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Negative questions in English and Vietnamese - A contrastive analysis
1 Declaration I - Ngo Thi Thu Hien, hereby state that, this thesis is the result of my own research and the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for any degrees to another universities or institutions Signature:…………………………… Date : August, 2007 Abstract This paper focuses on English and Vietnamese negative questions in term of structures and word using The author wishes only to concentrate on four types of negative questions: negative Yes/ No question, negative Tag- question, negative Wh- question, negative alternative question The thesis is divided into three parts, the main content is presented in part two The similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese negative questions have been analysed and pointed out With an ambition to help teachers and learners have a clear understanding about the English and Vietnamese negative questions, the author also drawn out a survey questionnaire to find out the common mistakes made by Vietnamese students And then the author has managed to suggest some ways to correct common those mistakes Suggested exercises are also offered to help learners to practice and avoid committing mistakes The thesis mainly focuses on the structures of four types of negative questions in English and Vietnamese, the negative words that are used in negative questions are also considered However, the pragmatic and semantic features have been initially investigated; a deeper approach to the pragmatic and semantic feature is suggested for further study Acknowledgements Writing a dissertation is not just a matter of getting the work done efficiently and with good input-output ratio, for me it has been much about finding my place in the matrix of different research traditions and people doing that research I feel very fortunate to have come across and made friends with a large number of kind, bright and encouraging people during my research This work would never have been possible without the encouragement and support from my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Van Do I have been extremely lucky to have him as my mentor and guide in writing this thesis I am also indebted to all my lecturers at University for their precious knowledge, useful lectures in linguistics, which lay the foundation for this study Lastly, I would like to thank the most important people in my life, my family and friends I am forever grateful for my parents, who have given me their unconditional support and provided me with the feeling that I am free and capable to pursue any goal in life that I set my mind Table of Contents Declaration………………………………………………………………………………… i Abstract ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………… iii Contents…………………………………………………………………………………… iv List of tables……………………………………………………………………………… Part 1: Introduction Rationale Aims of the study vi Scope of the study………………………………………………………………… Methods of the study……………………………………………………………… Design of the study………………………………………………………………… Part 2: Development Chapter 1: Theoretical Background Negation in English and Vietnamese in brief……………………………………… 2 1.1 Definition of negation………………………………………………………… 4 1.2 Scope of negation ……………………………………………………………… 1.3 Focus of negation ……………………………………………………………… 1.3.1 End – focus………………………………………………………………… 1.3.2 Contrastive focus………………………………………………………… 1.4 Relationship between Scope and Focus of negation…………………………… Negative questions in English……………………………………………………… 2.1 What is a negative question? 2.2 The semantic and pragmatic approach to English negative questions………… Chapter 2: A contrastive analysis of the English and Vietnamese negative questions Negative forms and non- assertive forms in English………………………………… 11 1.1 Negative forms…………………………………………………………………… 11 1.2 Words with negative meaning………………………………………………… 12 1.3 Non – assertive forms………………………………………………………… 12 Negative orientation………………………………………………………………… 13 English negative questions…………………………………………………………… 14 3.1 Negative Yes/ No questions…………………………………………………… 14 3.2 Negative Tag- questions………………………………………………………… 15 3.3 Negative Wh- questions……………………………………………………… 16 3.4 Negative alternative questions………………………………………………… 16 A contrastive analysis of negative questions in English and Vietnamese equivalents 17 4.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………… 17 4.2 Structures ……………………………………………………………………… 18 4.2.1 Negative structures in Yes/ No questions………………………………… 18 4.2.2 Negative structures in Tag- questions……………………………………… 22 4.2.3 Negative structures in Wh- questions……………………………………… 23 4.2.4 Negative structures in alternative questions……………………………… 27 4.3 Subclause ……………………………………………………………………… 29 4.3.1 Use of “not” in English negative question and negative words in Vietnamese equivalents………………………………………………………… 29 Chapter 3: Common errors made by Hanoi commercial and tourism college (HCTC) students in using English negative questions and suggested solutions Introduction…………………………………………………………………… 32 Research background and Methodology…………………………………………… 32 2.1 The subjects……………………………………………………………………… 32 2.2 Instrument……………………………………………………………… 33 2.3 Procedures……………………………………………………………………… 33 2.4 Findings………………………………………………………………………… 33 Some suggestions to correct common errors……………………………………… 35 Part Conclusion Summary of the findings…………………………………………………………… 39 Implication for teaching and learning……………………………………………… 39 Suggestion for further studies……………………………………………………… 40 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………… 41 Appendix 1: Questionnaire I List of tables Table 1: Structures of English and Vietnamese negative Yes/ No question Table 2: Structures of English and Vietnamese negative Tag- question Table 3: Structures of English and Vietnamese negative Wh- question Table 4: Structures of English and Vietnamese negative alternative question Part 1: Introduction Rationale English is not the most widely spoken language in the world in terms of the number of native speakers there are many more Chinese speakers than native English speakers but Chinese is spoken little outside of Chinese communities, so English is the most widespread language in the world It is difficult to estimate exactly how many English speakers there are, but according to one estimate there are more than 350,000,000 native English speakers and more than 400,000,000 speakers of English as a second language (a language used in everyday life, even though it is not the native language) or foreign language (a language studied but not used much in everyday life) However, even these numbers not really indicate how important English is as a world language, because less than fifteen percent of the world population uses English The importance of English is not just in how many people speak it but in what it is used for English is the major language of news and information in the world It is the language of business and government even in some countries where it is a minority language It is the language of maritime communication and international air traffic control, and it is used even for internal air traffic control in countries where it is not