VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Nguyễn Duy Tân SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF “PLAY” IN ENGLISH AND “CHƠI” IN VIETNAMESE MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE HO CHI MINH CITY, 2020 VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Nguyễn Duy Tân SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF “PLAY” IN ENGLISH AND “CHƠI” IN VIETNAMESE Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Đặng Nguyên Giang, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, 2020 DECLARATION BY AUTHOR Except where reference has been made in the text, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person I, Nguyễn Duy Tân, hereby state that this thesis is the result of my own research and the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for any degrees to any other universities or institutions Author’s Signature Nguyễn Duy Tân Approved by SUPERVISOR Đặng Nguyên Giang, Ph.D Date:…………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this thesis is credited to many people’s contributions and support I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all most sincerely, knowing that my thanks are never adequate First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and deep appreciation to Đặng Nguyên Giang, Ph D., my supervisor, for his helpful and warm encouragement as well as his insightful comments on my work from the beginning to the end of the study In addition, I would like to thank all of the lecturers who gave me interesting lessons, dedication and advice during my study at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences I also offer my special thanks to my beloved pupils and friends whose support and encouragement help me to have this thesis accomplished Last but not least, I must express my gratitude to my family It is their endless love and expectations that have motivated me to complete this thesis I am immensely thankful for all the assistance they have given me ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION BY AUTHOR………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………… ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………… vi LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………… vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION………………………………………… 1.1 Rationale…………………………………………………………… 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study…………………………………… 1.3 Research questions…………………………………………………… 1.4 Scope of the study…………………………………………………… 1.5 Significance of the study…………………………………………… 1.6 Methodology………………………………………………………… 1.6.1 Data collection…………………………………………………… 1.6.2 Research methods………………………………………………… 1.6.3 Underlying theoretical frameworks……………………………… 1.7 Structure of the study………………………………………………… Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………… 10 2.1 Words and word classes…………………………………………… 10 2.1.1 Polysemy of words………………………………………………… 10 2.1.2 Word classes……………………………………………………… 12 2.2 Review of the previous research works……………………………… 17 2.3 Chapter summary…………………………………………………… 17 Chapter 3: SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF “PLAY” IN ENGLISH AND “CHƠI” IN VIETNAMESE……………………………………… 19 3.1 Syntactic features of “play” in English……………………………… 19 3.1.1 “Play” as a verb…………………………………………………… 19 iii 3.1.2 “Play” as a noun…………………………………………………… 27 3.2 Syntactic features of “chơi” in Vietnamese………………………… 29 3.2.1 “Chơi” as a verb…………………………………………………… 29 3.2.2 “Chơi” as an adverb……………………………………………… 31 3.3 A comparison between “play” in English and “chơi” in Vietnamese in terms of syntactic features…………………………………………… 31 3.3.1 Syntactic features found in both languages……………………… 31 3.3.2 Syntactic features unique to English……………………………… 32 3.3.3 Syntactic features unique to Vietnamese………………………… 33 3.4 Chapter summary…………………………………………………… 34 Chapter 4: SEMANTIC FEATURES OF “PLAY” IN ENGLISH AND “CHƠI” IN VIETNAMESE……………………………………… 36 4.1 Semantic features of “play” in English……………………………… 36 4.1.1 “Play” as a verb…………………………………………………… 36 4.1.2 “Play” as a noun…………………………………………………… 42 4.2 Semantic features of “chơi” in Vietnamese………………………… 44 4.2.1 “Chơi” as a verb…………………………………………………… 44 4.2.2 “Chơi” as an adverb……………………………………………… 47 4.3 A comparison between “play” in English and “chơi” in Vietnamese in terms of semantic features …………………………………………… 47 4.3.1 Semantic features found in both languages……………………… 47 4.3.2 Semantic features unique to English……………………………… 48 4.3.3 Semantic features unique to Vietnamese………………………… 51 4.4 Chapter summary…………………………………………………… 52 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION…………………………………………… 54 5.1 Recapitulation……………………………………………………… 54 5.2 Concluding remarks………………………………………………… 57 5.3 Implications………………………………………………………… iv 58 5.3.1 For English teaching and learning………………………………… 58 5.3.2 For translation from English to Vietnamese and vice versa.