Tài liệu Passive voice in english in comparison with that in vietnamese in terms of syntactic and semantic analysis

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N0 2 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY TONG THI TINH PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH IN COMPARISON WITH THAT IN VIETNAMESE IN TERMS OF SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC ANALYSIS (SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH) SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN VAN DEN, M.A HANOI, 2013 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this chance to express my greatest gratitude to Mr. Nguyen Van Den, M.A., my supervisor, for his patience in providing continuous and careful guidance as well as encouragement, indispensable suggestions and advice. I wish to thank all the lecturers at Hanoi Pedagogical University Number 2, especially the lecturers in the Foreign Language Faculty for their dedicated instructions during my years of university work. I am particularly 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 According to researchers, passive meaning exists in almost all languages and the difference is how to denote this kind of meaning. One of the ways which is often used to express passive meaning is passive voice. In European languages, passive voice is a familiar phenomenon while in Vietnamese this is a developing grammatical phenomenon. Hence, some viewpoints about passive voice in Vietnamese are very different: some people say that Vietnamese has no passive voice; some say that passive voice exists in Vietnamese. Students of English are confused when learning English or translating these two languages. Therefore, this research work entails studying and comparing how to denote passive meaning in English and Vietnamese. Based on the results, the similarities and differences in this aspect in Vietnamese and English have been found. Teaching implications of the passive voice have been suggested. iii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title: Passive voice in English in comparison with that in Vietnamese in terms of syntactic and semantic analysis (Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements 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 acknowledgements and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance from my supervisor. Date submitted: May 2013 Student Supervisor Tong Thi Tinh Nguyen Van Den, 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 ................................................................................. 1 III. Research objectives ........................................................................................ 2 IV. Research scope ............................................................................................... 2 V. Research tasks ................................................................................................. 2 VI. Research methods .......................................................................................... 3 VII. Significance of the proposed research ......................................................... 3 VIII. Design of the research work ....................................................................... 3 PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH I.1. Literature review in brief .............................................................................. 5 I.2. Discussing the name of the research paper................................................... 7 I.2.1. Definition of voice ........................................................................................ 7 I.2.2. The term “passive” ........................................................................................ 8 I.2.3. Syntactic and semantic analysis .................................................................... 8 I.3. Passive voice in syntactic analysis ............................................................... 10 I.3.1. Be – passive ................................................................................................ 10 I.3.2. Get – passive ............................................................................................... 10 I.3.3. Passive voice with modal verbs ................................................................... 11 I.3.4. Passive voice with to – infinitives and gerunds ........................................... 12 I.3.5. Verbs and objects in passive voice .............................................................. 12 v I.3.5.1. Transitive verbs or intransitive verbs........................................................ 12 I.3.5.2. Transitive verbs ........................................................................................ 15 I.3.5.2.1. Monotransitive verbs ............................................................................. 15 I.3.5.2.2. Ditransitives verbs ................................................................................. 18 I.3.5.2.3. Complex transitive verbs ....................................................................... 19 I.4. Passive voice in semantic analysis ............................................................... 20 I.4.1. Agents and Patients in passives ................................................................... 20 I.4.2. Agents in passives ....................................................................................... 22 I.4.3. Get – passive ............................................................................................... 23 I.4.4. Passive with introductory “it” ..................................................................... 25 I.4.5. Spoken and written usage of passives.......................................................... 25 I.5. Others ........................................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER TWO: PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS IN VIETNAMESE II.1. Passive constructions in syntactic analysis................................................ 28 II.1.1. Passive constructions with “bị” and “được” ............................................... 