The uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese Acknowledgement I could not have completed my graduation thesis without the enthusiastic help and encouragement of my teachers, my family as well as my friends. I would like to express my great gratitude to my supervisor: M.A NguyÔn Xu©n B×nh whose useful ideas and advice, enlightening guidance and encouragement have helped me shape and complete my thesis. I would also like to express my deep thank to my teacher: M.A Lª §×nh Th¶o who helped me to correct some mistakes and encouraged me to complete my thesis. I would also like to be grateful to all teachers in the Foreign Languages Department who gave me some useful opinions and materials for my thesis. I would also like to thank my teacher: Dr NguyÔn Nh· B¶n for his enthusiastic help during I studied my thesis. Finally, my sincere thanks are due to all of you who will give me some comments after reading the thesis - my first scientific work. Vinh, May 2003. T«n Anh §µo Table of contents T«n Anh §µo - 40A2 FLD - Vinh University = 1 = The uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese acknowledgement table of contents Part I: Introduction I. Reasons of the study II. History of the study III. Aims of the study IV. Methods of the study V. Design of the study Part II: Contents Chapter I: Theoretical preliminaries I. Language and contrastive analysis of language I.1. Language and linguistics I.2. The relationship between language and culture I.3. Contrastive analysis II. Preposition II.1. The conception of the British-American linguists II.2. The conception of the Vietnamese linguists II.3. Classification of prepositions II.4. General introduction about prepositions of direction Chapter II: The uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese I. Language and the spatial cognition T«n Anh §µo - 40A2 FLD - Vinh University = 2 = The uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese I.1. The basic conception of space I.2. The principles and features of spatial cognition II. The uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese II.1. The types of meaning II.2. The use meanings of prepositions INTO, ONTO II.2.1. The basic preposition of direction TO II.2.2. The uses of preposition INTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese II.2.3. The uses of preposition ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese II.2.4. Conclusion III. The relationship between verbs and prepositions INTO, ONTO Table: Verbs go with INTO, ONTO Chapter III: Application in teaching prepositions of direction I. Common errors and difficulties of learners II. Reasons of the difficulties of using prepositions of direction III. Solutions IV. Some types of exercises Part III: Conclusion References Theoretical references References for finding examples. Part I: T«n Anh §µo - 40A2 FLD - Vinh University = 3 = The uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese Introduction I. Reasons of the study At the threshold of the 21 st century, we can witness many great achievements of the mankind such as the appearance and the development of computer, biological technology and the application of nuclear energy and so on. These achievements at one side help a lot in the improvement of the economic, political, social and cultural fields of all countries in the world, but at the other side, they can damage the peaceful life of the human being. Therefore, all peoples should cooperate with each other, of course, they need a common language. Up to now, English has become one of the most important international languages. About 350 millions people of different communities all over the world use English as their first language and about the same number of people use it as the second one. In Vietnam, English hasn't been used as the first or the second language but it is used widely in many fields of life such as in politics, researching scientific matters, economics, art, … and especially in the system of national education. People of all social positions want to learn English so that they can get the cultural, political, economic…values of the mankind, even normal people also want to learn English to read necessary information on a normal product in the everyday life. However, learning foreign languages, especially English, is not simple because this goes together with learning other cultures. So, learners have to face many problems and the common one is how to learn English the quickest, how to use it the most effectively in many kinds of communication. My friends and I had to spend a lot of time on learning the meanings and the uses of this part of speech with the instruction of our teachers, but we still made many errors when doing exercises or speaking English in particular situations. Is it right that the difficulty of acquiring English prepositions for Vietnamese learners is not in their structures, positions or functions in sentences but it is due to the differences about the cognition or the thinking process, which are reflected and coded in languages? T«n Anh §µo - 40A2 FLD - Vinh University = 4 = The uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese There may be many other reasons leading to the difficulties in learning English prepositions. In the scope of this graduation thesis, I only want to study 2 prepositions of direction: INTO, ONTO to find out explicit explanations about the similarities and the differences between English and Vietnamese spatial cognition. II. History of