MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY ========**********======== NGUYỄN THỊ THU HƯƠNG SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF REQUEST ORDER AND ADVICE VERB GROUPS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM VỀ CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG TỪ REQUEST ORDER VÀ ADVICE TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT) M.A THESIS Field: English Language Code: 8220201 Hanoi, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY ========**********======== NGUYỄN THỊ THU HƯƠNG SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF REQUEST ORDER AND ADVICE VERB GROUPS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM VỀ CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NHÓM ĐỘNG TỪ REQUEST ORDER VÀ ADVICE TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT) M.A THESIS Field: English Language Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Hoàng Tuyết Minh Hanoi, 2018 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “The syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2018 Nguyen Thi Thu Huong Approved by SUPERVISOR Assoc.Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh Date:………………… ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the completion of this work, I have received a great contribution from my teachers and my friends They always encourage and support me and give their comments to the perfection of my paper First of all, I would like to sincerely thank my supervisor Mrs Hoang Tuyet Minh who instructed me directly, shared experiences and removed difficulties which arose during the process of writing my thesis Secondly, I sincerely thank all the lecturers of the Hanoi Open University, especially the lecturers in Faculty of Post Graduate Studies who have been teaching and conveying to me the enthusiastic guidance and valuable teaching and tremendous assistance and skills in the learning process Thirdly, I also send my deep gratitude to my friends, colleagues and students at Hai An high school in Hai Phong city who have assisted me in collecting data and provided valuable resources to help me complete my thesis Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family members who supported me and contributed to the completion of my study LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A Adverbial Adj Adjective Adj.P Adjective Phrase Adv Adverb C Complement NP Noun Phrase O Object Od Indirect Object Oi Direct Object O1 Object1 O2 Object2 Prep Preposition Sb Somebody Sth Something S Subject V Verb X The speaker Y The addressee Z The object person ABSTRACT The study aims at clarifying the features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and making a comparison of this verb group with their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features to help the Vietnamese learners of English to learn this verb group effectively Within this study, the author focuses on analyzing them(concerning syntactic and semantic features of these verbs), and just brief the similarities and differences between them To serve the purpose of the study, some implications will be suggested to help Vietnamese learners of English have a better understanding of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups and then use them in daily communication effectively This study is designed and investigated the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, so descriptive and contrastive method are chosen This study analyzes and synthesizes to some syntactic, semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents The present study highlights the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in Vietnamese and English during their grammarians Practically, the study helps teachers and students to get some useful suggestions in teaching and learning this verb group because the REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups consist of many verbs and vocationally make people confused when its syntactic and semantic features are under consideration Although the research can be useful in some ways as mentioned, there are still many undiscovered sub-areas which provide a ground for further studies This thesis has focused only on studying the semantic and syntactic features of thinking verbs in English and Vietnamese Therefore, there are still some aspects related to this problem left for further researches - “The syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents” TABLES OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ABSTRACT TABLES OF CONTENTS i ii iii iv v Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Objectives of the study 1.4 Scope of thestudy 1.5 Significance of thestudy 1.6 Structure of thestudy Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Speech act verbs 1 2 2 2.1.1 Definition of speech act verbs 2.1.2 Syntactic features of speech act verbs 2.1.3 Semantic features of speech act verbs 2.2 An overview of sentence in English 2.2.1 Classification of sentences in terms of sentence elements and verb complementation 2.2.2 Sentence elements 2.2.2.1 Syntactic features of sentence elements 10 2.2.2.2 Semantic features of sentence elements 10 2.3 Previous studies 12 2.5 Summary 14 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1.Research questions 3.2 Research setting 16 16 17 3.3 Research approach 17 3.4 Data collection techniques 17 3.5 Data analysis techniques 17 3.6 Summary 17 Chapter 4: The syntactic and semantic 17 features of REQUEST, ORDER AND ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents 18 19 4.1 Syntactic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English 19 4.1.1 In terms of their sentence patterns 4.1.1.1 SVO type 19 4.1.1.2 SVOO type 20 4.