HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
NOUN PHRASES
Instructor: Mr. Bùi Nguyên Khánh
Student: Chu Văn Bình
Class 4B-08
Contrastive Analysis 2011
HCMC, Dec. 31th 2011
Abstract
A contrastive analysis between two language is very useful to help teachers to avoid students making
mistakes in learning English. My paper is a review a differences between English and Vietnamese noun
phrases. its purpose is to help teachers of English to recognize some errors that students can make in
learning and from that, they can work out some solutions for problems. My paper will include a
description of English and Vietnamese noun phrases and then it shows some differences in noun phrases
between the two languages. It also gives some implications in teaching English basing on the those
differences. At the same time, some solutions for problems will also be raised.
Noun phrase in English
Definition :A noun phrase is briefly defined as “a group of words with a noun or pronoun as the main
part” and these phrases may “consist of one word” (Nguyen, 2000, p. 53). In the book “Analyzing
English” Howard
shows that “ the noun phrase in English is composed potentially three parts. The
central part of the noun phrase, the head, is obligatory: it is the minimal requirement for the occurrence
of a noun phrase. The other two parts are optionally occurring. That is pre-modification and postmodification. they can be illustrated by the table in the part Structure.
Structure: A noun phrase usually consists of three elements: the head, the pre-modification and
the post-modification. The head, which is obligatory and the most important part of a noun phrase.
Nguyen stated “the Head is a noun” (p.54). Meanwhile Howard added the head can be a noun or a
pronoun (p. 12)
PREMODIFICATION
HEAD
POSTMODIFICATION
(optional)
(Obligatory)
(Optional)
CAR
In the drive
e.g:
That old
(Pre-modification)
(Head)
( post- modification)
Pre-modification (or pre-modifiers) is the one what precedes the head.
In Howard’s book, he gave a very clear description about pre-modification (p. 13). He
discussed the specific order of the word class and sub-classes as identifier – numeral/quantifier –
adjective – noun modifier.
He point out that “The class of Identifiers includes articles ( ‘a’, ‘the’), demonstratives(‘this’, ‘that’) and
possessive (‘my’, ‘your’, ‘his’, etc)” and these identifiers always come before any numerals or indefinite
quantifiers that may be present. For example: the sixth man. He also makes it clear that only one
identifier may occur in any noun phrase. So we can not say: this my pen. And if we want to combine
article or demonstrative identifier with possessive, then we use an “of –phrase” with the possessive
pronoun must be used.
Eg. The pen of mine.
* Howard gave a notice about numeral/ quantifier. that is more than one numeral/ quantifier may occur in
a noun phrase (p.13). He gave a favorite sequence of numeral/ quantifier:
ordinal numeralè indefinite quantifier, eg: the first few days
ordinal numeral è cardinal: eg: the second five days
indefinite quantifierè cardinal numeral: eg several hundred people
* he mentioned small group of words that come before the identifier in a noun phrase, which are called
pre-determiner ( all, both, half, one-third). Eg both/ all the old men.
* Howard described
the order of adjectives which come after numerals/ quantifiers as following:
opinion – size- shape-age-colour- origin-material-purpose . he gave an example of the order of the
adjectives in a noun phrase: epithet (charming), 2. size (small), 3. shape (round), 4. age (old), 5. color
(brown), 6. origin (French), 7. substance (oaken), 8.
present participle (writing). He mentioned the case of noun modifiers which come between adjective and
the head noun and noun phrase in the genitive case. that is to say a noun phrase which is often used to
indicate possession. For example: the bicycle’s low saddle. this can be analyzed as: the bicycle’s ( noun
phrase genitive), low (adjective), saddle (head noun)
Head: the head noun is the central element and core component of a noun phrase. it is obligatory to a
English noun phrase. Howard said that Heads can be common nouns as car in that old car in the drive,
Proper nouns such as John, Jenifer,……or Pronouns. Pronouns as heads can be:
o
Personal pronoun :eg she in she is there.
o
Indefinite pro: eg someone in someone called,…………..
o
Possessive pronoun : eg mine in mine are green.
o
Demonstrative pronoun : eg this in this beats everything
*Howard made a note about the case when pronouns functions as a head of a noun phrase. Pronouns
usually occurs without any kind of modification. Pre-modification is virtually impossible for pronouns,
though post-modification may occasionally be found, eg he who hesitates (p.12).
