CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale for the study
1.2 Aims and objectives of the study
1.3 Research questions
1.4 Methods of the study
1.5 Scope of the study
1.6 Significance of the study
1.7 Structure of the study
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Previous studies
2.1.1 Previous studies oversea
2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam
2.2 Overview of phrases, clauses and sentences
2.2.1 Phrase structures
2.2.2 Clause structures
2.2.3 Sentence structures
Table 2.1: Types of sentence structures
Among the above definitions, the author has the same opinion with Randolph Quirk (1985) that there are 7 different types of sentence structures: SV, SVA, SVC, SVO, SVOA, SVOC, SVOO.
2.3 Overview of idioms
2.3.1 Definition of idioms
2.3.2 Features of idioms
2.3.2.1 Syntactic features
An idiom is a fixed group of words. Each word is considered as a component of an idiom and an idiom consists of at least two components. In the book titled “In other words”, Baker (1992) describes “Idioms are frozen patterns of language which allow little or no variation in form and often carry meanings which can not be deducted from their individual components”. Idioms are structurally and lexically restricted. Hence, the components and grammatical structures of idioms cannot be changed, added, omitted or replaced. They cannot be varied in the way literal expressions are normally varied both in speech and writing. In both English and Vietnamese, the stability in idioms is very high.
However, according to Fraser (1970), there are specified idioms between those which are able to undergo all the grammatical changes and those which are unable to undergo the smallest grammar changes at all. Thus, there are some idioms which have two or more alternative forms without losing their idiomatic meaning. These different forms sometimes refect differences between British and American the same meanings to join in an activity without playing an important part in it. In many caseses, several verbs can be used in an idiom such as Go/Sell like hot cakes (to be brought or taken quickly because of being popular or cheap). In fact, idioms are only fixed in some of their parts but not all. Idioms are expressions, not subjected to analysis, only some syntactic changes may be carried out in them. The idioms which can easily be subjected to syntactic changes are more flexible. Tense changes within idioms can be possible made in most of idioms, so they indicate the animation of the actions in different tenses on the person’s mind, for example catch a cold changes to caught a cold. In addition, some idioms can be broken or changed more or less in their structures, for example easy come, easy go/ light come, light go. In the same way, prepositions can vary, for example come up/out smelling like a horse (to succeed; to do better than anyone else in some situations).
Moreover, each idiom has a stable structure and meaning. An idiom can have a regular structure, an irregular or even a grammatical incorrect structure. First, idioms which have a regular structure have common forms but there is no combination between the meaning of each component and that of the whole unit, for example come along way (to make a lot of progress and improvement). Secondly, the idioms can be groups of words which have unconventional forms but their meaning can be worked out through the meaning of individual words such as make you enemy your friend. In accordance with the rule of grammar, the structures of the verb make are make somebody do something and make somebody/something + Adjective. However, in this case, the idiom does not need to obey grammatical rule to make sense, it can still be understood that make you enemy become your friend. Finally, the idioms can be group of words which both grammartically inaccurate and the meaning is not precisely expressed by gathering the meaning of each member word such as: go over big (with someone) (to be very much appreciated by someone). The structure of the above idioms is written as V + Preposition + Adjective. Although in English grammar prepositions are never followed by adjectives. In this case, the idiom is acceptable. It can be considered as an expression in language.
According to Bell (1974), some of structural features which are crucial in the recognition of idioms are as follows.
Alteration of grammatical rules: The idiom is not always grammatical but it is instituted, accepted and used by native speakers of the language with a fixed structure and meaning. Here is the example: She had several goes at the high jump before he succeeded in clearing it (singular with plural noun).
Conventional phrases: The idiomatic expressions are special expressions which are almost known and agreed by all the members of a particular community such as At one go (at once).
Alteration of word order: Idiomatic expressions in English usually do not respect the English word order such as Go as red as beet (normal word order) or Go beet red (probably).
