HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES

 

Hoang Thuy Linh

RESEARCH PAPER

A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY ON NOUN PHRASE IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE

NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH VỀ CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGỮ PHÁP CỦA CỤM
DANH TỪ TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

HANOI, 2022
 HANOI UNIVERSITY OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES

RESEARCH PAPER

A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY ON NOUN PHRASE IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE

NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH VỀ CÁC ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGỮ PHÁP CỦA CỤM
DANH TỪ TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

Field: English Language

Name: Hoang Thuy Linh
Student’s code: 19137232
Course: English Language Studies
Supervisor: Pham Thi Thu Ha, MA

HANOI, 2022
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
LIST OF ABBREVIATION
PART B: DEVELOPMENT:
1. MATERIAL COLLECTION
1.1. Definition of Noun Phrase
1.2. Noun Comparison, Noun Clause, Noun Phrase
1.3. Classification of Noun Phrase
2. DATA ANALYSIS
2.1. Methodology
2.2. Data collection procedure
3. RESULTS, REMARKS, SUGGESTIONS
3.1. The structure of Noun Phrase in English
3.2. The structure of Noun Phrase in Vietnamese
3.3. Similarities
3.4. Differences
3.5. Some common errors of Vietnamese students when using English
noun phrase and solution
PART C: CONCLUSION
REFERENCE
 ABSTRACT

Language is the invisible backbone of society. Its existence is to express one’s

ideas, concepts, and emotions. All social activities are performed through
language. It is estimated that there are more than two hundred languages in the
world, each with its unique feature. Language itself is a complex system and it is
dependent on us culturally, socially and personally. Hence learning a language
involves many things such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc.

This study aims to analyze one constituent of both the English and Vietnamese
languages – which is the noun phrase. Attempts have been made to point out the
similarities as well as the differences in noun phrases between the two
languages. I pay attention to the analysis of the heads, the pre, and post-
modifications, their positions, and the functions of English and Vietnamese noun
phrases. Finally, some suggestions are made for those who are aiming to become
English teachers.
 I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. The rationale for the study

In order to master a language, learners first must understand the
components that comprise a sentence or a clause. These components are
various and complicated, as they include many phrases such as noun
phrases, adjective phrases, verb phrases, etc. Noun phrases play a very
significant role in one language, as without them, there have no agents, no
patients, and no recipients.
Despite many studies on noun phrases in English and Vietnamese, this
subject continues to attract my attention. It is not only crucial to capture an
overview of the noun phrases in English and Vietnamese, but it is also
highly valuable for bilingual learners to take an in-depth look at their
differences and similarities to avoid making mistakes while learning them.
As a result, I decided to write my paper on the topic “A descriptive study
on Noun Phrase in English and Vietnamese”.
2. Aims and objectives of the study
The study’s goal is to:
- Investigating the grammatical functions of noun phrases in English and
Vietnamese languages.
- Comparing similarities and differences of noun phrases in English and
Vietnamese languages.
3. Research questions:
- What are the general grammatical structures of English and Vietnamese
noun phrases?
- What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese
noun phrases?
4. Scope of the study
Noun phrase is mentioned in many pieces of research and it can be explored
in many aspects. However, this study mainly focuses on its grammatical
aspects in English and Vietnamese.
5. Organization of the study
This study consists of three main parts as follow:
PART A: Introduction provides an introduction that includes the rationale,
aims, scope, research questions, and organization of the study.
PART B: Development provides three sections:
Data collection: attempts to discuss several essential ideas linked to the
subject
Data analysis: giving a literature review of the research, methodology, data,
and procedure
Result, Remark, Suggestion: presents the findings and recommendations
PART C: CONCLUSION: Conclusion provides some explanations,
interpretations of the study’s findings, and possible suggestions.
 II
PART B: DEVELOPMENT

