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Interrogative sentence Running head: Interrogative sentence- English and Vietnamese Structure and usage of question in English and Vietnamese Nguyễn Phương Thụy Class 5CQBT University of Pedagogy 1 Interrogative sentence Introduction We can assert that language plays a significant role in the historical developmment of human society. We use it to communicate, to exchange information with each other.In the world there are more than two hundred languages and each language has its own feature. Linguists have made a lot of efforts to find out the relationship beetween them. In this paper, I mainly concentrate on presenting the observation of comparision between two languages- English and Vietnamese in terms of interrogative sentence. It aims to indicate the similarities and differences in question between English and Vietnamese.With this research, I hope that it will help my readers to avoid making grammatical mistakes in their translation. Definition According to Le Quang Thiem, a Vietnamese linguist “ Interrogative sentence is used in daily communication as well as in our thinking to search for unknown information” ( 222). Another author states that “ A question (interrogative sentence) asks about some missing information the speaker would like to have” (sites.google.com). Actually, like other abstract things, no one can give the accurate definition that satisfies the others. Howerver, as we all know a question is a request for information or action. When writing a question, you should always end the sentence with a question mark (?). Construction of English and Vietnamese question In English, interrogative sentence can be classified as five basic types: 1.Yes-No questions 2.Wh-questions 3.Alternative questions 4.Declarative questions 5.Tag questions 2 Interrogative sentence And in Vietnamese, we have the eqivalents as follows: 1.Câu hỏi tổng quát 2.Câu hỏi có từ nghi vấn 3.Câu hỏi lựa chọn 4.Câu hỏi dùng ngữ điệu 5.Câu hỏi láy lại In form, questions in English and Vietnamese are virtually different. Most of the word order in English question is reserved. Normally we use auxilary, modal verbs or tobe and transfer them to the position before the subject to form an interrogative sentence. We also add wh-word at the beginning of the sentence to set up a wh-question. Each kind of question uses intonation as well as possible. Whereas, the word order in Vietnamese question has the same form as positve sentence ( S-V). We usually use rhetoric to form an interrogative sentence, instead of intonation. We will step by step analyze five types of question in English with examples and make an inference in Vietnamese. Yes-No questions Affirmative questions In meaning, both English and Vietnamese use this kind of question to ask whether something is true or not,i.e., A: Are you a student? Cậu là sinh viên phải không? B: Yes, I am Vâng, em là sinh viên. A: Does he live in Quang Ngai? Ông ấy sống ở Quảng Ngãi à? B: No, he doesn’t. Không phải. 3 Interrogative sentence As we see in the two above examples, the questioner apparently wants to confirm the information which he has got is right or wrong. In addition, in both languages we can answer by completey rejecting if the assumption of the question is unreasonable. A: Is he a doctor? ( English) B: I don’t know who is . A: Hôm nay cậu khỏe chưa? ( Vietnamese) B: Tớ đâu có bệnh đâu mà khỏe hay chưa. However, the rule to form an interrogative in two languages is different. As discussed above, the word order in Vietnamese question is similar to that of an affirmative sentence S-VO…? Because it is often said that there is no tense in Vietnamese sentences so making a question will be easier than in English, no auxilary verbs added. There is the combination of particle modalities such as à, ạ, hả, nhỉ, nhé, thế, ư, sao, chứ and pairs of adverbs: có….không,có…chưa, có…phải…không…, ….phải không, đã….chưa,….to form a Yes-No question and we don’t raise tone at the end of the sentence. Although these words have the same function, in some extent they cannot be exchangeable. It also depends on the context, the social relationship between the speaker and the listeners (formal or informal), and the aims of the speakers. For example, when a mother asks her dauhgter “ Con đang làm gì thế ?” or “ Con đang làm gì vậy hả?”( What are you doing?) to show her positve or negative attitudes towards her daughter. The first sentence expresses her passion and concern, but the second one implies a scolding- her daughter is doing something wrong. In another example, you want to ask someone whether they eat more or not. It is more formal and sensitive to say “ Bạn ăn chút xíu nữa nhé ?” rather than “ Bạn có muốn ăn nữa không ?” (Would you like to eat more ?) 4 Interrogative sentence Unlike Vietnamese, to form a Yes/No question in English we put “auxiliary verb”, or “tobe” before the subject and the main verb following the subject. If there is no auxiliary verb, as in the Present Simple and Past Simple, then you add one (in both these cases, the auxiliary verb do). In addition, when an auxiliary verb (including modals) is used, the main verb is not inflected (no “s” or “ed” ending), meaning that either the base form or past participle is used. We use a rising intonation at the end of the sentence. Here are some examples to illustrate what has just been discussed. “She is successful in her life”.