PART I INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
In Vietnamese, the verb ‘chạy’ does not only indicate a physical activity only but also
imply other situations in real life communication. To some extent, it is not too difficult to
find such circumstances in which people use the verb ‘chạy’: ‘chạy ăn từng bữa toát mồ
hôi’, ‘chạy làng’, ‘chạy triện đồng’ etc. Especially, modern Vietnamese language, which
has developed and reflected the life in its own way, has been supplemented with many new
words, or new interpretations to the existing words such as ‘chạy điểm’, ‘chạy trường’,
‘chạy án’, ‘chạy thận, ‘chạy sô’, etc.
The verb ‘run’ in English, similarly, is rich in meaning which can be listed some
expressions like ‘run in the race’, ‘run a company’, ‘run a risk’, ‘run a temperature’, ‘run
the risk’ etc.
How do English people find equivalents for such expressions like ‘chạy tang’, ‘chạy
làng’, ‘chạy mả’, etc. in their language, and how do Vietnamese people translate such
expressions like ‘run guns’, ‘hit and run’, etc? This is the very question that seriously runs
in the author’s mind.
Language is widely accepted as the reflection of life. By comparing languages, the
similarities and differences not only between the languages but also between the speakers
of the languages as well as their cultures can be revealed.
R.J. D Pietro (1971:12), a French educational linguist, believed that CA was founded on
the foreign language teaching experiences. Each language has its own phonological,
morphological and syntactical features that could present difficulties for language learners.
To help overcome specific teaching and learning predicaments, this thesis has been made
with an attempt to create a definite pedagogical value with its presentation of effective
teaching strategies. On these points of departure, the author has conducted the study
entitled “A Contrastive Analysis between the Verb ‘Run’ in English and the Verb
‘Chạy’ in Vietnamese”.
2. Aims of the Study
The study is aimed at:
* Finding the similarities and differences between the verb ‘run’ in English and the verb
‘chạy’ in Vietnamese mainly in terms of MiCA and briefly in term of MaCA;

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5. Design of the Study
The study consists of three parts organized as follows:
Part I entitled “INTRODUCTION” outlining the background of the study in which a
brief account of relevant information such as the rationale, aims, scope, methods and
design of the study are provided.
Part II, the “INVESTIGATION”, is subdivided into two chapters. The first Chapter is
discussed the “THEORETICAL BACKGROUND” which provides necessary and relevant
theoretical concepts for the main contents of the study, covering a series of concepts
ranging from CA, contrasts between MiCA and MaCA, verbs in English and in
Vietnamese, a brief introduction of synonyms, and idioms. Chapter 2: “A CONTRASTIVE
ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE VERB ‘RUN’ IN ENGLISH AND THE VERB ‘CHẠY’ IN
VIETNAMESE” discusses the two verbs in terms of MiCA and MaCA in succession. Each
chapter ends with some concluding remarks.
Part III, the “CONCLUSION”, which provides recapitulation, implications of the study
for EFL teaching and learning and to translation from English to Vietnamese and vice
versa, and recommendations for further research. The “REFERENCES” and “SOURCES
OF THE DATA” mark the end of the thesis.
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PART II INVESTIGATION
CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. An Overview on Contrastive Analysis
1.1.1. Definition
The modern foreign language teaching tendency requires the teachers not only to teach
their learners about the language but also how to use the language. To a certain extent, CA
was established to meet that requirement.
According to Richards, J.C et al (1992), CA is “the comparison of the linguistic systems
of two languages, for example the sound system or the grammatical system,”
From Carl James’ view (1980:2) CA is “a linguistic enterprise aimed at producing
inverted (i.e. contrastive, not comparative) two values typologies (a CA is always

