Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khang (Institute of Linguistics) analyzed and affirmed the scientific contributions of Prof. Nguyen Thien Giap in linguistic research through a group of works that were recently awarded the State Prize for Science and Technology in 2010: "Vietnamese Vocabulary" (1985) "Vietnamese Words and Word Recognition" (1996).
Just like the materials to build a house with bricks being the traditional material, language is indispensable.
fromand equivalent units such as
from(Just like building a house requires materials). Therefore,
fromis a natural existence in the language system and the study of
frombecome a focus of linguistics. Such a simple way of thinking is also to say that,
fromis a problem that is both traditional and modern in linguistic science.
Frombecome an indispensable content of general linguistics with thousands of definitions drawn from specific studies on
fromin each language and on that basis, it is applied and researched widely and continuously in all languages. In Vietnam, research on
fromhas a lot of depth. Especially when the problem
from Vietnamesebecome the research content in both grammar (grammar) and vocabulary. Professor Nguyen Thien Giap, after graduating with a major in linguistics, Faculty of Literature, Hanoi University of Science and was retained as a lecturer, quickly ranked among the vocabulary researchers. He ranked among the Vietnamese vocabulary researchers when before him there were many people researching vocabulary, including famous Vietnamese linguists with in-depth research works and articles on Vietnamese words. He ranked among the Vietnamese vocabulary researchers in the context of Vietnamese linguistics being at the peak of structuralist research and
from Vietnamesebecome a central scientific content of Vietnamese linguistics in both aspects: Vietnamese grammar and Vietnamese vocabulary.
Around the problem
from Vietnamese, the question that is always asked is: what is a Vietnamese word (what is a Vietnamese word) and what is truly a Vietnamese word (the nature of a Vietnamese word). If we consider “syllabic” as the basic, essential characteristic of Vietnamese, then how should the problem of Vietnamese words be solved in relation to this monosyllabic characteristic? Professor Nguyen Thien Giap follows a direction that has been mentioned before but has not had the opportunity to be studied deeply or thoroughly, which is:
Vietnamese words have a phonetic shell called a syllable. If we consider morphemes as meaningful units of language, then Vietnamese words also coincide with syllables.. Following this point of view, he believes that in Vietnamese, along with the basic lexical unit of words, there is also a lexical unit of phrases.
Phrases are available phrases in Vietnamese, with equivalent value as words.The concept of "language" is explained by him as follows:
Unlike free phrases, phrases (compound words, reduplicated words, nominal phrases, idioms) all have syntactic properties in the relationship between elements.Concept
non-syntactic, according to him,
It's not that there are no syntactic relations, but that there are syntactic relations that have deviated from the normal syntactic models of modern Vietnamese.. With his explanation, in Vietnamese there are “words, phrases, sentences” and accordingly, the concepts of morphemes, single words, compound words, derivative words, etc., if any, will also have to be explained through the three basic concepts above. Compare with the concept
languagewhich he introduced with the concept
phraseIn Indo-European languages, he argued, they are not exactly the same: semantically, Vietnamese phrases are equivalent to derivatives, complex words, compound words and fixed phrases in Indo-European languages. At this point, it is clear that, although he added some explanatory passages, the core "each syllable is a word" is the concept that he pursued or, to be precise, he radicalized: the units called
simple words, complex words, compound words, reduplicated wordsin Vietnamese he translated
language. Viewpoint on
fromand
languageProfessor Nguyen Thien Giap's Vietnamese appeared at a time when Language magazine was having a heated, long-lasting debate about
sound, wordand
morphemein Vietnamese. He lined up to register his name and presented his linguistics thesis:
The problem of demarcating the units commonly called words in Vietnamese(1983). I also attended that defense session and I still remember clearly the atmosphere was "boiling, tense as a guitar string" when opposing opinions appeared with his thesis. But fortunately for him, Professor Nguyen Tai Can - a man knowledgeable in both scientific knowledge and everyday life knowledge - made a statement that gradually cooled down the heated atmosphere of the hall, roughly meaning, the issues you have just raised are very good, please sharpen your theories and knowledge so that we can continue to debate in the Language magazine, and this is the school's rules... (at that time, the field of linguistics had only one magazine, the Language magazine). It is also understandable, when the viewpoint that he thoroughly developed and expressed in his thesis seemed somewhat