A contrastive analysis of nominal substitution in english and vietnamese conversation

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUTIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES  TRẦN THỊ KHƯƠNG LIÊN A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF NOMINAL SUBSTITUTION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE CONVERSATION (Phân tích đối chiếu phép danh từ ngôn hội thoại tiếng Anh tiếng Việt) MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15 Hanoi, 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  TRẦN THỊ KHƯƠNG LIÊN A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF NOMINAL SUBSTITUTION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE CONVERSATION ( Phân tích đối chiếu phép danh từ ngôn hội thoại tiếng Anh tiếng Việt) MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15 Supervisor: Nguyen Huyen Minh, M.A Hanoi, 2011 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION……………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………… ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………… iii TABLE OFCONTENTS……………………………………………………… iv ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………………… vii PART A INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………… 1 Rationale of the study………………………………………………………… Aims and objectives of the study………………………………………………… 2.1 Aims…………………………………………………………………… 2.2.Objectives………………………………………………………………… 2.3 Research questions……………………………………………………… Scope of the study……………………………………………………………… Methodology of the study……………………………………………………… Organization of the study………………………………………………………… PART B DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………………… Chapter Theoretical Background……………………………………………… 1.1 The theories of discourse……………………………………………………… 1.1.1 The concept of discourse……………………………………………… 1.1.2 Discourse and Sentence……………………………………………… 1.1.3 Discourse and Text…………………………………………………… 1.1.4 Discourse analysis……………………………………………………… 1.1.5 Spoken and Written Discourse………………………………………… 1.2 The theories of conversation…………………………………………………… 1.2.1 The concept of conversation…………………………………………… 1.2.2 Why is Conversation Analysis important……………………………… 1.3 Cohesion……………………………………………………………………… 1.3.1 The concept of cohesion……………………………………………… v 1.3.2 Coherence and cohesion……………………………………………… 1.3.3 Cohesion within the sentence and discourse…………………………… 10 1.4 Types of Cohesion…………………………………………………………… 11 1.5 Substitution…………………………………………………………………… 12 1.5.1.The concept of substitution……………………………………………… 12 1.5.2.Substitution,Cohesionand Discourse…………………………………… 13 1.6.ContrastiveAnalysis…………………………………………………………… 13 1.6.1 Definition……………………………………………………………… 13 1.6.2 Why using CA in this thesis? 14 1.7 Summary……………………………………………………………………… 14 Chapter A contrastive analysis of nominal substitution in English and 15 Vietnamese conversation discourse……………………………………………… 2.1 General features of English and Vietnamese nominal structure……………… 2.2 Person pronouns……………………………………………………………… 2.2.1 Subjective and objective personal pronouns…………………… 2.2.2 Possessive pronouns…………………………………………… 2.3 One…………………………………………………………………………… 15 18 18 24 26 2.3.1 One as a substitute for a nominal group head/ substitute one ………… 26 2.3.2 One as a substitute for an indefinite nominal group/ indefinite one …… 29 2.4 The same……………………………………………………………………… 2.4.1 Say the same…………………………………………………………… 2.4.2 Do the same……………………………………………………………… 32 33 34 2.4.3 Be the same……………………………………………………………… 36 PART C: CONCLUSION………………………………………………………… 38 3.1 Concluding remarks…………………………………………………………… 3.2 The implication of the study for teaching and learning of English…………… 3.3 Limitation of the study………………………………………………………… 3.4 Suggestions for further study………………………………………………… 38 39 42 42 vi REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………… 43 BOOKS FOR QUOTATIONS…………………………………………………… 45 vii Symbols and Abbreviations C.A Contrastive Analysis CA Conversation analysis DA Discourse Analysis Ns Nominal Substitution O Object P Predicate S Subject Ø Without Numeratives ~ Substitute for Lists of tables Table 1.1: Type of Cohesion Table 1.2: Grammatical and Lexical Cohesion Table 2: English personal pronouns Table 3: The English third person pronouns and their Vietnamese equivalent Table 4: The English possessive pronouns and their Vietnamese equivalent Table 5: The substitute one/ones and their Vietnamese equivalents Table 6: The indefinite one/some and its Vietnamese equivalents Table 7: Do the same and the Vietnamese equivalent Table 8: linking verb plus the same and their Vietnamese equivalents PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale The history of linguistics has seen the everlasting development of different approaches to linguistics and language teaching, each of which defines its own tasks, scopes and objectives Traditionally, linguists have been concerned with the phonological, lexical and syntactical features and studied sentences which are preferably taken out of context Besides, the focus of traditional practice of language teaching and learning has been on the analysis of single sentences, normally at the levels of phonology, vocabulary