A study on idiomatic expressions containing words denoting weather in English and Vietnamese from cultural perspective = Nghiên cứu về thành ngữ có chứa các từ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -------- VŨ THỊ SINH A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAIN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



VŨ THỊ SINH

A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING WORDS DENOTING WEATHER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

(NGHIÊN CƢ́U VỀ THÀNH NGƢ̃ CÓ CHƢ́A CÁC TƢ̀ CHỈ THỜI

TIẾT TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT NHÌN TƢ̀

GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



VŨ THỊ SINH

A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING WORDS DENOTING WEATHER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

(NGHIÊN CƢ́U VỀ THÀNH NGƢ̃ CÓ CHƢ́A CÁC TƢ̀ CHỈ THỜI

TIẾT TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT NHÌN TƢ̀

GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr Vũ Ngọc Tú

Hanoi, 2014

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DECLARATION

I certify that all the material in this study which is not my own work has been identified and acknowledged, and this thesis is the result of my own research and the the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for any degree to any other universities or institutions

Author

Vu Thi Sinh

Finally, my thanks go to my family and friends who are always by my side to give the unconditional financial and spiritual support during the process of accomplishing the thesis

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ABSTRACT

Learning a foreign language is not simply to interpret and communicate but brings learners more than they can see Each language has its own particular features and values among which idioms are mentionable Idiomatic expressions are undoubtedly encountered in almost every day conversations, newspapers, magazines, TVs or radios

Recognizing the importance of idioms as well as satisfying her own ambition, the author tries to figure out the features of idioms, specifically the idioms containing words denoting weather, one of the respects familiar to everyone Moreover, it is believed that idioms are always associated with culture; hence, a cultural view on this type of idioms might be helpful and interesting In this thesis, the author focuses on the importance of cultural awareness in understanding idioms; thence shows the necessary of cultural knowledge in learning and teaching English in general and weather idioms in particular

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TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Objectives 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 2

6 Design of the study 2

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Culture and the relationship between language and culture 4

1.1.1 Culture and some characteristics of culture 4

1.1.2 Relationship between language and culture 7

1.2 Idioms 10

1.2.1 Definition 10

1.2.2 Types of idioms 11

1.2.3 Main features of idioms in English and Vietnamese 13

1.2.4 Idioms versus proverbs and slang 16

1.2.5 Culture in idiom 19

1.3 Weather definition 20

CHAPTER TWO: ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS CONTAINING WORDS DENOTING WEATHER 2.1 Syntactic features of EIWW and VIWW 22

2.2 Semantic features of EIWW and VIWW 26

CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Some characteristics of Vietnamese and English people, culture and weather conditions 33

3.2 Comparison of syntactic features between EIWW and VIWW from the cultural perspectives 35

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3.3 Comparison of semantic features between EIWW and VIWW from the cultural

perspectives 37

PART 3: CONCLUSION 1 Review of the study 43

2 Implications 44

3 Suggestions for further studies 45

REFERENCES 46 APPENDIX I

Although idioms are not easy to comprehend, it is necessary for learners not to disregard idioms in studying languages because idioms are an unseparated element

of languages and so common in daily use As a second language teacher, this urges

me to conduct the thesis entitled “A study on idiomatic expressions containing

words denoting weather in English and Vietnamese from cultural perspective” to

find out the similarities and differences between English idioms containing the words denoting weather (EIWW) and Vietnamese idioms containing the words denoting weather (VIWW) mainly from the cultural view Moreover, despite being considered as the most important second language in Vietnam, English brings various challenges for learners One of the reasons for this problem is the dissimilarities in the way of living and thinking or the differences of culture The result of the study, to some extent, is hoped to help Vietnamese learners of English use EIWW and VIWW effectively in communication so that their speech is more adequate, natural, interesting and imaginative

2 Aims of the study

The thesis is conducted in attempt to:

- Explore the English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather, with the main focus on the cultural point of view

The objectives of the study are:

- Investigate Vietnamese and English idioms consisting weather words

- Clarify the cultural intension inside the idioms

- Suggest some ideas for teaching idioms

The study will try to answer the questions bellows:

- What are similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather from the cultural perspective?

- What cultural aspects influence the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather?

4 Scope of the study

This study focuses on English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather from the cultural perspective These idioms are listed in the appendix Because of some limitation of time, not all idioms are covered

5 Methods of the study

In this study, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used It is carried out by carefully collecting materials from numerous sources in both English and Vietnamese including books, websites, newspapers and from observation in daily life Then, the data are analyzed and synthesized to find out the similarities and differences in English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather

6 Design of the study

The thesis is divided into three main parts:

- The first part is the Introduction, which includes rationale, aim, scope, methods and design of the study

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- Part 2 is the Development, which comprises three chapters Chapter one, as

implied by the title “Theoretical background”, reviews the literature related to language, culture and idioms in general Chapter two is concerned with “English

and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather” in which syntactic

and semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting

weather are investigated The last chapter in this part deals with “Findings and

discussion” with the analysis of similarities and differences between EIWW and

VIWW from the cultural view

- Part 3 is the Conclusion and Implications for teaching and learning as well as some suggestions for further study

