Professor Nguyen Tai Can is one of the leading experts in Vietnamese Linguistics, who has made great contributions to the establishment of the Linguistics department at the Faculty of Philology, Hanoi National University, now the Faculty of Linguistics, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU. Professor Nguyen Tai Can is highly appreciated by researchers in fields such as Vietnamese Grammar, Historical Phonetics and Vietnamese History, Sino-Vietnamese reading, issues of Sino-Nom scripts, textual studies and ancient poetry... The Professor's research results have had a profound influence, changing the perception of the entire Linguistics, Vietnamese Linguistics and Sino-Nom research community in Vietnam.
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Dao Thanh Truong - Vice Principal of the School
Speaking at the workshop, Vice Principal Dao Thanh Truong said: The workshop is a connection between generations towards the respected teacher: Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Nguyen Tai Can. The research results and discussions in the workshop will be the inheritance and continued development of the Professor's scientific thoughts in the study of Linguistics in general, Vietnamese linguistics and Han Nom in particular.
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Trinh Cam Lan - Head of Department of Linguistics
Associate Professor, Dr. Trinh Cam Lan presented the book "Nguyen Tai Can - thoughts, works and memories" to Professor Nguyen Tai Can's daughter, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nam Hoa.
Associate Professor Dr. Trinh Cam Lan - Head of the Department of Linguistics shared her feelings: Reading the articles, we are more deeply imbued with the values that Professor Nguyen Tai Can left for the Linguistics industry of our country. He has passed away, but his thoughts, works and enthusiasm for science are still with us through the pages of textbooks and research articles. His thoughts are still inherited, discussed and developed by his students every day."
Prof. Dr. Hoang Trong Phien
Prof. Dr. Hoang Trong Phien (former Head of the Department of Vietnamese Studies and Vietnamese Language) recalled: Prof. Nguyen Tai Can is a giant, one of the founders of the modern Vietnamese language. He is a true scientist, a model of Vietnamese Linguistics. As a scientist, he has a meticulous and serious working style and operations. In his scientific works, the arguments and comments are all clearly and convincingly supported. His works on linguistics are basic books for research and specialized training. These works still retain their value in terms of theory, method and scientific operations. Regarding training, he is worthy of the title of People's Teacher. He values specialized training and has made great contributions in making the Faculty of Philology of Hanoi National University the first place to implement master's and doctoral training in Linguistics.
Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Dinh Van Duc
As one of the close students of Professor Nguyen Tai Can, Professor, Doctor, People's Teacher Dinh Van Duc (former Head of the Linguistics Department, University of Social Sciences and Humanities) shared his memories: “He was the one who inspired and motivated me to choose to study Linguistics. He often said: do whatever you want, read whatever Eastern or Western theories you want, but if you do something, you have to do it in Vietnam, you have to "localize" it, adjust it through documents. He also shared his experience in studying and reading: find basic books to read carefully, to be sure, then skim through other books to find something new; don't read every book, it will be very vague. Proposing that "language" is the basic unit of language, Professor Can and I spent a lot of effort to determine this in the bookVietnamese Grammarof the Social Sciences Committee in 1983 was one of the successes in public opinion".
Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Nguyen Thien Giap
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thien Giap (former Vice Head of the Faculty of Philology, Hanoi National University) recalled: The most memorable memory for me is that the Faculty of Philology and Linguistics was always filled with a harmonious atmosphere. It was there that I was sown with a good seed to develop as I am today. Mr. Can was always devoted to his young colleagues, not only at our school but also to colleagues from the Institute of Han Nom, University of Foreign Languages...
Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Le Quang Thiem
Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Le Quang Thiem (former Vice President of Hanoi National University, former Head of the Faculty of Literature): The presence of teachers today is a tribute to and recognition of the personality and contributions of Prof. Nguyen Tai Can to the social elite. He is a shining example of enthusiasm for science; a tolerant teacher with his students.
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Huu Dat
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Huu Dat shared: The influence of Professor Nguyen Tai Can also lies in cultural and international exchange relations. He is a talented writer and his works can have a great influence on cultural research, cultural and ethnic exchange. He plans to publish his own collection of poems but so far no one has done so. I think this is also something that should be done in the future.