29 II.1.2. Passive constructions without “bị” and “được” .......................................... 34 II.1.2.1. Absence of“bị/được” as function words .................................................. 34 II.1.2.2. Predicates with “chịu”, “mắc”, “phải”..................................................... 35 II.2. Passive constructions in semantic analysis................................................ 36 II.2.1. Meanings of “bị” and “được”..................................................................... 36 II.2.2. Subjects in passives ................................................................................... 37 II.2.3. Transitive verb – object inversion .............................................................. 38 II.2.4. “do/của” + subject – verb ........................................................................... 40 II.3. Spoken and written usage of passive constructions .................................. 40 CHAPTER THREE: PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH IN COMPARISON WITH THAT IN VIETNAMESE III.1. Similarities ................................................................................................ 43 III.1.1. In terms of syntax ..................................................................................... 43 vi III.1.1.1. Agents used in passives ......................................................................... 43 III.1.1.2. Verbs used in passives ........................................................................... 44 III.1.2. In terms of semantics ................................................................................ 45 III.2. Differences ................................................................................................. 46 III.2.1. In terms of syntax ..................................................................................... 46 III.2.2. In terms of semantics ................................................................................ 47 III.2.2.1. Modal meaning of Vietnamese passive sentences with “bị” and “được” 47 III.2.2.2. Lexical meaning of subjects in Vietnamese passive sentences ............... 47 III.2.2.3. Lexical meaning cautioning in translation.............................................. 48 III.3. Teaching implications ............................................................................... 50 PART THREE CONCLUSION I. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 52 II. References ...................................................................................................... 55 vii PART ONE INTRODUCTION I. Rationale Since Vietnam is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the world can now be compared to a global village, English plays an essential role in all economic sectors as well as in daily life. No one can deny the importance of English in Vietnam at present. Therefore, English is being taught at every educational level. Of all the grammatical items, the concept of voice in general and passive voice in particular, seems to be one of the most challenging issues. In English passive voice is expressed with syntactic constructions, involving a combination of the auxiliary verb “be” and the past participle form of the verb. In Vietnamese - a non flectional language, on the other hand, there are many arguments over whether passive voice is a grammar category or not. Passive meaning in Vietnamese is expressed by functional words and syntactic and semantic structures. Besides, passive voice is one of the language categories that students at high school have to learn. Although passive voice is very common in writing and speaking but the amount of passive voice in high school English text is limited. In fact, many students confess that passive voice is the one of the problems of English grammar which they are unaware of and confuse with Vietnamese passive voice. Within the framework of this graduation paper, English passive structures will be studied through contrastive analysis with Vietnamese with the intent of systematically providing an overview of English passive structures and Vietnamese equivalents to help learners improve their translation. Moreover, as a prospective teacher, I would like to make a contribution to English teaching in Vietnam. For the reasons above, this study is conducted, which is focused on passive voice in English in comparison with that in Vietnamese. II. Research presupposition For the achievement of those mentioned issues, the study seeks the answers to the following questions: 1  What are the perspectives on passive voice in English and that in Vietnamese?  What are the syntactic and semantic similarities and differences between passive voice in English and that in Vietnamese? Based on the questions above, I am eager to learn about the problems and make a comparative analysis of passive voice in English and in Vietnamese so that the major similarities and differences may be found. III. Research objectives The study is aimed at following goals: 1. To find out the formation, characteristics and usage of English passive voice. 2. To find out the formation, characteristics and usage of Vietnamese passive voice. 3. To find out the similarities and differences in passive voice between English and Vietnamese in semantic and syntactic terms. IV. Research scope The general research area of this study is grammar. The phenomenon is passive voice in English in comparison with that in Vietnamese. Others relating to passive voice are also briefly mentioned. Because of time constraints, my study cannot cover all the aspects of passive voice including syntax, semantics, pragmatics and morphology. Within the framework of a graduation paper, I focus on finding out the similarities and differences in English and Vietnamese passive structures in terms of syntax and semantics. Regarding passive meaning in Vietnamese, I will contrast it with that in English. V. Research tasks The study involves fulfilling the following tasks:  To study the formation, usage and characteristics of English passive voice.  To study the formation, usage and characteristics of Vietnamese passive voice. 