The use of modifiers in english noun phrases of english majored juniors in can tho university (2)

CAN THO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

The Use of Modifiers in English Noun
Phrases of English-majored Juniors in
Can Tho University
B.A. Thesis

Supervisor: Lưu Hoàng Anh, M.Ed.

Student: Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Bích
Code: 7062895
Class: NN652A1

Cantho, May 2010


ABSTRACT

According to Dinh (2000) and Hoang (2003), there are great number of
differences in the order of modifiers in noun phrases between English and Vietnamese.
Therefore, most Vietnamese learners have difficulties with the order of modifiers in
noun phrases. Tran (2003), Hoang (2003) and Nguyen (2005) affirm this fact.
However, there are some students are good at this aspect. Thus, there is a question
posed that whether the order of modifiers in English noun phrases is too difficult for
Vietnamese learners to master. To answer this question, the study was conducted. The
research examines the juniors of English in Can Tho University to determine the extent
to what they have mastered the order of modifiers in English noun phrases. It also
attempts to investigate some typical modifiers that the students have with in terms of

word order. Data collected from 70 juniors of English in Can Tho University through a
30-minute test indicate that the degree to which these students have mastered the order
of noun modifiers is not high as expected. The results also reflect typical problems
involving in the order of modifiers in noun phrase that the students have faced. As a
results, the research has shown the strengths and weaknesses of the juniors of English
in Can Tho University regarding to word order in noun phrases.

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge those people who created favorable conditions and
who gave me a help for my research.
My deep appreciation first goes to my supervisor, Luu Hoang Anh, M.A, for her
invaluable suggestions, feedback and support throughout the time I were under her
instruction. I am grateful to her for giving time to read versions of my research
proposal and research paper to give me feedback in time.
Second, I also gratefully acknowledge Ngo Thi Trang Thao, M.A. who supported
me in processing the data and correcting the contents of my thesis presentation, Le Thi
Huyen, M.A and Truong Nguyen Quynh Nhu, M.A who enthusiastically gave me
advice and comments on my written report so that knew how to analyze statistics, and
I could improve my research paper.
Third, I would like to express my thanks to Nguyen Hong Qui, M.A and Thai
Cong Dan, M.A for their invaluable suggestions that helped me much in directing what
to do in my research.
I also appreciate the assistance from students of English in Can Tho University
who participated in my research with enthusiasm. I would express my thanks to Ho
Thi Ngoc Mai for her assisting me collecting data.
My thanks also go to all of my friends for their spiritual support in the process of
my research.

Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my family,

especially my younger sister who helped me much with processing data.

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TABLES OF CONTENTS
Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………...i
Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………………ii
Table of contents ………………………………………………………………….…iii
List of tables and figures…………………………………………………………...…iv
Chapter 1. Introduction………………………………...……………………………1
1.1. Rationale ……………………………………………………………………..1
1.2. Research aims ……….……………………………………………………….2
1.3.Research questions ……………………………...…………………………….2
1.4.Research hypotheses …...……………………………………………………..2
1.5.Thesis Organization…………………………………………………………..2
Chapter 2: Literature Review ………………………………………………………4
2.1. Noun phrases in English …………………………………………………....4
2.2. The order of modifiers in English noun phrases……………………………8
2.3. Related studies ………………………………………………………….....10
Chapter 3: Methodology…………………………………………………………….12
3.1. Research design…………………………………………………………....12
3.2. Research participants………………………………………………………12
3.3. Research instrument:………………………………………………………12
3.4. Research procedures ………………………………………………………13
Chapter 4: Results …………………………………………………………….……15
Chapter 5: Discussion…………………………………………………………….…19

5.1. Discussion…………………………………………………………………18
5.2. Implications…………………………………………………………….….21
5.3. Limitations and Suggestions………………………………………………20
5.4.Conclusion…………………………………………………….…………...22
References…………………………………………………………………………...23
Appendix 1: Test…………………………………………………………………….25
Appendix 2: Criteria for test scoring…………………………………………….…..27
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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 2.1: The order of adjectives ………………………………………………….5
Table 2.2: The order of modifiers in a noun phrase……………………………….. 8
Table 2.3: The order of determinatives in noun phrases noun phrase……………...8
Table 2.4 : The order of adjectives in a noun phrase…………………………….…9
Table 2.5 : The order of modifiers in a noun phrase……………………………….10
Table 3.1: The distribution of types of modifiers in noun phrases in the test...……13
Table 4.1: Descriptive statistics of the test performance ……………………….,..15
Table 4.2. The mean scores of the five types of modifiers ………..........................16
Figure 4.1. The mean scores of five kinds of modifiers. …………….……………16
Figure 4.2. The percentage of students with above and below average marks.… ..18

.

