SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis is primarily concerned with a description of the syntax of some sentence-types in Vietnamese in terms of a 'CASE' Grammar. 'CASE', in this study, is intended to account for the underlying functional relationships of noun phrases and of sentential complements to the main verb of the sentence. The study of CASES is carried on within the modified framework of Fillmore's Case Grammar. The centrality of the verb is emphasised. The Cases are predictable from the semantic features of the verb. Causative constructions, Topicalisation, Passivisation and Complement-types in Vietnamese have been examined. To identify Cases, syntactic and semantic tests have been used. Finally, in order to formalise the description of the syntactic-semantic relationships between the verb and the Cases in the sentence, a set of base and transformational rules have also been proposed. It is hoped that this thesis will help Vietnamese students of Linguistics and teachers of Vietnamese towards a better understanding of their mother tongue.