a study on marriage- related english and vietnamese proverbs (from linguistic- cultural perspective) = nghiên cứu về tục ngữ liên quan đến mối quan hệ hôn nhân trong tiếng anh và tiếng việt

Comparison and contrast of English and Vietnamese proverbs about marriage in terms of syntactics 20... Comparison and contrast of English and Vietnamese proverbs about marriage in terms

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

TRỊNH THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG

A STUDY ON MARRIAGE – RELATED ENGLISH AND

(FROM LINGUISTIC – CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE)

(Nghiên cứu về tục ngữ liên quan đến mối quan hệ hôn nhân trong tiếng Anh

và tiếng Việt)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15

Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

TRỊNH THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG

A STUDY ON MARRIAGE – RELATED ENGLISH AND

(FROM LINGUISTIC – CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE)

(Nghiên cứu về tục ngữ liên quan đến mối quan hệ hôn nhân trong tiếng Anh

và tiếng Việt)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 15

Supervisor: Văn Thị Thanh Bình, M.A

Hanoi, 2013

Chapter 1: Theoretical background and Literature review 5

1.3.3 Characteristics of Vietnamese people and culture 13

2 Data collection procedure 18

I Comparison and contrast of English and Vietnamese proverbs about

marriage in terms of syntactics

20

II Comparison and contrast of English and Vietnamese proverbs about

marriage in terms of semantics

29

III Comparison and contrast of English and Vietnamese proverbs about

marriage in terms of culture

APPENDIX 3: Collection of English and Vietnamese proverbs in terms of

cultural features

XVI

PART I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Nowadays, in this globalization and integration era, communication and cross- cultural communication have become a pivotal want and need of people all over the world Through language, we communicate and exchange our material and spiritual values, making the cultural knowledge of one another richer and more diversified However each nation’s language lies in itself similar and different cultural concepts of many fields of life such as human values, ways

of thinking, behavior standards, beliefs, customs and traditions, social conventions, etc Therefore, it would be difficult for foreign language learners to communicate successfully with native speakers if they have poor understanding of the language itself and the language relation with culture

Among favourite languages such as French, Chinese etc, English has still played its decisive role in international communication and has been studied by a large number of people in the world All foreign learners of English desire to master English as native speakers but they usually face many difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations One of the reasons for these problems lies in the way people perceive and use proverbs

For many years, English proverbs have often been neglected in learning and teaching because it

is a difficult area of English, but nobody can deny that proverbs are really important in

communication, “a proverb in hand is worth a thousand words”(Reynolds, 1959: 75)

Firstly, proverbs as traditional wisdom are never absent from our daily speeches They are the main part of each nation’s culture, which reflect all aspects of life People epitomize their ways

of thinking and their ideas through proverbs We can use them to solve our daily conflicts or support our arguments Proverbs are the mirrors that reflect human cultures Elzaki (2002: 43)

states: “If we want to understand the culture in a given society, we have to study its proverbs as

any nations have its own characteristics that reflect their lives and environmental surroundings” Hence, it can be said that proverbs can help learners know more about social

and cultural characteristics of that language

Secondly, proverbs are used to express ideas in figurative ways They bring the vividness and richness for the speaker’s speeches Everyone who is much concerned about proverbs owns a very attractive manner of speaking Especially, they can provide users with a whole new way of expressing concepts linguistically Without them, it can be stated that English might lose its colour and vitality In terms of teaching English, lessons will be more interesting and effective

if the teacher knows how to apply proverbs to design different activities in an English class: quizzes, games, role- play, etc

Studying English proverbs in comparison and contrast with Vietnamese proverbs, we can find the similarities and differences between two languages and cultures, which therefore, help learners of English understand and have a better use of English and Vietnamese proverbs This can also help learners have better communication in the cross- cultural communication

Brutus (1995: 23) stated the practical effect of learning proverbs: “Through proverbs I know your points of view, the attitudes of your ancestors Each time I know a new Vietnamese proverb, I become Vietnamese a little I believe when we know all proverbs of each other, we are brothers”

Having been interested in proverbs for a long time, I decided to choose marriage- related proverbs as my thesis topic Thanks to these proverbs, I can draw very good lessons and know how to treat others and behave myself accordingly

Hopefully, the study may be an interesting and helpful material for learners, teachers of English and for people who are interested in cultural patterns in communication and cross- cultural communication

2 Aims of the study

The study aims to:

- Investigate the general syntactic, semantic and cultural features of

English and Vietnamese proverbs about marriage

- Explore the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese

proverbs about marriage

- Provide some suggestions for the teaching, learning and translation of the

English proverbs about marriage

3 Scope of the study

Proverbs are plentiful in both English and Vietnamese Therefore it is impossible for the author

to carry out an all- rounded study on them Only marriage- related proverbs are selected and a comparison and contrast between English and Vietnamese is made to distinguish one from another

In this study, both English and Vietnamese proverbs about marriage are discussed in terms of syntactics, semantics and cultures

All English and Vietnamese proverbs are collected from dictionaries and books Hence, this research may not cover all marriage- related proverbs, just those of common use

4 Methodology

The study was intended to answer the following questions:

1 What are the general syntactic, semantic and cultural features of English and

Vietnamese proverbs about marriage?

2 Are there any similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese proverbs about marriage in terms of syntactics, semantics and culture?