Post-modifier: Howard gave a remark to post-modification as follow: the post- modification in a noun
phrase is most commonly filled not by specific word classes or subclasses, but by phrases or clauses.
Kinds of phrasal/ clausal post-modification are illustrated in the following diagram:
relative
clauses
adjective or
adverbs
postmodifiers
non-finite
clauses
prepositional
phrases
The examples of each one are given in the following table:
Post-modifiers
examples
Relative clauses
the house where I live.
Non-finite clauses
it’s a movie to see (inf clause) (cli)
the man talking to the teacher
(cling)
the text chosen by the teacher
(past
participle
phrase)
Adjective phrase
something new
someone brave
Preposition phrases
the man with long hair
Adverb phrase
the bus behind
·
Howard gave a different kind of relative clause which involving comparison. In the example: she
buys more clothes in a month than I buy in a year. He said that than- clause is a relative clause. than
is a relative pronoun. The similar case is for superlative comparison. In the example: the most
expressive clothes that she can afford , relative clause is introduced by that
·
Howard mentioned three kinds of non-finite clause. each type will be illustrated with examples in the
following table:
·
Infinite clause
The man to answer this question
Present participle clause
The car coming down the road
Past participle
The woman expected to arrive at any moment
Howard made a note that a present participle clause is not always relatable to a progressive form,
though, it always relates to an active. in the example someone knowing the circumstances, it is not
“someone who is knowing the circumstances” but “ someone who knows the circumstances”
·
Howard gave a difference between Infinite clause and Present participle clause, Past participle. In
Present participle clause, Past participle the implied subject is the head of the noun phrase.
eg: The car (head, subject)- coming down the road; but in infinite clause the implied subject is not
always the head of the noun phrase. The man to answer this question can be understood by that
someone should ask the man about this question.
Noun phrase in Vietnamese
A Vietnamese noun phrase is defined as “a free combination of a noun nucleus and
one or more than one subordinate elements” which can be front elements (that stand before
the nucleus noun) and end elements (that stand after the nucleus noun) (Doan, Nguyen, &
Pham, 2001).
For example:
Front elements
nucleus
End elements
Ba
Con mèo
này
Những
Quyển sách
Màu đen ấy
Một
Đặc biệt
Con người
In his book, Diep Quang Ban (2008, 79) gave a general remark about the front and end elements of a
Vietnamese noun phrase. That is :the front elements is the words of quantity of the nucleus and the
end elements is words of quality of the nucleus
The structure: Diep Quang Ban (2008, 79) gave a chart about the order of the elements
in a noun phrase:
Tất cả
Những
Cái
Con mèo
Đen
ấy
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
The nucleus: in his book Diep Quang Ban said that the nucleus may be a noun or a combination of
two components which is called “ngữ danh từ”. the first component is called “Danh từ chỉ loại” (a
classifier), the second component can be a noun, a verb, or adjective. Both of the components is got
together to indicate a specific object. See examples in the following table:
examples
Classifier + noun
Con mèo
Classifier + verb
Cuộc họp, niềm vui
Classifier + adjective
Vẻ đẹp
Besides these “ngữ danh tư”, we have 10 sub-nouns which can act as a nucleus. They are listed in
the table below: (name of each one is given in Vietnamese terms)
Sub-nouns
examples
Danh từ chỉ loại
Hai cái này
Danh từ tập thể
Hai bọn kia
Danh từ đơn vị đại lượng
Hai mẫu này
Danh từ đơn vị hành chính, sự nghiệp
Hai tỉnh nọ
Danh từ chỉ không gian
Hai chỗ ấy
Danh từ chỉ đơn vị thời gian
