English and Vietnamese Adjective Phrases.

PART A INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale. Nowadays, position is the intimately widely utilise in the world and plays an important role together with the development of society and technologies. position is not besides the effective blind drunks of communication hardly similarly evince its progressive effects in m any(prenominal) aspects of life. Practically, mintvass on the similarities and battles between the deuce languages and cultures English and Vietnamese has been one of my bitecerns. It is clear that in that location argon many differences between the two languages of as those in grammar, lexicology, translation, phonetic and so on.However there still exist plenty of similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese that faecal matter be demonstrated bunco gametrastive analysis. When choosing the subject for the assignment, I put much attention to adjectival phrases beca wasting disease this field whitethorn make me confused. I hope that this study help me as well as other learners will understand adjectival phrases in English and Vietnamese thoroughly. 2. Aims of the study. My research aims at. + Giving theoretical ground of English and Vietnamese adjective phrases. Analyzing of the cry install in English adjective with Vietnamese equivalence + Presenting nearly difficulties faced by Vietnamese learners of English in adjective phrases and 3. Scope of the study. During the study process, I develop been attracted by adjective phrases. Because of time allowance and knowledge, I cannot cover all its constructions, rights, etc. however plainly focus on ranks, and I introduce some similarities and differences of adjective phrases between English and Vietnamese for the research. PART B DEVELOPMENT I. Literature check out I. 1.Definition of Adjective phrase I. 1. 1. English Adjective phrase According to Quirk et al. (57) and Greenbaunm (32), an adjective phrase is a phrase with an adjective such(prenominal) as overlarge or beaming as its head. Within the adjectives phrase, the adjective may be pre-modified (too careful) or post-modified (afraid of ghost ) or both of premodifed and post modified (too c archaic to swim, passing afraid of ghost). The structure of the typical adjective phrase is shown at the future(a) figure. The parenthesis indicate the optional elements. pic Eg. I am tired head The fashion is full of smoke ead postmod. The bus is very slow to set off premod. head postmod. I. 1. 1. Vietnamese Adjective phrase According to Di? p Quang Ban (5) and Nguy? n Tai C? n (10), a Vietnamese adjective phrase is a phrase in which there is an adjective as a head. For ideal t? t, v? n r? t t? t, r? t t? t, t? t qua. same(p) English adjectives, Vietnamese adjectives have the ability to combine with modifier genes which are divided into two parts modifiers preceding the head are called premodifiers, whereas those following the head are called premodifiers.In Vietnamese adjective phrases, some mod ifiers can appear both in advance and after the head. eg. xinh qua, qua xinh, c? c k? t? t, t? t c? c k?. Like the structure of noun phrases and verb phrases, the full construction of an adjective phrase consists of three components a head, premodifier, and postmodifer and the short construction may consist of one component (a head) or two components (a head and premodifier or a head and postmodifier). The structure of the typical Vietnamese adjective phrase is in the following figure premodifier(s) + head + postmodifier(s) I. 2.Adjective phrases and their orders I. 2. 1. Word order by syntactic authoritys of English adjective phrases According to Greenbaum (32) Adjective functions have two main functions premodifier of a noun (attri plainlyive function) and subject predicative(subject predicative function). Eg. premodifier of a noun (attributive function) My cat is a very curious cat. Subject predicative(subject predicative function). My sister is very pretty Besides, Ther e are some other functions of adjective phrase Object predicative function They are going to paint their house pink Postmodifier of a pronoun Shall we go to somewhere cool? Postmodifier of a noun I dont mean to make my wife sad Nominal adjective You should confuse the Chinese and the Japanese Complement of a preposition he did not come back shell till late last night. a. Word order in attribute function When they come before nouns, they run in the following order a (adjective) + b (noun) Eg. Barack Obama is a extremely strict president a + b As the example shows, adjective phrases used in premodification are usually every one leger phrase. When they come after nouns, they occur in the following order b (noun) + a (adjective) Eg. I am thirteen years old b + a Anyone intelligent can apply for the job b + a Barack Obama was the president elect. b + a b. Word order in predicative function In adjective phrase, an adjective not only occurs in attributive position, it can as w ell appear in predicative position as subject complement after linking verbs like be, seem, appear, especially the verbs of sense taste, look, smell, etc. There is a copular relationship between subject and subject complement.The record book order can be formalized as a (subject) + b (linking verb) + c (adjective) Eg The cake tastes sweet a + b + c Your perfume smells fragrant a + b + c That music sounds beautiful a + b + c She seems innocent a + b + c I. 2. 