Luan Van Tiếng Việt Exclamative

8/9/2019 Luan Van Tiếng Việt Exclamative

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I. Rationale

Man is a mixture of social relations, his mental life is really many-sided, and the levemotion tones are abundant, too. The fundamental tones of emotions can be ranked accorthe following three categories:

(+) Positive: interest, joy.(− ) Negative: sadness, anger, contempt, fear, shyness and guilt.( ) Neutral: surprise (since speaker’s surprise maybe negative or positive)

In daily conversations, expressions showing the speaker’s feelings in these cases have

function (i.e. expressing what the speaker feels) but in other ones they function differentlydo not only cover the earlier mentioned functions but they also reveal what the speakermeans and would like through their exclamations. This desire of researching on functiexclamations will be fueled most effectively.

Through exclamations, the speaker’s feelings are expressed effectively. In Vietnamese seone of the four types of sentences is exclamations and that type recieves little attentionlearners and thus, there have not been many studies on exclamations. So far, the reseainterrogatives, of imperatives and of the like have dominated, studying exclamations b

our interest then. (1997) with his thesis entitled “Hànhng Ngôn ng bi u l trong câu cm thán

c a ti ng Vi t hi n i” set the first stage of exclamation studies. What he was interested the expressives in Vietnamese exclamations. Later on, in the thesis of “

(2001), the consideration ofVietnamese exclamations is taken into seriously. But actually, this thesis deals with the sca study of conversation interactions. She focused on the exclamative function of each meach conversation without paying much attention to illocutionary force of exclaiming this an illocutionary act in speech acts.Moving on to the research of exclamations in English, most of them are done undconsiderations of syntax and the one of semantics. Especially, Porrtner P. & Zanuttini (have developed a series of research studying the semantic features of exclamations su“Exclamative Clauses: At the Syntax-Semantics Interface”, “The Semantics of No


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Exclamatives” or “Clause typing: From Syntax to Discourse Semantics-Exclamatives”. Inof pragmatics, there is only the research of Beijer F. (2001) entitled “Syntax and PragmaExclamations and other Expressive/Emotional Utterances”.

All the above research shows that the writers have completed their work with most enthand they have set a very good foundation to a better step_making research of exclamunder three dimensions: syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

Knowing that language as a mirror of culture and ‘national character’, and that languageaddress of culture. Using Vietnamese, English or any other languages, people have thougemotion in common. They have also the same tones of emotion such as: anger, joy, hapsurprise, fear, disgust, despeakerair … However, the ways of expressing it out are differen

can use gestures to show their attitude or feelings while the others may use facial exprbut the most common and important means is language. Through utterances, people etheir shock, surprise, fear, anger, admiration … and these utterances are called exclamStudying functions of exclamations in terms of linguistic dimension in general and in Enwell as Vietnamese in particular to find out equivalents and differences leads to the “Exclamations in English and Vietnamese_A Contrastive Analysis”.

II. Aims and scope of the study

This study is aimed to answer the questions such as: whether the culture background in Vand Britain has an impact on the ways people exclaim, whether the features of syntsemantics and of pragmatics in exclamations of the two language are the same…

Concerning the scope of this study, exclamations in the two languages are considered inof syntax, of semantics and of pragmatics.

It is necessary to narrow the scope of this writing like that: the exclamations of thlanguages in written forms are mainly based on, but not in the oral ones. Therefore,studying the intonation of exclamations, the focus is on the clues of exclamation ma

which appear at the end of exclamations.

III. Methods of the study

In order to have the theoretical background knowledge for this topic, some typical methused:


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- Induction: data collected from sources: literature review of the subject, theorebackground and survey’s results.

- Descriptive : used to describe the particular mistakes when people exclaim and the fea

of syntax and pragmatics of exclamations in English and Vietnamese.- Contrastive analysis : this method is applied to point out the differences and similaritie

the ways people from different culture background exclaim.- Questionnaire : this is used to collect the reliable data from non–native language lea

and study the habits in using exclamations of Vietnamese students.

IV. Research Questions

1. Under the same feelings of anger, joy, disgust, surprise, fear… do EnglishVietnamese express their emotion in the same ways?

2. Are there any similarities and differences in the syntactic, semantic and pragfeatures of exclamations in English and Vietnamese?

3. Do the differences of culture background have an impact on the ways peexclaim?

4. Which kinds of English exclamations are Vietnamese students interested in ?

V. Design of the study

Part A: Introduction

The introduction presents the rationale of the study, the scope, the method and the designstudy.

Part B: Development

Chapter 1: An overview of exclamations

The literature on exclamations is reviewed including the literature on sentence type aillocutionary force of exclamation devices.

Chapter 2: Exclamations under the syntactic consideration

This chapter investigates the syntactic feature of exclamation. It is concerned to exclassifications and the main forms of exclamations in the two languages.


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Chapter 3: Exclamations under the semantic consideration

The criteria and the semantic meanings of exclamations are explored in English aVietnamese respectively.

Chapter 4: Exclamations under the pragmatic considerationThis chapter deals with the pragmatic features of exclamations as well as the roles of exclin different situations for the pragmatic use.

Chapter 5: Survey’s results and suggested solutions

Based on the questionnaires, the information of the habit of using exclamations of Vietnstudents are presented clearly and provide some suggestions on language teaching pespecially teaching how to form exclamations in English for the Vietnamese.

Part C: Conclusion

This part summarizes the features of exclamations under the considerations of syntax,semantics and of pragmatics. And the survey’s results are made concise in this part, to


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Chapter 1: An overview of exclamations

In this chapter, the research on the background of sentence in general and on exclamaparticular is done. A brief review of the latter will be studied on, too.

1.1 Literature review of sentences

Alexandra Grammatical School (300 – 200 BC) has considered that sentences arcombination of words to express complete thoughts. Sentences are the largest ugrammatical organization within parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb, adjective…) are s

function .From the above definitions, the following are some main features of sentences:

- the largest unit of grammatical organization- the basic unit of written English language communication- constructed by grammatical rules- express a thought and the speaker’s feelings and attitude.

1.2 Sentence classifications in English and Vietnamese

In English and Vietnamese, most of the grammaticians share similar classifications of sein terms of structures and of purposes.

1.2.1 In terms of structure

In terms of structure, sentences are divided into three categories:

+ Simple, compound and complex(1) She is a good teacher. (Simple sentence)(2) I bought her some flowers, but she did not like them. (Compound sentenc

(3) The film that interested me was about a petition. (Complex sentence)+ Complete and incomplete

(4) I’m glad to see you. (Complete sentence)(5) Glad to see you. (Incomplete sentence)


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+ Major and minor(6) Hands up! (Minor sentence)(7) We like to parties. (Major sentence)

1.2.2 In terms of purposes

Sentences may be classified in terms of purposes:

A declarative sentence is used to make a statement.An interrogative sentence is used to pose a question.An imperative sentence is used to give a command or to implore or entreat.An exclamatory sentence is used to express astonishment or extreme emotion.

(8) How happy we were when the dawn came and our flag was still there!(9) How did you do your hair! (exclamation formed as a question)(10) I just won 500 dollars! (exclamation formed as a declarative sentence)The same classifications of sentence are found in the sentence theory of Quirk et al (sentences may be divided into four major clauses, whose use correlates with difcommunicative functions: statements, questions, commands and exclamations.(11) We’ve got a new motor. (statement)(12) Have you got a new motor? (question)(13) Buy us a new motor. (command)(14) We’ve got a new motor! (exclamation)

1.3 Minor types of simple sentences

Most grammarians have chosen to describe exclamatives as either one of the major clauson par with declaratives, interrogatives, and imperatives, or as a minor clause type. Thisurprising since utterances lacking inversion, beginning with “what” and “how” do not fin the same way as ordinary declaratives or interrogatives.We know, however, that declarative clauses, for instance, can be used to fulfill many di

functions in natural languages, i.e. there is no one–to–one relation between language folanguage function. Consequently, exclamations need not be of a clause type, but may insa pragmatic phenomenon, a claim comes from the fact that those who consider exclamatbe of a sentence type (e.g. Quirk et al. 1972, 1985) have to introduce minor sentencehaving the same exclamatory function as the sentences they call exclamations.


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Quirk et al. (1972) recognize four major classes in which simple sentences may be dividthe division seems to have been made on the basis of (syntactic) form and (pragmatic) fun

(i) Statements: sentences in which the subject is always present and generally prethe verbs such as “Kama will come here today”

(ii) Questions: sentences marked by one of the following criteria:a. The placing of the operator in front of the subject, as in “ Will Kama cometoday?”b. The initial positioning of a wh – element as in “When will Kama come here?c. Rising question intonation as in “Kama will come here today?”

(iii) Commands: sentences which normally have no overt grammatical subject and w

verbs are in the imperative mood, e.g. “Come here today!”(iv) Exclamations: sentences that have an initial phrase introduced by “what” or “

without inversion of subject and operator, e.g. “What nice clothes she wears!”

