Language Universals and Language Typology

Hoang Khanh Linh

15.05.2017
Assignment 1
on
Vietnamese

1. General information
Vietnamese is the national language of Vietnam and the mother tongue of the Vietnamese
ethnic majority of over seventy-five million, which accounts for 85% Vietnamese citizens. It
is spoken by about ninety million people worldwide including ethnic minorities in Vietnam,
Chinese living near Vietnam-China border, and Vietnamese settlers living overseas, to name
but a few.

2. Nominal categories
There are no inflectional morphemes in Vietnamese. All inflectional properties of nouns and
pronouns are realized by independent words.
Number marking in Vietnamese is expressed with the combination of numerals (mt 1, hai
2, my a few) or plural markers (nhng, cc -s/-es) with classifiers (ci refers to non-
living things, con refers to living things, etc.).
(1) hai con ch (2) nhng con ch
NUM CLF dog PL CLF dog
2 dogs dogs
Core case markings do not exist in Vietnamese.
(3) Ti gi anh y (4) Anh y gi ti
I call he he call I
I call him. He calls me.

Genitive marking word ca of are occasionally used, but can be omitted without affecting
the meaning of the sentence.
(5) M (ca) anh y n nh (ca) ti
Mom (of) he go to house (of) I
His mom goes to my house.

Vietnamese has no gender marking. However, classifiers are indispensable to nouns. They
individualize nouns as to their shapes (bi [poem, song, speech], quyn [novel, book,
notebook], bng [flower, rose], etc.), animateness (ci/chic denote inanimate things ci
bn table, con refers to living things con mo cat, etc.), abstraction (nim, ni, etc. as
in nim vui happiness, ni bun sadness, etc.). Age, gender and social status are important
properties of nouns denoting people in Vietnamese, so the classifiers similar to kinship nouns
and status nouns are often used, for example ch older sister as in ch y t young female
nurse, c younger aunt as in c th may middle-aged female tailor, ch younger uncle
as in ch li xe middle-aged male driver, v honorific title as in v anh hng honored
hero, thng pejorative title as in thng k trm dishonored thief, etc.
The possessive relation is expressed by genitive case marking mentioned above, so there are
no possessive pronouns in Vietnamese. The distinction between alienable and inalienable
possession also does not exist.

Pronouns in Vietnamese fall into six categories of personal pronouns, reflexive pronouns,
relative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and interrogative pronouns.
Except for personal pronouns, the rest are similar to English.

Common and proper nouns in Vietnamese often replace personal pronouns (addressor and
addressee) in interactional situations, since they are structural equivalent (Luong 1990: 11)1.
(6) Qun i, Qun gip Linh c khng?
Qun hey Qun help Linh ok
Hey Qun, can you help me (Linh)?

(7) Chng i, chng gip v c khng?

Husband hey, husband help wife ok
Honey, can you help me?

Status pronouns are divided into kinship and beyond kinship groups. In families, kinship
pronouns must be used in the place of first and second personal pronouns to address their
relationship. For instance, ng ngoi moms father grandpa and chu grandchild, d
moms younger sister and chu niece, anh older brother and em younger brother/sister,
etc. Beyond kinship, status pronouns in Vietnamese are common nouns identified by
communitas (Communist party members), gerontocratic structure (age) and meritocratic
structure (social status) throughout the system of address and reference (Luong 1990: 142).

Personal pronouns are divided into formal and informal pronouns. They are carefully chosen
in contexts, after considering the factors of age, gender, relationship and speakers attitude.
(8) 2 classmates (polite)
Cu i, cu gip t c khng?
you hey you help me ok
Hey, can you help me?

(9) 2 very close friends or an older brother/sister to his/her younger brother/sister

My i, my gip tao c khng?
you hey, you help me ok
Hey, can you help me?

The concept we in Vietnamese is expressed by two different pronouns, which differ

semantically. Chng ti we refer to only addressors. Chng ta we refer to addressors and
addressees.

Vietnamese allows the omission of subject when (a) the sentence begins with a verb of
existence, (b) the sentence is a general statement or proverb, (c) the subject has already been
mentioned or is obvious, (d) the sentence is a monologue or an exchange in which the context

1
Luong, Hy. Discursive Practices and Linguistic Meanings: The Vietnamese System of Personal Reference. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John
Benjamins Publishing, 1990.
helps identify either interlocutor, (e) the sentence is an order, and (f) the sentence is a
response to a yes/no question (Nguyen 1997: 211)2. The predicate can also be absent when
the sentence is a response to a question including the interrogative pronoun ai who. The
special sentences without subject and object are the shortened responses to a question
containing an interrogative complement ai whom, g what, bao gi when, etc.
(10) Bao gi m v? --- Tun sau.
When mom back? --- Week next
When will you come back, mom? --- Next week.

3. Verbal categories
Being an isolating language, Vietnamese does not indicate past tense by morphological
affixes but by auxiliary words. did or/and ri already are added before or/and after the
main verb respectively to show the completion of the action. In some cases, auxilaries are
omitted and past tense is only expressed by adverb complement of time.
(11) M () gi n hm qua (ri).
Mom (did) call him yesterday (already)
I called him yesterday.

Ri already is also a marker of perfective aspect while ang in the process of expresses
the imperfective aspect.
(12) My n tra cha? --- ang n.
You eat lunch INTER? --- in the process of eat
Have you had lunch? --- I am eating.

(13) My n tra cha? --- Va n ri.

You eat lunch INTER? --- just eat already
Have you had lunch? --- I have just eaten.

There are mood markers in Vietnamese in the forms of pre-verb or post-verb auxiliaries.
Subjunctive mood is not expressed, however interrogative mood is highly noticed with the
use of auxiliaries cha, , khng at the end of the yes/no questions.
(14) M c vui khng?
Mom happy INTER?
Mom, are you happy?

Deontic modality is expressed by pre-verb auxiliaries phi must, cn need, mun want,
etc. Epistemic modality involves pre-verb auxiliaries c th may/might, chc must (be).
(15) T phi lm bi. (16) Chc anh y m.
I must study must be he sick
I must study. He must be sick.

Imperative auxiliaries are i/hy exhortative, ch/ng prohibitive. i lets is also used
to indicate hortative mood.
(17) M ca i! (18) i xem phim i!
Open door EXH Go see a movie HORT
Open the door! Lets go see a movie!

2
Nguyen, Dinh-Hoa. Vietnamese: Tieng viet khong son phan. London Oriental and African Language Library. Vol. 9. Amsterdam:
Benjamins, 1997.