A study on syntactic and semantic features of english weather proverbs and idioms denoting weather with reference to the vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HUỆ A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH PROVERBS AND IDIOMS DENOTING WEATHER WITH REFERENCE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HUỆ

A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH PROVERBS AND IDIOMS DENOTING WEATHER WITH REFERENCE

TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA TỤC NGỮ VÀ THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VỀ THỜI TIẾT TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ

TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A THESIS

Field: English Language Code: 60220201

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HUỆ

A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH PROVERBS AND IDIOMS DENOTING WEATHER WITH REFERENCE

TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

Back hard cover

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “ A study on syntactic and semantic features of English proverbs and idioms denoting weather and with references to the Vietnamese equivalents” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

of Master in English Language Except for the indicated reference, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

During this work, I have collaborated with many postgraduates, for they have helped me with my work Finally, my special thanks go to my family members, especcially my husband for supporting and encouraging me to pursue this degree Without their encouragement, I would not have finished the degree

ABSTRACT

Everyone understands the importance that proverbs and idioms exist in every language In the form of short, easy memorable phrases, the proverbs and idioms contain a great treasure of folk wisdom, and through the use of proverbs and idioms, it is often easier to express an idea better and more convincingly than a long speech A good knowledge of proverbs and idioms is necessary for a perfect knowledge of a language Yet, proverbs and idioms

in general and weather proverbs, idioms in particular are units of language which cause a lot of problems for second language learners Therefore, the

thesis makes an effort to deal with a small part of proverbs and idioms : the

syntactic and semantic features of English weather proverbs and idioms and

and quantitative analysis of English and Vietnamese proverbs and idioms collected from reliable books, dictionaries and websites The key target of the investigation is to discover the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese weather proverbs and idioms in terms of syntactics and semantics by means of contrastive analysis Finally, the study also puts forward some suggestions for teaching and learning idioms and proverbs in general and idioms and proverbs denoting weather, in particular

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EWP: English Weather Proverbs

VWI: Vietnamese Weather Idioms

EWPI: English Weather Proverbs , Idioms VWPI: Vietnamese Weather Proverbs , Idioms

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Semantic fields of Weather Conditions in EWPI and VWPI

TABLES OF CONTENT

Certificate of originality iii

Acknowledgements iii

Abstract iv

List of abbreviations v

List of tables vi

Chapter 1:INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the research 2

1.3 Objectives of the research 2

1.4 Scope of research 3

1.5 Significane of the research 3

1.6 Structure organization of the thesis 3

Chapter 2:LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Review of previous studies 5

2.2 Review of theoretical background 6

2.2.1 Theory of syntax 6

2.2.2.Theory of semantics 8

2.2.3 Proverbs and idioms in English 9

2.2.4 Syntactic and Semantic features of proverbs and idioms in English 11

Chapter 3:METHODOLOGY 18

3.1 Research-governing orientations 18

3.1.1.Research questions 18

3.1.2 Research methods 18

Chapter 4:FINDING AND DISCUSSION 20

4.1 Definition of proverbs and idioms denoting weather 20

4.2 Semantic features of proverbs and idioms denoting wearther in English and Vietnamese 20

4.2.1 Anticipating weather changes 22

4.3 Syntactic features of proverbs and idioms denoting weather in English and Vietnamese 44

4.3.2.VWPI with Simple Sentences 44

4.3.3.EWPI and VWPI with Compound sentences 44

4.3.4.EWPI and VWPI with Complex Sentences 45

4.3.5.EWPI and VWPI with irregular sentences 46

4.3.6 Similarities and Differences between EWPI and VWPI in Terms of Syntactic 46

4.4 Implications 47

ChAPTER 5:CONCLUSION 49

5.1 Recapitulation 49

5.2 Concluding remarks 49

5.3 Limitations of the study 50

5.4 Suggestions for further study 51

REFERENCES 52

APPENDIX 1 54

APPENDIX 2 63

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

We have no doubt about the importance of foreign languages, especially English In Vietnam, English has long been regarded as a tool of international communication, and together with its rising importance, the need of learning English is become more and more urgent It can’t be denied that all foreign learners in general and Vietnamese learners in particular desire to master English as the native speakers However, they usually face a lot of difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations One of the reasons for these problems lies in the way people perceive and use idioms and proverbs

Therefore, it is unquestionable that to learn a foreign language also means to gain benefits from its great stock of proverbs and idioms in which most cultural values are reflected However, most Vietnamese learners are taught English mainly with the knowledge of language, not culturally appropriate factors embedded in the teaching language They speak English without understanding of English communication manner They write English with little knowledge of English cultural background Consequently, it causes appropriateness, learning English in general and learning English proverbs and idioms in particular seem to be a challenging process It is really a risky road for learners to understand and translate English proverbs and idioms into Vietnamese