1.4 Definitions of terminologies

One of the most important steps is to take all the definitions of terminologies concexclamations into a consideration. Most of them are listed as follows:

Exclamations : They are sentences that express strong feelings (for example how youwhen you are happy, angry or surprise…). They begin with a capital letter and end wexclamation mark (!)

Exclamatives : Radford (1997:506) has defined an exclamative as a “a type of sentused to exclaim surprise, delight, annoyance etc.”

Expressive : in Searle’s speech acts, they principally express social interactions withearer

Emotive : they are directly emotive utterances lending some features from expressive Interjections : they are exclamations used to express emotion in a natural, uninhib

way, and are not part of speech in the same sense as the words we have discussed; tentering into the structure of a sentence.

Emotional / Expressive utterances: they are utterances in which the speaker in questiis emotionally involved, and in which this involvement is linguistically expressed by mintonation or by the use of performative expressions.


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1.5 Exclamations

With regards to the source of the word “ to exclaim”, it comes from the Latin word “exclawhich in its turn, and is the combination of “ex” and “clamare”. “Ex” means “ out of, fro“clamare” means “to cry out”. Therefore, an exclamatory sentence is a statement of a cothought or a way of thinking that show a great and usually sudden emotion of some kindclearly, David Crystal (49: 23), exclamations are sentences, which show that a person haimpressed or roused by something. For example, visiting someone’s house for the first timadmiration or interest are expressed with the following utterances:(15) - What a beautiful house you have!(16) - It is such a nice house!(17) - Your house is so nice!(18) - Nice house!(19) - How nice a house!(20) - Isn’t the house nice!(21) - So nice a house!All the above sentences are exclamations because they convey strong feelings of sptowards something. And here, it is a nice house.

1.6 Exclamations with illocutionary force indicating devices

Exclamation in written form is mainly discovered and studied in this study and due written form, the interlocutors can get many useful hints when communicating. These hiIFIDs ( Illocutionary force indicating devices), and as suggested by the term, they are ththat transfer illocutionary force to both the speaker and the hearer. Based on these tokenshelp interlocutors to the appropriate strategy for everyday conversations.

1.6.1 Basic structures: “How + Adjective!” and “What + a/ an + Adjective + Noun!”

Once mentioning hints of exclamations, “How” and “What” are regarded as master keys ttheir derived forms such as:“How + adjective + S + verb!” as in “How tall she is!”“How + adjective!” as in “How generous!”“What + a/an + N!” as in “What a nuisance!”“What + noun!” as in “What luck!”


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“How” and “What” are known as the basic components of exclamations. Positioning righbeginning, their function is to monitor the remaining components in sentences. It structures of “how” and “what” that are the basic hints to know its sentence type. The

elements have an utmost significant role so communicators make best use of these hints interactions.

1.6.2 Interjections

Interjection is a big name for a little word. In other words, interjections are short exclamlike “Oh!”, “Um!” or “Yeah!”… When interjections are inserted into sentences, they hgrammatical connection to the sentences. They often express emotions in a natural, uninway and they are more recognizable in their written forms as they tend to be accompan

exclamation marks(!).It is noteworthy that almost any words may be used as an exclamation, but they still retaidentity as noun, pronoun, verb…

(21) - Books! Lighthouses built on the sea of time. (noun)(22) - Halt! The dust brown ranks stood fast. (verb)(23) - Up! For same! (adverb)(24) - Impossible! It cannot be. (adjective)

Next, we will study the interjections in detail through the following table: Interjection Meaning Example

Expressing pleasure “Ah! That feels good”Expressing realization “Ah! Now I understand”Expressing resignation “Ah, well, it can’t be helped” AhExpressing surprise “Ah! I’ve won!”

Alas Expressing grief or pity “Alas! She’s dead now”Expressing pity “Oh dear! Does it hurt?” DearExpressing surprise “Dear me! That’s a surprise”

Eh Expressing surprise “Eh! Really!”Expressing greeting “Hello Khanh! How are you today?” HelloExpressing surprise “Hello! My car’s gone!”

Hey Calling attention “Hey! Look at that!”


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Expressing surprise, joy… “Hey! What a good idea!” Hi Expressing greeting “Hi! What’s up!”

Hmm Expressing doubt, hesitation or

disagreement

“Hmm, I’m not sure”

Expressing surprise “Oh, you are here!”Expressing pain “oh, I’ve got a headache!”

Oh

Expressing pleading “Oh, please say ‘yes’!”Ouch Expressing pain “Ouch! That hurts!”

Uh Expressing hesitation “Uh…I don’t know the answer to that”Expressing surprise “Well I never!”WellIntroducing a remark “Well! What did he say?”

Table 1: Types of interjections (49: 23)

1.6.3 Intonation

Intonation is one of the factors that make great contributions to create exclamations iEnglish and Vietnamese. Compared with statements, melodic contour of exclamationsgreatly different. The differences stay in words that carry the lexical meaning in which show their emotion or feelings…

(25) - That’s so funny!(26) - What a beautiful day!

As far as exclamations concerned, depending on the falling tone or rising one, one can rspeaker’s mind (whether he means well or not) and his emotion (whether he is hapdisappointed with something). The following utterance is an example to discover levemotion according to layers of tones: You home!

If the speaker uses a falling tone, it shows that the speaker’s friendly attitudwe know he means a goodbye in saying that.If the speaker uses a rising tone, there can be two ways to understand this utteIt might be a question to ensure the addressee’s leave and it might also showspeaker’s upset and he makes no bone to ask the addressee to leave immediate


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1.6.4 Exclamation mark (!)

If intonation is a signal of exclamations in spoken language, in written one it is an exclamark (!). Exclamation mark is one kind of punctuations, which helps writers expresintention exactly and logically.(27) - She is so tall!(28) - How much I love Khathy!However abundant forms of exclamations are, they convey one force, that is exclamatory(29) - We are the champions! (as declarative sentence)(30) - How do you risk? (as interrogative sentence)

1.7 Summary

In this part, it is significant to discover that the most common thing shared by the two lanis that: when classifying sentence types, the criteria of purpose and of structure are onthus there are no differences of sentence subtypes between English and Vietnamese, the dsubtypes are complete or incomplete, major or non-major, simple, complex or com(ranking of structure) and statements, questions, commands or exclamations (rankipurpose). Then exclamations are studied in detail. In terms of exclamations, different shave different opinions, however the most prominent one is cited from David Crystal’s(49: 20). According to this scholar, exclamations are sentences, which show that a pe

feeling has been impressed or roused by something.Thanks to researching in detail on exclamations’ definition, we are really enlightenencountering main IFIDs ( Illocutionary force indicating devices) in most of exclamationimportance of IFIDs is so high and everything comes from structures and no doubt, thsuch as : “How + adjective!” and “What a + (adjective) + noun!” in English and “AdjeParticle!” in Vietnamese are the stable basements for learners to study further on exclamThese structures as useful hints, hence, they gain much attention. Besides structures, IFIalso interjections, intonation, exclamation marks…


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Chapter 2: Exclamations under the syntactic consideration

Chapter 1 presents the first and foremost literature review of sentences and exclamatigeneral so that in this chapter, exclamations will be studied in details, especially in tesyntactic functions.

2.1 An overview of exclamations

Exclamations are complete sentences that express surprise, excitement, or other strong emand this type of sentence always ends with an exclamation mark.(31) - What a long time it has been!(32) - How wonderful to see you!(33) - What tall trees grow here!Studying what exclamations are lead to the question whether the order of the sentegenerally inverted. The subject and verb are placed near the end and followed by an exclapoint.(34) - How wonderful that is for you!(35) - What a storm that was!(36) - How beautiful is his wife!(37) - What lovely teeth do you have, my dear!However, exclamations do not always have a subject and a verb. Following are exclamthat have no subject or verb.(38) - What a lovely day!(39) - Good dog!

2.2 Exclamations in English

2.2.1 Main forms of English exclamations

2.2.1.1 Declarative sentence

There is one type of exclamations that has its own characteristic word-order. With regathis type, the exclamatory adjectives “what” and “such” and the exclamatory adverb “housed as introductory words. These words and the elements they modify position at the beof the sentence; the remainder of the sentence follows in normal declarative ordeexclamation as a declarative sentence have the following clues:


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Verb position : The finite verb comes secondVerb form : The finite verb is usually in the indicatives

Intonation : The voice is falling at the end of the sentence;

one word in the sentence bears a strong stress.(51) - I hurt my head!(52) - I just won 500 dollars!

2.2.1.2 Interrogative sentence

Concerning the above ideas, Sadock and Zwicky (1985:155) have claimed that exclamaof another minor sentence type; in form they resemble interrogatives.(53) - How did you do your hair!

(54) - Wow, can he knit! 2.2.1.3 Imperative sentence

As another type, we may mention their imperatives, which in their turns, resemble impera(55) - Shit on you!(56) - Screw you!

2.2.2 Classifications of English exclamations

Different scholars have different classifications, however in this writing we draw our at

to the one of Beijer Fabian (2001) entitled “Syntax and Pragmatics of Exclamations anExpressive / Emotional Utterances” . According to his classification, English exclamations cbe divided into 6 subcategories: prototypical, ones with “so” and “such”, ones with clauses and “to”–infinitive, one with DPs, exclamatory questions and derived forms.

