Linguistic features of prepositional phrases denoting position in english and vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A Thesis LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES DENOTING POSITIONS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (Đặc điểm ngôn ngữ cụm giới từ biểu thị vị trí tiếng Anh tiếng Việt tương đương) TRAN THI LINH Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Assoc.Prof Dr Phan Van Que Hanoi - 2020 Page i CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled Linguistic features of prepositional phrases denoting positions in English and 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, 2020 Tran Thi Linh Approved by SUPERVISOR Assoc Prof Dr Phan Van Que Date: 11/2020 Page ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Phan Van Que 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 of the lecturers of the Faculty of Postgraduate studies - Hanoi Open University, my classmates at Ha Noi Open University, and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would ever have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my colleague for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work Page iii ABSTRACT The thesis is carried out to investigate the syntactic and semantic features of English prepositional phrases denoting positions and its reference to Vietnamese equivalents After analysis on these features, their comparison between English and Vietnamese are discussed to find out the similarities and differences From the result of this research, some solutions and implication in teaching and learning English prepositional phrases denoting positions are proposed The descriptive and comparative method was chosen to carry out this study Many examples are used in the study to illustrate and analyze the syntactic and semantic feature of these preposition, then making a comparison between two languages to find out equivalents The data are collect from books, dictionaries, internet, stories and novels Moreover, the survey was also carried out to find out the mistakes as well as the difficulties when using these prepositions of Vietnamese learners In short, these prepositions in both languages have some similarities and differences in term syntactic and semantics, in which the main difference is in term of semantics Many students have not distinguished the use of these prepositions yet They are not sure about the equivalents of these prepositions in Vietnamese Through the result of this study, the author hopes that it can help Vietnamese students learn English easier Page iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS N Noun NP Noun phrase PP Prepositional phrase Page v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 2.1 List of simple preposition .13 Table 2 List of some two word prepostions .15 Table List of some three word prepositions 16 Table Some examples of wrong translation prepositional phrases Error! Bookmark not defined Table Prepositions of place in English and Vietnamese .42 Table Research results of task 49 Table Research results of task 51 Table Research results of task 52 Table 4 Research results of task 53 Figure Internal structure of a prepositional phrase 30 Figure Sample description by gender 44 Figure Sample description by grade 44 Figure Sample description by English proficiency level 45 Page vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality ii Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv List of abbreviations v List of tables and figures vi Table of contents vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale: 1.2 Aims and objectives 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Research questions: 1.5 Methods of study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous studies 2.1.1 Previous studies oversea 2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam 2.2 Review of theoretical background 2.2.1 Theoretical Framework 2.2.1.1 Syntax 2.2.1.2 Semantics 10 2.2.2 Theoretical background 10 2.2.2.1 Concepts of prepositions 10 2.2.2.2 Some features of prepositional phrases 12 2.2.2.3 English preposition 12 2.2.2.4 An overview of the prepositional phrase 29 Page vii 2.2.2.5 Prepositional phrases denoting positions and their Vietnamese equivalents 30 2.3 Summary 32 CHAPTER 3: FEATURES OF PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES DENOTING POSITIONS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 33 3.1 Syntactic features of prepositional phrases denoting positions 33 3.1.1 Prepositional phrases as modifier and complement of other phrases 33 3.1.2 Prepositional phrases as elements of clause 34 3.2 Semantic features of prepositional phrases denoting positions 35 3.3 In terms of similarities and differences between prepositional phrases denoting positions in English and Vietnamese equivalents 38 3.3.1 Similarities 39 3.3.2 Differences 40 3.4 Summary 42 CHAPTER 4: COMMON ERRORS MADE BY LEARNER OF ENGLISH WHEN USING PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES DENOTING POSITIONS 43 4.1 Survey questionnaires 43 4.1.1 Subject 43 4.1.2 Questionnaires 45 4.1.3 Procedure 47 4.2 Common errors made by learners of English when using prepositional phrases denoting positions 49 4.2.1 Common errors made by learners of English when using prepositional phrases denoting positions 49 4.2.2 Causes of committing errors using prepositional phrases denoting positions Error! Bookmark not defined 4.3 Suggestions for teaching and learning prepositions in English and Vietnamese Error! Bookmark not defined Page viii 4.4 Summary 54 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 58 5.1 Recapitulation 58 5.2 Limitation of the study 58 5.3 Suggestions for further research 59 REFERENCES 60 APPENDIX 65 Page ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale: In today‟s global world, the importance of English cannot be denied and ignored since English is the most common language spoken everywhere With the help of developing technology, English has been playing a major role in many sectors including medicine, engineering, especially education Particularly, as a developing country, Vietnams needs to make use of this world-wide spoken language to help country develop Awareness about those important roles of English, there are many policies to develop this language in Vietnam English has been the most update foreign language in comparison with other ones Everyone who wants to have a large stock of knowledge, gets opportunities with good jobs, has success in career needs to learn and master English Nowadays, English is one of the most three important subjects after mathematics and literature in most secondary schools in Vietnam Textbooks have been renovated; new methods have been applied in teaching English Since English is far different from Vietnamese, it is not easy for learners to master They sometimes find some difficulties in mastering all the aspects of English language because English grammar is different from Vietnamese structure There are many rules used to correlate or to combine parts of speech for making good sentences or phrases such as article, determiners, pronouns, prepositions, subjunctive, etc Prepositions have begun to attract the attention of many language researchers over the past few decades Besides, English prepositions pose a big challenge for the acquisition of second language Learners of English as a foreign language often face with huge difficulties in actively mastering the language Generally, they seemingly hold the view that English notional categories, namely nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are crucial, hence striving to learn as many of them as possible and functional categories as prepositions are of minor significance because they are limited in number and their meanings are not important to the meaning of the whole sentence Page 11 Dixon, R.M.W (1970) 'Proto-Australian laminals', Oceanic Linguistics 9.79103 12 Downing A; Locke, P (1992) A University Course in English Grammar Module 13 New York Prentice Hall International 13 Duc, D.V, (2001), Từ pháp học Tiếng học, Vietnam National University Publishing, Hanoi, Vietnam 14 Downing, A Locke, P (2006) English Grammar: A University Course Second Edition Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York 15 Greenbaum, S (1996) The Oxford English Grammar Oxford University Press 16 Habbash, S (1982) Common errors in the use of English prepositions in the written work of UNRWA students at the end of the Preparatory Cycle in the Jerusalem Area M.A Thesis, Birzeit University 17 Halliday, M.A.K & Matthiessen, C.M.I.M (2004) An Introduction to Functional Grammar Third Edition London: Edward Arnold 18 Huddleston, R, 1984 Introduction to the grammar of English Cambridge University Press 19 Hunston, S & Thompson, G (2000) Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse Oxford University Press 20 Hurford, J.; Heaseley, B & Smith, M (2007) Semantics: a Coursebook Second Edition, Cambridge University Press 21 Huyen, N T.T, (2009), A study on preposition of time in English, Graduation paper, Haiphong Private University, Vietnam 22 Jackendoff, R.