Vietnamese is an analytic language, meaning it conveys grammatical information primarily through combinations of words as opposed to suffixes.
The basic word order is subject-verb-object (SVO), but utterances may be restructured so as to be topic-prominent.
In sentences, the head of the phrase usually precedes its complements (i.e. head-initial), nouns are classified according to series of lexical parameters (noun classifier system), and pronouns may be absent from utterances (pro-drop, sometimes without copula verbs).
These modifiers include demonstratives, quantifiers, classifiers, prepositional phrases, and other attributive lexical words, such as other nouns and verbs.
The noun phrase has the following structure: Example: cảallTOTALITYhaitwoQUANTIFIERcuốnCLFbookCLASSIFIERtừ điểndictionaryHEAD NOUNViệt AnhVietnamese-EnglishATTRIBUTIVE NOUN PHRASEnàyPROX.DEMDEMONSTRATIVEcủa [nó]of [3.PN]PREP PHRASEcả hai cuốn {từ điển} {Việt Anh} này {của [nó]}all two CLFbook dictionary Vietnamese-English PROX.DEM {of [3.PN]}TOTALITY QUANTIFIER CLASSIFIER HEAD NOUN ATTRIBUTIVE NOUN PHRASE DEMONSTRATIVE PREP PHRASE"both of these Vietnamese-English dictionaries of his"Following Nguyễn Hùng Tưởng (2004) and Nguyễn T. C. (1975), Vietnamese has an article lexical category slot that occurs before a quantifier.
nhữngPLý nghĩideanhững {ý nghĩ}PL idea"(the) ideas"cácPLquảCLFcamorangecác quả camPL CLF orange"(the) oranges"Quantifiers (also known as numerators) modify the adjacent noun by expressing their quantity.
Examples of quantifiers: Quantifiers directly precede the head noun that they modify when the head occurs without a classifier: haitwoquan điểmviewpointhai {quan điểm}two viewpoint"(the) two viewpoints"bathreeđêmnightba đêmthree night"three nights" dămfewbữadaydăm bữafew day"(a) few days"mấysomengườipeoplemấy ngườisome people"how many people?
When a classifier co-occurs with a following head noun, the quantifier precedes the classifier: haitwocuốnCLFtừ điểndictionaryhai cuốn {từ điển}two CLF dictionary"(the) two dictionaries"sáusixbôngCLFhoa hồngrosekiaDIST.DEMsáu bông {hoa hồng} kiasix CLF rose DIST.DEM"those six roses over there"mấyfewconCLFcáfishmấy con cáfew CLF fish"(a) few fish" As in English, mass nouns such as thịt "meat", đất "soil", and collective nouns such as trâu bò "cattle", ruộng nương "(rice) fields" usually occur without quantifiers in Vietnamese.
Focus cái occurs directly before classifiers or unit nouns and may be preceded by other pre-noun modifiers such as quantifiers, numerals, and articles.
It has been noted by Nguyễn Đ. H. (1997) (and others) that cái adds a pejorative connotation, as in: cáiFOCthằngCLFchồnghusbandemKINcái thằng chồng emFOC CLF husband KINnó3SG.PNnó3SG.PNchẳngNEGraturn.outgìINTERR.INAN.PNchẳng ra gìNEG turn.out INTERR.INAN.PNHowever, Nguyễn Hùng Tưởng (2004) claims that the connotation is not always negative and gives the following positive example:[4] tôi1SG.PNtôi1SG.PNgặpmeetgặpmeetcáiFOCconCLFnhỏlittletử tếkindcái con nhỏ {tử tế}FOC CLF little kindPhonologically, the focus cái receives an intonational stress, and, in addition, the element receiving the focus also receives an intonational stress.
In the following examples, the stressed words are indicated with capital letters (also underlined): tôi1SG.PNtôi1SG.PNthíchlikethíchlikeCÁIFOCconCLFngựahorseĐENblackCÁI con ngựa ĐENFOC CLF horse blackIn the above sentence, the item in focus is đen "black", which receives the stress (as does cái).
For instance, dao (knife), đường (road), mắt (eye), sông (river), and vít (screw) all take the con classifier to convey motion.
