Features of quantifiers in english based on literary works and their vietnamese translation version

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS FEATURES OF QUANTIFIERS IN ENGLISH BASED ON LITERARY WORKS AND THEIR VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION VERSION (ĐẶC ĐIỂM CỦA TỪ ĐỊNH LƯỢNG TRONG TIẾNG ANH DỰA TRÊN TÁC PHẨM VĂN HỌC VÀ BẢN DỊCH TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT) ĐẶNG THỊ THÙY DƢƠNG Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Hanoi – 2020 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS FEATURES OF QUANTIFIERS IN ENGLISH BASED ON LITERARY WORKS AND THEIR VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION VERSION (ĐẶC ĐIỂM CỦA TỪ ĐỊNH LƯỢNG TRONG TIẾNG ANH DỰA TRÊN TÁC PHẨM VĂN HỌC VÀ BẢN DỊCH TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT) ĐẶNG THỊ THÙY DƢƠNG Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh Hanoi - 2020 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “Features of quantifiers in English based on literary works and their Vietnamese translation version” submitted in partial fulfilment 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, 2020 DANG THI THUY DUONG Approved by SUPERVISOR Assoc Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh Date : / i / 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh, 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 Secondly, 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 enthusiastic guidance and valuable teaching and tremendous assistance and skills in the learning process Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband and my loving girl for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work ii ABSTRACT The title of the thesis is a study on English quantifiers and their Vietnamese translation version This study is conducted in the English literary work Jane Eyre and their Vietnamese translation version to find out the similar and different quantifier‟s features in terms of syntactic and semantic features To carry out the research, contrastive analysis method and descriptive method are sorted to make an end of the results About the theory, the thesis clarifies the characteristics, the comparison of quantifiers in English and Vietnamese translation version in terms of syntactic and semantic features In practice, the study contributes to the analysis, teaching English quantifier‟s structures into Vietnamese in literary works The thesis contributes to help learners master and use effectively the types of English and Vietnamese quantifiers to achieve certain communication purposes in communication The results of the contrastive analysis process will contribute to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning English and Vietnamese iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Adj Adjective c (lowercase) Countable Demon Demonstrative E English EFL English as a Foreign Language N (uppercase) Noun No Ordinal numbers p (lowercase) Page Per Personal Rela Relative u (lowercase) Uncountable V Vietnamese iv LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: The syntactic features of English quantifiers 27 Table 4.2: English quantifiers combining with count nouns 28 Table 4.3: English quantifiers combining with uncount nouns 32 Table 4.4: English quantifiers combining with both count nouns and uncount nouns 34 Table 4.5: English quantifiers combining with pronouns 36 Table 4.6: The meanings of English quantifiers according to levels of descending.38 Table 4.7: The syntactic features of quantifiers in English and their Vietnamese translation versions 41 Table 4.8: A comparison of quantifiers combining with count nouns in English and Vietnamese translation versions 43 Table 4.9: A comparison of quantifiers combining with uncount nouns in English and Vietnamese translation versions 46 Table 4.10: A comparison of quantifiers combining with count nouns and uncount nouns in English and Vietnamese translation versions 51 Table 4.11: A comparison of quantifiers combining with pronouns in English and Vietnamese translation version 53 Table 4.12: Vietnamese translation versions can combine with other elements 53 Table 4.13: Quantifiers in English and their Vietnamese translation version in terms of semantic features 55 v TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi 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 .3 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Structure of thesis Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .5 2.1 Previous studies .5 2.2 Theoretical background 2.2.1 Theory of syntax .7 2.2.2 Theory of semantics 2.3 Overview of English quantifiers .8 2.3.1 Definition of quantifiers 2.3.2 Classification of quantifiers 2.3.3 Syntactic features of English