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Vietamese and English Verb Phrase - A Contrastive Analysis
Vietamese and English Verb Phrase - A Contrastive Analysis
A contrastive analysis
ĐẶNG THẢO PHI
Class 5CQBT05
Introduction
Until now, there have been a lot of research topics about comparison between two
Actually, there are two reasons why I want to make a comparison of verb phrases
major is English. In other words, I’m going to become an English teacher in the
language, we have to talk about components which are used to form a structure, a
Then some implications for language teaching are discussed. I hope that this
research will help you distinguish the similarities as well as the differences between
Definition
Talking about definition, there are a lot of definitions of verb phrases according to
every aspect of it. In my research, I’ll talk about two definitions according to
characteristics and linguistic. A verb phrase is a free word phrase having main-
subordinate relation and containing a verb serve as the central element and many
additive elements which modify the meanings for the central element. Besides, in
elements of a sentence and its function is to provide information about the subject of
the sentence.
As we see, a verb phrase always has to have the central element and this element
will govern additive elements. Both verb phrases in Vietnamese and English have
this characteristic.
- The indicative mood conveys to the listeners that the speaker is making a
statement, referring to the real world in an honest, direct, relevant way. One way in
which it’s easier for you to realize the indicative mood is thanks to the word order.
When the auxiliaries take their "usual" position following the “subject”, we consider
- The interrogative mood signals the speakers' desire for information by asking a
clause or sentence with an auxiliary verb (can, could, may, might, should, etc) or an
interrogative pronoun (who, what, etc). Another signal that can help us realize the
an exhortation. If you see a base verb in a clause or a sentence in the initial position,
it will be an imperative.
- The subjunctive mood expresses the speakers' sense of the unlikely things such as
(6) Had I seen you at the party, I’d have introduced you my boyfriend.
Tense systems mark time. Tense is an inflection on the verb that indicates the
In English, the first verb of a verb phrase is marked for tense, called “finite” verb.
Verbs that do not carry a tense inflection (such as participles) are called “nonfinite”
verbs.
English has three tenses: past, present and future. In most English verbs, the -ed
inflection marks the past tense, the -s inflection marks the present tense. Meanwhile,
before the base verb, modal auxiliary verbs (like will) or phrasal verbs (like is going to
- often phonologically reduced to gonna) are used in order to refer to the future tense.
Actually, looking at the formation of the future tense, people commonly call the
Verbs, using both the -s and -ed forms are known as “regular” verbs. According to
marking time, those verbs employ the most common and productive inflection, such
as look/ looked, like/ liked, try/ tried. “Irregular verbs”, on the other hand, fall into
-en for the participle inflection as in broken, written, taken) or in some classes employ
no participle inflections at all (such as put as in “Rachel put the book on the table
yesterday”/ “Rachel puts the book on the table”/ “Rachel has put the book on the
table”).
When you see a formation including modal auxiliary and base verb, it is a modality.
Vietnamese and English verb phrases 6
(16) Rachel will do it tomorrow. ("future") [The modal will also expresses a 'future'
sense.]
The modality system also includes a class of auxiliary verbs called semi-auxiliaries
TO. The semi-auxiliaries, starting with be, do not need do in order to support in
- The perfect aspect which expresses the speakers' sense of completion, is signaled
by the use of a form of the auxiliary have and the -ed participle or irregular participle
(have + V-ed/3).
(22) Rachel had gone to bed before her parents went home.
signaled by the use of a form of the auxiliary be and the -ing participle (be + V-ing).
Voice systems allow speakers to view the action of the sentence in different
English has two voices, active and passive. The passive voice is signaled by the use
(24) Rachel has read the book four 2 days. (active voice)
(25) The book has been read in four 2 days by Rachel. (passive voice)
In the active sentence, we can see the event from the perspective of the doer
(Rachel), but in the passive sentence, we see the event from the perspective of the
Another way to illustrate some of the relationships between form and function in verb
The main verb is a lexical morpheme carrying its lexical information and,
usually, an inflection.
- Intransitive verbs: the verbs are used without direct object such as come, go,
move...
- Intensive verbs: the verbs are used with complement or adverb such as tobe,
become...
Vietnamese and English verb phrases 9
- Monotransitive verbs: the verbs are used with direct object such as buy, sell...
- Complex transitive verbs: the verbs are used with direct object and complement or
- Distransitive verbs: the verbs are used with indirect object and direct object such as
To sum up, in any English verb phrases, auxiliary is an optional component but main
The central element of Vietnamese verb phrases is divided into five groups.
Group 1: This kind of verb usually goes with other verbs, not standing alone.
* Verb phrases with two parallelly existential actions: đứng khóc, nằm ngủ, đi học, đi
* Verb phrases with two actions described by two verbs but the second verb is an
additive element in sense: ăn đứng, ngã ngồi, đặt nằm, chết đứng...
