VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
-----*-----*-----

FINAL ASSIGNMENT
CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
PRONOUNS

Lecturer: Dr. Nguyễn Huy Kỷ

Learner: Phạm Ngọc Duy
Date of birth: 27/09/1985
Course: 2012 -2014
Class: English K21 – Thai Nguyen

Thai Nguyen, 2013

1
Question1: What is contrastive linguistics ? Is it the same as comparative

linguistics ? How are they different ? What is the biggest diffrence between

“to compare” and “to contrast” in contrastive analysis ?

Narrowly defined, contrastive linguistics can be regarded as a branch of

comparative linguistics that is concerned with pairs of languages which are ‘socio-

culturally linked’. Two languages can be said to be socio-culturally linked when

(i) they are used by a considerable number of bi- or multilingual speakers, and/or

(ii) a substantial amount of ‘linguistic output’ (text, discourse) is translated from

one language into the other. According to this definition, contrastive linguistics

deals with pairs of languages such as Spanish and Basque, but not with Latin and

(the Australian language) Dyirbal, as there is no socio-cultural link between these

languages.

More broadly defined, the term ‘contrastive linguistics’ is also sometimes used for

comparative studies of (small) groups (rather than just pairs) of languages, and

does not require a socio-cultural link between the languages investigated. On this

view, contrastive linguistics is a special case of linguistic typology and is

distinguished from other types of typological approaches by a small sample size

and a high degree of granularity. Accordingly, any pair or group of languages

(even Latin and Dyirbal) can be subject to a contrastive analysis.

Contrastive linguistics invariably requires a socio-cultural link between the

languages investigated, but that it is not restricted to pairwise language

comparison. Even though it is not a branch of applied linguistics, contrastive

2
linguistics thus aims to arrive at results that carry the potential of being used for

practical purposes, e.g. in foreign language teaching and translation. As it provides

the descriptive basis for such applications, its research programme can also be

summarized as ‘comparison with a purpose’ (E. König). The ‘objective of

applicability’ is also reflected in the fact that contrastive studies focus on the

differences, rather than the similarities, between the languages compared.

Compare and contrast are words that are often used to talk about the similarities

and differences between two things or objects. These two words are very

commonly used.

Compare means to see the similarity and contrast means to see the difference.

According to various dictionaries, compare means ‘to represent things or objects

in respect of similarity’ and contrast means ‘to represent things in respect of

differences.’

Apart from these meanings, one struggles to find any differences between the two.

If a person is looking at the similarities between two objects or things, then he may

be comparing the two. On the other hand, if a person is looking at the dissimilarity

between two things or objects, then he may be contrasting the two.

The word compare has been derived from the Latin word ‘comparare’, which

means ‘to liken or to compare.’ The word contrast has been derived from the Latin

words ‘contra’ and ‘stare’, which means ‘against’ and ‘to stand.’ In Middle

English, contrast was used for meaning ‘fight against’ or ‘to withstand’ in a battle.

3
Contrast lost its sheen during the end of 17th century but was later adopted in art

forms.

Compare is mainly used to demonstrate relative values of the objects in all

qualities. When comparing two things or objects, one can see the divergent views

which could make one better than the other.

Question 2: To the best of your knowledge and experiences, can you give

example for illustration for the question mentioned above to show how you

can apply it/them in your teaching situation ?

Pronouns are used to refer to someone or something in context so that we

can avoid repetition in the process of communication. Factually, most languages in

the world, including English and Vietnamese, have this type of word. However,

each language has its own characteristics. The use of Vietnamese pronouns,

especially personal pronouns, may cause lots of confusion for English people who

learn Vietnamese. Therefore, this paper aims at exploring personal pronouns in

English and Vietnamese in a contrastive view, especially in the ways they are

used. Then, I will suggest some implications for language teaching so that the

process of L2 acquisition can be better.

What are personal pronouns?