2.2.2.1 Prototypical exclamations

Exclamations as a formal category of sentences are restricted to the type of exclamutterances introduced by “what” or “how” and the two wh–words can be used to form t

element in exclamations: “what” as predeterminer in a noun phrase and “how” as intensan adjective, adverb or clause. Wh-exclamations share some significant similaritiesinterrogatives in requiring the initial placement of an exclamatory wh–element. The syorder is therefore upset to the extent that the wh- elements (which may be object, compor adverbial as well as subject) may be taken from its usual (statement) position and m


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placed initially. For more and more similarities and differences, this demand will be metaking a look at the study of base forms of wh–exclamations.

A. Base forms “How + ADJ!” and “What + a/an + ADJ + N!”

“How” and “what” are the wh - elements and their parts of speech in particular situatianalyzed clearly by Quirk et al. (1985: 833-834) as follows:

a. Wh – element as complement:

(57) - How delightful her manners are! (Cs S V)b. Wh – element as adverbial:

(58) - How I used to hate geography! (A S V Od)(59) - How quickly you eat! ( A S V)

(60) - What a long time we’ve been waiting! (A S V)c. Wh – element as subject:

(61) - What an enormous crowd came! (S V - the rarest type)d. Wh – element as object:

(62) -What a time we’ve had today! (Od S V A)e. Wh – element as prepositional complement:

(63) -What a mess we’ve in!(64) How foolish you must have thought I was!

From these above ideas, it shows that exclamations as a formal category, resemblequestions when they begin with a wh–word (“what” or “how”), but differ from thretaining the regular declarative order of subject and verb. It is essential to have a companalysis of wh–exclamations and wh–questions.(66) - What beautiful the flowers she has!(67) - How fast she runs!Clearly, both exclamations and wh–questions share the presence of a wh–operator, reftheir shared need to denote a set of alternative propositions, but differ in whether a prese

of factivity is present.

As we discussed above, there is generally no subject–operator inversion in Enexclamations. However, we still find the occasional inversion of subject and operator in English, particularly with a proposed adverbial, subject complement, or direct object:(71) - How often have I bitterly regretted that day!


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(72) - What magnificent characters does she present in her latest novel!

B. Variants of “How + ADJ!” and “What + a/an + ADJ + N!”

It is concluded that the variable forms of “How” and “What” are plentiful.

a. Derived forms of “How”

Clearly, the base form of “How” is: “How + adj!”

(74) - How fantastic!(75) - How sweet his music!

And in practice, there are many variants of “how” and the following are these variants in

a1. How + adjective + a /an + noun + (S + V)!

(76) - How fascinating a story!(77) - How interesting the film we’ve seen!

a2. How + adjective / adverb + S + V!(78) - How cold he is!

a3. How + S +V!(80) - How you have grown!(81) - How her foot bleeds!

b. Derived forms of “What”

And the same for exclamations with “What”:

b1. What + a / an + (adjective) + singular countable noun!(82) - What a rude man!(83) - What a surprise! (43: 103)

b2. What + (adjective) + uncountable noun / plural noun!(84) - What nice weather!

(85)

- What beautiful diamonds! I can get a lot of money from them. (43:103)2.2.2.2 Exclamations formed with “So / Such”

A function similar to that fulfilled by “what a” in prototypical exclamation can be fulfi“such a” and almost the same function as that fulfilled by “how” in prototypical exclamatbe fulfilled by “so”.


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(86) - You are such a boy! (What a boy you are!)(87) - We drank so much beer today! (How much beer we drank today!)The constructions with “so” and “such’ are pragmatically similar to the construction

“what” and “how”. The words “so” and “such” in themselves indicate extreme positioscales and the utterances are regarded as exclamations though the structures with “so“such” obviously declarative sentences.“So” and “such” are intensifiers that premodify a noun phrase. The noun phrase is noindefinite and the intensifiers precede any determiners. “So” and “such” precede the indarticle but they require the noun phrase to contain a gradable adjective and the head ophrase to be a singular countable noun. In this use, adjectives precede articles:(88) I didn’t realise that he was so big a fool!

Stress is also applied to the determiner “such” and to the adverb “so” to give the exclamforce to a statement, a question or a command.(89) - He’s such a nice man!(90) - Why are you such a baby!(91) - Don’t upset yourself so!With reference to the wh–exclamations, the wh–word indicates an extreme position onscale of value, and therefore can only appear at points in the sentence where an expresdegree is possible. The same functions are fulfilled by the emphatic degree items “such

determiner) and “so” (as an intensifier) in statement and question:(92) - She has such a nice dog!(93) - Why did you blame me so?From above exclamatory utterances, it is concluded that “how” is like “so” in that when intensifier, it cannot modify an adjective which itself has a premodifying function. Thmay propose how bossy or use “what” or “such” as intensifiers of the noun phrase: “Howyou are!” or “What / Such a bossy person you are!”Once again, not only “how” and “what” but also “so” and “such” still have their parvariants. Here are some common structures of exclamations using “so” and “such”:

a. So + adjective / adverb(94) - So embarrassing!(95) - She is so useless!


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The above examples show that the variant structures of “so” do not only stay alone and fas an exclamation but these also go with other elements in sentences and “so” now becoadverb in such exclamations.

b. So + adjective + a / an + noun(96) - That is so bad a teacher!At the first stage, we focus on this example and think that its structure is problematic. Hothis one is really special and used most in every exclamation.

c. Such + a / an + adjective + singular countable noun(97) - He is such an intelligent boy!(98) - Our headmaster is such a strict man!

From examples above, it may be wrong to conclude that the position of “such” is alwaymiddle of sentences and function as adverbs in such exclamations. In fact, the above form+ adj + a/an + N!” can be isolated and it functions as an exclamation. For instance, one cmore exactly often uses such a kind of exclamations in their everyday conversation.(99) - Such a silly girl!

d. Such + (a / an )+ (adjective) + uncountable / plural noun

(100) - Such bad weather!

(101) - He is such a lovely school boy!“Such” can match with other elements so that it takes the middle position or stands righbeginning of sentences.

2.2.2.3 Exclamative “that” – clauses

According to Rosengen, sub clauses used, as independent clauses must be analysed in tethe three sentence types. Rosengen (1997: 173),that –clauses andto–infinitive clauses used asexclamations are actually declaratives used as exclamations. They do not include adject

adverbs that indicate the extreme position on scales, but when someone utters exclamatorthat –clause, he conveys that the very existence of the fact in question is a deviation from a norm. Rosengren (1997:176) has held that exclamatorythat –clause does not require the samestress pattern as other exclamations.

(102) That he should have left without me!


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Imagining whether the above example consists of no exclamatory mark “That he shoulleft without me”, seems impossible. Clearly, the exclamatory mark indicates that this uttis spoken with an intonation contour that is different from the usual sub–clause into

contour. In addition, the scalar feature used to define exclamations above can be used to exclamative function of these kinds of subordinated clauses as well. Exclamativethat –clauseand to–infinitive clause are scalar in that they refer to states of affairs that the speaker emotionally to, since he finds them highly unlikely, extraordinary, or seemingly impossib

2.2.2.4 DPs used as exclamations

Quirk et al. (1985: 11-53) have claimed that a DP can be used as exclamations as long as is modified by a restricted relative clause.

(103) - The way they obey him! (41:849)(104) - The fuss they made! (41: 849)(105) - The clothes she wears! (41:849)According to them, these are non–sentences and the exclamative type naturally relies intonation contour. Importantly, Quirk et al. (1985) have affirmed that DP–exclamgenerally express disapproval i.e. the speaker does not approve of the fuss they made clothe style she wears. It is clear that the speaker finds the clothes extraordinarily uinappropriate, making reference to an extreme position on an imagined ugliness–scal

exclamatory interpretation is triggered by the intonation contour and the emphatic strespeaker finds the states of affairs in question, i.e. the status of the clothes, to be a deviatioa norm relating to the style of clothes.

2.2.2.5 Other forms of exclamations in English

a. Exclamatory noun phrases

As far as the exclamatory noun phrases concerned, they are modified by a restrictive rclause express disapproval.

