AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH NEGATIVE FORM IN CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS WITH VIETNAMESE

Quang Binh University Foreign Languags Faculity  AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH NEGATIVE FORM IN CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS WITH VIETNAMESE Supervisor: Le Thi Hang PhD Research Group Members: Dinh Thi Thuy Nga Tran Thi Thuy Cao Thi My Hanh Dong Hoi, May 29th 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to our supervisor - Le Thi Hang, Ph.D Thanks to her guidance, caring, patience, we are provided wide knowledge and experience for doing this research Therefore, we can carry out our research favorably We would like to send our sincere gratefulness to Quang Binh University for financial support for our research Then, our thanks would also go to all teachers at the faculty for their valuable lectures and useful experiences during the time we have been studying here Finally, there is no word deserved to express the gratitude to our friends who are always by our side and give us more inspirations to finish the research with a sense of satisfaction TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABTRACT CHAPTER1 INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Aims of the study Research questions Method of the study Scope of the study 6 The organization of the research CHAPTER2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Prior studies related to the research 2.2 Theoretical background 2.2.1 Definition of negation 2.2.2 Definition of negative form CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 12 I/ NEGATIVE FORMS IN ENGLISH 12 The forms of negative sentence 12 1.1 Syntactic features 12 1.1.1 Sentential negation 12 1.1.2 Constituent / Local Negation 17 1.2 Semantic features 18 1.2.1 The differences of semantic between NO and NOT in English 18 1.2.2 Two negatives (Double negative) 20 1.2.3 Additions enhance the negative meanings 21 1.2.4 Negative range 21 1.2.5 Negative focus 23 1.3 Semantic - syntactic features 24 1.3.1 Sentences posses negative verbs / negative predicates 24 1.3.2 Subject negation 25 1.3.3 Sentences have negative sentence elements 25 1.3.4 Main verb negation 26 1.3.5 Special negative 26 II/ NEGATIVE FORMS IN VIETNAMESE 27 Sentential negation 27 Constituent / Local Negation 27 2.1 Subject negation 27 2.2 Predicate negation 28 2.3 Sentences contain negative the core sentence 28 2.4 Sentences with sub-components of the word or the sub-components of the sentence are negated 29 2.5 Negative phenomena in special sentences 30 2.5.1 Particular negative noun sentences 30 2.5.2 Particular negative adjective sentence 30 III/ COMPARING THE SYNTACTICS - SEMANTICS OF NEGATION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 31 Similarities 31 1.1 Negative verb/ predicate sentences 31 1.2 Negative subject 32 1.3 Negative sentence elements 33 1.4 Negative main verb 34 1.5 Special negative sentence 34 Differences 35 2.1 Position of negative words 35 2.2 The word order of the object complement 36 2.3 Particular negative noun sentence 36 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 38 Summary 38 Limitation 38 Suggestions about how to learn English negation to Vietnamese students effectively 38 REFERENCES 39 ABTRACT The great concern has, therefore, been paid to the teaching of English to Vietnamese so that they can communicate with native speakers effectively It lies in the fact that English and Vietnamese belong to two different cultures, which consequently leads to a lot of problems for Vietnamese students, particularly when they use English negation in communication In teaching, teachers should have a good command of the syntactic and semantic features of negation in English and Vietnamese as well as the prominent characteristics of the two cultures On that basis, students can find out the similarities and differences of the two languages which will facilitate them good knowledge and proper usage of English CHAPTER1 INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Negative sentences are often used in language Linguists have given some criteria for distinguishing negative sentences from other types of sentences In general, there are four criteria as follows: standard form of sentence; the meaning of the sentence; Form - meaning of sentence structure and use of sentence form Negative sentences represent human thinking; it is also a form of logical judgment in the observation of things, phenomena in the life of a human being A negation is a negative judgment as opposed to a semantic assertion, regardless of the language in which it is expressed In addition to this feature, to determine a negative structure, we must base on the criterion if the sentence has negative negative words, and on what content it denotes in the sentence In general, the negative