a study of english idioms relating to “ love “ with reference to the vietnamese equivalent

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY M.A THESIS A STUDY OF ENGLISH IDIOMS RELATING TO “ LOVE “ WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENT (NGHIÊN CỨU THÀNH NGỮ VỀ “YÊU” TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ ĐỐI CHIẾU TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT) CHU THI MINH HUONG Hanoi, 2016 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY M.A THESIS A STUDY OF ENGLISH IDIOMS RELATING TO “ LOVE “ WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENT (NGHIÊN CỨU THÀNH NGỮ VỀ “YÊU” TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ ĐỐI CHIẾU TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT) CHU THI MINH HUONG Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Huong Hanoi, 2016 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A STUDY OF ENGLISH IDIOMS RELATING TO “ LOVE “ WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENT” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Approved by Hanoi, 2016 Chu Thi Minh Huong ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This document contains my master thesis, the final document for my master English language at Hanoi Open University It describes the results of my research on the potential of crowd sourcing applications in organizational the content The last few months have proven to be challenging months, both personally and organizationally Finishing this research project means a lot to me and could not have been possible without the help of many people I would like to start by thanking my supervisors from the Trade Union University, Dr Nguyen Thi Thu Huong Thank you for her whole-hearted guidance and precious instruction for this graduation paper from the beginning to the completion Without her assistance, encouragement and valuable adjustment, this study could not be fulfilled Secondly, my heartfelt acknowledgement also belongs to all of my lecturers and teachers in Ministry of Education and Training, Hanoi Open University for helping, assisting and advising during my research Assoc Prof Hoang Tuyet Minh, Dr Le Van Thanh, Dr Nguyen Thi Van Dong, Dr Dang Ngoc Huong, their feedback for my master thesis proposal outline were always valuable Of course, this acknowledgement would not be complete without thanking my parents and family, who supported me throughout my entire study and encouraged my activities Thanks to be loved, support and faith of my parents, I was able to finish my study and make it a great time to look back on Last but not least, I am proud of expressing thanks to friends and acquaintances who have supported and given a hand during the completion of my study I hope you will enjoy reading my master thesis about the english idioms relating to " LOVE " with reference to the Vietnamese equivalent I know it is not the best thesis about this topic, but if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me Chu Thi Minh Huong 2016 ABSTRACT To become proficient at English, one of the important and essential steps for learners is clearly to know how to use fluently English idioms as well as understand it in native language In a simple term, it is useful and favorable for learners to make use of succinct style of language to express meaningful thinking such as human feelings, traditional quotes and sayings, specific contexts and so on In both of Western and Eastern literature, Love is probably the most ideal emotion for using idioms to define The purposes of this study are to examine in which methods and conditions are used to express the feeling “love” as well as to make some evaluations and comparisons between Vietnamese and English idioms To achieve the purposes above, sources and information are carefully gathered and selected through searching a varied of studies and scholar journals about idioms, both in English and Vietnamese After analyzing and evaluating for more apparent views of the thesis’s aspects, the result will indicate that there are both similarities and disimilarities between English idioms and Vietnamese ones in terms of syntactic and semantic features LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS N : Noun V : Verb Adj : Adjective Adv : Adverb P : Preposition Conj : Conjunction Art : Article Num : Numeral S : Subject O : Object NP : Noun phrase VP : Verb phrase Adj.P : Adjective phrase PP : Preposition phrase Ex : Example IRL : Idioms relating love CONTENTS ABSTRACT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 10 1.1 Rationale for the research 10 1.2 Aim of the research 11 1.3 Objective of the research 11 1.4 Scope of the research 11 1.5 Significance of the research 12 1.6 Structural organization of the thesis 12 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 13 2.1 Review of the previous studies 13 2.2 Review of the theoretical background 14 2.2.1 Theory of syntax 14 2.2.2 Theories of semantics 15 2.3 An overview of idioms 16 2.3.1 Definition of idioms 16 2.3.2 Features of idioms 17 2.3.3 Classification of idioms 21 2.3.4 An overview of phrases, clause and sentence structures 29 2.4 Idiom relating to Love 34 Idiom relating to love can be described