1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THỊ DIỆU QUYÊN THE COMMON TWO-WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND MENTAL PROCESSES IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÁC ĐỘNG TỪ HAI THÀNH TỐ PHỔ BIẾN QUI CHIẾU TIẾN TRÌNH VẬT CHẤT VÀ TINH THẦN TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ NGHĨA TIẾNG VIỆT TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG) M.A. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 HA NOI – 2010 2 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES BÙI THỊ DIỆU QUYÊN THE COMMON TWO-WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND MENTAL PROCESSES IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÁC ĐỘNG TỪ HAI THÀNH TỐ PHỔ BIẾN QUI CHIẾU TIẾN TRÌNH VẬT CHẤT VÀ TINH THẦN TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ NGHĨA TIẾNG VIỆT TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG) M.A. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Lingguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Bích Ngọc, M.A. HA NOI – 2010 6 TABLES OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale of the study 9 2. Aims of the study 10 3. Scope of the study 10 4. Method of the study 11 5. Design of the study 11 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 12 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 12 1.1. Two word verbs 12 1.1.1 Definition of PVs and PreVs 12 1.1.2 Syntactic and semantic characteristics of PVs and PreVs 16 2.1.2.2 Syntactic and semantic characteristics of PreVs 18 1.2. Process types 20 1.2.1 Overview of process types 20 1.2.2 Material processes 22 1.2.3 Mental processes 24 1.2.4 Material vs. mental processes 25 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 26 2.1 Data collection instrument 26 2.2. Corpus choice 26 2.3. Data Analyses 27 2.4. The selection and extraction of two-word verbs 29 CHAPTER 3: ENGLISH TWO-WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND MENTAL PROCESSES AND VIETNAMSESE EQUIVALENTS 31 3. 1. COME 32 3. 2. GIVE 35 3. 3. GO 36 3. 4. MAKE 38 3. 5. HEAR 39 7 3. 6. SEE 39 3. 7. THINK 40 PART C: CONCLUSION 41 1. Conclusions 41 2. Suggestions for teaching and learning two-word verbs 42 3. Suggests for further studies 42 REFERENCES 43 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 II APPENDIX 3 III APPENDIX 4 IV APPENDIX 5 V APPENDIX 6 VI APPENDIX 7 VII 8 Abbreviations B.E British English A.E American English PV Phrasal verb PreV Prepositional verb S Obligatory separable phrasal verbs inS Inseparable phrasal verbs Trans Transitive Intrans Intransitive NP Noun phrase V Verb LSWE Longman Spoken and Written English LOCNESS Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays BNC British National Corpus List of tables Table 1: PVs and PreVs dissimilarities 11 Table 2: Number of two-word verbs and meanings in three sources of dictionary 17 Table 3: Table 3: Frequent two-word verbs in studies of Gardner & Davies (2007), Liu (2003), Waibel (2002), and Biber (1999) 18 9 PART A: INTRODUCTION "There is another kind of composition more frequent in our language than perhaps in any other, from which arises to foreigners the greatest difficulty." Samuel Johnson Preface, Dictionary of the English Language, 1755 1. Rationale of the study The two-word verbs, including phrasal verbs (PVs) and prepositional verbs (PreVs), are an interesting linguistic phenomenon in the English language. Many English teachers have realized the importance of this multiword knowledge in helping their learners use English more fluently and naturally. Paradoxically, these structures are never easy for non-native learners to acquire, mostly because the semantic, grammatical and stylistic peculiarities that they possess. The meanings of a two-word verb are not always likely guessed from its individuals. Many non-native speakers of English must, therefore, memorize them to be able to understand and use them in the right context. However, thousands of two-word verbs and many more times of their meanings make the massive learning unfruitful. Consequently, pages are spent to find out which PVs to teach and in what sequences. For example, Dilin Liu (2003) suggests 302 items to be most frequently used idioms, with 104 of them are PVs. Gardner and Davies (2007) propose a smaller number - 100 frequent PVs, which the authors claim to be a manageable number to deal with. The problem is two-word verbs are very polysemous, and corresponding with 100 frequent