……… 59 5.4 Limitations and suggestions for further studies……………………… 59 REFERENCES………………………………………………………… 61 v ABSTRACT An investigation of play in English and chơi in Vietnamese in terms of syntactic and semantic features is carried out in the present study Description and contrastive analysis are regarded as the main methods used in the present thesis The findings of the study are concerned with the similarities and differences between play in English and chơi in Vietnamese in terms of syntactic and semantic features In order to collect the data, a hand search approach of the dictionaries in both languages has been conducted, which helps to establish the number of meanings of each word In the present study, the theoretical fameworks (theory of contrastive analysis; theory of syntax and semantics) are applied to both English and Vietnamese Additionally, an overview of some theoretical background dealing with the general concepts of syntax, semantics, words, polysemy of words and word classification is presented for the background of analyzing the syntactic and semantic features of the two words, play in English and chơi in Vietnamese Our investigation reveals that play in English and chơi in Vietnamese may function as verbs The biggest difference between play in English and chơi in Vietnamese in terms of syntactic features lies in the verbal forms and the coordinate possibility of each in the clauses In terms of semantic features, the findings of the study reveals that there are 11 meanings in common conveyed by the two verbs, play in English and chơi in Vietnamese When working as a verb, play in English has more meanings than chơi in Vietnamese There are 21 meanings conveyed by play, unique to English whereas chơi has meanings which are unique to Vietnamese Play in English may be a noun which has five main meanings, and chơi in Vietnamese can function as an adverb and has only one meanings The thesis also presents the implications for English teaching and learning as well as translation vi LIST OF TABLES Page Table 3.1 Forms and functions of the verb “play” in English (adapted from Quirk & Greenbaum (1987))…………………………………… … 20 vii Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale It is a fact that language is an essential form of communication It allows people to convey and elaborate their perspective It means that language is the bridge to connect people all over the world Therefore, language is a subtle and complex instrument used to communicate an incredible number of different things Bloomfield (1933) states that “we could not understand the form of a language if we merely reduced all the complex forms to their ultimate constituents” By this, he means that in order to account for the meaning of a sentence, it is necessary to recognize how individual constituents (such words and morphemes) constitute more complex forms Wilkins (1972, p.11) emphasizes the importance of vocabulary, and he writes: “without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed” Furthermore, Pyles and Algeo (1970) suppose that “when we first think about language, we think about words It is words that we arrange together to make sentences, conversation and discourse of all kinds” In fact, vocabulary is the decisive element that links the four skills of speaking, reading, listening and writing all together In order to communicate well in a foreign language, we should acquire a great number of words and know how to use them accurately Nevertheless, vocabulary of both English and Vietnamese has its own features that could raise difficulties for language teachers and learners and makes both teaching and learning English still far from being satisfaction In the process of teaching English, it is recognized that even a simple word like play also makes students confused much due to its syntactic and semantic features and its Vietnamese equivalent In English, the word play can combined with other words to form phrases, clauses and sentences in a language Therefore, it is necessary that the teachers of English acquire adequate knowledge of the word order and the relationships between words In term of semantic features, it has both denotaion and connotaion meanings that learners x) Be cooperative He needs financial backing, but the building societies won't play [Anh ta cần hỗ trợ tài hội xây dựng khơng hợp tác.] xi) Represent (a character) in a theatrical performance or a film Early in her career she played Ophelia [Lúc vào nghề, đóng vai Ophelia.] xii) Perform in a film or theatrical production He was proud to be playing opposite a famous actor [Anh tự hào diễn với diễn viên tiếng.] xiii) Put on or take part in (a theatrical performance, film, or concert) The show was one of the best we ever played [Buổi biểu diễn chương trình hay mà chúng tơi tham gia.] xiv) Give a dramatic performance at (a particular theatre or place) The company are playing 11 cities around the country [Công ti lưu diễn 11 thành phố khắp đất nước.] xv) Behave as though one were (a specified type of person) She stood in the corner playing the shy bride in her long red bridal dress [Cô đứng góc cư xử nàng dâu e thẹn đầm cưới đỏ dài.] xvi) Treat someone as being of (a specified type) Don't imagine you can play me for a fool [Đừng tưởng cậu đối xử với thằng ngốc.] xvii) Produce sounds or recorded images Somewhere within, a harp was playing [Đâu bên đàn hạc du dương.] xviii) Accompany (someone) with music as they are moving in a specified direction The bagpipes played them out of the dining room [Đội kèn túi đưa họ khỏi phòng ăn.] 50 xix) Move lightly and quickly, so as to appear and disappear; flicker Little beams of light played over the sea [Những chùm ánh sáng nhỏ lướt biển.] xx) Emit a stream of gently moving water A fountain played in the courtyard [Một đài phun nước hoạt động sân.] xxi) Allow (a fish) to exhaust itself pulling against a line before reeling it in It wasn't long before a fish appeared and I soon was playing my second fish of the day [Một cá xuất khơng lâu sau tơi nhanh chóng dong cá thứ hai ngày.] As