3.2.1. The similarities in linguistic realizationsof deverbal nominalization in English and in Vietnamese
Linguistically, in general, deverbal nominalization in both English and Vietnamese are the process of turning verbs into nouns by adding nominalizers. The employment of nominalizers is seen in most cases of deverbal nominalization taken from the sample articles on the nhandan.com.vn and the bbc.co.uk. It is the nominalizers that mark the part of speech of the words. In Vietnamese, the nominaliers are independent words such as “việc”, “sự”, “nỗi”, “các”, “những”,
“cuộc”, and so on. In English, the nominalizers are clusters of letters, known as suffixes, which are often meaningless when they are separated from their root verbs.English commonly used suffixes include “-ing”, “-ion”, “-er”, “-ment”, “-or”,
“-y”, and so on.Nonetheless, there are still some exceptions in both languages, but the number of exceptions is not significant. For example, in a few cases in English, deverbal nominalization can be formed by changing the form of the verbs like
“know”, “see”, “lose” into “knowledge”, “sight” and “loss”. For instance:
…It‟s also an enormous library of global consciousness, a digital collection of human knowledge from the past and the present…(http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/- /2/hi/technology/8485833.stm)
… “Alastair Hawken of the Grantham Business Club believes that the benefits the improvements will bring will outweigh the losses.”
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/lincolnshire/8607039.stm) Likewise, in Vietnamese, there are some cases in which no nominalisers are added to verbs to form nouns in several cases. For example:
“…Nhận thức, thực hành các biện pháp kiểm soát ATTP của người tiêu dùng và người sản xuất, kinh doanh vẫn còn nhiều hạn chế…”
(http://www.nhandan.com.vn/chinhtri/item/24368802-noi-lo-thuc-pham-ban.html)
“…Ăn uống là nhu cầu hàng đầu của sự sống...”
(http://www.nhandan.com.vn/hangthang/khoahoc-giaoduc/item/14646802-.html) Based on the list (on pages 16-17) of the functions of deverbal nominalization by Biber, et el. (1992), a large number of deverbal nouns in both languages refer to either instance, process or action of the verbs. In English, the most frequently used nominalisers to form deverbal nouns is the “-ing”, “-ion” suffixes, and the nouns with these endings usually refers to the instance or action of a verb. For example:
“…So that would mean they have better antiseptic protection compared to other bees...” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/science/nature/8467746.stm)
“…The UK will aim to double its annual funding for dementia research to £132m by 2015…” (http://www.bbc.com/news/health-25334102)
As can be seen from the two examples, the deverbalized noun protection and funding both indicate the action of the corresponding verbs “protect” and “fund”.
Meanwhile, “việc” and sự” are the most commonly used nominaliser in Vietnamese, and the nouns formed in this way usually bear the meaning of process or action of the equivalent verb. Here are some examples from the sample articles:
“…Tuy nhiên, việc triển khai thực hiện đề án đó như thế nào đang là vấn đề chưa có lời giải...” (http://www.nhandan.com.vn/tphcm/dan-biet-dan-ban/item/23110302- tao-thoi-quen-di-xe-dap.html)
“…Ngoài các đối tượng học viên là trẻ em, khóa học còn đón nhận được sự quan tâm sâu sắc của các bậc phụ huynh…”
(http://www.nhandan.com.vn/hangthang/khoahoc-giaoduc/item/14646802-.html) In the two above examples, the two deverbalized nouns with the nomilizers
“việc” and “sự” both show the action of the two verbs “triển khai” and “quan tâm”
In short, a brief look at the presentation of the data collected, it can be said that deverbal nominalization is a relatively common linguistic phenomenon in both two languages, especially in English. Besides, there are also differences between therealizations of deverbal nominalization in both languages, which will be discussed in detail in the next part.
3.2.2. The differences in linguistic realizations ofdeverbal nominalization in English and in Vietnamese
As far as linguisticrealizationsconcerned, the data from tables 1 and 2 indicates thatthe most easily seen difference between deverbal nominalization in two languages is that though both employ nominalizers to form deverbal nominalization, in general, the English language uses affixation, specifically suffixes like “-ing”, “- ion”, “-ment” to add to the end of the verb, whereasthe Vietnamese language uses separate words such as “việc”, “sự”… to add to the beginning of the verbs.It can be said that the suffixes“-ing”, “-ion”, etc and the separate words like“việc”, “sự”…
play the role of the indicators of deverbalized nouns.
In term of quantity, a brief look at tables 1 and 2 shows that although the number of sample articles taken from the two online newspapers, nhandan.com.vn and bbc.co.uk, are the same- fifteen articles, the total number deverbal nominalization cases in English sample articles, 233 cases, outnumbers that in Vietnamese samples, 137 cases. However, this distinction is only a relative comparison due to the fact that articles vary in length. Though much attention was paid to selecting articles of the appropriately same length, it is unavoidable that there is still some unevenness between the numbers of words on the two online newspapers. Nonetheless, it can be said that deverbal nominalization is more common in English articles than in Vietnamese ones. This comparison in terms of quantity of deverbal nominalization is in complete accord with what Talmy (2000) states that languages are categorized into two “typological categories”, including object-dominant languages and action-dominant ones. English, which is in favour of using nouns can, therefore, be considered an object-dominant language; and Vietnamese tends to be an action-dominated language. Needless to say, it is essential that Vietnamese English learners be made aware of such differences in learning English, especially in writing academic English.
In addition to that, as can be seen from table 1, it is clear thatin the English language,a noun can be derived from a verb by changing the form of the verb like
“know” - “knowledge”, “lose” - “loss”… which can be known as morphological
changes. Such cases of morphological changes of verbsto form nouns are not common in English, which accounts for about 6%of the total cases of deverbal nominalization in English samples, do not exist in the Vietnamese language. In Vietnamese, on the other hand, there are certain cases in which a verb can be used as a noun without using any nominalizer, for example:
“Ăn uống là nhu cầu hàng đầu của sự sống.”
( http://www.nhandan.com.vn/hangthang/khoahoc-giaoduc/item/14646802-.html) Table 2 shows that about 8% of all the casesfound in Vietnamese sample articles on the nhandan.com.vn involve deverbal nominalization without using nominalisers, which can be categorized as conversion.This type of deverbal nominalization in Vietnamese must be identified in clear context and less commonly used than the conventional type - that is using nominalizers.
Last but not least, an English deverbalized noun can be formed with only one suffix, but one nominalizer can be added before two verbs to form two deverbalized nouns in Vietnamese. For example:
… Vì vậy, bên cạnh cách nhận biết và phát hiện sớm để có phương pháp điều trị, thì cách phòng tránh bệnh cận thị học đường cũng cần được cha mẹ quan tâm…
(http://www.nhandan.com.vn/hangthang/khoahoc-giaoduc/item/692902-.html ) The last two points suggests that Vietnamese grammar is, in this sense, a more flexible languagein comparison with that of English, which requires Vienamese English learners to pay attention to and can alsobe asource of troubles for foreigners who learn Vietnamese.
3.3. The underlying reasons forthedifferences in linguistic realizationsof