A study on semantic features of english set expressions containing words “red” and “green” with the reference to the vietnamese equivalents

THESIS A STUDY ON SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH SET EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING WORDS “RED” AND “GREEN” WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC TRƯNG NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NGỮ C

nnnnnnnlaMINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A STUDY ON SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH SET EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING WORDS “RED” AND “GREEN” WITH REFERENCE TO THE

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC TRƯNG NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NGỮ CỐ ĐỊNH TIẾNG ANH CHỨA TỪ MÀU ĐỎ VÀ XANH TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ VỚI TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN THỊ HÒA

Hanoi, 2016

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A STUDY ON SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH SET EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING WORDS “RED” AND “GREEN” WITH REFERENCE TO THE

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC TRƯNG NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA NGỮ CỐ ĐỊNH TIẾNG ANH CHỨA TỪ MÀU ĐỎ VÀ XANH TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ VỚI TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN THỊ HÒA

Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Assoc.Prof Lê Văn Thanh

Hanoi, 2016

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project

report entitled A study on semantic features of English set expressions

containing words “Red” and “Green” with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of Master in English Linguistics Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2016

Nguyen Thi Hoa

Approved by SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

Date:………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mr

Le Van Thanh, Ph.D, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as

an academic researcher

My sincere acknowledgement also go to all my lecturers and officers

of Faculty of Graduate Studies, Hanoi Open University, who have facilitated me with the best possible conditions during my whole course of studying

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my friends for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

ABSTRACT

The title of my thesis is a study on semantic features of English set expressions containing words “red” and “green” and the Vietnamese equivalents The purpose of my study is to describe the semantic features of set expressions containing words red and green colours, show some similarities and differences between English set expressions containing words red and green and the Vietnamese equivalents, and propose the implications for teaching these ones at high school To carry out this research, I use descriptive, analytical and contrastive method Hopefully, the finding of this study can, to some extent, be suggested as a referential materials for Vietnamese students and teachers in studying and teaching

colour set expressions

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Statistical analyze of semantic filed of English set

expressions containing word “Red”

44

Table 4.2 Statistical analyze of semantic filed of English set

expressions containing word “Green”

50

Table 4.3 Stastistical analyze of the meaning of English and

Vietnamese set expressions containing word “Đỏ”

51

Table.4.4 Statistical analyze of the meaning of English and

Vietnamese set expressions containing word “Xanh”

52

Table.4.5 Statistical summary of English set expressions

containing words “Red” and“Green” and Vietnamese set

expressions containing words “Đỏ” and “Xanh”

55

1.6 Structural organization of the thesis 5

2.2.2.2 Classifications of set expressions 14 2.2.2.3 Features of colour set expressions 16 2.2.2.4 An overview of Red and Green colours 18

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 28 4.1 Semantic features of English set expressions containing words

Red and Green and their Vietnamese equivalents

37

4.2 Similarities and differences of English set expressions

containing words Red and Green and their Vietnamese

equivalents in term of semantic features

5.4 Suggestions for a further research 62

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the research

Nowadays, the globalization has been changing and developing very quickly; therefore, communication with high requirements has become an urgent than ever more Among which English is the most popular and flexible language in the world However, in spite of the fact that English has been the most common one, there stand challenges existing for foreign learners to overcome Those difficulties derived from special factors such as culture, context or even speaker’s implication They affect to foreign learners’ understanding as much as possible

In studying English, especially for the Vietnamese, it is really a shortcoming if we do not take into consideration of English colour set expressions English colours set expressions are not only a part of language, but also one of the components creating traditional culture of each nation Through these set expressions, we can learn more clearly and deeply about English people, their country as well as their culture

According to Rod Ellis, one way to help foreign learners of English overcome their language related problems is to teach them formulaic and figurative set expressions such as proverbs, idioms, metaphors, phrasal verbs etc which are a crucial part of natural language production (Rod Ellis, 2008) Therefore, set expressions containing words “red’ and “green” are selected as the focus of this study because it is seen that specific characteristics of culture, and each colour English expression has its own features

It lies in the fact that, colours have taken an important role in the living and each colour also has its own meaning Therefore, there have been

a lot of studies involved in the meaning of colours set expressions in order

to know how to use them As for Berlin and Kay, the “colour terms” has been used to show differences in color of each language on over the world While we might readily expect differences for words relating to things in environment such as animal and plants, or for cultural system like governance or kinship terms, it might seem surprising that terms for colours should vary The investigation claims that languages vary in the number and range of their basic color terms (Berlin and Kay, 1969) As a result, knowledge of color set expressions can increase comprehension of texts and using them can make learners‘verbal and written communication more effective (Irujo, 1986; Vanyushkina-Holt, 2005)