a verb, play in English may have 21 meanings which chơi in Vietnamese may not In addition, play can be a noun whose meanings are unique to English As a noun, play has five main meanings: (i) Activity engaged in for enjoyment and recreation, especially by children; (ii) The conducting of a sporting match; (iii) A dramatic work for the stage or to be broadcast; (iv) The space in or through which a mechanism can or does move; (v) Light and constantly changing movement 4.3.3 Semantic features unique to Vietnamese As a verb, chơi in Vietnamese may has the following meanings that play in English may not: i) Collect; keep as a hobby Anh chơi tem nhiều năm [He has collected stamps for years.] ii) Be friends with; make friends with Họ chơi thân với từ nhỏ [They have been close friends since their childhood.] iii) Leisure activities to entertain Nó chơi diều đề 51 [He is flying a kite on the dike.] iv) Waste time on useless things, spoiled Con ham chơi, không lo học hành [You prefer pleasure to study.] v) Practise Cô chẳng chơi môn thể thao [She doesn’t do/practise any sport.] vi) Activities for pleasure or recreation Tôi làm thơ chơi [I only write poetry for recreation.] vii) Have sexual intercourse; fuck; have sex Mày chơi bé chưa? [Have you had sex with that girl?] It is revealed in our investigation that there are meanings conveyed by the verb chơi, unique to Vietnamese In addition, chơi can be an adverb, which play cannot occur in English When working as an adverb, chơi is used to postmodify a verb and its meaning is “doing something without any purpose/harming the others”: Tơi nói chơi mà cô giận [I was just joking, but she got angry.] 4.4 Chapter summary As above, we have endeavoured to give a contrastive analysis of play in English and chơi in Vietnamese in terms semantic features Firstly, all their senses of meaning are listed Then a serious effort has been made to analyze play and chơi in their broadest sense to state the similarities and differences between the two words from semantic perspective Our investigation reveals that there are 11 meanings in common conveyed by the two verbs, play in English and chơi in Vietnamese When working as a verb, play in English has more meanings than chơi in Vietnamese There are 21 meanings conveyed by play, unique to English whereas chơi has meanings which are unique to Vietnamese 52 Play in English may be a noun which has five main meanings, and chơi in Vietnamese can function as an adverb and has only one meanings 53 Chapter CONCLUSION 5.1 Recapitulation The main objective of the study is to uncover the similarities and differences between play in English and chơi in Vietnamese in terms of syntactic and semantic features Our investigation reveals that play in English and chơi in Vietnamese share some similar syntactic features Play and chơi are lexical verbs in both languages Verb phrases containing play and chơi can occur as predicate, subject, object, adverbial, or appositive Before the verbs play and chơi, there may be a modal verb or an adverb After the verbs play and chơi, there may be a noun or a noun phrase Alhough play and chơi have some syntactic features in common, there are several differences between them In terms of verbal forms, play is a lexical verb which has five forms: the BASE, the S-FORM, the PAST, the -ING PARTICIPLE, and the -ED PARTICIPLE Verb phrases containing play can occur as subject complement, object complement, adjectival complement, or prepositional complement There are some lexical verbs followed by play with the -ing or to-infinitive forms When play is used after a preposition, it stays in the -ing form The verb play can be found in compound words functioning as verbs such as play-act In addition, play can be used in nominal clauses (that clauses, wh-interrogative clauses, yes-no interrogative clauses, nominal relative clauses, To-infinitive nominal clauses, nominal -ing clauses), adverbial clauses (clauses of time, clauses of place, clauses of condition and concession, clauses of reason or cause, clauses of circumstance, clauses of purpose, clauses of result) Play in English may be a noun which combines the characteristics of count and non-count nouns When working as a regular count noun, play has two forms, singular and plural The singular form stays the same as play The plural form has -s suffix The noun play can function as subject, object, complement, or complement in prepositional phrases In the noun phrases, play 54 usually works as a head The elements found in the noun phrases consist of pronouns and numerals, and of nouns with articles or other closed-system items that can occur before the noun head, such as predeterminers Play can be a component in a compound noun In addition, the word play in English can also produce several derivatives While the verb play in English has five forms, this isn't a feature of chơi in Vietnamese In terms of verbal forms, chơi has the same verb form in any case In Vietnamese, the notions of the past and the future are encoded implicitly in dialogues' settings and not in verbs It's no surprise that the present tense is the one that would be encountered most frequently In order to express the present continuous, is added before the verb The past simple and future tenses are expressed by prefixing verbs with and sẽ, respectively Rồi, được…can be used for the present perfect or past perfect tenses The use of and are optional with regards to expressing time They are needed, however, if