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements 21 4.2 Semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE 22 verb groups in English 25 4.2.1 ORDER verb in English 4.2.2 COMMAND verb in English 25 4.2.3 DEMAND verb in English 26 4.2.4 TELL verb in English 28 4.2.5 DIRECT verb in English 29 4.2.6 INSTRUCT verb in English 31 4.2.7 REQUIRE verb in English 32 4.2.8 ADVISE verb in English 33 4.2.9 COUNSEL verb in English 33 4.2.10 RECOMMEND verb in English 35 4.2.11 SUGGEST verb in English 36 4.2.12 PROPOSE verb in English 37 4.2.13 ADVOCATE verb in English 38 4.2.14 REQUEST verb in English 39 4.2.15 ASK verb in English 40 4.2.16 BESEECH verb in English 41 4.2.17 PLEAD verb in English 42 4.2.18 APPLY verb in English 43 4.3 REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English 44 and their Vietnamese equivalents 46 4.3.1 In terms of their syntactic features 4.3.1.1 In terms of their sentence patterns 4.3.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements 4.3.2 In terms of their semantic features 4.3.2.1 ORDERmeaning and their Vietnamese equivalents 4.3.2.2 TELLmeaning and their Vietnamese equivalents 4.3.2.3 DEMAND meaning and its Vietnamese equivalents 42 46 46 47 48 50 4.4 Some possible implications for teaching and learning REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and 50 Vietnamese 51 4.5 Summary Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Recapitulation 5.2 Concluding remarks 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 5.3.1 Limitations 5.3.2 Suggestions for further studies 53 55 55 56 57 57 REFERENCES 57 58 speaker wants something, but cannot himself cause it to happen Those among these verbs which can take an addressee phrase (whether as a direct or indirect object) imply also that the addressee can cause the desired thing to happen(ask for, beg for, appeal for, apply for) The verbs in this group which require that the addressee phrase should be treated as an indirect rather than a direct object imply also that the addressee is expected to think about the matter rather than to act immediately Within the Public Service, when I have applied for other positions in the past, I have always been granted an interview, because I apply for jobs I am qualified to (National Times 14-29/2/86;11) In order to understand better about this ORDER, ADVISE and REQUEST verb groups in English, the comparison to their Vietnamese equivalents is very essential 4.3 REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents 4.3.1 In terms of their syntactic features 4.3.1.1 In terms of their sentence patterns As mentioned in 4.1.1.1, in English, The ORDER verb group has two sentence patterns such as SVO and SVOO But in Vietnamese, the ORDER verb group has only one sentence pattern, that is, SVOO (Le Bien,1998:79 and Nguyen Kim Than,1999:153) Table 4.2: Sentence patterns of the ORDER verb group in English and Vietnamese Sentence patterns In English In Vietnamese SVO x - SVOO x x Let us see the examples: Mọi người đề nghị chị Lan hát (Le Bien,1998: 79) S V Oi Od Tôi bảo Oanh đưa cho Thứ tháng vài chục bạc S V O1 O2 (Nam Cao, 1956: 2) 4.3.1.2 In terms of their sentence elements Subject (S) Similarly, in the ORDER verb group in Vietnamese, subject is the element that is most often present It is also the element for which we can find the greatest number of characteristic features The subject in this group is normally a noun phrase or a nominal clause, a pronoun A subject is obligatory in finite clauses except in imperative clauses, where it is normally absent but implied Identified In English In Vietnamese This sort of work demands Bác sĩ bảo chị cần điều trị a noun great patience phrase (Albert (Le Bien,1998:79) Sydney Hornby,1993: 239) They have not instructed us Họ lệnh cho cô rời khỏi khu a pronoun a nominal clause where to go vực nguy hiểm (Albert Sydney Hornby,1993: (Le Bien,1998:79) 469) All the people he saw Tất người có mặt instructed him what to with hội nghị định cô his broken car chủ tịch hội đồng (Jonathan 619) Crowther,1995: (Hoàng Trọng Phiến, 1980: 165) Verb (V) Verbs belonging to the ORDER verb group in English include two verb classes such as monotransitive and ditransitive verbs Meanwhile in Vietnammese, these verbs have only one type, that is, ditransitive verbs occurring in type SVOO Verb types monotransitive In English In Vietnamese The situation requires that I should be