A cross cultural study on idiomatic expressions containing numbers in english and vietnamese

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY  Vu Thi Kim Dung A cross-cultural study on idiomatic expressions containing numbers in English and Vietnamese NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO VĂN HÓA NHỮNG THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CÁC TỪ CHỈ SỐ TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT M.A. THESIS HANOI- 2013 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY  Vu Thi Kim Dung A cross-cultural study on idiomatic expressions containing numbers in English and Vietnamese NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO VĂN HÓA NHỮNG THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CÁC TỪ CHỈ SỐ TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT M.A. THESIS Field : English Language Code : 60220201 Supervisor : Assoc.Prof. Phan Van Que, Ph.D HANOI- 2013 Page | i DECLARATION Titlle: A cross-cultural study on idiomatic expressions containing numbers in English and Vietnamese I hereby declare that no part of the enclosed Master Thesis has been copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor. Hanoi, December, 2013 Candidate Vu Thi Kim Dung Approved by Assoc.Prof. Phan Van Que, Ph.D Page | ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My study has been only completed successfully with the assistance and guidance of my teachers, my friends, and my relatives. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Phan Văn Quế Ph.D for his valuable suggestions, academic guidance, critical comments and practical advice on my study. I am also grateful to all my teachers at the Post-graduate Studies in Hanoi Open University for their useful lectures which have built in me a firm foundation with immense ideas for the fulfillment of this paper. In addition, my thanks also go to my friends with their ideas, material, and enthusiasm and support to me in all aspects. Last but by no mean least, I wish to acknowledge the support and invaluable help of my husband and my family while the work was in progress. Definitely, I will not be able to do any thing without their help. Hanoi, December 2013 Vu Thi Kim Dung Page | iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale of the study 1 2. Aims and objectives of the study … 2 3. Research questions 2 4. Scope of the study 3 5. Methods of the study.… 3 6. Design of the study 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5 CHAPTER 1: Literature review and theoretical background 5 A. Theoretical background 5 1.1. Idiomatic expressions 5 1.2. Definitions of idioms 8 1.2.1 Definitions of English idioms 8 1.2.2. Definition of Vietnamese idioms … 10 1.3. Classification of idioms 11 1.3.1. English idioms 11 1.3.2. Vietnamese idioms 17 1.4. Specific characteristics of idioms 18 1.5. Numbers in English and Vietnamese cultures 23 1.5.1. Numbers in English culture … 23 1.5.2. Numbers in Vietnamese culture …. 27 B. Literature review of previous studies on idioms … 28 Page | iv CHAPTER 2: Methodology 30 2.1. Research question 30 2.2. Data collection 30 2.3. Analytical framework 31 2.4. Data analysis 31 2.4.1. The connotative meanings of numbers in English and Vietnamese idioms… 32 2.4.1.1. Expressing positive meanings … 34 2.4.1.2. Expressing neutral meanings 37 2.4.1.3. Expressing negative meanings 39 2.4.2. Ideational, interpersonal and relational numerical idioms in English and Vietnamese 45 2.4.3. The frequency of appearance of numbers in English and Vietnamese idioms 52 CHAPTER 3: Findings and Discussions 59 3.1. Major findings …. 59 3.1.1. From the connotative analysis … 59 3.1.2. From the functional analysis based on the appearance of idioms 60 3.2. Discussions 62 PART III: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 65 1. Recapitulation ……… 65 2. Limitations of the study ……. …………… 66 3. Suggestions for implications and further studies 66 REFERENCES … I APPENDIX I: List of selected English idioms IV APPENDIX II: List of selected Vietnamese idioms VIII Page | v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The connotative meanings of numbers in English and Vietnamese idioms by Spangle and Werner’s model 33 Table 2: List of English idioms containing number one (1) 35 Table 3: List of English idioms containing number nine (9) 37 Table 4: List of English idioms containing number two (2) 38 Table 5: List of English idioms containing number three (3) 40 Table 6: List of Vietnamese idioms containing number three (3) 41 Table 7: List of Vietnamese idioms containing number two (2) 43 Table 8: List of Vietnamese idioms containing number one (1) 45 Table 9: Types of numerical idioms in English and Vietnamese by Fernando’s model 46 Table 10: English numerical idioms having Vietnamese equivalent expressions with the same meanings 50 Table 11: English numerical idioms having Vietnamese equivalent numerical idioms with the same meanings 51 Table 12: The frequency of appearance of numbers in English idioms 54 Table 13: The frequency of appearance of numbers in Vietnamese idioms 56 Page | 1 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study In the world today, there are 5,000 to 6,000 living languages, of which English is by far the most widely used. According to the statistics of list of English spoken countries by Nationmaster.com, there are 45 countries in the world speaking English with approximately 350 million people speak English as their first language. About the same amount of people use it as a second language. It is the English language that is used as the language of aviation, international sport and pop music. 