communication, whereas macro sociolinguistics involves language planning and sociology
of language.
In microlinguistics’ view, languages should be analyzed for their own sake and without
reference to their social function, to the manner in which they are acquired by children, to
the psychological mechanisms that underlie the production and reception of speech, to the
literary and the aesthetic or communicative function of language, and so on. For example,
a study of this kind often finds out what the consonant phonemes in languages X and Y
are, how they differ in inventory, realization and distribution; what the tense system of
language X and Y, etc.
The main aim of MiCA is a formal description of the language system based on the
interrelationships and independencies of its elements without any recourse to external
factors. Obviously, the translation situation which involves equivalent messages, that is
speech units or texts, in two different languages is not part of the system of either of these
languages and can not be studied and described in terms of microlinguistics.
Macolinguistics is the term that Yngve (1975) calls ‘broad’ or ‘human’ linguistics
aiming at achieving a scientific understanding of how people communicate or we may
define macrolinguistics as a field of study concerned with language in its broadest sense
and including cultural and behavioral features associated with language.
Carl James (1980) suggested that “the communicating individual must be able to
identify the situational constraints to which speech events are subjects and produce
utterances that conform to them.”
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Hymes (1974) identifies six variables which he suggests the ethnographer of speaking
must refer to in characterizing any particular event, they are setting, participants, purpose,
key, content, and channel.
Whereas, Carl James (1980:101) simplified these six variables in to “who says what to
whom, where and when, how and why”
1.2. A Brief Description of Verbs
In most languages, verbs are part of speech expressing existence, action, or occurrence.
According to Jack C. Richards et al (1992:398), a word is a verb when it satisfies these

‘sắp’, ‘đang’, ‘sẽ’, ‘đã’ should be used with great care because in some cases these
auxiliaries do not at all indicate the tense. For instances, a soldier reunited with his family
for five days, and the next day when he had to come back to his military unit. His wife said
to him: “Ngày mai anh đã đi rồi à?”, “đã” here does not indicate tense, it just helps to
show regret. Obviously, in Vietnamese, context holds the key factor to define tense of the
verbs.
In each language, there are different ways to classify verbs, however, in this thesis,
the classification of which verbs are divided into transitive and intransitive verbs shal be
applied, which would be convenient to compare the two verbs ‘run’ in English and ‘chạy’
in Vietnamese. According to Diệp Quang Ban and Hoàng Văn Thung, intransitive verb
does not need a direct object to function, for examples: Dung đang chạy tung tăng trong
công viên (Dung is running here and there in the park); Bé Ball ngủ say trong vòng tay mẹ
(Little Ball is fast sleeping in her mother’s arms), He is running in a park near by, etc.,
transitive verbs, in contrast, can not stand alone, they need help from other words to
complete their meaning as in: Anh ta đã bán cổ phần của mình cho tôi (He sold me his
stocks); Họ soạn thảo lại hợp đồng (They redrafted the contract); Chị ta đang bàn giao sổ
sách cho người kế nhiệm (She is handing over the records for the successor); or They ran
their own company for years.
In both languages, verbs indicating movement can combine with words of directions.
For example: run upstairs; come down; go over; or chạy lên; đi xuống, etc. However, in
Vietnamese, there exist directional verbs in their own sense such as: ‘ra’, ‘vào’/‘vô’, ‘lên’,
‘xuống’, ‘qua’, and so on as in:
- “Đường vô xứ Nghệ quanh quanh
Non xanh nước biếc như tranh họa đồ” (Vietnamese proverb)
1.3. Meanings of Meaning
Meaning refers to what a language expresses about the world we live in or any possible
or imaginary world. The theories of meaning and its types can be found in the literature of
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Leech (1974), Lyon (1977), (1995), Palmer (1981), and Crystal (1995). There are two
types of meanings: grammatical meaning and lexical meaning.