quantifiers 17 2.3.4 Semantic features of English quantifiers 19 2.4 Summary 20 Chapter METHODOLOGY 21 3.1 Research approach 21 3.2 Methods of the study .21 3.3 Data collection and data analysis 26 vi 3.4 Summary 26 Chapter COMPARISON BETWEEN THE QUANTIFIERS IN ENGLISH NOVEL JANE EYRE AND THEIR VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION VERSION 27 4.1 The syntactic features of English quantifiers 27 4.2 The semantic features of English quantifiers 37 4.3 A comparison between the quantifiers in English and their Vietnamese translation version .40 4.3.1 In terms of syntactic features 40 4.3.2 In terms of semantic features 54 4.4 Summary 61 Chapter CONCLUSIONS 62 5.1 Recapitulation 62 5.2 Concluding remarks 62 5.2.1 What are the syntactic and semantic features of quantifiers in English and their Vietnamese translation versions? 62 5.2.2 What is the comparison of quantifiers in English and their Vietnamese translation versions in terms of syntactic and semantic features? 65 5.2.3 What implication is drawn for using and teaching quantifiers in English? 67 5.3 Limitation 67 5.4 Suggestions for further study 68 REFERENCES 69 APPENDIX 71 vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale A quantifier is a word that usually goes before a noun to express the quantity of the object Most quantifiers are followed by a noun, though it is also possible to use them without the noun when it is clear what we are referring to There are quantifiers to describe large quantities (a lot, much, many), small quantities (a little, a bit, a few) and undefined quantities (some, any) There are also quantifiers that express the idea of a sufficient amount (enough, plenty) There are several quantifiers in English that can be a little tricky to use The main difficulty arises due to the need of selecting different quantifiers for countable and uncountable nouns, though some of them work perfectly for both It is hypothesized that students of English are not fully aware of using quantifiers; therefore, they use them randomly Consequently, students might be interrupted by interference of their native language so; they fail to master the recognition and production of quantifiers Therefore, how to avoid such grammatical blunders? The author decides to choose the topic Features of quantifiers in English based on literary works and their Vietnamese translation version to study because of two reasons Firstly, there have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations into quantifiers in both English and Vietnamese but there has been no one giving out the comparison between quantifiers in English and their Vietnamese translation version in terms of syntactic and semantic features Secondly, the author would like to help Vietnamese learners to have a good knowledge of quantifiers in terms of syntactic and semantic features to use them correctly 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study The study aims at analyzing English quantifiers in terms of syntactic and semantic features in the English literary work Jane Eyre and their Vietnamese translation version by exploiting the power of contrastive analysis to provide the Vietnamese learners with a good knowledge of quantifiers and how to use them correctly in terms of syntactic and semantic features Unlike English quantifiers, four Vietnamese translation versions can combine with other elements such as: adjectives and verbs Besides, there still have no elements which go with Vietnamese translation version In sematic features Semantically, suốt, số, bớt in Vietnamese translation version cannot be classified in any levels of meaning which is similar to English quantifiers 5.2.3 What implication is drawn for using and teaching quantifiers in English? a) For using: Learners who not have in-depth knowledge of English, may have little knowledge about the elements standing after the English quantifiers, such as: count noun, uncount noun, collective noun, definite pronoun, indefinite pronoun, relative pronoun and demonstrative pronoun That makes them use the wrongly ones The results of the contrastive analysis done above make it possible to distinguish the cases b) For teaching: In teaching English quantifiers to Vietnamese students, much attention should be introduced English quantifier‟s features in terms of syntax and semantics, pointed out the structures of English quantifiers, stated differences and similarities of inversion in terms of syntax and semantics which is presented in chapter of the study In training students to use English productively, teachers stress the need to vary the successive sentences patterns 5.3 Limitation While this study has useful results on English quantifier‟s features in terms of syntactic and semantic features, there