Being aware of the importance of colour set expressions in daily interaction as well as in learning language, I decided to choose the thesis entitled “A study on semantic features of English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” with reference to the Vietnamese equivalent” as the topic of the master graduation thesis; thus, can help Vietnamese learners

of English understand more clearly about the way of using and translating them from English to Vietnamese and vice-versa Hopefully, it will somehow help Vietnamese learners enrich their knowledge and have a deeper insight into English colour set expressions As for the learners of English or Vietnamese, a contrastive analysis of semantic features of colour set expressions in this thesis will help them improve the ability of using and understanding Especially, the study of all kinds of color set expressions containing words “red” and “green” are expected to provide the translators with fresh thinking of culture, lifestyle, custom, notions, which brings their works to perfection to some extent

1.2 Aims of the research

This study is conducted to aim at finding out the typical semantic features of English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, thus helping Vietnamese

learners of English to have better understanding of these set expressions and

be able to use them effectively in daily communication

1.3 Objectives of the research

With a view to achieving the mentioned-above aims, some specific objectives have been put forward as follows:

(i) Identify and describe the semantic features of English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green”

(ii) Point out the similarities and differences of these English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of semantic features

(iii) Supply some suggested implications for teaching, learning, and translating English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green”

1.4 Scope of the research

(i) Academic scope:

English set expressions, especially colour set expressions play an important part in English and Vietnamese languages because they reflect cultural and psychological factors However, due to the time allowance and limited knowledge, it is impossible to carry out a comprehensive study of all colour set expressions In this thesis master, semantic features of English colour set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” are extensively discussed with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, thus helping us to propose some possible implications for learning, teaching and translating these set expressions from English into Vietnamese and vice-versa

(ii) Social scope:

In the process of completing this research thesis, all the material collection of English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” and their equivalents in Vietnamese are collected and considered before

using with the hope that the outcome of this research thesis, to some extent, would be able to make a certain contribution to enhance the quality of communication for Vietnamese language learners

1.5 Significance of the research

(i) Theoretical significance:

In terms of theoretical significance, the research is expected to contribute an in-depth description of English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” when analyzing their semantic features in comparison with Vietnamese equivalents

(ii) Practical significance:

In terms of practical significance, English colour set expressions have been studied in many aspects such as culture, custom, and even psychology but there are few studies dealing with the semantic features of each colours

as Red and Green colours Thus, this research is conducted in attempt to provide Vietnamese learners of English with better mastering how to apply these colour set expressions in sensible ways, how to thoroughly understand, and naturally use them in receptive and productive skills In describing the semantic features of English set expressions containing words

“Red” and “Green” will be taken into consideration as the ground for my study with the hope of making a contribution in to the process of overcoming some difficulties met by the Vietnamese learners of English

1.6 Structural organization of the thesis

This study includes five main chapters as follows:

Chapter 1, “Introduction”, provides an overview of the issues to be covered and the situations in which the study is carried out The aims, the specific objectives, the scope, the significance and the structural organization of the thesis are also presented in this chapter

Chapter 2 named “Literature Review”, discusses the previous studies

on proverbs relating to the area of the research and presents some theoretical preliminaries that could be used as foundation for the process of conducting the research

Chapter 3, “Methodology”, present the research questions and research approach with various methods and techniques employed for conducting the whole thesis

Chapter 4, “Findings and Discussion”, describes and analyses the semantic features of English set expressions containing words Red and Green with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents to find out and discuss the similarities and dissimilarities

Chapter 5, “Conclusions and Implications”, summaries the major findings resulted from the investigation and data analysis, presents the limitations of the study, provides some suggestions for further research and proposes some possible implications for using these set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” from English into Vietnamese

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review serves two main purposes The first part it gives

a review of previous studies related to English colour set expressions in general The second part presents and discusses the theoretical background which guide and inform this research

2.1 Review of previous studies

It could be seen that English colour set expressions considerably play

an important part in linguistic treasure of all nations in the world That is one reason that there have been many studies on English colour set expressions in terms of psychological and cultural factors but few of them concentrates on some focal and particular colours such as Red and Green Therefore, this caused some difficulties for the writer in the process of researching materials

