VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** NGUYỄN THỊ NGÂN A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE VERB ‘FALL’ IN ENGLISH AND THE VERB ‘NGÃ’ IN VIETNAMESE (PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐỘNG TỪ ‘FALL’ TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ ĐỘNG TỪ ‘NGÃ’ TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 HANOI – 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** NGUYỄN THỊ NGÂN A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE VERB ‘FALL’ IN ENGLISH AND THE VERB ‘NGÃ’ IN VIETNAMESE (PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐỘNG TỪ ‘FALL’ TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ ĐỘNG TỪ ‘NGÃ’ TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 602215 Supervisor: Assoc.Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ HANOI - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv ABBREVIATIONS vi PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Aims of the study 1 3.
Scope of the study 2 5. Methods of the study 2 6. Design of the study 2 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORICAL BACKGROUND 4 1. An overview on Contrastive Analysis 4 1.
MiCA versus MaCA 5 1. A brief description of verbs 6 1. Verbs in English 6 1. Verbs in Vietnamese 8 1.
Types of meaning 9 1. Idioms and proverbs 10 1. Concluding remarks 12 CHAPTER 2: A STUDY ON THE VERB „FALL‟ IN ENGLISH AND THE VERB „NGÃ‟ IN VIETNAMESE 2. A Contrastive Analysis between the verb „Fall‟ in English and the 13 Verb „Ngã‟ in Vietnamese in terms of Microlinguistics 2.
An investigation into the Verb “Fall” in English. 13 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Meanings in some idioms and proverbs 20 2. Synonyms of “Fall” 21 2.
An Investigation into the verb „Ngã‟ in Vietnamese 2. Meanings in some idioms and proverbs 28 2. Synonyms of „Ngã” 29 2. In Terms of grammatical features 31 2.
In terms of semantics features 33 2. A Contrastive Analysis between the verb „FALL‟ in English and the verb „NGÃ‟ in Vietnamese in terms of Macrolinguistics. In terms of setting 37 2. In terms of participants 38 2.
In terms of contents 38 2. In terms of channel 39 2. Concluding remarks 39 PART III. CONCLUSIONS LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Implication of the study 41 2. To EFL Teaching and Learning 41 2. To translation from English to Vietnamese and Vice Versa 41 3. Recommendations for further Research.
42 REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES I LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 7 ABBREVIATIONS CA: Contrastive Analysis MiCA: Microlinguistic Contrastive Analysis MaCA: Macrolinguistic Contrastive Analysis EFL: English as a Foreign Language L1: First Language L2: Second Language LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 8 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Nowadays, English is widely used and has been especially important in the world. In Vietnam, it is not an exception and has become a compulsory subject in schools, colleges and universities. However, learning English is really a big problem to learners because they are affected by their mother tongue during the process of studying grammar, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, etc.
On the part of grammar, verbs have always been one of the most complex classes of words, which have most widely used and consequently, have played an important role in any language system so far. As a result, many final thesises on contrastive analysis between verbs in native language and target language have been conducted to provide teachers and learners thorough view on those verbs and have good way to use them. Among verbs, the verb „fall, one of which Vietnamese equivalent is „Ngã‟, is one of the common and confusing words to learners. Conducting the minor thesis entitled “A Contrastive Analysis between the Verb „FALL‟ in English and the Verb „NGÃ‟ in Vietnamese” also arose from difficulties that the author face in her daily teaching related to the usage of the verbs.
For the above reasons, this thesis has been made with an attempt to contribute the author‟s own knowledge and experience in dealing with the problems of Vietnamese beginners. It‟s also hopeful that this minor thesis will be of some help to those who are interested in this aspect of English grammar and vocabulary. Aims of the study The study is aimed at: - Finding the similarities and differences between the verb “fall” in English and the verb “ngã” in English mainly in terms of Mirolinguistic Contrastive Analysis (MiCA) and partly in terms of Macrolinguistic Contrastive Analysis (MaCA). - Providing recommendations for teaching, learning and translating „fall‟ and „ngã‟ into the target language 3.
To fully achieve these aims, the study should answer the following questions: (i) What are the grammatical and semantic features of each verb and how are they similar and different in terms of these features? LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 9 (ii) What are their synonyms and what are the idioms and proverbs with these two verbs? (iii) What are the implications of the study for the EFL teaching, learning and translation? 4. Scope of the study In this minor thesis, it is difficult to discuss both the verbs in terms of MiCA and MaCA in details. Consequently, the author mainly focuses on analyzing and contrasting them in terms of MiCA (concerning grammatical and semantic features of the two verbs), and just give a brief introduction about the similarities and differences between them concerned with MaCA. The verbs „fall‟ and „ngã‟ are rich in synonyms, the author could not discuss them all in details but give an overview on the most common ones.
