MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
NGUYEN THI TUYET A STUDY ON SOME ENGLISH NEGATIVE STRUCTURES AND
THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS IN ‘GONE WITH THE WIND’
NGHIÊN CỨU MỘT SỐ CẤU TRÚC PHỦ ĐỊNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH
VÀ NHỮNG TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT
‘CUỐN THEO CHIỀU GIÓ’
M.A. THESIS Field: English Language

Hanoi, December 30, 2013
Nguyễn Thị Tuyết
APPROVED BY: ii

ABREVIATIONS
A: adverbial
Adj: adjective
Aux. Auxialiary
C: complement
Noun: noun
NP: noun phrase
O: object
S: subject
V: verb
Pr: Predicate
BN: Bổ ngữ
CN: Chủ ngữ
DT: Danh từ

1.2.4. Negation in Vietnamese in brief 15
CHAPTER TWO: THE COMPARISION OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES OF
NEGATION BETWEEN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 19
2.1. Stuctures of negative statements 19
2.1.1. Subject negation: 19
2.1.2. Predicate negation 21
2.1.3. Object negation 29
2.1.4. Complement negation 30
2.1.5. Adverbial negation 31
2.1.6. Clause negation 32 iv

2.1.7. Total negation 34
2.2. Negative questions 35
2.2.1. Negative Yes-No questions 35
2.2.2. Negative Wh- questions 36
2.2.3. Question tags 37
2.3. Negative commands 37
CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION OF THE STRUCTURES
OF NEGATION IN “GONE WITH THE WIND” AND THEIR VIETNAMESE
EQUIVALENTS 39
3.1. The structures of negations used in ‘Gone with the wind’ 39
3.1.1. The frequency of using the negators in the novel and in translated version 39
3.1.2. The frequency of using “NOT” in the novel 39
3.1.3. The frequency of using “NO” in the novel 43
3.1.4. Negation with NOT … ANY, NOT…… EITHER, NOT ….EVER in the novel 45
3.2. Syntactic features of negative sentences in the source language and the
translated version in the target language 46


Negation is present in all human languages; it is one of the prevalent and
fundamental features of any human languages. As Larry Horn observes in his “A
Natural History of Negation” that all human systems of communication contain a
representation of negation. No animal communication system includes negative
utterances, and consequently none possesses a means for assigning truth value, for
lying, for irony, or for coping with false or contradictory statements
(Horn2001: iii). In English, especially in the novels, negative sentences account for
not a small proportion. Much attention has been paid to the patterns and semantic of
negative sentences. However, there has been no investigation into a particular literal
work so far. For this reason, the study aims at pointing out the syntactic differences
and the similarities between negation in Vietnamese and English and analyzing
some negative structures from the novel “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret
Mitchell and its equivalents in the translated version by Duong Tuong in an attempt
to clarify the negative structures in English and Vietnamese equivalents.
2
PART A: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
1. Rationale of the study
Negation is a topic that is widely discussed within semantics, pragmatics,
morphology, and syntax. In general, English and Vietnamese have similar features
in terms of expressing negation. However, a profound analysis shows that each
language has its own chracteristics making some differences in comparison with
other languages. Negative syntactic structures in English and Vietnamese are
considered to be one of the most interesting and difficult issues that require a great
attention in learning English as a foreign language.It is the structures that may cause
difficulties for learners in communicating English and Vietnamese. Therefore, this
study describes, analyses and compares negation between English and Vietnamese

negation is a very big issue, this study mainly examines syntactic features of
English negative sentences that contain the formal makers of negation such as
not, no, nobody/no one, nothing, nowhere, none, never, neither/nor in the novel
“Gone with the Wind” and their Vietnamese equivalents in translated version
“Cuốn theo chiều gió”
Beside the novel “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchel and its translated
version “Cuốn theo chiều gió” by Dương Tường”, the sources of data are also taken
from the other novels such as: The Vanity Fair by Tharkeray and its Vietnamese
translated version Hội chợ phù hoa by Trần Kiêm , The Old Man and the Sea by
Ernest Hemingway and the translated version “ Ông già và biển cả” by Huy
Phương.
5. Methods of the study
The contrastive method is mainly used in the thesis to analyze the ways of
expressing negative ideas in English and Vietnamese.
The main research methods include three techniques namely (1) description, (2)
translation and (3) deduction. The descriptive and deductive approach is applied in
the theory revision to come to the nature of negation in English and Vietnamese.
Data randomly collected are qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed on the
basis of grammatical and pragmatic theories.
4
6. Design of the study
The study is divided into three parts
Part A is the Introduction of the study. It includes the rationale for choosing the
topic, the aims, the methods and design of the study.
Part B consists of three chapters: Chapter one presents some theoretical background
on negation in which the contrastive study of negation in English and Vietnamese is
described. Chapter two presents the comparision of syntactic negative structures

