4B07 - Le Nguyen Nhu Anh - English and Vietnamese Classifiers-A Contrastive Analysis

Running head: VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH CLASSIFIERS: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 1

Vietnamese and English Classifiers

A contrastive analysis

Le Nguyen Nhu Anh

Department of English

Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy

Instructor: PhD. Nguyen Ngoc Vu

Ho Chi Minh City, December 24th 2010

VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH CLASSIFIERS: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS 2

Abstract

When studying English, people often focus on grammar, vocabulary or skills like

reading, listening, writing and speaking. However, there is another important element

that is often forgotten, the classifiers. Classifiers are words used to categorize word

classes based on an attribute such as shape, function, or animacy. Classifiers occur in

almost every context of English use and play a significant role in quite a number of

ways. Their functions vary from counting individual entities to measuring time. Grasping

this language category is of high importance in the language acquisition process.

However, their status is still a debatable issue, which causes much confusion for

English learners and researchers. This paper aims to provide an overview of English

and Vietnamese classifiers, by contrasting their similarities and differences, thus

facilitates learners in their language acquisition activities. The paper may also serve as

an argument for the status of classifiers in language system.


Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 2 Typical quantifying formation in both languages ............................................................... 4 Vietnamese classifiers ....................................................................................................... 4

Vietnamese classifiers – a debate ................................................................................. 4 Common types of Vietnamese classifiers ...................................................................... 4

English classifiers .............................................................................................................. 5 English classifiers – a debate ......................................................................................... 5 Categories of classifiers in English................................................................................. 5

Contrastive analysis .......................................................................................................... 6 Results and discussion ...................................................................................................... 6

Similarities ...................................................................................................................... 6 Differences ..................................................................................................................... 7

Different scopes of use. .............................................................................................. 7 Different frequencies of use ........................................................................................ 7 Syntactic differences ................................................................................................... 7

Implications to teaching and research ............................................................................... 8 References ........................................................................................................................ 9


Typical quantifying formation in both languages

In Vietnamese, the classifier often lies between the numeral and the noun. For

example: ba (three) + con (classifier) + thuyền (boats). In English, however, due to the

division between countable nouns and non-countable nouns, there are two ways of

forming quantity:

For countable nouns, the numeral is followed straightly by the noun, without

the presence of any classifier. For example: three boats

For non-countable nouns, a word that denotes a part of a whole called

‘partitive’ is used after the numeral and is followed orderly by ‘of’ and the

noun. For example: Two slices of meat.

Vietnamese classifiers

Vietnamese classifiers – a debate

Different researchers from different schools of thoughts have been arguing about

the issue whether classifiers should be considered distinct from from nouns or not.

Emeneau (1951) views this group of words a separate word class representing the

sense of ‘one unit quantity’. Supporting the idea, Thompson (1965) provides an

argument that classifiers are distinct from nouns since they do not occur in signle word

descriptive complements. In addition, Luu (2000) argues that the functions of indicating

kind and quantity distinguish classifiers from nouns. However, Cao (1988; 1998; 2000)

argues that ‘classifiers’ should only be seen as a subset of count nouns that have an

additional semantic function of classification rather than a separate word class from

nouns.

Common types of Vietnamese classifiers

The exact number and word list of classifiers in Vietnamese is still an issue that

attracts much debate from linguistics. Nguyen (1957) estimates that there are about 200

classifiers in Vietnamese, considering all words that occur in the slot adjacent to the

number in a noun phrase as classifiers. Cao (1998), on the other hand, argues that

Vietnamese only have as few as three classifiers. Cao (2000) suggests that if the

function of ‘classifiers’ is to categorize or classify words (in most cases, nouns) its


function must be to classify nouns into smaller subclasses that indicate different kinds of

objects. Based on this definition, Cao (1998; 2000) admits to only three Vietnamese

count nouns that may have this function of indicating kind: cái (inanimate), con

(animate), and người (human).

