The Diversity of Semantic and Syntactic Properties of the Morpheme Co in Vietnamese

Abstract

The present study is concerned with the diversity of the semantic and syntactic properties of the morpheme có in Vietnamese. The morpheme có possesses a variety of meanings and syntactic structures. Morpheme có may mean HAVE or THERE BE in English, and may also serve as a modal/auxiliary. The paper presents a thorough analysis of the semantic and syntactic roles of this morpheme. Data collected from 40 Vietnamese English learners of different levels were examined to determine to what extent they perceived or recognized the meanings and syntactic structures of the morpheme có while translating a number of Vietnamese sentences into English. The material consisted of 14 Vietnamese statements involving the morpheme có in different syntactic forms and semantic properties. The findings showed that more than 81% of students have no difficulties translating similar constructions such as THERE BE + NP and HAVE Possession in comparison with other constructions in which morpheme có signaled conditionality, acted as an auxiliary or was followed by an NP. Additionally, students of different proficiency levels displayed different accuracy levels in performing the translations with the morpheme có. This study provides Vietnamese language teachers, learners, and translators with an in-depth understanding of morpheme có in using different typologies of existential and possessive constructions.