Nghiên cứu thành tố cấu trúc và ngữ nghĩa của một số thành ngữ cố định điển hình trong tiếng anh và tiếng việt

Luận án khảo sát thành ngữ trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt trên bình diện thành tố cấu trúc và thành tố ngữ nghĩa để tìm ra những tương đồng và khác biệt giữa hai ngôn ngữ. Khối liệu của luận án (4134 thành ngữ trong tiếng Anh và 4053 thành ngữ trong tiếng Việt) được thiết lập dựa trên dữ liệu thu thập từ các cuốn từ điển hiện hành. Phương pháp nghiên cứu chính được sử dụng trong luận án là phân tích thành tố, miêu tả, so sánh và đối chiếu. Kết quả nghiên cứu của luận án đề cập tới sự tương đồng và khác biệt giữa thành ngữ tiếng Anh và thành ngữ tiếng Việt từ hai bình diện: (1) thành tố cấu trúc, và (2) thành tố ngữ nghĩa cũng như cơ trình tạo nghĩa của chúng. Để đạt được mục tiêu nghiên cứu, tác giả đã áp dụng một khung lý thuyết chung về thành ngữ cho cả hai ngôn ngữ. Thành tố cấu trúc và ngữ nghĩa chuẩn bao gồm ba loại thành ngữ có trong khối liệu: thành ngữ đối xứng, thành ngữ ví von hóa, và thành ngữ phi đối xứng. Thành tố cấu trúc và ngữ nghĩa phi chuẩn bao gồm biến thể thành ngữ và thành ngữ đồng nghĩa. Thành tố ngữ nghĩa của mỗi loại thành ngữ được miêu tả và phân tích theo mức độ tường minh của các thành tố (tường minh, bán tường minh, bán mờ và mờ), mối quan hệ giữa nghĩa thực và nghĩa thành ngữ, và kết cấu ngữ nghĩa của các thành tố. Cơ trình của các thành tố ngữ nghĩa được thúc đẩy bởi quá trình nhận thức từ bên ngoài bao gồm ẩn dụ, hoán dụ và kiến thức quy ước. Đây là một quá trình tự nhiên bị ảnh hưởng bởi nhiều yếu tố khác nhau như hoàn cảnh sống, bối cảnh lịch sử, tôn giáo, tín ngưỡng, phong tục tập quán… Kết quả nghiên cứu của luận án cũng cho thấy hầu hết các thành ngữ trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt đều có thể phân tích và nghĩa của chúng, ở một mức độ nào đó, có thể làm tường minh. Ngoài ra, luận án còn đưa ra những gợi ý cho việc giảng dạy thành ngữ cũng như dịch thuật dựa trên các kết quả nghiên cứu.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration by Author……… ……….

Published Works by the Author Relevant to the Thesis……… ….…….

Acknowledgements……… ………

Abstract……….…… ……

List of Figures……… …………

List of Tables……… ………

List of Abbreviations and Symbols Used in the Thesis……… ……

List of Vietnamese – English Terms……… ….……

i ii iii viii x xiv xv xvi PART A: INTRODUCTION……… ……….

1 Rationale……… …… ……

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study……… … ………

3 Research Questions……… …………

4 Scope of the Study……… ………….………

5 Contributions of the Study……… ……….…………

6 Methodology……… …… … ……….

6.1 Theoretical Framework……… ….………

6.2 Analytical Framework……… …….………

6.3 Data Collection……… ….………

6.4 Data Analysis……… ….…………

6.5 Procedure……… …….…………

7 Structure of the Study……… …….…………

1 1 3 3 3 3 4 4 7 9 10 12 13 PART B: DEVELOPMENT……… ………

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW……… ….………….

1.1 Theoretical Background……… …….…….

1.1.1 Idioms Defined……… …….………

1.1.2 Idioms from Traditional View……… …….………

1.1.3 Idioms from Cognitive View……… …….………

1.1.4 Idioms from Taxonomic View……… …….………

1.1.5 Idioms from Cultural View……… …….………

1.1.6 Idioms in the Relationship to Other Linguistic Units……… …… …

1.2 Previous Research……… …….…

1.2.1 Previous Research Works on Idioms in English………… ….…….…

1.2.2 Previous Research Works on Idioms in Vietnamese……… ……….…

14 14 14 14 16 18 19 28 29 33 33 35

1.2.3 Previous Research Works on Idioms in English and Vietnamese under

Comparison and Contrastive Analysis……… ….…

1.3 Summary……….…….….…

CHAPTER 2: STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS……… ………

2.1 Canonical Structural Components……… ………….

2.1.1 Symmetrical Idioms……… ………

2.1.1.1 Realization……… … ………

2.1.1.2 Structural Patterns……… ….…………

2.1.1.3 Structural Components……… ………

2.1.2 Similized Idioms……… …… …………

2.1.2.1 Realization……… … ………

2.1.2.2 Structural Patterns……… … ………

2.1.2.3 Structural Components……… ….…….………

2.1.3 Non-symmetrical idioms……… …………

2.1.3.1 Realization……… … ………

2.1.3.2 Structural Patterns……… …….…………

2.1.3.3 Structural Components……… ………

2.2 Non-canonical Structural Components……… … ……….

2.2.1 Idiom Variants……… ………

2.2.1.1 Realization……… … ………

2.2.1.2 Structural Components……… … ………

2.2.2 Synonymous Idioms……… … ………

2.2.2.1 Realization……… … ………

2.2.2.2 Structural Components……… ………

2.3 Structural Components of English and Vietnamese Idioms Compared 2.3.1 Similarities……… … ………

2.3.1.1 Canonical Structural Components Found in both Languages…

2.3.1.2 Non-canonical Structural Components Found in both Languages 2.3.2 Differences……….………… ………

2.3.2.1 Canonical Structural Components Unique to English……… …

2.3.2.2 Non-canonical Structural Components Unique to English…

2.3.2.3 Canonical Structural Components Unique to Vietnamese …… 2.3.2.4 Non-canonical Structural Components Unique to Vietnamese…

38 39

41 41 41 41 42 43 51 51 52 53 59 59 60 62 69 70 70 72 78 78 80 85 85 85 85 86 88 89 90 91

2.4 Summary……… ……… …

CHAPTER 3: SEMANTIC COMPONENTS OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS……… …… … …….

3.1 Canonical Semantic Components……… … … …

3.1.1 Semantic Components of Symmetrical Idioms……… ………

3.1.1.1 Motivation Degree of Semantic Components……… … ……

3.1.1.2 Composition of Semantic Components……….……

3.1.2 Semantic Components of Similized Idioms……… ……

3.1.2.1 Motivation Degree of Semantic Components……… … ……

3.1.2.2 Composition of Semantic Components……… …… …

3.1.3 Semantic Components of Non-symmetrical Idioms……… ……

3.1.3.1 Motivation Degree of Semantic Components………… ……

3.1.3.2 Composition of Semantic Components……….……

3.2 Non-canonical Semantic Components……… ………

3.2.1 Semantic Components of Idiom Variants………

3.2.1.1 Realization……… ………

3.2.1.2 Semantic Nuance……… … ……

3.2.2 Semantic Components of Synonymous Idioms……… …… ……

3.2.2.1 Realization……… … ……

3.2.2.2 Semantic Nuance……… ……

3.3 Formation of Semantic Components of Idioms……… ……

3.3.1 Formation Mechanism……….… ……

3.3.2 Main Factors Affecting the Formation of Semantic Components……

3.3.2.1 Living Circumstance……… …….………

3.3.2.2 Historical Allusion……… ………

3.3.2.3 Religions and Beliefs……… …………

3.3.2.4 Traditions and Customs……… … ………

3.4 Semantic Components of English and Vietnamese Idioms Compared…

3.4.1 Similarities……… ………

3.4.1.1 Canonical Semantic Components Found in both Languages…

3.4.1.2 Non-canonical Semantic Components Found in both Languages 3.4.1.3 Formation of semantic components found in both Languages

3.4.2 Differences……….….… …

3.4.2.1 Canonical Semantic Components Unique to English……….…

92

93 93 93 93 100 102 102 105 107 107 112 114 115 115 116 118 118 118 119 119 124 124 126 128 128 130 131 131 132 133 134 135

3.4.2.2 Canonical Semantic Components Unique to Vietnamese…

3.4.2.3 Differences between English and Vietnamese in Terms of Main Factors that Affect the Formation of Semantic Components…

3.5 Summary……… …

136 136 141 PART C: CONCLUSION……….………….