(1973), The Base Rules for Prepositional Phrases, In S Anderson and P Kiparsky, (eds.) A Festschrift for Morris Halle, 345–356, New York: Holt, Rienhart and Winston Page 61 23 Jesperseen, O (1933) Essential of English grammar Henry Hott and Company 24 Kim, L C (2001) An error analysis of English prepositions in the written work of upper secondary Malay students Master‟s Thesis in Language and Linguistics, University of Malaya 25 Lawal, B G (2004) Jenuine Mistake by Users of English Ibandan, Domonion publishers (Nigeria) 26 Lyons, J (1968) Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics Cambridge University Press 27 Morley, G D (2000) Syntax in Functional Grammar: an Introduction to Lexicogrammar in Systemic Linguistics Continuum Wellington Hous 28 Nga, N.T, (2008), Semantic and analysis functions of English adjective - a contrastive analysis with their Vietnamese equivalent, Graduation paper, Hanoi open University, Vietnam 29 Ouhalla, J (1994) Introducing Transformational Grammar: from Rules to Principles and Parameters Edward Arnold 30 Phuc, N.S, 1999 Tenses and prepositions in English Dong Nai Press 31 Quirk and Greenbaum, S (1973) A university Grammar of English Presented by the Australian Government 32 Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, Svartvik, index by Crystal (1985), A Comprehensive Grammar Of The English Language London: Longman 33 Quirk, R & Greenbaum, S, 2002 A university grammar of English Giao Thong Van Tai Press 34 Quy, T.T, (2017), A study on “in‟‟ prepositional phrases in English with reference to Vietnamese equivalents, MA Theis, Hanoi open University, Page 62 Vietnam 35 Radford, A (2009a) Analysing English Sentences: A Minimalist Approach Cambridge University Press 36 Raymond Murphy (2009) English grammar in use NXB: Văn hóa thơng tin 37 Rumiyati, W (2008) Errors in using English prepositions made by the second year students of SMU Muhammadiyah Gresik Undergraduate Thesis, Universitas Muhammadiyah Gresik 38 Saint-Dizier,P (2006) Syntax and Semantics of Prepositions Text, Speech and Language Technology Volume 29 Springer The Netherlands 39 Than, N.K, (1964), Study on Vietnamese grammar, Science Publishing, Vietnam 40 Tinh, B.D, (1952), Văn phạm Việt Nam, Sai Gon, Vietnam 41 Tran, N.D (2010) Vietnamese grammar handbook, quintessential Vietnamese bookcases 42 Van Valin, R (2004) An Introduction to Syntax Cambridge University Press 43 Wishon GorgeE, Burks JuliaM 1980 Let‟s Write English, revised Edition New York, USA: American Book Company Page 63 Page 64 APPENDIX Appendix Dear participants, This is survey to check your proficiency of prepositional phrase denoting positions in the aspect of syntax and semantics Please complete the following tasks in accordance with each instruction The result will be used for this study only and it is very useful to find out a good solution for mastering English in our University Thank you for your cooperation! WRITTEN GRAMMAR TEST (40 minutes) I Fill in the blank with a prepositional phrases denoting position: in, at or on The price of electricity is going up …… June They came to visit us …… my sister birthday Did you have a good time…… Easter? They live the fifth floor I live 32 Hoan Kiem Street Let‟s take the bus An Ninh Street There were no clouds sky last Monday There will be many new people the party There are a lot of activities Time Square 10 The café is the top of the public library 11 There was an interesting program the radio yesterday 12 Where is he? He is prison 13 I shall meet you……the corner of the restaurant 14 The children have a long holiday … summer 15 He is taught her how to swim …… the swimming pool Page 65 II All these sentences have a mistake Underline and correct them 16 Animals which live at the river need fins to swim 17 In the top of the mountain, climbers are able to see the whole skiing area 18 The leaves in these trees are always green