VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FA CULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
HA
THIHONG
A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF THE VERB GO' IN ENGLISH
AND
DV
IN VIETNAMESE: A PERSPECTIVE OF EMBODIMENT
IN COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS
(Nghien ciiii doi chieu
dong
tu
'go' trong
tieng
Anh v6i dong
tu
'di'
trong
tieng Viet: Ap dung tinh hien than trong Ngon
ngu
hoc Tri nhan)
M.A. MINOR THESIS
FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
CODE:
60
22 15
SUPERVISOR: Assoc.
Prof.
Dr.
Tran

Part II: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4
L Cognitive
linguistics 4
1.1. Introduction 4
1.2.
Definitions of
terms
4
1.2.1.
Cognitive science 4
1.2.2.
Cognitive linguistics 4
1.2.3. Cognitive semantics 5
1.2.4.
Embodiment 5
1.2.5.
Perspectives 5
1.3. Cognition and linguistics 6
1.4.
Cognitive linguistics 6
1.5. Major Principles of
CL
6
1.5.1. Embodiment in CL 6
1.5.2.
Grammar and meaning 6
1.5.3. Embodiment and
lexicalization
in CL 7

Definitions 14
2.2.2. Guiding Principles for contrastive study
15
Chapter II A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF THE VERB
*GO'
IN ENGLISH
\ AND
'DV
IN VIETNAMESE: A PERSPECTIVE OF EMBODIMENT IN
COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS
3,1.
A contrastive study of
the
verb
'go'
in English and
'di"
in
Vietnamese.
16
3.1.1.
An Investigation of the verb
'go'
in English
16
3.1.1.1.
Grammatical features
16
3.1.1.1.1.
Syntactic features

27
3.1.2.2.3.
Synonyms
of'di"
28
3.1.2.3.
Embodiment
in'di'
29
3.1.2.4.
Lexicalization
of'di'
^0
3.1,3.
Findings
^^
VI
3.1.3.1.
In Terms of Grammatical Features
31
3.1.3.1.1
Similarities 31
3.1.3.1.2. Differences 31
3.1.3.2.
In
terms of Semantic Features 32
3.1.3.2.1 Similarities 32
3.1.3.2.2. Differences 34
3.1.3.3.
Lexemes

and have subnotion hanging with it this word used in the title way result in
misunderstanding. The meaning of the word "perspective' in the study
the
author wishes to
express is that of "view
point'.,
"standpoinf.
More than
that,
the author wishes
lo
bring a
metaphor of the word "perspective' to the title, hoping lo create a profound and thoughtful
meaning
of the title of the dissertation.
2.
Aims of the study
The study aims to provide a critical analysis of theoretical approaches of cognition
of explaining language phenomena. More
particularly,
a perspective of embodiment in
cognitive linguistics will be critically explored lo help looking at this language
phenomenon.
The study aims at
presenting another
way of
anahsis
the verb
'^a',
based on

'di'
in Vietnamese.
4.
Research questions
The questions that the study will investigate will be as follows.
Question 1. What are the grammatical and semantic features of the verb 'go' in English
and 'di' in Vietnamese and how are they similar and different in terms of these features?
Question 2: What are their synonyms? What are some idioms with them?
Question 3: How are the verb 'go' and
"di^
seen from the perspective of
embodiment in CL?
5. Method of the study
The study has been carried out based on a combination of different methods as follows.
- synthesizing
- contrasting and analyzing
The procedure of the study is:
to synthesize meanings of
"go'
and
't//'
from different diclionaries
to collect synonyms of each verb
to analyze and contrast each verb respectively to make clear the similarities and
differences between them.
6. Design of the study
The study consists of three parts. Part I. entitled
'INTRODUCTION'
outlines the
background of the study in which a brief account of