* Verbs describing sense of moving: mở, dậy, kéo, đến, xuống, đi, bưng…
* Verbs describing sense of achieving results: hiểu ra, đọc xong, bay mất, nhặt lấy,
* Verbs describing sense of affecting two objects: cho, tặng, biếu, lấy, mượn, vay,
+ Object 1: Trí
* Verbs describing sense of governing two objects. The subject orders the object:
* Verbs describing sense of governing an object and connecting with another object:
* Verbs describing sense of governing additive elements. The structure which is used
Group 3: Combination verbs: chạy ra chạy vào, bàn qua bàn lại, đi ngược về xuôi,
Group 4: Verbs describing sense of the state or a period of an action: bắt đầu học,
Group 5: Verbs describing sense of mood: lo lắng, bồn chồn, thoi thóp, thấp thỏm...
* Words indicating sense of continuation of activity or state: đều, cũng, vẫn, cứ, lại,
Tiếp tục is the pre-additive element of the verb phrase “tiếp tục thảo luận”.
* Words indicating the time of action or state: từng, đã, vừa, mới, đang, sẽ...
Đang is the pre -additive element of the verb phrase “đang nấu ăn”.
* Words indicating the frequency: thường, hay, năng, ít, đôi khi, thỉnh thoảng...
Ít khi is the pre-additive element of the verb phrase “ít khi gọi”.
Chớ is the pre-additive element of the verb phrase “chớ xem thường”
* Words: Noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, adverb, number can stand after verb.
Cơm is a noun.
(56) Đi chơi.
Vietnamese and English verb phrases 13
Chơi is a verb.
(57) Ăn chậm.
Chậm is an adjective.
Anh ấy is a pronoun.
Một is a number.
* Formation: An additive element after a verb can be a single word, a word phrase or
a sentence.
Lâu is a word
(63) Anh ấy khuyên chúng ta nên suy nghĩ kĩ trước khi quyết định.
+ words with sense of line of actions: đi ra, trở lại, nhìn sang, bay qua, đi tới...
+ words with sense of state and process of actions: đi ngay, nói liền, trả lời lập tức,
(65) Cô ấy trả lời ngay lập tức câu hỏi của ban giám khảo.
+ words with sense of order: về nào, nói đi, nghỉ thôi, chờ với, ngủ đã, tiến lên, hát
lên…
Vietnamese and English verb phrases 14
+ words with sense of finishing or beginning an action: làm xong, ăn xong, có rồi,
(67) Cuối cùng thì tôi cũng làm xong bài tập.
+ words with sense of passive, beneficial or damaged results: gặp phải, bay mất, hao
(68) Hôm nay tôi gặp phải rất nhiều chuyện xui.
+ words with sense of mutual interaction or itself: làm lấy, viết lấy, giải quyết lấy...
(69) Anh hãy tự giải quyết lấy sai lầm của mình.
+ words with sense of repetition: nói lại, vặn lại, nhắc lại, xin lại...
Through this research paper, I describe the main characteristics of Vietnamese and
English verb phrases. Now, I’d like to discuss some implications for English and
Firstly, most students tend to transfer their mother tongue into the target language.
Within this paper, we can see that although the components which form both
Vietnamese and English verb phrases are almost the same, the structure is a little bit
aspects between the two languages. As a result, the teachers should explain these
are often at the end of the sentence such as phải không, đúng không, chưa, hả, etc.
Secondly, the awareness of Vietnamese and English verb phrases also helps
students’ mother tongue and the target language somehow also gives them a clear
distinction in order to help them avoid mistakes as much as possible as well as use
Conclusion
beings. However, to understand the structure, the formation, the origin, especially the
characteristics of language is not simple at all. That’s why that making a comparison
contrastive analysis, I talk about the components which form Vietnamese and English
verb phrases. In my opinion, every language has its own interesting characteristic.
The important thing is that we need to understand them and from that, can
distinguish the differences as well as the similarities between these languages. That’s
also what I hope the language teachers as well as students can get from this paper.
Vietnamese and English verb phrases 16
References
Le, Quang Thiem. (1989). Nghiên cứu đối chiếu các ngôn ngữ. Ha Noi: Hanoi
Pham, Thi Ha. Some English Verb Phrases versus Vietnamese Verb Phrases.
http://docjax.cloudapp.net/document/view.shtml?id=796998&title=Some
Vietnamese and English verb phrases 17
%20English%20verb%20phrases%20versus%20Vietnamese%20verb
%20phrases%20Any%20..
Kies, Daniel. (1995). The verb phrase. Retrieved December, 22, 2009, from
http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/grammar/ph_verb.htm