Functions of English Adjectives and Their Equivalents in Vietnamese Language Essays

Functions of English Adjectives and Their Equivalents in Vietnamese Language Essays Functions of English Adjectives and Their Equivalents in Vietnamese Language Paper Functions of English Adjectives and Their Equivalents in Vietnamese Language Paper such as the blind, the dead, the deaf, e. g. : The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. (1) This wing of the hospital is reserved for the critically ill. The British and the French do not always understand each other. (Examples from sites. google. om) In the example 1, it means that all rich people get richer and all poor people get poorer. The rich and the poor do not refer to Just one person or to a small group. They do not denote one person the rich man or the poor man. It often refer to a general word for human beings likes people. And, people is normally omitted and the use of the rich and the poor as heads of the noun phrases or without noun. According to researchers These adjectives functioning as nouns always have generic reference, do not inflect for number or the -s genitive, and require a singular verb. (sites. google. om) Type 2: Adjectives representing or substituting nouns (i. e. as pronouns). The noun heads in such sentences are omitted. It could be easily recog nized from context (usually in the receding clause); it can have specific or generic reference and be singular or plural e. g. : Do you prefer Irish coffee or Turkish (coffee)? We ordered mashed potatoes, but he served us boiled (potatoes). The red dress is prettier, but the green (dress) suits her better. (Examples from sites. google. com) c. Compound adjective: Compound adjective is a combination of two or more words and functions as an adjective. Compound adjective could be a word or words with the insertion of This depends of the style of the language users: One word Words with s Noun + Adjective snow-white (trng nhl_r tuy? ©t), knee-deep ( s? ¤u d? ©n d? ¤u g? ¶i), pitch-dark (t? ¶i den nhLr mVc), world-wide (khp th? © gidi), noteworthy (d? ¤ng ch Y) Noun + Past participle handmade (l? ¤m bng tay) ,moss-covered (b! ? ©u ph), lion-hearted (dung m? ¤nh nhLr scr tdr), heartbroken (dau long), homegrown (nh? ¤ tr? ¶ng), heart-warming (vui v? ©) Adverb + Adjective everlasting (vinh cdru), well-educated ( c? ¶ gi? ¤o duc t? ¶t),ill-bred = ill-educated ( v? ¶ gi? ¤o vc), newly-lit = newly-born (mdi sinh) Adjective + Adjective . blue-black (xanh den), white-hot (cVc n? ¶ng), red-hot (nong d), dark-brown (n? ¤u dam), worldly-wise (ttrng tri) Hyphenated adjectives (Tinh tlr k? ©p bng d? ¤u gech ngang) A four-year-old girl = The girl is four years old. A ten-store building = The building ha s ten stores. Adjective + Noun Long-eared : c? ¶ tai d? ¤i, Blue-eyed : c? ¶ mt xanh Adverb / Adjective + V + ing Good-looking (d? © nhin), bad-looking (kh? ¶ cot), nice-looking (Xinh xn), ill-smelling (mi kh? ¶ ngdn), slow-moving (di chuy? ©n chem) (From www. tienganh. com. vn) d. Adjective order: In English, people usually use more than one adjective before a noun † for example, an old square wooden table or Shes a small thin Canadian lady. When more than one adjective present at the same time, there is a rule to put them in a correct order, depending on their types. Look at the table to see basic types od adjectives the rule of orders for English adjectives: The basic types of adjectives Opinion An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people may not agree with you). For example: silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult Size A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is. For example: large, tiny, enormous, little Age An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is. For example: ancient, new, young, old Shape A shape adjective describes