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

This thesis is a study on syntactic and semantic featues of English idioms denoting richness and poverty with references to the Vietnamese equivalents.. Through a variety of methods, nam

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

Hanoi, 2017

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

“A study on syntactic and semnatic features of English idioms denoting richness and poverty with references to the Vietnamese equivalents”

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

Hanoi, 2017

Vu Thi Thuy

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr Le Van Thanh

Date: 24/11/2017

My special word of thanks goes to all the lecturers at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies - Ha Noi Open University for their interesting lectures and useful advice I would also like to thank my colleagues and friends for idea sharing and encouragement It would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished without all of these valuable supports

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

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ABSTRACT

Idioms play an important role in all natural languages including English and Vietnamese They enrich the language They help speakers and writers to emphasise their ideas and make our observations, judgments, and explanations more lively and interesting They are also very useful tools for communicating a great deal of meaning

in a few words Effective communication cannot be achieved successfully without idioms; therefore, they are worth studying

This thesis is a study on syntactic and semantic featues of English idioms denoting richness and poverty with references to the Vietnamese equivalents The data are 154 idioms denoting richness and poverty in both English and Vietamese collected from some idioms dictionaries in English and Vienamese Through a variety of methods, namely descriptive mehod, comparative method, qualitative method and quantitative method, the study analyzes the syntacic and semantic features of English idioms denoting richness and poverty with references to the Vietnamese equivalents The findings of the study help to find out some similarities and differences in syntax and semantics of idioms denoting richness and poverty in English and Vietnamese This thesis also contributes to the general understanding of syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting richness and poverty with references to the Vietnamese equivalents Moreover, the thesis also gives teachers and learners of English some suggetions for teaching and learning English idioms denoting richness and poverty with references to the Vietnamese equivalents

Adj.P : Adjective phrase

Adv.P : Adverbial Phrase

PP : Prepositional Phrase

IsDR&P: Idioms denoting richness and poverty

EIsDR&P: English idioms denoting richness and poverty

VIsDR&P: Vietnamese idioms denoting richness and poverty

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 3.1 Verb phrase structures of English and Vietnamese IdR&P 21 Table 3.2 Noun phrase structures of English and Vietnamese IdR&P 25 Table 3.3 Adjective phrase structures of English and Vietnamese IDR&P 26 Table 3.4 Prepositional phrase structures of English and Vietnamese IdR&P 27 Table 3.5 Adverbial phrase structures of English and Vietnamese IdR&P 27 Table 3.6 Comparative structures of English and Vietnamese IdR&P 28 Table 3.7 A summary of English and Vietnamese idioms denoting Richness and

Table 3.8 Frequency of Syntactic Features of Idioms denoting Richness and Poverty in

Table 3.9 A statistical summary of semantic features of idioms denoting Richness and

Table 4.1: Percentages of the students’ incorrect answers in exercise 1 45 Table 4.2: Percentages of the students’ incorrect answers in exercise 2 45 Table 4.3: Percentages of the students’ incorrect answers in exercise 4 46

2.2.1 Definition of poverty, richness and idioms 8

2.3.3.3 Inseparability of Semantic and Syntactic Features 12

3.2.1 Symbolic characteristics of idioms denoting richness and poverty in English and

CHAPTER 4: COMMON ERRORS MADE BY LEARNER IN USING ENGLISH

IDIOMS DENOTING RICHNESS AND POVERTY WITH REFERENCES TO THE

4.3 Suggestions for teaching and learning English idioms denoting richness and povery with references to the Vietnamese equivalents 47 4.3.1 Suggestions for learners in learning English idioms denoting richness and poverty with references to the Vietnamese equivalents 48 4.3.2 Suggestions for teacher in teaching English idioms denoting richness and poverty with references to the Vietnamese equivalents 50

Moreover, the vocabulary of English consists of several hundred thousand words and lots of idioms, and without an extensive English vocabulary, communication

in English just can not occur in a meaningful way

In daily communication, we can see the frequent appearance of idioms Idioms have always attracted attention of linguists, although they were not given enough recognition in the past The new trends in English syntactic and semantic studies, however, have thrown a completely different light on these multi-word units with more

or less unpredictable meanings

Being regarded as something inherently linked with a successful acquisition of a foreign language, idioms are of great importance in any language system With different levels of figurativeness they represent indispensable semantic elements that help any foreign language speaker sound more native and proficient It is obvious that different languages will have different idioms, both in structure and meaning Also the repertoire of idioms will vary from one person to another, depending on their social or intellectual background

Virtually all countries, their linguistic features including the syntactic and semantic ones may vary from country to country It is this difference that could cause

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problems to Vietnamese learners and users of English and English learners and users of Vietnamese as a foreign language They could therefore commit errors in cross-cultural communication or suffer from “culture shock” Unfortunately, there is hardly a research into the syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting richness and poverty with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents

Accordingly, I have decided on this thesis title I hope that my study could meet the demand of the people who are interested in this issue, and hope it could help the translaters, teachers and learners of English and Vietnamese as a foreign language teach and learn English and Vietnamese better, especially the idioms denoting richness and poverty

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims of the study

This thesis is aimed to find out similarities and differences between English idioms of richness and poverty and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features as well as to point out some applications for teaching and learning English idioms denoting richness and poverty

1.2.2 Objectives of the study

To achieve the mentioned aims above, the following objectives can be put forward

- To find out syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting

“richness” and “poverty” with referenceto the Vietnameseequivalents

- To find out the similarities and differences between English idioms of richness and poverty and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features

- To propose some applications for teaching and learning English idioms denoting “richness” and “poverty”

1.3 Research questions

This research seeks to address the following questions

(i) What are syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting

“richness” and “poverty” with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents?

