Hyponymy in english texts and some contrasts with that in vietnamese = hiện tượng bao hàm trong các văn bản tiếng anh

Vinh University Department of foreign languages ===*** === Hoàng Thị Hằng Hyponymy in English texts and some contrasts with that in Vietnamese (Hiện t-ợng bao hàm văn tiếng anh vài so sánh đối chiếu tiÕng viÖt) Graduation Thesis Field: Linguistics Vinh, May 2008 i Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express my deep thanks to the heads of the Foreign Languages Department who awarded me the opportunity to this thesis To complete the thesis, I have received great help and encouragement from my teachers, my parents and my friends Without their help, I could not have finished my study With my deep gratitude, I want to express my thanks to my family and my relatives for their encouragement I would also like to thank my classmates and my friends who were very kind to give me useful ideas and documents Especially, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor – Mrs Trần Thị Ngọc Yến (M.A) for her great support and helpful advice on my study, without which the study would not have been completed Vinh, April 2008 Hoàng Thị Hằng ii Abbreviations (*) : Impossible / not use E.g : For example i.e : That is to say |=> : Unilateral entailment / unilaterally entail => : Entailment / entail iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements………………………………………………………….i Abbreviations… ii Table of contents……………………………………………………… iii Part A: Introduction…………………………………………… 1 Rationale of the study…………………………………………………… Aims of the study…………………………………………………………2 Scopes of the study……………………………………………………… Methods of the study…………………………………………………… Design of the study……………………………………………………… Part B: Development……………………………………………….4 Chapter I: Literature Review…………………………………………… 1.1 An overview on Contrastive analysis……………….………………… 1.2 Text Analysis……………………………………………………………5 1.2.1 What is a text? .5 1.2.2 Characteristics of texts……………………………………………… 1.2.3 Theories of text analysis study………………………………… 1.3 Cohesion and Coherence……………………………………………… 1.3.1 Cohesion in texts…………………………………………………… 1.3.2 Coherence in texts…………………………………………… …… 1.3.3 The relationship between Cohesion and Coherence…………………10 1.4 Cohesive devices in English texts………………………………………10 1.4.1.Definition………………………………………………………………10 1.4.2 Types of cohesive devices………………………………………… 10 1.4.2.1 Grammatical devices……………………………………………… 10 1.4.2.2 Lexical devices…………………………………………………… 12 Chapter II: Hyponymy in English texts………………………… … 13 2.1 Definition of hyponymy……………………………………………….13 2.2 Kinds of hyponymy……………………………………………………16 2.2.1 According to semantic criterion…………………………………… 16 2.2.2 According to parts of speech criterion………………………… … 16 2.3 Features of hyponymy…………………………………………………19 2.3.1 Most nouns can appear as hyponyms……………………………… 19 2.3.2 Entailment………………………………………………………… 19 2.3.3 Intensive and Extensive………………………………………… .23 2.3.4 Hyponyms can make substitution………………………………… 24 2.3.5 Hyponymy is a transitive relation………………………… .25 2.3.6 Synonymy – a special case of hyponymy………………………… 25 2.4 Structure of hyponymy………………………………………… 25 2.5 Hyponymy in the relation with other Hierarchies…………………… 27 2.5.1 Hierarchies………………………………………………………… 27 2.5.2 Hyponymy and taxonymy………………………………………… 28 2.5.2.1 Definition of taxonymy……………………………………………28 2.5.2.2 Characteristics of taxonymy……………………………………….29 2.5.3 Hyponymy and Meronymy………………………………………….30 2.5.3.1 Definition of meronymy………………………………………… 30 2.5.3.2 Classification of meronymy ………………………………………32 2.5.3.3.Characteristics of meronymy …………………………………… 32 Chapter III: Contrastive Analysis of Hyponymy in English Texts and those in Vietnamese – some applications in English teaching and learning 3.1 General Introduction………………………………………………… 33 3.1.1 Cohesion …………… …………………………………… ………33 3.1.1.1 Definition………………………………………………………….33 3.1.1.2 Comparison between Concepts Cohesion in English and in Vietnamese………………………………………………………….33 3.1.1.2.1 Differences………………………………………………………33 3.1.1.2.2 Similarities………………………………………………………34 3.1.2 Cohesive devices…………………………………………………….34 3.1.2.1 Cohesive devices in English……………………………………….35 3.1.2.2 Cohesive devices in Vietnamese………………………………… 35 3.2 A contrastive analysis between English Hyponymy and Vietnamese Equivalence………………………………………………… 37 3.2.1 Similarities……………………………………………………… 37 3.2.2 Differences……………………………………… 38 3.3 Applications in English teaching and learning ……… …………… 40 3.3.1 Vocabulary………………………………………………………… 