A study on syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in english with reference to the vietnamese equivalent

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I do hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A study on syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English with r

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

OF IDIOMS DENOTING SADNESS IN ENGLISH WITH

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH BIỂU THỊ CẢM XÚC BUỒN TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ

TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN THỊ VINH

Hanoi, 2016

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

OF IDIOMS DENOTING SADNESS IN ENGLISH WITH

REFERENCES TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA THÀNH

NGỮ TIẾNG ANH BIỂU THỊ CẢM XÚC BUỒN TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ

TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT)

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I do hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A

study on syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the first place, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Phan Văn Quế, for his patient guidance, helpful suggestions, encouragement and constructive supervision in writing of this report His enlightening suggestions and detailed comments have shaped this dissertation largely Without his help, this field study report would have been impossible

A special word of thanks goes to all my lecturers at Ha Noi Open University and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

Thanks are also due to all other staff members of English Department

at Hung Yen Medical College who have been of great help

I am indebted to all those who have kindly advised and helped me towards the completion of my study report

Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to my family whose love and encouragement have been equally important to my educational endeavors, especially my husband and my children who encouraged and helped me to carry out the thesis

ABSTRACT

This study investigates syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents Basing on the description and analysis of distinguishing features, the similarities and differences of idioms in the two languages are presented The data includes236 samples in English and Vietnamese, from various linguistic books, dictionaries and from the internet and they are analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively The findings show that idioms relating denoting SADNESS have remarkable syntactic and semantic features in the two languages such as phrases, and structures are identical to some extent In the semantic aspect, the occurrence fields are almost same

in English and Vietnamese There is only one feature difference These findings lead to some implications for the language learning and teaching It

is hoped that the study will be useful to those who teach and study English

as well as ones who are interested in idioms denoting SADNESS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A: Adjunct

Table 4.2 A Statistical Summary of syntactic features of idioms

denoting SADNESS in English with reference to the Vietnamese

56

Table 4.3 A Statistical Summary of Semantic Features of idioms

denoting SADNESS in English with reference to the Vietnamese

63

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality i

Acknowledgements i

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

List of table v

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the research 1

1.2 Aims of the research 2

1.3 Objectives of the study 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Significance of the study 4

1.6 Structural organization of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Review of previous studies 6

2.2 Review of theoretical background 8

2.2.1 Theoretical framework 8

2.2.1.1 Theory of syntax 8

2.2.1.2 Theory of semantics 9

2.2.2 Overview of English and Vietnamese idioms 10

2.2.2.1 Definition of English idioms 10

2.2.2.2 Features of English idioms 12

2.2.2.3 Features of Vietnamese idioms 19

2.2.3 Classification of idioms 22

2.2.3.1 Idioms and Proverbs 22

2.2.3.2 Idioms and phrases 25

2.2.4 Overview of SADNESS 26

2.2.4.2 Idioms denoting Sadness 27

2.5 Summary 27

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 28

3.1 Research-governing orientations 28

3.1.1 Research questions 28

3.1.2 Research setting 29

3.1.3 Research approach 29

3.1.4 Criteria for intended data collection and data analysis 30

3.2 Research methods 31

3.2.1 Major methods vs supporting methods 31

3.2.2 Data collection techniques 32

3.2.3 Data analyses techniques 32

3.3 Summary 33

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 35

Overview 35

4.1 Syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English 35

4.1.1 Syntactic features 35

4.1.2 Semantic features 40

4.2 Similarities and Differences of idioms denoting SADNESS in English with references to the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of their syntactic and semantic features 46

4.2.1 In term of their syntactic features 46

4.2.1.1 Similarities 46

4.2.1.2 Differences 48

4.2.2 In terms of their semantic features 60

4.2.2.1 Similarities 60

4.2.2.2 Differences 63

4.3 Possible implications 66

4.4 Summary 68

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 70

Overview 70

5.1 Recapitulation 70

5.2 Concluding remarks 71

5.3 Limitations of the research 72

5.4 Suggestion for future research 72

REFERENCE 73

APPENDIX: IDIOMS DENOTING SADNESS IN ENGLISH AND IDIOMS DENOTING SADNESS IN VIETNAMESE 77

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the research

Language plays an important role in human life because language is the significant mean in communication However, language of each country can not be similar to each other due to its different culture, tradition, belief and custom Language and culture are two concepts which always go along with each other and have close relationship with the development of their nations

