KEYS TO HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT 1

FUNDAMENTALS IN COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND

LINGUISTICS;
LANGUAGE CLASSIFICATION; LANGUAGE-THOUGHT-CULTURE;
COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS; PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY

Notes: The responses in dark green are expected ones, while

those in parentheses and sky blue are additional or less
important explanations that I provide, or students may include.
The forward slash / indicates alternatives. Remember to
consider the ideas students provide in their responses, but the
ways they express those ideas, i.e. their actual expressions,
naturally vary considerably.

Question 1: Observe the following table (15 pts)

Sanskrit (tiếng Greek or Germ Dutch Fren Englis
Phạn) Latin an ch h
Pitar pater Vater vader père Father
Bhratar frater Bruder broed frère Brothe
er r
1.1. Considering the words in the table, what factors do you
think linguists have used to establish familial relationship among
these languages, with Sanskrit being the ancestor of all the
others?
3 Factors: (i) Primarily, linguists rely on the shared meaning of
all these words – they all refer to the same people/entities (and
they belong to the basic vocabulary in all languages 1) or
cognates; (ii) phonetic similarities among the words, including
the number of syllables (all, except the French monosyllabic
words, are disyllabic), vowels (e.g. /a/, /ə/, /e/) and consonants
(/p/, /v/, /b/, /f/, /d/, /t/, which are close to one another in terms
of places of articulation, or counterparts in minimal pairs); and
(iii) phonetic variations from Sanskrit to the others in regular
patterns (biến đổi ngữ âm có tính quy luật).

1
https://www.christianlehmann.eu/ling/ling_meth/ling_description/lexicography/
basic_vocabulary.html#:~:text=The%20basic%20vocabulary%20of%20a,other%20words%20of%20the%20lexicon.
You may claim that there are only 2 factors involved, namely
semantic and phonetic, which is fine; yet the phonetic factor
can include 2 sub-factors like above.
Grim’s law is highly relevant here, too.
1.2. Provide detailed explanations of the phonetic variations
from Sanskrit to the others!
/p/ /b/ => /v/, /f/; and /t/ => /d/, /ð/, i.e. bilabial consonants /p/
/b/ changed into labio-dental consonants /v/, /f/ while the
alveolar plosive /t/ was replaced with its voiced counterpart in
the minimal pair /d/, or changed to the inter-dental fricative /ð/.
Please note that the letter V in Vater in German or vader in
Dutch represents the consonant /f/; and all nouns in German
are written with capital letters.
1.3. To what language family do these languages belong?
Indo-European.
1.4. What type of languages are they?
Inflectional, fusional, or synthetic languages.
1.5. Why are they referred to by those names?
Indo-European because this language family distributes over a
large area of the European continent and part of Asia close to
India. (The name Indo-European is derived from the geographic
regions historically associated with the speakers of these
languages — the Indus Valley (in present-day India and Pakistan)
and Europe. The languages in this family share common roots
in terms of vocabulary, phonetics, and grammar.)
Inflectional/fusional/synthetic languages because they change
their word forms, or use inflections to denote different
grammatical functions, or express different grammatical
meanings and/or properties. In other words, all, or almost all,
grammatical functions and meanings are synthesized/fused in
word forms.
Question 2 (15 pts) The word handkerchief is pronounced
as /ˈhæŋkətʃɪf/. Separately, hand is pronounced as /hænd/ and
kerchief as /kətʃɪf/.
2.1. What kind of word is handkerchief called?
A compound, or more specifically a compound noun.
2.2. How is it coined?
Handkerchief is coined through the process of compounding,
where two independent words/nouns (hand and kerchief) are
combined to create a new word/noun with a specific meaning.

2.3. Why do the two consonants /nd/ in /hænd/ become merely /ŋ/
in /ˈhæŋkətʃɪf/?
The change in pronunciation from /hænd/ to /ˈhæŋkətʃɪf/ is an
example of assimilation in phonetics. In this case, /d/ is
dropped, and /n/ assimilates to/ is assimilated by the velar /k/
that follows, resulting in the nasal /ŋ/.