are still some limitations Firstly, the study was limited in size and scope An analysis of a larger examples of quantifiers would rather strengthen the findings Secondly, some quantifiers cases are not analyzed due to the illustrative examples did not appear in the selected literary works The thesis investigates some quantifiers, not all, therefore, there are still other some 67 quantifiers were not comprehensively studied so that the results would be more convincing 5.4 Suggestions for further study During the research, the author studied some other cases of quantifiers, however some examples for those cases cannot be found because of limitation of time, the length of the thesis and the chosen literary works Besides the cases listed in the thesis, the author suggests other study about some cases listed below: Few of A little bit of A minority of Fewer of A couple of The remainder of Lots of A good deal of The rest of Many of A few of The whole of Numbers of A lot of ~ Quantities of A good many of Heaps of Several of A great many of Loads of Various of A number of Masses of An amount of A majority of Tons of A bit of The majority of 68 REFERENCES References in English Alexander, L, G, (1988) Longman English Grammar London, Longman Balsley, H.L (1970) Quantitative research methods for business and economics New York: Random House Biber Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conard and Edward Finegan, (1999) Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English London, Longman Cassell, C., & Symon, G (1994) Qualitative research in work contexts In C Cassell, & G Symon (Eds.), Qualitative methods in organizational research (pp 1-13) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Chomsky, N, (1973) Conditions on Transformations In: S, Anderson and P, Kiparsky (eds.), A Festschrift for Morris Halle, New York, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 232-286 Close, R, A, (1975) A Reference Grammar for students of English London, Longman Collins, Harper, (2017) Cobuild English Grammar Glasgrow United Kingdom Eastwood, John, (2005) Oxford learner’s Grammar Finder Oxford, Oxford University Press Eckersley, C, E and J, M, Eckersley, (1960) A Comprehensive English Grammar London, Longman 10 Fryer, D (1991) Qualitative methods in occupational psychology: Reflections upon why they are so useful but so little used The Occupational Psychologist, 14 (Special issue on qualitative methods), 3-6 11 Fryer, D (1991) Qualitative methods in occupational psychology: Reflections upon why they are so useful but so little used The Occupational Psychologist, 14 (Special issue on qualitative methods), 3-6 12 Hewings, Martin, (2005) Advanced English Grammar in Use Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 13 Hornby, A, S, (2005) Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Oxford, Oxford University Press 69 14 James, Carl, (1980) Contrastive Analysis Essex, Longman 15 Jawad, Maysaa R., (2015) A contrastive Study of Quantifiers in English and Arabic IJHSSE 2(5), Diyala University, Iraq 16 Kealey, D.J., & Protheroe, D.R (1996) The effectiveness of cross-cultural training for expatriates: An assessment of the literature on the issue International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 20(2), 141-165 17 Leach, Geoffrey and Jam Svartvik, (1994) A Communicative Gramma of English London, Longman 18 May, R, C, (1977) The Grammar of Quantification Doctoral Dissertation MIT, Cambridge, Massachusesst 19 Morgan, G (1980) Paradigms, metaphors, and puzzle solving in organization communication Administrative Science Quarterly, 25, 608-621 20 Quirk, R and Greenbaum, S, (1973) A University Grammar of English London, Longman 21 Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik, (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language London, Longman 22 Ramkishan, G, (1997) Syntactic Properties of Quantifier Phrases in English and Telugu CIEFL, India 23 Ron Cowan, (2008) The Teacher's Grammar of English A Course Book and Reference Guide, Cambridge University Press 24 Swan, Michael, (2005) Practical English Usage Oxford, Oxford University Press 25 Van Maanen, J (1983) Qualitative methodology Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications 26 Yule, George, (2006) Oxford Practice Grammar (Advanced), Oxford University Press References in Vietnamese Hạo, Cao Xuân (CB), (2006) Ngữ pháp chức tiếng Việt: Ngữ đoạn Từ loại, Nxb Giáo Dục Thản, Nguyễn Kim (1997) Nghiên cứu ngữ pháp tiếng Việt NXB Giáo dục, Hà Nội 70 APPENDIX Appendix 1: Examples of the quantifiers “all of” Toàn người danh giá all of the first county families vùng Mọi người bình tĩnh Be composed, all of you: Appendix 2: Examples of the quantifiers “any of” any of the servants gia nhân