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, I would like to state (1) the rationale, (2) the research aims, (3) the
research questions and (4) research hypotheses. The thesis organization is also
included afterwards.

1. 1. Rationale
Each people has its own language as a people’s property. However, the
Vietnamese, like other peoples all over the world, as a result of globalization, have
learned English and introduced Vietnamese to foreigners. One problem is that the two
languages belong to two different types. Therefore, the word orders of modifiers in
noun phrases in the two languages are quite different although both languages follow
the same sentence pattern SVO. Moreover, according to some recent surveys, both
Vietnamese learners of English and the foreigners of Vietnamese make many mistakes
of the order of noun modifiers. In addition, what motivates me to conduct this research
is the significance of noun phrases in languages and the considerable differences
between English and Vietnamese in the order of modifiers in noun phrases. First, noun
phrases with two main functions subject and object are essential components of a
basic English sentence pattern SVO. Nguyen (2006) concretizes the role in the core
sentential constructions below.
Sentence

Noun phrase

Verb

Noun phrase

Second, the order of modifiers in English noun phrases is quite different from that of
Vietnamese ones. Almost all of modifiers in Vietnamese are placed after the head
noun while many of those in English are not. One important thing is that “choice of a

noun phrase is much preferred in English translation” (Nguyen, 2004:1). According
Nguyen, it is necessary for translators should master the two basic structures of a noun
phrase: modifiers +the head noun and the head noun + modifiers.

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

As seen above, the order of modifiers in English is a very important problem to
Vietnamese learners. In fact, many previous studies pointed out the differences
between those in the two languages as well as affirmed the difficulties Vietnamese
learners have regarding this aspect (Tran,2003), (Hoang, 2003) and (Nguyen, 2005).
However, none of these surveys showed the extent to what the learners have with the
order of modifiers in English noun phrases. For these reasons, the study “The Use of
Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho
University” is conducted.
1.2. Research aims
This research is aimed (1) to examine to what extent Vietnamese juniors of
English in Can Tho University have mastered the order of modifiers in English noun
phrases and (2) to state the types of modifiers they have most problems with.
1.3. Research questions
With the two aims, this research attempts to find out the answers to the questions
below
1.

To what extent have the juniors in Can Tho University mastered the

order of modifiers in English noun phrases?
2.

Which type(s) of modifiers do they have most problems with?

1.5. Research hypotheses
I hypothesized that the juniors of English in Can Tho University have mastered the
order of modifiers in noun phrases to a certain extent. Besides, the research is
expected to find out the types that they have most problems with. They may have
difficulties with the word order in noun phrases that contain determinatives and
epithets. They may also confuse with the order of qualifiers like new in something
new or marital in court maritial. The aspect that they have least problems is probably
the order of classifiers in a noun phrase.
1.5. Thesis Organization
The thesis consists of five chapters.
Chapter 1, Introduction contains rationale, research aims, research questions,
research hypotheses and thesis organization.

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

Chapter 2 Literature Review gives a review of theoretical background on the
differences between Vietnamese and English in the order of modifiers in noun
phrases, some related studies in these differences and some difficulties that
Vietnamese learners have faced with word order in English noun phrases.
Chapter 3 Methodology describes the research design, the subjects, the research
instrument and the research procedures.
Chapter 4 Results presents the findings collected.
Chapter 5 Discussion, Limitations, Suggestions for Further research gives some
explanations to the findings and point out some typical problems regarding the order

of English noun modifiers.

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter focuses on the review of literature. It comprises of (1) noun phrases in
English, (2) the order of modifiers in noun phrases in English and (3) difficulties in the
order of modifiers in noun phrases of Vietnamese learners.

