Focusing by Changing Word Order

can be reduced to two main methods: reduction and ellipsis.

Ellipsis is the omission of less important elements in terms of information that the reader can understand based on the relationship between utterances within the scope of a specific context. Then we will have incomplete utterances that many authors call ellipsis. To point out the factors that control and determine the existence of a phrase considered a product of ellipsis in a text is not easy. Therefore, according to author Pham Van Tinh, some factors that control the method of ellipsis in a text can be: 1. Communicative context; 2. Logical-semantic connection (coherence in the text); 3. Intention and communication strategy [42,32]. Through research, we found that due to the position of the information focus in the sentence, the omitted part falls mainly on two syntactic elements: the subject and the predicate.

2.2.2.1. Omitted subject utterance

For example:

[2:14] a. So what is the philosophy of the cuckold husband?

b. Ø Is to turn a blind eye. Ø Is to consider oneself at fault, even though one has not seen where one's fault lies !

(VTP: 380)

In Vietnamese grammar, in terms of syntactic boundaries, is a constituent element of the predicate and in the announcement it must come before the predicate noun given by the speaker to express his intention of "homogenization". So in the above example, separating the following utterances into separate utterances, the speaker cannot omit . We can write: "The philosophy of a cuckolded husband is to turn a blind eye; là must consider oneself at fault, even if one has not seen where one's fault lies". But putting everything into one utterance like that will be confusing, not clear in structure and more importantly, reduce the effectiveness of the announcement. The omission and continuous repetition: "là + noun" creates a rapid flow of announcement with a listing, emphasizing, making a clear impression on the reader. The word system is to open up the objects of homogenization according to the speaker's intention, "the speaker has the right to homogenize anything they want: Homogenize the homogeneous

unity, the identification of what is contained (…) and the identification of what is completely different" [38,53].

2.2.2.2. Omitted predicate utterance

For example:

[2:15] Gioi walked in and took off his hat. After him, Bon Ø . Then Van Ø .

(Investor: 231)

The subordinate clause of the predicate omission (in the two following utterances) in the restored example is: After it, the Four stepped in and lowered his hat . Then the Van stepped in and lowered his hat. We can see that such forms of structural and lexical repetition occur very often and are also a technique of rhetorical cohesion. However, the author Nguyen Duc Thuan has found another option, which is to only use this technique for the first utterance, while in the second and third utterances, their predicates are omitted. The word "then" in the example, in addition to its function of locating the noun "Van", also has the value of emphasizing the element indicating time. "Then" assumes a transitional function in describing the situation. "Then B" has the presupposition "The presence of B is the next to A". And when hearing the statement "Then Van" the listener will expect a new piece of information, which is somewhat similar to the two previous statements (also one of the people entering the prisoner's room, and there is also a change in the situation: All three guys enter and most likely after the act of lowering their hats, another action will follow ( tying them up, torturing, interrogating... ).

2.2.2.3. Omitted subject-predicate utterance

For example:

[2:16] She waddled like a duck, quacking silently, further and further away from it, sixty or seventy yards away.

- Poor me, oh my god!

To the crossroads .

Luckily. A man who didn't understand what was going on heard the scream, rushed out of the house and grabbed it right away.

(NCH: 115)

The utterance "At the crossroads" stands alone and has the value of a paragraph. In this case, the writer's intention is very clear. The utterance functions as a transitional phrase:

She waddled after it.


To the crossroads


Luckily, a man caught it right away.



The direct direction of the utterance "To the crossroads" is the above utterance. But semantically, it continues to be linked to the following utterances. Only by combining all these fragments can we complete a syntactic whole with its own communicative value (and it itself will contribute, together with other wholes, to making up a large text).

Thus, the phenomenon of elision in the scope of text (discourse) is a fairly common phenomenon. It reflects one of the basic methods of humans in all languages ​​in the process of forming and creating utterances. It is especially used in the context of conversational communication, especially in creating information focal points, where the issues that need to be emphasized in the process of speech interaction are most clearly expressed. However, not all sentence models can be used in elision to create the phenomenon of structural focalization, so the participation of sentence core types will not be uniform in scope and level.