2.1.1 Previous studies overseas

In 1953, Lenneberg made an often-cited "strong version" of the claim, firstly given to the readers who showed concerns to the theory , proposes that language structure determines how we perceive the world In this claim, Lenneberg and his colleague - Roberts presented their paper “The Denota of Color Terms” at the Linguistic Society of America In this paper, they reported their findings on color recall in Zuni speakers Zuni has one color term for yellow and orange, and Lenneberg and Roberts' study reported that Zuni speakers encountered greater difficulty in color recall for these colors than English speakers, who have available terms to distinguish them On the contrary to Lenneberg and Roberts' study, a "weaker version" of this claim

posits that language structure influences the world view of speakers of a given language but does not determine it

After that, Brown and Lenneberg published “A Study in Language and Cognition” in 1954, where they discussed the effect of codability on recognition Brown and Lenneberg attributed this effect to the property of codability Linguistic codability is the ease with which people can name things and the effects of naming on cognition and behavior In their experiment, they used a series of Munsell chips to test color recall and recognition in English speakers Their findings suggested that the availability of a basic color term in a given language affected the retention

of that color in recall testing In other words, Brown and Lenneberg linked their study to Lenneberg and Roberts' 1953 findings on color recall in Zuni speakers

In 1969, Berlin and Paul Kay carried out a research named “Basic color terms: their universality and evolution” (published by University of California Press) This is one important area of discussion has been the differences in color terms in languages and raised a new theory of differences for words relating to things in environment such as animals and plants, or for cultural systems like governance or kinship terms, it might be surprising that terms for colours should vary Berlin and Kay investigated the fact that languages vary in the number and range of their basic color terms

The conclusion seems to be that the perception of the colours is the same for all human beings but that language lexicalize for different naming; and certainly, all of the previous studies on perception of colours have raised the issue that there are universals in color naming and thus forms a critique of the hypothesis of linguistic relativity

2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam

As a matter of fact, there have been a lot of studies on idioms have attracted learners of English such as Bùi Phụng (2003), Thành ngữ Anh Việt, Nxb Văn hóa thông tin, Hà nội or Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang with “Thành ngữ tiếng Việt” in which a large amount of idioms, their variants are collected with examples Besides, “Từ điển Thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam” by Đặng Hồng Chương is a collection of idioms and proverbs with explanations of them

The relativity between colours and languages is not a newly- debated issue; however, some of these only concentrates on some focal colours, such as Trần Thị Thu Huyền with “Hoa cỏ và màu sắc trong thành ngữ tiếng Việt” (2001)

Another study is “Tính biểu trưng của từ ngữ chỉ màu sắc trong tiếng Việt” by Trinh Thi Minh Huong at Ho Chi Minh Pedagogical University (2009) In this paper, she also described, analyzed and compared linguistic and cultural features between English and Vietnamese color words

After examining the studies mentioned above, it could be seen that so far there found no studies engaged in the semantic features of English colour set set expressions with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents in English although many linguists, grammarians, compilers and researchers have dealt with color words in Vietnamese Therefore, these materials have made a suggestion about the subject of colour set expressions with the reference in Vietnamese equivalents that still is open subject

2.2 Review of theoretical background

2.2.1 Theoretical framework

2.2.1.1 Theory of Semantics

John Isaeed (1997) posited that Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through language and “Syntax is the study how words can be

combined into a sentence; and semantics is the study of the meanings of words and sentences” It could be seen that whereas syntax is the grammar, structure or order of the elements in a language statement, semantics is the meaning of these elements Semantics has a long history of researching as well as many controversies about its definition but the word “semantics” made it earliest entry into the Old English Dictionary only in 1890s

Goddard (1998) remarks that semantics is the systematic study of meaning, is at the center of linguistic request to understand the nature of language and human language abilities for two reasons The first reason is that expressing meanings is what language is all about – everything from words to grammatical constructions and structures The second one is that semantics can shed the light on the relationship between language and culture

The term “linguistic semantics” is used by J Lyons (1995, xii) and considered as correspondingly ambiguous because “linguistic semantics” can be held to refer either to the study of meaning in so far as this is expressed in language or, alternatively, to the study of meaning within linguistics “Linguistics semantics is the study of meaning in so far as it is systematically encoded in the vocabulary and grammar of natural languages” As for CharlesW Kreidler (1998), there are three disciplines are concerned with the systematic study of “meaning” itself: psychology, philosophy, and linguistics Their particular interests and approaches are different, yet each borrows from and contributes to the others

Obviously, “Semantics is the systematic study of meaning of words and sentences, and linguistic semantic is the study of how language organize and express meaning” (CharlesW Kreidler ,1998); hence, it has been the central to the study of communication and study of the human mind - thought processes,

cognition With this definition, semantics is included under lexicology, the more general science of words, being its most important branch