1 Recapitulation……… ….……….

2 Conclusions……… … ………

3 Implications for Idiom Teaching and Translation……… ……….…

4 Suggestions for Further Studies……… ………

142 142 146 149 151 REFERENCES……… ……

APPENDIX 1……… ….……

APPENDIX 2……… ….……

APPENDIX 3……….… …………

APPENDIX 4……… …………

153 I VII XII XVI

ABSTRACT

An investigation of idioms in English and Vietnamese in terms of structural and semantic components is carried out in the present study Componential analysis,

describing, comparing and contrasting are regarded as the main methods used in thepresent thesis The findings of the study are concerned with the similarities anddifferences between English and Vietnamese idioms in terms of (1) structuralcomponents, and (2) semantic components and their formation In order to collect thedata, a hand search approach of the dictionaries in both languages has been conducted,which helps to establish a corpus of 4,134 idioms in English and 4,053 idioms inVietnamese.

In the present study, a common theoretical framework on idioms is applied to bothEnglish and Vietnamese The canonical structural and semantic components involvethree types of idioms existing in our data: symmetrical, similized, and non-symmetrical(Đức 1995; Hành 2008) The canonical structural components of each idiom type arerealized, described and analyzed according to grammatical rules suggested by Quirk,Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik (1985) The non-canonical structural componentsinvolve two types of idioms: idiom variants and synonymous idioms

The semantic components of each idiom type involve the motivation degrees(transparent, semi-transparent, semi-opaque, and opaque) (Fernando & Flavell 1981;Fernando 1996), the association between the literal readings and the idiomatic meanings(Langlotz 2006), and the semantic composition of component parts (Hành 2008) Thefindings of the current study also reveal that most of the idioms in both English andVietnamese are analyzable and have meanings that are at least partly motivated(Geeraets 1995; Gibbs 1990, 1995; Kövecses & Szabo 1996; Nunberg et al 1994;Fernando 1996; Langlotz 2006; etc) The formation mechanism of the semanticcomponents of idioms is motivated by external semantic cognition including metaphors,metonymies and conventional knowledge (Gibbs 1990, 1995) It is a natural processimplicitly affected by several different factors such as living circumstance (geographicalenvironment, climate), historical allusion (historical events, fables and mythologies,literary works), religions and beliefs, and traditions and customs (food and cooking,animals) This leads to a fact that the component parts forming idioms in the twolanguages are different although they denote similar concepts The thesis also presentsthe implications for idiom teaching and translation

Keywords: idioms, idiomaticity, symmetrical idioms, similized idioms, non-symmetrical

idioms, idiom variants, synonymous idioms, underlying factors, motivation degree, literal reading, idiomatic meaning

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1: Classification of symmetrical figurative idioms in Vietnamese

(Hành 2008: 76)……….… Figure 1.2: Classification of non-symmetrical figurative idioms in Vietnamese

(Hành 2008: 100)……….……Figure 1.3: Classification of similized idioms in Vietnamese (Hành 2008: 115)Figure 2.1 Distribution of symmetrical idioms in English and Vietnamese….…Figure 2.2: Structural patterns of symmetrical idioms in English……….…….…Figure 2.3: Structural patterns of symmetrical idioms in Vietnamese…… ……

Figure 2.4: Structural components of A and B symmetrical idioms in English.… Figure 2.5: Structural components of A or B symmetrical idioms in English… Figure 2.6: Structural components of A but B symmetrical idioms in English … Figure 2.7: Structural components of A to B symmetrical idioms in English Figure 2.8: Structural components of A, B symmetrical idioms in English….… Figure 2.9: Symmetrical relationship between A and B of mẹ tròn con vuông in

Figure 2.15: Structural components of as A as B similized idioms in English.… Figure 2.16: Structural components of A like B similized idioms in English….… Figure 2.17: Structural components of […] like B similized idioms in English… Figure 2.18: Structural components of […] as B similized idioms in English.… Figure 2.19: Structural components of A như B similized idioms in

Figure 2.22: Structural components of AB similized idioms in Vietnamese….…

Figure 2.23: Distribution of non-symmetrical idioms in English and

Vietnamese………Figure 2.24: Structural patterns of non-symmetrical idioms in English…… …

26

27274242434445464647

48

49

5052525354545556

57

58

5959

6061

Figure 2.25: Structural patterns of non-symmetrical idioms in Vietnamese ……

Figure 2.26: Structural components of A HN (B) non-symmetrical idioms as

noun phrases in English………

Figure 2.27: Structural components of AB non-symmetrical idioms as adjective

phrases in English………

Figure 2.28: Structural components of Prep B non-symmetrical idioms as

prepositional phrases in English……….….……

Figure 2.29: Structural components of A Adv non-symmetrical idioms as

adverbial phrases in English……… ……

Figure 2.30: Structural components of (A) V/PV B non-symmetrical idioms as

verb phrases in English………Figure 2.31: Structural components of non-symmetrical idioms as sentences in

Vietnamese……… …… ……… Figure 2.36: Distribution of idiom variants in English and Vietnamese…….… Figure 2.37: Realization criteria of idiom variants in English and Vietnamese.…Figure 2.38: Distribution of synonymous idioms in English and Vietnamese ….Figure 2.39: Realization criteria of synonymous idioms in English and

Vietnamese……… ……… …….Figure 2.40: Distribution of idiom types in English and Vietnamese……….… Figure 2.41: Distribution of idiom variants and synonymous idioms in English

and Vietnamese……….……… … Figure 3.1 Distribution of transparent symmetrical idioms in English and

Vietnamese……… … ……Figure 3.2: Semantic components of transparent symmetrical idioms in English

and Vietnamese……… Figure 3.3: The relationship between the literal reading and idiomatic meaning

of slowly but surely in English and bày mưu tính kế in Vietnamese.

8087

87

94

94

95

Figure 3.4: Transformation of quốc sắc thiên hương (from Sino-Vietnamese

into Vietnamese)……… ……… Figure 3.5: Distribution of semi-opaque symmetrical idioms in English and

Vietnamese……… …… ….Figure 3.6: Semantic components of semi-opaque symmetrical idioms in

English and Vietnamese……… ………Figure 3.7: The relationship between the literal reading and idiomatic meaning

of day and night in English and mồm năm miệng mười in

Vietnamese……… ………Figure 3.8: Distribution of opaque symmetrical idioms in English and

Vietnamese……… ………… ….Figure 3.9: Semantic components of opaque symmetrical idioms in

Vietnamese……… ……… Figure 3.10: The relationship between the literal reading and idiomatic meaning

of già kén kẹn hom in Vietnamese……… ……

Figure 3.11: Distribution of semi-transparent similized idioms in English and

Vietnamese……… ………… ….Figure 3.12: Semantic components of semi-transparent similized idioms in

English and Vietnamese……… Figure 3.13: The relationship between the literal reading and idiomatic meaning

of as busy as a bee in English and chậm như rùa in

Vietnamese……… Figure 3.14: Distribution of semi-opaque similized idioms in English and

