a contrastive analysis between the verb fall in english and the verb ngã in vietnamese = phân tích đối chiếu động từ fall trong tiếng anh và động từ ngã trong tiếng việt

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************






NGUYỄN THỊ NGÂN


A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE VERB
‘FALL’ IN ENGLISH AND THE VERB ‘NGÃ’ IN
VIETNAMESE

(PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐỘNG TỪ ‘FALL’ TRONG TIẾNG ANH
VÀ ĐỘNG TỪ ‘NGÃ’ TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT


M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 602215





HANOI – 2010

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************






NGUYỄN THỊ NGÂN


A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE VERB
‘FALL’ IN ENGLISH AND THE VERB ‘NGÃ’ IN
VIETNAMESE

(PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐỘNG TỪ ‘FALL’ TRONG TIẾNG ANH
VÀ ĐỘNG TỪ ‘NGÃ’ TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT


M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 602215
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof.Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ

HANOI - 2010
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS


PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
2. Aims of the study
3. Research questions
4. Scope of the study
5. Methods of the study
6. Design of the study
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. An overview on Contrastive Analysis
1.2. MiCA versus MaCA
1.3. A brief description of verbs
1.3.1. Verbs in English
1.3.2. Verbs in Vietnamese
1.4. Types of meaning
1.5. Synonyms

1.6. Idioms and proverbs
1.7. Concluding remarks
CHAPTER 2: A STUDY ON THE VERB „FALL‟ IN ENGLISH AND
THE VERB „NGÃ‟ IN VIETNAMESE
2.1. A Contrastive Analysis between the verb „Fall‟ in English and the
Verb „Ngã‟ in Vietnamese in terms of Microlinguistics
2.1.1. An investigation into the Verb “Fall” in English.
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2.1.1.1. Grammatical features
2.1.1.1.1 Syntactic features
2.1.1.1.2. Morphological features
2.1.1.2. Semantic features
2.1.1.2.1. General meanings
2.1.1.2.2. Meanings in some idioms and proverbs
2.1.1.2.3. Synonyms of “Fall”
2.1.2. An Investigation into the verb „Ngã‟ in Vietnamese
2.1.2.1. Grammatical features
2.1.2.1.1 Syntactic features
2.1.2.1.2. Morphological features
2.1.2.2. Semantic features
2.1.2.2.1. General meanings
2.1.2.2.2. Meanings in some idioms and proverbs
2.1.2.2.3. Synonyms of „Ngã”
2.1.3. Findings
2.1.3.1. In Terms of grammatical features
2.1.3.1.1. Similarities.
2.1.3.1.2. Differences

2.1.3.2. In terms of semantics features
2.1.3.2.1. Similarities
2.1.3.2.2. Differences
2.1.4. Concluding remarks
2.2. A Contrastive Analysis between the verb „FALL‟ in English and the
verb „NGÃ‟ in Vietnamese in terms of Macrolinguistics.
2.2.1. Findings
2.2.1.1. In terms of setting
2.2.1.2. In terms of participants
2.2.1.3. In terms of contents
2.2.1.4. In terms of channel
2.2.2. Concluding remarks
PART III. CONCLUSIONS
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1. Recapitulation
2. Implication of the study
2.1. To EFL Teaching and Learning
2.2. To translation from English to Vietnamese and Vice Versa
3. Recommendations for further Research.
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
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I

























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ABBREVIATIONS


CA: Contrastive Analysis
MiCA: Microlinguistic Contrastive Analysis
MaCA: Macrolinguistic Contrastive Analysis
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
L1: First Language
L2: Second Language

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PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Nowadays, English is widely used and has been especially important in the world. In
Vietnam, it is not an exception and has become a compulsory subject in schools, colleges and
universities. However, learning English is really a big problem to learners because they are
affected by their mother tongue during the process of studying grammar, vocabulary, spelling,
pronunciation, etc.
On the part of grammar, verbs have always been one of the most complex classes of words,
which have most widely used and consequently, have played an important role in any language
system so far. As a result, many final thesises on contrastive analysis between verbs in native
language and target language have been conducted to provide teachers and learners thorough
view on those verbs and have good way to use them. Among verbs, the verb „fall, one of which
Vietnamese equivalent is „Ngã‟, is one of the common and confusing words to learners.
Conducting the minor thesis entitled “A Contrastive Analysis between the Verb „FALL‟ in
English and the Verb „NGÃ‟ in Vietnamese” also arose from difficulties that the author face
in her daily teaching related to the usage of the verbs.
For the above reasons, this thesis has been made with an attempt to contribute the author‟s
own knowledge and experience in dealing with the problems of Vietnamese beginners. It‟s also
hopeful that this minor thesis will be of some help to those who are interested in this aspect of
English grammar and vocabulary.
2. Aims of the study
The study is aimed at:
- Finding the similarities and differences between the verb “fall” in English and the
verb “ngã” in English mainly in terms of Mirolinguistic Contrastive Analysis (MiCA) and
partly in terms of Macrolinguistic Contrastive Analysis (MaCA).