In different nations, the meanings of the words and utterances are also dissimilar A word or a sentence can have plenty of meanings (literal meaning, figurative meaning, denotative meaning and narrow meaning) For example: In Vietnamese, “cơm niêu nước lọ”does not only mean “the rice in the earthenware pot and the water in the jar” but also “the poor" Therefore,

it is easily misunderstood for those who study Vietnamese as a foreign language

With regard to the role of language and culture, the usage of idioms in human life cannot be underrated Idioms have been created along with the development of communication in human society Idioms reflect typical culture, tradition, custom of each nation Palmer (19) described that they are expressions whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meaning of its parts The meaning of the idioms cannot be deduced from the individual words because both the grammar and the order of words in the idiom are fixed, and if their forms are changed, the idioms will lose their meanings The main messages of the idioms are often hidden under surface words, thus

it becomes a challenge for foreign language learners In many case, idioms

sound naturally and fit occasion by native speaker using, whereas, a native speaker of English may know the basic meaning but still cannot use it appropriately Therefore, understanding the meaning of idioms and the way using them is very important for learning one language Being able to mastering English idioms is likely to help learners of English feel more confident in learning and communicating

non-On the other hand, idioms denote various fields of human life such as happiness, anger, fear, unhappiness, weather, human feeling etc., having been studied by a number of researchers in Vietnam and overseas However, idioms denoting SADNESS seem to be open for being discussed and further studied SADNESS reflects feature of human feeling which has been studied in academic fields such as sociology, and psychology With a view

to helping Vietnamese learners to have a thorough understanding of English idioms and being able to avoid negative interferences in learning and culture shock in communication I choose the subject entitled “A study on syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents” for my graduation thesis It is also hoped that the study could probably make a small contribution to figure out English and Vietnamese idioms denoting Sadness

1.2 Aims of the research

The first aim of this research is to explore the syntactic and semantic characteristics of English idioms denoting Sadness and its Vietnamese equivalents in a contrastive analysis so as to find out similarities and differences between them

The second aim is to provide readers with fundamental understandings about idiom in general and idioms denoting Sadness in particular

The third aim is that through this research, I do hope to be able to give some possible suggestions for Vietnamese EFL learners at Hungyen medical college to improve the learners’ understanding and using idioms denoting Sadness

1.3 Objectives of the research

With the above aims, the first objective of the study is to find main syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents

The second objective is to discover the similarities and differences of idioms denoting SADNESS in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents in term of syntactic and semantic features

The last one is to suggest some implications for teaching and learning idioms denoting SADNESS in English

1.4 Scope of the research

1.4.1 Academic scope

The research is expected to contribute an in-depth description of idioms denoting SADNESS in English when analyzing their syntactic and semantic features in comparison with their Vietnamese equivalents

1.4.2 Social scope

To complete the research thesis, all the material collection of idioms denoting SADNESS in English and their Vietnamese equivalents with illustration examples are selected from some reliable dictionaries, reference books and internet It is hoped that the outcome of this research thesis, to some extent, would be able to make a certain contribution to enhance the

quality of teaching and learning English of students at the Hung Yen medical college

All English and Vietnamese idioms denoting SADNESS which are the most common are collected from dictionaries, books, and internet

1.5 Significance of the study

1.5.1 Theoretical significance

This research is expected to provide some basic information of idioms

in terms of syntactic and semantics to help writers and researchers go to further studies about this field It is also intended to help teachers and learners of English raise their socio- cultural awareness of the English country

1.5.2 Practical significance

There is a large number of English idioms denoting SADNESS among English idioms but there have been no studies dealing with the syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English and their Vietnamese equivalent As a result, this research is conducted in attempt to provide Vietnamese learners of English with better mastering how to apply this kind of idioms in sensible ways, how to thoroughly understand and naturally use them in receptive and productive skills In the other words, the research is hoped to provide an important opportunity to advance the understanding of idioms denoting SADNESS in English with

reference to the Vietnamese equivalents as well as make a major

contribution to the process of teaching and learning English

1.6 Structural organization of the research

This paper consists of five chapters as follows:

Chapter I- Introduction - mentions to the rationale, the aim, the objective, the scope, the significance and the structural organization

Chapter II - Literature review- gives the overview of the previous studies relating to the area of the research and covers some theoretical backgrounds that could be used as foundation for the process of conducting the research

Chapter III - Methodology - presents the research questions and research approach with various methods and techniques to conduct the research thesis

Chapter IV - Findings and discussions - describes and analyzes the syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English and Vietnamese equivalents and provides some possible implications for teaching and learning idioms denoting SADNESS in English and Vietnamese equivalents

Chapter V – Conclusion - summaries the major findings resulted from the investigation and data analysis, presents the limitations of the study, and suggests some further researches

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review serves two main purposes Firstly it gives a review of previous studies related to English idioms in general and idioms denoting Sadness in English in particular Secondly it presents and discusses the theoretical background which guides and plays as the foundation for this research

