Linguistics features of prepositional phrases denoting positions in english and vietnamese equivalents

THANH HOA EDUCATION &TRAINING DEPARTMENT HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE INITIATIVES LINGUISTICS 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) The writer : Tran Thi Linh Possition : Teacher Shool Unit: Ham Rong High school The field of the experience initiative : Foreign language THANH HOA 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Rationale 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 In terms of syntactic function, prepositions and prepositional phrases are words used to connect nouns or noun phrases to other phrases in a sentence They exist in both English and Vietnamese language systems, in which their characteristics and usages, however, are quite different Mastering prepositions and prepositional phrases cause a great deal of troubles for Vietnamese native speaker learners when learning English The noticeable point that makes Vietnamese learners easily cope with difficulties to understand and translate is a group of prepositional phrase denoting position It is not simple to understand these words by just relying on their literal meanings, their positions, or their functions Therefore, an effective way of mastering prepositional phrases denoting position should be found to help learners overcome their difficulties in acquiring English For all mentioned above reasons, the topic “Linguistic features of prepositional phrases denoting positions in English and Vietnamese equivalents” has been chosen for my graduation initiatives Aims and objectives The three main objectives of this study are: (1) Identifying the prepositional phrases denoting positions in English (2) Find out the similarities and differences between prepositional phrases denoting positions in English and Vietnamese equivalents English and Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features (3) Proposing some implications for teaching and learning ‘prepositional phrases denoting positions in English in an effective way 3 Scope of the study This study focuses mainly on analyzing the syntactic and semantic features of prepositional phrase denoting positions in English and investigating the equivalents when translated into Vietnamese Therefore, in scope of this thesis, authors only concentrated on the prepositional phrase with “in”, “on”, “at” The implications of the study are to help Vietnamese learners of English in general and the students at in particular master prepositional phrases denoting positions in English effectively Research questions: The study is carried out to find out the answers to the following questions: (1) What are the syntactic and 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 in terms of syntactic and semantic features? (3) What are common mistakes made by students when translating ‘prepositional phrases denoting positions in English? What are suggestions made by the author for learners? Literature review Prepositions have begun to attract the attention of many language researchers over the past few decades As we know, Jackendoff states “people seem never to have taken prepositions seriously From the basis of the previous studies, it can be seen that the investigation of prepositional phrases denoting positions in English and Vietnamese equivalents has not discussed so far in both languages, English and Vietnamese Proposed Research Methodology In order to deal with the research subject effectively a flexible combination of methods is employed This thesis is basically carried out with the descriptive and comparative analysis methods First, the descriptive method is utilized to give a deep and detailed description of prepositional phrases denoting positions and their Vietnamese equivalents Second, the comparative analysis method is used to analyze prepositional phrases denoting positions and their Vietnamese equivalents, hence suggesting some implications for mastering these particular phrases Last but not least, other supporting method such as statistic technique is also used for the data collection and analysis process 1.7 Structure of intiatives The intiatives starts out with Introduction chapter where rationale, aims and objectives, research questions, methods, scope, significance, and design of the study are presented The tables of main contents of the initiatives are as follows Introduction Literature review Features of prepositional phrases denoting positions in English and their Vietnamese equivalents Applying research on teaching Results of the research Conclusion Reference books LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous studies 2.1.1 Previous studies oversea According to Otto Jesperseen , who is one of the prominent traditional linguists and grammarians, groups prepositions as a subclass of particles and defines them very briefly in “ Essentials of English Grammar” as elements which signal different types of relationship in the sentence as follows: in, at, through, for, etc As a traditional grammarian, Curme (1935) pays special attention to preposition as an indeclinable word of relation; he also considers the item governed by the preposition, which must be a noun phrase Many studies have been done to examine the use of prepositions by second language learners However, the present study has focused