(106) - The fuss they made! (41: 849)(107) - The clothes she wears! (41: 849)

b. Exclamatory phrases consisting of a noun phrases

A pronoun is generally included in these exclamatory phrases, and this is always follow“and” and another noun phrase with a matching possessive pronoun:


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(108) - Him and his investigation! {I deplore the way he so frequently resoinvestigation} (the subjective case is less commonly used for the first pronoun: He ainvestigation) (41: 849)

(109) - You and your malicious gossip! (41:849c. Exclamatory prepositional phrases

This type owns the phrase “of all” and this is used to express strong disapproval.(110) - Of all the impudence! (41:850)

(111) - Of all the stupid things to say! (41:850)

d. Exclamatory noun or adjective phrases

Approval as well as disapproval is expressed by the exclamatory noun or adjective phrase(112) - Big baby! (‘What a helpless person you are!) (41:850)(113) - Charming couple! (41:850)

In terms of the more familiar relationship, the possessive adjectives are used commonly s“My cute baby!” or “My poor fiance!” but articles are used then, and in this examparticles are omitted.

e. Exclamatory adjective clause

With or without wh–element, adjectives can act as exclamations.(114) - Wonderful!(115) - (How) good of you! (41: 428)

2.2.2.6 Exclamatory questions

Some sentences resemble questions in their structures but actually are used as exclamatioexpress the speaker’s strong feelings. Despite the presence of negative elements, thdefinitely positive in meaning.Quirk et al. (1985: 825) the exclamatory questions are interrogatives in structure, but hillocutionary force of an exclamatory assertion. Commonly, it is a negative question withfalling tone and the negation has to be clitic (n’t ) in exclamations.(116) - Hasn’t she GROWN! (41:825)(117) - Wasn’t it a marvelous CONcert! (41:825)


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The speaker has strong feelings and these utterances are to invite the hearer’s agreemenspeaker about that. Though the negators appear in the above examples, it is clear thmeaning is totally positive and this is contrast to the appearance of “not” in the sentences

Moreover, in order to express a strong positive conviction, the speaker can use positive question with a falling tone as the following example:(118) - Did he look anNOYED! (41:57)(119) - Has she GROWN! (41:57)Clearly, in spite of the negative or positive exclamatory questions, they share the falling any cases (however, in American English an exclamatory question can be pronounced rising tone and uttered with the expectation of a response as in this example: “Wasnconcert terrific!”).

The following are two examples:(120) (1) Has SHE grown!(121) (2) Hasn’t she GROWN!Through the above examples, the difference is that (2) has the feature that is an appeal listener’s confirmation, while the positive interrogative in (1) implies that the listener iposition. Also, Sadork et al.(1985) have come to conclusions that there is a slight diffbetween positive and negative exclamatory questions. That is: the negative question hasfeature of meaning, an appeal for the listener’s confirmation. The positive, on the othe

implies that the positive response is self–evident, and would therefore be more apprwhere the listener’s agreement would not be solicited, as in “Am I hungry!”.Lastly, in English, a lot of exclamation examples with the forms are collected as follows:

Operation + (not) + Subject + Verb / Adjective?

(122) - Aren’t you lucky? (How lucky you are!) (35:56)(123) - Didn’t we laugh? (How we laughed!) (35:56)

All told, the emotional utterances belonging to this category definitely do so, which meaexclamations with interrogative form are exclamations according to the definition.

2.3 Vietnamese exclamations

2.3.2 Main forms of Vietnamese exclamations


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Before coming to the opinions of Dip Quang Ban (2004:214), which are on focus in this pstepping backwards to the main forms of English exclamations and it is shown that Vietnones share the same. Factually, in everyday conversations, exclamations are in declarativ

or in imperative one and even in interrogative one.(124) - Ng i âu mà p th ? ( Interrogative form)(125) - Bài tp này khó tht! ( Declarative form)(126) - ng ng ng n th ! ( Imperative form)

Moreover, these forms by setting a stable foundation of knowledge concerning exclamenable to complete the study of exclamations in Vietnamese.

Being discussed by a lot Vietnamese authors and when accessing to the work of “Ng pháp

ti ng Vi t - Ph n câu” Di p Quang Ban (2004:214)it provides a better insight of sentenctypes, especially exclamations. That is the reason why we, in our writing, focus much opinions of Dip Quang Ban (2004:214) and it seems that his ideas rule out for the syntVietnamese exclamations. According to him, to study exclamations, we need to take scommunicative function, mood and structure, and text as well into consideration.In terms of syntax, exclamations consist of some minor clauses and they are the ones formexclamatory expressions that function as a sentence with no syntactic features. Interjectithe factors that have no lexical meaning and they are used as an indefinite sound, which a

to express physical or mental reactions and have no representative meaning. For this rexclamations are ungrammaticalized to separate subject or predicate in sentences.In terms of communication, exclamations are used to express feelings caused by physimental impulse (including reprimand, compliment, swear, … which have no representative meaning ).In terms of mood and structure, exclamations consist of only mood expression but not resIn terms of texts, exclamations are minor clauses and this type of sentence has no sepbetween theme and rheme.

From the above three dimensions, it is affirmed that exclamations are special utterancbased on these, and that Vietnamese exclamation expressions can be divided into the fotwo types:Firstly, they are exclamations used most commonly and purely. This exclamations oftypes are the words or expressions such as: ôi,i, ái, úi, úi chà, úi chà chà, , a…!"#$ %Chà! C to y nh! ng y hoá ra li b …! &' "#$


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!"($ % Ai chà! Nhà này có m cá ngon g m, chiu t ph i xin mt bát my c ! "'&$ !")$ % Ui! au quá! ! ""'$Special Vietnamese exclamations are phrases that have lexical meaning and idiomatic f

(i.e. the meaning hidden does not function directly). And the common expressions are i cham i”, “tr i i”, “tr i i là tr i”, “tr i t i”, “tr i cao t dày i”, “tr i ph t i”, “chúa i” or… “b kh”, “ch t”, “ y ch t”, “cht ch a”, “cht cha r i” … and the colloquial swears such as “m ki p”, “cái kh n ki p”, “cái ch t ti t”, “tiên s nhà nó”, “tiên s b nó”…With regards to the second type, there are some common word classes reacting to bad news, forexample for moaning, such as: “ông i”, “bà i”, “con i”… In these situations, people oftenuse the added word “là” like “ông i là ông”, “bà i là bà”.!*+$ - i gi i i! Anh! Quý hoá quá! (surprise) (54:27)

(131) - Cht ch a! Tôi cng quên khuy i m t, ch y d!n c t" sang b bên kia th áy t hômqua . (regret) (56:23)

(132) - M ki p! X b n v i c th ng mõ… (swear) (54:27)The above constructions are the common ones. Apart from these constructions, Vietnexclamations are also formed with strongly emotional expressions. All exclamation exprhave their own forms and they are independent of the remaining parts of a sentence (so name them exclamation expressions).

Not all exclamation expressions function in the mood structure, but within the relation ostructure, exclamation is categorized in terms of exclamatory factors. Thus, we then payattention to the factors, which have an impact on the exclamation classifications

2.3.3 Classifications of exclamations in Vietnamese

2.3.3.1 Exclamations with major particles – “thay, cho, thay cho”

The particles “thay, cho, thay cho” function in order to bring the exclamative modalitysentence and they exist as special elements forming expressions of exclamation mood.factors appear right after verbs or adjectives but there is no additional function for that vadjective and they just make exclamations. When using “thay, thay cho”, the sentences hfollowing features:

+ “Thay” is used more commonly in arts and “cho” is in daily conversations.+ “Thay / cho” stand right after verbs, adjectives to express exclamatory content.+ Sentences with “thay/cho” are formed according to the structure:


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Verb / Adjetive + thay / cho + Noun (2:299)

It is hard to find out sentences that have “thay / cho” situated before verbs. When the

factors are absent, the exclamations marked with the word position in which verbs or adjstanding before are words referring to a mental phenomenon.!**$ , Th ng thay cng m t ki p ng i

H i thay mang ly s#c tài làm chi (57:45)(134) - Kh" thân cho thng bé!(135) - Vinh quang thay các v anh hùng dân tc! (2: 300)

Vinh quang thay các v anh hùng dân t c!

“Thay” in the above example is positioned in the middle of the sentence and it is regarmood expression. Adjectives precede “thay” , it stands right before a phrase residue.

It is noteworthy that “cho” can be representative for this type though this is optional andcho” can stand before verbs, which affirms that elements standing behind “thay / cho” inversion subjects but the objects referring to the addressor and the addressee. In additionof objects like such elements are present in some sentences which are rare in modern lang(136) a. Bà nh$c thay cho ông cha nhà bà! (2: 300) “Bà s repeated and this title form refers to a third person. It is, no doubt, a declarative aneasy to use “thay cho” instead of only “cho” to form a new declarative as in:

- Bà nh$c thay cho ông cha nhà bà!

(a) and (b) are declaratives, however, interestingly when “bà” mentioned for the first time isomitted, the sentence becomes an exclamation as in :

- Nh$c thay cho ông cha nhà bà! (c) is used when subject is the speaker and is to express a mental mood at the time oexclamatory utterance.


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2.3.3.2 Exclamations with interjection group “nh ”

The word “nh is positioned at the end of a sentence and its function is really significaappears at the end and is used to mark different levels of the speaker’s attitude. The folexamples prove this idea effectively.

(137) “B mày khôn nh!” 64:34$(138) “Hôm nay tr i p nh!”

2.3.3.3 Exclamations with extra elements referring to quantity or quantity idioms

These elements or quantity idioms function as extra factors and exist to express exclammeaning for sentence. Many quantity extra-elements are positioned at the end of a sententhe most common ones are: l#m, quá, ghê, l th t, c%c k&, d ng nào, nh ng nào, bit

m y…and even the pronoun “th”- In Vietnamese, we also add some most–used idioms for ttype such as: “ht ý”, “ht s y”, “cht i c”… These elements show a high degree of aevent and have meaningful relation with elements before them.

