A STUDY OF LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF PERSONIFICATION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE LOVE SONGS

Abstract

This thesis is conducted to investigate the semantic and syntactic features of personification in English and Vietnamese love songs. The object under investigation is personification in English and Vietnamese love songs. The data of the study are collected from songbooks and lyric websites in English and Vietnamese. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis is conducted basing on the investigation of 300 expressions of personification (150 in English and 150 in Vietnamese love songs). With the theoretical background presented in Chapter 2, the similarities and differences of personification in the two languages in terms of two aspects mentioned are identified and described. The syntactic features are shown in the form of simple sentences, complex sentences and compound sentences. The semantic features are demonstrated in eight meanings such as love, missing, waiting, loneliness, blame, sadness, happiness and conflict. Similarities and differences of semantic and syntactic features between two languages of personification 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 personification in English and Vietnamese. The results of this investigation into the linguistic features of personification in love songs can also help listeners and readers enhance their musical perception so that they can get a better insight into the beauty of music. Hopefully, the thesis offers the implications for teaching and learning English and Vietnamese as a foreign language.