structure belongs to the grammatical category and each language has a different grammatical system In English and Vietnamese, the negative sentence structure also uses separate negative words to denote However, the using of negative sentences is a important thing Negative sentence structure is quite complex Language learners often translate sentences from one language into another, impromptu, without any rules Therefore, we often make mistakes in using negative sentences English and Vietnamese have different grammatical differences in the sentence So, the negative structure of these two languages, apart from the similarities, have different points What are the negative forms in English and Vietnamese? What are similarities and differences between negative forms in English and Vietnamese? When the Vietnamese learn English, the negatives of the sentence need to pay attention to what? is the subject of our study, Aims of the study This research aims to make a brief preview of theory of syntax and semantics and give an overview of syntactic and semantic features of negation in English This in turn helps learners to better understand negative English forms in comparison with Vietnamese equivalents, to use them in a flexible way and to make learning English interesting and easier Research questions (1) What are negative forms in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese? (2) What are the similarities in syntactic and semantic features of English negative forms and their Vietnamese equivalents? (3) What are differences in their syntactic and semantic features of English negative forms between negative forms in English and its equivalents in Vietnamese? Method of the study Firstly, Information and data used in my paper research are collected from different books, magazines, articles written in English as well as in Vietnamese Internets are also one of the most important and useful sources of information that we had used Secondly, basing on what have discussed, we systematized the semantic and syntactic features of negation Thirdly, in order to have a clear distinguishing between English and Vietnamese negative sentences, I had used comparison and contrast pattern method A description of Vietnamese negative sentences and English ones was given, and then they are compared with each other to find out the similarities and differences Scope of the study Negation is a large category of English grammar, so it is difficult to cover all of its aspects Therefore, in the frame of the study, this research only deals with the aspects of syntax and semantics of negation in English The organization of the research The research paper consists of four chapters as follows: Chapter 1: Introduction In this chapter, the researchers present the rationale, aims of the study, the research question, the scope of the study and the organization of the researches Chapter 2: Literature review and theoretical background This chapter states a theoretical background with two main parts The first part contains the prior studies related to the current research The second is about the theoretical background It also includes the definition of negation Chapter 3: Findings and discussions This chapter presents the findings and discussions for the study The findings are classified the forms negation in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese base on the syntactic and semantic features We also found some similarities and differences between negative forms in English and Vietnamese Chapter 4: Conclusions and recommendations This chapter summarizes the main points and provides some suggestions about how to learn English negative forms to Vietnamese students effectively CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This chapter states a theoretical background with two main parts The first part contains the prior studies related to the current research The second is about the theoretical background It also includes the definition of negation 2.1 Prior studies related to the research Jesperson(1917) in “Negation in English and Other Languages” lays the broad foundation for studies of negation later He provides general tendencies of negation, strengthened and weaken negatives, indirect and incomplete negation, special and textual negation, the meaning of negation Tottie (1991) proposes a classification of the use of negatives in both oral and written language in " Negation in English Speech and Writing" Pagano (1990) concerns about the pragmatic perspective of "Negatives in Written Text" Horn, Laurence R and Yashuhico Kato(2000) in “Negation and Polarity- Syntactic and Semantic Perpectives” involve in the syntactic feature and scope of negation Mazzon in “ A history of English Negation” presents an extensive study of negation that combines both synchronic and diachronic complementary analyses Vietnamese