CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 RATIONALE
Perhaps verbs occur in English sentence as the most important critical
component of sentence meaning and completeness. It denotes the notion of
process, action or activity and also has a temporal component (tense). There
are also verbs which have some intrinsic spatial meaning. These include
motion verbs and existence verbs.
Motion verbs are ones of the verbs that posses the biggest quantity of
meanings and highest used frequency in English. In the book “Longman
Grammar of Spoken and Written English” by Quirk [47, p.365], we have
found it useful to classify verbs into seven major semantic domains, in which
activity verbs(or motion verbs) are the most common verbs. In the distribution
of semantic domains, the most common verbs (i.e. verbs that occur at least 50
times per million words) are far from evenly distributed across the seven
semantic domains. 50% of all common verbs are activity verbs (139 out of
218 common verbs). They occur almost in conversation, fiction, news and
academic prose. Overall, activity verbs (or motion verbs) occur much more
commonly than verbs from any other semantic domain.
In the book “Word Frequencies in Written and Spoken English”( based
on the British National Corpus) by Leech [39,p.215], motion verbs are
considered as the most common ones with high frequency. However, motion
verbs are

kinds of fairly complicated words. For Vietnamese students,

the differences in two languages cause a lot of difficulties in using words.
They may feel confused when encountering such verbs or may not use them
effectively. For example, in English we say “I will go to Hanoi, tomorrow”,



the following theoretical and practical matters are taken into considerration in
this thesis: how English motion verbs are classified , what the commonly used
English motion verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents are and how these
kinds of verbs are used in different types of discourses . From this, the thesis
analyzes the syntactic and semantic features of the English motion verbs and
their Vietnamese equivalents. In practice, the study aims to supply some
implications to language teaching, language learning as well as in translating
the English motion verbs. The practical information is hoped to raise the
language users’ awareness of the differences between the two languages in
terms of motion verbs uses so that they can be successful in language
communication in English .
1.4 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.4.1 Aims
The study is expected to provide Vietnamese learners with a
description of syntactic and semantic characteristics of English motion verbs
and their Vietnamese equivalents.
1.4.2 Objectives
• To identify syntactic and semantic features of motion verbs in English
and Vietnamese .
• To find out the differences and similarities between English motion
verbs and their Vietnamese equivalents .
• To suggest some implications for teaching, learning and translation of
English motion verbs .


1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The studies try to answer the following questions :
1. What are the syntactic and semantic features of the motion verbs in
English and their Vietnamese equivalents in novels and short stories ?
2. What are the similarities and differences between English motion

“ Semantic Structures”, Jackendoff [35] presents some verbs of manner of
motion and configuration. “A New Approach to English Grammar on
Semantic Principles” by Dixon .[24] mentions seven subtypes of motion: the
RUN subtype which refers to a mode of motion, the ARRIVE subtype which
deals with respect to a definite Locus, the TAKE subtype which refers to
causing something to be in motion with respect to a Locus, the FOLLOW
subtype refers to motion with respect to something which is moving, the
CARRY subtype refers to motion in juxtaposition with some moving object,
the THROW subtype which describes causing something to be in motion , and
the DROP subtype which refers to unwanted motion.
Brala Maria [15] in “Location in Motion” supply us with some
information about verbs of motion. She mentions that verbs of motion
include 9 classes: Inherently directed motion, Leave verbs, Manner of motion,
Manner of motion using a vehicle, Waltz verbs, Chase verbs and Accompany
verbs .
Levin, B.[42] classifies verbs of motion into two sub-classes : verbs of
inherently directed motion, and verbs of manner of motion .


