Đặc điểm của tham thể trong câu hành vi tiếng Việt và tiếng Anh

eam, tremble, sweat, cough, 
yawn, sneeze, breathe, sleep, shit, hiccup, burp, faint, grimace, snort, snore, sniff, gasp, sigh, sob, snarl, 
cry, stare, blush, groan, nod, blink
Table 2: A list of Vietnamese behavioral processes
Vietnamese behavioral processes
thở, cười, gật gù, gật đầu, cau mày, khóc, rên rỉ, than van, nhăn mặt, gầm gừ, nhăn nhó, rùng mình, 
ngắm, ngắm nghía, ho, ngáp, hắt xì, thở, ngủ, nấc, ợ, ợ hơi, xỉu, mơ, hít vào, quỳ, nằm, khịt mũi, ngáy, co 
rúm, co, rùng mình, vã mồ hôi, toát mồ hôi, run, ngửi, khụt khịt, nhảy, ôm, chơi, nói lắp, cà lăm, bi bô, tán 
gẫu, ê a, tâm sự, nói, lo, làu bàu, than vãn, lầm bầm, lẩm bẩm, lăng mạ, sỉ vả, sỉ nhục, vu khống, vu oan, 
phỉ báng, ca ngợi, tán dương, tâng bốc, xu nịnh, hò hét, hò la, bợ đỡ, dằn vặt, ngắm, xem, nhìn, trố mắt, 
quan sát, theo dõi, liếc nhìn, liếc xéo, nghe, nếm, sờ, trầm tư, mơ, điều đình, dàn xếp, tư lự, trầm ngâm, 
ngẫm nghĩ, cân nhắc, băn khoăn, khao khát, quắc mắt, cau có, rùng mình, run, nháy/chớp (mắt)
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After building up our raw English and 
Vietnamese behavioral lists, we adopt bottom-
up approach to recognize behavioral clauses in 
English and Vietnamese novels and short stories. 
“Jane Eyre”, “The Great Gatsby”, “Tender is the 
night”, “Sons and Lovers”, “Women in love” and 
“The rainbow” are the five English novels written 
by Bronte, Fitzgerald and Lawrence. In their 
works, the characters, their personal experience 
and behaviors are brilliantly described via the 
lively wording of the talented writers. Besides, 
ten Vietnamese novels and stories such as “Sống 
mòn”, “Dế mèn phiêu lưu ký”, “Tắt đèn”, “Chí 
Phèo” and “Số đỏ” are carefully selected due to 
their popularity and wonderful narrative device 
of personal experience and behaviors. We decide 
to collect data from stories and novels but not 
in other genres since stories and novels reflect 
the reality via the lens and skillful wording of 
talented writers. 
In this paper, sampling is a crucial step and 
we decide to adapt random sampling technique. 
Wordsmith 5.0 and Navigation pane in Word 
documents and PDF are used as powerful tools 
to select behavioral clauses. Concord function 
in Wordsmith 5.0 is exploited to collect English 
behavioral clauses while Search engine is used 
to pick up Vietnamese behavioral clauses since 
Wordsmith 5.0 is not applicable to Vietnamese 
texts. These are two main reasons for choosing 
Wordsmith 5.0 and Navigation pane because 
the above novels and short stories are already 
available in electronic form so it is advantageous 
and time-saving for us to process them. In 
addition, we can work on and store a huge 
amount of collected data effectively. 
1427 English behavioral clauses are 
collected and saved from the six novels. As for 
Vietnamese data collection, Navigation pane is 
used to select Vietnamese behavioral clauses and 
1330 Vietnamese behavioral clauses are selected 
and saved.
3.2. Data analysis
A framework for data analysis is offered 
in this section. All selected English and 
Vietnamese participants in behavioral clauses 
are analyzed and categorized in terms of lexico-
grammar and ideational meaning and then a 
comparison of them in English and Vietnamese 
is made. Theoretically, the relationships 
between lexico-grammar and function are very 
close but complex. In other words, function 
(or meaning) is realized or expressed through 
lexico-grammar or linguistic expressions 
and according to Fontaine (2013) there is 
not a one-to one relationship between them.