and grammar Later, with the view that incomplete sentences can still make sense when occurring in some particular context, according to (Cook 1989: ix) complete understanding of stretches of language can only be obtained if they are considered “in their full textual, social and psychological context” linguists have shifted their attention from complete sentences to discourse In common with coherence, cohesion takes an active role in building up discourse, in general, and of course, conversation as a genre of discourse, in particular Truly, Halliday and Hasan (1976) make a detailed classification of the cohesive devices in English These authors distinguish between grammatical and lexical cohesion According to them, grammatical cohesion embraces four different devices: reference, ellipsis, substitution and lexical In Vietnam, it seems that all the issues related to substitution especially Nominal substitution in conversation are still in limited exploration It is easy to find that substitution in Vietnamese is still a concept which has been needed receive much Vietnamese researchers‟ exploration Searching for the study of substitution, we only can see in Tran Ngoc Them‟s work (1985), more recently, Diep Quang Ban‟s (1998) These authors‟ effort seems to be made to give a very general and basic concept of substitution as well as types of it in Vietnamese Thus, we might wonder whether substitution, and within the minor thesis, nominal substitution actually works in Vietnamese conversation Furthermore, in recent years, reference, ellipsis, and lexical have been closely studied in contrastive with Vietnamese, within the framework of minor thesis a careful and profound study of English and Vietnamese nominal substitution is, theoretically speaking, equally important and necessary Because of the above mentioned reasons, my final thesis entitled: “Contrastive analysis of nominal substitution in English and Vietnamese conversation” I hope that this study will be useful for learners when investigating conversation in English as well as in Vietnamese to support for successful communication Aims and objective of the study 2.1 Aims As a cohesive device, substitution plays an important role in the making of discourse, especially in conversational discourse Within the framework of an MA thesis the study aims at: - raising Vietnamese learner‟s awareness of how to realize linguistics means of Ns in Vietnamese as well as in English conversation and use them appropriately in order to achieve communicative purposes - providing teachers of English with useful materials about the knowledge of Ns 2.2 Objectives To achieve these aims, the research tries to: - re- examine some aspects of English substitution and nominal substitution in detail so as to establish the descriptive framework for a contrastive analysis - investigate all the possible linguistics means of nominal substitution in Vietnamese conversation discourse and at the same time find out possible similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese nominal substitution - give some suggestions to apply to the teaching and learning of English 2.3 Research questions In carrying out the study this way, the following research questions are raised for exploration: What are the linguistics means used for nominal substitution in English conversation? What are the equivalent linguistics means used for nominal substitution in Vietnamese conversation in contrast with those in English conversation? Scope of the study Since this study examines nominal substitution as a cohesive device, only substitution across sentences is taken into account Because of the limited time and knowledge, this study is only focused on some domains as follows: - Only nominal substitution in English and its equivalent expressions in Vietnamese conversation are investigated - I will take into consideration many cases of nominal substitution so the data used for illustration exemplification are taken from various sources - I am going to deal with nominal substitution occured in the written transcription of this conversation, not in a tape – recorded conversation Methodology of the study Since the main purpose of the study is to contrast nominal substitution in English conversation and Vietnamese conversation, the result of which will be exploited for language learning and teaching, CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS (C.A.) is used as the major method of the study I will take English language as the base language and Vietnamese as the comparative language Besides, systemization and generalization are also used as sub-methods to support C.A method Thus, in the comparative analysis of examples in both English and Vietnamese, translation is the main technique given to highlight the similarities (or differences) in the nominal substitution in the two languages During the process of comparison, there may arise cases where some nominal substitution occurs only in Vietnamese, but can hardly be found in English discourse To deal with these cases, I shall give out literal translation of the examples for the sake of highlighting the similarities (or differences) in the nominal substitution in the two languages For C.A to be effective and persuasive, I mainly take notice of two levels of translation: semantic and pragmatic The illustrating material in the thesis is authentic examples They are taken from a wide variety of sources in English and Vietnamese: modern novels, modern short stories as well as data sources from ebook and so on Some examples are drawn from grammar books in English and Vietnamese Last but not least, discussions with my supervisor and colleagues, personal teaching experience are also the great contribution to the study Organization of the study As for the design of the study, it is composed of three main parts as follows: Part A is Introduction, which presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, and the methods of the study as well as the organization of the study Part B is the DEVELOPMENT, which consists of two chapters Chapter shows the theoretical background of basic and necessary notions that are related to nominal substitution and conversation discourse These issues are made clear on the basis of the generalization of different linguists' viewpoints In Chapter which is the focus of my study I conduct my contrastive analysis of nominal substitution in English and Vietnamese conversation in order to provide learners with the competence in understanding and using effectively the language of conversation Part C the Conclusion represents the review of the study with concluding remarks and suggestions for further study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 The theories of discourse 1.1.1 The concept of discourse It does not seem rational to use the term „sentence‟ in communication The analysis on sentence had been focused until the beginning of 1950s by linguistics But in 1952, a famous linguist Zellig Harris, one of the earliest discourse analysts, published an article entitled “Discourse Analysis” in Language Magazine He stated a new opinion expressing that the most complete unit of language is discourse, not a sentence Obviously, it is impossible to make the language in use exist in isolation from its users and the context in which it is being used if you want to achieve successful communication Therefore, the concept of discourse has been paid considerable attention to by several linguists since 1952 The most straightforward definition of discourse is the one often found in textbooks for students of linguistics: “Language above the sentence” (Cameron 2001: 10) According to Cook (1989: 6) discourse is “stretches of language perceived to be meaningful, unified and purposeful" In his point of view, the kind of language, language has been used to communicate something and is felt to be coherent (and may, or may not, happen to correspond to a correct sentence or a series of correct sentences) – language in use, for communication is called discourse Discourse can be anything from a conversation to a great novel or a lengthy legal case Cook (1989:10) also argues that “What matters is not its conformity to rules, but the fact that it communicates and is recognized by its receivers as coherent" Discourse is supposed to be meaningful and thus to be used to communicate with one person in a way that another person does not have the necessary knowledge to make sense of The study of discourseis often referred to as discourse analysis 1.1.2 Discourse and Sentence It is obvious that we have two different kinds of language as potential objects for study The sentence is abstracted in order to teach a language or literacy, or to study how the rules of language work according to Cook (1989) Sharing the same idea with Cook, Brown & Yule (1983) state that the sentence is just a grammatical unit and it is quite abstract because it has no producers and no receivers – that is to say, it can exist independently of 32 [2:30] A: I‘ll have two poached eggs on toast, please B: I‘ll have the same (HAH, 1976:105) (the same ~ two poached eggs on toast) In the example above, the same substitutes for two poached eggs on toast Usually, the same carries over the modifying elements of the presupposed item and has no regular modifying element of its own However, the same may be followed by what Halliday & Hasan (1976) call “reservation” introduced by but (with) to add some modification ( such as the same but fried) or by (but) without to leave out some modification (e.g the same (but) without the toast) Whereas the presupposed item of the substitute one/ones may be human, that of the same is always non-human In addition, the presupposed item of the same could also be an adjective functioning as an Attribute when it occurs as Head of a nominal group in a clause of ascription (Haliday & Hasan (1976: 107) claim that an adjective is also one kind of noun): [2:31] A: John sound rather regretful B: Yes, Mary sounded the same (HAH, 1976:107) Since an adjective is a kind of noun, rather regretful is a nominal group in [2:31] the same substitutes for the nominal group rather regretful, this is still a form of nominal substitution It is clear that, the same as a substitute is quite different from