40 3.3.2 Grammar…………………………………………………………… 41 3.3.3 Discourse analysis………………………………………………… 42 3.3.4 Practices……………………………………………… 42 Part C: Conclusion…………………………………………………45 References Appendix Part A: Introduction Rationale of the study In the course of integration, English has become a vital device for communication in all fields It is considered the bridge to bring people from different countries closer As a result, English has been being taught widely in Vietnam Learning English does not mean learning grammar and vocabulary only We also have to know how to use its cohesive devices effectively in communication In fact, there have been so many studies surveying cohesive devices in texts such as “Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers” by Micheal Mc Carthy, “Grammatical Incoherenence” by L.K, “Discourse Analysis” by G Brown, etc However, most of them are about familiar terms that we know well like synonymy, antonymy, reiteration…, very few about hyponymy, a relatively new term (Oxford English Dictionary) referring to the relationship between a specific word and a general word when the former is included within the later Therefore, we find it very interesting and useful to a study on hyponymy, not on English lexical devices as generally Hyponymy is an important study for at least two major reasons: one of those reasons is that understanding hyponymy helps people define and differentiate many words used in everyday life Hyponymous relationships form the basic framework within standard dictionaries For instance, experienced dictionary users know that they can trace many hierarchical paths of increasingly abstract hypernyms through a dictionary, e.g starting with “cheddar”, one path of hypernyms would be “cheese”, “food”, “metarial”, “substance”, “essence” A different path leading to the same abstract hypernym would be “sapphire”, “corundum”, “mineral”, “substance”, “essence” Another major reason for this hyponymy study is its usefulness in building one‟s stock of vocabulary The process of learning sets of hyponyms begins in childhood, when infants soon recognize both similarities and differences in the meanings of sounds (Crystal, pp.167,430) Later in life, people intuitively use the concept of hyponymy to add words to their vocabulary For all these reasons, we have decided to choose the topic: “Hyponymy in English texts and some contrasts with that in Vietnamese” for the graduation thesis Through a contrastive analysis, we can enrich our knowledge about hyponyms in both languages in order to help students learn English well We hope that this study will contribute a small part in teaching and learning Hyponymy Aims of the study The study targets to: - Give a systematical presentation of hyponyms in English and their equivalent ones in Vietnamese - Make a contrast between English and Vietnamese, and then find their similarities and differences between the two languages - Help Vietnamese students of English have a basic foundation of hyponymy in their second-language acquisition Scope of the study Having been demanded to the study on lexical devices, but in the scope of this paper we just only focus on hyponymy with its definition, types and characteristics as well as its relation with taxonymy, synonymy, and meronymy We are not ambitious to take all registers of texts into consideration, in stead, the scope of the investigation is limited to only English humorous and joke stories to make a quantitative analysis on the frequency of hyponymy that we will study in the thesis Methods of the study With the aims above, in the course of writing paper, we have followed the procedure below:  Collecting and synthesizing all information about hyponymy in English and in Vietnamese  Analyzing materials (English humorous and joke stories) to illustrate for the characteristics of hyponymy  Comparing and contrasting English hyponyms with those in Vietnamese to find out the differences and similarities between them Design of the study The study consists of three main parts: Part A entitled “Introduction” outlines the background of the Graduation Thesis In this part, we provide some information about the reasons for choosing the subject, the aims, the scope, the methods and the design of the study Part B entitled “Development” comprises three chapters Chapter I called “Literature Review” provides all concepts related to the study Chapter II entitled “Hyponymy in English texts” is the main section of the