Hai thế kỉ này
Danh từ chỉ lần tồn tại của hoạt động, trạng thái
Hai lần về phép
Danh từ chỉ màu sắc, mùi vi, âm thanh
Hai màu ấy
Danh từ chỉ người
Hai trò này
Danh từ trừu tượng
Hai khả năng này
The front element: In his book, Diep Quang Ban (p. 45) mention 3 positions which are in fixed
order and can’t be interchangeable. They are called “ vị trí từ chỉ xuất” (post-1), “vị trí của từ chỉ số
lượng” (post-2), “vị trí của từ chỉ tổng lượng”( post – 3)
Post-3 (từ chỉ tổng lượng)
Post-2
(từ
chỉ
số Post-1 (từ chỉ xuất)
The nucleus
lượng)
tất cả
Những
Cái
Con mèo
Position 1(từ chỉ xuất): the most common word for “ từ chỉ xuất” is “cái”. Here are some examples
Cái cây tre này
cái anh này
cái xã ấy
cái ngày ấy
Position 2 (từ chỉ số lượng): “ từ chỉ số lượng” can be classified into the following kinds:
1. Cardinal numeral: một, hai, ba
2. Estimate quantifier:
3. Distribution words (từ hàm ý phân phối): mỗi từng, mọi
4. Numeral attributes (quán từ): những, các, một
5. The word “mấy”
Position 3: those are the words indicating the meaning “total number” such as : tất cả, hết thảy, tất
thảy, tất cả.
Example: tất cả mọi việc
The end element: Diep Quang Ban divided the end element into two positions: the position of
descriptive words ( Vietnamese term: thực từ) and the position of demonstrative pronouns such as :
này, kia, nọ, ấy (vietnamese term: từ chỉ định). Diep Quang Ban called the position of descriptive
words position-1, the position of ‘ từ chỉ định” position-2. He illustrated the two positions in the
following table:
.............
The nucleus
Position-1
Position 2
Con mèo
Đen
ấy
Position-1: position of descriptive words
In term of word class: this position can be taken over by nouns, verbs, adjectives, cardinal
numeral, pronouns, nouns of time:
Position 1
examples
nouns
Hương hoa nhài
Verbs
Giấy vẽ
Cardinal numeral
Phòng mười bốn
Pronouns
Máy (của) chúng tôi
Nouns of time
Chuyến trước
In term of structure: position 1 can be taken over by a principal – accessory phrase (cụm từ
chính phụ), a coordinated phrase (cụm từ đảng lập), a S-V phrase (cụm từ chủ-vị):
a principal – accessory phrase: gian hàng đồ chơi trẻ em
a coordinated phrase: nhà sách bên trái và bên phải
a S-V phrase: nhà sách tôi mua
In terms of way of linking:
Direct way: some words in position 1 can link to the nucleus in a direct way (without
a connector). For example : đơn tình nguyện, lệnh sản xuất
Indirect way: some connectors is used. These are some of them: của, bằng, cho, để,
do, ở
Eg. Hàng mà chúng tôi sản xuất, chuyện mà tôi nói với anh
Position 2: demonstrative pronouns such as “này, ấy, đó
Some of demonstrative pronouns are :này, kia, nọ ấy , đấy, đó
Differences between English and vietnamese noun phrase
In English there must be the occurrence of a noun and its determiners. A noun in singular form must
go with a determiner. So that would be ungrammatical when saying “ I will make table”. But in
Vietnamese we can say “ tôi sẽ làm cái bàn”
In English, when pronouns functions as a head of a noun phrase. Pronouns usually occurs without any
kind of modification. Pre-modification is virtually impossible for pronouns. But we can say “mấy anh cố
làm cho xong nha” in vietnamese. So we can use a pre-modification (mấy) + a pronoun in vietnamese (
anh)
Only one identifier may occur in English but that is not the same in Vietnamese. For example: the phrase
“ một cuốn sách của tôi”is grammatically correct but we cannot say “ a my book” in English. In order to
translate this Vietnamese phrase into English, we must say “ a book of mine”
In English, the head in a noun phrase must be a noun or a pronoun, but in Vietnamese the nucleus may be
a noun or a phrase called “ngữ danh tư”. “ this “ ngữ danh từ” may include a classifier noun + a noun, a
verb, a adjective. That is distinctive in vietnamese when comparing with English. So we can work out a