In all cases mentioned above, the linguistic researchers offer different aspects of Semantics Different as they are, the definition of Semantics is more interesting and clear Due to the scope of this study, semantics aspect

is selected to serve as working researching for the study; therefore, the findings in chapter IV basically concentrates on semantic findings of set expressions containing words Red and Green

2.2.1.2 Theory of Basic color term hierarchy

One important area of discussion has brought different color terms in languages is color term hierarchy While we might readily expect differences for words relating to things in environment such as animal and plants, or for cultural systems like governance or kinship terms, it might be surprising that terms for colours should be vary In an important study, Berlin and Kay (1969) investigated the fact that languages vary in the number and range of their basic color terms and even when there are various ways of describing colours, including comparison to objects, languages have some lexemes which are basic

After having studied 98 languages (20 languages experimentally and investigating the literature on color term semantics folr 78 additional languages), Berlin and Kay 1969 presented evidence indicating that all languages share a universal system of basic color categorization Furthermore, their basic experimental found that “color categorization is not random and the foci of basic color terms are similar in all languages” On the other hand, their conclusion drawn in this and subsequent studies is that color naming systems are based on the neurophysiology of the human visual system (Kay and Mc Daniel 1978) A further claim is that there are eleven basic categories; and that these form the implicational hierarchy below:

Basic color term hierarchy (Berlin and Kay, 1969):

This hierarchy represents the claim that in a relation A<B, if a language has B then it must have A, but not vice versa

- All languages contain terms for white and black

- If a language contains three terms, then it contains a term for red

- If a language contains four terms, then it contains a term for either green or yellow (but not both)

- If a language contains five terms, then it contains a term for blue

- If a language contains six terms, then it contains a term for brown

- If a language contains eight or more terms, then it contains a term for purple, pink, orange, grey, or some combination of these

-

2.2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.2.1 Definition of set expressions

According to John Lyons (1995) posited that the expression of a language fall into two sets One set, finite in number, is made up of lexically simple set expressions: lexemes These are the set expressions that one would expect to find listed in a dictionary: they are vocabulary-units of a language, out of which the members of the second set, lexically composite set expressions, are constructed by means of grammatical (i.e, syntactic and morphological) rules of the language

Not all the set expressions listed in a dictionary, however, are words Some of them are what traditionally called phrases; and phrasal set expressions, like word-set expressions

English set expressions have their own phrases and sentences that

used daily in communication, in speech as well as in writing Furthermore,

“phraseology is the study of set set expressions called phraseological units

These set set expressions are completely or partially idiomatic in speech as

ready-made unit” (Đặng Trần Cường, 2001) Set expressions required of

fixed phrases, sentences, idioms and proverbs; in this study the working

definition include proverbs and idioms

According to Mieder [21, p.5] states the commonly quoted

definitions: “A proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk

which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a

metaphorical, fixed and memorizable form and which is handed down from

generation to generation” He also adds that “a proverb is a short sentence of

wisdom”

In the introduction of The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Proverbs,

Simpson and Speake [32, p.2] bring up the following definition that

“Proverb is a traditional saying which offers advice or presents a moral in a

short or pithy manner” Also in the definition of Oxford Advanced

Learner’s Dictionary, proverb is “a well-known phrase or sentence that

gives advice or says something that is generally true, for example “Waste

not, want not”

As for Linda and Roger Flavell [10: p.3], proverb is “a concise

sentence, often metaphorical or alliterative in form, which is held to express

some truth ascertained by experience or observation and familiar to all

According to Hornby [9, p.1180], "A proverbs is a well known phrase

or sentence that gives advice or says something that is generally truth”

Or according to Dang Tran Cuong,

“Proverb are historically created folk quotations or sayings, which

express popular wisdom, a truth or moral lesson in a figurative, imaginary

way They have the form of a complete sentence and play the most important role in phraseological units, as:

- Their lexical components are also stable, constant;

- Their meaning is mostly figurative;

- They are ready-made units

Many proverbs are peculiar only to the English language, reflecting national features, history and traditions of the English people

E.g He dances well to whom fortune pipes

You can’t eat what your cake and have it

Some English proverbs are of international character: they exist in many languages

E.g Two head are better than one

Don’t cast pearls before swine

Sometimes they are translation loans from other languages mainly from French

Besides, many set expressions are created from proverbs and sayings

E.g It is nearly bird that catches the worm – the early beat New broom sweeps clean – a new broom.”