( affirmative) ( Cô ấy thành công trong cuộc sống) → “Is she successful in her life?” ( interrogative) ( Cô ấy có thành công trong cuộc sống không?) “You have to leave now”. ( affirmative) ( Bạn phải đi ngay bây giờ) → “Do I have to leave now?” ( interrogative) ( Tôi phải đi bây giờ ư ?) One more thing we should pay attention is that sometimes Yes/No questions in English, especially when it begins with modal verbs, are used to make an invitation, a request, a suggestion or to ask permission. Now take a look at these two examples: “ Would you like to come to the party?” and “Could you wait a moment please?”. The first sentence is actually an invitation and an English will respond “ I’d love to” or “ Sorry, but unfortunately I’m busy then”. The second one is basically a request and the answer may be “ No problem”. Meanwhile, in Vietnamese we rarely use the form of Yes-No questions for these purposes. In the table below, the author gives us the structure of Yes-No question in English with some examples. It includes the question beginning with auxiliary verbs, modal verbs and to be. (“ Questions”, n.d.) 5 Interrogative sentence Tense Present Simple Question Element Do Does Examples Do I play? Does she play ? Past Simple Did Did I play ? Present Progressive Am Is Are Am I playing ? Is he playing? Are we playing? Past Progressive Was Were Have Has Was I playing? Were they playing? Have you played? Has she played? Present Perfect Present Perfect Have+Subject+been Have you been playing ? Progressive Has+Subject+been Has she been playing ? Past Perfect Had Progressive Had+Subject+been Future Simple Will Future Perfect Will+Subject+have Conditional Conditional perfect Modals Would Would+Subject+have Can Should Had they played ? Had she been playing ? Will I play ? Will he have played ? Would she play ? Would she have played ? Can I play ? Should I play ? Negative questions “Negative questions” are interrogative sentences which contain negation in their phrasing. Both English and Vietnamese have equivalent. English and Vietnamese have the same rule to form a question in their sentences. In English, to form a negative question, “not” is placed after an auxilary verb or “be” . Similarly, in Vietnamese, we have the word “không” placed before main verb combining with particles to mark a negative question. 6 Interrogative sentence Don’t you like eating banana Bạn không thích ăn chuối à? However, the way to answer this kind of question is what we need to consider. In English the interrogator would like to have an affirmative answer rather than answer confirmly. Whereas in Vietnamese, the interrogator wants to receive an answer which is suitable to the situation. Moreover, in English we say Yes-agree and No- disagree, but in Vietnamese the answers are usually: vâng, dạ, chưa, không depending on the context ( formal or informal). When someone raises a question: “ Can’t you speak French?”( Bạn không biết nói tiếng Pháp à?), and actually you can speak French, what would you say? An English man will reply “Yes, I can”. But a Vietnamese will say “ Không , biết chứ” ( No, I can) and if he cannot speak, he says “ Vâng, tôi không biết” ( Yes, I can’t) while an English says “No, I can’t”. Therefore, be careful when answering a negative question in two languages. Wh-questions Wh-subject questions In English, a Wh-subject question is an open question, meaning that it can have any number of answers. It asks about missing information the speaker needs about the subject of the sentence ( performer of the action). A question element needs to precede the subject in order to form this question. To form a subject Wh-question in English, we replace the subject with a question word, using who ( for people) or what, which ( for non-people). The word order is that of a positive sentence: “Subject + Verb + Object ?”. There is no auxiliary verb in Whquestions in the Present Simple and Past simple tenses. The question word simply replaces the subjects. In the present tenses, the verb is always in the third person singular, using the appropriate verb form. 7 Interrogative sentence The following table uesd as a review of Wh- subject questions with some examples in English. (“Questions”, n.d.) Tense Question about Example Present Simple People Who plays there every week ? Past Simple Non-people What made all that noise ? Which bus went to the city center? Present Progressive People Who is playing today ? Past Progressive Non-people What was making all that noise ? Present Perfect People Who’s written this essay ? Modals People Who can help me ? Like English, the word order in Wh-subject question in Vietnamese is as the same as that of a statement: Subject + Verb + Object? In English, we use interrogative pronouns “ who” ,“ what” and “ which” to ask about people and things. In Vietnamese, we also have equivalents: “ ai” ( who) for people; and “cái gì”, “điều gì”, “chuyện gì”, “việc gì”…( what), nào, cái nào (which) for things. What makes you cry? Điều gì làm em khóc vậy? Who has broken this glass? Ai đã làm vỡ cái ly này vậy? Which bus goes to the city center? Xe buýt nào đi vào trung tâm thành