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verbs carry two kinds of meanings; meanwhile, Vietnamese verbs themselves do not carry
grammatical meaning such as tense, aspect, etc.
1.4. Synonyms
Synonyms are different words with identical or very similar meanings. Words that are
synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called
synonymy. Synonymy is a kind of sense relation or more specifically, one of the
substitutional sense relations.
Jack C. Richards et al (1992:368) defined synonym as a word which has the same or
nearly the same meaning as another word. It should be noted that two words which are
synonymous must belong to the same part of speech.
Lyon (1995:60) divides synonyms into three kinds: absolute synonyms, near synonyms
and partial synonyms. However, some linguists such as Jack C. Richards et al (1992:368),
Palmer (1981:88) argue that no two words have exactly the same meaning (denotational
and connotational meanings). Absolute synonyms, according to Lyon (1995:61), must
satisfy three conditions:
(i) all their meanings are identical;
(ii) they are synonymous in all contexts;
(iii) they are semantically equivalent (i.e. their meaning or meanings are identical) on all dimensions
of meaning, descriptive and non-descriptive.
Some lexicographers claim that in English, no synonyms have exactly the same
meaning (in all contexts or social levels of language) because etymology, orthography,
phonic qualities, ambiguous meanings, usage, etc. make them unique. Different words that
are similar in meaning usually differ for a reason: feline is more formal than cat; long and
extended are only synonyms in one usage and not in others (for example, a long arm is not
the same as an extended arm). Therefore, in this study, only partial synonyms of “run” are
dealt with.
However, absolute synonyms can be found in Vietnamese as in: ‘sân bay’ and ‘phi
trường’; ‘ti vi’ and ‘máy vô tuyến’, ‘bóng đá’ and ‘túc cầu’, etc.
1.5. Idioms

of meaning, synonyms and idioms are also discussed. Based on this theoretical foundation,
we will commence chapter 2 “A Contrastive Analysis between the Verb ‘Run’ in English
and the Verb ‘Chạy’ in Vietnamese”.
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CHAPTER 2 A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE VERB ‘RUN’
IN ENGLISH AND THE VERB ‘CHẠY’ IN VIETNAMESE
With the aims of drawing an overall picture of the two relevant verbs in the English and
Vietnamese languages, the author made effort to deeply investigate into the objective verbs
by analyzing and synthesizing basing on more than twenty English dictionaries; over ten
Vietnamese dictionaries; hundreds of writing works; valuable addition from colleagues and
revision from the respected supervisor.
In this part, we firstly study the two verbs in terms of MiCA. The verbs will be studied
separately within two of the three aspects of MiCA: the grammatical features, the semantic
features which are focused to figure out their general meanings and meanings in some
idioms respectively, the synonyms of each verbs are also discussed. Then the findings are
reached with the statements on the similarities and differences between the objects of the
study. This chapter is followed up with the analysis and contrast the “run” and “chạy” in
terms of MaCA which is much related to extralinguistic components.
2.1. A Contrastive Analysis between the Verb ‘Run’ in English and the Verb ‘Chạy’
in Vietnamese in Terms of Microlinguistics
As we already mentioned in the early parts, in terms of microlinguistics the verb ‘run’ in
English will be worked with three features: grammatical features (including syntactic and
morphological features) and semantic features.
2.1.1. An Investigation into the Verb ‘Run’ in English
2.1.1.1. Grammatical Features
2.1.1.1.1. Syntactic Features
‘Run’ is an ordinary verb, sharing the typical syntactic functions of a verb, as following:
(a) Being part of the predicate of a sentence. For example:
- Barack Obama's campaign ran a 30-minute advertisement simultaneously on
multiple television networks in an attempt to reach and sway a large number of