English classifiers

English classifiers – a debate

Whether English have classifiers or not is still a debatable issue. Many linguists

still consider classifiers as a subclass of nouns in current English grammar. Quirk et al

(1985) provides a term for this subclass, ‘partitive nouns’, a word or phrase that shows a

part or quantity of something. Biber et al (1999) supply with a more specific

classification, dividing classifiers into collective nouns, unit nouns, quantifying nouns,

and species nouns etc. On the whole, while the quantifying function of such nouns has

been recognized, their status has rarely been systematically questioned (Brems, 2003).

In a different perspective, Lyons (1977, p.462) argues that these so-called ‘nouns’

“serve exactly the same function – that of individualizing and enumeration – as do the

classifiers in Tzeltal, Chinese and Burmese”. Allan (1977), Lyons (1977), and Lehrer

(1986) provide a common formation of noun phrase in English, providing the position for

classifiers in the phrase.

numeral classifier of noun

Categories of classifiers in English

Multitude attempts have been made in the field, trying to provide a

comprehensive classification of English classifiers. The most significant contributions

belong to Allan (1977) and Lehrer’s (1986, p.111), in which seven categories of

classifiers have been presented:

- Unit classifiers: unit counters (e.g. a piece of cake)

- Collective classifiers (e.g. a herd of animals)

- Varietal classifiers (Species classifiers) (e.g. all kinds of flowers)

- Arrangement classifiers (e.g. 3 stacks of books)

- Measure classifiers. In this category, there is a further division into 2 sub-categories:


+ Standardised measure classifiers: Exact measures (e.g. two pounds of

potatoes)

+ Container classifiers: Inexact measures (e.g. a bucket of water)

The two last categories are still debatable since they can be replaced by equivalent

numerals.

- Fractional classifiers (three quarters of the cake vs. half of the cake)

- Number set classifiers (many hundreds of them vs. three hundred of them)

Contrastive analysis

In terms of tokens, unit classifiers is the most common type of classifiers in

Vietnamese while container and collective classifiers are predominant in English.

(English corpus Freiburg-LOB (FLOB) and The Copora of Vietnamese Texts)

In terms of types, Vietnamese has a greater number of unit classifiers,

standardised measure classifiers, arrangement classifiers and verbal classifiers

whereas English uses more collective classifiers and container classifiers . (English

corpus Freiburg-LOB (FLOB) and The Copora of Vietnamese Texts)

Results and discussion

Similarities

Other types of classifiers are more similar than different in quality in the two

languages. These classifiers are lexically meaningful and it is possible to find their

equivalences in other languages despite various terms used for them.

There are few (sometimes considered almost no) differences in measure

classifiers and species classifiers between English and Vietnamese although there may

be some variations in their frequencies of use in the two languages.

A common feature shared by both arrangement classifiers and unit classifiers in

Vietnamese and English is that they are significantly affected by the basic

understanding of shape. For example:

unit classifiers: điều, chương and khối in Vietnamese

arrangement classifiers: bunch, pile and row in English

Some classifiers in English and Chinese are also pragmatically influenced. For

example, some English collective classifiers such as gang, mob and pack often refer to


a group of people the speaker have no positive feeling for or does not approve of.

These classifiers are different from other more neutral collective classifiers like crowd

and group. In Vietnamese, some collective classifiers (e.g. băng nhóm ‘crowd, gang’)

are also habitually negative in evaluation.

Differences

Different scopes of use.

The most noticeable difference occurs in the case of unit classifiers. Their

individuation is obligatory for all nouns in Vietnamese but in English, this only happens

to non-count nouns.

Different frequencies of use

As a result of a language with classifiers as a compulsory element, the use of

classifiers in Vietnamese are much broader both in scope and quantity than in English.

Classifiers are used approximately 29 times as frequent in Vietnamese as in English.

(English corpus Freiburg-LOB (FLOB) and The Copora of Vietnamese Texts)

Syntactic differences

Considered as a group of special nouns, English classifiers also have their

singular and plural forms while this does not occur to the case of Vietnamese classifiers.

It is possible to omit the numeral một (one) in quantifying constructionsin

Vietnamese if they function as objects, but quantifying determiners and numerals in

English cannot.

