The generic sentence in english and vietnamese

Phan Thanh Xuan

Class: 4C-06

University of Pedagogy

The aim of this paper is to discuss the linguistic recognition of generic sentences from the structure of sentences to the markers of extra and intra-clausal level such as disjuncts, adjuncts, subjuncts and tense markers. The result is qualitatively explained as a foundation for identification of generic sentences for Vietnamese learners of English and vice versa.

In this paper, I just focus on discussing the issue of identifying forms of some common types of generic sentences. Also, I try my efforts to answer the following question: How are the syntactical signals of a generic sentence realized in terms of a sentence structure, grammatical points and vocabulary?

About the method to do this paper, this is a qualitative research paper of which the final product is different syntactical features of different syntactical levels in generic sentences. Materials for this paper are sentences with generic meaning in some genres of writing text.

Speaking of syntax and semantic features of types of sentences, linguists usually focus on types of questions, negations and some uncommon types of sentences. In the field of semantics, few people pay attention to a special type of sentence called “Generic sentences”, which are used a lot in daily communication contexts and academic works. The majority of our speeches to reflect reality and facts and to generalize those are called generic sentences.

Actually, in our everyday conversations, we can happen to find the following sentences:

• 
  A woman always remembers her first lover with affection.
  

• 
  A man always blames the woman who fooled him. In the same way he blames the door he walks into in the dark
  

In the process of explanation, we sometimes ask ourselves whether such sentences are true for all women, whether all those who belong to the set of “women” or “men” possess such characteristic or not.

Besides, does the listener in a conversation have a tendency to think that she is an implied subject falling into such kind of women? Also, does the speaker want to indicate the listener is among them?

Generic sentences are not simply a unit of language that expresses the general properties of a typical entity of a group. This is a complicated phenomenon concerning semantics and applied linguistics. According to some researches and observations, generic sentences with all, every, any, whatever, he that…causes a lot of difficulties for Vietnamese learners of English in regard to form recognition and semantics explanation.

So what is “Generic sentence”? According to Hurford (2001), generic sentences are statements about a whole group in general not any specific individual in that group.

• 
  Unlike the lion, the tiger prefers to live alone.
  

• 
  Lions will reproduce any time of the year, and all females of reproductive maturity will breed at the same time.
  

In sentences above, we do not indicate a specific whale or dog in a specific context at a specific time. Here in the sentences above, “the tiger” and “lions” stand for all the species of tigers and lions.

More specifically, Filip and Carlson (1997) state that generic sentences are sentences expressing frequent activities and events. (Filip & Carlson, 1997, p. 167).

In my opinion, I think that generic sentence is a special kind of sentence in which there are words grammatically arranged and special markers that help generalize features all individuals in some group have in common.

1. 
   Similarities
   

1. 
   Sentence pattern
   

• 
  Marriage is the one subject on which women agree and men disagree.
  

• 
  A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
  

• 
  Clever men are good, but they are not the best.
  

• 
  Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution? (H. L. Mencken)
  

• 
  What a charming reconciler and peace - maker money is!
  

Table1

1. 
   Pre-modifiers and post-modifiers
   

• 
  Pre-modifiers
  

• 
  A good wife always forgives her husband when she’s wrong. (Obama)
  

• 
  For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it.
  
• 
  For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it.
  
• 
  For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it. (Ivan Panin)
  

Mọi sự thật rồi cũng được lắng nghe

Mọi tình yêu rồi cũng được đáp trả

• 
  No man is worth your tears, but once you find one that is, he won't make you cry
  

• 
  Behind every great man there's a great woman.
  

• 
  Post-modifiers
  

• 
  The man who has no inner life is a slave to his surroundings.
  

• 
  A kiss without a hug is like a flower without the fragrance.
  

Table 2

3. 
   Structure of verb phrase in generic sentence
   

• 
  A friend in need is a friend indeed.
  

• 
  Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
  

• 
  A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.
  

• 
  A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out the years.
  