for years 19 He is sitting in the ground and watching his favorite film 20 This was the first time, they met each other on the bus stop III Put the words in the correct order to form a complete sentence 21 headquarters/ company/ the/ of/ the/Milan/ in/are ……………………………………………………………………………… 22 newspaper/ the/ page/ you‟ll/ the/ find/ results/ on/ the/ back/ sport/ on ……………………………………………………………………………… 23 hanging/ kitchen/ the/ picture/ like/ that/ wall/ the/ I/ on/ in ……………………………………………………………………………… 24 some/ trees/ park/ there/ beautiful/ are/ in/ the ……………………………………………………………………………… 25 crossroads/ morning/ there/ accident/ this/ an/ was/ at ……………………………………………………………………………… IV Translate the sentences below into English 26 Mẹ anh đợi anh bến xe buýt ……………………………………………………………………………… 27 Có nhiều chim bay bầu trời ……………………………………………………………………………… 28 Tin tức thông báo tivi hôm qua ……………………………………………………………………………… 29 Đây danh sách thứ cần mua Đừng mua thứ khơng có danh sách ……………………………………………………………………………… 30 Anh đứng chân tơi ……………………………………………………………………………… Page 66 31 Gia đình anh sống 56 Quang Trung ……………………………………………………………………………… 32 Hôm qua anh bơi bể bơi ……………………………………………………………………………… 33 Bức tranh chụp nước ……………………………………………………………………………… 34 Quyển sách bạn sàn nhà ……………………………………………………………………………… 35 Anh ngồi đất ……………………………………………………………………………… 36 Có ngồi cửa Tơi xem ………………………………………………………………………………\ V Match and use appropriate prepositions to complete sentences 37 Some people are in prison for crimes that they the plane did not commit 38 We can get coffee at the station while we‟re the station waiting for our train 39 We walked to the restaurant, but we went home a taxi the art gallery in a taxi 40 I play basketball at the sport center on Friday evenings 41 I enjoyed the flight, but the food on the plane Tokyo school was awful 42 Vicky has gone to Japan She‟s living in Tokyo 43 „Does your sister have a job?‟ „No, she‟s only prison 16 She‟s still at school‟ the sports centre 44 There‟s a new exhibition of paintings at the art gallery Let‟s go and see it Page 67 Appendix 2: Answer key to written grammar test I Fill in the blank with a prepositional phrases denoting position: in, at or on The price of electricity is going up in June They came to visit us on my sister birthday Did you have a good time at Easter? They live on the fifth floor I live at 86 Hoan Kiem Street Let‟s take the bus on An Ninh Street There were no clouds in sky last Monday There will be many new people at the party There are a lot of activities at Time Square 10 The café is on the top of the public library 11 There was an interesting program on the radio yesterday 12 Where is he? He is in prison 13 I shall meet you on the corner of the restaurant 14 The children have a long holiday in summer 15 He is taught her how to swim in the swimming pool II All these sentences have a mistake Underline and correct them 16 In the river 17 At/on the top of the mountain 18 On these trees 19 On the ground 20 At the bus stop III Put the words in the correct order to form a complete sentence 21 The headquarters of the company are in Milan 22 You‟ll find the sports results on the back page of the newspaper 23 I like that picture hanging on the wall in the kitchen 24 There are some beautiful trees in the park 25 There was an accident at the crossroads this morning Page 68 V Translate the sentences below into Vietnamese 26 Mẹ anh đợi anh bến xe buýt His mom is waiting for him at the bus stop 27 Có nhiều chim bay bầu trời There are many birds flying in the sky 28 Tin tức thông báo tivi hôm qua This news was announced on the TV yesterday 29 Đây danh sách thứ cần mua Đừng mua thứ khơng có danh sách Here‟s a shopping list Don‟t buy anything that‟s not on the list 30 Anh đứng chân He are standing on my foot 31 Gia đình anh sống 56 Quang Trung His family lives at 56 Quang Trung Street 32 Hôm qua anh bơi bể bơi He was swimming in the swimming pool at this time yesterday 33 Bức tranh chụp nước This picture was taken in the water 34 Quyển sách bạn sàn nhà Your book is on the floor 35 Anh ngồi đất He sat on the ground 36 Có ngồi cửa Tơi xem There is someone at the door Shall I go and see who they are V Match and use appropriate prepositions to complete sentences 39 We walked to the restaurant, but we went home in a taxi 40 I play basketball at the sport center on Friday evenings 41 I enjoyed the flight, but the food on the plane was awful 42 Vicky has gone to Japan She‟s living in Tokyo Page 69 43 „Does your sister have a job?