past form ‘ran’, the past participle stays ‘run’, and the –ing participle ‘running’.
By means of derivation, the verb ‘run’ itself is also a noun and an adjective, as in ‘It is a
two minutes' run from the subway’ or ‘Put some more run butter on the vegetables’.
Besides, it has several derivates as follow:
• Runner (noun): one who runs; candidate, competitor.
• Running (noun): act of jogging or moving quickly; act of competing in a race or
election, as in ‘Running in the early morning is my hobby’
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• Runnable (adjective): may be run, as in ‘The car is still runnable.’
• Runny (adjective): characteristic of a fluid; capable of flowing and easily
changing shape, as in ‘runny jam’.
• Rerun (verb): run again; reshowing of a program or film
• Overrun (verb/noun): invade; infest; swarm; triumph; exceed; print excess
amount, etc.
• Underrun (verb): pass below, run underneath; pass below and inspect something
from beneath in a water vessel, etc.
• Runnel/runlet (noun): rivulet, small brook, stream.
Run is also used in such many compounds as ‘runaway’ (an airstrip, strip of pavement
on which airplanes take off and land); ‘hit-and-run’ (automobile accident in which a driver
who hits a pedestrian or a car drives off to avoid taking responsibility); ‘runtime’ (time of
operation of computer software); runway (a hard surface along with aircraft take off and
land); runner up (candidate, contestant; one who finishes second in a competition);
runaround (evasive act, stalling tactic ; run down criticize); run over (hit with a vehicle;
chase and capture; become exhausted; make less valuable); chicken run (an enclosed yard
for keeping poultry); etc.
2.1.1.2. Semantic Features
On the ground of semantic features, the author attempts to discuss different senses of
‘run’ in general, and in idioms as well as its synonyms. Like any other lexical verbs, ‘run’
indicates an action or state, e.g.
- Now with me you won't have to run for your money, all you have to do is to hold

cause a race to take place:
- Who was the first man to run a hundred metes under 10 seconds?
- The Grand National will be run in spite of the bad weather.
Besides, ‘run’ expresses the act of moving freely and without restrain or act as if
running around in an uncontrolled way, e.g.
- Dr. Hutchins running around the room, aimlessly, attempting to gather himself,
his things, and escape all at the same time. (13:108)
- I have three of them. All day they are running around, troubling their mother.
(11:312)
(2). To be hurried
In order to shorten the time and distance or to get out of the bad situations, instinctively,
people run (away). Bellow examples well describe the uses of ‘run’ in this meaning.
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- Sampson ran as he never had before, in the grip of the coldest fear of his life. His
feet pounded heavily on the side walk stone. His heart felt heavy, ready to break. He
couldn’t catch a breath, and he was certain he would throw up if he didn’t stop running
this second. (7:220)
- Fortunately, I had reached the bottom of the hill and I could run quicker across
the grass. Although I raced at the top of my speed, the Thing was gaining upon me. There
was no need for me to look behind, I knew that it was just at the back of me. I could
scarcely breathe. My race had almost exhausted me; my breath came in gasps. (6:113)
The earlier is quoted from one of most famous novel by American writer James
Patterson ‘Cat and Mouse’, the latter from the immortal “Nobody’s boy” by Hector
Mailot.
Relating to this group, ‘run’ is also used to indicate the act of moving around asking for
help, i.e. turn to somebody for assistance, especially in desperation of as a dependant to a
protector, as in ‘I often ran to my brother for money when I was a student 5 years ago.’
(3). To spread
This meaning refers to things that cannot run physically, but actually, they could spread
very quickly. Vietnamese equivalent should be ‘lan ra’, ‘tràn ra’, ‘lan tràn’…

