a contrastive analysis of noun-verb conversion in english and vietnamese = phân tích đối chiếu chuyển loại danh từ sang động từ trong tiếng anh và tiếng việt

ss






VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

PHẠM THỊ KIM ANH



A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF NOUN-VERB CONVERSION
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(Phân tích đối chiếu chuyển loại danh từ sang động từ
trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis



Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15

HANOI - 2010



















ss






VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES






PHẠM THỊ KIM ANH





A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF NOUN-VERB CONVERSION
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(Phân tích đối chiếu chuyển loại danh từ sang động từ
trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis





Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15
Supervisor: Dr. Trần Xuân Điệp

HANOI - 2010

IV


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
ABBREVIATION AND SYMBOL vi
PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. The aims of the study 1
3. Scope of the study. 2
4. Methods of the study. 2
5. Format of the study. 3
PART 2: DEVELOPVEMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4
1.1. An overview of CA and CA guiding principles. 4
1.2. Conversion – A word formation process. 5
1.2.1. Definition and Terminology. 5
1.2.2. Remarkable features. 6
1.2.3. Typology 7
1.3. Word Meaning. 10
1.4. Verbs 12
1.4.1. Verbs in English. 12

1.4.2. Verbs in Vietnamese. 13
CHAPTER 2: THE CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF N-V CONVERSION IN
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 15
V

2.1. N-V conversion in English. 15
2.1.1 Grammatical Features. 15
2.1.1.1 Syntactic Features. 15
2.1.1.2. Morphological features. 16
2.1.2. Semantic Features 17
2.2. N-V conversion in Vietnamese. 25
2.2.1. An overview of conversion in Vietnamese. 25
2.2.2. Noun-verb conversion. 27
2.2.2.1. Grammatical Features. 27
2.2.2.1.1. Syntactic Features. 27
2.2.2.1.2. Morphological features 29
2.2.2.2 Semantic Features. 30
2.3. Findings. 32
2.3.1. Similarities. 32
2.3.2. Differences. 33
2.4. Implications for EFL teaching and learning. 34
PART 3: CONCLUSION 36
1. Conclusions 36
2. Limitations of the study. 37
3. Recommendations for Further Research. 37
REFERENCES 38

VI

ABBREVIATION AND SYMBOL
CA: Contrastive Analysis
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
L1 : First Language
L2 : Second Language
N-V: Noun to Verb
A: Adjective
*: unacceptable
( ): a parenthesis enclosing the two numbers inside, the first number indicates the year
of publishing, and the second indicates the page being referred to.

1

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study
The topic is chosen due to the following reasons.
Among many different word formation processes to create new lexicon, conversion is a
new trend growing up in the productive field. According to Cannon, G (1985:415),
conversion will be more active in the future, and so, it will create a great part of the new
words appearing in the English language.
Nguy

 (1977:9) states that the verb is one of the most complex parts of
speech, which is widely used, and as a result, play a key role in any language system. Of
all the conversion processes represented in English, it is acknowledged, and shown by, for
example, Biese (1941), Marchand (1969), Plag (2003) that creating verbs from nouns N-V

conversion is the most productive and by no means unexpected. It is due to the lack of
derivational means of forming verbs from nouns and adjectives in present-day English
Vocabulary of both English and Vietnamese has a remarkable range of flexibility and
adaptability. Thus, this study is intended to make the contrast of N-V conversion between
English and Vietnamese in terms of grammatical and semantic features.
One more reason is that, a good understanding of English word formation processes is
essential for the EFL teaching and learning. The study will be useful for the teachers and
learners with the expectation of building a clear picture of N-V conversion in English and
Vietnamese.

2. Aims of the study.
The aims of this study are:
 To describe grammatical and semantic features of N-V conversion in English and
Vietnamese.
 To work out as many as possible the similarities and differences in terms of
grammatical and semantic features between N-V conversion in English and Vietnamese
 To provide some implications for teaching/learning word formation in general, N-V
conversion in particular.
To fully achieve these aims, the study should answer at least the following questions:
2

 What are the grammatical and semantic features of N-V conversion in English and
Vietnamese?
 What are the similarities and differences in grammatical and semantic features between
English and Vietnamese N-V conversion?
 To what extent are word formation processes in general, and N-V conversion in
particular, considered in EFL teaching and learning?