The thesis is concluded by the appendix and references

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PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Languages and cultures are closely related Hence, to study any phenomenon of any language, it is of utmost importance to consider the culture of the people who speak that language and to compare English idioms containing the words denoting weather (EIWW) and Vietnamese idioms containing the words denoting weather (VIWW) is no exception This chapter will present a brief theoretical introduction about culture, language, and idioms, which will lay essential foundations for what is being analyzed in the next two chapters

1.1 Culture and the relationship between language and culture

1.1.1 Culture and some characteristics of culture

The term “culture” is undoubtedly familiar with many people, yet it is not really simple to define it Many linguists have spent a lot of efforts on working out the definitions of culture Hence, in this paper, the writer will introduce some in attempt

to provide a general view for the readers following easily Following are some of them:

Hofstede (1980, pp 21-23) defines culture as “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group from another”, which is passed from generation to generation, it is changing all the time because each generation adds something of its own before passing it on It is usual that one‟s culture is taken for granted and assumed to be correct because it is the only one, or at least the first,

to be learned

Samovar & Porter (2003) gives a typical definition on culture as follows:

“The deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving” (Samovar & Porter,

2003, p 8)

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Sharing the same opinion, Edward Tylor, a famous British anthropologist, notes in his book “Primitive Culture” (1871), culture “is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom and any other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”(p 1)

In the book “Language and Culture: Global flows and local complexity”, Risager (2005) considers culture from three dimensions of concept including hierarchical, differential and generic concept As regards to hierarchical concept, culture means

“something that the individual human being or individual society either „has‟ or

„does not has‟ at a higher or lower level” (p.32) Meanwhile, culture is thought as the thing that can distinguish one society from others from, differential concept The generic concept of culture focuses on what to distinguish humanity from nature and other living creatures

Also, Kramsch (1998) examines culture by comparing it to nature and showing its development through social activities

“One way of thinking about culture is to contrast it with nature Nature refers to

what is born and grows organically (from the Latin nascere: to be born); culture

refers to what has been grown and groomed (from Latin colere: to cultivate)”

Subjective elements of culture may be the elements such as “values, attitudes, beliefs, orientations, and underlying assumptions prevalent among people in a society” (Harrison and Huntington, 2000:xv)

One more definition that should also be mentioned is the one of Triandis (1994:23) cited in Porter, Samovar and McDaniel (2007): “Culture is a set of human-made objective and subjective elements that in the past have increased the probability of

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survival and resulted in satisfaction for the participants in an ecological niche, and thus became share among those who could communicate with each other because they had a common language and they lived in the same time and place”

In short, culture is defined in various ways as Harrison and Huntington (2000) note,

“The term „culture‟, of course, has had multiple meanings in different disciplines and different contexts” (p xv) Thus, culture undeniably has many definitions but generally affects nearly everything people do in their society because of their ideas, values, attitudes, and normative or expected patterns of behavior Culture is not genetically inherited, and cannot exist on its own, but is always shared by members

of a society (Hall 1976, p 16)

Culture is a complex concept, and no single definition of it has achieved consensus

in the literature Regardless of dozens of definitions, it is necessary to examine characteristics of culture because through them, one can see the connection between culture and other elements including language As Huntington (1996) notes, “The heart of culture involves language, religion, values, traditions, and customs.”

Porter, Samovar and McDaniel (2007:21-30) point out six features of culture as follows:

Firstly, culture is obtained from people‟s birth to the end of their life through learning which means that it is learned but not innate Learning here is understood both formal and informal Informal learning normally takes place through interaction, observation, and imitation The formal learning of culture is far more structured and often left to the institutions of the culture such as schools and churches Because culture influences you from the instant you are born, you are rarely aware of many of the messages that it sends Therefore, studying is considered as an essential process in one‟s person‟s whole life

Secondly, culture is shared The means of transmitting the culture can take a variety forms (proverbs, stories, art) and can have numerous carriers (family, peers, church, schools, media), but the key elements of culture (values, ideas, perception) must be shared by other members of the culture

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Thirdly, culture is transmitted from generation to generation If a culture is to endure, it must make certain that its crucial messages and elements are not only shared, but they also must be passed on to future generations In this way, the past becomes the present and helps prepare for the future

Fourthly, culture is based on symbols While cultural symbols can take a host of forms, encompassing gestures, dress, objects, flags, or religious icons, “the most important symbolic aspect of culture is language – using words to represent objects and ideas.”(Haviland, Prins, Walrath, and McBride, 1005:38)

Fifthly, culture is dynamic Culture does not exist in a vacuum, because of “other waters continually flowing in”, they are subject to change (p.29) These changes are related to people‟s everyday lives including dress, food, transportation, entertainment, housing, and the like are normally compatible with the existing values of the culture However, values associated with such things as ethics and moral, work and leisure, definitions and freedom, the importance of the past, religious practices, the pace of life, and attitudes toward gender and age are so deeply embedded in a culture that they persist generation to generation