grammarians and linguists have investigated into negation from difference perspectives but mainly focus on traditional, structural or logical perspectives such as Diệp Quang Ban (2004,2006), Đỗ Thị Kim Liên (1999), Mai Ngọc Chu, Vũ Đức Nghiêu, Hoàng Trọng Phiến (1980), Nguyễn Đức Dân (1996) In addition, negative sentences in English and Vietnamese have also been investigated on a contrastive analysis by Nguyen Quang in his master thesis Especially, Tran Van Phuoc in his doctor thesis “Phân tích đối chiếu câu phủ định tiếng Anh tiếng Việt bình diện cấu trúc ngữ nghĩa” systemized the syntactic-semantic features both in English and Vietnamese declarative sentences as well as analyzed the differences and similarities of syntactic-semantic features in the two languages Especially, the research of PhD Nguyen Dang Suu “Nghiên cứu phủ định tiếng Anh tiếng Việt, vài gợi ý cách dạy phủ định cho sinh viên Việt Nam có hiệu quả” (2017) has made many important contributions This research gives us an overview of negative forms in English and Vietnamese His research is quite complete and excellent However, in the course of learning English we find that there are some negative structures that his research did not mention.We, therefore, have based on the research of PhD Nguyen Dang Suu as the basis for this research In addition, we have added some negative forms that have not been mentioned in his research 2.2 Theoretical background 2.2.1 Definition of negation The expression of negation is important and frequent in people’s everyday communication, as Asher and Simpson (1994: 2769) point out: “ negation is a linguistic universal: for cognitive and pragmatic reasons every language must have the possibility of asserting that the state of affairs expressed by a sentence is not true” Negation is defined as “a person’s disagreement with someone or refusal of something; complete opposite or complete absence of a quality or ideal” in the CCELD Quirk defined negation as “ Negation makes a positive statement negative” (Quirk et al, 1985: 80) And according to Bloom, the meaning of negation can be clarified as in the following ( Bloom, 1970: 266-271) 2.2.2 Definition of negative form When people were born, they have had behaviors, gestures expressing disagreement about something like shaking their heads or waving their hands As children begin to learn to speak, one of the first words they say is negative, like 'no' We think that negation seems to be very simple, in fact it’s very complex and if it isn’t properly considered, the learner will encounter many difficulties and obstacles Each language has a private negative form, according to grammar rules of that language The main function of negation is to pass clauses / assertions into negative It can be expressed at the clause / sentence level by adding a clause/sentence a certain components In many languages, negation in accordance with its grammar is expressed by an image in which the position of the negative image lies in the predicate or in the verb phrase It can have one of the following forms: a- A negative auxiliary verb is added to the predicate element and assumes some features of the main verb of the clause/assertive sentence, such as ni - in Nenets b- One or two negatives have a predetermined position relative to predicate elements, such as ne pas in French She will not change her mind - In English, some words are negated in both form and semantics, Such as no, never, none These words are used as negative function in the whole sentence Example: Our journey has never been one of short cuts or settling for less Jack was never late I have no money I never see he before 1.3.2 Subject negation In English, the subject which is negated by “no, not, or nothing, no one ” is the subject in a sentence NO/ NOT + S + V + Complement S (NOTHING /NO ONE) + V + Complement Example: Not a drop in twenty yeas [9: 12] No man should have a secret from his own life (10.98) No inn would take him in (9.29) Nothing ages like happiness (10.50) Nothing to write home about.( idiom) No one can believe him 1.3.3 Sentences have negative sentence elements In English, the noun as an object in the sentence may be a negation Subject + (Auxiliary) Verb + NOT+ N Example: It’s no secret that we are interested A potato is not a fruit [14,17/11/2017] - Adverbs in sentences may also be negative Subject+ (Auxiliary) Verb + NOT+ Adverb NOT + adverb + Subject + (Auxiliary) verb / Copula + Complement 25 Example: She speaks not clearly Not surprisingly, Lori alternated between tears and indifference Not surprisingly, poverty is a problem worth of concern in every country.