3. Scope of the study.
Many fields relating to N-V conversion need to be explored. However, due to the

limited time and available facilities, the thesis is to be focused on the description and
contrastive analysis of N-V conversion in English and Vietnamese with respect to
grammatical and semantic features at word level.

4. Methods of the study.
The intended method employed in this study is CA. It has been acknowledged that with
this method, the similarities and differences between languages can be worked out
effectively.
The procedures of the study are in the order as follows:
 Collection of relevant documents.
 Critical reading of theoretical background related to the study.
 Generalization and classification of relevant literature.
 Formation of ideas related to the study.
 Comprehensive description of grammatical and semantic features of N-V conversion in
English and Vietnamese.
 Detection of similarities and differences of N-V conversion between two languages.
 Giving comments on these issues in EFL teaching & learning.
Sources of examples:
 Bilingual stories, works, magazines.
 Monolingual English and Vietnamese books.
 Monolingual and Bilingual dictionaries.
 Research projects, linguistic journals, articles into English and Vietnamese conversion.

3

5. Format of the study.

The study begins with “Declaration Acknowledgement”, “Table of contents”,
“Symbols and Abbreviation”. This study is completed on the basis of three separating
parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion.

Part A (Introduction) provides a brief account of relevant information about the
rationale, aims, scope, methods, and format of the study.
Part B entitled Development which plays the most crucial role in the whole study. It is
considered as the backbone of the study. This part consists of two chapters.
 Chapter 1: This chapter is about theoretical notions necessary for the study covering the
concepts ranging from CA and guiding principles for CA, N-V conversion, and word
meaning. It also provides an overview of verbs in English and Vietnamese.
 Chapter 2: This chapter offers a detailed contrastive analysis of N-V conversion in
English and Vietnamese. Firstly, N-V conversion in English and Vietnamese will be
described and analyzed in terms of grammatical and semantic features. Then,
considering these features, the similarities and differences between two languages will
be worked out. Finally, some implications of the study for EFL teaching and learning
will be mentioned.
The last part is "Conclusion", which includes the recapitulation of what have been
done in the study, the limitations of the study, and the recommendations for the further
research. The study ends with "References".











4

PART 2: DEVELOPVEMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In order to create the basis for carrying out the CA study in the main part, it is
necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the relevant theoretical
background. This chapter, therefore, is intended to give an overview of CA and CA
guiding principles. The concept of conversion as a word formation process will be
regarded and revealed with the provision of definitions and types. In addition, word
meaning, verbs in English and Vietnamese will be briefly reviewed.

1.1. An overview of CA and CA guiding principles.
, B.L (1941) for comparative
study which is giving emphasis on linguistic differences and it has been redefined by
Fisiak (1981:1) a subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the comparison of two or
more languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine both the differences and
similar. CA is used as an alternative for contrastive linguistics.
CA is very broad field of linguistics, since it embraces all its major levels: phonology,
semantics, syntax and pragmatic, the latter including text studies and some aspects of the
sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspective.
CA of two languages become 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. It is assumed that learning of L2
is facilitated whenever there are similarities between L1 and L2. Learning may be
interfered with when there are marked contrasts between L1 and L2. CA provides an
objective and scientific base for L2 teaching. If the L1 and L2 both have significantly
similar linguistic features on all the levels of their structures there will not be much
difficulty in learning the L2 in a limited time.
To help the study bring into play, Chaturvedi (1973) the following guiding principles
for contrastive study will be applied.
(i) To analyze the mother tongue and the target language independently and completely.
(ii) To compare the two languages item-wise-item at all levels of their structure.

5

(iii) To arrive at the categories of: a) similar features, b) partially similar features, c)
dissimilar features - for the target language.
(iv) To arrive at principles of text preparation, test framing and target language teaching in
general.
1.2. Conversion – A word formation process.
2.1. Definition and Terminology.
Although conversion has been an important part of English word formation for
centuries, linguists have argued over almost every facet relating to this process; even down
to the term used to describe it. The terminology used for this process has not been
completely established yet. M
        -  -
         theory, and slightly
different meaning.
Functional change or shift is used, for example, by Cannon (1987:67), from a
linguistic point of view, functional shift does not add a new form to the lexicon; but the
inflectability or noninflectability of the new functionshift requires it to be classed as a new
form etymologically.
Zero-derivation or zero-affixation, if conversion is viewed as a word-formation
process, one theory is that it appears to run parallel to the derivational word-formation
processes. Inflectional affixes ar    -  
--
    -  -     
amongst linguists and divides them into two camps: those who think that there is a zero-
element involved in the process, and those who reject that theory. Prominent linguists who
endorse the theory that conversion is a process involving the addition of a derivational zero
include Marchand (1969), Lyons (1977), and Allen (1978). According Marchand
(1969:360), it is because of the parallelism with overtly marked derivatives that we speak
of zero-marked derivatives or zero-derivatives, not just because of the added element of

