Syntactic and semantic features of english compound nouns with reference to their vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF
ENGLISH COMPOUND NOUNS WITH REFERENCE
TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(ĐẶC ĐIỂM CẤU TRÚC VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA DANH TỪ GHÉP TIẾNG
ANH LIÊN HỆ TƯƠNG TƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯỢNG

Hanoi, 2016


Front hard cover
Back hard cover

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯỢNG

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

2014 - 2016


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF
ENGLISH COMPOUND NOUNS WITH REFERENCE
TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(ĐẶC ĐIỂM CẤU TRÚC VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA DANH TỪ GHÉP TIẾNG
ANH LIÊN HỆ TƯƠNG TƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯỢNG

Field: English Language
Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Văn Quế

Hanoi, 2016



CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENLISH
COMPOUND

NOUNS

WITH

REFERENCE

TO

THEIR

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS ( Đặc điểm cấu trúc và ngữ nghĩa của
danh từ ghép tiếng Anh liên hệ tương đương với tiếng Việt) submitted in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English
Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work
has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.

Hanoi, 2016

Nguyen Thi Phuong

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Van Que
Date:……………………

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis could not have been completed without the help and
support from a number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Van Que, my supervisor, who has patiently and
constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose
stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly
through my growth as an academic researcher.
A special word of thanks goes to all the lectures of the Master course

at Hanoi Open University and many others, without whose support and
encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis
accomplished.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my friends for
the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work.

ii


ABSTRACT
Compounding nouns is one of the ways to create new word. Especially
in the tourism and hotel industry, compounding nouns are used very much.
The students of Foreign language and tourism Department at Red star
University get some difficulties to learn and translate some compound nouns
in their textbooks. To help them to solve the problems, the author chose the
title Syntactic and semantic features of English compound nouns with
reference to their Vietnamese equivalents for research.
To get the aims and the objectives of the research, both quantitative
and qualitative research were applied in this study. The author combines
Descriptive Research Method and Comparative Analysis Method, in which
the survey questionnaires, the comparative method, the statistic method and
the analytical method are included.
Basing the result of survey, the author has pointed out the similarities
and differences of English compound nouns in both languages and classify
the English compound nouns s in the two textbooks into Appendix 1,2. This
will help the learners to understand

and remember them systemically.

Besides, the authors also imply some suggestions for teaching and learning

English compound nouns.

iii


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
1.

ECNs:

English compound nouns

2.

VCNs:

Vietnamese compound nouns

3.

CP

Compound nouns

4.

RSU :

Red Star University

5.

ESP

English for Specific Purposes

:

:

iv


LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1

English compounds in term of the parts of speech

15

Table 2.2

English compounds in term of semantic

16

Table 2.3

English compounds in term of a phrase or clause

16

Table 2.4

Examples of ECNs and VCNs

25

Table 3.1

Information of the research participants

34

Table 4.1

Meaning formation of compound nouns

42

Table 4.2

Syntactic and semantic features of ECNs in their Vietnamese 45

equivalents
Table 4.3

The learners’ acquisition levels on the syntactic features

56

Table 4.4

The learners’ acquisition levels on the semantic features

56

Table 4.5

The learners’ acquisition levels on the syntactic and semantic 57

features
Table 4.6: Syntactic and semantic features of ECNs in their Vietnamese

62

equivalents
Table 4.7 The similarities and differences on syntactic and semantic features 63
of ECNs in their Vietnamese equivalents

v


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Certificate of originality

i

Acknowledgements

ii

Abstract

iii

List of abbreviations

iv

List of tables and figures

v

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1

1.1.

Rationale for the research

1

1.2.

Aims of the research

2

1.3.

Objectives of the research

2

1.4.

Scope of the research

3

1.5.

Significance of the research

3

1.6.

Structural organization of the thesis

3

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

5

2.1.

5

Review of previous studies

2.1.1. Previous studies overseas

5

2.1.2. Previous studies in Vietnam

6

2.2.

