Prepositions in English and Vietnamese Languages

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1 University of Education English Department Prepositions in English and Vietnamese Languages Instructor : Bùi Nguyên Khánh Student : Hoàng Thị Huyền Diệu HCMC 31/12/2011

2 ABSTRACT In process of teaching and learning English, using preposition is one of the most difficulties for teachers and learners. There are many books and researches about prepositions compiled. When teaching English, teachers also spend a lot of time practising this. Prepositions exist in both English and Vietnamese language systems. Is it any wonder that prepositions create such troubles for students for whom English is a second language? We say we are at the hospital to visit a friend who is in the hospital. We lie in bed but on the couch. We watch a film at the theater but on television. For native speakers, these little words present little difficulty, but try to learn another language, any other language, and we will quickly discover that prepositions are troublesome wherever we live and learn. Because prepositions have different characteristics and usage in each language, they make learners find learning English in term of prepositions difficult and vice versa. So I decide to do this research with hope to make it clearer. This research aims at analyzing the differences between English and Vietnamese prepositions. This study has pedagogical implications for teaching prepositions in English and to help teachers and motivate them to describe and analyze the learners errors and also to prepare remedial exercises to eliminate the errors their students make the use of prepositions. 2

3 LITERATURE REVIEW The basic concept of English prepositions The word preposition comes from Latin, a language in which such a word is usually placed before its complement. Preposition is defined A preposition may be defined as connecting word showing the relation of a noun or a noun substitute to some other word in sentence ( Prepositions: definition and usage, n.d). Agoi (2003) described preposition as a word or group of words used with a noun or noun equivalents to show the link between that noun which it governs and another word. Prepositions according to Lawal (2004) indicate various relationships between words or phrases in sentence. The relationship includes those of time, points, position, direction and various degrees of mental or emotional attitude. Let see the examples: My plane leaves at noon I plan to graduate this summer I will not forget you for ever I will see you on Saturday The girl is ahead of that lady You will have to stand in front of the class Example 1 3

4 As example 1 shows above, prepositions in English consist of one (to/on/at) or two (ahead of) or three words (in front of). The important feature here is that prepositions cannot stand alone, regardless of how many words they are combined with (Downing and Locke, 1992). As prepositions are not an independent element, they are always combined with other elements, such as nouns (at noon), verbs ( to graduate) and adverbs ( for ever). According to Downing and Locke, prepositions function in forming a nominal group combining with other elements to realize a meaning in a sentence, which is called the Prepositional Group (1992). Thus a study of English prepositions should focus on finding a role of the prepositional group rather than separating them from a sentence. Prepositions are used with a lot of functions including time( at, on, in, from, since, for, during, to, till/ until, after, afterwards, by, before, so forth), location ( in, at, on, next to, beside, behind, in front of, opposite, near, on top of, under, above,..), manner ( by, in, like, on, with), means ( by, from, in, on, with), quantity ( for, by), purpose (for), and state or condition (at, by, in, on, for, as). Here are some examples: TIME about : about noon (approximately) on: on Tuesday at: at five o clock after: after the game at last (finally) by: by midnight for: for an hour from: from Monday to Friday in: in the morning of: a quarter of three in the fall/ in April/ in 1990 past: a quarter past three to: a quarter to three 4

5 PLACE OR DIRECTION around: She walked around the car at: They are at home down: They lived down the hall in: He lives in a trailer from: The restaurant is one mile from here inside: Put it inside the house of: We moved south of Montreal on: We sat on the ocean pier through: They drove through the tunnel up: He walked up the stairs to: He went to Prague with: He went with me MEAN OF AGENT by: He was hit by a ball in: He takes pleasure in it from: His success results from careful planning on: They live on bread and water with: He chased the moose with a stick MANNER By: By doing it yourself, you save time Like: He looks like a hero in: He left in confusion on: I swear it on my word of honor With: He ate it with a fork STATE OR CONDITION At: My friend is at work In: He is in a state of confusion For: I mistook you for someone else by: They are by themselves (alone) on: He is on duty as: I see her as a good person QUANTITY OR MEASURE For: We drove for twenty miles by: We bought them by the kilo PURPOSE For: He bought it for an emergency ( Prepositions: definition and usage,n.d) 5

6 The basic concept of Vietnamese prepositions Like English, Vietnamese also has a category of word which similar to prepositions. We may call this category Vietnamese equivalent of English preposition. According to Tuc (2003), Although the distinction between prepositions and serial verbs in Vietnamese is not always clear-cut, Vietnamese do exist (p.69). For example: trong (in, inside), ngoài (out, outside, out of), trên (on, over..), dưới (under, beneath, below), trước (before), sau (behind), bên ( by), giữa ( among, between). Vietnamese prepositions link nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition. According to Tran (2007) Vietnamese prepositions have two main kinds: prepositions of time and location. And there are some other prepositions called miscellaneous ones. Here are some prepositions of time: trong or trong suốt ( during), vào ( in, on, at), trước (before), sau (after), kể từ khi (since) and cho tới khi (until). Tôi thường ăn sáng lúc bảy giờ ( I usually have breakfast at 7 o clock) Ba tôi phục vụ quân đội trong suốt chiến tranh ( My father was in the army during the war) Tôi không gặp cô ấy kể từ khi cô ấy xuất ngoại ( I haven t met her since she went abroad) Prepositions of location: trên ( on, above, over), trong (in, inside), chung quanh ( around), bên trái ( on the right of), cạnh ( next to, beside), đối diện (opposite) and so on. Tôi sống tại thành phố Hồ Chí Minh ( I live in Ho Chi Minh city) 6