2. Word order through Syntactic functions of Vietnamese Adjective phrases a. Word order in Attributive function In Vietnamese adjective phrases, adjective in the attributive function a lot follow the noun they modify according to the order a (noun) + b (adjective) (noun) + b (modifier) + c (adjective) a (noun) + c (adjective) + b (modifier) Eg. Lan da nau c? a co ? y v? n cu? n hut toi = Her brown skin still attracts me Do la bu? i sing mai th? t d? p = That is a very nice early morning M? t chi? c vay l? a Ha Dong th? t d? p a + c + b + d M? t chi? c vay c? a Ha Dong b? ng l? a th? t d? p a + b + c + d M? t chi? c vay l? a th? t d? p c? a Ha Dong a + c + d + b M? t chi? c vay th? t d? p b? ng l? a c? Ha Dong a + d + c + b b. Word order in Predicative Function In Vietnamese adjective phrases, adjectives can directly function as predicative like verbs and the order can be formalised as a (subject) + b (adjective) Eg. B? phim th? t hay = The film was very interesting a + b When Vietnamese adjectives are in the predicative function, they can combine with the criteria of verbs. These are + aspect-time manufacturer da, s? , t? ng, con, chua, etc. a (subject) + b (aspect-time maker) + c (head) Eg. Co ngu? i toc da b? c pho + b + c II. inappropriate analysis of the word order in English adjective with Vietnamese equivalence It is obvious that both English and Vietnamese are analytical languages but they belong to different linguistic typologies. English is an inflectional and analytical language, where as Vietnamese is a typical isolating and non-inflectional language. Therefore, apart from the similarities which do not cause difficulties for learners, there are many differences between English and Vietnamese adjective phrases and their orders which can cause a variety of problems (errors and confusion) for learners.So, I will go deeply into the differences only and I think affinity might be the best way to identify the differences in the word order in English and Vietnamese adjective phrases. The following comparison will focus on the differences in 1. Word order through syntactic functions of adjective phrases 2. Word order in premodification of adjective phrases 3. Word order through staple ground levels of comparison II. 1. Word order through syntactic functions of adjective phrases In terms of main syntactic functions, most English and Vietnamese adjectives can be used both attributively and predicatively.When adjective function attributively, they attribute to a quality or dispositionistic to what is denoted noun they modify. However, there are differences in the word order in the English and Vietnamese adjective phrases through their syntactic functions. II. 1. 1. Word order in Attributive function he is a very generous man Anh ? y la m? t ngu? i hao phong Premod. + N N + postmod. English is a rather difficult subject Ti? ng Anh la m? t mon h? c kha kho Premod. + N N + postmod From the above examples, it can be seen that both English and Vietnamese adjective functions as attribute of nouns, i. e. in attributive function, and they do not vary in form to agree with nouns. However, in the attributive function, English adjectives are used as premodifier of the noun, i. e. they come before the noun and appear between the determiner and the head of the noun phrase, whereas Vietnamese adjectives share the same character in that they often function as postmodifier, i. . they come after the noun. This is an important difference between the two languages . II. 1. 