These classifiers may be superficially likened to English partitive constructions like one head of cattle ("head", always singular regardless of number, indicates large livestock), two sticks of dynamite ("stick" indicates something relatively rigid, long and comparatively thin), three strands of hair ("strand" indicates something flexible, long and quite thin), or four bars of gold (a "bar" being similar to a "stick", but comparatively less "thin").
[7] Thompson (1987) notes that usage of cái for inanimate objects has increased at the expense of some of the rarer classifiers.
[9] Among the most common classifiers are: Classifiers are required in the presence of a quantifier, except for "non-classified nouns": "time units" such as phút (minute), geographical and administrative units such as tỉnh (province), and polysyllabic Sino-Vietnamese compound nouns.
Examples: bàladynàyPROX.DEMbà nàylady PROX.DEM"this lady"nămyearnayPROX.DEMnăm nayyear PROX.DEM"this year"lúcmomentđóMEDIAL.DEMlúc đómoment MEDIAL.DEM"that moment"ônggentlemanấyMEDIAL.DEMông ấygentleman MEDIAL.DEM"that gentleman"lúcmomentnãyMEDIAL.DEMlúc nãymoment MEDIAL.DEM"a moment ago"bữadaynọDIST.DEMbữa nọday DIST.DEM"one day"hômdaykiaDIST.DEMhôm kiaday DIST.DEM"day before yesterday"ngườipersonnàoINDEF.DEMngười nàoperson INDEF.DEM"which person" Possession is shown in Vietnamese via a prepositional phrase that modifies the next word, a noun.
HoanHoanHoanHoanchỉonlyăneatcơmfoodViệt NamVietnamthôionlychỉ ăn cơm {Việt Nam} thôionly eat food Vietnam onlynó3SG.PNnó3SG.PNchỉonlyăneatcơmfoodViệt NamVietnamthôionlychỉ ăn cơm {Việt Nam} thôionly eat food Vietnam onlyconCLFchódognàyPROX.DEMcon chó nàyCLF dog PROX.DEMchẳngNEGbao giờeversủabarkcảallchẳng {bao giờ} sủa cảNEG ever bark allnó3SG.PNnó3SG.PNchẳngNEGbao giờeversủabarkcảallchẳng {bao giờ} sủa cảNEG ever bark all Thus, the third person singular (arrogant) pronoun nó can substitute for a simple noun phrase Hoan (a personal name) consisting of a single noun or a complex noun phrase con chó này consisting of a noun plus modifiers (which, here, are a classifier and a demonstrative).
The second person ta is often used when talking to oneself as in a soliloquy, but also indicates a higher status of the speaker (such as that of a high official, etc.).
The absolute pronoun người ta has a wider range of reference as "they, people in general, (generic) one, we, someone".
[18] As a result of language contact, some linguists have noted that some Vietnamese speech communities (especially among young college students and bilingual speakers) have borrowed French and English pronouns moi, toi, I, and you in order to avoid the deference and status implications present in the Vietnamese pronominal system (which lacks any truly neutral terms).
Additionally, verbs may be categorized into two main subtypes, stative and functive, according to their syntactic behavior.
Kinship terms in Vietnamese have become grammaticalized to a large extent and thus have developed grammatical functions similar to pronouns[21] and other classifiers.
Vietnamese demonstratives (markers of deixis) all have the function of identifying a referent with respect to another contextual point or position.
The demonstratives have a basic three-term deictic system — proximal (close – "this, here"), medial (far – "that, there"), distal (very far – "yonder, over there") — plus an indefinite (or interrogative) term ("which, where").
In North-central and Central Vietnamese, the form nớ is used instead of nọ, mô instead of nào and đâu, rứa instead of vậy, and răng instead of sao.
Other forms mentioned in Thompson (1965) are nay "this", nây "this (temporal)", nãy or nẫy "that (just past)", and nao "which".
The basic formal pattern of the demonstratives is that the initial consonant and ending vowel nucleus indicate their function and position in the deictic system.
Following this, the initial đ- indicates a nominal, n- a noun modifier, b- proportion, v-~s- manner, and the vowels -ây~-ay proximal/medial, -âu~-ao indefinite, and -o medial/distal.
Kia specifies a point remote either in the past or the future while nọ specifies only a remote point in the past: The proportion demonstratives (bây, bấy, bao) refer to the extent of measurement of time or space.
Additive compounds are formed by with mười- "10" initially and another numeral following: mười tám ("10" + "8" = "18").