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ĐỀ KIỂM TRA (BÀI TẬP LỚN) MÔN PHƯƠNG PHÁP LUẬN NGHIÊN CỨU KHOA HỌC Đề 2 Câu 1 Nêu các nội dung chính của một Đề cương nghiên cứu khoa học (4 điểm) The main contents of a scientific research proposal C.
ĐỀ KIỂM TRA (BÀI TẬP LỚN) MÔN: PHƯƠNG PHÁP LUẬN NGHIÊN CỨU KHOA HỌC Đề Câu : Nêu nội dung Đề cương nghiên cứu khoa học (4 điểm) The main contents of a scientific research proposal Câu 2: Lấy ví dụ 01 đề tài nghiên cứu khoa học cụ thể, chuyên ngành Ngôn ngữ Anh để minh hoạ cho các bước/ trình tự thực đề tài nghiên cứu khoa học (6 điểm) Take an example of 01 specific scientific research topic, right in the English language major to illustrate the steps/sequences to carry out the above scientific research topic Yêu cầu: - Bài làm tiếng Anh - Bài viết nộp dạng file word, sử dụng font Times New Roman - Bài làm giống bị huỷ kết quả, coi kết thi điểm Question 1: The main contents of a scientific research proposal: Title - Objective (research object - limitation of the study) - Environment (research approach – theoretical basis, scope of application) - Means (methods) Rationale - Theoretically: What works have been done, in which approaches (domestic and foreign) - Practically: In the process of using language, translating, compiling textbooks, and teaching, what are the difficulties and lack of? - Urgency, research reasons, research gaps (rooms left) The reason for choosing the main topic is to present the research purpose During this period The researcher seeks to answer the question "why is the topic considered?" When To explain the reason, the researcher needs to clarify three things: Briefly analyze the research history, and prove, propose research not repeat the results that previous colleagues have announced Clarifying the research level of previous colleagues to indicate the next topic What you get from a colleague? Explain the reason for the author's choice in theory, in practice, in terms of urgency and research capacity History of the study - Answer the question: Who did what? - Brief description of the research process, achievements and authors - Strengths and weaknesses of old studies - Conclusion on the issues to be solved Is there any blank array that hasn't been studied yet? - Prove that the research problem does not repeat the results that the previous author has announced Arms & Objectives of the study - Aims: answer the question for what? (serving practicals of life/overaching aims of the study) - Objectives: The nature of things needs to clarify the research purpose Answer the question: Do what? Present the planned tasks in the form of a tree - Pepper Based on the target tree to define specific research tasks The target tree is very necessary - in analyzing, concretizing the content and organizing research Sample of the study - Where will I research? - Which sample I choose to survey? To choose a survey sample, we must start from the research object to identify the survey object and from there determine the survey sample Those problems The object of research is a system of things that exist objectively in relationships that researchers need to discover The object of research is the place where but questions that researchers need to find answers to Research subjects can be: One space For example, with a topic with a research object: "environmental pollution" schools in Hanoi city", the object of the study is "Hanoi City" A process For example, with a topic whose research object is: "applying the method" studying in the style of scientific research at the university level", the research object is "Too student curriculum” Scope of the study What is the scope of the research? - types of scope - scope of research content, approach, survey subjects, research methods, data processing scale, application results - The extent of space, time, and course of events to consider Determine the scope of the study The scope of the study is a limited part of research related to the survey object and research content Research scope include the spatial limitations of the survey object; limited time to conduct research and limit the size of the content handled Basis for determining crime Microstudy can be: - A sufficiently representative part of the research object - Enough time to complete the research - Possibility to be supported in terms of funding, means of laboratory equipment (if necessary) necessary) to ensure the implementation of the research contents Research scope Not the subject of the study and the subject of the survey comprehensive review at all times, which is limited to a limited number of certain vis: The scope of the size of the survey subject; The spatial extent of things; The time range of the course of things; Research scope 7 Research questions Aims: Objectives: (as many objectives as possible Research scanion) Research question: Research hypothesis A research hypothesis is a statement of expectation or prediction that will be tested by research Before formulating your research hypothesis, read about the topic of interest to you Methods Research method/quantitative approach: the research data is words Research method/qualitative approach: (quantitative): research data is numerical (numbers) diagrams, tables 10 Evidences - Theoretical background - Previous studies - Data collection Question 2: Give a specific scientific research topic, correct with the English language major to illustrate the order of