The presentations at the conference deepened the contributions of Professor Nguyen Tai Can in the following areas: Theory and methodology of Linguistics and Vietnamese linguistics; Han Nom studies; History and dialects of Vietnamese; On the description of modern Vietnamese grammar. Specific presentations include:
Discuss some points in Nguyen Tai Can's hypothesis about Tai loanwords in Vietic- Prof. Mark Alves, Montgomery College, USA;
The language of the people of the Champa state in history: analysis of the origin of some place names in the "Hoanh Son - Gianh River" region in Quang Binh- Prof. Dr. Tran Tri Doi;
The turning point in Nguyen Tai Can's thought about the central element of a noun phrase- Prof. Dr. Vu Duc Nghieu;
Vietnamese word types from the perspective of Chinese quantifiers" - Prof. Dr. Lam Minh Hoa, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China;
Looking back at the role of word order in Vietnamese syntactic structure, from the perspective of systemic functional grammar and cognitive grammar- Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Hiep;
Thinking about training Han Nom researchers while re-reading the 1978 article by Professor Nguyen Tai Can- Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Tuan Cuong.
A few lines about the biography of Professor, Doctor, People's Teacher Nguyen Tai Can
Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Nguyen Tai Can was born on May 2, 1926 in Thuong Tho village (now Thanh Van commune), Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An in a Confucian family with a tradition of patriotism. During his youth, he studied at Quoc Hoc Vinh and Quoc Hoc Hue.
After the August Revolution, he joined the resistance in Nghe An, and became a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1949. In 1949, he began teaching. In 1952, he was appointed as a university assistant for the first university class in Inter-Zone Four.
In 1953-1954, he was the Head of the Professional Department of the Fourth Inter-Zone Education Zone. From 1955-1960, he was appointed by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education as the first Vietnamese linguistics expert in the Soviet Union (working at Leningrad State University). In 1960, he successfully defended his first Vietnamese Associate Doctor of Philology thesis in the Soviet Union on Linguistics with the topicVietnamese noun classes.
From 1961-1971, he was Head of the Department of Linguistics at the Faculty of Philology, Hanoi University. In 1980, he was awarded the title of Professor and in 1982, 1988-1990 he was a visiting Professor at the University of Paris 7 (France) and in 1991 at Cornell University (USA).
In scientific activities, Professor Nguyen Tai Can is a linguist with profound knowledge and great contributions in many fields, especially in the research of Vietnamese linguistics and Han Nom. Many of his scientific research works on synchronic and diachronic aspects in many fields (grammar, phonetics, etymology, script) of Vietnamese linguistics and Han Nom are highly appreciated by Vietnamese and international scientists, such as:
1.Noun classes in modern Vietnamese,Social Sciences Publishing House, 1975.
2.Vietnamese Grammar(Sound - Compound words - Short phrases),University and Vocational High School Publishing House, 1975, Hanoi National University Publishing House (reprinted many times).
3.Origin and formation process of Sino-Vietnamese reading,Social Sciences Publishing House, 1979, Hanoi National University Publishing House (reprinted many times).
4.Some issues about Nom script,University and Vocational High School Publishing House, 1985.
5.Vietnamese phonetic history textbook (draft),Education Publishing House, 1995.
6.The influence of Chinese literature of Ly and Tran dynasties through poetry and poetic language of Nguyen Trung Ngan,Education Publishing House, 1998.
7.Learn the technique of continuous recitation in the poem "Vu trung son thuy" by Thieu Tri.Thuan Hoa Publishing House, 1998.
8.Some evidence of language, writing and culture,Hanoi National University Publishing House, 2001.
9.Kieu Story Documents: Duy Minh Thi Version 1872,Hanoi National University Publishing House, 2002.
10.Documents of the Tale of Kieu: From Duy Minh Thi's version to Kieu Oanh Mau's version,Center for National Studies, Literature Publishing House, 2004.
In 2000, Professor Nguyen Tai Can was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize by the State for a cluster of 3 works:
- Vietnamese Grammar (Sounds - Compound Words - Short Phrases)
- Vietnamese phonetics history textbook
- Origin and formation process of Sino-Vietnamese reading
In 2008, Professor Nguyen Tai Can was awarded the title of People's Teacher. |
