FINAL ASSIGNMENT CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS a CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE PRONOUNS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -* -* - FINAL ASSIGNMENT CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE PRONOUNS Lecturer: Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ Learner: Phạm Ngọc Duy Date of birth: 27/09/1985 Course: 2012 -2014 Class: English K21 – Thai Nguyen Thai Nguyen, 2013 Question1: What is contrastive linguistics ? Is it the same as comparative linguistics ? How are they different ? What is the biggest diffrence between “to compare” and “to contrast” in contrastive analysis ? Narrowly defined, contrastive linguistics can be regarded as a branch of comparative linguistics that is concerned with pairs of languages which are ‘socioculturally linked’ Two languages can be said to be socio-culturally linked when (i) they are used by a considerable number of bi- or multilingual speakers, and/or (ii) a substantial amount of ‘linguistic output’ (text, discourse) is translated from one language into the other According to this definition, contrastive linguistics deals with pairs of languages such as Spanish and Basque, but not with Latin and (the Australian language) Dyirbal, as there is no socio-cultural link between these languages More broadly defined, the term ‘contrastive linguistics’ is also sometimes used for comparative studies of (small) groups (rather than just pairs) of languages, and does not require a socio-cultural link between the languages investigated On this view, contrastive linguistics is a special case of linguistic typology and is distinguished from other types of typological approaches by a small sample size and a high degree of granularity Accordingly, any pair or group of languages (even Latin and Dyirbal) can be subject to a contrastive analysis Contrastive linguistics invariably requires a socio-cultural link between the languages investigated, but that it is not restricted to pairwise language comparison Even though it is not a branch of applied linguistics, contrastive linguistics thus aims to arrive at results that carry the potential of being used for practical purposes, e.g in foreign language teaching and translation As it provides the descriptive basis for such applications, its research programme can also be summarized as ‘comparison with a purpose’ (E König) The ‘objective of applicability’ is also reflected in the fact that contrastive studies focus on the differences, rather than the similarities, between the languages compared Compare and contrast are words that are often used to talk about the similarities and differences between two things or objects These two words are very commonly used Compare means to see the similarity and contrast means to see the difference According to various dictionaries, compare means ‘to represent things or objects in respect of similarity’ and contrast means ‘to represent things in respect of differences.’ Apart from these meanings, one struggles to find any differences between the two If a person is looking at the similarities between two objects or things, then he may be comparing the two On the other hand, if a person is looking at the dissimilarity between two things or objects, then he may be contrasting the two The word compare has been derived from the Latin word ‘comparare’, which means ‘to liken or to compare.’ The word contrast has been derived from the Latin words ‘contra’ and ‘stare’, which means ‘against’ and ‘to stand.’ In Middle English, contrast was used for meaning ‘fight against’ or ‘to withstand’ in a battle Contrast lost its sheen during the end of 17th century but was later adopted in art forms Compare is mainly used to demonstrate relative values of the objects in all qualities When comparing two things or objects, one can see the divergent views which could make one better than the other Question 2: To the best of your knowledge and experiences, can you give example for illustration for the question mentioned above to show how you can apply it/them in your teaching situation ? Pronouns are used to refer to someone or something in context so that we can avoid repetition in the process of communication Factually, most languages in the world, including English and Vietnamese, have this type of word However, each language has its own characteristics The use of Vietnamese pronouns, especially personal pronouns, may cause lots of confusion for English people who learn Vietnamese Therefore, this paper aims at exploring personal pronouns in English and Vietnamese in a contrastive view, especially in the ways they are used Then, I will suggest some implications for language teaching so that the process of L2 acquisition can be better What are personal pronouns? In general, “personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns” (Wikipedia, “Personal pronoun”) In the example following, “her”, “she”, “it” and “me” are personal pronouns Mary took out her book Then, she gave it to me Personal pronouns in English According to Heather MacFadyen, forms of English personal pronouns vary according to case, person, number, and gender (“What is a Pronoun?”) In