and
s>non\ms.
Chapter II discusses the grammatical and semantic features of
the
two verbs and the
Contrastive study of the verb 'go' in English and 'di' in Vietnamese from the perspective
of embodiment in CL.
Part III is CONCLUSION, which provides recapitulation, implications of language
teaching and learning, and English - Vietnamese translation and vice versa and some
recommendations for further research. The study ends with the REFERENCES and
APPENDIX.
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.
Cognitive linguistics
1.1. Introduction
In this study, cognitive semantics is the main interest which provides gateways for
the understanding and analysis of linguistic expressions, especially perspective of
embodiment in cognitive linguistics which is the object of study in this research. This
chapter is committed to cognitive linguistics, thus enabling me lo provide a thorough
theoretical framework/background for the study. The focus of the chapter is the notions of
cognitive linguistics which will be implemented in explaining and discussing the verb 'go'
in English and
'J/'
in Vietnamese.
L2.
Definitions of terms
1.2.L
Cognitive Science
It is impossible to be sure of a definition of what cognitive science, since different

\iew
of
acquisition.
1.2.3. Cognitive semantics
Cognitive semantics is a branch of CL. It rejects the formal traditions of attributing
linguistics to phonology, syntax, pragmatics, etc, and states that meaning is independent
from syntax. On the other hand, cognitive semantics states that meanings come from our
mind; or rather, meanings are in the head (Gardenfors,
1994.)
Moreover, meanings are not independent from syntax; but semantics is primary to
syntax and partly determines it, and syntax cannot be described independently of semantics
(Gardenfors, 1994.) In other words, meanings cannot stand apart from the people who use
and create them because all linguistic expressions must come from and be activated by our
mind and brains. In short, cognitive semantics studies the relationship between language
and experience and embodied cognition.
L2.4.
Embodiment
Cognitive semantics claims that the meanings of language is
embodied,
which means
that it is the speaker's bodily experience that triggers the linguistic expressions that carry
the
mcaning(s) to the hearer(s). In other words, we perceive things in
ihc
world differently;
each of us has different perceptions on even one c\cnl or situation. As a
result,
language
used by us to describe the world must undergo changes through speaker's or writer's
perception, resulting in a fact that language is not the description of the real word (nor any

different
standpoints,
different
concepts are created in the perceivers. thus resulting in
different
construal.
which lead to
dilTerent linguistic expressions.
1.3. Cognition and linguistics
There has been a growing movement of researches and studies in the field of
cognitive science. As a result, there are a dozen definitions of cognition. The major tenets
of cognition proposed include the study of mind and
intelligence,
the acquisition of
knowledge through perception and experience, and the organization of knowledge into
mental activities and processes. Moreover, cognition relates to our mind, rather than our
thought, which relates to the conscious or unconscious processing of knowledge via mental
operations. In short, cognitive science is concerned with major functions of human beings,
such as thinking, reasoning, remembering, etc. (c.f. Thagard. 1996;
Bechtel
et
al.,
1998;
Jensen, 2004).
1.4. Cognitive linguistics
CL is the scientific study of human languages in relationship to human cognition.
In other words, it is concerned with investigating the relationship between our (human)
language,
our mind and our
socio-physical

who create and use
them"
(Barcelona,
1997: 9 referred from Rcddy. 1993.) Meanings
'reside'
(Barcelona: ibid.) in our mind and our brains; linguistic expressions just activate
them. Since meanings result from people's real life experience, collectively and
individually, the meaning complex
Activated in one's mind does not necessarily need to be the same as the one
activated in someone else's by an utterance with the same linguistic form.
Let us take an example in the Vietnamese language to show the relationship
between grammar and meaning.
In English: - Where did you go this morning?
-1
went to the English club
In Vietnamese: - Sang nay em di ddu the?
- Em di den cdu lac ho tieng Anh
Usually in English we must use the past tense in both the question and answer in the
example above, in contrast, the verb 'di' (go) in Vietnamese does not change its form. To
show the tense in Vietnamese this case, we can use 'da' although it is not usually to do so
as the speaker(s) and hearer(s) understand the time in the question and answer.
L5.3.
Embodiment and lexicalization in CL
(1) Figure and Ground
The term Figure and Ground were taken from Gestalt
psychology,
but
Talmy
(1972) gave them a distinct semantic interpretation that is continued here. The Figure is a
moving or conceptually movable object whose path or site is at issue. The Ground is a