2Word order in predicative function The following examples show the difference in the word order of adjective phrases in predicative function. Eg. Lan is very pretty and intelligent Lan r? t xinh d? p va thong minh intensive V. Adj. + Adj. Adj. + Adj. I dont like living in the house because it is so Toi khong thich s? ng trong ngoi nha do vi no b? n th? i va t? tam dirty and dark Adj. + Adj. intensive V. Adj. + Adj. Apart from the attributive function, both English and Vietnamese adjectives can overly be used predicatively. However, in English, when adjectives function as predicate they are used after an intensive verb be. foreign English adjectives, Vietnamese adjectives play the predicative role directly without the linking verb be, i. e. in this function, Vietnamese adjectives are used to complete a sentence without any verbs or verb phrase.On the contrary, English adjectives can never function as verbs. In a sentence, they must follow a verb or a verb phrase. Moreover, when we translate from English into Vietnamese, we often meet a great number of disyllabic adjectives in Vietnamese. For example xinh xinh x? n (beautiful) kho kho khan (difficult) ch? m ch? m ch? p (slow) g? n g? n gang (tidy) Generally, these disyllabic adjectives are formed from monosyllabic adjectives. Whether using monosyllabic or disyllabic depends on the habit of the Vietnamese Eg. It is clear that he is quite slow Ro rang r? ng anh ? y kha ch? ch? p The weather makes me feel tired Th? i ti? t lam cho toi c? m th? y m? t m? i Further more(prenominal), almost all Vietnamese monosyllabic adjectives can be used repeatedly to diminish the characteristics or levels. And these are typical features of Vietnamese adjectives which we do not find in English, for example I felt iciness (Toi c? m th? y lanh l? nh). Unlike English adjectives, in Vietnamese, some adjectives can combine with nouns adjective + noun to form the group of recount adjectives to express the sta te of the characteristics. For example My mother is a very careful and helpful womanM? c? a toi la m? t ngu? i ph? n? c? n th? n va nhi? t tinh These group of words have metaphoric meaning and can function as predicate and attribute. Here are some groups of words which are frequently used nong tinh(hot-tempered), d? tinh(easy-going), t? t b? ng(knid-hearted), sang d? (clever), feed c? m (brave), etc. However, when the order of the groups of words is inverted, the metaphoric meaning disappears. Besides, in Vietnamese, the structure ma + adjectives is used to strongly express the objection to an opinion, a remark just made by the speaker.This structure is only applied the peers or inferiors Eg. Is Nam really friendly? Anh Nam ma than thi? n a? Generally, in languages, the incontrovertible sentences have the positive meaning, but in Vietnamese, when ma precedes adjectives in the sentence, the sentence has the negative meaning. The sentence Anh Nam ma than thi? n a? (Is Nam really f riendly? ) intend Nam is not friendly Another feature of Vietnamese adjectives which does not exist in English. That is, adjectives that precede ra, len, di l? i to form compound words or the group of words turn into verbs or have the character of verbs.In Vietnamese, the pattern adjectives + ra/len/ di/l? i is used to express the development of character, state of things or people. When these words combine with adjectives, they often imply the presupposition and have the opposite content, for example when we think Lan d? o nay trong xinh ra. It implies that Lan is more beautiful than before. In Vietnamese, the sense of positive uses the pattern adjective + ra/len. In English, this structure is expressed by Intensive verb + adjective with the comparative meaning. The cosmos is becoming warmer Trai d? t dang nong d? len Vintensive + Adj Adj + len II. 1. 3. Word order in premodification of adjective phrases In this section, we will discuss and analyse the differences in the word order in premodification of English and Vietnamese adjective phrases in detail through translation Eg. I am very glad to meet you Toi r? t vui m? ng du? c g? p anh Intensi. + Adj Intensi. Adj The tigers are very big and savage Nh? ng con h? ?y to l? n va hung d? l? m Intensi. + Adj + adj Adj + adj+ Intensi. She is very nervous before each exam Co ? y da qua lo l? ng tru? c m? i k? thi Intensifier + Adj Intensi. + Adj I am very remorseful and disappointed Toi th? an h? n va th? t v? ng qua Intensifier + Adj + Adj Adj + adj+ Intensi Through the above examples, it should be noted both English and Vietnamese adjectives serve as the head of adjective phrases. Adjective phrases may contain only an adjective as the head, or two components the head and premodifier or the head and postmodifier. Both English and Vietnamese adjectives are premodified chiefly by adverbs. Generally, premodifiers are intensifiers.In English, they are very, extremely, rather, a bit, quite, etc. a nd in Vietnamese, they are r? t, r? t la, qua, th? t, c? c k? , hoi, etc. However, there are some differences in the order of the adverbs denoting peaks in the two languages. In English, these adverbs are followed by adjectives while in Vietnamese, they can occur both before and after adjectives. For instance, in Vietnamese, the adverbs r? t, qua, l? m are used to indicate the highest