In general, “personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper

or common nouns” (Wikipedia, “Personal pronoun”). In the example following,

“her”, “she”, “it” and “me” are personal pronouns.

4
 Mary took out her book. Then, she gave it to me.

Personal pronouns in English

According to Heather MacFadyen, forms of English personal pronouns

vary according to case, person, number, and gender (“What is a Pronoun?”).

In term of case, in general, there are three cases depending on the

grammatical role of the personal pronouns in a sentence: subjective, objective and

possessive (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”).

- In subjective case, the personal pronouns are used as the subject of a verb,

such as I, you, we, he, she, it, and they (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun

Characteristics”). For example: I am a student.

- In objective case, they are used as the object of a verb or a preposition,

such as me, you, us, him, her, it, and them (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun

Characteristics”). For example: How can you stand living with them?

- In possessive case, they are used as markers of possession and define who

owns a particular object or person, such as mine, yours, ours, his, hers, its, theirs

(Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”). For example: Her clothes are

always clear while his are always dirty.

In term of person, personal pronouns in English have three persons: first

person, second person and third person (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun

Characteristics”).

- First personal pronouns refer to the speaker or writer, such as I

/me/mineand we/us/ours. For example: Bob told us about his family.

5
 - Second personal pronouns refer to the addressee of the speaker or the

audience of the writer, such as you/you/yours. For example: You must tell me the

truth.

- Third personal pronouns refer to anyone else or others, such as he/him/his,

she/her/hers, it/it/its/ and they/them/theirs. For example: She loves him.

In term of number, English personal pronouns are divided into singular and

plural ones (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics”).

- Singular personal pronouns include I/me/mine, you/you/yours,

she/her/hers, he/him/his and it/it/its. For example: It is a pen. Or Are you a

doctor?

- Plural personal pronouns include we/us/ours, you/you/yours and

they/them/theirs. For example: They will go with me tomorrow. Or Are you

doctors?

In term of gender, English personal pronouns have three genders:

masculine, feminine and neuter (Megginson, “Noun and Pronoun

Characteristics”).

- Masculine personal pronouns involve male sexual organs, such as

he/him/his. For example:

Tom is a naughty boy. He is always playing truant.

- Feminine personal pronouns involve female sexual organs, such as

she/her/hers. For example: Mai is a good girl. She usually helps me.

6
 - Neuter personal pronouns are used when the sexual state of referents is

not mentioned, such asthey/them/theirs, it/it/its. For example: They are the books

that my father bought me last year.

Above are all English personal pronouns categorized in term of case,

person, number and gender. To make it brief, I have summarized all in the

following table:

English Personal Pronouns

Singular Plural
Subjectiv Subjectiv
Objective Possessive Objective Possessive
e e
First I Me Mine We Us Ours
Second You You Yours You You Yours
Masculine He Him His
Third Feminine She Her Hers They Them Theirs
Neuter It It Its

Personal pronouns in Vietnamese

The system of Vietnamese personal pronouns is absolutely more

complicated than the one of English. Not only age, gender, person but also the

social context, attitude of the speaker to the listener as well as the relationship

between the speaker and listener are indicated through the way Vietnamese choose

personal pronouns in every day communication. There are two branches in the

system of Vietnamese personal pronouns: true personal pronouns and kinship

terms (Wikipedia, “Vietnamese Pronouns”).

7
 True personal pronouns are catergorised into first person, second person

and third person.

- First personal pronouns in singular forms include: tôi, ta, mình, tao… Tôi

is usually used in polite speech (Ex: This is a statement in a wedding: “Tôi xin

chân thành cám ơn sự có mặt của quý vị trong buổi lễ ngày hôm nay”). Ta is often

used when someone talks to himself/herself (Ex: When someone is wavering

between coming back or staying on, he may ask himself: “Ta nên đi hay nên ở lại

đây?”) or it can be used to indicate the higher status of the speaker to the

addressee (Ex: A boss may say to his charwoman: “Hãy chuẩn bị mọi thứ sẵn

sàng cho ta”). Mình is also used for soliloquy (Ex: When someone encourage

himself, he may say: “Mình cần phải cố hơn nữa!”). Tao is used in informal case

when the speaker and the addressee have a close relationship (Ex: A pupil want to

borrow his friend’s picture book, he may say: “Cho tao mượn cuốn truyện này

nha”) or when the speaker is angry with the listener (Ex: “Tao sẽ đánh cho mày

nhừ xương”).