Vietnamese……… ……… Figure 3.15: Semantic components of semi-opaque similized idioms in English

and Vietnamese……….…… Figure 3.16: The relationship between the literal reading and idiomatic meaning

of as black as coal in English and đen như chó in

Vietnamese……… ……… Figure 3.17: Distribution of transparent non-symmetrical idioms in English and

Vietnamese……… … …

Figure 3.18: Semantic components of in any case in English……….…

Figure 3.19: Distribution of semi-opaque non-symmetrical idioms in English

and Vietnamese……… …………Figure 3.20: Semantic components of semi-opaque non-symmetrical idioms in

109

English and Vietnamese………

Figure 3.21: The relationship between the literal reading and idiomatic meaning of throw a spanner into the works in English and áo gấm đi đêm in Vietnamese……….……… ……

Figure 3.22: Distribution of opaque non-symmetrical idioms in English and Vietnamese……… …………

Figure 3.23: Semantic components of kick the bucket in English and đẽo cày giữa đường in Vietnamese……… ………

Figure 3.24: The relationship between the literal reading and idiomatic meaning of kick the bucket in English and đẽo cày giữa đường in Vietnamese……… ………

Figure 3.25: The semantic composition of kick the bucket in English and đẽo cày giữa đường in Vietnamese (drawn from Fernando & Flavell 1981)………

Figure 3.26: The formation of an idiom in English and Vietnamese (drawn from Fernando & Flavell 1981: 26)……….…………

Figure 3.27: The formation mechanism of semantic components of idioms in English and Vietnamese……… ………

Figure 3.28: Main factors that affect the formation of semantic components of idioms in English and Vietnamese………

Figure 3.29: Motivation degrees of symmetrical idioms in English and Vietnamese………

Figure 3.30: Motivation degrees of similized idioms in English and Vietnamese………

Figure 3.31: Motivation degrees of non-symmetrical idioms in English and Vietnamese………

109 110 110 111 111 113 120 123 133 134 134 135 LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Traditional view of kick the bucket in English ……….….…

Table 1.2: Traditional view of mì chính cánh in Vietnamese…….…… ……

Table 1.3: Types of Idioms (Fernando 1996: 32)……….…… ….…

Table 1.4: Distinguishing criteria of idioms……….…… …………

17 17 21 32

Table 2.1: Possible variabilities of idiom variants in English……… Table 2.2: Possible variabilities of idiom variants in Vietnamese………… ……Table 2.3: Possible variabilities of synonymous idioms in English…… … …….Table 2.4: Possible variabilities of synonymous idioms in Vietnamese…… … Table 2.5: Possible variabilities of idiom variants found in both English and

Vietnamese……….…….…………Table 2.6: Possible variabilities of synonymous idioms found in both English

and Vietnamese……….………… Table 2.7: Structural components of non-symmetrical idioms unique to English Table 2.8: Possible variabilities of idiom variants and synonymous idioms

unique to English………Table 2.9: Structural components of non-symmetrical idioms unique to

Vietnamese……….……… Table 2.10: Possible variabilities of idiom variants and synonymous idioms

unique to Vietnamese……….….…………Table 3.1: Nuances of different idiom variant types in English and Vietnamese Table 3.2: The coordination of semantic components of symmetrical idioms

found in both English and Vietnamese……… ………Table 3.3: The existential relationship between A and B of similized idioms

found in both English and Vietnamese……… ………Table 3.4: Differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of main factors

that affect the formation of semantic components of idioms…….……

75788284

86

8689

89

90

91117

adjective phraseadverb

determiner dependent clausegerund

head nounindependent clauselanguage teachingnegative particlenoun

noun phrasemodifieroperatorphrasal verbprepositionprepositional phrasepronoun

target languageto-infinitivesentencesimilizedsource languagesubordinatorsynonymousverb

opaqueapproachnon-coordinationetymologizingetymologysynonymous idiomsymmetrical idiomnon-symmetrical idiomsimilized idiom

componenttransparent nuance

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

‘The accurate and appropriate use of expressions which are in the broadest senseidiomatic is one distinguishing mark of a native command of the language and a reliablemeasure of the proficiency of foreign learners’ (Cowie, Mackin & McCaig 1993: x) Infact, I started learning English in 1994 And I am now working as a teacher of English

in a university in Sonla Indeed, my students and I all desire to master English as thenative speakers; nevertheless, we usually face a lot of difficulties that prevent us fromgaining natural conversations One of the reasons for these problems lies in the way weperceive and use idioms The structural and semantic problems posed by idioms puzzle

us a lot Of all the difficulties the most familiar is that of meaning: most idioms do notmean what they appear to mean The sense of the whole idiom is usually different fromthe meanings of the combination of its component parts The study is carried out withthe hope that, to some extent, our problems will be solved

Actually, studying idioms is not new; nonetheless, it has never been old In Vietnam,there exist three approaches in studying idioms: etymology, synchronic evolution, andcomparison and contrastive analysis (Hành 2008) Firstly, the investigations on idiomsunder etymology go into macro field These studies focus on the formation andtransformation of each idiom during its existence It is hard work taking a lot of timeand energy The method mainly used in these studies is the etymologizing, i.e theorigins of idioms are recovered in order to make the forms and the idiomatic meaningstransparent Hành (2002) and Minh (2007) are the typical authors who pay attention tothis area The second approach in studying idioms is synchronic evolution Descriptivemethod is used in these studies from which the underlying cultural factors behind theidioms are partly interpretable This area of study attracts a lot of authors such as San(1974), Việt (1981), Lực & Đang (1978), Đức (1995), Hành (2008), etc Studyingidioms under comparison and contrastive analysis is the third approach The studiesunder original recovery and synchronic evolution are the backgrounds for comparisonand contrastive works Several attempts have been made to work out the similarities anddifferences between English and Vietnamese in terms of emotion expressing idioms(Trào 2009), idiomatic verb phrases (Long 2010), idiom translation (Lan 2001; Phúc2009), etc An in-depth investigation of the structural and semantic components of

idioms will also offer excellent opportunities for cross-language comparison andanalysis

Structurally, English and Vietnamese are very different English is regarded as a inflectional language (Crystal 1997) while Vietnamese is completely isolating It isinteresting, nevertheless, that several idioms in English have the same structural patterns

semi-as those in Vietnamese For example, like water off a duck’s back in English and như

nước đổ đầu vịt in Vietnamese are both prepositional phrases It is more interesting that

the idiomatic meanings of the two idioms are also similar, and they are paraphrasable as

‘have no effect’ In terms of structural components, these idioms have both similaritiesand differences They are similized idioms introduced by prepositions as the first

component parts (like in English and như in Vietnamese) The differences lie in the rest

of component parts forming the idioms The component parts after like in English together form a noun phrase whereas those after như in Vietnamese together form a

clause To the best of my knowledge, the structural components of idioms in bothEnglish and Vietnamese have not yet been investigated in this way

Although the component parts forming idioms expressing the same concepts in Englishand Vietnamese are usually different, they have some features in common The idioms

in both languages appear from totally transparent to the totally opaque: transparent, i.e

all the components are explicit (e.g slow but sure in English and bàn đi tính lại (discuss

something carefully) in Vietnamese); semi-transparent, i.e some components are

explicit (the meaning focused) and the other are implicit (e.g as busy as a beaver (very busy) in English and đẹp như tiên (very beautiful) in Vietnamese); semi-opaque, i.e all the components are implicit but possibly interpretable (e.g like a duck to water (feel comfortable) in English and như chó với mèo (be always conflictive) in Vietnamese); and opaque, i.e all the components are implicit (e.g kick the bucket (die) in English and

đẽo cày giữa đường (be indeterminate in one’s position) in Vietnamese) (Fernando &

Flavell 1981; Fernando 1996) Investigating semantic components of idioms based onthese semantic criteria in both English and Vietnamese is still the gap In addition, whatmain factors lie behind the differences between the two languages in terms of theformation of semantic components of idioms also need uncovering (Hành 2008)

For the reasons presented above, we state that studying the structural and semanticcomponents of idioms in both English and Vietnamese in order to fill in the gap inresearch is necessary

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

The study attempts to find out the similarities and differences between English andVietnamese idioms from structural and semantic perspectives

In order to achieve the aims, the study is expected to reach the following objectives:

- to study how idioms are organized structurally and semantically in English andVietnamese;

- to establish the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms interms of structural and semantic components;

- to provide main factors lying behind the similarities and differences between Englishand Vietnamese idioms

3 Research Questions

The objectives of the study can be elaborated into the following research questions:

i) How are idioms in English and Vietnamese organized structurally and semantically? ii) What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms interms of structural and semantic components?

iii) What main factors lie behind the similarities and differences between English andVietnamese idioms?

