proverbs denoting family relationships in english and vietnamese a contrastive analysis and teaching implications.” = các tục ngữ chỉ mối quan hệ gia đình một phân tích đối chiếu và những ứng dụng trong dạy họ

The similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships in terms of syntactic features..... Objectives of the study The objectives of the s

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

CÁC TỤC NGỮ CHỈ MỐI QUAN HỆ GIA ĐÌNH: MỘT PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU VÀ NHỮNG ỨNG DỤNG TRONG DẠY HỌC

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

HANOI, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

CÁC TỤC NGỮ CHỈ MỐI QUAN HỆ GIA ĐÌNH: MỘT PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU VÀ NHỮNG ỨNG DỤNG TRONG DẠY HỌC

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ

HANOI, 2014

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DECLARATION OF AUTHOR

I certify that the minor thesis entitled Proverbs denoting family relationships in

English and Vietnamese: A contrastive analysis and teaching implications is

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

is the result of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledge and that this minor thesis or any part of the same had not been submitted for a higher degree to any other universities or institutions

Hanoi, August 10th, 2014

Nguyễn Thu Hiền

Last but not least, I want to give my special thanks to my family, especially to my husband, for their support and encouragement so that I could finish my study

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale 1

2 Objectives of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 3

6 Scope of the study 3

7 Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of precious study 5

1.2 Theoretical background 6

1.2.1 Definition of proverbs 6

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1.2.2 Definition of proverbs denoting family relationships 7

1.2.3 Definition of idioms 8

1.2.4 Proverbs and idioms 8

1.3 Summary 10

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Restatement of the research questions 11

2.2 Data collection instruments 11

2.3 Procedures of data collection 12

2.4 Procedures of data analysis 12

2.5 Summary 13

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 The syntactic features of English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships 14

3.1.1 Conciseness 14

3.1.2 Symmetry 15

3.1.3 Sentential structures 16

3.1.4 Phrasal structures 21

3.2 The similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships in terms of syntactic features 22

3.2.1 Similarities 22

3.2.2 Differences 22

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3.3 Semantic features of English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family

relationships 23

3.3.1 Meanings of proverbs denoting family relationships 23

3.3.2 Stylistic devices of English and Vietnamese denoting family relationships 24

3.3.3 Semantic aspects of proverbs denoting family relationships in English and Vietnamese 27

3.4 Semantic similarities and differences between the English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships 31

3.4.1 Similarities 31

3.4.2 Differences 32

3.5 Summary 32

PART C: CONCLUSION 1 Recapitulation 34

2 Conclusions 35

3 Teaching implications 36

4 Limitations of the study 37

5 Suggestions for further study 37

REFERENCES 39

APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 III

or implicit sense” The tool for this communication is language [13:1] There are many ways to approach a new culture One of them is studying its proverbs and sayings Bank [3:1] claims that “Proverbs are condensed culture” Furthermore, Mieder [15:11] states that “The wisdom of proverbs has guided people in their social interactions for thousand years throughout the world.” We can say, therefore, proverbs are a very precious heritage of every nation, every ethnic group that should

be respected and preserved

Vietnamese proverbs are not known for sure of the origin in term of their inception and authors They are orally transmitted and incessantly edited throughout generations [10:5] The content of Vietnamese proverbs are various, often reflect human experiences about labor and production, about family and social relationships in which proverbs denoting family relationships account for relatively large numbers in Vietnamese folk songs store Proverbs about the relationship between husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters have been in company with us during our whole lives From the cradle, I was familiar with some proverbs: “Chị ngã em nâng” [24:43], “Anh em như thể tay chân” [8:26] or “Một giọt máu đào hơn ao nước lã” [18:276] We were taught not only to love our brothers and sisters but also to respect spiritual family sentiment Furthermore, some other proverbs gave us the lessons of respecting and being grateful to our parents such as: “Công cha như núi Thái Sơn, nghĩa mẹ như nước trong nguồn chảy ra” [18:274] And there are still a lot of valuable proverbs which provide us with many precious lessons in the treasure of Vietnamese proverbs It is clear that family proverbs have carved deeply into everyone’s mind Therefore, they play an

2 Objectives of the study

The objectives of the study are:

- to identify and analyze syntactic and semantic features of some proverbs denoting family relationships in English and Vietnamese

- to compare and contrast syntactic and semantic features of some proverbs denoting family relationships in English and Vietnamese

- to give some suggestions in teaching English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships

4 Methods of the study

The research methods to be applied in this study include:

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- quantitative and qualitative analysis which will be used for reading and categorizing typical English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships

- comparative and contrastive analysis of proverbs in English and Vietnamese which will be carried out in terms of syntactic and semantic features

- synthesis analysis which will be used to synthesize the data and conclude the similarities and differences between proverbs denoting family relationships in English and Vietnamese

5 Significance of the study

With the purpose of studying the syntactic and semantic features of proverbs denoting family relationships in English and Vietnamese, the study will be able to provide Vietnamese learners of English with better mastering of how to apply this kind of proverbs in sensible ways, how to thoroughly understand, effectively and naturally use them in receptive and productive skills

6 Scope of the study

In this research, the author expects to find out, analyze and contrast syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationship The author will also make great efforts to discover the proverbs which have contents related to the relationships of family members although they do not carry family words Contrastively, the proverbs which just carry family words do not convey the contents of family relationships are not mentioned

7 Organization of the study

The study consists of three main parts in addition to appendices and references Part A, introduction, introduces the rationale, the objectives, the research questions, the methods, the significance, the scope and the organization of the study,

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Part B is the development of the study which contains three chapters The first chapter focuses on an overview of literature review and theoretical background of proverbs Definition of idioms and the distinguishing between proverbs and idioms are also mentioned in this chapter The second chapter is methodology in which data collection instruments, procedures of data collection, procedures of data analysis are presented The last chapter in part B is data analysis and discussion This chapter shows syntactic and semantic features of proverbs denoting family relationships in English and Vietnamese And then similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships in terms of syntax and semantics will be concluded

Part C is the conclusion of the study which includes the recapitulation of the study as well as some conclusions, limitations, teaching implications and some suggestions for further studies

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature and the theoretical background on proverbs in both English and Vietnamese are presented in this chapter An overview of previous study which is related to proverbs in English and Vietnamese as well as the definitions of proverbs

is presented Then, the definitions of idioms and the distinguishing between proverbs and idioms are also mentioned in this chapter

1.1 An overview of previous study

Proverbs have attracted many scholars all over the world There are some books whose authors mentioned some aspects of proverbs “Proverbs and their lessons” written by Richard [21] presents an important survey of the origin, nature, distribution, meaning and significance of proverbs in the English speaking world

On the other hand, “American proverbs about women” by Kerschen [8] is an examination of how women are treated by popular sayings that perpetuate folk wisdom Furthermore, “The fact on file dictionary of proverbs” by Martin [14] provides full meanings of common proverbs arranged in the alphabetic order The book “Proverbs: A Handbook” by Mieder [15] is an inclusive and comparative survey of paremiology and focuses on Anglo American proverbs in English language context

In Vietnam, many linguists have paid much attention to proverbs Thu [24] and Lân [9] shared the same ideas of classifying Vietnamese proverbs as every aspect of our lives in two books “Ca dao, tục ngữ Việt Nam” and “Tục ngữ, ca dao Viêt Nam” respectively In addition, Lân [10] compiled a dictionary in which proverbs were both literally and figuratively explained in the alphabetic order Hùng [7] collected a number of English proverbs and their Vietnamese equivalences which were helpful for learners of English Sa [22] focused on rhetorical simile between English

Not only international scholars but also Vietnamese ones have paid more attention

to proverbs Lân [10: 6] defines “Tục ngữ là những câu hoàn chỉnh, có ý nghĩa trọn ven, nói lên hoặc một nhận xét về tâm lý, hoặc một lời phê bình, khen hay chê, hoặc một câu khuyên nhủ, hoặc một kinh nghiệm về nhận thức tự nhiên hay xã hội… Proverbs are complete sentences which carry full meanings, express spiritual comments, criticisms, compliments or disparagements; or pieces of advice, experiences about the nature or the society… Phan [18: 27] states that: “Tục ngữ là một câu tự nó diễn trọn vẹn một ý, một nhận xét, một kinh nghiệm, một luân lý, một công lý, có khi là một sự phê phán.” A proverb is a sentence which expresses complete meaning itself, a comment, an experience, a justice and a criticism as well Hùng [7: 10] claims that “Tục ngữ là câu ngắn gọn, thường có vần điệu, đúc kết tri thức, kinh nghiệm sống và đạo đức thực tiễn của nhân dân.” A proverb is a short

1.2.2 Definition of proverbs denoting family relationships

In my opinion, family relationships are emotional connections between members in

a family in general It consists of emotional connections between parents and children, husbands and wives, siblings and other kinships Proverbs which convey the emotional connections are called proverbs denoting family relationships They are found in both forms of Vietnamese and English For example, “Vợ chồng như đũa có đôi” [24: 37]; “Anh em hòa thuận là nhà có phúc” [24: 43]; “Chị em dâu như bầu nước lã” [17:44] are known as Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships, and “As is the father, so is the son” [14:13]; “The family that prays together stays together [14:85] as English ones

