An investigation into the linearity to simple sentence in English and Vietnamese

An investigation into the linearity to simple
sentence in English and Vietnamese


Nguyễn Thị Thu Quỳnh


Trường Đại học KHXH&NV
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Nguyễn Hương Giang
Năm bảo vệ: 2011


Abstract: This paper investigates into the linearity in simple sentence in English and
Vietnamese. However, there is a limited time; my study only focuses on the linearity in
affirmative statement. It offers theoretical knowledge of linearity in affirmative statement
in both English and Vietnamese. The thesis focuses on contrastive analysis to find out the
similarities and differences in linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement.
Finally, the author discusses some implication in teaching and learning English for
Vietnamese learners.

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Câu đơn; Tiếng Việt; Ngữ pháp

Content


iii

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. Aims of the study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
3. Scope of the study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4. Method of the study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
PART 2: DEVLOPMENT
Chapter 1: Theoretical background 3
1.1. What is linearity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . … . . . . . 3
1. 2. What is a simple sentence? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3. Classifications of simple sentences according to
their communicative purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.1. Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.2. Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3.3. Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3.4. Exclamation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Chapter 2: Linearity in the English affirmative statement 8
2. 1. Elements and patterns of the English simple sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2. 2. Traditional positions of these five elements in English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2. 2. 1 Position of Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2. 2. 2 Position of Verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2. 2. 3 Position of Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2. 2. 4 Position of Complement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2. 2. 5 Position of Adverbial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2. 3. Inversion in Affirmative statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.1. Subject – verb inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2. 3.1.1 Auxiliary verbs before Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2. 3.1.2 Main verb before Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2. 3. 2 Subject - Object Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
iv

iv

2. 3. 3 Subject - Complement Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2. 3. 4 Subject - Adverbial Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Chapter 3: Linearity in the Vietnamese affirmative statement 20
3. 1. Elements and patterns of the Vietnamese affirmative statement . . . . . . . . . . 20
3. 2. Positions of elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3. 2. 1 Position of Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3. 2. 2 Position of Verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3. 2. 3 Position of Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3. 2. 4 Position of Complement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3. 2. 5 Position of Adverbial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3. 3. Inversion in Vietnamese affirmative statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3.1. Verb before subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3.2. Complement at the beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3.3. Object before Subject and Verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3.4. Adverbial at the beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Chapter 4:
Contrastive analysis of linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement 28
4.1. Similarities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.1 Elements and structure of affirmative statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.2 Inversion in the emphasized sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.2. Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.2.1 Verb Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.2.2 Transformational relation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.2.3 Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Chapter 5: Implication for teaching and learning English 37
5.1 Typical mistakes made by Vietnamese learners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.2 Suggested types of exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

PART 3: CONCLUSION 41
Reference
Appendix
1

PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
With integration of Vietnam in globalization, the need of learning foreign languages,
learning English in our society is in great demand. One of the effective approaches that
learners do not really seem to notice is the comparative analysis between foreign languages and
native language. This will help learners acquire foreign languages easily.
In the English language, the position of elements is essential to the meaning of a
sentence in general and the meaning of a simple sentence in particular. A change in element
position may bring about a fundamental change in meaning.
Like in Vietnamese and some other languages, in English, linearity in a simple sentence
plays an important role. We can depend on it to find out whether it is a statement (affirmative
or negative one), a question, a command or an exclamation. Thus an all – round understanding
of element position in the simple sentence also contributes a great deal to the study of language
both theoretically and practically.
Many Vietnamese learners (especially beginners and intermediate learners) cannot
avoid making common mistakes in placing elements at the right position in the statement of
simple sentence.
The position of sentence elements in English and Vietnamese are not the same partly
because different languages use different lingual and cultural habits.
For the above – mentioned reasons, research on linearity in sentence should be given
special attention by those who use English as a foreign language, especially by not only all of
us, who are working as teachers of English, but also our students who are learning English as a
compulsory subject.
2. Aims of the study
In the Investigation into the Linearity to simple sentence in English and Vietnamese as

an M.A. thesis, the author has the following aims:
- to find out the similarities and differences of the linearity in English and Vietnamese
affirmative statement.
- to help Vietnamese learners avoid some common mistakes in using English.
In order to realize these aims, the study supports to answer the following research questions:
2