term of case, in general, there are three cases depending on the grammatical role of the personal pronouns in a sentence: subjective, objective and possessive (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”) - In subjective case, the personal pronouns are used as the subject of a verb, such as I, you, we, he, she, it, and they (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”) For example: I am a student - In objective case, they are used as the object of a verb or a preposition, such as me, you, us, him, her, it, and them (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”) For example: How can you stand living with them? - In possessive case, they are used as markers of possession and define who owns a particular object or person, such as mine, yours, ours, his, hers, its, theirs (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”) For example: Her clothes are always clear while his are always dirty In term of person, personal pronouns in English have three persons: first person, second person and third person (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”) - First personal pronouns refer to the speaker or writer, such as I /me/mineand we/us/ours For example: Bob told us about his family - Second personal pronouns refer to the addressee of the speaker or the audience of the writer, such as you/you/yours For example: You must tell me the truth - Third personal pronouns refer to anyone else or others, such as he/him/his, she/her/hers, it/it/its/ and they/them/theirs For example: She loves him In term of number, English personal pronouns are divided into singular and plural ones (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”) - Singular personal pronouns include I/me/mine, you/you/yours, she/her/hers, he/him/his and it/it/its For example: It is a pen Or Are you a doctor? - Plural personal pronouns include we/us/ours, you/you/yours and they/them/theirs For example: They will go with me tomorrow Or Are you doctors? In term of gender, English personal pronouns have three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”) - Masculine personal pronouns involve male sexual organs, such as he/him/his For example: Tom is a naughty boy He is always playing truant - Feminine personal pronouns involve female sexual organs, such as she/her/hers For example: Mai is a good girl She usually helps me - Neuter personal pronouns are used when the sexual state of referents is not mentioned, such asthey/them/theirs, it/it/its For example: They are the books that my father bought me last year Above are all English personal pronouns categorized in term of case, person, number and gender To make it brief, I have summarized all in the following table: English Personal Pronouns Singular Plural Subjectiv Subjectiv Objective Possessive Objective Possessive Mine e We Us Ours You Yours You You Yours He Him His Feminine She Her Hers They Them Theirs Neuter It It Its First e I Me Second You Masculine Third Personal pronouns in Vietnamese The system of Vietnamese personal pronouns is absolutely more complicated than the one of English Not only age, gender, person but also the social context, attitude of the speaker to the listener as well as the relationship between the speaker and listener are indicated through the way Vietnamese choose personal pronouns in every day communication There are two branches in the system of Vietnamese personal pronouns: true personal pronouns and kinship terms (Wikipedia, “Vietnamese Pronouns”) True personal pronouns are catergorised into first person, second person and third person - First personal pronouns in singular forms include: tơi, ta, mình, tao… Tôi is usually used in polite speech (Ex: This is a statement in a wedding: “Tôi xin chân thành cám ơn có mặt quý vị buổi lễ ngày hôm nay”) Ta is often used when someone talks to himself/herself (Ex: When someone is wavering between coming back or staying on, he may ask himself: “Ta nên hay nên lại đây?”) or it can be used to indicate the higher status of the speaker to the addressee (Ex: A boss may say to his charwoman: “Hãy chuẩn bị thứ sẵn sàng cho ta”) Mình is also used for soliloquy (Ex: When someone encourage himself, he may say: “Mình cần phải cố nữa!”) Tao is used in informal case when the speaker and the addressee have a close relationship (Ex: A pupil want to borrow his friend’s picture book, he may say: “Cho tao mượn truyện nha”) or when the speaker is angry with the listener (Ex: “Tao đánh cho mày nhừ xương”) - Second personal pronouns in singular forms include: mày, mi, bạn…Mày is used in close relationship or informal social context (Ex: A sister may ask her brother: “Mày làm đó?”) Mi is usually used for familiar relationship in the Middle area of Vietnam; it has the same function as mày Bạn is used to creat friendly atmosphere (Ex: An MC could ask a contestant in a gameshow: “Bạn giớ thiệu thân cho khán giả biết khơng ạ?”) - Third personal pronouns in singular forms include: nó, y, hắn, gã, ả…Nó is often used to refer to animals, things or children (Ex: “Chiếc bàn làm từ gỗ quý nên có giá cao”) Y and are both used to refer to someone scorned or untrustworthy (Ex: When you accuse someone as a criminal, you could say: “Hắn tên tội phạm”) Gã and ả are both ofetn used to refer to someone unliked, however, Vienamese use gã for male and ả for female (Ex: A girl talks about a man who makes her annoyed: “Gã thật phiền phức” while the man could say: “Ả thật đánh đá”) The plural forms of first, second and third personal pronouns can be created by adding the words like “chúng”, “tụi”, “bọn” such as: chúng tôi, tụi nó, bọn mày, bọn tao….