Tài liệu Common errors in the use of compound nouns made by students of course 37 biology faculty at hanoi pedagogical university no.2

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY No.2 NGO THUY LINH COMMON ERRORS IN THE USE OF COMPOUND NOUNS MADE BY STUDENTS OF COURSE 37-BIOLOGY FACULTY AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY NO.2 (SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH) SUPERVISOR: MAI THI VAN ANH, M.A Hanoi, May 2013 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this chance to express my greatest gratitude to Mrs MAI THI VAN ANH, M.A, my supervisor, for her patience in providing continuous and careful guidance as well as encouragement, indispensable suggestions and advices. I am greatly indebted to the teachers of English at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2. I wish to thank all the lecturers at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2, especially the lecturers in the Foreign Language Faculty for their dedicated instructions during my years of university work. I am particular grateful to my close friends for their enthusiasm and kindness in helping me collect valuable reference documents and data for my research. Last but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to my beloved family, for their whole-hearted encouragement and endless support. ii ABSTRACT The compound noun is an interesting category of English grammar. A grammatical element is combined with a word, stem, or phrase to produce derived and inflected forms. A compound noun is the combining form of two words or stems (green house, beautiful girl). However, the uses of the compound nouns referred to in some books have not been dealt with in full and sometimes cause confusion to learner of English. As a result, students of English often make errors when they use the compound nouns. Therefore, this research work entails studying the uses of the compound nouns and conducting a survey for error analysis. Based on the results of the survey, the types of errors and causes have been found. iii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title: Common Errors in the Use of Compound Noun (Graduation paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in English) I certify that no part of this report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other person’s work without acknowledgments and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance from my supervisor. Date submitted: May 2013 Student Supervisor Ngo Thuy Linh Mai Thi Van Anh, M.A iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................. i ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................... iv PART ONE INTRODUCTION I. RATIONALE .................................................................................................. 1 II. RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITION .................................................................. 2 III. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES.......................................................................... 3 IV. RESEARCH SCOPE .................................................................................... 3 V. RESEARCH TASKS ..................................................................................... 3 VI. RESEARCH METHODS ............................................................................. 4 VII. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH................................. 4 VIII. DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH WORK .................................................... 4 PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1. LITERATURE REVIEW IN BRIEF ............................................................ 6 I.2. Compound nouns .......................................................................................... 9 I.2.1. Definition ............................................................................................... 9 I.2.2. Word-class combination compound nouns ............................................. 9 I.2.3. Form ..................................................................................................... 10 I.2.4. Pronunciation ....................................................................................... 10 I.2.5. Plural forms of compound nouns .......................................................... 11 I.2.6. Hyphens ............................................................................................... 13 v I.2.7. Possessive of compound nouns ............................................................. 13 I.2.8. Function ............................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER TWO COMMON ERRORS IN COMPOUND NOUN II.1. Survey ....................................................................................................... 15 II.1.1. Purpose of the survey .......................................................................... 15 II.1.2. Population of the survey...................................................................... 15 II.1.3. Type of the survey............................................................................... 16 II.1.4. Construction of the survey .................................................................. 