The major methods applied in the study are comparative and contrastive analysis This study is conducted by carefully collecting and referring to materials from various sources to have full-blown information of proverbs about marriage in terms of syntactics, semantics and culture The good choice of proverbs in Vietnamese and in British English will be carefully analysed and examined to see the similarities and differences between the two cultures and languages The author’s own experience in communication and cultural awareness will be referred to as

way of viewing the field

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts The first part “INTRODUCTION” outlines the background

of the study In this part, a brief account of relevant information is provided about the rationale, aims, scopes, methodology, and design of the study

The main part of the study is part II: Development This part includes three chapters Chapter one, as implied in the title: “Theoretical Background and Literature Review”, covers a

series of proverb- related concepts ranging from definitions of proverbs, features of proverbs, types of proverbs, proverbs in comparison with idioms and sayings It also mentions some previous studies on proverbs Chapter two and three make up the more specifically focused part

of the study Chapter two is concerned with “Methodology” whereas chapter three deals with a

“Data analysis and Discussion” The final part is the “CONCLUSION”, which provides the

recapitulation, implications for the EFL teaching and learning and for translation and suggestions for further studies The study ends with the “REFERENCES”

PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND

enrich language and culture So, it is vey necessary to define what proverbs are

According to The New Oxford Dictionary (1996), a proverb is “a short, pithy saying in general use, stating a general truth or a piece of advice” This definition is developed in the Oxford English Dictionary (2001, online) which defines a proverb as “a short, pithy saying in common and recognized use: a concise sentence, often metaphorical or alliterative in form, which is held

to express some truth ascertained by experience or observation and familiar to all” Albig (1931: 529) argued that, “a proverb is a social definition of a situation.” Mieder (1989: 64) added “a proverb has been defined as a short, repeated, witty statement or set of statements of wisdom, truth and experience which is used to further a social end” In other words, it is a short well- known expression that states a general truth or advice

Vu Ngoc Phan (2000: 39) considered proverbs as “a complete saying in which it expresses one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice, or criticism” whereas Archer Taylor (1931) defined a proverb in more than 200 pages, and he concluded that it was impossible to give a meaningful definition of it Taylor noted that “…an incommunicable quality tells us this sentence is proverbial and that one is not” (1931:3”)

Even though there are different definitions of proverbs, they have something in common Accordingly, proverbs are selected with meaningful sentences which play an important role in building people’s characters as well as educating people, especially children so as to draw useful more lessons We come to a conclusion that proverbs are educational sentences of wisdom

1.1.2 Marriage- related proverbs

According to Oxford dictionary, “marriage” refers to the legal relationship between husband and wife The Oxford advanced learner’s encyclopedic dictionary says “marriage is a legal union between a man and a woman as husband and wife; state of being married”

From time to time, the definition of marriage changes by the benevolence of public opinion and also depends on the point of view According to Wikipedia “marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found Such a union, often formalized via a wedding ceremony, may also be called matrimony”

Thus by, “marriage- related proverbs” here is meant proverbs that may be used to educate husband and wife regarding to their relationship with parents –in –law, their children and neighbors

1.1.3 Classification of proverbs

It is said that the work of classifying proverb is just hard as defining it Despite the foregoing constraint, scholars have attempted to categorize the proverbs There exists many different ways of proverb classification among liguists who have based on different categories as origin,

meaning and fuction

Simpson/ Speake in the Oxford Concise of Proverbs (1998) ̣state that proverbs can be divided into three main categories Those of the first type take the form of abstract statements

expressing general truth, such as Absence makes the heart fonder

Proverbs of the second type, which include many of the more colourful examples, use specific

observations from everyday experience to make a point which is genral; for instance, “There is

no rose without a thorn” The third type of proverb comprises sayings from particular areas of

traditional wisdom and folklore In this catogory we have, for example, the health proverbs

After dinner rest a while, after supper walk a mile In addition, there are traditional country

proverbs which relate to husbandary, the seasons, and the weather

From my point of view, analyzing the proverbs according to the classification based on the topic is a very effective and interesting way When comparing the system of sub-topics of proverbs, it is not so hard to find the similarities and differences between social and cultural aspects of the English and Vietnamese communities This kind of classification is very popularly used in many books For example, Dictionary of proverbs by Fergusson (6000 proverbs, 188 subjects) and Tuc ngu Viet Nam (Hanoi, 1993) by Chu Xuan Dien (4100 proverbs, 73 subjects)

sub-1.1.4 Proverbs and idioms

Flavell (1992) said that proverbs exist in all languages and written collections of them date back to the earliest times Proverbs can be defined as memorable short sayings of the people, containing words of advice or wisdom and often appear in the form of whole sentences - to be adapted into proverbial form Meanwhile, idioms are normally phrases where the whole phrase means something different from the meaning of the separate words

Another distinction that proverbs differ from idioms is stated by Hornby (1995) in Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary that a proverb is a short well- known sentence or phrase that

states a general truth about life or gives advice, e.g An injury forgiven is better than an injury

revenged or Chồng giận thì vợ bớt lời, cơm sôi nhỏ lửa một đời không khê Vu Ngoc Phan

(2000; 39) shared the same view and considered a proverb as a complete saying expressing one

idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or criticism.” For example: Trời không chịu đất,

đất phải chịu trời

In general, idioms and proverbs share some same features that they are set- expressions with stable components and used in a metaphorical way, their meanings cannot be deduced from the individual words but must be understood as a whole Because they are products of human’s thought, cultures and processes of labour and daily activities, both idioms and proverbs are

orally handed down from generation to generation and naturally accepted in life

However, proverbs possess their own characteristics: they must have the clause or sentence (not word) to express justice or an event implying the justice Sometimes, subject or predicate

can be hidden in proverbs such as: Voi một ngà, đàn bà một mắt Besides, proverbs have a

meaning beyond or other than the sum of the meaning of the individual words e.g: A man is

master in his own house Also, proverbs can stand independently with a complete meaning e.g: You can’t fight city Hall The way that proverbs show their contents and meanings is logical

and expressive and directly indicate the idea of justice and the idea of comment, experience,

morality justice or criticism basing on an action or an event as illustrated in the proverb: East

or west, home is best Proverbs are claimed to contain 3 main literary functions namely

aesthetics, apprehension and education whereas idioms contain just one literary function of aesthetics (Hornby (1995))