a native language In communicative process in English as well as in other languages, questions play an important role in our daily life We are not able to keep communicating going on well without asking questions We ask in order to exchange information, ideas, feeling and knowledge On the other hand, we sometimes ask questions not for the above purposes but for confirmation, refusal irony or reply avoidance It is undeniable that questions can not be missed in communication There are a lot of types of question in English but in this paper I would like to devote all my interest in English negative questions in order to get more understanding of this type of questions and we can be able to use it flexibly and fluently The contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese negative questions also reveals the similarities and differences in both languages From my experience and knowledge, I will go deep into this matter in a hope of assisting to help people who are interested in the subject matter Aims of the study The study is mainly aimed at: Examining how structures and negative words of English and Vietnamese negative questions are built and used in details Making a comparison of English negative questions with Vietnamese equivalents Exposing some common mistakes made by Vietnamese students and presenting some suggested solutions Heightening learner’s awareness in teaching and learning English and Vietnamese negative questions Scope of the study The study “English negative questions in English and Vietnamese - a contrastive analysis” focuses on English negative questions in English and Vietnamese equivalents within the frame of structures and using negative words There are four types of questions will be focused: Yes- No question, tag question, wh-question, alternative question Especially, only negative questions that use negator “not” will be discussed, other will be suggested for further study Then the author also conducted two questionnaires to find out the mistakes made by Vietnamese students, and from these mistakes, some suggestions to improve are provided Methods of the study The study is conducted by carefully collecting materials from various sources to have full –blown information of English and Vietnamese negative questions Moreover, I have consulted with my supervisor, and obtained much suggestion, instructions and encouragement from him And lastly, the contrastive analysis is made intra- and interlingually: English negative questions with Vietnamese counterparts, contrastive analysis involves two stages: description of the structures and the use of negative words in both languages Design of the study This study is divided into three main parts: Part is the Introduction of the study It includes the rationale for choosing the topic, the aims, the scope, the methods and design of the study Part contains three chapters, in which Chapter provides readers some theoretical background on negation, negative questions in English and Vietnamese in brief Chapter is also the main part of the study, provides the contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese negative questions Chapter presents a small research of the author to find out some common mistakes made by Vietnamese students in using English negative questions and suggested solutions Part is the Conclusion of the study It also gives out implication for teaching and learning Negative questions and some suggestions for further studies Part 2: Development Chapter 1: Theoretical background This chapter focuses on some theoretical background on negation, negative questions in English and Vietnamese in brief As negation is a complex part, many grammarians have studied on it They also gave out ideas about negation and forms of it and I have consulted some grammar books before carrying out my study Negation in English and Vietnamese in brief 1.1 Definition of negation According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, published in 1994, negation is the act of stating that something does not exist or is untrue, and the Vietnamese Dictionary, published in 1998 by the Centre of dictionary and Da Nang Publishing House says that negation is the act of rejecting the existence, the necessity of something; is the opposition of affirmation There also have been many definitions of negation made by many scholars so far: Frank, Marcela (undated; 205) states that negation shows disagreement, denial, absence of 10 somebody or something, or an opposite idea or quality Forming a negative clause means putting “not” directly after operator Semantically speaking, Frank has pointed out the importance of negation in establishing “a counter–part” of affirmation Grammatically speaking, the insertion of “not” in predicate of a sentence is a signal of negation My research mainly bases on English Grammar book “A University Grammar of English” (R, Quirk.1973) According to him, the negation of a simple sentence is accomplished by inserting not, n’t between the operator and the predication Although the definition of negation varies from scholar to scholar, from dictionary to dictionary, we can draw some main points as follows: Negation is a part of men’s cognition activity and communication process It also a basic category of thinking, of formal logic It is the opposition of the affirmative category 1.2 Scope of negation The term scope of negation is introduced to refer to the stretch of language over which the negative has its effect The relation between negative words and non-assertive words that they govern will happen in scope of negation (that is part of language that the negative meaning operates through) The scope of negation formally extents from the negative words to the end of the clause or to the beginning of a final adjunct The subject and any adjuncts occur before a final predication often lies outside it Thus, the operator can be within or outside the scope Below are some examples to illustrate: E.g.: I completely did not agree with you (1) Versus I did not completely agree with you (2) In (1), the scope of negation stretches from “not” to “you”, subject (I), adjunct (completely), operator (did) are excluded, the predication takes full negative effect (1) = It is complete that I did not agree with you or = that I did not agree with you is complete Sentence (2) I did not completely agree with you, subject (I) and operator (did) are put outside while adjunct is inside, negative meaning extends from negative word to the end of the clause (2)= I agree with you, but not always The scope of negation also extends to the beginning of a final adjunct ... learner’s awareness in teaching and learning English and Vietnamese negative questions Scope of the study The study ? ?English negative questions in English and Vietnamese - a contrastive analysis? ??... between English and Vietnamese negative questions have been analysed and pointed out With an ambition to help teachers and learners have a clear understanding about the English and Vietnamese negative. .. instructions and encouragement from him And lastly, the contrastive analysis is made intra- and interlingually: English negative questions with Vietnamese counterparts, contrastive analysis involves