the shape of something. For example: square, round, flat, rectangular Color A color adjective, of course, describes the color of something. For example: blue, pink, reddish, grey Origin An origin adjective describes where something comes from. For example: French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek Material A material adjective describes what something is made from. For example: wooden, metal, cotton, paper Purpose nd with -ing. For example: sleeping (as in sleeping bag), roasting (as in roasting tin) Some examples of adjective order silly young English man huge round metal bowl small red sleeping bag (From web2. vcs. uvic. ca) 1. What is an adjective in Vietnamese? As in English, Vietnamese adjectives describes characteristics, the nature of things, activities, status. According Nguy? ©n T? ¤i can (NgCr ph? ¤p Ti? ©ng Vlet, 2001) adjectives are words expressing characteristics about quality, property, color, smell, taste and relationship between noun and pronoun. For examples: xinh, v? ¤ng, thom, to , gii,.. . Semantics functions of Vietnameses adjectives: Stative and dynamic adjectives: In Vietnamese, there are also stative and dynamic adjectives. The stative adjectives often describe stative qualities such as x? ¤u, t? ¶t, b? ©n, dep, n? ¶ng, xanh, d? ¤i, h? ¶ng The dynamic adjectives have tendency to show state such as bu? ¶n, y? ©u, met, vui, henh phc 3. Syntactic functions of Vietnamese adjectives: a. Adjective-itself and adjective-not-itself: Categorizing adjectives in Vietnamese is different form some other language. There are usually some adjectives are played by other classes of words like nouns and erbs. For examples, cu? ©c s? ¶ng n? ¶ng th? ¶n in this phrase n? ¶ng th? ¶n could be seen as a noun or an adjective. Or in the phrase th? ¤i d? © ph? ¤n biet d? ¶i x, ph? ¤n biet d? ¶i xdr could be considered as a verb or an. According to L? © Dinh TLr, Vietnamese adjectives can be divided into two types: Adjective-itself (tinh tlr tg th? ¤n) Adjective-itself describes characteristic, color, size, shape, sound, taste, degree, volume of a person or a thing. For examples: Characteristics: t? ¶t, x? ¤u, sech, ban, dng, Sai, h? ©n nh? ¤t. Color: xanh, d, tim, v? ¤ng, x? ¤m, den, trng, n? ¤u. Size: cao, th? ¤p, ? ©ng, hep, d? ¤i, ngn, to, nh, b? ©, kh6ng lb, ti hon, mng, d? ¤y. Shape: vu? ¶ng, tr? ¶n, Cong, thng, quanh co. Sound: On, On ? ¤o, tr? ¤m, b6ng, vang. -Tasting/smell: thom, th? ¶i, h? ¶i, cay, n? ¶ng, ngqt, dng, Chua, tanh. Adjective-not-itself (tinh tlr kh? ¶ng tg th? ¤n) Adjective-not-itself are verbs and nouns used as an adjective. This type can be determined depending on the context. If these adjectives are separated from the co ntext, they are not adjectives. According to L? © Dinh TLr, when using noun and verb as adjectives, the word would bring out a little different mean from its original, usually more general. For example, h? ¤nh d? ©ng ? ¤n curdp h? ¤nh Ong means an act, action ? ¤n curdp means to rob The phrase refer to an act which is too bad, too serious that could be compared with robbing, not a real robbery. From Le Dinh Tus opinion, in Vietnamese, there two types of adjective-not-itself: * Adjective transformed from noun. For examples: c? ¶ng nh? ¤n (trong: vi xanh c? ¶ng nh? ¤n); nh? ¤ qu? © (trong: c? ¤ch s? ¶ng nh? ¤ qu? ©); cdra quy? ©n (trong: th? ¤i d? © cdra quy? ©n); st d? ¤ (trong: tr? ¤i tim st d? ¤); c? ¶n d? ¶ (trong: h? ¤nh Ong c? ¶n d? ¶). * Adjective transformed from verb. For examples: Chey l? ¤ng (trong: h? ¤i d? © Chey l? ¤ng); d kich (trong: tranh d kich); phn d? ¶i (trong: thur phn d? ¶i); bu? ¶ng th (trong: l? ¶i s? ¶ng bu? ¶ng th). b. Adjectives as noun phrase heads: In Vietnamese, adjective could be used as a noun: T? ¤n t? ¤t Ngurdi tan tat M? ¤u d Gi? ¤u Ngurdi gi? ¤u From the examples, we can see that an Vietnamese