QUANG NAM UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES GRADUATION PAPER Title: A COMPARATIVE AND CONTRASTIVE STUDY ON PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH AND IN VIETNAMESE Researcher NGUYEN THI DUONG Student Code: 2111010812 MAJOR: ENGLISH ACADEMIC COURSE: 2011-2015 Supervisor: DOAN PHAN ANH TRÚC, M. TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC GUÀNG NAM TRUNG TAM HOC LIEU VA CONG NGHE THONG TIN Quang Nam, May 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to say that this research would not be developed and completed without the guidance, the help and the generous contributions of several individuals. Therefore, I am greatly thankful to those whose suggestions and criticisms have been useful for me in accomplishment. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to lecturers in the steering committee of the university of Quang Nam who allow me implement this study, which is the great motivation for me to continue doing scientific researches in the future.
I would like to expand my sincere thank to all my teachers and lecturers, especially lecturers in the department of foreign languages at Quang Nam university who have wholeheartedly taught me during four years, conveying both words, sayings and living experience and extremely valuable lessons that create basic foundation for this study. My special thanks come to my beloved family, my close friends and classmates for their constant and unconditional assistance, sharing support and encouragement during the process of doing the research Worth mentioning most, the words could not express fully how much grateful I am to my supervisor, Mrs. Doan Phan Anh Trac, M., whose support, encouragement, specious materials, endless help and guidance as well as correction contribute to the completion of this study. lam really thankful to all.
Tam Ky, May 2015 Nguyen Thi Duong ii ABSTRACT This study is designed to discover the syntactic, semantic features of passive voice in English and Vietnamese. Via the reliable data in the two languages, which are collected from examples in daily life, literature works, the researcher analyzes the data and studies the collected examples to find out similarities and differences of passive voice in the two languages in terms of syntax and semantics. Thereafter, the researcher suggests some recommendations for language learners in general and Vietnamese learners of English in particular to improve their abilities of speaking, writing and translating using passive voice appropriately and proficiently. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE.
Aims of the study. Objectives of the research. Scope of the study. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND.
Review of the previous studies. Definition of terms 2. Passive voice in English and in Vietnames: 2. Passive voice in English 2.
Passive voice in Vietnamese. Principles of linguistic contrast. CHAPTER THREE STUDY METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES. Design of research methods.
Data analysis vol 3. Validity and reliability. L7 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Syntactic features of passive voice in English and in Vietnamese.
Structures of English passive constructions „17 4. English passive constructions with Be + PP 17 4. Passive constructions without be + P. Structures of Vietnamese passive forms.1, Vietnamese passive structures consist of “bi”, “duge”.
Viemamese passive structures without “bj”, “được” 27 4. Semantic features of passive voice in English and Vietnamese: 30 4. Passive meaning in English forms. Passive meaning in a Vietnamese passive form.
Contrast of passive voice in English and in Vietnamese on the syntactic aspect. The similarities of passive expressions in English and in Vietnamese on the syntactic aspect. The differences of passive voice in English and in Vietnamese on the syntactic aspect 138 4. The obligatory parts in passive expressions in English and in Vietnamese.
The difference in the following parts of the auxiliary verb “to be” and functional words “bj/được” in passive constructions in English and Vietnamese 41 4. Noun phrase passiviz. Contrast of passive voice in English and in Vietnamese on the semantic aspect. The similarities of passive voice in English and in Vietnamese on semantic aspect.
The differences of passive voice in English and in Vietnamese on the semantic aspect. Connotative meaning of passive constructions .47 Lexical meanings of the verbs and the subjects decide voice of the 8 equivalents. CONCLUSION-LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. The similarities of passive voice in English and in Vietnamese.
The differences of passive voice in English and in Vietnamese. Recommendation for teaching. Recommendation for learning. Recommendation for further study.
SOURCES OF DATA. CHAPTER ONE GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1. Rationales It is said that to get such outstanding linguistic acquisitions, the language learners might have experienced remarkable difficulties due to the quite clear differences between the learners’ mother tongue and foreign languages. The differences of grammar, structure and word order are examples.
Also, Vietnamese learners of English such as major students at Quang Nam University have encountered several issues in this field because of objective or subjective reasons. The fact has pointed out that many researchers have studied Vietnamese grammar as well as English grammar. They have thoroughly analyzed cach small point, part and each aspect of the two above languages. However, the trend of contrastive and comparative study on the similarities and differences is still limited.
Passive voice is a typical example for this. Moreover, these comparative researches seem not to be applied widely in education especially in universities, colleges and Quang Nam University in particular. As a result, Vietnamese learners of English even English major students sometimes misunderstand and make mistakes when encountering this issuc. As one of the Vietnamese learners of English and English major students in particular, the researcher finds it important to identify what sentence will be written in passive voice and to understand more about the way of using passive voice in English and Victnamese.