4 Scope of the Study

The present study focuses on everyday idioms selected from recently published

dictionaries (see Section 6.3) All the authors of these works affirm that the idioms in

their books are both current and used, or at least understood, by most native speakers Itmeans that the study is deliberately limited to idioms usually used in dailyconversations It is noteworthy that the study investigates idioms in both English andVietnamese from structural and semantic components perspective The components inthe current inquiry are regarded as elements which are hardly varied and together form aunit

5 Contributions of the Study

Scientifically, a common theory on idioms is applied to both English and Vietnamese

This approach helps to find out the similarities and differences between English andVietnamese idioms in terms of structural and semantic components This is a majorcontribution to the knowledge of linguistics in general and that of idioms in particular.Since language and culture are closely intertwined, the findings will help improve theknowledge of the two underlying cultures, which are expressed through those idioms

Practically, for language teaching (both English and Vietnamese), the study facilitateslearners’ communication because language is for communication, and idioms are anindispensable part of common expressions (Cowie, Mackin & McCaig 1993: x) Thework will provide assistance to English-speaking learners of Vietnamese andVietnamese learners of English to distinguish one kind of idioms from others in eachlanguage The work will also enable learners to tell when idioms in English andVietnamese 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(see Section 3 in Part C) For translation, knowledge of idioms from this work will helptranslators find closest equivalents to the expressions in the source language Idioms andidiomatic expressions are the most culture-bound part of any language, so their transfer

is one of the most problematic issues in translation It is because transfer of languagealso involves that of culture, which is not always transferable In this way, knowledgefrom this sort of work will be of great benefit to translators, who should be able to findthe possible equivalents in the target language

6 Methodology

6.1 Theoretical Framework

As presented in Section 4, idioms in the present study are investigated from bothstructural and semantic perspectives According to Katz & Fodor (1963: 170), ‘a fullsynchronic description of a language is a grammatical and semantic characterization ofthat language’ The term ‘grammatical’ refers to the description of pholology,phonemics, morphology, and syntax ‘Semantic’ belongs to a theory which must beconstructed ‘to have whatever properties are demanded by its role in linguisticdescription’ (Katz & Fodor 1963: 171)

Structurally, idioms are generally described and analyzed according to typical

grammarical rules In fact, there are different kinds of grammars Fromkin (1998)

mentions three types of grammars: descriptive, prescriptive and teaching The

descriptive grammar involves the description of what the speakers of a language dowhen they speak their language That certain language uses are categorized asacceptable or unacceptable according to a standard form of the language is calledprescriptive grammar The teaching grammar is used to learn a foreign language or adialect Yule (1996) also gives three types of grammar as follows:

Each adult speaker of a language clearly has some type of ‘mental grammar’,that is, a form of internal linguistic knowledge which operates in the productionand recognition of appropriately structured expressions in that language This

‘grammar’ is subconscious and is not the result of any teaching A second, andquite different, concept of ‘grammar’ involves what might be considered

‘linguistic etiquette’, that is, the identification of the ‘proper’ or ‘best’ structures

to be used in a language A third view of ‘grammar’ involves the study andanalysis of the structures found in a language, usually with the aim ofestablishing a description of the grammar of English, for example, as distinctfrom the grammar of Russian or French or any other language

(Yule 1996: 87)

The models of Immediate Constituent Analysis suggested by Bloomfield (1933) are

used in the present study These models are then principally developed by Wells (1947),Harris (1957) and Chomsky (1957) The central issue underlying these models is thatthe structure of an expression can be presented by dividing the expression into parts(immediate constituents), which are then further divided into smaller parts untilsyntactically indivisible units are obtained Gleason (1955: 151), who represents therelations held between immediate constituents, describes:

The process of analyzing syntax is largely one of finding successive layers ofimmediate constituents and of immediate constructions, the description ofrelationships which exist between immediate constituents and the description ofthose relationships which are not efficiently described in terms of immediateconstituents The last is generally of subsidiary importance; most of therelationships of any great significance are between immediate constituents

Specifically, the structural components of an idiom are exhibited by dividing the idiominto successive layers or constituent parts The constituent parts can be labelled asbelonging to different grammatical constituents like noun phrase, verb phrase,

prepositional phrase, etc which can be further divided into categories such as noun,adjective, verb, etc (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik 1985) This can be shown by

taking a simple example of the idiom body and soul (completely) This idiom is divided

into two parts which are connected by a coordinator (and) The first part (body) and thesecond one (soul) are both nouns

The semantic components of idioms in the current study are analyzed according to Katz

& Fodor’s (1963) componential theory According to Katz & Fodor (1963), ‘semantic

components may be combined in various ways in different languages yet they would beidentifiable as the ‘same’ component in the vocabularies of all languages’ Generally,this theory determines how expressed signs, usually vocabulary items called lexemes, in

a language are related to the perceptions and thoughts of the people who speak thelanguage In this theory, word meanings are broken down into semantic features andtheir specifications In other words, the meanings of lexemes are analyzed intocomponents, which can then be compared across lexemes or groups of lexemes Sinceidioms are regarded as special linguistic units functioning as words (Fernando & Flavell1981; Fernando 1996; Đức 1995; Hành 2008; etc), they can be analyzed in this way

Finegan (2004) supposes that words are tangible They can have one meaningful part(e.g car, sing, tall, etc), or more than one meaningful part (e.g bookstore, laptop,headset, etc) (Finegan 2004: 40) According to Fromkin (2000: 26), words which arenot the smallest units of meaning may be simple or complex For example, the word

stayed has two parts, stay and –ed; headmaster includes two words, head and master,

which form a compound; and beautifully may be divided into beautiful and -ly The

relationship between the form and meaning of a word is an arbitrary one (Fromkin1998: 5) Fromkin (1998) also states that the sounds represented by the letters of a word(in the written form of the language) signify a concept Indeed, both words and idiomsare used to express pure concepts, and they are analyzable

The canonical structural and semantic components of idioms in the present study areformally established according to three types of idioms: symmetrical, similized, andnon-symmetrical (Đức 1995; Hành 2008) The structural components of each idiomtype are coded in separate component parts, which are then realized, described andanalyzed according to grammatical rules suggested by Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, &Svartvik (1985) It is noteworthy that the component parts are realized under words,

phrases and clauses The canonical semantic components of idioms are analyzedaccording to the transparent-opaque axis introduced by Fernando & Flavell (1981) andFernando (1996) and the association between the literal reading and idiomatic meaningsuggested by Langlotz (2006) The transparent-opaque axis involves the differentmotivation degrees of each idiom type: transparent, semi-transparent, semi-opaque, andopaque The association between the literal reading and idiomatic meaning refers to thepossible analyzability of each idiom type.