on errors particularly in the use of prepositions of place, of time and of direction The researcher found that the errors with spatial prepositions were more frequent than those with temporal prepositions The findings of the study showed that the secondary school students faced difficulties in learning prepositions of time and were confused while using prepositions in their writing The studies on prepositions mentioned above showed that many studies have been done on prepositions from different perspectives 2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam Prepositions and prepositional phrases have been also studied deeply by many Vietnamese linguists such as Dinh Van Duc, Diep Quang Ban, Bui Duc Tinh In Vietnam, the oldest material which mentioned preposition may be “Báo cáo vắn tắt tiếng An Nam Đông Kinh” in a dictionary that was called “Viet – Bo - La” of Alexandre de Rhôdes (1651) Nguyen Kim Than in “Nghiên cứu ngữ pháp tiếng Việt” separated preposition as one types of part of speech and definite that prepositions is a kind of empty words that are used to connect to link the sub – word with the main word to show the relationship between the two words From the basis of the previous studies, it can be seen that the investigation of prepositions of place ‘in’, ‘at’, ‘on’ and their Vietnamese equivalents have not discussed so far in both languages, English and Vietnamese A research relating English prepositions of place ‘in’, ‘at’, ‘on’ with reference to Vietnamese equivalents has been chosen for my thesis 2.2 Overview of syntax and semantics The basic syntactic properties and semantic functions differ in many languages In other languages, the prepositions occur after the complement (subject-object-verb) They are called post positions In English language, they are usually placed before a noun or a noun equivalent (subject-verb-object) For instance, the author of the book – the prepositions on, to, and of are determined by rely, similar and author respectively While learning, the various meanings and meaning extensions of repositions are perhaps the greatest challenge A pedagogical strategy is essential for students to pay attention to the co-occurrence, collocation, and discourse behavior of prepositions 2.2.1 Syntax The word “syntax” is derived from the Greek “syntaxis”, which means “arrangement” Syntax in linguistics deal with the ways the elements of a sentence or phrase can be arranged to express different meanings In the other, it is set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentence in a given language, specifically word order For this reason, discovering the syntactic rules common to all languages in the goal of many syntacticians Syntax is one of the major components of grammar Traditionally linguists have recognized a basic distinction between syntax and morphology which is primary concerned with the internal structures of words However, this distinction has been somewhat disrupted by recent research in lexico grammar Syntax allows speakers to communicate complicated thoughts by arranging small, simply units in meaningful ways For example, in English, a sentence can be simple as a one-word interjection, or it can be a lengthy composition with multiple clauses strung together Syntax plays important roles in language, it makes human language unlimited Humans can create news sentences or phrases to express different meanings with the rules of syntax 2.2.2 Semantics The word semantics was first used by a French philologist, Michel Breal In international scientific vocabulary semantics is also called semasiology The simple definition of semantics is the study of the meaning of linguistic expressions The formal study of semantics intersects with many other fields of inquiry including lexicology, syntax, pragmatics, etymology and others It contrasts with syntax, the study of the combination of units of a language without reference to their meaning, and pragmatics-the study of the relationships between the symbols of a language, their meaning, and the users of the language In linguistics, semantics the subfield that devoted to the study of meaning, as inherent at the levels of words, phrases, sentences, and larger units of discourse It is also closely linked to the subjects of representation, reference and denotation In traditionally, semantics has included the study of sense and denotative reference, truth conditions, argument structure, thematic roles, discourse analysis, and the linkage of all these to syntax 2.3 An overview of the prepositions 2.3.1 Concepts of prepositions A preposition is traditionally defined in some following ways: According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary a preposition “is a word or group of words used before a noun or pronoun to show place, position, time or method” Agoi (2003) described preposition as a word or group of words used with a noun or noun equivalents to show the link between that noun which it governs and another word According to Richard Nordquist, he defines preposition as “a word that show relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence” A preposition is a word that indicates a relation between the noun or pronoun it governs and another word, which may be a verb, an adjective or another noun or pronoun E.g: She was dependent on us.Or: Her opinion of us improved (Huddleston, R, 