A comparison between English demonstratives and Vietnamese demonstratives in argumentative essays

In English and Vietnamese, demonstratives are considered one of the most important linguistic items for their ability to enhance writing coherence. Crucial as they are, few investigations have been conducted to analyze the differences in their uses in English and Vietnamese written discourse. This r...

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Main Author: Nguyet Minh Nguyen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia 2022-01-01
Series:Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics
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Online Access:https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJAL/article/view/34174
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author Nguyet Minh Nguyen
author_facet Nguyet Minh Nguyen
author_sort Nguyet Minh Nguyen
collection DOAJ
description In English and Vietnamese, demonstratives are considered one of the most important linguistic items for their ability to enhance writing coherence. Crucial as they are, few investigations have been conducted to analyze the differences in their uses in English and Vietnamese written discourse. This research attempts to investigate the differences in the use of Vietnamese demonstratives and English demonstratives in model Vietnamese (MV) and model American English (MA) argumentative essays. Adopting both quantitative and qualitative analyses, it focuses on the frequency and pragmatic uses of proximal and distal demonstratives in the two languages. It was discovered that English essays had significantly more proximal and cataphoric uses of demonstratives than Vietnamese essays. While English proximal demonstratives this(these) indicated topic shifting and distal demonstratives that(those) signaled topic continuity, a contrary pattern was observed in Vietnamese. Moreover, in investigating the referential uses of demonstratives, it was revealed that the use of Vietnamese demonstratives differed from English in the sense that they could act as discourse connectives facilitating the interpretation process of the readers. The study’s results contribute to the cross-language analysis and comparison of demonstratives and provide implications for the teaching of English demonstratives in academic writing in Vietnam.
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spelling doaj-art-b8f4354c0e1d4961be14e8e2311c3ccc2025-08-20T02:55:49ZengUniversitas Pendidikan IndonesiaIndonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics2301-94682502-67472022-01-0111366467410.17509/ijal.v11i3.3417418148A comparison between English demonstratives and Vietnamese demonstratives in argumentative essaysNguyet Minh Nguyen0Vietnam National UniversityIn English and Vietnamese, demonstratives are considered one of the most important linguistic items for their ability to enhance writing coherence. Crucial as they are, few investigations have been conducted to analyze the differences in their uses in English and Vietnamese written discourse. This research attempts to investigate the differences in the use of Vietnamese demonstratives and English demonstratives in model Vietnamese (MV) and model American English (MA) argumentative essays. Adopting both quantitative and qualitative analyses, it focuses on the frequency and pragmatic uses of proximal and distal demonstratives in the two languages. It was discovered that English essays had significantly more proximal and cataphoric uses of demonstratives than Vietnamese essays. While English proximal demonstratives this(these) indicated topic shifting and distal demonstratives that(those) signaled topic continuity, a contrary pattern was observed in Vietnamese. Moreover, in investigating the referential uses of demonstratives, it was revealed that the use of Vietnamese demonstratives differed from English in the sense that they could act as discourse connectives facilitating the interpretation process of the readers. The study’s results contribute to the cross-language analysis and comparison of demonstratives and provide implications for the teaching of English demonstratives in academic writing in Vietnam.https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJAL/article/view/34174discourse connectivesenglish demonstrativesvietnamese demonstrativeswriting coherence
spellingShingle Nguyet Minh Nguyen
A comparison between English demonstratives and Vietnamese demonstratives in argumentative essays
Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics
discourse connectives
english demonstratives
vietnamese demonstratives
writing coherence
title A comparison between English demonstratives and Vietnamese demonstratives in argumentative essays
title_full A comparison between English demonstratives and Vietnamese demonstratives in argumentative essays
title_fullStr A comparison between English demonstratives and Vietnamese demonstratives in argumentative essays
title_full_unstemmed A comparison between English demonstratives and Vietnamese demonstratives in argumentative essays
title_short A comparison between English demonstratives and Vietnamese demonstratives in argumentative essays
title_sort comparison between english demonstratives and vietnamese demonstratives in argumentative essays
topic discourse connectives
english demonstratives
vietnamese demonstratives
writing coherence
url https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJAL/article/view/34174
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