- Providing recommendations for teaching, learning and translating „fall‟ and „ngã‟ into
the target language
3. Research questions.
To fully achieve these aims, the study should answer the following questions:
(i) What are the grammatical and semantic features of each verb and how are they
similar and different in terms of these features?
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(ii) What are their synonyms and what are the idioms and proverbs with these two
verbs?
(iii) What are the implications of the study for the EFL teaching, learning and
translation?
4. Scope of the study
In this minor thesis, it is difficult to discuss both the verbs in terms of MiCA and MaCA in
details. Consequently, the author mainly focuses on analyzing and contrasting them in terms of
MiCA (concerning grammatical and semantic features of the two verbs), and just give a brief
introduction about the similarities and differences between them concerned with MaCA.
The verbs „fall‟ and „ngã‟ are rich in synonyms, the author could not discuss them all in
details but give an overview on the most common ones.
5. Methods of the study
To achieve the aims given, the author has combined different methods as follow:
- Analyze and contrast;
- Synthesize.
The procedures of the study are:
- To synthesize meanings of „fall‟ and „ngã‟ and examples to illustrate from different sources
such as dictionaries, literary works, newspapers, magazines, native speakers and websites.
- To collect the synonyms of each verb and idioms/ proverbs with them.
- To analyze and contrast each verb and draw out the similarities and differences between
them in terms of MiCA and MaCA.

- To suggest the ways to apply the findings of the study to the language teaching/learning and
translation.
6. Design of the study
This minor thesis consists of three main parts based on the following arrangement:
Part I entitled „INTRODUCTION‟ outlines the background of the study in which brief
account of relevant information such as the rationale, aims, research questions, scope, methods
and design of the study are provided.
Part II, the „DEVELOPMENT‟ is subdivided into 2 chapters. Chapter 1, „THEORITICAL
BACKGROUND‟, supplies the general fundamental and essential theoretical concepts
involving the subject under consideration. It covers a series of concepts ranging from CA,
guiding principles for contrastive study, MiCA, MaCA, verbs in English and in Vietnamese, a
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brief introduction of synonyms, and idioms/ proverbs. Chapter 2 entitled “A CONTRASTIVE
ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE VERB „FALL‟ IN ENGLISH AND „NGÃ‟ IN VIETNAMESE”
discusses the two verbs in terms of MiCA and MaCA in succession. After that, the similarities
and differences are drawn out. Each chapter ends with some concluding remarks.
Part III, the „CONCLUSION‟, provides recapitulation, implications of the study for EFL
teaching and learning and translation from English to Vietnamese and vice versa, and
recommendations for further research. The „REFERENCES‟ comes next. The study ends with
the „APPENDICES‟.

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. An overview on Contrastive Analysis.
Contrastive analysis (CA) is the systematic study of a pair or more of languages with a view
to identifying their structural differences and similarities. The term „Contrastive linguistics‟
was suggested by Whorf (1941) and was defined as “ a sub discipline of linguistics concerned
with the comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to
determine both the differences and similarities between them”, (Fisiak, 1981:1). CA is the
method of analyzing the structure of any two languages with a view to estimate the differential
aspects of their systems, irrespective or their generic affinity or level of development. CA of
two languages becomes useful when it is adequately describing the sound structure and