2  To compare the passive in English with that in Vietnamese, on the basis of the findings, teaching implications to this category are sought to clear the students’ questions. VI. Research methods To achieve the objectives of the study, the following methods have been applied including synthetic, descriptive, analytical and contrastive methods. Firstly, synthetic methods are used to select the most useful information collected from some grammar books, reference theses as well as other sources available and put them in order comprehensively and logically. Secondly, descriptive methods and analytical methods are applied in the study to provide an overview of passive structures in English and Vietnamese in terms of syntax and semantics. The last one is the contrastive method to find out the similarities and differences between English passive structures and Vietnamese equivalents. During the process of conducting the study, it is a “must” to consult the supervisor, experience teachers and friends. VII. Significance of the proposed research The same category of grammar in two languages may have similarities and differences. It will mislead learners if they cannot distinguish the differences in functions and uses of that category. It is, therefore, essential for teachers to have better treatment. After the research, it is hoped that the result will be helpful to provide: 1. Input for learners of English in order to clearly describe passive voice. 2. Input for teachers of English with teaching implications of passive voice. This study is also beneficial to anyone who is interested in passive voice in English. VIII. Design of the research work The research work has three main parts, namely: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion. The part “Development” consists three chapters. 3 Chapter 1 deals with the theoretical background of English passive voice including definitions, forms, characteristics of passive voice and its uses in detail. Chapter 2 deals with passive voice in Vietnamese including the existence of passive voice, characteristics and its uses in detail. Chapter 3 compares and contrasts the similarities and differences between English passive voice and that in Vietnamese to find out the similarities and differences. 4 PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: PASSIVE VOICE IN ENGLISH I.1. Literature review in brief Passive voice, as well as passive sentences, is a typically grammatical phenomenon of Indo–European languages. In the functional respect, this definition is directly referred to the grammatical relationship between verbs and other key grammatical elements, namely subjects and objects. However, according to European traditional grammar, passive voice is usually attributed to the morphological category of verbs basing on its modality of expression, called voice. Passive voice in English has been described by many grammarians like Vince (1993), Eastwood (1992), Fuchs and Bonner (2008), Close (1975), etc. They each have their own way to describe passive voice. Generally, they focus their attention on passive formations and uses. Eastwood (1992) in the book Oxford Practice Grammar deals with the formation of the passive voice. He also compares active with passive voice and gives some special passive structures. Fuchs and Bonner (2006) in the book Focus on Grammar 4: An Integrated Skills Approach only refer to the form of verbs and uses of passive sentences. Close (1975) in the book A Reference Grammar for Students of English mentions the form of passive voice. He focuses on the classification of verbs in the passive sentence. In the books Advanced Language Practice and First Certificate Language Practice, Vince (1993) gives the passive forms and uses. He also mentions agents in passive sentences and verbs linking with objects, prepositions and complements. Moreover, he pays his attention to transitive and intransitive verbs in passive voice. Besides, he concentrates on some special cases in which verbs are used. To some Vietnamese grammarians dealing with passive voice, different criteria have been proposed in different research works for a common formula of the passive construction in Vietnamese. Some researchers (Cardier, Emeneau, Li 5 & Thompson, Kim…) believe that Vietnamese does not have passive voice because of its typology. Meanwhile, researchers such as Cổn and Diên (2004), Hòa (1980), Ban (1992), Vân (2002), etc. argue that Vietnamese has passive constructions or passive sentences despite of not having the term “passive” as a morphological term. They also give evidence for their opinions. Cổn and Diên (2004) in the study Dạng bị động và Vấn đề câu bị động trong Tiếng Việt pressed in Linguistics Magazine Vol. 7 give a quite full grammatical theory of passive voice in general and Vietnamese passive sentences in particular. They also discuss a controversial issue about the existence of passive sentences in Vietnamese. By an agreement on this issue, they define Vietnamese passive sentences and draw a distinction between passive sentences and other types of sentences in Vietnamese, but not in comparison with English. In the book Ngữ pháp Kinh nghiệm của Cú pháp Tiếng Việt: Mô tả theo Quan điểm của Chức năng Hệ thống, Vân (2002) focuses on ‘voice’ and the term ‘voice’ in Vietnamese. Hòa (1980) in the book Ngôn ngữ học Đối chiếu: Cú pháp đối sánh Việt Anh compares passive sentences in English and Vietnamese in semantic and syntactic terms. However, he does not mention to the implication for teaching and learning of passive voice to ESL teachers and students. Besides, some contrasts and terms in the research are intricate, which makes readers confusing. Ban (1992) in the book Ngữ pháp Tiếng Việt 2 gives a general grammar structure of Vietnamese passive sentences. He also deals with “bị/ được” in terms of auxiliary verbs, modal verbs and lexical verbs. In short, much research has been done on the passive voice both in English and Vietnamese but not much research has been conducted to deal with comparisons of passive voice in these two languages. Considering the importance of this issue, it is essential to have a comprehensive study of passive voice in comparison with Vietnamese. 