[5: p32-33]

In all cases mentioned above, the definitions of proverbs appear in numerous varieties and different approaching but the one given by Mieder [21] and the one in the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary [9] are selected to serve as working definitions for the study

According to Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture [8], an idiom is a fixed phrase that has it own special meaning and it is impossible to guess the meanings from separate words

And in 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 learn as a whole unit”

According to Hornby [25, p.771], an idioms is defined as "a group of words whose meanings is different from the meaning of individual words"

Michael McCarthy Felicity O’Dell [10] consider idioms are set expressions which have meaning that is not obvious from the individual words

As for F.R.Palmer [27], "an idiom is an expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meaning of its parts"

Idioms, in general, are deeply connected to culture Adam Makkai [26] defines "an idiom as the assigning of a new meaning to group of words each of which already has its own meaning” and “biculturalism and bilingualism are two sides of the same coin Engaged in the intertwined process of culture change, learners have to understand the full meaning of idioms”

An idiom is very different from a proverb in that it is not only a complete sentence but also a phrase From all of definition of Idioms mentioned above, idioms can be considered as words, phrases, or set expressions whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elementsor from the general grammatical rules of a language

2.2.2.2 Classifications of set expressions

Generally, it is accepted that there are some ways to classify set expressions, depending on their meaning (semantically) and structure (structurally), or the degree of idiomaticity Basing on the definition of set expressions which have been mentioned above and the purpose of the study, the classification of set expressions are concentrated in the field of semantics

Semantically, the most dominant feature of expression classifications

is their composite unity which consists of empty words With these ones, their meanings should be taken symbolically and metaphorically because they create a very different meaning than their appearance at first glance

According to Jackson and Ze Amvela [19:66], there are so-called

“pure idioms” which are, in fact, “frozen idioms” that “tend to lose their vividness and speakers often lose sight of their metaphorical origins” Frozen idioms are not widely used by modern English speakers

Fernando [10:60-63] divided set expressions into three different groups depending on the degree of semantic isolation and the degree of opacity as follows:

(1) Pure idioms

They are opaque to users of language with respect to all or some of the words that make them up Formally such idioms are multi-word set expressions functioning as a single semantic unit whose meaning of individual words cannot be summed together to produce the meaning of the whole

E.g Smell the rat

This expression means that “becoming suspicious” , not “sense rodent with olfactory organs” It is a totally pure idiom because its complete non-literalness

(2) Semi-idioms

The semi-idioms are partial non-literalness because one component generally preserves its direct meaning

E.g A blue film

The word “film” here sustains a direct meaning But the word “blue” means that a pornographic film, not the colour

(3) Literal idioms

Literals idioms can be interpreted on the basis of their parts and the meanings are transparent The components of these ones are usually used in their direct meaning; nevertheless, such combination sometimes requires

figurative sense E.g To rub a salt in a wound

2.2.2.3 Features of colour set expressions

Each language has its own features, and these features have made the face, the cultural components of that language As we know, English language is more various and flexible than any other ones Especially, English has been a global language and called by an exact name “a living language” Therefore, English has much more outstanding and individual characteristics than other languages in the world

Together with these features, English also has other characteristics which create cultural and traditional treasure of language, which include colour set expressions Because of the own meaning of each colour in the living of English people, each colour expression also play a special role in English language as well as the daily life

It lies in the fact that there are some typical features of colour set expressions as follows

First of all, concerning to semantics, like many others English expression, one of the most outstanding features of English colour set expressions is that their meanings could be ranged into the three groups: positive, negative, and neutral meaning

The second feature of English colour set expressions is that the structures have no grammatical rules at all With the viewing from a syntactic aspect, colour set expressions usually have short and fixed forms and they form a complete utterance (Norrick, 2007)

For example, “Green around the gills” means that looking sickly E.g My friend green around the gills after being heard the news

As we know, colours are very important for the users to express their feelings so they are frequently associated with various moods or emotional states Then, colour set expressions are built up by using name of colours – and most of them are metaphorical when considering from a literary aspect They contain various figures of speech and thus, they are part of figurative language; prosody is a typical feature of colour set expressions (Norrick, 2007) as they include such stylistic markers as rhyme, alliteration etc

For example, “To be green with envy” means being so envious that it

almost turn one’s skin to green or sickly

E.g Daisy was green with envy when she knew you have been promoted

Or the expression “Make somebody see red” means making

somebody so angry that his/her face turn to red

E.g You made him see red with your criticism

Another feature of English colour set expressions is that each English colour expression usually contains only one colour However, some set expressions can contain a pair of colours and those ones are used in popularity with such set expressions are White, Black, and Blue

For example, the set expression “In black and white” means that it is

easy to see what is right and wrong, or another example is the set expression

“Black and blue (all over)” whose meaning are the bruises from appearance

Thus, considering from a semantic aspect, color set expressions express wisdom, general truths, morals, traditional views, experiences, observations, social norms, human nature and behavior accepted by the majority in the society