In Vietnamese, there are a number of linguists interested in motion
verbs. Haì Quang Nàng [7] not only mentions motion verbs with different
forms of movement ( chạy, nhảy, bò, bay, đi, leo, trèo, trườn, lê, bơi...) but
also talks about a group of motion verbs with particular semantic and
syntactic features, they are motion verbs with direction: ra, vào, lên, xuống,
qua, lại, về, đến, tới... . For Hæîu Âaût , Tráön Trê Doîi , Âaìo Thanh Lan [3]
present that motion verbs are the ones expressing movement in space such as;
đi, chạy, bò, leo, trèo, ... and motion verbs with the direction of movement
such as ra, vào, lên, xuống, qua, lại, về, đến, tới. Besides, the matter has been
discussed by Nguyãùn Kim Thaín [10] with a special group of motion words
with direction: ra, vào, lên, xuống, qua, lại, về, đến, tới. Nguyãùn Vàn Thaình

In general, semantics can be defined as the study of meaning. It is
central to the study of communication. In addition, there is no doubt that
communication is a crucial factor in our life, which is why the need to
understand semantics becomes more and more pressing .
Many authors hold the idea that semantics is the meaning place of
various cross current thinking

and various disciplines of the study.

Philosophy, psychology and linguistics all claim a deep interest in semantics,
but their interests are diverse because of their different starting points .
According to John Lyons [43,p.xii], semantics is by definition the study
of meaning, and linguistic semantics is the study of meaning in so far as it is
systematically encoded in the vocabulary and grammar of natural languages.
This definition of linguistic

semantics, as far as it goes, is relatively

uncontroversial. But it is also almost wholly uninformative unless and until
one goes on to say, first, what one means by “meaning” and, second, what
exactly is meant by “encoded” in this context .He also adds that those who


draw a terminological distinction between “semantics” and “pragmatics” and
take narrower view of meaning than he does will see his book as introduction
to a broader field of linguistic semantics and pragmatics.
But Jack Richards, John Platt, Heidi Weber [52,p.172] say “ the study
of meaning is called semantics. Semantics is usually concerned with the
analysis of the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences, and sometimes with
the meaning of utterances in discourse or the meaning of a whole text .”

“mean”, from which it is derived, are used, like many other English words, in
a wide range of contexts and in several distinguishable senses .
The idea of meaning given by David Crystal [23,p.102] is as
follows: ”In modern linguistics, meaning is studied by making detailed
analysis of the way words and sentences are used in a specific context. It is an
approach shared by several philosophers and psychologist.”
And David Crystal [23,p.247] also states: “Meaning is a basic notion
used in language study in two main ways. First determining the signification
of a message is the chief end of linguistic enquiry: above all, language is
concerned with the communication of meaning. Second, meaning is used as a
way of analyzing the structure of language, through such notions a
contractiveness and distinctiveness.”
2.2.1.3 Components of word-meaning
In the study of meaning, the denotational meaning and connotational
meaning cannot be avoided. The meanings are defined in the Longman
Dictionary of Applied Linguistics [52] as follows:
a. Denotation is a part of the meaning of a word or phrase that relates it
to phenomena in the real world or in a fictional or possible world .For
example, the denotation of the English word bird is a two-legged, winged,


egg-laying, warm-blooded creature with beak. In a meaning system,
denotation meaning may be regarded as the “central” meaning of a lexical
item. It is often equated with referential meaning and with cognitive meaning
although some linguists and philosophers make a distinction between these
concepts .
b. Connotation is the additional meanings that a word or phrase has
beyond its central meaning. These meaning show people’s emotions and
attitudes towards what the word or phrase refers to. For example, child could
be defined as a young human being but there are many other characteristics


Jack Richards, John Platt and Heidi Weber [52,p.254] say

semantic features are “the smallest units of meaning in a word. The meaning
of a word may be described as a combination of semantic features”
According to David Crystal [23,p.346], semantic feature is “a minimal
contrastive element of a word’s meaning, in some approaches called a
semantic component.” e.g. Boy = + young + male + human.
2.2.1.5 Meaning relations
In order to identify exactly the meaning of a word, we have to consider
another semantic phenomenon called meaning (sense) relation, which
consists of synonymy, antonymy, polysemy and homonymy .
About meaning (sense) relations, Charles.W.Kreidler [38,p.46] states:
“Meaning is more than denotation and connotation. What a word
means depends in part on its associations with other words, the relational
aspects. Lexemes do not merely “have” meanings they contribute to the
utterances. The meaning that a lexeme has because of these relationships is
the sense of that lexeme .”
And David Crystal [23,p.349] expressed this idea as follows:
"Sense relations or semantic relations are the relations of meaning


