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HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

NOUN PHRASES

Instructor: Mr. Bi Nguyn Khnh

Student: Chu V n Bnh

Class 4B-08

Contrastive Analysis 2011

HCMC, Dec. 31th 2011

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Abstract

A contrastive analysis between two language is very useful to help teachers to avoid students making

mistakes in learning English. My paper is a review a differences between English and Vietnamese noun

phrases. its purpose is to help teachers of English to recognize some errors that students can make in

learning and from that, they can work out some solutions for problems. My paper will include a

description of English and Vietnamese noun phrases and then it shows some differences in noun phrases

between the two languages. It also gives some implications in teaching English basing on the those

differences. At the same time, some solutions for problems will also be raised.

Noun phrase in English

Definition :A noun phrase is briefly defined as a group of words with a noun or pronoun as the main

part and these phrases may consist of one word (Nguyen, 2000, p. 53). In the book Analyzing

English Howard shows that the noun phrase in English is composed potentially three parts. The

central part of the noun phrase, the head, is obligatory: it is the minimal requirement for the occurrence

of a noun phrase. The other two parts are optionally occurring. That is pre-modification and post-

modification. they can be illustrated by the table in the part Structure.

Structure : A noun phrase usually consists of three elements: the head, the pre-modification and

the post-modification. The head, which is obligatory and the most important part of a noun phrase.

Nguyen stated the Head is a noun (p.54). Meanwhile Howard added the head can be a noun or a

pronoun (p. 12)

PREMODIFICATION

(optional)

HEAD

(Obligatory)

POSTMODIFICATION

(Optional)

e.g:

That old CAR In the drive

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(Pre-modification) (Head) ( post- modification)

Pre-modification (or pre-modifiers) is the one what precedes the head.

In Howards book, he gave a very clear description about pre-modification (p. 13). He

discussed the specific order of the word class and sub-classes as identifier numeral/quantifier

adjective noun modifier.

He point out that The class of Identifiers includes articles ( a, the), demonstratives(this, that) and

possessive (my, your, his, etc) and these identifiers always come before any numerals or indefinite

quantifiers that may be present. For example: the sixth man . He also makes it clear that only one

identifier may occur in any noun phrase. So we can not say: this my pen . And if we want to combine

article or demonstrative identifier with possessive, then we use an of phrase with the possessive

pronoun must be used.

Eg. The pen of mine.

* Howard gave a notice about numeral/ quantifier. that is more than one numeral/ quantifier may occur in

a noun phrase (p.13). He gave a favorite sequence of numeral/ quantifier:ordinal numeral indefinite quantifier, eg: the first few days

ordinal numeral cardinal: eg: the second five days

indefinite quantifier cardinal numeral: eg several hundred people

* he mentioned small group of words that come before the identifier in a noun phrase, which are called

pre-determiner ( all, both, half, one-third). Eg both/ all the old men.

* Howard described the order of adjectives which come after numerals/ quantifiers as following:opinion size- shape-age-colour- origin-material-purpose . he gave an example of the order of the

adjectives in a noun phrase: epithet (charming), 2. size (small), 3. shape (round), 4. age (old), 5. color

(brown), 6. origin (French), 7. substance (oaken), 8.

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present participle (writing). He mentioned the case of noun modifiers which come between adjective and

the head noun and noun phrase in the genitive case. that is to say a noun phrase which is often used to

indicate possession. For example: the bicycles low saddle. this can be analyzed as: the bicycles ( noun

phrase genitive), low (adjective), saddle (head noun)

Head: the head noun is the central element and core component of a noun phrase. it is obligatory to a

English noun phrase. Howard said that Heads can be c ommon nouns as car in that old car in the drive ,

Proper nouns such as John, Jenifer ,or Pronouns. Pronouns as heads can be:

o Personal pronoun :eg she in she is there .

o Indefinite pro: eg someone in someone called,..

o Possessive pronoun : eg mine in mine are green.

o Demonstrative pronoun : eg this in this beats everything

*Howard made a note about the case when pronouns functions as a head of a noun phrase. Pronouns

usually occurs without any kind of modification. Pre-modification is virtually impossible for pronouns,

though post-modification may occasionally be found, eg he who hesitates (p.12).

Post-modifier : Howard gave a remark to post-modification as follow: the post- modification in a noun

phrase is most commonly f illed not by specific word classes or subclasses, but by phrases or clauses.

Kinds of phrasal/ clausal post-modification are illustrated in the following diagram:

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The examples of each one are given in the following table:

Post-modifiers examples

Relative clauses the house where I live.

