A STUDY ON FORMS EXPRESSING FUTURE MEANINGS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

1 PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale There are many points of view supposing that English is the language having the category of tense. Therefore, we often use the inflection of verbs to express the different tenses. For example, I went to Tay Bac University last year indicates the past tense, and I will go to Ho Chi Minh city next year expresses the future tense. Meanwhile, several linguists state that Vietnamese is the language that does not have the category of tense. Then, Vietnamese often use the other forms to express this category. For instance, Mình lên trường Tây Bắc năm ngoái shows the past meaning, while Sang năm mình vào thành phố Hồ Chí Minh indicates the future meaning. All mentioned above give us some questions such as ‘In what forms can we express future meanings in English and Vietnamese?’ and ‘What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of forms expressing future meanings?’ The questions above have not been found in any studies yet. It is the reason why the author chooses to study on this topic. The thesis forms expressing future meanings in English and Vietnamese is expected to be an interesting and useful material for the readers and learners who are interested in this field. The study will have two meanings as follows: - Practically, the study will be the reference material helping the learners to use future meanings exactly and quick-mindedly in both languages. It will make the process of communication as well as the translation get more effect. - Theoretically, the study will have the meaning in affirming the capacity of development and generalization of the theory of researching language. It will also supplement to theory with some characteristics that, maybe, have not been embraced in the scope worked out. It will be the basis for the further studies, too. 2 2. Aims and objectives of the study The study, as entitled, focuses on forms expressing future meanings in English and Vietnamese. Therefore, this study aims to: - Present the literature review and theoretical background on future forms. - Gain an insightful look at forms expressing future meanings in English and Vietnamese. - Work out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of forms expressing future meanings. The objectives of this study are future meanings and their forms in English and Vietnamese. 3. Scope of the study This study just focuses on forms expressing future meanings in English and Vietnamese. Due to the aims and objectives of the thesis, the scope of contrastive analysis is based on the following aspects: - Contrastive analysis of signs and forms. - Contrastive analysis of syntactic functions 4. Methods of the study Due to the main aims and objectives of the study, description, and contrastive analysis would be mainly carried out throughout the process. Also, the thesis makes the use of the English language as the target language and the Vietnamese one as the source language (the base language). The process, in general, can be divided into two stages, which are always applied in a quick-minded and active way. - Stage 1: We carried out investigating materials from various sources in the relationship with circumstances and contexts inside and outside the language such as the speakers and listeners. We used the modes to analyze such as list, 3 comparison the phenomenon concerning. Then we collected specific characteristics of the objectives studied and analyze selectively forms expressing future meanings in two languages. - Stage 2: Basing on the result from stage 1, we took a careful analysis to find out the similar and different characteristics between structures in terms of forms expressing future meanings. Moreover, frequent talks with the supervisor, lecturers on the field have proved to be a very useful method for the completion of the study. Also, the study has carried out on the basis of the author`s personal experience. 5. Materials used We used the following materials to study this thesis: - English - Vietnamese bilingual books - Newspaper and magazines written in English and Vietnamese - Single language books and newspapers - Vietnamese dictionaries - English - Vietnamese dictionaries 6. Design of the study This study consists of three parts including references and organized as follows: Part A is the introduction. This part consists of the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope, the methods, the materials used and the design of the study. Part B, the development, is the heart of the study. This part is divided into two chapters including chapter I: The literature review and the theoretical background relating to future meanings in English and Vietnamese; chapter II: The study emphasizing on forms expressing future meanings in English and Vietnamese as well as the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of forms expressing future meanings. 4 The final part is the conclusion of the study, which gives the conclusions of the whole thesis, implementations for teaching and learning English and Vietnamese forms expressing future meanings and suggestions for further studies. 5 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1. Literature review There are a lot of authors whose studies are concerned to tense (time) in general and future meanings in particular. Nguyen Minh Thuyet & Nguyen Van Hiep (1999), Jone, P.B. & Huynh Sanh Thong (1960), Truong Vinh Ky [29], Aubaret, G. [29], Nguyen Kim Than (1997)… give their opinions about tense of Vietnamese. Nguyen Khue (1999), Nguyen Huu Du (2001), Minh Loc & Khanh Quynh (2003), Hoang Xuan Hinh (2006), Aiken, R.M. (2006), Murphy, R (1994), Harley, B. & Viney, P. (2002), Hartman, R.R.K. & Stock, F.C. (1972), Thuy Hien (2007)…whose studies concern for the use of tense in general and future tense in particular. There are some studies on forms expressing future meanings such as Le Dung (2003), Thomson, A.J. & Martinet, A.V. (1999), Trinh Quang Vinh (1998)… Diep Quang Ban & Hoang Van Thung (2006), Vu Van Thi (1956) have studies how to use adverbs of time in Vietnamese. Other authors such as Le Quang Thiem (2004), Hua Van Duc (2006), Vu Thi Tuyet Nga (2008), give their studies on the tense, time meanings in English and Vietnamese as well as comparison between English and Vietnamese in terms of forms expressing time meanings. Here are some studies directly relating to the field of this study: A study on the components of sentences in Vietnamese (Nguyen Minh Thuyet & Nguyen Van Hiep, 1999). In this study, tense category is a main part of study. Both authors give many different opinions about tense/ time in Vietnamese. They also introduce other authors’ points of view about tense. However, according to both authors, there are two main tenses in Vietnamese, which are future tense and non-future tense. In addition, they indicate functional words used to express tense category in general. ... - tailieumienphi.vn