1. MATERIAL COLLECTION
1.1. Definition of Noun Phrases
A phrase is a group of words that has no subject (Tallerman, 1998).
It means that every group of words or combination of words, which
are grammatically similar to a word and do not have its own subject
is called a phrase. According to Elson and Pickett (1963: 73), a
phrase is a unit composed of two or more words potentially, which
does not have the characteristic of a clause. According to Cook
(1969: 65), a phrase is a unit of grammar, a construction in which
the constituent is a potential sentence base, and in which the
constituent are the subject, predicate, object, and adjunct that
combine to form the base; and a sentence. In addition, Cook (1968:
39) states that a phrase is a grammatical unit, a construction in
which constitute is any utterance with a final intonation contour,
and the constituents are the clauses, connecting particles, and
intonation patterns. There are some phrases such as Noun Phrase
(NP), Adverb Phrase (AdvP), Adjective Phrase (AdjP), Verb Phrase
(VP) and Preposition Phrase (PP).
Generally, a noun phrase tells us which people or things are being
talked about. It is a syntactic unit that can serve as subject, direct
object or object of a preposition in a sentence. It can also function
as a complement to a word group. Ba‟dulu (2008: 41) states that a
noun phrase is a word group with noun as its head. A noun phrase
 may consist of determiner slot filled by an article, a possessive
pronoun, a numeral, or a demonstrative, and a head slot filled by a
noun.
According to Jackson (1985), the English noun phrase (NP) is
potentially constructed by a pre-modifier, a head, and a post-
modifier.
In short, noun phrases are the combinations of words carrying the
meaning which refers to the entities we want to talk about.
Depending on the grammar rules of a language, the three parts of
common noun phrase are located under different orders. However,
the role of modifications, which is supporting and specializing the
meaning of the head, does not vary upon language.
1.2. Noun Comparison, Noun Clause, Noun Phrase
The noun is a part of speech telling what someone or something is
called. A noun can be the name of a person, an occupation or a job
tittle, the name of a thing, the name of a place, the name of quality
or the name of an action. In other words, the noun is a part of
speech which includes words denoting living creatures, substances
or a certain facts or phenomena regarded as substances. The main
syntactical functions of the noun in the sentence are those of the
subject and object:
E.g:
The girl is watching TV
Subject
The woman asked the girl to turn down the volume
Object
Besides, a noun may also be used:
+ As a complement/or predicative introduced by the verb “be” or
other “be-like” or linking verbs.
E.g: He’s a good student. She’s a teacher.
+ As an attribute:
E.g: The student’s answer was all correct.
+ As a part of an adverbial modifier
E.g: They are learning in their classroom.
+ In apposition: James Smith, an ABC commentator, asked for an
interview.
+ When we speak directly to someone:
E.g: Jane, turn down the volume, will you?
The noun is associated with the following form-words:
+ The article or determiners (definite or indefinite)
+ The prepositions
In other English language, some words function only as noun or
adjective. We cannot identify such words as noun from their letter
appearance (Le H.Truong, 2015).
Noun phrases are groups of one or two words within a sentence that
function grammatically as noun. They consist of a noun and other
words that modify the noun. Some grammarians also consider a
single-word to be a noun phrase, while more traditional grammars
hold that a phrase must be made up of two or more words. Noun
phrases are simply noun with modifiers. Just as nouns can act as
subjects, objects and prepositional objects, so can noun phrases.
Similarly, noun phrases can also work in a sentence as adjectives,
participles, infinite and prepositional or absolute phrases.
The modifier can come before or after the noun. If it comes before
the noun, it’s likely to an article, possessive noun, possessive
pronoun, adjective or participle. Modifiers that come after noun
include prepositional phrases, adjective clauses, participle phrases
and infinitives. The best way to clear all that up is to explore some
examples of noun phrase in action.
E.g:
The red house is for sale (Noun phrase as a subject)
At the zoo, I saw a big ape (Noun phrase as an object to the verb
“saw”)
Marry lives in a small flat (Noun phrase as a prepositional object)
The car wash was out of order (Noun phrase with “car” acting as an
adjective for the noun “wash’)
Having been a licensed lawyer, he knew how to defend himself
(Noun phrase as a participle)
Our decision to get married was celebrated by all our friends (Noun
phrase as a “to-infinitive)
She crawled through the dark and musty attic (Noun phrase as