2.1 Review of previous studies

Idioms are used a lot in the field of communication and literature and they have also been an interesting subject attracted many linguists and researchers So far, there have been many investigations into idioms With the different points point views as well as different objectives, linguists and researchers have a variety of ways to interpret idioms

In English, there are many books, dictionaries and websites on idioms For example, in “Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms ” [5], Cowie, Mackin and Mc Caig carefully collected and categorized idioms into alphabetical arrangement They also mentioned the meanings of idioms with their examples of usage in English Cruse [6] made the conception of idioms clear by distinguishing idioms, collocations and “dead metaphor” He considered idioms as a semantically lexical complex This author also gave out a traditional viewpoint of idioms which was homophonous with grammatically well-formed transparent expressions Palmer [19] defined idioms as consequences of words whose meanings could not be predicted from the meanings of words themselves He stated some restrictions in syntactic as well as semantic features of idioms Besides, Seiddli [20] and

get a wide knowledge of idioms as well as understand one easily Howard [10] classified idioms in terms of syntax and grammar The author defined idioms as being semantically opaque and stated that collocation could provide a useful framework for revising idioms

In Vietnamese, idioms have been also an interesting field for

linguists Hoàng Văn Hành [24] deeply analyzed structural and semantic

features of idioms as well as collected a large amount of Vietnamese idioms Additionally, Nguyễn Như Ý, Nguyễn Văn Khang, Mai Xuân Thành [38] published a dictionary in which they classified Vietnamese idioms in the alphabetical order with their meaning and examples originally extracted from novels, newspapers, magazines and so on In “Thành Ngữ Tiếng Việt" 36], Nguyễn Lực and Lương Văn Đang showed a large number of idioms as well as their variants which were collected with original examples extracted from Vietnamese novels, newspapers and magazines Besides, Nguyễn Lân [34] has also arranged idioms in the alphabetical order and explained their meanings What is more, idioms have been recognized and explained with

particular examples in many books such “Giúp em học Thành Ngữ Tục Ngữ ”

by Đặng Thiêm [23], “Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Anh Việt " by Dương Ngọc Dũng-

Ninh Hùng [22], “Thành Ngữ & Tục Ngữ Việt Nam chọn lọc ” by Trần Quang

Mân [39] and “Tuyển tập thành ngữ , tục ngữ , ca dao Việt -Anh thông dụng” by Nguyễn Đình Hưng [27].and so on Furthermore, there are several research papers that have some relationship with various aspects of idioms

For instance "Semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms of

happiness and sadness: A cognitive linguistic perspective"(2010) by Nguyễn Thi Lâm."A contrast study of grammatical and semantic features of words and idioms denoting unhappiness in English and Vietnamese" (2011) by Nguyễn Thị Tân Bình "A contrast analysis of idioms denoting human being

in English and Vietnamese" (2006) by Võ Thanh Quyên and "An

investigation intothe use of conceptual metaphor in English and Vietnamese idioms denoting human feeling" (2012) by Nguyễn Hoàng Nam

However, the investigation into syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English and Vietnamese equivalents has not been carried out yet This is the reason why I decided to make an investigation into idioms denoting SADNESS in English and Vietnamese equivalents I choose to study on this field with the hope of making some contribution to the appropriate use of idioms denoting SADNESS in learning and using them the communicative

2.2 Review of theoretical background

2.2.1 Theoretical framework

2.2.1.1 Theory of syntax

Syntax is understood to be 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 sentences and its meaning The form of a language could not be understood if the complex forms to their ultimate constituents were merely reduced all Bloomfeild argue that in order to account for the meaning of a sentence, it is necessary to recognize how individual constituents (e.g words and morphemes), constitute more complex forms, which themselves constitute more complex forms

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 between 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

Syntax structures (patterns or constructions) are analyzed into sequences of syntactic categories or syntactic classes, these being established on the basis of the syntactic relationships linguistic items have with other items in a construction Some studies propose an analysis whereby categories are analyzed as set of syntactic features, to permit a greater degree of generalization across categories

2.2.1.2 Theory of semantics

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 thousand-of-year history but the word “semantics” made it earliest entry into the Old English Dictionary only in 1890s Cliff Goddard( 1998) remarks that semantics, the study of meaning, is at the center of linguistic quest to understand the nature of language and human language abilities for two reasons First, expressing meanings is what language is all about- everything from words to grammatical constructions and structures Second, semantics can shed the light on the relationship between language and culture The term “linguistic semantics” to state that linguistic semantics is the study of meaning in so far so as it is systematically encoded

in the vocabulary and grammar of natural languages On the other hand, Frawley (1992) defines in obvious terms linguistic semantics as the study of literal, contextualized, grammatical meaning The most commonly agreed-upon definition of semantics remains the one given by Bre’al as “the science

of the meanings of words and of the changes in their meaning” With this

definition, semantics is included under lexicology, the more general science

of words, being its most important branch

Semantics (as the study of meaning) is central to the study of communication and as communication becomes more and more a crucial factor in social organization, the need to understand it becomes more and more pressing Semantics is also at the centre of the study of the human mind- thought processes, cognition, conceptualization- all these are intricately bound up with the way in which we classify and convey our experience of the world through language