Figurativeness: The fundamental characteristic of idiomatic expressions is that the words are used metaphorically. Therefore, the surface structure has a little role to play inunderstanding the meaning of the whole expression. For example, in the idiom go to the dogs (to become less successful or efficient than before). The meaning of the words to go and the dog are different from the meaning of the whole expression.
Phrasal verb is the most common type of idioms in English. Many of them carry idiomatic meanings that cannot be inferred from the form, unless the phrase is already known. For example, I will go along with you on that matter (to agree) or The patient who’d been knocked out finally came around (to regain consciousness).
According to the author of Oxford dictionary of English idioms such as Cowie; Martin and McCaig (1994), there are enormous structural varieties of English idioms, which can be classified under two general headings: phrase idioms and clause idioms. Besides these two main types, there are also other types of idioms, that is sentence idioms.
Phrase idioms: Noun phrase (land of living); Verb phrase (meet your marker); Adjective phrase (blue around the gills), Prepositional phrase (in the pink of health) and Adverbial phrase (At one go).
Clause idioms: Verb + Complement (go berseck); Verb + Direct object (control one’s anger); Verb + Direct object + Complement (go beet red); Verb + Indirect object (go home to mama); Verb + Indirect object + Adjunct (go home in a box).
Sentence idioms: Sentence idioms may be simple or complex sentences (Dreams go by contraries; Tomorrow never comes; He that goes a borrowing, goes a sorrowing, etc).
To sum up, in terms of structural features, idioms may take a variety of forms or structures such as clause, phrase and sentence. In relation with structures, idioms can have a regular, irregular or even incorrect grammatical structure. Briefly, the author decided to use the theory of Cowie; Martin and McCaig because their theory is suitable to investigate the syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms denoting health.
2.3.2.2 Semantic features
Idioms are composed of words which often contain images. These hidden images can be either or difficult to imagine. Thus, the surface structure has a little role to play in understanding the meaning of the whole expression. It is the figurativeness of idioms that makes the expressions lively, impressive and deep in the meaning. 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, Read somebody like a book (to understand someone very well, you can know exactly what they are feeling or thinking without having to ask) and its Vietnamese translation equivalents in Đi guốc trong bụng.
In some cases, the meaning of an idiom can be guessed because the image created is already quite obvious, for example go like the wind (nhanh như gió). However, in other cases, it is nearly impossible to do so because the meaning of idioms must be explained by referring to historical and cultural knowledge.
Kunin (2006) stated that the meaning of an idiom is either partly (motivated idioms) or completely different from the meaning of all components (non-mativated idioms). The meaning of idioms cannot be guessed from the meaning of their components. In some cases of partial difference, the figurative meaning is not quite different from the literal one. For example, What comes, will come (Việc gì đến sẽ đến); Go in one ear and out the other (Nói vào tai này ra tai kia); Easy come, easy go (Dễ đến thì dễ đi); etc. All these idioms are symbolized with metaphorical expressions and understood metaphorically.
Accroding to the authors such as Hopper; Knapp and Scott (1981), idioms can convey positive, neutral or negative meanings. Some idioms have positive meaning like look the picture of health (look extremely healthy). As for idioms conveying negative meaning, some typical examples of idioms are dead as a doornail (a person is definitely dead) and ready to drop (too exhausted to stay standing). With regard to neutral meaning, some examples of idioms are shown: going on (happenings, events) and come after (to occur the following something).
To sum up, idioms can be motivated, partially-motivated and non-motivated. In addition, idioms can convey positive, negative and neutral meanings. Idiomatic expressions have high remissiscence because the conversation, utterances are usually used to express the speakers’s attitude or emotion. Briely, the theory of Kunin (2006) is the most suitable in order to carry out the thesis.