4. TYPES OF PARTICIPANTS IN 
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
This section is devoted to discussing two main 
types of participants in English and Vietnamese 
namely: Behaver and Range (Behavior, 
Phenomenon, Scope and Verbiage/Target). 
4.1. Behaver in English and Vietnamese
Semantic roles are associated with partially 
specified grammatical functions. Behaver is 
often realized by (i) nouns subdividing into 
proper nouns, common nouns and pronouns and 
(ii) noun phrases in English.
(1) All the men laughed. (Lawrence, 1919)
(2) The Hindu grinned, and murmured shyly. 
(Lawrence, 1920)
(3) He groaned inwardly, under its bondage. 
(Lawrence, 1920)
In (1), “All the men” is a noun phrase (NP) 
while “The Hindu” in (2) falls into a subclass of 
nouns labeled as proper nouns which are often 
capitalized and tell us about the individual name 
of a person, a place or a thing and “He” in (3) 
belongs to proper nouns. 
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In Vietnamese behavioral clauses, Behavers 
are also realized by both nouns and nouns 
phrases as following:
(4) Thất vọng, chị Dậu rũ người ngồi im. 
(Ngô Tất Tố, 1937)
(5) Chúng tôi nằm co quắp vào nhau. (Tô 
Hoài, 1941)
(6) Những kẻ khác thì ngồi than vãn, khóc lóc 
hoặc cãi vã nhau cho qua ngày. (Tô Hoài, 1941)
“Chị Dậu” and “Chúng tôi” in (4) and (5) fall 
into subclass of nouns namely: proper nouns and 
pronouns whilst “Những kẻ khác” is interpreted 
as noun phrases. It can be seen that there is some 
similarity in lexico-grammar. Both English and 
Vietnamese Behavers are realized by nouns or 
noun phrases. 
Behaver is often fucntioned as an agent. 
Theoretically, a person or animal having 
behaviors, usually endowed with consciousness 
is labeled as Behaver as follows:
(7) Helen sighed as her reverie fed. (Bronte, 1847)
(8) Gerald watched them with the steady 
twinkle in his eyes. (Lawrence, 1920)
However, in our selected data, the Behaver, 
the participant involved with the behavioral 
process, does not have to be a conscious 
participant as in:
(9) The wind sighed low in the firs . (Bronte, 1847)
(10) The stars shuddered and broke upon the 
water. (Lawrence, 1919)
(11) The ash tree moaned outside in a cold, 
raw wind. (Lawrence, 1919)
(12) The cigarette trembled between his lips 
with laughter as he spoke. (Lawrence, 1919)
Obviously, on semantic grounds of these 
participants, “the wind”, “the stars”, “the ash 
tree” and “the cigarette” are non-human entities 
without our common senses and behaviors like 
tremble, sigh, moan or shudder. Traditionally, 
these cases are treated as personification - a form 
of figurative language that is used as a literary 
technique. Personification means attributing 
human characteristics to something that is 
not human. By using human characteristics 
to describe an object, animal, or even a place, 
personification can make descriptions more 
unique and figurative. Within experimental 
analysis framework, these non-conscious beings 
are treated as conscious and these cases are also 
considered as figurative expression strategy 
(Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004, p. 203). 
Consider the following examples in 
Vietnamese: 
(13) Dọc sông, những chòm cổ thụ dáng 
mãnh liệt đứng trầm ngâm lặng nhìn xuống 
nước. (Võ Quảng, 1974)
(14) Biển đêm sóng vỗ thật dữ dội, nó gào 
thét từ phía mạn Bắc như một cái loa. (Trang 
Trang, 2012)
In (13) and (14), “những chòm cổ thụ” and 
“sóng” are conventionally examples of non-
human entities – but they can be construed as 
Behaver (so endowed with consciousness in 
process of behaving). 