6 I.2. Discussing the name of the research paper I.2.1. Definition of voice Nowadays, there is little consensus of what voice is. Therefore, a large number of definitions of voice have been offered in many grammar books and dictionaries. However, it is always a controversial issue to choose the best definition. These are some typical definitions that are usually used in learning English to help learners understand and grasp clearly about voice. In the book A Grammar of Present Day English, Gordon (1995, p. 85) notes: “Voice is the form of the verb, which serves to show whether the subject of the sentence is the agent or the object of the action expressed by the predicate verb” In the book Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1995, p. 1932), voice is also defined as “a form or set of forms of a verb in which either person or thing that does something is the subject of the verb (the active voice) or the person or thing that is affected by the action of the verb is the object (the passive voice)”. Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik (1972, p. 801) in the book A Grammar of Contemporary English claim that voice is a grammatical category through which we can see it in two ways but the meaning in fact does not change. According to Wikipedia, the term voice refers to the relationship between the subject and the verb in a sentence. In passive voice constructions, the subject receives the action of the verb rather than act on it. In the book Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Crystal (1997) defines: “Voice is a category used to describe sentence structures or clauses, which mainly relate to verbs, to show the selection between subject and object for a sentence without changing its meaning” To sum up, voice is a grammatical category in which the subject of a sentence or clause takes the role as a recipient of the action rather than the performer. This will be illustrated by the following example: Nam painted the house yesterday. → The house was painted by Nam yesterday. 7 In the former sentence the subject “Nam” performs the action indicated by the verb “painted”. In the latter sentence, “the house” does not do the action. “The house” is affected by the action of painting. I.2.2. The term “passive” The term “passive” derives from the Latin term passivium (from pati, i.e. to suffer) from the original Greek term pathos ‘anything that befalls one, a suffering, affection’ (Anderson, 1989.) Passive constructions signify the state of ‘being acted upon’ or ‘suffering the effects of the action’ (Lyons, 1968, cited in Anderson, 1989.) Anderson (ibid.) further notes that in passive constructions, the subject does nothing, and is affected in consequence of action. In his article entitled Passive in the World’s Language, Keenan (1985) presents three general properties of the basic passive, i.e. (i) no agent phrase (e.g. by Tom) is present, (ii) the main verb (in its non – passive form) is transitive, and (iii) the main verb expresses an activity, taking agent subjects and patient objects. He also notes that generally languages can express passive expressions, e.g. ‘John was slapped,’ without committal as to who the agent was, but they usually use fully active means to do so. However, he emphasizes that even languages without passives, in terms of changes in morphology, have somewhat more grammaticalized means for expressing functional equivalents of basic passives. I.2.3. Syntactic and semantic analysis According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, syntax is defined the way that words and phrases are put together to form sentences in a language. Cobbett (1818) in A Grammar of the English Language in a Series of Letters: Intended for the Use of Schools and of Young Persons in General, but More Especially for the Use of Soldiers, Sailors, Apprentices, and Plough-Boys said that: "Syntax is a word which comes from the Greek. It means, in that language, the joining of several things together; and, as used by grammarians, it means those principles and rules which teach us how to put words together so as to form sentences. It means, in short, sentence-making. Syntax will teach you how to 8 give all your words their proper situations or places, when you come to put them together into sentences." In the book Syntactic Structures, Chomsky (1971) states that: “Syntax is the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages. Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal, the grammatical construction of a language that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis." Regarding what is semantics, in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, it is the study of the meanings of words and phrases. The two main areas are logical semantics, concerned with matters such as sense and reference and presupposition and implication, and lexical semantics, concerned with the analysis of word meanings and relations between them. According to Saeed (2003) in the book Semantics, “As our original definition of semantics suggests, it is a very broad field of inquiry, and we find scholars writing on very different topics and using quite different methods, though sharing the general aim of describing semantic knowledge. As a result, semantics is the most diverse field within linguistics. In addition, semanticists have to have at least a nodding acquaintance with other disciplines, like philosophy and psychology, which also investigate the creation and transmission of meaning. Some of the questions raised in these neighboring disciplines have important effects on the way linguists do semantics." Pulman (1997, p. 105 – 138) in the chapter “Language Analysis and Understanding” of the book Survey of the State of the Art in Human Language Technology indicated that a perennial problem in semantics is the delineation of its subject matter. The term meaning can be used in a variety of ways, and only some of these correspond to the usual understanding of the scope of linguistic or computational semantics. In this paper, the author would like to put passive voice on the view point of syntactic and semantic analysis to provide deeply this category in English and 9 Vietnamese. After that