Each nation’s language has its own similar and different concepts on many fields of life such as humane values, ways of thinking, behavior Words and expressions including idioms and proverbs have formed the vocabulary system of a language Idioms and proverbs are regarded as special factors of a language’s vocabulary system because they reflect cultural specific characteristics of each nation, including material and spiritual values Therefore, many researchers have long shown their concerns for idioms and proverbs There have been a large number of researches conducted to investigate different

features of proverbs and idioms as well as their applicability in language teaching Yet, most of the studies deal with proverbs and idioms in general In this paper, the researcher would like to focus only on the English weather proverbs and idioms, put them in the comparison and contrast with Vietnamese ones in terms of semantic and syntactic features

Being interested in idioms and proverbs, I choose idioms and proverbs as

my thesis topic I just focus on a very small part of the huge idiomatic and proverbial treasure, “A study on semantic and syntactic features of English proverbs and idioms denoting weather with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents”

The reason for me choosing weather, as we know, has been closely associated with us since we appeared in the world.Our life, our work, our feeling….are often in fluenced by weather Weather idioms and proverbs make

us much more aware of our environment so we can observe and appreciate the many wonderful and intricate things going on in our natural surroundings.I hope this thesis would help English learners as well as Vietnamese learners improve their ability understanding and using proverbs and idioms in daily communication

1.2 Aims of the research

The research aims at studying the the syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs denoting weather and helping Vietnamese learners of English be more aware of English and Vietnamese proverbs and idioms and how to use them in appropriate way On that basis, the writer suggests some implications for teaching and learning English idioms and proverbs denoting weather

1.3 Objectives of the research

The objectives of the study are:

- Describing the syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese proverbs and idioms denoting weather

- Comparing and contrasting syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese proverbs and idioms denoting weather to investigate the similarities and differences between them

- Giving some suggested implications for teaching and learning English proverbs and idioms denoting weather to Vietnamese learners of English

1.4 Scope of research

Proverbs and idioms are large parts in both English and Vietnamese; thus

it is impossible for the author to carry out a comprehensive study on them; thus, the study just focuses on some proverbs and idioms relating to weather In addition, the researcher only concentrates on semantic and syntactic features although the study would be of greater success if it deals with other linguistic and non-linguistic features of weather proverbs such as pragmatics, culture and syntax However, some aspects of culture are used to explain some different elements between two languages when necessary

1.5 Significane of the research

It is obvious that proverbs,idioms occupy a large part in almost every language It is hoped that along with the understanding of the semantic and syntactics features of proverbs,idioms in general and those of weather proverbs

in particular, the findings of the study can help learners employ weather proverbs more regularly, spontaneously and effectively Language learners can exploit them as a source of language units to enrich and color their writing and speaking in both academic and daily settings As regards the teaching process, this thesis can also provide such a great reference source in the subject of semantics It can help to improve teachers’ awareness of the importance of proverbs,idioms as an inseparable unit of the linguistic system and the need to include them into the curriculum

1.6 Structure organization of the thesis

The study consists of the five following chapters:

Chapter I: Introduction

Chapter II: Literature Review

Chapter III: Methodology

Chapter IV: Findings and Discussion

Chapter V: Conclusion

Chapter 1: Introduction, includes the rationale, aims, research questions, scope

of the research, significance of the research, and structure of the research

Chapter 2: Literature Review, reviews some publications on weather proverbs,

idioms and previous studies as well as establishes the theoretical background for the study as the firm foundation with definitions of proverbs, idioms and weather proverbs, idioms The distinctive and remarkable characteristics of these phenomena will also be unearthed in order to provide a clear concept from the beginning

Chapter 3: Methodology, deals with the research design and procedures In this

chapter, description of the sampling, instruments, the procedure of data collection and analysis for implementing the thesis are mentioned

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussions, is the main part of the research, which

includes a generalization about the semantic and syntactics features of weather proverbs,idioms in both languages - English and Vietnamese - and in what ways they are similar to or different from each other The latter discusses some weather proverbs,idioms that are not reliable in both languages

Chapter 5: Conclusions, summarizes the main content of the research and

draws out conclusions This part also gives implications for teaching and learning Moreover, a statement of limitations and suggestions for further research are also indicated in this chapter Apart from that, references and appendices are enclosed for those who are interested in studying the same issues

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Review of previous studies

Up to now, there have been many books and dictionaries on proverbs and idioms First of all, Peaty( 1983) conducted all kind of English idioms and the frequent use of idiomatic phrases in “Working with English Idioms” This book

is helpful guide.It is primarily a language practice book for students at intermediate level or above to recognize, understand and use some of the everyday idioms in appropriate context

Also in 1985, Neal R Norick published his book “ How proverbs mean”

