Khóa luận tốt nghiệp a study on the translation of noun phrases in the weather forecasts from english into vietnamese

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

BA THESIS
A STUDY ON THE TRANSLATION OF NOUN
PHRASES IN THE WEATHER FORECASTS FROM
ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE
NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH DỊCH CÁC CỤM DANH TỪ
TRONG DỰ BÁO THỜI TIẾT TỪ TIẾNG ANH SANG
TIẾNG VIỆT
Student

: NGO THI THUY

Student code : 621201
Major

: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Supervisor

: TRAN THANH PHUONG, M.A

Hanoi – 2021


VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

BA THESIS
A STUDY ON THE TRANSLATION OF NOUN
PHRASES IN THE WEATHER FORECASTS FROM
ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE
NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH DỊCH CÁC CỤM DANH TỪ
TRONG DỰ BÁO THỜI TIẾT TỪ TIẾNG ANH SANG
TIẾNG VIỆT

Student

: NGO THI THUY

Student code : 621201
Major

: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Supervisor

: TRAN THANH PHUONG, M.A

Hanoi – 2021


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled “A study on the translation of noun phrases in the weather forecasts
from English into Vietnamese” submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Bachelor in the English Language. Except where
the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due the

acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.

Hanoi, 2021

Ngo Thi Thuy

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)
Date: ……………………

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the process of completing this graduation paper, I have received many
necessary assistances, precious ideas and timely encouragements from my
teachers, family and friends.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Tran Thanh
Phuong, M.A for her precious advice, practical suggestions and constant
encouragement in the preparation and completion of this graduation paper.
Without her help this graduation paper would not have possibly been completed.
I would also like to express my great gratitude to all the teachers at
Vietnam National University of Agriculture for their devoted teaching and for
giving me gain valuable knowledge during the four years at this university.
Finally, I wish to extend my special thanks to my family and my friends
for their assistance and encouragement in the making of this graduation paper.

Sincerely thanks!

zzzz

ii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ..................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... v
LIST OF ABBREVIATION ................................................................................ vi
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ................................................................... vii
Part 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1
1.1. Rationale for the study ................................................................................ 1
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study ................................................................ 2
1.3. Research questions ...................................................................................... 2
1.4. Scope of the study ....................................................................................... 2
1.5. Significance of the study ............................................................................. 2
1.6. Design of the study ..................................................................................... 3
Part 2: DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................... 4
Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................. 4
Review of the previous studies ....................................................................... 4
1.1.1. Review of the previous studies ( at home)............................................ 4
1.1.2. Review of the previous studies ( at abroad).......................................... 5
1.2. Review of theoretical background ........................................................... 5
1.2.1. Translation theory ................................................................................. 5
1.2.2. Noun phrase theory ............................................................................. 11
1.2.3. Summary ............................................................................................. 17
Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 18

2.1. Research governing principles ............................................................... 18
2.1.1. Research questions .............................................................................. 18
2.1.2. Research hypothesis ............................................................................ 18

iii


2.1.3. Research types .................................................................................... 18
2.1.4. Research approaches ........................................................................... 18
2.1.5. Principles/ criteria for data collection and data analysis .................... 18
2.2. Research methods .................................................................................. 19
2.2.1. Major method ...................................................................................... 19
2.2.2. Supporting method .............................................................................. 19
2.3. Summary ................................................................................................ 20
Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................... 21
3.1. The similarities and differences of noun phrases in weather forecasts
between English and Vietnamese. ................................................................ 21
3.1.1. The similarities.................................................................................... 21
3.1.2. The differences.................................................................................... 21
3.2. The strategies applied into translation of noun phrases in weather
forecasts from English into Vietnamese. ...................................................... 23
3.2.1. Noun phrases in English weather forecasts ........................................ 23
a, Weather phenomena noun phrases. ........................................................... 23
b, Meteorological nouns and noun phrases .................................................. 24
3.2.2. Naturalization ...................................................................................... 25
3.2.3. Shifts or transpositions........................................................................ 25
3.2.3. Sample content .................................................................................... 27
3.3. Summary ................................................................................................ 33
PART 3: CONCLUSION .................................................................................... 35
1. Recapitulation .............................................................................................. 35