Viết (một) thư ‘write a letter’

Quantifying constructions with the inverted form of ‘noun + numeral + classifier’

are found in Vietnamese but not in English

Dầu ăn 20ml，trứng lột vỏ một quả

‘20 ml of olive oil, and one peeled egg’

Although classifiers do not regularly take a modifier, there are a considerably

greater variety of classifier modifiers in English than in Vietnamese. In Vietnamese , for

most of the cases, the modifiers are classifier intensifiers, emphasizing the large / small

quantity or amount (e.g. lớn (big, large), nhỏ (small), toàn bộ (whole)). In English, there


are two major types of classifier modifiers: classifier intensifiers, and evaluative

qualifiers which are relocated from the noun being quantified (e.g. a late-night cup of

coffee). There is no case where such relocation occurs with classifier modifiers in

Vietnamese.

Implications to teaching and research

One of the problems that confuse students is the use of classifiers in English, i.e.

they are not sure when and where the classifiers should be used. For examples, they

may not know which classifier should be used with ‘animals’, ‘cake’, ‘flowers’, ‘water’. As

discussed in the present research, classifiers in English are divided into seven

categories, which can facilitate learners in their studying process if they group words

according to these seven categories. The system of English classifiers is really complex

with one list for countable nouns, one for uncountable nouns and one for both countable

and uncountable nouns. Actually, to solve this problem is not too difficult; just let the

students get acquainted with those lists and guide them to divide the items in

categories.

As it is discovered in this study that classifiers in English and Vietnamese share

many common features despite their different scopes and frequencies of use, and some

language-specific syntactic differences, it is suggested that solutions to the problem of

Vietnamese students in dealing with English classifiers should be focused on syntactic

field.

Furthermore, the classifiers in the two languages are, mostly, quantitatively

different, i.e. much of the difference comes from their various terms in current use.

Thus, it is advisable that in undertaking contrastive research, one must not be confused

by the different terms used for the same phenomenon in the languages under

consideration.

In conclusion, the classifier is an important element in a noun phrase. This

concept in English and Vietnamese share some significant similarities. Obviously, they

still show some differences in syntax and quantity. With some implications for teaching

languages, the study, to a certain extent, aims to help teachers in presenting lessons as

well as to facilitate learners in their language acquisition process.


References

Allan, K. (1977) Classifiers. Language, 53, 281–311.

Biber, D., Johansson S., Leech G., Conrad S. and Finegan, E. (1999). Longman

Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman.

Brems, L. (2003). Measure noun constructions: An instance of semantically-driven

grammaticalization. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 8 (2), 283–312.

Cao, Hao X. 1988. The count/mass distinction in Vietnamese and the concept of

‘classifier’. Zeitschrift fur Phonetik Sprachwissenschaft un

Kommunikationsforschung, 41, 38-47.

Cao, Hao X. 1998. Tiếng Việt: Mấy Vấn đề về Ngữ Âm, Ngữ Pháp, Ngữ Nghĩa

[Vietnamese: Issues in phonetics, syntax, and semantics]. Ho Chi Minh City: Nhà

Xuất Bản Giáo Dục.

Cao, Hao X. 2000. Nghĩa của loại từ [The meaning of classifiers]. Loại Từ Trong Các

Ngôn Ngữ ở Việt Nam [Classifiers of the languages in Vietnam], pp. 32-87. Hà

Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Khoa Học Xã Hội.

Emeneau, Murray B. (1951). Studies in Vietnamese Grammar. Berkley, CA: University

of California Press.

J. Lyons (1977). Semantics. Volumes I and II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lehrer, A. (1986) English classifier constructions. Lingua, 68, 109–148.

Luu, Lang V. (2000). Một số vấn đề về loại từ trong tiếng Việt [Some issues about

Vietnamese classifiers]. Loại Từ Trong Các Ngôn Ngữ ở Việt Nam [Classifiers of

the languages in Vietnam], pp. 9-31. Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Khoa Học Xã Hội.

Nguyen, Dinh H. 1957. Vietnamese classifiers. Word 13: 124-152.

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., and Svartvik, J. (1985). A Comprehensive

Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.

Thompson, Lawrence. (1965). A Vietnamese Grammar. Seattle, WA: University of

Washington Press.

4B07 - Le Nguyen Nhu Anh - English and Vietnamese Classifiers-A Contrastive Analysis

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