2.2.2 Overview of English and Vietnamese idioms

2.2.2.1 Definition of English idioms

So far, There have seen several definitions of idioms

According to Wikipedia [42], the word “idiom” comes from the Latin

word “idiom” - it means “special property” “It’s an expression consisting

of a combination of word that has a figurative meaning The figurative meaning is comprehended in regard to a common use of the expression that

is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made”

In the definition of Hornby [11, p.589], an idiom is “a phrase or

sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual

words and which must be learnt as a whole unit”

Carter [3,p.65] defines “idioms as special combinations with

restricted forms and meanings that cannot deduced from the literal meanings of the words which make them up.”

Fromkin, Collins and Blair [7, p 231] defined idioms as “fixed

phrases, consisting of more than one word, with meanings that cannot be

inferred from the meanings of the individual words ”

Cruse [6, p 37] approved that “idioms is an expression whose

meaning cannot be inferred from the meanings of its parts ”

Arthur [2, p 364] described idioms as “a phrase which means

something different from the meanings of separate words”

In Vietnamese, Hoàng Văn Hành [24, p 25] defined “thành ngữ là một

loại tổ hợp từ cố định, bền vững về hình thái cấu trúc, hoàn chỉnh, bóng bảy về ý

nghĩa, được sử dụng rộng rãi trong giao tiếp hàng ngày ”.(Idioms are set

expressions which are stable in metaphor _ structure, complete and

figurative in meaning, used widely in daily communication)

According to Nguyễn Lân [43, p.6], “thành ngữ là những cụm từ cố

định dùng để diễn đạt một ý niệm”.(Idioms are fixed phrase to express a

concept)

For example :

Dở khóc, dở cười Nước mắt ngắn nước mắt dài Dau lòng xót dạ

Nguyễn Thiện Giáp [39] stated that “những đơn vị định danh biểu thị

khái niệm nào đó dựa trên những hình ảnh, những biểu tượng cụ

thể”.(Idioms are set expressions that have both the complete in meaning and

valuable description Idioms that express conceptions are usually based on

specific images and symbols”)

From these above definitions, there is no conflict between definitions

of idioms mentioned-above in spite of some different ways of expressing They integrate at one point that an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out by combining the literal meaning of its individual words We can also recognize that most authors have the similar

view of idioms They agree that idioms is “a word, a phrase, a set expression

”or “fixed phrase ”whose meaning does not concern the meaning of the

individual words in the expression

From the structural point of view, most idioms are stable in structure and restricted in lexicon All of words in idioms are fixed If we make changes in idioms, their real meaning will not remain For example, the meaning of sob your heart out.It does not mean that your heart is sodded out

(sob your heart out means to cry noisily for very long time because you are very sad ) In Vietnamese, the idiom “Mặt mày ủ dột”cannot be changed into

“mặt ủ mày dột ”or “Mặt nặng như chì ” cannot be understood as “mặt như chì

nặng”

Semantically, the meaning of an idiom is different from the meaning

of individual words so it is hard to understand its meaning because it is built

by specific images and symbols with simile and metaphor For example, in the idiom down to the dump, we know the meaning of each word but it’s

difficult to get the meaning of the whole idiom (it means very unhappy)

In general, all of these above definitions, the one given by Fromkin, Collins and Blair is the clearest definition of idioms Therefore, it has been considered as the main reference for my research

2.2.2.2 Features of English idioms

Considering the definitions given so far and the defining features

rather than the necessary features are stated in a general way below These features will be discussed in more detail in the next sections

From a syntactic aspect, they usually have short and fixed forms They form a complete utterance which makes them unlike non-sentential items like phrase

From a semantic aspect, they does not express wisdom, general truths, morals, traditional views, experiences, observations, social norms, human nature and behavior accepted by the majority in the society They expresses the reflection of concepts image, a phenomenon, a state, as personality, or an attitude Moreover, there is no cut distinction among these aspects of idioms as there are overlaps between them The aspects are all complementary to each other Moreover they have literal meaning and are metaphorical meaning They contain various figures of speech and thus, they are parts of figurative language

