TYLA: The Representation of Instrumental Grammar Meaning in Vietnamese and Russian

Author's name: Doan Huu Dung

Thesis title:The expression of instrumental grammatical meaning in Vietnamese and Russian.

Dissertation field: Social Sciences and Humanities

Major: Linguistics Code: 62 22 02 40

Name of the postgraduate training unit: University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

1. Purpose and scope of the thesis

a) Research objectives

In conducting this research, we aim for the following main objectives:

- Clarify the content and grammatical nature of "instrumental grammatical meaning" in Vietnamese and Russian; the similarities and differences in this content between the two languages.

- Identify the applications in researching this issue.

- Clarify the similarities and differences in means and methods of expression when realizing this meaning in linguistic activity.

- Propose applications of the research findings of the thesis to the practical teaching, learning, and use of Vietnamese and Russian languages ​​(translation, dictionary compilation, etc.).

b) Research subjects

- The subject of this thesis is instrumental grammatical meaning and the methods of expressing this meaning within the Vietnamese and Russian languages ​​(expressed through function words, word order, affixes, or combinations of function words with affixes).

- Methods of root transformation, intonation, and reduplication can also express instrumental grammatical meaning; however, these methods are very rare. Therefore, we will not include these methods as major descriptive sections, but will mention them when necessary.

2. Research methods used

In this thesis, we consistently proceed from factual data to describe, analyze, comment on, and conclude, rather than starting from a pre-existing model or preconceived notion. This means we follow an inductive approach, drawing conclusions and observations from examples. To achieve this, we employ several linguistic methods and techniques:

- Descriptive method: analyzing grammar on a theoretical level to identify grammatical meanings, grammatical methods, and grammatical categories.

- Comparative method: relate the expressions in Russian to Vietnamese after description.

- The techniques of substitution, modification, and omission in grammatical analysis are used to identify oppositions, similarities, and differences in grammatical content, grammatical form, and grammatical means....

- Quantitative research methods will also be used when necessary.

3. Main results and conclusions

3.1. Main results

a) Theoretical significance

This is the first research project in Vietnam to describe and analyze, at the dissertation level, the instrumental grammatical meaning and modeling of the ways in which this grammatical meaning is expressed in both Vietnamese and Russian. It contributes to clarifying grammatical description from a traditional grammatical approach and clarifies relevant issues from the perspective of systemic functional grammar and semantic syntax.

b) Practical significance

Based on a more in-depth study of such a subject, the research results of this thesis will help to understand the nature of instrumental grammar meaning, help to use grammar correctly and operate grammar smoothly in foreign language skills, and help to correctly apply grammar (specifically instrumental grammar meaning) in foreign language teaching and learning according to a communicative approach.

The research findings of this thesis will serve as a basis for compiling and revising textbooks and teaching materials for Vietnamese and Russian as foreign languages ​​currently used in Vietnamese language training for foreigners and Russian language training for Vietnamese people, thereby improving the quality of teaching and learning.

The research findings of this thesis will help both teachers and learners of Vietnamese and Russian, as foreign languages, avoid errors in word usage, sentence construction, and transfer errors during the learning and research process.

The research findings of this thesis also have significant applications in compiling Vietnamese-Russian and Russian-Vietnamese bilingual dictionaries, as well as explanatory dictionaries in Vietnamese and Russian, thereby contributing to improving the efficiency of translation work between the Vietnamese and Russian languages.

3.2. Conclusion

Instrumental meaning is a common concept in all types of languages. This is an issue that has been addressed by many researchers worldwide. The level of research on this issue varies depending on the type of language. Instrumental meaning has been studied extensively in Indo-European languages, which have clear formal characteristics through affixes, while in isolating languages ​​like Vietnamese, this issue has received less attention. However, researchers' understanding of instrumental meaning does not differ significantly; most authors tend to focus on describing instrumental meaning from a morphological perspective. Recently, in light of systemic functional grammar, the issue of instrumental meaning has been studied from both semantic and syntactic-semantic perspectives.