- Second personal pronouns in singular forms include: mày, mi, bạn…Mày

is used in close relationship or informal social context (Ex: A sister may ask her

brother: “Mày đang làm cái gì đó?”). Mi is usually used for familiar relationship in

the Middle area of Vietnam; it has the same function as mày. Bạn is used to creat

friendly atmosphere (Ex: An MC could ask a contestant in a gameshow: “Bạn có

thể giớ thiệu về bản thân mình cho khán giả được biết không ạ?”).

8
 - Third personal pronouns in singular forms include: nó, y, hắn, gã, ả…Nó

is often used to refer to animals, things or children (Ex: “Chiếc bàn này được làm

từ gỗ quý nên nó có giá rất cao”). Y and hắn are both used to refer to someone

scorned or untrustworthy (Ex: When you accuse someone as a criminal, you could

say: “Hắn là một tên tội phạm”). Gã and ả are both ofetn used to refer to someone

unliked, however, Vienamese use gã for male and ả for female (Ex: A girl talks

about a man who makes her annoyed: “Gã thật là phiền phức” while the man

could say: “Ả thật là đánh đá”).

The plural forms of first, second and third personal pronouns can be created

by adding the words like “chúng”, “tụi”, “bọn” such as: chúng tôi, tụi nó, bọn

mày, bọn tao….(Ex: This is a statement in a wedding: “Chúng tôi xin chân thành

cám ơn sự có mặt của quý vị trong buổi lễ ngày hôm nay”). However, we can also

use “họ” as the plural form of a third personal pronoun without adding any words

(Ex: Instead of saying: “Tụi nó là bạn của tôi”, one can say: “Họ là bạn của tôi”

with a more formal level).

The other branch of Vietnamese personal pronouns is kinship terms which

are the most popular ways Vietnamese use to refer oneself and others. Even

though the listener is not a family member or relative, kinship terms can also used

as pronouns to address and refer to friends and unfamiliar interlocutors (Luong,

1990). The system of these kinship terms is quite complicated and they can

different according to specific areas, so in this paper I just mention some typical

ones.

9
 - Parents and children relationship: cha-con (father-children) and mẹ-con

(mother-children). For example, a child talks to her mother: “Tối nay, mẹ và con

đi siêu thị nhé!” The term cha-con is also used in the relationship between parish

priests and Christian believers.

- Sibling relationship: anh-em (older brother-younger brother/sister) and

chị-em (older sister-younger brother/sister). For example, a little boy says to his

sister: “Ba bảo chị một lát chở em đi học.” A person can also use anh/ chị to refer

people who are in the same generation and older than him/her, and use em to

prefer people who are in the same generation and younger than him/her.

- Grandparents and grandchildren relationship: ông-cháu (grandfather-

grandson/granddaughter), bà-cháu (grandmother- grandson/granddaughter). For

example, an old man talks to his niece: “Để ông kể cho cháu nghe chuyện Tấm-

Cám nhé!” The terms ông-cháu and bà-cháu can also be used when a person talks

to people who seem to be as old as his/her grandparents.

- Uncle and niece/nephew relationship: chú-cháu (father’s younger brother-

nice/nephew), bác-cháu (parents’ older brother- nice/nephew), cậu-cháu (mother’s

younger brother- nice/nephew), dượng-cháu (ant’s husband- nice/nephew). For

example, a man may talk to his nephew: “Cậu có quà cho cháu này.” The term

chú-cháu is also used when a person talks to a male who is the same age or

younger than his/her parents whereas bác-cháu is used when a person talks to a

male who is older than his/her parents.