(Ex: This is a statement in a wedding: “Chúng xin chân thành cám ơn có mặt quý vị buổi lễ ngày hôm nay”) However, we can also use “họ” as the plural form of a third personal pronoun without adding any words (Ex: Instead of saying: “Tụi bạn tôi”, one can say: “Họ bạn tôi” with a more formal level) The other branch of Vietnamese personal pronouns is kinship terms which are the most popular ways Vietnamese use to refer oneself and others Even though the listener is not a family member or relative, kinship terms can also used as pronouns to address and refer to friends and unfamiliar interlocutors (Luong, 1990) The system of these kinship terms is quite complicated and they can different according to specific areas, so in this paper I just mention some typical ones - Parents and children relationship: cha-con (father-children) and mẹ-con (mother-children) For example, a child talks to her mother: “Tối nay, mẹ siêu thị nhé!” The term cha-con is also used in the relationship between parish priests and Christian believers - Sibling relationship: anh-em (older brother-younger brother/sister) and chị-em (older sister-younger brother/sister) For example, a little boy says to his sister: “Ba bảo chị lát chở em học.” A person can also use anh/ chị to refer people who are in the same generation and older than him/her, and use em to prefer people who are in the same generation and younger than him/her - Grandparents and grandchildren relationship: ông-cháu (grandfathergrandson/granddaughter), bà-cháu (grandmother- grandson/granddaughter) For example, an old man talks to his niece: “Để ông kể cho cháu nghe chuyện TấmCám nhé!” The terms ông-cháu and bà-cháu can also be used when a person talks to people who seem to be as old as his/her grandparents - Uncle and niece/nephew relationship: chú-cháu (father’s younger brothernice/nephew), bác-cháu (parents’ older brother- nice/nephew), cậu-cháu (mother’s younger brother- nice/nephew), dượng-cháu (ant’s husband- nice/nephew) For example, a man may talk to his nephew: “Cậu có quà cho cháu này.” The term chú-cháu is also used when a person talks to a male who is the same age or younger than his/her parents whereas bác-cháu is used when a person talks to a male who is older than his/her parents 10 - Ant and niece/nephew relationship: cô-cháu (father’s younger sisternice/nephew), dì-cháu (mother’s younger sister- nice/nephew), bác-cháu (parents’ older sister- nice/nephew), mợ-cháu (uncle’s wife on the maternal sidenice/nephew), thím-cháu (uncle’s wife on the paternal side- nice/nephew) For example, a woman may say to her niece: “Cháu dì hơm giỏi q!” The term dì-cháu or cơ-cháu is also used when a person talks to a female who is younger than his/her parents while bác-cháu is used when a person talks to a female who is older than his/her parents To make the third-person forms of the kinship terms above, the word “ấy” is added behind them such as ơng ấy, bà ấy, thím ấy, dì ấy, ấy, chị ấy, anh ấy…For example: Lan chị Chị thương Within this paper, I would like to discuss the contrast between English and Vietnamese personal pronouns in ways they are used Firstly, there are different pronouns in English that indicate subject vs predicate position (eg “he” vs “him”) while Vietnamese pronouns remain the same without indicating subject vs predicate position (Erickson 199-203) Example: - He is Mary’s boyfriend I met him at Mary’s birthday party last week - Anh bạn trai Mary Tôi gặp anh buổi tiệc sinh nhật Mary vào tuần trước Secondly, English has possessive pronouns to indicate the possessor of another noun (eg “mine”, “yours”, “his”, “hers”) In contrast, possessive pronouns 11 not exist in Vietnamese; in stead, the word “của” is used to indicate the possession Example: My coat is pink Yours is blue Áo khốt tơi màu hồng Cái bạn màu xanh Thirdly, because of the dominance of ellipsis, Vietnamese pronouns have low frequency as compared to English pronouns (Thu, “The Functioning of Pronouns in Vietnamese and English”) Example: He said that he would go to Hanoi the following month Anh nói Hà Nội vào tháng tới (The subject of reported clause is omitted) Finally, the choice of pronouns in Vietnamese, especially kinship terms, is strongly influenced by semantic and pragmatic factors while this is not the case in English (Thu, “The Functioning of Pronouns in Vietnamese and English”) For example: In English, we use only the pronoun “he” for referring to both brother and father; however, in Vietnamese, we have to use the pronoun “ông ấy” for referring to father and the pronoun “anh ấy” for referring to brother Through a contrastive view into Vietnamese and English personal pronouns above, I would like to suggest some implications for English and Vietnamese teaching and learning 12 