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A Corpus-Based Study of Inanimate Classifiers in Vietnamese

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A Corpus-Based Study of Inanimate Classifiers in Vietnamese A Corpus-based Study of Inanimate Classifiers in Vietnamese By Hai Thi Thanh Tran A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics University of Manitoba Winnipeg Copyright © 2021 by Hai Thi Thanh Tran Abstract Key words: Vietnamese, classifiers, variation, discourse analysis, corpus-based study. This dissertation investigates inanimate classifiers in Vietnamese to identify classifier use patterns across genres, in spoken and written discourse as well as among different age groups. The study works on three corpora namely the Vietnamese Narrative Corpus consisting of 141 folktales, the Vietnamese Online Newspaper Corpus containing 140 contemporary online newspaper articles, and the Vietnamese Spoken Corpus including 22 talk show episodes with the total duration of 14 hours. As a large-scale discourse analysis study of frequency, distribution and function of attested inanimate classifiers, it attends closely to the use of cái (inanimate), double classifiers, and other frequent classifiers in the Vietnamese corpora. The study found that the classifier frequency in spoken Vietnamese is far higher than in written language. In Vietnamese, a classifier is required for classified nouns, but not for non- classified nouns (Emeneau 1951; Nguyen 1957). However, cái (inanimate) frequently appears with non-classified nouns functioning as emphatics in the spoken corpus, but not in the written corpora. I argue that this may lead to the higher classifier frequency in spoken Vietnamese than in written language. Interestingly, there is a decline in classifier frequency among younger speakers compared to older speakers. The data reveals that language change may be in progress in Vietnamese in apparent time, which merits further investigation. Double classifiers, in which cái (inanimate) is constructed with a classifier combining with classified nouns, are used often in spoken Vietnamese, but not in written language. I claim that in this construction cái (inanimate) functions as an emphatic, while the other classifier performs its own function. This research found new evidence that cái (inanimate) functions as cataphoric reference in Vietnamese. A number of classifiers which can combine with verbs and adjectival verbs function as nominalizers to indicate different semantic types in Vietnamese. The frequent classifiers in the concurrent corpora differ from those in the narrative corpus, suggesting language change over time. The study also found that the choice of classifiers may be dependent on the formality of the genre. The findings reveal that the Vietnamese classifier system is highly complex, and what was observed in naturalistic data of Vietnamese corpora, especially spoken discourse, is different from the traditional description of classifier usage in Vietnamese. ii Acknowledgements It has been a long journey to complete this dissertation, and I have learned a lot during the journey. This dissertation would have not been completed without the support of a number of individuals to whom I would like to express my gratitude. First, I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Terry Janzen, for his unwavering support and constructive mentorship throughout this study. I am thankful for his great help and being with me to the successful completion for my PhD. Dr. Janzen has always offered motivation and encouragement since the day he taught me some courses and supervised me on my second Generals Paper. Without his guidance and insightful comments, this study would have never been completed. I also thank him for his faith in me and for his kindness. He is a great linguist and an incredible person. He is always passionate about new things, which motivates me to do this research. It was such a great pleasure to conduct this study under his supervision. I would like to sincerely thank the committee members for their specialized and erudite inputs. Special thanks are due to Dr. Nicole Rosen for her meticulous and informative comments that inevitably helped me do this research better. Since the day I came to ask for her help to code the variables and put them in an Excel spreadsheet, she showed me how to keep the data in an organized way, which helps me easily keep track on the data and use them for analysis. She has been very helpful and has become a source of inspiration for me. I am grateful to her for her willingness to advise me on my first Generals Paper, which is the first step for the continuance in my program. She is a remarkable professor and an amazing woman. Many thanks also go to Dr. Erin Wilkinson for being my committee member and for her helpful suggestions and comments when I defended my thesis proposal. I am grateful to her for reading the thesis and making interesting, useful comments and suggestions for me to improve my dissertation. I am also thankful to Dr. Doris Payne for her kindly accepting to be my external examiner. Her rigorous examination together with the valued comments and questions have greatly enriched my study and experience. I would like to express my thanks to all the professors in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Manitoba for enriching my view of linguistics. Many thanks go to Dr. Jila Ghomeshi, the Head of the Department, who taught me the course of Syntactic Theory. The assignments and the final paper of her course for which I worked on the linguistic issues of Vietnamese inspired me a lot. During my study at the department, I also received a lot of help from iii others, especially Heather Cherpako, who has provided invaluable help with administrative matters, and I am grateful for her supports. I would like to say thanks to all my colleagues and friends who have supported me along the way. My sincere thanks go to Thu Trang Nguyen, a Vietnamese PhD student in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Manitoba, for her providing some transcription for the data and support. My special thanks go to my friend, Brenda Noble, an ESL teacher, for her help with proofreading the thesis for me. My doctoral degree was funded by Vietnam International Education and Development (VIED), the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam, and I am greatly indebted to them for their supports. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the leaders of Hanoi Foreign Trade University for their facilitation and support in my PhD journey. My colleagues at the Faculty of English Linguistics and my friends at Hanoi Foreign Trade University are also a source of inspiration for me, and I thank them for their supports and encouragement. My special thanks are due to my MA supervisor, Dr. Duc Hoat Nguyen, who has always encouraged me in my study. Last but not least, I would love to express my heartfelt gratitude to my parents, my siblings, and my two beloved children for their love, care, understanding, encouragement and support during the journey of my PhD program completion. iv Table of contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... iii Table of contents .......................................................................................................... v List of abbreviations .................................................................................................... ix List of tables ................................................................................................................. x List of figures ............................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background of the study ................................................................................... 2 1.2 Types of classifiers in Vietnamese ................................................................... 5 1.2.1 Human classifiers ..................................................................................... 5 1.2.2 Animate non-human classifiers ............................................................... 6 1.2.3 Inanimate classifiers ................................................................................. 7 1.3 Rationale and scope of the study ....................................................................... 9 1.4 Objectives of the study ...................................................................................... 10 1.5 Organization of the thesis ................................................................................. 12 Chapter 2 Literature review ......................................................................................... 14 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 14 2.2 Classifier systems .............................................................................................. 15 2.2.1 Classification of classifier systems ........................................................... 15 2.2.2 Functions of classifiers ............................................................................. 16 2.2.3 Numeral classifier construction ................................................................ 17 2.3 The Vietnamese noun phrase ............................................................................
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