1984: 336) The preposition on and of are said to relate us to the adjective dependent and the noun opinion, respectively In the most general terms, a preposition expresses a relation between two entities, one being that represented by the prepositional complement, the other by another part of sentence (Quirk, et al, 1985: 657) E.g: Jock, with several of his friends, was drinking till am The preposition with in the example expresses the relation between the rep-ositional complement several of his friends and the noun Jack 2.3.2 English preposition 2.3.2.1 Classification according to structure: According to structure, prepositions are classified into kinds: simple and complex prepositions *Simple prepositions *Monosyllabic prepositions: As, at, but, by, down, for, from, in, like, near, of, off, on, out, past, per, pro, qua, re, round, sans, since, than, through, till, to, up, via, with Polysyllabic prepositions: About, above, across, after, against, along, amid(st), among(st), anti, around, atop, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, between, beyond, circa, despite, during, except, inside, into, notwithstanding, onto, opposite, outside, over, pace, pending, throughout, toward(s), under, underneath, unlike, until, upon, versus, vis-a-vis, within, without (Quirk, et al, 1985: 665-667) Table 2.1 List of simple preposition Abroad But Over About By Past Above Despite Round Across Down Since After During Than Against Except Through Along For To Amid From Toward Among In Towards Prepositions are distinguished for the complements they take, unlike the other parts of speech In addition to the repositions listed above, there are some words which behave in many ways like prepositions, although they also have affinities with other word classes such as verb or adjective E.g: Granted his obsequious manner, I still think he's ambitious enough to the job (Quirk, et al, 1985: 667) * Complex prepositions: The prepositions, consisting of more than one word, are called complex prepositions They may be subdivided into twoand three- word sequences * Two- word sequences: In two- word sequences the first word is an adverb, adjective, or conjunction, and the second word is a simple preposition (usually for, from, of, two, with) Table 2 List of some two word prepostions Adv/ Adj/ Conjunction+ for as for, but for, except for, save for Adv/ Adj/ Conjunction+ from across from, apart from, as from, aside from, away from Adv/ Adj/ Conjunction+ of ahead of, as of, back of, because of, devoid of, exclusive of, inside of, instead of, irrespective of, off of, out of, outside of, regardless of, upwards of, void of Adv/ Adj/ Conjunction+ to according to, as to, close to, contrary to, due to, near to, next to, on to, opposite to, owing to, preliminary to, preparatory to, previous to, prior to, pursuant to, subsequent to, thanks to, up to Adv/ Adj/ Conjunction+ with along with, together with Other types up against, on board, as per, other than, up until, * Three- word sequences:The most numerous category of complex prepositions is the type consisting of three words, as in: Prep 1+ NOUN+ Prep Table List of some three word prepositions In+ noun+ of in aid of in back of in behalf of in case of in charge of in consequence of in (the) face of in favor of in front of in (the) light of in In+ noun+ with by+ noun+ of inaccordance with by dint of in common with by means of incomparisonwith by virtue of in compliance with by way of in conformity with in contact with in line with on+ noun+ of other types Onaccount of as far as on behalf of at the expense On (the) of at variance ground (s) of on of at the hands the matter of of for (the) sake on pain of of for/ from want of in 2.3.2.2 Classification according to meaning In the survey of preposition meanings, to which most of this chapter is devoted, place and time relations will be dealt with first, and will be followed by a more cursory exemplification of other relations such as cause, goal, origin, etc 10 So varied are preposition meanings that no more than a presentation of the most notable semantic similarities and contrasts can be attempted here Prepositions of place * Positive position and direction: at, to, on, onto, in, into In many cases (especially in colloquial English), on and in may be used for both position and destination when onto and into make an unnecessary emphasis on the combination of destination and dimension: I have put the coin in my pocket Mr Temple jumped on the stage (Alexander L G, 1998: 148) * Negative position and direction: away from, off, out of There is a parallel cause and effect relation with negative prepositions away from, off, out of Direction Position Tom went away from the door Tom was away from the door = Tom was not at the door The book fell off the shelf The book is off the shelf = The book is not on the shelf Tom got out of the water Tom is out of the water = Tom is not in the water (Quirk, et al, 1985: 678) The negative prepositions away from, off, and out of may be defined simply by adding the word "not" to the corresponding positive prepositions: away from (= not at), off (= not on), out of (= not in) * Relative position: by, over, under * Relative destination: by, over, under, etc * Passage: by, over, under, etc * Direction: up, down, along, etc Up, down, along, across, and (a)round, with verbs of motion, make