2. Limitation of the current research ................................................................ 35
3. Suggestions for further research .................................................................. 35
REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 37
APPENDIX: Full translation of analyzed sample............................................... 38

iv


ABSTRACT
This study aims to identify methods to translate noun phrases in weather
forecast from English into Vietnamese and analyze the difference in word order
between English noun phrases and Vietnamese counterpoints. Furthermore,
different translations of strategies proposed by scholars are considered, to lay the
foundation for the translation of noun phrases in the weather forecast. Above
all, it gives thoughtful recommendations for the effective translation of noun
phrases in weather forecast from English into Vietnamese. Findings from the
study can contribute to research in the field of compiling and interpreting the
weather forecast literature in general.

v


LIST OF ABBREVIATION
NPs

Noun Phrase

TL

Target Language

SL

Source Language

vi


LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 1.1: Structures of NPs ............................................................................... 12
Table 1.2: Vietnamese noun phrase .................................................................... 15
Table 1.3: Vietnamese noun phrase .................................................................... 15
Table 1.4: The position of descriptive words position -1 ................................... 16
Table 3.1: The similarities of English and Vietnamese noun phrases in weather
forecasts ............................................................................................................... 21
Table 3.2: The similarities of English and Vietnamese noun phrases in weather
forecasts ............................................................................................................... 21
Table 3.3: Noun + noun ...................................................................................... 23
Table 3.4: Adjective + noun ................................................................................ 24
Table 3.5: V-ing + noun ...................................................................................... 24
Table 3.6: Meteorological nouns......................................................................... 24
Table 3.7: Adj + noun ......................................................................................... 31
Table 3.8: Noun + noun ...................................................................................... 32
Table 3.9: Quantifier + noun ............................................................................... 33
Table 3.10: ADJ + N + N .................................................................................... 33
Table 3.11: N+V-ing+N ...................................................................................... 33
Table 3.12: V-ing + N ......................................................................................... 33

vii

Part 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1.Rationale for the study
Today, we cannot deny the important role of translation in work, study or
the daily life. Especially when the current trend is globalization, Vietnam is
opening its doors to attract investment capital as well as economic, cultural and
political cooperation and trade with world powers. Translation includes the
study of vocabulary, grammatical structures, communication situations, and the
cultural context of the source language text; analyze it to determine its meaning;
and then reconstruct this same meaning using vocabulary and grammatical
structures appropriate to its perceptual language and cultural context.
It is a well-known fact that an increasing number large of people all over
the world are drawing attention to the weather. Human beings make effort to
predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since at least the
nineteenth century. So, the weather forecast is an integral part of the daily living
because it provides knowledge and information of future weather conditions.
The weather forecast supports us to cope with the unusual kinds of climate to
maintain the socio-economic innovation. Furthermore, there is no doubt that a
large number of weather documents are written in English. Therefore, understading
and knowing English weather documents is necessary in our daily life.
Translators often get trouble in conveying the exact meaning of words
related to weather phenomena during the process of translating noun phrases from
English into Vietnamese. When dealing with them, the author feels confused and
faces many difficulties. Hence, translation techniques of noun phrases in weather
forecasts from English into Vietnamese could be taken into consideration in this
study. For that reason, I would like to carry out a study on the topic “A study on
the translation of noun phrases in the weather forecasts from English into
Vietnamese” to help learners and translators have deeper knowledge about noun

1

phrases in translation, more specifically in the weather forecasting.
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
In detail, my study aims at finding out translation strategies of noun phrases
in English weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese. Pointing out several
the similarities and differences of weather forcast noun phrases in English and
Vietnamese. Giving some translation strategies to translate noun phrases in the
weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese.
1.3. Research questions
To reach the aims within the scope, the research questions below are solved:
1. What are the similarities and differences of weather forcast noun phrases in
English and Vietnamese?
2. Which translation strategies can be used to translate noun phrases in English
weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese?
1.4. Scope of the study
Due to the limitation of time, knowledge and experience, my research
mainly focuses on the characteristics of English noun phrases in weather
forecasts, giving some problems when translating those ones as well as giving
some strategies to apply to translating them.
1.5. Significance of the study
It is commonly believed that the weather has a significant impact on the
agriculture industry as well as in economy. Indeed, plants need the basics of
moisture, warmth, and sun to grow. The weather information details can drive a
grower‟s business decisions, helping them to plan efficiently, minimize costs
and maximize yield and profits. As a result, understading and knowing English
weather documents is necessary for our daily life. Thus, research is carried out
to help learners and translators know how to translate noun phrases in weather
forecasts from English into Vietnamese.