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(ii) What are similarities and differences between English idioms of richness and poverty and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features?

(iii) What are suggestions for teacher and learner in teaching and learning idioms denoting “richness” and “poverty” in English?

1.4 Methods of the study

The study describes and compares the syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting “richness” and “poverty” with references to the Vietnamese equivalents and then withdraws some implications for teaching and learning of English and Vietnamese as a foreign language

The descriptive method is supposed to describe and interpret idioms denoting richness and poverty in English and their Vietnamese equivalents to clarify the syntactic and semantic features in English and Vietnamese

In addition, the contrastive method is accompanied by the qualitative and quantitative approach to identify the relationship of semantic and syntactic features, identify the main principles of meaning transfer and find out the frequency of use of these idioms denoting richness and poverty in English and Vietnamese

1.5 Scope of the study

There are a variety of English idioms denoting richness and poverty However, due to the time allowance and limited knowledge, it is impossible to carry out a comprehensive study of all kinds of English idiomatic expressions Within the framework of a mater graduation thesis, English idioms denoting richness and poverty with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents could be put under investigation of this thesis

This thesis mainly focuses on syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting richness and poverty and their Vietnamese equivalents Other aspects are out

of the scope of this study They, although can be found somewhere in this paper, are only meant to support of illustrate some arguments of the author

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1.6 Significance of the study

With the purpose of doing a research into the syntactic and semantic features of English idiomse denoting richness and poverty with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, this study could help:

- Native Vietnamese learners of English or Vietnamese and native English learners of Vietnamese or English have a comprehensive understanding about the syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting richness and poverty in these

languages

- These learners grasp the use of idioms denoting richness and poverty in these two languages and use them effectively in their learning process as well as in their daily life

1.7 Design of the study

The study is organized into five chapters: Introduction, Literature review, Findings and Discussion, Applications and Conclusion

Chapter 1 - Introduction: Presents the rationale to the study, aims and objectives

of the research, research question, methods of the study, scope of the research, significance of the study and structure of the thesis

Chapter 2 - Literature Review: Provides the readers with the literature review of the research, which attempts to present the theoretical background including general understanding about language learning process, an overview of English idioms denoting “richness” and “poverty” and their Vietnamese equivalents

Chapter 3 – Syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting richness and poverty with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents: Present syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting “Richness” and “Poverty” with reference

to the Vietnamese equivalents The features are accompanied by statistical results and the analysis of the data shown in the tables

Chapter 4- Common errors made by learners when using English idioms denoting richness and poverty with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents: Work with some implications for teaching and learning English dioms denoting “Richness” and “Poverty”

5 Chapter 5 - Conclusions: Summarize the thesis with concluding remarks Also, the limitations of the study are presented with suggestions for further studies

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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 English idioms denoting richness and poverty in particular Secondly it presents and discusses the theoretical background which guides and plays as the foundation for this research thesis to base on

in the process of conducting the whole research

2.1 Previous studies

Idioms have attracted many language researchers all over the world Idioms carry a large amount of nationally or culturally specific information with them It can

be said that idioms are an interesting and popular phenomenon of every language Up

to now, there have been a number of writers making investigations into English and Vietnamese idioms

For foreign writers, a lot of books and dictionaries have brought us with great benefit For example, “A Course in Modern English Lexicology” by Ginzburg et al (1979) pointed out that non-motivated word-groups whose lexical meaning is not deducible from that of their components are described as idioms Also, he gave the assumptions that non-motivated word-groups have function as wordequivalents because of their semantic and grammatical inseparability

Not only Ginzburg but also Halliday - a grammarian- has been interested in usage of idioms and the role of idioms within a certain context In “An Introduction to

Functional Grammar” Halliday (1985), there have been the explanation of structural

grammar, the relationship between grammar and semanticsa “a ‘functional’ grammar means that it is based on meaning but the fact that is a ‘grammar’ means that it is an

interpretation of linguistic form” and especially in the light of Halliday’s view, idioms

are regarded as a class of group

According to Cowie, Mackin & McCaig (1994), idioms are carefully collected

and categorized into alphabetical arrangement Moreover, their meanings and examples

of usage in English are also mentioned and explained

In “Idioms and Idiomaticity”, Chitra Fernando (1996) provides a comprehensive treatment of idioms and idiomaticity from a functional perspective It examines the use

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of idioms in discourse to combine the novel and the conventional, to convey representations of the world, evaluate people and situations, signal conviviality or conflict, and create coherent, cohesive texts This book goes on to consider implications for language learning and development

In “Idiom Structure in English” (Makkai, 1972), the concept of idiomaticity areas is introduced and the membership of each is illustrated with a small number of typical examples Each type of idiom in the first idiomaticity area (lexemic system) and the second idiomaticity area (sematic system) is described in terms of its internal structure and assigned a label This discussion of the idiomaticity areas and their membership is integrated with a general definition of the idiom in both the lexicology and the semiology By describing these two idiomaticity areas, the author suggests a framework by which all types of English idioms have been mentioned

