COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND CHINESE QUESTION

WORD
THESIS PROPOSAL

Proposed by
Ari susanti
12004292
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
UNIVERSITAS AHMAD DAHLAN
2016

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with the background of the study, identification of the problem,
limitation of the problem, object of the study, and significance of the study.
A. Background of the Study
English and Chinese are the most important international language most
spoken and utilize. Both of languages has similarities and differences. English and
Chinese has extremely differences.
Chinese is language used in republic of China, this language called
Putonghua [ ].Chinese also used as national languages in Taiwan called
Guoyu [ ], in Singapore, and Malaysia this language called Huayu [ ].
The term Chinese is a translation from Guanhua it means language for
official funtionery in Yuan dynasty.
As stated by (semita, Muryani,2013:7) Chinese is a tone language, every
tone has different meaning, Chinese is not an alphabetic but it is a morphemic
language. Thus means, every letter, and tone in Chinese has different meaning.
Although English and Chinese are different in letter, both of language also
has similarities one of them are the word-order as positive statement. in English
question word usually placed in front, then in Chinese the question word is
placed where its answer would complete the surrounding sentence.
English has two type of question fist is yes no question and second is Wh
question. First yes/ no question are refers into question which can answered with
yes or no and followed with auxiliary.
According to (DeCapua Andrea,2008:268) Wh question word are formed with
when, where, what, who and how. These question also referred into interrogative

word to ask for information in specific. English question word begin with when to
ask time, where to ask place, what ask about things, why for a reason, then how
for more detail. The Wh question word is in initial position. Then the subject and
verb are inverted according to the first auxiliary rule.
(1). What did you read last summer? ((DeCapua Andrea, 2008:268)
(2). Where do you live? (Thomson, A.J, 1985:74)
(3). Why was she late? (Thomson, A.J, 1985:74)
(4). When do you get up ? (Thomson, A.J, 1985:74)
(5). Who did you called last night ((DeCapua Andrea, 2008:268)
(6). How did you come? (Thomson, A.J, 1985:74)
The auxiliary are following the question word, if the question word is asking
formation about the subject of the verb. In the example above the information is
expected for an answer, the Wh question is fronted then followed by auxiliary
verb did, was and do.
There are four categories of sentences; declarative, interrogative,
imperative and exclamatory. As (Radford, 2004:207) said that Declarative
sentence is a sentence that makes a statement and express an opinion and ends
with period. An interrogative sentence is a function word used to ask question.
Then an imperative sentence gives a direct or an sentence that request someone to
do something or not to do something based on the intonation used. An

exclamatory sentence is a sentence that expresses strong feelings by making an

exclamation.
There are several a question word in Chinese the kind of question has the same
range of use as its equivalent in English. The question is with a question word
shi who? shenme what? shenme shihou when,zenme how? nar where?. A
Chinese question word has same position in the sentence as the word it replaces.
(Po-ching & Rimmington, 2006:147)
Question word in Chinese has some different forms: question word
question, general question (with ma); surmise question (with ba); affirmativenegative questions, alternative question, rhetorical question. (po-ching 2006:132)
Here the example of Chinese Question word according to po-chin
(2006:132):
(7). n zutin wishnme b li ya ?
You yesterday why not come?
Why didnt you Come yesterday?
(8). shi qng ZhngSn ch fn
Who invite zhangsan eat food ?
Who invited zhangsan to eat ?
(9).t sh shi?
She is who ?
Who is she ?

(10). n shnme shhou Zhnggu?

You when went go china
When are you going to china
(11).n zi nar dng w
You at where wait me?
Where will you wait for me ?
(12 ). dinyng znmeyng?
Film how
How was the film?
From example above in number
English and Chinese are two languages that do not have any close
relation as Malaysian and Indonesian. English and Chinese differ in language
system. Though both of language use the different letters in their alphabetic
system, they prove to have different phonological system. It is also an evidence
that the rules how to create words and combine them into new words or lexemes
are not the same. Another distinction, as a result of different cultures, geographical
condition, and way of life of people who use those languages is in their
vocabulary system. The rules of grammar to combine words into sentences are
different, too.
Based on (Saville-Troike, 2006:65) comparative is a method of studying
two language to find out the similarities and differences both language. English as
a foreign language studied systematically and deliberately in the education

institution, in fact has different characteristics from Indonesian, Chinese, etc.

Perhaps, there are also similarities between them. So it is important to study them
to find out the similarities or differences between them to over comes the
problems faced by the language learners.
From the description above, the writer tries to study English and Chinese
question word, to find out the problems that may appear. It will be useful to help
the language learners in understanding the English and Chinese question.
In this study, the writer will do a comparative study based on the
synchronic linguistics, which analyses two different languages in limited and only
in the specific part of both language. And the languages to be compared are
English and Chinese. The aspect of language comparison in this research is
grammatical structure in question word. Grammatical structure is the systematic
formal device used in language to convey certain meaning and relationship.

B. Identification of the Problem

Based on the background of the study above, there are some problems
which can be identified by the writer. Firstly, English and Chinese are different

languages. Secondly, the differences between English and Chinese can be

analysed by linguistics. Thirdly, to analyse English and Chinese can be conducted
by comparative linguistics. Thus it can be concluded that this research applies the
comparative linguistics.
C. Limitation of the Problem
Considering the wide range of the problems and the limitation of the
writers ability to handle the whole matter related to this topic, the writer will
focus on the question word of English and Chinese form in order to make this
analysis more directed, oriented, and useful.
D. Formulation of the Problem
Based on the limitation of the problem presented, the writer formulates the
following questions:
1. What is form of English Question Words ?
2. What is form of Chinese question words ?
3. What is the similarities and differences between English and Chinese question
word.

E. Objectives of the Study

Related to the formulation of the problem, this study is aimed:
1. To describe the kind of English question words.
2. To describe the kind of Chinese question words.

3. To Find out the similarities and the differences between English and Chinese
question word.
F. Significance of the Study
The result of this study is hoped to give some benefits to those concerned.
1. For the Learners
By knowing the similarities and differences of English and Chinese question
word, the learners can learn English and Chinese more effectively.
2. For the Teachers
By knowing the similarities and differences between English and Chinese,
the teacher may be able to teach English and Chinese question word easier
because they know how to use English and Chinese question word well.
3. For the other Researchers
This study may give early information to the researchers interested in the
similar or related topics for their future researches.