1. What is linearity of sentence?
2. What are similarities and differences of the linearity in English and Vietnamese
affirmative statement?
3. What are common mistakes in linearity made by Vietnamese learners?
3. Scope of the study
According to communicative purpose, there are four kinds of simple sentence. They are
statement, question, command and exclamation. Each kind of simple sentence has two forms:
affirmative and negative. However in my study, I only focus on the linearity in affirmative
statement.
In my study, first of all, I present linearity in affirmative statement of English simple
sentence and Vietnamese one. Next, I discuss Linearity in both languages and then make
comparison between linearity in affirmative statement of English simple sentence and
Vietnamese one.
My study is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1 is the theoretical background of my
subject. Chapter 2 and chapter 3 present the possible linearity in the English and Vietnamese
affirmative statement. In chapter 4, there is a contractive analysis of linearity in English and
Vietnamese affirmative statement. Last but not least, in chapter 5, the implication in teaching
and learning English of the study will be mentioned.
4. Method of the study
Contrastive analysis is the main linguistic method applied in my study in which the
linearity in affirmative statement in English and Vietnamese is considered its objective.
Reading English Grammar books and Vietnamese books is carried out to get as much
knowledge of the subject as possible. Most of examples are taken from books widely used in

English and Vietnam. Moreover in my study I make contractive analysis to find out similarities
and differences in the linearity in the affirmative statement between two languages.




3

PART 2: DEVLOPMENT
Chapter 1: Theoretical background
1. 1. What is linearity?
1. 2. What is a simple sentence?
1.3. Classifications of simple sentences according to their communicative purpose
1.3.1. A Statement/ A Declarative sentence
1.3.2. A Question/ An interrogative sentence:
1.3.3. A Command/ an Imperative sentence:
1.3.4. An Exclamation/ An exclamatory sentence:

Chapter 2: Linearity in the English affirmative statement
2. 1. Elements and patterns of the English affirmative statement
2. 2. Traditional positions of these five elements in English
2.2.1 Position of Subject
2.2.2 Position of Verb Phrase
2.2.3 Position of Objects
2.2.4 Position of Complement
2.2.5 Position of Adverbial
2. 3. Inversion in Affirmative statement
2.3.1. Subject – verb inversion
2. 3.1.1 Auxiliary verbs before Subject
2.3.1.2 Main verb before Subject

2. 3. 2 Subject - Object Inversion
2. 3. 3 Subject - Complement Inversion
2. 3. 4 Subject - Adverbial Inversion:

Chapter 3: Linearity in the Vietnamese Affirmative Statement
3. 1. Elements and patterns of the Vietnamese Affirmative Statement
3. 2. Positions of elements in affirmative statement
4

3.2.1 Position of Subject
3.2.2 Position of Verb
3.2.3 Position of Objects
3.2.4 Position of Complement
3.2.5 Position of Adverbial
3. 3. Inversion in Vietnamese Affirmative Statement
3.3.1. Verb before subjects
3.3.2. Complement at the beginning
3.3.3. Object before Subject and Verb
3.3.4. Adverbial at the beginning of affirmative statement.
Chapter 4:
Contrastive analysis of linearity in English and Vietnamese
affirmative statement
In this part, I would like to focus on the similarities and differences of linearity in the
English affirmative statement and in the Vietnamese ones.
4.1. Similarities
4. 1. 1. Sentence elements and their positions in affirmative statement.
In both English and Vietnamese, sentences are composed of words, and, in addition,
often of words combined into phrases within sentences that are a combination into a string of
speech following the linear dimension. Obviously, we can definitely be sure that both English
and Vietnamese affirmative statements, to some extent, have five obligatory elements and they

have common linearity in the sentence patterns.
Considering in syntactic features and types of sentence structure in the languages, we
can find that the elements in English affirmative simple sentence are equivalent to ones in
Vietnamese: S V O C A although the name of them are different. (Trần Hữu Mạnh 2007: 394)
Subject (S), Object (O), Complement (C) in English and Chủ ngữ, Tân ngữ, Bổ ngữ in
Vietnamese are noun, noun phrase or pronoun.
 Subject (S) stands at the beginning of the affirmative simple sentence.
5