content which characterizes the transposition of the adjective clean to the verb clean, etc.
Lyons (1977:512) defines that zero-derivation is derivation by means of the affixation of
an identity element. Allen (1978:273) also states, It is clear that the zero element under
6

consideration is a derivational suffix, hence attached to the basic word by a derivational
word formation rule. Not only is a lexical category change, typical of derivational
suffixation, involved, but inflectional endings cannot appear inside the zero element. The
.
Conversion 
-
of    -formation rather than just
functional changes. It was, in fact, the term originally applied to the process by Sweet
(189, 38-39), and currently seems to be the dominant theory, being endorsed by, for
example, Bauer (1983), Zandvoort (1972), Pennanen (1971), Katamba (1993), Quirk et al
( 1973), Lieber (2005), Valera ( 2005). Conversion is technically defined as the deliberate
transfer of a word from one part of speech to another as by Zandvoort (1972:65). Katamba,
(1993:54) states that words may be formed without modifying the form of the input word
that serves as the base. This head can be a noun or verb. This is called conversion.
Conversion is the change in form class of a form without any corresponding change of
 Bauer (1983:32),"Conversion is the derivational process whereby an item changes
its word class without the addition of an affix" (Quirk et al, 1973:441). Conversion is the
process by which lexical items change (grammatical) category without any concomitant
Lieber (2005:
the creation o (Valera 2005:20).
In short, we have three different terms and theories to negotiate, and various other
minefields of controversy associated with the process to account for in the investigation of
conversion.
1.2.2. Remarkable features.
Conversion is a convenient and productive way of enriching the English vocabulary.

Conversion is particularly common in English because the basic form of nouns and verbs is
identical in many cases (Aitchison, (1989:160)). It is usually impossible in languages with
grammatical genders, declensions, or conjugations (Cannon, 1985:430). Its productivity is
considerably encouraged by certain features of the English language in its modern stage of
development. The simplicity of paradigms facilitates processes of making words of one
category of parts of speech from words of another. So does the analytical structure of the
7

language. A great number of one-syllable words is another factor in favor of conversion for
such words are naturally more mobile and flexible than polysyllables.
Cannon (1985:415) asserts that conversion will become even more active in the future
because it is a very easy way to create new words in English. There is no way to know the
number of conversions appearing every day in the spoken language, although we know this
number must be high. As it is a quite recent phenomenon, the written evidence is not a
fully reliable source. We will have to wait a little longer to understand its whole impact,
which will surely increase in importance in the next decades.
The process of conversion has some semantic limitations. A converted word only
assumes one of the range of meanings of the original word. For example, the noun paper
has various meanings, such as newspaper, material to wrap things The denominal verb,
though, only contains the sense of putting that material on places like walls. This shows the
converted item has only converted part of the semantic field of the source item.

1.2.3. Typology
There are several ways to classify conversion due to different purposes and points of
view. Based on a preference in history, conversion can be divided into traditional and
occasional. Traditional conversion refers to the accepted use of words which are recorded
in dictionaries, e.g. to cook, to look, to capture, etc. The high productivity of conversion
finds its reflection in speech where numerous occasional cases of conversion can be found,
which are not registered by dictionaries, called nonce words and occur momentarily,
through the immediate need of the situation. For example, when a person keeps saying

earhe hello
dears everybody-
Based on phonetics or morphology, conversion can be: total, partial (Quirk et al.
(1997)) and approximate conversion (Kiparsky (1982)). In total conversion, the converted
words participate in morphological processes (derivation and inflection) e.g. bottle (N) 
bottle (V) bottler (N), bottled (V-PAST). In partial conversion, the converted form does
not show any derivation or inflection. Conversion from noun to adjective and adjective to
noun is rather a controversial one. It is also called 'partial conversion" by Cannon (1985:
413) and 'syntactic process' by Bauer (1983:230), this peculiar process occurs when "a
word of one class appears in a function which is characteristic of another word class"
8