grammatical structure of two languages, with comparative statements, giving due emphasis to
the compatible items in the two systems.
From 1940s to 1960s before the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) field as we know it
was established, Charles Fries (1945:9) wrote: “The most efficient materials are those that are
based upon a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a
parallel description of the native language of the learner”. Robert Lado, in 1957 wrote:
“Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and
meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture- both
productively and when attempting to speak the language and to act in the culture and
receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and culture as practiced by
natives”. In the 1960s and early 1970s, CA was used extensively in the field of Second
Language Acquisition. Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) – this extension of the notion
of CA attributed the ability to predict errors to a CA of two languages, a predictability that
practitioners associated with the degree of similarity between the two systems. Robert Lado
wrote: “… those elements that are similar to this native language will be simple for him, and
those elements that are different will be difficult.”
CA emphasizes on the influence of the mother tongue in learning a second language in
phonological, morphological and syntactic levels. Contrastive Analysis is not merely relevant
for second language teaching and learning but it can also make useful contributions to machine
translating and linguistics typology. It is relevant to the designing of teaching materials for use
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in all age groups. Chaturvedi (1973) suggests the following guiding principles for contrastive
study:
(1) To analyze the mother tongue and the target language independently and
completely.
(2) To compare the two languages item-wise-item at all levels of their structure.
(3) To arrive at the categories of a/ similar features b/ partially similar features c/
dissimilar features – for the target language.

(4) To arrive at principles of text preparation, test framing and target language teaching
in general.
Theses principles coincide with what Carl James presented in Contrastive Analysis (1980:64)
to some extent.
1.2. MiCA versus MaCA
These are broad terms which refer to two major types of linguistics. Microlinguistics refers to
phonetics, phonology, grammar and semantics, whereas macrolinguistics covers
sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and other related disciplines. In sociolinguistics, the micro
level is often equated with variation and face-to-face communication, whereas macro
sociolinguistics involves language planning and sociology of language.
According to the microlinguistics view, languages should be analyzed for their own sake
without any reference to their social function, to the manner in which they are acquired by
human beings, and to the literary or communicative function of language. Thus, a MiCA often
compares phonology/phonetics, grammar and lexis. For example, a study of this kind often
finds out what the consonant phonemes in languages X and Y are, how they differ in inventory,
realization and distribution; what the tense system of language X and Y, etc.
The main aim of a MiCA is a formal description of the language system based on the
interrelationships and independencies of its elements without any source to external factors.
Obviously, the translation situation which evolves equivalent messages, that are speech units
and texts in two different languages is not part of the system of either of these languages and
can not be studied and described in terms of microlinguistics.
Macrolinguistics which includes meanings, and especially sociolinguistics, studies how
language and meaning function within human social systems.
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Carl James suggested that “the communicating individual must be able to identify the
situational constraints to which speech events are subjects and produce utterances that
conform to them.”
Hymes (1974) identifies six variables which he suggests the ethnographer of speaking must

refer to in characterizing any particular event; they are setting, participants, purpose, key,
content, and channel. Whereas, Carl James (1980:101) simplified these six variables in to
“who says what to whom, where and when, how and why.”
1.3. A brief description of verbs
1.3.1. Verbs in English.
Verb is the core part of speech in English. It is the kind of word that expresses existence,
action, or occurrence in most languages.
According to Jack C. Richards et al (1992:398), in English, a word is a verb when it satisfies
those criteria.
- Occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence;
- Carries markers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number, and
mood; and;
- Refers to action or state.
In the next part, such areas as forms of verbs, major grammatical categories and
classifications of English verbs will be briefly discussed.
As Randolph Quirk & Sidney Greenbaum (1973:26) put it: „Many English verbs have five
forms: the base, the –s form, the past, the –ing participle and the –ed participle‟. For example,
„play‟, „plays‟, „played‟, „playing‟ and „played‟ are five forms of the regular verb „play‟ when
„fall‟, „falls‟, „fell‟, „falling‟ and „fallen‟ are five forms of the irregular verb „fall‟. Each verb
form has its own functions.
The English verb has main grammatical categories such as tense – aspect – voice – mood
which would be shortly discussed.
Tense could be understood as the correspondence between the form of the verb and the time
of the action or state it describes. Many modern grammarians claim that in the English
language, verbs have two tenses: the present tense and the past tense. No marker of a future
tense exists on the verb in English; the futurity of an event may be expressed through the use of
the auxiliary verbs „will‟ and „shall‟, by the structure „Be going to + infinitive‟, the present
progressive, the simple present.
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With reference to aspect, it concerns the manner in which the verbal action is experienced or
regarded (as completed or in progress).
According to Randolph Quirk & Sidney Greenbaum, mood is the form of the verb that shows
the mode or manner in which a thought is expressed. In English, there are three moods:
indicative, imperative and subjunctive. Indicative mood expresses an assertion, denial, or
question. Imperative mood expresses command, prohibition, entreaty, or advice as in Don‟t
smoke in this building. ~Be careful! Subjunctive mood expresses doubt or something contrary
to fact: It is strange that he should have left so early.
Voice is the way in which a language expresses the relationship between a verb and the noun
phrase associated with it. When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the
active voice as in The cat ate the mouse. When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of
the action, it is said to be in the passive voice as in The mouse was eaten by the cat.
English verbs can be classified in many ways. From Randolph Quirk and Sidney
Greenbaum‟s view, verbs can be classified according to the function of items in the verb
phrase. This distinguishes lexical verbs from auxiliary verbs.
Lexical: walk, fall, eat, play…
Primary: do, have, be
Auxiliary
Modal: can, may, shall, will
could, might, should, would,
must, ought to, used to, need, dare
Lexical verbs can be subdivided into dynamic and stative verbs. When verbs will not admit
the progressive, they are called stative such as „love‟, „like‟ and „seem‟; when they admit it,
they are called dynamic. „teach‟, „visit‟, „go‟ are some instances of dynamic verbs. Verbs are
also divided into one-word verbs and multi-word verbs which are illustrated in the examples
below.
- We are learning. (one-word verb)
- The children fell down (phrasal verb, multi-word verb)
- They called on the man. ( prepositional verbs; multi-word verb)