(139) - Lão già t l#m (54:27)(140) - Con này g m th t! (6+ "#)(141) - Mà lòng tr' ng ngh ( a khinh tài xit bao. (57:45)(142) - Tt mi)n chê / Không chê vàoâu c! (4: 302)!'*$ , T t kh*i ph i nói! (4: 302)(144) - T h t ch nói! (4: 302)!'&$ , Vui ch t i c! (4: 302)!'.$ - C u là ng i t nh l+ mà ch, ng hi u h' c l*m âu c nhi u câu hát nhà quê th!

54:27$In regards with the quantity element – “quá”, communicators use “quá” combining withadjectives in order to show their extreme degree of emotion tones ( surprise, dismay, joy,nervousness…), maybe “quá” is the common choice for them to express their utmost feel(147) - Ph- c t p quá!(148) - Yên t ( nh quá!In addition, it is remarkable that “quá” may be positioned at the beginning or at the end osentences. When the speaker uses the form “Quá + ADJ!” instead of “ADJ + quá!”, the coof exclamations then becomes more and more emphatic.(149) - Phô tr ng quá! ~ Quá phô tr ng!


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(150) - V$ l i quá! ~ Quá v$ l i!Pronouns “th / v y” (or n th / v y $are at the end of a sentence and they can go with otherpronouns “sao/ sao mà” and these pronouns are positioned at the beginning to form the

following expression.(151) Sao mà cái i nó tù túng, nó cht h p, nó bn ti n th ! (54:27)

This example is clarified through the following structure:

" *+*$

The above example proves that adjectives always precede “th”. This quantity extra – elementappears and makes sentences, especially exclamations, less general. It is this element thatprominent one and clearly without it, sentences are not exclamations any more. It is theexclamatory element of that sentences.

2.3.3.4 Exclamations with interjections or exclamatory idiom

The interjections or exclamatory idioms are present together with residue and have expe

meaning. Interjections and some idioms are used to form exclamation expressions but tnot participate in the structure of mood structure. They function individually as parcomplex sentence. In other words, these interjections function individually as sentensubordinates of sentences.

(152) , Ô hay, bà c- t ng con ùa! ( 54:27)(153) - i, …ôi chao i! ( 54:27)

(154) -. , anh ã v ! (4: 215)(155) - Ôi, bu"i tr a nay tuyt tr n n#ng p! (4: 302)(156) - Ôi chao i! ' *+*$

/01m “Ôi chao i!” ,its grammatical structure is analysed as an independent element.


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In exclamation idioms, there are some formations used commonly in colloquial such as: “ i làX i”, “X i là X” or “ i X i!”…which X is a proper noun referring to things or even pronames such as: “ tr i t , tr i , tr i ph t , chúa …” even “cha, m, làng n c…”(157) , H/ i ôi lão Hc! &' "#$!&($ , Tr i i! Tôi bit tìm âu ra nhiu ti n th bây gi !(159) - i làng n c i!(160) - Con i là con, kh" thân con tôi!Moreover, interjections can also go with adjectives and the interjection functions as predthe subjectless sentence.(161) - Hai gi r i mà nó v!n ch a n , l n h t c ru t! ( &"$(162) - Nguy quái m t! In addition, interjections are used with a phrase or a sentence to form exclamations in pasettings. (163) - Ôi cáiêm ra tin tuy n y! (9:28)

2.3.3.5 Some structures without interjections (Adjective + Adverb of degree)(164) - Mng ch t i c.!.&$ , Gay quá! Cái Lan nhà ch có l0 tr t m t! !. "'$!..$ , Sao mà cái i nó tù túng, nó cht h p, nó bn ti n th ! (54:27)

2.3.3.6 Using interrogative structures

(167) - Ng i âu mà p th ! (168) -1 n gì to l n ! y à làm sao! (57:13)

(169) - p xi t bao quê h ng cho ta chic áo nhim màu…! 2.3.3.7 Using intonation

(170) - “G2p, ng i ta ch a kp trông thy c u, c u ã chào ng i ta tr c bô bô. Cu h*ing i ta có phát tài không, lúa có khá không, cháu có chu ch i không? Con ng i nh nnh2n!” &' "#$


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2.3.3.8 Using a – b inversion

In everyday conversations, a – b inversionis used when separating theme and rheme covadjectives.(171) - au n thay phn àn bà !#"$ , Vinh quang thay các v anh hùng dân tc

b (rheme) a (theme) (17: 42)

2.3.3.9 Exclamations as special utterances

In exclamation expressions, interjections or exclamation idioms exist and they become utterances, thus it is impossible to separate their theme and rheme and they are knownminor clauses.

!#*$ - Ô hay, bà c- t ng con ùa! &' "#$This is analysed as follows:

Exclamation Expression

Different scholars have different ideas about the classifications of Vietnamese exclamthough they focus on the content or structure, or even with a combination of both contestructure, they give a remarkable contribution to clarifying the categories of exclamations

2.4 Equivalents and differences in terms of the syntactic feature

Admittedly, the syntax of each language is different and in terms of the syntactic feEnglish and Vietnamese share a few similarities. For that reason also, the differences of of the two languages are abundant. However, due to the scope of this writing, the only fon the prominent and significant differences of exclamations in English and Vietnamesethe syntactic consideration. Together with different features, it is impossible to igno

similar ones there is a study on that question, too. There is no one-to-one relation belanguage form and language function, thus a contrastive analysis of exclamations in tlanguages in terms of structure will be covered in the next part of writing.

2.4.2 Some equivalents in terms of structure

2.4.2.1 Exclamatory structures formed by interjections


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In both English and Vietnamese, interjections itself can be exclamations used to express surprise, pleasure, annoyance… Under the structural features of exclamations in thlanguages, interjections are considered to be an independent sentence which is followed

exclamation mark though sometimes, it is replaced by a full stop. Hereby, it is the fointerjections functioning as exclamations.

Form : Interjection + Exclamation mark (!)

Then, the equivalents on the types of interjections in the two languages are studied and thsome equivalent interjections of different kinds in both English and Vietnamese.

Table 2: Interjection equivalents in English and Vietnamese

(49: 31)More usually, in the syntax of the two languages, interjections are regarded as subordinaof an exclamation. When they are inserted into sentences, they have neither real grammvalue nor grammatical connection with the other elements in these sentences and masentences exclamations.

Interjections English Vietnamese

Expressing surprise Ah!, Dear!, Oh!, Well!,God Heavens!, Eh!…

Ôi tr i!, . !, A!3 ! Ai chàchà! Ái chà!2

Expressing pain Oh!, Oo!, Ouch!, Ow!… Ôi!, A!, ái!, Ui da!Expressing annoyance Damn!, Bloody hell!, Sh!,

Fuck!…Kh n n n!, M ki p!, B* m !, Gi i i!…

Expressing grief or pity Alas!, Good Grief!,

Oh,dear…

Than ôi!, Khn kh"!, H/ i

ôi!, Tht kh"!, Kh" quá!2Expressing pleasure / joy Ooh! , Oh la la!, Oh my

god! Wow!, Oh!, …Ôi!, Ôi chà!, Chà!, Oà!…

Expressing resignation Oh, humm, yah,… 4 !, 5 !, 5 m!, À!…

Expressing enquiry How…, eh? 3 !, Ô hay!, H!, H !…Expressing hesitation Eh, yah,… 5 m!, À!…


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English examples: Vietnamese examples:

(174) - My god! I could hit you. Did younever think that some women may not onlysay it but feel it? (37: 16)

- Ô hay, bà c- t ng con ùa! (54:27)

(175) - God heavens! I’m nervous. (38: 60) - Than ôi! S#c n c h ng tr i!Ti c cho âu b ng l c loài n ây! (8: 54)

From the examples above,“My god”, “Good heavens”, “Ô hay” and “Than ôi!” are interjectionswhose roles in exclamations are to increase the degree of feelings and attitude of the spedifferent referents or situations.

2.4.2.2 Exclamatory questions

Some sentences resemble questions in their structures but they are actually useexclamations. There is no answer followed as a reply to these exclamatory questionsthough the negative element is present within that kind of exclamations, it is strongly posmeaning. They are exclamations so they express strong feelings of the speaker to the entities or events.Although the ways to create exclamatory sentences in forms of questions in the two lanare different, the ways to use them are quite similar. Once using an exclamatory questianswer is awaited but just to express the extreme emotions and feelings in partcircumstances.Examples in English are as follows:

Operation + (not) + Subject + Verb / Adjective?

(176) - Aren’t you lucky? (How lucky you are!) (35:17)(177) - Didn’t we laugh? (How we laugh!) (35:17)Moreover, another characteristic type which is negative “yes/no” question with a fallininstead of rising one as usual. The question of this kind is also an exclamation and this type tends to be reacted by the listener’s agreement to what the speaker has strongly pspecial feelings and attitude on. Using a positive “yes/no” question with a falling tone is way to express our strong positive conviction but it is very formal. Both operator and susually receive emphatic stress here.