up a group of prepositions expressing movement with reference to an axis or directional path * Orientation: beyond, over, past, etc 11 Most prepositions of relative position and direction can be used in a static sense of orientation This brings in a third factor apart from the two things being spatially related: via a point of orientation, at which (in reality or imagination) the speaker is standing Beyond (= "on the far side of") is a preposition of which primary meaning is one of orientation; furthermore, over (BrE), past, across, and through can combine the meaning of "beyond" with more specific information of dimensiontype, as described in: His village lies two miles beyond the border (Cobuild, C, 1997: 54) 2.4 An overview of the prepositional phrase 2.4.1 Definition There some definitions of prepositional phrases in English as the followings: According Quirk, R & Greenbaum, S, 2002: 142, a prepositional phrase consists of a preposition followed by a prepositional complement, which is characteristically a noun phrase or a wh-clause or v-ing clause: at the bus stop from what he said by signing a peace treaty These above prepositional phrases are the combinations of prepositions: at, from, by and prepositional complements: the bus stop (noun phrase), what he said (wh-clause), signing a peace treaty (v-ing clause), respectively 2.4.2 Internal structure of prepositional phrases In adjective phrases, adverb phrases, noun phrases, there is one main element called the head, to which the other elements (modifier, qualifier, determiner) are subordinate For this reason, the head element- a noun, an adjective, an adverb, can be alone without other elements, in presentation of the whole phrase The internal structure of a PP can be represented by the figure below: Prepositional phrase Modifier Head Complement completely out of along date this road straight just at near that moment quite here 12 FEATURES OF PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES DENOTING POSITIONS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 3.1 Syntactic features of prepositional phrases denoting positions 3.1.1 Prepositional phrases denoting positions a Prepositional phrases denoting positions In: used to describe the object’s position inside other things Ex: I watch TV in the living-room On: in or into a position covering, touching or forming part of a surface Ex: Look at the picture on the wall At: used to say where something/somebody is Ex: I met her at the entrance/at the bus stop She sat at the table/ at a concert/ at the party/at the movies/ at university/ at work… In front of: the part or side of something that faces forward; the side of something that you look at first Ex: She started talking to the man in front of her Behind: at or towards the back of somebody/something, and often hidden by it or them Ex: I my coat behind the door Between: in or into the space separating two or more points, objects, people, etc Ex: The town lies between Rome and Florence There are mountains between Chile and Argentina Among: surrounded by somebody/something; in the middle of somebody/something Ex: We are among the trees Next to, beside, by: in or into a position right by somebody/something Ex: The girl who is by / next to / beside the house Near, close to: at a short distance away from somebody/something Ex: This building is near a bus stop Across from, opposite: on the other side of a particular area from somebody/something and usually facing them Ex: He is standing across from the bookstore 13 The chess players sat opposite each other Above: at or to a higher place or position than something/somebody Ex: A bridge is above the lake Under: in, to or through a position that is below something/below the surface of something; covered by something Ex: The cat is under the chair Below: at or to a lower level, position or place Ex: Miners work below the surface of the Earth Inside: on or to the inner part of something/somebody; within something/somebody Ex: The gift is inside the box His money is inside the safe Outside: not in a room, building or container but on or to the outside of it Ex: He is outside the house The police is outside the office Round, around: surrounding somebody/something; on each side of something/ on, to or from the other side of somebody/something Ex: They go around the park 3.1.2 Syntactic Functions of prepositional phrase denoting position 3.1.2.1 Prepositional phrases as modifier and complement of other phrases a Complement in adjective phras b Complement in adverb phrase: c Postmodifier of noun phrase d Complement of preposition 3.1.2.2 Prepositional phrases as elements of clause a Adjunct: The children played in the backyard (Redman, S & Shaw, E, 1999: 67) b Subject: Like adverbs, PPs may occasionally take a nominal function, c Direct object 3.2 Semantic features of prepositional phrases denoting positions a Prepositional phrases denoting simple position: * Positive position: * Negative position: away from/ off/ out of + prepositional complement (Cp) 14 Ex: Once, they were out of the air - conditioned restaurant (Cobuild, C, 1997: 40) b Prepositional phrases denoting destination Ex: Jim has gone to the restaurant * Positive: to/ onto/ into + Cp * Negative: Ex: I drove out of the car park (Alexander, L.G, 1988: 148) Figure Prepositional phrases denoting destination c Prepositional