the item same in the comparative structure In Vietnamese, we have two pronouns which can be considered as the Vietnamese equivalents of the same: and These two pronouns have a very large scope of use They can substitute for a verb, an adjective, a noun and even a clause This can be seen in the examples [2:32] - Bông hồng đẹp - Bông cẩm chướng (BLE, 1996: 121) ~ đẹp (Roses are very beautiful / Carnations are the same.) However, it is worth noting that pronouns and are typically accompanied by In illustrating this point, Cao Xuan Hao (1991:193) puts it that when a sentence has the same proposition as that of the preceding one, it is expected to contain a word which presupposes this sameness [2: 33] A: I‘ll have a ham sandwich on rye with mustard B: I‘ll have the same (DSG, 2009: 256) A: Cho bánh sandwich giăm lúa mạch đen với mù tạt B: Tôi [2: 34] A: I‘d rather be dancing! B: Same here / Same goes for me (DSG, 2009: 256) A: Tơi thích khiêu vũ B: Tôi 33 [2:35] A: Can I have a cup of black coffee with sugar, please? B: Give me the same, please [Quirk et al., 1985, p 873] A: Cho tơi tách cà phê đen có đường? A: Tôi thế/vậy A speaker use the item same or the same to say or refer to something that has already been said or referred to previously without going through the trouble of repeating it and Vietnamese counterpart of the same should be cũng…thế/vậy as in the examples above The same is considered with respect to their cohesive power in conversation According to Halliday & Hasan (1976), the same is often found in the following expression: say the same, the same, and be the same (or other linking verbs plus the same) First, let us consider the expression say the same 2.4.1 Say the same Halliday & Hasan (1976: 107) propose that the same can be used in place of the fact if it occurs “in the environment of process in which a fact is involved.” For example, [2: 36] We can trust Smith I wish I could say the same of his partner (HAH, 1976: 107) Chúng ta tín nhiệm Smith Ước tơi nói thế/vậy với người cộng anh [2:37] A: (I say) Oxford is likely to win the next boat race B: I say the same [Quirk et al., 1985, p 873] A: (Tơi nói) Oxford có khả giành chiến thắng đua thuyền tới B: Tơi nói thế/vậy In these examples, the same substitutes for that we can trust… with Smith being left out by the following of his partner and for Oxford is likely to win the next boat race Usually, there is one element in the presupposed clause which does not take part in the process of substitution (like Smith in the example above) With the exception of say the same, in English conversation the same can still be found in a number of expressions which also substitutes for the fact Let us have a look at the commonest ones:  Think the same [2:38] A: John thought it was impossible B: Yes, I thought the same (HAH., 1976:107) The same ~ (that) it was impossible A: John nghĩ điều / B: Vâng Tôi nghĩ thế/vậy  The same applies to /The same goes for… [2:39] A: His speech didn’t say anything new, did it? 34 B: The same applies to most political speeches (HAH, 1976: 108) A: Bài diễn văn ơng ta chẳng có cả, phải không? B: Hầu hết diễn văn trị /vậy [2:40] P: He was in that meeting? H: Which Colson was supposed to have been in? P: Right, right, right H: Colson doesn‘t remember being in it, but Colson flatly says that there was never anything where he was where there was a discussion of Hunt getting out of the country Kehrli says the same (Nixon Watergate Tapes, p 618) From [2:34] to [2:40], it can be said that the Vietnamese equivalent of the same in the expressions mentioned in these conversations above still adopts the form …thế/vậy What is to be noted here is the position of the pronouns thế/vậy in the sentence I see that when thế/vậy substitutes for a noun, it does not mean that they will become nouns Substitution here should be understood as that of the syntactical functions of the presupposed item It means that if thế/vậy substitutes for a noun or a nominal group, they can function as objects/complements, or as subjects in sentences Consider again the instances of thế/vậy in examples: John nghĩ điều / B: Vâng Tôi nghĩ thế/vậy Object (O) O Bài diễn văn ơng ta chẳng có →Hầu hết diễn văn trị /vậy P P Therefore, whatever syntactical function the same may have in its sentence, the syntactical function of its Vietnamese equivalent thế/vậy in the sentence relies heavily upon that of the presupposed item in its sentence 2.4.2 Do the same The same in the expression the same, as pointed out by Halliday & Hasan (1976:108) can substitute for a process in some kinds of clause: [2:41] Jacques: Yes, and remember, if you‘re ever in Cherbourg, give me a call I‘d be so pleased to see you again Gina: Oh, I will You can be sure of that And you must the same if you‘re ever in Rome (HBV, 1988:88) 35 Jack: Vâng, nhớ em có lúc đến Xec-bua, phải gọi điện cho anh Anh vui gặp lạiem./ Gi-na: ……… Còn anh phải làm thế/vậy như… [2:42] My bank manager bought shares in the canal company Why don‘t you likewise? (HAH, 1976: 108) likewise ~ buy shares in the canal company Ơng giám đốc nhà băng tơi mua cổ phần Công ty kênh đào Tại ông không làm Halliday & Hasan (1976:108) say that the verb in the same is the general verb which is phonologically salient and only occurs in those clauses of action As far as the Vietnamese equivalence of the same is concerned, in Vietnamese the verb làm is quite similar to the general verb in that it has a very general meaning It is, especially when combined with nouns, often used to substitute for other specific verbs and at the same time it carries over the meaning of the verb it substitutes for For example: In làm bánh (making cake), nấu bữa trưa (make lunch), làm substitutes for nấu (cooking), làm lợi (making profit When followed by thế/vậy, like their English counterpart, làm can substitute a wide range of verbs in clauses of Action (those indicate „someone did something‟) Therefore, the expression làm thế/vậy also substitutes for a process Realizing this makes it possible for participant to produce and recognizing talk more effectively Concerning the use of (in làm thế/vậy), it can be noted that when the two presupposed clause and the clause containing thế/vậy have the same polarity (positive or negative), the use of is necessary If not, may be omitted Thus, the relationship between the same and their Vietnamese counterparts can be represented as follows: ENGLISH Do the same VIETNAMESE NOTES cũng… làm thế/vậy the same polarity between the Do likewise presupposed and presupposing clauses làm… thế/vậy different polarity Table 7: Do the same and the Vietnamese equivalent As we can see in the examples above, although the same is a form of nominal substitution, it can substitute for a verbal element in the clause when that element expresses a process 36 2.4.3 Be the same The same, when combined with be or other linking verbs like look, sound, taste etc may substitute for a noun or an adjective (and the modifying elements if not left out) as head of the nominal group: [2:43] A: These grapefruit smell more bitter than the last ones we had B: They taste the same (HAH, 1976: 109) A: Những bưởi có mùi đắng vừa B: Chúng có vị [2:44] D: Did Mr Chapin departure have something to with his involvement with Mr Segretti? P: What about Mr Dean? My position is the same We have cooperated with the Justice Department, the FBI- completely tried to furnish information under our control in this matter… (the Nixon Watergates Tapes 1974: 99) D: Việc khởi hành ơng Chapin có có liên quan đến ơng Segretti? P: Ơng Dean sao? Vị trí tơi Chúng tơi hợp tác với Bộ Tư pháp, FBI hoàn toàn cố gắng để cung cấp thông tin nằm kiểm sốt chúng tơi vấn đề [2:45] ―At the East, not far from here‖, said one ―there is a great desert, and none coul live to cross it.‖ ―It is the same at the South,‖ said another, ―for, I have been there and seen it The South is the country of the Quadlings‖ ―I am told‖ said the third man, ―that is the same at the West.‖ (WWO, 1993) "Ở phía Đơng, cách khơng xa", người nói "có sa mạc lớn, khơng sống sót vượt qua nó." "Ở miền Nam thế," người khác nói, "Tơi đến nhìn thấy … "Tơi nghe" người thứ ba nói ", Ở miềnTây vậy." [2:46] – John sounded regretful - Mary sounded the same (HAH, 1976: 111) the same ~ regretful - John nghe tiếc/ - Mary nghe nghe In the examples above, the same substitute for Mr Dean in [2:44], more bitter than the last ones in [2:43] and a great desert in [2:45] Here, we see that the Vietnamese equivalent of the same used in conversation is still cũng….thế/vậy The following is the table of some common forms of linking verbs plus the same and their Vietnamese equivalents: 37 ENGLISH VIETNAMESE NOTES be (là/được ) Some alternatives are smell có mùi có mùi thế/ taste có vị thế/vậy có vị thế/ sound the same nghe nghe cũngcó vẻ thế/ look trơng giống/ trơng trơng giống thế/ feel came thấy cảm thấy thế/ Table 8: linking verb plus the same and their Vietnamese equivalents So far, the same has been carefully studied in contrastive analysis with its Vietnamese equivalents I would like to bring out here my further conclusion of the relationship between the same and thế/ in comparison:  The same always has non-human presupposed items and so its Vietnamese counterparts thế/  As can be seen in all the examples above, both the same and thế/ substitute for a nominal group in the environment of a clause  Whereas the syntactical function of thế/ in its sentence depends strictly on that of their presupposed sentence, the same may have different syntactical functions as compared with that of their presupposed item 38 PART C: CONCLUSION 3.1 Concluding remarks: Nominal subsituttion as a cohesive device takes a very active role in the construction of both English and Vietnamese Conversation From what has been analyzed, in this part I would like to draw some conclusions for the aims set forth at the beginning of the thesis: My first aimto carry out this minor thesis is to help Vietnamese learners of English have a thorough knowledge of linguistics means of English Ns used in conversation and use them appropriately in order to achieve communicative purposes I think that this aim is done successfully because all the theory of English Ns is mentioned and analyzed very thoroughly, which helps them find it