[8,78-79] - If the position of the negative adverbs is changed, the meaning of the sentence will change 1.3.4 Main verb negation Subject + Auxiliary+ NOT +Verb + Complement - In some English sentences including auxiliary verbs, after these auxiliary verbs and the conjugated words, there is an interval and emphasis on the negative words, the negative range extending from the negative to the end of the sentence Example: You may not it now and it later He does not go to school [7,67-68] 1.3.5 Special negative In English, there are special sentences, more correctly, there are sentences in specific communication situations that have only negative nouns or predicates The first is the negative words, the verbs and after the verbs are the complements DON’T/ NEVER / NOT+ Verb + Complement Example: Do not open until instructed Do not turn off your computer without shutting down properly Never go anywhere now [3,213-215] In this sentence the suffix “to be” is in its original form, placing the “don’t” in front of “be” Example: Don’t be so solemn about it [3,145] Don’t be so shy [2,241] 26 II/ NEGATIVE FORMS IN VIETNAMESE Sentential negation Sentential negation is a negative sentence that contains a negative adjunct in front of a predicate or in front of the key of a sentence Constituent / Local Negation Local negative sentence is a negative sentence in which the predicate is not negated, but the other parts of the sentence have the negative words In this study, we based on this view combine with the view of classify negative phenomena in Vietnamese by Prof Diep Quang Ban to analyze and compare with English According to Diep Quang Ban, in Vietnamese there are specialized means to form negative sentences such as auxiliary words ‘không’, ‘chưa’, ‘chẳng’ To create nuances that emphasize negative meanings, the word ‘hề can be added to the suffixes such as: ‘không hề’, ‘chẳng hề’, ‘chưa hề’ If you want to create negative rejection, you can use combinations of words such as: ‘không phải’, ‘chẳng phải’, ‘chưa phải’, or use the direct forms contain negative word such as “(khơng) có đâu”, “nào có đâu”, “đâu có ”, “làm có ”, “có phải đâu”, “đâu (có) phải” etc [1.242] Negative phenomena in Vietnamese are classified into five categories: - Subject negation - Predicate negation - Sentences contain negative the core sentence - Sentences with sub-components of the word or the sub-components of the sentence are negated - Negative phenomena in special sentences 2.1 Subject negation There are two types of negative subject: a Không phải + Subject + Predicate Example: - Không phải vòng đeo tay, mà vòng trang sức [13 ,82-83] - Chẳng phải người đứng đằng tìm bác, mà người lúc [1,244] 27 The appearance of ‘phải’ in the negative combinations, may be even the forms “có phải đâu”, “đâu(có) phải” in front of the noun Their appearance in front of the noun also makes the negation more meaningful that denotes rejected behavior The word 'có' is usually added after the negative words such as ‘khơng có’, ‘chẳng có’ a Khơng/chẳng có + Subject (noun phrase) + Predicate Example: - Chẳng có người làm [ 1,244] - Khơng có ngồi đâu [13, 93] - Nothing produces such an effect as a good platitude [13,66] - Khơng có có hiệu lực lời nói tốt chung chung.[13, 67] - Khơng có qúy độc lập tự [Hồ Chí Minh] 2.2 Predicate negation Subject + không/chả/đừng + Predicate This type of sentence has a negative element that precedes the predicate element as the postposition of the word as the main element in that predicate, or the specialized forms effect meaning on the main part of the predicate Example: - Don’t let us ever talk about the subject again [13, 94] Thôi,chúng ta khơng nói lại chuyện [13,95] - Anh không tin (Nam Cao) - Em chả dám (Nam Cao) - Oh! Don’t kill my love for you, don’t kill that [13,92] - Anh đừng giết mối tình em Anh, đừng tàn nhẫn thế! - Tơi có biết chuyện đâu [1, 243] [13,93 ] [1, 243] 2.3 Sentences contain negative the core sentence With this type of sentence, some negative means take the postposition role of the sentence and negate the core sentence or predicate of the sentence Negative word combinations often contain the word 'phải', and with the word 'phải' this combination has the negative meaning of negative rebuttal Chẳng phải/không phải + Subject + Predicate Example: - Không phải mẹ bảo đến [1, 245] 28 - Chẳng phải sách tơi.[1,245] - Khơng có đủ tiền [13, 75] - In old days nobody pretended to be a bit better than hís neighbours Ngày xưa, khơng muốn vỗ ngực cho người bên cạnh.[13,70-71] Negative postposition may also be the form of discontinuous negatives Example: - A: Có việc khơng? B: Chẳng có việc đâu [1, 245] 2.4 Sentences with sub-components of the word or the sub-components of the sentence are negated The sub-component of words is the complement of the predicate, adjectives modify noun, and the sub-elements of the sentence can also be negated by negative means Subject + Predicate: Verb + chẳng/ không / chưa/ … Subject + không / chẳng / chư /cịn lâu… + Predicate khơng / chẳng bao giờ/ lâu… + Subject + Predicate Example: - I don’t see anybody here tonight whom one could possibly call a serious purpose - Tơi nhìn xung quanh CHẲNG thấy đáng gọi có mục đích nghiêm chỉnh [13,24- 25] - Tôi nghe không rõ - Quyển sách KHƠNG bìa mà q [1.245] - Sẽ KHÔNG BAO GIỜ chị trở miền Bắc, trở lại quê hương.