Question 3 (15 pts)

3.1. Why is the English toneless monosyllabic word stress turned into
xì chét in Vietnamese? Explain the process clearly!
Initial consonant clusters do not occur in Modern Vietnamese
except in some localities like Nghe An, Ha Tinh (all initial
consonant clusters, e.g. /bl/ /ml/, /tl/, in Middle Vietnamese 2
changed in various ways into single consonants /ɓ/ /l/ /t/ /ʈ/ /c/,
etc.), or tones (Vietnamese did not have tones from the very
beginning); hence a number of Vietnamese people may not
have the habit, or find it difficult, to pronounce consonant
clusters in foreign languages. To make it easier for them, they
break up the clusters, and insert vowels to form extra syllables
like xì, or substitute the clusters with a single Vietnamese
consonant very similar to the original. They also add tones to
the loan words, as no Vietnamese words are without tones. The
original final consonant experiences similar
modification/adjustment, too, since final consonants are never
fully pronounced in Vietnamese. Hence, stress becomes xì chét,
a disyllabic word.
2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_language
3.2. There is no Vietnamese equivalent for this word stress, so the
Vietnamese people borrow it directly from English, is that correct? If
not correct, why?

No, it's not entirely correct. The Vietnamese language does

have a word equivalent to stress (căng thẳng/sự căng thẳng),
but borrowing still occurs, which is natural, and people use
both. However, the loan word directly borrowed from English
seems to be more popular than the Vietnamese one. While
Vietnamese borrows English or any other foreign words, it
adjusts them to fit its phonetic system and rules. (Phonetic
modification/adaptation, or domestification (nội địa hóa, not
domestication/thuần hóa)/ naturalization [to the borrower
language], while borrowing is a natural process in all other
languages in the world.)
3.3. Give your own examples of similar phenomena!
Loanwords with similar adaptation of initial and final
consonants/consonant clusters:
style – xì tai; cream – cà lem, cà rem, kem; dream – đờ rim; etc.
Some of you gave examples like computer, internet => these
are direct borrowing in which the Vietnamese borrows the
exact original pronunciation, with just a little modification by
adding the tones. No breaking up of clusters involved.

Question 4 (10 pts) Why is it important to pronounce final

consonants in English? What are possible reasons why Vietnamese
learners normally have trouble pronouncing final consonants in
English?
- Ending sounds/Final consonants help us tell the difference
between similar words, especially they help distinguish words
in minimal pairs. For example, “pat” and “pad”, “back” and
“bag”, "cat" and "cats" or "walk" and "walked." If you miss or
mispronounce these sounds, words can be confusing, and
people might not understand or misunderstand what you're
saying.
- Ending sounds/Final consonants often provide important
grammar information, e.g. whether a word is singular or plural
("cat" vs. "cats") or whether it's past or present ("talk" vs.
"talked"). Correct pronunciation helps to make sure such
grammatical meanings/information are/is clear.
Vietnamese learners may find it hard to pronounce ending
sounds/final consonants in English for several reasons:
- Some ending sounds/final consonants in English do not exist
in Vietnamese. For example, sounds like /dʒ/, or /θ/ are not
present in Vietnamese, leading to difficulty in both producing
and distinguishing these sounds.
- Vietnamese final consonants, as explained above, are never
fully pronounced. The speech organs merely stop at the
position for articulating those consonants, but do not release
whereas English final consonants normally require such
release, esp. when the consonants need to be aspirated
(aspiration can be omitted, or adjusted under certain phonetic
contexts due to assimilation, elision, etc.). This adds another
difficulty to Vietnamese learners of English.
- Vietnamese speakers may unintentionally apply Vietnamese
pronunciation rules to English. For example, they may omit or
soften final consonants or struggle with consonant clusters at
the end of English words. (This is often known as negative
transfer from L1 to L2 – chuyển di tiêu cực từ ngôn ngữ thứ
nhất sang ngôn ngữ thứ hai.)
- Vietnamese learners may not have enough exposure to native
English pronunciation, and practice opportunities for ending
sounds may be limited, especially in non-formal or less
immersive environments.
Question 5 (15 pts)
5.1. Why do you – English teachers – normally have to teach your
students such phonetic symbols as /a:/ /i:/ /b/ /ð/ /ə/ /ʃ/ /θ/, etc. when
they start learning English?