60% of the world's radio stations broadcast in English and more than half of the world's periodicals are printed in English. It is also the English language that is used as an official language in 45 countries, and as the language of business, commerce and technology in many others. The statistics above show that English is now an effective medium of international communication. English has been a very important international means of communication in almost fields of life such as economy, politics, culture and education. The mastering of English is not an easy matter because it requires a large number of linguistic issues such as grammar and pronunciation to have effective communicative activities. Among these issues, vocabulary plays a vital role due to its meaning creating. In vocabulary teaching and learning, idiom is an issue with which English learners and teachers are concerned because idioms are frequently used to make conversations more natural, interesting and concise in daily communicative activities. Idioms are used to express ideas in figurative styles. It is true that the more skillfully one uses idioms in his conversations, the more effectively he can establish his communicative relationship. Therefore, knowing how to use idioms effectively in the right Page | 2 situations is becoming essential. It can be said that idioms are the color and vitality of a language. Thus, the effective use of idioms is a necessary requirement for any language learners who have desire to master it. Numbers which are very common in our daily life and have certain cultural characteristics also appear in idioms. Idiomatic expressions containing numbers bring about interesting diverse meanings to our utterances and writings. Personally, in daily life of English and Vietnamese, I see that numbers have certain significance. People admire some numbers and vice versa. All of those are factors that give me the inspirations to choose this topic A cross-cultural study on idiomatic expressions (idioms) containing numbers in English and Vietnamese. The thesisis expected to be an interesting and helpful material for foreign language teachers and learners and for people who are interested in idioms in both English and Vietnamese. 2. Aims and objectives of the study The thesis, as entitled, focus on idiomatic expressions (idioms only) containing numbers in English and Vietnamese, gives definitions, classifications as well as some features of idioms in both English and Vietnamese. Therefore, the aims of the study are: • To explore the roles of numbers in the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese. • To find out the contribution of numbers to the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese; Giving some suggestions to improve knowledge about English idioms 3. Research questions In order to achieve these aims, the following matters should be made clear: • What are the differences of English culture and Vietnamese culture Page | 3 through the role of numbers in idioms? • What do numbers contribute to the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese? 4. Scope of the study In this study, attention is firstly focused on analyzing typical idiomatic expressions (idioms only) containing numbers in English and Vietnamese which express English and Vietnamese cultures. Secondly, the study is focused on revealing what types of English and Vietnamese idioms which numbers appear in and their connotative meanings in these idioms. There are some kinds of numbers appearing in idioms: cardinal number and ordinal number (order number) and in Vietnamese we also have numbers denoting months of the year. In this study, only English and Vietnamese idioms containing cardinal number from one (1) to nine (9) are selected and analyzed. Because of the size and scope of this thesis, many English idioms containing ordinal number and other numbers such as ten (perfect ten), zero (zero tolerance), thousand or million (a thousand times, one in a million) and also Vietnamese words denoting months of the year (like tháng 3, tháng 4, …) will not be the subjects of the study. 