Lastly, considering from a cultural aspect, colour set expressions are a part of traditional andcultural literacy They represent values and norms of the society (Morris, 2003) and their origin is rooted from the cultural history

of a nation or an ethnic

In sum, after taking the features of color expression in consideration carefully, one remarkable has emerged that not only these different aspects have no clear-cut distinctions or the overlaps between them but also all complementary to each other

2.2.2.4 An overview of Red and Green colours

2.2.2.4.1 The meaning of Red and Green colours

The meaning of colour Red:

In English, Red symbolizes the power and strength; however, it is symbols of different objects, things in some extents

In the past, Red colour is not only connected with the death, blood, secrets but also the symbol of the bravery of Britain and the royal family: the red Tudor rose is a symbol of Lanchester family and the famous three lions on the national badge

Scarlet is the colour of the mystery, negative things, so the executioner worn red clothes to imply that he is the person who is the first person to touch the secret of life

The dark Red is represented as the power In Rome, it belonged to the chief leaders, the emperor: the Justinien law give a death penalty for anyone dare to buy or sell cloth of dark red

Red is the colour of positive things, time of day That’ s the image of enthusiastic, youth, good health and rich: the native people in America often anoint red colour on their faces to strengthen health and sexuality, in some countries such as Russia, Japan, and China red is used in festivals, marriage weddings, and birthday anniversaries,…

The meaning of colour Green:

Green is symbols of good herrings, the growth When donating someone anything covered by green in the morning, good lucks will come to

the receiver In some countries, people used to throw green leaves in the air

at lunar nights in order to catch good lucks

The British consider Green as the symbol of the nature: “Green belt” is

the surrounding trip around the town that has no permission to build in order to protect fields and forests Green is also the symbol of Ireland for its green trees

Green is related to the environment: “green issues” is the problem to

protect environment

Especially, Green symbolizes the jealousy that have been mentioned

by Shakespeare in the play “Othello” with the famous set expression “Green eyed monster” Green, on the other hand, is the youth, good lucks, and the intense strength regardless of time

2.2.2.4.2 The association of Red and Green colours in language and culture

Culture and language, at all times, go together with each other; therefore, language is considered as an essential and vital part of culture and they have an interactional relationship, cannot make a separation, as Kramsch (2000) posited that: “language is the principle means whereby we conduct our social lives When it is used in contexts of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways.”

According to Mazurova [26:1], “concepts represented by means of colour terms are the constituent parts of English idioms We proceed from the fact that colour perception is similar for all people whereas its interpretation is different among different nations” In the article, she claims that colour concepts reflect ethnic mentality: “the meaning of such idioms as black dog (melancholy and depression), black ox (misfortune), for example,

is determined by negative cultural association connected with colours”

The existence of colours in nature is universal and timeless For example, the fact that Green colour is the colour of vegetation can be

considered as a universal and timeless association As a matter of fact, colour can generate another level of meaning on the mind As the Green in the example above, can be associated with the nature, on other hand a symbol of good luck, money or even jealousy The symbolism or comparison are based on cultural, as well as contemporary contexts According to Berlin and Kay (1969), the relationship between color lexicons and cultural and technological development is addressed as follows: “Color lexicons with few terms tend to occur in association with relatively simple cultures and simple technologies, while color lexicons with many terms tend

to occur in association with complex cultures and complex technologies”

In other words, the number of color lexicons proportionally indicates the complexity of cultural and technological developments As regards to the Red colour in the past is not only connected with the death, blood, secrets (executioners worn red clothes) but also the symbol of the bravery of Britain and the royal family: the red Tudor rose and the three lions badge Through the analysis in this problem, it is proved that the widest

distributions of Red and Green in a long process related closely to historical and cultural factors It means that each different culture will use Red and Green colors differently in the way of using set expressions

The website Color Matters stated that colours might have both positive and negative connotations and specific symbolism For instance, Red colour in Westerns countries is a sign of the debt, but a symbol of lucks

in Asian countries

Besides, the symbolism of color in different cultures tends to have the common identification of color names through cultural exchange Carl G Jung (1964) defined symbols “terms, names, or even pictures that may be conventional and obvious meaning” Fontana (1994), building on the work

of Jung, pointed out that certain kinds of symbolism constitute a universal language and show that Jung’s ideas on symbolism go only part of the way

in accounting for the rich and varied symbolic vocabularies of different cultures For instance, Red, is considered of the colour ranging from that of blood to deep pink or deep orange in English, Red appear in various ranges and names such as: Amaranth (màu tía), Burgundy (đỏ tía), Scarlet (đỏ thắm), Carmine (đỏ son),…etc but the meaning of Red still remain through time