phrases denoting relative position Vertically relative: - above/ over/ on top of/ under/ underneath/ beneath/ below + Cp Horizontally relative: - before/ in front of/ behind/ after + Cp Figure Vertical and horizontal direction The PPs with above, over, in front of are antonyms of PPs with below, under, behind, respectively The man is in front of the woman >< The man is behind the woman E.g: The castle stands on a hill above the valley (Quirk, et al, 1985: 678) d Prepositional phrases denoting space PPs including prepositions by/ beside/ with/ near (to)/ close to/ opposite/ between/ among (st)/ around/ round/ about can express space, eg: He was standing by/ beside the door I left the key with my wallet (Quirk, et al, 1985: 679) e Prepositional phrases denoting orientation: g Prepositional phrases denoting resultative meaning h Prepositional phrases denoting pervasive meaning 3.3 Prepositional phrases denoting positions and their Vietnamese equivalents 3.3.1 Vietnamese prepositional phrases Vietnamese also has a category of word which is similar to preposition It is considered as an empty word called “hư từ” We may call this category Vietnamese equivalent of English preposition Although some linguists have 15 claimed that prepositions not exist in Vietnamese, according to Tuc (2003) “although the distinction between prepositions and serial verbs in Vietnamese is not always clear-cut, Vietnamese prepositions exist” Therefore, to be convenient, the name Vietnamese preposition is used for equivalent of English preposition in Vietnamese in this thesis Nguyen Kim Than in “Viet Nam văn pham”, defines prepositions as a category of word and that “prepositions, a kind of empty words, are used to connect to link the sub – word with the main word to show the relationship between the two words In Vietnamese language, there are some different points of view of prepositions Some grammarians name prepositions as linking words that comprise prepositions and conjunctions Tran Ngoc Them, (1985); Diep Quang Ban The reasons why prepositions and conjunctions are categorized in the same word class because it is difficult to distinguish prepositions from conjunctions in some circumstances in Viernamese Nguyen Van Thanh 3.3.2 Vietnamese prepositional phrases denoting positions Vietnamese prepositional phrases denoting positions is not complicate as in English Following are Vietnamese prepositional phrases denoting positions Trên (on, above, over) Trong (in, inside) Xung quanh (around) Gần (close to) Đối diện (opposite) Dưới (below, under) (out, outside, bên trái (on the sau (behind) beyond) left of) Bên phải (on the cạnh (next to) qua (by, through right of) xa (far from) across Dọc theo (alongside) Giữa (between, cách (away from) among, in the (in, on, at) middle of) Bạn sống Sài Gịn.(My friend lives in Sai Gon) Cơ Lan ngồi cô Thu cô Hạnh(Miss Lan is sitting between miss Thu and miss Hanh) 3.4 In terms of similarities and differences between prepositional phrases denoting positions in English and Vietnamese equivalents 3.4.1 Similarities Prepositions in Vietnamese and English are both important components of a sentence, but prepositions cannot make up sentences themselves 16 Of syntactic role of prepositional phrase: Prepositions act as a connection between noun, pronoun, phrases and other elements in a sentence In both English and Vietnamese, these prepositions stand right before their objects For example: There are many people in the room( Ở phịng có nhiều người) 3.4.2 Differences In English space preposition state the location of an object without paying attention to the position of the speaker For example: English people often say “the plane is ‘in’ the sky, the child is playing ‘in’ the kitchen, cars run ‘in’ the street” (McCarty, Pérez, TorresGuzman, To, & Watahomigie, 2004, p 150) On the contrary, Vietnamese people tend to concern about the position of speakers They often say: Con chim bay trời (The bird is flying above the speaker) Tuấn Nam chơi phòng khách (Tuan and Nam is playing inside the living room) They are summarized in the table below: Table Prepositions of place in English and Vietnamese Notion English prepositions denoting position TRONG NGOÀI TRÊN DƯỚI TRƯỚC SAU BÊN in, inside out, outside, out of On, upon, above, on top of, over, atop Under, underneath, beneath, Below Before, in front of, ahead of, preceding Behind, following, at the back of By, near, next to, close to, beside, alongside, to right/ left GIỮA Within, among, between, in the middle of, in the midst of Vietnamese preposition denoting position Trong Ngoài Trên Dưới Trước Sau Bên, cạnh, sát, gần, kề, Bên phải, bên trái Giữa (Tran, 2010) 3.5 Summary 17 The purpose of this chapter was to present syntactic and semantic features of prepositional phrases denoting position in English and Vietnamese The chapter also mentions similarities and differences between prepositional phrase denoting positions in English and Vietnamese RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH After using this technique, I have had the following results of the convey from classes : 11,12 of Ham rong high school The academic year 2018-2019, 2019-20020 in years Class 11 12 Before applying experience ( the beginning of the school year ) Excellent Weak Average – good (bad) 30% 45% 25% 37% 40% 23% After applying experience ( the end of