5. Methods of the study To achieve the main aims and objectives stated, the study employs both quantitative and qualitative methods. By virtue of quantitative method, data have been collected from literary works, books of idioms and semantics and newspapers, websites and dictionaries in both English and Vietnamese. The qualitative method is adopted to interpret the collected data. All the considerations and conclusions are largely based on the analysis of the [...]... research to a graduation paper or a book It can be said that the collection of idioms researches is not small In Viet Nam, there have been studies on English and Vietnamese idioms such as Idiomatic expressions containing the word “dog” in English and Vietnamese by Tu, Dao Thanh (2007), aimed at studying idiomatic expressions containing the word “dog” in English and compare with those in Vietnamese. .. at numbers and their meanings to have the deep understanding of the presence of numbers in English and Vietnamese cultures This part is aimed at providing brief introduction about numbers, their functions in daily life and cultural roles Based on that, the relationship between numbers and the meanings of idioms containing numbers in English and Vietnamese cultures can be established and made clear According... language and culture is inseparable, numerical words play a role in human cultural communication In English culture, there are certain numbers considered as lucky numbers in human psychology In “Handbook of international research in mathematics education” by Lyn D English, Maria Giuseppina Bartolini Bussi (2008), the world is made of three parts involving the land, the sea and the sky; nature is consisted... research questions, data collection, analysis framework, data analysis; Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions • The last part, CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS of the study, includes recapitulation, limitations of the study and some suggestions for implications and for further studies Page | 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: Theoretical background and Literature review A Theoretical background 1.1 Idiomatic. .. have the function as the coherence, provide integrative information such as addition (what is more, in addition to) or comparison (on the other hand, on the other), adversative (on the contrary, far from), causal (so that when, no wonder), concessive (at the same time) Relational idioms supply sequencing meta-discoursal information (in the first place, last but not least) and sequencing temporal information... something + Keep an eye on something/someone h Idioms with comparisons: as … as, like: + As busy as a bee + As plain as the nose on your face + Like the cat that stole the cream Idioms by meanings and functions: Fernando (1996) divides idioms into ideational idioms, interpersonal idioms and relational idioms in order to explore the meanings of idioms and their functions Based on that, it can be inferred... pros and cons - Adjective + noun: + A back-seat driver + A flying visit c Idiomatic pairs: Page | 13 - Pairs of adjectives: Alive and kicking, sick and tired, spick and span, etc - Pairs of nouns: the thrills and spills, the ins and outs, body and soul - Pairs of adverbs: first and foremost, more or less, now and again - Pairs of verbs: chop and change, sink or swim, live and learn - Identical pairs:... of meaning and grammar We will have a look at the certain situation to understand clearly about these meanings of idioms: To sit on the fence The politician sat on the fence and would not give his opinion about the tax issue To sit on the fence can literally mean that one is sitting on a fence However, the idiomatic meaning of to sit on the fence is that one is not making a clear choice regarding some... or affective stances can be inferred from the use of idioms Another opinion should be presented here is that an idiom is a combination of Page | 18 words that has a meaning that is different from the meanings of the individual words themselves It can have a literal meaning in one situation and a different idiomatic meaning in another situation It is a phrase which does not always follow the normal... meaning beyond or other than the sum of the meaning of the individual words According to many linguists, a group of words which has a fixed structure, indivisible meaning, and can appear in speech like a word is called an idiom Therefore, both English and Vietnamese idioms can be distinguished by their grammatical and semantic features Grammatical features In English idioms, it is very easy to realize . Ideational, interpersonal and relational numerical idioms in English and Vietnamese 45 2.4.3. The frequency of appearance of numbers in English and Vietnamese idioms 52 CHAPTER 3: Findings and Discussions. learners who have desire to master it. Numbers which are very common in our daily life and have certain cultural characteristics also appear in idioms. Idiomatic expressions containing numbers. numbers and vice versa. All of those are factors that give me the inspirations to choose this topic A cross-cultural study on idiomatic expressions (idioms) containing numbers in English and