prepositional phrase, preposition “though”)
They walked into the sunset, their laughter carrying on the breeze
(Noun phrase as an absolute phrase to the subject “they”)
Noun clauses are groups of words that act as a noun. They often
begin with words such as if, what, why and so on. These clauses
have a subject and predicate, just like a sentence. However, they do
not act as sentences on their own. Instead, they have an effect on a
longer, more complex sentence.
Most people are comfortable with the idea of a noun, but they may
not feel so when it comes to the noun clause. A noun clause is a
group of words acting together as a noun. These clauses are always
dependent clauses. That is, they do not form a complete sentence.
The best way to familiarize yourself with these types of clauses is to
take a look at sample sentence containing noun clauses at work.
We can spot a noun clause based on its function within the sentence.
Let’s take a look at some of the most prominent roles of noun
clauses.
+ A noun clause can act as the subject of a verb.
E.g:
What Anna said made her friends cry
How the boy behaved was very impolite
When there’s a verb in the sentence, you must find the subject. In
the first sentence, we can ask “What made her friends cry?” and the
answer is “what Anna said”. Therefore, “what Anna said” is the
subject of the verb “made’. In the second sentence, we can ask
“What was very impolite?”, the answer is “how the boy behaved”.
+ In the same vein, noun clause can also act as the direct object of a
verb.
E.g:
She didn’t realize that the directions were wrong
He didn’t know why the stove wasn’t working
With the same method of questioning, we can demonstrate how the
noun clause is being used. In the first sentence, we can ask “What
didn’t she realize?” and the answer “that the directions were
wrong”. Therefore, “that the directions were wrong” is the object
of the verb. In the second sentence, we can ask, “What he didn’t
know?” and the answer is “why the stove isn’t working”.
+ A noun clause can also serve as a subject complement. A subject
complement will always modify, describe, or complete the subject
of a clause.
E.g:
Carla’s problem was that she didn’t practice enough
Darla’s excuse for being late was that she forgot to set the alarm
+ Noun clauses can also act as object of a preposition. In the
examples below, you will see the prepositions “of” and “for’ in
action.
E.g:
I am not responsible for what you decided to do
She is the owner of that Cadillac parked outside
Each of these sentences could be complete before the audition of the
prepositions. However, the prepositions are introduced to provide
further detail and the noun clauses act as the objects of these
prepositions.
+ Last but not least, a noun clause can also function as an adjective
complement, modifying a verb, adjective or adverb.
E.g:
They’re perfectly happy where they live now
 Jerry knows why Elan went to the store
The adjective complement is providing more information about the
verb, adjective or adverb that precedes it.
Similar to the examples containing prepositions, each of these
sentences could be complete after conjunction. The adjective
complements provide further detail and, in each of these instances,
these adjective complements are noun clauses.
1.3. Classification of noun phrase
A noun phrase is also referred as nominal phrase and it contains
noun or indefinite pronoun and functions as a phrase. However, a
noun phrase includes a person or place or thing and modifiers that
identify this. This kind of phrase is very common.
A noun + Modifier = Noun phrase
However, a noun phrase can be a subject or object or complement.
E.g: That dog, that dog on the sofa, the aunt’s dog, ect.
However, modifiers can be placed before or after the noun. If it
comes before the noun, then it can be articles, possessive nouns,
adjectives, possessive pronouns, participles.
Article: Anna’s father had brought a dog
Possessive noun: The dog’s bowl is empty
Possessive pronoun: She had kept her dog alone in the flat
Adjective: The spotted dog runs fast
Modifiers that come after the noun includes prepositional phrases or
adjective clauses or participle phrases or infinitives.
Prepositional phrase: The dog behind the door is waiting for the
food
Adjective clause: The dog that chases cats can run fast
Participle phrase: The dog walked daily in the morning is suffering
from a rare disease
Infinitive: Mai bought some flowers to decorate the house
More examples of noun phrases:
A noun phrase can be noun or a pronoun.
E.g: I am sad
Determiner + Noun = Noun Phrase
E.g: Those dresses are very colorful
Noun phrase with adjective
E.g: My close friend went to Hanoi
Noun phrase starts with a quantifier
E.g: These two dogs are being punished for barking too loud
Quantifier + Determiner + Noun = Noun phrase
E.g: All these children are staying in the hotel
Quantifier + Determiner + Adjective = Noun phrase
E.g: Both of my younger brothers are adopted