[Hữu Mai-1, 246] In Vietnamese, the Vietnamese tend not to use negative nouns as adjectives of predicate People often repeat the predicate to express the contrast in the complement Example: - Tôi lấy sách không lấy sách - Tôi không lấy mà lấy [ 1,246] 29 In Vietnamese, 'chứ' is used when the predicate in the previous side is assertive The word 'mà' can be used instead of 'chứ' If both predicates are negative, after the word 'mà' can also use the word 'cũng' and can include the word 'cả', 'nữa' Example: - Tôi không lấy mà không lấy [ 1, 246] - Tôi chẳng lạc quan mà chẳng bi quan [13,37] Sometimes we also see how to negative noun modifiers of predicate, from negative in this case, often with the word 'phải' and become contrasting parts Example: - I hope not -Tôi mong -Tôi mong việc nhỏ, bà Sêvêly [13,33] [13,41] -Tôi đem theo tất quần áo sẵn có, mà vẻn vẹn vài ba [1,246] 2.5 Negative phenomena in special sentences There are two main types of special sentence in Vietnamese: a- Particular noun sentences b- Particular adjective sentences 2.5.1 Particular negative noun sentences The particular negative noun sentence is the sentence that the main noun is negated Example: - Không phải anh - Trên trời khơng [ 1, 247] - Khơng bia rượu say hồi Gía mà khuy bấm không cài áo em… [1,56] 2.5.2 Particular negative adjective sentence Particular negative adjective sentence is the sentence that the main component of predicate is negated Example: - Không có giường, , có chõng tre - Làm có mật mà [ 1, 247] 30 - Giá mà gửi trầu cau, Thì đâu ơm sầu lẻ loi - Hiện khơng có nguy [13, 45] - Certainly not comic, Lord Goring - Tất nhiên hài hước,Nam tước Goorrinh [13, 54-55] III/ COMPARING THE SYNTACTICS - SEMANTICS OF NEGATION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE For the purposes of this study, we present the main differences and similarities between the negation in English and Vietnamese Similarities Both two languages have sentential negation and constituent/ local negation With this phenomenon, in English as well as Vietnamese, negative words ‘not’, ‘không’, ‘không phải’ be used to negate the verb 1.1 Negative verb/ predicate sentences English: Subject + Auxiliary / Surrogate Auxiliary+ NOT + verb + Complement Subject + Copula (be) + NOT+ Complement Vietnamese: Subject + không/chả/đừng…+ Predicate In English, the negative word ‘not’ is placed after the auxiliary verbs, before the verb, and after the verb be conjugated in the sentences Meanwhile, the negative words in Vietnamese không/chẳng/chưa + phải precede the verb with negative function of the adjacent verb next to it Example: - I did not know she had married a second time Tôi bầ đẫ kết hôn lần thứ hai [13,.28-29] - I can not remember where Tôi chẳng nhớ đâu [13, 30-31] - It is not true Điều khơng thật [13, 68-69] - I not care about the London season! Tôi không quan tâm đến mùa hè Luân Đôn 31 [13, 40-41] In English, there are negative words both forms and semantics: ‘no’, ‘never’, ‘none’, its equivalent ‘không hề’, ‘không bao giờ’, ‘không ai’ These words are used to negate the whole sentence Example: - You have never talked to me the whole evening! Suốt buổi tối, ơng chẳng nói chuyện với [13, 56-57] - I had no idea you ever came to political parties Tôi không tưởng tượng ơng lại tới hội trị.[1,50-51] - It is never of any use to oneself - Nó khơng giúp ích cho thân [13, 82-83] 1.2 Negative subject English: NO/ NOT + S + V + Complement S (NOTHING /NO ONE) + V + Complement Vietnamese: Không phải + Subject +Verb + Object Không / chẳng + Subject + Verb + Object In English, the subject is negated by words ‘no’, ‘not’ or the words ‘nothing’, ‘no one’ directly as the subject in the sentence In Vietnamese, some negative means take postposition role of the sentence and negate the whole sentence Example: - In modern life, nothing produces such an effect as a good platitude Trong sống đại, khơng có hiệu lực lời nói tốt chung chung.[13,66-67] - Nothing is more precious than freedom and independence Không có q độc lập tự [Hồ Chí Minh] - Not a year passes in England without somebody disappearing Ở nước Anh này, không năm trôi qua lại khơng có người biến [13,72-73] - But nothing could make her alter her view Nhưng làm vợ tơi thay đổi ý kiến đâu [13, 100-101] - No one in our day has had such a brilliant success Không thời buổi mà lại thành công rực rỡ ông 105] 32 [13,104- - In old days nobody pretended to be a bit better than hís neighbours Ngày xưa, khơng muốn vỗ ngực cho người bên cạnh [13,75] 1.3 Negative sentence elements In English and Vietnamese, the noun as an object in the sentence may be negated English: Subject +(Auxiliary) Verb + NOT+ N Vietnamese: Subject + Verb + KHƠNG/CHẲNG (phải,có )+ Noun Example: - I want to talk to you about well, not about bonnets, or the Woman’s Liberal association Tơi muốn nói chuyện với ơng…khơng phải mũ, mà Hội phụ nữ tự [13,124-125] -I see no difference between them Em thấy cơng tư khơng có khác cả.