An investigation into Syntactic and semantic features Of educational institution mottos In english and vietnamese

Abstract

This study provides a comparison between educational institution mottos in English and Vietnamese in terms of syntactic and semantic features. The data of the study are collected from educational institutions' official websites in English and Vietnamese. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis is conducted basing on the investigation of 500 educational institution mottos (250 in English and 250 in Vietnamese). With the theoretical background presented in Chapter 2, the similarities and differences of educational institution mottos in the two languages in terms of two aspects mentioned are identified and described. The syntactic features are shown in the form of noun phrases, adjective phrases, prepositional phrases, imperative sentences and declarative sentences including simple sentences, compound sentences and complex sentences. The semantic features are demonstrated in six groups of meanings such as motivations, conditions, actions and effort, goals, human qualities and outcomes. Similarities and differences of semantic and syntactic features between English and Vietnamese educational institution mottos are also pointed out to lead to the conclusions and implications at the end of the thesis. There are some suggestions for further researches on different fields of mottos in English and Vietnamese. The results of this investigation into the linguistic features of educational institution mottos can also help Vietnamese learners of English and English learners of Vietnamese as a foreign language know more clearly about the syntactic and semantic features of a popular form of language which have not ever been mentioned before - mottos. Moreover, the thesis could bring about a collection of various EIMs in English and Vietnamese, which help educational institutions make a comparison between their mottos and the others', help them more aware of the importance of having and improving their own mottos.