- He puts up with a lot of teasing ( phrasal- prepositional verb; multi-word verb)
When classified by their complementation, verbs fall into intensive or extensive. The
intensive verbs, or copula verbs, are used to join a noun, a pronoun, an adjective to the subject
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for a sentence, such as: be, feel, look, seem, remain, appear, become, turn, grow, fall, get, go,
come … Others are extensive verbs.
Verbs can be classified as intransitive and transitive verbs. An intransitive verb like sleep, cry
and rain do not require an object. In contrast, a transitive verb like give, buy, take cannot stand
alone and need objects.
1.3.2. Verbs in Vietnamese
Vietnamese is an isolating and analytic language in which grammatical meanings are
shown chiefly through word order and function words (grammatical words). Also, Vietnamese
words have the same forms in different positions in sentences. As a result, several grammatical
structures are similar in form-organization but different in grammatical meanings. For
example:
- Con tôi đang tập đi, nó hay ngã lắm. (My son is toddling. He usually falls down)
- Hôm qua con tôi bị ngã khá đau. (Yesterday my son fell down and hurt himself badly.)
In Vietnamese Grammar by Huu Quynh (1980), Verb is defined as a word which refers to
an action, a behavior, an idea or an emotion, a state or a development of a state.
Unlike English verbs, verbs in Vietnamese do not have the concord with other parts of
speech. In other words, they are not affected by number, person, gender, mood, voice and
tense. In addition, when functioning as central component of a verb phrase, verb can combine
with other modal auxiliary components before it to indicate scope of the action or activity such
as cũng, đều, cứ, etc ; to indicate continuation like còn, vẫn, etc ; to indicate tense, aspect such
as sắp, đang, sẽ, đã, etc ; to indicate advice or prohibit such as hãy, đừng, chớ and so on. Also,
as Nguyen Kim Than ( 1977:178 ) states that đã, đang, vừa, mới, sẽ, … are words indicating
aspect – time. It means that they are used to show the carrying out or completion of an action
in a certain time and the use of adverbs of time belongs to the area of sentence structures.