combines both synchronic and diachronic complementary analyses. Vietnamese
grammarians and linguists have investigated into negation from difference
perspectives but mainly focus on traditional, structural or logical perspectives such
as Hoàng Trọng Phiến (1980), Nguyễn Đức Dân (1996), Đỗ Thị Kim Liên (1999)
Diệp Quang Ban (2004, 2006), Mai Ngọc Chu, Vũ Đức Nghiệu. In addition, 6
Nguyen Quang has also investigated negative sentences in English and Vietnamese
on a contrastive analysis in his master thesis. Especially, Tran Van Phuoc in his
doctoral thesis “Phân tích đối chiếu câu phủ định tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt trên bình
diện cấu trúc ngữ nghĩa” systemized the syntactic-semantic features both in English
and Vietnamese declarative sentences as well as analyzed the differences and
similarities of syntactic-semantic features in the two languages. He suggests 17-
negative sentence structures and 61 variations in English as well as 64 variations in
Vietnamese. Then Ms Tran Phuong Thao from Danang University conducted “An
Investigation into English Lexical Devices Denoting Negation versus Vietnamese
Equivalents” (2010), in which the ways that express the conception of negation in
English and Vietnamese equivalents are clarified. All those books and studies have
revealed typical and very interesting features of negation in general as well as
negation in English and Vietnamese in particular. However, there has been no
investigation on a particular novel so far. Therefore, the investigation into negation
in “Gone with the Wind” is conducted in an attempt to prove how syntactic negative
structures are used and translated into Vietnamese by Duong Tuong.
1.2. Theoretical Background:
This chapter offers some theoretical background on negation in English and in
Vietnamese in brief, to which the study related.
1.2.1. Overview of negation.
There have been many definitions of negation in English. In the Longman
Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, negation is defined as

of negation in English.
Unlike affirmation, negation can be identified by words. (e.g., not, no, never) or
affixes (e.g., dis, un-). Negation can interact with other words in special ways. For
example, negated clauses use more different connective adjuncts than positive
clauses do: neither, nor instead of either, or. The so-called negatively oriented
polarity-sensitive items (Huddleston and Plum 2002) contain among many others,
words starting with any-(anybody, anyone, anywhere, etc.), the modal auxiliaries
dare and need and the grammatical units at all, much and until. Negation in verbs
usually requires an auxiliary; if “none” is present, the auxiliary do is inserted (I
read the paper vs I didn’t read the paper). 8
1.2.2.1. Scope of negation
Negation is exclusive to humans and can be used for different purposes: reverse the
polarity of a statement (eg. She didn’t see him), emphasize how great or extreme
something is (eg. “It was nothing less than a disaster”) or make weaker claims (eg.
Her husband character is not good). Negated statements often carry positive
meaning beneath the direct meaning and detect precious knowledge. For instance,
Peter didn’t go to Moscow to relax, a reader will interpret that Peter went to
Moscow but his purpose is not to relax.
Huddleston and Pullum (2002) state that the scope is made up with the part of the
meaning that is being negated and the focus is that part of the scope that is most
prominently or explicitly negated.
“The scope of the negation normally extends from the negative word itself to the
end of the clause, or to the beginning of a final adjunct”. (Quick, p.187)
In the view of Eagleson, the part of a sentence or clause that is controlled by “not”
or other negative words is called the scope of negation.
The scope of negation is mentioned to indicate the stretch of language over which
the negative has its effect. The relation between negative words and non-assertive

The negative clause that has adjunct is ambiguous to interpret.Since adjuncts are
optional elements and they have no fixed positions, the listeners may understand the
negative meaning in their own ways.
The scope of negation only works with non-assertive forms. In the negative with
assertive forms, the scope does not include them. It is because the assertive forms
do not exert negative effect.
E.g.: He did not do some exercises ≈ He did some exercises.
He did not do any exercises ≈ He did no exercises.
A negative with assertive-form implies another affirmative or is regarded as “partial
negative”.
Apart from adverbials, the ambiguity is also made by an operator in a negative,
here, operator is not a normal auxiliary expressing grammatical function, but a
modal auxiliary. With a negative modal auxiliary, verb phrase falls into a situation 10

that the negation belongs to main verb or auxiliary, the interpretation of the negative
depends on the negative meaning of modal auxiliaries themselves.
1.2.2.2. Focus of negation
Beside the scope, the focus of negation is also needed to incorporate. Focus of
negation places a stress on particular part of a negative clause, which helps to make
the notice of the contrast of meaning implicited in the negative, at the same time
indicates the rest of the clause in the positive. The focus in a negative clause may be
the subject, the main verb, the object, the complement, the adjunct or any words or
phrases under the constrative stress. In other words, the focus of negation is to place
effect on single word, which belongs to either open-class item in clause.
Grammatically, the focus of negation in English is devided into two types: end-
focus and contrastive focus.
End-focus