2.2.2.2.1 Syntactic features

According to the definition of idioms from Fromkin, Collins and

Blair [7, p.23], idioms are defined as “fixed phrases", so the syntactic

features of idioms is the syntactic features of a phrase

Collins Cobuild [5] describes that a phrase is a short group of words that people often use as a way of saying something The meaning of a phrase is often not obvious from the meaning of the individual words in it

For example: As soon as I saw her I knew it was bad news She had a

face as long as a wet week [33,p.20]

Nguyễn Thanh Bình (2001) states that: “A phrase is any group of

words which is grammatically equivalent to a single word and which does

not have its own subject and predicate Phrases are word groups without

predication”

Phrases can be classified on the basic of syntactic structure types

(phrases of subordination and phrases of coordination; on the basic parts of

speech, we have NP, VP, Adj P, Adv P, Pre P, Conj P; on the basic of the

existence of head / center (headed phrases) we have: NP, VP, Adj P, Adv

P; non-headed phrases we have: Pre P, Conj P

In this thesis, I investigate only four types of phrases: NP, VP, Adj P,

and Pre P

i Noun Phrases

In grammar, a noun phrase is a whole head which is a noun or a

pronoun, optionally accompanied by a modifier set According to

Greenbaun [13] a noun phrase has its head noun, a pronoun, a nominal

adjective, or a numeral

Like all phrases, the constitute of the English noun phrase can be

analyzed into both functional constituents and formal constituents Form a

functional point of view, the noun phrase has four major components,

occurring in a fixed order:

The head, around which the other constituents cluster

The determinative which determines the reference of the noun phrase

in its linguistic or situational context has four types (Articles

Demonstratives, Possessive, and Indefinite)

Pre-modification, which comprises all the modifying or describing

constituents before the head, other than the determiners

Post determiners, those which comprise all the modifying

constituents placed after the head

The parentheses indicate the elements of the structure that may be

absent

Example:

(2.1) Pain in the neck [40, p.1210]

ii Verb Phrases

Concerning the verb phrase, Greenbaum [8] defines that “it has a main (or lexical) verb The main verb may be preceded by up to four auxiliaries” In grammar, a verb phrase is the expansion of a verb, in the same way that a noun phrase is the expansion of a noun

The verb phrase always acts as predicator in the clause The verb forms operate in finite and non-finite verb phrase, which are distinguished

The non-infinite forms of the verb are the infinitive (with or without

TO), the ing-participle, and the ed - participle A non-finite verb phrase

consists of one or more such items

For example :

(2.3) Cut to the quick [46]

(Ruột đau như cắt )

(2.4) Cry your eyes out [36]

( Khóc như ri)

The verb phrase can be expressed both as an experiential structure

and logical structure While the experiential structure is extremely simple,

most of the semantic load is carried by the logical structure

In Vietnamese language, there have no regular distinction between

finite and non-finite verb forms like the way English does

iii Adjective Phrase

The adjective phrase is a word group with an adjective as its head

This adjective may be accompanied by pre modifiers and followed by post

modifiers

Adjective phrases modify nouns They may be attributive (appearing

before the noun) or predicative (appearing after a linking verb), but not all

adjectives can be used in both positions

Pre-modification, those modifying, describing, or qualifying

constituents which precede the head

The head, which an adjective or participle serving as the focus of the

phrase

Post-modification, that modifying constituent which follows the head

Complementation, (the major subcategory of post modification here)

that constituents which follows any post-modification and completes the

specification of a meaning implied by the head

-Pre-modifier and post-modifier of NP For example: Heart sick

- Complement For example: I consider him foolish

- Head of NP For example: They will help the poor

iv Prepositional Phrases

The preposition phrase has two parts: the preposition and the

complement The prepositional complement is typically a noun phrase, but

it may also be a nominal relative clause or an ing - clause Both the nominal

relative clause and the ing - clause have a range of functions similar to that

- Post-modifier of a noun For example: I took several courses in history.

- Post-modifier of adjectives:

For example: We were not aware of his drinking problem

- Adverbial For example: After the storm, the sky brightened

2.2.2.2.2 Semantic features

Idioms are composed of words; however, their meaning is not the combination of the meaning of each element forming them Kramsch

stated: “The meaning of an idiom was the special chemical mixture of the

meaning of all components, which is completely new in quality” [12, p.63]

Grains and Redman [8, p.45] have considered semantic opacity or semantic ambiguity as one of the salient features of idioms Therefore, they can have either a literal meaning or an idiomatic meaning A literal meaning is the expressional meaning derived from the collective literary meaning of all the words in the expression It is clear that we can guess the meaning of idioms with literal meaning without a context, for example, “thắt lưng buộc bụng”.However, it is not easy for us to recognise the meaning of “eat one's heart out ” without a context because it has idiomatic meaning It is easier when we put it in the context such as he is eating his heart out for that woman