16 II.1.5. Preparation of the survey..................................................................... 17 II.1.6. Administration of the try-out .............................................................. 18 II.1.7. Method of data analysis....................................................................... 18 II.1.8. Result of the survey............................................................................. 18 II.2. Common errors and causes ........................................................................ 22 II.2.1. Errors in use of stress in the compound nouns ..................................... 22 II.2.2. Errors in combining words to make the compound nouns. .................. 22 II.2.3. Errors in using plural forms of compounds nouns ............................... 22 II.2.4. Errors in using compound nouns as other parts of speech.................... 23 II.2.5. Errors in using hyphens between two elements of compound nouns ... 24 II.2.6. Errors in using possessive of compound nouns ................................... 24 II.3. Suggestion solutions .................................................................................. 24 II.3.1. Suggestion solutions............................................................................ 24 II.3.2. Suggested exercises............................................................................. 25 PART THREE CONCLUSION REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 29 APPENDICES .................................................................................................... 31 SURVEY QUESTIONAIRES ........................................................................... 31 vi KEYS .................................................................................................................. 36 SUGGESTED EXERCISES .............................................................................. 39 vii PART ONE INTRODUCTION I. RATIONALE Nowadays, English becomes the most widely used language in the world. Eighty percent of world information was stored in English (vietbao.vn/Giaoduc/Tieng-Anh-thong-tri-the-gioi/30174410/202/). English also is an international language used in all aspects like: education, medicine, economy, science, tourism, culture, etc. In my opinion, English is not easy but very profound and it’s interesting to study. English learners always understand that in our life, English is vital. Thanks to English, different nations with different languages and culture could close together. Grammar is an essential part of every language. L.G Alexander (2009:p1) denoted that we should learn grammar because "there is no point in learning grammar for the sake of learning grammar. Grammar is the support system of communication and we learn it to communicate better. Grammar explains the "why" and "how" of language. We learn it because we just can't do without it.". In English, nouns account most proportion and types of nouns are various but compound nouns seem to be most attractive. In Vietnam as well as in other countries, there is a greater and greater need to learn English, from young to old, and from male to female. No one can deny the importance of English in Vietnam at present. Therefore, English is being taught at every educational level. However, learning a language is difficult, because each language has its own system which is different from that in the learner’s native language. The differences in the system of language may bring about learning problems for foreign language learners. Hence, it is inevitable that in learning English as a foreign language Vietnamese students usually have problems on account of the differences between Vietnamese and the target language. It is proved that English grammar is causes embarrassment to students. The concord in general and the complex and often compound nouns in specific is one of the language categories that students at high schools have to learn much. Due to its various uses, it is 1 assumed that there are many errors which may be made. In fact, many students confess that the compound noun is one of the biggest problems of English grammar and they often make errors in compound nouns. Moreover, as a prospective teacher, I would like to make a contribution to the English teaching in Vietnam. For the reasons above, this study is conducted, which focuses on errors in compound nouns among the students of Course 37Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University No 2. II. RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITION With regard to the errors quoted above, the problem is with the use of compound nouns in the sentence and the ways to combine words to make a compound noun. Some questions are raised: 1) What kind of errors in the use of compound nouns are made by the student of Course 37-Biology Faculty in Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 in the academic year of 2012/2013? 2) What kind of errors in the use of compound nouns are the most often made by the students of Course 37-Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 in the academic year of 2012/2013? 3) What are the causes of the errors in the use of compound nouns by the students of Course 37-Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 in the academic year of 2012/2013? 2 III. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The study aims at the following goals: 1) To find out the kinds of errors made by the students of Course 37-Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 in the academic year of 2012/ 2013 in compound nouns. 2) To find out the main error in compound nouns most often made by the students of English Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 in the academic year of 2012/ 2013. 3) To find out the causes of the errors in compound nouns made by the students of Course 37-Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 in the academic year of 2012/2013. 4) Provide learners some characteristics and classification of compound nouns in order to facilitate the effective use of these compound nouns. 5) Point out the structure of compound nouns to classify these compound nouns more easily and exactly. 6) Identify some problems related to compound nouns used and give some suggested solutions to overcome. IV. RESEARCH SCOPE The general research area of this study is grammar. The phenomenon is errors in compound noun done by the students of Course 37-Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 in the academic year of 2012/2013. Others relating to compound noun are also briefly mentioned. The population involved in the study is one hundred students of Course 37Biology Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2. V. RESEARCH TASKS The study involves fulfilling the following task: 1) To study the information and rules of compound noun. 2) To research into the types and characteristics of compound noun. 3 3) To compare and contrast the compound nouns with other part of speech. 4) To conduct a survey to find out error types and causes. On the basis of the findings possible solutions to the problems are sought to minimize the students’ errors. VI. RESEARCH METHODS To achieve the objectives of the study, the following methods have been applied: 1) Collecting documents from books listed in the references. 2) Consulting the supervisor, experienced teachers and friends. 3) Synthesizing theoretical documents on English grammar. 4) Conducting a survey and analyzing the results. VII. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH Errors in any language teaching and learning, particularly in English as a foreign language, are sometimes predictable and sometimes unpredictable. It is, therefore, essential for teachers to have better treatment to anticipate errors. After the research, it is hoped that the result will be helpful to provide: 1) Input for learners of English in order to minimize their error in compound nouns. 2) Input for teachers of English with information on error types and solutions to the problems so that they can have good methods of teaching the compound nouns. This study is also beneficial to anyone who is interested in the compound nouns in English. VIII. DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH WORK The research work has three main parts, namely: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion. The part “Development” consists two chapters. Chapter one is 4 entitled “Theoretical Background”. It consists two sections. Section one reviews literature in brief. The second one deals with things related to the compound nouns such as definition, types, and rules of the compound nouns. Chapter two is named “Common Errors in Compound Nouns”. It has three sections. Section one is devoted to the survey. The second one deals with error types and causes. The last one is on solutions to the problems and suggested exercises about the compound nouns. 5 PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1. LITERATURE REVIEW IN BRIEF Compound nouns have been described by many grammarians like Steven Pinker (1999), David Crystal (2002), Elisa Sneed (2002), Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy, Cambridge Grammar of English, Cambridge University Press (2006) and so on. They each have their own way to describe the compound nouns. Generally, they focus their attention on the definition, functions, formation of the compound nouns, modifiers of compound nouns in sentences, phrases and their uses. Steven Pinker (1999) deals with the formation of the compound nouns. He also introduces the noun phrases, another name for the compound nouns, and classifies the compound nouns into two kinds: singular and plural. David Crystal, et.al (2002) in On plural Compound nouns refers to the singular and plural of compound nouns. They just name the functions of compound nouns: subject, direct object, subject complement, appositive and object complement. They specify the use of the genitive case in compound nouns and the use of compound noun. However, they do not pay much attention to the structures in which compound nouns are used. In the book “The Acceptability of Regular Plurals in compounds”, Elisa Sneed (2002) gives a quite understandable picture of the compound nouns. She gives the forms of the simple compound noun, complex compound nouns and the compound nouns. Moreover, she pays much attention to patterns with the compound noun and the noun phrase (adjective + noun). The copy for Garner’s Modern American Usage, the successor to the similarly titled classic reference work by H.W. Fowler, when I found what I felt to 6 be an ironic instance: an error. The book’s description refers to its attention to “questions . . . of word-choice” and the uses of hyphenation of word pairs was