2


1.6. Design of the study
Apart from abstracts, references & appendices, the study paper consists of
three parts, in which the second one is considered the most important.
PART 1 - INTRODUCTION presents the rationale of the study, aims and
objectives of the study, research questions, the scope as well as the significance
of the study.
PART 2 - DEVELOPMENT is divided into 3 chapters:
Chapter 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW – provides the theoretical
background for the study including definitions of translation theory, noun phrase
theory and weather forecast.
Chapter 2 – METHODOLOGY describes the methodology used in the
research including the action research, data collection instruments, the
procedures employed to carry out the research.
Chapter 3 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS - reports and discusses the
findings of the study.
PART 3 - CONCLUSION summarizes the main issues that have been addressed
in the study, points out the limitations, draws pedagogical implications
concerning the research topic and suggests several solutions.

3


Part 2: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Review of the previous studies
1.1.1. Review of the previous studies ( at home)
Noun pharse play an importance role in languages like English. The

European Science Foundation has recognized the importance of the Noun Phrase
in language when this topic was one of the central themes of its Eurotyp Project
(Programme in Language Typology, 1990-4; Siewierska 1997).
In “A study on the translation of English terms related to weather forecast”
by Trinh Xuan Xam (2010), she collectes and presentes the basic English terms
in the weather forecast. Then, it provides their Vietnamese equivalents or
expressions and analyzes translation strategies and procedures employed in the
translation of these English terms into Vietnamese.
This study helps readers understand and use the weather information
efficiently, and have a certain understanding of some terms in the news letter as
well as the reliability of the forecasts of the weather.
In “A discourse analysis of the weather forecasts in English and
Vietnamese” by Tran Thi Mo (2011), she describes and compares discourse
features of the weather forecasts from English into Vietnamese to seek the
similarities and differences of the weather forecasts in terms of the layout,
syntactic structures, lexical choice and cohesive devices.
This study helps readers have deeper knowledge about discourse features
of the weather forecasts. From there, it is possible to choose the appropriate
vocabulary or grammatical structures to translate the weather forecast or news
about the weather from English into Vietnamese.

4


1.1.2. Review of the previous studies ( at abroad)
In “Deep

comprehension,

generation

and

translation of

weather

forecasts (weathra)” by Bengt Sigurd, Caroline Willners, Mats Eeg-Olofsson
And Christer Johansson (1992). This study explores

the

language

and

semantics of weather forecasts further and it aims at deep comprehension
of forecasts.
In summary, there are a number of theses relevant to translation of noun
phrases have been undertaken. However, there is a little research about the
translation of noun phrases in the weather forecasts from English into
Vietnamese so I would like to give some effective methods to help learners and
translators in the process of translating in my thesis.
1.2. Review of theoretical background
1.2.1. Translation theory
1.2.1.1. Definition
The need for a translation service is very important in our modern world.
Not just doing countries depend on it to close the communication gap if not, but
it does also allows people to access the richness of global scientific and
technological information, as well as the ideas that shape our society.

There are many researchers and linguists who have given the definition of
translation. The following theories are the basic theoretical background for this
study:
- As stated by the definition on the website: “Translation is the
interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an
equivalent text, likewise called a translation that communicates the same
message in another language. The text to be translated is called the source text,
and the language that it is to be translated into is called the target language; the
final product is sometimes called the target text.”(Wikipedia)
- According to Bell (1991: 5): “Translation is the expression in another
5


language (target language) of what has been expressed in one language (source
language) preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences”.
-Newmark‟s (1988: 5) claim is that: “Translation is rendering the meaning
of a text into another language in the way that author intended the text”.
- Bui Tien Bao (1997) from Ha Noi National University defines that
“Translation is rendering a written text into another language in a way that the
author intended the text”.
In general, the tranlation is translating the source language into the target
language or vice versa. The translation is the replacement of a text document in
a source language with its equivalent in the target language.
1.2.1.2. Translation methods
According to Peter Newmark (1988: 45-47), there are eight methods of
translation namely: word-for-word, literal translation, faithful translation,
semantic translation, adaption, free translation, idiomatic translation and
communicative translation.
Newmark briefly explaines these methods as:
a, Word-for-word translation