performing the above scientific research topic: Title: A STUDY OF IDIOMS BY CLOTHES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM A PERSPECTIVE OF COMPONENTS - Objective (research object - limitation of the study): A STUDY OF IDIOMS BY CLOTHES - Environment (research approach – theoretical basis, scope of application): FROM A PERSPECTIVE OF COMPONENTS - Means (methods): IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE Rationale Vietnam is on the path of development and intergration not only with the countries in the region but also with countries around the world Therefore, learning and using English in communication becomes very important and necessary All English learners in general and Vietnamese learners in particular desire to master English as native speakers However, people often face to a lot of difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations One of the reasons of these problems is that they meet difficulty in understanding and using idioms in communication Each nation‟s language lies in itself similar and different concepts on many fields such as customs and traditions, ways of thinking, religious beliefts, behavior standards, social conventions, ect Words and expressions including idioms have formed the vocabulary system of a language and make specific characteristics of each nation both material and spiritual values Hence, investigating the idioms in both English and Vietnamese always attracts many authors with many different studies Theoretically: this study will add some basic theories of English and Vietnamese idioms, specially the idioms by clothes from the perspective of components This helps to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes in terms of structural and semantic components It also contributes to the knowledge of linguistics in general and of idioms by clothes in particular Practically: for language teaching (both English and Vietnamese), the study facilitates learners‟communication because language is for communication, and idioms are an indispensable part of common expressions (Cowie, Mackin & McCaig, 1993, p x) The work will provide assistance to English-speaking learners of Vietnamese and Vietnamese learners of English to distinguish one kind of idioms from others in each language The work will also enable learners to tell when idioms in English and Vietnamese are similar and different, which is likely to be useful for their study Language teachers will be aided to help their learners reach this communicative goal For translation, knowledge of idioms from this work will help translators find closest equivalents to the expressions in the source language History of the study 2.1.1 Previous Research i) Previous Research Works on Idioms in English According to Makkai (1972) divides idioms into two main kinds: encoding and decoding Then, decoding idioms are subdivided into lexemic and semantic Semantic idioms consist of six categories: phrasal verbs, tournures, irreversible binomials, phrasal compounds, incorporating verbs and pseudo-idioms Seidl and McMordie (1988), Cowie, Mackin & McCaig (1993) mention the categories of idioms based on their topics and grammatical patterns From transformational grammar, Fraser (1970) regards an idiom as a constituent or a series of constituents whose meaning does not come from the meanings of individual parts He also mentions six level scales of idioms: unrestricted, reconstitution, extraction, permutation, insertion, adjunction and completely frozen Semantically, Quirk (1996) investigates idioms and proverbs having constituents of animals in English In this study, typical cultural properties conveyed by this type of idioms and proverbs are established This is regarded as an initial research investigating English idioms and proverbs in terms of their semantic properties from component perspective Fernando & Flavell (1981) are the linguists who realize the limitations of the previous scholars They suppose that idiom and idiomaticity are not the same They focus on the nature of idioms such as morpho-syntacite composition, semantic properties, homonymity, syntactic properties, etc They also examine several issues which focus attention on the idiom as a single lexeme that is non- correlative in its syntax and therefore non-literal in terms of its constituents The most satisfying and sensitive criterion to establish idiomaticity is undoubtedly the semantic one Semantically, Fernando & Flavell (1981) establish the transparent - opaque axis for analyzing idioms In defining idiom, they stress three features in particular: a non-correlative syntax resulting in non-literalness, homonymity and institutionalization From cognitive view, Nunberg et al (1994) divides idioms into two categories (i) idiomatically combining expressions whose constituent parts carry identifiable parts of their idiomatic meanings, and (ii) idiomatic phrases whose idiomatic meanings cannot be derived from their parts (see Section 1.1.3) Fernando (1996) also divides English idioms into three categories: pure idioms, semi-idioms and literal idioms Grammatically, Taylor (2002) mentions the interrelated topics of idioms and constructions The topics are interrelated in that both idioms and constructions are possibly considered as symbolic units, which associate a phonological (or „formal‟) representation with a semantic reading According to his points of view, constructions are usually specified at a high level of