HAI PHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY
FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT
oOo
GRADUATION PAPER

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF NEGATIVE
QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE By:
Pham Thu Ha
Class: NA 1201
Supervisor:
Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thu
Hai Phong – December 2012


Tên đề tài: …………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………

NHIỆM VỤ ĐỀ TÀI

1. Nội dung và các yêu cầu cần giải quyết trong nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp
(Về lý luận, thực tiễn, các số liệu cần tính toán và bản vẽ)
2. Các số liệu cần thiết để thiết kế tính toán
3. Địa điểm thực tập:

Đã nhận nhiệm vụ Đ.T.T.N Đã giao nhiệm vụ: Đ.T.T.N
Sinh viên Cán bộ hướng dẫn: Đ.T.T.N

Hải Phòng, ngày……tháng… năm 2012
HIỆU TRƯỞNG

GS.TS.NGƯT. Trần Hữu Nghị
PHẦN NHẬN XÉT TÓM TẮT CỦA CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN
1. Tình thần thái độ của sinh viên trong quá trình làm đề tài tốt nghiệp:
2. Đánh giá chất lượng Đ.T.T.N (So với nội dung yêu cầu đã đề ta trong
nhiệm vụ Đ.T.T.N trên các mặt lý luận, thực tiễn, tính toán giá trị sử
dụng, chất lượng các bản vẽ)

(Điểm ghi bằng số và chữ)

Ngày ……tháng… năm 2012
Người chấm phản biện
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In the process of completing this Graduation Paper, I have received a great
deal of help, guidance and encouragement from my teachers and friends.

First of all, I would like to express my great gratitude to my supervisor,
Ms.Nguyen Thi Phuong Thu, M.A for helping me through this challenging
process.

I would also like to express my special thanks to other teachers of Foreign
Language Department for their supportive lectures during four years that have
provided me with good foundation to do effectively my Graduation Paper.

Last but not least, I would like to thanks my family, my friends for their
serious encouragement and inspiration me to complete this paper.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Scope of the study 2
4. Methods of the study 3
5. Design of the study 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4
1. Negation in English and Vietnamese in brief. 4
1.1. Definition of negation. 4
1.2. Scope of negation 4
1.3. Focus of negation 5
The relationship between scope and focus of negation 7
2. Negative questions in English 7

2. Some suggestions to correct the mistakes 33
PART 3: CONCLUSION 36
1. Summary of the study 36
2. Suggestions for further studies and final comment 37
References 38
Books: 38
Websites: 38
APPENDIX 40

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PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Learning a foreign language is of great significance today. It is the bridge
connecting countries in many fields. The mastery of a foreign language
enables us to communicate with people from other countries, achieve mutual
understandings, and further our trade contacts, economic co- operations, and
cultural and academic exchanges with other countries.
I am interested in learning English so much. English, as mentioned over
and over again, is an international language. In Viet Nam, English, now, is a
compulsory subject for pupils in most primary and secondary schools. It is
also an important subject for students at all universities. Particularly, English
is one of the essential requirements for those who want to find a good job.
However, in order to master a language, we have to pay attention not only
to grammar, structure, vocabulary, and pronunciation but also the culture of
the language.
In communicative process in English as well as in other languages,
questions play an important role. We are not able to keep communication
going on well without asking questions. We ask question in order to exchange
information, ideas, feeling and knowledge. On the other hand, we sometimes

equivalents within the frame of structures and using negative words. Four
types of questions will be discussed: Yes-No questions, Tag questions, Wh-
questions and Alternative questions. However, due to the limited time and
knowledge, only negative questions that use the negator “not” will be
discussed in details, the others will be suggested for further study. The study
also finds out the common mistakes made by students at HPU and some
suggestions to correct these mistakes.
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4. Methods of the study
The study is conducted by carefully collecting materials from various
sources to have full – blown information of English and Vietnamese negative
questions. Moreover, I have consulted with my supervisor, and obtained
suggestions, instructions and encouragement from my teachers. The
contrastive analysis is made intra- and interlingually: English negative
questions with Vietnamese counterparts. The contrastive analysis involves
two stages: the description of the structures and the use of negative words in
both languages.
5. Design of the study
My graduation paper is divided into three parts, in which the second,
naturally, is the most important part.
a. Part 1 is the INTRODUCTION in which the rationale, aims of
the study, scope of the study, methods of the study, design of the
study are presented.
b. Part 2 contains three chapters:
Chapter 1 provides readers with some theoretical background
on negation, negative questions in English and Vietnamese in brief.
Chapter 2 is also the main part of the study, which provides
the contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese negative
questions.