we want to put an emphasis on the time Before the verb chơi, there may be a verb There are some adjectives which are used after the verb chơi In some cases, the verb chơi can be followed by a particle The combination of chơi and a noun can make a phrasal verb In terms of semantic features, it is revealed in our investigation that there are 11 meanings conveyed by the two verbs, play in English and chơi in Vietnamese: (i) Engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose; (ii) Engage in (a game or activity) for enjoyment; (iii) Amuse oneself by engaging in imaginative pretence; (iv) Take part in (a sport); (v) Participate in (a sporting match or contest); (vi) Be part of a team, especially in a specified position, in a sporting contest; (vii) Bet or gamble at or on; (viii) Perform on (a musical instrument); (ix) Possess the skill of performing on (a musical instrument); (x) Produce (notes) from a musical instrument; perform (a piece of music); (xi) Harm the others 55 As a verb, play in English may have 21 meanings which chơi in Vietnamese may not: (i) Engage in without proper seriousness or understanding; (ii) Treat inconsiderately for one's own amusement; (iii) Fiddle or tamper with; (iv) Used to convey one's irritation at someone's actions or one's failure to understand their motives; (v) Compete against (another player or team) in a sporting match; (vi) Strike (a ball) or execute (a stroke) in a game; (vii) Be in such condition as to have a specified effect on play; (viii) Assign to take part in a match, especially in a specified position; (ix) Move (a piece) or display (a playing card) in one's turn in a game; (x) Be cooperative; (xi) Represent (a character) in a theatrical performance or a film; (xii) Perform in a film or theatrical production; (xiii) Put on or take part in (a theatrical performance, film, or concert); (xiv) Give a dramatic performance at (a particular theatre or place); (xv) Behave as though one were (a specified type of person); (xvi) Treat someone as being of (a specified type); (xvii) Produce sounds or recorded images; (xviii) Accompany (someone) with music as they are moving in a specified direction; (xix) Move lightly and quickly, so as to appear and disappear; flicker; (xx) Emit a stream of gently moving water; (xxi) Allow (a fish) to exhaust itself pulling against a line before reeling it in In addition, play can be a noun whose meanings are unique to English As a noun, play has five main meanings: (i) Activity engaged in for enjoyment and recreation, especially by children; (ii) The conducting of a sporting match; (iii) A dramatic work for the stage or to be broadcast; (iv) The space in or through which a mechanism can or does move; (v) Light and constantly changing movement It is revealed in our investigation that there are meanings conveyed by the verb chơi, unique to Vietnamese: (i) Collect; keep as a hobby; (ii) Be friends with; make friends with; (iii) Leisure activities to entertain; (iv) Waste time on useless things, spoiled; (v) Practise; (vi) Activities for pleasure or recreation; (vii) Have sexual intercourse; fuck; have sex In addition, chơi can be an adverb, which play cannot occur in English When working as an adverb, chơi is used to 56 postmodify a verb and its meaning is “doing something without any purpose/harming the others” 5.2 Concluding remarks Theoretically, the findings of the study reveal that the theoretical fameworks (theory of contrastive analysis; theory of syntax and semantics) used in the present study are highly realiable and appropriate for investigating the syntactic and semantic features of individual words in different languages such as English and Vietnamese The results have also shown the relationship between the syntactic and semantic features of play in English and chơi in Vietnamese These two words are described, analyzed and compared from syntactic and semantic perspectives Syntactically, the verbal forms of play in English are more complex than those of chơi in Vietnamese Play is a lexical verb which has five forms whereas the form of chơi stays the same in any case Play also has more syntactic functions in the clauses By this, I mean that play in English is more flexible in building clauses as well as sentences Therefore, the biggest difference between play in English and chơi in Vietnamese in terms of syntactic features lies in the verbal forms and the co-ordinate possibility of each in the clauses Aditionally, play can be a noun functioning as subject, object, or complement, which is unique to English In Vietnamese, chơi can be an adverb The adverb chơi function as adverbial intergrated within the structure of the clause to at least some extent Indeed, chơi may postmodify a verb and functions as adverbial Semantically, although the verbs play and chơi belong to different languages, they have 11 meanings in common However, there are 21 meanings conveyed by play unique to English whereas chơi has meanings unique to Vietnamese It means that the verb play in English is quite flexible and can take part in more situations of sense than chơi in Vietnamese When working as a noun, play has a lot of meanings (five main meanings) Chơi has only one meaning when functioning as an adverb 57 5.3 Implications 5.3.1 For English teaching and learning In reality, we cannot separate teaching grammar and vocabulary because they are both integral part of the language which we cannot be omitted Knowing a language is not only knowing