Luận văn english articles in compaison with vietnamese equivalent expressions

Vinh university graduation thesis Acknowledgements The material in this study was originally developed over more than one year and during this time I received a lot of help and encouragement from my teachers, my friends and my family. I’d like to express my great gratitude to my supervisor, Ms NguyÔn ThÞ Têng who help me much in constructing the outline, collecting data and material and completing the study. I also would like to thank Mr Chris who help me a lot solve problems I have meet. I owe a particular debt to a few of the teachers in the Department of Foreign Languages. I should like to thank some of my friends for giving me materials, encouragement and ideas. Finally, I want to express my thanks to the members in my family for all they have done for me. Vinh, May 2004 TrÇn Thanh Mai TrÇn Thanh Mai – Class 41A 3 1 Vinh university graduation thesis TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS page Part A. INTRODUCTION 1 I. The reasons for choosing the topic 1 II. The aims of choosing the topic 2 III. The methods of the study 2 IV. The main contents of the thesis 3 Part B. CONTENTS 4 Chapter I : The use of English articles 4 I. Characteristics of articles 4 II. Form and common rules 5 III. The use of indefinite articles “a/an” 9 IV. The use of definite article “the” 13 A. The with common rules 13 B The with some special cases 15 C. The with some common expressions 18 D. The with some names of proper nouns 20 Chapter II. The omission of article “the” 24 I. Some common rules 24 II. The omission of article “the” in some special cases 25 TrÇn Thanh Mai – Class 41A 3 2 Vinh university graduation thesis III.The omission of article “the” in some expressions 28 IV.The omission of article “the” in names of proper nouns 30 Chapter III. Both definite article and zero article 33 some special cases ChapterIV. English articles in comparison with Vietnamese 38 equivalent expressions I. Indefinite articles “a/an” in comparison with Vietnamese equivalent 39 expressions II. The omission of article “the” in comparison with Vietnamese equivalent 42 expressions III.The definite article “the” in comparison with Vietnamese 43 equivalent expressions ChapterV. Application 53 Part C: CONCLUSION 62 REFERENCES TrÇn Thanh Mai – Class 41A 3 3 Vinh university graduation thesis Part A: INTRODUCTION I.The reasons for choosing the topic. English is one of many languages, which is full of problems for learners and learners often feel confused to study because English is very complex in some aspects. If learners have not got good knowledge of English, it will be difficult for them to use it well in their occupation and learners will not master in communicating unless they have competences of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, listening or speaking. Particularly, grammar is considered as one of efficient means to help learners succeed in studying and learning English, with grammar, English has many complex problems that learners often meet and feel very embarrassed and difficult to solve. One of those problems is article and how to use articles correctly is not easy for all learners. Most languages of western European origin, have article systems like English so learners should know the following contents which we are going to present and the correct use of the articles “a,an and the“ is one of the most difficult points in English grammar because of its complexity. In order to use them correctly, we should have the good knowledge of them. Eg :- Giang has a fan .The fan which she bought last year is noisy. “A“ is indefinite article and it is talked first so article is indefinite and “the“ is definite article .We can explain why definite article is used here because according to the use of definite article, that fan is repeated and it stands in the relative clause so it is definite article. TrÇn Thanh Mai – Class 41A 3 4 Vinh university graduation thesis It is one of many uses of article. Through these , studying English article is not easy and most of the important problems are dealt with the following sections. In this study, we mention English article on some certain knowledge of it. Hopefully, this thesis will help learners know more how to use English article and the comparison with Vietnamese equivalent expression will help learners understand more deeply the meaning of it in Vietnamese so we decided to choose the topic “English articles in comparison with Vietnamese equivalent expressions“. II. The aims of choosing the topic As people know it cannot be denied that English is the most widely used language in the world. It has been used in all spheres of public activity in the world. Because of its importance we have chosen English to study and learn in order to become teachers of English in the future. And mastering it is not easy people all know that its grammar is very problemic so we like studying and doing research on its grammar . It makes us interested in spending much time on this field. Because English grammar is very wide, we have not enough time to study all so we decided to choose English article which we like to study most. These are the folowing aims of choosing the thesis. Fisrtly, We will be teachers of English in the future , being good teachers need good knowledge of all grammatical aspects and English article is a problem of grammar, and we want to master it, that is our aim. Secondly, many people find difficult and confused in translating English article into Vietnamese, even they can misunderstand the meaning of speech and our desire of this topic is to make learners understand well about the use of English articles and Vietnamese equivalent expressions. TrÇn Thanh Mai – Class 41A 3 5 Vinh university graduation thesis Thirdly , We ourselves get benefit from this thesis, this knowledge is essential and useful for teachers of English in secondary school. III. The methods of studying + Contrastive and comparative method + Statistic method. + Analytic and systematic method. IV. The main contents of the thesis The thesis