easier to realize and use in the daily communication The second aim is to investigate the similarities and differences of Ns in English conversations and Vietnamese ones in terms of on different forms of Ns, grammatical or syntactical functions of substitute words as well as the role of making discourse as cohesive device in conversation From the contrastive analysis by using translations of many English conversations and Vietnamese equivalent expressions, one thing can be admitted that the environment for nominal substitution mainly to take place in English conversation is nominal group and Vietnamese substitute words on the whole also occur in the same environment, though they may function differently as compared with their English counterparts English Ns is concerned in order to substitute for a nominal group in English conversational discourse; we may use the personal pronouns, the possessive pronouns, the substitute one/ones, the indefinite one/some and the same together with the expressions containing it In contrast, Vietnamese discourse pronominalized lexical items, Head or anaphoric pronouns thế/vậy may function as nominal substitutes As pointed out before, though all these items are different in many aspects, similarity can to some extent still be found among them The English personal pronouns in this thesis are confined in the third person because of its function as cohesive devices Whereas English has two separate forms consisting of objective and subjective cases, Vietnamese has only one form for both cases The third person pronouns and pronominalized lexical items can be used to substitute for expressions denoting persons or things in the environment of nominal groups There are some restrictions on the personal substitute words with reference to such factors as age, sex, social 39 status, family relationship, and so on As far as they are governed by the so-called principle of formality in conversation They reflect not only the relationship between the addressor and the person he/she is talking about, the education background of the addressor, or his/ her attitude towards he person/ thing being talked about, but also his/ her character Therefore, we can say that pronouns used in Vietnamese conversation are deeply expressive English possessive pronouns and their Vietnamese counterparts are doubly anaphoric as they all substitute for both the possessor and the possessed Besides, because the Vietnamese personal pronouns and pronominalized lexical items vary to a great extent, the English possessive pronouns undoubtedly have various realizations in Vietnamese conversational discourse In addition, normally, the numeratives (especially những) can be used before indexical CÁI/ Head to show the plural number of the nominal group being substituted The substitute one/ones is set apart from the indefinite one/some in English since they are different in many ways Despite this fact, their Vietnamese counterparts both treat Head as an important nominal subsitutute The same in English and their Vietnamese equivalents thế/ unlike other substitute items which work in the environment of a nominal group; it takes place within that of a clause Furthermore, although it takes anominal form, the same functions as the substitute in all types of substitution namely nominal, verbal and clausal 3.2 The implication of the study for teaching and learning of English Up to now substitution in general and nominal substitution in particular as a cohesive device has been still an unfamiliar phenomenon to many Vietnamese learners of English Therefore, the analysis of the similarities and differences of Ns in English and Vietnamese conversation may be significant and important to teaching and learning English language It can be said that in English teaching and learning, cohesion has often been left aside Most of the classroom activities are learning new vocabulary and practising verb tenses Nominal substitution such as personal pronouns, one/ones and (the) same is not given enough attention in textbooks of English at all levels, and if found at all, it is often expressed through idiomatic expressions like Same here, the same to you The student learns these expressions imitatively with his/her attention paid to their communicative functions- that is to show the sameness without knowing in this case the same functions as a clausal substitute I suggest that the concept of nominal substitution and the substitute items should be presented to learners of all levels and those learners of different levels should receive at different levels of usage Similarly, consciousness raising activities may be utilized in the teaching to students 40 after initially providing them with more profound insight into nominal substitution as a kind of cohesive device I would hope that the notes on the similarities and differences between the substitute items used in English contrast withVietnamese conversational discourse can help the learners avoid any possible confusion The following types of exercises could be adopted for the training in nominal substitution as a cohesive device in conversation Type 1: Fill in each