that something is not true or incorrect.
1.2. Scope of negation
The term “scope of negation” is introduced to refer to the stretch of
language over which the negative has its effect. The relation between negative
words and non-assertive words that they govern will happen in scope of
negation (that is part of language that the negative meaning operates through).
The scope of negation formally extends from the negative words to the end of
the clause or to the beginning of a final adjunct. The subject and any adjuncts
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occur before a final predication often lies outside it. Thus, the operator can be
within or outside the scope. Below are some examples to illustrate:
E.g. I absolutely did not agree with you. (1)
Versus I did not absolutely agree with you. (2)
In (1), the scope of negation stretches from “not” to “you”, subject (I), adjunct
(absolutely), operator (did) are excluded, the predication takes full negative
effect
(1) = It is absolute that I did not agree with you
or = that I did not agree with you is absolute
Sentence (2) I did not absolutely agree with you, subject (I) and operator (did)
are put outside while adjunct is inside, negative meaning extends from
negative word to the end of the clause.

1.3. Focus of negation
We need to identify not only the scope, but also the focus of negation.
Focus of negation gives a stress on particular part of a negative clause; this
not only indicates the contrast of meaning implicit in the negative but also
implies the rest of the clause in the positive. The focus of negation is to place
effect on single word, which belongs to either open-class item in clause.
Grammarians divided focus of negation in English into two types:

information by avoiding repetition of the given information.
E.g.: Have you phoned your parents? No, I haven‟t. ≈ (I haven‟t
phoned my parents).
Did you go out last night? No, I didn‟t. ≈ (I didn‟t go out last
night).
The participation of end focus and a contrastive focus makes the focus of
negation not as ambiguous as the scope of negations they also have a certain
contribution to finding appropriate account for ambiguity in the scope of
negation.
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The relationship between scope and focus of negation
The scope and focus are interrelated in such as a way that the scope must
include the focus. In an independent clause, the scope of negation covers all
the negative effect the extent of the scope is identified by the position of the
focus.

2. Negative questions in English
2.1 What is a negative question?
“Negative questions are interrogative sentences with the presence of
negative marker. They ordinarily do not accomplish questioning in the
sense of information seeking”.
e.g. Doesn‟t she understand?
Why don‟t you listen to me?
“Negative questions are generally used in different situations to express
an opinion (seeking agreement) or to confirm information (checking
information). To express an opinion in a more polite way, people
change them into negative questions. They want the listeners to agree
with their opinion”.
e.g. Isn‟t it cold today? (I think it‟s cold today. How about you?)

Bob: I’d like to take you guys out to dinner while I’m here, we’d have time
to go somewhere around here before the evening session tonight, don’t
you think?
Kathleen: I guess, but there’s not really any place to go in Hyde Park.
Bob: Oh, really, isn’t there a vegetarian restaurant around here?
Kathleen: No, about all we can get is hamburgers and souvlaki.
Bob uses the negative question here for a very different reason: he had
previously assumed the truth of the proposition there is a vegetarian
restaurant around here, but has now inferred from what Kathleen says that
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this proposition is actually false, and is using the negative question to
check this new inference.
The ambiguity in (E.g.2) is between „left-wing‟ and „right-wing‟
readings as seen in (E.g.5) and (E.g.6).
E.g.5: (Situation: A and B are former left-wing activists discussing the
recent activities of a colleague.)
A: Did you hear John’s decided to go to business school?
B: Yeah, I can’t believe how much he’s changed these days; didn’t he even
vote for Reagan?
A: That’s what somebody told me.
E.g.6: (Situation: A and B are staunch Republicans)
A: What’s Dick been up to these days, I haven’t seen him at the Club for
ages.
B: Haven’t you heard? He says he’s disillusioned with two-party politics,
he’s joined Common Cause, gave a lot of money to the Citizens’ Party…
A: Didn’t he even vote for Reagan?
B: Not as far as I know.
The situation in (E.g.5) is like that in (E.g.3), the negative question is
being used to confirm something the speaker believes to be true, namely


