MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY


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TRAN THI HUONG
WORD ORDER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
SVC STRUCTURES
(A contrastive analysis)
TRẬT TỰ TỪ TRONG CẤU TRÚC SVC
TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT
(Phân tích đối chiếu)
M.A. THESIS
Field: English language
Code: 60220201
Supervisor: Pham Thi Tuyet Huong (Ph.D)
HANOI - 2013 DECLARATION
I hereby declare that no part of the enclosed Master Thesis has been copied or
reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the


TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research question 2
4. Scope of the study 3
5. Methods of the study 3
6. Design of the study 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER 1 5
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5
1.1.Review of the previous study 5
1.2. Theoretical background 9
1.2.1. Definition of word order 9
1.2.2. Definition of simple sentence 9
1.2.3. Basic English and Vietnamese simple sentence structure 10
1.2.3.1. Basic English simple sentence structure 10

54
3.4. Summary 57
CHAPTER 4IMPLICATION OF THE STUDY 59
4.1. Prediction of some types of errorsin the study of word order and causes of
these errors 59
4.1.1. Definition of error 59
4.1.2. Some mistakes of learners in translating English into Vietnamese and
vice versa 60
4.2. Some suggestions for learning and teaching word order in SVC structures
to Vietnamese students and teachers 64
4.3 Some suggested exercises for teaching word order to Vietnamese students
65
PART III: CONCLUSION 69
1. Recapitulation 69
2. Limitations of the study 71
3.Suggestions for a further study 72
REFERENCES 73
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

A = adverbial
Adj = adjective

general term is used in linguistics and literature to refer to the arrangement of
words in a given linguistic structure. It is one of grammatical means that
attracts the attention from many English linguists.
Moreover, the word order in English sentence structure in general and
SVC structure in particular is one of the most important parts in English
grammar. Beside word order, the reasons of the changes of word order in
English SVC structure have not been paid much attention to. And hence the
similarities and differences of word order in English and Vietnamese SVC
structures have not been written about.
In addition, word order in English sentence structure is a difficult topic
for teachers and students to teach and learn in English grammar. Therefore,
some teachers and students have omitted or have notprovided fully necessary knowledge for this kind of structure. On the other hand, in process of teaching
English, we realize that Vietnamese students often make mistakes when using
the word order in English SVC structure. In order to overcome this situation
we need to distinguish the similarities and differences between English and
Vietnamese SVC structures. We hope the results of this study will help
learners write and speak both languages effectively; especially they will have
a good knowledge about word order of SVC structures.
For this reason, I would like to carry out my research on the topic:
WORD ORDER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE SVC STRUCTURES.
(A contrastive analysis)
2. Aims of the study
The main aims of the thesis are to:
• Present word order in English SVC structures and the main
reasons for the changes of word order.
• Present word order in Vietnamese SVC structures and the main
reasons for the changes of word order.

The data used for this study come from some English and Vietnamese
novels and poems. All the data are classified and organized in different
groups of their syntactic structure.
In addition, the translation exercises are chosen to identify what are
some errors of students in the studying of word order? The research is done
on more than 100 Hanoi Open University students to find the result.
6. Design of the study
This thesis is divided into three parts:
Part I: Introduction
This chapter provides an overview of the research by firstly presenting
rationale of the study, the aims and the research questions of the study. Then,
the scope of the study is pointed out. Next, the methods of the study and the
organization of the thesis are outlined.
Part II: Development (consists of four chapters)
Chapter 1: Theoretical background This chapter provides a theoretical framework for the study of word
order in English and Vietnamese, including definitions of word order,
definition and types of basic English and Vietnamese simple sentence
structure in general and SVC structure in particular.
Chapter 2: Word order in English and Vietnamese SVC structures
The study will emphasize on the changes of word order in English and
Vietnamese SVC structures. The word order variations in SVC structures will
be found and analyzed in literature examples.
According to the word order variations, the study will analyze the
similarities and differences of word order between English and Vietnamese
SVC structures.
Chapter 3: Main reasons of the changes of word order in English
and Vietnamese SVC structures