2.2.3. Focusing with function words

2.2.3.1. Focusing adverbs

Speakers use function words and focus particles to create focal points of information in their utterances. Through our survey, we found that the focus particles are: chinh, ngay, cu, den, dam, cung, chi, van, those, nao … For example:

[2:17] a. Are you the one who just fought with those two soldiers?

b. Yes! Me, myself .

[2:18] It's your wife and the lover your grandmother suspected. [2:19] a. Is that so, actor, is your house far from here?

b. Right at the entrance to my house, near that temple.

(CL: 186)


(TNDS: 65)


(TNT: 457)

[2:20] a. So what did it say to you all day?

b. Just tell me to strive to join the Youth Union.

(NK: 435)

In the examples above, we see that there are particles used to mark the subject focus such as chinh, desir ; to mark the predicate focus such as chi ; to mark the location focus such as ngay .

2.2.3.2. Particles

Some previous works when studying the means of marking focus, the authors only stopped at exploiting focus particles. But in his article on "Focus contrast in Vietnamese sentences" at the Proceedings of the 2004 International Conference on Inter-Asian Linguistics, Associate Professor Nguyen Hong Con proved that in addition to focus particles, there are also groups of modal particles or combinations of "particles... particles" participating in highlighting the information structure. From that point of view, below are some of our illustrative examples for cases where focus is marked by particles ( that, that, that, that, that, that ...). For example:

[2:21] aa Mom, please scratch my head to make me hurry up.

b. Where?

a. Here. Here .


[2:22] a. When did Xuyen get here?

b. You still live with your husband, right ?


[2:23] a. How do you know "unlucky"?

b. …When I was little, I lived in the lowlands !

(NMC 2:97 )


(Rev 2 :193)


(NMC 1 :139)


2.2.3.3. Combination of auxiliary words…particles

Along with particles, auxiliary word combinations… particles also have the value of creating focus ( justthat , thatthat , alsobut , ifthen there is ). For example:

[2:24] a. Why are there so many bruises on your body?

b. Oh, it's nothing, just a bump ...

(VPT: 74)

[2:25] a. What good wind brought Huyen to visit my family today?

b. You are a poisonous wind !


[2:26] a. Where is the bird sanctuary?

b. It's there , of course !


(TNH: 134)

(DG:221) According to the observation of the documents, in addition to the above means, we also noticed ways of combining vocabulary to create frames such as: new...but, new...but already, not only...but also... to highlight the value of information. For example:

[2:27] a. Are your legs tired yet?

b. Not only tired but also exhausted.

(TNT: 428)

[2:28] It 's already the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, when the Kitchen Gods return to heaven.

(TNH 1 :326)

[2:29] Unexpectedly, a person who dreams of love is so lazy to even study .

now suddenly become a person who hates women viciously.

(Rev 2:10 )


2.2.4. Focusing by changing word order

Besides stress and function words, word order is also mentioned a lot as an important means in marking the focus of information. As mentioned above, in the process of consulting documents, we found that there are terms that Vietnamese does not have, so we had to borrow from English to have a corresponding translation. These are two concepts that represent the change in the position of the focus of information: pre-inversion and post-inversion.

2.2.4.1. Reverse money

2.2.4.1.1. Concept. Pre-inversion is the conversion of order by inverting the element with the focal function from the final position of the sentence (unmarked) to the initial position of the sentence (marked) (according to Nguyen Hong Con [7,68]).

2.2.4.1.2. Scope of the reverse money

As presented in the theoretical chapter, the pre-inversion structure is not the only structure used to emphasize information, but this structure, in addition to certain effects, also has value as a means to create focus for the information structure. Therefore, not all cases of the pre-inversion phenomenon

are all considered in this paper, but we only consider pre-inversion structures that are effective in creating information focus. Therefore, the pre-inversion structure we consider must have two conditions:

(i) Necessary conditions:

It must be a structure whose focus is before the verb.

(ii) Sufficient conditions:

a. That structure must be marked.

b. That structure is the result of a process of moving a component before the verb.