1.2.3 Definition of idioms

According to Oxford dictionary [11], an idiom is a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word on its own Furthermore, Michael and Felicity [16] stated that idioms are “expressions which have a meaning that is not obvious from the individual words” Like foreign researchers, Phan [18] also states that an idiom is a part of a sentence and it cannot express a complete idea itself Lân [9] claims that idioms are fixed phrases to express a concept

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1.2.4 Proverbs and idioms

When studying the proverbs, the researcher got much confused to distinguish proverbs from idioms So in this part, the differences between them will be pointed

in the hope of helping the readers have more knowledge of proverbs Both idioms and proverbs are fixed and available language units which are picturesque, highly evocative and popularly used in communication However, idioms differ from proverbs in several ways First, in terms of syntax, an idiom is a fixed phrase whose meaning cannot be deduced from the meanings of its constituents while a proverb is

a complete sentence expressing one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice

or criticism Let’s see some examples as follows:

(1) pull one’s weight [16: 42]

(2) An apple a day keeps the doctor away [14]

It can be seen that example (1) is an idiom because it is a fixed phrase which does

not mean “put on one’s weight” It means using a lot of energy and effort to do something like in the sentence “If Sarah pulled her weight, she would easily be able

to complete her project on time.” However, example (2) is a proverb because it is a

complete sentence which contains a message It is not just about the act of eating an apple that can keep a doctor away The message of the sentence is that we should try to pursue a healthy diet to stay healthy

Furthermore, an idiom can be a part of a proverb This exists both in English and in Vietnamese:

(3) Chồng yêu, xỏ chân lỗ mũi [7: 13]

(4) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket [7: 13]

We can see that “xỏ chân lỗ mũi” and “put all one’s eggs in one basket” are idioms which belong to proverbs (3) and (4) respectively

On the other hand, when studying the differences between proverbs and idioms, Hùng [7] focused on their literature functions According to his study, proverbs carry three main literature functions: aesthetic function, perception function and

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educational function whereas idioms bring only aesthetic function Let’s consider two examples for illustration below:

(5) Blood is thicker than water [14: 30]

(6) get on like a house on fire [16: 52]

Example (5) concludes three literature functions The perception function helps the readers understand the loyalty and affection between members of the same family are much stronger than any other relationship Regarding educational function, it educates people to have awareness of sacred family relationships and then encourages them to live in harmony with family members The methods of exaggeration and symbolization used so as to attract the readers’ attention can be understood as the function of aesthetics Example (6) is an idiom expressing “get on extremely well with someone” It does not have the functions of perception as well

as education because it does not convey a comment, a piece of advice or a criticism

It just owns the aesthetic function which is performed by using simile

Let’s have a look at table 1 that summarizes the distinguishing criteria between proverbs and idioms

Structural realization fixed phrases usually complete sentences

Literature functions aesthetic function - aesthetic function

- perception function

- educational function

Expression pure concepts general truths, comments,

advices, experiences, criticisms…

Table 1: Distinguishing criteria between proverbs and idioms

It is noteworthy that the boundaries we have proposed are fuzzy in the sense that overlapping, to some extent, cannot be avoided Although different units are

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distinguished in the table, there are some exceptions that the boundary between proverbs and idioms is sometimes vague The unclear distinguishing between proverbs and idioms can be found in Vietnamese more than in English “Trong ấm ngoài êm”, for example, may be understood to be both an idiom and a proverb If it

is considered as a concept of inner and outer stableness, it will be an idiom If people think “trong ấm” will result in “ngoài êm”, it will be a proverb because it shows the fact that the union and harmony inside will create a concrete base of good relationships outside

1.3 Summary

In chapter 1, the author has presented some previous studies about proverbs There are numerous studies of this subject but few studies refer to proverbs denoting family relationships in English and Vietnamese In addition, the definition

of proverbs and distinguish between proverbs and idioms have been mentioned The vague boundary between idioms and proverbs is also referred but the author does not have a deeper research about it In the next chapter, the author will deal with methodology and procedures to carry out this study

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

The methods of study are very important to find out the findings and conclusion of the study Therefore, the clearer methodology is given, the deeper the study is understood This chapter mainly aims at restating the research questions and describing the procedures of collecting and analyzing data in the study

2.1 Restatement of the research questions

This study is designed to analyze and describe syntactic and semantic features of proverbs denoting family relationships in English and Vietnamese The author made use of contrastive analysis in qualitative and quantitative approaches to meet the needs of the study Data are collected, classified and analyzed both in English and

in Vietnamese to recognize the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships In other words, three following research questions must be answered:

1 What are syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships?

2 What are the similarities and differences in syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships?

3 What are the implications of teaching and learning English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships?

2.2 Data collection instruments

Most of the proverbs used in the study were collected from dictionaries, books, articles, defended theses and researches They are extremely famous works in Vietnamese as well as in English In Vietnamese, the author selected the data from three main books: “Ca dao, tục ngữ Việt Nam” by Phương Thu [24], “Tục ngữ, ca dao, dân ca Việt Nam” by Vũ Ngọc Phan [18] or “Tuyển tập thành ngữ, tục ngữ, ca dao Việt – Anh thông dụng” by Nguyễn Đình Hùng [7] In English, I mainly made

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the reference of three important books: “Proverbs: A Handbook” by Wolfgang Mieder [15], “The facts on file dictionary of proverbs” by Martin H Manser [14] and “The Penguin dictionary of proverbs” by Rosalind [20] The materials are chosen for several specific reasons Firstly, it can be said that they are quiet popular and currently available Secondly, the scope of the materials is focused on common proverbs especially proverbs denoting family relationships And finally, the sources

of these data are believed to be reliable, suitable and adequate because they are all published, submitted and related to the area of the study

Besides the source of hard papers, the author also collected some proverbs from internet Then, the author checked them up again in dictionaries to ensure their accuracy and reliability Finally, I reached to some proverbs from the old people and foreigners who are working with me at my center

2.3 Procedures of data collection

In this present paper, the data are mainly obtained by observation and through content-analysis The data used for description and analysis in terms of structural and semantic components are observed and taken out from reliable materials By that way, the author collected 100 proverbs denoting family relationships both in English and in Vietnamese Then the author carries out analyzing contents of the proverbs to classify them into different categories such as proverbs denoting relationships between parents and children, husbands and wives, siblings… in order

to make the study clearer And this could help the readers easily understand the content of the study Moreover, the author asked some experienced people and foreigners to get a couple of proverbs that were useful for the research

2.4 Procedures of data analysis

After finishing the collection of data, the author carries out some research methods

to analyze the data so as to answer the research questions set up early in the study

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Firstly, contrastive analysis is used to estimate the differences in syntactic features

of English and Vietnamese proverbs Each structure has at least one example for illustration By contrastive analysis, the author will discover the similarities and differences in proverbs denoting family relationships in terms of syntactic features Secondly, the data will be analyzed qualitatively into semantic field The data collected are typical and representative for sematic characteristics of family proverbs in English and Vietnamese With the help of contrastive method, the similarities and differences between them will be explored

Finally, the author will draw some conclusions about proverbs in English and Vietnamese due to carrying the methods of analyzing and synthesizing the data

2.5 Summary

In the second chapter, the author would like to present the methodology of the study Data were collected from numerous sources such as dictionaries, books, articles, websites… The proverbs were chosen and classified into different categories so that the readers could follow the content easily Description, contrastive analysis and synthesis quantitatively and qualitatively were carried out

so as to find out the answers to the research questions

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CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

If the previous chapters have provided some knowledge background of proverbs in general and the research methods of the study, this chapter will mention data analysis and discussion Firstly, it presents the syntactic and semantic features of proverbs denting family relationships in both English and Vietnamese And then the similarities and differences of two countries’ proverbs will be concluded in terms of syntax and semantics The content of the chapter is summarized in the last section

3.1 The syntactic features of English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships

3.1.1 Conciseness

As defined by many linguists, one common but very important feature of proverbs

is the concrete structure Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships are usually in simple composition, being formed from four words to longer but they are generally in short Let’s see some proverbs which consist of four words as follows:

Máu chảy ruột mềm [9: 22]

Khác máu tanh lòng [9: 22]

Chị ngã em nâng [24: 43]

Some are longer, however, ranging from eight to ten words

Anh thuận em hòa là nhà có phúc [24: 43]

Thuận vợ thuận chồng tát bể Đông cũng cạn [23: 37]

Sảy cha còn chú, sảy mẹ ấp vú dì [9: 22]

Sometimes, a few long proverbs consist of over ten words, making up of two sentences They account for few numbers and are close to folksongs such as:

Khôn ngoan đối đáp người ngoài,

Gà cùng một mẹ chớ hoài đá nhau [10: 280]

As can be seen from the above examples, the meaning of the proverbs will be changed if we add or take away just one word in the proverbs In conclusion, there

Like father like son [11: 114]

Mother scratches child’s back, child scratches mother’s [7: 126]