schematicity and likely to sanction an open set of expressions Nevertheless, a construction‟s usage range may not be fully predictable: constructions, in other words, display varying degrees of idiomaticity Idioms generally need to be specified at a lower level of schematicity Taylor (2002) also points out that the difference between idioms and constructions turns out to be a gradient distinction, having to do, essentially, with the schematicity at which a unit is specified Langlotz (2006) explores alternative types of adnominal modification in occasional variants of English verbal idioms Following the cognitive-linguistic framework, he states that the dimensions of idiomtransparency result from the language user‟s ability to remotivate the bipartite semantic structure by conceptual metaphors and metonymies In short, idioms in English are studied in terms of several aspects such as grammar, semantics, rhetoric, pragmatics, etc which are investigated from different views However, the majority of scholars pay their attention to the two approaches Scholars who adopt the first approach are more structurally orientated They describe the idioms and their idiomaticity in terms of one or more structural properties The idiomatologists who adopt the second approach study idiomaticity In short, idioms in English are studied in terms of several aspects such as grammar, semantics, rhetoric, pragmatics, etc which are investigated from different views However, the majority of scholars pay their attention to the two approaches Scholars who adopt the first approach are more structurally orientated They describe the idioms and their idiomaticity in terms of one or more structural properties The idiomatologists who adopt the second approach study idiomaticity as manifesting hidden conceptual design of the language Such an approach leads to the nature of cognition itself and accordingly has valid psycholinguistic 2.1.2 Previous Research Works on Idioms in Vietnamese In the vocabulary system of Vietnamese, idioms which are usually placed in a certain position can define themselves with other linguistic units such as compounds, collocations and proverbs Due to this direction, it can be seen that several studies on vocabulary and grammar or the boundary issues among lexical units have been carried out (Đỗ Hữu Châu ( 1981), Nguyễn Văn Mệnh ( 1986), Nguyễn Thiện Giáp ( 1985), Hồ Lê ( 1976), etc) Some other Vietnamese authors such as Trương Đơng San (1974), Hồng Văn Hành (1976) study the forms and meanings of similized idiom Nguyễn Công Đức (1995) studies Vietnamese idioms from formal-semantic perspectives It is a research investigating idioms quite systematically from both structural and semantic perspectives Based on the forms, he divides Vietnamese idioms into three categories: idioms with symmetrical structure, idioms with comparison structure and idioms with non- symmetrical structure For idioms with symmetrical structure, the most important characteristic is the reciprocal or contrast of meaning of the two parts of idioms, i.e it is the relation of symmetrical contents From this relation, these idioms form other relations such as the relation of symmetrical words, i.e symmetry or repetition between components Like other linguists, he supposes that idioms with comparison structure are formed according to a general formula A B (e.g trắng (very white) Idioms with non- symmetrical structure are generally formed by phrases, especially verb phrases: vén tay áo sô đốt nhà táng giấy (show a person who always waste money) The meaning formation process of idioms consists of three stages: creating constituent parts including explicit and implicit components, establishing the meanings through the internal relations among components, generalizing and identifying the idiomatic meanings with things and concepts in everyday life He also comments that the meanings of idioms are generally formed according to symmetrical, contrastive, harmonious, convergent and random relations Like other linguists, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) regards idioms as fixed groups of words having stable forms and fully figurative meanings The stable particularity of idiom forms is the stability of vocabulary components (It is normally so fixed that they cannot be replaced by any synonyms) This stable characteristic is the result of dimming or forgetting the relationship between grammar and semantics However, he also notes that the stability of idioms in the standard system and their flexibility in usage are not two contradict aspects and don‟t exclude each other The full particularity of idiomatic meanings is also explained from nominal senses Differing from other normal parts of speech, idioms are considered as the nominal units of the second class From this point of view, he emphasizes that idioms have bipartite meanings: literal (base, origin); figurative (used in reality and formed by the emblematized process) The emblematized process of idiom meanings is expressed by two forms: comparative and figurative Due to this, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) classifies Vietnamese idioms as follows: i) Based on the formation of meanings, there are two kinds of idioms: similized and figurative Figurative idioms can be sub-classified into symmetrical figurative and non-symmetrical figurative ii) Due to the structures, idioms can be classified into symmetrical and non- symmetrical Non-symmetrical