there (AlbertSydney Hornby,1993: 768) ditransitive - They instructed him about his Ông huy lệnh cho duties đoàn tàu rời bến (Dixon, R.M.W, 1985: 125) (Hoàng Trọng Phiến, 1980: 165) Object (O) In fact, there are two types of object (the same as the ORDER verb group in English): direct object (Od) and indirect object (Oi) In Vietnamese, this verb group requires two objects in a sentence The first one is the direct addressee of the verb It is usually a noun, noun phrase or pronoun and is called direct object The second one refers to the content that is caused by the action of subject to impact on the direct object So, it is called indirect object It is often a verb or verb phrase This has been traditionally recognized by applying the term direct object to the former, and indirect object to the latter In English - SVOiOd In Vietnamese - SVOdOi We ordered him to leave immediately Oi Od (Albert Sydney Hornby,1993: 707) Thầy giáo yêu cầu học sinh Od làm Oi (Cao Xuân Hạo, 1991: 91) - S+V+O1+Pre+O2 The law prescribes heavy penalties O1 - for this offence Pre O2 (Albert Sydney Hornby,1993: 707) 4.3.2 In terms of their semantic features One lexeme item may have several interpretations in another language due to sociocultural peculiarities Likewise, the ORDER verb group has different Vietnamese interpretations such as order, command, demand, tell, direct, instruct, require and prescribe In dictionaries, the Vietnamese verb lệnh is equivalent to the synonymic ORDER verb group in the sense of expressing an action that a person who orders someone to something wants the addressee to it and expects to cause him to it In this section, the basic meanings of these verbs will not be focused on, but their specific meanings and their Vietnamese equivalents The types of the ORDER verbs in English and Vietnamese are shown in the following table: Table 4.3: Types of the ORDER verbs in English and Vietnamese Subgroup The ORDER verbs in English Order The ORDER verbs in Vietnamese Ra lệnh - Meaning: to give an order to sb; to command sb to sth - Consists of the verbs: order, - Consists of the verbs: Ra command, tell, direct and lệnh, phán, thị prescribe Tell Sai bảo - Meaning: to control someone or something and tell him, her, or it what to do; to declare with authority that sth should be done or that a rule should be followed - Consists of the verbs: tell, - Consists of the verbs: sai, sai order, instruct, require bảo, sai khiến, sai phái, phái Demand Cử - Meaning: To ask for sth very strongly, or as if one has a right to so; to say in a forceful way that something must be done or given to you:to say that you have a right to - Consists of the only verb: - Consists of the verbs: Cử, định, phân công, điều động demand Cấm - Consists of the verbs: Cấm, cấm chỉ, cấm đoán, nghiêm cấm, ngăn cấm, cấm cửa, cấm tiệt, đình, đình chỉ, đình giảng As shown in the table 5, the ORDER verb group in English has three main types Meanwhile, the ORDER verb group in Vietnamese has four types The ORDER verb group in English has three meanings Whereas the ORDER verb group in Vietnamese has four main meanings In terms of their semantics, three meanings in English are equivalent with the first three meanings in Vietnamese, respectively However, the ORDER verb group in Vietnamese has its own fourth meaning These verb groups will be analyzed thoroughly as below: 4.3.2.1 ORDER meaning and their Vietnamese equivalents As mentioned in 4.1.2, order, command, tell, direct and prescribe mean “to give an order to sb; to command sb to sth” Consider the following examples: In English The management has ordered cutback in spending (Jonathan Crowther,1995: 816) In Vietnamese a Ơ kìa, em nói em vua bếp Vua lệnh phải tuân theo (Nguyễn Văn Tu,1968: 32) Police regulations prescribe that an officer‟s number must be clearly visible (Jonathan Crowther,1995: 912) Tôi lệnh cho anh ngày hôm phải chuyển hết số gỗ khỏi (Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh,1994: 16) The owners directed that the factory Ủy ban nhân dân huyện thị cho be closed xã chuẩn bị chống lũ lụt (Jonathan Crowther,1995: 912) (Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh,1994: 26) Tell her to come down at once, and Thủ bà xông vào lôi thủ trưởng lệnh từ đêm khuya không not keep me (Jonathan Crowther,1995: 912) qua mắt bà (Nguyễn Văn Tu,1968: 32) Hồng Mây (2011) states that lệnh means “đưa mệnh lệnh, điều cấp truyền xuống bắt cấp phải thi hành”; With this sense, all of the five verbs above correspondto lệnh in Vietnamese They can be followed by two objects and means “if a person in authority orders someone to something, or orders something to be done, they tell someone to it” But among them, only command is intransitive And tell is used with directive meaning It is used to say that someone must something Phán means “truyền bảo, lệnh; nhận xét, phát biểu với giọng kể cả, trịnh thượng” (Hồng Mây, 2011: 697); With this sense, the speakers are usually the Queen, the King or Gods give orders to the servants and slaves or to people with some religious beliefs And the