REPRESENTATION OF TIME AND TIME RELATIONSHIP IN ENGLISH AND IN VIETNAMESE This study has been undertaken in the hope of bringing about some improvement in the teaching of English to Vietnamese students The writer has observed that one of the areas which causes the greatest difficulties for Vietnamese students learning English is that of the English verb system Vietnamese students 146 difficulties are due chiefly to the differences between the devices used in the two languages to show time and time relationship This study attempts therefore to identify these differences through an analysis of the features of the English verb system and the corresponding elements and devices in Vietnamese that signal time and time relationship The analysis of the English verb system has been based primarily on Robert L Allen 147 The Verb System of Present Day American English 148 unpublished Ph D dissertation Columbia University New York 1962 and on Robert L Allen and Virginia F Allen English Auxiliaries and Verb Forms rexographed edition New York Teachers College Columbia University 1963 Other studies of the English verb system are also examined for any additional insight they can provide For the analysis of the Vietnamese verb system the writer has used herself as chief informant although she has also consulted various studies of Vietnamese grammar The findings of this study reveal a number of differences between English and Vietnamese in the expression of time and time relationship These differences are to be found both in the degree of importance one particular device plays in one or the other language and in the lack of elements in one language which correspond to certain elements in the other In English the main verb in a major or so called 147 complete 148 sentence is always time oriented while every Vietnamese verb is noncommittal as regards time On the basis of form English has a two time verb system whereas Vietnamese has a one time system with the time identified by the context and or by time expressions In Vietnamese time expressions constitute the main device for orienting predications with respect to time In English time expressions are only one of the devices used for time reference the use of different verb forms is an even more important device for orienting predications to one or another kind of time In both Vietnamese and English auxiliaries are used for expressing time relationship although the use of auxiliaries in English is much more complicated than it is in Vietnamese In English for example earlier time time relationship relative to a past time a present time and a future time is expressed by had have has and will have respectively In Vietnamese the single auxiliary da performs the same function for all three kinds of time Similarly while English uses will to show later time time relationship with respect to the present time and would to show later time time relationship with respect to an identified past time Vietnamese uses only the one auxiliary se for both such kinds of reference Vietnamese verb forms also differ from English verb forms in that they do not show aspect In English there are two kinds of aspect 1 intrusive aspect expressed by an expanded or progressive verb cluster for reference to part of an event and 2 inclusive aspect for reference to an event as a whole expressed by a non expanded or simple verb cluster The writer believes that potential difficulties in the learning of a foreign language can be anticipated where dissimilarities between the native language and the target language occur It is her hope that this study will be helpful to both Vietnamese English teachers and textbook writers by pointing out just such potential difficulties in this particular area of English grammar

Representation of Time and Time-Relationship in English and in Vietnamese PDF

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