Finally, culture is an integrated system In reality, culture functions as an integrated whole In fact, it has been said that if you touch one part of a culture you touch all that culture The interrelationship of these various parts is so important that Haviland states, “All aspects of culture must be reasonably well integrated in order

to function properly” (2005:39)

In brief, culture begins at birth and continues throughout life Culture exists in even the minor or unexpected things in most respects of daily life The integration of culture makes it a stable unity and lasts everlastingly

1.1.2 Relationship between language and culture

As presented previously, in the cultural system, language is one of the most crucial parts which can be likened to a key factor, playing the role of an essential medium

to transmit much of culture In this subsection, the author attempts to provide some basic issues in the relationship between language and culture

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The fact that language is the primary means people use to communicate with one another may seem to be obvious One of the typical definitions of language is Bonvillain‟s one (cited in Porter, Samovar and McDaniel, 2007:164) as follows:

“Language is the primary means of interactions between people Speakers use language to convey their thoughts, feelings, intentions, and desires to others Language links interlocutors in a dynamic, reflexive process We learn about people through what they say and how they say it; we learn about ourselves through the way that other people react to what we say; and we learn about our relationships with others through give-and-take of communicative interactions.”

Porter, Samovar and McDaniel (2007) also believe that “language use and style reflex the personality of a culture in much the same way that they reflect the personality of an individual” (p.168) The relationship between language and culture is further stressed by Saville-Stroike when she writes, “There is no doubt; however, that there is a correlation between the form and content of a language and the beliefs, values, and needs present in the culture of its speakers.” (Saville-Stroike, 2003:28)

Kramsch (1998) points out that when language is put in contexts of communication,

it variously and complicatedly relates to culture He also mentions to three issues of the relationship between language and culture as follows:

Firstly, the words people utter express facts, ideas or events that are communicable Besides, writers or speakers‟ attitudes, feelings, opinions and trust are reflected

through words In both cases, language expresses cultural reality

Moreover, people use language not only for expressing but also creating experience They use many ways of interaction including face-to-face, writing a letter or sending an email message, reading the newspaper or interpreting a graph or a chart and add the meanings to communication through these spoken, written, or visual media The created meanings are able to understand by members of a community or

social group Through all its verbal and non-verbal aspects, language embodies

cultural reality

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Finally, language is a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value Speakers identify themselves and others through their use of language; they view their language as a symbol of their social identity The prohibition of its use is often perceived by its speakers as a rejection of their social group and their culture Thus

we can say that language symbolizes cultural reality

Kramsch (2000) also proclaims, “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.” (p 3) The importance of language

in expressing culture is seriously emphasized by Li (2005) when he states “without language, culture would not be possible” (p 25)

According to Porter, Samovar and McDaniel (2007), the relationship between culture and language is a reciprocal one in which they emphasize the role of culture:

“…culture exerts an enormous influence on language because culture teaches not only the symbols and rules for using those symbols, but, more importantly, the meaning associated with the symbols Further, culture influences the way people think and perceive reality.” (Porter, Samovar and McDaniel:2007, p.173)

Explaining for this viewpoint, Porter et al (2007) believe that the symbols, responses are only understood optimally within the same cultural setting When people communicate from their own culture, the process of using words to represent experiences is much easier because within a culture people share many similar experiences Nevertheless, when communication is between people from different culture, the process becomes challenging because of various experiences involved Consequently, culture, as the whole of human ways of living as well as a set of values, demeanors and patterns of perception, has become extremely crucial to language, having a great impact on the formation and development of language Generally, language and culture are reciprocal and reinforce together Culture is likely the spirit of the language and vice versus, language reflects both the personality of the individual and the culture of his history Language helps shape both personality and culture as well as makes possible the growth and transmission

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of culture, the continuity of societies, and the effective functioning and control of social group As Brown (1994) proposed that “language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language, the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture.” (p

165) Hence, with the inextricable relationship, we must know the one to understand the other

1.2 Idioms

1.2.1 Definition

Idioms are believed as a colorful and fascinating aspect of English and are commonly used in all types of language, formal and informal, spoken or written Although idioms are thought to be used in more informal situations, learners will become masters if they understand and use them confidently and correctly In addition, idioms often have a stronger meaning than non-idiomatic phrases Following are some definitions of idioms collected from different sources:

In “Collins COBUILD Dictionary of Idioms” (2002), an idiom is defined as a kind

of special phrase whose meaning mostly differs from literal meaning of the combined words “Idioms are typically metaphorical: they are effectively metaphors which have become „fixed‟ or „fossilized‟” (p.v)

