distinguished representatives of mental verbs Therefore, having claimed to be the study of the common two-word verbs denoting material and mental processes in English though, in the frame of a small paper, we only focus on four outstanding representatives of material verbs: COME, GIVE, GO, MAKE (all are in the top 10 most prolific PVs of British National Corpus), and three of mental ones: HEAR, SEE, THINK Moreover, only two-word verbs with idiomatic and semi-idiomatic meanings used in material and mental processes are concentrated on Method of the study The study aims to find out, in the limitation of seven lexical verbs, ―how many‖ and ‖how often‖ two-word verbs belong to material and mental processes are there are, comparing with the other four processes Thus, quantitative research methods, which give much focus on the collection and analysis of numerical data and statistics, appear to be appropriate Design of the study This study is designed in three parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion The Introduction gives an overview of the study The Development consists of three chapters: Chapter 1- - Theoretical Background, provides the fundamental concepts used in the paper; Chapter - Methodology, describes thoroughly the methodology acquired in the study; Chapter presents lists of two-word combinationcombinations of 8seven common verbs belonging to material and mental processes with their particles/ prepositions and their Vietnamese equivalents Finally, the Conclusion offers the review of the study with its implication and application concerning teaching and learning English two-word verbs in general 12 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This chapter represents the issues of two-word verbs and Processes of Material and Mental in details Section 1.1 examines some aspects of PVs and PreVs such as their definitions and their semantic and syntactic aspects Particles- - the vital component of PVs, are also defined and classified Section 1.2 looks into the matter of process types with the focus is on Material and Mental processes, their definition and characteristics 1.1 Two word verbs Quirk et al (1972) clarify that multi-word verbs consist of PVs, PreVs, and phrasalprepositional verbs Biber et al (1999: 403) add other multi-word verb constructions like V + noun phrase (+ preposition); V + prepositional phrase or V + V to complete the classification of four major kinds of multi-word combinations that comprise ―relatively idiomatic units and function like single verbs‖ In this study, we focus on multi-word verbs which comprise two elements Though Taka (1960, cited Waibel 2007) and Meyer (1975, cited Waibel 2007) use term “two-word verb‖ to mean PV, and Celce-Murcia et al (1999) note that PVs are sometimes called two-word verbs, both PVs and PreVs are taken into consideration when we refer to two-word verbs 1.1.1 Definition of PVs and PreVs 1.1.1.1 PVs There is a disputation as to how PVs are defined Following here are some ways of defining PVs: Dixon, R.M.W (1991: 274)) says: ―Phrasal verb is a combination of verb plus preposition that has a meaning not inferable from the individual meanings of verb and preposition(s)‖ It is noted that the author mentions to prepositions, but particles There is possibility that the so-call PreVs by most of linguists is defined by Dixon as PVs, or he uses the name PVs to refer to both 13 Biber et al., et al (1999: 403)) assert: ―PVs are multi-word units consisting of a verb followed by an adverbial particle‖ which all have spatial or locative meanings and ―commonly used with extended meanings‖ Halliday (1985: 207; 2004: 351) seesees PVs as ―lexical verbs which consist of more than just the verb word itself‖, which can be verb + adverb, verb + preposition, and verb + adverb + preposition David (2002) seems to meet Halliday when this author insists the existence of two definitions of PVs, the broad sense and the narrow sense The broad sense includes both PreVs and PVs, spatial or figurative, transitive or intransitive while the narrow sense excludes PreVs This study prefers looking at PV from its narrow sense Before turning to PreVs, it is necessary to clarify that the term ‗phrasal verb‟ is not favored by all linguistics Said as Waibel (2007: 15), ―the very name for this type of verb is controversial‖ For example, Fraser (1947) calls it ―verb-particle combination‖, Zandvoort (1962) talks about it as ―verb-adverb combination‖, Live (1965) ―discontinuous verb‖, Lipka (1992) labels them ―verb-particle construction‖, Francis (1958) ―separable verb‖, etc However, Mc Arthur (1989: 38, cited Waibel, 2007: 15) notes that ―the term ‗phrasal verb‘ appears (…) to be the winning term‖, and Rot (1988: 183, cited David, 2002: 112) remarks that the term PV is the most appropriate for verb-particle combinations because ―it expresses the linguistic essence of this lexical-grammar collocation, and it has its terminological parallels in the location ‗phrasal prepositions‟ ‖ And the term familiar with both teachers and students is also used in this study 1.1.1.2 PreVs About PreVs, the