(he love her but her does not love him ).The context where the idiom occurs helps reduce the semantic ambiguity Thus, readers and hearers need to rely

on the context to understand the meaning of idiom

Furthermore , it is important to understand idioms metaphorically The meaning is the most important aspect when discussing semantic features of idioms The basic characteristic of idioms is figurative meaning which helps to distinguish whether a fixed expression is an idiom or not For

example: Down to the dump and its Vietnamese translation equivalent is buồn

rười rượi

To sum up, idioms are fix group of words their meaning are not the meaning of each word They can have the literal, figurative or metaphorical meaning Therefore, to understand the semantic features of idioms, we should base on the context, the attitude and the emotion of the speaker to choose the most suitable meanings

2.2.2.3 Features of Vietnamese idioms

In Vietnamese, idioms are considered as very special language units because they reflect Vietnamese cultural characteristics The forms and contents of idioms are also distinguished by structural and semantic features

2.2.2.3.1 Syntactic features

Most Vietnamese linguists have had the same opinion about the

forms of Vietnamese idioms Nguyen Van Tu, (1976) said “idioms are fixed

expressions whose word components do not have their own individual meanings and become a solid block” He emphasized the combination of the

components forming the meaning of idioms Nguyen Thien Giap, (1975) considered an idiom as a fixed expression Although Nguyen Duc Dan, (1986) did not focus on the forms of Vietnamese idioms, he dealt with the

fixation of idioms He said “Idioms are language units which have fixed

forms” Hoang Van Hanh, (1994) attached special importance to the

components forming idioms He states that an idiom is a fixed group of words whose form is unchanged

In term of syntactic features, Luong Van Dang, (1978), on one hand, classified Vietnamese idioms as follows:

(i) Idioms with three single words or more:

(ii) For example :

Mặt chảy dài

Ăn gió nằm mưa

(iii) Idioms with a single word and a compound word:

Cơm liêu nước lọ

( iv) Idioms with alliterations or compound words:

For example:

Hì hà hì hục

Lảm nhàm lảm nhảm

(v) Idioms with symmetrical comparisons:

For example: Nát như tương

Khóc như mưa

(vi) Idioms with summary comparisons:

For example: Như cá gặp nước Như nước đổ đầu vịt.:

Moreover, the common structures of Vietnamese idioms are the

structures which have two balanced components Idioms are also formed by

joining rhymes (usually interior rhymes) such as dãi nắng dầ m mưa, thất cơ

lỡ vận etc These structures do not only make idioms easy to say and remember, but they also keep the fixation and unshakeable characteristics of idioms

In short, Vietnamese idioms are fixed groups of words whose forms are unchanged: the fixed combination comes from settled words and

expressions such as rầu như dưa, mặt ủ mày ê, etc The fixation shows that

we cannot change the order of words or use the synonyms (similar words) to replace any components of an idiom in a casual way This is a basic feature helping us to realize idioms easily

2.2.2.3.2 Semantic features

There are quite a few different opinions about the semantic features of Vietnamese idioms According to Nguyen Van Menh, (1971), an idiom introduces an image, a phenomenon, a state, a personality, an attitude, etc

This opinion is quite simple and general Nguyen Van Tu, (1976) said “The

meaning of an idiom does not come from individual components which may have their images or not Its meaning can be different from the meaning of each component or does not come from each original word” Nguyen Thien

Giap, (1985) focused on the basic semantic features of idioms: Being rich in imagery is a basic feature of idioms Idioms express concepts basing on specific images and symbols The imagery of idioms is made from its metaphor and comparison

Although there are different ideas about the semantic features of idioms, Vietnamese linguists have all shared the same point of view as: Firstly, the meaning of an idiom is a perfect whole which does not come from the meanings of individual components added Secondly, the meaning

of an idiom expresses the reflection of things or concepts Thirdly, the

meaning of an idiom is usually figurative and descriptive

Many linguists affirm that idioms have their own figurative and imaginary meanings; nevertheless, we should not consider this as an absolute fact In Vietnamese, there are also some idioms which have literal sense coming from the meanings of their components They may be

comparative idioms such as nát như tương (as pasty as soy), buồn như chấu

cắn and buồn như cha chết , whose imagery comes from the images

compared with activities or properties Some Sino-Vietnamese idioms such

as nhất cử lưỡng tiện (to kill two birds with one stone), sống dở chết dở and

buồn xo buồn rụi also have literal sense basing on the meanings of their components

