MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY DO THI THUY DUNG ENGLISH WH-QUESTIONS AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÂU HỎI CÓ TỪ ĐỂ HỎI TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT) M. THESIS HANOI - 2013 i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY DO THI THUY DUNG ENGLISH WH-QUESTIONS AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÂU HỎI CÓ TỪ ĐỂ HỎI TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT) M. THESIS Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor:Dr. Le Van Thanh HANOI - 2013 ii DECLARATION I hereby declare that no part of the enclosed Master Thesis has been copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor.
Hanoi, September 28th, 2013 Approved by Candidate Dr. Le Van Thanh Do Thi Thuy Dung iii ACKNOWLEDGEGEMENTS This graduation thesis has benefited from various sources of generous help, expert advice and encouragement. Firstly, I would particularly like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Le Van Thanh, who provided insightful discussions, precious instructions, valuable comments, criticisms and support during the preparation and completion of this thesis.
Secondly, I would like to thank the professors and teachers of Post-Graduate Studies of Hanoi Open University for their useful lectures, precious encouragement and advice. Thirdly, I should not forget to thank members of my family for their encouragement. I surely cannot fulfill my thesis on time without their beloved care and support. Last but not least, I really owe my students, who have actively taken part in the survey, which is an essential part of my thesis.
Hanoi, September 28th, 2013 Do Thi Thuy Dung iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Adv Adverbial Aux. British English Co. Object Complement Cs Subject Complement Elem. Elementary Inter Intermediate No Number Od.
Direct object Op. Operator Pre-inter Pre-intermediate Q- Question element S Subject Wh- Wh-word v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: English question words and their functions Table 2: Classification of English Wh-questions Table 3: Characteristics of English Wh-questions Table 4: Classification of Vietnamese Wh-questions Table 5: Vietnamese question words and their functions Table 6: Positions of question words in Vietnamese Table 7: The result of using types of Wh-questions Table 8: Number of incorrect questions made by student at three levels Table 9: Number of errors in wrong word use made by student at three levels Table 10: Number of errors in word order made by student at three levels Table 11: Number of errors in concord made by student at three levels Table 12: Examples of English Wh-questions and their Vietnamese equivalents Table 13: English question words and their Vietnamese equivalents vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the Study. Aims of the Study.
Scope of the Study. Methods of the Study. Design of the Study. 3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT.
4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Questions and Other Types of Simple Sentences .4 Types of English questions .3 English Wh- questions .1 Definition of English Wh-questions .2 Classification of English Wh-questions .3 Charateristics of English Wh-questions .4 Vietnamese Wh-questions .2 Classification of Vietnamese Wh-questions .3 The Characteristics of Vietnamese Wh-questions. 33 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY. 35 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 The Result of Using Types of Wh-questions .1 Wrong Word Used. Erros in Word Order .3 Errors in Concord .3 Reasons for Making Errors .1 Mother Tounge Interference .2 Overgeneralisation of Rules .3 Faulty teaching or material .4 Some Suggestion for Helping Vietnamese Students to Use English Wh- questions Effectively .5 Summary of the Chapter.
46 viii CHAPTER IV: ENGLISH WH-QUESTIONS AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS .1 A Brief Contrastive Analysis of English Questions and Their Vietnamese Equivalents .2 English Wh-questions and Vietnamese equivalents .3 Contrastive analyze of English and Vietnamese Wh-questions .1 The Similarities and Differences between Vietnamese and English Wh-Questions .2 The Differences between Vietnamese and English Wh-questions .4 The Differences in Using Wh-Questions in English and Vietnamese. 61 PART III: CONCLUSION. Limitation of the Study. Suggestions of Futher Study.
71 ix PART 1: INTRODUCTION An overview of the research will be mentioned by firstly presenting its rationale, the aims and the research questions of the study. Then, the scope of the study is pointed out. Next, the organization of the thesis is outlined. Rationale of the Study Asking questions is our daily activity.
Thanks to questions, we can communicate with others to exchange knowdlege, information, ideas, opinions, and feeling. We use questions so often that we cannot guess how we could communicate without questions. Further more, using questions normally keeps our communication better. However, learners usually have troubles with the constructing and using them especially when it comes to the translating between English and Vietnamese.
In this paper, the author would like to focus only on the constructing and using Wh-questions in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese. By contrasting the form and meaning of Wh- question of both the languages, we can gain the understanding of their similarities and differences which are very useful for us in using English as a foreign language. Aims of the Study As stated earlier, the study contains three main goals: - Generally presenting definitions and characteristics of Wh- questions - Contrastively analyzing English and Vietnamese Wh- questions - Clearly showing the common errors of Vietnamese learners in using Wh- questions and suggested solutions 1 3. Research Questions To achieve these three main goals, three research questions have been set for my study: - Question 1: What are the features of Wh- questions in English and Vietnamese? - Question 2: What are the similarities and differences between Wh- questions in English and Vietnamese? - Question 3: What are the common errors which Vietnamese learners normally have when they use English Wh-questions? 4.
