VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ MAI ANH
A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF SOME COMMON TEXTUAL
PATTERNS OF DISEASE OUTBREAK ONLINE NEWS IN ENGLISH
AND VIETNAMESE
NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU MỘT SỐ MẪU THỨC VĂN BẢN PHỔ BIẾN TRONG
CÁC PHẦN TIN ĐIỆN TỬ NÓI VỀ CÁC ĐỢT BÙNG PHÁT DỊCH BỆNH
BẰNG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT
MA. MINOR THESIS
Major: English Linguistics
Code : 60220201
HÀ NỘI – 2016
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ MAI ANH
A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF SOME COMMON TEXTUAL PATTERNS OF
DISEASE OUTBREAK ONLINE NEWS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU MỘT SỐ MẪU THỨC VĂN BẢN PHỔ BIẾN TRONG
CÁC PHẦN TIN ĐIỆN TỬ NÓI VỀ CÁC ĐỢT BÙNG PHÁT DỊCH BỆNH
BẰNG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT
MA. MINOR THESIS
Major: English Linguistics
Code : 60220201
Supervisor: Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn
HÀ NỘI – 2016
i
DECLARATION
I, Vu Thi Mai Anh, certify that this work is my own study. The data, results and
finding in this thesis are true. The thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree to
any other university or institution.
Signature:
Vu Thi Mai Anh
Email: maianhvu203@gmail.com
Mobile phone: 01684381468
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Huỳnh
Anh Tuấn, for setting me on an interesting path and for continuous support of my
thesis, for his patience, his motivation and immense knowledge. Without his
invaluable advice and instruction, the study could not have come to fruition.
Besides, I am also very grateful to my teacher Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn for his
value lectures about Information Structure that inspires me to conduct the study on
textual pattern.
My sincere thanks also goes to the Department of Graduate Studies for their
kindness and support.
Lastly, I wish to thank my parents, my husband, my son and my friends, who
always encourage, sympathize and be aside me. Without their previous support, it
would be impossible for me to conduct this research.
iii
ABSTRACT
The study is conducted to investigate the common textual patterns and their
signaling devices and to find out the similarities and differences of these issues in
English and Vietnamese diseases outbreak online news. Correspondingly, three
research questions are raised, which are (1) What kinds of textual pattern are
commonly used in disease outbreak online news in English and Vietnamese? (2) What
are the signaling devices that help to identify textual patterns in disease outbreak
online news in English and Vietnamese? (3) What are the similarities and differences
between textual patterns and signaling devices of disease outbreak online news in
English and Vietnamese? In order to answer the research questions, the researcher
combines different methods of data analysis (quantitative, qualitative, descriptive and
contrastive). The research is conducted on 100 news on diseases outbreak, half of
which are in English and the other half are in Vietnamese. The result reveals that the
most common textual pattern in both English and Vietnamese is Problem – Solution.
General – Particular pattern ranks the second with a much smaller percentage.
Question - Answer is only found in Vietnamese news. The other patterns do not exist
in the surveyed news. Regarding signaling devices, there are two kinds: lexical signals
(noun, verb, adjective, adverb) and structural signals (changes in verb form).