PVs proposed by Gardner and Davies, (2007), it is not 100 but up to 559 potential meanings (5.6 meanings per PV on average) learners have to deal with. From this view, the number 100 is getting less manageable. What ifIf we focus on senses that are used more often than the others? So, the load of learning English two-word verbs would be reduced. This is also what this current study is aiming at. Biber et al. (1999) suggest that we classify multiword verbs according to their 10 core meaning called semantic domains: activity verbs, communication verbs, mental verbs, causative verbs, verbs of simple occurrence, verbs of existence or relationship, and aspectual verbs. Halliday (1985,; 2004) approaches the matter with different term but the same nature. Instead of ‗semantic domains; Halliday has term ‗processes‘ (See section 1.2.1 for types of processes); and what Biber (1999) names ‗activity verb‘ is labeled ‗material process‘. This study uses Halliday‘s terms for their clarity and systematic nature; and attends to material and mental processes since they are considered most common by both Halliday (1985,; 2004) and Biber (1999). 2. Aims of the study The primary aims of this paper are: 1. to study English two-word verbs, specifically distinguish two kinds of two- word verbs: PVs and PreVs; 2. to study English processes, focusing on material and mental processes; 3. to investigate some common English two-word verbs denoting material and mental processes and find their Vietnamese equivalents; 4. to suggest some recommendations for teaching and learning two-word verbs. 3. Scope of the study As far as structural aspects of two-word verbs are concerned, the current study includes both PV (transitive and intransitive) and PreVs. ‗Phrasal-prepositional verbs‘ would be beyond the scope of this paper. Two-word verbs are rich in both number and meanings. For example, in Oxford Phrasal verbs Dictionary, 6000 common British and American PVs are recorded; the verb ‗go‘ solely has 31 two-word verbs with 209 different meanings. So, we are not ambitious to cover all of them. Although some verbs have no single correct classification or have multiple meanings belonging to different semantic domains, Biber (1999) affirms that activity verbs and mental verbs are of most common. Among the 12 most common lexical verbs that all occur over 1000 times per million words in the LSWE Corpus (Biber et al., 1999: 373), six are activity verbs (get, go, mzake, come, take, give), five are mental verbs 11 (know, think, see, want, mean). Also by means of corpus, Biber proposes lists of the most common lexical verbs in each semantic domain, including all verbs that occur over 300 times per million words in at least one register (cf. Biber et al , 1999: 367-369). In domain of activity material verbs, we see the notable common of “make, go, give, come, put”, and “take‖; while ―see, think, know, want, feel, like‖ are distinguished representatives of mental verbs. Therefore, having claimed to be the study of the common two-word verbs denoting material and mental processes in English though, in the frame of a small paper, we only focus on four outstanding representatives of material verbs: COME, GIVE, GO, MAKE (all are in the top 10 most prolific PVs of British National Corpus), and three of mental ones: HEAR, SEE, THINK. Moreover, only two-word verbs with idiomatic and semi- idiomatic meanings used in material and mental processes are concentrated on. 4. Method of the study The study aims to find out, in the limitation of seven lexical verbs, ―how many‖ and ‖how often‖ two-word verbs belong to material and mental processes are there are, comparing with the other four processes. Thus, quantitative research methods, which give much focus on the collection and analysis of numerical data and statistics, appear to be appropriate. 5. Design of the study This study is designed in three parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion. The Introduction gives an overview of the study. The Development consists of three chapters: Chapter 1- - Theoretical Background, provides the fundamental concepts used in the paper; Chapter 2 - Methodology, describes thoroughly the methodology acquired in the study; Chapter 3 presents lists of two-word combinationcombinations of 8seven common verbs belonging to material and mental processes with their particles/ prepositions and their Vietnamese equivalents. Finally, the Conclusion offers the review of the study with its implication and application concerning teaching and learning English two-word verbs in general. 