As regards the linguistic expression of colours, Plumacher [30: 61] shows that: “The world is coloured for human beings Although we can distinguish millions of color visually, only very few of them have special names” Furthermore, Wyler [41:43] claims that “the group of colour terms that freely generates figurative pharses and idioms is formed by five colour terms: “Red”, “Blue”, “Green”, and the two a-chromatic colour names

“White” and “Black”

From a deep insight of cultural and linguistic aspect, according to Berlin and Kay (1969), that’s the five colours have a varied appearances and

an encoded interpretation across languages Red and Green in every spoken language are one of the first colours mentioned in the vocabulary and set expressions

2.3 Summary

The first section of this chapter has given a brief description of previous studies related to the research area, which are overseas and in Vietnam These studies are valued as the highly valuable source of reference In the second section, the review of the theoretical background concerning semantics of set expressions and the meaning of Red and Green colours in the relationship with culture and language to help readers have an over view of this study, which later are employed to conduct the whole research thesis, has been presented Basing on such a foundation, all the semantic features of English set expressions containing words “Red” and

“Green” with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents will be described and analyzed in the chapter IV

stage 2 lasted longer than four months to collect, sort out all of necessary data The last stage began from July to October for analyzing and discussing the results from data collection

3.1.3 Research approach

The thesis is conducted with the method of combining the two research approaches of descriptive research and contrastive research Descriptive research is applied to describe and demonstrate linguistics features of English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” with the Vietnamese equivalents Examples and statistic tables of classification of idioms will be presented The contrastive research help us find out the similarities and differences in term of semantic features of English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” and the Vietnamese equivalents Additionally, stastical and observation methods are also applied to draw necessary findings

3.1.4 Criteria for intended data collection and data analysis

The colour set expressions for the study have been collected from a number of English and Vietnamese researches as well as practical dictionaries to which include set expressions relating to colours Such these ones are dissertation of Trần Thị Thu Huyền and Ireana Pieczulics (2010) In the progress of collecting colour set expressions, there have been a lot of rare ones found Consequently, these ones are interesting yet make the learners of English confused when acquiring them

Due to the limitation of the thesis, there are only some focal colours

on English set expressions given out to select for the investigation These set expressions are categorized into groups in term of their semantic features, which are regarded as criteria for the classification of them

3.2 Research methods

3.2.1 Major methods vs supporting methods

This study is planned to identify and describe some semantics features of the English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents colours; from these findings, some similarities and differences would be shown To achieve this purpose,

a large number of colour set expressions, especially Red and Green colours have been collected and treated differently at various times After that, the data have been collected and analyzed in a careful consideration with the combination of contrastive analysis in qualitative and quantitative approaches

Comparative and contrastive methods help us to set up similarities and differences in the way of using colour set expressions by English and Vietnamese people in both spoken and written language

Besides, descriptive and contrastive methods are used as the major methodology of this study The method as descriptive research is utilized to describe and demonstrate linguistic features of set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” in English and their Vietnamese equivalents Some typical examples and statistic tables of classification these ones are given to make a clearance The method contrastive research is utilized to find out similarities and differences of these set expressions in term of

semantic features Besides, some of research techniques are used and

combined such as statistical and observation methods to draw out necessary findings

Last but not least, setting up a regular consultancy with supervisor for

a guidance and academic exchange is a critical technique to get the right direction to do this research

3.2.2 Data collection techniques

The process of selecting material related to English and Vietnamese colour set set expressions plays an important role in terms of supplement data for the study

The first step is collecting a large number of English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” The second step is that called the collection of essential background knowledge related to the research topic to have an understanding of concepts such as semantics, set expressions, the meaning of Red and Green colours…etc Most of set expressions used in the study come from reliable sources of such as famous dictionaries and books

as The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs (1935), Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (2008), The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs (2007), and Từ điển thành ngữ, tục ngữ Việt Nam (1989), Tục ngữ Anh- Việt chọn lọc (2009),

Từ điển thành ngữ, tục ngữ Việt- Anh tường giải(2000) together with some

articles, short stories, and some of Vietnamese data has been selected from internet sources

Besides, frequent talks with the supervisor, lecturers and experts on the field are very useful for the completion of the study with the basis of the author's personal experience

3.2.3 Data analysis techniques

The data is investigated, classified and analyzed basing on semantic perspective in this study After having been qualitatively and quantitatively processed the collected data in order to investigate some linguistic features of English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” with reference

to the Vietnamese equivalents As a result, some similarities and dissimilarities between English set expressions containing words “Red” and