matter of term and definition is less controversial than that of PVs Scholars seem to be satisfied with the term ‗PreV‘, which refers to the kind of verb that ―consists of a verb followed by a preposition‖ (Biber et al., 1999: 403) and that ―forms a semantic and syntactic unit‖ (G Leech, 1992: 264) The problem, if it has, is whether or not to see PreV as a subtype of PV or an independent kind of verb from PV This study would like to look at PreV as an independent item that existexists parallel with PV go into Go off theo nghề Eric went into the army right after school xem xét, kiểm tra kỹ We need to go into the question of cost đâm vào The car went into a tree tham gia vào (kì thi, trận đấu…) I can‟t go into the exam unprepared - khơng thích nữa, hứng thú với I think she‟s going off me 55 Suddenly all the lights went off (chất lượng) giảm sút This milk has gone off diễn (thành công/ định) The show went off very well ngủ Has the baby gone off (to sleep) yet? go on xảy Many people gathered near the accident to see what was going on (thời gian) trôi In spite of everything, life must go on sân khấu, sân Owen went on until the final act (thiết bị điện) bật I heard the TV go on in the next room go out (điện, lửa) tắt The campers didn't have to put out the fire because it went out by itself thuỷ triều rút When does the tide go out? gửi đi, phát hành, phát sóng - The invitation hasn‟t gone out yet The show will go out live from the studio chi tiêu We need to have more money coming in than going out chơi (+with sb) hẹn hò Sam used to go out with Kate 56 go over go through go together go Go over Go through go toward(s) go vượt Don‟t go over the speed limit kiểm tra cẩn thận I‟ll go over the figures again to make sure they‟re right học kỹ She went over her lines (= in a play) until she knew them perfectly lau qua He went over the surfaces with a duster sơn, vẽ đè lên lớp lớp vẽ cũ She went over the original drawing in pen trải qua (khó khăn, gian khổ) We can‟t really imagine what they‟re going through kiểm tra, nghiên cứu kỹ Collins went through every legal book she could find dùng hết They went through all the toilet paper in the house ôn lại (lời thoại, lời hát) Let‟s go through your lines one more time - dùng để chi trả phần The money raised will go towards the construction of a new stadium - sống thiếu thốn, sống mà không cần 57 under Go up động kinh doanh A large number of small companies have gone under dần ý thức thuốc mê I could feel myself going under phát hoả, bốc cháy The whole building went up in just a few minutes (tiếng ồn) đồng vang lên A cheer went up from the crowd lên hạng (thể thao) Another defeat would ruin their dream of going up dựng lên A new office is going up in the downtown area (thông báo) dán nơi công cộng Posters of the show are going up all over the town APPENDIX PV MAKE Material Process Intrans Make after Make off Trans - đuổi bắt Hencke made after him - chuồn, tẩu thoát The thief make off in a yellow transit van 58 Make out - thành công Charlie didn't make out very well on his final examinations Make over Make up - làm lành (sau giận nhau) Why don‟t you forget your differences and make up? Make with - mang đ So he s and star with the and the Make for tiến He pic umbrella for the d giúp t thiện Mutua makes fo working - tận dụn thành cô They‟r to make marriag (= make Make of 59 tăng ca If work is slow during the day, she can always make it up in the evening APPENDIX PreV HEAR - nhận tin tức (thông qua thư, điện thoại) Hear from Do you ever hear from any of your school friends? Hear of APPENDIX PV SEE Intrans See around See beyond/ past (inS) See in (S) PreV SEE See about - lo g x I‟l abou See of - thư thườ Id that while grow 60 rode off without a word đón (một kiện diễn ra) I went round to Bob‟s flat and we saw the New Year in together See into See off See out See through tiễn (tại sân bay, ga xe lửa) We all went to the airport to see Terry off đuổi, tống cổ The dogs soon saw off the burglars hạ gục đối thủ The England team saw off a tired-looking Poland 3-1 tiễn cửa My secretary will see you out Don‟t bother, I‟ll see myself out theo đến cùng, kéo dài đến hết He promises to see out the rest of his contract giúp vượt qua thời điểm khó khăn His courage saw him through theo đuổi đến She‟s determined to see the job through 61 APPENDIX THINK Material Process Intrans Trans think ahead think out (inS) Think over Think through Think up - - lên kế hoạch chi tiết He had to think out what to next ... study English processes, focusing on material and mental processes; 3.to investigate some common English two- word verbs denoting material and mental processes and find their Vietnamese equivalents; ... LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THỊ DIỆU QUYÊN THE COMMON TWO- WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND MENTAL PROCESSES IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS. .. Therefore, having claimed to be the study of the common two- word verbs denoting material and mental processes in English though, in the frame of a small paper, we only focus on four outstanding representatives