12 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This chapter represents the issues of two-word verbs and Processes of Material and Mental in details. Section 1.1 examines some aspects of PVs and PreVs such as their definitions and their semantic and syntactic aspects. Particles- - the vital component of PVs, are also defined and classified. Section 1.2 looks into the matter of process types with the focus is on Material and Mental processes, their definition and characteristics. 1.1. Two word verbs Quirk et al. (1972) clarify that multi-word verbs consist of PVs, PreVs, and phrasal- prepositional verbs. Biber et al. (1999: 403) add other multi-word verb constructions like V + noun phrase (+ preposition); V + prepositional phrase or V + V to complete the classification of four major kinds of multi-word combinations that comprise ―relatively idiomatic units and function like single verbs‖. In this study, we focus on multi-word verbs which comprise two elements. Though Taka (1960, cited Waibel 2007) and Meyer (1975, cited Waibel 2007) use term “two-word verb‖ to mean PV, and Celce-Murcia et al. (1999) note that PVs are sometimes called two- word verbs, both PVs and PreVs are taken into consideration when we refer to two-word verbs. 1.1.1 Definition of PVs and PreVs 1.1.1.1 PVs There is a disputation as to how PVs are defined. Following here are some ways of defining PVs: Dixon, R.M.W (1991: 274)) says: ―Phrasal verb is a combination of verb plus preposition that has a meaning not inferable from the individual meanings of verb and preposition(s)‖ 1 . 1 It is noted that the author mentions to prepositions, but particles. There is possibility that the so-call PreVs by most of linguists is defined by Dixon as PVs, or he uses the name PVs to refer to both. 13 Biber et al., et al. (1999: 403)) assert: ―PVs are multi-word units consisting of a verb followed by an adverbial particle‖ which all have spatial or locative meanings and ―commonly used with extended meanings‖. Halliday (1985: 207; 2004: 351) seesees PVs as ―lexical verbs which consist of more than just the verb word itself‖, which can be verb + adverb, verb + preposition, and verb + adverb + preposition. David (2002) seems to meet Halliday when this author insists the existence of two definitions of PVs, the broad sense and the narrow sense. The broad sense includes both PreVs and PVs, spatial or figurative, transitive or intransitive while the narrow sense excludes PreVs. This study prefers looking at PV from its narrow sense. Before turning to PreVs, it is necessary to clarify that the term ‗phrasal verb‟ is not favored by all linguistics. Said as Waibel (2007: 15), ―the very name for this type of verb is controversial‖. For example, Fraser (1947) calls it ―verb-particle combination‖, Zandvoort (1962) talks about it as ―verb-adverb combination‖, Live (1965) ―discontinuous verb‖, Lipka (1992) labels them ―verb-particle construction‖, Francis (1958) ―separable verb‖, etc. However, Mc Arthur (1989: 38, cited Waibel, 2007: 15) notes that ―the term ‗phrasal verb‘ appears (…) to be the winning term‖, and Rot (1988: 183, cited David, 2002: 112) remarks that the term PV is the most appropriate for verb-particle combinations because ―it expresses the linguistic essence of this lexical-grammar collocation, and it has its terminological parallels in the location ‗phrasal prepositions‟ ‖. And the term familiar with both teachers and students is also used in this study. 1.1.1.2 PreVs About PreVs, the matter of term and definition is less controversial than that of PVs. Scholars seem to be satisfied with the term ‗PreV‘, which refers to the kind of verb that ―consists of a verb followed by a preposition‖ (Biber et al., 1999: 403) and that ―forms a semantic and syntactic unit‖ (G. Leech, 1992: 264). The problem, if it has, is whether or not to see PreV as a subtype of PV or an independent kind of verb from PV. This study would like to look at PreV as an independent item that existexists parallel with PV. [...]