7

Review of theoretical background

2.2.1. Overview of English compounding

7

2.2.1.1. Definition

7

2.2.1.2. Distinguishing compounds from phrases

9

2.2.1.3. Classification of compounds

13

2.2.1.4. Types of compounds

16


2.2.2. Overview of English compound nouns

19

2.2.2.1. Definition

19

2.2.2.2. Types of English compound nouns

21

2.2.2.3. The distinction between English compound nouns and English 24
noun phrases
2.2.3. Overview of Vietnamese compound nouns

26

2.2.3.1. General charateristics of Vietnamese compound nouns

26

2.2.3.2. The classification of Vietnamese compound nouns

28

2.3.

31

Summary

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY

32

3.1. Research-governing orientation

32

3.1.1. Research questions

32

3.1.2. Research setting

32

3.1.3. Research approaches

33

3.1.4. Data-related issues/criteria for intended data collection

33

3.1.4.1. Research participants

33

3.1.4.2. Data collection

34

3.2. Research methods

35

3.2.1. Major methods and supporting methods

35

3.2.1.1. Major methods

35

3.2.1.2. Supporting methods

36

3.2.2. Data collection techniques

36

3.2.2.1. Selective material

37


3.2.2.2. The survey questionnaire

37

3.2.3. Data analysis techniques

40

3.3. Summary
Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. The syntactic and semantic features of English compound nouns

40
42
42

4.1.1. Syntactic features

42

4.1.1.1. The formation of compound nouns

42

4.1.1.2. Plural formation

43

4.1.1.3. Possessive form

44

4.1.1.4. Relations of their components

44

4.1.2. Semantic features

44

4.1.2.1. Meaning formation of compound nouns

45

4.1.2.2. Meaning types denoted in compound nouns

46

4.1.2.3. Meaning relations between constituents and their compound 47
noun
4.2. The syntactic and semantic features of Vietnamese compound 48
nouns

4.2.1. Syntactic features

48

4.2.2. Semantic features

49

4.3. The similarities and differences on syntactic features between 49
English compound nouns and their Vietnamese equivalents.
4.3.1. Similarities

49

4.3.2. Differences

50

4.4. The similarities and differences of semantic features between 51
English compound nouns and their Vietnamese equivalents.
4.4.1. Similarities

51

4.4.2. Differences

52

4.5. Implications of findings

52


4.5.1. Main compound nouns in textbooks “English for the hotel and 53
tourist industry” and “Hotel English” .
4.5.1.1. Main patterns of compound nouns in two textbooks

53

4.5.1.2 Non-idiomatic and idiomatic compound nouns in two books

55

4.5.2. Errors of students on understanding and translating English 55
compound nouns
4.5.3. Methods to teach and learn English compound nouns for Red 58
star University in particular and Vietnamese learners in general
4.6. Summary

61

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION

64

5.1.

Recapitulation

64

5.2.

Concluding remarks

64

5.3.

Limitation of the research

65

5.4.

Recommendations/Suggestions for further research

65

REFERENCES
APPENDICES


Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale for the research
In recent years, teaching English has been paid considerable attention
by many linguistic scholars and teachers. Various communicative approaches
have been applied with the hope to teach learners to use English as the native
speakers. However, the process of learning English involves not only

practicing the four skills needed in communication as speaking, listening,
reading and writing but also mastering other aspects such as grammar
structures, sounds and vocabulary. And enriching one’s vocabulary of a
language is very important as Wilkins (1972:111) comments: "Without
grammar, very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be
conveyed." Besides, possessing a rich source of vocabulary in English will
enable learners to speak and to write concisely. Unfortunately, dealing with
new English words is one of the most difficulties for any language learners as
words in English are numerous and continuously developing together
with the changes of the society. New English words are formed in various
ways such as borrowing, affixation, conversion, composition, shortening, etc.
Among which, compounding or composition is a rich source of English
neologisms. According to an analysis of the Longman Register of new words
Vol. 1, it accounts for 39.8 % of new words (Ayto, in Anderman 1996:65)
while a similar analysis of the Macquarie Dictionary of new words shows
that it can account for 54.5% (Butler, in Ayato in Anderman 1996:66).
Given, therefore, that compounding is highly productive process of word
formation. Moreover, compounding is an effective tool to express ideas
concisely.