Furthermore, “Idioms Organization” is a book that John Wright (1992) has written about the idioms organized by metaphor, topic and key word The book “The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms” by Ammer (1997) or “Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms” by Richards (1987), idioms are carefully collected and categorized into alphabetical arrangement Their meanings and examples of usage in English are also mentioned These are the books that every linguistic or teachers of linguistics have

to keep a look if they want to do a research or a study on idioms

In Vietnamese, the first researchers having important contributions to this field

we must mention are Nguyen Luc and Nguyen Van Dang They wrote “Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt” which is a collection of Vietnamese idioms arranged in alphabetical order with clear explanations and examples extracted from Vietnamese novels, newspapers and magazines Moreover, Nguyễn Trần Trụ who wrote “Thành ngữ tục ngữ lược giải” explains meanings of the most common idioms and proverbs in such simple, clear ways that learners can use this book for consulting and reference purposes

There are also many authors have studied about idioms such as “Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ Việt Nam Chọn Lọc” by Tran Quang Man (2002), “Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Anh Việt” by La Thanh (2006) Vinh Ba (1999), Nguyen Lan (1994) are writers who supplied a large amountof idioms, their variants are collected with examples originally extracted fromnovels, newspapers, magazines and so on Hoang Van Hanh (2002) gave out his comments about idioms in the book “Thành ngữ học Tiếng Việt” In which, he

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studied many aspects of Vietnamese idioms as well as collected and categorized these idioms Besides, Vu Dung, Vu Thuy Anh, Vu Quang Hao (1993) wrote dictionaries in which Vietnamese idioms are both literally and figuratively explained, illustrated with examples What is more, they also classified Vietnamese idioms in comparison with English idioms so that language learners can understand more clearly and exactly their literal meanings

Studying on Vietnamese and English idioms there are some papers such as Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai (2015) with “A study on English idioms denoting fear with references to the Vietnamese equivalents”; Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong (2015) with “A study on structural and semantic features of English idioms denoting anger with references to the Vietnamese equivalents”; Nguyen Thi Cam Van (2012) with “A study

of linguistic features of proverbs expressing richness and poverty in English versus

Vietnamese” and so on However, up to now, there have been no studies about idioms

denoting richness and poverty This is the reason why this study comes into being in

an attempt to focus on semantic and syntactic features of English idioms denoting richness and poverty with references to the Vietnamese equivalents

Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one’s life.” ("Poverty and Inequality Analysis" worldbank.org.)

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty, poverty is the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money

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2.2.1.2 Definition of Richness

Unlike the word poverty, there are hardly various definitions for the word richness According to Từ điển Tiếng Việt (1992), richness is defined that “có nhiều tiền của; trái với nghèo”

The definition above corresponds to the one from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Richness Accordingly, richness is defined as the state of having an abundant supply of money, property, or possessions of value

2.2.1.3 Definition of idioms

Up to now, there are many definitions of idioms."If natural language had been

designed by a logician, idioms would not exist." (Philip Johnson-Laird, 1993) Idioms

exist in probably all languages - the definition of idiom is a construction whose meaning cannot be logically deduced from the words that make it up Chiefly, their importance is that they are a major area of difficulty for non-native learners; although illogical, idioms have to be learned because they are used a lot in conversational native English speech

According to Wikipediahttp://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom, “An idiom is a

word or phrase which means something different from what it says - it is usually a metaphor Idioms are common phrases or terms whose meaning are not real, but can be

understood by their popular use.” In “Idiom structure in English”, Makkai (1972),

defines an idiom as “any polylexonic lexeme made up of more than one minimal free form of word (as defined by morphotactic criteria), each lexeme of which can occur in other environments as the realization of a monoloxonic lexeme” It can be seen that idioms can mean something different from what the words mean

Fernando (1996) defines idioms as being a type of “conventionalized multiword expressions”, and “individual units whose components cannot be varied or varied only within definable limits” and “not usually recombinable”, as well as referring only to

“those expressions which become conventionally fixed in a specific order and lexical form, or have a restricted set of variants, acquire the status of idioms and are recorded

in idiom dictionaries” Jennifer Seidl and W McMordie (1978) share the same point of view with Hornby (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 1995) and Longman

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Idioms Dictionary (1998) and give the definition: “An idiom is a number of word which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words of the idiom when they stand alone”

Idioms are composed of more than one word: their constituents show to some extent the sort of internal cohesion that we expect of single words An idiom typically resists interruption and re-ordering of its constituents For example, the idiom ‘kick the bucket’ will lose its idiomatic meaning if it is re-ordered into ‘the bucket which is kicked’ According to Palmer (1990), idioms as consequences of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meaning of the words themselves Semantically, idioms are single units, but they are not single grammatical units like words He also printed out some restriction in syntactic features and noted that the problem of idioms was involved with the much wider issue of word formation, by which what would appear to

be new and more complex lexemes can be formed from single ones

Collins Cobuild (1995) defines: ‘An idiom is a special kind of phrase It is a group of words which have a different meaning when used together from the one it would have if the meaning of each word were taken individually…Idioms are typical metaphorical: they are effectively metaphors which have become ‘fixed’ or ‘fossilised’

In Vietnamese, idioms have also attracted a lot of the interest of researchers Mai Ngoc Chu, Vu Dinh Nghieu, Hoang Trong Phien state in “Cơ sở ngôn ngữ học và tiếng Việt” (1997) that “idioms are groups of words which are syntactically restricted and have a particular meaning Their meanings are often imaginative and figurative”