group of languages, the verb expresses at once both the fact of Motion and a Co-Event,
usually either the manner or the cause of the Motion. Here is the Pattern in Representation
of Event Structure.
(Figure Motion Path
Ground)Mouon Event Rjelation (Event)co.Evcnt
MOVE
BELOCATION
^
Precursion
Enablement
Cause
Manner
^
Concomitance
Subsequence^
Verb(s) roots
(3) The Pattern Underlying Co-Event Conflation
We can indicate the type of conflation pattern
in\olved
here with a construction
that represents the separate semantic component individually - that is, that decomposes or
'unpack' the sentences. The Manner motion conflated in the verb is then best represented
by a separate subordinate clause standing for a Co- Event. In this
construction,
the relation
that the Co-Event bears to the main Motion event is then indicated by a form like WITH -
THE- MANNER OF. Such a form represents a deep or mid-level morpheme that functions
semantically like the subordinating preposition or conjunction of a complex sentence. And
the
fomi

is based on
tlie
fomiula. We will discuss in more details in the latter of the stud)'.
1.6. Perspectives
1.6.1. A clarification of the term 'perspective'
Regarding the title of the study, the term
'perspective'
means point of view or
viewpoint, standpoint, or angle, from which the passive voice is seen. However, the term
^perspective'
in this study goes beyond the meaning of viewpoint. The term perspective in
semantics means viewpoint, but it spreads its significance to other concepts:
orientation,
directionality, vantage points and subjectivity/ objectivity
1.6.2. Theoretical framework on perspective
Perspective or sometimes-called perspective taking is an issue of point of view
from interlocutors. Looking at an object, or more generally at an event or an issue.
different people may have different points of view expressing their views about the issue or
event being discussed. In cognitive linguistics, 'the meaning associated with a linguistic
symbol
refers
to a particular mental representation termed a concept. Concepts in turn
derive from percepts' (Evans & Green, 2006.) (bold in original.)
Figure
1
below,
cited
from Evans & Green, 2006, further illustrates this point. This figure indicates that human
beings perceive events in the reality which will then be conceptualized into our brain, from
which linguistic expressions are produced to describe the situation.

most typical member of the same category, called
-prototype"
and
the
'prototype provides
us with essential information on the concept' (Antovic. 2003).
10
2.
An Overview of Verbs and Contrastive Analysis
2.1.
An Overview of Verbs
2.1.1.
Verbs in English
Verb is considered to be the king of all parts of speech in English. At the heart of
every sentence is a verb, an action word that is generally indicates what someone or
something is doing or perhaps merely indicates being. The shortest sentence can be formed
with one word such as 'Stop!' or 'Go'.
According to Jack C. Richards at al (1992:398). in English, a word is a verb when it
satisfies these following criteria:
Occurs as part of the predicate of
a
sentence.
Carries makers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, person, number,
and mood; and
Refers to an action or state
Almost all verbs in English change in form in accordance with tense,
mood,
person,
etc.
For example; 'She eats apple'; 'I like eating cookies with milk

2.1.2.
Verbs in Vietnamese.
Like nouns, verbs are one of two fundamental parts of speech in Vietnamese and
they play an important role in Vietnamese
vocabular>'
as well as in forming sentences.
Grammatical features of verbs remain complicated.
11
According to Le Bien (1999: 70), and Diep Quang Ban (2001:21), in terms of
general meaning, verbs are substantives referring to progress, forms of movements. They
may be
acfivities
such as: Toi doc
sdch;
Me ndu cam
tdi
s&m cho
chting
toi hoc bdi
thL
They may be states as in: Em yeu que
huang\
Chung toi mong ngong
thu
nhd. They may
be changing processes as in: Chi ay da tra thdnh c6
gido\
Chu dy da
tra
nen giau co a