The non-canonical structural and semantic components of idioms are generally based ontwo types of idioms: idiom variants and synonymous idioms (This issue is partlydiscussed in the author’s article published in 2009)

The theoretical framework is used for the present study for several specific reasons.First of all, the components are regarded as the criteria to classify idioms from bothstructural and semantic perspectives For example, similized idioms are structurallyrealized through the components as comparative means (Đức 1995; Hành 2008), andthese idioms are also semantically classified due to the explicitness and implicitness oftheir components (Fernando & Flavell 1981; Fernando 1996) Second, this theoreticalframework can be applied to a large number of idioms belonging to different types inboth English and Vietnamese And finally, it is the framework that helps to achieve theobjectives of the study

6.2 Analytical Framework

According to Krzeszowski (1990: 35), ‘No exact or reliable exploration of facts can beconducted without a theoretical background, providing concepts, hypotheses, andtheories which enable the investigator to describe the relevant facts and to account forthem in terms of significant generalizations’ (cited in Trào 2009: 12)

In the present inquiry, the theories of contrastive linguistics of König and Gast (2008)and Chaturvedi (1973) are applied to the investigation of the idioms collected

König and Gast (2008) suppose that contrastive linguistics is a branch of comparativelinguistics that is concerned with pairs of languages which are ‘socio-culturally linked’.According to these authors, two languages can be said to be socio-culturally linkedwhen (i) they are used by a considerable number of bi- or multilingual speakers, and/or

(ii) a substantial amount of ‘linguistic output’ (text, discourse) is translated from onelanguage into the other English and Vietnamese are socio-cultural linked because theysatisfy both criteria given above

Contrastive linguistics invariably requires a socio-cultural link between the languagesinvestigated, but that it is not restricted to pair wise language comparison Contrastivelinguistics thus aims to arrive at results that carry the potential of being used forpractical purposes, e.g in foreign language teaching and translation As it provides thedescriptive basis for such applications, its research programme can also be summarized

as ‘comparison with a purpose’ ‘Comparison’ in the present study is understood as theidentification of similarities and differences between two or more categories along aspecific (set of) dimension(s) (König and Gast 2008) We mean that the categoriescompared must be of the same type, i.e there has to be a set of properties that they have

in common in both languages

In order to carry out a contrastive study, Chaturvedi (1973) suggests some guidingprinciples as follows:

(i) to analyse the mother tongue and the target language independently andcompletely; (ii) to compare the two languages item-wise-item at all levels oftheir structure; (iii) to arrive at the categories of a) similar features, b) partiallysimilar features, c) dissimilar features - for the target language; and (iv) to arrive

at principles of text preparation, test framing and target language teaching ingeneral

The contrastive analysis emphasises the influence of the mother tongue in learning asecond language and translation This type of study will provide an objective andscientific base for second language teaching as well as translation For knowing thesignificantly similar structural and semantic properties in both languages, the first step

to be adopted is that both languages should be analysed independently After theindependent analysis, to sort out the different features of the two languages, comparison

of the two languages is necessary From this analysis it is easy to make out that atdifferent levels of structural and semantic properties of these two languages there aresome features quite similar and some quite dissimilar

In the present study, a large number of idioms in both English and Vietnamese are used

as examples for illustration It means that we have to translate idioms from Vietnameseinto English The fact we face is that there are several Vietnamese idioms whoseequivalents in English cannot be found In order to keep the consistency in translation,

the strategy we use is paraphrase (Baker 1992; Fernando & Flavell 1981;

Valero-Garcés 1997)

6.3 Data Collection

In order to collect the data, a working definition of an idiom has been established in thepresent study (see Section 1.1.1) Any idiom selected in both English and Vietnamesesatisfies the criteria the definition for working involves

Data for the present analysis of English and Vietnamese are mainly collected from thefollowing dictionaries:

English

Bình, P V (1999) Tục ngữ nước Anh và thành ngữ tiếng Anh giàu hình ảnh [English

picturesque idioms] Hải Phòng: Nxb Hải Phòng

University Press

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

Lân, N (2003) Từ điển thành ngữ và tục ngữ Việt Nam [A dictionary of Vietnamese

idioms and proverbs] Hà Nội: Nxb Văn học

Lực, N., & Đang, L V (2009) (3rd ed.) Thành ngữ tiếng Việt [A dictionary of

Vietnamese idioms] Hà Nội: Nxb Khoa học Xã hội

Minh, T H (2007) Đi tìm điển tích thành ngữ [Seeking idioms’ classic references] Hà

Nội: Nxb Thông Tấn

Ý, N N., Hành, H V, Khang, N V., Thại, L X., & Thành, P X (1998) Từ điển giải

thích thành ngữ tiếng Việt [A dictionary of Vietnamese idioms] Hà Nội: Nxb

Giáo dục

Ý, N N (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 arequite popular and currently available Secondly, they cover a large number of the idiomswhich 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 And finally,the dictionaries satisfy the diachronic perspective because the examples for illustrationsare mostly from literal works, magazines and newspapers The collected data forms acorpus under three categories: symmetrical idioms (231 for English and 2,343 forVietnamese), similized idioms (516 for English and 699 for Vietnamese), and non-symmetrical idioms (3,387 for English and 1,011 for Vietnamese)

The data in the current dissertation are also published or submitted data which are

available in books, PhD theses and journals such as On Idiom: Critical Views and

Perspectives by Fernando and Flavell (1981), Idioms and Idiomaticity by Fernando

(1996), Bình diện cấu trúc hình thái-ngữ nghĩa của thành ngữ tiếng Việt [Vietnamese Idioms from Formal-semantic Perspectives] by Đức (1995), Thành ngữ học tiếng Việt

[Vietnamese Idiom Studies] by Hành (2008), ‘Occational Adnominal IdiomModification – A Cognitive Linguistic Approach’ by Langlotz (2006), ‘Cultural

Differences between English and Chinese on Idioms Origins’ by Lijie (2010), Emotion

Expressing Idioms in English and Vietnamese: A Contrastive Analysis by Trào (2009),

etc The sources of these data are believed to be reliable, suitable and adequate becausethey are all published, submitted and related to the area of the study

6.4 Data Analysis

Due to the aims, the objectives, and the scope of the study, componential analysis,describing, comparing and contrasting are regarded as the main methods used in thepresent dissertation The study makes use of the Vietnamese language as the target andthe English one as the source language (the base language) In some cases, we may usethe opposite (the English language as the target and the Vietnamese one as the sourcelanguage)

Componential analysis is said to develop from anthropological studies describing andcomparing kinship terminology in diferent languages Componential analysis is one ofthe main methods used to describe and analyze the idioms, especially semanticcomponents of idioms in both English and Vietnamese We describe meanings, meaningrelationships and the grammatical behavior of idiom classes by analyzing idiomaticmeanings into meaning components This analysis procedure is called lexicaldecomposition (Katz & Fodor 1963; Dowty 1979; Zhang 2002) However, how tounderstand and apply this approach in the dissertation is not entirely like the traditionalsense Componential analysis in the concept of the dissertation means that we do notonly manipulate objects existing in a static way but we also analyze and access idioms

in their operation More specifically, we study idioms in their existence and operatingenvironment Here, we do not separate idioms from their ‘internal’ environment andcharacteristics directly impacting on the rules of formation, survival and thedevelopment of the idioms On the other hand, we do not also separate idioms fromtheir ‘external’ environment, i.e culture - society - history related to the establishmentand administration of the idioms

According to Wisker (2001: 118), descriptive research aims to find out more about aphenomenon and to capture it with detailed information Often the description is onlytrue for that moment in time, but it still helps us to understand and know more about thephenomenon In addition, descriptive research attempts to determine, describe, or

identify what is, i.e the descriptive research uses description, classification,

measurement, and comparison to describe what phenomena are (Wisker 2001: 120).Describing method is applied in the present dissertation to present the theoreticalfoundation of idioms in general and idioms from structural and semantic componentsperspective in particular, which is then illustrated by examples with explanations anddiscussions, and hopefully reach conclusions by deductive reasoning