breaker point of the personal or non-personal characteristics and they are the same meaning but different in usage.All of them can be translated as very besides, qua, l? m may be translated as too and so in English. These examples also show that the word order of adverbs of degree very in English and r? t r? t la in Vietnamese is the same, i. e. they occur before adjectives. However, very and r? t are often used in written language, whereas r? t la is often used in spoken language. But when very is used as l? m or qua, the word order us absolutely different. L? m in Vietnamese must be preceded b y adjectives and it is often used in spoken language.Contrary to l? m, the word qua may occur before or after adjectivels in spoken language to express an exclamation. Also c? c k? , tuy? t, th? t may occur before or after adjectives. However, the words qua, c? c k? , tuy? t, th? t often appear after adjectives, therefore, when they are used before adjectives, they are often used with the meaning of emphasis or assessment. Unlike English adjectives, Vietnamese adjectives can play the predicative role directly, so they can combine with the aspect-time criteria of the verbs such as da, dang, s? , v? n,c? con and it is a typical feature of Vietnamese. This combination expresses the relation between the characteristics and time. These characteristics are based on the sense of aboriginal speakers and they exist like the form of the state. In short, modifiers da, dang, s? , v? n, c? , con not only express grammatical meaning but also the purpose of the statement and the relation between a speaker and reality. In Vietnamese, in certain situations of the sentence, these meanings will be distinguished. Eg. They were very successful H? a r? t thanh cong Vintens. + Intensi. + Adj time-maker + intens. + adj Our country is different now D? t nu? c c? a chung ta da khac xua Vintens.. + Adj time-maker + adj After the wedding, She is very happy Sau l? cu? i, co ? dang r? t h? nh phuc Vintens. + Intensi. + Adj time-maker + adj I hope that you will be comfortable Toi hy v? ng la b? n s? c? m th? y tho? i mai Aux. + Vintens.. + Adj time-maker + adj My wife was still angry V? toi v? n con gi? Vintens.. + Adv + adj time-maker + adj From these, we can see a very remarkable structural difference In English, aspect-time categories are indicated by the forms of the verbs, whereas do not Vietnamese do not have the house of time and the meaning of the time is indicate by supporting words da, dang, s? , v? n, c? , v? n con. In Vietnamese, the predicative function is expres sed by the structures da/dang/s? /v? n/c? con/v? n c? /con c? + adjective, but in English this function is expressed by different structures intensive verb(past) + adjective intensive verb( play) + adjective, auxiliary + present participle+ adjective auxiliary + be + adjective, intensive verb + still + adjective. II. 1. 4 Word order through basic degree of comparison Most adjectives in English and Vietnamese can take comparison. These are gradable adjectives and they have three degrees of comparison same degree higher degree lower degree a. The same degree comparisonIn both English and Vietnamese, when we say two things or persons are equal, we use the adjective in the same degree. In english, we use the structure as + adj + as, whereas in Vietnamese, we use some modifiers nhu, b? ng, tuong t? after adjectives in the structure adj + nhu/b? ng/tuong t?. For example My wife is not as beautiful as yours V? toi khong xinh b? ng v? anh My house is as small as your chest of dr awers Nha c? a toi ch? b? ng van phong c? anh thoi Nobody can understand me as much as my mother Khong ai co th? hi? u toi nhu m? c? b. The higher degree comparison In order to indicate the difference in the word order in the degrees of comparison. First I would give here some examples and their translation into Vietnamese. Hanoi is much more beautiful than Hanoi was Ha N? i ngay nay d? p hon nhi? u Ha N? i tru? c kia Health and happiness are more important than money S? c kho? va h? nh phuc quan tr? ng hon ti? n b? One of the worst diseases which mankind have is cancer M? t trong nh? ng can b? nh nguy hi? m nh? t ma loai ngu? i ph? i ch? u la ung thu These examples show that in the higher degree of comparison, English adjectives change their forms. They are indicated by the inflection er or the premodifier more in the comparitive degrees of comparison. We also add the inflection est or the premodifier most to show the superlative degree.We have some specific rules when us ing er, est, more and most. In contrast, in Vietnamese, in both comparative and superlative degrees, modifiers unceasingly come after the adjective they modify and adjectives do not change their form in both