the study It is said that the study of prepositions, as a part of grammar, was done a long time ago when linguistics appeared. However, the study of prepositions of direction appeared only within 2 last decades. The works of Herskovits, Jackendoff, Lakoff, Langacker are typical for the study with the tendency of pragmatics. Cardiere, M.B Emeneau studied prepositions according to their grammatical functions. In Vietnam, there are also many linguists who studied prepositions of direction according to the outside structure view such as: Nguyen Lai with his doctorate thesis 'The group of directional words in Vietnamese' (Nhóm từ chỉ hớng vận động trong tiếng Việt) and many treatises on that subject; Ly Toan Thang with the study about the spatial cognition and the doctorate thesis 'The spatial model of the world: the national cognition, culture and psychology' (Mô hình không gian của thế giới: Sự tri nhận , văn hoá và tâm lý học tộc ngời); and Tran Quang Hai with the doctorate thesis ' The study of locational prepositions according to pragmatics' (Nghiên cứu giới từ định vị theo hớng ngữ dụng). These works have a great contribution to the new trend of the study. Some of them are studied traditionally according to the pragmatic tendency, some are done according to grammatical and syntactical functions or both. My graduation thesis is a very small work, which deals with only 2 prepositions of direction: INTO, ONTO according to their semantic meanings, basing on the contrastive analysis between English and Vietnamese. Therefore, I have good chance in studying deeply the uses of 2 prepositions in 2 languages and I hope that this is a practical thesis, basing on the theory of the predecessors but it can be applied in the fact of teaching, learning and translating Vietnamese and English. III/ Aims of the study Tôn Anh Đào - 40A2 FLD - Vinh University = 5 = The uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese The final aim of this thesis is to list and analyse the uses of prepositions of direction and help pupils understand and use them suitably in each particular situation. However, to get this goal, we should find out the reasons, which cause difficulties for learners and then find out the solutions to the pedagogical problems and some problems of translating. That means we need answer why we use this preposition in that sentence. In general, the main reason is the similarities and the differences about the spatial cognition of English and Vietnamese people. This leads to the same or different uses of prepositions when they refer to the same things. Finally, when we can give out the explicit explanations, some suitable ways of translating, teaching and learning prepositions of direction will be applied. IV. Methods of the study In this thesis, we use some methods as following: - Collecting references - Statisting, analyzing examples - Contrastive analysis - Surveys in secondary schools V. Design of the study Except the acknowledgements, the table of contents and the references, this thesis consists of three main parts: The first part is the introduction in which we present the reason of the study, the history of the study, the aims of the study, the methods of the study and the design of the study. The second part is the content of the thesis, which consists of three chapters. Chapter one deals with the theoretical preliminaries in which we present the theory about language, the contrastive analysis and the general introduction about preposition and prepositions of direction. Chapter two deals with the uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese. Chapter T«n Anh §µo - 40A2 FLD - Vinh University = 6 = The uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese three deals with the application of the study in teaching, learning and translating prepositions of direction. The third part is the conclusion of the thesis. Part II: T«n Anh §µo - 40A2 FLD - Vinh University = 7 = The uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese Contents Chapter I: Theoretical preliminaries I. language and contrastive analysis of language I.1. Language and linguistics Being a category of language, preposition has the specific characteristics of a social science, which is very difficult to study in the normal ways. So, the knowledge about language and linguistics can help us to identify the orientation of the study. Language is a product of a society or a community. It is a means of communication so society can not exist without language and vice versa. F. de Saussure said that language was like a dictionary whose reproductions were distributed to everybody but there was still a common one beyond his consciousness. Language not only belongs to individual person but also the whole society. Language is formed from this century to the other, is accumulated and received for thousands of years, that is the conditions of the development of the society. Language completely depends on the social or natural conditions such as the characteristics of geography, climate, standard of living, some aspects of the culture… Language is a system of special signals with two main functions: Communication and Reflection. They are two functions, which make the characteristics of language. V.I.Lenin affirmed: "Language is the most important means of communication." The appearance of language is to meet the human needs of communicating with each other. So, language is the way of accumulating and transferring information and expressing