 Object normally appears after subjects and verbs in pattern SVO and NP
1
+ V +
NP
2
in which NP
1
is subject and NP
2
is object.
In the case that there are two object (direct object and indirect object) in the sentence
pattern S V O
i
O
d
and NP
1
+ V + NP
2
+ NP
3

(NP
1
is subject and NP
2
is indirect object and NP
3

is direct object), O
i
usually stands before O
d
. Sometimes, O
i
stands after O
d
and separated by
preposition to or for.
Equivalent with Vietnamese
 Verb (V) in English and Động từ in Vietnamese follow Subject.
 Complement (C) in English and Bổ ngữ in Vietnamese are also presented by
adjectival phrase. They follow subject in the pattern S V C and NP
1
+ Adj
 Adverbial (A) in English and Trạng ngữ in Vietnamese is often adverb or
prepositional phrase. They usually stands at the end of the sentence in pattern S V A and S V O
A or NP
1
+ V + NP
2
+ Prep. + NP

3
in which NP
3
is Adverbial ( Trạng ngữ)
The position of adverbial in English as well as Trạng ngữ in Vietnamese is very mobile; they
can get initial, medial or final position in affirmative simple sentence.
According to Tran Huu Manh (2007: 388), seven patterns in English are equivalent to those in
Vietnamese
English
Vietnamese
Pattern 1: S V
NP
1
+ V ( Chủ ngữ + Động từ)
The bird sang
The sun is shining
The plane has taken off
Con chim hót
Mặt trời đang chiếu sáng
Máy bay đã cất cánh
Pattern 2: S V O
NP
1
+ V + NP
2
(Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Tân Ngữ)
The lecture interested me
They gave off smoking
We depend on your help
Bài giảng cuốn hút tôi

Họ bỏ (hút) thuốc
Chúng tôi trông cậy vào sự giúp đỡ của bác
Pattern 3: S V C
NP
1
+ V + NP
2
(Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Bổ Ngữ)
Your dinner seems ready
They will become teachers
Bữa chiều của anh hình như sẵn sàng rồi
Họ sẽ trờ thành giáo viên
6

Pattern 4: S V A
NP
1
+ V + NP
2
(Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Trạng Ngữ)
My office is in the next building
They were here last night
We got off/ on the bus
Phòng làm việc của tôi ở trong tòa nhà này.
Họ ở đây đêm qua
Chúng tôi (trèo) xuống/ lên xe buýt
Pattern 5: S V O O
NP
1
+ V + NP

2 +
NP
3
(Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Tân
ngữ 1 + Tân ngữ 2)
I must send my parents a card
She gave me a book
They informed him of the news
Tôi phải gửi cho bố mẹ tôi một bưu ảnh
Nàng đưa tôi một cuốn sách
Họ (thông) báo cho anh ta cái tin đó
Pattern 6: S V O C
NP
1
+ V + NP
2 +
NP
3
(Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Tân
ngữ + Bổ ngữ)
Most students have found her
reasonably helpful
They left the house empty
Đa số sinh viên đã thấy bà giáo hỗ trợ rất hợp lý
Họ bỏ lại ngôi nhà trống rỗng
Pattern 7: S V O A
NP
1
+ V + NP
2

+ Pep. + NP
3
(Chủ ngữ + Động từ +
Tân ngữ + Trạng ngữ)
You can put the dish on the shelf
They took him up the stairs
Bạn có thể để cái đĩa lên giá đó
Họ đưa hắn lên gác

4. 1. 2. Inversion in the emphasized sentence
In English as well as in Vietnamese, when speakers want to emphasize some parts of
the utterance without adding any other elements, they often put the verb, object, adverbial and
complement before subject. This called inversion. Inversion is really effective in both English
and Vietnamese.
- In Vietnamese, there is the pattern NP
1
+ Adj. This pattern is often changed into Adj +
NP
1
in which Adj is emphasized. It is very popular in Vietnamese written text or poetry. This
pattern is similar to the pattern in English CVS or CSV, but this pattern requires verbs.
E.g.: - Bleak and barren is the moon
C (AdjP) V
(W.M. Thackeray. 1979)
7