clearly in concept of love with following examples: 34 2.5 Idioms denoting “love” 37 2.6 Summary 37 Chapter 3: Methodology .38 3.1 Research design 38 3.2 Research questions 38 3.3 Research methods 38 3.4 Research procedures 38 3.5 Description of the sample 39 3.6 Data collection 39 3.7 Reliability and Validity 40 3.8 Summary 40 4.1 Similarities and disimilarities between English and Vietnamese idioms denoting ‘love’ in term of syntactic features 42 4.1.1 Phrase Structures 42 4.1.2 Clause Structures (10) 45 4.1.3 Parallel Structures (8) 45 4.1.4 Comparative structures (8) 46 4.1.5 Similarities 48 4.1.6 Dissimilarities 49 4.2 Similarities and disimilarities between English and Vietnamese idioms denoting ‘love’ in term of semantic features 50 4.2.1 Similarities 56 4.2.2 Dissimilarities 57 4.3 Summary 57 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 59 5.1 Summary of the study 59 5.2 IMPLICATIONS 60 5.3 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 63 REFERENCE .64 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the research With the tendency of globalnization nowadays, English by far has become as one of the most popular and useful language in all over the worlds Many countries have chosen it to be the second national language for themselves, especially in developing countries such as Vietnam Learning English is applied in all schools and having a certificate of famous tests such as TOEIC and IELTS is one of the requirement for student’s graduation Despite the fact that it is neccessary to learn english, a large number of Vietnamese students often fail to master it, due to many issues and problems One of the difficulties is being familiar with idioms and being able to use them correctly in certain situations Idiom is a special phrasing or a peculiar expression which performs metaphor or sometimes, literal meanings Every nation in the world has its idioms Some of them are particular and represent for the culture to which they belong On the contrary, a lot of idioms share the same meaning with others in many languages, denoting the needs of interfering different cultures and traditional customs in all over the world Having the ability to use idioms could help leaners to adapt the antiquities and customary habits of certain culture or country, while mastering idioms will provide learners the self confident and encouragement to well communicate with both nonnative and native speakers Idioms appear everywhere, from daily communication likes newspapers, magazines, television advertisements to more formal contexts such as books, novels, literature and studies There have been many studies about idioms in varied aspects, with different oppinions and arguments I am pleased and honored to perform a study about the topic “A study of english idioms relating to "LOVE" with 10 Fervency (3) In English (2) : Darling, I love you as everyday I wake up, your image make me feel like I’m on cloud nine (em dấu yêu ơi, yêu em ngày thức dậy, hình bóng em làm tơi cảm thấy tơi chín tầng mây) You really blow my mind (Em thổi bay tâm trí tơi vậy) In Vietnamese (1) : Tôi ngừng suy nghĩ em, mê em điếu đổ Promise (4) In English (1) : Please believe me! I swear that I have eyes only for you (Xin em tin anh, anh thề mắt anh có em mà thơi) In Vietnamese (3) : Tôi nghe Chung thề non hẹn biển với Nghi Anh đâu có thương em, anh tồn hứa hươu hứa vượn mà thơi Anh thề sống thề chết lấy mẹ Silliness (3) In English (2) Peter knows Sarah is cheating on him but he still loves her Love is blind (Peter biết Sarah lừa dối anh anh u ta Tình u thật mù quáng) 51 Ảre you sure that you are ready to take a next step with her? Marry in haste, repent at leisure (con có sẵn sàng để tiến thêm bước với cô không? Cưới vội vàng phải hối hận đời đấy) In Vietnamese (1) Tơi khun hồi mà thằng Phong chẳng chịu Ý , thật tim để lên đầu Coherence (5) In English (2) They are really a perfect couple (họ thật cặp đẹp đôi) They are so lovey – dovey, always being side by side together everyday (họ thật yêu thương nhau, luôn bên ngày) In Vietnamese (3) Hai có nguyện đồng cam cộng khổ, đồng bệnh tương liên, đồng vợ đồng chồng đến trọn kiếp không? Break (4) In English (2) Maya and I have decide to call it a day (Maya định chia tay) Please tell me the reason why you break up with me (Làm ơn nói cho tơi nghe lí em lại chia tay tôi) In Vietnamese (2) Em không yêu anh đâu, từ xin đường Chúng người dưng nước lã với 52 Decision (4) In English (2) Don’t worry, one day you will find out the right guy for yourself (đừng lo lắng, ngày bạn tìm người thương dành cho mình) I heard that Tom got engaged to Mia (Tơi nghe Tom đính hôn với Mia rồi) In Vietnamese (2) Con gái nhà có để chọn mặt gửi vàng chưa? Khi hai đứa định dựng vợ gả chồng? Truthfuless (4) In English (2) He is head over heels in love with his wife (anh ta toàn tâm tồn ý với vợ mình) Don’t believe in what others said, you are the one and only (đừng tin vào người khác nói, anh có em thơi) In Vietnamese (2) Em xin nguyện lòng với anh Deception (4) In English (2) Who are you with behind my back (anh qua lại với phía sau lưng tơi?) Go away, love-rat (hãy khỏi đồ phản bội) 53 In Vietnamese (2) Anh đồ bắt cá hai tay Tại anh lại lừa dối đồ Sở