emotions and attitude of speakers. Although the verbal language can be limited by time, space, besides verbal language; there are many other means of communication such as body language, facial expression, signals, or even music, paintings, sculptures…; the first position belongs to language, and the other means can only modify language but can not replace it. T«n Anh §µo - 40A2 FLD - Vinh University = 8 = The uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese Being a means of transferring and consolidating ideas for future generations, language is an aspect of national culture relating directly to cognition and thoughts of the native people. Indeed, here is the reflection of the cognition about the objective world, which is expressed by language. Language is a means of reflecting and transferring ideas. So, language and thought have a close relationship. This relationship can lead to another, which is the relation of language - culture - thought. There are many linguists dealing with this relationship because this is an important matter of linguistics, basing on this, we can give explicit explanations about language. It is said that thought is common for all nations but when thought is reflected by language, it is specific according to each language. The objective world is eternal and infinite but it is reflected differently by different peoples. This characteristic will explain the differences and the similarities about culture and language of different countries in the world. This is also a very complex matter, so linguistics appeared with a system of theories to help us explain explicitly the rules, functions, structures…or social essence and history of development …of language. I.2. The relationship between language and culture If culture is considered to be all material and spiritual values that people create in the process of dealing with the nature, the society or even themselves, the national characteristics are expressed in the culture. And if culture is considered to be systems of the human signs, language is the most typical, complete and necessary one to form a society. Language is a means of reflection and communication, so each people, with their own language, perceive the objective world according to their own thinking. Therefore, we can recognize the specific characteristics about the world outlook and the outlook on life of each nation through their language. The system of signals has been created, transferred and reserved from one generation to the other, moreover, they are absorbed into the subconsciousness of each people, unchangeable and difficult to be replaced by another one. F.Saussure said: " To some extent, it is language to form a nation." That means language closely connects with national history and language also reflects periods of development of a nation together with their culture. T«n Anh §µo - 40A2 FLD - Vinh University = 9 = The uses of prepositions INTO, ONTO in English and the equivalences in Vietnamese Each nation has its own culture. Cultures of nations are quite different because their social and natural conditions are not the same. Cultures are affected mainly by those conditions. We are living in a society with many different relationships, we can witness many differences of cultures which are expressed by languages. For example, while English people use "Hi!" or "Hello!"as their greetings, Vietnamese people use some personal questions such as "Where are you going to?"(Anh đi đâu đó?) or " Have you had lunch?"(Bác đã ăn cơm tra cha?) with the same purpose. The reason may be the habit of concerning themselves with others' life of Vietnamese people. That is an aspect of the community culture of the water-rice civilization. However, different nations with their own languages have different views about the world. This relates to the relationship of culture, language and thought. For example, in Vietnam and other oriental countries, dragon is the symbol of power and sacredness but in the western countries, it is the symbol of crime and violence. So, the thought of a nation sometimes is not equivalent with the others and vice versa. In short, the relationship between language and culture is so close that we can not understand and evaluate rightly this one without the deep knowledge of that one. In the process of development, they always leans against each other, language can be the premise of studying culture and culture can be the premise of studying language. Understanding this relationship, we can find out easily the differences and similarities of languages and give out explicit and persuasive explanations basing on the similarities and differences of cultures and thoughts of native speakers. I.3. Contrastive analysis (CA) Language is a social phenomenon, it has a close relationship with culture. Moreover, language itself is a complex system. Therefore, studying language requires the knowledge of linguistics. Linguistics consists of three main branches: descriptive linguistics, comparative linguistics and theoretical linguistics. Contrastive analysis is a sub-branch of comparative linguistics. M.Bakhtin said that "Nowadays, languages can enlighten one another because each language can only recognize itself in the light of the others". Only by comparing two or more languages, we can understand more deeply each language. So, the object of contrastive analysis can be two or more languages regardless of whether they are Tôn Anh Đào - 40A2 FLD - Vinh University = 10 =