study Chapter III is about “Contrastive analysis of hyponymy in English texts and those in Vietnamese one and some applications in English Teaching and Learning.” Part C entitled “Conclusion” which expresses a brief overview on the achievements of the thesis and some suggestions for further studies The last pages of the thesis are “References” with list of material sources Part B: Development Chapter I: Literature Review 1.1 An overview on Contrastive analysis Language is a social phenomenon, it has a close relationship with culture Moreover, language itself is a complex system Thus, studying language requires the knowledge of linguistics In general, linguistics consists of three main branches: descriptive linguistics, comparative linguistics and theoretical linguistics Contrastive analysis is a sub branch of comparative linguistics According to Carl James (1980), “Contrastive analysis is a linguistic enterprise aimed at producing inverted two-valued typologies, and founded on the assumption that languages can be compared” The term “contrastive” itself implies that a contrastivist will be more interested in differences between languages than in their likenesses There are two kinds of contrastive analysis: the contrast of languages (or exterior comparison) and the contrast of signs (or interior comparison).The contrast of languages is the way to compare languages with one another This language is the base and the other is the means of contrast and the final goals are to find out their specific features.The contrast of signs is the research in the inside relationships of languages such as categories, structural systems, functions and so on Contrastive analysis seems to appear for a long time – at the end of the nineteenth century Basically, it has developed in three periods: Contrastive analysis relates to historical linguistics, descriptive linguistics and typological linguistics However, nowadays, contrastive analysis really carries distinct 10 Lexical Repetition Grammar Phonetic Antonymy Substitution Form Synonymy Pronoun Cohesion Ellipsis Weak ellipsis Strong ellipsis Adversative COHESION DEVICES Addictive Conjunction Temporal Causal Antonymy Contrary Negative Descriptive form Hyponymy Quantity Association Position Characteristic relationship Causal – effective relationship Subject devices Content Cohesion Logic devices (Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt 1998:173) 42 3.2 A Contrastive Analysis between English Hyponymy and Vietnamese Equivalent 3.2.1 Similarities - Hyponymy in the both languages is a lexical device, which uses words to connect sentences and to avoid repetition - In the both languages, there is a relationship between hyponymy and other types, especially with meronymy This relation is very difficult to distinguish, especially abstract nouns Consider the following example: In Vietnamese: Hyponymy: Cầu thủ Tiền đạo Trung vệ Hậu vệ… Meronymy: Đội bóng - It is interesting that in the two languages, we sometimes use many cohyponymy of one word but the superordinate does not appear E.g.: Cóc chết để nhái mồ cơi Chẫu ngồi chẫu khóc: chàng chàng! ễnh ương đánh lệnh vang! Tiền đâu mà trả nợ làng ngoé ơi! (Ca dao) “Cóc, nhái, chẫu chàng, ễnh ương, ngoé” are co-hyponyms of “ếch nhái” These words have relationship of the same kind, so they make the text unity in spite their hypernym does not appear in the text - In both languages, hyponymy is used in literature to express the intention of the author Consider this example: “Không biết chúng giết quần áo, mà ảnh, hai đứa mặc tân thời, giày cao gót, cổ lại đeo kiềng vàng tử tế Chắc đồ lề hiệu 43 ảnh cho thuê, sắm mã ấy, lấy tiền đâu Mà mượn rỗi mà cho quân mượn” (Nam Cao) “Quần áo tân thời”, “giày cao gót” and “kiềng vàng” are co-hyponyms of phôc trang, but in this situation, the author has replaced it by the word “đồ lề” with ironical purpose 3.2.2 Differences  It is very confused in Vietnamese that hyponymy is used as some types of devices while in English it is only used as a lexical device + In Vietnamese, hyponymy belongs to lexical cohesion (“phép liên kết từ vựng”) This device is the way using words to link previous words in the sentence or to connect sentences together The device consists of three sub-types are: - Repetition (Phép lặp từ) - Synonymy (Từ đồng nghĩa), Antonymy (Từ trái nghĩa), “từ gần nghĩa” - Collocation (Phối hợp từ) Words which have near meanings with the previous words used as lexical devices may belong to one