“In some cases, it is fairly easy to see how the idiomatic meaning related to the literal meaning Example: “kill two birds with one stone” means “achieve two things at the same time”, and the image in metaphor supports this meaning In other cases, literal meanings may make no sense at all Example: “move heaven and earth” literally describes an action which is physically impossible In a few further cases, the metaphors in the idioms are peculiar, so it is very difficult to see how or why idioms have come to have their current meanings” (2002:v)

Manser (1997) shares the same opinion that “Idioms are fairly fixed phrases that consist of more than one word, with a meaning that cannot be understood from putting together the meanings of the individual words”

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In “Chambers Dictionary of Idioms” (1996), the term “idiom” is not an easily defined one – it can refer to many kinds of words and phrases In this dictionary, the traditional definition of idiom is concerned that is “a group of words which has a different meaning from the sum of its parts” This means it is nearly impossible to make a good guess at the meaning of an idiom when knowing the meaning of all the words in the expressions Nonetheless, in some cases, it is possible to guess the meaning of an idiom because the image created is an obvious one, for instance, the idiom “Look like thunder” means look angry Otherwise, most of idioms are difficult for people to understand such as the idiom “sit on the fence” which means not to make any clear choice or decision between two possibilities or opposing groups of people Sharing the same viewpoint, Hornby (1995) states in his Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, an idiom is “a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit”

As can be seen from given definitions, there are numerous ways of defining idioms

However, in this study, the following definition is used: “an idiom is a fixed phrase

whose meaning cannot be exposed by looking at the meaning of its individual words” In addition, idioms have often been associated with not only conversation

and informal language but also in journalism and magazines – to make their articles and stories more vivid, interesting, and appealing to their readers, and to get their opinions across effectively

1.2.2 Types of idioms

It is commonly stated that there are varied forms of idioms, so the learners would feel it really challenging to recognize which one is a real idiom Therefore, it is really important to mention some types of idioms Chambers Dictionary of idioms (1996:v) points out 5 main types of idioms:

- Metaphorical expressions, e.g “Make someone‟s blood boil” means “to make someone extremely angry”

- Some foreign or Latin phrases which are commonly used in English, e.g “Fait accompli” means something that has already happened or been done and cannot

be changed

Longman (1979) also indicates some types of idioms:

- Traditional idioms: traditional idioms are firstly related to full sentences in which only subjects need to be added to make full sentences For example, the idiom

“Spill the beans” in sentence “He spilt the bean” – He revealed a secret or a piece of information Another example is “It never rains but it pours” which means when troubles or unwelcome events happen they do not come singly but arrive in great quantity Other types of idioms are not almost full sentences but rather function like particular parts of speech An idiomatic noun phrase, for example, will often function in a sentence in the same way a noun would, as a subject, direct object, or a

complement E.g He is the salt of the earth (He is a person having the best personal

qualities, the best character)

- Idioms in which actions stand for emotions or feelings The distinctions of culture among regions are specially reminded in this type of idiom It is important to note that these actions are not literal and that the meaning associated with a particular action in particular culture The meaning of idioms in different communities may not be associated with one another For instance, “I wash my hands of it” does not mean that the speaker really performs the action but means she/he refuses to accept any responsibility for something or someone

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- Pairs of words: a large number of idioms consist of pairs of words joined by “and”

or “or” Many belong to the first group and function as particular parts of speech The noun phrase “cats and dogs” in “It is raining cats and dogs” (It is raining heavily) functions as an adverb

- Idioms with “it”: many idiomatic verb phrases have the pronoun it as a fixed part

of the idiom The pronoun does not refer to the word coming before it as normally it does Considering the idiom “It stands to reason (that)” – It is quite clear

- Allusions: certain common phrases and a few single words have special significance in English society E.g “Whitehall” means the government or the civil service

- Sayings: these are usually complete sentences; e.g “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” (It is better to content with something one is sure to receive than to lose it by trying to get something better that one may perhaps not obtain)

- Typical conversation phrases: some fixed conversational phrases whose meanings are not literal and which therefore may be difficult to understand; e.g so to speak, now you‟re talking, how do you do, etc

- Similes: a large number of idioms, which compare a quality, condition, action, etc with a noun; e.g as easy as a pie (very easy), as free as air (very free, with no limits)

1.2.3 Main features of idioms in English and Vietnamese

For a deeper understanding of idioms, some main features of this type of expression are highly recommended Since the purpose of this study is to discover the relationship between EIWW and VIWW, the emphasis is laid on semantics and structural features

1.2.3.1 Semantic features

Vinogradow (1977) once cleverly likened the meaning of an idiom to “the special chemical mixture” of the meaning of all the components, which is, notably and completely new in quality This means that the meaning of an idiom can rarely be drawn from its components Hence, we need to translate and interpret idioms

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figuratively and metaphorically For instance, the idiom “The apple of someone‟s eye” must be understood metaphorically as “a person who is most dear to the person specified”

However, some idioms whose literal meaning and figurative one is almost identical

so that readers can guess the meaning The idiom “As busy as a bee”, for example, one can guess its meaning without any difficulty

