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 acknowledgment and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor. Hanoi, 24th December 2013. Candidate Bui Thi Cuc Approved by Assoc. Tran Xuan Diep i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am greatly indebted to my supervisor, Assoc.
Tran Xuan Diep for his valuable suggestions, advice and corrections during the course of my writing. I also wish to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, Hanoi Open University, for their useful lectures, supports, encouragements and for inspiring in me the love for English-foreign language teaching and doing research. I also would like to take this opportunity to send my thanks to all my colleagues in The Fisheries College in Bacninh province for their supports and encouragements during the thesis preparation. Finally, I would like to show my deep gratitude to the members of my family, especially my husband, for their great supports, encouragements, love and unshakeable trust without which my thesis would not have been accomplished.
Hanoi, 24th December 2013. ii ABSTRACT In learning English as a foreign language, beginners tend to find one- to-one equivalence between their mother tongue, the source language, and English, the target language. Experience in English learning and teaching has shown that one-to-one equivalence is possible but it is not always the case. At word level, for example, in meaning, one word in English can never be exactly the same as another word in Vietnamese.A thesis, which is entitled “A Contrastive Analysis of the Verb “Love” in English and the Verb “Yêu” in Vietnamese”, is an attempt to find out the similarities and differences between the two verbs in terms of microlinguistics.
The results of the study may help draw a general picture of the two words, idioms involving them, and their similarities and differences. Learners, teachers and translators may benefit from these findings in widening vocabulary and finding equivalents for the source word. As a result, not only are recommendations put forward for foreign language teaching and learning, but also for the translation from English into Vietnamese and vice versa. iii ABBREVIATIONS CA: Contrastive Analysis MiCA: Microlinguistic Contrastive Analysis MaCA: Macrolinguistic Contrastive Analysis EFL: English as a Foreign Language iv LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: Seven types of meaning (Leech 1981) 15 Table 2: Idioms/ Proverbs with the verb “ love” 34 Table 3: Idioms/Proverbs with the verb “Yêu” 43 Table 4: Idioms/ proverbs with “Love” without Yêu” in 55 Vietnamese equivalences Table 5: Idioms/ Proverbs with “Yêu” without “Love” in 56 English equivalences v TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION.
iv LIST OF TABLES. v TABLE OF CONTENT. vi PART I: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the Study.
Objectives of the Study. Scope of the Study. Methods of the Study. Design of the Study.
3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT. 4 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. An overview of Contrastive Analysis. Guiding Principles for Contrastive Studies.
Microlinguistic Contrastive Analysis (MiCA). Macrolinguistic Contrastive Analysis. A Brief Description of Verbs. Verbs in English.
Verbs in Vietnamese. Types of Meaning. Idioms and Proverbs. Functions of Idioms.
21 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Subjects of the Studies. 22 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. A Contrastive Analysis of the Verb “Love” in English and the Verb “Yêu” in Vietnamese in terms of Microlinguistics.
An investigation into the verb “Love” in English. Meanings of the word “Love” in some Idioms and Proverbs. An Investigation into the verb “Yêu” in Vietnamese. Meanings in Some Idioms and Proverbs.
In Terms of Grammatical Features. In terms of Semantics Features. 57 PART III: CONCLUSIONS. Recapitulation of Main Ideas.
Limitations of the Study. Recommendations for Further Research. 72 viii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the Study In learning English as a foreign language, beginners tend to find one- to-one equivalence between their mother tongue, the source language, and English, the target language.
Experience in English learning and teaching has shown that one-to-one equivalence is possible but it is not always the case. The verb “love” in English and the verb “yêu” in Vietnamese are one of examples for the case. In some circumstances, the verb “love” cannot be translated into “yêu” in Vietnamese and vice versa. For example, how do English people find equivalents for such proverbs/ idioms like “Yêu nhau củ ấu cũng tròn/ Ghét nhau bò hòn cũng làm méo”, ‘Yêu nhau mấy núi cũng trèo’, etc.
in their language, and how do Vietnamese people translate such proverbs/ idioms like ‘Love me little, love me long”, “Whom the gods love die young”, “Each bird loves to hear himself sing”, etc.? The study entitled “A Contrastive Analysis of the Verb “Love” in English and the Verb “Yêu” in Vietnamese” is intended to look at the similarities and differences between the verb “Love” in English and the verb “Yêu” in Vietnamese. Objectives of the Study The study is designed to: Describe the grammatical and semantic features of the verb “Love” in English. Describe the grammatical and semantic features of the verb “Yêu” in Vietnamese. Find the similarities and differences between the verb “Love” in 1 English and the verb “Yêu” in Vietnamese in terms of Microlinguistic Contrastive Analysis (MiCA) 1.
