An investigation into the linearity to simple
sentence in English and Vietnamese Nguyễn Thị Thu Quỳnh Trường Đại học KHXH&NV
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Nguyễn Hương Giang
Năm bảo vệ: 2011 Abstract: This paper investigates into the linearity in simple sentence in English and
Vietnamese. However, there is a limited time; my study only focuses on the linearity in
affirmative statement. It offers theoretical knowledge of linearity in affirmative statement
in both English and Vietnamese. The thesis focuses on contrastive analysis to find out the
similarities and differences in linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement.
Finally, the author discusses some implication in teaching and learning English for
Vietnamese learners.

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Câu đơn; Tiếng Việt; Ngữ pháp

Content iii

iii

iv

2. 3. 3 Subject - Complement Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2. 3. 4 Subject - Adverbial Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Chapter 3: Linearity in the Vietnamese affirmative statement 20
3. 1. Elements and patterns of the Vietnamese affirmative statement . . . . . . . . . . 20
3. 2. Positions of elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3. 2. 1 Position of Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3. 2. 2 Position of Verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3. 2. 3 Position of Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3. 2. 4 Position of Complement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3. 2. 5 Position of Adverbial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3. 3. Inversion in Vietnamese affirmative statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3.1. Verb before subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3.2. Complement at the beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3.3. Object before Subject and Verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3.4. Adverbial at the beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Chapter 4:
Contrastive analysis of linearity in English and Vietnamese affirmative statement 28
4.1. Similarities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.1 Elements and structure of affirmative statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.2 Inversion in the emphasized sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.2. Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.2.1 Verb Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.2.2 Transformational relation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.2.3 Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Chapter 5: Implication for teaching and learning English 37
5.1 Typical mistakes made by Vietnamese learners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.2 Suggested types of exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

an M.A. thesis, the author has the following aims:
- to find out the similarities and differences of the linearity in English and Vietnamese
affirmative statement.
- to help Vietnamese learners avoid some common mistakes in using English.
In order to realize these aims, the study supports to answer the following research questions:
2

1. What is linearity of sentence?
2. What are similarities and differences of the linearity in English and Vietnamese
affirmative statement?
3. What are common mistakes in linearity made by Vietnamese learners?
3. Scope of the study
According to communicative purpose, there are four kinds of simple sentence. They are
statement, question, command and exclamation. Each kind of simple sentence has two forms:
affirmative and negative. However in my study, I only focus on the linearity in affirmative
statement.
In my study, first of all, I present linearity in affirmative statement of English simple
sentence and Vietnamese one. Next, I discuss Linearity in both languages and then make
comparison between linearity in affirmative statement of English simple sentence and
Vietnamese one.
My study is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1 is the theoretical background of my
subject. Chapter 2 and chapter 3 present the possible linearity in the English and Vietnamese
affirmative statement. In chapter 4, there is a contractive analysis of linearity in English and
Vietnamese affirmative statement. Last but not least, in chapter 5, the implication in teaching
and learning English of the study will be mentioned.
4. Method of the study
Contrastive analysis is the main linguistic method applied in my study in which the
linearity in affirmative statement in English and Vietnamese is considered its objective.
Reading English Grammar books and Vietnamese books is carried out to get as much
knowledge of the subject as possible. Most of examples are taken from books widely used in

2. 3. 2 Subject - Object Inversion
2. 3. 3 Subject - Complement Inversion
2. 3. 4 Subject - Adverbial Inversion:

Chapter 3: Linearity in the Vietnamese Affirmative Statement
3. 1. Elements and patterns of the Vietnamese Affirmative Statement
3. 2. Positions of elements in affirmative statement
4

3.2.1 Position of Subject
3.2.2 Position of Verb
3.2.3 Position of Objects
3.2.4 Position of Complement
3.2.5 Position of Adverbial
3. 3. Inversion in Vietnamese Affirmative Statement
3.3.1. Verb before subjects
3.3.2. Complement at the beginning
3.3.3. Object before Subject and Verb
3.3.4. Adverbial at the beginning of affirmative statement.
Chapter 4:
Contrastive analysis of linearity in English and Vietnamese
affirmative statement
In this part, I would like to focus on the similarities and differences of linearity in the
English affirmative statement and in the Vietnamese ones.
4.1. Similarities
4. 1. 1. Sentence elements and their positions in affirmative statement.
In both English and Vietnamese, sentences are composed of words, and, in addition,
often of words combined into phrases within sentences that are a combination into a string of
speech following the linear dimension. Obviously, we can definitely be sure that both English
and Vietnamese affirmative statements, to some extent, have five obligatory elements and they

(NP
1
is subject and NP
2
is indirect object and NP
3

is direct object), O
i
usually stands before O
d
. Sometimes, O
i
stands after O
d
and separated by
preposition to or for.
Equivalent with Vietnamese
 Verb (V) in English and Động từ in Vietnamese follow Subject.
 Complement (C) in English and Bổ ngữ in Vietnamese are also presented by
adjectival phrase. They follow subject in the pattern S V C and NP
1
+ Adj
 Adverbial (A) in English and Trạng ngữ in Vietnamese is often adverb or
prepositional phrase. They usually stands at the end of the sentence in pattern S V A and S V O
A or NP
1
+ V + NP
2
+ Prep. + NP