10
 - Ant and niece/nephew relationship: cô-cháu (father’s younger sister-

nice/nephew), dì-cháu (mother’s younger sister- nice/nephew), bác-cháu (parents’

older sister- nice/nephew), mợ-cháu (uncle’s wife on the maternal side-

nice/nephew), thím-cháu (uncle’s wife on the paternal side- nice/nephew). For

example, a woman may say to her niece: “Cháu của dì hôm nay giỏi quá!” The

term dì-cháu or cô-cháu is also used when a person talks to a female who is

younger than his/her parents while bác-cháu is used when a person talks to a

female who is older than his/her parents.

To make the third-person forms of the kinship terms above, the word “ấy”

is added behind them such as ông ấy, bà ấy, thím ấy, dì ấy, chú ấy, chị ấy, anh

ấy…For example: Lan là chị của tôi. Chị ấy rất thương tôi.

Within this paper, I would like to discuss the contrast between English and

Vietnamese personal pronouns in ways they are used.

Firstly, there are different pronouns in English that indicate subject vs.

predicate position (eg. “he” vs. “him”) while Vietnamese pronouns remain the

same without indicating subject vs. predicate position (Erickson 199-203).

Example:

- He is Mary’s boyfriend. I met him at Mary’s birthday party last week.

- Anh ấy là bạn trai của Mary. Tôi đã gặp anh ấy trong buổi tiệc sinh nhật

của Mary vào tuần trước.

Secondly, English has possessive pronouns to indicate the possessor of

another noun (eg. “mine”, “yours”, “his”, “hers”). In contrast, possessive pronouns

11
do not exist in Vietnamese; in stead, the word “của” is used to indicate the

possession.

Example:

My coat is pink. Yours is blue.

Áo khoát của tôi màu hồng. Cái của bạn màu xanh.

Thirdly, because of the dominance of ellipsis, Vietnamese pronouns have

low frequency as compared to English pronouns (Thu, “The Functioning of

Pronouns in Vietnamese and English”).

Example:

He said that he would go to Hanoi the following month.

Anh ấy nói sẽ đi Hà Nội vào tháng tới. (The subject of reported clause is

omitted).

Finally, the choice of pronouns in Vietnamese, especially kinship terms, is

strongly influenced by semantic and pragmatic factors while this is not the case in

English (Thu, “The Functioning of Pronouns in Vietnamese and English”). For

example: In English, we use only the pronoun “he” for referring to both brother

and father; however, in Vietnamese, we have to use the pronoun “ông ấy” for

referring to father and the pronoun “anh ấy” for referring to brother.

Through a contrastive view into Vietnamese and English personal pronouns

above, I would like to suggest some implications for English and Vietnamese

teaching and learning.

12
 Firstly, language teachers have to pay much attention to semantic and

pragmatic factors such as age, sex, social status, relationship, attitudes and feelings

of the speaker and addressee, as well as the formality of the context in the process

of teaching Vietnamese pronouns. Towards English people who learn Vietnamese,

teachers should explain clearly the different meanings of each Vietnamese

personal pronoun, especially the kinship terms in specific contexts. For example,

to utter the sentence “I love you” in Vietnamese, we should consider the

relationship, sex and even social status between the speaker and the listener. If the

speaker is a female and the listener is a male, the utterance should be “Em yêu

anh”. On contrast, if the speaker is a male and the listener is a female, the

utterance should be “Anh yêu em”. However, if the utterance is said by people in a

family, the personal pronouns must be change: “Mẹ yêu con” for the mother to her

child and “Con yêu mẹ” for the child to his/her mother, “Bà yêu cháu” for the

grandmother to her grandchild and “Cháu yêu bà” for the grandchild to his/her

grandmother. Besides, if the utterance is said by a girl to a man who has much

higher social status than her, she may say “Em yêu ngài”.