The distinction between proverbs and idioms can be summarized in the table 1 below:

- aesthetics

- apprehension

- education

- aesthetics

1.1.5 Proverbs and sayings

The distinction between proverbs and sayings can be summarized in the table 2 below:

- denoting advice or obvious

- experiential didactic content or a rule of conduct

truth

- observative statements without didactic force

1.2 Some features of proverbs

As suggested in the theory about proverbs given by Mieder (1989: 64) “a proverb has been defined as a short, repeated, witty statement or set of statements of wisdom, truth and experience which is used to further a social end” The most frequently mentioned features of proverbs are:

- Proverbs are often used metaphorically and we can understand them in the metaphorical nature meaning (lies have short legs)

- Proverbs often make use of grammatical and theoretical devices that help to make them memorable, including alliteration, rhyme, parallel structure, repetition of key words or phrases, and strong imagery

- Proverbs are able to transcend the situation of its origins to illuminate situations in the lives of

contemporary hearers

1.2.1 Semantic features

The meaning of proverbs is the main concern mentioned in this part According to Taylor (1994), it is very hard to work out the meaning of a proverb based on the separate word’s meaning in dictionary, even when the meaning of the word is clear, the meaning of a proverb can be a secret In terms of semantic peculiarities, this part focuses on listing some stylistic devices often used in proverbs namely simile, antithesis, metaphors, and hyperbole and they will be analysed in detail in chapter 3

- Simile as defined in the Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary (1995) is a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid In English simile can be recognized via connective words such as “like”, “as”, “such as”, “as if”, “seem”, “than” In Vietnamese, comparative markers are introduced by the words “như”, “bằng”, “hệt”, “tựa”, “giống như”, “tày”…

- “Antithesis is a rhetorical or literary device in which an opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed” (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary -1995) Characteristic of antithesis in proverbs is that antithesis is generally formed by the objective antonyms in parallel form (“A misery father makes a prodigal son” and “cha hà tiện, con hoang phí”)

- According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor, metaphor is a literary figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object Metaphor is a useful means of creating figurative images so English and Vietnamese people prefer using it in proverbs to other stylistic devices (“A wife is the key to the house”and “vợ là tay hòm chìa khóa”)

- Galperin (2001) states that hyperbole is exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally One of the common figures of speech in English and Vietnamese proverbs is hyperbole It is often confused with a simile or a metaphor because it often compares two objects An exaggeration is one different feature between a hyperbole and simile or a metaphor

It may be used to evoke strong feelings or creat a strong impression, but not to be taken literally (“A woman’s work is never done” and “Đang khi lửa bốc cơm sôi, lợn kêu con khóc, chồng đòi tòm tem”)

1.2.2 Syntactic features

As suggested in the theory about proverbs given by Mieder (2004), a proverb is always

articulated as a complete and comprehensive grammatically accurate statement This feature is discussed more in the next chapter Due to their simple sentence structure and metaphorical language, in which rhetorical figures or symbolic characteristics such as alliterations, rhythm, rhyme, parallelism etc frequently occur, proverbs are fairly easy to memorize and easily retrievable from memory

- Alliteration is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words (http://oxforddictionaries.com) Apart from only a few rare initial sounds, all English and Vietnamese consonants present themselves in proverbs with great frequency (“Choose a wife by your ears rather than by your eyes” or “Chồng tới vợ lui, chồng hòa vợ thuận”)

- A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used

in poetry and songs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme) Rhyme is also another important stylistic device in English and Vietnamese proverbs (“A good wife is a good prize” or “Đói bụng chồng, hồng má vợ”)

- http://answers.reference.com/information/terminology/what_is_parallelism_in_literature

states parallelism is a way of writing that is balanced and rhythmical It gives structure and flow It is the use of words which are of equal strength in sound, to express ideas which are of equal importance in thought.(“Such carpenter, such chips” or “Liệu cơm gắp mắm, liệu con gả chồng”)

1.3 Some characteristics of British and Vietnamese people and culture

1 3.1 Culture and cultural values

There have been various notions of culture, but to make it simple to get the ideas of culture, according to Goodenough (1957, 167), the term culture is used in the sense of whatever a person must know in order to function in a particular society It is believed that the nature of culture has been compared to an iceberg which is mostly hidden under water The part of culture which is exposed is not always that which creates cross- cultural difficulties, but the hidden part of culture has significant effects on behavior and on interactions with others

According to Porter and Samovar (1994; 12), culture does not naturally come into the people’s mind, members of the culture adapt the patterns of behavior, ways of thingking and build their attitude, beliefs etc fully part of their personality by absorbing them through repeated experience or exposure The power and influence of these perceptions can be seen in the ways

in which people acquire culture Culture is transmitted from generation to generation; people use various forms of communication: spoken words, written words, non verbal actions to pass

on the content and patterns of the culture in order to spread culture As with communication, culture has been evolving and thus can produce changes in the process of invention Also, every culture presents a limited choice of behavior patterns from the infinite patterns of human experience This selection is made according to the basic assumptions and values that are meaningful to each culture In other words, culture defines the boundaries of different cultural

groups Apparently, culture has been proved to be a complex system because the particular parts of the culture are always interrelated It is significantly noted that every culture has the tendency to appreciate their own culture and society and from this perceptual view, people interprete and judge all other cultures in the world (Porter and Samovar 1994, 13)

Every culture owns its cultural values that are global and abstract The cultural values identify what should be judged as good or evil in order to give rules for behaviors in specific situations Different cultures reflect different values and cultural values seem to have changed, affecting the beliefs, and attitudes of most members of a culture and society Cultural values have been characterised in different ways but they often include: historical value, social value, spiritual value, symbolic value and aesthetic value Specifically, historical value is a concept resting on particular viewpoints of history and presents a special relationship with the past; social value concerns different places or things that tend to make connections between people and to reinforce a sense of unity and identity; symbolic value is simply understood as the repositories

of meaning; aesthetic value is considered a highly problematic area of enquiry involving dispute not only about what is beautiful but also about who has the power and authority to make decisions about what is beautiful and spiritual value addresses aspects of the religious, the numinous and the sublime (www.demos.co.uk 2004)