The term 'contrastive linguistics' was suggested by Whorf (1941) and was defined as ‘asub-discipline of linguistics concerned with the comparison of two or more languages orsubsystems of languages in order to determine both the differences and similaritiesbetween them’ (Fisiak 1981: 1) Contrastive analysis is the method of analyzing thestructure of any two languages with a view to estimate the differential aspects of theirsystems, irrespective or their generic affinity or level of development Contrastive

analysis of two languages becomes useful when it is adequately describing the soundstructure and grammatical structure of two languages, with comparative statements,giving due emphasis to the compatible items in the two systems In appearance,comparing and contrasting are similar to each other, for both methods compare two ormore items (languages in our case) in order to find similarities and differences betweenthem But academically they have quite different connotations nowadays, partly of theetymological meanings of the two words, and partly because of the different traditions

of the two disciplines in their development Although neither carries an extreme demand

to look for ‘similarity’ or ‘difference’ only, each has nevertheless a tendency for one ofthe two, i.e methodologically, the ‘comparative’ method stresses similarity more, whilethe ‘contrastive’ method emphasizes the differences In the present study, comparingand contrasting help us to identify, analyze and point out the similarities and differencesbetween the structural and semantic components of idioms as well as their formation inEnglish and those in Vietnamese

(ii) After that, we compare the idioms in the two languages item-wise-item at all levels

of their structural and semantic components We also seek the underlying factorsaffecting the formation of semantic components of idioms in both English andVietnamese (Hành 2008; Lijie 2010)

(iii) Then, we arrive at the categories of a) structural and semantic components ofidioms found in both languages, b) structural and semantic components of idiomsunique to either English or Vietnamese We also investigate the regularities for theestablished similarities and differences

(iv) And finally, we give some suggestions for idiom teaching and translation based onthe findings

7 Structure of the Study

The present study consists of three major parts, in addition to the appendices and thereferences

Part A, introduction, consists of the rationale, the aims and objectives, the researchquestions, the scope, the contributions, the methodology, and the structure of the study

Part B, development, is divided into three chapters including chapter 1: LiteratureReview, chapter 2: Structural Components of English and Vietnamese Idioms, andchapter 3: Semantic Components of English and Vietnamese Idioms

The last part is conclusion which includes the recapitulation of the study as well as theconclusions and some suggestions for implications achieved from the discussion in thedissertation and for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature and the theoretical background on idioms in both English and Vietnameseare presented in this chapter Section 1.1 presents definitions of idioms and theirfundamental issues such as idioms from traditional view, idioms from cognitive view,idioms from taxonomic view, and idioms from cultural view This section also provides

a borderline that demarcates idioms from other linguistic units Then, Section 1.2reviews studies related to idioms in English and Vietnamese and those undercomparison and contrastive analysis in both languages Section 1.3 summarizes thechapter and highlights the research gap in which the present inquiry aims to situateitself A definition of an idiom for working is also presented in this section

1.1 Theoretical Background

1.1.1 Idioms Defined

Words have their own meanings They, however, do not just come individually; theyalso come in expressions or in groups Idioms are among the most common of theseexpressions And it seems impossible to improve a language naturally without learningidioms – a very important part of the language What is an idiom? The question mayhave several answers

Idioms are generally regarded as a special kind of collocation (Palmer 1981; Robins1989; Jackson and Amvela 1998; etc) The meaning of an idiom, however, is usuallydifferent from the meanings of the combination of its constituents An idiom isdistinguished from a collocation, for a collocation is a sequence of lexical items whichhabitually co-occur and each lexical constituent of a collocation is a semanticcomponent Hornby (1995) argues that 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 awhole unit’ Sharing the same point of view, Seidl and McMordie (1988) defines ‘anidiom 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

An idiom is also regarded as ‘an expression which functions as a single unit and whosemeaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts’ (Longman Dictionary ofLanguage Teaching and Applied Linguistics 1992) Sharing the same point of view,Cowie, Mackin & McCaig (1993) state that idioms are groups of words with setmeanings 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 bevaried or varied only within definable limits’ No other words can be substituted forthose comprising Nor are the words of an idiom usually recombinable

Mệnh (1972) and Châu (1981) suppose that idioms are available linguistic units whichhave stable structures, typical meanings and nominative functions An idiom is ‘a fixedgroup of words having a complete meaning and descriptive value’ (Dân 1986) He alsoadds that idioms express concepts based on separated images It is the reason why

idioms usually have their own figurative meanings For example, the phrase cưỡi ngựa

xem hoa (do something summarily and perfunctorily) is considered as an idiom because

its idiomatic meaning cannot be infered from the meanings of its constituents (cưỡi,

ngựa, xem and hoa)

Hành (2008: 31) states that an idiom is ‘a fixed group of words which is firm in terms ofstructure, complete and figurative in terms of meaning, and is widely used in dailyspeaking’ The fixed properties of an idiom can be realized as follows: (i) the words of

an idiom are generally fixed It means that the component parts forming an idiom areunvaried in using; (ii) the fixed characteristic of the structure of an idiom is expressed

by the fixed order of the component parts forming an idiom

As can be seen from the above definitions, there are different ways of defining anidiom 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 itsindividual constituents.

In the present study, given below is regarded as a summary of the defining features of

an idiom Such an idiom

(i) is a fixed unit whose components cannot be varied or varied under definablecontrol;

ii) is regarded as a complex scene with a bipartite semantic structure: a literalreading and an idiomatic meaning;

(iii) has the meaning which is usually different from the meanings of the

combination of its components;

(iv) expresses a pure concept

1.1.2 Idioms from Traditional View

Traditionally, it is believed that idioms are unpredictable or non-compositional (Chafe1970; Chomsky 1965, 1980; Katz 1973; Fernando & Flavell 1981; Mệnh 1972; Châu1981; Đức 1995; Hành 2008; etc) Although we have learned the meaning and syntacticproperty of each word of an idiom, we are still unable to capture its idiomatic meaning

In other words, the meaning of an idiom cannot be derived from the meanings of itsconstituents

According Fernando & Flavell (1981), the meaning of an idiom is not the result of thecompositional function of its constituent parts They regard an idiom as a lexeme andgive their own conclusions as follows:

We have examined 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 In the first place, definitions ofidioms by linguists, lexicographers and language teachers are nearly alwayscouched primarily in semantic terms Such a semantically-based definition is

intuitively more satisfying for the ordinary non-specialist native speaker Whenasked for a definition of 'an idiom', his first thoughts are that it does not meanwhat the individual words in it would lead you to expect Semanticconsiderations underline most of the criteria proposed for idiomaticity.Obviously the transparent-opaque axis is semantic in nature, and the fact thatidioms are unanalysable lexemic wholes is a semantic statement

(Fernando & Flavell 1981: 32)

Table 1.1 represents the traditional view of idioms, which is drawn from Kövecses &Szabo (1996):

special idiomatic meaning ‘die’

the meaning of the linguistic form ‘kick’, ‘the’, ‘bucket’

linguistic forms and their properties kick the bucket (no passive, etc)

Table 1.1: Traditional view of kick the bucket in English

As can be seen from the table, the idiomatic meaning ‘die’ seems to have no link with

the literal meaning and syntactic properties of the idiom kick the bucket This can be

applied to idioms in Vietnamese as follows:

special idiomatic meaning ‘quý hiếm (vary rare and valuable)’the meaning of the linguistic form ‘mì’, ‘chính’, and ‘cánh’

linguistic forms and their properties mì chính cánh (unvaried)