Khanh? Pleasure (4) In English (3) It does my heart good to hear that you’re coming home (em cảm thấy vui nghe tin anh trở nhà) You make my heart leaps (em làm tim anh loạn nhịp) Whenever I am with you, I am all smiles (Anh vui vẻ bên em) In Vietnam (1) Em vui mà mặt tươi hoa kia? Unpleasure (4) In English (3) John and Marry are encountering many problems at the moment and their marriage is on the rock (John Marry gặp nhiều vấn đề hôn nhân họ thời kì khó khăn) We had blazing rows recently, I am really tired (tôi mệt, dạo cãi to) I am in the blue since the day she left (tôi buồn kể từ đi) In Vietnamese (1) Lòng anh đau cắt thấy em bên người khác 54 Parting (4) In English (2) I heard people said that out of sight out of mind, please come back to me soon (em nghe người ta nói xa mặt cách lòng, quay với em sớm anh nhé) She walked out on my life (cô rời khỏi đời tôi) In Vietnamese (2) Tôi chán cảnh đầu sông cuối sông Mercy (3) In English (2) Please give me a second chance, I won’t let you down again (xin cho anh hội, anh không làm em phải thất vọng nữa) We finally make up after a month (cuối làm lành sau tháng xa cách) In Vietnamese (1) Sau chia tay, họ lại quay với Đúng gương vỡ lại lành 55 English and Vietnamese idioms English relating to love Number Percentage Number Percentage Fervency Promise 14 Silliness Coherence 14 10 10 Truthfulness 10 Semantic features Break of English Vietnamese Vietnamese and Decision idioms relating to Deception 10 love Pleasure 12 Unpleasure 12 Parting 10 Mercy Total 25 100% 21 100% Table Semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms relating to love 4.2.1 Similarities With the discussion above, it is easy to recognize that both of English and Vietnamese IRL share the same fields of love’s degrees which are : Fervency, Promise, Silliness, Coherence, Break, Decision, Truthfulness, Deception, Pleasure, Unpleasure, Manner, Parting and Mercy It shows that love is not only all about happiness but also about sadness English IRL and Vietnamese ones cover most colors of love, which similarly contribute to the plentiful emotions of each culture with idiomatic expressions 56 4.2.2 Dissimilarities Following the cultural features of idioms, There are such quite differencies between English IRL and Vietnamese ones in terms of semantic features To begin with, the dissimilarities between Eastern culture and Western culture also create the divergences between English and Vietnamese in most of their cultural factors such as traditions, social life and language as well as idioms The idioms denoting love of English are kind of direct and in details as the Western culture, which are more natural and easier to use than Vietnamese ones Second, Vietnamese IRL mostly give advices while English ones concentrate on expressing feelings It is because the tradition of Vietnameses is to give and follow advices of the elderly Last, the gender discrimination also appears on Vietnamese IRL As an agricultural country, Vietnamese culture affects badly on woman with strict rules and obligations As a result, idioms donating love, which reflect the culture of the related country, focus on women side with most of bad influences English IRL not have the same mistake as Vietnamese ones because of the characteristics of Western modern countries 4.3 Summary On the whole, there are two similar terms of syntactic features that both Vietnamese and English apply on their idioms which relate to love : First is both languages mostly use verb phrases and noun phrases with two structures ( Art ) + N + N in noun phrases and V + N / NP in verb phrase for their idioms Secondly, English and Vietnamese both like to perform parallel structure to achieve better efficiencies for their idioms Other syntactic similarities such as grammatical structures and grammatical operations are quite unimportant to point out On the contrary, there are two dissimilarities between English IRL and Vietnamese ones in terms of syntactic features: it is more suitable for English IRL to contain Adjective 57 phrases and prepositional phrases because of their supportively grammatical features On the contrary, the comparative structures and parallel structures are more popular in Vietnamese IRL than English one because of its unique and interesting vocabularies Semantically, IRL in both of English and Vietnamese are stable and united They both construct together and cannot be splitted into individual parts English IRL and Vietnamese ones similarly share for the particularly 11 semantic fields: Fervency, Promise, Silliness, Coherence, Break, Decision, Truthfulness, Deception, Pleasure, unpleasure, Parting and Mercy Among these sections, conherence are of the most used IRL in both of English and Vietnamese ones In constract, because of the differences between Western and Eastern culture, IRL in English are easier to apply than Vietnamese ones Finally, sexism also effects on Vietnamese IRL but not on English ones 58 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 5.1 Summary of the study To summarize, this study aims to examine and deeply discuss in essential aspects about the syntactic and semantic features of English idioms relating to love with reference to the Vietnamese