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(178) - Did he look annoyed? (35:17)(179) - Has she grown? (35:17)It is noteworthy that Vietnamese has the same kind of questions functioning as exclam

compared with that in English. And the combinations of the following elements usuallexclamatory questions in Vietnamese.

Form : Bi t Wh – question

(180) - Bit bao gi m l i v v i con? (9:17)(181) - Bun trông ng' n n c m i sa

Hoa trôi man mác bit là v âu? *& "!$

No doubt, in many languages, especially in English and Vietnamese, exclamations haveshared characteristics when they are exclamatory questions. And the following examplprove this opinion.

Language Exclamatory question Question

English “Has she grown?” “Has she grown?”Vietnamese Bao gi m i c ngh ây? Bao gi m i c ngh ây?

From the table above, there are no differences in the structure of the examples even twhen they are exclamations which are exclamatory questions, or definitely questionsreveals differences here is the intonation or the facial expressions or whatever of such a kwe only base on the examples without paying attention to the context or intonation, osuch as eye–contact, body language…, the demand of the successful conversation is surmet.

2.4.2.3 Exclamations with no modal verbs

When studying exclamations in daily conversations, it noteworthy that there are no moda

appearing in both English and Vietnamese. Instead of using modal verbs, people have theof using base forms regarded as the main verbs in the sentence.(182) - Khama runs so fast! ~ Khama chy nhanh th!(183) - How dexterous ! 3 Khéo tay tht!Concerning the second example, “How dexterous he is!” can be shortened as in dexterous!” as “Khéo tay th!”; and “Anh ta khéo tay tht!” remarkably can be changed as “An


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instead. And, one of the considerable differences stays on the repetitive structureVietnamese use this structure very often even in formal situations or in informal ones, buare no equivalents of repetitive structures in English. However, what may be equivalent

“so” in English and “tht”, “nh”, “th ”… in Vietnamese. Furthermore, Vietnamese exclamatoquestions need to have wh–elements such as “bit”, “ âu”, “bit âu”… or yes–no questionelements like “” / “a” 4 65” but in English we find no equivalents. English uses no welements and it is found that is an exclamatory question due to the intonation or expressions or the like.

Exclamatory

elements English Exclamations Vietnamese equivalents

What a nice shirt you havegot

Mày có chic áo s mi p th !You have such a nice shirt !

What What a brilliant goal! Mt bàn th#ng r t thông minh!Such a brilliant goal!

How sweetly she sings! Ch y hát hay làm sao!She sings so sweetly!

How How wonderful to see you! G2p c anh tuyt th !Seeing you is wonderful!

We drank so much beertoday!

Hôm nay chúng taã u ng r t nhi u biar i y!Today we have drunk so much beer!

So He was so big a fool! - H#n ta ng c th !He is so foolish.- H#n ta ng c làm sao!How foolish he is!

She has such a nice cat! Ch y có con mèo d) th ng th !

She has a cat so nice!Such He is such a good man! Ông y th t t t!

He is so good!


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Wasn’t it a marvelousCONcert!

Bu"i hoà nhc th t tuy t v i làm sao!How marvelous the concert is! Exclamatory

Questions Aren’t you lucky? Bn th t là may m#n!How lucky you are!

That –

exclamatory

clauses

That he should have leftwithout me!

L0 ra mình không nêni cùng h#n!I shouldn’t have gone with him!

DPs as

exclamations

The way they obey him! H' vâng l i ông y th !How obeyed they are to him!

Exclamatory

adjective

phrases

Charming couple! Tht là p ôi!

Charming couple!

Exclamatory

prepositional

phrases

Of all the stupid things tosay!

Nói v v n th !Non – sense!

Adjective

clauses

Wonderful! Tht tuy t!Wonderful!

Intonation

I just won 500 dollars!The clothes they wear!

- Tôi trúng 500 ôla r i!I won 500$!- 1 n v i ch m2c!How strange their clothe style is!

Table 4: Exclamatory elements in English and Vietnamese

Examples from the above table show many distinguished differences of exclamations unsyntactic consideration in both English and Vietnamese.

2.4.3.2 Typical differences on structures

Different individual structures give best contributions to our better understandinexclamation structures, so it is necessary to take a look at them .


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Positive additions to positive remarks can be expressed by either of the follostructure:

Form: S + operator + too, so + operator + S

And this can be rendered into Vietnamese as follows:

Form: 8 %c ng th / v y

(191) - The boy cheated! ~ B' n con trai ch i 6n gian!The girls did too / So did the girls! ~ B' n con gái cng th ! (40:121)

Absolute adverbs such as “absolutely”, “extremely”, “completely”, “defini“entirely”, “fully”, “greatly”, “highly”, “totally”, “deeply”, “exceedingly”… are not in thof English. However, it is true to say that these absolute adverbs cannot be used in exclamthough most of which are made the best use to express extreme emotions or feelings. Oother hand, besides adjectives the Vietnamese can use adverbs together with the empurpose.

(192) How thoughtful he is! ~ Anhy th t s% là chu áo!

Wh – element adjective subject verb Subject adverb verb adjective

The norminal one of “The things he eats!” seldom appears in everyday conversIn Vietnamese, it requires adverbs or adjectives within exclamations, or at least the clintonation, facial expressions… The equivalent example of the above one in Vietnames“Nh ng th- h#n ta6n kìa!” is surely implicit and it is only revealed as an exclamation whenaddressors have the earlier clues.

It is not necessary to invert exclamatory words to the beginning of the sentence, bEnglish does.

(193) How expensive the shirt is! Chic áo # t th ! (194) What a foolish man he is! Mt lão ngc!


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“What, how, so, such” in have many equivalents in Vietnamese and they are: “”,“th t”, “làm sao”, “ht s y”, “nh”, “th t là”, “rt r t”, “r t i”…

- Bà y th t là hào phóng!(195) - Bà y hào phóng làm sao!

- How generous she is! - Bày hào phóng th !- What a generous person she is! - Bày hào phóng tht! - She isso generous! - Bày r t hào phóng! - She issuch a generous woman! - Bày c%c kì hào phóng!

- Bà y hào phóng nh!- Bà y hào phóng l#m!

In Vietnamese exclamations, particles “nh”, “th ”, “l#m”… are usualy used at the endof exclamations to show the relation between the speaker and the hearer. If that rela

extremely closed, interlocutors can use particles freely but in the situations in conversations with superiors, certain strategies are set to use these particles in order threaten the hearer’s face but to save it.

(196) How thoughtful you are! ~ Mày chuáo nh! (to friends)~ Bác tht là chu áo! (to superiors)

There is subject – verb agreement in English exclamations while it is not necess

make a concord of subject and verb.

(197) - How fast Kha runs! ~ Kha chy nhanh làm sao !

The position of exclamatory elements in English exclamations is not as flexible one of Vietnamese exclamations. In Vietnamese, these elements can appear at the beginn jump in the middle and even come at the end of the sentences. Vietnamese exclamations the repetition of exclamatory parts in order to make their saying more emphatic.

(198) - She is so famous! ~ Côy r t n"i ti ng!

Cô y n"i ti ng th !Cô y n"i ti ng n là n"i ti ng!

In Vietnamese exclamations, the words or expressions such as “thay”, “cho”, cho”, “l#m”, “quá”, “ghê”, “l”, “th t”, “c%c kì”, “d ng nào”, “nh ng nào”, “bit m y”… are


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often used to express the familiarity and different attitudes among interlocutors anequivalents on this feature is found in English.

2.5 Summary

Before doing research on exclamations under the syntactic consideration in the two langwe study simple sentence. And, it is the four major classes derived from simple sentenhelp to recognise that: to the syntactic feature, the exclamations are sentences which havephrases introduced by “How” or “What” or exclamatory expressions without inverssubject and operator. Especially, this type of sentence often ends with an exclamation mar

Languages are different from each other in terms of lexicology and syntax, and exclamstay the same. Differences on focus are the ones of exclamation structures in ma

dimensions. Firstly, while wh–elements in English are mainly used in almost every exclamVietnamese use particles and adverbs instead. Secondly, English requires subjectagreement, grammatical concord gain much attention. Hence, the order of words and posexclamation elements are not really as flexible as they are in Vietnamese. In addition, a porientation in Vietnamese can be taken from negative yes / no interrogatives withoutassertives or assertive forms in English. Related to this sense of negation, negatiVietnamese exclamations can be regarded as a rejection to what is indicated.


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Chapter 3: Exclamations under the semantic consideration

Studying the semantic meanings of exclamations via some main criteria for identexclamations in the two languages is the main job which cannot be neglected in the majof this study.