Hoang Van Hanh defines in “Kể chuyện thành ngữ, tục ngữ” (2002) that idioms are set

expressions which are stable in theirmorpho – structure, complete and figurative in their meaning, usedwidely in daily communication, especially in speech

Generally, most of the authors showed that idiom is a group of words whose meaning cannot be understood from the meanings of individual words in it All things considered, idioms are sayings that reflect accumulated human experiences and are built on frequently occurring situations, which demonstrate human behavior, social traits, certain habits or tradition in a country They almost represent life lessons and are

a heritage of those accumulated events that make up the conscious of a nation or humankind in general

an idiomatic meaning” (Jackson and Zé Amvela, 2000) which resulted in their ambiguity in meaning For example, if someone wants to “play gooseberry”, they may

be in fact in the process of game with the gooseberry (literal meaning) or they may accompany two people who have a romantic relationship and want to be alone (idiomatic meaning) In fact, once a reader or hearer realizes that the literal meaning is unsuitable in the context, he will seek out the idiomatic meaning When the ambiguity still exists, it is difficult to reach final decision in respect of the notion idioms and its content Clearly “the context in which the idiom occurs also plays an important role in the reduction of this potential ambiguity” (Jackson and Zé Amvela, p.67) Furthermore, both “literal meaning” and “transferred meaning” are in an idiom (Palmer, 1990) Transferred meaning is one of reason causing semantic ambiguity According to Nguyen Hoa (1998), transference of meaning includes mainly metaphor and metonymy, comparison and so on Hence, the more ambiguous an idiom is, the more difficulties a language learner will face with its interpretation In the book “Semantics”, Palmer (1990) said that “one of the most familiar kinds of relationships between meanings is that of metaphor where a word appears to have both a literal meaning and one or more transferred meanings” Great attention will be spent on the characteristic

of semantic ambiguity of idiom, in this thesis the author analyzes idioms in certain situation and context combined with the means of transferring which are manifested in meaning ways such as metaphor, metonymy, symmetry, simile by Palmer (1990) and Nguyen Hoa (1998)

However, idioms become interesting and colorful thanks for their semantic ambiguity of idioms Additionally, idioms add humor, imagery, spice to language and dress up messages in a colourful way In this thesis, idioms are analyzed in both aspects of semantic and syntactic features through their phrases

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2.2.3.2 Syntactic Restriction and Stability

In idioms studies of many linguists, the characteristic features of idioms are not only “semantic ambiguity” but also “syntactic restriction” and “stability” It was discovered by Yong and Peng (2007) “idioms are characterized by semantic opaqueness, syntactic restrictions and structural stability” What is more, it is interesting to note that “although idioms consist of more than one word, they display to some extent the sort of internal cohesion that we expect of single words” by Cruse, D.A (1986) That is to say, therefore, that the elements in idioms usually bound together Hardly can idioms be inserted any word to satisfy users’ intention The English idiom “a peach” used to describe an outstandingly beautiful girl cannot be inserted with any words without causing of losing its original meaning Or put “thì phải” before “trả đào” in Vietnamese idiom “ăn mận trả đào” However, sometimes the insertion in Vietnamese idioms can be acceptable Let us take examples, “đỏ như gấc” and “đỏ như gấc chín”

We cannot also change the order of components in idioms as “they have fixed form that usually cannot be changed” (Heacock, 2003) For instance, the English idiom

“apples and oranges” cannot be changed into “oranges and apples”, or the Vietnamese idiom “bẻ lựu hái đào” cannot be turned into “bẻ đào hái lựu” because doing so would hinder the temp of perception of the users and the above expressions are not surely idioms

Moreover, it is an undeniable fact that there are many grammatical restrictions

in idioms A large number of idioms contain a verb and a noun, although the verb may

be placed in any tense, the number of the noun can rarely be changed For example, with the idiom “give someone the raspberry”, we can have “gave someone the raspberry” but not “give someone the raspberries”

In brief, in terms of syntactic feature, the idiomatic meaning can be lost if there

is any change and idioms may take many different forms or structures

2.3.3.3 Inseparability of Semantic and Syntactic Features

In researching process of language, there are a lot of aspects studied by many linguists However, in “An Outline of Syntax” of Nguyen Hoa Lac (2000) “The achievements of the structuralists are many Perhaps the most important, the

a clause or a sentence cannot go without its semantic feature In fact, semantics is the one that can explain everything and give meanings, syntax conceived as structure, grammar, lexicon, sounds and intonation, is the means to understand and explain the meanings Besides, according to Wierzbicka in Cross – Cultural Pragmatics – The Semantics of Human Interaction (1991) “language is an integrated system where everything ‘conspires’ to convey meaning: words, grammatical constructions and various devices…meaning consists in human interpretation of the world.” From this interwoven relationship, in my thesis Idioms denoting richness and poverty are analyzed in the association of semantics and syntax

2.2.4 Idioms and other language units

2.2.4.1 Idioms and phrases

Phrase is a short group of words which are often used together or a sequence of two or more words arranged in a grammatical construction and acting as a conceptual unit As in Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistic (1987),

it is defined “is a group of words which form a grammatical unit A phrase does not contain a finite verb and does not have a subject-predicate structure” Distinguishing between idioms and phrases is a difficult task Many idioms may be erroneously comprehended as phrases and vice versa Idioms tend to be frozen in form and are not ready to take part in other combination Whereas, the meaning of phrases is the free addition of the meanings of the words existing in the phrase

