PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE OF BINH DUONG PROVINCE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY QUANG VAN VIET CUONG AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH ADJECTIVES DESCRIBING HUMAN SKIN COLOURS AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN VIETNAMESE MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE CODE: 8 22 02 01 MASTER THESIS BINH DUONG - 2020 0 0 c PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE OF BINH DUONG PROVINCE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY QUANG VAN VIET CUONG AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH ADJECTIVES DESCRIBING HUMAN SKIN COLOURS AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS IN VIETNAMESE MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE CODE: 8 22 02 01 MASTER THESIS SUPERVISOR: LE THANH HOA, PhD BINH DUONG - 2020 0 0 c STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this thesis and neither any part of this thesis nor the whole of the thesis has been submitted for a degree to any university or education institution. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard of referencing practices. SIGNATURE QUANG VAN VIET CUONG Page | i 0 0 c ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Mr. Le Thanh Hoa (PhD), for his guidance and continuous support during this process.
His motivation, advocacy, and knowledge insight have helped me develop, organize, and persist in producing this product that first started as an idea. I would also like to thank all the faculty of the foreign languages at Thu Dau Mot University, Binh Duong Province for giving me the tools to look critically at the world and participate as a change agent through education. The final thesis would not have been possible without the enthusiastic support and encouragement from my friends, especially those in Cohort 4 of English language, Thu Dau Mot University. I am particularly grateful to all foreign lecturers of English at Eastern International University and all Vietnamese lecturers of English at Thu Dau Mot University for their participation in the study.
Without their support, the study would not reach such a convincing conclusion as it should. Finally, to my mother, my wife, and my sons, who have made all things possible in my life and inspire me through their love, compassion and wholehearted support. This is for you. Page | ii 0 0 c ABSTRACT The current study aimed to investigate how 23 English adjectives were used to describe human skin colours by English and Vietnamese people.
The research data was collected using questionnaires and interviews with a group of 20 English lecturers working for Eastern International University and another group of 20 Vietnamese lecturers working for Thu Dau Mot University in Binh Duong Province. The findings of the study revealed that Vietnamese people addressed the skin colours of other people more than English people and they did not use the 23 English adjectives to describe human skin colours to the degree of frequency as English people did. The findings of the study also supported Jablonski’s (2012) claim that people living in places closer to the equator had darker skin than those living in the colder climates. Based on the analysis of the 23 English adjectives collected from linguistic dictionaries, the researcher suggested the equivalents in Vietnamese.
The study has implication in terms of the usage of these adjectives for English teachers, learners, translators, dictionary writers, and machine translation. Keywords: human, skin colours, English, Vietnamese, frequency Page | iii 0 0 c TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS. vi LIST OF TABLES.
vii LIST OF FIGURES. viii LIST OF CHARTS. ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION. Background to the Study.
Statement of the Problem. Significance of the Study. Aims and Objectives of the Study. Research Questions and Hypotheses.
Scope and Limitations of the Study. Scope of the Study. Limitations of the Study. 8 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW.
Definitions of Related Linguistic Terms. Human Skin Colours. English Adjectives Used to Describe Human Skin Colours and Its Vietnamese Equivalents .