‟ „No, she‟s only 16 She‟s still at school‟ 44 There‟s a new exhibition of paintings at the art gallery Let‟s go and see it 39 We walked to the restaurant, but we went home in a taxi 40 I play basketball at the sport center on Friday evenings Page 70 Appendix 3: Instruction of using prepositional phrases denoting positions (“in”, “on”, “at”) and some examples Prepositional phrases with “in” denoting positions → To indicate a location within an area, or in a 3-dimensional space or when something is surrounded E.g Look at the children who are swimming in the pool (Hãy trông chừng đứa trẻ bơi hồ.) Some examples of preposition “in” denoting position  in the world  in a line  in a quere  in a row,  in a book  in a newspaper  in a magazine  in a photo  in a picture  in a pocket  in a box  in a bottle  in a pencil case  in the tube  in the pipe  in the tin  in the cartoon  in the jar  in the vase  in the bottle E.g Everest is the highest mountain in the world Page 71 (Everest núi cao giới) → Used before the name of village, town, city, country E.g I am living in Lung Cu District (Tôi sống huyện Lũng Cú) → Used with vehicles E.g We arrived there in a car (Chúng đến xe hơi) → Used to talk about a person's position without using an article E.g His mother is in hospital now (Mẹ anh bệnh viện) → Used to indicate direction or some phrases indicating place.in the south  in the east  in the west  in the middle of  in the back  front of E.g Can Tho city is in the south of Viet Nam (Thành phố Cần Thơ nằm phía nam Việt Nam.) Prepositional phrases with “on” denoting positions → Used to indicate position on a surface  On the table  on the carpet  on the wall  on the ceiling  on the blackboard  on the screen  on the pavement  on the door  on the shirt  on the map  on the page Page 72 E.g The is some dirty on my T-shirt (Có vài vết bẩn chiêc áo phơng tôi.) → To indicate the place or number of floors  on the platform  on the railway  on the farm  on the island  on the river  on the beach  on the coast  on the ground  on the 1st floor E.g They are working on the 20th floor (Họ làm việc tầng 20.) Used to indicate street names, this usage is only used in American style In the English style, it is possible to use “in” to indicate street names E.g I have lived on this road for 15 years (Tôi sống đường 15 năm.) → Used with public transport  on the bus  on the train  on the plane  on the bicycle  on the horse  on the motorbike E.g There were too many people on the bus (Có nhiều người xe buýt.) → Used with some phrases denoting positions  on the left  on the right  on the bottom Page 73  on the top  on the front  on the back of E.g Write your name on the black of answer sheet (Viết tên bạn vào mặt sau tờ giấy trả lời.) Prepositional phrases with “at” denoting positions → Used to indicate position at a point  At home  at the top  at the bottom  at the station  at the airport  at the door  at the crossroad  at the office  at the seaside  at the begining  at the end of E.g The train stops for an hour at FrankFurt (Tàu dừng lại FrankFurt vòng tiếng) → Used to refer to a larger place, if we only consider this place as a location E.g Let‟s meet at the club (Hãy gặp mặt câu lạc → Used to refer to the home, office or an address of some one E.g They were at Mike‟s house last night (Họ nhà Mike tối hôm qua) → Some others  At work  at school Page 74  at college  at university  at the party  at the meeting,  at the concert  at the math  at the lecture,… E.g We were at the meeting yesterday when you called (Hôm qua, bạn gọi tới, họp.) Page 75 ... equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features, thus helping Vietnamese learners of English to have better understanding of prepositional phrases in general and prepositional phrases denoting positions... semantic features of prepositional phrases denoting positions in English? (2) What are the similarities and differences between prepositional phrases denoting positions in English and Vietnamese equivalents. .. Chapter Features of prepositional phrases denoting positions in English and their Vietnamese equivalents Chapter Common errors made when translating prepositional phrases denoting positions in English