(Quirk, 1997:1559) e.g. bestA  bestN *bestsN-PL, *bestableA. Approximate
conversions are some few cases in which there are slight non-affixal changes (Kiparsky
(1982)). These can be considered marginal cases of conversion (Bauer (1983:228-229)).
Although the shift takes place, they are called "marginal" because of the alterations
produced in the word. This marginal group can be divided regarding two different aspects:
the pronunciation e.g. 'use' /-s/ (n) - > 'to use' /-z/ and the word-stress e.g. 'conduct (n)-
>con'duct (v) (Quirk (1997:1566)).
Based on the direction of conversion, As this paper tries to give a comprehensive
vision on conversion, it will attempt to establish the direction of the process. The criterion
to establish the original and derived item has been taken from Marchand (1972: 242-252).
It focuses on several aspects:
a. the semantic dependence (the word that reports to the meaning of the other is the
derivative)
b. the range of usage (the item with the smaller range of use is the converted word)
c. the semantic range (the one with less semantic fields is the shifted item)
d. the phonetic shape (some suffixes express the word-class the item belongs to and, if it
does not fit, this is the derivative).
After this analysis, intuition is still important. Verbs tend to be abstract because they

represent actions and nouns are frequently concrete because they name material entities.
Conversion is quickly related to shift of word-class. With this respect, it mainly produces
nouns, verbs and adjectives. Other grammatical categories, including closed-class ones,
can only shift to open-class categories, but not to closed-class ones (prepositions,
conjunctions). In addition, it is not rare that a simple word shifts into more than one
category.
Up to this point conversion has only been considered as a shift from one grammatical
category to another. However, these are not the only cases where it may happen.

of secondary word class, within the same major word category". This process has no clear
terminology; for example it is called 'change of secondary word class' by Quirk
(1997:1563) and 'conversion as a syntactic process' by Bauer (1983:227). Within the field
of conversion, it has not been much studied because it is less evident than the classical
9

conversion. Below, a list of conversion patterns is given. The list, being rather broad in
scope, is adopted from Quirk et al. who consider the patterns in boldface marginal.

N-to-V: (to) elbow, (to) man
A-to-V: (to) better, (to) empty, (to) lower
N (shelf, calf, half)-to-V: (involving root allomorphy): ((to) shelve, calve, halve)
Complex N-to-V: (to) commission, (to) hostess; (to) streamline
Particle-to-V: (to) down, up, thwart
V
trans
-to-V
intrans
: (to) sell cars, cars sell
V
intrans

-to-V
trans
: (He) runs (every day), (He) runs (a company)
N
abstract/mass
-to-N
concrete/count
: conversion (a type of word-formation) a conversion
(an instance of converting); tea, a tea
N-to-A: computer (program), head (bookkeeper)
Participle-to-A: (a) written exam, (an) exciting film
Adv-to-A: (the) then (president), above (suggestion)
V-to-N: (a) run, (a) drive, (a) survey
A-to-N: (a) given, (a) daily, (the) rich,
P-to-N: (the) ins and outs, (the) ups and downs
Adv-to-N: (the) whys and wherefores, (the) hereafter
Prefix-to-N: (the) pros and cons
Auxiliary-to-N: (a) must
Phrase-to-N: (the) also-rans, (a) has-been


Table 1: Quirk et al.’s list of conversion patterns.

fully justifiable, since all of them comply with the criterion of directionality. From this
follows that in a full account of English conversion, the basic patterns mentioned above
should equally be dealt with. When reseaching the phenomenon of conversion, this
approach is considered the most thorough and fullest one as conversion involves in word
class and its function, therefore the study is based on this classification.