Vietnamese equivalent:

Ảm đảm và u ám là mặt trăng
C (AdjP) S (NP

1
)
- Bạc phơ mái tóc người cha.
C (AdjP) S (NP
1
)
Ba mươi năm Đảng nở hoa tặng Người
(Tố Hữu)
English equivalent:

Snow white the father’s hair is
C S V
Thirty years of Communist Party presents You)
- Moreover, we have also patterns NP
1
+ V + NP
2
inverting into NP
2
+ V + NP
1
or NP
2

+ NP
1
+ V in Vietnamese and SVO inverting into OVS or OSV in English. This means to get
much more attention to object (or NP
2
) than to subject.

- This he did
O S V
Vietnamese equivalent:
- Việc này, anh ấy đã làm
O (NP
2
) S (NP
1
) V
- Besides, the structure A V S is similar to the structure NP
2
+ là/ có + NP
1
(in which
NP
1
is adverbial of position or time and NP
2
is subject of the sentence.
Adverbial of position
E.g.: - At the top of the hill stood the tiny chapel
A V S
Vietnamese equivalent:
- Trên đỉnh đồi là một nhà thờ nhỏ
A (NP
2
) là S (NP
1
)
In general, all these similarities of linearity in the English affirmative statement and

ones in Vietnamese make it very possible and comfortable for Vietnamese learners to master
8

English, and in turn, for English learners to study Vietnamese as the second language.
However, there are still some differences between the linearity of both.
4.2. Differences
English is partially an inflectional language while Vietnamese is not, so the linearity of
affirmative simple sentence in English is different from those in Vietnamese.
4.2.1 Verb Phrase
In comparison with Vietnamese; it is a complicated problem in English, the verbs with
5 forms cause difficulties (the distinction in verb phrase structure of infinitive, s – form, ing –
form, past form (ed1) and past participle (ed2). English verbs change the forms to express 3
time – distinctions: past, present, and future. Verb phrase structures express tense and aspect.
Meanwhile, the verbs in Vietnamese are always unchanged. Also the five forms of
verbs in English are expressed by functional words (đang, đã, sẽ, + main V) in Vietnamese.
For example:
In English: I loved you. In this affirmative statement, loved has form V_ed1 which
expresses past action. However, the Vietnamese equivalent statement is Anh đã yêu em, the
time expression word “đã” + V expresses past action.
The similarities in the verb “live” in the following example:
E.g.: He is living here. Anh ta đang sống ở đây
He will live to be hundred. Anh ta sẽ sống đến 100 tuổi
He lived here in his childhood Khi còn nhỏ anh ta đã sống ở đây
In contrast to the same form of verb “sống” (live) in Vietnamese together with subordinate
components as: đang, đã, sẽ, đã (và đang)… Another point that counts is the irregular forms of
English verbs.
4.2.2 Transformational relation
Transformational relation is the change of syntactical functional of sentence elements.
In English, transformational relation, or relation between active and passive sentence is paid
much attention.

The pattern SVO, O (direct object) can get the function of subject and Subject will
become optional element with preposition “by” and can be abbreviated as (A)
The pattern of passive sentence in English:
9

S V O

S be + V_ed (P
II
) by O
= S V (passive voice) A

E.g.: I can make this cake
S V O
This sentence can be changed into

This cake can be made by me
S (O) V (passive voice) (A)
In this example, object in the active sentence is this cake turning into subject in the
passive sentence and verb in the active one becomes verb of passive V (passive voice) = be +
V_ed
Some other patterns in English S V O C; S V O A; S V O
i
O
d
can be also changed into
passive sentence S V (passive voice) C (A); S V (passive voice) A (A); S V (passive voice) O
d

(A)