idioms can be sub-classified into non-symmetrical similized The differences in classification above are only in view, or rather in selecting the criteria for each level of classification Due to that thought, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) considers each sub-category as an issue for investigation And, basing on this way, he continually divides each sub-category into smaller sub- categories For example, symmetrical figurative idioms can be classified into two types: coordination - meeting of meanings and no meeting of meanings Symmetrical figurative idioms with non- coordination - meeting of meanings can be further divided into balance, focus and alternative Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) also states that the general pattern of similized idioms (A B) given by the previous authors is right but very reduced It does not reflect the nature of comparison in terms of both logic and language According to him, in any case the logical structure of comparison is At1 Bt2 (t1 is the attribute of A; t2 is the attribute of B) Based on that general model, he conducts an analysis to find out the structure of idiomatic meanings and divides it into t B and B t B idioms can be sub- divided into t B (như B indicates the degree of t) and t B (như B indicates the manner of t) In addition, he does not only focus on the idiom structures but also their usage and values From cultural perspective, he supposes that the underlying cultural factors behind the idioms need uncovering Although he himself realizes that this approach of studying Vietnamese idioms is still open, we can find his contribution in this aspect through his works on idioms In short, in Vietnamese, although there exist several studies on idioms, most of the scholars focus on the forms and meanings of idioms from traditional view It means that studies on idioms in general and idioms by clothes from cognitive view have not been paid much attention 2.2 Summary The chapter has presented theoretical background and framework which are employed for conducting the whole graduation thesis along with the review of literature with certain previous works on idioms both in English and in Vietnamese Idioms in both English and Vietnamese are studied in terms of several aspects such as structure, semantics, and taxonomy, etc which are investigated from different views (traditional, cognitive, etc) However, Vietnamese idioms from cognitive view have not been adequately investigated Most scholars in Vietnam pay attention to the forms and meanings of idioms from traditional view These studies are initial investigations on the specific aspects of idioms As far as I am concerned, there have been no studies investigating the structural and semantic components of idioms by clothes in both English and Vietnamese in a fully systematical way Arms & Objectives of the study The study is conducted to improve English teaching and learning in general and idiom teaching and learning in particular The findings of the study, to some extent, help the teachers and the learners have a better understanding of English and Vietnamese languages through the idioms by clothes In order to achieve the aim, the study is intended to reach the following objectives: - to uncover how the components of idioms by clothes are organized structurally and semantically in English and Vietnamese; - to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes in terms of structural and semantic components; - to give some implications for idiom teaching and translation Sample of the study - Where will I research? in English and Vietnamese - Which sample I choose to survey? Idiom by clothes, Idiom by clothes in English, Idiom by clothes in Vietnamese To choose a survey sample, we must start from the research object to identify the survey object and from there determine the survey sample Those problems The object of research is a system of things that exist objectively in relationships that researchers need to discover The object of research is the place where but questions that researchers need to find answers to Research subjects can be: One space For example, with a topic with a research object: "environmental pollution" schools in Hanoi city", the object of the study is "Hanoi City" A process For example, with a topic whose research object is: "applying the method" studying in the style of scientific research at the university level", the research object is "Too student curriculum” Scope of the study This study investigates idioms by clothes in both English and Vietnamese from a perspective of components The study focuses on the idioms by clothes selected from recently published dictionaries All the authors of these works affirm that the idioms in their books are both current and used, or undersood, by most native speakers - Content: An investigation of idioms by clothes in English and Vietnamese in terms of structural and semantic components is carried out in the present study - Approach: etymology, synchronic evolution, and comparison and contrastive analysis (Hoàng Văn Hành, 2008); synchronic evolution; Studying idioms under comparison and contrastive analysis - Methods: Componential analysis, describing, comparing and contrasting - Data: Any idiom selected in both English and Vietnamese satisfies the criteria the definition for working involves - Implications: for Idiom Teaching and Translation Research questions The objectives of the study