Declaration
I - Ngo Thi Thu Hien, hereby state that, this thesis is the result of my own research and the
substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for any degrees to another
universities or institutions
Signature:……………………………
Date : August, 2007
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Abstract
This paper focuses on English and Vietnamese negative questions in term of structures
and word using. The author wishes only to concentrate on four types of negative questions:
negative Yes/ No question, negative Tag- question, negative Wh- question, negative alternative
question. The thesis is divided into three parts, the main content is presented in part two. The
similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese negative questions have been
analysed and pointed out. With an ambition to help teachers and learners have a clear
understanding about the English and Vietnamese negative questions, the author also drawn out a
survey questionnaire to find out the common mistakes made by Vietnamese students. And then
the author has managed to suggest some ways to correct common those mistakes. Suggested
exercises are also offered to help learners to practice and avoid committing mistakes. The thesis
mainly focuses on the structures of four types of negative questions in English and Vietnamese,
the negative words that are used in negative questions are also considered. However, the
pragmatic and semantic features have been initially investigated; a deeper approach to the
pragmatic and semantic feature is suggested for further study.
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Acknowledgements
Writing a dissertation is not just a matter of getting the work done efficiently and with
good input-output ratio, for me it has been much about finding my place in the matrix of
different research traditions and people doing that research. I feel very fortunate to have come
across and made friends with a large number of kind, bright and encouraging people during my
research.
This work would never have been possible without the encouragement and support from
my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Do. I have been extremely lucky to have him as

2.1 What is a negative question?.................................................................................
2.2 The semantic and pragmatic approach to English negative questions………….
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Chapter 2: A contrastive analysis of the English and Vietnamese negative questions
1. Negative forms and non- assertive forms in English…………………………………
1.1 Negative forms……………………………………………………………………
1.2 Words with negative meaning…………………………………………………...
1.3 Non – assertive forms…………………………………………………………...
2. Negative orientation…………………………………………………………………..
3. English negative questions…………………………………………………………….
3.1 Negative Yes/ No questions……………………………………………………..
3.2 Negative Tag- questions…………………………………………………………
3.3 Negative Wh- questions………………………………………………………....
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List of tables
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Table 1: Structures of English and Vietnamese negative Yes/ No question
Table 2: Structures of English and Vietnamese negative Tag- question.
Table 3: Structures of English and Vietnamese negative Wh- question
Table 4: Structures of English and Vietnamese negative alternative question
Part 1: Introduction
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1. Rationale
English is not the most widely spoken language in the world in terms of the number of

 Making a comparison of English negative questions with Vietnamese equivalents
 Exposing some common mistakes made by Vietnamese students and presenting
some suggested solutions
 Heightening learner’s awareness in teaching and learning English and Vietnamese
negative questions.
3. Scope of the study
The study “English negative questions in English and Vietnamese - a contrastive analysis”
focuses on English negative questions in English and Vietnamese equivalents within the frame
of structures and using negative words. There are four types of questions will be focused: Yes-
No question, tag question, wh-question, alternative question. Especially, only negative questions
that use negator “not” will be discussed, other will be suggested for further study. Then the
author also conducted two questionnaires to find out the mistakes made by Vietnamese students,
and from these mistakes, some suggestions to improve are provided.
4. Methods of the study
The study is conducted by carefully collecting materials from various sources to have full –
blown information of English and Vietnamese negative questions. Moreover, I have consulted
with my supervisor, and obtained much suggestion, instructions and encouragement from him.
And lastly, the contrastive analysis is made intra- and interlingually: English negative questions
with Vietnamese counterparts, contrastive analysis involves two stages: description of the
structures and the use of negative words in both languages.
5. Design of the study
This study is divided into three main parts:
 Part 1 is the Introduction of the study. It includes the rationale for choosing the topic,
the aims, the scope, the methods and design of the study.
 Part 2 contains three chapters, in which Chapter 1 provides readers some theoretical
background on negation, negative questions in English and Vietnamese in brief.
Chapter 2 is also the main part of the study, provides the contrastive analysis of
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English and Vietnamese negative questions. Chapter 3 presents a small research of
the author to find out some common mistakes made by Vietnamese students in using

The term scope of negation is introduced to refer to the stretch of language over which the
negative has its effect. The relation between negative words and non-assertive words that they
govern will happen in scope of negation (that is part of language that the negative meaning
operates through). The scope of negation formally extents from the negative words to the end of
the clause or to the beginning of a final adjunct. The subject and any adjuncts occur before a
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final predication often lies outside it. Thus, the operator can be within or outside the scope.
Below are some examples to illustrate:
E.g.: I completely did not agree with you. (1)
Versus I did not completely agree with you. (2)
In (1), the scope of negation stretches from “not” to “you”, subject (I), adjunct (completely),
operator (did) are excluded, the predication takes full negative effect
(1) = It is complete that I did not agree with you
or = that I did not agree with you is complete
Sentence (2) I did not completely agree with you, subject (I) and operator (did) are put outside
while adjunct is inside, negative meaning extends from negative word to the end of the clause.
(2)= I agree with you, but not always.
The scope of negation also extends to the beginning of a final adjunct.
E.g.: He did not come back in the afternoon (3)
Versus: He did not come back in the afternoon (4)
Two examples above, final adjunct as adverbial maybe within and outside scope:
(3)= It is not true that he came back in the afternoon
(4)= In the afternoon, he did not come back.
The adverbial is not always essential to the structure of a sentence, thus, it can move to the
initial or final position of the sentence. Final adjunct in the negative sentence is to tell us the
time that action happens.
Similarly, to take another example:
E.g. 1: He doesn’t listen to you on purpose
= That he listens to you on purpose is not true (implies, sometimes he does this)
E.g. 2: He doesn’t listen to you on purpose