the school year ) Excellent – good 35% 40% Average 58% 55% Weak (bad) 7% 5% Table Research results of task Questions and answers Correct Numbers Percentage The price of electricity is 102 51.0 going up in June They came to visit us on my 88 44.0 sister birthday Did you have a good time at 79 39.5 Easter? They live on the fifth floor 146 73.0 I live at 86 Hoan Kiem 123 61.5 Street Research results of task Incorrect Numbers Percentage 98 49.0 112 56.0 121 60.5 54 27.0 77 38.5 Correct Questions and answers Animals which live in the river need fins to swim On the top of the Numbers 166 136 Incorrect Percentage 83.0 68.0 Numbers 34 64 Percentag e 17.0 32.0 18 mountain, climbers are able to see the whole skiing area The leaves on these trees are always green for years 44 22.0 156 78.0 (Source: Survey results) During a long time using these experiences in teaching, I have achieved a lot of worth successes in my life of teaching as the following results: *The school year 2019-2021 Học sinh : Nguyễn Ngọc Linh Xuân – Đạt giải học sinh giỏi cấp tỉnh Học sinh : Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Anh – Đạt giải nhì học sinh giỏi cấp trường *The school year 2016-2019 Học sinh : Lê Minh Anh – Đạt giải học sinh giỏi cấp trường * With the above results , I think my experiences in teaching are very practical, helpful , and important They not only help students study better , but also give students a lot of different chances to practice English Therefore , my experiences make students study English better and better and the English classes are more exciting I hope all of you are sincere to give me your ideas about this topic In this method, I realized most students worked harder, expressed more ideas, became more active and interested in the lessons and especially had more satisfactory results despite the fact that they are the students of HAM RONG HIGH CSHOOL However, I myself have not discovered its limitation yet, I would like to get the comments and advice from the colleagues, especially from the English teachers so that my topic will be more completed and widely used in teaching English for students in high school CONCLUSION In the study, the author gave information about prepositions in English and Vietnamese in general and English prepositional phrases denoting position with reference to Vietnamese equivalents in particular To achieve the objectives of the study, the author have presented theoretical background 19 related to the topic as well as used the survey questionnaire to find out the difficulties when mastering these prepositions of Vietnamese learners The study presents the syntactic and semantic features of English prepositional phrases denoting position with reference to Vietnamese equivalents There are similarities and differences in using these prepositions between two languages Especially, in semantic term, there is a big difference between two languages Choosing a preposition in Vietnamese depends on position of speakers and listeners These cause difficulties for Vietnamese learners of English Moreover, the result of survey shows that most students are not sure about the use of these English prepositional phrase denoting positions and their equivalents in Vietnamese Therefore, there will be some topics related to this problem left for further research: (i) The study of semantic features of English locative prepositions “on”, “over”, “above” with reference to Vietnamese equivalents (ii) Study English prepositional phrase denoting time with reference to Vietnamese equivalents Thank you so much! LEADER’S CONFIRMATIONS (XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦTRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ ) Thanh Hoa,……,2021 I strongly ensure this is my own work without copying from any other’s Writer Trần Thị Linh 20 REFERENCES Agoi, F (2003) Towards Effective Use of English A grammar of modern English Ibandan Joytal Printing press Alexander, L.G, 1988 Longman English grammar Longman Group UK Limited Carnie, A (2008) Constituent Structure Oxford University Press Celce – Murcia, M & Larsen – Freeman (1978) An English grammar for Teachers of English as a Second Language, Newbury House Cobuild, C, 1997 Prepositions Ho Chi Minh City Press Dieu, N T.T, (2010), A study on prepositions of direction and some errors made by Vietnamese learners, Graduation paper, Haiphong Private University, Vietnam Duc, D.V, (2001), Từ pháp học Tiếng học, Vietnam National University Publishing, Hanoi, Vietnam Greenbaum, S (1996) The Oxford English Grammar Oxford University Press Huyen, N T.T, (2009), A study on preposition of time in English, Graduation paper, Haiphong Private University, Vietnam 10 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 21 ... List of some three word prepositions In+ noun+ of in aid of in back of in behalf of in case of in charge of in consequence of in (the) face of in favor of in front of in (the) light of in In+... AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 3.1 Syntactic features of prepositional phrases denoting positions 3.1.1 Prepositional phrases denoting positions a Prepositional phrases denoting positions In: ... Identifying the prepositional phrases denoting positions in English (2) Find out the similarities and differences between prepositional phrases denoting positions in English and Vietnamese equivalents