It focuses on the proverbs as a discrete text

The books entitled “Weather Proverbs: How 600 Proverbs, Sayings, and

informative and still applies In this book, the author defines and classifies weather proverbs He also mentions weather proverbs in terms of semantic fields

as well as troubles with some proverbs

“Weather proverbs” is the book written by H H Dunwoody in 1977,

including Popular Weather Prognostics by Ralph Abercrombie & William Marriott and Proverbs Relating to Animals by Dr C C Abbott Proverbs are classified into semantic fields relating to birds, clouds, dew, fish, fog, frost, insects, the moon, plants, rain, rainbows, reptiles, stars, snow, sun, thunder and lightning, trees, wind, years, seasons, months, weeks and days, and general prognostics

There are a lot of studies on proverbs and idioms in Vietnam with variety

of topics, such as: “ Tục ngữ và dân ca Việt Nam” by Vũ Ngọc Phan, “ Thành ngữ tiếng Việt” by Lương Văn Đang ( 1993) and Nguyễn Lực( 1993)

The study entitled “ An overview of English and Vietnamese proverbs: a contrastive analysis” by Bui Thi Thuy Van (2011) investigates some

resemblances, differences as well as some gaps between the proverbs in two languages: English and Vietnamese via explanations and examples

Some studies focus on proverbs denoting different semantic fields and their characteristics, but there have not been studies on weather proverbs with reference to Vietnamese equivalence For examples, the thesis” An investigation into linguistic features of money related proverbs in English and Vietnamese”.Ngo Thi Quynh Hoa( 2011) does not study proverbs denoting weather but she focuses on idioms in her thesis

So far there have no studies engaged in the syntactic and semantic features of proverbs and idioms denoting weather in English and with reference

to the Vietnamese equivalents This study is implemented to find out the mentioned features, thus proposing some possible applications for teaching and learning

above-The studies mentioned above are helpful to this study in terms of providing the theoretical background for the thesis

2.2 Review of theoretical background

This chapter addresses the theoretical background of the study In each section, the definition or explanation of the key terms is presented together with the studies worldwide

2.2.1 Theory of syntax

There are many reasearcher who have studied syntax After investigating,

we have concluded some theories syntax from famous philologist

Morris ( 1938 ) organized emiotics, the study of signs, into three areas: syntax(the study of the interrelation of the signs), semantics( the study of the relation between the signs and the objects to which they apply), and pragmatics( the relationship between the sign system and the user) According to Moris, syntax is the grammar, structure,or order of the elements in a language statement (semantics is the meaning of these elements) Syntax applies to computer languages as well as to natural languages Usually, people think of syntax as

word order However, syntax is also achieved in some languages such as Latin

by inflectional case endings Syntax is understood to be the the theory of the structure of sentences in a language This view has its direct antecedents in the theory of immediate constituents, in which the function of syntax is to mediate between the observed forms of a sentence and its meaning

Bloomfield( 1987), syntax is now the study of the principles and rules that govern the ways in which words are combined to form phrases, clauses, and sentences in a language Syntax which is subfield of grammar focuses on the word order of a language and the relationships among words In this use, syntax

is opposed to morphology, the study of word structure In other words, morphology deals with word formation out of morphemes whereas syntax deals with phrase and sentence formation out of words

Google Books defines syntax as the study of the rules whereby words or other elements of sentence structure are combined to form grammatical sentences

For example: Subject, predicate in the following sentences are about something or someone that the sentence is about is called the subject of the sentence which is shown in bold type

- Mary often comes late to class

- My sister and I both have a cat named Mimi

- Many parts of the Asian coastline were destroyed by a tsunami in 2004 Ingo Plag (2002) defined that words are syntactic atoms the smallest elements in a sentence Words belong to certain syntactic classes( nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, etc.), which are called parts of speech, word classes or syntactic categories The position in which a given word may occur in a sentence is determined by the syntactic rules of a language.These rules make

reference to words and the class they belong to For example, “the” is said to

belong to the class called articles, and there are rules which determine the position in a sentence such words, ie.articles, may occur( usually before nouns

and their modifiers, as in “the big house”).We can therefore test whether

something is a word by checking if it belongs to such a word class.If the item in question, for example, follows the rules for nouns, it should be a noun, hence a word Or consider the fact that only words( and groups of words), but no smaller units can be moved to a different position in the sentence For examples,in “yes-no” questions, the auxiliary verb does not occur in its usual position but it moved to the beginning of the sentence ( You can read my textbook vs Can you read my textbook?) Thus syntactic criteria can help to determine the wordhood

up with the way in which we classify and convey out experience of the world through language

Because it is,in these two ways, a focal point in man’s study of man, semantics has been the meeting place of various cross – currents of thinking and various disciplines of study Philosophy, psychology, and linguistics all claim a deep interest in the subject Semantics has often seemed baffling because there are many different approaches to it, and the ways in which they are related to one another are rarely clear, even to writers on the subject (Leech 1990)