In conclusion, culture and cultural values, in anthropology, are the patterns of behavior, beliefs, languages, rituals, art, religion and attitude etc that people living in social groups have created, shared and experienced Culture distinguishes one human group from others and also distinguishes humans from other animals Cultural value is generated and exists in a culture and society as a measure for all social and cultural activities Thus, cultural value is an important determinant of a nation and society

1.3.2 The relationship between language and culture

The relationship between language and culture has been interrelated in the sense that language

is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties In the book “Language and Culture” Kramsch (1998; 3) states “language is the principle means whereby we conduct our social lives When it is used in contexts of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and

complex ways.” According to the author, the language people use in communication express facts, ideas or events and reflect the people’s attitude and beliefs, their point of view, which share the same cultural and social features Also, through language, the experience of a social community is variously created and presented The members of a social community make a great contribution to the language through the medium they choose to communicate The way

in which people use different forms of communication: written or verbal and non-verbal medium creates meanings for the language of the community Consequently, thanks to all the verbal and nonverbal aspects of the language, it is found that language embodies and represents cultural reality In addition, language possesses cultural values and consists of a complex system of sign through which people use language as a symbol of the social community and culture to identify themselves in the communication Thus, it can be said that language expresses the cultural identity

In general, language and culture have always been in existence together and reinforced each other The relationship between them is so closely linked that separation is impossible, in other

words, it is difficult to master the language without the knowledge of the culture

1.3.3 Characteristics of Vietnamese people and culture

Originated from the Southeast Asian culture, the Vietnamese river- imprinted culture deeply

affects the whole spiritual as well as material life of Vietnamese people This culture has existed and developed in close interaction with other cultures in Asia, particularly with Chinese culture As a result, the Vietnamese once chose Chinese as their official writing system and employed a range of Chinese routines and customs in their thinking and acting In the 16thcentury, together with the appearance of European culture are the birth of the National Roman Alphabet and the adaptation of Western lifestyle as well as technology, though still underdeveloped, in Vietnam This turning point led to changes in their awareness, habits, lifestyle, living standards, and accordingly, to advanced and revolutionary changes in value and standard systems More importantly, those changes helped to set a new system of behaviours,

standards and outlook of the whole community

The Vietnamese culture is said to be an agricultural one with the most distinguishing products

as rice, vegetables and fish Living mostly on farm created democracy and hierarchy, unity, collective spirit and independent spirit in Vietnamese people They are also greatly affected by Yin and Yang philosophy, clearly expressed in harmony tendency between people with people and with the nature In their social and communicative relationship, the Vietnamese prefer feelings to reasons, spirit to material, subtlety and reserve to rough and violence In their spiritual life, they idolize fertility- a belief praises multiply with the genital as its symbol

Though at any development period, to every Vietnamese person, Motherland is the most miraculous and nothing can compare to it They have fought for centuries, against a lot of enemies, to protect and hand it down to their ancestors The second distinguished feature when talking about Vietnamese cultural identity is the durable relationship between individuals and their family, between families and village, and to a broader term, the Motherland Generally speaking, Vietnamese people are those of duty and responsibility; and we can frequently hear

of such phrases as “sáng lua tối đèn có nhau” , “lá lành đùm lá rách”, “bán anh em xa mua láng giềng gần” Another feature of no less importance is the personalism in Vietnamese culture, which is opposite with individualism in Western culture Vietnamese people are those of various and diversified relationship and strongly controlled by such complicated relationships

In the Viet community, to a person’s children, he is a father, to his wife, he is a husband; to his grandparents, he is a nephew; and to his neighbours, he is also a family’s child and a member

of a large family

In general, Vietnamese culture is an undetachable part of Southeast Asian cultural space with typical features of a wet- rice civilization and Vietnamese people are said to be very hard- working, brave and faithful in their living and behaviours

1.3.4 Characteristics of British people and culture

The United Kingdom, constitutional monarchy in northwestern Europe, is officially the United

Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Great Britain is the largest island in the cluster

of islands, or archipelago, known as the British Isles England is the largest and most populous divisions of the islands of Great Britain , making up the south and east Wales is on the west and Scotland is to the north Northern Ireland is located in the northeast corner of Ireland, the

second largest island in the Brtish Isles Among these four cultural regions, the English culture

is considered a representative and often used to refer to the entire country’s culture

To other Europeans, the best known quality of the British, and especially of the English, is

“reserved” They are people who often keep certain distance to strangers, do not talk much about themselves, do not show much emotion and seldom get excited This fact tends to give their communicators the impression of coldness

Apart from “reserved”, a typical English man is expected to be modest and humorous Any self- praise is felt to be ill- bred and it is ideal to laugh at oneself- at one’s own faults, one’s own failures and embarrassment He also tends to expect those characters in others and distrusts exaggerated promises and shows of affection, especially if they are expressed in flowery language

Politeness is a hallmark of British society though their habits of politeness are on the whole very informal There are no complicated greetings, for instance, a simple “good morning” or a cheery wave of the hands across the street is quite satisfactory; handshakes are only exchanged

on a first introduction, or on special occations, or as a token of agreement or congratulation All politeness is based on the elementary rules showing consideration they show to you “Excuse me”, “sorry”, “thank you” or a politeness request like “Will you please…?”, or “Would you mind…?” are commonly used in Britain