basic order, the subject precedes the verb, the object follows the verb. The
indirect object always precedes the direct object. For example:
(1) He had given the girlan apple. (7: 13)
S V Oi Od
They presented seven basic sentence structures with their word order
including: SVA, SVC, SVO, SVOA, SVOC, SVOO, SV. They stated that:
“The order in which the elements appear is common but by no –means fixed.”
(7: 16)
Beside Quirk R & Greenbaum S (1976), Susan Steele(1976) in Word
order variation: A typological study research presented that “all languages
have a dominant word order, a surface ordering of subject, object and verb relative to one another is at least more common than other possible
orders……. Most languages allow variations on their basic word order.” (9:
587). The author examined the word order variation in 63 languages all over
the world. The languages were selected with both genetic and typological
diversity. The research focused on main clauses – the word order of
constituents in a phrase and the order of morphemes in a word. The study
focused on declarative and non – declarative main clauses (questions and
imperative, etc.). Susan Steele examined the term variation in English
sentence with a topicalized Object noun. The author found that transitive
sentences involving more constituents have more variations in word order.
She examined in the SOV languages and found not only the basic order SOV
but also OSV, SVO, VSO and VOS. On the other hand, in SVO languagesshe
also found the word order variation including: VOS, VSO, SOV, and OSV.
Finally, in VSO languages she found some variations: VOS, SVO, OVS, and
OSV.
In addition, Laura Caballero Benito (2009) researched on topic:
Objective and Complement Fronting in the English Clause. The aims of the

English Verb phrase are complicated. They have open structures. They can be
a noun, an adjective, an infinitive, an adverb etc. After describing the word
order in English and Vietnamese verb phrase, the thesis found some main
similarities and differences between them and gave some suggestions for
teaching and learning languages.
According to Nguyen Thi Quynh Hoa (2004) with Doctoral thesis:
“Structure and Meaning in English Inversion versus Vietnamese”, the nature
of English inversion on the domains of syntax, semantics and pragmatics was
classified. The thesis studied English inversion in declarative sentences. The
thesis emphasized on the word order in types of inversion in both languages.
Beside the thesis showed the similarities and differences between inversions
in English and Vietnamese. The study found that in both languages there is a similarity in “Prepositional phrase + Verb + Noun Phrase”. In English and
Vietnamese sentences, the initial position plays an important role in emphasis
and cohesion. On the other hand, the difference between two languages is on
the syntactic structures and the role in sentence components. The thesis
systematizes the patterns of the inversion in English declarative sentences and
also examined three functions of English inversion: the presentational
function, the emphatic function, and the cohesive function. Inversion is a
syntax process and it makes the changes of word order in a sentence. In her
thesis, the change of word order in SVC structure in full inversion into CVS
structure was presented.
Generally, most of studies in English and Vietnamese are only
investigations into the word order in general or in SVO, verb phrases, or
inversion particularly. Although considerable research has been devoted to the
study of word order in English and Vietnamese sentence structure, less
attention has been to the variants in word order of SVC structure. In this
thesis I would like to study the word order in English SVC structure more

main clause, without any subordinate clauses: No fingerprints were found
anywhere in the house.” (4: 632)
According to Diep Quang Ban (1998, 2011), A sentence is the
language unit which has independent inner and outer grammatical structure
and ending intonation. It bears a relatively complete thought or the speaker’s
attitude, or only displaying the speaker’s attitude, which helps form, show
and communicate ideas and affection. A sentence is the smallest information
unit. (11: 106)
1.2.3. Basic English and Vietnamese simple sentence structure
1.2.3.1. Basic English simple sentence structure
Traditionally, sentences have been divided into two parts: Subject and
Predicate. The predicate includes verb and its complements.For example:
(4) John carefully searched the room. (7:10)
Subject Predicate Nowadays, there are many theories about sentence structure. Modern
English divides sentence with many components. According to Quirk, R. and
Greenbaum, S. (1976), the elements of sentence structure include five units:
Subject (S), Verb (V), Complement (C), Object (O) and Adverbial (A). And
there are three kinds of sentence: simple, compound and complex. All the
kinds can be analyzed in terms of S, V, O, C and A. They stated seven basic
sentence types:
- SVA
(5)Marry is in the house. (7:167)
S V(intens.) A(place)
- SVC
(6)Marry is kind. (7:167)
S V(intens.) Cs
- SVO