Semantics means the meaning and interpretation of words, signs, and structure Semantica largely determine our reading comprehension, how we understand others, and even what decisions we make as a result of our interpretations Semantics can also refer to the branch of study within linguistics that deals with language and how we understand meaning This has been a particularly interesting field for philosophers as they debate the essence of

meaning, how we build meaning, how we share meaning with others, and how meaning changes over time

Generally, semantics is the study of meaning It is a wide subject within the general study of language An understanding of semantics is essential to the study of language acquisition and of language change.It is important to understand language in social contexts, as these are likely to affects of style It is thus one of the most fundamental concepts in linguistics The study of semantics includes the study of how meaning is constructed,interpreted, clarified, obscured, simplified, negotiated, contradicted and paraphrased

2.2.3 Proverbs and idioms in English

2.2.3.1 Definitions of proverbs

There are numerous definitions of proverbs According to the standard dictionary definition, a “proverb” is “a short saying in common use that strikingly expresses some obvious truth or familiar experience” (Guralnik and Solomon 1980, p.1144) The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Proverbs (1998) postulates in its introductory remarks the following definition: “A proverb is a traditional saying which offers advice or presents a moral in a short and pithy manner” (Simpson/Speake 1998)

Meanwhile, Burridge, in 1981, assumed that “a proverb is a wise saying.” In

the book entitled “How Proverbs Mean: Semantic Studies in English Proverbs”, a

proverb is defined as a typical spoken, conversational form with didactic function and not associated with any particular source (Neal R Norrick, 1985, p.51-55) In other words, a proverb is a short traditional saying expressing a truth or moral instruction (Geddes& Grosset, 1994)

George D Freier (1992, p.6) defines a weather proverb as a short, sensible, salty statement about the weather The study of weather proverbs is known as paroemiology

Mieder (1993, p.5) defines that “A proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views

in a metaphorical, fixed, and memorable form and which is handed down from generation to generation.” "A proverb is a standard statement of moral and colloquial imperatives in fixed metaphorical paradigmatic form; it deals with fundamental logical relationships" (Barley 1972, p 741)

As defined in the book "Tục Ngữ, Thành Ngữ Ca Dao và Dân Ca Việt Nam" written by Trần Ngọc Ngải, Chicago, Illinois, USA 1997, a proverb is a saying giving advice or satire According to Lê Gia in his book "Tâm Hồn Mẹ Việt Nam" (1994), a proverb is a saying based on the customs absorbed in people’s thought and approved and used through generations Vũ Ngọc Phan indicates: “a proverb is a sentence that is complete in meaning itself and expresses an idea, a comment, an experience, an ethics, a truth or a criticism”

(cited in Tổng tập văn học dân gian người Việt Tập 1: Tục ngữ”, 2002, p.46) He

also distinguishes between a proverb and an idiom as follows: grammatically, a proverb is a complete sentence regardless of how short it is, while an idiom is a phrase or a word group; semantically, an idiom is a part of a sentence that cannot express a complete idea by itself; as regards genre, an idiom is a set expression while a proverb is a kind of folklore; and hierarchically, an idiom is treated as a word while a proverb is considered to be a sentence

Most of the above definitions help to make clear the remarkable features

of a proverb In terms of form, it is short and lapidary In terms of content, it expresses a truth, moral instruction, advice and traditional wisdom

2.2.3.2 Definitions of idioms

According to the most common definition, idioms are fixed linguisticexpressions, a special kind of collocation involving two or more words in context, whose overall meaning cannot be predicted from themeanings of the constituent parts

A traditional definition of idioms runs roughly as follow: “an idiom is a

collocation whose meaning is not the sum of the meanings of its constituents, but

Palmer (1990), and Asher (1994) also share this view According to Seidl and

Mordie “an idiom is a number of words, which taken together, meaning something

p.8) Palmer (1990) also states that an idiom is an expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meanings of its parts According to Asher (1994), an idiom is defined as a phrase or other sequence of words which has a meaning beyond or other than the sum of the meaning of the individual words However, these definitions are not completely clear and really satisfy other linguists Therefore, many other definitions have continuously been proposed

Jackson and Amvela (2000) put forward a more concise definition of idioms:

“an idiom may be defined as a phrase, the meaning of which cannot be predicted

Another specific definition is introduced by Fernando (1996, pp.2-3), she describes idioms as conventionalized multiword expressions, individual units whose components cannot be varied or varied only within definable limits

Sharing a similar viewpoint on idiom definition with all above linguists, Saeed (2003) gives a clearer definition of idiom, which is adopted for the current

thesis research He defines an “idiom” as “words collocated that became affixed

to each other until metamorphosing into a fossilized term This collocation — words commonly used in a group — redefines each component word in the word-group and becomes an idiomatic expression The words develop a