Thereby, the learners of English can use passive voice in speaking, writing and translating fluently and correctly. Many people have thought that it is quite easy to recognize passive voice in English thanks to the appearance of “to be + past participle” and passive constructions in Vietnamese thanks to the words “bj” and “duge” in the sentences. This is not always correct. In various cases, the word “bj” or “duge” 2 appears in Victnamese sentences but they are not really the sentences containing a passive form.
Consider the following sentences. [IJ_ Mỗi tắm nó bán được năm trăm Mỹ kim, gấp mấy lần giá bán tranh của mình.55] [2] Iwas pleased to observse the “missis”.10] Tôi lấy làm ngạc nhiên khi thấy một thiếu phụ trong phòng. “The example [I] contains “được” but it, in deed, is an active sentence. Also, pleased in [2] actually is a verb with a morpheme -ed used as an adjective.
Via the examples mentioned above, the word “duoc” appears in [1] and “was pleased” presents in [2] but both [1] and [2] are not passive expressions because the subjects “/” and “nd” are the doers of the actions expressed by the verbs. However, a passive sentence in English translated into Vietnamese is not always a passive sentence in Vietnamese but sometimes an active one, therefore, in the Vietnamese translated- version there is not a presence of bj or doc. And vice versa, some active constructions in English turn to be passive forms in Vietnamese. [3] and [4] are examples for this.
[3] He was confirmed in this by sight of a ship lying at anchor in the midst of the shining sea, [67, p.34] Hình ảnh một con tàu buôn neo giữa mặt biển rực nắng xác nhận ý thức đó của anh. [4] | The sharp ears were not pricked so sharp as he had seen them on other wolves.34] Đôi tai nhọn không dựng thẳng lên như anh đã từng thấy ở những con sói khác. Also in English, there are other situations that active sentences turn to be passive forms in Vietnamese translated- versions as in [5]. [5] How did you lose your arm? (72, p.222] Lam sao nguoi bi cut tay? 3 The same things take place in Vietnamese.
Many passive constructions are kept their voice when they are translated into English while others Vietnamese passive expressions become active sentences during the process of translation. [6] Tôi vẫn được dem đi chọi nhau như thế.26] My master took me to a fight as usual. This example is taken so as to be an evidence for the idea that some Vietnamese passive expressions become active sentences when they are translated into English. If the learners do not master the related knowledge of passive voice and do not have an ability to decide whether the sentences they have read or heard are in passive or not, which makes them feel confused in understanding the true implicit meanings of the sentences which are hidden under the words.
Therefore, passive voice is worth carefully being examined, considered and studied. When the researcher finished the sixth semester, the researcher had a plan to do a study for my graduation. The researcher had found for me a topic. Until the begining of the seventh semester when the researcher studied advanced interpreting, the researcher met some great troubles in translating passive voice from English into Vietnamese and vice versus, At the moment, it would be very interesting for me the researcher pick the problem as my researching topic.
All the above-mentioned reasons lead me to choose the topic “4 comparative and contrastive study on passive voice in English and in Vietnamese” to study with the hope that the research will be a useful reference material for learning passive voice in English as well as in Vietnamese effectively.2, Aims of the study The study aims at comparing and contrasting passive voice in English and in Vietnamese in terms of syntax and semantics in order to help Vietnamese learners of English or Vietnamese learners use passive voice in the two languages effectively especially in speaking, wriling and translation. Objectives of the research This research is carried out with following objectives: -Identify, analyze and compare passive voice used in English and Vietnamese on the aspects of syntax and semantics. -Find out the similarities and differences in passive voice in English and in Vietnamese on the aspects of syntax and semantics. -Suggest some recommendations in teaching, learning and translating passive voice in English and in Vietnamese.
Scope of the study In this study, passive voice in the two languages will be mainly examined through typical samples collected and tackled under the view of syntactic and semantic characteristics. English is considered the source language and Vietnamese is the target one to investigate above properties. The examples used in this study are taken from both in English and Vietnamese literature works. Research questions The study focuses on answering four following questions 1.
What are similarities of passive voice in English and Vietnamese on the syntactic aspect? 2. What are differences of passive voice in English and Vietnamese on the syntactic aspect? 3. What are similarities of passive voice in English and Vietnamese on the semantic aspect? 4. What are differences of passive voice in English and Vietnamese on the semantic aspect? 1.
Research organization The study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one, general introduction, consists of six subparts rationales, aims of the study, objectives of the study, scope of the study, research questions and research organization. Chapter two reviews the previous studies and theoretical background in which theoretical background contains definition of voice, related concepts, and passive voice in English and Vietnamese. Chapter three describes methodology of the study- the procedure of data collection and data analysis.
Chapter four includes two core parts syntactic and semantic characteristics. Each part is subdivided into smaller sections. The researcher provides constructions of passive, its meaning and usages in both languages respectively. Chapter five draws the conclusion about the similarities and the differences of passive voice in the two languages, limitations of the study and recommendations for teaching.
learning and translating passive forms. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2. Review of the previous studies It is obvious that the issue of passive voice in Vietnamese and in English has been mentioned and studied by many linguists.