2.2.4.2 Idioms and proverbs

Both idioms and proverb are set expressions, stable in structure and are made units for reproduction The clear reflection of national characteristic of the people using them is another similarity However they are quite different in grammatical and semantic nature

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A proverb is a folksy saying but an idiom is a folksy saying unique to a culture

or ethnic group A proverb is a statement that reveals wisdom or an experience shared

by many people In the book “Từ điển thành ngữ và tục ngữ Việt Nam”, Nguyen Lan (1994) states that “Proverbs are completed sentences with full meanings, they say about an advice, an experience or a comment…” Proverbs is usually known by many people, stating something commonly experienced or giving advice or a short popular saying, usually of ancient origin, that expresses effectively some commonplace truth or useful thought

Hoang Van Hanh is an expert of linguistics, he has had a lot of studies about idioms and proverbs In his book “Thành ngữ học tiếng Việt” (2008) he distinguished the differences between them He indicated “Idioms are special set expressions that express the conceptions figuratively meanwhile proverbs are special sentences that express judges imaginatively” He stated proverbs are sentences and their roles are art messages

From the point of views of linguistics, we can identify the proverbs and idioms For example, the following are proverbs “Thuận vợ thuận chồng tát biển Đông cũng cạn; Đói lòng ăn hột chà là/Để cơm nuôi mẹ, mẹ già yếu răng; Mẹ nuôi con bằng trăm bằng bể/ Con nuôi mẹ con kể tháng ngày…” but these are idioms “Chồng hòa vợ thuận; Mẹ góa con côi; Có nếp có tẻ…”

In short, proverbs are colloquial sentences They are formed by people’s experiences and moralities or they are based on brainpower to consider about human beings and universe

2.2.4.3 Idioms and collocations

Collocations are defined in The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics ‘are associations of two or more lexemes (or roots) recognized in and defined by their occurrence in a specific range of grammatical constructions’ Heav-+Rain is one such abstract composite, realized in the patterns heavy rain and rain heavily So collocations and idioms share several common features Both of them are fixed groups of words, are highly restricted and have arbitrary limitation on use Collocations provide the mutual expectancy of words, or the ability of a word to predict the likelihood of another word occurring For example: the adjective ‘serious’ predicts nouns, primarily damage or

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face or illness, whereas one component of idioms, being semantically opaque, that helps readers/listeners to see the boundary between them, thus ‘rain heavily’ is a collocation but ‘rain cats and dogs’ is an idiom

2.2.5 Culture and language

2.2.5.1 Concepts of culture

Culture is our life It appears to be the truth that we are trying to find significance of culture in our life Culture is defined “the total set of beliefs, attitudes, customs, behaviour, social habits etc of the members of a particular society” The value of ourselves lie in what the word culture refers to as the whole social system of transmitted ideas, beliefs, behavioral patterns, including language, actions, attitudes, value and knowledge specific to a particular society In his “Intercultural Communication”, Nguyen Quang presents the definition of culture as “a share background (e.g national, ethic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes and values”

The concept culture in this thesis does not mean “the arts” (literature, painting, music, and the like) but is “the specialized behavioral patterns, understanding, adaptations, and social systems that summarize a group of people’s learned way of life” Supporting this view, Tran Ngoc Them describes culture as an organic system of material and spiritual values created and accumulated during human process of real activity as well as their contact with natural and social environment

2.2.5.2 Culture in language

The relationship between culture and language is highly closed Language and culture are undoubtedly closely integrated and interdependent during their whole development processes It is possible to say language is one of the top important elements of any cultures, for it reserves and reflects most apparently that culture’s characteristics

In ‘Language and culture’, Kramsch mentioned the inseparable relationship of language and culture into 3 parts: the first, language expresses cultural reality because people use words to reflect their ideas, events, attitudes and beliefs; their point of view, knowledge about the world that other people share; the second, language embodies

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cultural reality, it means that people can create experience through language, they give meaning to it through the medium they choose to communicate with one another; the third, language symbolizes cultural reality, as Kramsch stated “language is a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value Speakers identify themselves and others through their use of language; they view their language as a symbol of their social identify The prohibition of its use is often perceived by its speakers as a rejection of their social group and their culture.”

2.2.5.3 Idioms Related to Culture

Language and culture interact with each other and shape each other Idioms are considered as the most active part of language and used widely in various fields in life such as daily conversations, newspapers, magazines and so on Furthermore, the most important function of language is to reflect social customs, people’s outlook on life, religious beliefs Being described as a core of language in a special form, idioms are the crystallization of language Therefore, idioms - refined parts of language – are influenced by culture dramatically That is to say, idioms become a bridge retaining language and culture, so idioms themselves carry plentiful cultural features Besides, as idioms are the results of social activities, they mirror historical and cultural background The formation of idioms, to some extend, associates with cultural factors

of each nation As the result, different idioms possess different cultures For all these reasons, it would be wrong to study idioms by isolating them from cultural features of language According to Glucksberg (2001) “learning idiom provides learners with a good opportunity to acquire information about a language’s culture” Besides, through some important criteria of idioms presented in “Figurative Language: Cross-

Cultural & Cross Linguistic Perspectives” (2005), idioms are multiword units reinterpreted on the basis of shared cultural knowledge Thanks to the relationship between idioms and cultures, we can so know about social customs, cultures through studying idioms and in turn get better understanding of idioms by learning the cultural background behind them

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2.2.6 Classification of Idioms