2.1. Noun phrases in English
The noun phrase in English potentially consists of 3 constituents: the central
part, the pre-modification and the post-modification. The central part or the head
noun is obligatory while the others are optional. (Jackson, 1999)
Head nouns
The head position in the noun phrase are filled by nouns including pronouns
such as personal pronouns (I, you, we,…), indefinite pronouns (everyone,
someone,

anyone,…),

possessive

pronouns

(my,

your,

his,…)

and

demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these,…). There is a restriction in the
modification of proper nouns and pronouns. Pronouns are not pre-modified
while proper nouns are rarely. It is possible for them to be followed by postmodification. For example, he who hesitates and lovely Morecamble, which we
visited last year.
Pre-modification
The pre-modification in a noun phrase comprises of a number of word classes
or sub-classes in a specific order: identifier-numeral/quantifier-adjective-noun
modifier, as in the noun phrase these five charming country cottages
Identifiers
The class of identifiers includes articles (“a”, “the”, etc.), demonstratives
(“this”, “those”, etc.) and possessives (“my”, your, etc.). These occur before
any numerals or quantifiers and they are mutually exclusive in noun phrases in
English. However, articles or demonstratives

can be combined with

possessives when an “of” phrase and the possessive pronoun are used, e.g. the
dress of mine or this shirt of yours.

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

Numerals/ quantifiers
Unlike identifiers, numerals/ quantifiers can combine together in a noun phrase
in English in the order:
•

ordinal + cardinal, e.g. the second five days

•

indefinite quantifier + cardinal (especially round numbers), e.g. several
thousand people, many scores of fans

•

ordinal + cardinal + indefinite quantifier, e.g. the first few days

Before the identifier of a noun, there can be a pre-determiner like ”all”,
“both”, “half” or a fraction numeral to refer quantifier reference of the
noun; e.g. all the students, both the students or one-third of the students.
Descriptive adjectives
Adjectives modify a head noun usually precede the head noun. If there are
more than one descriptive adjectives pre-modify a noun, these are arranged in the
order showed in table 2.1 below (Murphy, 2007)

Table 2.1: The order of adjectives
Opinion Fact adjectives

Head noun

adjectives

Quality
A

Size

Shape

Age

Color

Origin

beautiful large round

A

new

Germany

Material

Head noun

wooden

Vegetable soup
Car shampoo

Opinion adjectives stands before fact adjectives or non-gradable adjectives
stands before gradable adjectives.

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

Truong (1998) considers a noun modifier as an adjective expresses the purpose
of the head noun, and it is right before the head noun. E.g. a cheap plastic medicine
cupboard
If there are more than one colour adjectives, they are linked by “and” as in a
red, white and green flag
Noun modifiers
Before a noun phrase ends in the head noun, there can be a noun as a modifier.
E.g. the village policeman, the news agency
It is unusual for more than one noun modifier to occur in a noun phrase as the
poverty action group. The first stage in the formation of compound nouns is the
construction of noun + Head noun. Child modifies poverty; and the child
poverty together with action modifies group.
Noun phrase in the genitive case
One more pre-modification of a noun is a noun phrase in the genitive case
marked by an‘s like this delightful boy’s in this delightful boy’s blue leather
coat. This noun phrase in genitive case can be analyzed into identifier (this) +
adjective (delightful) +head noun (boy) + genitive marker (’s)
Post-modification
Descriptive adjectives
Look at these sentences and take notice of the order of the adjectives
(1) There is nothing new.
(2) The window broken yesterday will be repaired.

(The window which was broken yesterday will be repaired).
(3) The young man, poor but proud, refused the offer.
(4) He is a man greedy for money.
(5) a river two hundreds miles long, a man seventy years old.
but a two hundred-mile river and a man of seventy (years).
(6) They have a house much larger than yours.
(They have a much larger house than yours.)
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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

These are some cases of adjective phrase used as post-modification of a noun:
adjectives modifying an indefinite pronoun (1); reducing clauses with past participle
(2); adjectives connected by the conjunctions “and” or “but”, with the information
emphasized (3) ; adjectives modified by a preposition phrase goes after the head noun
( 4); adjectives that are used in phrases expressing measurements (5); comparative and
superlative (6)
Some adjectives make different meaning with pre-nominal and post-nominal
position. These adjectives are “concerned”, “involved”, “mentioned”, “opposite”,
“present”.
After the accident the police man took the names of the people involved. (taking
part in something, being part of something or connected with something)
His novel had a typically involved plot. (complex)
Adjectives ending in –ible, -able like responsible and possible can follow or
precede the head noun.
It’s the solution possible.
I’d like to speak to the person responsible.
Some fixed expressions are composed of the head noun and an adjective
followed : court martial, notary public/ public notary, president elect, heir apparent,