can be elaborated into the research questions as follows: - How are the components of idioms by clothes organized structurally and semantically in English and Vietnamese? - What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes in terms of structural and semantic components? - What are the possible implications for idioms teaching and translation? Research hypothesis The study is conducted to improve English teaching and learning in general and idiom teaching and learning in particular The findings of the study, to some extent, help the teachers and the learners have a better understanding of English and Vietnamese languages through the idioms by clothes Methods Due to the main aims and objectives of the study, description, componential analysis, contrastive exploitation and experimental method have been chosen as major ones Firstly, the description, componential analysis are utilized in order to give a full account of the structural and semantic components of English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes Secondly, the contrastive method is applied to identify the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes Finally, the experimental method is used to uncover the effectiveness of idiom componential analysis applied to idiom teaching at An Duong high school In conducting the research thesis, last but not least, setting up a regular consultancy with supervisor for a guidance and academic exchange is a critical technique to find out a right direction for doing the research successfully 10 Evidences Theoretical background: The central problem one comes up against in attempting to define idiom is identifying the property (or properties) which will adequately capture all the idioms in a language while excluding all the non-idioms A number of approaches to idiomaticity together with various definitions of what an idiom is have already been presented in the previous chapter If one narrowed down the consideration of idiomaticity to the specific problem of definition it is possible to identify two approaches to what idiomaticity is: Those scholars who adopt the first approach look on idiomaticity as manifesting the specific character or genius of a language Their investigations of idiomaticity are directed towards revealing this specific character which is, in effect part of the underlying conceptual design of the language Such an approach ultimately leads to the nature of cognition itself and therefore has strong psycholinguistic implications The chief exemplars of this approach to idiomaticity in the Anglo-American tradition of linguistics, Smith (1925) and Roberts (1944), not carry their investigations to these depths Their work, already referred to in Section 1.1, simply outlines the cultural preoccupations, the 'world view' implicit in the idioms of English, together with the pecularities of phrasing and other distinguishing features (e.g non-literalness) that distinguish expressions as idioms But the main emphasis in such work is on the conceptual design of the language in so far as it emerges through a consideration of idiomaticity rather than on the structural properties of idioms Scholars who adopt the second approach are more structurally orientated and seek to define idiomaticity in terms of one or more structural properties They are, therefore more selective in their indentification of idioms The second approach, in addition, enables the linguist to make topological classifications of such idioms on the basis of the properties he adopts as criteria The majority of the scholars whose work has been examined in Chapter I adopt this second approach which is also the one adopted in this chapter English is very rich in idiomatic expressions It is difficult to speak or write English without using idioms An important fact that must be taken into consideration is that idioms are not only colloquial expressions, as many people believe They can appear in formal style and in slang They can also appear in poetry or in the language of the journalist, the writer and the Bible What, then, is an idiom? Many linguists such as Robins (1989), Palmer (1981), Jackson and Amvela (1998) and others regard idioms as a special kind of collocation The meaning of an idiom, however, cannot be deduced from the meaning of its constituents An idiom is distinguished from a collocation, for a collocation is a sequence of lexical items which habitually cooccur and each lexical constituent of a collocation is a semantic component Hornby (1995) argued in his Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, an idiom is “a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit” Sharing the same point of view, Seidl and Mordie (1988) defined “an idiom is a number of words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words of the idiom when they stand alone” For instance, the collocation of kick and the bucket forms an idiom meaning die, which is not systematically determinable from the meanings of kick and the bucket This idiom or phrasal lexeme is formally identical with the phrase kick the bucket whose meaning is systematically determinable on the basis of the meaning of the lexemes of which it is composed – hit a certain type of container for liquids with their foot In Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992), an idiom is also regarded as “an expression which functions as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts” In addition, Cowie, Mackin & McCaig (1993) state that idioms are groups of words with set meanings that cannot be calculated by adding up the separate meanings of the parts Fernando (1996) defines an idiom as “an indivisible unit whose components cannot be varied or varied only within definable limits” This means that no other words can be substituted for those comprising Nor are the words of an idiom usually recombinable In Vietnamese, a great variety of definitions of idioms are also given Nguyễn Văn Mệnh (1972) and Đỗ Hữu Châu (1981) suppose that idioms are available linguistic units which have stable structures, typical meanings and nominative functions Having the same viewpoint, Nguyễn Đức Dân (1986) defines that an idiom is a fixed group of words having a complete meaning and descriptive value To make it clearer, he also adds that idioms express concepts based on separated images It is the reason why idioms usually have their own figurative meanings For example, the phrase quần áo lượt (very formal and welldressed) is considered as an idiom because its idiomatic meaning cannot be infered from the meanings of its constituents (quần, là, áo, lượt) Another definition of idiom from Hoàng Văn Hành (2008, p 31) is that an idiom is a fixed group of words which is firm in terms of structure, complete and figurative in terms of meaning, and is widely used in daily speaking As can be seen from the above definitions, there are different ways of defining an idiom In general, most of the linguists share the same point of view that an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out by looking at the meanings of its individual constituents What is given below is regarded as a summary of the defining features of an idiom Such an idiom: - is a fixed unit whose components cannot be varied or varied under definable control; - is regarded as a complex scene with a bipartite semantic structure: a literal reading and an idiomatic meaning; - has the meaning which is usually different from the meanings of the combination of its components; - expresses a pure concept Previous studies According to Makkai (1972) divides idioms into two main kinds: encoding and decoding Then, decoding idioms are subdivided into lexemic and semantic Semantic idioms consist of six categories: phrasal verbs, tournures, irreversible binomials, phrasal compounds, incorporating verbs and pseudo-idioms Seidl and McMordie (1988), Cowie, Mackin & McCaig (1993) mention the categories of idioms based on their topics and grammatical patterns From transformational grammar, Fraser (1970) regards an idiom as a constituent or a series of constituents whose meaning does not come from the meanings of individual parts He also mentions six level scales of idioms: unrestricted, reconstitution, extraction, permutation, insertion, adjunction and completely frozen Semantically, Quirk (1996) investigates idioms and proverbs having constituents of animals in English In this study, typical cultural properties conveyed by this type of idioms and proverbs are established This is regarded as an initial research investigating English idioms and proverbs in terms of their semantic properties from component perspective Fernando & Flavell (1981) are the linguists who realize the limitations of the previous scholars They suppose that idiom and idiomaticity are not the same They focus on the nature of idioms such as morpho-syntacite composition, semantic properties, homonymity, syntactic properties, etc They also examine several issues which focus attention on the idiom as a single lexeme that is non- correlative in its syntax and therefore non-literal in terms of its constituents The most satisfying and sensitive criterion to establish idiomaticity is undoubtedly the semantic one Semantically, Fernando & Flavell (1981) establish the transparent - opaque axis for analyzing idioms In defining idiom, they stress three features in particular: a non-correlative syntax resulting in non-literalness, homonymity and institutionalization From cognitive view, Nunberg et al (1994) divides idioms into two categories (i) idiomatically combining expressions whose constituent parts carry identifiable parts of their idiomatic meanings, and (ii) idiomatic phrases whose idiomatic meanings cannot be derived from their parts (see Section 1.1.3) Fernando (1996) also divides English idioms into three categories: pure idioms, semi-idioms and literal idioms Grammatically, Taylor (2002) mentions the interrelated topics of idioms and constructions The topics are interrelated in that both idioms and constructions are possibly considered as symbolic units, which associate a phonological (or „formal‟) representation with a semantic reading According to his points of view, constructions are usually specified at a high level of schematicity and likely to sanction an open set of expressions Nevertheless, a construction‟s usage range may not be fully predictable: constructions, in other words, display varying degrees of idiomaticity Idioms generally need to be specified at a lower level of schematicity Taylor (2002) also points out that the difference between idioms and constructions turns out to be a gradient distinction, having to do, essentially, with the schematicity at which a unit is specified Langlotz (2006) explores alternative types of adnominal modification in occasional variants of English verbal idioms Following the cognitive-linguistic framework, he states that the dimensions