10

1.3. Word Meaning.
It is necessary to mention word meaning when the CA of N-V conversion in English
and Vietnamese will be carried out with regard to grammatical and semantic features.
Word meaning has been a great concern of many linguists. The word as a structural and
semantic entity within the language system has two main types of meaning: grammatical
and lexical.
According to Lyons (1995:52), a lexeme may have different word forms, which will
generally differ in their grammatical meaning. The forms of teacher and teachers differ in
respect of their grammatical meaning of singularity and plurality. The grammatical
meaning may be defined as the meaning of categories attached to the word, the component
of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words. The
grammatical categories of English are tense, mood, aspect, voice, case, number, person
and comparison e.g. the tense meaning in the word-forms of verbs went, answered, wrote
or the case meaning in the word-forms of various nouns pare, the
plurality meaning of nouns tables, students, houses, jokes. In modern linguistic science, it
is commonly held that some elements of grammatical meaning can be identified by the
position of the linguistic unit in relation to other linguistic units, i.e. by its distribution.
Word-forms goes, speaks, answers have the same grammatical meaning as they can all be
found in identical distribution, e.g. only after the pronouns he, she, it and before adverbs
like well, quickly, every day.
Baker (1992:12) states that lexical meaning of a word may be viewed as the specific
value it has in a particular linguistic system. Lexical meaning is the invariable part of
meaning. It is the proper meaning, the most outstanding individual property of words. The
same lexical meaning applies for all grammatical forms of a word (go, goes, going, went,
gone). In contrast with grammatical meaning, it can stand on its own and identical in all the
forms of the word.
i Quang (2006:20) also states four major components of word meaning shown in
the following table:
Denotational

(what are referred to or THE
WHAT)
Conceptual
(definitional or literal
meaning of a word)
Chair: a piece of furniture designed
for one person to sit upon
11

Referential (what the
word refers to)
Give me a chair: a desk chair, a
wing chair, or dining room chair.
Connotational
(how things are denoted or THE
HOW)

Expressive/emotive
Sorry about your accident!
You excelled so absolutely that you
pulled the tail!
Stylistic coloring
Die/pass away/kick the bucket
Intensifying
Very good/quite good
Evaluative
Boring/ interesting
Structural
(The meaning a word acquires by
virtue of its membership in a system

or a set)
Reflected
Thatcher: British Prime Minister in
the 80s, The Iron lady, or
Residentof 9
th
Downing Street
Associative
expensive >< chip
Collocative
Artificial limb/ flower/ sweetener
but false teeth/ passport/promise
Thematic
Mary admires Tom
Tom admires Mary
Catergorial
(the meaning a word acquires by
virtue of grammatical classification)

Strength (n), strengthen (v), strong
(adv), strongly (adv)

Table 2: Major components of word meaning.
He also states two possible types of word meaning: direct meaning and indirect
meaning. By direct meaning, the word directly denotes something without comparing it or
associating with other things. It is also called literal meaning. By indirect meaning, the
word refers to the thing meant in association with something, we need context and have to
compare it or associate with other things to understand it. It is also called figurative or
transferred meaning. The word head in he knocks on my head refers to part of the body and
12

it is direct meaning but in he is the head of the class the head means a leader so it is
indirect meaning.
In terms of lexical meaning, words in English and Vietnamese are similar. However,
they differ in respect of grammatical meaning. English words carry two types of meanings.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese word themselves do not carry grammatical meaning.

1.4. Verbs.
1.4.1. Verbs in English.
According to Richard, J.C et al (1992:398), in English, a word is a verb when it satisfies
these following criteria: (i) occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence, (ii) carries markers
of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number, and mood. (iii) refers to
an action or state.
Almost verbs in English change in form in accordance with the grammatical features
e.g. She likes cat, they went to the beach, I enjoy reading short stories.
According to Quirk et al. (1972:820), verbs can be the head of verb phrases playing the
central function in a sentence. Some verb types can take complementation, but others
cannot. The four verb types taking complementation are intensitive e.g. be in John is very
happy, monotransitive e.g. catch in He caught a big fish yesterday, ditransitive e.g. give in
He gave Mary a doll, and complex transitive e.g. call in she called him a hero. Three other
verb types where no complementation occurs are intransitive verbs (never taking an object)
e.g. arrive in Our friends have arrived, verbs which can be transitive or intransitive with
little or no difference in meaning or in subject-verb relationship e.g. smoke in He smokes
(cigarettes) every day, and verbs which can be transitive or intransitive with considerable
difference in meaning or in subject-verb relationship e.g. grow in He grew rapidly during
that period beside He grew flowers as a hobby.
i Quang (2006:18) states that there are many ways to classify English verbs as
follows:
In accordance with the functions performed by the elements in the verb phrase. verbs
can be classified into lexical and auxiliary verbs. Lexical verbs can be regular or irregular.

