18 th annual cotseal conference, july 18-19, 2008 university of wisconsin - madison

18th Annual COTSEAL Conference, July 18-19, 2008 University of Wisconsin - Madison

The Challenge in a Conceptual Change: Vietnamese Verbs with Tense

Markers or Aspect Markers?

Tammie M. Tran

University of California, Irvine

Outline

L1 L2L3

General IntroductionVietnamese word order Vietnamese verbs

Position of the verb in the sentenceThe most important distinction between Vietnamese verbs and the verbs in other languages

Verbs – ConceptGrammatical meaningSyntactic meaning Lexical and semantic meaningTemporal reference forms

Outline (2)

L1 L2L3

Any Possibility?/Challenge in a Change – Tense Marker or Aspect Marker in Viet. Language

Comparative analysis of distinctions of Vietnamese verbs and verbs in other languages

Basic features of tense markers and aspect markers

Tense marker or aspect marker? Unavailable qualities in Vietnamese tense markers

The qualities of aspect in Vietnamese markers ‘đã, đang, sắp, sẽ, etc.’

Conclusions and pedagogical implications

English Subject - Verb - Object

VietnameseSubject - Verb - Object

Word Order

Position

Most important distinction – No conjugation/no agreement (in terms of subject, gender, number, case)

I study my Vietnamese lesson.

Tôi học bài tiếng Việt.

She studies her Vietnamese lesson.

Cô ấy học bài tiếng Việt.

Vietnamese Verbs

Grammatical meaning Predicate

Form - Ø (invaried)

Temporal reference

Tense

Aspect

Mood

Voice

Vietnamese Verbs – Concepts

Vietnamese Verbs – Concepts (2)

1.Tense

2.Aspect

3.Voice Indicative

4.Mood Imperative

Subjunctive

1.Thì

2.Thức

3.Dạng/Thể

4.Cách ≠ ≠

* Thể + - ?

+ - ?

English Vietnamese

Syntactical meaningVerb - vi + vt

vt

vi

Auxiliary verb


Lexical and semantic meaningVerbs of action

State verbs

(Auxilary verbs)

Causative verbs

Verbs of existence, appearance, disappearance

Verbs of feeling or perception

Verbs of wish, desire, wants


Temporal reference forms expressed by

Particles accompanied with verbsChúng tôi đã gặp nhau hôm qua.We met each other yesterday.

Adverbial phrases of timeChúng tôi gặp nhau hôm qua./Hôm qua chúng tôi gặp nhau.We met each other yesterday.

Grammatical/pragmatic context

---


Grammatical/pragmatic context

Anh về bao giờ?/Bao giờ anh về?

When did you come back?/

When will you come back?

Biết em buông mối chỉ hồng

Tiếc anh đi chậm nên đứng ngoài phòng bơ vơ.

Know that you let loose the pink thread for marriage tie

Regret I was slow and stood lonely outside


Vietnamese Verbs - Differences Position

Conjugation/agreement

Temporal expressions

Chúng tôi đã gặp nhau hôm qua.

We met each other yesterday.

Chúng tôi gặp nhau hôm qua.

We met each other yesterday.

Tense or Aspect Marker?

Tense or Aspect Marker? (2)

•Tense•Sohn (1995) (p24)‘Tense is obligatory in Korean’

•Aspect•Sohn (1995) (p24)‘Aspect is optional in Korean’

Tense or Aspect Marker? (3)•English

•Tense – P, Pr, F•Aspect – Perf, Imperf., Progressive, (Simple) •Russian

•Tense – P, Pr, F (Anderson, 2006) •Tense + Aspect - P, Pr + Perf, Imperf.,

Prospective (Jakobson, 1957+Anderson,2007)

L5

L3L2

L4

L1

Tense or Aspect Marker? (4)•Korean

•Soga (1983) –ru and –ta affixes – noncompleted & completed aspectual markers

•Chinese•McEnery and Xiao (2003) ‘Romance languages, French & Spanish:Tense – important (tense languages)Chinese: Aspect – more important (aspect language)’

Vietnamese – Tense?No mandatoryNo conjugation No S-V agreement (in terms of gender, number, case)

Tense or Aspect Marker? (5)

He is talking to his students.

Tense - is - Pr

Aspect – be + ing - Progressive

Aspect? Perfective

Chúng tôi gặp nhau hôm qua.

Chúng tôi đã gặp nhau hôm qua .

Đã, đang, sắp, sẽ ------

Tense or Aspect Marker? (6)Aspects/Tenses

Perfective Imperfective

Perfect Perfect + progressive

Simple Progressive

Past Past perfect

Past perfectprogressive

Simplepast

Past progressive

Present Present perfect

Present perfect progressive

Simple present

Present progressive

Future Future perfect

Future perfectprogressive

Simple future

Future progressive

Aspect -> Perfective Imperfective

Just completed

Completed Progress-ive

InceptiveAbout to

take place

Prospect-ive

Yet to take place

vừa/mới đã đang sắp sẽ

Vietnamese

English

Conclusions & Pedagogical Implications

Thank you & Comments are welcomed

-Tense/tense markers?

-Time frame?

-Aspect/aspect markers?

-Pedagogical implications

Mai sau, dù có bao giờĐốt lò hương ấy, so tơ phím này: Sometime, if ever you tune this lute,

Or light that incense vessel, look outdoors:(Translated by Huynh

(1987)) Biết em buông mối chỉ hồngTiếc anh đi chậm nên đứng ngoài phòng bơ vơ(Know that you let loose the pink thread for marriage tie Regret I was slow and stayed lonely outside)

DiscussionsTense--?/Time frame--? Aspect--?

Tối qua, khi tôi đang ăn cơm thì điện thoại reo. Yesterday evening, when I was having dinner, the phone rang.

Đến cuối năm sau (thì) tôi đã hoàn tất dự án này rồi. I will have finished this project by the end of next

year. Đến cuối năm sau (thì) tôi mới hoàn tất dự án này rồi.

I won’t have finished this project until the end of next year.

Đến tháng chín, tôi mới trở lại trường. I won’t be back to school until September

Discussions (2)Tense--?/Time frame--? Aspect--?

18 th annual cotseal conference, july 18-19, 2008 university of wisconsin - madison

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