However, compound words have specific and complicated

features that many learners of English find it not easy to use. Furthermore,
1


there is a fact that nominal compounds appear most in our daily life,
especially in professional texts as in business, medicine, science and
technology as well as other areas of English for Specific Purposes (ESP).
Thus, students of ESP have a greater difficulty when coping with them.

Because of its importance and complication, study on compound nouns
interests so many linguists and researchers. There have been a number of
studies on compound nouns conducted by many researchers for suggestions
dealing with compound nouns in commerce, science, technology and
software computer texts but there is no systematic research on compound
nouns of tourism terms. For those reasons, as a learner as well as a teacher of
teaching English in the Foreign language and Tourism Department, I would
like to do a research on this matter with the hope that I would
understand properly the features of English compound nouns and find out
an appropriate way to teach them to my students of ESP.
The title of the research is “Syntactic and semantic features of English
compound nouns with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents”.
1.2. Aims of research
The thesis is aimed to get the full knowlegde of syntactic and semantic
features of ECNs with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents. From that,
the author will give the suggestions for teachers to teach English compound
nouns and methods to learn English compound nouns for Vietnamese
learners.
1.3. Objectives of research
There are three main objectives in this study. The first objective is
pointing out the syntactic and semantic features of English compound nouns
with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents. The second one is helping
2


Vietnamese learners be aware of the differences and similarities between
English compound nouns and their Vietnamese equivalents. And lastly, it is
proposing some implications for mastering English compound nouns in
effective ways.
1.4. Scope of research

Within my thesis, I only focus on the syntactic and semantic features
of English compound nouns in reference with the Vietnamese equivalents.
The compound nouns being analyzed in this study are those that are formed
from two words while the data source of the compound nouns are in some
dictionaries, the reference grammar books by Quirk, R & Greenbaum, S.
(1985) and especially in the textbooks “English for the hotel and tourist
Industry” by Nguyen Thanh Chuong and “Hotel English” by Tuyet Son-Thu
Ha.
1.5. Significance of research
The finding of this study is expected to give valuable contribution
theoretically and practically. Theoretically, this study will deepen our
understanding and knowledge about the syntactic and semantic features of
English compound nouns in reference with the Vietnamese equivalents
Practically, this study will classify the English compound nouns on the
tourism and hotel industry in two textbooks “English for the hotel and tourist
Industry” by Nguyen Thanh Chuong and “Hotel English” by Tuyet Son-Thu
Ha more detail and give better ways for learning compound nouns in
English for Vietnamese learners, especially for our students at Red Star
University.
1.6. Organizational structure of thesis

3


The thesis is designed with five chapters:
Chapter 1: “Introduction” that gives the overview of the thesis
including rationale, aims of research, objectives of research, scope of
research, significance of research and organizational of research.
Chapter 2: “Literature review” that provides the previous studies and
theoretical background.

Chapter 3: “Methodology” that indicates research orientations and
research methods.
Chapter 4: “Finding and discussion” that analyzes and discusses to
answer the research questions
Chapter 5: “Conclusion” is the last chapter to summarize and close
our research.