out of place with the prevailing viewpoint in Vietnamese and was considered the orthodox viewpoint at that time (even until now): Vietnamese has words including single words, compound words and reduplicated words. But that time was different, it was the time of the planned economy (also known as subsidy), so all thinking was in the direction of standards. Linguistic research was no exception. For example, standardizing Vietnamese had to follow the normative direction, that is, there was a predetermined framework to look into, if a word usage, an utterance (now called a variant) did not fit into the boxes of that framework, it would be considered wrong, not standard. Going against a prevailing viewpoint associated with big names was a danger in scientific research. Saying this is not only to see the logical thinking and the hard work of research through the reality of Vietnamese language of Professor Nguyen Thien Giap but also to see his scientific mettle. He was slow in his speech when debating science, gentle and delicate in his behavior, but, hidden inside was determination... a determination that was convincing through his labor, creativity, intelligence and passion. I increasingly understand that the point he made is not simply a matter of naming, of “seating arrangements” for this or that unit. Because what good would it be if it were just a formal arrangement? For example, there have been articles that, because they only focused on formality, were confused about how to handle the case of
contemptin Vietnamese, that is
contemptborrowed from Chinese (Sino-Vietnamese) used in Vietnamese with two meanings: meaning "light",
contemptused only as a word-forming element (
balloon); meaning "to despise",
contemptused as a word (
despise the servile) is both a word-forming element (
contemptuous,
despise). Before phenomena like
contempt, the other article concluded
contemptIn Vietnamese, “sometimes it is a word, sometimes it is not a word”. Actually, there is nothing to complain about this conclusion, because grammar at that time mainly came from form - structure without combining grammar-semantic research. And it is not only us, even the world's leading linguists such as J. Layons once had an opinion that, let's see
fromas
sentenceare the “default” units to work with (to avoid having to “waste” time debating). Professor Nguyen Thien Giap, in his research on Vietnamese words, has aimed at further, broader, and theoretical issues. This is shown in his subsequent studies when he applied the psycho-peripheral theory of modern linguistics to the study of Vietnamese words. He believes that such a solution to the concept of Vietnamese words is consistent with the theory of general linguistics, consistent with the tradition of Oriental studies, consistent with Vietnamese philology and literature, and the characteristics of Vietnamese. According to him, with the concept of
languageThus, Vietnamese grammar will have a basis for studying related contents other than vocabulary. For example, is it still necessary to distinguish between morphology and syntax in Vietnamese as general linguistics has done?,... It is also necessary to add that, although up to now, the viewpoint of words coinciding with syllables that he pursued is still only one of the viewpoints on Vietnamese words, but his merit is to thoroughly follow that viewpoint by systematically and deeply studying Vietnamese reality.
If there are geniuses in natural sciences, then social sciences are hard to come by. This is true for Professor Nguyen Thien Giap. Not relying on intelligence, Professor Nguyen Thien Giap is successful today thanks to his diligence as a "hard-working bee". He teaches, researches, and writes books. Teaching helps him "apply and test" his practical knowledge, reading helps him supplement his knowledge, and writing books is a manifestation of his intelligence. Thanks to that, along with research works on Vietnamese words that have been reprinted many times and each time is an update of new knowledge, new practical documents of Vietnamese, he also has other works such as
Vietnamese language learning tools(2000),
History of Vietnamese Linguistics(vol. 1, 2005; vol. 2, 2007; editor-in-chief),
Linguistic research methods(2005),
Linguistics Textbook(2008),
777 linguistic concepts(2010; Hanoi National University Award). Although he has published many books and has "students everywhere", Professor Nguyen Thien Giap still maintains a simple and familiar lifestyle of a teacher that only people like him can maintain, which is a closed circle: teaching, reading and writing books. Congratulations to Professor, Doctor, People's Teacher Nguyen Thien Giap for receiving the 2010 State Prize for Science and Technology (organized every 5 years) for two works on Vietnamese words. The Vietnamese linguistics industry has new contributions from him. Colleagues share joy with his achievements. Generations of his students are proud of their teacher. Hanoi National University and its Faculty of Philology, Hanoi National University, Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities and its Faculty of Linguistics are happy and proud to have teachers like Professor Nguyen Thien Giap.