Moreover, sportsmanship is highly valued in Britain with rules showing generosity to one’s opponent and good temper in defeat It is also an ideal that is applied to life in general This is proved by the number of sporting terms used in ordinary speech One of the most elementary rules of life is “never hit a man when he’s down.”- in other words, never take advantage of another’s misfortune And of course, everybody talks of “fair play” and “playing the game” or

“playing fair”

In conclusion, we can say that although the United Kingdom covers only a small area of the earth surface, the British, on the one hand, represent people of many different origins and cultures; but on the other hand, they are very different in some way from people of other continents

II LITERATURE REVIEW

Proverbs have been a various sources for the research on the language and cultures so a variety

of studies on the field have been carried out Among the studies on English and Vietnamese idioms as seen from cultural perspective, the following ones have been referred to as the reference materials

A Study on Family- Related English and Vietnamese Proverbs from Linguistic and Cultural Perspective- Tran The Khoa (2009, VNU- ULIS) The study focused on the background of

proverbs and made some distinction with the other concepts such as idioms, sayings, conventional phrases and phrasal verbs In the main part, the author carried out the contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese proverbs relating to family, thus the similarities and differences are drawn With the findings, the author stated some difficulties of learning English proverbs in general and raised the awareness of cultural related factors that should be taken into consideration in the teaching and learning process

A Cross- Cultural Study on Weather Proverbs in English and Vietnamese- Do Thi Minh Ngoc (2010, VNU- ULIS) Her study as entitled, focused on weather proverbs in English and

Vietnamese The author presented some theoretical background on proverbs and the relationship between language and culture The study aimed at working out the similarities and differences in the culture of the both countries that are reflected through their weather proverbs

A Study on English and Vietnamese Proverbs about Educating Moral Qualities from Cultural Perspective- Pham Thi Minh (2009, VNU- ULIS) The study aimed at investigating the general

syntactic, semantic and especially cultural features of English and Vietnamese proverbs about educating moral qualities Her study also focused on exploring the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese proverbs about educating moral qualities The author provided some suggestions for the teaching, learning and translation of the English proverbs about educating moral qualities in particular

Although the different aspects of proverbs were previously carried out, this study besides giving the theoretical background on proverbs and culture focuses on proverbs relating to marriage, one of the very topics connected to the culture and originated from the deep root in cultures It is confirmed that proverbs in this study is not only the belonging of the language

but also it is a part of culture, the thing that links to the everyday life of people and enrich the spiritual and cultural life of English and Vietnamese To make it more specific and easy to comprehend, the marriage- related proverbs in British English and Vietnamese will be thoroughly mentioned and analyzed

CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Research method

The major methods applied in the study are comparative and contrastive This qualitative study

is conducted by carefully collecting and referring to materials from various sources to have full-blown information of proverbs and its cultural background in general The good choice of two hundred proverbs in Vietnamese and two hundred proverbs in British English will be carefully analysed and examined to see the similarities and differences between the two cultures and languages The author’s own experience in communication and cultural awareness will be referred to as way of viewing the field

2.2 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedure is comprised of two steps:

Step 1 is collection of marriage- related proverbs in both English and Vietnamese In this step, the researcher refers to a number of English and Vietnamese proverbs dictionaries, books as well as some linguistic websites which contain a list of proverbs in order to pick out all the marriage- related proverbs needed for the study

Step 2 is carried out with the aim of collecting necessary background knowledge for the research A large amount of academic articles are consulted so that the researcher can obtain a full concept of all the item she is studying Added to this, the researcher studies several available cultural books to detect the cultural values and beliefs of the two countries Last but not least, many of the previously conducted researches are referred to so that the researcher can find out what has been studied, what results have been drawn, and what is more she can contribute in her own research

2.3 Data analysis

Marriage – related proverbs in English and Vietnamese are analyzed in terms of syntactic and semantic features, then a comparison of these proverbs in terms of syntactics, semantics and cultural aspects is also given After all the necessary data has been fully collected, next comes the data analysis process which applies comparative and contrastive analytical stratergies

In order to successfully achieve all the aims of data analysis process, the three folloing stages are implemented

Stage 1: Classification – The researcher reads all the data and then divides them into smaller

units

In this stage, an effort is made to classify the marriage- related proverbs into three categories The first is the faithfulness between husband and wife; the second is the solidarity between husband and wife; the third is the roles of husband and wife

Stage 2: Comparison

This is the main analytic stage First, the researcher counts up the total number of marriage- related proverbs in English and Vietnamese, demonstred it to make a pure comparison on the quantity Next, the researcher sifts through the materials to identify the similarities and differences between English proverbs and Vietnamese proverbs in terms of images that are frequently used For example, in the category of marriage- related proverbs pertaining to the faithfulness, the researcher will list out all the common images used in English proverbs and Vietnamese provebs to see what features are shared between the two countries and what features are typical of each culture

Stage 3: Synthesis and generalization

After analyzing the remarkable features of both English and Vietnamese marriage proverbs, the researcher synthesizes all similarities and differences to make a generalization about the similarities and differences that reflect the cultural values and beliefs Similarities express the intersection of two cultures whereas differences represent the cultural uniqueness and distintiveness Therefore, the researcher’s task does not stop at pointing out what is different A further step is required to study the factors that lead to such similarities and differences and

investigating how these factors are influnced by cultural perspectives

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

I COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE PROVERBS ABOUT MARRIAGE IN

TERMS OF SYNTACTICS

1.1 Overview

This part mainly discusses syntactic features of proverbs relating to marriage in English and Vietnamese The researcher has referred to nearly 200 Vietnamese proverbs and nearly 200 English proverbs from two sources: the world wide web and book; they are:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proverbs.html

http://nativeenglish.eu/articles/171/1/A-few-family-sayings-and-old-folklore/Page1.html Based on the quantity of marriage proverbs that the researcher is able to collect, it is seen that

in this study there are more marriage proverbs in Vietnamese than in English To illustrate the findings, a detailed discussion with examples is presented