4


Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
In this section, previously conducted research in the detail fields of
compound nouns will be presented and discussed. This must be done in order
to place the thesis in the context relevant to the research which will be
conducted. Furthermore, it will provide the reader with some basic
knowledge of the background and present state of this field of research.
2.1. Review of previous studies
2.1.1. Previous studies overseas
The amount of research conducted on the syntactic and semantic
features of compound nouns on tourism and hotel industry relevant to this
thesis is somewhat limited.
Charteris-Black , J (1999) reported that the second language learners
encounter comprehension problems with compound nouns and that
idiomatic, syntactic

and lexicalization factor may influence their

comprehension. And he also pointed out that the problems come from the
learner’s word combination. This problem is very similar with native

speakers. However, the research only focuses on the acquisition of English
Neologism.
Mgr. Marie Gajzlerová (2007) pointed at the types and classification of
ECNs and other compoundings. And he also proved that ECNs had a higher
frequency. However the research is mainly general information.
Lone Secher Wingreen Christensen (2014) researched on translating
compound nouns in User Manuals. His study aided translators and people
5


training to be translators in discovering the best way in which to translate
CNs in technical language. Although the study can only say something more
specific about the 10 user manuals, which were used as the data, those user
manuals should represent a good sample of the user manuals available for
electric products. Furthermore, the study has provided both a theoretical look
at the compound nouns in the qualitative analysis, in which the use of various
strategies was considered, and a more real-world look at the translation of
ECNs in connection with comprehensibility in the quantitative part.
2.1.2. Previous studies in Vietnam
Duong Thi Ngoc Anh (2009) pointed out the general information of
ECNs on classifications, form, syntactic and semantic features. The study
also mentioned ECNs in the book “ Hotel and tourism industry”. However,
the study was only a minor thesis, it couldn’t prove and analysis deeply and
in detail on tourism and hotel industry.
Tran Hoai Da Vu (2010) on his minor thesis “Contrastive Analysis of
Word Compounds in English and Vietnamese”, Bui Thi Thao Uyen( 2010)
on her minor thesis “English and Vietnamese Compounding: A Contrastive
Analysis”, Ho Ngoc Phuong Tram(2010) on her minor thesis “Compound
nouns in Vietnamese focused on the descriptions of English compound
nouns in the comparison to Vietnamese equivalents. Great efforts were

made to find a better way of teaching and learning compound nouns
in an English Second Purposes textbook. However, they are all minor thesis,
many other related issues cannot be discussed thoroughly.
Compared to those previous studies, this study will have more obvious
similarities and differences, namely analyzing English Compound Nouns in
term of their syntactic and semantic features denoting tourism terms.
Especially, this study will focus on the students in Red Star University and
the field of compound nouns is on the tourism and hotel in the textbooks
6


“English for the hotel and tourist Industry” by Nguyen Thanh Chuong and “
Hotel English” by Tuyet Son – Thu Ha.
2.2. Review of theoretical background
2.2.1. Overview of English compounding
Compounding, or also equally termed composition, is one of the major
English word-formation processes and also serves as an excellent source of
noun formations (formations created for a single occasion) and neologisms.
As mentioned by Štekauer (2000, p. 99) it is even often regarded as the most
productive process of the English word-formation. Plag (2002) also
maintained this opinion. Furthermore, Plag (2002, p.169) added that
compounding is the most controversial process in English in terms of
linguistic analysis. This is due to the fact that “numerous issues remain
unresolved and convincing solutions are generally not easy to find” (Plag,
2002, p. 169). Because of this, there is no universal definition of compounds
(Kavka and Štekauer, 2006), so an attempt to find one, which would be
highly unfeasible, will not be made.
2.2.1.1. Definition
Adams (1973) sees compound as "the result of the (fixed) combination
of two free forms, or words that have an otherwise independent existence" (p.