3.1 Semantics

Language is a tool for expressing meaning. We think, we feel, we perceive and we wexpress our thoughts, our feelings, and our perceptions due to language. Usually, whspeaker’s feelings are extremely strong, these feelings need to be expressed to share witpeople.Cliff Goddard (1998) has remarked that semantics-the study of meaning, is at the centerlinguistic quest to understand the nature of language and human language abilities freasons: Firstly, expressing meanings is what language is all about_everything from wogrammatical constructions and structures. Secondly,semantics can shed light on the relationshibetween language and culture. Therefore, there is much culture information of word meand grammar, too.In addition, Wilhem Von Humboldt (1903:36) “Each language … contains a charactworldview. As individual sound mediates between object and person, so the whole of lamediates between human beings and the internal and external nature that effect them…same act which enables him (man) to speaker in language out of himself enables hspeakerin himself into language, and each language draws a circle around people to wadheres which is possible for individual to escape only by stepping into a different one”.

3.2 Semantic features of exclamations

Semantics is the study of meaning associated with the lexicon of a language and with thand relations in sentence structures. Languages are regarded as differing from one aalmost exclusively in form, thus the lexicon of a language not as a unique syste

categorization imposed on the external reality, nor as a ‘sharper ideas’, but essentially as labels to be attached to concepts which are language–independent and are determinculturally but biologically.Lewis (1992) has analyzed all sentences according to two components: “A sentence radispecifies a state of affairs and a mood that determines whether the speaker is declaring tstate of affairs hold, commanding that it holds, asking whether it holds or what”. Decl


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sentences denote true values, imperatives denote commands and exclamatory sentences exclamations.

3.2.1 Exclamations in English

How to identify exclamations in English and the semantic meanings of exclamatiodiscussed. Identifying exclamations is not really easy so that in order to make this jobwell, it is necessary to look at criteria of English exclamations then another main task tnot be forgotten is taking the semantic meanings of exclamations into account.

3.2.1.1 Criteria for identifying exclamations in English

Forms of exclamations are differently abundant in English, thus in daily communicatifollowing ones encountered much:(199) a. What a nice house it is!(200) b. How very strange that was!Both “a” and “b” have initial wh–constituents but they differ from interrogatives becaucannot occur with the subject–auxiliary inversion. Moreover, the wh phrase contains aelement not possible in interrogatives,a in “a” andvery in “b”.Others can be:(201) c. The baby is so cute!(202) d. Isn’t he the cutest thing!

Based on the data from English, we examine this question focusing on a less-well studiedtype, exclamatives. It is argued that there is no particular element in syntax responsiintroducing force. Rather, there are two fundamental syntactic components which ideclause as exclamative, a factive and a wh–operator. These are crucial because theresponsible for two fundamental semantic properties characteristics of exclamations, nthat they are factive, i.e. their propositional content is presupposed; and denote a alternative propositions, a result of the operator–variable structure. These two sem

properties imply that the force of exclamations is widening. Thus, the force of exclamatderived indirectly, based on the semantic properties–factivity and extreme degree quantifas well as inability to function in Question–Answer pairs. No other examples can shbetter ideas of factivity and of scalar implicature as the ones of Raffaelle Zanuttini anPorner (39:2) do.


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a. Factivity

For the better understanding of exclamations, it is unavoidable to set perspeakericuousemantic properties of exclamative sentence type. Firstly, the factivity should be dealt wthis study. Exclamations are factive, i.e. they presuppose their propositional content anexplains two facts:

• They can only be embedded under factive predicate:(203) I know/ *think/ *wonder how very cute the baby is. (30: 151)“Think” and “wonder” are unacceptable in that example because no how-exclamation obey the restriction that they cannot be embedded under verbs such as: wonder, think, kNon-factive predicates are incompatible with factive compliments in general and noteworthy as it is, they are not merely non–factive, they are anti–factive.

• When they are embedded under the verbs likeknow or realize , in the present tense andwith the first person subject, this verb cannot be negated as in the following examp

(204) * I don’t know / realize how very cute the baby is! (39:3)This shows clearly that factivity is a major semantic property of exclamations

b. Extreme degree quantification

The second semantic feature of exclamations which should be taken into account is the edegree qualification. Exclamations convey that something is surprising or noteworthy i

way. More precisely, they introduce a scalar implicature to the effect that the propositioexpress lies at the extreme ends of some contextually given scale. Thus, “How very cbaby is!” indicates that the baby’s degree of cuteness is greater than the alternativesconsideration. The property of scalar implicature explains two facts:

• They cannot be embedded under It isn’t amazing! though they can be embedded undeits positive counterpart:

(205) a.*It isn’t amazing how very cute the baby is!(206) b. It is amazing how cute the baby is! (38: 15)Clearly, “a” is unacceptable because if we negate “amazing”, domain widening cannoand this conflicts with the presence of widening in the embedded exclamations. Honegation is fine if the experienced subject is present:(207) a’: I’m not amazed at how very cute the baby is. (38:15)


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“ a’ ” is acceptable because the sentence does not only compare the domains, it has an adentailment that the referent of the subject has an experience of “marvel”, and this is wsentence denies.

• (a) becomes good if it is questioned, whereas (b) becomes ungrammatical:(208) - a’: Isn’t it amazing how very cute the baby is? (38:15)(209) - b’:* Is it amazing how cute the baby is?The intuitive reason why (a) is unacceptable is that it denies the amazingness of the cuteness, and this amounts to contradicting the scalar implicature. A parallel explanationfor (b’), where the interrogative questions the amazingness of the baby’s cuteness, thus doubt on the implicature. In contrast, (a’) is acceptable because a negative question expositive answer, and thus the pragmatics of this sentence supports the implicature of ecuteness.Furthermore, this is a well–attested fact that exclamations involve somehow the placemenindividual on a scale, and particular on the extreme of such a scale as the following exshows:(210) A: How expensive spaghetti is!”.(211) B: The spaghetti is expensive to an extreme degree”

Yet, this cannot be the whole picture, for the exclamative sentence necessarily invo

meaning of unexpectedness, which an assertion containing an elative does not:(212) A: How expensive spaghetti is!, # which doesn’t surprise me at all, becau

made in Italy.(213) B: The spaghetti is extremely expensive, which doesn’t surprise me at all, b

it’s made in Italy.

It seems more accurate, thus, to follow Portner and Zanuttini (2003), who have argueexclamations involve the widening of a scale, so that the individual is placed in the exinterval built over the previous standard scale. For instance, a situation in which I have jmy scholarship and I take my friends to a bar. After viewing the menu, I find that everespecially spaghetti catches my eyes. However, they are beyond my budget. In that situatscale of expensiveness becomes dramatically extended far beyond my expectation, whicme to exclaim: “How expensive spaghetti is!”. As a result, the contribution of the exclamis widened the expected scale, which generally conveys a meaning of surprise.


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c. Inability to Function in Question – Answer Pairs.

Exclamations do not serve to ask a question and this explains the following contrasts:

• Exclamations cannot be answered because their force of widening is different froof interrogatives and exclamations’ illocutionary function is not introducing questiinterrogatives do.

(215) - A: How many children has he got? ~ A: How many children he has!B: Seven! ~ B: * Seven / He really has! / No, he’s not!

*) !+$The response in the left pair provides the information requested by A’s question; that is, answer. In contrast, the same response in the right pair is unacceptable when asking

answer; to the extent that it is acceptable, it indicates agreement with A’s presuppositio“He really has!” and other responses given.

• Exclamations cannot introduce a question, which can be narrowed

(216) C: How many children has he got? Seven children or eight children?(217) D: How many children he has got! * Seven children or eight children? (38:21)In C, the second phrase serves to narrow the preceding question, indicating that the answebe drawn from the set {seven or eight children}. The exclamations do not introduce a queso there is nothing for the follow – up phrase to narrow.Definitely, the exclamations cannot be used as answers. A connected observation by (Gri1979: 312 - 322) is the fact that the exclamations cannot serve as answer to questions.(218) A: How many children has he got?(219) B: *How many children he has got!Her explanation resorts to a general conversational rule that forbids using as a responquestion an utterance that presupposes the answer to that question.Elliott (1974) has observed that exclamative clauses could only be selected by fpredicates, so that the following contrast arises:(220) 1a: It’s amazing how very cute the baby is.(221) 1b: I asked how very cute the baby was. *) !&$In 1b, a clash results from the combination of an exclamative construction, which presuthe truth of proposition it denotes, with the predicateask, which presupposes ignoranceconcerning the validity of the proposition denoted by its complement.