2.2.4 Syntactic and Semantic features of proverbs and idioms in English

2.2.4.1 Syntactic features of proverbs and idioms in English

(i)- Proverb

As said above,… “a proverb is a complete sentence regardless of how short it is”.So, we’ll look at proverbs in terms of characteristics of sentence (i) Simple sentences

A simple sentence, according to Quirk et al,consists of a single independent clause and there are seven clause types: SVA, SVC, SVO, SVOA, SVOC, SVOO and SV

He gave me his book

(ii) Compound sentences

A compound sentence according to Quirk et al, consists of two or more coordinated main clauses; the clauses of a compound sentence provide classic instances of a paratactic relationship that is they have equivalent function

Example:

He got up late and rushed to university

(iii) Complex sentences

A complex sentence according to Quirk et al,is like a simple sentence in that it consists of only one main clause, but unlike a simple sentence it has one

or more subordinate clauses functioning as an element of the sentence

Example:

When round the moon there is burr, the weather will be cold and rough.

(iv) Irregular sentences

+ Aphoristic sentences

The aphoristic sentence structure is found in many proverbs

The common structural feature is the balancing of two equivalent constructions against each other

Idiom is a set phrase which include:

a.Noun phrase; b.Verb phrase

c.Adj phrase; d.Prepositional phrase

a.Noun phrase

In grammar, a noun phrase is a whole head which is a noun or a pronoun, optionally accompanied by a modifier set In general, a noun phrase has its head noun, a pronoun, a nominal adjective or a numeral As all phrases, the structure of the English noun phrase can be analyzed into both functional and formal constituents Based on functional point of view, noun phrase consists of four major components in a fixed order:

cluster

The determiner is the component which determines the reference of the noun phrase in its linguistic or situational contexts (a, the, this, her, his your…)

describing constituents before the head other than the determiners

constituents placed after the head For example:

The beautiful girl on the beach

Determiner pre-mod head post-mod

b.Verb phrase

Verb phrase is a group of words which has a main or lexical verb, the head The verb phrase is the expansion of a verb and always acts as a predicator in the clause The verb forms operate in finite and non-finite verb phrases Finite verb phrases have tense distinction.For example:

His advice fails

The finite forms of verb are the infinitive, ing- and ed- participles A finite verb phrase consists of one or more such items For example:

Rain before seven, lift before eleven

c.Adj phrase

Adjective phrase is a group of words in which the head is the adjective The head may be preceeded by pre-modifiers and followed by post-modifiers Adjective phrases modify nouns.They may function attributively (standing before noun) or predicatively(appearing after linking verb), but not all adjectives can be used in both the positions

Pre-modifications are the modifying, describing or qualifying constituents preceeding the head

The head, an adjective or a participle serves as the focus of the phrase

Post-modifications are modifying constituents which follow the head.For example:

She seems very happy

Pre-mod head

d.Prepositional phrase

A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition which is the head and a prepositional complement, which is characteristically either a noun phrase or a clause in nominal function For example:

Preposition prepositional complement

with certainty

at the bus stop

from what he said

2.2.4.2 Semantic features of proverbs and idioms in English

(i).Semantic features of proverbs

a-Semantic features of word

Jack Richards, John Platt and Heidi Weber (1985, p.254) say that, semantic features are the smallest units of meaning in a word The meanings of words may be described as a combination of semantic features

For example, the semantic features (+male) is part of the meaning of father, and so is the feature (+adult) but other features are needed to give the whole concept or sense of father

The same feature may be part of the meaning of a number of words For

example, (+movement) is part of the meaning of a whole group of verbs and

nouns, e.g run, jump, walk, gallop

Sometimes, semantic features are established by contrasts and can be stated in terms of (+) or (-), e.g

E.g.: Child: [+human], [-adult)

Man: [+human], [+adult] (+male)

b-Semantic features of proverbs

The semantic sphere of proverbs is very wide and cannot limit them The proverbs describe every branch of people's life Regarding content, proverbs usually carry advice and moral lessons which have been drawn from the real experience of life of many generations In terms of functions, not only do

proverbs have aesthetic function as they beautify the speech but they perform educational function as well It is likely that each proverb contains a piece of advice, an admonishment summarized from experience of life They criticize and satirize bad things of society They teach people what is wrong and what is right They show people way to live and to behave in life

From the semantic point of view, proverbs are classified into noticeable themes, such as Friendship, Motherland, Family, Knowledge, Beauty, Health, Work, Weather, and a lot other different subjects For example:

This proverb means that the things and people that we know well are better than the unfamiliar

(Yêu cho roi cho vọt, ghét cho ngọt cho bùi – V.E)