all the people present, generations unborn, suffering unspeakable, by all means
possible, from time immemorial, etc.
“Adverbs are rather more frequently found as post-modifiers in noun phrases”
(Murphy, 2007). E.g. the room above, the time before . Sometimes they are regarded
as reductions of a prepositional phrase (the time before this one, the room above us).
Prepositional phrase
According to Jackson (1999), prepositional phrases are the most common kinds of
post-modifier in noun phrases the room which is above us, the man who is after me.
Relative clause
Relative clauses are placed after the head noun as in The man who came here
yesterday. Relative clause is also involving comparative and superlative. For example,
she buys more clothes than she can afford, the more expresses the comparative degree
of the adjective, and than refers back to the comparative adjective. Relative clauses
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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

can be reduced into infinitive clauses as in the man to answer this question, present
participle clause in the man answering this question and past participle clause in the
man asked this question.
2.2. The order of modifiers in noun phrases
The order of epithets in English noun phrases is controversial. In this research, I
synthesize the most common order of them. The order of modifiers proposed by
Downing & Lock (1994: 486) can be seen in these tables:
Table 2.2 :The order of modifiers in a noun phrase
Determinatives

Epithets

Classifiers

HEAD

Qualifiers

Downing & Lock (1994: 486) also states in detailed the order of determinatives in
noun phrases with the table below.
Table 2.3 : The order of determinatives in a noun phrase
Partition

Deixis

Quality

Quantity

Fractional: half,

Definite: the

Adjectival

Cardinal: five, a

(a) quarter, one-

Indefinite: a(n),

determiners:

dozen, a score,

some

- Similarity: same,

hundreds,…

Specific:

identical

Ordinal: first,

this, that, these,

- Difference: other,

second, next, last…

those, my; what,

different

Non-exact: much,

whose, whichever,

- Totality:

many, little, few, a

such, some

complete,, whole,

No-specific: some,

entire, total

third,
Multiplying:
double, twice,
treble, three
times…
Non-specific: all
of, both of, any of,
most of, each of,
several of, enough
of,ect.
Other

few, fewer, …

any, no, each, every - Familiar: familiar,
well-known,
famous, notorious

quantifiers:

Cardinal + of
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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

The + ordinal + of
Non-exact + of
Dao (2007: 10) also presents the order of noun modifiers with the table
following
Table 2.4 : The order of adjectives in a
noun phrase
1. Noun markers (Determinatives)
2. Evaluation/ Opinion
3. Size
4. Shape/ Length
5. Color
6. Participle forms
7. Origin/ Nationality
8. Religion
9. Material
10. Type
11. [Noun] Purpose/ Use
12. Main noun
From the tables above, the order of modifiers in noun phrases can be visualized with
the table below (Downing & Lock, 1994, Murphy, 2007, Dao 2007)

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

Table 2.5 : The order of modifiers in a noun phrase
Determinatives

1. Noun markers

1.1.

1.2.

1.3.

1.4.

Partition

Deixis

Quality

Quantity

2. Evaluation/ Opinion
3. Size
4. Shape/ Length
5. Color
Epithets
6. Participle forms
7. Origin/ Nationality

8. Religion
9. Material
10. Type
Classifiers
11. [Noun] Purpose/ Use
HEAD

12. Main noun

Qualifiers

13. Qualifiers

2.3. Related studies
Based on the differences between noun phrases in the two languages, Hoang
(2003) said that Vietnamese learners have difficulties with the linearity of noun
phrases in English. In addition, Tran (2003) affirmed in “Một số vấn đề liên quan đến
việc dạy và học tiếng Anh cho người Việt” that
modifiers

different distributions of noun

English noun phrase from that in Vietnamese are amongs elements

confusing Vietnamese learners. In fact, noun phrase errors, in Vietnamese learners
Mastering English articles (Nguyen, 2005), are counted to 135 (the highest percentage
of errors 35.7%) from 14 essays of junior and senior university students of English
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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

Education at Can Tho University. Among these is 4.3% faulty pre-modification or
post-modification.
According to my experience in learning English as a foreign language and my
observation on my tutees, my friends and to some opinions in English learning
forums, English beginners makes mistakes in the position of descriptive adjectives
whereas learners at higher levels have problems with word order in multi-modifier
noun phrases. It is obvious that Vietnamese learners have difficulties with the linearity
of modifiers in English noun phrase. However, the extent to which they have error
with the order of modifiers and the types of modifiers with which they have problems
are unknown. These are expected to be discovered by this research.