That is the same in Vietnamese with the examples of “Cá nằm trên thớt” (to take great risk), “Con ông cháu cha” (born into a wealthy family, born with a silver spoon in one's mouth) Obviously, one cannot interpret them literally but must perceive them as separate semantic units which have figurative meanings, revealing the reflection of things and concepts While most of idioms are difficult to guess the meaning from their words element, some idioms are possible for people to understand This can be illustrated with the idioms “Cứng nhƣ đá” (as hard as a stone), “Đẹp nhƣ tranh” (as pretty as a picture)

Another feature related to semantics is that idioms can convey positive, neutral or negative meanings Idiomatic phrases “On cloud nine” (very happy) and “A willing horse” (a keen worker) are good examples for the idioms which have positive meaning Some examples of idioms with negative meanings are “A fair-weathered friend” (a friend who stays beside you in good times, but forgets about you once things become difficult), “To shed crocodile tears” (to pretend, make believe that one is weeping) Some idioms such as “In somebody‟s shoes” (in one‟s position),

“To watch the world go by” (to observe other while doing nothing oneself) are considered as idioms with neutral meanings Interestingly, some idioms can have both positive and negative meanings, such as “To take advantage of” It can mean

“to make use of an opportunity” (positive meaning), or “to exploit, to make use of somebody or something in an dishonest way” (negative meaning)

1.2.3.2 Structural features

It is obvious that idioms are fixed or set expressions that cannot be separated or added For instance, the idiom “Safe and sound” makes no sense if it is changed into

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“Sound and safe” In addition, an idiom cannot be transformed into passive form, especially when it is utilized in a full sentence Let‟s consider the idiom “Throw one‟s hand in” in the sentence “He threw his hand in that competition when he realized that he could not obtain enough points to win” (he gave up in a competition); it would be unnatural to say “His hand was thrown in that competition when he realized that he could not obtain enough points to win”

Secondly, idioms can differ at length There are many idioms which just have one

or two words, for example: “Lemon” (something defective) or “Fishy” (suspicious and strange), “Horse around” (play around), “On ice” (to set aside for future use),…There are also idioms which are quite long, such as “Get up on the wrong side of the bed” (wake up in bad mood),

Thirdly, it is evident that idioms can take many forms as well as structures There are many ways to classify idioms based on function, origin, meaning, etc However, the way of classification based on function seems to be the most effective and useful for learners From this point of view, idioms are considered as noun phrase, adjective phrase, adverbial phrase, prepositional phrase and interjection

- Idioms as noun phrase:

A dead duck (a subject or idea that is no longer important, interesting or valued):

Although women in general earn more money than they used to, the question of women‟s rights is not a dead duck

- Idioms as verb phrase:

Get wind of something (to hear a piece of information that someone else was trying

to keep secret): He got wind of my plan to travel north and asked if he could come

with me

- Idioms as adjective phrase

Safe and sound (safe and unharmed): All of his sons returned safe and sound from

the war

- Idioms as adverbial phrase

Night and day (all the time without stopping): I think of her night and day

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- Idioms as prepositional phrase

On cloud nine (extremely happy): I was on cloud nine after hearing that I passed the

exam

- Idioms as interjection:

Never say die! (never give up hope)

Well, I never! (used to express surprise or disbelief)

1.2.4 Idioms versus proverbs and slang

Recognizing the importance of idioms in daily life, one finds it necessary to have a clear distinction between idioms and proverbs and slang Actually, they have many

things in common that cause a lot of difficulties to users This subsection attempts

to throw some light on these issues that are deemed to be the spice of language

1.2.4.1 Idioms versus proverbs

It is necessary to spend some time distinguishing idioms from proverbs Although many people believe the boundary between them is very small and unclear, it is indisputable that there should be some plausible and significant points which can somehow tell them apart

As was mentioned above, an idiom is a group of words which, as a whole, has a different meaning from that of the individual items out of which it is composed That is, the meaning of an idiomatic expression is not the sum total of its constituent parts taken together A good example is the English expression “Kick the bucket” A person knowing only the meaning of the words “kick” and bucket” would be unable to deduce the real meaning of the whole expression, namely to die Although it can refer literally to the act of striking a specific bucket, native speakers rarely use this idiom that way Accordingly, an idiom is learnt and used as

a single unit of language It should not be analyzed into its constituent elements Idioms are sometimes referred as “fixed expressions” because in many cases users should not make linguistic changes such as adding or dropping words, replacing a word with another, or changing the order of words (Cowie and Makin, 1975)

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A proverb (from Latin “proverbium”) is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated which expresses a truth based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity In Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2006), a proverb is “a short well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or says something that is generally true” For example, “Don‟t put all your eggs in one basket”, “Waste not, want not” Vu Ngoc Phan (2000) particularly considers a proverb as “a complete saying expressing one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or criticism” (p.39) Some Vietnamese proverbs are “Mật ngọt chết ruồi”, “Con có cha nhƣ nhà có nóc”, “Phép vua thua lệ làng”, etc