speech happens in a solemn context Command is the typical verb: In English In Vietnamese The Queen commands that you should Bà bói phán gặp ý go to her at once trung nhân vào năm (Jonathan Crowther,1995: 227) (Nguyễn Văn Tu,1968: 33) Chỉ thị means “vạch cho cấp thi hành” (Hồng Mây, 2011:187).It is similar to the meaning lệnh in Vietnamese, that is, the speaker makes the listener finish an action in the future The speaker is often the leader of the listener It shows that the speaker has more power than the listener However, Chỉ thị has more compulsory nature and it can give orders to the addressee by both writing documents and speech; meanwhile lệnh is often expressed in speech only Order, command and direct express the most successfully with the meaning thị as: In English In Vietnamese In a level voice, he ordered the soldiers to aim and fire (Jonathan Crowther,1995: 816) He can't go round commanding people Thủ tướng phủ thị cho cấp chống bão lụt to what he says (Hồng Mây,2011: 187) (Jonathan Crowther, 1995: 227) The judge directed the defendant to answer (Jonathan Crowther 1995: 326) 4.3.2.2 TELL meaning and their Vietnamese equivalents In English, Order, tell, instruct, require mean “to control someone or something and tell him, her, or it what to do; to declare with authority that sth should be done or that a rule should be followed” In Vietnamese Dictionary (2011), sai, sai bảo, sai khiến, sai phái means “bảo người bề làm việc cho mình; bắt phải làm theo lệnh” (Hồng Mây, 2011:771); In this case, order is typical In English In Vietnamese You can't just come in here and start Tôi sai đưa cu Minh đến lớp mẫu ordering people around giáo (Hồng Mây,2011: 771) (Jonathan Crowther,1995: 816) I have been instructed by the company Quét nhà to offer you a refund (Hồng Mây,2011: 771) (Jonathan Crowther,1995: 816) He only did what was required (of him) Vợ ngoan ngoãn nghe theo lời (Jonathan Crowther,1995: 816) sai bảo chồng (Hồng Mây,2011: 772) The government ordered the police out Tơi tò mò muốn biết anh to restore order in the streets không chịu nghe lời sai khiến ông (Jonathan Crowther,1995: 816) chủ (Hồng Mây,2011: 772) 4.3.2.3 DEMAND meaning and its Vietnamese equivalents In English, Demand means “to ask for sth very strongly, or as if one has a right to so; to say in a forceful way that something must be done or given to you: to say that you have a right to” Demand is different from seven other verbs, that is, demand means “to ask for something very strongly”; meanwhile other verbs usually means “ask somebody to something” Demand is monotransitive verb followed by only one object In Vietnamese Dictionary (2011), Cử, định, phân công, điều động means “giao cho đảm đương phần việc định đó; đưa người phương tiện đến nơi nhằm đáp ứng yêu cầu công tác chiến đấu” (Hồng Mây, 2011:187); In this case, demand is typical In English In Vietnamese He demands that he be told/ demands Cô giáo hỏi định học sinh trả to be told everything (Jonathan Crowther,1995: 309) lời (Hồng Mây,2011: 187) This sort of work demands great Lớp trưởng phân công bạn trực patience nhật lần tháng (Albert Sydney Hornby 1993: 239) (Hồng Mây,2011: 703) I demandto know what is going on Anh ta điều động sang đơn vị here! (Albert Sydney Hornby 1993: 239) phục vụ cho chiến đấu (Hồng Mây,2011: 318) 4.4 Some possible implications for teaching and learning REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and Vietnamese Firstly, verbs introduced to students should be suitable for the learners For learners at a lower level, verbs should be listed in semantic fields, topics or key words Of course, the explanation in terms of structure and meaning is indispensable in order to avoid misunderstanding the figurative meaning At advanced level, analyzing semantic mechanisms of verbs should be done so that learners can discover the figurative meaning of a verb by themselves Secondly, teaching the history of how a verb came into common usage is also helpful to learners and may provide clues to its present usage Thirdly, to understand the meaning of verbs, learners not only have the basic knowledge of a language but also master the cultural characteristics of verbs Therefore, in order to teach verbs effectively, it is necessary to teach their cultural characteristics as well Furthermore, students should have more opportunities to hear, read and use the expressions through types of exercises The ORDER verb group has some syntactic features that it is easy to make the teachers and learners misunderstand For instance, in English, the ORDER verb group has the structure S+V+O1+pre+O2 It can make the learners misconceive that it is the structure SVOA, such as: We not have the book in stock but we can order it for you S V O1 pre O2 (Jonathan Crowther, 1995: 816) They instructed him about his duties S V O1 pre O2 (Albert Sydney Hornby, 1993: 469) Besides, Demand is different from seven other verbs in ORDER verb group in English, that is, demand means “to ask for something very strongly”; meanwhile other verbs usually means “ask somebody to