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

Chapter 3
METHODOLOGY
This chapter provides details about the research method employed in this study.
This part consists of (1) the research design, (2) the research participants, (3) the
research instrument and (4) the research procedures.

3.1. Research design:
The research follows a descriptive design. A test was delivered to the juniors of
English in Can Tho University to measure their performance on the order of modifiers
in noun phrases. The test was designed to answer the two research questions.
3.2. Research participants:
As mentioned in the research aims, the participants are English-majored juniors

in Can Tho University. The selection of participants assures both the external and
internal validity of the research. In terms of external validity, 70 participnants is a
sufficient size to allow for generalizezation of results of approximately 240 third-year
students of English at Can Tho University. Moreover, 70 samples is possible to
considering the numbers in data analysis. With regard to the internal validity, the
background knowledge of the participants is matched with what is purported to
measure via the test. The participants, particularly, have completed 3 modules of
English Grammar In Use in which they focus on the structure of noun phrases, premodifiers and post-modifiers in noun phrases as well as adjective order in noun
phrases. Therefore, they are supposed to have good knowledge of noun phrase
structure, part of speech and have high aware of the order of modifiers in noun
phrases.
3.3. Research Instrument:
To measure the extent to what the juniors of English at Can Tho University have
mastered the order of modifiers in noun phrases and find out the types of modifiers
they have most problems with, a 20-item test was employed. The test was partly
adapted from Truong (1998), Jackson (1999), Le (2002), Nguyen (2006) and Murphy
(2007). It is believed that the test was suitably used to reach the research aims. First,
in each test item, students were asked to arrange words given in the brackets to form a
meaningful and grammatical noun phrase. Through these items, the knowledge of

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

order of modifiers in noun phrases of the participants would show in the test. Second,
word ordering at the level of phrase, noun phrase, not at the level of sentence focused
on what is purported to measure. In addition, the test with 20 items covered 5 types of
modifiers in noun phrases. Furthermore, each type of modifiers in the test objective
was responsible by at least 3 test items so that by chance marks would be limited.

Finally, simple sentence patterns, familiar words, common topics, and a familiar test
type, word ordering, and clear instruction with negative word not capitalized were
used in the test in order that the participants would understand clearly what were
asked to do in the test, so their performance on the test matched the knowledge of
order of noun modifiers.
The 20 test items can be categorized into 5 aspects of modifiers in noun phrases
according to the classification of modifiers proposed by Downing & Lock (1994),
Jackson (1999), Dao (2002) and Murphy (2007). The first group consisting of items 2,
8, 9, 20 aims to measure students’ knowledge of the positions of determinatives in
noun phrases. The second group with items 4, 7, 13, 15 measures their knowledge of
the order of epithets in noun phrases. Third, the order of classifiers in noun phrases is
tested by questions 10, 15, 18. The group of items 1, 3, 6,11,12,19 measures the
participants’ performance on the order of qualifiers. The last group with items 5, 16,
17 aims to measure students’ performance on the order of many kinds of modifiers in
noun phrases. The test is scored in the scale of 0 to 10. (see appendix 2 for answer
keys and appendix 3 for detailed criteria for test scoring).
Table 3.1: The distribution of types of
modifiers in noun phrases in the test.
Types of modifiers

Test items

Determinatives

2, 8, 9, 20

Epithets

4, 7, 13, 15

Classifiers

10, 15, 18

Qualifiers

1, 3, 6, 11, 12, 19

Many

kinds

of 5, 16, 17

modifiers in a noun
phrase

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

3.4. Research procedures
After theoretical research, I designed the test according to the aims of the
research. Pilot-testing carried out gave me the outcomes as I expected. Then, I
delivered the test to 70 English-majored juniors in Can Tho University. The
participants were explained clearly what to do in the test. They were asked to do the
test seriously in 30 minutes. The test was scored based on a detailed scale (see more in
appendix 3 for detailed criteria for test scoring). Meanwhile, noticeable mistakes were
taken notes. Next, I ran Scale Test to test the reliability of the test. I then analyzed the

data collected from the test with SPSS and the graphs. Finally, I reported the results
and drew conclusions of the data, and gave explanations to the typical problems the
students met in the test.