consists of 3 main parts : Introduction, Contents, Conclusion. Part A . Introduction presents the reasons for choosing the topic and the aims of choosing the topic, the methods of the study, the main contents of the thesis. Part B . Contents present the majority of the thesis. They are consist of five chapters which are the use of English article, the omission of article “the“, the different meaning of definite article and zero article in some special cases and English articles in comparison with vietnamese equivalent expressions. Part C. The conclusion of the thesis TrÇn Thanh Mai – Class 41A 3 6 Vinh university graduation thesis Part B: CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE USE OF ENGLISH ARTICLES I. Characteristics of articles Article is a difficult problem in use in English . The correct use of the articles (a,an and the) is also one of the most important points in English grammar. As we know each of word class has its own historical development and the articles also have their own historical development. Article is divided into two types. They are “a, an and the”. “a, an” are called indefinite article and “the” is called definite article. Like other language, these articles have origin. Indenifite articles are derived from the number “one”, definite article “the” is originated from demonstratives “ this , that, these ,those”. Michael Swam states that the articles “a, an and the” belong to a group of words called determiners and determiners also include possessives like my, their, your, his, her, its and quantifiers like all. The articles normally come at the second position in a complete English noun phrase. Eg:- All the English dictionaries are very good. There is one difference between the articles and other determiners. The articles can not stand alone because they themselve have no independent lexical meaning without a noun they precede. Eg: - The shirt you bought yesterday is nice. -* The you bought yesterday is nice. (“the” here has no meaning) Especially, articles are used to show whether we are referring to things that are known both to the speaker/writer and to the listener/reader “definite”, or that are not know to them both “indefinite”. Articles can also show whether we are talking about things in general or particular things. TrÇn Thanh Mai – Class 41A 3 7 Vinh university graduation thesis Eg: -The man who is overthere is an actor (particular man). - Man can not live without women ( man is general ). Take note that with plural and uncountable nouns we use no article, and not “the” to talk about people or things in general. Eg: - Gold is decreasing in price ( not the here). But we can sometimes use the + singular countable noun to generalize. Eg:- Who made up the book on funny stories? II. Form and common rules 1 . Form We will mention forms of articles. As we tell about them above, English articles are divided into two kinds which are definite articles and indenifite articles . Definite article called “the”, indefinite article is called “a, an”. Let’s see indefinite article. We do not normally pronounce the sound ∂ so before a vowel, the article a ∂ changes to an. Compare : a rabbit a lemon an elephent an orange The choice between a and an depends on pronunciation, not spelling we use “an” before a vowel sound, even if it is written as a consonant . an hour ∂n’aυ∂ an MP  ∂n empi: And we use a before a consonant sound, even if it is written as a vowel. a unit ∂ ju:nit a one-pound coin ∂ wΛn paund k∂in TrÇn Thanh Mai – Class 41A 3 8 Vinh university graduation thesis Before words beginning with “h” if the first syllable is unstressed, “an” can be used. Eg: - an hotel ( but a hotel is more common). - an historic occasion ( a historic occasion is more common ). The first syllable is stressed, for example, a housewife, not an housewife “A” and an “ ” sometimes pronounced  ei, ein before a hesitation, when we want to emphasize the following word or when we want to make a contrast with “the”. What about “the” ?. “The” is pronounced  δi: before a vowel and  δ∂ before a consonant. Eg: - the ice  δi: ais - the snow δ∂ sn∂u The choice between  δi: and  δ∂ depends on pronunciation, not spelling, We pronounce  δi: before a vowel sound, even if it is written as a vowel. Eg: - the university  δ∂ ju:niv3 : s∂ti - the one - pound coin  δ∂ wΛn paund kϑin We sometimes pronounce the stressed  δi: before a hesitation or when we want to stress the following word, even if it begins with a consonant. 2. Common rules It is essential to make a distinction between specific and generic reference. The distinctions that are important for count nouns with specific reference disappearing with generic reference. This is so because generic reference is used to denote what is normal or typical for members of a class. Consequently, the distinctions of number and definiteness are neutralized. TrÇn Thanh Mai – Class 41A 3 9 Vinh university graduation thesis We can thus set up two different systems of article use depending on the type of reference. Definite Indefinite The dog The wine A dog wine The dogs (some)dogs Generic The dog winereference A dog dogs With definite specific reference, the definite article is used for all noun classes. Where is the mirror Where is the mirrors I bought yesterday? Where is the milk With indefinite specific reference, singular count nouns take the indefinite article a(n). While non-count and plural count nouns take zero article or unstressed some ( any in non- assertive). Eg:- He need a shirt /some shirts/ some butter. - He doesn’t need a shirt / any shirts/ any butter. For count noun : all kinds of article can be used with count-noun. + “ The” is used when the noun is definite. Eg: -The bicycle which I bought yesterday is broken. + “A, an” is used when the noun is not definite. Eg: - He has got a bicycle. + “Zero article” is used to talk something in general. Eg: - Bicycles are made of steel. For uncountable nouns : uncountable nouns are the names of materials, liquids and other things which we do not usually see as separate objects. TrÇn Thanh Mai – Class 41A 3 10 Specific reference