of idiomtransparency result from the language user‟s ability to remotivate the bipartite semantic structure by conceptual metaphors and metonymies In short, idioms in English are studied in terms of several aspects such as grammar, semantics, rhetoric, pragmatics, etc which are investigated from different views However, the majority of scholars pay their attention to the two approaches Scholars who adopt the first approach are more structurally orientated They describe the idioms and their idiomaticity in terms of one or more structural properties The idiomatologists who adopt the second approach study idiomaticity as manifesting hidden conceptual design of the language Such an approach leads to the nature of cognition itself and accordingly has valid psycholinguistic 2.2.1 Previous Research Works on Idioms in Vietnamese In the vocabulary system of Vietnamese, idioms which are usually placed in a certain position can define themselves with other linguistic units such as compounds, collocations and proverbs Due to this direction, it can be seen that several studies on vocabulary and grammar or the boundary issues among lexical units have been carried out (Đỗ Hữu Châu ( 1981), Nguyễn Văn Mệnh ( 1986), Nguyễn Thiện Giáp ( 1985), Hồ Lê ( 1976), etc) Some other Vietnamese authors such as Trương Đông San (1974), Hoàng Văn Hành (1976) study the forms and meanings of similized idiom Nguyễn Công Đức (1995) studies Vietnamese idioms from formal-semantic perspectives It is a research investigating idioms quite systematically from both structural and semantic perspectives Based on the forms, he divides Vietnamese idioms into three categories: idioms with symmetrical structure, idioms with comparison structure and idioms with non- symmetrical structure For idioms with symmetrical structure, the most important characteristic is the reciprocal or contrast of meaning of the two parts of idioms, i.e it is the relation of symmetrical contents From this relation, these idioms form other relations such as the relation of symmetrical words, i.e symmetry or repetition between components Like other linguists, he supposes that idioms with comparison structure are formed according to a general formula A B (e.g trắng (very white) Idioms with non- symmetrical structure are generally formed by phrases, especially verb phrases: vén tay áo sô đốt nhà táng giấy (show a person who always waste money) The meaning formation process of idioms consists of three stages: creating constituent parts including explicit and implicit components, establishing the meanings through the internal relations among components, generalizing and identifying the idiomatic meanings with things and concepts in everyday life He also comments that the meanings of idioms are generally formed according to symmetrical, contrastive, harmonious, convergent and random relations Like other linguists, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) regards idioms as fixed groups of words having stable forms and fully figurative meanings The stable particularity of idiom forms is the stability of vocabulary components (It is normally so fixed that they cannot be replaced by any synonyms) This stable characteristic is the result of dimming or forgetting the relationship between grammar and semantics However, he also notes that the stability of idioms in the standard system and their flexibility in usage are not two contradict aspects and don‟t exclude each other The full particularity of idiomatic meanings is also explained from nominal senses Differing from other normal parts of speech, idioms are considered as the nominal units of the second class From this point of view, he emphasizes that idioms have bipartite meanings: literal (base, origin); figurative (used in reality and formed by the emblematized process) The emblematized process of idiom meanings is expressed by two forms: comparative and figurative Due to this, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) classifies Vietnamese idioms as follows: iii) Based on the formation of meanings, there are two kinds of idioms: similized and figurative Figurative idioms can be sub-classified into symmetrical figurative and non-symmetrical figurative iv) Due to the structures, idioms can be classified into symmetrical and non- symmetrical Non-symmetrical idioms can be sub-classified into non-symmetrical similized The differences in classification above are only in view, or rather in selecting the criteria for each level of classification Due to that thought, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) considers each sub-category as an issue for investigation And, basing on this way, he continually divides each sub-category into smaller sub- categories For example, symmetrical figurative idioms can be classified into two types: coordination - meeting of meanings and no meeting of meanings Symmetrical figurative idioms with noncoordination - meeting of meanings can be further divided into balance, focus and alternative Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) also states that the general pattern of similized idioms (A B) given by the previous authors is right but very reduced It does not reflect the nature of comparison in terms of both logic and language According to him, in any case the logical structure of comparison is At1 Bt2 (t1 is the attribute of A; t2 is the attribute of B) Based on that general model, he conducts an analysis to find out the