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

Chapter 4
RESULTS
This chapter deals with the outcomes from the test. The results are analyzed.

4.1. The Extent that Students of English have mastered the order of modifiers
To know how well the students worked with modifiers, the test with 20 items
was used. These items cover the five main types of modifiers: determinatives,
epithets, classifiers, qualifiers and multi-modifiers in noun phrases. I delivered the
test, collected the test responses and analyzed the test responses using the SPSS
program. First, I ran the Scale Test to test the reliability of the test. The internal
consistency of the test is .74.
Since the items in the test were grouped into five categories, I ran the
Descriptive Statistics Test to check for the mean score, the mode, the median and the
standard deviation. The results of the descriptive statistics are shown in table 4.1
Table 4.1: Descriptive statistics of the test performance

Total

N

Minimum

Maximum

M (SD)

70

9.4

3.2

6.95 (1.22)

Through table 4.1, we can see that the mean score of the whole test is rather
good (M = 6.95). This means that the students do rather well with modifiers.
As I mentioned in Section 3.3, the students’ use of modifiers were shown into
five main categories: determinatives, epithets, classifiers, qualifiers and multimodifiers in noun phrases. In the following section, the mean scores of these ones in
order will be presented to see how well each type of modifiers was used by the
students. Table 4.2 presents the statistics of the mean score of each type of modifiers.

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

Table 4.2. The mean scores of the five types of modifiers
Types of modifiers

Number
of test

items

N

M (SD)

Classifiers

3

70

9.52 (2.13)

Multi-modifiers in noun phrases

3

70

9.24 (1.72)

Determinatives

4

70

7.73 (3.29)

Epithets

4

70

5.47 (3.63)

Qualifiers

6

70

5.32 (4.67)

As seen in table 4.2, the mean score of Classifiers is the highest M = 9.52, while
that of Multi-modifiers in noun phrases is a little bit lower M = 9.24. Looking at these
means, we can see that the students performed very well on both classifiers and multimodifiers in noun phrases. However, the students got the lowest mean scores for
Epithets (M = 5,47) and Qualifiers (M = 5.32). The score of Determinatives (M =7.73)
was in the middle. Figure 4.1 shows the mean scores of these five kinds of modifiers.
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2

1
0
Determinatives

Epithets

Classifiers

Qualifiers

Noun modifiers
in combination

Figure 4.1. The mean scores of five kinds of modifiers.

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

In the above figure, the mean score of Classifiers is the highest (M = 9.52) while
that of Qualifiers is the lowest (M = 5.32). Although both Epithets (M = 5,47) and
Qualifiers (M = 5.32) have the lowest scores, these statistics do not mean that they did
badly with these two types.
To sum up, the juniors of English in Can Tho University, in terms of the order of
modifiers in noun phrases, are best at the order of classifiers and that of multimodifiers. Then comes the order of determinatives. However, their scores in the order
of epithets and qualifiers are the lowest.
4.2. The types of modifiers that the juniors of English in Can Tho University
have problems with
As reported above, the order of epithets and for that of qualifiers are the two

items that the students have most problems with. First, considering Epithets, there are
nearly half of the participants made serious problems with their orders in the noun
phrases (42.90% marks below average, figure 4.2). Most students had difficulties with
the linearity of noun phrases with many epithets. For instance, there are 31 out of 70
participants who performed badly at the test item 4. The similar statistics is true for
the test item 14 (27 students). In addition, the scores for the rest test items in charge of
measuring students’ performance on the order of epithets are not satisfactory results.
Both mean scores for these items are 6.89. These figures show that the students do not
have good knowledge of the order of modifiers of epithets in noun phrases.
A little better but still low is the mean score of Qualifiers. The percentage of
students who got below average marks is rather high, 28.60%. Considering the test
items 3, 6 and 11, there is a large number of students who giving wrong order of
qualifiers, namely, 49, 58 and 61 students out of 70 ones relatively.