2.2.3 Classification of idioms

2.2.3.1 Idioms and Proverbs

According to Nguyễn Như Ý [37, p.271]: “An idiom is a fixed phrase

which are integrity of meaning, making a complete referential unit whose meaning is different from the total meaning of its components, it is non- literal and works as a single word” Basically, proverbs and idioms have

something in common such as both of them are ready-made linguistic units The use of fixed expression is abused in these two types of language units

so they tend to become clichés The national characteristics are often expressed in both proverbs and idioms For example, to talk about the

slowness, English people use the image of the snail in the idiom “as slow as

a snail” while Vietnamese people use the image of tortoise in the idiom “as slow as a tortoise” With reference to proverb, the national characteristics

can be recognized in some proverbs such as “Đàn ông chớ kể Phan

Trần,đàn bà chớ kể Thúy Vân, Thúy Kiều” in Vietnamese or “Every Jack

has a Jill” in English As we can see from the above examples, such proper

names as “Phan Trần”, “Thúy Vân”, “Thúy Kiều” in the former and “Jack” and “Jill” in the latter are a part of culture of naming in a community

Furthermore, the lexical components of proverbs and idioms are always stable and invariable In spite of the fact that proverbs and idioms share the same features, they also have differences Proverbs always represent independent units in the process of communication because they contain a complete proposition For instance, the proverb “A burnt child dreads the fire” contains a complete hidden meaning that somebody who has had an unpleasant experience then he shrinks from the cause of that experience On the other hand, idioms are not always syntactically-independent units They are only considered as fixed phrases which cannot work as a full sentence, but as a part of it as a word For example:

(2.7) John is a much better writer than Mary He can run circles around

her [33, p.275]

In the above example, the idiom “run circles around her” is an essential part to the meaning of the sentence He can run circles around

her” This idiom makes sense “outdo” This means that the idiom is

equivalent to a word and denotes a concept whereas proverbs directly correlate with judgments

It is true that, the meaning of proverbs can be more easily predictable than that of idioms We often find it difficult to predict the meaning of

idiom from their constituents For example: “out of frying pan into the fire”

in English and its Vietnamese equivalent is “tránh vỏ dưa, gặp vỏ dừa” It is

clear that the meaning of the idiom above is very difficult to predict when

we first read it

Sometimes, the boundary between proverbs and idioms seem to be vague because of the fact that some idioms have the forms like proverbs

For example: “chết trẻ còn hơn lấy lẽ”, “sư nói sư phải, vãi nói vãi hay” And sometimes some idioms become a part of a proverb such as “dã tràng

xe cát biển đông, nhọc lòng mà chẳng lên công cán gì”, “ăn ngay ở thật, mọi tậtmọi lành”, “Jack of all trades is master of none” In these proverbs

“dã tràng xe cát”, “ăn ngay ở thật”, “Jack of all trades” are idioms These

evidences are all what makes the borderline between these two languages units difficult to all linguists The overlap between proverbs and idioms is

an objective reality, but the researcher makes efforts to find out some criteria for distinction so that the process of study is more convenient

It is clear that the overlapping phenomenon of proverbs and idioms is

a difficulty for the scholars encounter to find out some criteria for discrimination The syntactic and semantic characteristics proposed above will be useful for us to some extent when collecting data for this research

Table 2.1 Similarities and differences between Proverbs and idioms

-notion -nominalization -figurative

It is difficult to distinguish proverbs and idioms An idiom is a known phrase that has meaning of its own that can not be understood from the meanings of its individuals words Syntactically speaking, idiom is not

well-a sentences, it is well-a phrwell-ase It is well-a stwell-able phrwell-ase to which the spewell-aker do not or cannot add words to, or delect word from it, or even change the words when they like to the phrase

2.2.3.2 Idiom and phrases

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary ( 4, p

1948), “A phrase is a group of words which have a particular meaning

when used together” It means that a phrase is a small group of words

standing together as a conceptual unit to give a particular meaning It is also

a part of sentence but not a subject and a verb; it makes sense but not

complete sense

For example: a black day, a load of bread, etc…

The meaning of a phrase is a sum of those of the individual words; an idiom in contrast, is a group of words established by usage of having a meaning not deducible from those of individual words as one scholar said

An idiom is an expression whose meaning is different from the meaning of individual words It can either be one word or a group of words which when used together have a different meaning from the literal meaning of its component words

For example:

(2.8) Eat one's heart out [41,p.783] (2.9) Cry in one's beer [41,p.385]