When raising and educating children, parents should not “wrap their children in cotton wool” A pampered child can easily become spoilt Gentleness

is necessary but seriousness and discipline are important, too If you are ignorant

of your child’s mistake, you will fail to fulfill the educating function of a parent and you will indirectly spoil your child Therefore, punishment at proper time and proper place is vital for the sake of a good education

(Lời nói chẳng mất tiền mua, lựa lời mà nói cho vừa lòng nhau - V.E)

There is nothing to be lost by behaving in a courteous way A polite and considerate fellow tends to receive above-average treatment from the others in whatever circumstances whereas an impolite and inconsiderate bloke usually gets poor treatment from the others in return

(ii).Semantic features of idioms

It is undoubted that meaning is the most important factor when talking about semantic features of idioms Figurative meaning is the basic characteristic

of idioms which helps to decide whether a fixed expression is an idiom or

not….Here is an idiom to exemplify: “to take one medicine” ( to accept

something unpleasant, for instance, punishment, without protesting or

complaining) in Vietnamese we have “ thuốc đắng dã tật, sự thật mất lòng”

However, the meaning of other idiom is either partly or completely different from the meaning of all components In case of any partial difference, their figurative meaning is not different from the literal one The partly different

meaning idioms are as kill two birds with one stone, to cut a long story short, in

seven heaven, etc

Besides, idioms can convey positive, neutral, or negative meaning For the idioms in the first group which convey positive meaning, we have some

examples such as a fair godmother ( a person who helps you unexpectedly when you most need help), the fruit(s) of something ( the good result of an activities or

a situation), be (all) plain sailing (be simple and free from trouble) In the second group, idioms express neutral meaning, we have some as take a/the hint

(understand what somebody wants you to do, even though they tell you in an

indirect way), in somebody’s shoes ( be in somebody’s position), bring

or serious something is) And in the last group typical example of idioms with

negative meanings are monkey bussiness (dishonest or sily behavior), a

influenced and controlled by his mother), a fair- weathered friend (somebody

who is only a friend when it is pleasant for them, and stops being a friend when you are in trouble)

In short, idioms can be motivated, partially-motivated and non- motivated Also, idiomatic expressions can convey positive, neutral, or negative meanings

Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter is carried out with a view to mapping out the methods that are utilized in the whole study It comprises of two sections: research – governing orientations and research methods

The data collection procedure is comprised of two steps:

Step 1 is called the collection of weather proverbs and idioms in both English and Vietnamese from a number of English and Vietnamese proverbs, idioms dictionaries, linguistic books, and linguistic websites

Step 2 is carried out with the aim of collecting necessary background knowledge for the research from a large amount of available linguistic books 3.1.2.2 Data analysis

The thesis design is based on the combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches In order to successfully achieve all the aim of data analysis process, the contrastive method is carried out with the implementation

of the three main stages

Stage 1: Classification

The researcher reads all the data and then divides them into smaller units

In this stage, an effort is made to classify the weather proverbs, idioms into two

categories The first category is proverbs, idioms anticipating weather changes The second category is divided into two sub-categories including proverbs, idioms expressing weather’s influence on production and proverbs, idioms expressing weather’s influence on human health

Stage 2: Describing and comparison and contrast

This is the main analytic stage First, the researcher counts up the total number

of weather proverbs,idioms in English and Vietnamese, and then demonstrates it on the graphs to make a pure comparison on the quantity Next, the researcher sifts through the materials to identify the resemblances and distinctions in semantic and syntactic aspects, which are presented

Stage 3: Analysis, synthesis and generalization

After analyzing the semantic and syntactic features of both English and Vietnamese weather proverbs,idioms the researcher synthesizes all similarities and differences to make a generalization about EWPI and VWPI Finally, the outcomes of the study serve as a basis in offering some possible suggestions for learning and teaching proverbs,idioms

Chapter 4

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Definition of proverbs and idioms denoting weather

We have been attempting to forecast the weather since the beginning of recorded history Long before the invention of radar and other meteorological tools, people relied upon "natural" clues to approaching weather For example, before it rained, some people often observed that ants moved to higher ground, cows lay down, pine cones opened up, frogs croaked more frequently, and sheep' wool uncurled Over the years, people began to notice other natural clues

to upcoming weather, and several weather "sayings" grew up over the years

According to Webster Dictionary, weather proverb is empirical forecasting rules, often expressed in verse and very local in nature; generally traditional in character The usefulness of such rules varies very widely (Source: European Union) For example:

• In English: Red sky in morning, Sailors take warning

Red sky at night, Sailors' delight

• In Vietnamese: Chuồn chuồn bay thấp thì mưa

In other words, weather proverb is the kind of folklore representing human observations of weather and climatic situations These observations are gradually refined into a set of experience on how particular climatic phenomena can indicate the weather situations that follow