structure of idiomatic meanings and divides it into t B and B t B idioms can be sub- divided into t B (như B indicates the degree of t) and t B (như B indicates the manner of t) In addition, he does not only focus on the idiom structures but also their usage and values From cultural perspective, he supposes that the underlying cultural factors behind the idioms need uncovering Although he himself realizes that this approach of studying Vietnamese idioms is still open, we can find his contribution in this aspect through his works on idioms In short, in Vietnamese, although there exist several studies on idioms, most of the scholars focus on the forms and meanings of idioms from traditional view It means that studies on idioms in general and idioms by clothes from cognitive view have not been paid much attention 2.3 Summary The chapter has presented theoretical background and framework which are employed for conducting the whole graduation thesis along with the review of literature with certain previous works on idioms both in English and in Vietnamese Idioms in both English and Vietnamese are studied in terms of several aspects such as structure, semantics, and taxonomy, etc which are investigated from different views (traditional, cognitive, etc) However, Vietnamese idioms from cognitive view have not been adequately investigated Most scholars in Vietnam pay attention to the forms and meanings of idioms from traditional view These studies are initial investigations on the specific aspects of idioms As far as I am concerned, there have been no studies investigating the structural and semantic components of idioms by clothes in both English and Vietnamese in a fully systematical way Data collection The monolingual and bilingual dictionaries of idioms in two languages are useful instruments to collect data Google search should be accounted because a large number of relevant journals, newspapers, reference materials have been taken thanks to this tool Hence, to select an appropriate collection of English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes with illustrating examples, the following techniques have also been applied: dictionary checking, Google searching techniques and data categorizing with determined criteria Regarding dictionary checking techniques, such key words as „idiom‟, names of clothes are used to check the relevant meanings of English idioms containing them To categorize the data with determined criteria, some data mining techniques like clustering technique and classification technique are used for defining the various semantic features in accordance with certain meaning categories In addition, others minor techniques are also employed as reading comprehension, meaning comparison and note-taking for selecting desired material of various idioms by clothes apart from the word processing technique for archive of data categorizations Applying those data collection techniques, English and Vietnamese idioms containing the component parts of clothes have been collected Simultaneously, a collection of examples extracted from dictionaries and literature works have been gathered as well In order to collect the data, a working definition of an idiom has been established in the present study (see Section 2.1.1) Any idiom selected in both English and Vietnamese satisfies the criteria the definition for working involves Data for the present analysis of English and Vietnamese are mainly collected from the following dictionaries: English Bình, P V (1999) Tục ngữ nước Anh thành ngữ tiếng Anh giàu hình ảnh [English picturesque idioms] Hải Phịng: Nxb Hải Phịng Cambridge Idioms Dictionary (2006) (2nd ed.) Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary (2002) (2nd ed.) UK: Harper Collins Publisher Cowie, A P., Mackin, R., & McCaig, I R (1993) Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms Oxford: Oxford University Press Siefring, J (2005) Oxford Dictionary of Idioms Oxford: Oxford University Press Vietnamese Nguyễn Lân (2003) Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam [A dictionary of Vietnamese idioms and proverbs] Hà Nội: Nxb Văn học Nguyễn Lực & Lương Văn Đang (2009) (3rd ed.) Thành ngữ tiếng Việt [A dictionary of Vietnamese idioms] Hà Nội: Nxb Khoa học Xã hội Tiêu Hà Minh (2007) Đi tìm điển tích thành ngữ [Seeking idioms‟ classic references] Hà Nội: Nxb Thông Tấn Nguyễn Như Ý cộng (1998) Từ điển giải thích thành ngữ tiếng Việt [A dictionary of Vietnamese idioms] Hà Nội: Nxb Giáo dục Nguyễn Như Ý (2002) Từ điển thành ngữ tiếng Việt phổ thông [A dictionary of common Vietnamese idioms] Hà Nội: Nxb Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội We choose the dictionaries above because of several specific reasons Firstly, they are quite popular and currently available Secondly, they cover a large number of the idioms which people are likely to find in everyday English as well as Vietnamese Thirdly, most of idiom types can be found in these dictionaries in a large number by clothes (3 for English and for Vietnames ... idioms and proverbs] Hà Nội: Nxb Văn học Nguyễn Lực & Lương Văn Đang (2009) (3rd ed.) Thành ngữ tiếng Việt [A dictionary of Vietnamese idioms] Hà Nội: Nxb Khoa học Xã hội Tiêu Hà Minh (2007) Đi... điển thành ngữ tiếng Việt phổ thông [A dictionary of common Vietnamese idioms] Hà Nội: Nxb Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội We choose the dictionaries above because of several specific reasons Firstly,