Secondly, when sudden change of personal pronouns in Vietnamese

contexts appears, it is the teacher’s duty to explain clearly the reason for such

change. The following example will make the suggestion more clear:

This is the conservation between a father and his daughter when the father

wants to forbid his daughter’s love for her boyfriend.

13
 Ba: Con hãy bỏ thằng đó đi. Nó không thể mang hạnh phúc đến cho con

đâu.

Con gái: Nhưng con đã lỡ yêu anh ấy rồi, ba ơi!

Ba: Nghe lời ba đi con. Bỏ thằng đó đi. Ba sẽ tìm cho con một người tốt

hơn.

Con gái: Con xin lỗi ba, nhưng con không thể.

Ba: Vậy thì mày hãy ra khỏi nhà tao để đi theo thằng đó luôn đi.

In the conservation above, we can see the sudden change from “cha-con” to

“mày-tao” when the father gets angry because he fails to convince her daughter to

leave her boyfriend. Moreover, the daughter’s boyfriend is refered differently

according to the attitude of the utterer. He is called “nó”, “thằng đó” by the father

with scornful attitude, but the daughter use the pronoun “anh ấy” to call him

respectfully.

Thirdly, English teachers should help their Vietnamese students get

aquainted with using possessive and objective pronouns which do not exist in

Vietnamese. For example, the sentence “Mặc dù nó đã cố gắng rất nhiều nhưng sự

vụng về của nó khiến cho mọi người không muốn giao nhiệm vụ cho nó” is

translated into English “Although he tried a lot, his awkwardness made nobody

want to commission him” with the consideration of subjective, objective position

as well as possessive case.

Last but not least, ellipsis is dominant in Vietnamese while it is not the case

in Eglish. Therefore, English teachers should help Vietnamese students make

14
sentences correctly by avoiding ellipsis, especially at the beginning of

conservation. The example below will make clear this point:

A and B meet each other in the street by chance.

In Vietnamese In English
A: Đi đâu đó? A: Where are you going?

B: Đi chợ. B: I’m going to the market.

In conclusion, each language has its distinct characters, so it is not easy at

all to acquire a second language effectively. The differences of using personal

pronouns in English and Vietnamese, for example, are problems that learners need

to make their efforts to adapt. With this research paper, I hope that readers can

distinguish the personal pronouns in English in comparison with personal

pronouns in Vietnamese. Then, we can find out more effective solutions to help

learners grasp the using of personals pronouns between the two languages more

easily. It is obvious that this paper cannot avoid shortcomings, so your useful

contributions are welcomed.

15
 References

Erickson, J. English. In J. Garry & C. Rubino, eds. Facts about the world’s

languages: An encyclopedia of the world’s major languages, past, and

present. New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 2001.

Luong, H. V. Discursive practices and linguistic meanings: The Vietnamese

system of person reference. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing

Company, 1990.

Megginson, David. “Noun and Pronoun Characteristics.” uOttawa. 16 Aug. 2007.

25 Dec. 2009

<http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/

nounchar.html#persons>.

MacFadyen, Heather. “What is a Pronoun?” uOttawa. 10 Oct. 2008. 25 Dec. 2009

<http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/pronouns.html>.

“Personal pronoun.” Wikipedia.25 Dec. 2009. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 25

Dec. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_pronoun>.

Thu, N.T.K. “The Functioning of Pronouns in Vietnamese and English.” Vu Giao

Duc Dai Hoc. 11 Jan. 2006. Vu Dai hoc va Sau Dai hoc. 28 Dec. 2009

<http://www.hed.edu.vn/TrangChu/LuanAnTienSi/11128299/>.

“Vietnamese pronouns.” Wikipedia. 30 Oct. 2009. Wikimedia Foundation,

Inc. 28 Dec. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_pronouns>.

16