... that its two-word verbs tend to realize material processes Except „see beyond‟ and „see into‟ solely denote mental processes, and „see through‟ denote both material and mental processes with the rate 2-1 in favor of material processes, the remains only denote material processes The meaning of a two-word verb in one process also relate to each other For example, the sense of „see into‟ in the sentence... meanings, only 7 meanings construe mental processes while 97 meanings construe material processes, one can see the overwhelming number of material processes compared to mental processes The single case that does not denote material processes but denotes only mental processes is PV ‗go down‟: 12 material processes and none mental processes All of them are intransitive processes Moreover, the material senses... about Hear of 29 From the table, the first thing to see is that two-word verbs realizing mental processes are not as common as material ones There is even no two-word verb with ‗See‟ in the list of these authors (the other two are recorded with small proportion) Second, there is coincidence in the lists of two-word verbs despite the differences in criteria of selecting them For instance, up to 4-5 out... base on the principle of systemic indeterminacy‘ 14 Now we have a general picture of six processes in English systemic- functional grammar As mentioned above, material and mental processes are among basic processes and account the largest proportion in 6 processes They are also subject investigated in this paper and will be looked closely in the next sections 1.2.2 Material processes Material processes. .. process), and ‗đổi ý‟ (mental process) Therefore, it would be so complicated to arrange two-word verbs of all chosen verbs and their meanings in one 32 process at a time Instead, two-word verbs of seven selected verbs are displayed in seven separate tables, and put into separate columns named material processes and mental processes which run parallel18 This makes it easier to see and compare material processes. .. that existential processes have only one participant Verbal processes, which stand between mental and relational processes, cover saying of different modes (asking, commanding, offering, stating) and semiotic processes that are not necessary verbal (showing, indicating) They symbolize relationships constructed in human consciousness and enacted in the form of language like saying and meaning ‗Sayer‘ can... processes construe (mental and verbal) behaviour Like the active version of verbal and mental processes, they represent the acting out of processes of consciousness (like laughing), and physiological states (like sleeping) They have similarities to both material and mental processes Like mental processes, one of their participants must be human consciousness (in mental we call it ‗Senser‘ while in behavioural,... the ‗Who‘ doing the action  ‗Goal‘ is the ‗What‘ brought to existence by the doing (build the house) or impacted by the doing (fix the car)  ‗Range‘ or ‗Scope‘ is a participant specifying the scope of happening and is the only one being out of the influence of the performance of the process It 14 This principle has influence over six processes It says that the world of our experience is highly indeterminate‖... time, the tense of the verb realizing mental process is the simple present rather than the ‗present -in- present‘ (E.g I see the stars, not I am seeing the stars) 1.2.4 Material vs mental processes Halliday et al (2004: 201- 207) suggests three criteria to distinguish material processes from mental processes, including: the participants, the tense of process or verb serving as process, and the substitute... material processes Look more closely in the examples, we also see that all of them are intransitive processes 3 4 MAKE ‗Make‘ can go with 5 particles after, off, out, over, and up and 4 prepositions for, of, towards, and with, create 9 two-word verbs that denote material and/ or mental processes None of them realize mental processes solely.3 two-word verbs denoting both processes are: make of, make out, and . QUY N THE COMMON TWO-WORD VERBS DENOTING MATERIAL AND MENTAL PROCESSES IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÁC ĐỘNG TỪ HAI THÀNH TỐ PHỔ BIẾN QUI CHIẾU TIẾN TRÌNH VẬT CHẤT. VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÁC ĐỘNG TỪ HAI THÀNH TỐ PHỔ BIẾN QUI CHIẾU TIẾN TRÌNH VẬT CHẤT VÀ TINH THẦN TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ NGHĨA TIẾNG VIỆT TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG) M.A. Minor Programme Thesis . English two-word verbs denoting material and mental processes and find their Vietnamese equivalents; 4. to suggest some recommendations for teaching and learning two-word verbs. 3. Scope of the