Non-finite clauses its a movie to see (inf clause) (cli)

the man talking to the teacher (cling)

the text chosen by the teacher (past participle

phrase)

Adjective phrase something new

someone brave

Preposition phrases the man with long hair

Adverb phrase the bus behind

Howard gave a different kind of relative clause which involving comparison. In the example: she

buys more clothes in a month than I buy in a year. He said that than - clause is a relative clause . than

post-modifiers

relativeclauses

non-finiteclauses

prepositionalphrases

adjective oradverbs

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is a relative pronoun. The similar case is for superlative comparison. In the example: the most

expressive clothes that she can afford , relative clause is introduced by that

Howard mentioned three kinds of non-finite clause. each type will be illustrated with examples in the

following table:

Infinite clause The man to answer this question

Present participle clause The car coming down the road

Past participle The woman expected to arrive at any moment

Howard made a note that a present participle clause is not always relatable to a progressive form,

though, it always relates to an active. in the example someone knowing the circumstances , it is not

someone who is knowing the circumstances but someone who knows the circumstances

Howard gave a difference between Infinite clause and Present participle clause, Past participle . In

Present participle clause, Past participle the implied subject is the head of the noun phrase.

eg: The car ( head, subject)- coming down the road; but in infinite clause the implied subject is not

always the head of the noun phrase. The man to answer this question can be understood by that

someone should ask the man about this question.

Noun phrase in Vietnamese

A Vietnamese noun phrase is defined as a free combination of a noun nucleus and

one or more than one subordinate elements which can be front elements (that stand before

the nucleus noun) and end elements (that stand after the nucleus noun) (Doan, Nguyen, &

Pham, 2001).

For example:

Front elements nucleus End elements

Ba Con mo ny

Nhng Quy n sch Mu en y

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Mt Con ng i c bit

In his book, Diep Quang Ban (2008, 79) gave a general remark about the front and end elements of a

Vietnamese noun phrase. That is :the front elements is the words of quantity of the nucleus and the

end elements is words of quality of the nucleus

The structure : Diep Quang Ban (2008, 79) gave a chart about the order of the elements

in a noun phrase:

Tt c Nhng Ci Con mo en y

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2

The nucleus : in his book Diep Quang Ban said that the nucleus may be a noun or a combination of

two components which is called ng danh t . the first component is called Danh t ch loi (a

classifier), the second component can be a noun, a verb, or adjective. Both of the components is got

together to indicate a specific object. See examples in the following table:

examples

Classifier + noun Con mo

Classifier + verb Cu c h p, nim vui

Classifier + adjective V p

Besides these ng danh t , we have 10 sub-nouns which can act as a nucleus. They are listed in

the table below: (name of each one is given in Vietnamese terms)

Sub-nouns examples

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Danh t ch loi Hai ci ny

Danh t t p th Hai b n kia

Danh t n v i l ng Hai m u ny

Danh t n v hnh chnh, s nghi p Hai t nh n

Danh t ch khng gian Hai ch y

Danh t ch n v th i gian Hai th k ny

Danh t ch ln tn ti ca hot ng, tr ng thi Hai l n v php

Danh t ch mu s c, mi vi, m thanh Hai mu y

Danh t ch ng i Hai tr ny

Danh t tr u t ng Hai kh nng ny

The front element : In his book, Diep Quang Ban (p. 45) mention 3 positions which are in fixed

order and cant be interchangeable. They are called v tr t ch xut (post-1), v tr ca t ch s

l ng (post-2), v tr ca t ch tng l ng( post 3)

Post-3 (t ch tng l ng) Post-2 (t ch s

l ng)

Post-1 (t ch xut) The nucleus

tt c Nhng Ci Con mo

Position 1 (t ch xut): the most common word for t ch xut is ci. Here are some examples

Ci cy tre ny

ci anh ny

ci x y

ci ngy y

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Position 2 (t ch s l ng): t ch s l ng can be classified into the following kinds:

1. Cardinal numeral: m t, hai, ba

2. Estimate quantifier:

3. Distribution words (t hm phn ph i): mi tng, mi

4. Numeral attributes (qun t ): nhng, cc, m t

5. The word m y

Position 3 : those are the words indicating the meaning total number such as : t t c, ht thy, tt

thy, tt c.

Example: t t c mi vic

The end element : Diep Quang Ban divided the end element into two positions: the position of

descriptive words ( Vietnamese term: th c t) and the position of demonstrative pronouns such as :

ny, kia, n , y (vietnamese term: t ch nh). Diep Quang Ban called the position of descriptive

words position-1, the position of t ch nh position-2. He illustrated the two positions in the

following table:

............. The nucleus Position-1 Position 2

Con mo en y

Position-1 : position of descriptive words

In term of word class : this position can be taken over by nouns, verbs, adjectives, cardinal

numeral, pronouns, nouns of time:

Position 1 examples

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nouns H ng hoa nhi

Verbs Gi y v

Cardinal numeral Phng m i b n

Pronouns My (ca) chng ti

Nouns of time Chuy n tr c

In term of structure : position 1 can be taken over by a principal accessory phrase (c m t

chnh ph ), a coordinated phrase (c m t ng l p), a S-V phrase (c m t ch-v):

a principal accessory phrase : gian hng ch i tr em

a coordinated phrase : nh sch bn tri v bn ph i

a S-V phrase : nh sch ti mua

In terms of way of linking :