Auxiliary verbs are primary and modal verbs.
In accordance with the possibility of admitting progressive aspect, verbs can be
dynamic and stative verbs. Stative verbs are often verbs that denote state or condition
13

(even transitive verbs) and not commonly used in the progressive tense e.g. she knows me,
 They are verbs of inert perception
and recognition e.g. adore, astonish, believe, hate, hear, impress, know, like, etc and
relation e.g. apply to, equal, deserve, involve, lack, matter, need, owe, resemble, possess,
sound, tend, etc. Dynamic verbs are often verbs that denote action, but some may denote
state, and can be used in the progressive e.g. they are singing, she is feeling tired now.
In accordance with the types of complementation, verbs can be intensive and extensive.
Intensive verbs consists of current verbs e.g. be, seem, remain, keep, feel or resulting verbs
e.g. become, turn, go, get. Extensive verbs consist of intransitive e.g. sleep, cry, rain, and
transitive e.g. buy, like, give. Transitive verbs can be monotransitive, ditransitive, and
complextransitive verbs e.g. Mary beat Tom hard, I gave Tom a book, Tom made me
angry. Verbs can be one-word and multi-word verbs according to the number of
constituents.
1.4.2. Verbs in Vietnamese.
Verb class is one of two fundamental word classes in Vietnamese and the verbs play an
important role in Vietnamese vocabulary as well as in forming sentences. Grammatical
features of verbs remain complicated.
According to L Bin (1999:70), and Dip Quang Ban (1998:21), in terms of general
meaning, verbs refer to actions, activities, progresses, and forms of movements. They may
be stated as in: 



y . ; mong . 
tr 


. Ch y tr 

. 





 etc.
By means of grammatical features, when functioning as central component of a verb
phrase, verb can combine with other auxiliary components as follow:
- With auxiliary components before verbs to indicate scope of the action or activity e.g.
u, c, to indicate continuation e.g. n, to indicate tense, aspect e.g. 
ng, to indicate advice or prohibit e.g. , ng, ch .
- With nouns (this is the most popular combinations) e.g. 

, 

.
- With other auxiliary components of other parts of speech e.g. , .
Nguyn Kim Thn (1977) states that verbs in Vietnamese can have different functions
in a sentence. The most popular and outstanding one is predicate or a part of a predicate
e.g. 

. Verbs can also be subjects of a sentence e.g. 

  





, object e.g.  mun bo v 

 .
14

Nguytransitivity relations and
the use of critereria of combinatory possibilities, suggests a classification of Vietnamese
verbs of thirteen types e.g. non-
c Tnh (1996:273) states that Vietnamese verbs can be used in both active and
passive voices according to the classification of verbs in terms of voices .
Dip Quang Ba     (2002) classify Vietnamese verbs into two
types: transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. Intransitive verbs are ones that can stand
alone with complete meaning without help from other words, e.g. B . Transitive verbs,
in contrast, cannot stand alone, they need help from other words to complete their meaning
e.g. 









.
Recen
European grammatical system, and based on functions of verbs he suggests a new
classification that is independent and dependent verbs. Considering the purpose, this study

will be based on the notions suggested by Dip Quang Ban, Nguyn Kim Thn
c Tnh.
This chapter provides an overview of CA and a discussion of CA guiding principles
suggested by Chaturvedi (1973) which is expected to be helpful for the study, and of
the concept of conversion as a word formation process. It also gives a brief
introduction to word meaning, verbs in English and Vietnamese. In short, this
chapter has been the theoretical background for the study.












15

CHAPTER 2: THE CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF N-V CONVERSION
IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

In this chapter, The CA of N-V conversion in English and Vietnamese will be
made. Firstly, the N-V conversion in English and Vietnamese will be mainly focused
on the grammatical features (including syntactic and morphological features) and
semantic features. Then the similarities and differences will be detected. Finally, some
implications for EFL teaching and learning will also be discussed.

2.1. N-V conversion in English.
N-V conversion, which is generally believed to be the most frequent pattern in English,
will be concerned. In English N-V conversion is also referred to as verbification or
verbing, and a new verb converted from noun is called a denominal verb. The N-V
conversion in English will be more focused on the grammatical features (including
syntactic and morphological features) and semantic features.