of the two kinds of relations: Hyponymy (Quan hệ cấp loại) & Meronymy (Quan hệ chỉnh thể - phận) Example about hyponymy in Vietnamese texts: “Chúng muốn sắm bàn ghế phịng khách Nghe nói đồ nội thất cửa hàng X tốt, đẹp giá phải chăng.” + Hyponymy in Vietnamese also belongs to homogenous association (liên tưởng đồng chất) In this kind, hyponymy is used as a hyponymy association (liên tưởng bao hàm) For instance: Trong nhà có tiếng guốc lẹp kẹp Cửa từ từ mở + Not only used in form devices, hyponymy is as a content cohesion which helps to develop the theme of the content It means that we can add cohyponyms of the subject logically to make these sentences linked together 44 Em học E.g.: Hôm qua em đến trường Mẹ dắt tay bước Hôm mẹ lên nương Một em đến lớp Trường em be bé Nằm rừng Cô giáo em tre trẻ Dạy em hát hay Hương rừng thơm đồi vắng Nước sối thầm Cọ xoè ô che nắng Râm mát đường em (Minh Chính) In English, we have: - “lớp”, “cô giáo”, are co-hyponyms of “trường” -“cây”, “hương rừng”, “đồi vắng”, “nước suối”, and “cọ” are co- hyponyms of “rừng” The poem is very united because the author used association to link elements together by using words (co-hyponyms) to create three related relationships as described bellows: With family: With school: (Em - mẹ - em) (Trường - lớp - cô giáo) EM With homeland: (Nương - rừng – hương rừng – nước suối - cọ - đường đi…)  In English, superordinate is one term that denotes hyponymy However, in Vietnamese, it seems to be different 45 In Vietnamese, “superordinate” is called “từ thượng danh” It belongs to substitution, or more precisely synonymy substitution The sentence below is an example of “phép đồng nghĩa lâm thời” (Diep Quang Ban, 1998: 155) E.g.: “Một số phường săn đến thăm dò để giăng bẫy bắt cọp xám Nhưng ác thú tinh lắm, đặt mồi to ngon đến đâu không lừa nó.” (Legend) The relationship between “từ thượng danh” (supeordinate) and its lower words (specific words) is homology in refence E.g.: “Trâu già […] Trông xa, vật thật đẹp dáng.” (Diep Quang Ban, 1998: 152) 3.3 Applications for Teaching and Learning English We can apply hyponymy in teaching and learning vocabulary, grammar, and discourse analysis 3.3.1 Vocabulary The use of tree-diagram and “spider grams” (word association networks radiating out from a central topic like a cobweb) is analogous to the ways in which it is believed vocabulary items are stored in the students‟ memory Hence, they are used in classroom as devices for helping the learning of vocabulary, and for helping activate existing vocabulary in advance of production activities such as writing Example: A diagram for transport might look like this: Transport Public Private Plane Bus Train Ferry Underground 46 Car Motorbike etc Some techniques promoted in English foreign language materials include doing exactly what the two examples above ask you to This can be made easier by providing the “tree” without the words or with some key words marked in Students can be encouraged to conduct their own trees by building up a bank of words in dictionaries and / or texts, and elaborating theses as they encounter new items E.g.: + There was a cupboard inside from which he took a broom, a dustpan, and a brush, and began to sweep up the nave (Co-hyponyms – members of the same lexical field, in this case, household cleaning equipments) - What are those birds? Daisy asked - Were they quails, Fred? - No, I am afraid not, I am afraid they were fieldfares “Birds” is the superordinate term to the co-hyponyms “quails” and “fieldfares” This way also can help students to clarify meanings of these words in a family in doing “Choose the best answers” exercises 3.3.2 Grammar Hyponymy can apply in teaching grammar by the way it depicts words in its family By this way, the teacher can draw tree-diagram to summarize/brief the knowledge that he has already taught for the students For instance, to summarize pronouns: Pronouns First person pronouns Second person pronouns Third person pronouns Pronouns it Demonstrative pronouns 47 3.3.3 Discourse analysis In discourse analysis, we must find linguistic factors, which were used to express the intention of the author In these elements, students sometimes find superordinates and specific words used in the texts 3.3.4 Practices Draw a “tree-diagram” to show how the relationship between these words: Verse, book, novel, chapter, encyclopedia, anthology, paragraph, poem Key answer: Book Novel Encyclopedia Anthology Chapter Poem Paragraph Verse