The barrier between idioms and proverbs is sometimes ambiguous because they have many in common Firstly, idioms and proverbs conventionally employ language metaphorically That is the reason why it is arduous to discover their true meanings just by looking up all the individual words in a dictionary Not only idioms but also proverbs are “set-expressions” whose meanings cannot be easily inferred from their components but must be understood as a whole Generally, we cannot add, omit or replace any components of an idiom or a proverb because that will inevitably result in unwanted changes in the meaning of the whole group, making them lose their figurative meanings Moreover, idioms and proverbs are associated to the results of human‟s thinking, cultures and experiences accumulated from the processes of laborious working, discovering and learning Both of them are primarily passed along from generation to generation

Besides the similarities, both idioms and proverbs have their own typical features that distinguish one from the other Specifically, proverbs are short but completely popular phrases or sentences which express a judgment, give useful advice or reveal

a moral or empirical truth about life They are widely evaluated to have three major functions including educational function, perceptive function and finally, aesthetic function For example, the proverb “Money makes the mare go” indicates the power

as well as the bad influence of money in the society from which people will think about this issue and learn something Idioms, on the other hand, mainly have the

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functions of naming, depicting things, properties or various phenomena In general, they do not pass judgments, offer advice or state the universal truth In other words, idioms rarely have perceptive and educational functions The idiom “As quick as lightning”, for instance, is used to describe someone or something that is very fast but not pointing out any moral lesson Furthermore, we can differentiate proverbs from idioms by examining their grammatical structures While proverbs are complete phrases or sentences that can convey a whole idea (for instance, “Where there is a will, there is a way”), idioms are just phrases which serve as parts of sentences (eg, “smell a rat”, “on ice”,…) Actually, idioms are commensurate to words only

1.2.4.2 Idioms versus slang

Slang is defined in Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary as “very informal words,

phrases, etc., commonly used in speech, especially between people from the same social group or who work together, not considered suitable for formal contexts and often not in use for long” Slang can appear as a brand new word, a new meaning

for an existing word, an abbreviation for a word, or a word that becomes more generalized than its former, narrow meaning

Although both idioms and slangs are almost fixed expressions, they differ from each other in some aspects It can be inferred from the definition that slang is used by only some specific communities whereas idioms are used more commonly In other words, slang terms are often known only within an in-group Despite not being used widely like idioms, not all slang terms are taboos The slang “awesome” (great and impressive), “cool" and "hot” (very good, impressive, or good-looking) are slang words used by variety of people from different social class

Another point is that slang is trendy or fashionable Considering the slangs “tope hole” used before World War II, “wizard” in 1940s, 1970s “ace, comic” and in the 1980s “brills, wicked” are the ones to indicate the beauty Different regions have different slang words, hence the users must be really careful to avoid using tabooed slang For example, when mentioning to money, Vietnamese people often think

1.2.5 Culture in idiom

As mentioned in the previous part, language is closely related to culture and can be said as a part of culture From a dynamic view, language and culture interact and shape each other Kaplan (1966) also goes through this pattern by pointing out different thoughts by different linguistic groups:

Kaplan’s Graphic representations of thoughts processes of linguistic groups (1966:21)

Through this graphic, it is interesting that English thinking and writing is direct (vertical line) while Oriental thoughts are marked by indirection (torturous line) Hence, it can be inferred that each region has its own specific features of cultures that influence the way of living, thinking and behaving Language is the carrier of culture, which in turn is the content of language Idioms as a special form of language; therefore, carry a large amount of cultural information and are rich in cultural connotation as they present the unique culture of language Consequently, people can extend their knowledge of culture through studying idioms and in turn get better understanding of idioms by investigating them through their cultural background

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1.3 Weather definition

This thesis will also consider the definition of weather in order to provide a more

comprehensive view on the given subject

Throughout history, the weather has been both feared and revered for its powerful influence over living creatures Not only does it control our moods, activities, and fashions, but it has also played a crucial role in broader issues of cultural identity, concepts of time, and economic development In fact, the weather has become so ingrained in our everyday routines that many of us forget just how profoundly this omnipotent force shapes culture As being defined in “The Hutchinson Paperback Encyclopedia”, weather is:

“day-to-day variation of climate and atmospheric conditions at any one place, or the state of these conditions at a place at any one time Such conditions include humidity, precipitation, temperature, cloud cover visibility and wind To a meteorologist, the term “weather” is limited to the state of the sky, precipitation and visibility as affected by fog and mist” (1994:894)

Also, in “Oxford Advanced learners dictionary” (1995), the term weather is understood “the condition of the atmosphere at a particular place and time, such as the temperature, and if there is wind, rain, sun, etc”

Because of its strong connection to people‟s lives, weather becomes one of the leading concerns and topic of daily conversations as well as included in idioms People use weather idioms to express their ideas, emotions figuratively These idioms are not purely the description of true weather conditions but are put some messages The words denoting weather such as wind, rain, sun, cold, hot, etc are included in these idiomatic expressions in various structures and with different meanings To get the best understanding of weather idioms, these idioms will be analyzed from the syntactic and semantic view Then, under the light of culture, the thesis will examine the similarities and differences between EIWW and VIWW