something” Demand is monotransitive verb followed by only one object: Does the letter demand an immediate answer? (Albert Sydney Hornby 1993: 239) The workers are demanding better pay (Albert Sydney Hornby 1993: 239) This is also the basic mistake that the learners might make when they studying the ORDER verb group Moreover, from the contrastive analysis of the ORDER verb group in the two languages in chapter IV, it can be seen that the ORDER verb group has the same structure SVOO in both English and Vietnamese However, in English, the order of the objects is SVOiOd but in Vietnamese, the order of the objects is SVOdOi: We ordered him to leave immediately Oi Od Ủy ban nhân dân huyện thị cho xã chuẩn bị chống lũ lụt Od Oi (Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh,1994: 26) The ORDER verb group in English and Vietnamese has quite various meanings because it consists of eight main verbs It is the reason why teachers and learners meet some difficulties in studying its semantics For example, it is thought that this verb group has only the meaning “to order sb to sth” Meanwhile, in fact, it has also some other main meanings such as “to control someone or something and tell him, her, or it what to do”, or “to ask for something very strongly”, etc Remembering a set of various syntactic and semantic features of the ORDER verb group in English is not always an easy task for many students To eliminate this limitation, teachers should categorize the ORDER verb group in sub-groups according to topics such as ORDER, TELL and DEMAND meanings so that the students can take advantage of connecting similar lexical units in the process of memorizing and they can remember them more easily From the contrastive analysis of the ORDER verb group in the two languages in chapter IV, it can be seen that some verbs of the ORDER verb group share the similarities of structures or semantics For example, this verb group has the same syntactic feature SVOO and three semantic features in both languages Therefore, discovering and using suitable equivalences in the inventory is the best way to have a perfect teaching and learning this verb group in both English and Vietnamese This is to say that a teacher must have a profound knowledge of the target language and the source language so that the teaching of the ORDER verb group can be exactly and effectively Another interesting thing getting our attention is that there always exist the various meanings in most verbs of the ORDER verb group Thus, a clear explanation of the meaning transfer should be given to make students understand deeply about the verbs This profound understanding will get the learners to be involved in learning actively and enthusiastically Also, the English teachers should not ignore cultural gaps between source language and the target language because interlingua errors are originated from the deficiency of cultural knowledge The best way to solve it is to supply our students with background knowledge of history, culture, traditions, customs, related to speech act verbs in general and the ORDER verb group in particular Knowing vocabulary consists of knowing how to use words which represent the image we wish others to have of us Language learners typically learn core or basic meanings of words in dictionaries to understand what they hear or read without knowing enough about their communication functions, register appropriateness, or collocations in specific contexts Misuse of vocabulary causes misunderstanding in communication Therefore, learning or teaching of vocabulary is necessarily attached to the context of use Acquiring a word, we have to learn how the meaning of that word varies in different patterns In addition, what may be sufficient in one circumstance will be probably not sufficient in others Language teachers then should provide his learners with relevant information concerning contexts of situation in which a particular word is used 4.5 Summary In this section, we have discussed about the syntactic and semantic features of the ORDER verb group in English The syntactic of the ORDER verb group in English are analyzed in detail in terms of two sentence patterns (SVO, SVOO) and three sentence elements (S, V, O) The semantics of the ORDER verb group in English are described as different senses of eight verbs Then the comparison is given to collate with their Vietnamese equivalents As comparison, the result of the study proves that there are some similarities and differences between the ORDER verb group in English and in Vietnamese Meanings conveyed by eight English verbs order, demand, command, instruct, tell, require, direct and prescribe are not restricted in most dictionaries Also, the study points out that the speaker‟s choice of a language form to interpret an event is rather important depending on his cognition of the situation he is talking about A speech act in different contexts can be perceived differently; as a result, these speech act verbs, which are used to interpret this act, has several meanings Chapter 5: CONCLUSION In