2.2.2. Vietnamese preposition and prepositional phrase
2.2.2.3. Semantic features of Vietnamese prepositions
In Vietnamese, the preposition phrase functions to illustrate a logical, temporal, or spatial relationship between the object of the prepositional phrase and the other components of the sentence.
A spatial relationship
Firstly, the prepositional phrase is used to demonstrate a spatial relationship between components of sentences.
Con chó nằm ngủ trong vườn(The dog is asleep in the garden)
In this example, the prepositional phrase trong vườn indicates a spatial relationship between the subject “con chó” and the object “vườn”. If the preposition on was replaced with under or beneath the spatial relationship would be altered.
A temporal relationship
A prepositional phrase is also employed to indicate a temporal relationship.
Thành phố này đã không còn như xưa kể từ sau chiến tranh (The town hasn't been the same since the war)
In this sentence, the prepositional phrase kể từ sau chiến tranh indicates a temporal relationship between the verb phrases “đã không còn như xưa” and the object “chiến tranh”.
A logical relationship
Lastly, a logical relationship can be created through using a prepositional phrase.
Gia đình đó đã tự đặt mình vào nguy hiểm (The family put themselves in danger)
The prepositional phrase vào nguy hiểm in this sentence indicates a logical relationship between “gia đình đó” and “ nguy hiểm”.
2.3 . A comparison between English and Vietnamese prepositional phrases Prepositional phrases belong to a small class of formatives which are difficult to define. For example, a non-native speaker of English finds it hard to distinguish between “on the streets” and “in the street”. This section provides some basic differences between English and Vietnamese prepositions (Table 2.8).
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Table 2.8: A comparison between English and Vietnamese prepositions (Tran, 2010)
Meaning English prepositions Vietnamese prepositions
TRONG in, inside trong
NGOÀI out, outside, out of ngoài
TRÊN on, upon, above, on top
of, over, atop trên
DƯỚI under, underneath,
beneath, below dưới
TRƯỚC before, in front of, ahead
of, preceding trước
SAU behind, following, at the
back of, in the back of sau BÊN
by, near, next to, close to, beside, alongside, to the right/left
bên, cạnh, sát, gần, kề, bên phải, bên trái
GIỮA
within, among, between, in the middle of, in the midst of
giữa
Table 2.8 reveals that if Vietnamese people want to describe the meaning
“trước”, they say that “Bạn con đang ở trước nhà” (Your friend is in front of the house), or “Có xe đằng trước kìa” (There is a car ahead), as we can see, when being translated into English, there are varied prepositions according to the positions of the subjects and objects. “Trước” – “in front of”, “ahead”, and so on. That’s why Vietnamese people find it difficult to use correct English prepositions.
According to Tran (2010), Vietnamese people don’t pay attention to trajector (đối tượng định vị) and landmark (đối tượng qui chiếu) when describing the higher position. Meanwhile, English people take these into consideration. They distinguish among “on/ over/ above” while Vietnamese people just use “trên”.
When describing the “above” and “under” relation, Vietnamese people aren’t aware of distinguishing whether the trajector is in the vertical reference (dung qui chiếu thẳng đứng) of the landmark’s area. They just divide the space into two areas:
trên (above)/ dưới (under). Meanwhile, English people are always aware of this
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aspect. That’s why we can see in the table, to describe “trên”, they have more
prepositions than Vietnamese – “on, upon, above, on top of, over, atop”, and “dưới”
– “under, underneath, beneath, below”.
Additionally, when translated into Vietnamese, some English prepositions can be removed in terms of meanings. Some examples are presented as follows:
In love : đang yêu In fact : thực vậy In need : đang cần
In trouble : đang gặp rắc rối In general : nhìn chung In the end : cuối cùng
In danger : đang gặp nguy hiểm
In debt : đang mắc nợ In time : kịp lúc
In other words : nói cách khác In short : nói tóm lại
In brief : nói tóm lại In particular : nói riêng In turn : lần lượt
Based on the theoretical background, the current study is to identify the syntactic and semantic features of “IN” prepositional phrases in English and theirVietnamese translation versions
2.4 . Summary
To sum up, this section has provided working conditions of preposition and prepositional phrases in English andVietnamese followed by examples. Semantic features of prepositional phrases such as logical, temporal, or spatial relationship between the object of the prepositional phrase and the other components of the sentence and syntactic features such as functioning as adjective, adverb and nominal are also discussed. A comparison between English and Vietnamese preposition are provided to create theoretical foundation for the study.
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