30). He adds that compounds, "though clearly composed of two elements,
have the identifying characteristics of single words" (p. 30).
Molhova (1976) explains that “composition is that means of forming
new words which causes two or more roots to be merged into one, whose
meaning might be the sum total of the meanings of the components or it
might be idiomatic”( Molhova 1976: 136).
The probably most intuitive definition of compounding was proposed
by Bauer (1983, p. 11) who described it as “the process of putting two words
7


together to form a third”. But as this definition is rather vague at first sight
and would also rule out many established compounds, need for providing a
more complex one can be felt. The most suitable definition for purposes of
this thesis may be the treating of compounds as free lexical units consisting
of two or more roots and “functioning both grammatically and semantically
as a single word” (Quirk et al., 1985, p. 1567).
Plag (2002) claims that compound is in fact a combination of no more
than two elements. According to his explanation, even compounds consisting
of more elements can be analyzed as essentially binary structures (p. 170172).
Vogel (2007) characterises a compound as “a vocabulary unit
consisting of more than one lexical stem (called a base). Compounds
apparently include in their structure two or more lexemes, but they function
as a single item with its own grammar and meaning” (Vogel 2007: 17).
Crystal (2009) gives a more detailed definition of compound saying it
is "a linguistic unit which is composed of elements that function
independently in other circumstances" (p. 96). He calls these elements free
morphemes claiming that there are two or more such elements in each
compound (p. 96).
The authors offer comprehensible definitions and provide an explicit

explanation of word composition. Although the different terminology is used
by each author, e.g. root, stem, base, element, the meaning is the same.
Concluded, a compound can be defined as a combination of two or
more elements. If the compound is composed of more than two elements it is
still analyzable into two-element structures. This characteristic of compounds
is called binarity. Other important factors that are being used to define
8


compounds (except for the number of their constituents) are their function
and meaning. Units that are labeled as compounds behave as single units in
regards to their syntactic and semantic function. Besides, it has been
received a lot of concern from linguistic scholars such as Yule(1985) ,
Fromkin, V; Rodmar, R.; Collins P. and Blair P. (1998), Hornby, A.S.
(1995), Jackson, H. & Amvela. E. Z. (2000), Leech, G,N. (1974), etc. They
have proposed a number of different definitions on compounding. In this
study the definition

of Quirk

et al. (1985) is considered

to be of

appropriate, sufficient and easy one to understand: “Compound is a lexical
unit consisting of more than one base and functioning both grammatically
and semantically as a single word” (1985:1567).
2.2.1.2. Distinguishing compounds from phrases
As stated before, sometimes it is really difficult to decide whether a
given formation is a compound or a phrase. While the definition itself is

rather simple, as compound is treated as “one word” and phrases as “two or
more words” (Matthews, 1974, p. 94), the reality is considerably more
complicated. When a noun is premodified (by noun, adjective, participle or
nominalization), the sequence which comes a result of this process may be
either compound or a free phrase, as was remarked by Adams (1973, p. 57).
Of course, several tests of “compoundhood” may be applied to those
constructions (e.g. green house, black bird), but the question is whether is it
really possible to come up with a definite answer. Adams (1973) stated that
there is no answer to this problem which would cover all the cases. It can be
however supposed that distinctions can be made “on phonological, syntactic
and semantic grounds” (Jackson and Amvela, 2007, p. 93). Thereupon,
these aspects will be discussed successively from now on by mentioning
selected criteria which may be used for recognizing compounds.
9


2.2.1.2. 1. Stress
Stress may often distinguish a compound from a phrase. This is caused
by the fact that words in English tend to have one primary stress, so
compounds can be often recognized by “having a stress pattern and a lack of
juncture” (Jackson and Amvela, 2007, p. 94). It is generally believed that
when the primary stress is on the first constituent, the construction is
regarded as a compound. When the primary stress falls on the later element,
than the expression tends to be recognised as a noun phrase. This can be seen
on an example: a ‘dark room vs. a dark ’room where the first expression is a
compound, while the latter one a noun phrase. Quirk et al. (1985, p. 1569)
state that “almost all compounds have this accentual pattern”. However, not
every compound receive this stress. According to Štekauer (2000, p.
100) this criterion cannot be regarded as a “hard-and-fast rule”, as there are
multiple expressions with two main stresses which are definitely accepted as