In view of idiomaticity must recognize that the meaning of a combination may

be related to those of its components in a variety of ways, and must take account also

of the possibility of internal variation, or substitution of part for part The application

of both criteria together produces a complex categorization From two reasons above,

in the book entitled “Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms”, Cowie et al (1993) divided idioms into two categories:

(i) Pure idioms: Pure idioms, historically, form the end- point of a process by which word-combinations first establish themselves through constant reuse, then undergo figurative extension and finally petrify or congeal For instance, “blow the gaff”, “carry coals to Newcastle”, “kick the bucket”, these idioms in the strict sense comprise only one, and certainly not the largest, of a spectrum related categories

(ii) Figurative idioms: Its variation is seldom found and pronoun substitution unlikely The merging of this group into that of pure idioms is illustrated by such expressions as “beat one’s breast”, “burn one’s boats” or “do a U-turn” The literal senses of these expressions do not survive alongside their figurative ones in normal, everyday use and for some speakers they may indeed be unrelated For such speakers the expressions fall into the category of pure idioms

2.3 Summary

In brief, this chapter has reviewed previous studies relating to the research area and theoretical background that is employed for conducting the whole graduation thesis The theory relating to semantic unity has been used as a foundation for analyzing syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting “richness” and

“poverty” with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents In terms of theoretical

background, all aspects relating to idiom such as definition, features, classification and comparison with proverb, Phrases, collocation, cultures, ect have been indicated After the data collection had been done, all idioms were classified according to the categories

of meanings created exclusively for the thesis

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CHAPTER 3: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURS OF ENGLISH IDIOMS DENOTING RICHNESS AND POVERTY WITH REFERENCE TO

THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

3.1 Syntactic features of idioms denoting richness and poverty in English and Vietnamese

3.1.1 Idioms denoting richness and poverty in structures of verb phrases

In this part, we will analyze verb phrases of idioms denoting richness and poverty in order of English verb phrases first and then Vietnamese verb phrases

3.1.1.1 Idioms denoting richness and poverty in structures of verb phrases in English

Beginning with, we are considering a very common structure of English idiomatic verb phrases

[1] V + Noun/NP

To justify for the above structure, the author considers these following examples:

(1) We used to run up a large bill each month

(2 ) My uncle has returned a pretty penny in selling his building to the states

(3) He has taken the knock, I could see that

(4 ) What’s the matter with you? You are acting like you strike oil

(5 ) He made a fast buck by selling those stocks I wonder if he had insider

knowledge

(6 ) His sister married money She lives in Bermuda now

(7 ) He made his pile during the property boom

Examining syntactic features of these above idioms, we have to notice not only the idioms but also kinds of verbs in idioms As in the exampe (1), the idioms uses the

phrasal verb “run up’’, not just verbs such as “turn”, “take”, “strike’’, “marry” or

“make” We also see that these verbs are extremely tight in structure and they are

integrated in sentences

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[2] Verb + Pre Phrase

We can find some English idioms denoting richness and poverty having this

structure above such as, “go to the wall”, “step into inheritance”, so on

(8 ) Several enterprises have gone to the wall recently

(9 ) Several small companies always go to the wall in a time of recession (10 ) He suddenly had a lot of money when he stepped into inheritance of his

uncle’s property

(11 ) After losing his job, he was in a tight of place

(12 ) He is in a bit of a tight spot at the moment The bank has given him one

week to find £20000

The idioms “ be in the tight place/ spot” expresses the meaning that someone is

facing difficulties of lacking money

(13 ) When property prices doubled in our area, we suddenly realised we were

sitting on a gold mine

(14) My sister is sitting on a goldmine with her collection of antiques

The word “gold mine” refers to not only a place where gold is drug out of the ground but also a business or an activity that makes a large profit The idiom “sitting

on a gold mine” expresses the meaning of having or owning something that is very

valuable

[3] Verb + Adverb Phrase + Pre.Phrase

With the above structure, we have an example below to describe

(15 ) I don’t known how she affords all that stuff I guess from what Dad says,

she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth

The idioms born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth has got a rather complex

structure In the adverbial phrase with a silver spoon contains a noun phrase a silver spoon This is a metaphorical idiom The image silver spoon denotes a wealthy life and

in the whole idiom, it can say that someone is very lucky because he or he was born in

a very rich family with all the advantages that can give a child

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[4] Verb + Noun + Adverb phrase

We are concerning the two common idioms which contain the structure as

below: Have money to burn; Rob Peter to pay Paul

(16 ) It’s obvious that this was merely a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul

There was not real clearing up of the debt

(17) He has just buy a Cadilac I don’t know how he earns his living but he

seems to have money to burn

3.1.1.2 Idioms denoting richness and poverty in structures of verb phrases in Vietnamese

In Vietnamese, there are not many idioms denoting richness and poverty containing Verb phrases We are considering the structures below:

[5] Verb + Noun/NP + Verb + Noun/NP

The author is showing this structure of idiom as in the following example:

(18) Còn đến tiền thì tuyệt nhiên không có đồng nào; ăn bữa sớm lo bữa mai,

một đứa ở cũng không có để sai đi mua thuốc

(19) Lâu nay cụ Cố ở với Quí là em ông Phúc, mặc dù vợ chồng Quí làm ăn

chỉ giật gấu vá vai chứ không được dư dật như ông Phúc

In the old days, there are two main meals: breakfast and dinner When having breakfast, people continue thinking what they have for dinner This refers to the necessity of poor people; they have to run in all directions to have enough meal for the whole family