rampant: to-day, co-operate, tea-cup, and so on. Why on earth, I thought, did the copywriter think that word-choice merits hyphenation? The novel "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte, one of four famous works we have learnt in the subject "English-American literature", was written with many compound nouns. With students of English, recognizing and analyzing compound nouns is not simple and may cause some problems. Martin Hewing (1999) In the book Advanced Grammar in Use only focuses author’s attention on verbs and adjectives that are followed by noun phrase forms and infinitives. In the book A Reference Grammar for Students of English, R.A. Close (1979) describes the functions of the compound noun as well as the difference between the compound nouns and other parts of speech. “Words can be combined to form compound nouns. These are very common, and new combinations are invented almost daily. They normally have two parts. The second part identifies the object or person in question (man, friend, tank, table, room). The first part tells us what kind of object or person it is, or what its purpose is (police, boy, water, dining, bed)”. Compound nouns often have a meaning that is different from the two separated words. Stress is important in pronunciation, as it distinguishes between a compound noun (e.g. greenhouse) and an adjective with a noun (e.g. green house). In compound nouns, the stress usually falls on the first syllable. In addition, he concentrates on cases where compound noun are obligatory, cases in which the gerund and the infinitive are either acceptable and cases in which the compound nouns and the noun phrases are possible but with different meanings. Kam Chuan Aik & Kam Kai Hui (1992) in the book Longman Dictionary of Grammar and Usage give a definition of the compound noun and noun phrase. They also mention the difference between the compound noun and the functions of compound nouns. According to them, the differences between here is that the 7 Compound nouns are written as separate words (grapefruit juice), as words linked by a hyphen (sister-in-law), or as one word (schoolteacher). A compounded noun whose form no longer clearly reveals its origin (such as bonfire or marshall) is sometimes called an amalgamated compound. Many place names (or toponyms) are amalgamated compounds: e.g., Norwich (north + village) and Sussex (south + Saxons). "The compound noun structure is extremely varied in the types of meaning relations it can indicate. It can be used to indicate what someone does (language teacher), what something is for (waste-paper basket, grindstone), what the qualities of something are (whiteboard), how something works (immersion heater), when something happens (night frost), where something is (doormat), what something is made of (woodpile), and so on." (Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy, Cambridge Grammar of English. Cambridge University Press, 2006). "An interesting property of most compounds is that they are headed. This means that one of the words that make up the compound is syntactically dominant. In English the head is normally the item on the right hand of the compound. The syntactic properties of the head are passed on to the entire compound. Thus, . . . if we have a compound like easychair which is made up of the adjective easy and the noun chair, syntactically the entire word is a noun." (Francis Katamba, English Words: Structure, History, Usage, 2nd ed. Routledge, 2005) In brief, much research has been done on the compound noun but only Ronald Carter & Michael McCathy (2006) point out the errors in the use of compound noun. In fact, there are far more errors that learners of English often make when they use the compound nouns. Therefore, it is essential to have a comprehensive study of common errors in the use of compound nouns. 8 I.2. Compound nouns I.2.1. Definition Compound noun is a word made up of two or more words put together to make a word with its own meanings. The words tooth and paste are each nouns in their own right, but if you join them together they form a new word – toothpaste. The word black is an adjective and board is a noun, but if you join them together they form a new word- blackboard. They normally have two parts. The second part identifies the object or person in question (man, friend, tank, table, room). The first part tells us what kind of object or person it is, or what its purpose is (police, boy, water, dining, bed). I.2.2. Word-class combination compound nouns Compound nouns can be formed using the following combination of words: 1. Noun + Noun: toothpaste, bedroom, water tank, motorcycle, printer cartridge, rainfall, bus stop, fire-fly, football … Example: Is this the bus stop for the number 12 bus? 2. Adjective + Noun: monthly ticket, software, redhead, blackboard, full moon, software … 3. Verb + Noun: swimming pool, washing machine, driving license, swimming pool, breakfast… Example: We always have breakfast at 8 a.m. 4. Preposition + Noun: underground, underworld… Example: Do you think the police accept money from the underworld? 5. Noun + Verb: haircut, train-spotting, sunrise… Example: His hobby is train-spotting 6. Noun + Preposition: hanger-on, passer-by, mother-in-law, love-in … Example: My mother-in-law lives with us. 7. Adjective + Verb: dry-cleaning, public-speaking … 8. Adverb + noun: onlooker, bystander... 