- SVP
(15)The water-bed was very comfortable. (4: 71)
S V Ps (Subject Predicative)
- SVOP
(16)I have made my position clear. (4: 71)
S V Od Po (Object Predicative)
In this thesis, we will use the word order theory in sentence structure of
Quirk, R. and Greenbaum, S. (1976) because the seven sentence structures are
suitable with sentence types in Vietnamese. In detail, the thesis will study on
word order in English and Vietnamese SVC sentence structures.
1.2.3.2.Basic Vietnamese simple sentence structure
In Vietnamese, there are some linguists who study sentence
components deeply such as: Diep Quang Ban, Hoang Trong Phien, Nguyen
Minh Thuyet and Cao Xuan Hao, etc. According to Nguyen Minh Thuyet and
Nguyen Van Hiep (2004) Vietnamese sentence has main components and sub- components. The main component includes: Subject (S), predicate (V)
and Object (O). For example:
(17) Anh ấy 30 tuổi.
S
(18) Nó tên là Quýt.
V
(19) Cảnh sát đã bắt tên trộm.
O
Beside the main components, Vietnamese sentence also has sub-
components including:
- Theme complement. For example:
(20) Gã tình nhân vô liêm sỉ ấy, Từ đã yêu hắn bằng cả tấm lòng yêu
lúc ban đầu.

(28) Example: “Buổi chiều, nắng vừa
nhạt, sương đã buông khắp mặt biển.”

Nguyen Minh Thuyet (2004)According to Panfilov. V.S. (2008), the division of Vietnamese simple
sentences according to their morphology and semantics is based on the
division of predicative groups and their ways of expression. And this divison
is carried out with the first word order of sentence (23: 359). He divided into
six kinds of Vietnamese simple sentence structures as the table below:
Simple sentence structures Examples
1. Intransitive structure
expresses the state of subject. The
predicative group is ended by
predicator.
(29) Nó ngủ
(30) Trong hầm vắng vẻ.
2. Transitive structure
expresses interaction of subject and
object. The predicate group is
expressed by a noun phrase.
(31) Nó xây nhà.
(32) Tôi tìm người quen.
3. Existencial structure
expresses the things which the subject
cannot control. The predicative group
(33) Nó hết tiền.
(34) Cây rừng trọi lá.


(42) Trăng sáng quá.
(43) Anh này kĩ sư đấy.
- Sentence with dependent, relative words; copular verb “là”,
prepositions such as tại, bởi, do, etc.For example:
(44) Cầu thủ giỏi nhất ở đây là người này.
(45) Việc này tại Giáp.
(46) Bài thơ này do một bạn thơ trẻ làm.
- Causative sentence. For example:
(47) Bão đổ cây. - Subjunctive sentence. For example:
(48) Giám đốc buộc nó nghỉ việc.
- Sentence with subject – instrument. For example:
(49) Giấy này in báo.
- The whole – part components sentence. For example:
(50) Cây này vàng lá.
- Sentence with inversion structure. For example:
(51) Thùng đầy nước Nước đầy thùng.
- Sentence with theme component. For example:
(52) Tôi thì tôi xin chịu.
- Passive sentence. For example:
(53) Tranh được chủ nhà treo đầy tường.
b) Sentence has no subject
- Existencial sentence. For example:
(54) Trên tường treo mấy bức tranh.
- Vocatives. For example:
(55) Anh em ơi! Bất chấp gian nguy…
(56) Em gì ấy ơi!
(57) Sen đâu?

S V C Nam A.(33:
18)
- Sentence expresses career with copula “là”. For example:

(63) Vợ anh là con bác khan thủ làng trên. Anh là phu tuần. Hai
người lấy
S V C
nhau, cả hai làng, ai cũng khen là vợ chồng kén chọn được chỗ xứng
đáng. (34: 133)
CHAPTER 2
WORD ORDER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
SVC STRUCTURES
2.1. Word order in English SVC structures
2.1.1. English SVC structure
In English, SVC is one of seven basic sentence structures. In this
structure, the complement is subject complement. According to Quirk, R. and
Greenbaum, S. (1976, 1985), subject complement is in a copula relationship
with the subject and the verb is copula.

- Complex noun phrase:
(67) The pretty blackish girl who you met on the way here. (23:
32)

Pre – modification Head Post – modification
Adjective Clause
- Noun phrase function as a Subject:
(68) The pretty girl who became angry is Mary Smith. (7: 59)
“Nominal clause can have a range of functions similar to those of noun
phrase.” (4: 330) According to Quirk, R. and Greenbaum, S. (1976) nominal