Some more idioms with VP structure: Ăn bát mẻ nằm chiếu manh;Ăn bữa sáng

lo bữa tối, Ăn gio bọ trấu; Ăn xó mó niêu; Ăn bờ ở bụi; Ăn của ngon mặc của tốt and

so on

[6] Verb + Adj + Verb + Adj

We are concerning the following idioms:

(22) Năm 1968, tôi học lớp 4 Do bố mẹ tôi sinh tới bảy người con nên gia cảnh

rất nghèo, nghèo đến nỗi mùa đông năm ấy chiếc áo bông đã rách vá chằng vá đụp gần

như toàn thân, tôi chỉ mặc lúc về đêm hoặc ở nhà chứ không dám mặc ra đường hay đi học mà bố mẹ không mua nổi cho tôi chiếc áo khác

In a word, the structures of verb phrase of idioms denoting richness and poverty are not many in both English and Vietnamese The verb phrase in both languages can

be listed in the table below

Verb

phrase

English Vietnamese

1/ Verb + Noun/NP

2/ Verb + Pre Phrase

3/ Verb + Adverb phrase + Pre Phrase

4/ Verb + Noun + Adverb Phrase

1/ Verb + Noun/NP + Verb + Noun/NP

2/ Verb + Adj + Verb + Adj

Table 3.1 Verb phrase structures of English and Vietnamese IdR&P

3.1.2 Idioms denoting richness and poverty in a structure of a noun phrase

Noun phrase is one of the most common structure in idioms Following many previous studies, a noun phrase usually occupies the largest amount That can be the structures of two nouns and more, an adjective and a noun, a noun and a preposition or

so on Combining two or more nouns – the idiom is formed and it can be a subject or

an object or so on

3.1.2.1 Idioms denoting richness and poverty in structures of noun phrases in English

22

We consider the first structure

[7] (Article) + Noun + Noun

It is also a popular structure in English idioms in general The first noun modifies to the second noun The idioms below will be clear samples

(23) Those closest to her felt she had all the profoundness of a kiddy pool It

was clear she didn't love an old money- bags, what was less clear was whether they had

even consummated their marriage

(24) I don’t think Miriam really cares much about John She just regards him as

a meal ticket

By using the image of a bag that used to hold money in example (24), the idiom

“a money- bags” refers to a person who is very rich “Money- bags” is used as a

compound noun with combining two nouns

In (24) the idiom “a meal ticket” also refer to a rich person

[8] (Article) + Noun’s + Noun

We are considering the following example:

(25) Being unemployed with little chance of getting work is a dog’s life

By using the image of a dog, thee idiom a dog’s life refers to a hard life

[9] (Article) + Adj + Noun/NP

The above structure is also easily found out in English idioms Consider the

following idioms: pretty penny; fast man; fat cat; deep pockets; blue blood; dead men’s shoes

(26) Andy’s business is not doing well at the moment He says he needs a friend

with deep pocckets

(27) I like to watch the fat cats go by in their BMWs I’s no fat cat I can’t even

pay my normal bills!

(28) That senator is a blue blood, so of course he doesn’t understand the common man’s concerns

[10] Noun Phrase(NP) + Noun Phrase(NP)

This is also a common structure in Vietnamese idioms It is normally a structure with four nouns, they are often composed of nouns There are many idioms denoting richness and poverty contain this structure Let’s consider following examples:

(29) Tôi sinh ra ở một làng quê ven đô, nơi mà những năm tháng ấu thơ tôi

vẫn được chứng kiến rất nhiều những ngôi nhà tranh vách đất, bởi làng quê tôi rất

nghèo, người nông dân quanh năm chỉ trông vào ruộng đồng với hai mùa lúa thường xuyên thất bát, lúc thì chiêm khê, khi lại mùa thối…

(30) Từ một anh chàng cơm niêu nước lọ, quần lồng đèn, áo ống thụt, anh đã

có ngườichăm lo bữa ăn bữa ở Giờ đây trong nhà còn có chút tiện nghi

hơn hẳn ngày nào

(31) Người thì mớ bảy mớ ba, người thì áo rách như là áo tơi

We are observe some more idioms in NP structure as follow: Phong gấm lụa là; Tiền trăm bạc chục; Tiền nghìn bạc vạn; Tiền khối bạc đồng; Thịt thăn cơm ré; Nem công chả phượng; Quần là áo lượt; Cành vàng lá ngọc; Quần manh áo vải; Nhà tranh

đố sậy, etc,

[11] Noun + Adj + Noun + Adj

Unlike English, in a phrase or a sentence of Vietnamese language, the adjective will go after the noun in order to modify it We give out these below examples to consider their syntax

(32) Chăn tằm hái dâu cũng quần nâu áo vá

24

Đứng đường đứng sá cũng áo vá quần nâu

“Áo vá” is torn shirt which is mended and “quần nâu” is a common kind of

clothes for working people Due to the dark color of the paints, working people often wear them so that no one can realize they are too old and dirty Because working people who are poor and do not have money, they can hardly or even never afford new

clothes Thus, they often wear “áo vá” and “quần nâu”

We are concerning some more other idioms with NP structure as follow: Áo ấm cơm no; Nhà rách vách nát; Của ít lòng nhiều; Nhà cao cửa rộng; Tiền dư thóc mục;; Cơm no áo lành; Nhà vàng gác tía and so on