which exists between words, such as sameness or oppositeness of meaning.”
Polysemy is a semantic phenomenon in which a word has two or more
similar meanings.
The house is at the foot of the mountains
One of his shoes felt too tight for his foot
“Foot” here refers to the bottom part of the mountains in the first
sentence and the bottom part of the leg in the second .
According to David Crystal [23,p.106], polysemy refers to cases where

or event coded by the clause. The array of semantic roles typically associated
with each verb defines the propositional frame of the verb and thus the
semantic type of the verbal clause. In Givon.T [31,p.91] terms the major
semantic roles in the clause are agent, patient, dative, instrument, benefactive
and a set of locational and temporal roles like source / location / goal and
associative
Here are typical examples of these semantic roles in simple clauses
[31,p.92]
Mary (agent) kicked John ( patient )
John ( dative ) heard Mary
She worked with her father ( associative )
She went to the store ( locative )
2.2.1.7 Semantic field .
The semantic structure of vocabulary of a language can be studied in a
precise and systematic way by means of componential analysis of which the
theory of semantic field greatly leans .
The assumption of lexical field analysis or semantic field analysis is
that lexemes can be grouped together into semantic fields on the basis of


shared meaning and that most, if not all the vocabulary of a language, can be
accounted for in this way. The description of meaning, the definition of
lexemes, is then undertaken within each semantic field and involves defining
each lexeme in relation to the other lexemes in the field .
Different terms such as lexical field, semantic field and word field are
usually treated as synonyms, but some authors have proposed distinctions
among then. For example, John Lyons [43,p.429] distinguishes between
“conceptual field” (a structure of concepts on the semantic level, a structured
conceptual area)and lexical field (a set of lexemes that covers a specific
conceptual field ).


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Usually, componential analysis is applied to a group of related words,
which may differ from one another only by one or two components. This
approach was developed in anthropological linguistics for the study of kinship
and other terms in various languages .
In other word, componential analysis can be interpreted as an attempt to
get at the meaning of words by analyzing them into their “component” parts.
The theory is that word meanings can be broken down into a series of
“features” (which may be universal) take the following words: bull, cow,
stallion, mare, colt, calf, heife, horse. We can analyze the “meaning” of these
words with the following

features : +/-MALE( or of course

+/-FEMALE ,+/-ADULT,+/-EQUINE and +/-BOVINE. So a bull word
would

be

+MALE
from observing the grammatical use of a new word, he may be able to infer a
good deal about what it means.
Every verb, in its capacity as the core of a clause, is defined
semantically in terms of the semantic roles of the participants in the state or
event codes by the clause. Within the clause, these participants occupy the


grammatical roles of, most commonly, subject, direct object, indirect object,
adverb or predicate. These grammatical roles are marked in English by a
combination of morphology and word-order. But they also have other, more
subtle, grammatical-behavioral properties, such as various constraints on their
distribution in grammaticao environment.
2.2.2.1 Grammartical roles
The participants in states or events, in whatever semantic role, may
occupy one of four distinct grammatical roles in the clause: subject (S), direct
object (O), indirect object (IO) and nominal predicate (PRE). As a brief
illustration of the four major grammartical roles in simple clauses consider :
The Woman gave a book to the child
(S)

(O)

(O)

Mary is a teacher
(S)

(PRE)