In short, proverbs are not only short but also pithy They must be self-contained [17: 32] It means that none of their essential grammatical units may be replaced Each word in a proverb is very important and closely related together

3.1.2 Symmetry

The presence of symmetrical structure is one of the unique features of Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships as well as of English ones Norrick quotes in his valuable study [17: 51] that “the most important characteristic of a traditional saying is the symmetrical structure of its form and content” Furthermore, Mieder [15: 6] claims that proverbs which contain a single descriptive element are non-oppositional Proverbs with two or more descriptive elements may be either oppositional or non-oppositional Therefore, the symmetry creates a balance between two elements of a proverb Let’s examine the following examples in both English and Vietnamese for illustration of the symmetrical structures

Môi hở / răng lạnh [19: 354]

Trẻ cậy cha / già cậy con [24: 40]

Con dại / cái mang [18: 269]

Like father / like son [11: 114]

Mother scratches child’s back / child scratches mother’s [7: 126]

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As we can see that either English proverbs denoting family relationships or Vietnamese ones are structured into two symmetrical phrases or clauses which are logically connected each other They have symmetrical structures with the words class being similar and the syllables being almost the same Therefore, the symmetry of the structure in proverbs may help the readers remember and use them better As the two phrases contain the same numbers of the words, the readers are able to find out if they have read the correct proverbs

3.1.3 Sentential structures

3.1.3.1 Simple sentence patterns

Quirk and Greenbaum [19: 165] in their valuable book deal with simple sentences which consist of only one clause Concentrating on the elements that are normally obligatory, we can usefully distinguish seven clause types They are SV, SVO, SVC, SVA, SVOA, SVOC and SVOO In process of collecting data, the author found out a number of proverbs which denotes family relationships both in English and in Vietnamese belong to one of the seven clause types Table 2 shows the presence of English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships in seven types of clauses Not all clause types are found in construction of proverbs denoting family relationships in English and Vietnamese We can see one clause type may be found in the form of English proverbs but may not exist in Vietnamese ones Therefore, the author expects to list the proverbs denoting family relationships

in English and Vietnamese in terms of clause types The author does not want to deal with meaning equivalence of the proverbs denoting family relationships in English and Vietnamese columns As the result, the numbers of proverbs in two columns can be not equal

- Anh em hạt máu sẻ đôi [10: 13] SVA - Men are from Mars, women are from Venus

- Parents are patterns [14: 220]

- A grey mare is the better horse [11: 149]

- A husband is always the last to know [11: 170]

- A good wife and health is a man’s best wealth

- A good Jack makes a good Jill [14: 167]

- A blind man’s wife needs no paint [14: 30]

- A wise son heeds his father’s instruction [11]

- Con em đè lên con chị [10: 137]

- Cha hổ mang đẻ con liu diu [10: 86]

- Con lên ba mới ra lòng mẹ [24: 41]

- Máu ai thấm thịt nấy [10: 335]

- Con chị cõng con em [10: 135]

- Chị dại đã có em khôn [10: 102]

cũng cạn [24: 37]

Table 2: Vietnamese and English proverbs denoting family relationships

in seven types of clauses

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As we can see from table 2, the grammatical elements of proverbs both the English and the Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships consist of three main elements that are subjects, verbs and direct objects Therefore, the clause types are mainly displayed as SV, SVA, SVO whereas SVC SVOO, SVOC and SVOA are not common

3.1.3.2 Compound sentence patterns

When we join two or more simple sentences, we make a compound sentence [1: 8] Some conjunctions are often used in compound sentences like: and, but, so, yet, nor,

or, either…or, not only…but also and so on Compound sentences are found both in English and in Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships with a large number These following are some illustrations:

- Children are certain cares, but uncertain comforts [14: 40]

- A good man without a wife is but half a man [20: 60]

- My son is my son till he gets him a wife, but my daughter’s my daughter all the day of her life [14: 194]

- Mother can take care of ten children but sometimes ten children can’t take care of one mother [14: 192]

- Praise the child and you make love to the mother [14: 226]

- Mother scratches child’s back, child scratches mother’s [7: 126]

- The husband eats hamburgers, the wife eats spring rolls [7]

As we can see from the examples which sometimes have same subjects can be omitted one but they are definitely compound sentences

In addition, Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships also appear a lot in the treasure of Vietnamese folklore in terms of the structure of compound sentences Let’s take some examples for illustration:

- Thuyền theo lái, gái theo chồng [24: 37]

- Chồng ăn chả, vợ ăn nem [10: 111]

- Sảy cha còn chú, sảy mẹ ấp vú dì [9: 22]