equilavent, as well as point out the similarities and dissimilarities between them in terms of semantic and syntactic features First, in chapter one, the rationale, aims, objectives, scope and significance, as well as the structure organization of the study are carefully listed to introduce a general view of the study Second, Chapter two presents, analyzes and also states critical point of views about the theories and documents which refer to the topic of the study to form a firm foundation for the following chapters A number of related theories, concepts, definitions is precisely carried out with logical evaluations for the context of the study Next, Chapter three mentions about the methodology of the research which principle features such as the design, methods , procedures and, last but not least, the validity and reliability to secure and promote the abilities of the study Chapter Four is the most important and indispensable of the study, it introduces, classifies, discusses and evaluate the syntactic and semantic features of English idioms relating to love with reference to Vietnamese equilavent as well as observe and consider the similarities and dissimilarities of both languages in terms of syntactic and semantic features At the end, in chapter five, the summary of the whole study is generally presented The implications in teaching and learning English, as well as evaluations of the study are also humbly and kindly suggested to learners and teachers who examine this study About the syntactic aspects, the related idioms are consulted in four kind of grammatical structure which are phrase structure, clause structure, parallel structure and comparative structures After being categorized, the _ phrases 59 idioms are the most common in English relating to love with compare with _ in Vietnamese ones In additionally, English IRL are more favourable with parallel structure than Vietnamese ones, while comparative structures are more common in Vietnamese IRL than English ones Based on the grammatical structures point of view, the similarities as well as dissimilarities in terms of syntactic features of idioms between English and Vietnamese could be easily examined and evaluated About the semantic aspects, the similarities in terms of semantic features of English IRL and Vietnamese ones are about the degrees of love There are thirteen levels : : Fervency, Promise, Silliness, Coherence, Break, Decision, Truthfulness, Deception, Pleasure, Unpleasure, Manner, Parting and Mercy which are all well covered by both English IRL and Vietnamese ones Otherwise, due to the clear differences between Western and Eastern cultures, the dissimilarities in terms of semantic features between English IRL and Vietnamese ones are refered to the ways, the objects and the concepts which idioms try to deliver their figurative meanings to 5.2 IMPLICATIONS Marton said that “ idioms are the gifts delivered from ages to ages “ Based on their unique features, idioms turn language into a more fascinating and colorful concept Its mission is not only a tool for communication as basic charateristic of language, but also kindly reveals the cutural context, traditions and social features of a country As a result, a certain understanding and knowledge about idioms could support and motivate both learners and teachers, especially non native speakers, to achieve better results in their way of facing English as well as other languages (W Marton, 1977) (22) To all learners, in the first place, self-motivation is the most important characteristic to learn or acquire any knowledge For this reason, learners 60 must define their purposes and intentions for learning not only idioms but also English as well In the second place, because of the complex of syntactic features of idioms, leaners must have a firm foundation of knowledge about grammatical structures In the third place, because idioms have figurative and , sometimes, literal meanings, learners should acquire a variety of volcabularies and word forms to be able to recognize and, in easy themes, to predict the meaning of idioms Last but not least, idioms have cultural features so it is essential to examine the concepts of history, cultures, traditions, society and customs which are related to the idioms for using and applying the idioms in proper ways As love is a great concept with a number of descriptions, learners should perform studies and researches about this emotion for deeper understanding about idioms related to Love These following framework should be appropriated: Idioms need to be deployed and taught to English learners, espeacially to non-native speakers, from the very first steps of acquiring English It could help learners to be familiar with the concepts of idioms from the beginning When reaching to higher levels of English, learners should deal with questions and assignments related to idioms, especially about both the figurative and literal meanings, in order to be able to distinct idioms and form a habit of facing with idioms In intermediate grades, idioms should be followed with linguistic matters such as theories and studies Thesis and reports should be performed by learners for acknowledgements and