While the grammartical subject in English simple clauses precedes the

intransitive subject can control the activity in which they are involved (e.g.
walk, speak) but other intransitive subject roles exercise no control (e.g. break,
die, grow).
If a verb has two or more roles, one will be mapped onto transitive sub
ject and another onto transitive object (e.g. Mary cut the cake)
It is clear that verbs are one of the most central syntactic category in
language. They have deep relations with the other categories: nouns because
they select arguments which are often nominals or adverbs because adverbs
modify verbs, prepositions, which, in turn assign thematic roles to NPs. Verbs
associated with adverbs permit the computation of aspect .
The role common to all motion verbs is (thing) ‘moving’ (e.g. Mary
ran). There may also be specification of Locus – the place with respect to
which motion takes place an NP in Locus role is most often marked by the
appropriate preposition. Certain motion verbs may allow the preposition to be
ommited, a slight semantic difference then resulting, e.g. He jumped ( over )
the river, She climbed (up) the mountai. It is also possible in certain
circumstances to omit a preposition before a measure phrase, e.g. he ran (for )
a mile [23,p.1991]


CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
In this research, constrastive analysis is suggested to be the main


method of the research. Besides, the study also uses

qualitative and


- Choosing the approach to the problem and the theoretical background.
Before the study was actually carried out, a proposal of the study had
been written. The reearch proposal, then, was presented at the master Thesis
Proposal Evaluation Council of the university of Danang. There are two
raesons for presenting the research proposal. Firstly, the practicaility of the
study will be carefully considered. Secondly, the Council members will offer
necessary suggestions to help the researcher improve or reorient the study.
Collecting data:
The relevant data are taken from 9 English novels, short stories and
their Vietnamese translational versions. They are
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Cooper, James Fenimore
“The most interesting short stories in the world” by Henry , O.
“Witch of Oz” by l.Frank Baum
“Tales from Shakespeare” by Shakespeare
“Condensed Chicken soup for the Soul” by Jack Canfield and Mark
Victor Hansen
“The tempest” by Shakespeare
“Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde” by R.L Stevenson
‘The Stories of The Five Town”s by Arnold Bennett
The Death of Karen Silkwool by Hamman Joyce
From theses novels and short stories, 838 examples are quoted,
analyzed and used as the chief source for the qualitative evidence .
- Analyzing data:
Firstly, the syntactic features of the 5 English motion verbs and their


Vietnamese equivalents are presented through clear and understandable
examples.
Then the semantic features of the 5 English motion verbs and their
Vietnamese equivalents are presented in turn.

For examples:
(1)

When a cyclone came, people went down into their cellars and stayed
there.

[ 57, p. 4 ]

( Khi mọỹt cồ lọỳc õóỳn, ngổồỡi ta õi xuọỳng hỏửm nhaỡ mỗnh vaỡ ồớ õoù .)
(2)

It is not so bad, said Sara And I have got lots of friend. Theres
Becky in the next room, and come and see.

[57, p. 95]

( Cuợng khọng tóỷ lừm, Sara noùi, Vaỡ mỗnh cuợng coù nhióửu baỷn. Coù
Becky ồớ phoỡng kóỳ bón vaỡ - laỷi õỏy maỡ xem .)
(3)

Slowly, daylight came.
(T t, tri ó rng ụng)

[58,p.112]


b. COME

+ Prepositional phrase


[57, p.129]

(Ngổồỡi dỏn thỏỳy bong boùng cuớa ta vaỡ noùi ỏy laỡ thỏửy phuỡ thuyớ! ng ta
tổỡ trón trồỡi xuọỳng !)

c.

COME

+ To - Infinitive / Present participle

For example:
(8)

Ermengarde often came to visit Sara and Sara helped her with her
school lessons again.

[57, p.129]


(Ermengarde thổồỡng õóỳn thm Sara vaỡ Sara laỷi giuùp cọ hoỹc baỡi
trổồỡng.)
(9)

If youve come to steal, go ahead. There are a few things you can

take.
[68, p.136]
(Nóỳu anh õóỳn n trọỹm thỗ laỡm õi. Coù vaỡi õọử vỏỷt anh coù thóứ lỏỳy õỏỳy.)
(10) Joss came running up at that moment .


+

Adjective / Adverb ( phrase )

For example:
(13) The next morning, the friends came again to the Wizards room .
[57, p. 4]