When looking at weather proverbs, we should bear in mind that they are usually

“human experience” Many of these have a scientific basis and it can be explained why they "work," others have no such basis but often prove to be true Because climates and weather patterns differ throughout the world, a weather proverb based on observations in one location may not be accurate in another location

4.2 Semantic features of proverbs and idioms denoting wearther in English and Vietnamese

Man's concern with weather has been well-documented throughout history Humans have sought to understand, predict and control the weather In this study, the researcher would like to discover the purposes that man uses weather proverbs,idioms which are to anticipate weather changes and to show the weather’s influence on human life

• In English

“Red sky in morning, Sailors take warning

Red sky at night, Sailors' delight

• In Vietnamese

“Vồng rạp mưa rào, vồng cao gió táp”

(When the rainbow is low, there will be a shower; when the rainbow is high, there will be a strong wind)

Weather proverbs and idioms representing the weather’s influence on human life including production and health are introduced in the following examples:

• In English

“When rheumatic people complain of more than ordinary pains in the

• In Vietnamese

“Tháng Ba bà già chết rét”

(Cold weather in March is dangerous to old people)

Based on the statistics, we can demonstrate the percentage of English weather proverbs and Vietnamese weather proverbs in the following figure:

Figure 1 reveals the percentages of EWPI and VWPI falling into two categories, namely weather proverbs,idioms that merely express weather changes and weather proverbs,idioms representing weather’s influence on human life This figure shows a similarity between EWPI and VWPI that the percentage of proverbs, idioms anticipating weather changes is greater than that showing the weather’s influence on human life However, there are more VWPI than EWPI which are used to anticipate weather changes (90,5% versus 81,5%), while the percentage of proverbs showing the weather’s influence on human life

in Vietnamese is lower than that of in English (9,5% versus 18,5%)

4.2.1 Anticipating weather changes

4.2.1.1 Means of anticipating weather changes

Various means of anticipating weather changes can be categorized into the following main ones: climatic phenomena, animals’ behaviors, vegetative reactions and time Demonstrated on the graph, the percentage of weather proverbs, idioms in the subgroups is shown as following:

Figure 1: Percentage of Semantic Fields of EWPI and

VWPI

81.5 90.5 18.5 9.5

Anticipating weather changes

Figure 2: Means of anticipating weather changes

EWPI

VWPI

Climatic phenomena Animals' behaviors Vegetative reactions Time

of all in English (61,3%) and nearly a half of all in Vietnamese (46,4%) The sub-group of proverbs,idioms pertaining to climatic phenomena is followed by the sub-group with proverbs and idioms developed thanks to the observation on animals’ behaviors with 17% in English and 22,7% in Vietnamese Weather proverbs,idioms based on the observation on time rank the third, with 15% in English and 22,1% in Vietnamese Vegetative reactions rank the fourth with 4,9% in English and 6,1% in Vietnamese The last group with the smallest number of weather proverbs,idioms are the one holding the weather proverbs,idioms built based on the experience in observing others’ reactions

a Climatic Phenomena

Both English people and Vietnamese people often refer to climatic phenomena such as the clouds, winds, sun-moon, stars, sky and precipitation in order to anticipate a climatic change Therefore, the proverbs, idioms built from the observations of such things are included in both languages

• In English

“Pale moon doth rain; Red moon doth blow; White moon doth neither

“If red the Sun begin his race, be sure the rain will fall apace.”

• In Vietnamese

“Không mưa thì gió, khi mặt trời đỏ như son.”

(When the sun is red, either rain or wind may be expected)

In EWPI, a corona or a halo around the moon indicates rainy or cold weather Meanwhile, in VWPI, the drought is predicted by a corona and the rain

is predicted by a halo It proves the difference in regional climate between the two countries Below are some examples:

• In English

“When round the moon there is a burr, the weather will be cold and

• In Vietnamese

“Trăng quầng thì hạn, trăng tán thì mưa.”

(When the moon is surrounded by a corona, it will be sunny; when the moon is surrounded by a halo, it will be rainy.)

In addition, it is believed that on special days, the appearance of the sun concerns the weather in the future coming days

In English

“If the sun shines bright on Christmas day, the half of the winter’s not yet away.”

“In January if the sun appears, March and April pay full clear.”

• In English

“Thunder in December presages fine weather.”

• In Vietnamese

“Chớp đằng Đông, mua dây mà tát.”

(The flashes of chain lightning in the west announce a coming rain)

“Sấm trước cơm sấm no, sấm sau cơm sấm đói.”

(Thunder in the morning announces a rain, which is good for ploughing Thunder in the afternoon announces no rain or little rain, which causes a shortage of water Thus, it is not good for the rice field.)