2.1.1 Grammatical Features.
A. Marchand (1969) in his book "The Categories and Types of Present-day English"
treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical word-building because we have not only
the change of the paradigm, but also the change of the syntactic function. Verb formed
from noun is a denominal verb, sharing the following syntactic functions of verbs:
2.1.1.1 Syntactic Features.
1. The denominal verbs occur as a part of a predicate of a sentence.
- Our company authored the documentation.
- Please conference with your teacher and report.
- We are efforting to work this out.
- This will strongly impact 
- The managing editor must interface with a variety of freelance editors.
- I have been tasked with a new project.
2. The derivates of the denominal verbs can have different grammatical functions such as
subjects, objects, or complements.
16

- Brushing his coat with his hand is too easy.
- She enjoyed combing her hair in the room in silence.
- He has agreed to liaison with the Division on behalf of those with problem cases.
- She took the picture to the wall to tape.
3. The denominal verbs carry markers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect,
voice, mood, person, number.

- You can access the information any time.
- Tim had bicycled to the village with Gertrud.
- We were stoned and bottled by the spectators as we marched down the street.
- To prove his skill as an acrobat he cartwheeled gracefully into the room.
- He stapled the papers together.
- Any opponent is labelled a "communist" by the reactionary government.
- Can you tape that programme tonight for me please?
4. The denominal verbs can be transitive and intransitive verbs.
 As intransitive verbs
- Oh, well, we already have telephoned, cabled, faxed and e-mailed.
- She has grumbled all the way up the stairs.
 As transitive verbs
- Tomorrow they are going to sign a peace treaty.
- Her government will start funding many housing development projects next year.
- In that year, the army staged a coup  and seized power.
- However, Professor John Gunn, who chaired the working party said that the delay
was inevitable because of the constraints at the time.
2.1.1.2. Morphological features.
The denominal verb consists of one morpheme as a root. According to Quirk et al
(1973), like many other English verbs, it has five forms. Take the denominal verb ship for
example: the base ship, the-s form ships, the past form shipped, the past participle shipped,
and the - ing participle shipping.
By means of derivation, it can has derivates as follow: shipper (noun): one who sends
goods from one place to another not in the same city or town, esp. one who sends goods
by water, shipping (adjective): relating to ships, their ownership, transfer, or employment;
17

as, shiping concerns, shipment (noun): the act or process of shipping; as, he was engaged in
the shipment of coal for London; an active shipment of wheat from the West.
The denominal verbs have two advantages over derivational verbs; the main verb is

unrestricted in its meanings (as opposed to verbs with affixes, where the affix has some
control over the meaning of the verb), and as conversions are far more likely to be able to
form particle or phrasal verbs, this means that two verbs with the same morphological stem
can exist side by side with slightly different meanings (a simple conversion and a
phrasal/particle conversion) e.g. bottle(V) vs. bottle up(V) (metaphorical use)
Nouns can be converted straight into particle or phrasal verbs without the need for a
pre-existing non-phrasal/particle verb form. For example, the verb chicken out exists,
where *chicken(V) does not: This is extremely important, and is an area that has, as yet,
been neglected in the literature. Where a noun is converted straight into a phrasal verb,
users must have thought that the conversion alone was insufficient to guarantee the
conveyance of a clear meaning to an interpreter. The relationship between the two
elements in the converted phrasal verb is symbiotic, with each element being vital to the

The denominal verbs can also be used in such compounds as shipwreck, bottle-feed,
honey moon, cold-shoulder, free wheel, flashlight, blackball, blacklist, pinball, stonewall,
blue-pencil, my-dear, my-love etc.

2.1.2. Semantic Features.
In this section, the different senses of N-V conversion or of the denominal verbs will be
explored. Like any other lexical verbs, the denominal verbs refer to actions, processes or
changes. Clearly, the word made by conversion has different meaning from the original
word though the two meanings can be associated. There are certain regularities in theses
association that can be classified. Verbs can be formed from nouns of different semantic
groups and have different meanings because of that. B    
(1979:761-811) classification, they proposed the following classes of denominal verbs:
locatum verbs, location and duration verbs, agent and experiencer verbs, goal and source
verbs, instrument verbs. Based on the classification suggested by R. Quirk et al
(1973:442), there are seven subtypes of denominal verbs. Below, a closer investigation
which still being far from exhaustive will show, however, some signs of patterned
18