E.g.: - They left the house empty
S V O C

The house was left empty by them
S V (passive voice) C (A)
- You can put the dish on the shelf
S V (passive voice) O A

The dish can be put on the shelf by you
S V (passive voice) A (A)
- I must send my parents a card
S V O
i
O
d

My parents must be sent a card by me
S V (passive voice) O
d
(A)
Transformational relation is the most typical feature in English; meanwhile, in
Vietnamese there is not form of passive verb. In the Vietnamese language, verb is changed in
10

passive sentence, there are group of words such as: bị, được combined with main verbs in order
to express passive meaning with pattern NP

+ bị, được + V.
E.g.: - Nó bị phạt
NP

bị V
- Giáp được tặng bằng khen
NP
1
được V NP
2
In English, the pattern of passive sentence is S + V (passive voice) by O, the agent of
action is always put after preposition by
E.g.: I was bitten by a snake.
S V (passive voice) by O
However in the Vietnamese language, the agent of action is more usually put between
bị or được and verb.
E.g.: Tôi bị một con rắn cắn
S (NP
2
)

bị

O (NP
1
)

V
Less usually: Tô bị cắn bởi một con chó.
In the Vietnamese language, adverbial of place can be subject in passive sentence.
E.g.: Tường được treo đầy tranh
Phòng ngủ được kê hai cái giường
Besides, in passive voice in English, it is more usual to put an adverbial of manner

immediately in front of the past participle it qualifies.
E.g.: They make this chair well
S V O A

This chair is well made
Equivalent in Vietnamese: Cái bàn này được làm cẩn thận
4.2.3. Inversion
Only some cases of inversion occur in the Vietnamese affirmative statements.
With the case subject – verb inversion, Vietnamese verbs can stand before subject without
adverbial, but this does not happen in English. For example,
English: Down came the rain
A V S
11

Vietnamese
- Đến bất ngờ cơn giông
V S (NP
1
)
Đi nhẹ nhàng ngọn gió
V S (NP
1
)
Trôi êm đềm dòng sông
V S (NP
1
)
Tuôn ào ào thác đổ
V S (NP
1

)
To sum up, besides the similarities which help English learners study easily, the
differences in verb phrase, transformation relation and some cases in inversion between
English and Vietnamese make the learner more confused.

Chapter 5:
Implication for teaching and learning English
5.1 Typical mistakes made by Vietnamese learners.
5.2 Suggested types of exercises











12

PART 3: CONCLUSION
Learning English grammar is essential to the mastery of a language. Actually, the
linearity is considered one of the most important aspects of English grammar. That is why I
decided to study The Linearity to simple sentence in English and Vietnamese.
Through the contrastive analysis as well as applying some methods such as: collecting
method, observation etc. In my study, I have presented the linearity in English and Vietnamese:
common position of sentence elements in an affirmative statement and inversion for emphasis
in English and Vietnamese. Then, I have done contrastive analysis of the linearity between two

languages to answer question why it is very difficult for Vietnamese learners to study English
in general and linearity of English affirmative statement in specific. In fact, the similarities
such as the number of sentence elements and their positions in affirmative statement or mobile
adverbials and using inversion for emphasis, are conclusive for Vietnamese learners to practice
English. In the meantime, some differences existing in linearity of both English and
Vietnamese affirmative simple sentence such as: the differences in verb phrase structure,
transformation and inversion in some cases existing in Vietnamese but not in English have
tendency to decline learners’ interest and confidence of themselves. Also these differences
often make students confused where to put elements at right place in the affirmative statement.
They normally make mistakes that have been expressed in chapter 5.
Honestly speaking, my paper is only a very small aspect of linearity in the sentence that
has been paid much attention by many grammarians and linguists as well. There are still some
other aspects related to the term of linearity such as: linearity in negative statement, in other
types of question, command, exclamation, in complex sentence, in compound sentence etc…
I, any way, hope that readers will get a great deal from my paper of linearity in English
and Vietnamese affirmative statement, to communicate in English and Vietnamese effectively.
Because of my limited experience and knowledge, mistakes are unavoidable. I would
like very much to get useful advice and suggestions from my teachers and my friends to make
my study better.

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