Methods of the study To achieve the aims given, the author has combined different methods as follow: - Analyze and contrast; - Synthesize. The procedures of the study are: - To synthesize meanings of „fall‟ and „ngã‟ and examples to illustrate from different sources such as dictionaries, literary works, newspapers, magazines, native speakers and websites. - To collect the synonyms of each verb and idioms/ proverbs with them. - To analyze and contrast each verb and draw out the similarities and differences between them in terms of MiCA and MaCA.
- To suggest the ways to apply the findings of the study to the language teaching/learning and translation. Design of the study This minor thesis consists of three main parts based on the following arrangement: Part I entitled „INTRODUCTION‟ outlines the background of the study in which brief account of relevant information such as the rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study are provided. Part II, the „DEVELOPMENT‟ is subdivided into 2 chapters. Chapter 1, „THEORITICAL BACKGROUND‟, supplies the general fundamental and essential theoretical concepts involving the subject under consideration.
It covers a series of concepts ranging from CA, guiding principles for contrastive study, MiCA, MaCA, verbs in English and in Vietnamese, a LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 10 brief introduction of synonyms, and idioms/ proverbs. Chapter 2 entitled “A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE VERB „FALL‟ IN ENGLISH AND „NGÃ‟ IN VIETNAMESE” discusses the two verbs in terms of MiCA and MaCA in succession. After that, the similarities and differences are drawn out. Each chapter ends with some concluding remarks.
Part III, the „CONCLUSION‟, provides recapitulation, implications of the study for EFL teaching and learning and translation from English to Vietnamese and vice versa, and recommendations for further research. The „REFERENCES‟ comes next. The study ends with the „APPENDICES‟. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 11 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORICAL BACKGROUND 1.
An overview on Contrastive Analysis. Contrastive analysis (CA) is the systematic study of a pair or more of languages with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities. The term „Contrastive linguistics‟ was suggested by Whorf (1941) and was defined as “ a sub discipline of linguistics concerned with the comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine both the differences and similarities between them”, (Fisiak, 1981:1). CA is the method of analyzing the structure of any two languages with a view to estimate the differential aspects of their systems, irrespective or their generic affinity or level of development.
CA of two languages becomes useful when it is adequately describing the sound structure and grammatical structure of two languages, with comparative statements, giving due emphasis to the compatible items in the two systems. From 1940s to 1960s before the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) field as we know it was established, Charles Fries (1945:9) wrote: “The most efficient materials are those that are based upon a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner”. Robert Lado, in 1957 wrote: “Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture- both productively and when attempting to speak the language and to act in the culture and receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and culture as practiced by natives”. In the 1960s and early 1970s, CA was used extensively in the field of Second Language Acquisition.
Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) – this extension of the notion of CA attributed the ability to predict errors to a CA of two languages, a predictability that practitioners associated with the degree of similarity between the two systems. Robert Lado wrote: “…. those elements that are similar to this native language will be simple for him, and those elements that are different will be difficult.” CA emphasizes on the influence of the mother tongue in learning a second language in phonological, morphological and syntactic levels. Contrastive Analysis is not merely relevant for second language teaching and learning but it can also make useful contributions to machine translating and linguistics typology.
It is relevant to the designing of teaching materials for use LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 12 in all age groups. Chaturvedi (1973) suggests the following guiding principles for contrastive study: (1) To analyze the mother tongue and the target language independently and completely. (2) To compare the two languages item-wise-item at all levels of their structure. (3) To arrive at the categories of a/ similar features b/ partially similar features c/ dissimilar features – for the target language.
(4) To arrive at principles of text preparation, test framing and target language teaching in general. Theses principles coincide with what Carl James presented in Contrastive Analysis (1980:64) to some extent. MiCA versus MaCA These are broad terms which refer to two major types of linguistics. Microlinguistics refers to phonetics, phonology, grammar and semantics, whereas macrolinguistics covers sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and other related disciplines.
In sociolinguistics, the micro level is often equated with variation and face-to-face communication, whereas macro sociolinguistics involves language planning and sociology of language. According to the microlinguistics view, languages should be analyzed for their own sake without any reference to their social function, to the manner in which they are acquired by human beings, and to the literary or communicative function of language. Thus, a MiCA often compares phonology/phonetics, grammar and lexis. For example, a study of this kind often finds out what the consonant phonemes in languages X and Y are, how they differ in inventory, realization and distribution; what the tense system of language X and Y, etc.
The main aim of a MiCA is a formal description of the language system based on the interrelationships and independencies of its elements without any source to external factors. Obviously, the translation situation which evolves equivalent messages, that are speech units and texts in two different languages is not part of the system of either of these languages and can not be studied and described in terms of microlinguistics.