Besides, such words as bị, chịu, được, … which may be considered a sign of the passive voice.
Verbs in Vietnamese can have different functions in a sentence. The most popular one is
predicator as in: Nó ngã xe; Lớp tôi đang học toán. Verbs can be subjects of a sentence as in:
Yêu là chết trong lòng một ít. They can be complements, for example: Con tôi đang học hát;
Nhiều xe bị trượt ngã ở quãng đường này etc.
Diệp Quang Ban and Hoàng Văn Thung classify Vietnamese verbs into transitive and
intransitive verbs. Intransitive verbs are ones that can stand alone with complete meaning
without help from others word, for example: Nó đang ngủ; Mọi người đều cười; Nó ngã xuống
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ao. Transitive verbs, in contrast, cannot stand alone, they need others word to complete their
meaning as in: Mai mua cái áo mới; Tôi phải đánh bài tối nay etc. Those two authors have
another way to classify Vietnamese verbs into independent verbs (động từ độc lập) and
dependent verbs (động từ không độc lập). However, in this study the former classifications will
be used to compare the verb „fall‟ and „ngã‟.
1.4. Types of meaning
The word „meaning‟ was once the focus of a great deal of discussion among linguists
interested in semantics. Theories of meaning and its types can be found in the literature (Leech
1974, Lyon 1977, 1995, Palmer 1981, Crystal 1995). There are two types of meanings:
grammatical and lexical meaning.
According to Lyon (1995:52) a lexeme may have different word-forms which will generally
differ in their grammatical meaning. For example, the forms of „teacher‟ and „teachers‟ differ
in respect of their grammatical meaning. „teacher‟ is singular form, and „teachers‟ is plural
form; and the difference between singular form and plural form is semantically relevant. It
affects sentence meaning. The meaning of a sentence is determined party by the meaning of the
words of which it consists and partly by its grammatical meaning.
Baker (1992:12) stated that lexical meaning of a word may be viewed as the specific value it
has in a particular linguistic system. It is the most outstanding individual property of words,
and in contrast with grammatical meaning, it can stand on it own.

Leech, G (1981:23) classified lexical meaning into the following different types:
(1) Conceptual/ denotational meaning: Logical, cognitive, or denotative content.
(2) Associative meaning
- Connotative meaning: What is communicated by virtue of what language refers to, above
the conceptual value.
- Social meaning: What is communicated of the social circumstances of language use.
- Affective meaning: What is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speakers/
writers.
- Reflected meaning: What is communicated through association with another sense of the
same expression.
- Collocative meaning: What is communicated through association with words which tend
to occur in the environment of another word.
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(3) Thematic meaning: What is communicated by the way in which the message is
organized in terms of order and emphasis.
To discuss about word meanings in Vietnamese, Do Huu Chau (1999:111-130) uses the
terms “ý nghĩa biểu vật” (denotational meaning) and “ ý nghĩa biểu niệm” (connotatonal
meaning). According to him, entities and phenomena in the objective world are reflected in
the mind as concepts and reflected in the language as the denotational meanings which lead
to the relevant meanings.
It can be seen clearly that, in terms of lexical meaning, verbs in English and in
Vietnamese are similar to some extent. However, they are different in terms of grammatical
meaning. English verbs carry two kinds of meaning; meanwhile, Vietnamese verbs do not
carry grammatical meaning such as tense, aspect, etc.
1.5. Synonyms
Synonyms are actually words of the same part of speech which have similar meaning, but
not identical meanings. They may share a similar denotational or connotational meaning. They
may differ from each other in terms of denotation or connotation.

Jack C.Richard et al (1992:368) defined synonym as a word which has the same meaning or
nearly the same meaning as another word. It should be noted that two words which are
synonymous must belong to the same part of speech.
Lyons (1995:60) divides synonyms into three kinds: absolute synonyms, near synonyms and
partial synonyms. According to him, two or more expressions are absolute synonyms if, and
only if, they satisfy the following three conditions:
(i) All their meanings are identical;
(ii) They are synonymous in all contexts;
(iii) They are semantically equivalent (i.e. their meaning or meanings are identical) on all
dimensions of meanings and descriptive and non-descriptive.
However, absolute synonyms are extremely rare in English. A few pairs may be said to be
absolute synonyms include „semantics‟ and „semasiology‟, „noun‟ and „substantive‟,
„functional‟ and „affix‟, „flexion‟ and „inflexion‟.
Absolute synonyms also can be found in Vietnamese as in „sân bay‟ and „phi trường‟, „ti vi‟
and „máy vô tuyến‟, „bóng đá‟ and „túc cầu‟ etc.


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1.6. Idioms and proverbs
Idioms as well as proverbs are used widely in daily communication. They can occur in
formal style and in slang. They can appear in poetry or in the language of journalist, the writer
and the Bible.
According to John Wright (1999:7), an expression is an idiom when it carries the following
features:
1. It is fixed and it is recognized by native speakers. You cannot make up your own!
2. It uses language in a non-literal-metaphorical-way.
According to Jack C. Richards et al (1992:172), idiom is an expression which functions as a
single unit and whose meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts. This view is