[12] Noun + Verb + Noun + Verb

Vàng đeo bạc quấn

In short, through listing and analyzing the syntactic features of English and Vietnamese noun phrase, we can realize that there are the differences between two languages With the same structures in noun phrase but they are similar in only one structure, apart from it, each language has its own structures Moreover, with the same structure but the amount of English noun phrases is different from Vietnamese noun phrases

I have summarized the structures of noun phrases in both languages in

3/ Noun + Verb + Noun + Verb

Table 3.2 Noun phrase structures of English and Vietnamese IDR&P

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3.1.3 Idioms denoting richness and poverty in structures of an adjective phrase 3.1.3.1 Idioms denoting richness and poverty in structures of adjective phrases in English

In English, the author can not find any idioms denoting richness and poverty in the structure of an adjective phrase

3.1.3.2 Idioms denoting richness and poverty in structures of adjective phrases in Vietnamese

In Vietnamese, we can find a few idioms denoting richness and poverty in the structures of an adjective phrase We are dealing with them below

[13] Adj + Adj

It is normally a structure with four adjectives We are considering as follow:

Tiền phú hậu bần; Nghèo xác nghèo xơ

[14] Adj + Noun + Adj + Noun

(33) No cơm ấm cật dậm dật mọi nơi

The idiom “No cơm ấm cật” in the proverb “No cơm ấm cật dậm dật mọi nơi”

performs the state of being comfortably off and enjoying life

[15]Adj + Verb + Noun

(34) Ông Hương Cả cằn nhằn vợ:

- Hồi năm ngoái nếu mình cưới con Láng con của thằng Tư Bền cho nó thì êm quá rồi, bà lại chê nghèo chê giàu Thằng nhỏ thất chí đâm ra đổi tánh như khật khùng Tại bà mà hàng xóm kêu nó là thằng khùng đó, bà thấy không ? Chuyện gì không có tui, để cho bà thì hư hại vậy đó

- Chỗ nào chớ chỗ đó “nghèo rớt mùng tơi”, cưới về để nó ăn hết của à ?

3/ Adj + Verb + Noun

Table 3.3 Adjective phrase structures of English and Vietnamese IDR&P

3.1.4 Idioms denoting richness and poverty in structures of a prepositional phrase

We can find only two structures of English idioms denoting richness and poverty in a preposition phrase, as following:

[16] Presposition + (Adj.) + Noun

We are dealing with following example:

(35) With several families in such as small house, we are living in very close quarters

(36) The drinker was deeply in debt

(37) A famly on a tight budget can’t afford meat every day

( 38) Mary and Tom aren't doing too well They are down to chili and beans

[17] Preposition + N + Adverbial

We are considering example below:

(39) My uncle is a real rags to riches story

Table 3.4 Prepositional phrase structures of English and Vietnamese IdR&P

3.1.5 Idioms denoting richness and poverty in a structure of adverbial phrases

In the structure of adverbial phrase, there are only English idioms We consider following structure:

[18] Adverb + Noun

See following example:

(40) Mary and Tom aren't doing too well They are down to chili and beans The idiom down to chili and beans describes a person who is very poor, even

down to his/ her last penny

The adverbial phrase in both languages can be listed in the table below

Prepositional

phrase

Adverb + Noun

Table 3.5 Adverbial phrase structures of English and Vietnamese IdR&P

3.1.6 Idioms denoting richness and poverty in a structure of comparatives

This is a common structure in English and Vietnamese idioms In idioms

denoting richness and poverty, the comparative markers may be “like” or “as as in English and “như” in Vietnames

Consider following examples:

(41) Since they got their inheritance, the Andersons are living like a king

(42) Contrary to the misfortunate lives, king is always the image of

wealthiness and felicitous life The comparative idiom “live like a king” conveys the

positive things in someone’s lifestyle

(43) The American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce somewhere remarked

that unfortunately universes are not as plentiful as blackberries

(44) His father is very rich, so he spends money like water

3.1.6.2 Idioms denoting richness and poverty in structures of comparatives in Vietnamese

In Vietnamese idioms, this structure will be “sống như ông hoàng”, “tiêu tiền như nước”, “rách như tổ đỉa”, “xác như vờ, xơ như nhộng”, “Nợ như chúa Chổm”

(45) Dạo này gia đình tôi nợ như chúa Chổm

The idiom “nợ như chúa Chổm” mean that someone who is deeply in debt

The comparative structures in both languages can be listed in the table below

2/ Adj + như + Noun

Table 3.6 Comparative structures of English and Vietnamese IdR&P

The structures of English idioms denoting richness and poverty with reference

to the Vietnamese equivalents are listed below:

29

Grammar

patterns

Verb phrases 1/ Verb + Noun/NP

2/ Verb + Pre Phrase 3/ Verb + Adverb phrase + Pre

Phrase 4/ Verb + Noun + Adverb Phrase

1/ Verb + Noun/NP + Verb + Noun/NP

2/ Verb + Adj + Verb + Adj 3/ Verb + Adj + Verb + Noun/NP

Ø Noun phrases 1/ (Article) + Noun + Noun

2/ Article + N’s + N 3/ Article +Adj + N/NP

1/ Noun/NP + Noun/NP 2/ Noun + Adj + Noun + Adj 3/ Noun + Verb Noun + Verb

Ø Adjective

2/ Noun + như + Noun 3/ Adj + như + Noun

Table 3.7 A summary of English and Vietnamese idioms denoting Richness and

Poverty in grammatical patterns