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CHAPTER 2: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE NEGATIVE
QUESTIONS
1. Negative forms and non-assertive forms in English
1.1. Negative Forms
In English, besides inserting not, there are other words which have a
negative meaning such as no+phrase; pronoun: no one, nobody, nothing…
E.g.: There‟s no money in my pocket ≈ (There is not any money in my
pocket)
Here, we have no as negative determiner and it is one of the negative items
in English with different function.
No as a pronoun:
E.g.: I saw no one in the room ≈ (I didn‟t see anyone in the room).
No as a determiner: (happens both singular and plural).
Eg1: There are no students in the class ≈ (There are not any students in
the class).
Eg2: There is no money in my pocket ≈ (There isn‟t any money in my
pocket).
We also use none and neither (of) to replace for pronouns and
determiners:
Eg1: None of them was absent.
Eg2: Neither of them are dentists.
Eg3: Neither class is opened.
Furthermore, negative words are various. Except for words above, there
are some negative items such as: nowhere (adverb of place); never (adverb of
time); no longer/ no more; neither….nor.
Eg1: I have never seen such a tall man.

negative item. Both of them are negative and close paraphrases. The second
sentence looks like an affirmative since it has no “not” or “n‟t” following
operator, but they have a negative element; the determiner “no”. The first
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sentence is obviously a negative sentence, but its effect is less strongly
negative than the second. It seems that an ordinary negative sentence is
weaker than the one in which the negative making is part of another word or
phrase.
2. Negative orientation
As you know, a question may be presented in a form which refers to a
negative orientation in questions. Here I want to refer to the negative
orientation in questions. Negative orientation is found in questions which
contain a negative form of one kind or another:
E.g.: Can‟t you give us any hope of success? ≈ (It is really true that you
can‟t…?)
Negative orientation is complicated, however, by an element of surprise or
disbelief which adds implication of positive meaning. There is a combination
of “positive and a negative attitude, which may be distinguished as the “old
assumption” (positive) and “new assumption” (negative). The “old
assumption” tends to be identified with speaker‟s hopes and wishes, so that,
the negative orientation often express annoyance of disappointment.
E.g.: Hasn‟t he come here yet?
≈ (I‟d hope he would have come here by now, but it seems that he
hasn‟t)
Another type of negative questions combines not with the assertive items
that are the formal signals of positive orientation.
E.g.: Didn‟t someone give you letters yesterday?
The question above is similar to a tag- question
≈ Someone gave you letters yesterday, didn‟t he?

Didn‟t John eat?
Do you not buy that book?
Don‟t you buy that book?
Uncontracted forms are normally used in formal questions when we
require special emphasis to express anger, surprise, etc. And in rhetorical
questions, they do not require an answer.
E.g. Can you not stop asking me for money?
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Contracted forms are used when speaker is expecting the answer “Yes”. I
also used to express surprise, disbelief, annoyance or sarcasm.
E.g. Can’t you shut the door behind you?
Also they are used for invitation and exclamation:
E.g. Won’t you come in for a few minutes?

3.2. Negative Tag- questions
A tag question consists of an operator plus a pronoun, with or without a
negative particle; the choice and tense of the operator is determined by the
verb phrase in the subordinate clause:
E.g. They did not work all night, did they?
As the example illustrates, if the subordinate clause is positive, the tag is
negative, and vice versa. Both patterns are used to ask the hearer to agree that
the statement in the main clause is true.
The nuclear tone of the tag occurs on the operator and is either a rise or
fall. Four main types of tag question emerge from the observance of these
rules:
Type 1
Positive + Negative
E.g.: You can dance, `Can‟t you?
(Rising tone)