The SL word order is preserved and the word is translated by their most
common meanings, no context is considered when using this method.
Ex: facebook => mặt sách; Hôm qua tôi đi chợ => Yesterday I go market; He is
a small boy => Anh ấy là một nhỏ cậu bé. (Nguyen Thu Hang (2018). Strategies
Dealing With Translating Technical Noun Phrases In Electronics Texts, The
University of Da Nang)
b, Literal translation
The SL syntactic structures are converted to their nearest TL equivalents,
but the lexical words are again translated singly, out of context.

6


Ex: He looked up at the Milky Way.  Anh ấy nhìn lên vào con đường màu sữa.
(Nguyen Thu Hang (2018). Strategies Dealing With Translating Technical Noun
Phrases In Electronics Texts, The University of Da Nang)
c, Faithful translation
It attempts to create the precise contextual meaning of the original within
the constraints of the TL grammatical structures. Some cultural words are
translated directly by copying from the source text to the target text.
Ex: He was a fast as a kangaroo.
=> Anh ấy nhanh như một con kangaroo ( Ngo Thi Huyen (2016). Translation
Methods- A Survey From “Vừa Nhắm Mắt Vừa Mở Cửa Sổ”, Hanoi University).
d, Semantic translation
It is the process of using semantic information to support the translation of
data in one representation or data model to another data representation or model.
Ex: Right in Hanoi, Hoan Kiem is an enchanting body of water, a
peaceful oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
=> Nằm ngay giữa trung tâm Hà Nội, hồ Hoàn Kiếm là một hồ nước đẹp
mê hồn, một ốc đảo bình yên tách biệt với sự hối hả bận rộn của thành phố.

Satellite imagery has shown the seriousness of the situation; almost half
of the panda‟s habitat has been cut or degraded since 1975.
=> Tình trạng nghiêm trọng được thể hiện qua hình ảnh vệ tinh, gần một
nửa môi trường sinh sống của gấu trúc đã bị thu hẹp hoặc thối hóa kể từ năm
1975 đến nay. (Biên Dịch Tiếng Anh - Bài 6: Các Kiểu Biên Dịch - Phần 2(
2016) from />e, Adaptation
The freest form of translation, and is used mainly for plays (comedies)
and poetry; the themes, characters, plots are usually preserved, the SL culture is
converted to the TL culture and the text is rewritten.
7


Ex: Trăm năm trong cõi người ta/ Chữ tài chữ mệnh khéo là ghét nhau
=>Within a span of one hundred years
Of human life and tragedy
What a bitter struggle it wagged
Between talent and destiny
(Le Xuan Thuy)
f, Free translation
It produces reproduces the general meaning of the original text. It may or
may not closely follow the form of organization of the original.
Ex: Your wild heart will live for younger days
=> trái tim nhiệt huyết của con sẽ tiếc nuối những ngày thanh xuân ( song
“The nights- Avicii” )
g, Idiomatic translation
It reproduces the 'message' of the original but tends to distort nuances of
meaning by favoring colloquial words and idioms that do not exist in the
original.
Ex:
He was as quiet as a mouse => Anh ta im như thóc. ( Ngo Thi Huyen

(2016). Translation Methods- A Survey From “Vừa Nhắm Mắt Vừa Mở Cửa
Sổ”, Hanoi University).
h, Communicative translation
It attempts to express the exact contextual meaning of the original in such
a way that both content and language are readily acceptable and comprehensible
to the readership.
Ex: Keep off the grass => không được dẫm lên cỏ (Biên Dịch Tiếng Anh Bài

6:

Các

Kiểu

Biên

Dịch

-

Phần

2(

2016)

from

/>8

Newmark (1991: 10-12) writes of a continuum that existed between
"semantic" and "communicative" translation. Any translation can be "more, or
less semantic-more, or less, communicative-even a particular section or sentence
can be treated more communicatively or less semantically." Both find an
"equivalent effect." Zhongying (1994: 97), who prefers literal translation to free
translation, writes that " in China, it is agreed by many that one should translate
literally, if possible, or appeal to free translation."
In general, translation methods are reproduced of different types of texts including religious, literary, scientific and philosophical texts - in another
language and making them easily accessible to a wide range of people.
1.2.1.3. Translation strategies and procedures
Newmark (1988: 45-47) mentions the difference between translation methods
and translation procedures. He writes that “while translation methods relate to
whole texts, translation procedures are used for sentences and the smaller units
of language".
The research is mainly based on Newmark's strategies proposed in 1988b in
which he proposes a number of different strategies. Because of the scope and
purpose of the study, four translation strategies by Newmark (1988b) were
applied to the translation of NPs as mentioned below.
a,Naturalization
This translation procedure involves adapting the source language (SL) word to
the normal pronunciation and then to normal morphology.
Ex: Kangaroo => kăng-ga-ru
In general, these are simple techniques without consideration complexity.
b,Functional- Descriptive Translation
+Function translation is the method which is applied to cultural words, requires
the use of a culture-free word to ensure readability of the translation. Such
words as “the White House” or “the Pentagon” can be substituted by “Dinh cơ
9

Tổng thống Mỹ” or “Bộ Quốc Phòng Mỹ” respectively. ( Ngo Thi Huyen (2016).
Translation Methods- A Survey From “Vừa Nhắm Mắt Vừa Mở Cửa Sổ”, Hanoi
University).
+ Newmark (1988) introduced descriptive equivalence as a procedure which
allows translator to explain or paraphrase the words in the target language by
adding function of the SL word for example . This procedure is applied when SL
words have no target language (TL) equivalents, then a detail description is
added next.
Ex: Request of Discussion- Đề xuất để khởi tạo những nhóm tin tức và bắt đầu
thảo luận trên chủ đề mà bạn chọn. (Nguyen Thu Hang (2018). Strategies
Dealing With Translating Technical Noun Phrases In Electronics Texts, The
University of Da Nang)
c, Reduction and expansion
This translation strategy involves adding or removing elements in translation.
These two procedures are usually used in poorly written texts and change lexical
and stylistic aspects.
Expansion refers to the case where the translator exceeds the number of words
of the SL in translation, as the following example shows:
(1) Expansion ex : - SL. Adjective > TL. Adverb + Past participle of Present
participle + Object (Natalia Nainggolan (2014). Procedures Of Translation
According To Newmark, Indonesia.)
In the reduction , the translator is more likely to reduce the number of elements
that make up the SL. This procedure should respect the principle of conformity.
That is, the translator must ensure that no important information is left out in
the translation
(2) Reduction ex :- SL. Adjective of substance + Noun > TL Noun (Natalia
Nainggolan (2014). Procedures Of Translation According To Newmark,
Indonesia.)
10

d, Shifts or transpositions
A shift or transposition is a translation procedure needed when there is a change
in the grammar form SL to TL. This translation strategy is line in with that the
strategy called “rank-shift” by Catford (1965) or “Transposing” by Vinay and
Darbelnet (1988), both of which can be applied as important and useful
methods, especially in dealing with the nonequivalence of the two languages.
As Vinay and Darbelnet (1988) suggest some transpositions to deal with this
obstacle, the transposition can be the change of word forms or sentence‟s level;
Ex: SL verb => TL noun
SL clause => TL noun phrase
Ex. Transducer that measures position - bộ cảm biến đo vị trí (Nguyen Thu
Hang (2018). Strategies Dealing With Translating Technical Noun Phrases In
Electronics Texts, The University of Da Nang)
1.2.2. Noun phrase theory
1.2.2.1. Definition
Morley (2000) thinks that “a noun phrase is a phrase, which has noun or
pronoun as its head”. Halliday (1985) claimed that constituents which modify
the head noun and appear before the head noun are called pre-modifiers whereas
the modifiers placed after the head of a noun phrase are called post-modifiers.
According to Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik (1972), the noun phrase
is the element in the sentence which typically functions as subject, object or
complement
Diep Quang Ban (2008) argument is that a Vietnamese noun phrase
consists of three constituents: pre-modification, the head, post-modification.
Generally a phrase with a noun acting as the main element, modified by
modifiers, preceded (called pre-modifiers) and/or followed (called postmodifiers).