khác any of them người any of the lower rooms buồng nhà any of her family người gia đình bà Appendix 3: Examples of the quantifiers “both of” both of her nature and her will chất ý muốn bà Appendix 4: Examples of the quantifiers “each of” each of the sisters Mỗi cô each of you Các người each of the young persons Mỗi đứa gái each of which bàn each of her temples Hai bên thái dương Appendix 5: Examples of the quantifiers “either of” either of the paleness or vẻ xanh tái chán desperation one chường either of her daughters Cả hai cô gái bà either of admonition or reproof Khuyên răn hay trách móc 71 Appendix 6: Examples of the quantifiers “enough of” đủ lí p52 enough of hope Appendix 7: Examples of the quantifiers “less of” less of gall and wormwood vào câu chuyện giọng chua cay oán hận Appendix 8: Examples of the quantifiers “little of” nhớ chuyến p74 little of the journey Appendix 9: Examples of the quantifiers “many of” many of the pupils died Học trị chết vơ số Appendix 10: Examples of the quantifiers “more of” more of the world nhiều điều đời more of intercourse nhiều đồng loại more of all this chuyện cũ I had learnt more of him than in Tôi hiểu ông suốt the whole previous month tháng trước more of those days ngày Appendix 11: Examples of the quantifiers “most of” most of them Phần lớn most of the younger ones số đơng bà cịn trẻ most of his property Phần lớn gia tài most of them appeared unable to Những câu hỏi hầu answer hết trả lời most of the time Suốt buổi Most of the books Phần lớn sách 72 Appendix 12: Examples of the quantifiers “much of” You think too much of your Em ý đến việc trang điểm „toilette,‟ nhiều much of the good and bright nhiều đức tính tốt đẹp, sáng ngời qualities they will never make much of Chẳng trông cậy cậu ta him đâu Appendix 13: Examples of the quantifiers “neither of” Neither of us had dropt a tear Chúng không nhỏ lấy giọt nước (p377) Neither of these returnings was Những buổi trở chẳng thú vị đáng mong ước very pleasant or desirable this new scent is neither of shrub Mùi hương nor flower mùi cỏ, mùi hoa neither of them half fine enough Chẳng có thứ gọi tạm for a lady‟s-maid xứng với người hầu gái mệnh phụ Appendix 14: Examples of the quantifiers “none of” we can none of us help our nature Chúng ta không thay đổi tính trời sinh none of these can talk tất khơng biết nói P213 none of the Reeds were there Khơng có người gia đình nhà Rít 73 Appendix 15: Examples of the quantifiers “one of” one of the meanest of his Một kẻ thấp hèn dependants one of the ladies số bà one of those days Một ngày one of your frowns Chỉ chau mày cô One of the gentlemen, Trong số ông one of the old Mother Bunches Một mụ xem tướng One of the ladies Một người one of its mystic cells buồng bí hiểm one of his strange and Một vẻ equivocal demonstrations khó hiểu ơng 10 one of the Gibsons người họ Gip-xơn 11 one of your tricks trị đùa 12 one of his queer looks câu nói đùa 13 It is one of my faults Tơi có tệ 14 one of the white valleys among thung lũng the volcano-tops trắng 15 one of them người bọn họ 16 One of his lately hired servants Một người vào làm 17 one of the strangers Một hai người 18 one of these rolls? bánh sao? 19 one of the absorbed students Một hai cô sinh viên chăm 20 one of the ladies returned cô trở lại 21 one of the dusty pictures Những tranh 22 one of productions 23 those genuine Một sáng tác one of the largest and stateliest không gian rộng trang 74 chambers nghiêm 24 one of the upper teachers Một cô giáo lớp 25 one of the tables bàn 26 one of those wide and heavy giường beds thênh thang 27 one of these rooms không gian buồng 28 one of the large front chambers Những gian buồng lớn đằng mặt nhà 29 one of my paintings tranh 30 one of the keenest pleasures Một niềm vui lớn 31 one of the most benevolent acts việc thiện tốt đẹp bà 32 one of the fire-places lò sưởi 33 one of these hills lùm Appendix 16: Examples of the quantifiers “part of” part of the house phần nhà Appendix 17: Examples of the quantifiers “plenty of” plenty of faults nhiều lỗi lầm t plenty of room rộng chỗ Appendix 18: Examples of the quantifiers “some of” some of them? vài chuyện some of these hoards Một vài chỗ giấu tiền p56 some of her most enchanting Mấy câu chuyện hay stories some of the elder girls Mấy học sinh lớn 75 some of the girls Một số học sinh p104 some of my studies vài môn học some of the committee Một vị hội đồng quản trị Mấy phòng gác ba some of the third-storey rooms p171 some of them Một vài 10 Some of the servants, very likely Chắc lại đứa người làm ai? 11 Vài tá điền đến túc trực some of his tenants were arrived p191 12 some of her malignant pranks thủ đoạn xảo quyệt 13 some of the ladies sing and play bà hát chơi đàn 14 some of their doors cửa phòng 15 Some of them were very tall Có bà