The function of a Noun phrase

Noun phrase can be used as a noun phrase head.

E.g: The big blue ball was lost yesterday
Noun phrase functions as a subject in a sentence
E.g: The small baby was crying
Noun phrase can be used as a subject complement.
E.g: The lady whom you are looking for is an actress
 Noun phrase can be direct object. An object can be a word, phrase
or clause and usually comes after a transitive verb.
E.g: The children ate all the chocolate
A noun phrase can be an indirect object.
E.g: My brother bought me gifts
Noun phrase can be used as an object complement.
E.g: We consider our dog our best friend
Sometimes, noun phrase acts as a noun phrase modifier.
E.g: The child actor performed well in the movie
Noun phrase can be used as a prepositional object.
E.g: My father bought gifts for me
Noun phrase can be used as determinative.
E.g: My sister’s flat is a small 2 BHK
Noun phrase function as an adjust adverbial.
E.g: Yesterday, I lost my umbrella
Noun phrase can be used as an appositive.
E.g: My uncle, a flutist, is composing background music for movies.
Noun phrases (grouping together a collection of words to act as one
noun) are one of the keystones. They allow you pack a lot of
information into a few words, a function which extremely helpful
when writing to a word count or when trying to make a piece of
writing concise. Additionally, once you recognize that strings of
words (noun phrases) represent ideas which cannot be broken down,
you may start to read text in a different way, reading for “chunk” of
information rather than reading individual words.
2. DATA ANALYSIS
 2.1. Methodology
The qualitive approach was used to accomplish this study. The
materials for the study were gathered via Internet, books, websites
and the library. In addition, the researcher reviews the teacher’s
ideas and gets feedback from the supervisor. To achieve the
intended goals, the researcher also applied descriptive and
contrastive analysis in this paper.
2.2. Data collection procedure
With the results collected, the researcher divided them into 2 parts:
English noun phrases and Vietnamese noun phrases. Following that,
the researcher examines each similar and different characteristic in a
logical manner that is easy to read and understand. The results of
the research and suggestions will be presented in the next session.
3. RESULTS, REMARKS, SUGGESTIONS
3.1. The structure of Noun Phrase in English
In English grammar, a noun phrase has three components:
 Pre modification
 The head
 Post modification
 Pre modification: consists of all the words placed before the
head. These words are usually determiners, adjectives and
nouns.
Predeterminers:
The predeterminers occur before other determiners (as you can
probably guess from their name). They includes multipliers (double,
twice, four/five times...); fractional expressions (one-third, three-
 quarters, etc.); the words both, half, and all; and intensifiers such as
quite, rather, and such.
The multipliers precede plural count and mass nouns and occur with
singular count nouns denoting number or amount:
- This van holds three times the passengers as that sports car.
- My wife is making double my / twice my salary.
- This time we added five times the amount of water.
In fractional expressions, we have a similar construction, but here it
can be replaced with "of" construction.
- Charlie finished in one-fourth of the time his brother took.
- Two-fifths of the respondents reported that half the
medication was sufficient.
The intensifiers occur in this construction primarily in casual speech
and writing and are more common in British English than they are
in American English. The intensifier "what" is often found in
stylistic fragments: "We visited my brother in his dorm room. What
a mess!"
- This room is rather a mess, isn't it?
- The ticket-holders made quite a fuss when they couldn't get
in.
- What an idiot he turned out to be.
- Our vacation was such a grand experience.
-

Example Determiner Adjective Adjective Noun Head

 phrase
That sophisticated That Sophisticated City Woman
city woman
Many honest down- Many Honest down-and-
and-out out
Small-town Small- businessmen
businessmen town