2.2.4.1.3. Pre-island structures

Move the complement to the beginning of the sentence.

For example:


[2:30] This movie was filmed by Chinese comrades.


(AD 1:95 )

[2:31] Her little whims, she carried out with bestial devotion.

(NHT:84)

In Vietnamese, the cases of complements moving to the beginning of the sentence are similar to the phenomenon of pre-inversion, which Nguyen Minh Thuyet and Nguyen Van Hiep [41,211] call the case of complements being "dai len tien" or "bo ngu dao tri". In [2:30], the topic of the utterance is about "this movie", which is the movie that the previous utterances of the preceding text have talked about. Therefore, it is the part that focuses on the information that needs to be emphasized.

There are cases where the foregrounded portion carries the value of both the subject and the contrasting focal point. Consider the example:

[2:32] He doesn't smoke , he doesn't drink .

(quoted from [41,199]) In the above example, "medicine" and "alcohol" can be considered as two new information contents introduced into the text. They are mentioned on the same scale of evaluation of the personality of "that teacher", and therefore, can also be considered as two contrasting focal points. In our opinion, in this case, the main information content of the whole sentence is about "that teacher" with two secondary information for each clause being "alcohol" and "medicine".

and is also the focal point of the message. The sentence also has two focal points of the message located in the usual position - the focal point at the end of the sentence - which are "don't smoke" and "don't drink".

In addition, the focal point of the message at the beginning of the sentence in Vietnamese is often related to the negation of the sentence and is expressed as khong, chua, and chung. For example:

[2:33] There was no bush they did not brandish their rifles into. There was no crevice in the rocks they did not thrust their bayonets into.

(NCH: 453)

In the above example, the information provided is the places that were searched by the village chief's soldiers and is also the part that is emphasized. The use of the word "not one" contributes to emphasizing the negative meaning of the information that is being focused on.

Thus, the inverted complement in the Vietnamese sentence structure has the following characteristics:

(i) They are in marked position relative to unmarked position C - V - B

(ii) They can be focal points

(iii) They can be contrasting topics that come with the final adverb. (In cases with this characteristic, we consider the sentence to have two focal points: one at the beginning of the sentence that is both the focus and the topic, and one at the end of the sentence.)

(iv) The pre-inversion part of the focal nature can be accompanied by a lexical device (here, words containing negation)

Structure Focus + is/ that + X

In the above structure, part X is the remaining information of the clause in the form of a clause. The focus is the part that is recognized as the most important information, it comes before the prepositional word or the function word and in many cases it is preceded by the main word . Some opinions say that when the main word comes with it, it is like a post-inversion structure because the whole sentence is placed after this word. However, in our opinion, the main word is just an emphatic auxiliary word to create a focus, it is impossible to have a post-inversion structure because the main word is at the beginning of the sentence, especially when the subject is the element in the focal position.

As mentioned above, the main word is a valuable lexical device that creates focus. Specifically, the part that the main word comes before becomes the part that is emphasized. For example:

[2:34a] The two diaries were the biggest lie she wanted to leave to the world.

(TNDS: 124)

The highlighted part is "two diaries".

[2:34b] The two diaries were the biggest lie she wanted to leave to the world .

The emphasized part is "the biggest lie she wanted to leave to the world".

We can diagram the two examples as follows: With [2:34a]:



The two diaries themselves

is the biggest lie she wants to tell

give back to the world

JSC

Subject

Predicate

CTTT

Focus

Base

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Focusing by Changing Word Order


With [2:34b]:



The two diaries themselves

is the biggest lie she wants

leave to the world

JSC

Subject

Predicate

CTTT

Base

Focus

2.2.4.2. Post-island

2.2.4.2.1. Concept

Post-inversion is a change of order by moving the focal functional element from the initial position of the sentence (unmarked) to the final position of the sentence (marked) (according to Nguyen Hong Con [7,68]).

2.2.4.2.2. Post-island scope

From the above concept, the post-island structure we consider in this thesis must have the following conditions:

(i) Necessary conditions:

A structure whose focus is after the verb

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