Instrumental grammatical meaning is universal in language. Depending on the language type, instrumental grammatical meaning is expressed through different methods. Vietnamese is an isolating language, so the main methods of expression are through function words and word order, while Russian is a morphologically inflectional language, so the main methods of expression are through suffixes and function words.

The use of function words is a common feature in expressing instrumental grammatical meaning in both Vietnamese and Russian. Vietnamese uses several function words that signify instrumentality, such as "by" and "with," and also uses other function words that implicitly contain instrumental meaning, such as "thanks to," "thanks to," "based on," "based on," "based on," "based on," "because," "on," "through," and "via." Russian uses function words that are prepositions. Besides the prepositions с and под in the instrumental case, Russian also uses several other prepositions in different cases to express instrumental grammatical meanings, such as: на, в, с, через, о, с помощю, при помощи, средством, методом, по, благодаря.

Besides the common points mentioned above, each language has its own unique way of expressing meaning, reflecting the specific type of language it belongs to. Vietnamese uses the characteristic method of isolating languages, namely word order (structured with the predicate "use/take"), to express meaning, while Russian uses the affixation method – a characteristic method of languages ​​with morphological inflection – to express instrumental grammatical meaning. Furthermore, Vietnamese also possesses a fairly large vocabulary field with presuppositional meanings capable of expressing instrumental meaning.

Instrumental grammatical meaning is closely related to instrumental semantic role in the study of systemic functional grammar. Instrumental grammatical meaning is the formal expression, while instrumental semantic role is the expression of meaning and content in language. A deeper understanding of instrumental semantic role in language will be reserved for further research; however, in this thesis, we still address this issue to further highlight instrumental grammatical meaning.

Instrumental meaning and instrumental semantic role, at the sentence level, perform the functions of a syntactic component of the sentence. It can act as the subject, complement, adverbial phrase, or topic within a sentence. As syntactic components of a sentence, instrumental semantic role has formal indicators (through punctuation, particles, and intonation) to express it, and plays a specific role in the sentence's expressive semantic structure.

The study of instrumental grammar in Vietnamese and Russian has significant and broad applications. It can be used to investigate grammatical errors, thereby improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning Vietnamese and Russian as foreign languages, ensuring accuracy in translation and interpretation, and in compiling dictionaries related to both languages.

Studying the instrumental grammatical meaning in Vietnamese and Russian provides a very important argument, contributing to a more complete theoretical foundation for the study of linguistics in general, and comparative linguistics in particular.

                                                               SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS

The author's name: Đoàn Hữu Dũng

The thesis title:The demonstration of grammatical meaning of instruments in Russian and Vietnamese

Scientific branch of the thesis: Social Science and Humanities

Major: Linguistics Code: 62 22 02 40

The name of postgraduate training institution: The University of Social Sciences and Humanities – Vietnam National University.

1. Thesis purpose and objectives

a)Purpose

This thesis aims at:

- Clarifying the grammatical nature of “grammatical meaning of instruments” in Vietnamese and Russian; the similarities and differences between the two languages ​​regarding this aspect.

- Pointing out possible applications of the research

- Working out the similarities and differences in the demonstration of grammatical meaning of instruments in the two languages

- Proposing possible application of the research into the reality of teaching, learning and using Vietnamese and Russian (translation and lexicography…)

b)Objectives

The objectives of this thesis involve:

- Grammatical meaning of instruments and ways of demonstrating such meaning in Vietnamese and Russian (formal words, word order, affix…)

- The methods of changing word stem, intonation or reiteration can demonstrate grammatical meaning of instruments; however, these are rare. Therefore, the author only mentions these methods when necessary.

2.Produce methods

In this doctoral thesis, instead of basing on an available model, the researcher followed an inductive approach, which started with real data, then described, analyzed, commented and drew out conclusions.

- Descriptive method: to conduct grammatical analysis on theoretical basis to determine grammatical meaning, grammatical method and grammatical category.

- Comparative method: to compare Russian and Vietnamese expressions

- Such methods such as replacement, renovation and omission are also applied to find for similarities and differences in grammatical content, forms and methods.