Scope of the Study The scope of this study is defined as an investigation into Wh-questions in English and Vietnamese. Therefore, the study is limited to this type of questions, not other kinds. Translated texts in some books are going to be used in the analysis; a survey done by English–major students of Bolton Center is going to reveal some results. However, the findings of the thesis is hoped to be possibly useful for Vietnamese learners of English.
Methods of the Study The author mainly uses contrastive methods to analyze forms, contents and other features of Wh-questions and to contrastively analyze English -Vietnamese Wh- questions. Design of the Study The thesis is divided into three parts which are listed as Introduction, Development, and Conclusion. Among which, part 2 – Development comprises four chapters: Chapter I: Literature Review, providing a theoretical framework for the study, including definitions and characteristics of Wh-questions in English and Vietnamese. Chapter II: Methodology Chapter III: Findings and Discussion Chapter IV: English Wh-questions and their Vietnamese equivelents.
3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Questions and Other Types of Simple Sentences Before studying questions in detail, we should have a look at types of simple sentences. Simple sentences as Quirk, R. Greenbaun (1973 :166) define: “that is, sentences consisting of only one clause”. Hung wasn’t at home last night.
Do you remember Mrs. Lan? Don’t stay up late ! What a funny day we have had! The examples above are all simple sentences, but they are distinguished from one another by form and function in discourse. They belong to different classes of simple sentences. According to Quirk et al.
(1973:191): “Simple sentences may be divided into four major syntactic classes, whose use correlates with different communicative functions”. These types of simple sentences have been known as statements, commands exclamations and questions. Statements Statements are widely used in both spoken and written forms. Quirk et al.
(1973:192) say “statements are sentences in which the subject is always present and generally precedes the verbs” Sam will get married next month. My síster has been to England twice. Statements are primarily used to convey information or as Leech and Svartvik (1990) define, “statements are typical sentences which give information”. In the previous examples, the speakers merely informed what they considered new to the listeners or they believed that the addressees needed telling.
However, some statements do more than give information. There are many different uses of statements. The following are some examples: Expressing approval: You are doing the right thing. Expressing sympathy: It was bad luck you lost all of your money.
Asking for information: I needed to know your decision. Giving order: I want you to learn this by heart. Thanking someone: I am very grateful. Commands Quirk et al.
(1972:402-404) state: 5 “Commands are sentences which normally have no over grammatical subject, and whose verb is in the imperative. The clause patterns of commands show the same range and ordering of elements as statements”. Here are the examples: Close the door! Be calm! Don’t worry! A command often makes known the speakers’ desire or request that something be done so on and so forth. In a command, the imperative verb is severely restricted as to tense, aspect, voice and modality.
Generally, there is no tense distinction or perfect aspect, only the progressive form rarely occurs, so does the passive. Be preparing the dinner when I get home Get your car washed A command could sound abrupt unless toned down by markers of politeness such as please or if it is changed into a question or a statement. Shut the door, please or Will you shut the door, please or I wonder whether you would mind shutting the door. 6 Commands often have no subject, the omitted subject of the imperative verb is the 2nd person pronoun “you”.
Yet, there is a type of command in which the subject “you” retained: You keep silent. You mind your own business. Quirk et al. (1972:403) point out that: “These commands are usually admonitory or ‘finger-wagging’ in tone, and frequently express strong irritation.
As such, they cannot naturally be combined with markers of politeness, such as please”. Another very common type of commands is commands with ‘let’ Let us go somewhere for a drink. Let me do it again. Let him go out.
In English, commands with ‘let’ are used chiefly when the first and the third person pronouns (singular/ or plural) are present Let’s play football this afternoon. Let them finish their work. Let my cry. Exclamations are sentences which have an initial phrase introduced by what or how, without inversion of subject and operator What a lovely day! How funny he is! Exclamations are primarily for expressing the speaker’s own feeling or in other words, an exclamation form us of the speaker’s reaction to the factual phenomena (his surprise, joy, or excitement, etc…) What a boy! (could refer to a very bad or very good boy) How warm the water is! (It means the water is very warm, that expresses the speaker’s feeling about the degree of warmth) How beautiful that girl is! (expresses the speaker’s excitement).
A range of Wh-words and their functions that can be used in exclamations is not as wide as that available in Wh-questions. In fact, it is restricted to what functioning as pre-determined in a noun phrase and how functioning as intensifier.1 Definitions According to Quirk et al(1973), questions are sentences marked by one or more of these three criteria: 8 - The placing of the operator in front of the subject Is he going to school? Op-S - The initial positioning of an interrogative or Wh-element What kind of colors do you like? - Rising “question” intonation Do you like coffee? She is coming this afternoon? Questions are usually used to seek for the lack of information on a specific point, and to ask the listener to supply the information like: What is his name? His name is Long. How old is he? He is ten years old. Questions can be seen in negative form to show surprise or annoyment Didn’t you hear the phone?