Determiners are said to "mark" nouns. That is to say that a noun will follow a
determiner. Some categories of determiners are limited (there are only three
articles, a handful of possessive pronouns, etc.), but the possessive nouns are as
limitless as nouns themselves. This limited nature of most determiner categories,
however, explains why determiners are grouped apart from adjectives even
though both serve a modifying function. We can imagine that the language will
never tire of inventing new adjectives; the determiners (except for those
possessive nouns), on the other hand, are well established, and this class of
words is not going to grow in number. These categories of determiners are as
follows: the articles (an, a, the — see below; possessive nouns (Joe's, the priest's,
my mother's); possessive pronouns, (his, your, their, whose, etc.); numbers (one,
two, etc.); indefinite pronouns (few, more, each, every, either, all, both, some,
any, etc.); and demonstrative pronouns. The demonstratives (this, that, these,
those, such) are discussed in the section on Demonstrative Pronouns. Notice that
the possessive nouns differ from the other determiners in that they, themselves,
are often accompanied by other determiners: "my mother's rug," "the priests'
collar," "a dog's life." Determiners are used in front of nouns to indicate whether
you are referring to something specific or something of a particular type.
Determiners are different to pronouns in that a determiner is always followed by
a noun. Therefore personal pronouns (I, you, he, etc.) and possessive pronouns
(mine, yours, his, etc.) cannot be determiners. The definite and indefinite articles
a/an/the are all determiners. We use a specific determiner when people know
exactly which thing(s) or person/people you are talking about. The specific
determiners are:

The definite article: the

Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
Possessives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their

E.g:
"The dog barked at the boy."
"These apples are rotten."
"Their bus was late."
You use general determiners to talk about people or things without saying
exactly who or what they are. The general determiners are:

The indefinite articles: a, an

 A few Both Few Neither
A little Each Fever No
All Either Less Other
Another Enough Little Several
Any Every Many Some
More
Most
much

E.g:
"A man sat under an umbrella."
"Have you got any English books that I could have?"
"There is enough food to feed everyone."
Post determiners:
Post-determiners, as their name suggests, come after regular determiners in a
Noun Phrase . They come before nouns but follow regular determiners in a Noun
Phrase . Cardinal numbers like one, two, three, four, etc… and ordinal numbers
like first, second, third, etc… are post-determiners.
E.g:
The first three apples
The first six boys
Please note ordinals always come before cardinals general ordinals like last, next
other, another etc are also post-determiners . The important thing for an English
learner to note is the order of various determiners in a premodification structure .
The first three boys
The next four days
Another interesting case
If there is an adjective in the Noun Phrase it immediately precedes the noun, but
follows postdeterminers.
The first three famous novels
The last six happiest days
Quantifiers like “many, few, several, much, little, etc” are post-determiners and
they precede nouns in a Noun Phrase.
The head:
The word “noun phrase” means that a noun is the central element of a noun
phrase. That word is called “the head”. It may be mass or count noun. Beside
that, the head of the noun phrase can be a pronoun. Without a noun or a pronoun,
it can not be called “noun phrase”. There are some kinds of pronouns functioning
as heads: personal pronoun, indefinite pronoun, possessive pronoun, and
demonstrative pronoun.

Type Examples
Personal I/me, he/him
Possessive Mine, hers
Reflexive Myself, themselves
Demonstrative This, those
Indefinite Someone, no one
Interrogative Who, that
Relative Which, that

a. she in she is my teacher.

b. someone in someone at the meeting.
c. his in his is expensive.
d. that in that will affect his life.
Post modification: contains words in the noun phrase that follow the head. These
words usually consist of prepositional phrases, nonfinite clauses, and relative
clauses. Thus:

Example Post modification Category

The talkative man in the In the center of the room Prepositional phrase
center of the room
All the women walking Walking on the bike Non-finite clause
on the bike path path
The house that I that I purchased for my Restrictive relative
purchased for my third third husband clause
husband
The house, which my which my partner and I Non-restrictive relative
partner and I bought a bought a month after we clause
month after we met met

The third important component of a complex noun phrase is post-modification,

called postmodifiers, comprising all the items placed after the head. These post-
modifiers are mainly realized by prepositional phrases, finite clauses (or relative
clauses), nonfinite clauses, adjective phrases, noun phrases or adverbial phrases:
 Determiner head Post modification Category
1 A Book With yellow Prepositional
covers phrase
2 The Man Who told you the Finite clause
secret
3 The Girl Speaking English Nonfinite clause
fluently
4 A Shelf Full of books Adjective phrase
5 The Opera “carmen” Noun phrase

6 the road Back Adverbial phrase

Here are some more examples:

Some examples of the noun phrase in English

function determiner Pre modification head Post modification

 (a) lions
E (b) The Young

X (c) The Information Age

A (d) Each Of the children
M (e) Some Badly needed Time With the family

P (f) This Conclusion To the story

L (g) All my Children

E (h) Several New mystery Books Which we recently

enjoyed
S (i) Such as Marvelous Data bank Filled with information

(j) A Better Person than I

FORMS pronoun Participle Noun Prepositional phrase

Article Noun Adjective Relative clause

quantifiers Adjective phrase Pronoun Nonfinite clause

complementation

3.2. The structure of Noun Phrase in Vietnamese

In Vietnamese, noun phrases also have 3 components which are:
 Pre modification
  The head
 Post modification
However, the elements in each component have a little difference
from the components of English noun phrases. And the noun phrase
has the following structure:

Pre modification Head Post modification

Totality Article quantifier Classifier Noun Attributive Demonstr Preposition

modifiers ative al phrase/
Possessive

E.g:

cả hai cuốn từ điển Anh Việt này của anh ta

totality quantifier classifier noun attributive demonstrative prepositional

phrase

Pre modification
Article: Many researchers claim that Vietnamese doesn’t have lexical
articles. But according to T. H. Nguyen (2004) and Nguyen T. C. (1975),
Vietnamese has an article lexical category slot that occurs before a
quantifier. Those lexical articles are “những, các, …”. When they are used,
they come before the classifiers and the noun. For example:
những ý nghĩ

article noun

các căn nhà

article noun

Quantifier:

Quantifiers (also known as numerals) are words that can occur before a head
noun (with or without a classifier). Cardinal numerals are concluded in
quantifiers and there are other words which indicate some quantity. Here are
the table of Vietnamese quantifiers and their equivalence in English:

Quantifier English gloss

Một, hai … Cardinal numeral

Vài, vài ba “few”

 Dăm, dăm bảy “several, few”

Mọi “every”

Mỗi “each”

Từng “each in turn”

Mấy “few, how much/

many”
Bao nhiêu “how much/ many”

Bây nhiêu/ bấy “this much/ many”

nhiêu

Here are some points about quantifiers (or numerals) that we should take in
to consideration: The first thing is that the quantifiers don’t come before the
focus marker “cái”. For example: vài cái con trâu, bao nhiêu cái căn nhà…
The second thing is a quantifier (a numeral) doesn’t go before collective
nouns. For example, we can not say “hai gia súc, ba quần áo…”. We can
use quantifiers (numerals) before collective nouns when the collective nouns
refer to the members of a family. For example, it can be said that “hai vợ
chồng, ba anh chị em…”.

The last thing is that when a classifier co-occurs with a following head noun,
the quantifier word must come before the classifier. For example: we must
say “hai cuốn từ điển, mấy con cá…”
The head:
There is one thing that we have to agree the head of the noun phrases must be
nouns. However, in Vietnamese noun phrases, the head can be a single noun
or a classifier + a noun. Classifiers are some words such as “cái, con,
người…”. There is a little difference between the uses of these classifiers.
“Cái” is used before the inanimate objects, for example “cái bàn, cái ghế…”.
And “con” is used to combine with the nouns which refer to animate objects
such as “con gà, con ngựa…” when “người” is used for human being, for
example “người lính, người dự thi…”.
There are some more common classifiers:

 cái : used for most inanimate objects

 chiếc: almost similar to cái, usually more connotative (e.g. when

referring to a cute object, chiếc might be more suitable than cái)
 con: usually for animals and children, but can be used to describe
some inanimate objects (con dao = knife, con đường = street, con
vít = screw)
 bài: used for compositions like songs, drawings, poems, essays, etc.

 câu: sentential constructs (verses, lyrics, statements, quotes, etc.)

 cây: used for stick-like objects (plants, guns, canes, etc.)

 tòa: buildings of authority: courts, halls, "ivory towers".

 quả/trái: used for globular objects (the Earth, fruits)

 quyển/cuốn: used for book-like objects (books, journals, etc.)

  tờ: sheets and other thin objects made of paper (newspapers, papers,
calendars, etc.)