1.2 Syntactic features of English and Vietnamese proverbs about marriage

1.2.1 Phrase structures

1.2.1.1 Proverbs with Noun Phrase Structures

a In English

[1] (Art) + Adj + N// + Adj + N A harmonious marriage

[2] Num + N// Num + N One father is enough to govern one hundred sons,

but not a hundred sons one father

[3] N + N // N + N Niggard father, spendthrift son

[4]Noun’s + Noun Mother’s darlings

[5] NP + prep + NP A man without a wife is but half a man

[6] NP + and + NP Children to bed and the goose the fire

[7] NP + [S + V + C] The mother-in-law remembers not that she was a

daughter- in-law

a In Vietnamese

[1] Noun + Noun// Noun + Noun Công cha, nghĩa mẹ, ơn thầy

[2]Nooun + Adj/ AP // Noun + Adj / AP Vợ hiền hòa, nhà hướng nam

[3] N + (nào) + N + (nấy) Mẹ đỏ con đào, cha nào con nấy

[4] N/ NP + NP// N/ NP + NP Anh em gạo, đạo nghĩa tình

[5] Num + NP/ N + NP Một con so bằng mười con rạ

[6] N + V/ N + V Con hát mẹ khen hay

Based on the examples above, we can summarize the noun phrase structures of English and Vietnamese proverbs relating to marriage in the table as follow:

Table 3: Noun phrase structures

Noun

Phrase

[1] (Art) + Adj + N// + Adj + N None

[2] Num + N// Num + N [1] Num + NP/ N + NP [3] N + N // N + N [2] N + N// N + N

[4] Noun’s + Noun None

[5] NP + prep + NP [3] N + (nào) + N + (nấy) [6] NP + and + NP None

[7] NP + [S + V + C] None

None [4] N/ NP + NP// N/ NP + NP None [5]N + Adj/ AP // N+ Adj / AP

None [6] N + V/ N + V

1.2.1.2 Proverbs with Verb Phrase Structures

a In English

[8] V + N/ NP// V + N/NP Spare the rod and spoil the child

[9] V + Noun/ NP Choose a wife by your ear rather by your eye

[10] Verb + prep.Phrase Train up a child in the way he should go

[11] VP + prep + VP To have a good sentiment to a girl’s inferiors of her

relatives when falling in love with her

[9] VP + VP // VP + VP Sẩy cha còn chú, sẩy mẹ bú dì

[10] V + adj // V + adj Chia ngọt, sẻ bùi

[11] VP + AP // VP + AP Dạy con từ thủa còn thơ, dạy vợ từ thủa bơ vơ mới

[12] Adj + Vp // Adj + VP Giàu làm chị, khó lụy làm em

[13] Adj + AP // Adj + AP Giống nhau như hai giọt nước

[14] Adj + N/ NP // Adj + N/NP Khôn với vợ, dại với anh em

Table 5: Adjective phrase structures

Adjective

Phrase

[12] Adj + VP [12] Adj + VP [13] Adj + Noun, Adj + Noun [13] Adj + N/ NP // Adj + N/NP

None [14] Adj + AP // Adj + AP

Based on the statistic, we can demonstrate the number of English and Vietnamese proverbs relating to marriage in the table as follow:

Table 6: Statistical summary of phrase structures of English and Vietnamese

English and Vietnamese

proverbs relating to marriage

structure Adjective phrase 2 7.1 10 12.8

As seen from the table, the total number of Vietnamese proverbs by far outnumbers that of English ones (78 vs 28), which implies that a greater attention is paid to phrase structures by Vietnamese people than by Englishmen

It is also easy to notice that noun phrase structure is used the most in both English and Vietnamese, which are 79% and 46.2% relatively In the two other categories, both English and Vietnamese have smaller number than in the first one, which ocuppies only 14.3% and 7.1% in English; 41% and 12.8% in Vietnamese

[14] S + V A miserly father makes a prodigal son

[15] S + V + O + A A good wife makes a good husband

[16] S + V + C Children are poor men’s riches

[17] S + V + A A deaf wife is the best goods in a man house

[18]S + V + O + O A child without parents is like a ship without a rudder

[19] S + V + O + C A good wife is a good prize

[20] S + V + O + A A father loves his children in hating their faults

b In Vietnamese

[15] S + V Chồng giận thì vợ bớt lời, cơm sôi nhỏ lửa một đời không khê

[16]S + V + O Con khôn nở mặt mẹ cha

[17] S + V + C Nên vợ nên chồng

[18] S + V + A Vợ chồng khi nồng khi nhạt

1.2.2.2 Compound sentence patterns

a In English

a1 Syndetic coordination: a compound sentence whose two clauses are connected by conjunctions: and, but, or

To respect both one’s mother and father

a2 Asyndetic coordination: a compound sentence whose two clauses are not connected

by conjunctions This pattern is presented as the following examples:

[21] S + V // S + V The younger sister falls down, her older sister supports her [22] S + V + C// S + V + C Good children bring glory to their parents

[23

] S + V + O // S + V + O One father is enough to govern one hundred sons, but not

hundred sons one father

b In Vietnamese

[19] S + V// S + V Chị ngã em nâng

[20]S + V + A // S + V + A Yêu con chị, vị con em

[21] S + V + C// S + V + C Thương con thì cho ăn quà, nuôi gà phải tốn

thóc

[22] S + V + O// S + V + O Cha mẹ sinh con trời sinh tính

[23] S + V + O + A// S + V + O + A Vợ hiền khiến chồng sang, vợ dữ khiến chồng hư [24] S + V +O + C// S + V + O + C Trai nhớ vợ cũ, gái nhớ chồng xưa

