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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no
materials published elsewhere, or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by
which I have qualified for or been awarded degree or diploma.
No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the
thesis.
This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in
any other tertiary institution.

Da Nang, 2011

Phạm Thị Ánh Hằng

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ABSTRACT

Learning Vocabulary is one of the most important parts in learning English,

vocabulary is taught at high school through all four skills Reading, Speaking,
Listening, Writing and Language focus. Because students’ mistakes in using
vocabulary are unavoidable, understanding the usage of the word is thought to be
one of important part that helps students make progress in their learning. Moreover,
translation process will be a big challenge for those who are lack of vocabulary or
for those who don’t have deep understanding on the usage of words. For that
reason, learners should be provided with the basic knowledge of the meanings and
the usage of the words so that students can improve their learning English. More
importantly, they would know how to use these words in real communication.
Studying all the words at the same time is impossible. So the objectives of the
study are to investigate the linguistic and socialcultural features of words denoting
male characteristics only. In order to conduct this research, experiential meaning in
Functional Grammar has been used as a theoretical base to classify words denoting
male characteristics into specific categories. In addition, a collection of words
denoting male characteristics taken from various sources in English and in
Vietnamese has been used as the effective device. Via this analysis, the study aims
at presenting some commonly used English words denoting male characteristics.
Also, a contrastive analysis of the linguistics and social cultural features of words
denoting male characteristics in English and Vietnamese will be conducted to find
out the similarities and differences between the two languages. Besides, this paper
may help Vietnamese learners to use words appropriately and to understand
language in cross-cultural communication. Finally, the implications in teaching,
learning, and translating the English language are dealt with.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Statement of Authorship..........................................................................................i
Abstract ..................................................................................................................ii
Table of Contents.................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION...................................................................1
1.1 Rationale....................................................................................................1
1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Research.........................................................2
1.2.1 Aims..................................................................................................2
1.2.2 Objectives..........................................................................................3
1.3 Significance of the Research......................................................................3
1.4 Research Questions....................................................................................3
1.5 Scope of Research......................................................................................3
1.6 Organization of the Study..........................................................................4
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL
BACKGROUND......................................................................5
2.1 Previous Research......................................................................................5
2.2 Theoretical Background.............................................................................7
2.2.1 "Male" characteristics....................................................................7
2.2.2 Grammatical Features....................................................................7
2.2.2.1 Word structures...........................................................................7
2.2.2..2 Types of words...........................................................................8
2.2.2.3 Word classes...............................................................................8
2.2.2.4 Syntactic functions....................................................................10
2.2.3 Semantic Features............................................................................15
2.2.3.1. Components of meaning...........................................................15
2.2.3.2 Transference of meaning...........................................................16
2.2.3.3 Sense relations...........................................................................18
2.2.3.4 Semantic fields..........................................................................19
2.2.4 Language, Society and culture.........................................................19
2.2.5 The Gender Discrimination..............................................................20
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2.2.6 Context............................................................................................22
2.3. Summary for Chapter 2...........................................................................23
CHAPTER 3 - METHODS AND PROCEDURES........................................24
3.1. Research Methods...................................................................................24
3.2 Data Collection........................................................................................24
3.3 Data Analysis...........................................................................................25
3.4 Procedure.................................................................................................26
3.5 Reliability and Validity............................................................................26
CHAPTER 4 - FINDINGS & DISCUSSIONS..............................................27
4.1.The Similarities and Differences between the Grammatical Features of
WsDMC in English and Vietnamese .......................................................27
4.1.1 The grammatical features of WsDMC in English..............................27
4.1.1.1 Types of words..........................................................................27
4.1.1.2 Word classes.............................................................................27
4.1.1.3 Syntactic functions of English WsDMC...................................28
4.1.2 The Grammatical Features of WsDMC in Vietnamese......................32
4.1.2.1 Types of words..........................................................................32
4.1.2.2 Word classes.............................................................................32
4.1.2.3 Syntactic functions of Vietnamese WsDMC.............................32
4.1.3 The Similarities and Differences between the Grammatical Features
of WsDMC in English and Vietnamese.............................................36
4.1.3.1 The Similarities between the Grammatical Features of WsDMC
in English and Vietnamese.......................................................36
4.1.3.2 The differences between the Grammatical Features of WsDMC
in English and Vietnamese.......................................................36
4.2 The Similarities and Differences between the Semantic Features of
WsDMC in English and Vietnamese .......................................................38
4.2.1 The Semantic features of WsDMC in English...................................38
4.2.1.1. Components of meanings.........................................................38
4.2.1.2. Denotative and Connotative meanings.....................................38
4.2.2 The Semantic features of WsDMC in Vietnamese............................43
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4.2.2.1. Components of meanings.........................................................43

4.2.2.2. Dennotative and Connotative meanings...................................43
4.2.3 The similarities and differences between the semantic features of
WsDMC in English and Vietnamese.................................................48
4.2.3.1 The similarities..........................................................................48
4.2.3.2 The differences..........................................................................49
4.3 The Similarities and Differences between the Sociocultural Features of
WsDMC in English and Vietnamese .....................................................56
4.3.1 The sociocultural features of Britain..................................................56
4.3.2 The sociocultural features of Vietnam...............................................57
4.3.3 The similarities and differencies between the sociocultural features of
English and Vietnamese WsDMC.....................................................59
4.3.3.1 The similarities..........................................................................59
4.3.3.2 The differences..........................................................................64
CHAPTER 5 - CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS...............................71
5.1 Conclusion...............................................................................................71
5.2 Implications .............................................................................................72
5.2.1 Implications for Language Teaching And Learning..........................72
5.2.2 Implications for Translation...............................................................75
5.3 Limitations ..............................................................................................78
5.4. Suggestions for Further Research ...........................................................79
REFERENCES..............................................................................................80
CORPORA.....................................................................................................85
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