Họ bỏ (hút) thuốc
Chúng tôi trông cậy vào sự giúp đỡ của bác
Pattern 3: S V C
NP
1
+ V + NP
2
(Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Bổ Ngữ)
Your dinner seems ready
They will become teachers
Bữa chiều của anh hình như sẵn sàng rồi
Họ sẽ trờ thành giáo viên
6

Pattern 4: S V A
NP
1
+ V + NP
2
(Chủ ngữ + Động từ + Trạng Ngữ)
My office is in the next building
They were here last night
We got off/ on the bus
Phòng làm việc của tôi ở trong tòa nhà này.
Họ ở đây đêm qua
Chúng tôi (trèo) xuống/ lên xe buýt
Pattern 5: S V O O
NP
1
+ V + NP

+ Pep. + NP
3
(Chủ ngữ + Động từ +
Tân ngữ + Trạng ngữ)
You can put the dish on the shelf
They took him up the stairs
Bạn có thể để cái đĩa lên giá đó
Họ đưa hắn lên gác

4. 1. 2. Inversion in the emphasized sentence
In English as well as in Vietnamese, when speakers want to emphasize some parts of
the utterance without adding any other elements, they often put the verb, object, adverbial and
complement before subject. This called inversion. Inversion is really effective in both English
and Vietnamese.
- In Vietnamese, there is the pattern NP
1
+ Adj. This pattern is often changed into Adj +
NP
1
in which Adj is emphasized. It is very popular in Vietnamese written text or poetry. This
pattern is similar to the pattern in English CVS or CSV, but this pattern requires verbs.
E.g.: - Bleak and barren is the moon
C (AdjP) V
(W.M. Thackeray. 1979)
7

Vietnamese equivalent:

Ảm đảm và u ám là mặt trăng
C (AdjP) S (NP

- This he did
O S V
Vietnamese equivalent:
- Việc này, anh ấy đã làm
O (NP
2
) S (NP
1
) V
- Besides, the structure A V S is similar to the structure NP
2
+ là/ có + NP
1
(in which
NP
1
is adverbial of position or time and NP
2
is subject of the sentence.
Adverbial of position
E.g.: - At the top of the hill stood the tiny chapel
A V S
Vietnamese equivalent:
- Trên đỉnh đồi là một nhà thờ nhỏ
A (NP
2
) là S (NP
1
)
In general, all these similarities of linearity in the English affirmative statement and

The pattern SVO, O (direct object) can get the function of subject and Subject will
become optional element with preposition “by” and can be abbreviated as (A)
The pattern of passive sentence in English:
9

S V O

S be + V_ed (P
II
) by O
= S V (passive voice) A

E.g.: I can make this cake
S V O
This sentence can be changed into

This cake can be made by me
S (O) V (passive voice) (A)
In this example, object in the active sentence is this cake turning into subject in the
passive sentence and verb in the active one becomes verb of passive V (passive voice) = be +
V_ed
Some other patterns in English S V O C; S V O A; S V O
i
O
d
can be also changed into
passive sentence S V (passive voice) C (A); S V (passive voice) A (A); S V (passive voice) O
d

(A)


bị V
- Giáp được tặng bằng khen
NP
1
được V NP
2
In English, the pattern of passive sentence is S + V (passive voice) by O, the agent of
action is always put after preposition by
E.g.: I was bitten by a snake.
S V (passive voice) by O
However in the Vietnamese language, the agent of action is more usually put between
bị or được and verb.
E.g.: Tôi bị một con rắn cắn
S (NP
2
)

bị

O (NP
1
)

V
Less usually: Tô bị cắn bởi một con chó.
In the Vietnamese language, adverbial of place can be subject in passive sentence.
E.g.: Tường được treo đầy tranh
Phòng ngủ được kê hai cái giường
Besides, in passive voice in English, it is more usual to put an adverbial of manner

)
To sum up, besides the similarities which help English learners study easily, the
differences in verb phrase, transformation relation and some cases in inversion between
English and Vietnamese make the learner more confused.

Chapter 5:
Implication for teaching and learning English
5.1 Typical mistakes made by Vietnamese learners.
5.2 Suggested types of exercises 12

PART 3: CONCLUSION
Learning English grammar is essential to the mastery of a language. Actually, the
linearity is considered one of the most important aspects of English grammar. That is why I
decided to study The Linearity to simple sentence in English and Vietnamese.
Through the contrastive analysis as well as applying some methods such as: collecting
method, observation etc. In my study, I have presented the linearity in English and Vietnamese:
common position of sentence elements in an affirmative statement and inversion for emphasis
in English and Vietnamese. Then, I have done contrastive analysis of the linearity between two

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