- Quantitative method is also unitized when necessary.

3.Major results and conclusion

3.1.Major results

a)Theoretical significance

This is the first doctoral thesis in Vietnam on describing grammatical meaning of instruments and modeling ways to demonstrate grammatical meaning in Vietnamese and Russian, contributing to clarifying grammatical description in the traditional grammar and clarifying concerning issues from the angle of functional grammar and syntax-semantics.

b)voltage significance

The thesis contributed to give insight into the nature of grammatical meaning of instruments, helping users to understand and use grammar in teaching and learning communication.

The thesis results serve as a basis for compilation and edition of course books and materials in Vietnamese and Russian which have been used in Vietnamese and Russian training institutions.

The results help teachers and learners of Vietnamese and Russian as foreign languages ​​to avoid errors in word usage and sentence building in learning and research.

The results are also of great practicality in compiling Vietnamese-Russian bilingual dictionaries, contributing to improving the translation quality between the two languages.

3.2.Surgery

Instrumental meaning is a universal concept in all types of languages. This topic has been mentioned by a number of scientists, with different levels of research depending on different languages. Grammatical meanings of instruments are much studied in the Indo-European languages, which have clear formal signs through affixes, but for isolating languages ​​​​like Vietnamese, this problem is yet to be extensively researched. However, the researchers' awareness of instrumental meaning is not much different. Most of the authors often focus on describing the instrumental meaning from a morphological perspective. In recent times, in the light of systematic functional grammar, instrumental meaning issues have been studied in terms of semantics and syntax - semantic angles.

The grammatical meaning of instruments is universal in languages. Depending on the type of language, instrumental meanings are expressed by different methods. Vietnamese belongs to the isolating typology; Therefore, its mode of demonstration is mainly based on function words and word order, while Russian is a synthetic language and its mode of demonstration is in suffixes and in function words.

The method of using function words is a similarity in the way the grammatical meanings of instruments are used in Vietnamese and Russian. Vietnamese uses a number of function expressions like equals, with, and some other function words that have instrumental meanings such as: thanks, thanks to, based on, based on, based on, based on, based on, by, on, through, through. Russian words use prepositions as function words. In addition to such prepositions like с, под, Russian also uses some other prepositions such as: на, в, с, через, о, с помощю, при помощи, средством, методом, по, благодаря.

In addition to the similarities mentioned above, each language has a different and typical way of demonstration. Vietnamese uses the more typical method of the linguistic type of isolating language (structure with predicate use / get), while Russian uses the auxiliary method - the method representing the morphological type of language to express the grammatical meaning of instrument. In addition, there is a fairly large vocabulary field in Vietnamese with pre-meaning meaning that the tool is capable of expressing the instrumental meaning.

The grammatical meaning of instruments has a close relationship with the role of instrumental meaning in systematic functional grammar studies. The grammatical meaning of instruments is the formal expression, and the instrumental meaning is the expression in terms of meaning and content of the language. Further understanding the instrumental meaning will be suggested for subsequent studies; however, in this thesis, the author still mentions this issue to further highlight the grammatical meaning of instruments.

Grammatical meaning of instrument and instrumental meanings, at the sentence level, perform the functions of a syntactic component of the sentence. It can act as the subject, the object, the adverb and the object in the sentence. As the syntactic components of sentences, instrumental meanings have formal indicators (by punctuation, by function words, by intonation) to express and they play a certain role in the structure. structure of the expression of sentences.

The study of grammatical meanings of instruments in Vietnamese and Russian languages ​​​​is quite applicable, with a wide range of applications. It can be used to study grammatical errors, thereby improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning Vietnamese and Russian as foreign languages, ensuring accuracy in translation and compilation activities of dictionaries related to Vietnamese and Russian languages.

The study of grammatical meanings of instruments in both Vietnamese and Russian languages ​​​​creates a very important argument, contributing to better the theoretical basis in the study of linguistics in general and comparative linguistics in particular.