2.3.3 Classification of idioms
2.3.5 Idioms denoting health
2.5 Summary
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
3.1 Context of the study
3.2 Instruments
3.3 Procedures
3.4 Statistical analysis
3.5 Summary
CHAPTER 4
SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF IDIOMS DENOTING HEALTH IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
4.1 Syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting health in English
4.1.1 Syntactic features
4.1.1.1 Phrase structures
4.1.1.1.1 Noun phrase
4.1.1.1.2 Verb phrases
4.1.1.1.3 Adjective phrases
4.1.1.1.4 Prepositional phrases
4.1.1.2 Clause structures
4.1.1.3 Sentence structures
Table 4.4: Syntactic features of English idioms denoting health
4.1.2 Semantic features
After collecting the data, the author categorized the idioms based on their real meanings, theoretical background and some printed medicine books such as: Pocket medicine by Marc. Sbatine (2000), Quick medical terminology by Shirley Soltesz Steine (1972) and Lynn Bickley (2005) with Bates' guide to physical examination and history taking, etc. There are 7 categories of meanings of English idioms denoting health as follows.
4.1.2.1 Indicating the prophylactic
4.2.2.2 Indicating the treatment
4.2.2.3 Indicating the good health
4.2.2.4 Indicating the poor health
4.2.2.5 Indicating the death
4.2.2.6 Indicating the health recovery
4.2 Syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting health in Vietnam
The above researches show the syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting health. In this part, the author introduces the features of Vietnamese dioms denoting health.
4.2.1 Syntactic features
4.2.1.1 Phrase structures
4.2.1.1.1 Noun phrases
4.2.1.1.2 Verb phrases
4.2.1.1.3 Adjective phrases
4.2.1.2 Sentences structures
4.2.1.2.1 Simple Sentences
This kind of structure can be found in 20 Vietnamese idioms making up 35% out of 57 idioms with simple sentence structures such as: Một nụ cười bằng mười thang thuốc bổ; Cây sắn dây là thầy con rắn; Sức khỏe là vàng; Sạch sẽ là mẹ sức khỏe; Tham thực thì cực thân; Phòng bệnh hơn chữa bệnh; etc.
In these examples, “Một nụ cười, cây sắn dây, sức khỏe, sạch sẽ, tham thực, phòng bệnh” are the subjects in each sentence. The main verbs are “bằng, là, thì”. The other words are the complements or objects.
4.2.1.2.2 Compound Sentences
4.2.1.2.3 Complex Sentences
This kind of structure can be found in 13 Vietnamese idioms accounting for 23% out of 57 idioms with complex sentence structures such as: Gái mười bảy bẻ gãy sừng trâu; để đau chạy thuốc chẳng thà giải trước thì hơn, etc.
In the example: Gái mười bảy bẻ gãy sừng trâu (Gái mười bảy is the main subject, bẻ gãy is the verb and sừng trâu is the complement. Howerver, in the subject gái mười bảy, gái is the sub – subject and mười bảy is the complement for gái).
Table 4.6: Syntactic features of Vietnamese idioms denoting health
4.2.2 Semantic features
4.2.2.1 Indicating the prophylactic
4.2.2.2 Indicating the treatment
4.2.2.3 Indicating the good health
4.2.2.4 Indicating the poor health
4.2.2.5 Prevention in eating to protect health
4.2.2.6 Indicating the advice
4.2.2.7 Indicating the longevity and desire
Table 4.7: Semantic features of Vietnamese idioms denoting health
4.3 A comparison of idioms denoting health in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents
4.3.1 In terms of the syntactic features
Table 4.8: Statistical analysis of syntactic features of English and Vietnamese IH
Chart 4.1: Rate of syntactic features of English and Vietnamese IH
4.3.2 In terms of the semantic features
Table 4.9: Statistical analysis of semantic features of English and Vietnamese IH
Chart 4.2: Rate of semantic features of English and Vietnamese IH
4.4 Implications for teaching and learning English and Vietnamese idioms denoting health
4.4.1 For teaching
4.5 Summary
CONCLUSION
5.1 Recapitulation
5.2 Concluding remarks
5.3 Limitations of the study
5.4 Recommendations for further study
IN ENGLISH
APPENDIXES
ENGLISH IDIOMS DENOTING HEALTH