Like a crane in flight

And so, a heart that had dedicated its life to science, to training and inspiring its students, has ceased to beat. The man who carried that heart – Professor Nguyen Tai Can – has departed this world, leaving a void in academia; and in our hearts, amidst the sorrow and regret of his passing, there is a profound sense of separation. The crane has flown away.soaring high into the sky...Born on May 2nd, 1926, in Thanh Van commune, Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province, into a Confucian family, he attended Vinh National School and Hue National School. He later joined the resistance movement; after peace was restored, he was appointed by the Ministry of Education as the first Vietnamese linguist in Vietnam at Leningrad State University, Soviet Union. While teaching, studying, and researching alongside renowned Soviet scientists, in 1960, he began his linguistic career by successfully defending his first doctoral dissertation in Linguistics in the Soviet Union on the Vietnamese noun category. In 1962, upon returning to Vietnam, he was appointed head of the Linguistics Department of the Faculty of Literature at Hanoi University (now two faculties: Literature and Linguistics at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi). His innate talent, profound understanding of Chinese studies, combined with his training and work experience in European academic environments, and his unwavering dedication to science... all these factors contributed to making Nguyen Tai Can a renowned educator and scientist, one of the leading figures in contemporary linguistics in Vietnam. For ten years as head of the department, and even after leaving that position, his ambition to organize, build, and develop the field remained a constant driving force. This persistent concern and desire motivated him.internationalizationWhat we are talking about every day and striving to achieve, Professor, along with his colleagues and associates, implemented through very concrete, practical, and quiet actions from that day (he was very averse to, if not outright hated, ostentatious displays). The curriculum and teaching materials were referenced and updated from abroad through Soviet universities. They sought out suitable specialists to bring into the department or selected individuals to send abroad for training in new fields that the world needed, fields of study, and national needs... to open new courses and specializations. Applied linguistics, mathematical linguistics, statistical linguistics, neurolinguistics, experimental phonetics, logic, translation... had people to research and organize teaching, precisely during that "flourishing" period, while the country was still mired in the hardships of war and bombing. "That's the nature of the profession," Professor often said to his students who had become his colleagues. I understand that this is the principle of "teaching tirelessly" that Confucius taught long ago. Having spent a lifetime teaching at the university, and being one of the leading experts in linguistics in our country, Professor has directly trained numerous students, researchers, and postgraduate students in Linguistics, Vietnamese Linguistics, and Sino-Vietnamese Studies. Just considering the generations of teachers currently working in the Linguistics Department, from Professor downwards, there are already five generations living together. Although retired long ago, Professor closely followed scientific activities in the department and the university, and still participated or directly taught when possible. And yet, today, we will no longer hear his eloquent and passionate lectures. Professor's research areas are incredibly broad: from contemporary grammar to historical phonology and the history of the Vietnamese language, from Sino-Vietnamese reading to issues of Sino-Vietnamese script studies, from authorial and literary language to literary language, textual studies, and classical poetry... Not to mention research papers in scientific journals and anthologies both domestically and internationally, just counting his books, perhaps the most notable are:Vietnamese Grammar: Words - Compound Words - Phrases (1975), Noun Class in Modern Vietnamese (1975), Grammatika Vietnamskogo Jazuka (Vietnamese Grammar - co-authored with N. Stankevich and Bystrov), Origin and Formation of Sino-Vietnamese Reading (1979), Some Issues Regarding Nom Script (1985), History of Vietnamese Phonetics (1995), Influence of Chinese Literature of the Ly and Tran Dynasties (through the poetry of Nguyen Trung Ngan) (1998), Studying the Technique of Consecutive Repetition in Thieu Tri's poem Vu Trung Son Thuy (1998), Some evidence related to language, writing, and culture. (2001),then the research book about the volumeby Dinh Nhat Than (2008)These are two major scholarly works on The Tale of Kieu:Documents on the Tale of Kieu: Duy Minh Thi Edition 1872.(2002) Documents on the Tale of Kieu: From the Duy Minh Thi version to the Kieu Oanh Mau version (2004)...I would like to add a few more things about three of those books. The bookVietnamese Grammar: Words - Compound Words - PhrasesThere are two most valuable points: the proposal to apply the concept of "language" corresponding to the concept...morphemefor Vietnamese grammar, and describing the structure of Vietnamese noun phrases. The proposal to apply and clarify the grammatical value of "language" (tiếng) marked a pivotal turning point.This has brought about profound changes in the understanding of Vietnamese linguists in general when describing the Vietnamese language, making the description of contemporary Vietnamese structure more accurate and true to its original nature.Furthermore, the Vietnamese noun phrase structure described in this work (applying the method of description based on positional distribution) has contributed significantly to improving and changing the classification of word classes, a very important aspect of grammatical research and description. While significant research results may be numerous and many people may have achieved them, research results that impact and change the understanding of an entire research community are certainly rare. Nguyen Tai Can achieved this. Also in this work, for