11

1.2.2.2. Noun phrase constituent
a, Noun phrase in English
In the book “Analyzing English” (1980), Howard claims that “The noun
phrase in English is composed potentially three parts”. A noun phrase normally
including three elements: the head, pre-modification and post-modification. The
head is obligatory but the pre-modification and the post-modification are
optionally occurring.
A lot of

Experience

In negotiation

Pre-modification

Head

Post-modification

Table 1.1: Structures of NPs

 Pre-modification (or pre-modifiers) comes before the head noun (it is
pre-modification because it precedes the head noun, and it gives the new
information modifies or adds meaning to the head noun).
The class of identifiers comes after a pre-determiner. Identifiers consist of
articles (a, an, the), demonstratives (this, that, these, those), and possessives
(my, your, his, her, its, our, their), only one of which can appear in a noun
phrase. One special thing about noun phrases is that the article “the” can go with

any head either singular or plural (a). In contrast, demonstratives have to “agree
in number with the common noun phrase” (Baker (1995: 153)) (b). For example:
(a) The picture, the pictures
(b) This picture, that picture but these pictures, those pictures
The identifier can be followed by a numeral/quantifier. Unlike the
identifier, the numeral/quantifier can have more than one element. In general,
this constituent of noun phrase can have the three preferred sequences:
(a) Ordinal numeral + indefinite quantifier, e.g. the first few students
(b) Ordinal numeral + cardinal numeral, e.g. the first two students
(c) Indefinite quantifier + cardinal numeral, e.g. several thousand students
Howard

(1980)

describes

the

sequence

of

adjectives

after

12


numerals/quantifiers as following “Opinion – size – shape – age – color – origin

– material – purpose”. He gave an example, of the sequence of the adjectives in
a noun phrase: 1. Epithet (charming), 2. Size (small), 3. Shape (round), 4. Age
(old), 5. Color (brown), 6. Origin (French), 7. Substance (wooden), 8. Present
participle (writing). He refers to the case of noun modifiers which come between
the adjective and the head noun and noun phrase in the genitive case. It means a
noun phrase that is usually used to indicate possession. Ex: “The bike‟s (noun
phrase genitive), low (adjective) saddle (head noun).
 Head
The head noun means a noun is the central component of a noun phrase.
Moreover, the head of the noun phrase can be a pronoun. Without a noun or a
pronoun, it cannot be called “noun phrase”. There are four types of pronouns
functioning as heads:
- Personal pronoun (Ex: She in she is cooking.)
- Indefinite pronoun (Ex: Someone in someone arrived.)
- Possessive pronoun (Ex: her in her are low.)
- Demonstrative pronoun (Ex: That in that makes me crazy.)
 Post- modifier (post-modification)
Post-modifier appears after the head noun. It can be an adjective, an
adverb or a phrase such as prepositional phrase or a clause such as relative
clause, non-finite clause.
+Usually, when people need an adjective to complement the head noun,
they put it in the pre-modification position. However, in some cases, an
adjective can come after the head noun, especially in some phrases placed like
something old, something new.
+Adverbs are more frequent place after post-modification and they can be
considered a contraction of a prepositional phrase. For example, the time after
can be understood as the time after this one.
13