cases c. The lower degree of comparison When we want to say a person or a thing has less of a quality then the other, we use the comparison of the lower degree. In the lower degree, English adjectives take the modifier less.. then? or can be negated from the equality degree and the lowest degree can be denoted by adding the modifier the least.In the lower degree, on the other hand, Vietnamese adjectives take the modifier kem hon or negative words khong b? ng Khong du? c nhu and the lowest degree can be expressed by the words kem nh? t it nh? t. For example The film was less interesting than I expected B? phim nay khong hay nhu toi mong d? i less + adj + than khong + adj nhu This city is not as dangerous as others thanh ph? nay khong nguy hi? nhu cac thanh ph? khac not + as + adj + as In Vietnamese, the relation between these modifiers is very complicated. For instance, we may consider b? ng opposite to kem and khong b? ng may replaced by kem. The word hon may have the similar meaning as b? ng when it combines with khong (khong hon). For example Khong co gi quy hon d? c l? p t? do (Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom) Di? m c? a anh ? y khong hon di? m toiDue to the complete semantics of these modifiers we do not have grammatical category relating to the meaning of degrees of comparison of Vietnamese adjectives. In short, in this chapter, we have discussed the major issues relating to the differences in the form, the word order through the syntactic function, the word order in premodification and basic degrees of comparison of English and Vietnamese adjectives. We can say the word order in Vietnamese phrases is much more complicated then that in English adjective phrases because in Vietnamese adjective phrases, more modifiers can occur both before and after the head adjective phrases.The striking difference between the English and Vietnamese adjective phrases is in the word order through the attributive and predicative functions. Moreover, Vietnamese adjectives may appear with the modifiers showing aspect-time criteria of verbs which we do not find in English. Besides, in English. we clearly distinguish parts of speech adjectives and adverbs with words denoting manner while in Vietnamese we have only one adjectives. II. 2. Some students common steals in using adjective phrases English and Vietnamese are quite different languages, so it is impossible to avoid mistake when learners use adjective phrases.The following mistakes can be the most common ones + Learners often put adjectives in the wrong order because of the influence of their mother tongue. As you know both English and Vietnamese adjectives are used to modify nouns, but English adjectives often precede the nouns they modify, whereas Vietnamese adj ectives often follow the nouns they modify. That is the argue why Vietnamese learners use adjectives incorrectly. + Vietnamese learners often confuse between adjectives which have the -ed and -ing worried/worrying, excited/exciting, etc.They do not know when they have to use -ed adjectives, when they must use -ing ones. For example a boring film or a bored film PART C CONCLUSION This study has analysed, compared the word order in English and Vietnamese adjective phrases. It has analysed the similarities and differences in the arrangement of the words in adjective phrases between two languages based on the basic grammatical structures. By examining the description and comparison of the word order in English adjective phrases with Vietnamese equivalents, this study has shown there are both similarities and differences in the two languages.The most typical similarity is in the structure premodifier + Adj + postmodifier shared by the two languages where the head of the adjective phra ses is in the centre of the phrase and slightly it there may be modifiers premodifier and postmodifier, but they are optional. The basic differences in the word order in English and Vietnamese adjective phrases are probably to cause many problems in understanding, expressing ideas and translation. So much attention should be paid to the differences in teaching adjective phrases to Vietnamese learners. -The end- REFERENCES 1. Aarts. F. & Aart,J. , (1982) English syntactic structures. Oxford Pergamon Press 2. Alexander,L. G. (1992). Longman English Grammar. EssexLongman 3. Ban, Diep Quang (1998) Ng? Phap ti? ng Vi? t. Ha N? i Nha xu? t b? n Giao d? c 4. Fisiak,J. (1981) out or keeping(p) analysis and language teacher. Oxford Oxford Pergamon Institute of English 5. M? nh, Tr? n H? u. (2000). A guide to University grammar of English. Ha N? i D? i h? c M?. 6. Quirk,R et al. (1973). A University Grammar of English. Essex Longman ADJECTIVE PHRA SE Pre-modifier(s) Adjective Postmodifier (s)