the final part of the thesis, the results of the study will be reviewed, then some conclusions from the detailed analysis of the previous chapter and some limitations and suggestions for future researches will be given 5.2 Recapitulation The results of the study were more numerous, and they seem to be more significant, with the most salient and general finding consisting in the fact that, despite a number of parallels between the verbs investigated, each of the verbs perspectivizes the linguistic scene in different ways Consequently, it was interesting to investigate both the similarities and differences between the eight verbs Of course, an exhaustive summary of all the results would be too extensive in this section, which is why what follows is a synthesis of selected and most important findings Firstly, in terms of syntactic features, REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups are analyzed into two parts: according to the sentence patterns and sentence elements This verb group belongs to only four sentence patterns among seven ones These are SV, SVO, SVOO and SVOA According to the sentence elements, in REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English, subject is the element that is most often present The subject in this group is normally a noun phrase or a nominal clause, a pronoun Verbs belonging to the ORDER verb are two main verb classes: intransitive verb (command) and transitive verbs (order, command, demand, tell, direct, instruct, require, prescribe) In fact, there are two types of object: direct object (Od) and indirect object (Oi) Obligatory adverbials are a subclass of predication adjuncts that belong to SVOA type Secondly, in terms of semantic features, The ORDER subtype refers to a Message (generally an order or instruction) directed at an Addressee Almost all of these verbs are transitive (but the verb demand) with the Addressee in O slot Order means a person who orders someone to something wants the addressee to it and expects to cause him to it via the speech act Command has the main meaning is that the person who commands wants the addressee to something and expects to cause him to it (by the speech act) Demand means the person who demands something says that he wants something to happen, and implies that the addressee has to cause it to happen Tell means that the speaker wants the addressee to something, wants him to know that he wants him to it, and expects him to it Directing is similar to telling (to) in being, intuitively speaking, somewhere between requesting and ordering/commanding: the directing person wants the addressee to something, and expects to cause him to it by his speech act The person who instructs someone to something wants the addressee to it and expects to cause him to it by the speech act In some ways, require can be said to be halfway between order and request The main difference between require and request concerns the element of obligation Request implies that the addressee does not have to whatever is requested It might seem that the purpose of prescribe consists in causing a category of people to something Thirdly, when investigating Vietnamese grammar books and English - Vietnamese dictionaries, it is momentously interesting to figure out that authors, depending on each case, apply appropriate Vietnamese equivalents to the ORDER verb group In this study, we can see clearly different Vietnamese equivalents of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English that are lệnh, phán, thị; sai, sai bảo, sai khiến, sai phái, cử, định, phân công, điều động These findings can lead to the conclusion that different meanings created by one lexeme are caused by different contexts in which senses of the exist This proves the fact that providing students with meanings of each verb must be clearly given in concrete contexts with proper Vietnamese references The obvious conclusion to be drawn is one whereby the questions and goals of this study seem to have been answered in the course of the linguistic investigations The interface of the syntax and semantics of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English has been investigated and interpreted This seems to have had a bearing which were also investigated and accounted for 5.3 Concluding remarks Theoretically, in the study on syntactic and semantic features has come certain contributions to the study has provided a comprehensive and overal knowledge about the syntactic and semantic features of the REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English Moreover, the similarities and differences between this verb group in English and in Vietnamese is very helpful in two languages Practically, the study helps teachers and students to get some useful suggestions in teaching and learning this verb group because REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups consist of many verbs and occationally make people confused when its syntactic and semantic features are under consideration 5.4 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 