9 9. Verb + preposition; take-off, drawback, take-out, check-in, lookout … 10. Preposition + Verb: output, overthrow, upturn, input… I.2.3. Form The two parts may be written in : I.2.3.1. Closed or solid Example: tooth + paste = toothpaste Bed + room = bedroom I.2.3.2. Hyphenated- hyphen between words Example: check-in. six-pack… I.2.3.3. Open or spaced They appears as two separate words, space between words. Example: full moon, tennis shoe… I.2.4. Pronunciation Compound nouns tend to have more stress on the first word: ‘golf ball Stress is important in compound nouns. Stress is important in pronunciation, as it distinguishes between a compound noun (e.g. greenhouse) and an adjective with a noun (e.g. green house). For example, it helps us know if somebody said “GREENHOUSE”(a house which is painted green) or “a GREENhouse”(a building made of glass for growing plants inside). Compound nouns often have a characteristic stress pattern (accent pattern). The main stress (position of heaviest accent) comes on the leftmost member of the compound. Certainly the majority of what are usually considered compound words exhibit this feature. The compound movie star is pronounced MOVIEstar (where capital letters indicate the location of the heaviest accent), not movieSTAR; the compound bathroom is pronounced BATHroom, not bathROOM. The American President's 10 residence is the WHITEhouse, which is a compound, as opposed to WHITE HOUSE. The stress pattern can sometimes be a clue to whether a sequence of two words is a compound noun or not. For example, the sequence high and chair can be pronounced either HIGHchair, in which case it is a compound noun denoting a special kind of chair that babies sit in; or it can be pronounced highCHAIR, in which case it is simply the noun chair modified by the adjective high, denoting some chair that happens to be high. Unfortunately, the stress criterion is not found in all compounds. There are compounds like APPLE PIE, MANMADE and EASY-GOING which show no accent reduction. A purely phonologically based division would make BLACKberry a compound but blackPUDDING free sequence, BLACKlist a compound but black MARKET a free sequence. Equally striking is the fact that whereas Oxford ROAD (also Oxford AVENUE, etc.) would be a free collocation, OXFORD Street would be a compound. These inconsistencies underline the fact that the category of compounds is a grammatical one, and that, although there is a tendency for it to be phonetically marked in a certain way, such marking is not perfectly regular. I.2.5. Plural forms of compound nouns In general we make the plural of a compound noun by adding –s to the “base word” (the most significant word). Singular Plural a tennis shoe three tennis shoes one assistant headmaster five assistant headmasters the sergeant major some sergeants major a mother-in-law two mothers-in-law 11 an assistant secretary of state three assistant secretaries of state my toothbrush our toothbrushes a woman-doctor four women-doctors a doctor of philosophy two doctors of philosophy a passerby, a passer-by two passersby, two passers-by I.2.5.1. Pluralize the principle word The vast majority of compound nouns form their plurals by adding “s” to the principle word. Example: He now has two mothers-in-law (plural of mother-in-law). They were visited by the Knights Templar (plural of Knight Templar). Jerry had attended over a dozen courts-martial (plural of court-martial). I.2.5.2. No principle word When there is no obvious principal word, add “s” or “es” to the end of the compound nouns. Forget-me-nots make a wonderful present. (plural of forget-me-not) Pack two toothbrushes. (plural of toothbrush). Some compound nouns have no obvious base word and you may need to consult a dictionary to find the plural:  Higher-ups  Also-rans  Go-betweens  Good-for-nothings  Grown-ups Note that with compound nouns made of noun + noun, the first noun is an adjective and therefore does not usually take an –s. A tree that has apples but we say apple tree not apples tree, matchbox not machesbox, toothbrush not teethbrush. 12 With compound nouns made of noun + noun, the second noun take an -s for plural. The first noun acts like an adjective: Long plural form plural compound noun 100 trees with apples 100apple trees 1000 cables for telephones 1000 telephone cables 20 boxes for tools 20 tool boxes 10 stops for buses 10 bus stops 3 wheels for cars 3 car wheels I.2.6. Hyphens Use a hyphen to eliminate ambiguity: There are no specific rules on forming compound nouns. For example “inkwell” can also written “ink well” or “inkwell”-all are correct spellings. However, you should use hyphen to eliminate ambiguity. Ambiguity is particularly prevalent when the first word of the pairing is a substance (like water or ink). Examples:  Ice-axe makes it clear that the axe is not made of ice.  Paper-clip/ paper clip If the clip were made of paper, paper clip could be used.  Plastic wire-fastener A fastener made of plastic not wire. There is also ambiguity when the first word of the pairing ends “ing” Examples:  Changing-room/ changing room Changing-room makes it clear that the room is not changing.  Laughing-gas/ laughing gas Laughing-gas makes it clear that the gas is not laughing. I.2.7. Possessive of compound nouns The basic rules of possessive nouns: 13