elements of the clause or final item which belongs to closed-system items (prepositions,
pronouns, etc...). Using contrastive focus, only one item is negated and the rest of clause is
understood in positive sense.
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E.g.: `Peter did not send a postcard to Mary on Christmas
≈ (Someone sent a postcard to Mary on Christmas, not Peter)
Peter did not send a `Postcard to Mary on Christmas
≈ (Peter sent something to Mary on Christmas, not postcard)
The contrastive focus points out 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.
1.4 The relationship between scope and focus of negation
The scope and focus are interrelated in such as 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.
2. Negative questions in English
2.1 What is a negative question?
Negative questions differ in meaning from normal questions only in that the speaker
expresses an implied assumption or hope for which he is requesting affirmation or denial. The

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Kathleen uses the negative question Isn’t there a vegetarian restaurant around here? to ask for
confirmation of something she believes to be true. Compare this to the following case:
E.g.4: (Situation: Bob is visiting Kathleen and Jeff in Chicago while attending a
meeting)
Bob: I’d like to take you guys out to dinner while I’m here, we’d have time to
go somewhere around here before the evening session tonight, don’t you
think?
Kathleen: I guess, but there’s not really any place to go in Hyde Park.
Bob: Oh, really, isn’t there a vegetarian restaurant around here?
Kathleen: No, about all we can get is hamburgers and souvlaki.
Bob uses the negative question here for a very different reason: he had previously assumed the
truth of the proposition there is a vegetarian restaurant around here, but has now inferred from
what Kathleen says that this proposition is actually false, and is using the negative questions to
check this new inference.
The ambiguity in (E.g.2) is between ‘left-wing’ and ‘right-wing’ readings as seen in (E.g.5) and
(E.g.6).
E.g.5: (Situation: A and B are former left-wing activists discussing the recent activities
of a colleague.)
A: Did you hear John’s decided to go to business school?
B: Yeah, I can’t believe how much he’s changed these days, didn’t he even vote
for Reagan?
A: That’s what somebody told me.
E.g.6: (Situation: A and B are staunch Republicans)
A: What’s Dick been up to these days, I haven’t seen him at the Club for ages.
B: Haven’t you heard? He says he’s disillusioned with two-party politics, he’s
joined Common Cause, gave a lot of money to the Citizens’ Party…
A: Didn’t he even vote for Reagan?
B: Not as far as I know.
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Eg1: I have never seen such a tall man.
Eg2: She is no longer a good student.
Eg3: Jack neither arrived nor phoned me.
In addition to the negative words that gave out in the first part, there are some words, which
exists the negative in meaning and behaviour such as: seldom; rarely; barely; scarcely, although
they do not appear negative in form, but they bare negative meaning. Like “never”, an adverb of
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frequency, when they are put at initial position, the subject-operator inversion is required for the
emphasis.
Eg1: I have never seen such a tall man → Never have I seen such a tall man.
Eg2: He hardly travels anymore → Hardly has he travel anymore.
1.2 Words with negative meaning
In English, some verbs have negative meaning and make up negative sentences without
using negative words, which is used to distinguish other verbs having negative meaning by
adding negative prefixes, e.g.: dis, in, un, etc… These verbs are perceived as containing
“negator” in it, including, “fail”, “stop”, “prevent”, “abstain from”, “avoid”, “deny”, “hesitate”,
etc…
Eg1: I have failed to sign a long-term contract.
≈ (We haven’t signed a long term contract)
Eg2: The bad weather prevented us from going out.
≈ (We couldn’t go out because of the bad weather)
Apart form it, some verbs imply negative meaning because they are antonyms of the positive
verbs.
E.g.: forget=not remember; refuse=not accept; prohibit=not allow; oppose= not support
Like negative verb, there are some prepositions related to position and direction, expressing
negative meaning. They include: away from, off, out of…..Preposition phrases have implied
negative meaning which requires non-assertive forms including: without, against, instead of,
beyond, etc…There are also adjectives that have negative meaning like: hard, unaware,
difficult…
English negation is various and copious, it integrates into every aspect of language- negative

which may distinguish as the “old assumption” (positive) and “new assumption” (negative). The
“old assumption” tends to be identified with speaker’s hopes and wishes, so that, the negative
oriented often express annoyance of disappointment.
E.g.: Hasn’t he come here yet?
≈ (I’d hope he would have come here by now, but it seems that he hasn’t)
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