7 Nhà sách nằm đối diện nhà thờ ( The bookstore is opposite the church) Prepositions of miscellaneous: cho ( for), với (with), về (about), nhờ ( thanks to), bởi (by) Anh ta kể về chuyến du lịch của mình rất hào hứng ( He told me about his trip excitedly) CONTRAST BETWEEN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE LOCATIVE PREPOSITION Locative prepositions belong to a small class of formatives which are difficult to define. For example, a non-native speaker of English finds it hard to distinguish between on the street and in the street. It s really difficult to put to clear up the confusion. It is interesting that native speakers, who often make all kinds of syntactic and semantic errors never use prepositions in prepositional phrases incorrectly; while foreign speakers master the proper use of prepositions with the greatest difficulty. In this part, I will give some basic differences between English and Vietnamese locative prepositions. Let s take a look at the table below Notion English prepositions Vietnamese prepositions TRONG in, inside trong NGOÀI out, outside, out of ngoài TRÊN on, upon, above, on top of, over, atop trên DƯỚI under, underneath, beneath, below dưới TRƯỚC before, in front of, ahead of, preceding trước 7

8 SAU BÊN GIỮA behind, following, at the back of (Br), in the back of (Am) by, near, next to, close to, beside, alongside, to the right/left within, among, between, in the middle of, in the midst of sau bên, cạnh, sát, gần, kề, bên phải, bên trái giữa (Tran, 2010) As we can see above, if Vietnamese people want to describe the meaning trước, they say that Bạn con đang ở trước nhà ( Your friend is in front of the house), or Có xe đằng trước kìa ( There is a car ahead), as we can see, when being translated into English, there are varied prepositions according to the positions of the subjects and objects. Trước in front of, ahead so on. That s why Vietnamese people find it difficult to use correct English prepositions. According to Tran (2010), Vietnamese people don t pay attention to trajector ( đối tượng định vị) and landmark ( đối tượng qui chiếu) when describing the higher position. Meanwhile, English people take these into consideration. They distinguish among on/ over/ above while Vietnamese people just use trên. When describing the above and under relation, Vietnamese people aren t aware of distinguishing whether the trajector is in the vertical reference ( vùng qui chiếu thẳng đứng) of the landmark s area. They just divide the space into two areas: trên (above)/ dưới (under). Meanwhile, English people are always aware of this aspect. That s why we can see in the table, to describe trên, they have more prepositions than Vietnamese on, upon, above, on top of, over, atop, and dưới under, underneath, beneath, below. 8

9 In general, we can say the differences between English trajector and Vietnamese trajector focus on two ideas: First is word meaning. There is not much difference in literal meaning, the most difficult master is derivative which comes after he influence of topography, mapping to locative prepositions. It includes topography, habits and customs. And second is the way they choose the landmark. IMPLICATION FOR TEACHING The last part of this paper I would like to mention the implication for teaching English, especially teaching prepositions in Vietnamese high school in our country. This study help teachers to predict the difficulties the learners may encounter when learning English. When knowing about the various aspects of learners mother tongue, teachers can predict errors or mistakes his learners may commit and help them to correct these mistakes by giving them appropriate exercises. Because Vietnamese students always try to translate from L1 to L2, they can easily confuse whether they use the prepositions correctly or not. Teachers job is to have enough knowledge of the notion of reference (quan niệm qui chiếu), culture, habits and customs of both countries to explain to students clearly. During the learning process, teachers can use remedial drills to eliminate learners errors. These drills should consist of some exercises of selecting preposition or completing the sentences. For locative prepositions as we mentioned above, teachers should ask students to pay attention to the way English people use prepositions in specific context so that they can form the habit to use perfect prepositions. 9

10 CONCLUSION I hope that this paper is helpful since it indicates the basic concept of English and Vietnamese preposition; besides, it describes the differences between English and Vietnamese locative prepositions which always makes learners feel hard to learn. Preposition is not only an interesting category but it also a challenge for learners. As we can see, English prepositions are varied according to the trajectories and landmarks, while Vietnamese people don t pay much attention to these notions. In short, each language has each rule, so to avoid possible problems when producing utterances, teachers should help students be aware of these differences. REFERENCES CITED Agoi F. (2003): Towards Effective Use of English: A grammar of modern English: Ibandan Joytal Printing Press. Downing.A, Locke.P (1992) A University Course in English Grammar. Module 13. New York. Prentice Hall International Lawal B.G. (2004): Jenuine Mistake by Users of English : Ibadan, Domonion Publishers(Nigeria) Opara S.C. (2001) Applied English Linguistic: Lagos, t-excel Publishers. Tran, Q.H. (2010). Major differences in the use of English and Vietnamese locative prepositions describing spacial relations. Retrieved Dec.27, 2010 from Prepositions: Definition and Usage. Hunter College Reading/Writing Center. March Retrieved Dec.29, 2010 from 10