Lam Quang Dong: The expressive semantic structure of a sentence

Developed from a doctoral dissertation, "Lam Quang Dong's book with the titleThe semantic structure of sentences with the verb group "to give" (in English and Vietnamese)The book has focused its research on the semantic structure of sentences with a typical type of verb that exhibits strong valency, thus creating a unique, elaborate, and highly useful "voice" in delving into the semantic structure of sentences.

Introduction by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Van Tinh

Linguist B. Whorf once said, "The essence of linguistics is understanding meaning." And the semantics of language are essentially the expressive aspect of speech in communicative reality. For many years, Vietnamese linguists have been focusing on in-depth research into the mechanisms of linguistic expression in Vietnamese at the level of semantic structures. The book "The Expressive Semantic Structure of Sentences with the Predicate Group 'Give/Give' (in English and Vietnamese)" by Dr. Lam Quang Dong, lecturer in the Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, is also part of this general trend. From a theoretical standpoint, the author bases his work on L. Tesnière's main theses on the argument structure of sentences (1959) – theses were further supplemented and refined by Ch. J. Fillmore in his theory of grammatical cases (1970) – and new perspectives on the study of sentence semantic structure from the world of linguists in recent years. L. Tesnière's perspective represents a turning point in establishing semantic roles within the sentence's semantic structure, arguing that "these are the core elements of communication (rather than the propositional structure)." Of course, this is just one approach among many, and each scholar has the right to choose. Lam Quang Dong's topic is a unique, useful, and very interesting choice. The author skillfully selects a subject by examining the predicate-participial relationship within a typical context: the verbs "give" and "present" in English and Vietnamese. Although only a few English and Vietnamese verbs (give, present, donate, give, present, offer, send, etc.) are included, this group of verbs (belonging to a single action) most fully and vividly demonstrates the possible combinations of predicates, semantic roles, and layers of meaning expressed within the sentence's semantic structure. As the author writes: “Predicates with the meaning of giving/offering are one of the basic vocabulary groups of language. They are among the linguistic elements acquired and used earliest in children, and are considered one of the first ‘building blocks’ for constructing other semantic units” (Introduction). Although this special relational behavior is universal in many languages, its expression differs in each language – differing in valence, word order and combination conventions, and structural binding “materials”… These issues reflect the significantly different ways of thinking, cognitive abilities, and expressive abilities of each nation. All these issues have been addressed in great detail by the author in this book.

As an English lecturer for many years, Lam Quang Dong has the advantage of possessing both native-level knowledge and a solid understanding of English, allowing him to "look at Vietnamese from the other side." The differences in linguistic families and typologies between the two languages ​​give the author the opportunity to delve deeper into the subject. Crucially, and decisively, the author possesses the insightful and astute perspective of a true linguist. The up-to-date knowledge on the semantics of sentences is not only present in the introductory chapter but is also convincingly and effectively integrated into the five chapters of the more than 230-page book. Here, readers will see typical models of sentence semantic structure with the verb group "give/offer" with different numbers of actants (a = 3, a < 3, and a > 3). With just three "actors" in a "scene" and a few supporting "actors" (to use Tesnière's term), they have "played" countless roles with ever-changing expressions. From an example (§ 3.3.1 chapter 3): The soldier / came / to / my / house / to / give / me / courage, we can "break it down" and find a series of factors that contribute to the overall semantic structure of this utterance. From there, we continue the development of meaning through a series of subsequent utterances (The teacher gave lessons, loved her village dearly… She gave me everything, she brought me a new life, bright and full of dreams. The one who gave me everything is President Ho Chi Minh.This has created a very effective and concise discursive message. Thus, from the semantic structure of the sentence, we can look further to the semantic structure of the text.

It can be said that studying the meaning of sentences is one of the new directions for in-depth linguistic research in post-structuralist linguistics. In Vietnam, following Nguyen Thi Quy (with *Vietnamese Action Predicates and Their Arguments*, 1995) and Nguyen Van Loc (with *The Valency of Vietnamese Verbs*, 1995), Lam Quang Dong's book entitled *The Expressive Semantic Structure of Sentences with the Predicate Group 'Give/Give' (in English and Vietnamese)* focused on studying the expressive semantic structure of sentences with a typical type of verb in terms of valency. Therefore, the book created a unique, elaborate, and very useful "voice" in delving into the semantic structure of sentences. The problem is quite complex, but the author presented it very clearly and coherently in simple, scientific, and clear Vietnamese. This book will undoubtedly be very meaningful for Vietnamese linguists and, more specifically, for anyone interested in teaching and learning Vietnamese and foreign languages ​​in general.