Last but not least, “conscious beings” 
typically means a person or people but they may 
also be represented by a part of the body. For 
examples:
(15) His eyes glanced momentarily at me 
and his lips parted with an abortive attempt at a 
laugh. (Fitzgerald, 1925)
(16) Her lip trembled, her face broke, and, 
snatching up the child. (Lawrence, 1919)
(17) Her eyes, shuddering, appealing, gone, 
almost distracted, pleaded to him suddenly. 
(Lawrence, 1919)
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As in above three examples, “eyes” and “lip” represent the action of behavior as involving a 
human’s organ rather than the whole person. Halliday (2000, p. 93) argues that “this is a departure 
from the norm of language; it owes its effect, that of deconstructing the whole person as a potentially 
independent agent”.
Parts of our body can be construed as Behaver in Vietnamese clauses. It is reflective of that 
our organisms behave in our everyday physical actions and observable emotion associated with 
individuals. For examples:
(18) Mặt lão đột nhiên co rúm lại. (Nam Cao, 1957)
(19) Hắn vừa đi vừa tủm tỉm cười, hai con mắt nhỏ tí, gà gà đắm vào bóng chiều. (Kim Lân, 1962)
(20) Hai con mắt tư lự nhìn ra phía trước. (Kim Lân, 1962)
Lexico-grammar and the semantic roles of Behaver are briefly illustrated in figure 1. The next 
section provides a discussion of Range in English and Behavioral clauses. (see Figure 1)
4.2. Range in English and Vietnamese
According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004), there are six subtypes of Range namely: Scope, 
Behavior, Phenomenon, Verbiage, Attribute and Value. Generally speaking, Halliday and Matthiessen 
(2004) suggest that Range specifies the domain of the process and defines one of the two things: 
Either it is a restatement or continuation of the process itself or.
It expresses the extent or “range” of the process.
In behavioral clauses, Range is subdivided into four categories namely, ‘Behavior’, ‘Phenomenon’, 
‘Scope’ and ‘Verbiage/Target’. Range is often realized by nouns or noun phrases in grammatical 
terms in English. The detailed discussion on Range in English and Vietnamese behavioral clauses is 
made in the next section.
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4.2.1. Behavior in English and Vietnamese
BEHAVER + BEHAVIORAL PROCESS+ 
RANGE-BEHAVIOR 
Behavior is always realized by noun phrases 
in both English and Vietnamese as in:
(21) Still she dreamed her young dream. 
(Lawrence 1919)
(22) Nụ cười đong đưa, tung tẩy trên khóe 
mắt. (Nguyễn Ngọc Tư 2011)
Behavioral clauses can contain a 
second participant in Behaver^Behavioral 
process^Range model. That is a Range: a 
restatement of the process (Eggins, 2004, 
tr. 218). This participant is labeled as the 
Behavior elaborating the process. Halliday and 
Matthiessen (2004, p. 204) argue that Behavior 
in behavioral clauses are analogous to the Scope 
of material clauses. For examples:
(23) She sighed a sigh of ineffable 
satisfaction. (Bronte, 1847)
(24) Yet her mouth gave a little grimace at 
the words. (Lawrence, 1920)
(25) He caught little, short breaths. 
(Lawrence, 1920)
These three clauses involve two participants. 
“She”, “her mouth” and “he” are interpreted as 
Behaver while “a sigh of ineffable satisfaction”, 
“a little grimace” and “little, short breaths” are 
labeled as Range-Behavior. It is noticeable that 
(23), (24) and (25) are conventional examples of 
“dummy processes” which can be semantically 
“mixed” into Range. These processes are called 
“dumb” since the meanings of these processes 
don’t make any contributions to the meaning of 
the clause. In other words, they are significant 
at syntactical ground but useless at semantic 
ground. The meaning of the whole clause can 
be understood with these processes and they 
become “dumb” in meanings (Trinh et al, 2017). 