The contrastive focus indicates which element is negated in a clause to contrast it
with something or somebody already mentioned. Contrastive focus falls on a final
item, but not end-focus.
E.g.: “She is not waiting for `me” ≈ (She is waiting for someone, not me)
His father was not `out ≈ (He was in)
Operator also gets a contrastive focus, which places contrastive emphasis on tense.
E.g.: “She `didn’t study English two years ago”. (Now, she is learning
English)
Operator is used in elliptical replies to concentrate attention on new information by
avoiding repetition of 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.
1.2.2.3. The relationship between scope and focus of negation
The scope and focus are so interrelated that the scope must be inside the focus.
Scope is connected to all elements whose individual falsity would make the negated
statement strictly true. Focus is the element of the scope that is intended to be 12

interpreted as false to make the overall negative true. In other words, they are
interconnected in such 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. Indeed, since the scope of
negation is often not clearly signaled, “we can indicate it by where we place the
information focus”(Quirk,188) The following is an example of the scope of

Eg. Although he lived quite close, he never visited us.
Besides, negation can be expressed by negative pronouns, e.g. :
“There was nobody there”.
Or by negative affixes,e.g.:
“That was unkind!”
Some varieties of English may be DOUBLE NEGATIVE, such as:
“I haven’t done nothing”.
Double negation is merely used for emphasis. Often double negation is frowned on
as being non-standard. However, it is typically used in a number of English Dialects
and it follows a definite pattern, e.g. the use of no instead of any in the following
example:
“We didn’t hurt nobody!”
In recent grammatical theory, interest has been shown in the scope of the negator,
that is, how much of the sentence is actually negated and in what way the meaning
of the sentence can change if the negator is put in a different place, for instance, two
sentences: “She didn’t think he could do it” and :“ She thought he couldn’t do it”
do not really mean the same.
1.2.3.2. In “Negation in English” by Klima
Klima (1964), presents certain criteria in identifying negative structures. His
emphasis was on the transitional “not”. He determined over some patterns of the
negative and exemplified as below:
Pattern1: Superficial negatives: not, none, never.
Pattern2: Not+ negative word: didn’t, no one, was not.
Pattern3: Tag questions+ falling intonation on the tag:
E.g.: “You have been to New York, haven’t you?”
“Mary isn’t going to school today, isn’t she?” 14


15

Especially, Quirk et al are among the few who have looked into this area and they
say most disjuncts can be modified and several can be premodified by “not”,
especially “surprising” and some with negative prefixes (unexpectedly,
unreasonably, unwisely, unusually).
Quirk et al also examines the transfer of the negative form a subordinate that-clause,
which it belongs to the main clauses semantically.
E.g.: “I don’t believe he is right”
can be transferred to: “I believe he isn’t right”.
This kind of transfer is limited to verbs of belief of assumption, eg. “Think, believe,
suppose, fancy, expect, imagine and reckon”.
He proposes assertive and non-assertive negatives as the table below:
Table 1:
S/No Syntactic Assertive Non- assertive Negative
1. Determiner Some(one or
the other)
Any no
2 Determiner One or the
other
Either Neither
3. Pronoun Some Any None
4. Pronoun One or the
other
Either Neither
He also provides the overview of negative structures (including predicate, subject,
complement and adverbial negation.
Among those linguists is Quirk et al. In the next part, his concept and characteristics
of negation will be described.
1.2.4. Negation in Vietnamese in brief

(Nguyễn Bính- 121)
“Chưa”:
Depending to the context, “chưa” can be used in negative sentences to show that
the action hasn’t happened until the moment of speaking.
‘Mùa vải năm nay chừng đến muộn
Chưa nghe tu hú giục xuân đi.
Nóng lòng cây gạo lìa hoa đỏ
Trổ búp tơ xanh đón gió hè”
(Nguyễn Bính, p133) 17

Chả:
“Bốn bên hàng xóm đã lên đèn
Em ngửa bàn tay trước mái hiên
Mưa chấm bàn tay từng chấm lạnh
Thế nào anh ấy chả sang xem”. (Nguyễn Bính, p7)
“Người khôn ai chả nâng niu
Hoa thơm ai chả chắt chiu trên cành” (Tục ngữ, p.635)
b.Không phải, chẳng phải, chưa phải, chả phải.
eg. “Người ta thuê mình cho mình làm chứ không phải để
cho mình đắp chiếu nằm như bố già người ta. (Nam cao, p.273)
c. Không, chẳng, chưa, chả + predicate+ đâu
eg. “Từ nay tôi cạch đến già
Tôi chẳng dám cấy ruộng bà nữa đâu”… ( Tục ngữ )
“Bốn bề ổ cọp hang beo
Làng tôi chắc chả chơi diều nữa đâu”
(Nguyễn Bính, 128)
“Tìm mũ Thần nông chẳng thấy đâu