- Phonetic symbols help students understand exactly how to

pronounce sounds in English. Since these sounds can differ
greatly from those in the students' native language, learning
these symbols helps them pronounce words correctly, avoiding
confusion and misunderstandings in communication.
- In English, spelling and pronunciation do not always match.
(Discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation in English.)
For example, the same letter can represent different sounds,
and the same sound can be represented by different letters or
groups of letters. Phonetic symbols provide a clear, consistent
way for students to understand and pronounce sounds
correctly, regardless of how the spelling of a word might
change/ regardless of how the sounds are graphically
represented.

- Phonetic symbols help students understand how to pronounce

sounds that do not exist in their native language, esp. when
they look up for new words in dictionaries. This is especially
important for difficult sounds, such as /ð/ (in "this") or /θ/ (in
"think"), because these sounds do not exist in many languages
and can be challenging to learners.

- Learning phonetic symbols helps build a strong foundation in

pronunciation, allowing students to develop better listening
and speaking skills. This is crucial because good pronunciation
skills help students communicate more effectively in English.

5.2. What makes English different from Vietnamese in this regard?

In English, there exist numerous discrepancies between
spelling and pronunciation. As explained above, English
spelling and pronunciation do not always match or are
inconsistent: the same letter can represent different sounds,
and the same sound can be represented by different letters or
groups of letters. By contrast, Vietnamese mostly ensures one-
to-one (1-1) correspondence between spelling and
pronunciation, i.e. by and large, despite some exceptions,
certain letters or groups of letters consistently represent
certain sounds.
5.3. Why do Vietnamese first graders not have to learn those phonetic
symbols when they start school?
Since Vietnamese is their native/first language, they are already
familiar with the pronunciation of words/they are already able
to speak through everyday listening and speaking. Actually, by
the age of 5, most children in the world are already competent
users of their native/first language, except those who may have
certain physical or mental problems. What they need to know is
how to spell words, or put words in writing, and read what has
been written/printed. So they do not have to care for such
phonetic symbols. In other words, they go to school to learn
how to read and write, not how to speak their first/native
language.

Question 6: Pay special attention to the preposition in this

sentence (20 pts)
Mom is in the living room.
6.1. What are possible Vietnamese sentences with different
Vietnamese prepositions that can be equivalent to this English
sentence?
Mẹ ở trong/ngoài/dưới/trên phòng khách, or simply Mẹ ở
phòng khách.
6.2. Why so? Explain in detail!
This depends on where the speaker (the child) is. If the speaker
merely indicates the location of Mom, or the speaker can be
outside the house, apparently the house is a typical [bounded]
container, it can be Mẹ ở trong phòng khách. In case the
speaker is in an inner room like the kitchen or bedroom, then
Mẹ ở ngoài phòng khách. The living room can also be located
on the lower, or upper floor in relation to the speaker; hence
Mẹ ở dưới/trên phòng khách.
6.3. What determines the use of prepositions then?
The location of the speaker, or the vantage point, as well as
how the speaker views the landmark.
6.4. What can you say about the difference between English and
Vietnamese through this example? Provide further examples you
may need to support your arguments!
In some cases, English may not clearly indicate the location, or
vantage point, of the speaker while Vietnamese must express
this clearly through prepositions, or locative verbs, e.g.
Birds are singing in the sky (birds are located with reference
to the sky only) whereas Chim ca trên trời (birds are not
located with reference to the sky, but to the speaker).
Further examples may be these famous lines from the
Vietnamese poet Tố Hữu, in which not only the speaker’s
location is indiated, but also geographical features of these
various locations are involved:
Ai qua Phú Thọ
Ai xuôi Trung Hà
Ai về Hưng Hoá
Ai xuống khu Ba
Ai vào khu Bốn

Question 7: Read the following dialog! (10 pts)

Morning Visitor: Is your father home, son?
Son: He’s not up yet, sir!
Some time later, the visitor returned.
Morning Visitor: Can I meet your dad now, son?
Son: He’s not down yet, sir!
Morning Visitor: You said to me He’s not up yet, and now
you say He’s not down yet. How’s that? Is he in
mid-air?
Provide your answer to the visitor so that he can understand properly,
please!

When the boy said “He’s not up yet,” he meant his father was
still in bed and hadn’t woken/got up yet. When he said “He’s
not down yet,” he meant that his father had woken/got up, but
hadn’t come downstairs yet. So, his father was still in his room,
not in mid-air.
Note that up and down here are used in their idiomatic sense.
The visitor fails to figure out those idiomatic meanings.

THE END