5.3.1 Limitations of the study Although the study has offered the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents, it has some limitations The results in this study are just relatively reasonable because of the limited number of instances with the eight verbs taken for analysis To assure that in the future research, more instances will be analyzed to have a standard result So far, in the study, different syntactic patterns and derived meanings conveyed by REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups have been scrutinized from semantic perspective through the componential analysis The study might be served as a foundation for studies on other speech act verbs Moreover, the study has not been analyzed from the point of view of culture and pragmatics English in this study is considered as source language and it has been presented relatively adequately but in term of Vietnamese equivalent, Vietnamese is considered as target language and it has not been completely studied yet Though great efforts have been made in this thesis to work out the best results, mistakes and limitations are unavoidable Therefore any your comments or corrections for our better work would by highly appreciated 5.3.2 Suggestions for further studies In this thesis, we have confined ourselves to the study of a humble part of syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese verbs to find out their similarities and differences As a result, many other aspects need to be studied in further researches The following topics may be very interesting and useful for further research: - REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents from the point of view of culture and pragmatics - REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English and their Vietnamese equivalents from the point of view of speech act verbs REFERENCES IN ENGLISH Albert Sydney Hornby 1993 Oxford Advanced learner‟s Encyclopedic Dictionary Oxford University Press Austin, J.L 1962 How to things with words Oxford: Clarendon Press Clark, C Manning 1980 A short history of Australia 2nd rev Edn New York: Mentor, New American Library Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, 1837-1838 David, Crystal 1992 An encyclopedic dictionary of language and languages Oxford: Blackwell Dixon, R.M.W 1985 The semantic basis of syntactic properties Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistic Society, 583-589 Grahame, Kenneth 1983 The wind in the willows Harmondsworth: Puffin Books Hedenius, I 1963 Performatives Theoria 29 115-136 Hurford, James R.; Heasley, Brendon 1983 Semantics a coursebook Cambridge University Press Jack Richards, John Platt, Heidi Weber 1987 Longman Dictionary of Applied linguistics Longman, Harlow Date 10 Jonathan Crowther 1995 Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary Oxford University Press 11 Leech, Geoffrey N 1983 Principles of pragmatics, vol 30 Longman linguistics library London and New York: Longman 12 Michener, James A.1983 Poland London: Secker and Warburg 13 Quirk, Randolph 1985 A comprehensive grammar of the English language Longman Press 14 Searle, John R 1989 How performatives work Linguistics and Philosophy 12(5) 535–558 15 Styron, William 1967 The confessions of Nat Turner New York: Random House 16 Styron, William 1980 17 Wierzbicka, Anna 1987 English speech act verbs - A semantic dictionary Australia: Academic Press 18 Emily Bronte, 1847 Wuthering Heights, IN VIETNAMESE 19.Lê Biên 1998 Từ loại tiếng Việt đại Nhà xuất Giáo dục 20 Cao Xuân Hạo 1991 Ngữ Pháp chức Nhà xuất TP HCM 21 Hoàng Trọng Phiến 1980 Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt CÂU Nhà xuất Đại học Trung học chuyên nghiệp 22 Hồng Mây-Tạ Minh Ngọc - Ngọc Lương 2011 Từ điển tiếng Việt Nhà xuất Thanh niên 23 Hồ Hải Thụy - Chu Khắc Thuật - Cao Xuân Phổ 1993 Từ điển Anh - Việt Nhà xuất TP Hồ Chí Minh 24 Đinh Thị Hà 1996 Cấu trúc ngữ nghĩa động từ nói nhóm BÀN, TRANH LUẬN, CÃI Master thesis 25 Lê Thị Thu Hoa 1996 Cấu trúc ngữ nghĩa động từ nói nhóm KHEN, TÂNG, CHÊ Master thesis 26 Nguyễn Thị Thái Hòa 1996 Cấu trúc ngữ nghĩa động từ nói nhóm KHUYÊN, RA LỆNH, NHỜ Master thesis 27 Nguyễn Kim Thản.1999 Động từ tiếng Việt Viện ngôn ngữ học - Trung tâm Khoa học xã hội Nhân văn Quốc Gia 28 Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh 1994 Tiếng Việt đại Nhà xuất Hà Nội 29 Nguyễn Văn Tu 1968 Từ vựng học tiếng Việt đại Nhà xuất Hà Nội ... Describing the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English - Pointing out the similarities and differences of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English. .. 4: SEMANTIC AND SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF REQUEST, ORDER AND ADVICE VERB GROUPS IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS In this chapter, the syntactic and semantic features of REQUEST, ORDER and. .. teachers and students) to have a comprehensive view of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English 4.1 Syntactic features of REQUEST, ORDER and ADVICE verb groups in English 4.1.1 In terms of their