adjective functions as a noun when it is combined with an appropriate determiner (ngurdi, m? ¤u .. ). c. Compound adjective: According to L? © Dinh TLr, Vietnamese compound adjective could be established through these following ways: Combine an adjective with an adjective. For example: Xinh dep, cao ldn, to b? ©o, dng cay, ngay thng, mau ch? ¶ng, kh? ¶n ngoan, ngu d? ¤n. Combine an adjective with a noun. For example: m? ©o mieng, to gan, c(rng d? ¤u, c(rng c6, ngn ng? ¤y, v? ¤ng chanh Combine an adjective with a verb. For example: kh? ¶ hi? ©u, d? © chlu, chem hi? ©u, d? © cot, kh? ¶ n? ¶i. Reduplicate the original adjective, maybe the whole adjective or Just part of it. For example: den, tr? ¤ng trng, do d, v? ¤ng v? ¤ng, n? ¤u n? ¤u; sech s? ©, may mn, chem chep, nhanh nhen, dt d. d. Adjective order: The position of adjective in Vietnamese is more flexible. We can change the position mong adjectives without changing the meaning of the phrase. For example: C? ¤i b? ¤n m? ¤u den bng gd c? ¤i b? ¤n bng gd m? ¤u den C? ¤y thurdc d? ¤i m? ¤u trng bng nh? ¶m => cay thurdng bng nh? ¶m d? ¤i m? ¤u den There is no fixed principle for the order of adjectives in Vietnamese A Contrastive Analysis between English and Vietnamese Adjectives 1 . In terms of semantics: From the overview, we can see it is not much different between adjectives in English and Vietnamese in terms of semantics. They are all used to describe about quality, property, color, smell, taste and relationship between noun and pronoun. . In terms of syntactic: a. Attributive and predicative adjectives In general, both English adjectives and Vietnamese adjectives can function as attributive and predicative. For examples: Bn Ch l? ¤ sv k? ©t hqp ho? ¤n ho hai m? ¶n ? ¤n durqc y? ©u thich trong ma he: th! t nurdng v? ¤ salad (dura g? ¶p, rau s? ¶ng). Di? ©u d? ©c biet thu ht thvc kh? ¤ch kh? ¶ng chi tlr nhCmg vi nurdng ch thom ltrng tr? ©n b? ©p than m? ¤ c? ¶n nm d b? ¤t m_rdc ch? ¤m d? ©m d? ¤ Chua, cay, men, ngqt. (http://vnexpress. net/) In this example, ho? ¤n ho , thom ltrng, d? ¶m d? ¤ chua cay, men, ngqt function as a ttributive to the head noun sv k? ©t hqp, nhCmg vi nurdng ch, b? ¤t ncrdc ch? ¤m Another example: V! nh He Long l? ¤ noi IY turdng d? © tho? ¤t khi cu? ©c s? ¶ng ph? ¶ th! t? ¤p nap, chen chc d? ©n ng? ©p thd ngo? ¤i kia. In this case, IY turdng is a predicative to subject Ninh He Long. However, there are some differences. Attributive adjectives in English are put immediately before the noun and vice versa for the Vietnamese. For examples: C? ¶? ¤y l? ¤ m? ©t ngurdi phu nCrxinh dep. She is a beautiful lady. My teacher has black curly hair Th? ¤y t? ¶i c? ¶ m? ¤i toc xon den In order words, when translating from English to Vietnamese, functions of adjectives Vietnamese A red hat M? ¶t c? ¤i non d A wonderful movie M? ©t b? © phim tuyet vdi A romantic song M? ©t b? ¤i h? ¤t l? ¤ng men A very kind man M? ©t ngurdi d? ¤n Ong r? ¤t tdr t? © b. Adjective as a noun phrase head Both English and Vietnamese adjectives can function as a noun phrase head but there are differences between them. In English, for adjective to function as head of a noun phrase, it is usually combined with a determiner the (this is for the Type 1 only), as in Vietnamese, we can add an appropriate pre-modifier to the noun. Like all oun phrases, they can be subject, object, complement and complement of a preposition. For example: Those kinds of adjectives can denote plural and generic references, classes, categories or types of people. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer Ngurdi gi? ¤u ng? ¤y c? ¤ng gi? ¤u v? ¤ ngurdi ngh? ©o ng? ¤y c? ¤ng ngh? ©o Theres a widening disparity between the young and the old. C? ¶ m? ©t sv kh? ¤c biet ldn giCra ngurdi gi? ¤ v? ¤ ngurdi tr? © ( th? © he tr? ©) However, in English, these adjectives are restricted to denote plural and generic references, classes, categories or types of people. Therefore, the rich cannot denote one person. While, in Vietnamese, when expressing plural nouns, we must add the pre-modifier nhCmg nhCmg ngurdi gi? ¤ the old nhCmg ngurdi gi? ¤u the rich nhCmg ngurdi tan tat the disabled c. Compound adjectives Compound adjectives in English and Vietnamese are having nearly the same functions and forms. Both are a combination of an adjective with another class of word (even an adjective). There is one little difference is that English compound adjectives sometimes have a - between words. d. Adjective order Adjectives always function as attributive in both English and Vietnamese as mentioned above. However, their positions in a sentence are different. There are usually series of adjectives presenting at the same time to modify a noun. In English, the order of these adjective must be regulated by a fixed rule. purpose While, the order of Vietnamese adjectives is more flexible. In Vietnamese, adjective which appears near the head noun often plays the most important role. Look at these examples: A smart tall young Korean man M? ©t anh ch? ¤ng H? ¤n qu? ¶c tr? © cao to dep trai M? ©t anh ch? ¤ng tr? © H? ¤n Qu? ¶c dep trai cao to M? ©t anh ch? ¤ng dep trai H? ¤n Qu? ¶c tr? © cao to Implication For an English teacher, from the researcher, there are some aspect that could help in eaching English to Vietnamese student: Firstly, the order of adjectives In English and Vietnamese are different, therefore, students usually make mistake when translating the text. For example: M? ©t c? ¤i b? ¤n dt ti? ©n A table expensive. This is a common mistake among Vietnamese learners. Therefore, there must be more intention in this section. Secondly, there are many similarities between English adjectives and Vietnamese adjective, such as compound nouns, use age of adjective as a head of noun. Knowing this can facilitate the teaching process in the class. For example: eacher could give an equivalent word in Vietnamese compound to an English vocabulary while trying to explain the meaning of the word. Thirdly, the use of adjective as a noun might be new to many learners. They might confuse why red could be a noun and an adjective but rich or poor cannot, unless they are preceded by a determiner the. Teacher should pay more attention to this usage of adjective. For an English learner, when using an adjective, the order is very important. Mistaking this in communicating could be and embarrassing moment, and, learners should never translate to English directly from their first language. References Adjectives (gradable / non-gradable)(n. d. ). Retrieved from http:// learnenglish. ritishcouncil. org/en/grammar-reference/ad]ectives-gradable-non- gradable Adjective Order (n. d. ). Retrieved from http://web2. uvcs. uvic. ca/elc/ studyzone/410/grammar/adJord. htm Adjectives as noun phrase heads (n. d. ). Retrieved from https://sites. google. com/site/agrammaroferrors/l-l-the-noun-phrase/ 1-5 Albert, H. (2010). Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English Dictadv Series (8th ed. ) . Oxford: Oxford University Press Attributive and predicative adjectives (2012). Retrieved from http:// www. ingforum. com/forum/viewtopic. php? Retrieved from http://elearning. ccnu. edu. cn/ermsweb/libs/cwlib/%E8%AF%AD %E6%B3%95A/unit10/web/4. htm Compound adjectives (2009). Retrieved from http:// www. tienganh. com. vn/showthread. php? 26635-Compound-AdJectives L? ©, T. (2011 , February). Tinh tlr ti? ©ng Viet. Retrieved from http://ngnnghc. wordpress. com/tag/tinh-t Nguy? ©n, C. (1999). Ngcr ph? ¤p Ti? ©ng Viet. H? ¤ Net: NXB hoc Qu? ¶c Gta. V, N. (2013, June). Bn ch lot top 10 m? ¶n ngon ma h? © ca CNN. Retrieved from http://vnexpress. net/gl/xa-hoi/du-lich/2013/06/bun-cha-lot-top-10-mon-ngon-mua-he- cua-cnn/