 lá: smaller sheets of paper (letters, playing cards)

 việc: an event or an ongoing process

 chuyện: a general topic, matter, or business

The classifier cái has a special role in that it can extend all other
classifiers, e.g. cái con, cái chiếc.
There are some special noun phrases that the classifier can be absent such
as in the noun phrases “1 cà phê, 1 sinh tố…”. In these examples, the
classifier “ly” is omitted.
Post modification:
Unlike the pre modification which all the positions are in order, the post
modification is more complicated.
The attributive modifiers:
The attributive modifiers are used for describing thr head noun. They are can be
a noun phrase, a verb phrase, an ajective phrase, a prepositional phrase, or a
pronoun. For example:
a. căn nhà xây năm trước (verb phrase)

b. phòng tạp vụ (noun phrase)

c. cây khế ở sau vườn (prepositional phrase)

 d. khu vườn xanh tốt (adjective phrase)

e. phòng của họ (pronoun)

Demonstratives:

Another post modification in Vietnamese noun phrases is demonstrative. It is

considered the rightmost post modification. They are “ấy, nọ, này, kia…”
and follow the head noun as in “con ngựa đó, cái cặp kia…”.
When there are other modifiers co-occurring with demonstratives, the
demonstratives often occur after those mofifiers. For example, in the phrase:

Căn nhà mới kia

Attributive modifier demonstrative

Possessives:

In Vietnamese grammar, we usually use “của + a possessor” to express the

possession. The possessor can be a personal pronoun, a proper name, or a
full noun phrase… For example:
Nó là bạn học của tôi.

To avoid confusion and the grammatical mistakes, we can leave out or keep
the first preposition “của” when there are mpre than two possessive phrases
in the same noun phrase. For example:
Nó là cháu của mẹ của tôi.
 The second word “của” can be left out. So that sentence becomes “Nó là
cháu của mẹ tôi.” This way is often used in spoken Vietnamese because it
makes a smooth speech.
Here are an example of Vietnamese noun phrase with almost elements

Pre-modification Head Post-modification

Totality Articl Classifie Nou Attributive Demonstrative

e r n

(thành tố (loại từ) modifier (thành tố phụ

chỉ

phụ chỉ (thành tố phụ định)

tổng nêu

lượng) đặc trưng miêu

tả)
Tất cả những con mèo đen ấy

3.3. Similarities
English and Vietnamese noun phrases have some similar elements such
as article, demonstrative, possessive, … They may be in different word
order but they have the same functions which help the head noun have
the clear meaning.
3.4. Differences
Word order in noun phrases:
 Word order Classifie
r
English Determiner – adjective -
noun
Vietnamese Classifier – noun - adjective 

We see that the big gap between English noun phrases and
Vietnamese noun phrases is the order of modifiers as we can see
clearly in the essay.
Moreover, in Vietnamese noun phrases, there is the focus marker “cái”
which is used foe emphasizing the noun mentioned in the head. In
addition, the focus marker “cái” is often accompanied by a
demonstrative that appears after the head noun. For example, “cái con
người tệ bạc ấy”. It is advisable that we should distinguish the focus
marker “cái” from the classifier “cái”. The focus marker “cái” can go
with any noun, whereas the classifier “cái” can only go with noun that
are inanimate objects.
3.5. Some common errors of Vietnamese students when using
English noun phrases and solution
Learners of English may have difficulties in translating English
to Vietnamese and vice versa. Vietnamese language users do not
have the habit of using noun phrase in writing as English,
especially in formal documents. They also encounter problems
with the order of adjectives in a long noun phrase containing
many adjectives. Moreover, the long noun phrase with many
 nouns as a subject will make learners find difficulty in
identifying the head noun, this brings to the problems that they
will make mistake in subject-verb agreement. To avoid this
obstacle, teachers should guide them clearly about the
organization of English noun phrase. As they can identify the
correct head noun, the above mistakes will be omitted. Some
complex noun phrases have ambiguous structures and meaning,
so teachers of English should draw out difficult points in order to
make their students understand the sentence easily. It is also
necessary for teachers to remind their students that the context
will decide the meaning of the ambiguous sentences.

PART C: CONCLUSION

In conclusion, although English and Vietnamese have some similarities, they

are almost different from each other. A contrastive analysis view between
English and Vietnamese noun phrase brings us a view of similarities and
differences between the two linguistics units in two languages which cause
many difficulties for learners. I hope that this study helps us to draw out some
implications for language teaching and language learning.

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