Table 1.2: Traditional view of mì chính cánh in Vietnamese

According to traditional view, the meaning of an idiom is the special chemical mixture

of all components’ meaning, which is completely new in quality It means that there is

no link between the literal reading and the idiomatic meaning However, in fact there

exist a lot of idioms such as on foot, in any case, slow but sure, etc in English and ăn to

nói lớn (speak out openly), bàn đi tính lại (discuss something carefully), nói thật mất lòng (speaking the truth hurts someone’s feelings), etc in Vietnamese, the idiomatic

meanings of which can be derived from the meanings of their component parts, i.e theirsyntax is correlative Indeed, the traditional view cannot be applied to explain all types

of idioms It is regarded as the limitation of this view

1.1.3 Idioms from Cognitive View

From cognitive view, most idioms are believed to be analyzable and have meanings thatare at least partly motivated (Geeraets 1995; Gibbs 1990, 1995; Kövecses & Szabo1996; Nunberg et al 1994; Fernando 1996; Taylor 2002; Langlotz 2006, etc) Nunberg

et al (1994) divide idioms into two categories (i) idiomatically combining expressionswhose constituent parts carry identifiable parts of their idiomatic meanings, and (ii)idiomatic phrases whose idiomatic meanings cannot be derived from their parts For

example, the phrase spill the beans, which means ‘divulge the information’, can be

analyzed by looking at the action of ‘spill’ as the action of divulging and ‘beans’ as the

information Similarly, the phrase cưa sừng làm nghé meaning ‘one who is old tries to

be young and innocent’ in Vietnamese is analyzable in this way: cưa sừng refers to

người già lớn tuổi (the old), while làm nghé corresponds to cố làm ra vẻ trẻ trung, ngây thơ (try to be young and innocent) It seems to be ambiguous how ‘spill’ and

‘beans’/‘cưa sừng’ and ‘làm nghé’ associate with their figurative interpretation Theseidioms are still considered as idiomatically combining expressions However, we have

difficulty in analyzing some idioms such as kick the bucket (die) in English or đẽo cày

giữa đường (be indeterminate in one’s position) in Vietnamese because they are

completely opaque In other words, the meanings of these idioms cannot be motivatedand obtained from the combination of ‘kick’, ‘the’ and ‘bucket’ or ‘đẽo’, ‘cày’, ‘giữa’

and ‘đường’ literally In fact, except for idioms such as kick the bucket in English and

đẽo cày giữa đường in Vietnamese, most idioms belong to idiomatically combining

expressions According to Nunberg et al (1994: 497), ‘saying an expression is anidiomatic combination (i.e idiomatically combining expression) doesn’t require us toexplain why each of its parts has the figurative interpretation it does, so long as we canestablish a correspondence between it and the relevant element of the idiomaticdenotation’

Gibbs (1990, 1995) supposes that most idioms are motivated by cognitive – semantic

mechanisms such as metaphors, metonymies and conventional knowledge Blow your

stack, flip your lid, and hit the ceiling, etc (lose one’s temper suddenly and violently)

are the examples These idioms are called anger idioms which are widely motivated by

the conceptual metaphors It seems that conceptual metaphor anger is heated fluid in a

container activates the linguistic realizations of the anger emotion Gibbs (1990) carries

out a psychological experiment to prove the existence of conceptual metaphors foranger idioms as follows:

When imagining Anger idioms, people know that pressure (that is stress orfrustration) causes the action, that one has little control over the pressure once itbuilds, its violent release is done unintentionally (for example, the blowing of thestack) and that once the release has taken place (i.e once the ceiling has been hit,the lid flipped, the stack blown), it is difficult to reverse the action Each of theseresponses is based on people’s conceptions of heated fluid or vapor building upand escaping from containers (ones that our participants most frequently reported

to be the size of a person’s head) We see that the metaphorical mapping of asource domain (for example, heated fluid in a container) into target domains (forexample, the anger emotion) motivates why people have consistent mentalimages, and specific knowledge about these images, for different idioms aboutanger

(Gibbs 1990: 434)

Indeed, the psychological experiments conducted by Gibbs (1990, 1995) prove that thefigurative meanings of most idioms are not arbitrary Sharing the same points with theauthors above, in the present study we once again suppose that most idioms in bothEnglish and Vietnamese are analyzable and have meanings which are at least partlymotivated through the component parts forming idioms

1.1.4 Idioms from Taxonomic View

In English, several attempts have been made to classify idioms (Makkai 1972; Fernando

& Flavell 1981; Seidl & McMordie 1988; Cowie, Mackin & McCaig 1993; Nunberg et

al 1994; Fernando 1996; etc) According to Fernando & Flavell (1981: 30), idioms aredivided into “two main headings, which in practice usually overlap to some extent: the'formal' idiom family and the 'concept' idiom family” The 'formal' idiom family refers

to a set of idioms having a similar syntactic pattern and at least one lexical item, and the

'concept' idiom family involves pairs such as bury the hatchet and take/dig up the

hatchet (come to friendly or peaceful terms with somebody else) Semantically,

Fernando & Flavell (1981) divide idioms into four types: transparent, semi-transparent,semi-opaque, and opaque

Based on the topics in terms of parts of speech, Seidl & McMordie (1988) give eight

groups of idioms as follows:

Key words with idiomatic uses:

Adjectives and adverbs: bad, good, long, etc.

Nouns: end, line, thing, etc.

Miscellaneous: all, how, too, etc.

Idioms with nouns and adjectives:

Noun phrase: a drop in the ocean (something of inconsiderable value)

Adjective + noun: a close shave (escape from)

Idiomatic pairs:

Pairs of adjectives: cut and dried (make a quick or sudden escape)

Pairs of nouns: wear and tear (deterioration and damage from use)

Pairs of adverbs: more or less (approximately)

Pairs of verbs: hit and miss (guess-work)

Identical pairs: bit by bit (each piece at a time)

Idioms with prepositions: by, for, from, etc.

Phrasal verbs: act up (annoy), call something off (cancel), make something up to someone (compensate for), etc.

Verbal idioms: blow one’s own trumpet (praise oneself), call a spade a spade (call

something by its own name and not by a euphemism), do a bunk (go away without

warning), etc

Idioms with key words from special categories:

Animals: bird, bee, bull, etc.

Colors: black, blue, red etc.

Numbers, size, measurement: one, inch, mile, etc.

Parts of the body: arm, back, nose, etc.

Time: day, minute, night, etc.

Idioms with comparisons:

Comparisons with as … as: as bold as brass (impudent)

Comparisons with like: go like the wind (move very fast)

Grammatically, Cowie, Mackin & McCaig (1993) classify English idioms into clausepatterns, possessive clause patterns, phrase patterns, and noun phrase pattern withrepeated element (see Appendix 2)

From cognitive view, Nunberg et al (1994) classify English idioms into two types:idiomatically combining expressions (or idiomatic combinations) and idiomatic phrases(see Section 1.1.3) More specifically, Fernando (1996) divides English idioms intothree categories: pure idioms, semi-idioms and literal idioms (see Table 1.3)

s

Pure idioms Invariant, non-literal devil-may-care; red herring; spick and span;

smell a rat; the coast is clear, chin-wag

Restricted variance, non-literal

pitter-patter/pit-a-pat; take/have forty winks; seize/grasp the nettle; get/have/cold feet

Semi-literal

idioms

Invariant drop names; catch fire; kith and kin; foot the

bill; fat chance, float a loan

Restricted variance chequered career/history;

blue

Literal idioms Invariant on foot; in sum; on the contrary; arm in arm;

waste not, want not; happy New Year

Restricted variance opt in favour of/for; for example/instance;

happy/merry Christmas

Table 1.3: Types of idioms (Fernando 1996: 32)

From the pragmatic point of view and discourse, some linguists, including Fernando(l996) give three groups of idioms as follows:

‘ideational’ idioms (‘the state and way of the world’ idioms, expressing namely:

actions, events, situation, people, things, attitudes, emotions, etc.): a red herring (a diversionary topic), bury the hatchet (come to friendly and peaceful terms with somebody else) , as white as a sheet (very white), etc;

‘interpersonal’ idioms (expressing greetings, agreement, rejections, etc.): so long (good bye), never mind (don’t worry), etc;

‘relational’ idioms (ensuring cohesion, etc): by the way (incidentally), in

addition to (as well (as); over and above), last but not least (in order to

emphasize that somebody/something is no less important than the others

previously mentioned), etc.