‘Run’ also denotes the state of releasing mucus or discharging a fluid such as pus or
mucus, as in ‘His lip was bloodied and more of the same was running from his nose in a
thick trickle.’ (13:65)
Interestingly, ‘run’ show the ‘flow’ of time, e.g. Mallory was getting desperate. His
time was running out too fast. (15:40)
(7). To move forward
When describing the act of moving forward smoothly or easily, especially on wheels we
can use ‘run’:
- “Hey,” she said breathlessly, having clearly just run up the stairs. “Can I
borrow your calculator?” (5:87)
Describing the act of quick moving in the specified direction or the cause of something
to move in the specified direction, we also use ‘run’:
- …Wladek, whom he clasped on to firmly, running his fingers over the boy's chest
as if to be sure that it was him. (9:108)
(8). To extent, to last, to continue
There are four sub-groups relating to this meaning of the verb run. First, this denotes the
extension in space through a range of possibilities that often combine with a measure
phrase:
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- The border runs for 3000 kilometers.
- It ran in quality from excellent to substandard.
Second, ‘run’ describes the extension, duration and continuing of time which also used
with measure phrase:
- The sale will run for ten days.
- Election campaigns in Britain run for three weeks.
Third, ‘run’ can be understood as to be valid for the specified period of time:
- The contract runs through 2009.
- The lease on my house has only a year to run.
Last, ‘run’ should be understood as to make something extent in space, as in ‘I need to
run this wire along the wall.’

- As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying
Iraqi newspapers to run stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the
image of the U.S. mission in Iraq. (18)
Vietnamese equivalent should be ‘đăng’; ‘đăng tải’; ‘giật tít’, etc.
(13). To convey or transport
We can use the verb run when we want to express act of taking someone to a place by a
certain means of transportation, e.g.
- Can you run me to the station?
- I will run you home. Ok?
(14). To be affected/ be subjected to
This is a quite special meaning of the verb ‘run’. Normally, referring the same sense,
people use the verb ‘have’. By using ‘run’ we put the emphasis on the progress of the
effect:
- She found him covered in little red spots and running a temperature of one
hundred and three. (6:46)
- When she tucked William up in bed that night, she found that he had been as
good as his word and was running a slight fever. (9:78)
(15). To think about
When talking about ideas that suddenly happen to the mind or mentioning the process of
thinking we can make use of the verb ‘run’, for examples:
- Orsatti sat there, running the name through the computer in his brain. (14:178)
- Paranoia was starting to run a little wild in my head. (7:142)
- It was two cases, both running concurrently in my mind. (7:260)
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(16). To smuggle
To the author’s surprise, the verb ‘run’ can be use to describe the act of bringing or
taking something into a country illegally and secretly, e.g.
- He used to run arms across the border of Cambodia.
- Obama win triggers run on guns in many stores. (17)
(17). To pass/ to become

‘Run’ can be used to show the particular form, order, or expression, e.g.
- The report runs as follows.
- The story ran a very happy ending.
(23). Other meanings
‘Run’ can be understood as to say (in a certain manner). We discover this interesting
meaning in the novel ‘The big rusty lie’ by American writer Ryan Speck shown in the
sentence: You might get in less trouble if you learned not to run that mouth , boy.” (13:83)
Run can be used to describe the state of unraveling of such types of material as nylon;
silk, cloth or cotton, e.g.
- Her nylons were running.
- Her stocking ran.
Sometimes, people use ‘run’ to indicate the state of appearing recurrently as a feature or
quality, e.g.
- Musical talent runs in the family
- Stubbornness runs in the class.
2.1.1.2.2. Meanings in Some Idioms
Being a typical action verb, ‘run’ does not only function as polysemy but also the root
of many related idioms. The combination of ‘run’ with its favorite words makes a lot of
senses for the treasure of the English language.
In the table below, the author tries to list some of the most popular idioms that run with
‘run’.
N
o
Idioms Meanings Examples
1
A run for one’s
money
- Strong competition
- Decent compensation
- Running for money doesn’t make

his church operates a bingo game
every Thursday night.
- Julianna needs to be careful if
she keeps holding with the hare
and running with the hounds; she
might wind up making enemies of
both labor and management.
4
(One) can run but
(one) can't hide
There is nothing
someone can do to evade
something.
- You can run away but you can't
hide. (Cry on my shoulder’s lyric)
5
Make somebody's
blood run cold
To frighten or horrify
somebody
- Her voice makes his blood run
cold.
6 Run a risk
Expose oneself to the
possibility of something
unpleasant occurring.