the grammatical rules, but also knowing when and where it is appropriate to use, how to use, and to what people Developing learners’ communicative competence as well as linguistic competence is the final aim of language teaching Teaching vocabulary not only means providing learners with an increasing number of words but also give learners more details about the word, their sense relations in comparison with their equivalents in the target language The teachers, depending on the results of the investigation, may know exactly the errors that the learners often make when writing as well as translating the sentences and find out necessary ways to help their learners to correct effectively Most students are very interested in learning both grammatical and lexical items However, they often recognize lexical ones as an area in which they have difficulties to grasp well The following suggestions should be considered to get a good vocabulary learning results It is best for students to learn words in specific and real situations In this way, they can be equipped the knowledge of language to understand them better Besides, learners also should pay attention to transfer meaning in process of translating words in different contexts To master endless source of words, learners can approach some documents such as dictionaries, books, newspapers, novels, films and so on It would be better for learners to compare and contrast the two sources of languages to interpret words accordingly As a result, Vietnamese learners of English can understand comprehensively how they are applied in diverse situations 58 5.3.2 For translation from English to Vietnamese and vice versa Translation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text that communicates the same message from the source text to the target language In order to a correct translation, translators must take the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions, and even implicit meanings into consideration It is not surprising that there exists a common misconception when newcomers of translation interpret word-for-word correspondence between any two languages The findings of the study on the ground of syntactic and semantic features of play in English and chơi in Vietnamese may may help the translators to find the appropriate expressions when dealing with the specific situations and contexts where the word play and chơi are used, help the learners decide the best word choice, avoid unnecessary misinterpretation 5.4 Limitations and suggestions for further studies Despite a considerable effort that has been made, some limitations of this study cannot be avoided due to time, knowledge, reference material limitation Besides, due to the limited sources of examples serving as the data for the study, some parts of the study have not accomplished a satisfactory depth as they should Firstly, syntax and semantics are analyzed for only one pair of words play in English and chơi in Vietnamese in this thesis Secondly, the researcher’s knowledge makes it impossible to provide sufficiently and focus on other pairs of words intensively Although the study has offered some insightful findings, it has a limitation The results in this study are just relatively reasonable because of the limited number of instances with play and chơi taken for analysis I hope that in the future research, more instances will be analyzed to have a standard results The study might be served as a foundation for studies on other pairs of words in English and Vietnamese 59 Through I have made my great efforts in this thesis to work out the best results, due to limitation of time and knowledge of the author, mistakes and limitations are unavoidable Therefore, any your comments or corrects for my better work would by highly appreciated This thesis has focused only on studying the syntactic and semantic features of play in English and chơi in Vietnamese Therefore, there are still some aspects related to this problem left for further studies such as discourse analysis, cultural aspects, transformational perspectives, etc 60 REFERENCES Foreign authors Bybee, R (2009) “The 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từ từ tiếng Việt Hà Nội: Nxb Khoa học xã hội Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (1985/2002) Từ vựng học tiếng Việt Hà Nội: Nxb Đại học Trung học chuyên nghiệp/Giáo dục 63 Hoàng Phê (2017) Từ điển tiếng Việt Đà Nẵng: Nxb Đà Nẵng Võ Đại Quang (2005) Một số vấn đề Cú pháp, Ngữ nghĩa, Ngữ Dụng & Âm vị học Hà Nội: Nxb Văn hóa-Thơng tin Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh, Nguyễn Thu Minh (2001) Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt Hà Nội: Nxb Từ điển học bách khoa thư Nguyễn Văn Trào (2009) Emotion Expressing Idioms in English and Vietnamese: A Contrastive Analysis Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Queensland, Australia 64 ... play in English and chơi in Vietnamese in terms of syntactic features lies in the verbal forms and the coordinate possibility of each in the clauses In terms of semantic features, the findings of. .. in English and chơi in Vietnamese in terms of syntactic and semantic features? 1.4 Scope of the study The present study investigates the syntactic and semantic features of play in English and. .. comparison between “play” in English and “chơi” in Vietnamese in terms of syntactic features 3.3.1 Syntactic features found in both languages In both English and Vietnamese, play and chơi may be