An idiom is usually a type of phrase that has a meaning that may not

relate to the meanings of its individual words It is a figure of speech An

idiom is a phrase but not all phrases can be idioms For example: the idiom

“live hard’ is a phrase, “the house at the corner” is a phrase but not an

idiom; “a black day” is both an idiom and a phrase

2.2.4 Overview of Sadness

2.2.4.1 Definition of Sadness

SADNESS is used to express the emotion of human feeling

Sadness is an emotion characterized by feeling of disadvantage, loss, and

helpless When sad, people often become quiet, less energetic and

withdrawn Therefore, we can see sadness is the negation of happiness

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, SADNESS means

unhappiness or the feeling of being sad or not satisfied with something or

something Besides, SADNESS is the feelings that you have in your body

when you have been hurt or when you are ill or sick it means that the body

has not only mental suffering but also the emotional suffering:

For example :

(2.10) A pain in the neck [41, p.210] (2.11) Down in the sorrow [42]

Moreover, SADNESS is a feeling of being unhappy which comes to

human when they fail at a task, break up with one friend, or in the

unexpected situation such as loneliness or poverty

For example

(2.12) Poorly off [41,p.1305] (2.13) To be in a fix [48]

2.2.4.2 Idioms denoting SADNESS

SADNESS is emotion of human being, so idioms denoting

SADNESS reflects the state of mind when people are sad, unhappy or the

feeling of dismally low spirits

Besides, idioms denoting SADNESS can be described as a pain in the

heart, the reaction of crying when people are disappointed, isolation, old age

or they are in the challenge situation which they cannot find out the way to

escape

Moreover, idioms denoting SADNESS reflects the melancholy when

the happiness and the love is broken or when the relatives have left and

never meet again Furthermore, the misery and the poverty of life make

people go into the dumps

2.5 Summary

The first section of this chapter has given a brief description of

previous studies related to the research area, which have been done oversea

and in Vietnam These are considered as a valuable source of reference In

the second section, the review of the theoretical background concerning

syntactic and semantic features of idioms, which later are employed to

conduct the whole research thesis, has been presented Basing on such a

foundation, all the syntactic and semantic features of English idioms

denoting SADNESS with the Vietnamese equivalents will be described and

an analyzed in the chapter

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methodology used for the whole study It

comprises of two main parts: (1) Research-governing orientations

(2) Research methods

Firstly, the research-governing orientations is mentioned to use in the thesis in section 3.1 Then, the research method is mentioned in section 3.2

3.1 Research-governing orientations

This part consists of research questions, research setting, research

approach and criteria for intended data collection and data analysis

3.1.1 Research questions

This study aims at identifying syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents In order to achieve this aim, the research questions are:

1 What are the syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English?

2 What are the similarities and differences between idioms denoting SADNESS in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents in terms

of syntactic and semantic features?

3 What are possible implications for teaching and learning idioms denoting SADNESS in English?

3.1.2 Research setting

With the experience of having taught English for thirteen years, I realize that my students often make mistakes when they learn and use idioms So, I intend to carry out my research through dictionaries, reference books at library, some websites to help third-year students at Hung Yen medical college identify more clearly about differences in structure as well

as in semantic between idioms

3.1.3 Research approach

This research is conducted to describe and analyze the semantic and stylistic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English and reference to the Vietnamese equivalents In order to achieve these objectives and answer research questions, the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches is used

In reference with quantitative approach, this thesis is carried out on

the basis of data collected from different sources in order to achieve an objective conclusion in the research Most of the English and Vietnamese samples mainly come from dictionaries and some others are selected from referent books and internet

The qualitative approach is employed to describe and analyze the data

of the study The steps of the study are conducted in the order as follow:

- Analyzing idioms denoting SADNESS in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features

- Finding the similarities and differences between syntactic, and semantic of features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents

- Suggesting some implications for teaching and learning idioms denoting SADNESS for the learners

After the idioms are collected, the data will be analyzed on the basis

of semantic and syntactical perspectives The collected data would be qualitatively and quantitatively processed to investigate syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English with reference

to the Vietnamese equivalents Firstly, the data will be grouped into categories depending on their nature in the syntactic and semantic categories Then all of them will be grouped again in the category of functions revealed in different context in order to find out their syntactic and semantic features After that, an analysis will be presented and some meaningful conclusions will be withdrawn Lastly, from these conclusions, some similarities and differences of idioms denoting SADNESS between English and Vietnamese will be provided

3.1.4 Criteria for intended data collection and data analysis

The data used for analysis of the thesis, as mentioned above, are collected from dictionaries, books and websites The dictionaries and books are chosen with names of authors, names of publishers, time and place of publication The data from internet are chosen from the reliable websites with the addresses and the search dates In addition, the results of the research are withdrawn from the analysis of evidence, statistics with a fully consideration Therefore, the thesis is totally reliable and valid

After collecting the data from reliable sources, we classify and analyze them into syntactic some semantic fields in order to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms

denoting SADNESS