- It is impossible to win the great
prizes of life without running
risks, and the greatest of all prizes

or phrases that conform to the synonymic features of the verb ‘run’
Theoretically, synonyms can be classified into five main kinds: semantic synonyms,
stylistic synonyms, semantic-stylistic synonyms, phrase-logical synonyms and territorial
synonyms. Here, we would like to focus its semantic synonyms of eighteen basic meanings
of the verb ‘run’
(1). With the sense of moving fast by using one's feet, with one foot off the ground at
any given time run is synonymous with ‘travel rapidly’, ‘speed’, ‘hurry’, ‘zip’, ‘run away’.
For example:
- Don't hurry! You will be out of breath.
- I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is
to move. (Stevenson, Robert Louis)
(2). Concerning the act of stretching out over a distance, space, time, or scope; run or
extend between two points or beyond a certain point, ‘run’ has such synonyms as ‘go’,
‘pass’, ‘ lead’, ‘extend’, ‘be’, ‘run along’. For examples:
- His knowledge does not go very far.
- My memory extends back to my fourth year of life.
- The facts extend beyond a consideration of her personal assets
(3). In respect to describing the act of directing or controlling projects, businesses, etc,
‘run’ is similar to ‘operate’, direct’, ‘manage’, ‘control’.
- She is controlling/running a relief operation in the Sudan.
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- If you want to manage somebody, manage yourself. Do that well and you'll be
ready to stop managing. And start leading.
(4). With regard to the state of having a particular form, ‘run’ can be replaced by ‘go,
be’, as in ‘the story/argument is/goes/runs/ as follows’; ‘as the saying goes/runs ’
(5). By the meaning of moving along (of liquids), such words as ‘flow’, ‘feed’, ‘course’,
‘move’, ‘run over’ can be used instead of ‘run’:
- Water flowed into the cave.
- The Missouri feeds into the Mississippi.
(6). When using ‘run’ to mean performing as expected when applied, user can also make

(13). When being understood as to guide or pass over something, ‘run’ has such
synonyms as ‘guide’, ‘draw’, ‘pass’:
- Respect for ourselves guides our morals, respect for others guides our manners.
(Sterne, Laurence)
(14). If we use ‘run’ to describe the act of bringing or taking something into a country
illegally and secretly; just exploit ‘traffic’, ‘trade’, ‘merchandise’, ‘smuggle’, as in ‘By
law, it’s illegal to traffic in drugs.’.
(15). ‘Run’ is a synonym of such words and phrases as ‘bleed’, ‘diffuse’, ‘spread’,
‘spread out’,and ‘fan out’ when referring to the sense ‘be diffused’:
- The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally diffused through a
community, are essential to the preservation of a free government. (Houston, Sam)
(16). Expressions like ‘melt’, ‘melt down’, ‘dissolve’, ‘resolve’, ‘break up’ can replace
‘run’ in the case of showing the state of reducing or causing to be reduced from a solid to a
liquid state, usually by heating:
- Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness
causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate. (Schweitzer, Albert)
These synonyms of the verb ‘run’ can be used to replace for each other in certain
contexts. However, when they are near synonyms, our choices must be selected with great
care if not you may misinterpret what we actually want to indicate.
To put in a nutshell, by studying the verb ‘run’ in the English language the author has
attempted to figure out the overall grammatical features as well as semantic features of the
verb ‘run’. Perhaps, it’s unfeasible to draw a perfect picture about the meanings of a single
word. Together with the development of society, on one hand, a sense of a word might be
dead, on the other hand, many others might be born. Therefore, it is noteworthy that the
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topics which we mentioned previously are the most popular ones and they are easily to be
found in everyday communication.
2.1.2. An Investigation into the Verb ‘Chạy’ in Vietnamese
2.1.2.1. Grammatical Features
2.1.2.1.1. Morphological features