formation for a Vietnamese noun phrase as following:
A Vietnamese noun phrase == a classifier + a noun, a verb, or a adjective
The front elements in Vietnamese noun phrases indicate quantity , the end elements do with the quality;
however, the pre- modification in English noun phrases may include words of quality. Eg. A beautiful
book. As the difference illustrated here, we can infer a other difference. That is we can put an adjective
phrase before the head noun in English, but that is ungrammatical in Vietnamese. We can not say “ một
mới sách”
In English, demonstratives occur before the head noun . eg this book . however, demonstratives must
appear in the end element, after the nucleus . eg : cuốn sách này .
Vietnamese possessives always begin with the word “của”, and occur after the head noun. Eg: cuốn sách
của tôi. But English possessives precede the head nouns. Eg his book
In English, a noun modifier can come before the head noun. Eg. The children books. However,
Vietnamese ways of this phrase is “ sách thiếu nhi”. the Noun modifier is an end element.
The position of Ordinal numbers in noun phrases also differs between English and Vietnamese. We say
“ the second person” in english but “ người thứ hai” in vietnamese .
Teaching implication
From what I have mentioned, I want to give some suggestion for translators and teachers of English
when they teach their students grammatical points involving noun phrases.
I suggest some mistakes that students and translators may have. students may confuse when they
translate an English phrase into Vietnamese because of the differences in order of words. For example:
“một cái bàn mới” may be translated into ‘ a table new”.
Students may forget determiners when translating Vietnamese phrases into English. Eg. “ tôi sẽ mua
cuốn sách” would be translated into “I will buy book” without a determiner. Or an learner of Vietnamese
would translate “ i will buy a cat” into “ tôi sẽ mua một mèo” without a classifier noun :“ con”.
Involving in the pronouns in English noun phrases which is occur without any pre-modification. Students
may wrongly translate some cases. For example : “tất cả các anh phải về sớm” may be translated into “ all
you must come back soon” , while it should be “ all of you must come back soon”. Or “ một cuốn sách
của tôi” is translated into “ a my book’. Students may confuse because the differences in order of
adjectives, noun modifiers, possessives, demonstratives, ordinal numbers. This results in some funny
translation that students make. Teachers should ask students to pay attention to these negative transfers so
that they can avoid making mistakes . Students may have troubles in putting adjectives in a correct order
before a head noun. A solution for this may be a suggestion from teachers of a special way to remember.
teachers can give a word which has letters are the first letters of sequence of adjectives. For example:
OPSACOMP will successively represent the following sequence of adjectives: opinion- size- shape-agecolour-origin- material- purpose .
Conclusion
Noun phrases in English and Vietnamese have some interesting thought-provoking differences that are
really necessary to recognize. That is not only for implication in teaching but also in translation. A
careful study is very useful. This paper has mentioned some of many interesting things between the two
language, but it can not be a thoughtful and informative enough writing about noun phrases. There may
be other studies in this field Such as “ study of errors in translation English into Vietnamese and
solutions”. Or wider contrastive analysis in verb and adjective phrase.
Reference
Diep, Quang Ban. (2008). Giáo trình ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt. Tập 2: Phần từ loại, cụm từ, cấu
tạo từ. n. p. : Education Press.
Jackson, Howard. Analyzing English.n.p.: Pergamon Institute of English, n.d.