[13,88-89] In both two languages, the adverb as an adverb in the sentence (in the beginning or the end of the sentence) can also be negated English: Subject+ (Auxiliary) Verb + NOT+ Adverb NOT + adverb + Subject + (Auxiliary) verb / Copula + Complement Vietnamese: Subject + Verb + KHÔNG/CHẲNG/ CHƯA + Adverb KHÔNG/CHẲNG/ CHƯA + Adverb+ Subject + Verb + Object Example: - He speaks not clearly Anh ta nói khơng rõ ràng [13,145] - Not surprisingly, they missed the train [13,212] Chẳng có ngạc nhiên, họ bị nhỡ tàu Like English, if the position of the negative adjunct changes, the meaning of the sentence will change Example: English: 1- Many people did not come to the party Vietnamese: 2-Nhiều người không đến dự tiệc English: 3- Not many people came to the party Vietnamese: 4- nhiều người đến dự tiệc 33 [13,78] [13,78] Sentence (1) and (2) refer to the absence of many people, while sentence (3) and (4) refer to the presence of the few ones 1.4 Negative main verbs Subject + Auxiliary+ - ’NOT +Verb + Complement English: Vienamese: Subject+cóthể/cần/nên/sẽ…+KHƠNG/CHẲNG/ĐỪNG/CHƯA+verb +Object In verbal sentences in English and modal words in Vietnamese, the auxiliary verb and modal words have a short interval and emphasize the accent in the negative words of two languages, negative range from the negative word to the end of the sentence Example: - Circumstances should ’never alter principles Hồn cảnh ’khơng làm thay đổi nguyên tắc [13,90-91] - You must ’never see her again, Robert Anh nên ’không gặp bà ta, anh Rôbớt [13,94-95] - I will ’not what you ask me I will ’not Tôi ’không làm theo yêu cầu bà Tôi định ’không làm.[13,7475] 1.5 Special negative sentence In English and Vietnamese there are special sentences, more specifically, there are sentences in specific communication situations that have only negative nouns or predicates (as described in Vietnamese section 2.5) The negative predicate special sentences in English and Vietnamese have many similarities: First, negative words, then verb, and verb are object English: DON’T/ NEVER / NOT+ Verb + Complement Vietnamese: KHÔNG/ KHÔNG BAO GIỜ/ĐỪNG/CHẲNG/CHỚ + Verb + Object Example: - Mr Monford, not make these painful scenes of jealousy in public! Ơng Mơn phc ạ, trước mặt cơng chúng đừng giở trị ghen tng vậy.[13, 60-61] - Don’t go I consent 34 Đừng đi, thưa bà Tôi xin đồng ý [ 13, 76-77] - Never mind what I say, Robert! Đừng để ý điều tơi nói, Rơbớt nhé! [13,112-113] - Never go anywwhere now Bây chẳng đâu [13, 26-27] -Don’t come near me Don’t touch me Chớ lại gần em Chớ chạm vào người em [13,160-161] In this sentence, linking verbs 'to be' is in the infinitive form, placing don’t in front of be Example: -Don’t be so solemn about it Đừng làm long trọng quá, thưa ông [13, 80-81] In some specific cases, particular negative adjective sentences need only negative words and adjectives Example: - Certainly not comic, Lord Goring Tất nhiên hài hước, Nam tước Gô rinh [13, 54-55] Differences Although negative phenomena in English and Vietnamese have many similarities as shown above, there are some differences between two languages 2.1 Position of negative words In English, the negative noun is followed by the modal auxiliary and there are two types: the fully written form and the shortened form In contrast, negative words in Vietnamese not have the shortened form They have two position in the sentence: a- In front of modal words such as: KHÔNG/CHẲNG+ thể/nên/phải/ cần / muốn… + Verb + Object b- In certain cases, negative words may be placed after certain modal words such as: có thể/nên/cần/muốn + KHƠNG/CHẲNG/ĐỪNG + Verb + Object Example: English: I can’t remember where Vietnamese: Tôi nhớ đâu nữa.[13, 30-31] [8,91] In Vietnamese, sentences with the negative words in the position after some modal words have a different meaning from the negative ones in the previous position 35 Example: 1- Tôi giúp anh việc [1,156] 2- Tơi khơng giúp anh việc [1,291] Sentence (1) mentions the complete inability to help him The sentence (2) refers to the ability to help him, but not help him this 2.2 The word order of the object complement In English and Vietnamese, the adjectives modifiers for nouns as objects or complement after linking verbs can also be negated There is a difference in word order between English and Vietnamese In English, adjectives precede nouns to modify nouns In contrast, in Vietnamese, the adjective follows the noun to modify for the noun standing in front of it English: Subject +(Auxiliary) Copula + Determiner + NOT+ Adj + NP Vietnamese: Subject + Verb + (determiner+) Noun + KHƠNG/CHẲNG (phải,có )+ Adverb Example: - They made some not unintelligent observation [7,230] Họ tiến hành đợt khảo sát không thông minh - She’s a not unattractive woman, in some ways [11,167] Xét vài khía cạnh, chị ta phụ nữ khơng phải không hấp dẫn 2.3 Particular negative noun sentences The particular negative noun sentences is the sentence that the main noun is negated Example: Trên trời khơng The phrase "một sao" in this example is negated by the word 'không' Unlike Vietnamese, in English, the particular negative noun sentences is usually contain the phrase "there is/are" or the subject is ‘it’, including negative noun phrases Example: a : There is no answer - Không thư trả lời [13, 96-97] b: There is no doubt of that - Khơng nghi ngờ chuyện [13, 100-101] 36 c: There is no danger, at present! - Hiện khơng có nguy [1, 44-45] d: It’s no use - Vơ tác dụng (vơ ích) 37 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter starts with a summary of the findings for the improvements in enhancing learn the form negation in English for Vietnamese students The contribution and limitation of the study are discussed accordingly The chapter end with the suggestion for further studies Summary The study has investigated into the syntactic features, semantic features and syntactic- semantic features of negation in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese About negative forms in English, in syntactically, we have found nine negative structures In semantically, we have found five negative structures In semantic and syntactic features, we have found five negative structures In negative forms in Vietnamese, we have found five negative structures We also found some similarities and differences between negative forms in English and Vietnamese From this study, finding the various structures classified will be useful reference for English learners Furthermore, it helps English learners avoid the mistakes when translating and making sentences Limitation The limitation of this study may emerge from the fact that the study has been carried out in a small scope of syntactic and semantic In addition, the results of the study may be more convincing if we research in big scope such as: conversation, writing text, Suggestions about how to learn English negation to Vietnamese students effectively Learning a foreign language is very difficult because of its complication let alone mastering it Therefore, students should be motivated from the beginning Generally, during the process of learning English, Vietnamese learners may face with some problems and difficulties when dealing with English negative Using negative forms in daily conversations, especially the form of negator to enhance the various in literary styles Last but not least, student need understand and fluently using the negative forms, negative range, negative focus, additions enhance the negative meanings, double negative 38 REFERENCES [1] Ban, D.Q (1996),Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt- part 2, Education Publishing House, House [2] Bright, W (1992),International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Volume 3.OUP, New York [3] Burns, A & Richards, J.C(2012),The Cambridge Guide to Pedagogy and Practice in Second Language Teaching, C.U.P.USA [4] Collins,D& Hollo,C(2010),English Grammar, Macmillan, London [5] Dixon, R.M.W (2005), A Semantic Approach to English Grammar,O.U.P, New York [6] Hinkel, E(1999),Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning, C U P, UK [7] Kral,T (1994),Teacher Development- Making the Right Moves, United States Information Agency, Washington DC [8] Malley, A(2002),Learner-based Teaching, O.U.P, New York [9] Phiến, H.T (1980),Ngữ Pháp Tiếng Việt- Câu, University & Technical Secondary Publishing House, Ha Noi [10] Quirk, R., Greenbaum,S., Leech ,G., & Svartvik, J (1985),A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, Longman.London and New York [11] Richards, J.C., & Rodgers,T.S (2001),Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching,C.U.P, UK [12] Thornbury, S (2001),About Language- Tasks for Teachers of English, C.U.P, UK [13] Oscar Wilde (1998), An ideal husband, World Publishing House [14] VN Express e-journal [15].Vietnam News e-journal 39 ... points What are the negative forms in English and Vietnamese? What are similarities and differences between negative forms in English and Vietnamese? When the Vietnamese learn English, the negatives... of classify negative phenomena in Vietnamese by Prof Diep Quang Ban to analyze and compare with English According to Diep Quang Ban, in Vietnamese there are specialized means to form negative sentences... syntax and semantics and give an overview of syntactic and semantic features of negation in English This in turn helps learners to better understand negative English forms in comparison with Vietnamese