cao lớn 16 Some of them threw themselves in Vài bà thả người xô half-reclining positions on the pha sofas vài bà 17 some of the ladies 18 Some of the gentlemen were gone Một vài ông vào xem to the stables chuồng ngựa 19 some of those drawling Những lời than vãn rầu rĩ 20 Some of them are unmannered Có vài đứa cục mịch 21 some of these heavy-looking, số đứa bé quê mùa gaping rustics wake up into sharp- bề ngồi trơng đần độn witted girls enough trở thành em gái tinh khôn 76 Appendix 19: Examples of the quantifiers “a great deal of” a great deal of money giàu có a great deal of good Rất nhiều việc thiện p86 a great deal of mischief Nhiều hậu tai hại p206 a great deal of money Một tiền lớn a great deal of the organ of nhiều cảnh quyến luyến phải Adhesiveness?” không? Appendix 20: Examples of the quantifiers “a little of” Bớt hăng a little of the excitement Appendix 21: Examples of the quantifiers “a quantity of” a quantity of dark, grizzled hair Một mớ tóc sẫm màu a quantity of black hose số bít tất len vá víu tồi Appendix 22: Examples of the quantifiers “the rest of” the rest of my species người đồng loại Appendix 23: English quantifiers combining with count nouns No Quantifiers All of Examples all of the first county families any of the servants Any of any of the lower rooms any of her family had ever been to visit me each of the sisters there was one trait of the mother Each of each of the young persons before us each of her temples her hair Either of either of the paleness or desperation one 77 either of her daughters Little of little of the journey Many of many of the pupils died More of Most of Much of much of the good and bright qualities 10 Neither of neither of these returnings 11 None of more of the world than I have more of those days most of the younger ones most of the books none of these can talk none of the Reeds were there one of the meanest of his dependants one of the ladies who sang one of those days one of your frowns one of the gentlemen, one of the old Mother Bunches one of the ladies ran to him directly one of its mystic cells 12 One of one of his strange and equivocal demonstrations one of the Gibsons one of your tricks one of his queer looks one of my faults one of the white valleys among the volcano-tops one of his lately hired servants one of the strangers one of these rolls? one of the absorbed students 78 one of the ladies returned one of the dusty pictures on the walls one of those genuine productions one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion one of the upper teachers one of the tables one of those wide and heavy beds one of these rooms one of the large front chambers one of my paintings over the chimney-piece one of the keenest pleasures one of the most benevolent acts one of the fire-places 13 Part of part of the house 14 Plenty of plenty of faults some of these hoards some of her most enchanting stories some of the elder girls some of the girls some of my studies some of the third-storey rooms 15 Some of some of the servants some of his tenants some of her malignant pranks some of the ladies some of their doors some of the ladies some of these heavy-looking, gaping rustics wake 79 up into sharp-witted girls 16 A little of a little of the excitement 17 A quantity of a quantity of black hose 18 The rest of the rest of my species Appendix 24: English quantifiers combining with uncount nouns Quantifiers Examples Enough of enough of hope Less of less of gall and wormwood More of more of intercourse Most of most of his property most of the time Much of much of your „toilette‟ Plenty of plenty of room A great deal a great deal of money of a great deal of good a great deal of mischief a great deal of money a great deal of the organ of Adhesiveness A quantity of a quantity of dark, grizzled hair Appendix 25: English quantifiers combining with pronouns Quantifiers Examples All of all of you Any of any of them Each of each of you each of which More of more of all this Most of most of them 80 most of them Much of much of him Neither of neither of us neither of them None of none of us none of these One of one of them 10 Some of some of them (x5) 81 ... comparison of quantifiers in English and Vietnamese translation versions Chapter – Conclusion - presents recapitulation of the study, concluding remarks and some suggestions for teaching inversions in. .. comparison of quantifiers combining with count nouns and uncount nouns in English and Vietnamese translation versions 51 Table 4.11: A comparison of quantifiers combining with pronouns in English. .. topic Features of quantifiers in English based on literary works and their Vietnamese translation version to study because of two reasons Firstly, there have been a lot of researchers conducting investigations