Finding the co-hyponyms of “equipment” in the following text: “Television” means “pictures from a distance” Television can show us live pictures of events on the other side of the world Two important pieces of television are the camera and the receiver The camera records an imagine of the scene it views on an electrically charged plate A beam of electrons then sweeps back and forth across this plate The result is electric signals which represent the brightness in different parts of the scene These signals are combined with a radio wave and sent out by a transmitter The aerial of the television set pick up the wave Circuits in the set separate the signal from the wave These signals then go to the picture tube 48 where a “gun” fires a beam of electrons at the scene causing a spot of light The television signals alter the strength of the beam and thereby the brightness of the spot They also make the beam sweep back and forth in a series of links of spots of varying brightness The lines are very close together, and our eyes see them as a complete picture.” Key answer: Television Radio Camera Aerial Receiver Circuits Plate Choose the best answer: 3.1 We flew to the island, then…a car for three days and visited most places of interest A lent B bought C hired D charged 3.2 When he spoke over the telephone, his voice was so….that I could hardly hear him A faint B dim C dull D unnoticeable 3.3 When the manager went to Canada on business his….took over all his duties A caretaker B officer C deputy D commander 3.4 It is six years now since the Socialists came to…in that country A power B force C control D command 3.5 The fans…when their team scored a goal A shouted B laughed C cheered D called 3.6 It was….and we had to walk quickly to keep warm A cold B fresh C frozen 49 D mild 3.7 As it was Christmas, the…at church was much larger than usual A audience B convention C congregation D grouping 3.8 At…time there is always plenty of work to on a farm A production B profit C grain D harvest 3.9 The easiest way to get this nut off the bolt would be to use a… A spanner B winch C screwdriver D jack 3.10 I….you that I had no intention of offending you A convention B persuade C guarantee Key answers: 3.1 C 3.6 A 3.2 A 3.7 C 3.3 C 3.8 D 3.4 A 3.9 A 3.5 C 3.10.D 50 D assure Part C: Conclusion Summary In brief, it may be reasonable to claim that hyponymy is one of the complicated but interesting English phenomena Throughout the study, we gradually presented all details about hyponymy from definitions to kinds, features, structures as well as the relations with other kinds of hierarchy of hyponymy We have shown some differences and similarities of hyponymy in the two languages, and given some applications of hyponymy in teaching and learning English The thesis seems to be useful as it supplies some suggestions for students who are interested in studying further about hyponymy, taxonymy as well as meronymy in English The thesis mentioned kinds of hyponymy However, because of the lack of information as well as documents, in this paper we just mentioned hyponymy, not all its relationships with other kinds in details Further studies may aim to explore this point in a deeper view Thus, in the conclusions, we also have some suggestions for further studies Conclusions Due to the limitation of documents and experience, we would not come up to all aspects of the matter We hope that the finding in the paper will become soft of useful information for those who are interested in a fairly new concept of language: Hyponymy In addition, we also depicted hyponymy in the relations with taxonymy and meronymy The three types of hierarchy are very interesting and have close relations Therefore, studying about these relations is also an interesting subject Meronymy usually appear in science texts Moreover, the hyponymy and the meronymy relation have been extensively used in computer programs, 51 logic, linguistics, psychology and so forth In order to interpret the semantic relations, science text utilized the different statements to present hyponymy and meronymy between science concepts This problem gives us a subject to explore to help student distinguish hyponymy and meronymy Finally yet importantly, we would hope and recommend that the further studies will be carried out on these matters or even more deeper aspects to discover the more interesting and useful information for teaching and learning English Thanks for all 52 References In Vietnamese: Ban, Diệp Quang (1998) Văn liên kết Tiếng Việt Nhà xuất Giáo dục Ban, Diệp Quang (1998) Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt Nhà xuất Giáo dục In English: James, Carl (1980) Contrastive Analysis Longman House Cruse, D.A (1986) Lexical Semantics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cruse, D.A (2002) Hyponymy and its varieties In Green, R., Bean, C.A., & Myaeng, S.H P., Bolette & H.S.,Nicolai Towards sounder taxonomies in wordnets Copenhagen: Copenhagen University Press Lyons, John (1977) Semantics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Winston, Morton E., Roger Chaffin & Doulas Hermann (1987) A taxonymy of part-whole relations Cognitive Science 11, 417 – 444 Longman House The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cruse, D A Meaning in Language 2000 Oxford University Press Hoà, Nguyễn (2004) Understanding English Semantics Nhà xuất Đại học Quốc Gia Hà Nội 10 Vân Lam, Nguyễn Thị & Phương, Ngơ Đình (2007) Discourse Analysis 11 Thuý Hằng, Hồ Thị (2004) Graduation Thesis: Contrastive analysis of cohesive devices in English texts and those in Vietnamese ones 53 From Websites: http://www google.com/hyponymy/html http://www cl.unizh.ch/CLpublications.html http://www cis.uni-muenchen.de/people/StefanLanger.htlm http://www everything2.com/index.pl?node_id = 998899 http://www sil.org/linguitics/Glossary of linguistics terms.htlm 54 Appendix The 100th story: Thinking of marriage Sandy west, a young man working in an office, asked his boss for a raise in salary explaining that he was going to get married The increase was granted A few months later West met the manager again “Well, Sandy, I suppose you‟ve quite settled down to married life by this time,” remarked his boss “I‟m not married,” answered West “How is that? Not married!” exclaimed the manager “Didn‟t you ask me for a raise because you were thinking of getting married?” “Oh, yes” he answered, “but then I stopped thinking about it” The 127th story: A sailor’s pet They say that sailors are very fond of birds, and like to keep them in cages as pets A story is told of a sailor who, when his ship was in the West Indies, was delighted with the splendid feathers of some parrots, which he saw for sale in the market that he decided to buy one “I will send it to home to dear Mother,” he said to his self “She‟s very lonely out there in the country It can say a few words and may be a sort of companion of her.” So he bought one and gave it to another sailor, who was going home, with full of instruction as how to where he must carry the bird It was a month or two before the sailor get the letter from his mother She thanked him very much for the bird “It was really as very beautiful creature”, she wrote “and it had such lovely feathers, but you have no idea how tough it was…” The 151st story: On what ground? - Excuse me, does not my nephew, Mr Brown, work in this office? - Oh, you are his uncle! He went to your funeral this morning 55 The 152nd story: Not his work Barber: - Have not I shaved you before, sir? Customer: - No, I got those scars during the war The 163rd story: Practice Doctor: You cough more easily this morning Patient: I should, I have been practicing all night The 200th story: “Eleph - Ants” “ Talking of ants” said the American story teller, “ we’ ve got’ em as big as crabs out West We’ ve been’ em fight with long-horn, which they use as lances, charging each other like savages” “ They don’ t compare with the ants I saw in the Far East,” said an inoffensive individual nearby “ the natives have trained them as beasts of burden One of them could trail occasionally they turned on their attendants and killed them” But this was drawing the long bow a little too far “ I say, old chap,” said a shocked voice from the corner, “ What sorf of ants were they?” “ Eleph-ants” replied the inoffensive individual 56 ... Analysis of Hyponymy in English Texts and that in Vietnamese - some applications in English Teaching and Learning 3.1 General Introduction With the aim to make a contrastive analysis hyponymy as... ? ?Hyponymy in English texts? ?? is the main section of the study Chapter III is about “Contrastive analysis of hyponymy in English texts and those in Vietnamese one and some applications in English Teaching... device in English texts and in Vietnamese ones, we firstly need to understand about Cohesion, Cohesive devices, and hyponymy in Vietnamese 3.1.1 Cohesion 3.1.1.1 Definition In Vietnamese, many Vietnamese