From functional view, Moon (1998) and others distinguishes the following groups ofidioms:

informational (conveying information of different kind: in the red (be in debt),

shrug one’s shoulders (raise, then drop), one’s kith and kin (members of one’s

family or racial group), etc);

evaluative (giving the speaker’s attitude to the situation: work wonders (successful), wash one’s hands off something (irresponsible for something), a

different kettle of fish (be in trouble), etc);

situational (expressing conventions, clauses, exclamation, relating to extralingual

context: walls have ears (somebody may be listening surreptitiously), talk of the

devil (comment on the unexpected presence or arrival of somebody just

mentioned), long time no see (not met for a long time), etc);

modalizing (expressing modality, truth values, advice, request: mark my words (notice and and remember what someone says), more or less (approximately), at

all (in any way), in effect (really), etc);

organizational (organizing the text, signaling discourse structure: by the way (incidentally), all in all (all things considered), on the other hand (in different words), etc)

As can be seen from the categories of idioms above, it is clear that English idioms are

traditionally classified due to their synctactic properties whereas the classification ofidioms from cognitive view is based on their semantic properties.

In Vietnamese, the category of idioms is usually established according to theirstructures and forms (Lực and Đang 1978; Đức 1995; Hành 2008; etc) Lực and Đang(1978) classify Vietnamese according to the number of words forming idioms as well astheir structures:

Idioms with three single words or more: bạn nối khố (a bosom friend), bở hơi tai (to fag because of working very hard), treo đầu dê bán thịt chó (attract the other

by a dishonest trick or a show of a false thing), trẻ không tha già không thương

(be wicked with everyone), etc

Idioms with a single word and a compound: bé hạt tiêu (small but skillful and spirited), câm miệng hến (keep silence), có máu mặt (be rich and quite famous),

etc

Idioms with two compounds: buôn gian bán lận (cheat in commerce), nhắm mắt

xuôi tay (die), năm xung tháng hạn (an unpropitious period of time), etc.

Idioms as simple sentences: châu chấu đá xe (a battle with unequal forces), êch

ngồi đáy giếng (have limited knowledge because of little communication), mèo

mù vớ cá rán (be suddenly in luck), etc

Idioms with alliterations or compounds: hì hà hì hục (be absorbed in doing something), lảm nhảm lảm nhàm (talk a lot of nonsense), ăn bớt ăn xén (take

stealthy rake off), etc

Idioms with symmetrical comparisons: nát như tương (very crushed), đen như

mực (very dark), nặng như chì (very heavy), nguây nguẩy như mẹ quẩy tôm (turn

away abruptly with resentment), etc

Idioms with summary comparisons: như cá gặp nước (be in one’s element), như

đỉa phải vôi (react immediately when being affected), như nước đổ đầu vịt (have

no effect), etc

However, the common structures of Vietnamese idioms are the structures which have

two symmetrical parts Idioms are also formed by joining rhymes (usually interior

rhymes) such as bóc ngắn cắn dài (earning less than spending), bé xé ra to (make it more complex), etc These structures do not only make idioms easier to say and

remember, but they also keep the fixation and unshakeable characteristics of the idioms

Based on the expressing functions, Tú (1983) divides Vietnamese idioms into threecategories as follows:

Idioms expressing things: con rồng cháu tiên (proud of the history of the nation),

núi cao sông dài (a hard journey), đường đi nước bước (the way how to solve a

problem), etc

Idioms expressing properties: chân lấm tay bùn (a hard work in the country), đầu

tắt mặt tối (a hard life), một nắng hai sương (working hard all days), etc.

Idioms expressing activities: nước đổ lá khoai (have no effect), đứng núi này

trông núi nọ (unsatisfied with the present work, position, or love), được voi đòi tiên (one who is greedy and never satisfied with what he has), etc.

According to Đức (1995), Vietnamese idioms can be divided into three main groups:

Idioms with symmetrical structures: Symmetrical structures consist of two parts which

have the same forms and harmonious balanced contents (opposite or supplement of eachother) These structures form a large number of idioms in general and idioms showingspeaking activities in particular They are concretized by the following formulas:

AxAy: buôn gian bán lận (cheat in commerce), ăn không nói có (very dishonest), ăn thật làm giả (come in for a true result but work perfunctorily), etc

BxBy: điều ong tiếng ve (unfavourable reputation), mồm năm miệng mười (talk incessantly without any care to the listeners’ reaction or attitude), mồm loa mép

dải (be sharp-tongued; talk incessantly without any care to the listeners’ reaction

or attitude), etc

CxCy: dại mồm dại miệng (make a slip of the tongue), vụng ăn vụng nói (be bad

at giving speeches), vụng chèo khéo chống (bad at doing something but good at

talking or persuading), etc.

DxDy: nửa nạc nửa mỡ (be ambiguous): nửa đùa nửa thật (tell the truth in a joky way), nửa úp nửa mở (ambiguous attitude), etc.

Idioms with symmetrical structures can be compound sentences; for example, có mồm

thì cắp, có nắp thì đậy (keeping silence is good).

Idioms with comparison structures: These are the common structures of Vietnamese

idioms A như B is considered as the comprehensive form of these idioms The words such as như, bằng, tày are usually between A and B, and they are concretized by the

following formulas:

A như B: nói như vẹt (parrot), ngang như cua (utterly nonsensical), chua như

dấm (very sour), etc.

Ax như B: nói dối như cuội (usually tell a lie), nói ngọt như đường (use honeyed words), nói dẻo như kẹo (be smooth-tongued), etc.

A như Bx: dỗ như dỗ vong (soothe continuously), chửi như vặn thịt (abuse at someone regularly), chửi như hát hay (abuse at somebody in a bad way), etc.

Ax như Bx: nói dai như chó nhai dẻ rách (talk constantly), chuyện nở như ngô

rang (chat loudly), chuyện giòn như bắp rang (chat loudly), etc.

Idioms with non-symmetrical structures

Subject – predicate pattern: gà què ăn quẩn cối xay (one who is mean and has a poor talent earns his living around the familiar place), đom đóm bắt nạt ma trơi (impossible to bully the others), chó mặc váy lĩnh (impossible to reach the better

thing), etc

Verb phrase: gửi trứng cho ác (believe in wicked people), há miệng chờ sung (be lazy and look forward to being suddenly in luck), khen phò mã tốt áo (do

something unnecessary), etc

Noun/adjective phrase: đòn xóc hai đầu (be wicked and double-tongued), hai tay

buông xuôi (die), kẻ cắp già mồm (it was wrong but an argument is still given),

Figure 1.1: Classification of symmetrical figurative idioms in Vietnamese (Hành 2008: 76)

NON-SYMMETRICAL FIGURATIVE IDIOMS

phrases subject – predicate pattern

purpose manner

out of phase

in phase

Figure 1.2: Classification of non-symmetrical figurative idioms in Vietnamese (Hành

2008: 100)

Figure 1.3: Classification of similized idioms in Vietnamese (Hành 2008: 115)

The theoretical framework employed in the present study is based on the idiomclassification of Đức (1995), Hành (2008), Fernando & Flavell (1981) and Fernando(1996)

như B indicates the attribute of