relationship, especially if one observes semantically related groups. The examples serve
only to illustrate and clarify this.
1. Verbs have instrumental meaning if they are formed from:
(a) Nouns denoting parts of a human body e.g. eye, finger, leg, hand, elbow, knee, toe,
shoulder, nose, head, stomach.
- The remains being sent to Hawaii on Tuesday for forensic tests were found or handed in
by Vietnamese during a month-long field search, which ended on September 20.
- The clerk handed me the key.
- She fingered the soft silk.
- He headed the ball into the goal.
- She elbowed her way forward.
- The dog nosed out a rat.
- The little boy kneed the door open.
- I cannot stomach seafood.
- The soldier shouldered his rucksack.
Verbs based on nouns denoting some parts of the human body will show regularity of
instrumental meaning, however, to face does not imply doing something by or even with
turning it in certain direction, to back means to move backwards.
Verbs from nouns denoting parts of a human body can be used in figurative meaning.
- Her father once headed 
- The major headed the procession as it entered the town.
- These important questions are facing us today.
- We understand that Vietnam is facing great challenges of global economic
competition
- She is the candidate who is backed by the Labor Party.
- Who is backing the film?
- A reporter is nosing about for news.
- I cannot stomach his opinion.
- Do not try to elbow your way in.

- Do not muscle in.
19

(b) Nouns denoting tools, machines, instruments, weapons e.g. saw, load, paddle, lock,
chain, hammer, machine-gun, gun, rifle, nail, yo-yo, dot, brake, wheel, screw, pin, knife,
pivot, pump, rivet, sandpaper, spur, glue, x-rays, stone, pipe, microwave, iron, mop, comb,
drill, plug, scrub etc.
- It is easy to paddle when going boating in a stream.
- He was gunned down on his way to work in the district of the Algerian capital.
- The soldier has ten medals pinned to the breast of his coat.
- The dog was chained to the post/its kennel.
- My shirt was wrinkled, so I ironed it with starch.
- Steve scrubs his kitchen floor every Sunday.
- How many English teachers does it take to screw in a light bulb? - Three, one to hold
the bulb, one to hold the ladder, and one to read the direction.
- The dentist drilled through the tooth to get to the source of the pain.
- The carpenter is sawing a piece of wood.
- He tried to plug the lamp into the outlet.
- The robber chained her legs and wrists.
2. Verbs can denote actions characteristic considered typical of the nouns of living being.
(a) Verbs from human nouns e.g. mother, father, doctor, nurse, maid, groom, butcher,
clown, vet, boss, pilot, referee, usher, engineer, witness, cook.
- She mothered the orphan.
- Piglets were mothered by a sow.
- He likes being mothered by his landlady.
- She maided my family for doing housework and babysitting last year.
- It is not my scheme, try fathering it on somebody else.
- My mother has been nursing for 40 years.
- She nurses her aged mother.
- Women and children were butchered by the the rebels.

- He butchers the cow.
- They doctored her fruit juice with vodka and she got very drunk.
- We were witnessing the most important scientific development of the century.
20

- Schools in this area are piloting the new maths course.
- Who refereed the match?
- The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.
- I was ushered in, and stood before the Queen.
- The new government ushered in a period of prosperity.
- The stranger had the horse vetted.
(b) Verbs from animal nouns. The group of verb e.g. ape (to imitate); parrot, monkey (to
fool about or to play idly and foolishly); dog (to follow or track closely behind); wolf (to
eat greedily), bug.
- Tom parroted what the boss had said.
- He had always aped the gentleman in his clothes and manner.
- The police officer dogs his footsteps.
- I have begun to feel absolute haunted because this woman dogs me.
- The children wolf down my food.
- Charlie went on wolfing the chocolate.
- That man really bugs me.
In fact, these associations are not only complex but also sometime perplexing. It would
seem that the verb formed from the name of an animal denotes behavior typical of the
animal, it would be easy for you to guess the meaning of such a verb provided that you
know the meaning of the noun. However, to fish, to whale, to rat, to rabbit, do not mean to
behave like fish, whale, rat, or rabbit but the hunting activities of these animals, the other
meaning of to rat is to turn informal, to squeal, and to foal means to give birth to this
animal. In addition, it is not easy for one to know which of the characteristics of the animal
uced.
3. Verbs can refer to actions of removing the things denoted by the nouns e.g. peel, weed,

dust, skin, gut, core, milk etc.
- He who has peeled the cake but his fingers are still clean.
- The label will peel off if you soak it in the water.
- After sunbathing, my skin began to peel.
- Would you peel me an orange?