Direct way : some words in position 1 can link to the nucleus in a direct way (without

a connector). For example : n tnh nguy n, lnh sn xu t

Indirect way : some connectors is used. These are some of them: c a, bng, cho, ,

do,

Eg. Hng m chng ti s n xut, chuy n m ti ni v i anh

Position 2 : demonstrative pronouns such as ny, y,

Some of demonstrative pronouns are : ny, kia, n y , y,

Differences between English and vietnamese noun phrase

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In English there must be the occurrence of a noun and its determiners. A noun in singular form must

go with a determiner. So that would be ungrammatical when saying I will make table. But in

Vietnamese we can say ti s lm ci bn

In English, when pronouns functions as a head of a noun phrase. Pronouns usually occurs without any

kind of modification. Pre-modification is virtually impossible for pronouns. But we can say m y anh c

lm cho xong nha in vietnamese. So we can use a pre-modification ( m y) + a pronoun in vietnamese (

anh)

Only one identifier may occur in English but that is not the same in Vietnamese. For example: the phrase

mt cu n sch c a ti is grammatically correct but we cannot say a my book in English. In order to

translate this Vietnamese phrase into English, we must say a book of mine

In English, the head in a noun phrase must be a noun or a pronoun, but in Vietnamese the nucleus may be

a noun or a phrase called ng danh t . this ng danh t may include a classifier noun + a noun, a

verb, a adjective. That is distinctive in vietnamese when comparing with English. So we can work out a

formation for a Vietnamese noun phrase as following:

A Vietnamese noun phrase == a classifier + a noun, a verb, or a adjective

The front elements in Vietnamese noun phrases indicate quantity , the end elements do with the quality;

however, the pre- modification in English noun phrases may include words of quality. Eg. A beautiful

book. As the difference illustrated here, we can infer a other difference. That is we can put an adjective

phrase before the head noun in English, but that is ungrammatical in Vietnamese. We can not say m t

m i sch

In English, demonstratives occur before the head noun . eg this book . however, demonstratives must

appear in the end element, after the nucleus . eg : cu n sch ny .

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Vietnamese possessives always begin with the word c a, and occur after the head noun. Eg: cu n sch

ca ti. But English possessives precede the head nouns. Eg his book

In English, a noun modifier can come before the head noun. Eg. The children books. However,

Vietnamese ways of this phrase is sch thi u nhi. the Noun modifier is an end element.

The position of Ordinal numbers in noun phrases also differs between English and Vietnamese. We say

the second person in english but ng i th hai in vietnamese .

Teaching implication

From what I have mentioned, I want to give some suggestion for translators and teachers of English

when they teach their students grammatical points involving noun phrases.

I suggest some mistakes that students and translators may have. students may confuse when they

translate an English phrase into Vietnamese because of the differences in order of words. For example:

mt ci bn m i may be translated into a table new.

Students may forget determiners when translating Vietnamese phrases into English. Eg. ti s mua

cun sch would be translated into I will buy book without a determiner. Or an learner of Vietnamese

would translate i will buy a cat into ti s mua m t mo without a classifier noun : con.

Involving in the pronouns in English noun phrases which is occur without any pre-modification. Students

may wrongly translate some cases. For example : t t c cc anh ph i v s m may be translated into all

you must come back soon , while it should be all of you must come back soon. Or m t cun sch

ca ti is translated into a my book. Students may confuse because the differences in order of

adjectives, noun modifiers, possessives, demonstratives, ordinal numbers. This results in some funny

translation that students make. Teachers should ask students to pay attention to these negative transfers so

that they can avoid making mistakes . Students may have troubles in putting adjectives in a correct order

before a head noun. A solution for this may be a suggestion from teachers of a special way to remember.

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teachers can give a word which has letters are the first letters of sequence of adjectives. For example:

OPSACOMP will successively represent the following sequence of adjectives: opinion- size- shape-age-

colour-origin- material- purpose .

Conclusion

Noun phrases in English and Vietnamese have some interesting thought-provoking differences that are

really necessary to recognize. That is not only for implication in teaching but also in translation. A

careful study is very useful. This paper has mentioned some of many interesting things between the two

language, but it can not be a thoughtful and informative enough writing about noun phrases. There may

be other studies in this field Such as study of errors in translation English into Vietnamese andsolutions. Or wider contrastive analysis in verb and adjective phrase.

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Reference

Diep, Quang Ban. (2008). Gio trnh ng php Ti ng Vit. T p 2: Ph n t loi, cm t , c u

to t . n. p. : Education Press.

Jackson, Howard. Analyzing English .n.p.: Pergamon Institute of English, n.d.