blank with an appropriate substitute item 1) Customer: Waiter, my lobster is without a claw How is that? Waiter: Well, sir ………are so fresh that………… fight with each other in the kitchen Customer: Take this……… away, and bring me one of the winners 2) Nancy: Excuse me, Carol but I think that‟s mine Carol: What‟s your? Nancy: That yellow umbrella The one you just put in your bag It‟s ……… Carol: It‟s not……… It‟s Yoko‟s Nancy: Whose? Carol: Yoko‟s It‟s……… My roommate‟s There she is Yoko, isn‟t this your umbrella Yoko: Yes Uh, wait No, it‟s not mine is right here under this chair Carol: Oh Nancy I‟m terribly sorry I was sure it was………… Oh, I see It‟s exactly like hers Nancy: That‟s okay Well, Yoko, you have great taste in umbrellas Yoko: Thanks So you Type 2: Replace the underlined words with an appropriate substitute item The aim of this type is to increase the learner‟s awareness of the availability of the various substitute items which can be used to avoid unnecessary repetition of known information in making conversation For example, 1) Friend: Hi, Sue Have you been to the shops? Sue: Yes, I had some money for my birthday so I decided to buy some clothes Friend: I love those purple jeans Sue: Yes, I bought those purple jeans because purple is my favourite colour I got a new jacket too My old jacket is too small, so I bought this lovely big jacket Friend: It‟s really great- did you buy a dress? 41 Sue: I got this dress because this dress was only nine pounds Friend: That‟s not expensive 2) After I had lunch at a village inn, I looked for my bag I had left my bag on a chair beside the door, but now I found that my bag wasn‟t there As I was looking for my bag, the innkeeper came in „Did you have a good meal? The inn-keeper asked „Yes, I suppose so,‟ I answered, „but I can‟t pay the bill I haven‟t got my bag‟ The inn- keeper smiled and immediately went out At that time I didn‟t know why he did so In a few minutes he returned with my bag „Is this bag your bag?‟ he asked „Yes That bag is my bag‟ I answered „I‟m very sorry‟ he said „My dog had taken the bag into the garden My dog often does it‟ Type 3: Translate the following into Vietnamese/ English The aim of this type is to show the learner the relationship between the English substitute items and their Vietnamese equivalents  Translate into Vietnamese 1) The following example is Alice‟s conversation with the flowers: ―Aren‟t you sometimes frightened at being planted out here, with nobody to take care of you?” “There‟s the tree in the middle,” said the Rose “What else is it good for?” “But what could it do, if danger came?” Alice asked “It could bark,” said the Rose “It says „Bough-wough!‟” cried a Daisy: “that‟s why its branches are called boughs!” (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 48)  1) Translate into English - Bốn ghế anh mua tiền? - Tơi mua (nó) lâu, khơng nhớ 2) - Tơi cho bỏ - Tơi nghĩ 42 3.3 Limitation of the study Although the thesis has been given much time and efforts, it is inevitable to avoid shortcomings for the limitations in the ability of the research as well as the inadequacy of materials It is hoped that the thesis can receive a lot of contributions from all the teachers and opinions from readers so that it can become better and more effective 3.4 Suggestions for further study In this study only one genre of discourse is examined, conversational discourse Further study may investigate other fields as narrative, poems, or scientific discourse, etc Moreover, it is possible for further study to study in term of contrastive analysis or in comparison with Vietnamese for example I hope that nominal substitution will be studied more in the future More work needs to be done in terms of linking a conversation analytic framework with issues and concerns in cohesion analysis 43 REFERENCES In English: Angela Downing & Philip Locke (1995) English grammar – A university course Cambridge University Press Austin, J.L (1962), How to things with words, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press Bell, Roger J (1991) Translation and Translating: Theory and Practice London: Longman Group Limited Brown, Gillian & Yule, George (1983) Discourse Analysis Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (CUP) Cameron, Deborah (2001) Working with spoken discourse London: SAGE Publications Carthy, Michael (1993) Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (CUP) Chalker, S (1984) Current English grammar London: Macmillan Crystal, David (1992) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language Oxford: Blackwell Crystal, D (1992) Introducing linguistics Harlow: Penguin 10 Cook, G (1989) Dicourse Cambridge University Press (CUP) 11 Coulthard, P (1979) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis London: Longman 12 Gee, J P (2001) An introduction to discourse analysis London: Routledge 13 Grice, H.P (1975), Logic and Conversation, New York: Academic Press 14 Hatim, B & Mason, I (1990) Discourse and the translator London: Longman 15 Halliday, M.A.K (1994) Introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed.) London: Edward Arnold 16 Halliday, M.A.K & Hasan, R (1976) Cohesion in English London: Longman 17 Hatch, E (1992) Discourse and language education Cambridge: CUP 18 Hoa Nguyen (2000) An introduction to discourse analysis Hanoi: National University Press 19 Leech, G & Swartvik, J (1990), A communicative grammar of English, London: Longman 20 James, C (1980) Contrastive Analysis, London: Longman 44 21 Jespersen, O (1933) Essentials of English grammar New York: Henry Holt & Company 22 Markee, N (2000) Conversation analysis Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 23 Nunan D (1992), Introducing Discourse Analysis, Penguin English, Sydney 24 Quirk, R et al (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, London: Longman 25 Quirk, R., Greenbaun, S., Leech G and Svartvik, J (1972), A Grammar of Contemporary English, London: Longman 26 Quirk, R et al (1980), A Grammar of Contemporary English, London: Longman 27 Rogers, R (ed.) 2004 An introduction to critical discourse analysis in education Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc 28 Searle, J.R (1969), Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language Cambridge University Press In Vietnamese: Diệp Quang Ban (1996) Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt, Tâp tập 2, Hà Nội: NxB Giáo Dục Diệp Quang Ban (2005) Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt, (Bộ mới) Hà Nội: NxB Giáo Dục Diệp Quang Ban (2006) Giao tiếp diễn ngôn Cấu tạo văn bản, Hà Nội: NxB Giáo Dục Diệp Quang Ban (1998).Văn Liên kết tiếng Việt, Hà Nội: NxB Giáo Dục Lê Biển (1996) Từ loại tiếng Việt đại, Hà Nội: NxB Đại học Quốc gia Đỗ Hữu Châu (2006) Đại cương ngôn ngữ học, tập 2, Hà Nội: NxB Giáo Dục Nguyễn Tài Cẩn (1996) Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt, Hà Nội: NxB Đại học Quốc gia Nguyễn Hịa (2003) Phân tích diễn ngơn: Một số vấn đề lí luận phương pháp, Hà Nội: NxB Đại Học Quốc Gia Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (2004), Dụng Học Việt Ngữ, Hà Nội: NxB Đại Học Quốc Gia 10 Halliday, M A K (2004) Dẫn luận ngữ pháp chức (Bản dịch Hoàng Văn Vân), Hà Nội: NxB Đại Học Quốc Gia 11 Cao Xuân Hạo (2004) Tiếng Việt: Sơ thảo ngữ pháp chức năng, Hà Nội: NxB Đại Học Quốc Gia 12 LưuVăn Lăng (2008) Những vấn đề ngữ pháp tiếng Việt đại Hà Nội: NxB Khoa học xã hội 45 13 Trần Hữu Mạnh (2007) Ngôn ngữ học đối chiếu tiếng Anh tiếng Việt, Hà Nội: NxB Đại Học Quốc Gia 14 Trần Ngọc Thêm (1999) Hệ thống liên kết văn tiếng Việt (Tái lần thứ năm) Hà Nội: NxB Giáo Dục Sources of extracted examples: http://www.ielanguages.com/lessonplan.html http://gosrok.blogspot.com/view/classic?z http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/conversation http://www.ucm.es/info/circulo/no3/taboada.htm http://www.americanliterature.com/ss/ssindx.html http://www.readbookonline.net/stories/Henry/108/ http://www.online-literature.com/brontec/janeeyre/ http://www.e-thuvien.com (Dịch giả: Nguyễn Tuyên, Bản dịch Jane Eyre, 2008, NXB Văn Học, www.thuvien-ebook.com) http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/nixon/watergate Books for quotation CMM Carthy, Michael (1993) Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press HEO Henry, O (1994) Love of Life Hanoi: The Gioi Publisher KET Key English Test: Cambridge University Press HAH Halliday, M.A.K & Hasan, Ruquaiya (1976) Cohesionin English London: Longman Group Limited GWL George Woodland (1999) Lessons with laughter Language Teaching Publications NGT Nguyet, Thi Ai & Tien, Cat (1996) Twenty Short Stories Ho Chi Minh: Ho Chi Minh Publishing House HAB Hai, Mai Khac & Bich, Mai Khac (1994) 20th Century English Short Stories Danang: Danang Publishing House HPV Ha, Pham Vu Lua (1998) A World of Fiction (Twenty Timeless Short Stories Danang: Danang Publishing House 46 SWM Swan, Michael (1991) Practical English Usage London: Oxford University Press NOC Norman Coe (2009) Oxford Living Grammar London: Oxford University Press ARS Arengo, Sue (1989) A Taste of Murder London: Oxford University Press QEA Quirk, Randolphet al (1972) A Grammar of Contemporary English, London: Longman Group Limited VEJ Verne, Jules (1994) Round the World in Eighty Days Hanoi: Education Publisher BLE Bien, Le (1996) Tu loai tieng Viet Hien Dai Hanoi: National University Press BDQ Ban, Diep Quang (1996) Ngu phap Tieng Viet Hanoi: Education Publisher HBV Hartley, Bernard & Viney, Peter (1988) Streamline English (Destination) London: Oxford University Press WJB Wilson, J B English Literature A survey for students DSG Douglas, B, Susan, C & Geoffrey, L Student grammar of Spoken and Written English London: Longman ... similarities and differences of Ns in English and Vietnamese conversation may be significant and important to teaching and learning English language It can be said that in English teaching and learning,... –examine the English and Vietnamese nominal structure 2.1 General Features of English and Vietnamese Nominal Structure Since nominal substitution takes places mainly in the environment of a nominal. .. language and social action, which is reflected in speech act theory and the formulation of conversational maxims and the appearance of pragmatics It was in 1973 that discourse analysis was dealt