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

1.5%

4.3%

100%

28.6%

42.9%

70%

98.5%

50%

57.1%

71.4%

40%
30%

100.0%

60%
95.7%

Percentage of participants

90%
80%

0.0%

Students' test performance

Below 5
Above 5

20%

10%
0%
Determinatives

Epithets

Classifiers

Qualifiers

Many kinds of
modifiers in a
noun phrase

Figure 4.2. The percentage of students with above and below average marks
It is obvious that two kinds of modifiers that students have considerable
problems regarding their order in noun phrases are epithets and qualifiers.

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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

Chapter 5
DISCUSSION, LIMITATIONS AND
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
In this chapter, I discuss the major findings reported in the previous chapter. The
discussion is divided into two parts according to the two research questions. Then come
some limitations of this research paper and suggestions for future studies. I begin with the
discussion and end with conclusions.

5.1. Discussion
5.1.1. The extent to what the juniors of English in Can Tho University have
mastered the order of modifiers in noun phrases
The results presented in chapter 4, first, support my first hypothesis that the
juniors of English in Can Tho University mastered the order of modifiers in noun
phrases to a certain extent. Actually, the mean score of the total test (M=6.95, SD=
1.22), the minimum (Min = 3.2) and the maximum score (Max =9.4) indicate that
generally the students are quite good at noun modifiers. However, when considering
each type of modifiers, there is a considerable difference between their scores. As we
can see in Figure 4.1, the type of modifiers that students obtain the highest scores are
Classifiers and Multi-modifiers. The average scores in these two are all above 9, and
the standard deviation is acceptable, 2.13 for the former and 1.72 for the latter. From
the statistics, we can conclude that the participants greatly master the order of these
two types. The outcomes can be explained by the knowledge of the participants, the
time they have studied English and the curriculum of English at Can Tho University.
These are juniors of English, who studied English for at least 5 years. Five semesters
majoring in English at Can Tho University, these students have learned Grammar and
some of them have learned Syntax, which help them much in the order of noun
modifiers. In addition, word ordering is a test type familiar to these students through
many exams. Therefore, they have few problems with this test type.
The next high score is illustrated by the first cell in the figure. The average score
for the order of Determiners is quite high, 7.73 and the standard deviation 3.29 is
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The Use of Modifiers in English Noun Phrases of English-majored juniors in Can Tho University

rather high. The rest two cells show the test scores in the order of Epithets and
Qualifiers at the middle level of 5.4 and 5.3 relatively. Like the former, these two

groups of modifiers in noun phrases have rather high standard deviation namely 3.63
and 4.67. Evidently, there is a big difference in the mean scores of all the five aspects
of modifiers. This shows students do not use all types of modifiers well.
5.1.2. The problems that the juniors of English in Can Tho University have with
the order of modifiers in noun phrases
Although the total mean score of the test is rather high (M=6.95, SD=1.22), the
juniors of English in Can Tho University, like what I hypothesized, still have some
problems with the order of modifiers in noun phrases. The results in chapter 4
concretize the problems in the order of noun modifiers mentioned by Tran (2003),
Hoang (2003) and Nguyen (2005). The outcomes point out the types with which the
students have most problems.
In comparison to Classifiers and Multi-modifiers, the score is not high because
of the difficulty of the four test items in this part. The results in these types of
modifiers fit my second hypothesis the students have problems with the order in noun
phrases with a lot of determinatives. What we want to mention here is the level of
difficulty of items 2 and 9. Moreover, more than one-thirds participants get below 5
for question 9. As a whole, the more determiners there are the more difficulties
students have with their order in the noun phrases, especially the order of a series of
partition, deixis and quantity determinatives in a noun phrase. They nearly have no
problems with the order of determinatives expressing quality.
In terms of Epithets and Qualifiers, the scores reflect a dramatic change. This
may be caused by the difference in the degree of difficulty of two groups of questions:
4, 14 and 7, 13. Forty-three participants did not put the opinion adjective delicious
before the fact adjective hot. Nineteen students put descriptive adjectives in the
correct order so that the noun phrase is “felt to be satisfying rhythmically” (test item
4). The outcomes were the same as the second hypothesis that the participants may
make mistakes with the order of epithets and some qualifiers. These students may be
influenced by the property of flexibility of word order of noun modifiers in
20