With other auxiliary components of other parts of speech as in: 'thi do, hoc gidi, an
ngon,
etc.
Verbs in Vietnamese can have different functions in a sentence. The most popular
and outstanding one is predicator. For example: Hoa na. Toi an
toL
etc. Verbs can also be
subjects of a sentence as in Day tot, hoc tot la nhiem vu cua thdy vd tro trong nhd
truoiig
chung
ta,
etc. They can be complements, for example: Be tap an cam, Nguyen c6 gang
hodn thdnh cong
vice tricac
khi trai
toL
Diep Quang Ban and Hoang Van Thung classify' Vietnamese \'erbs into two kinds:
transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. Intransitive verbs are ones that can stand alone with
complete
meaning without help from other words, for example: Lit tre dang an: Trai
mica:
Co
dy
hat.
etc.
Transitive
\erbs, in contrast, can not stand alone. the\' need help from other
words to complete their meaning as in: Toi tra sdch. Can bo
time
thu

following table:
Types of lexical Meanings
1.
Conceptual/denotational meaning
Associative
meaning
2.
Connotative
meaning
3.
Social/stylistic
meaning
4.
Affected
5.
Reflected meaning
Definition
Logical, cognitive or
denotative content
What is
communicated by
virtue of what
language refers to
What is
communicated of the
social circumstances
of language use
What is
communicated of the
feelines

6. Collocative
meaning
What is
communicated
through association
with words which
tend to occur in the
environment of
another word
What is
communicated by the
way in which the
message is organized
in terms of order and
emphasis
Heav7
smoker, rain,
fine, pretty vs
handsome
She donated the first
prize
The prize was
donated by her
Basically, in terms of lexical meaning, verbs in English and in Vietnamese are
similar. However, they differ in respect of grammatical meaning. English verbs
carr)
two
kinds of meanings; meanwhile. Vietnamese verbs themselves do not
carr>'
grammatical

Actually, absolute synonyms of this type are almost non-existent in English.
Therefore, the study only focus on partial synonyms (descriptive,
cognitive,
or
prepositional
synonyms) when dealing with synonyms of 'go'.
However,
absolute
synonyms can be found in Vietnamese as in 'bong da' and "ttic cdu', sdn bay' and 'phi
tru&ng',
etc.
Another classification of synonyms, according to Hoang Tat
Truong
(1993:
73) is
semantic synonyms (words differ in shade of meaning
.e.g.,
"big'-
'large"); stylistic
synonyms (words differ in stylistic aspect such as
'father"-^dad'/daddy);
semantico-
stylistics synonyms (words differ both in shade of meaning and stylistic aspect, for
example: to dismiss - to sack; to fire - to lay- off): phraseological synonyms (words differ
in their collocation such as 'to do- 'to make'); and territorial synonyms (words belong to
different countries such as 'autumn' -
'fall",
'mobile phone" - cell phone').
In
brief,

or more languages or
subsystetns
of languages in order to
determine both the differences and similarities
between
them' (Fisiak.
1981:1)
The real beginning of modem applied contrastive linguistics was marked with the
publication of 'Linguistics across Cultures' by
Robert
Lados in 1957. later, Contrastive
Analysis' is used as an alternative for contrasti\c linguistics.
According to Richard, J. C et al (1992), CA is 'the comparison of the linguistic
S)\stem oftMO
languages, for example the sound system or the grammatical system.
15
Carl James (180:2) confirmed that CA is neither generalist nor particularist. It stands
somewhere intermediate on a scale between the two extremes. It is more interested in
differences between languages than in their likeness and it is viewed as diachronic rather
than synchronic in orientation. He defined CA as
'a
linguistic enterprise aimed at
producing inverted (i.e. contrastive, not comparative) two values typologies (a CA is
always concerned with a pair of languages), and founded on the assumption that
languages can be compared,
2.2,2.
Guiding Principles for CA
CA provide an objective and scientific base for second language teaching. If the
mother tongue of the learner and the target language both have significantly similar
linguistic features on all the levels of their

A PERSPECTIVE OF EMBODIMENT IN COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS
3.1.
An Investigation into the verb
^GO'
in English and
'di^
in Vietnamese
3.1.1.
An Investigation into the verb
'GO'
in English
3.1.1.1 Grammatical features
3.1.1.1.1.
Syntactic features
'GO'
is a typical verb, sharing the following syntactic function of a verb
(a) occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence
For example: He went to the cinema last night
They are all gone.
(1:
207)
Princess, I am going out into the world
(1:
212)
(b) Derivates of 'GO" can have different grammatical functions such as subject,
object
or
complement,
etc, as in:
Going to the theatre is my favourite pastime.