+A relative clause is a clause consisting of a heading relative pronoun that
mentions back to the head noun of the noun phrase. The relative pronoun “who”
and “whom” are used to refer to people. The relative pronoun “which” is used
for animals and plants. If the relative pronoun is an index of an object, it may be
omitted. For example: in the noun phrase the man whom I met two days ago,
“whom” is optional.
+A Non-finite clause can also pact as post-modification. There are three
types of non-finite clauses: Infinitive Clause (a), Present Participle Clause (b)
and Past Participle Clause (c). For example:
(a) a song to listen
(b) the boy talking to the police
(c) the pictures chosen by the teacher
+An infinitive clause is introduced by a to-infinitive. Likewise, a present
and a past participle clause are introduced by a present and a past participle
respectively. Non-finite clauses can be reconstructed into complete relative
clauses. For example:
(a) a song to listen

a song that we should listen

(b) the boy talking to the police

the boy who is talking to the police

(c) the picture chosen by the teacher

the picture that is chosen by the

teacher
+A prepositional phrase is formed by a preposition + a noun phrase, e.g. in

the corner. Prepositional phrases are said to be the most frequently used
modifiers in post-modifiers in noun phrases. For example: the man in the corner.
A prepositional phrase can also be reconstructed into a relative clause, e.g. the
man who is in the corner.
b,Vietnamese noun phrase
 In the book Vietnamese grammar (Ngữ pháp tiếng Việt), Nguyen Tai
Can claims that Vietnamese noun phrases have two components: the head and
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the modification consist of the pre-modification and post-modification. He
discovered a new point of the noun head. His argument is that if a classifier
precedes the noun, both the noun and the classifier are the head. So the head is
the combination of T1 and T2. For example:
Pre-

Head

modification

T1(Classifier)

Postmodification

T2 (Noun)

Hai

Nhóm

Người

Này

Một

Con

Mèo

Mướp

Table 1.2: Vietnamese noun phrase

Diep Quang Ban (2008) claims that a noun phrase composes of three
elements: pre-modification, the head and post-modification. In the premodification, the elements add more quantity information of the nucleus. In
contrast, the elements of post-modification give more quality information of the
nucleus. The head of a noun phrase can be a word or a group of words where a
classifier is followed by a noun, a verb, or an adjective. For instance:
Pre-modification

Head

Post-modification

Tất cả

Những

Cái

Con mèo

Đen

ấy

-3

-2

-1

0

1

2

Table 1.3: Vietnamese noun phrase

+ Head
The head of a noun phrase can be an individual noun (ex: chó) or a
classifier + noun (ex: con chó). Classifier is words like cái, con, người. There
are clear differences between these classifiers. “Cái” is often associated with
inanimate objects, ex: cái bát. Conversely, “con” can be accompanied by
animated objects, ex: con gà. “người” is used for humans, ex: người nghệ sỹ. It
is worth noting that even though “người” refers to human being, we say "con"
người.
If a noun phrase have two or more coordinate nouns, they will together

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constitute the head, ex: toàn thể phụ huynh, học sinh.
+ Pre-modification
Diep Quang Ban (2008) refers to three positions which are in fixed order
and is not inter changeable namely: “vị trí từ chỉ xuất” (-1), “vị trí của từ chỉ
lượng”(-2), “vị trí của từ chỉ tổng lượng” (-3).
+ Position (-1) (từ chỉ xuất): “cái” is the most common word for “từ chỉ
xuất” and it is used to emphasize the noun refer to the head.
+ Position (-2) (từ chỉ số lượng): this position is a numeral or an indefinite
quantifier. Numerals are một (one), hai (two), etc. Indefinite quantifier are mọi,
những, khoảng , tầm ,etc.
+ Position (-3): those are the words express the meaning “total number” such
as: tất cả, hết thảy, tất thảy, cả thảy,etc. Ex: tất cả quần áo này đều là của tôi.
+ Post-modification
Diep Quang Ban (2008) classified the post-modifition into two positions:
descriptive words and demonstrative pronouns.
+ The position of descriptive words position -1: can be nouns, verbs,
adjectives, prepositional phrases or pronoun.
Position -1

Examples

Nouns

Sách giáo khoa, sách tiếng Anh

Verbs

Người bán hàng

Adjectives

Chất lượng tốt

Prepositional phrases

Xe ở sau nhà

Pronoun

Sách (của) chúng tôi
Table 1.4: The position of descriptive words position -1

+ The position of demonstrative pronounsposition-2: are considered to be
the right most post-modifiers. They are ấy, nọ, kia, này, ấy, etc. Usually,
demonstratives can follow any of the descriptive, ex: hồn cảnh ấy, những việc đó.

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