shared by Robins (1989), Palmer (1981), Jackson and Evenla (2000), Seidle (1978) and Cruse
(1986). For example, „fall flat on one‟s face‟- the collocation of „fall‟, „flat‟, „on‟, „one‟s‟ and
„face‟ is an idiom meaning „fail or make a mistake in an embarrassing way‟ which is not
systemantically determinable from the meaning of its constituents.
According to Palmer (1990), idioms as consequences of words whose meaning cannot be
predicted from the meaning of the words themselves. Semantically, idioms are single units, but
they are not single grammatical units like words. For example, if an idiom may be inflected,
the inflectional affixes are carried by the grammatical appropriate elements within the idioms
whether or not they are semantic constituents.
Another term that usually goes with idioms is „proverb‟. In Oxford Advanced Learner‟s
Dictionary „proverb‟ is defined as “a well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or says
something that is generally true, for example „Waste not, want not‟”. Mieder (1993:24) stated
that „a proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth,
morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorizable form and which is
handed down from generation to generation‟.
For Vietnamese definitions, according to „Từ Điển Tiếng Việt‟ by Nguyễn Đình Hùng,
„idiom‟ is „tập hợp từ cố định đã quen dùng mà nghĩa thường không thể giải thích được một
cách đơn giản bằng nghĩa của các từ tạo nên nó‟. For example, „Một nắng hai sương‟, „Rán
sành ra mỡ‟ are idioms. Meanwhile, „proverb‟ is „Câu ngắn gọn, thường có vần điệu, đúc kết
tri thức, kinh nghiệm sống và đạo đức thực tiễn của nhân dân‟. „Đói cho sạch, rách cho thơm‟
is an example of proverb.
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However, it is difficult to distinguish the two terms. For example, the verse „chó treo mèo
đậy‟ may satisfy the notion of idioms as well as proverbs. They are fixed groups of words that
get their meaning from the whole, not by individual words. Besides, together they also form a
short rhythmic sentence, stating an advice for daily tasks of keeping food. There are still many
more, such as „tức nước vỡ bờ‟, „kiến tha lâu đầy tổ‟, „trâu buộc ghét trâu ăn‟, etc. They create
problems for researchers when trying to put them into two sections of idioms or proverbs.

In fact, proverbs are also collected in idioms‟ books. Such dictionaries as Từ Điển Thành
Ngữ Tục Ngữ Việt Nam by Nguyen Bich Hang, Từ Điển Thành Ngữ - Tục Ngữ Việt Nam by
Nguyen Lan, Tục Ngữ Thành Ngữ Nước Anh by Xuan Ba provide both idioms and proverbs
without clear distinguistion between the two terms. As the result, idioms and proverbs as fixed
expressions with the verbs „fall‟ and „ngã‟ will be given in this minor thesis.
1.7. Concluding remarks
In this chapter, theoretical background for the contrastive analysis between the verb „fall‟ in
English and „ngã‟ in Vietnamese in terms of MiCA and MaCA has been introduced. It includes
an overview on CA, brief contrasts between MiCA and MaCA, and between the verb „fall‟ in
English and „ngã‟ in Vietnamese. In addition, the chapter also gives kinds of meaning,
synonyms and idioms. Based on this theoretical foundation, we will commence chapter two “A
Contrastive Analysis between the Verb „Fall‟ in English and the Verb „Ngã‟ in Vietnamese”.














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CHAPTER 2: A STUDY ON THE VERB „FALL‟ IN ENGLISH AND THE VERB

„NGÃ‟ IN VIETNAMESE
2.1. A Contrastive Analysis between the verb „FALL‟ in English and the Verb „Ngã‟ in
Vietnamese in terms of Microlinguistics
2.1.1. An investigation into the Verb „fall‟ in English
As we have mentioned in the early parts, in terms of microlinguistics the verb „fall‟ will be
worked with three features: grammatical features (including syntactic and morphological
features) and semantic features.
2.1.1.1. Grammatical Features
2.1.1.1.1 Syntactic Features
„Fall‟ is a typical verb, so it shares the same syntactic functions of verbs:
(a) Occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence. For example:
- He fell over on his way back from the bathroom and became stuck in the doorway
(6: 66)
- How she would throw herself upon him, and how her tears would fall like rain, and
her lips pray God to give her back her boy and she would never, never abuse him anymore.
(13:33)
- It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded with the birds and
animals that had fallen into it. (9:15)
(b) Derivates of “fall” have different grammatical functions such as subjects, objects, or
complements, etc as in:
- Falling doesn‟t make you a failure, staying down does.
- I can‟t help falling in love with you. (Elvis Presley‟s song)
- His hand closed upon the knife; he raised it, glanced at it, and let it fall, with a
shudder. (13:98)
(c) Carries markers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number and
mood as in:
- Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as
she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next. (9:98)
- Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea. (9:13)
- When the last one falls, I must die too (7:62)