phố? 8 Interrogative sentence However, it doesn’t mean that question words in Vietnamese can be replaced by others. It depends on the context and the subject that the speaker and listener want to mention. For instance, we can say “ Điều gì đã làm bạn quyết định như vậy?”, but it sounds strange and unusual to say “ Việc gì đã làm cậu quyết định như vậy?” ( What made you decide?). Besides similarities, there are also some differences. In English we fall intonation at the end of the sentence and there is a shift in meaning from asking object to asking reseason. What happened to make you change? (Tại sao anh lại thay đổi như thế?) What made him say all those things? ( Tại sao cậu ấy lại nói như vậy?) In Vietnamese, we don’t use intonation, but one of the most interesting point in Vietnamese grammar is the use of particles such as thế, như thế, như vậy ( as mentioned in examples above). They themselves don’t make sense but they can change the meaning of the whole sentence, expressing the speakers’ attitude to the things which are being said about. Most mportantly, they are put at the end of the sentence to form a question. Wh- object questions Who, what, which mentioned above play the role of a subject, but in this case they turn into an object. Similarly, we also have equivalents in Vietnamese: ai, gì, nào. However, in English question words are placed at the beginning of the sentence. In addition, we have to use operators such as auxiliaries, modals or tobe and transfer them to the position before subject, and we have the form: Wh-word – Op - O – V – S ? Here are some examples of using this structure: What are the other students called? (Những sinh viên khác tên gì?) Who are you talking about? (Các bạn đang nói về ai vậy?) 9 Interrogative sentence Which continent did Columbus discover? (Columbus đã khám phá ra Châu lục nào?) In contrast to English, Vietnamese doesn’t fall intonation and doesn’t use operators in this kind of question. Look at the examples and transition above; we can see that the interrogative words are at the end of the sentence, which is totally opposite to English. S – V – O – Wh-word ? Other cases Wh-words in both two languages have the form of reduction and they can be a single word or a group of words, for instance, who ( ai), what ( cái gì), where ( ở đâu); what for (để làm gì), why not ( tại sao không), where to ( tới đâu). Moreover, reason adjuncts in both languages such as why ( tại sao), for what reason ( vì lý do gì), for which reason ( vì lý do nào) usually stand at the beginning of the sentence and function as an adverb. Why do you drink too much coffee? Tại sao anh uống nhiều cà phê vậy? For what reasons did you leave school so early? Vì lý do gì mà bạn nghỉ học sớm? However, in English the interrogative word “ when” only appears in the beginning of the sentence and time in the answer depends on the tense used, for example, A: When are you going to get married? ( 1) B: Next year. A: When did you get married? ( 2) B: Two years ago. In the example ( 1), the tense is used in the question is near future, so time in the answer is in the future ( next year : năm tới); and in the second one time in the answer is in the past (two years ago: hai năm trước) because in the question we use simple past tense. 10 Interrogative sentence On the contrary, in Vietnamese the words such “ khi nào, bao giờ, lúc nào” are put both at the beginning and the end of the sentence. When standing at the beginning, they indicate that the action will happen; and in the case of being placed at the end, they show us that the action happened. This is also a typical feature in Vietnames grammar. A: Khi nào em tốt nghiệp đại học? ( in the future) B: Sang năm. A: Em tốt nghiệp đại học khi nào? ( in the past) B: Năm ngoái. In addition, when asking about means of transport, in English we use “ How” ( như thế nào); but in Vietnamese we say “ By what” ( bằung phương tiện gì). For instance, an English will ask “ How do you go to your office?”. Meanwhile, a Vietnamese says “ Anh đi làm bằng phương tiện gì ?”. This grammar point is small, but it may cause problems to English beginners. Alternative questions Alternative question is a type of question where the listener is asked to choose between alternatives. E.g. Would you like tea or coffee? Will you go by train or by air? In form, alternative questions are similar to yes/no interrogatives, starting with the finite operator and not containing a question word. In function, they may be similar to wh-questions, in that they ask for a specific piece of information to be filled in ( novalearn.com). Alternative question is quite popular in English and Vietnames, so there are a lot of similarities between two laguages. Firstly, English uses connective “ or” to link items together. Vietnamese also has similar words such as hay, hay là; hoặc, hoặc là. But the nuance of meaning of “ hoặc” and “ hay” is different. To get more understanding, let us consider these examples: 11 Interrogative sentence Anh chỉ có thể chọn hoặc tôi hoặc nó ? ( 1) Anh học tiếng Anh hay Tiếng Pháp? (2 Anh thích cà phê hay trà? ( 3) From three examples above, we can infer that “ hoặc” is likely to be obligatory. It means that you are involuntary to make a dicision. Sometimes, you have to select what