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3.2.1.2 The semantic meanings of exclamations in English

The two main components of meaning of exclamations are factivity and widening anrelation is interdependently closed. Exclamations widen the domain of quantification wh–operator which give rise to the set of alternative propositions are denoted by the seWidening allows to capture those aspects of the meaning of exclamations, which havinformally described by Zanuttini (39:2) as, ‘unexpectedness’, ‘extreme degree’, ‘spestrong feelings’ and the like. Now these aspects of meaning of exclamations are conmuch in turns.Firstly, exclamations convey an unexpected fact. The example “How tall Khathy is!” wtaken into consideration and as saying that it is unexpected that she is tall. However, in twhen we hear “What a delicious dinner you made!”, the speaker does not mean to imply did not expect a good dinner. Rather, she implies the tastiness of the dinner exceeds the rpossibilities previously under consideration, presumably something like the range of tathe speaker has experienced at other people’s house.Secondly, exclamations convey an extreme degree. For instance, studying this exampletall Khathy is!” we understand that Khathy has the property of tallness to a very high dNevertheless, this exclamation cannot be a complete description since it does not explathe exclamations differ from declaratives like “ Khathy is extremely tall”. Or, when utteri“How strong Maria is!”, the exclamation involves an extreme degree operator ranging dso this exclamation would be properly paraphrased as that there is one degree d, such thmaximal in the scale of strength and such that Maria is strong to degree d. So that widenaccount for the intuition behind descriptions in terms of ‘extreme degree’.Finally, in terms of ‘speaker’s strong feelings’, it is shown that exclamations exprespeaker’s strong feelings towards what is being said. Thus, someone says “How tall Khatand we know in general that he has some feelings towards the fact. And the following ewill help to frame the contribution of exclamations as conveying an emotional reaction osort. Based on this, it is proved that “How cute Khathy is!” can be seen as expressing adoThe sense that emotion is involved in these cases arises from the particular lexical items, scale they introduce, along with the force of widening. If Khathy is cute to a degree bwhat was contemplated before, this is naturally seen as the cause of adoration.With “ The things he eats!” (39:4), the presupposed open proposition is “He eats x” and it issupposed that he eats something. The second property asserts that the possible values for x form


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a scale while the actual value for x is asserted to be higher on the scale than expected by third one. Thus, an implication of an ‘affective stance’ on the part of the speaker arises.The role of widening in the above example then is to expand the domain of quantificat

the wh – operator. Factivity means that he is presupposed to eat at least one thing in the wdomain of quantification.In sum, the two components of meaning of exclamations: factivity and widening are relone another. An exclamation is presupposed so certain functions for root occurrences oare ruled out.

3.2.1.3 Theme and rheme in English exclamative clauses

In terms of the wh – exclamations in English, the Finite in these clauses precedes the S

however, the nominal order in exclamations has become S ^ F since the association of thsequence with the interrogative mood. This is illustrated in the next figure:

How sweetly he performs that song

S Finite ComplimentAdjunct / WH

Mood

sing

Predicator

Residue

(31:108)

The wh- elements typically come first but they have the S ^ Finite ordering of declclauses (Remember that “^” is the symbol for “Followed by”. Exclamatory mood ctypically have the forms:

What – Object / Complement ^ Subject ^ FiniteOr How – Complement / Adjunct ^ Subject ^ Finite

(222) - What non - sense you talk! How foolish you are!O S F/P C S F/P (31:108)

(223) - What a fool I’ ve been! How quickly it has changed!Complement S F P Adjunct S F P (31:108)


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What an epitaphHow simple

thatit all

would make!seemed at the time

subject finiteResidueMood

(31:109)

Clearly, in English a small group of clauses can be exclamations and the clauses which asimilar to wh–question, and which are analysed in the same way, with the wh–elementnatural theme.

(224) What a nice shirt you have got

Theme Rheme

(31: 75)Furthermore, in exclamations, wh–elements function as a nominal group or an adverbial o

- Compliment : What tremendously easy you ask!

What- Attributive Compliment : What a V.I.P he is!

- Adjunct : How he stares!

How- Attributive Compliment : How polite they are!

It is worth mentioning that either theme or rheme may be missing from a clause. This hwith elliptical clauses, where part of the message may be ‘carried over’ from an earlier mor may be understood from the general context. The following examples of possibilitgiven in this figure, which the elliptical elements are given in brackets to show how the dis made to assign the elements being present to theme and rheme.

(31:4)

In some other cases, the incorporate typical theme is studied in detail in the below examp

(226) (That ’s an ) Amazing discovery!Theme Rheme


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(227) - What neat writing you have got! (31:4)

Theme

(228) - How sweetly she sings! (31:4)

Theme

The following form concerning theme and rheme of exclamations in English bring the beto point out or separate theme and rheme easily.

Mood Theme (realized by)Exclamation Wh – word complement

OrWh – word adjuncts (21: 69)

3.2.2 Exclamations in VietnameseOnce again, before studying their semantic meanings, their criteria gain much attentionthat taking out different things from exclamations of the two languages become possible.

3.2.2.1 Criteria for identifying exclamations in Vietnamese.In this part, some criteria are studied to identify Vietnamese exclamations in order th

ultimate aim is reached: to answer how different exclamations in English and Vietnaccording to the semantic features.

a. Exclamatory content

Exclamations are sentences showing the speaker’s strong feelings towards what is being that any sentences in Vietnamese that express extreme emotions of the speaker to the events or entities can be categorized as a type of exclamations. The following are examples:

(1) “Bà v”

(2) “A! Bà v!”.

It is clear that (1) has the declarative content since it informs the case that the spegrandmother is home, thus it is a declarative sentence, a statement. In contrast, (2) does ninform such above case, the construction of (2) also prove what is embedded right interjection “A!”. Apart form the informative content, (2) also reveals the exclamatory c


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c. Specialized expressions

Specialized expressions functioning as clues to know exclamations are abundant in VietnIn this part, we mention only the main ones such as: “ A”, “aha”, “tr i”, “tr i i”, “h/ i i”, “ôi”,“thôi”, “h”, “hà”, “eo i”, “ê”, “nh”, “thay”, “bit bao”, “làm sao”… With the presentation ofthese expressions, the declarative sentences become exclamations. The below example taprove that:

! "# $ % ' () $ '

! B mày khôn- B mày khôn nh! " Nó khóc nhiu l#m. Tr i i!, nó khóc nhiu l#m! * Ch y n r i ! A! Ch y n r i !

It is proved that when adding particles and adverbs as extra components of declaratives liin Vietnamese, the sentences will become exclamations at any costs.

3.2.2.2 The semantic meanings of exclamations in Vietnamese

Once again, when studying the semantic meaning of exclamations in English, the resehave to pay attention to two main components- factivity and widening in that sentenceVietnamese shares such similarities with those features. Thus, on explaining and present

semantic meaning of exclamations in Vietnamese, we make a combination of presentilisting differences of exclamations in the two languages. It is the lack of features of eactherefore, different topics in subheadings of this language, English maybe, in turns shoremarkably differences in comparison with those in Vietnamese. Each language owns features of exclamations so presenting features of exclamations in English and Vietnmeans analyzing contrastively these features.Every exclamation has typically particular content and the content of exclamations depethe communicative target and the speaker’s ability to express their strong feelings. Whe

feelings are at an extreme degree, exclaiming is the best way for them to achieve communpurposes. Izard and Buechler (1980: 168) have proclaimed the birth of a new sciencescience of emotion; a set of fundamental human emotion kinds includes: interest, joy, susadness, anger, contempt, fear, shyness and guilt. And these emotions of the speaker mranked according to the following three categories: positive, negative or even neutral


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(+) Positive : interest, joy.(−−−− ) Negative : sadness, anger, contempt, fear, shyness and guilt.

( ) Neutral : surprise (since the speaker’s surprise maybe negative or positive)

To understand what the speaker means through her utterances, the addressee needs to bsome main clues such as intonation, facial expressions, specialized expressions or structures… In Vietnamese, there is one more clue that has not been mentioned earlier aninterjections. Interjections can function as sentences by themselves or sometimes they bextra constituents in exclamations and they play their significant role. Neverthelesaddressee can figure out exclamations easily thanks to specialized interjections andimportantly, in Vietnamese they are considered to be the signals of the speaker’s attituemotion.In the following analysis, the fundamental emotions will be listed into subtypes and emotions will go together with certain interjections.

• Interest, joy, happiness : a, aha, ô, ôi, oà, ui da…

"*!$ , Aha! “Ông” s0 có cánh ch- l i! .# ")&$"*"$ , Ôi! C nhà t$ h' p ây vui qúa! .. "!$

• Surprise, fear : , , hay, kìa, úi chà, ái chà, úi tr i i, gi i i là gi i, chao i…

(233) ,Tr i! Lòng àn ông không ng mà c ng kín áo sâu s#c n v y! .# )'$"*'$ , Có thai! Có mang! Cha hoang! Gi i i là gi i! .& ")"$"*&$ ,Chao ôi! Cuc s ng là nhng chu i ngày không mãn nguyn! .& "'#$

• Pain, downheartedness : ái, ôi, i, ôi th ôi, than ôi, h/ i ôi…

"*.$ - Ch à… ái! C- nh th này mãi thì cng không hòng gì! (65:65)(237) - Ôi thôi! Th thì h*ng m t! (55:165)(238) - Chao ôi! Dì Ho khóc! && !!"$

• Anger, disagreement : h ,v0, h m, ôi gi i…(239) - H! Mua li! Mua chu! ( ! ( ! .! *#!$"'+$ , Gi i i! Sao mà khn n n th này? .! #*($"'!$ , Ôi gi i! Ch ng tôi iên th t r i! iên th t r i! .. (($

• Mocking, criticizing : ê, eo ôi, nh, thay…


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Luan Van Tiếng Việt Exclamative