“Green” and Vietnamese ones have gained through finding process

To achieve such results mentioned above, the following steps are given

as below:

- Collecting set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” from various sources

- Analyzing semantic features of set expressions containing words

“Red” and “Green” in English and Vietnmaese

- Identifying similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” in term of semantic features

- Suggesting some implications for learning, teaching, and translating these ones in English and Vietnamese as a foreign language

3.3 Summary

As for the stages above, this chapter, gives an overview of how to carry out the research It has two main parts The first one is research-governing orientations The second part is research methods, which presented major and supporting methods to use in the study

The two main approaches namely the qualitative and the quantitative are dealt in research design and some major methods such as descriptive method, analysis method and comparative ones have been carried out in actual circumstance with a view to seeking for the real data for the findings

of the study From which, we find out the similarities and differences in term of semantic features of English and Vietnamese set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” after having been collected and analyzed the data

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

According to Berlin and Kay (1969), two of the seven popular colors (White, Black, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, and Brown) in basic systems of all languages are Red and Green In this chapter, a discussion of English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents in term of semantic features will be mainly discussed From what has been presented earlier, the similarities and differences of set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” in term of semantic features between English and Vietnamese will be pointed out with illustrations in details

4.1 Semantic features of English set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” and their Vietnamese equivalents

As mentioned in previous chapter, the meaning of set expressions cannot be inferred from the meanings of individual words; therefore, it is the opacity of set expressions that makes Vietnamese learner of English get into many troubles The degree of the troubles depends on the degree of semantic opacity of set expressions

In the process of collecting materials of English and Vietnamese set expressions containing words Red and Green in various sources of materials, the number of them found very enormous After carefully taking them in consideration, the numbers of set expressions in both English and Vietnamese have been limited into a smaller part by omitting the similar or the rare ones

In this research, the meanings of English and Vietnamese set expressions containing words “Red” and “Green” have been analyzed under six semantic fields, including: positive, negative, health/ mental state, human, body, and symbolization/comparison meaning

4.1.1 Red colour

It is said that the Chinese has known how to use and distinguish red colour about 2000 years ago, the material to make the red is mercury and sulphur It is shown that red colour is considered as one of popular one in the early time

Red is defined by OED as: “having, or characterized by, the colour which appear at the lower or least refracted end of the visible spectrum, and

is familiar in nature at that of blood, fire, various flower and ripe fruits” (OED)

In Western countries, red is a symbol of anger, revolutionary, and the lack of money; meanwhile red is connected with good lucks, joys in Asian cultures

a Positive meaning

As what has been mentioned above, Red is not a symbol of good lucks in Western countries so Red appears with positive meanings only in some English set expressions as follows:

(1) A red-letter day

It is a red-letter day to me; it is the 14 th anniversary of our marriage wedding!

(Đó thực sự là một ngày đáng nhớ đối với tôi, đó là ngày kỷ niệm 14

năm ngày cưới của chúng tôi)

(2) Paint the town red

When my aunt came to visit us, we decided to go out and paint the

(Khi dì chúng tôi đến chơi, chúng tôi đã quyết định đi chơi một bữa

ra trò.)

(3) Red carpet treatment

When we came, he gave us a red carpet treatment

(Khi chúng tôi đến, anh ta đã đối xử với chúng tôi hết sức trang

trọng)

The set expressions in examples (1), (2) (3) will be discussed under positive

meaning Example (1) is a pure expression Fernando [10:62] that the literal

meanings of the words making up the idiom are still partly operative

In examples (2) and (3), red is the connected with joys and positive

things, so “Paint the town red” means that going out for the party and

having a good time

Regard to the example (3) has a strong symbolic overtone, so even when someone literally refers to a red carpet, it evokes the symbol of

respect and deference

In the interpretation of example (3), it is supported by the definition of

the carpet given in OED: “the carpet of this colour traditionally laid down of

formal occasions to greet important visitors” This example can be defined

as “being received with deferential ceremony”, “especially good treatment”

and “respectful of deferential reception and attention”

In Vietnamese, red colour is used to decorate houses in traditional Tet

holiday, we can find the equivalents such as: “Bánh chưng xanh, dưa hành,

câu đối đỏ” when talking about the joys However, to find the set

expressions containing words “Red” in Vietnamese is not easy, the

equivalents are often denote red colour than contain words “Red”, for

example: “Muôn hồng nghìn tía”, “Gác tía lầu hồng”, “Xanh áo đỏ mũ”,

“Võng thắm lọng xanh”, etc