the past form 'WENT' We went; They went: He
went
the past participle: 'GONE' We've gone; She's gone
the -ing form: 'GOING' They're going; She's going
By means of derivation, it has 5 derivates as follows:
'GO'
(GOES- plural):
+
a person's tum to move or play in game
Whose go is it?
It
\s
your go
+
Energy and enthusiasm
(infonnal)
Be on the go (very active or
bu.sy)
'GOER' (noun): a person who regularly goes or attends
the specified
place or
c\cnt
Theatre goer(s)
'GOING' (adjective): a going concem (a business or activity that is making a profit and is
expected
to continue to do well)
'GOING' (noun): an act of leaving a place
We were all sad at her going
'GO"
can be used in such compound adjectives as easy -going (happy to accept things

shelf.
(7: 505)
Did everything go smoothly? (7: 505)
- Her hair is going grey. (7: 505)
How does that song go? (7: 505)
3.1.1.2.1 General meanings
According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Lacviet MTD
2002-EVA
Dictionary, tratu.vn and some other dictionaries, the verb 'GO' in English has the
following basic meanings.
(a) Movement
'GO"
is the movement away from the place where the speaker/writer is or a place where
they imagine themselves to be. Its Vietnamese equivalent expression is 'DI'. For example:
Would you go to the market for me?
She went lo her country cottage for the weekend
(b) Becoming/ turning
'GO'
is similar to
'become/tum/get/tum'
in some ways. Its Vietnamese equi\alent is 'hoa
thanh , thanh, thanh ra'. For
example:
He went mad when he learned about the accident
The milk went
sour,
(c) Running (a machine)
'GO'
can also be understood as to work, operate, run a machine, etc. Its Vietnamese
equivalent is 'chay (may moc). For example:

(Oxford?
19
(f)
Being
appropriate/suitable
with, going with or
matching,
'GO'
also means lo be appropriate or suitable with. Its Vietnamese equivalent is
'phu
hop
voi'.
See the following examples:
These colours don t go
Red goes well with brown
3.1.1.2.2. Synonyms of 'GO'
Words are considered the tool in our creation of the world. Therefore it is of
paramount important to deal with synonyms of a word when we want to have a deep
understanding of it. Synonyms can be classified into five main kinds: semantic synonyms.
stylistic synonyms, semantico- stylistic synonyms, phraseological synonyms and territorial
synonyms. Here, we would like to focus on its semantic synonyms.
Here
we wish to figure out
synonjTns
of'GO'
in relation with its basic meaning as follows.
(a) The first meaning of 'GO' is synonymous with 'move', 'leave',
"travel",
'proceed',
'depart' and 'set off, etc. These verbs are similar to the movement from the place where

and
'perform'.
Does your watch go well?
The machine goes by electricity.
I cannot get the engine to go properly
(7:
505)
20
(d) Other synonyms of 'GO' are 'to die' or 'pass away' (euphemism).
By the time the doctor
arrived,
Graham had gone.
3.1.1.3.
Embodiment of 'GO'
In this study, the author would like to mention the verb 'GO' in the light of
metaphor. In Cognitive Grammar
(1988),
John R.Taylor says that an important theme in
Jackkendoff s work has been some striking anologies between the ways in which different
domains are
structured,
(see especially Jackendoff 1983 chapter 9 and
10
and Jackendoff
1990,
chapter
1
and 2). Consider the following
(\) a. I went from the hotel to the airport
b. The inheritance went from George to Philip

A change of state is a change of location
Essentially,
this involves a function [GO] which maps a [THING] and a [PATH] into an
[EVEN
Tj.
Jackendoff fomializes
this as follows:
(3) [event GO ([thingX]. PathY])]
An expansion of the [PATH] concept is more conveniently represented as in (4)
EVENT
(4)
TO(Z)