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Summary

In short, language and culture are closely related with one being part of another Idioms – a part of language must reflect the culture of the people who speak that language In that connection, this chapter has reviewed the literature relating to language, culture in general and idioms and its different types with the hope that it will provide a theoretical background for what is being presented in the following

chapters

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CHAPTER TWO: ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS CONTAINING

WORDS DENOTING WEATHER

On the basis of what has already been dealt with, this chapter will analyze the syntactic and semantic features of EIWW and VIWW so as to shed light on the distinction between EIWW and VIWW

2.1 Syntactic features of EIWW and VIWW

In his book named “A Grammar of Contemporary English”, Quirk (1973) mentions the term “New traditional grammar” This allows people to analyze structures into such phrases as noun phrase (NP), verb phrase (VP), prepositional phrase (PP), adjective phrase (AdjP) and so on The author will use this method to analyze English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather However, with regards to syntactic analysis, there are also other degrees including sentence structure Therefore, English and Vietnamese idioms in this study can be divided into two main parts including idioms having phrase structure and sentence structure Since this thesis mainly focuses on investigating EIWW and VIWW from cultural point of view, the author will ignore too detailed analysis on structures of this kind

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2.1.1.2 IWW with verb phrase structure

ears

ăn gió nằm mƣa

2.1.1.3 IWW with adjective phrase structure

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a brass monkey

mây

2.1.1.4 IWW with prepositional phrase structure

prepositional phrase structure

2.1.2 IWW with sentence structure

Besides phrase structures, EIWW and VIWW have some in sentence structure which may be simple or complex sentences

delight

Cây muốn lặng mà gió chẳng đừng

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Percent (%)

Number (/154)

Percent (%)

One more similarity between EIWW and VIWW is that both use a lot of comparison construction expressed by “as…as” or “like” in English and “nhƣ” in Vietnamese Hence, there exists the linkage between weather issues and aspects of human‟s life despite different regions and cultures For instance:

Moreover, the words in Vietnamese idiomatic expressions are separated to obtain the euphonic property and the parallelism in the structure of four -word term As in the case “Nắng giƣ̃ mƣa gìn” , the word “giƣ̃ gìn” is separated into two parts then combined with two nouns to set up a four -word idiom Another case is “Nói bóng nói gió”, “bóng gió” are split into “bóng” and “gió” and the word “nói” is repeated All these usages of parallelism, repetition and word separation help Vietnamese idioms are easy to remember with rhythm

2.2 Semantic features of EIWW and VIWW

According to the theory of semantic fields which “contain words that belong to a defined area of meaning” (Jackson and Amvela, 2000:92), EIWW and VIWW can

be grouped into the following themes:

- Rain cats and dogs

E.g It is raining cats and dogs outside

- Come rain or shine

- A red sky at night is the shepherd‟s

- Jack Frost visit something

- Nắng lửa mưa dầu

- Nắng như đổ lửa

- Nắng như thiêu như đốt

- Mưa như trút nước

- A breath of fresh air

- A face like thunder

- As black as thunder

- Bright and breezy

- Down in the doldrums

- Float on air

- Go up in the air

- Keep a cool head

- On cloud nine

- Over the moon

E.g They’re going on holiday on

Wednesday so they’re all over the moon

- Gió thảm mưa sầu

- Hồn vía lên mây

- Seven sheets to the wind

- Sound in wind and limb

- Under the weather

- Da mồi tóc sương

- Gần đất xa trời

- Như trời giáng

- Thanh phong minh

- Trái gió trở trời

- Under the sun

- Weather the storm

- You could cut atmosphere with a knife

- Ăn đói mă ̣c rét

- Cùng trời cuối đất

- Đau đẻ còn chờ trăng sáng

- Đèo heo hút gió

- Như mă ̣t trăng mă ̣t trời

- Như nắng ha ̣n gă ̣p mưa rào

- Như ngo ̣n đèn trước gió

- Blow hot and cold

- Find which way the wind blew

- Have your head in the clouds

- In the heat of the moment

- Know which way the wind blows

- Make hay while the sun shines

- Bán trời không văn tự

- Bẻ nạng chống trời

- Chọc trời khuấy nước

- Gió chiều nào che chiều ấy

- Làm mưa làm gió

- Mô ̣t tấc đến giời

- Mươ ̣n gió bẻ măng

- Ngả theo chiều gió

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- Not have enough

sense/imagination/intelligence to come in

from (or out of) the rain

- Put the chill on

- Sail close to the wind

- Sunshine one minute, rain the next

- Tempest in the teapot

- Throw caution to the winds

- Nói bóng nói gió

- Tát nước theo mưa

- Trời đánh không chết

- Trời không dung đất không tha

- Xem gió bỏ buồm

2.2.6 Bad fortunes and disadvantages

- Cloud on the horizon

- Feel the wind/draught

- It never rains but it pours

- Once in a blue moon

- Sunshine one minute, rain the next

- Under a cloud

- Weather the storm

- Ăn đất nằm sương

- Ăn đói mặc rét

- Ăn tuyết nằm sương

- Bán mặt cho đất bán lưng cho trời

- Bão táp mưa sa

- Bụng đói cật rét

- Dãi gió dầm mưa

- Đất bằng nổi sóng

- Gió kép mưa đơn

- Gô ̣i gió tắm mưa

- Hai sương mô ̣t nắng

- Màn sương chiếu đất

- Mưa bão chết cò

- Mưa to gió lớn

- Nắng dãi mưa dầu

2.2.7 Speed

- As quick as lightning

- Like greased (a steak of) lightning

- Ăn như gấu ăn (mặt) trăng

- Ăn vụng như chớp

- Before the wind

- In the teeth of the wind

No idioms expressing directions

2.2.9 Human character

No idioms express human character - Ghen bóng ghen gió

- Khô như ngói

- Sớm nắng chiều mưa

2.2.10 Danger and challenges

- Gần đất xa trời

- Đèo heo hút gió

- Tai bay va ̣ gió

- Tai trời ách đất

- Gió quét/táp mưa sa

2.2.11 Opportunities and advantages

No idioms express opportunities and

advantages

- Cơm giời nước sông

- Gió thổi là chổi trời

- Mưa thuâ ̣n gió đều

- Như cá gă ̣p nước như rồng gă ̣p mây

- Như diều gă ̣p gió

- Như nắng ha ̣n gă ̣p mưa rào

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- Rồng gă ̣p mây

- Sóng yên bể lặng

- Thuâ ̣n buồm xuôi gió

- Xuôi chèo mát mái

2.2.12 Human actions

- Bleed dry

- Bring a storm about one‟s/someone‟s ears

- Cast a cloud over

- Chill/freeze someone‟s blood

- Find/see how/which way the wind is

blowing

- Give the cold shoulder

- Put the chill on

- Save (st) for rainy day

-Take a shine off/out of

- Weather the storm

- Ăn gió nằm mưa

- Bán mặt cho đất bán lưng cho trời

- Dãi gió dầm mưa

- Gối đất nằm sương

- Hai sương mô ̣t nắng/mô ̣t nắng hai sương

- Màn sương chiếu đất

- Mươ ̣n gió bẻ măng

- Nắng giữ mưa gìn

- Trời đánh không chết

- Trời không dung đất không tha

Summary

In short, it is correct to say that under the syntactic view, English and Vietnamese weather idioms share the same noun, verb, adjective phrases and sentence structure English idioms exceed in number with prepositional phrases In terms of semantic feature, 14 semantic fields have been discovered in both languages Among those , English and Vietnamese share 8 semantic fields namely: weather conditions, psychological states, physical states, behavior, circumstance, human actions, speed, bad fortunes and disadvantages whereas there are 5 other ones only found in the Vietnamese corpus: human character, opportunities and advantages, dangers and challenges, state of life, virginity and immorality Besides, there are no findings in the field of directions in VIWW The next chapter will deal with the focal point of investigating cultural influence on the use of IWW The author also tries to figure out the interesting similarities and differences between EIWW and VIWW from the cultural viewpoint

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CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

It is commonly agreed that “Language is the principle means whereby we conduct our social lives When it used in contexts of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways” (Kramsch, 1998:3) As was mentioned in Chapter 1, idioms are mostly fixed expressions and used for a long time They definitely reflect human‟s remarks, experience, behavior, comments or estimations about numerous phenomena in life Being one of the language‟s phenomena, therefore, idioms have cultural features of specific regions and are said to be

“culture-specific” (Baker, 1992:68) This chapter will point out some similarities and differences between EIWW and VIWW in the light of culture It is necessary

to look through some remarkable characteristics of Vietnamese and English people, culture and weather conditions before going to the main comparison

3.1 Some characteristics of Vietnamese/English people, culture and weather conditions

3.1.1 Characteristics of Vietnamese people, culture and weather conditions

Vietnam is characterized with strong monsoon influences with considerable amount

of sun, a high rate of rainfall, and high humidity The monsoon tropical climate with long periods of sunshine and rain on the one hand provides favorable conditions for the development of vegetation but on the other hand, it causes many troubles marked by big floods or prolonged drought According to Nguyen (2004), originated from the Southeast Asian culture, the Vietnamese river-imprinted culture deeply affects the whole spiritual as well as material life of people This culture is in close interaction with other cultures in Asia, particularly with the Chinese one Vietnamese culture is said to be an agricultural one with the most distinguishing products as rice, vegetables and fish People base on farming to live that creates unity, collective spirit and independent spirit They are also seriously influenced by Yin and Yang philosophy, clearly expressed in harmonious tendency between people with people and people with nature In their social and communicative relationships, Vietnamese prefer feelings to reasons, spirit to material, and peace to