you do not really like. But “hay” sounds more voluntary. You are entitled to choose what you prefer or maybe you can refuse it you do not like it at all. Looking back example (3), we can see that it is a question but at the same time it also an invitation. Therefore, the response may be “Coffee, please”, or “ Thanks, but I do not drink tea or coffee”. Secondly, both English and Vietnamese provide a lot of possibilities of choice, for example, you can say “Do you like watching TV, listening to music or reading in your free time?” ( Bạn thích xem TV, nghe nhạc hay đọc sách lúc rãnh rỗi?). Finally, the structure of alternative question in two languges has the form of reduction. With this form, it makes the grammatical structure of alternative question in both languages less complicated and our speech is more natural. E.g, instead of asking “ Does he likes apples or does he like bananas?” or “ Does he like apples or like bananas?” (Nó thích ăn táo hay nó thích ăn chuối?), we can simply say “ Does he like apples or bananas?”(Nó thích ăn táo hay ăn chuối?). However, the structure in two languages is a litle bit different. As mentioned above, in English, alternative question normally starts with the finite operators and we raise intonation on each alternative except for the final one which has falling intonation, as Would you like coffee, tea, or soda? Unlike English, alternative question in Vietneamese does not have intonation and its structure, again, is the same as a statement. 12 Interrogative sentence English: Vietnamese: Op S- V- C- O or V- B hay O? B? ( Lê Quang Thiêm 2004: 236) Declarative questions Declarative questions, or rising declaratives were used because they have the syntactic form of a declarative, but have question-like intonation and distinct discourse functions. Both English and Vietnamese use declarative questions to request confirmation or to show surprise, and the word order is that of a statement. In addition, this kind of question is common in spoken language and in informal situation or close relationship, for example, That’s the boss? I thought he was the cleaner. Sếp đó hả ?Tôi tưởng ông ta là người quét dọn chứ.( 1) You want to build a new house? Cậu muốn xây nhà mới à ? (2) You are going to the cinema tonight? Anh đi xem phim tối nay phải không?( 3) Example ( 1) is sure of a conversation between two colleagues because it is impolite for an employee to ask his superior by this question. Similarly, the conversations in example ( 2) and (3) are between two friends. Besides sharing somethings in common, English and Vietnamese daclarative questions also have their own features. In English, we raise intonation at the end of the sentence. Meanwhile, in Vietnamese, we have to use interrogative words: à, ư, hả, phải không…. as mentioned in the examples above and we rarely use intonation because . 13 Interrogative sentence Without these words, a positve sentence cannot become a question although it has a question mark and it sounds unsual, for example, a Vietnamese will be quite confused if a foreigner asks him such question with final rising intonation “ Tối nay anh làm việc đến khuya?” ( You’re working late tonight?). Though declarative questions aren’t complicated, we should notice, especically in English. Because its structure is different from other kinds of question. Tag questions Tag question is quite familiar with English and Vietnamese because two languages have equivalent structures. We use it in spoken language rather than in written language to seek for sympathy or confirmation. Here are some examples: You haven’t seen Mary today, have you? Hôm nay anh chưa gặp Mary phải không? It was a good film, wasn’t it? Đó là môt bộ phim hay phải không? Most of the question tags in English can be translated into Vietnamese equivalents such as … phải không; … đúng thế không? à?... (as cited in Le, 2004, p.238 ) , so the difference of two languages is in the question tag. In English, the question tag is seperated form the whole sentanse by a comma; in Vietnamese the tag is replaced by phải không, đúng không?, à?, ư?. The forms of tag questions in two languages are as follows: Vietnamese: C- V → à ? phải không? phải238) không? ( Lê Quang Thiêm 2004: 14 Interrogative sentence Positive statement negative tag? Snow is white, Isn’t it? Negative statement, positive tag? You don’t like me do you? English: ( englishclub.com) However, sometimes the question tags in Vietnamese , for example, đúng không, được không, có phải không, có phải thế không, phải không, có phải là, có đúng là, etc.… are transferred to the beginning to emphsize speaker’s intention. They are usually connected or seperated by a comma or a a stop, but sometimes they become a specific question. Look at these examples: Có đúng anh không nhìn thấy cậu ta? → Anh không nhìn thấy cậu ta, đúng không? → Anh không nhìn thấy cậu ta. Đúng thế không? Furthermore Vietnamese also has such words à, ư, chứ placed at the end and phải chăng, chắc chắn, chắc rằng… standing at the beginning to indicate the assumption or to emphasize, for instance, Chắc hẳn anh không nhìn thấy cậu ta? Phải chăng anh không nhìn thấy cậu ta? Anh không nhìn thấy cậu ta ư? In this part I just give a general view about tag questions in English to compare it with Vietnamese. I will discuss it in more detail in the next section. 