compounds (e.g.: ‘trade ‘union). Moreover, Štekauer (2000) says that
number of compounds with this stress pattern is increasing and therefore it
would be convenient to use a more general criterion. As Matthews (1974)
pointed out, this criterion is highly subject to variation, as there tends to be
no consistency of stressing the compounds, even among native speakers. It
also often depends on “sentence stress and intonation” (Matthews, 1974, p.
98) and therefore this test of compoundhood is clearly not very reliable.
2.2.1.2.2. Spelling and lexicalization
Compounds

are

spelled in

three

different

ways (Lieber and

Štekauer, 2009, p.376) – they may be solid, i.e. written as one word (e.g.
blackboard), two hyphenated words (baby-sitter) or written as two separate
words (living room). That already indicates a problem, as not much effort is
needed to find a compound which can be written in either of the three above
10


mentioned ways. Example of this can be the word girlfriend where all the
forms girlfriend, girl-friend and girl friend are acceptable. Therefore,
spelling is often regarded as not particularly relevant and unreliable criteria

for compoundhood (Adams, 1973, p. 59).
Lexicalization is unfortunately not much of a different case. While
compounds with lexicalized meanings can be found, such as blackbird, it was
already mentioned that productivity of compounding is enormous. So is also
its ability to create nonce formations and that is why lexicalization will
probably never be treated as a proper criterion for compoundhood.
2.2.1.2.3. Inflectibility
Inflectibility, which refers to “the use of inflections to modify the
grammatical functions of compounds” (Jackson and Amvela, 2007, p. 94),
also appears frequently as a test of compoundhood. An assumption is made
in Jackson and Amvela (2007) that the constituents of compounds are usually
inflectionless and that they should be treated(and inflected) as a single lexical
unit. This works perfectly well in most cases, where e.g. baby-sitters is
acceptable while babies-sitters is not, but counter examples maybe found
again, like girl’s club or children’s hour (Lieber and Štekauer, 2009, p. 376).
So it is apparent that inflectibility, while it is sufficient in many cases, cannot
be regarded as totally universal criterion by any means.
2.2.1.2.4. Inseparability and modification
Inseparability is regarded as a much stronger test of compoundhood (in
comparison to methods described above) among the scholars. Lieber and
Štekauer (2009, p. 377) even stated that “inseparability is perhaps the
strongest test of compoundhood”. Also Jackson and Amvela (2007, p. 93)
said that all compounds are normally inseparable in a way that no extra
11


element may be put between its constituent parts and such tests as separating
the first element from the head were also successfully applied by Adams
(1973). This implies that while there is nothing wrong with a pretty girl
friend, a girl pretty friend is not acceptable anymore and cannot be

recognized as a compound in English.
Modification is closely tied to inseparability; when an arbitrary
modifier is inserted between elements of a compound, the resulting phrase is
unable to maintain compoundhood of the original (Lieber and Štekauer 2009,
p. 377), as shown above. Furthermore, as compound is treated as a single
unit, its elements cannot be modified separately. As seen in example taken
from Jackson and Amvela (2007, p. 93-94), air- sick can occur in a phrase
like seriously air-sick, where seriously modifies the whole compound, but it
cannot modify just the second element which means that phrase airseriously sick is not possible.
2.2.1.2.5. Semantic criteria
Semantic criteria are the last ones that are to be discussed in this part,
and since the formal criteria mentioned above are not satisfying in many
cases, semantics is often emphasized (Matthews 1974, p. 95). This leads to
Jespersen‟s (1974) supposition that “if the meaning of the whole cannot be
logically deduced from the meanings of the constituents the expression is a
compound”, as cited by Štekauer (2000, p. 101). Also Jackson and Amvela
(2007) stated that compounds tend to acquire very specialized meanings and
therefore their constituents may lose their original meanings. This works very
well for lexicalised compounds such as blackboard (as it may have also a
different color) or dustbin (it is not entirely restricted to dust), as exemplified
in Jackson and Amvela (2007, p. 94). However, this is not true for all
compounds as there are also expressions whose meaning can be easily
12