[25]S + V + O + O// S + V + O + O Ớt nào mà ớt chẳng cay, gái nào là gái chẳng hay

ghen chồng

1.2.2.3 Complex sentence patterns

a In English

Nominal Clauses What’s learnt in the cradle lasts till the tomb

Clause of place Where the needle goes, the thread must follow

Clause of condition If you make your wife an ass, she will make you an ox

b In Vietnamese

[26] Subject is a subject- Predicate Structure (S[S + V] + V )

Trai chưa vợ bạc đầy cong, gái chưa chồng tiền đầy gác

[27] Predicate is a subject- Predicate structure

( S + V[S + V])

Chồng già vợ trẻ là tiên, vợ già chồng trẻ là duyên nợ nần

[28] Compliment is a subject- Predicate structure

( S + V + C[S + V ])

Ớt nào là ớt chẳng cay, gái nào là gái chẳng hay ghen chồng

All the sentence structures in English and Vietnamese proverbs are summarized in the following table

Table 7: Sentence structures

Table 8: Statistical summary of sentence structures

English and Vietnamese

proverbs relating to marriage

1.2.2.4 Comparative sentences

a In English

a1 To a higher degree

Next to no wife, a good wife is best

a2 To the same degree (as…as)

Love lasts as long as money endures

b In Vietnamese

b1 To a higher degree

- Đàn bà muốn là trời muốn, nhất vợ nhì trời

- Một giọt máu đào hơn ao nước lã

b2 To the same degree

- Cha mẹ nuôi con bằng trời bằng bể, con nuôi cha mẹ tính tháng tính ngày

- Chị em dâu như bầu nước lã

b3 To a lower degree

Một trăm quan tiền nợ không bằng vợ có con riêng

To make it clearer, let us consider the following table:

Table 9: Comparative sentences

1.3 Syntactic Similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese proverbs relating

to marriage

We can easily give the conclusion basing on the table below:

Table 10: Statistical summary of syntactic feature

English and Vietnamese proverbs relating

have similar structures such as N + N/N + N, N + (nào) + N + (nấy), V + N/ NP// V +

N/NP, Adj + VP// Adj + VP Besides, as far as sentence structures are concerned, all three

main types of sentence structures are found in both English and Vietnamese proverbs: simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences and comparative sentences

In addition, another similarity between English proverbs in terms of marriage and Vietnamese proverbs is that both languages have parallel patterns Parallel patterns appear

in phrase and structure as well as sentence structure One more similar thing is that the comparative structures are used in both English and Vietnamese proverbs with comparative markers as…as, than or like in English

The second difference can be seen in the use of other types of sentence structures It is clear that English proverbs own three types of English compound sentences such as SV, SVO, SVC In contrast, Vietnamese proverbs have seven types such as SV, SVC, SVO, SVA, SVOC, SVOO, SVOA The English prefer to use simple sentence in proverbs relating to marriage (80.5%), meanwhile the Vietnamese tend to use conpound sentence (50.8%) Vietnamese peoverbs covers seven structures in compound senence but English proverbs cover only three structures

Thirdly, the complex sentence structures in both English and Vietnamese proverbs don’t share any patterns They both have three patterns but none of them is similar Moreover, the parallel construction is more numerous in Vietnamese proverbs than English proverbs The final difference can be seen in the use of comparison The English don’t use the lower dgree at all to compare things or people in proverbs Meanwhile the Vietnamese use lower dgree “không bằng” quite often (19.2%) While Vietnamese proverbs relating to marriage mostly use the same degree “bằng” or “như” (61.5%), English ones use higher degree (46.2%) and highest degree (30.8)

II COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE PROVERBS ABOUT MARRIAGE IN

TERMS OF SEMANTICS

2.1 Sematic fields of English and Vietnamese proverbs relating to marriage

2.1.1 Relationship between husband and wife

This is the basic relationship in a family I will only focus on topics related to this relation such

as marriage, husband and wife and failure of the family

a Marriage

Let us examine the proverb below “Marriage is a lottery.” (Vợ chồng may rủi là duyên.)

According to the proverb, marriage is possibly a matter of success because noone can tell how the relationship of a married couple can change after a certain period of time This folk saying may also indicate a premature marriage when individuals get married without knowing each other very well

Unlike English, Vietnamese proverbs of marriage cover a large number in the corpus (Appendix 1) It is the time two people become one and they will live together forever: “Trai khôn kén vợ chợ đông, gái khôn tìm chồng giữa chốn ba quân.”

b Husband and wife

Let us take the case of the following instances: “Better be an old man’s darling than a young man’s slave.” and “Chồng già vợ trẻ là tiên, vợ già chồng trẻ là duyên nợ nần.” The proverb suggests that a woman should mary a man who loves and idolizes her, regardless the fact that

he might be an old man, instead of marrying a young man who would make her life miserable and would treat her badly Especially, in the former society of Vietnam, husband and wife were considered to be interdependent The wife depended on the husband because she had to serve him However, nowadays they are quite coequal: “Thuyền theo lái, gái theo chồng.” and

“Thuyền mạnh về lái, gái mạnh về chồng.”

Besides, the role of the wife is very important for the husband She is a wife, a daughter-in-law and a mother Each of these roles is significant She has to balance every relationship and she must behave as it should be For example: “Vợ khôn ngoan làm quan cho chồng.”

In Vietnamese, the disagreement between husband and wife was considered and evaluated such as: “Chồng thấp mà lấy vợ cao, như đôi đũa lệch so sao cho vừa.”

c The failure in the family

The disagreement, argument or debate between husband and wife are expressed quite clearly in both English and Vietnamese proverbs In Vietnamese, the relationship between a husband and

a wife less falls to pieces than Europe For example: “Tại anh tại ả tại cả hai bên.”, “Long absent, soon forgotten.”

