An Investigation into Chafe’s Six Semantic Configurations Through the Poem “Echo” by Christina Rossetti
Luu Quy Khuong,
Tran Tin Nghi
Issue:
Volume 6, Issue 2, March 2018
Pages:
31-35
Received:
19 February 2018
Accepted:
5 March 2018
Published:
23 March 2018
Abstract: Chafe (1970) first introduces the theory of the linguistic structures as the generative-transformation type and illustrated these structures basing on the ‘verbs’ of all sentences. In his theory, the verb plays an important role in determining the organizations of all sentences. In his book, Meaning and the structure of language, Chafe defines ‘four main heads’ that any languages follow naturally such as semantic configurations, the post-semantic processes, symbolization and phonological structures. In this paper, the authors only focus on the analysis of the semantic configurations proposed by Chafe (1970) and test how the rules work with the poem “Echo” written by Christina Rossetti [7] in order to help the readers to better understanding the poem in the light of semantic structures. Rossetti (1830 – 1894) is a well-known English poet with many masterpieces of romantic, devotional, and children's poems. “Goblin Market and "Remember" are two of her famous publications. The purpose of choosing “Echo” because this is a success of Christina Rossetti’s poetry. Normally an echo is believed not as a good concept for poetic purposes. However, with her deeply emotional and sentimental use of metaphor this poem is touching the hearts of all people by a variety of complex semantic configurations. The authors use the Chafe’s theory to investigate the effects of semantic configurations and evaluate them through the analysis of Echo.
Abstract: Chafe (1970) first introduces the theory of the linguistic structures as the generative-transformation type and illustrated these structures basing on the ‘verbs’ of all sentences. In his theory, the verb plays an important role in determining the organizations of all sentences. In his book, Meaning and the structure of language, Chafe defines ‘fou...
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The Strategies to Develop Bilingual Ability for Vietnamese
Issue:
Volume 6, Issue 2, March 2018
Pages:
36-50
Received:
11 February 2018
Accepted:
26 March 2018
Published:
30 March 2018
Abstract: The hypothesis is that non-native language speakers (e.g., Vietnamese who study English) face lots of difficulties due to the differences in linguistic features and negative transference. Therefore, no one can deny that it is not easy to study a language and more difficult to study a second language or a foreign language now that every language in the world has its own characteristics which are nearly completely different from one another. To solve this problem, many linguists have created their theories of second language acquisition, such as Behaviorist's theory, Nativist's theory, Interactionist's theory, Information Processing theory, Vygotsky's theory, Halliday's theory, Sociolinguistic's theory. Therefore, with the hope to solve those problems, this study focuses on some difficulties facing learners of English and their solutions. The article is divided into 3 main parts, including difficulties in the four skills as (1) speaking and listening for communication such as prosody and fluency; (2) writing and (3) reading. About the solutions for the difficulties mentioned above, to begin with, in prosody, solution focuses on the importance of combining phonological knowledge with rhythm, melody, English stress rules and syntax rules in teaching and learning English intonation affected by stress for Vietnamese students, verified by Experimental Phonetics. Moreover, writing, grammar and vocabularies improving as well as identification of the types of writing can be considered as one of the practical solutions. Last but not least, in reading, K-W-L strategy (K: KNOWN, W: WHAT, L: LEARNT), one the best ways to activate schemata is also the suitable solutions as well.
Abstract: The hypothesis is that non-native language speakers (e.g., Vietnamese who study English) face lots of difficulties due to the differences in linguistic features and negative transference. Therefore, no one can deny that it is not easy to study a language and more difficult to study a second language or a foreign language now that every language in ...
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