Rainbows play an essential part in weather predictions A rainbow is an obvious indicator of rain as it refracts the light and breaks it down into colors Rainbows in the morning to the west usually indicate approaching rain Nevertheless, a rainbow at sunset usually means the rain is about to depart and fair weather is on the way In Vietnamese, to call a rainbow, for example, we have various names such as “cầu vồng”, “mống” (partial rainbow) or “vồng”

● In English

“If two rainbows appear at one time, they presage rain to come.”

• In Vietnamese

“Cầu vồng móng cụt, không lụt thì bão.”

(If the rainbow appears short in two ends, there will be either a flood or a storm.)

In English, hoar frost or white frost occurs in the morning, it will rain in the next three days However, in Vietnamese, the appearance of white frost indicates sunny weather For example:

• In English

“Three white frosts bring rain.”

• In Vietnamese

“Sương muối là mặt đất, ai có thóc đem phơi.”

(When white frost skims the ground, it will be sunny.)

These above examples indicate that white frost is used in both EWPI and VWPI Meanwhile, snow, which is also one of the indicators of weather, is rarely used in EWPI and it cannot be found in VWPI in the collected data

• In English

“If February gives much snow, a fine summer it doth foreshow.”

By observing the kinds of rain and its appearance, our ancestors could predict whether in the future Here are some examples

• In English

“A sunshiny shower won't last half an hour.”

• In Vietnamese

“Cơn đằng đông vừa trông vừa chạy

(The wind from the East often comes with a sudden heavy rain, so people need

to run to avoid rain Meanwhile, the wind from the South often comes with no rain or little rain, so people can amuse themselves at their work.)

● In English

“The north wind doth blow and we shall have snow.”

This proverb means that winds that blow from the north often bring cold weather with them

“When the wind is in the East, ‘tis neither good for man nor beast.”

Conversely, a westerly wind is the opposite of an easterly wind; it indicates fair or clear weather For instance:

“The wind in the west, is always best.”

However, according to VWPI, winds from the east often precede rainy or stormy weather The following examples illustrate this point

● In Vietnamese

“Mùa nực gió Đông thì đồng đầy nước.”

(If the east wind blows in the hot season, the fields will be full of rainwater.)

+ Clouds

By learning about and watching clouds, a careful observer can make a fairly reliable prediction of what the weather will do within the next hours or days Both in English and Vietnamese proverbs, clouds are classified by their shape, height or color

Color of the clouds is one of the most popular indicators helping people predict the rainy weather

• In English

“At sunset with a cloud so black,

• In Vietnamese

“Mây xanh thì nắng, mây trắng thì mưa.”

(Blue clouds announce a coming sunny day; white clouds announce a coming rain.)

Shape of the clouds occurs more in EWPI Here is an instance:

• In English

“The fish (hake) shaped cloud, if pointing east and west indicates rain; if

Height of the clouds are also much referred in both EWPI and VWPI However, in EWPI, if high-flying clouds are in the sky, this is a sign of fair weather while in VWPI, the high-flying clouds announces a heavy rain That is because climates and weather patterns differ throughout the world, a weather proverb based on observations in one location may not be accurate in another location

• In English

“The higher the clouds, the better the weather.”

• In Vietnamese

“Mây kéo xuống biển thì nắng chang chang,

(Clouds going to the sea expect a sunny day, and clouds going to the mountains expect a heavy rain.)

+ Stars

People, especially fishermen often consider stars as one of the important means of anticipating tomorrow’s weather by observing their number in the sky The number of the stars in the sky as well as their twinkling can be observed to forecast weather conditions

When the sky seems very full of stars, it will be sunny, but when there are few stars on the sky, it will be rainy

• In English

“Numerous falling stars presage wind next day.”

• In Vietnamese

“Sao ló trời nắng, sao vắng trời mưa.”

(Dense stars announce a sunny day and sparse ones announce a coming rain)

+ Sky

There are many WPI based on sky color to forecast weather in the morning or in the evening The color of the sky carries a wealth of information about the weather There are many proverbs, idioms based on sky color in the morning or in the evening For instance, a red sky means rain or dry weather

according to the time of the day it occurs: a red sky in the evening signals fair weather to follow while a red sky in the morning predicts bad weather We illustrate this in most of the following examples:

● In English

“Red sky in morning, Sailors take warning

Red sky at night, Sailors' delight

+ Birds

Birds can be greatly affected by changes in the weather Depending on how low our feathered friends are flying, we can gauge how bad the weather is going to be It has been said that if birds are flying high, the weather is clear Nevertheless, if they are flying closer to the ground, the air pressure of a storm system is causing them pain at higher altitudes

• In English

“Seagull, seagull, sit on the sand,

It's a sign of rain when you are at hand.”

Seagulls are, of course, a sort of seabirds They are friends of English sailors They help sailors to predict good weather for their sails and bad weather

to avoid Added to this, they are a good signal of the land Once sailors see many seabirds flying around, they can know for sure that they are approaching the land and their sails have safely ended