15 Interrogative sentence In a word, English has five ways of establishing the question while Vietnamese shares some similarities with English but it also has its own special way. The general rules for question is rather complicated and systematic in English. As language teachers, we have to transmit the knowledge in a systematic way and then draw students’ attention, especially to the differences of the two languages to help them overcome the language barrier. The most important element of learning grammar is to use it. So, at the same time of comparing, we should give many examples in both languages to help students familiarize and use the new structure. Teaching implication Tag questions A tag question is a special construction in English. It is a statement followed by a miniquestion. The whole sentence is a "tag question", and the mini-question at the end is called a "question tag” ( englishclub.com). I just want to remind you because this point has been mentioned previously. As we discussed above, tag question is not a strange matter for Vietnamese students because in our language, we also have the equivalent structure. It, however, doesn’t mean that we can translate form one language into another language freely. In English, there are some remarkable exceptions we should draw students’ attention, otherwise they will be confused. Firstly, how do we answer a tag question? Often, we say Yes or No. It is likely similar to Yes- No question. Sometimes we may repeat the tag and reverse it ( …, do they? Yes, they do). However, be very careful about answering tag question. Actually, it is more complicated than we think becaue we have to base on the truth of the situation. Our answer reflects the real facts, not necessarily the question. In English, normally, negative tags expect a Yes answer ( agree) and positive tags expect a No answer ( agree). 16 Interrogative sentence In our language, an oposite system of ansewring is used, and we sometime answer the wrong way in English. This can lead to a lot of confusion. In case of negative tags, two languages have similar way of answer. Look at this example and its answers: “ Mary is married, isn’t she?” Yes, she has just married. ( Vâng, cô ấy vừa mới kết hôn) No, she isn’t. ( Không, cô ấy chưa kết hôn) In contrast to negative tags, the way to answer of a positve tag in two languages is contradictory. For example, when a person raises a question like: “ This hat isn’t beautiful, is it?” If an English agrees, he will say that “ No, it isn’t”. But a Vietnamese will reply “Vâng/ Đúng thế, cái nón này không đẹp” ( Yes, it isn’t beautiful), and when he disagrees, the answer is “ Không, cái nón này đẹp mà” ( No, it is beautiful) but an English says “ Yes, it is beautiful”. In a word, when teaching tag question in English, we should concentrate on two cases – negative tag and positive tag so that students can distinguish and use them effectively. Secondly, meaning and intonation are what we should pay attention to. The meaning of tag question depends on how you say it. With rising intonation, it is a real question.For example, there are a lot of clouds in the sky. Because your mother is in the kitchen, she doesn’t know the weather is fine or not, so she asks you “The weather is nine, isn’t it?” and actually your answer is “ No, it isn’t”. But if our intonation falls, it sounds more like a statement that doesn’t require a real answer. You are only inviting the listener to agree with you: “It is a nice day, isn’t it?” “Yes, lovely”. Two examples above is somewhat grammatically the same, but the way to answer is different. Vietnamese doesn’t have the similar situation because we don’t use intonation so teachers have to present them to students. 17 Interrogative sentence Conclusion Interrogative sentence is one of the most important and basic grammar points in English and Vietnamese. Although two languages share some simlarities in constructing and using question, there are also noticeable differences which hamper students from learning a new language. Therefore, to help students master question in English, teachers should make a comparison between English and Vietnamese , but emphasizing differences. Once students can distinguish between English and Vietnamese interrogative sentence, they are able to use it correctly as well as avoid common mistakes when translating from one language into another. That is also the major purpose of teaching and learning English. 18 Interrogative sentence References Le Quang Thiem. (2004). Ngôn ngữ học đối chiếu. Hanoi: Hanoi National University Publisher. Mai Lan Huong, Ha Thanh Uyen.( 2006). Giải thích ngữ pháp Tiếng Anh. Danang: Danang Publisher. Negative sentences and Questions in English. Oc,16,2009, from http://sites.google.com/site/englishgrammarguide/Home/negative-sentences-and-questions-inenglish Question formation in English- by Viv Quarry. Dec, 20, 2009, from http://www.vivquarry.com/wkshts/question.html Tag questions. Dec, 24, 2009, from http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-questions-tag.htm Learning through comparing English and Vietnamese questions. Oc, 16, 2009, from http://khoaanh.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=491 19