specific knowledge Idioms about love could be affected by many concepts, therefore to understand and get used to them, learners could try to translate them with techniques such as semantic translation technique, open translation technique or focus on volcabulary manners (synonyms, word forms) 61 The reliability and validity of consulted sources like dictionaries or previous studies should be satisfied to secure the right judgement and considerations of learning idioms At last, it is important to exercise with idioms as much as possible, both in speaking, writing and reading skills, from daily communication to formal using, all to understand the interest of idioms In teaching field, teachers should have the proper ways and methods to deliver not only knowledge but also the compassion of the interest in English to leaners for achieving better results Idioms relating to love are popular for social using, therefore teachers could find suitable concepts of teaching them Besides, because of the complex both in syntactic and semantic features, teachers should review, promote and supplement their knowledge to follow new trends or rules of English Idioms should be taught side by side with related knowledge and contexts Appropriate examples should be carefully cited in a proper way also Because love is a great concept so it is important to categorize the concept of love into general types such as promises, happinesses, break, deceptions, etc 62 5.3 LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY The study aims to examine and evaluate the syntactic features, semantic features as well as the similarities and dissimilarities of English IRL and Vietnamese ones Despite attempting to perfectly complete the study, it is clearly that there are still some limitations of the study First, there are ony _ idioms in both of languages have been carried out to investigate, therefore it could not stand for a whole and completed context of this topic Besides, There are many theories, syntactic features, semantic features as well as concepts of comparison between English IRL and Vietnamese ones that should have to be covered and discussed Last, the study seems like to focus too much about English IRL and forgot the Vietnamese ones without crititcal samples and strong points of reasonings The limitations of the study are caused by the limitations of time and finite knowledge as well For further study, there are such topics should be covered to contribute to the studies about IRL, especially for semantic and syntactic features in English and Vietnamese: A study of English idioms relating to emotions with the reference to Vietnamese equalivents An investigation of English idioms denoting to parents with the reference to Vietnamese equalivents A study of idioms refering to separation in English and Vietnamese A study about woman in English and Vietnamese idioms with appropriate references 63 REFERENCE Curry, D (1994), Illustrated American Idioms, United State Information Agency, Washington D.C.20547 Zoltán Gendler Szabó, in Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers, 1860–1960, ed Ernest Lepore (2004) Mai Chau, 2006, Giao su tien si Hoang Van Hanh http://vienngonnguhoc.gov.vn/bai-viet/gs-ts-hoang-van-hanh1934-2003_413.aspx Oxford Dictionaries Oxford University Press, 2016 Arnauld, Antoine (1660), Grammaire générale P 22 Bickerton, Derek (1990) Language and Species University of Chicago Press Chomsky, Noam (2002) Syntactic Structures p 11 Michel Bréal, Grammaire latine (1890) RICHARD MONTAGUE On the nature of certain philosophical entities, pp 148-187 10 Donald Davidson,1973, Semantics of Natural Languages, New York: Springer 11 Beth Levin, 1991, Lexical & Conceptual Semantics, Blackwell, Cambridge, MA 12 Longman Dictionary of English Idioms, 1992 13 Crystal, David,1995, The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hornby, 1995, Definition of speaking skill 14 Danang Publisher, 2003, Vietnamese Dictionary 15 Hoang Van Hanh, 2002, Ke chuyen Thanh Ngu Tuc Ngu 16 Ray Jackendoff ; 1990, Semantic Structures, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 64 17 Gibbs, R 1987 Linguistic factors in children's understanding of idioms Journal of Child Language 18 C Leaney, 2005 In the know: Understanding and using idioms New York: Cambridge University Press 19 Vinogradov, 2004, The Syntactic Behaviour of Idiom 20 G Finch, 2000 Linguistic terms and concepts New York: St Martin's Press 21 W Marton, 1977 Foreign Vocabulary Learning as Problem No of Language Teaching at the Advanced Level The Interlanguage Studies Bulletin Utrecht 65 ... verb as a main part and other complements regarding to it As an example, “ Charlie wants the toy at the end of the line “ contains a verb phrase “ wants the toy at the end of the line “ with the. .. “generative grammar” 14 of professor Noam Chomsky is considered as the most popular framework to study and analyze about syntax with the main hypothesis that “language is a configuration of the human mind”... generalizing English in Vietnam 1.2 Aim of the research The study is executed with the aim to look into the syntactic, semantic, characteristics of English idioms relating love in comparison with Vietnamese