the contrast is made to find out similarities and differences of passive voice in both languages. I.3. Passive voice in syntactic analysis I.3.1. Be - passive Passive voice is known to be expressed by the combination of the auxiliary verb “be” with the verb in past participle (Vpp). The tenses of “be” in passive structures are presented as the following: Table 1: Tenses of “be” in passive structures Tenses Simple Structures Examples Present S + am/is/are + Vpp English is spoken in Canada. Past S + was/were + Vpp The vase was broken. Future S + shall/will + be + A new commercial center will be Vpp Present built in the city next year. S + am/is/are + being The march is being televised now. + Vpp Progressive Past S + was/were + being + My computer was being used by Vpp Present him when I went to get it back. S + have/has + been Papers have been used for ages. + Vpp Perfect Past S + had + been + Vpp simple The bag had been left at home when I went to school. Future S + will + have + been The dishes will have been washed +Vpp by then. The other tenses are not mentioned because they are hardly ever used in the passive. I.3.2. Get – passive In English, a passive sentence is formed with “get” and a past participle. The verb “get” can function in a manner very similar with “be”. In Oxford Guide 10 to English Grammar, Eastwood (1994, p. 136) notes: “We sometimes form the passive with get rather than be”. He got bitten by mosquitoes. The example above has get – passive structure used without a by – phrase. If the sentence lacks a by – phrase, it is easy to make confusion between a get – passive with get before a past participle and a get preceding adjectives and meaning “become”. Considering this point, let’s look at these examples as following: 1. He got irritated at his stupid dog. 2. He got frightened by his stupid dog. In the two examples above, it causes ambiguity to distinguish between a past participle and an adjective. To identify the past participle we can insert “very” before irritated. Adjectives admit “very” but participles do not. Besides, by – phrase is also used to identify the passive in this case. The Get – passive is also used to express an action or change not a state, whereas passive sentences with “be” usually denote a state. In other words, the verbs in get – passives are often dynamic. According to Carter and McCarthy, get – passives cannot replace be – passives with non – dynamic verbs. For example: The bed had not been slept in. but not * The bed had not got slept in. I.3.3. Passive voice with modal verbs According to John Eastwood in Oxford Guide to English Grammar (1994, p. 136), the passive is also known to be expressed by combination of modal verbs followed by be with past participles: Modal + Be + Past Participle The problem can be solved immediately. Violent actions should be banned in schools. A modal verb can combine with the perfective and passive together: Modal + have been + Past Participle The window should have been cleaned yesterday. 11 My bicycle must have been stolen. There are modal verbs in modern English: will/would, shall/should, can/could, may/might, ought to, must, have to, used to, dare, let, need. Especially, need forms a passive sentence by preceding an active – ing form of verb or a passive infinitive. The table needs repairing/ The table needs to be repaired. Fishes in the bow need feeding/ Fishes in the bow need to be fed. I.3.4. Passive voice with to - infinitives and gerunds To – infinitives and gerunds usually appear in the passive and come in the same pattern as the active form. For example: I expected to be invited to the party. It is terrible to be bitten by dogs. In the second example, we can rewrite it by using a gerund phrase without changing the passive form of the verb “bite”. Being bitten by dogs is terrible. Sometimes, the passive meaning is remained while the active is used in a sentence like this: You are not to blame for what happened. (= no one should blame you). The reason for this case is that “to blame” is used in a passive sense with the meaning of responsibility for something bad happened. We also have perfect tenses of to – infinitives and gerunds. Let us see two examples below: He is said to have been sacked for a week. I am annoyed at having been made a fool of. I.3.5. Verbs and objects in passive voice. I.3.5.1. Transitive verbs or intransitive verbs In so many research works about passive voice, grammarians affirm that in passive voice, all verbs are transitive. Why do they say so? Why intransitive verbs do not appear in passive sentences? They are related to objects. When we use 12 the passive, the subject is hidden there is always an object, which means the verb is always transitive. Transitive verbs always take objects and answer a question beginning with 'what' or 'whom'. When the writer uses the passive, the subject is hidden and the focus is on the object. I paid the bill last week. - What did you pay?- The bill. →The bill was paid last week. The object of a transitive verb can be: 1. a noun: Tom sold his house. 2. a pronoun: He sold it. 3. a clause: He asked his friend to help him. A transitive verb usually takes a direct object; that is, the verb transmits action to an object. He sent the letter. (letter is direct object of sent) She gave the lecture. (lecture is direct object of gave) A transitive verb can also have an indirect object that precedes the direct object. The indirect object tells to or for whom the action is done, although the words to and for are not used. In the following examples, there is a difference between the direct and indirect objects. The direct object “letter” receives the action “sent”. The indirect object “Robert” is the person to whom the letter is sent: He sent Robert the letter. The direct object “lecture” receives the action “gave”. The indirect object “class” is the group to whom the lecture is given: She gave her class the lecture. There are 3 kinds of transitive verb: monotransitive, ditransitive and complex transitive verbs.  Monotransitive verbs are verbs that take only one object. She studies Russian.  Ditransitive are verbs that take two objects. My mother gave me a pen. 13