A study of attitudinal disjuncts in english versus vietnamese

Abstract

This is a qualitative and quantative study on the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features of English and Vietnamese Attitudinal Disjuncts. We examined a great variety of linguistic devices functioning to mark the speaker/writer’s attitude as well as judgments which existed in various structures in both these languages. This qualitative study was based on a theoretical framework of Appraisal framework, epistemic modality and evidentiality, speech act, cooperative and politeness principles. The corpus of 500 English and Vietnamese samples randomly were collected from different sources such as novels, newspaper articles, and essays, encrypted both in print and on the internet was divided into four kinds of syntactic structures mentioned above. Then a qualitatively and contrastive analysis has been done to find out similarities and differences between the two languages in terms of structural and lexical characteristics of ADs, their semantic features such as ADs in expressing high and low certainty on P as well as the their functions in terms of modal concord, and their pragmatic features, namely the relations between speaker (writer) and hearer (reader) in modifying the illocutionary force of utterance, expressing S’s negative and positive politeness with High or Low ADs, showing the functions of organizing the discourse meaning as well as giving potential mistakes in comprehending and using ADs and their solutions. The study also makes some implications and suggestions on the treatment of the mistakes for language learning and teaching which learners may have when they encounter this kind of Adverbs. Hopefully, the study will bring practical benefits to students in their process of learning English.