The syntactical change of English and Vietnamese generic verb phrases

4. 
   Internal varieties
   

• 
  Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. And they are both disappointed.
  
• 
  The friendship that can cease has never been real.
  

• 
  He must have a truly romantic nature, for he weeps when there is nothing at all to weep about.
  
• 
  No road is long with good company.
  

• 
  Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
  

Table 3

2. 
   Differences
   
   1. 
      Tense markers in main clause
      

• 
  When a woman loves a man
  A woman loves a man
  She does what she can do
  He does the best he can (“A woman loves a man”)
  

2. 
   The article “THE” – a signal of generalization
   

• 
  The ultimate leader is one who is willing to develop people to the point that they eventually surpass him or her in knowledge and ability.
  
• 
  The tiger can not change its stripes.
  

• 
  The leopard can not change its spots.
  

­¯

3. 
   Sentence pattern “HE THAT”
   

• 
  By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once: We owe God a death and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next.
  

• 
  He that fears you present will hate you absent.
  

English HE THAT clause Main clause

Noun phrase + that + Verb phrase Verb phrase

­¯ ­¯

Tiếng Việt Ø Verb phrase Verb phrase

First and foremost, this paper is carried out to point out the problems generic sentences may cause for Vietnamese learners of English and vice versa. As we can see above Vietnamese learners of English are very likely to find generic sentences difficult to comprehend or to create. For instance, “The tiger can not change its stripes” or “The leopard can not change its spots” may be misunderstood as “Con hổ đó không thể thay đổi những đường vằn trên mình nó” hay “Con báo đó không thể thay đổi các vết đốm của nó”. Why do they tend to translate those sentences like this? It is simply because Vietnamese learners are taught whenever there is the article “the”, the noun following is a definite one. As a result, they tend to associate “the” with the equivalent “đó” in Vietnamese to inply a specific entity, hence the ruin of generic meaning in a generic sentence. Another example is when Vietnamese learners of English happen to deal with generic sentences like “He must have a truly romantic nature, for he weeps when there is nothing at all to weep about”, they will translate the pronoun “he” into “anh ta/ anh ấy” because they are taught at the very beginning of their learning that “he” is equal to “anh ấy/anh ta”. Instead, “he” here refers to the whole mankind and their innate characteristics. Also, the sentence pattern “he that” also causes quite many troubles for learners. For example, “He that fears you present will hate you absent” can be interpreted like this “Hắn ta người mà tỏ ra sợ bạn trước mặt nhưng lại ghét bạn sau lưng”. The main difficulty for learners when coming to understand this sentence is the problem with the relative pronoun “that”. Actually, the sentence above contains the relative clause with a “that” relative pronoun; therefore, it is misunderstood as a reference to a specific case of a specific man. How can we-teachers identify the problems generic sentences bring about for our learners? Any suggestions for improving those problems? In my opinion, we should focus our learners’ attention on the generic noun like “man” which is used to refer to all human beings not any specific male person; “he that” in these sentences does not mean “anh ta/ hắn ta người mà…”. We should give them many examples of this type of sentence for them to get a better understanding of generic sentences. In our teaching whenever we run into a generic sentence, we must explain its special form to students, noticing articles “a” or “the” or relative clause “he that” or “man”.

There are some similarities between English and Vietnamese generic sentences such as the use of noun phrase with definite words, the internal varieties of verb phrases. The main difference noticed is the tense markers in English and the lack of this element in Vietnamese. Also, the plural form of noun phrase and the use of article in noun phrase are not found in a Vietnamese generic sentence. Besides, the use of the pattern HE THAT in English is also a very interesting point to be considered.

On accomplishing the paper, I hope that the learners of English and Vietnamese will find this useful for them when they run into a generic sentence in communication or in translation, especially on the respect of expressing generic meaning or conclusion about any set of subjects observed or investigated.

Chungmin, Lee, What are generic sentences about?. Retrieved December 20, 2009, from Seoul National University Web site, http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q.html

Hurford, James R. & Brendan Heasley (2001), Semantics-A coursebook, Young Press.