Let us consider the table below to see what relationships between husband and wife in proverbs are more concerned

Table 11: Husband and wife

Number Percent Number Percent Relationship

58 38.7 75 50

Failure in family

39 26 20 13.3

We can see that both English and Vietnamese tend to avoid mention the failure in family so this area occupies the smallest number of proverbs Both English Vietnamese are concerned mainly about the marriage and the husband and wife with the percentage of 35.3% and 38.7% in English and 36.7% and 50% in Vietnamese

2.1.2 Relationship between Parents and Children

In this part, we will mention the relations such as the pregnancy, children, parents and the relations between parents and children

a Happiness of Bearing and Educating Children

In the world, many children are always happy about their parents because they are born in the result of the love between a father and a mother For example: “A fatherless child is like a bee

without hive.” (Con không cha như nhà không nóc.)

Vietnamese people can use “Hổ” (Tiger) when they want to talk about or express the scene

“The father transmits and his children will carry on.” with the proverb “Cha hổ mang đẻ con

hổ mang.”

b Children

We consider some following examples: “Children are poor men’s riches.” (Giàu con hơn giàu của.) In Vietnamese, children always occupy an important role in the family According to Vietnamese people, if the family had had children, they would have been happy This belief is expressed in many proverbs: “Có vàng, vàng chẳng hay phô, có con con nói trầm trồ mẹ nghe”,

“có chồng mà chẳng có con, khác nào hoa nở trên non một mình.”

c The relationship between Children and Parents

Parents are very important people in a family To express intimate relashionship among the members of the same blood, both English and Vietnamese people meet in thought They always have a good relationship with their relatives and give each other special sentiments

- Like father like son

- The child is the father of the man

The first proverb expresses almost identical idea It emphasizes the similarity between father and son The second proverb expresses attitude towards a child The expression conveys a view that personality and character of a human being start to develop from early years Hence, in such a way a child gives birth to an adult

In Vietnamese, we say “Con không cha như nhà không nóc.”, “Cha nào con nấy.”

To make it clearer, let us consider the table below to see what relationships in parents and children are more concerned

Table 12: Parents and children

Number Percent Number Percent Relationship

The main concern in both English and Vietnamese proverbs is the relationship between parents and children, which occupies 60 cases out of 80 in English and 45 cases out of 80 The

happiness of bearing and educating children as well as the children’s role are also mentioned here but they don’t appear much Among 80 English proverbs, there are only 12 proverbs with the happiness of bearing and educating children and 8 proverbs of children’s role Among 80 Vietnamese proverbs, there are only 20 proverbs of happiness of bearing and educating

children and 15 proverbs of children’s role

2.2 Stylistic Devices of Englsih and Vietnamese proverbs relating to marriage

2.2.1 Simile

Both English and Vietnamese proverbs use simile to express their ideas: “children are better than riches.” In Vietnamese there is a long list of comparative proverbs The frequency of simile is relatively high as in the following examples:

- Vợ chồng như đũa có đôi

- Chồng thấp mà lấy vợ cao, như đôi đũa lệch so sao cho bằng

In the former proverb in Vietnamese, people compare the couple with a unified entity As we know, noone can pick up food with one of a pair of chopsticks It also happens similarly in the life of the couple Nobody can live alone and feel happy without his wife or her husband Can you imagine that how you use unbalanced pairs of chopsticks with both unequal and to pick up food effectively and flexibly? That is the reason why Vietnamese people make use of two pairs

of chopstics before meals

In the same way, in the later proverb, we see that in the conception of the spousal marital philosophy, the most idea thing is that the husnabd is taller than his wife They look like a well- matched couple They, on the contrary, look like an unequal pair of chopsticks

2.2.2 Metaphor

We consider metaphor in the following examples:

A wife is the key to the house (Người vợ là tay hòm chìa khóa.)

The images of the “wife” and the “key” are brought in the interplay of their meanings The key

to our mind is a tool installed on the door or on many other things such as motobikes, cars, safe boxes, and so on Thus, it is really important and useful in our daily life Similarly, “the wife” evokes in our mind the image of a person with good characters such as taking care of household and rearing children Metaphor to our eyes can be found in the identification

between the function of a wife and the one of a key Clearly, to create a firgurative metaphorical image, people have to put the abstract and the concrete in sense relation Vietnamese says “Gái không chồng như thuyền không lái, trai không vợ như ngựa không cương.”

2.2.3 Metonymy

Englishmen have the proverb “To respect both one’s mother and father” (Bên cha cũng kính, bên mẹ cũng vái.) Vietnamese people say “Mẹ đánh một trăm không bằng cha ngăm một tiếng.” Both of them use metonymy to convey the ideas The Vietnamese proverb means that

“một trăm” here is one hundred rods, “Ngăm” implies bully, “tiếng” is the language of people

“Ngăm một tiếng” means that when the father threatens or warns a little, children will have to

be frightened and he does not have to beat one hundred rods as the mother does The proverb aims at expressing the important role and high position of father in a family in order to make children have good manners

2.2.4 Hyperbole

Let us consider some examples: “A woman’s work is never done.” (Đang khi lửa tắt cơm sôi, lợn kêu, con khóc, chồng đòi tòm tem.” The word “never” can be seen as amplication Here the proverb draws our attention to the highest degree on the scale of frequency The word “never” can be reinterpreted as “seldom”, but the speaker deliberately uses “never” instead of “seldom”

to reinforce the sufferings women often have to undergo in their daily life

Vietnamese says “Trai chưa vợ bạc đầy cong, gái chưa chồng tiền đầy gác.” In this proverb, we sould not understand literally as “unmarried men’s money is full of his trunk, unmarried women’s money is full of her garret” but it should be interpreted as a generalized idea of the saving money much more than enough owned by single men and women, on comparing them

to the married ones The image “money” in the example cited is depicted more exaggeratedly than usual in order to make a strong impression on the hearers

2.2.5 Antithesis

We consider the metaphor in the following example:

A miserly father makes a prodigal son

(Cha mẹ hiền lành, con trở nên ngỗ ngược.)