For examples:
Sigh a sigh – sigh (v) 
Give a grimace – grimace (v) 
Catch breaths – breathe (v)
Smile a smile – smile (v) 
Consider the following examples in 
Vietnamese:
(26) Một nụ cười khô đét nở trên cặp môi 
héo hắt của Lan. (Nguyễn Công Hoan, 1933)
(27) Bà lão thở nhẹ ra một hơi dài. (Kim 
Lân, 1962)
In these two above cases, “Một nụ cười khô 
đét”, “một hơi dài” are represented in the role 
of behavior which can be either physiology or 
psychology like breathing, coughing, smiling, 
staring and others in situational context. “Dummy 
processes” are still available in Vietnamese asin:
Thở một hơi – thở (v)
Nở một nụ cười – cười (v) 
Ném một cái nhìn – nhìn (v) 
Trao một nụ hôn – hôn (v) 
Trao một cái ôm – ôm (v)
Nhảy một điệu nhảy – nhảy (v)
Mơ một giấc mơ – mơ (v) 
It is worth noting that Behavior is a 
subcategory of range. Behavior is either an 
agent or an object in English and Vietnamese 
behavioral clauses. 
(28) His shuddering became less. (Lawrence, 1919)
(29) His mouth closed, and a frown came on 
his face. (Lawrence, 1919)
(30) Chị Tiên nở một nụ cười trên môi thắm. 
(Thạch Lam, 2004)
We have discussed the characteristics of 
Range – behavior in terms of lexico-grammar 
and participant role, the next section will cover 
the second role of Range – Phenomenon. 
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4.2.2. Phenomenon in English and Vietnamese
 BEHAVER + MENTAL-BEHAVIORAL PROCESS+ RANGE-PHENOMENON 
Like Behavior, phenomenon is also realized by noun phrases as in:
(31) She sat down on the ground near me, embraced her knees with her arms. (Bronte, 1847)
(32) Bà lão khẽ thở dài đứng lên, đăm đăm nhìn người đàn bà. (Kim Lân, 1962)
(33) Xuân rơm rớm nước mắt. (Nguyễn Công Hoan, 1933)
There is another participant which is not a restatement of process, but is interpreted as Phenomenon 
enhancing the process. Phenomenon of our experince includes some entities such as person, creature, 
object, substance or abstraction. Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, p. 204) identify two types of 
phenomenon in mental clauses: Macrophenomenon which is an act and Metaphenomenon which is 
a fact. But they argue that in: I am watching you. (Halliday and Matthiessen 2004, p. 251), “you” 
labelled is a participant, like the phenomenon of mental clauses. Since this is restricted to “watch”, 
it can be interpreted as “phenomenon”. In our study, it is suggested that Range-phenomenon are in 
existence in Behaver^Behavioral process^ range – phenomenon modal as in:
(34) I laughed at him as he said this. ‘I am not an angel’. (Bronte, 1847)
(35) We all looked at the subject again. (Fitzgerald, 1925)
(36) He turned around and stared at the scene – his wife and Catherine scolding and consoling 
(Fitzgerald, 1925).
(37) Vợ hắn thấy Chí Phèo thở ra mùi rượu. (Nam Cao, 1957)
It can be seen that Range can often be preceded by a preposition in English and this causes 
some difficulties in analyzing clauses in a functional framework. It remains to figure out whether an 
element of the clause is functioning as a participant or a circumstance. Especially in English, there 
are a considerable numbers of phrasal verbs. It definitely causes some trouble to decide whether 
to interpret a structure as process + circumstance or process + participant-range. What is more 
comprehensive analysis of the following?
(38) 
She sniffed, and sniffed at the bottle Or She sniffed, and sniffed at the bottle
Behaver Process behavioral Cir: location Behaver Process behavioral Range
(Lawrence, 1919)
(38) 
He glanced at me and frowned slightly
Behaver Process behavioral Cir: location Process behavioral Cir: manner