various reasons, to avoid major disruptions, the professor's new idea regarding the central component (main component) of noun phrases was presented beginning on page 216 (1975 edition) under the name "two components T1 and T2 in the central part," which the renowned linguist Cao Xuan Hao and others in research on this issue have recently mentioned and highly praised. At point c. On page 216, there are a few points presented, though gently, even somewhat subtly, but...It is truly an idea.in contemporary grammatical analysis of the relevant issue. The bookHistory of Vietnamese phoneticsIt can be said that, to date, this is the most comprehensive and systematic study on the history of Vietnamese phonetics, and its special feature is that: the origins and contacts between Vietnamese and related languages, between Vietnamese and Chinese; the influence of Chinese on Vietnamese and other minority languages ​​in Vietnam... have been analyzed consistently and rationally within their overall context, making the issue more comprehensively viewed and presented. It is precisely because of this that, in the textbook, with a dense collection of data, specifically and meticulously verified, the origins and evolution of sounds belonging to the initial consonant, medial consonant, vowel, final consonant, and tone systems of the Vietnamese language, the stages of Vietnamese phonetics from the Proto-Viet-Chut period (corresponding to the familiar term Proto-Viet-Muong) through the period of division into two branches, Poong-Chut and Viet-Muong, then from a common Viet-Muong to the separation of Nguon, Muong, and Viet, from early Vietnamese to modern Vietnamese... become much easier to visualize.The origin and formation process of Sino-Vietnamese pronunciationFirst published in 1979, and revised and supplemented in 2000, this is the first work in Vietnam to systematically and fundamentally research this issue. Besides other scientific values ​​mentioned and introduced by many researchers, what I particularly want to add is that, unlike the works of B. Karlgren (1915), H. Maspero (1912), T. Mineya (1972), Vuong Luc (1958), Ly Vinh (1952), J. Hashimoto (1984), and SA Starostin (1989), this work reconstructs and identifies the system of 8 vowels inIronclad(Coincidentally, in 1992, WH Baxter also restored the eight-vowel system); at the same timeThe study examines the entire process of evolution through different stages of the Chinese consonant system and rhyme system, from the Tieyun period to the period of formation of the Sino-Vietnamese reading system.The process of evolution and transformation through the stages over those three centuries cannot be said to have been absent, yet both H. Maspero and S.A. Starostin have overlooked it. H. Maspero only presented the Chinese phonetic system at two points in time: the time of the Iron Rhyme System, and then immediately moved on to the system at the time of the formation of the Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation.One of the key differences and advantages of H. Maspero's work, "The Origin and Formation Process of Sino-Vietnamese Reading," compared to his own work, lies precisely in this.Speaking of Professor's books and research, I'd like to reiterate this: in all of his research, he never used a single penny of state-funded scientific research... Among those books, a collection of works was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize while he was away in Hanoi; his colleagues and students volunteered and nominated him for consideration. Doing what science needs; being responsible, dedicated, and passionate about the profession of "teaching"... valuing theory and methodology above all else, but always being very practical... these are always qualities that his students and colleagues easily observed in him. When I first graduated and stayed on to be trained as a lecturer, one day he asked: "What are you assigned to teach, Nghieu?" I replied: "I've been assigned to the group teaching linguistic theory." My teacher said, "Very good. This is extremely important. If you can't go abroad yet, try to read and study. But remember, no one does all the theory. Any theory must begin and develop from concrete research." I was like the butcher in the old fairy tale, meeting Buddha on the ferry, hearing a single sentence and suddenly enlightened. The last time I met my teacher was on August 2nd, 2010. Taking advantage of a business trip to Moscow, I visited my teacher and his wife for an afternoon. It was truly special. Extremely joyful. We talked non-stop. There were even tears. Because of joy and emotion. My teacher immediately took the magazine.Nghe An cultureHe handed it to me and mentioned that I had read the paper on our country's name at the national linguistics conference on his behalf. However, my intuition, stemming from the fact that my elderly father had once fallen ill, told me:Things are unlikely to get any better now;And suddenly, my heart ached. When I was leaving, the teacher hugged me tightly, not wanting to let go, his eyes red with tears, and said: "Go home, I can't come down to see you off." "But we'll stand up here and wave together, okay?" Down in the courtyard, I looked up and saw the teacher's hands outstretched from the window, waving to me. I waved and bowed. Walking about halfway down the building, I turned back and looked up: still their arms outstretched. I bowed again and continued walking. A few steps from the end of the building, I turned back: still the same. I waved, bowed once more, then quickly walked to a secluded corner and stood there for a few seconds. I turned back to see what was happening. Only then did I see the teacher stop waving... Hearing the sad news about the teacher, although I had been concerned for a long time and didn't feel too surprised or shocked, when my friends told me, "You should write something about him," I was confused, not knowing what to write... Surely, at this moment, his blood relatives are still with him, and surely "tears are soaking into the stone..." I, a "little one" among all of his students, somehow, and with some meaning, heard the last sentence fleetingly in the hurried breeze. in a poem by Hoang Cam...Ripe banana trees collapse, breaking the vines....