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- “Fall to, good friends”, said the joiner; and the guests, when they saw how it was,
needed no second asking, but taking up the knife and fork fell to valiantly. (3:154)
- But it must have fallen too short or gone too far; so he tried twice more. (13:88)
(d) „Fall‟ is both a transitive and intransitive verb. This means that „fall‟ can occur with or
without objects.
As an intransitive verb:
- Then he suddenly fell on to his knees and started crying loudly, his hands covering
his face. (2:36)
- A dead leaf fell in Soapy‟s lap. (7:99)
- While she was climbing on the branch, it suddenly broke and Ophelia fell. (5:40)
As a transitive verb
- The father thought to himself, “It cannot surely be Aschenputtel”, and called for an
axe and fell the tree, but there was no one in it. (3:123)
2.1.1.1.2. Morphological features
The verb „fall‟ consists of one morpheme as a root. According to Quirk et al (1987), like
many other English verbs, it has five forms: the base “fall”, the –s form “falls”, the past form
“fell”, the past participate “fallen”, the –ing participle “falling”.
By means of derivation, the verb “fall” itself is also a noun as in
- Pride comes before a fall. (Proverb)
- The young sleuth‟s sudden fall had caused the puppy to fly from her arms.(8:69)
Besides, it has some derivates as follows:
 Fallen (adjective):1. lying on the ground, after falling (used before noun), as in
„The road was blocked by a fallen tree‟. 2. (of a soldier) killed in a war.
 Fallible (adjective): able to make mistakes or be wrong, as in „All human beings
are fallible‟.
 Infallible (adjective): incapable of failure or error, for example
The truth was that a superstition of his had failed, here, which he and all his

comrades had always looked upon as infallible. (13:86)
 Falling (adj): coming down freely or becoming lower in number, amount and
degree, as in „Though a tree grows ever so high, the falling leaves return to the
ground.‟ (Malayan proveb)
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„Fall‟ is also used in such many compounds as „downfall‟ (the loss of a person‟s money or
power), „fallback‟ (a plan or course of action that is ready to be used in an emergency if other
things fall), „falling-off‟ or „fall-off (a reduction in the number, amount or quantity of
something, „falling star‟ (shooting star) and „fallout‟ (dangerous radioactive dust that is in the
air after a nuclear explosion or the bad results of a situation or an action), „nightfall‟ (dusk),
„pitfall‟ (a hidden danger or difficulty), „rainfall‟ (the total amount of rain falling in an area in
a particular time), „snowfall‟ (an occasion when snow falls; the amount of snow that falls in a
particular place in a period of time), „waterfall‟ (a place where a stream or river falls from a
high place), „windfall‟ (an amount of money that somebody/something wins or receives
unexpectedly or a fruit, especially an apple, that the wind has blown down from a tree) etc.
- He could sense the one silent man who always remained besides him, the flavour of his
breath when he bent down to unwrap him every twenty-four hours at nightfall, to examine his
skin in the dark. (10:6)
- The water treatment was new, now, and Tom‟s low condition was a windfall to her.
(13:117)
2.1.1.2. Semantic Features
In this section, we will attempt to discuss different senses of „fall‟ in general,its idioms as
well as its synonyms. Like many other lexical verbs, „fall‟ refers to an action or state.
- When he had gone through three kingdoms he came one evening to a wood,
and seated herself under the tree to go to sleep; but he heard a rustling in the boughs, and a
golden apple fell into his hand. ( 3:100)
- The old idea was that heavy object fell faster. (14:93)
- Faithful John, as he spoke the last words, fell lifeless, and became stone. (3:54)

- Tom dodged hither and thither through lanes until he was well out of the track
of returning scholars, and then fell into a moody jog. (13:84)
2.1.1.2.1. General meanings
In accordance with , the verb fall comes
from prehistoric Germanic *fallan, which also produced German fallen, Dutch vallen, and
Swedish falla. The noun is partly a survival of Old English feall, partly a borrowing from the
related Old Norse fall, but probably mostly a new formation based on the verb.
According to Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2000. Oxford University Press),
Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture (1992.Longman Group), Lac Viet Mtd