To achieve these objectives, the study is intended to answer the following questions: 1. What are the grammatical features of the verb “Love” in English and “Yêu” in Vietnamese? 2. What are the semantic features of the verb “Love” in English and “Yêu” in Vietnamese? 3. What are the similarities and differences between the two verbs in terms of these features? 1.
Scope of the Study To analyze and contrast the verb “Love” in English and the verb “Yêu” in Vietnamese within this study, the thesis focuses on analyzing and contrasting them in terms of MiCA (concerning grammatical and semantic features of the two verbs). With regard to the grammatical features, the syntactic and morphological features are discussed. In terms of the semantic features, the study analyzes the general meanings, their meanings in some idioms and proverbs of the two verbs. Methods of the Study The study has employed the following methods: − To describe, analyze and contrast − To collect and synthesize statistics The procedures of the study are as follows: 2 − First step: To synthesize meanings of “Love” and “Yêu” and examples to illustrate from different sources such as dictionaries, literary works, newspapers, magazines, native speakers and websites.
− Second step: To analyze and contrast two verbs in terms of MiCA to identify the similarities and differences between them. Design of the Study This study consists of three main parts. They are: Part I: “Introduction”, which gives in brief general information about the study such as the Rationale, Objectives, Research Questions, Scope, Methods and Design of the Study. Part II: “Development”, which is subdivided into 3 chapters.
Chapter 1: “Theoretical background”, which provides the general fundamental and essential theoretical concepts as a foundation of the subject under consideration. It covers a series of concepts ranging from CA, guiding principles for contrastive study, MiCA, verbs in English and in Vietnamese, a brief introduction of idioms/ proverbs involving the verb “Love” in English and “Yêu” in Vietnamese. Chapter 2: “Research Methodology”, which deals with the subjects, the materials, and the procedures of the study. Chapter 3: “Findings and discussions” of the two verbs in terms of MiCA.
The similarities and differences are drawn out. Part III: “Conclusion”, which includes the recapitulation of main ideas, the limitations of the study, and suggestions for further studies. 3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. An overview of Contrastive Analysis.
Definition Contrastive analysis has been viewed as a systematic comparative study in which differences and similarities between languages (usually between two languages) are clearly recognized. The term ‘Contrastive linguistics’ was suggested by Whorf (1941), for comparative study which is giving emphasis on linguistic differences meanwhile contrastive linguistics has been redefined as: “a subdiscipline 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). According to Richards, J.C et al (1992), contrastive analysis is “the comparison of the linguistic systems of two languages, for example the sound system or the grammatical system,” Carl James (1980:2) confirmed that contrastive analysis is neither generalist nor particularistic. It stands somewhere intermediate on a scale between the two extremes.
It is more interested in differences between languages than in their likeness and it is viewed as diachronic rather than synchronic in orientation. He defined contrastive analysis as: “a linguistic enterprise aimed at producing inverted (i. contrastive, not comparative) two values typologies (a contrastive analysis always concerned with a pair of languages), and founded on the assumption that languages can be compared.” 4 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, contrastive analysis was used extensively in the field of Second Language Acquisition. Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis – this extension of the notion of contrastive analysis attributed the ability to predict errors to a contrastive analysis 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.” It is assumed that learning of second language is facilitated whenever there are similarities between that language and mother tongue. Learning may be interfered with when there are marked contrasts between mother tongue and second language.
Obviously, the main difficulties are caused by mother tongue interference can be predicted by contrastive analysis, or in other words, contrastive analysis is useful tool to explain learners’ errors caused by language 1’s interference. Thanks to it, teaching materials can make use of 5 contrastive analysis to reduce the effects of interference. This explains why contrastive analysis really helps in language teaching and learning. According to Carl James, contrastive analysis is both a form of pure linguistics and applied linguistics.
However, contrastive analysis is only a peripheral enterprise in pure linguistics. Contrastive analysis is central concern of applied linguistics. So the term contrastive analysis we use within this study intends “Applied contrastive analysis”. Contrastive analysis is a very broad field of linguistics, since it embraces all its major levels: phonology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics, the latter including text studies and some aspects of the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspective.
Guiding Principles for Contrastive Studies Contrastive analysis emphasizes on the influence of the mother tongue in learning a second language in phonological, morphological and syntactic levels. Chaturvedi (1973:56) 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. 6 These principles coincide with what Carl James presented in Contrastive analysis (1980:64) to some extent.