Firstly, language teachers have to pay much attention to semantic and pragmatic factors such as age, sex, social status, relationship, attitudes and feelings of the speaker and addressee, as well as the formality of the context in the process of teaching Vietnamese pronouns Towards English people who learn Vietnamese, teachers should explain clearly the different meanings of each Vietnamese personal pronoun, especially the kinship terms in specific contexts For example, to utter the sentence “I love you” in Vietnamese, we should consider the relationship, sex and even social status between the speaker and the listener If the speaker is a female and the listener is a male, the utterance should be “Em yêu anh” On contrast, if the speaker is a male and the listener is a female, the utterance should be “Anh yêu em” However, if the utterance is said by people in a family, the personal pronouns must be change: “Mẹ yêu con” for the mother to her child and “Con yêu mẹ” for the child to his/her mother, “Bà yêu cháu” for the grandmother to her grandchild and “Cháu yêu bà” for the grandchild to his/her grandmother Besides, if the utterance is said by a girl to a man who has much higher social status than her, she may say “Em yêu ngài” Secondly, when sudden change of personal pronouns in Vietnamese contexts appears, it is the teacher’s duty to explain clearly the reason for such change The following example will make the suggestion more clear: This is the conservation between a father and his daughter when the father wants to forbid his daughter’s love for her boyfriend 13 Ba: Con bỏ thằng Nó khơng thể mang hạnh phúc đến cho đâu Con gái: Nhưng lỡ yêu anh rồi, ba ơi! Ba: Nghe lời ba Bỏ thằng Ba tìm cho người tốt Con gái: Con xin lỗi ba, Ba: Vậy mày khỏi nhà tao để theo thằng ln In the conservation above, we can see the sudden change from “cha-con” to “mày-tao” when the father gets angry because he fails to convince her daughter to leave her boyfriend Moreover, the daughter’s boyfriend is refered differently according to the attitude of the utterer He is called “nó”, “thằng đó” by the father with scornful attitude, but the daughter use the pronoun “anh ấy” to call him respectfully Thirdly, English teachers should help their Vietnamese students get aquainted with using possessive and objective pronouns which not exist in Vietnamese For example, the sentence “Mặc dù cố gắng nhiều vụng khiến cho người khơng muốn giao nhiệm vụ cho nó” is translated into English “Although he tried a lot, his awkwardness made nobody want to commission him” with the consideration of subjective, objective position as well as possessive case Last but not least, ellipsis is dominant in Vietnamese while it is not the case in Eglish Therefore, English teachers should help Vietnamese students make 14 sentences correctly by avoiding ellipsis, especially at the beginning of conservation The example below will make clear this point: A and B meet each other in the street by chance In Vietnamese A: Đi đâu đó? In English A: Where are you going? B: Đi chợ B: I’m going to the market In conclusion, each language has its distinct characters, so it is not easy at all to acquire a second language effectively The differences of using personal pronouns in English and Vietnamese, for example, are problems that learners need to make their efforts to adapt With this research paper, I hope that readers can distinguish the personal pronouns in English in comparison with personal pronouns in Vietnamese Then, we can find out more effective solutions to help learners grasp the using of personals pronouns between the two languages more easily It is obvious that this paper cannot avoid shortcomings, so your useful contributions are welcomed 15 References Erickson, J English In J Garry & C Rubino, eds Facts about the world’s languages: An encyclopedia of the world’s major languages, past, and present New York: H W Wilson Company, 2001 Luong, H V Discursive practices and linguistic meanings: The Vietnamese system of person reference Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1990 Megginson, David “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics.” uOttawa 16 Aug 2007 25 Dec 2009 MacFadyen, Heather “What is a Pronoun?” uOttawa 10 Oct 2008 25 Dec 2009 “Personal pronoun.” Wikipedia.25 Dec 2009 Wikimedia Foundation, Inc 25 Dec 2009 Thu, N.T.K “The Functioning of Pronouns in Vietnamese and English.” Vu Giao Duc Dai Hoc 11 Jan 2006 Vu Dai hoc va Sau Dai hoc 28 Dec 2009 “Vietnamese pronouns.” Wikipedia 30 Oct 2009 Wikimedia Foundation, Inc 28 Dec 2009 16 ... the same generation and younger than him/her - Grandparents and grandchildren relationship: ông-cháu (grandfathergrandson/granddaughter), bà-cháu (grandmother- grandson/granddaughter) For example,... communication There are two branches in the system of Vietnamese personal pronouns: true personal pronouns and kinship terms (Wikipedia, ? ?Vietnamese Pronouns? ??) True personal pronouns are catergorised... clothes are always clear while his are always dirty In term of person, personal pronouns in English have three persons: first person, second person and third person (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”)