Idioms referring to head in english and vietnamese a contrastive analysis from cultural perspectives

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG VÂN IDIOMS REFERRING TO “HEAD” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CÁC CÂU THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CHỨA THÀNH TỐ “HEAD” TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT DƯỚI GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 HANOI - 2017 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG VÂN IDIOMS REFERRING TO “HEAD” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CÁC CÂU THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CHỨA THÀNH TỐ “HEAD” TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT DƯỚI GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Dr Đỗ Tuấn Minh HANOI - 2017 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT ***** -I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled IDIOMS REFERRING TO “HEAD” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master Degree at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that this thesis has not been submitted to any degree at any other universities or institutions 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 Nguyễn Thi ̣Hồ ng Vân i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT On completing this study, I owe a profound indebtedness to many people for their invaluable help during the conduct of my research First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Dr Do Tuan Minh, my supervisor for his useful and critical comments and continual guidance My appreciation is also offered to my lecturers and my friends of Postgraduate studies for their valuable lessons and precious helps Finally, I would like to express my profound gratitude towards my parents for their continual encouragement and immeasurable support ii ABSTRACT There is a close relationship between Language and culture Culture has a strong influence on language and vice versa, language reflects culture One of the most effective ways to transfer cultures is utilizing idioms which may be a hindrance for English learners in the process of mastering a foreign language Hence, in order to help learners have a better understanding of idioms, the researcher decided to conduct “Idioms referring to “Head” in English and Vietnamese: A contrastive analysis from cultural perspectives.” This research aims to explore the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms containing the word “Head” in terms of syntactic, semantic and especially cultural features At the end of the study, some educational implications for English teachers, learners and translators are offered to make teaching, learning and translating more effective Hopefully, this paper will increase the knowledge of idioms referring to “Head” and enhance cultural understanding of Vietnamese and English people to a great extent iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE‟S STATEMENT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale for the study Objective of the Study .1 Research questions Scope of the Study PART B: DEVELOPMENT .3 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical Background .3 1.1.1 Idioms 1.1.2 Cultural and the Relationship between Language and Culture .12 1.2 Previous Studies Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES .19 2.1 Research Design 19 2.2 Research Methods 19 2.3 Research Procedures 19 2.4 Data Collection 20 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 21 3.1.2 Sentence structures 26 3.1.3 Similarities and Differences of Syntactic features of Idioms referring to “Head” in English and Vietnamese 26 3.2 Semantic features of Idioms referring to “Head” in English & Vietnamese .28 3.2.1 Similarities 28 3.2.2 Differences 30 iv 3.3 Cultural Features in Idioms referring to “Head” in English and Vietnamese 31 PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 35 Conclusion 35 Implications for Learning, Teaching and Translation Idioms .37 2.1 Implications for Learning 37 2.2 Implications for Teaching 38 2.3 Implications for Translation .39 2.4 Limitations and Suggestion for Further Research 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX I v LIST OF TABLES List of tables Page Table Noun Phrase 22 Table Verb Phrase 23 Table Adjective Phrase 25 Table Prepositional Phrase 26 Table Adverb Phrase 26 Table Sentence Structure 27 vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale for the study English is an interesting language to learn, however, to master English is not easy One of the phenomenons that make English learners find difficult is idiom whose meaning cannot be always inferred from the meaning of its parts because they contain not only the literal meanings but also the figurative ones For example, when we say “He is big-headed”, we not mean that the man‟s head is big but a man who is very conservative There are a large number of idioms in English as well as in other languages like Vietnamese Idioms can be seen everywhere, in newspapers, novels, short stories, and in our daily conversation In addition, idioms make a language more interesting, vibrant and colorful This is the reason why language learners should learn about idioms in order to make their own communications and writings livelier and to avoid misunderstanding the meaning of speakers or documents that use idioms I am attracted by idioms, especially idioms referring to “Head” which is one of the most important parts in human body The researcher found many idioms denoting “Head” in both English and Vietnamese whose meanings are extremely interesting For example: “fall head over heels” means to be in love with someone very much; and “đầu tắt mặt tối” which means very busy In fact, English and Vietnamese idioms referring to “Head” share the similarities and differences in the light of culture From all these reasons above, the researcher decided to choose the topic Idioms referring to “Head” in English and Vietnamese: A contrastive analysis from cultural perspectives to take detailed exploration Hopefully, the study can enlarge writer‟s knowledge about idioms referring to “Head” from cultural perspective and contribute a small part of learning and teaching idioms Objective of the Study The purpose of this study is to supply learners of English a basic knowledge about syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting “Head” in comparison with Vietnamese ones Moreover, this study is carried out with the aim to explore the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms which denote “Head” in term of culture In addition, some implications for teaching, learning and translating will be explored at the end of the study in order to provide readers useful resources of idioms Finally, the study is implemented to satisfy researcher‟s interest in idioms Research questions In accordance with the objectives of the study, the research is conducted to find out answers to the following research questions: What syntactic and semantic features are reflected in the “Head” idioms in both English and Vietnamese? What are cultural features of idioms referring to “Head” in English and Vietnamese? Scope of the Study It is impossible to cover all English and Vietnamese idioms in general and human body idioms in particular in a scope of a minor study Therefore, I would like to focus on idioms referring to “Head” to get deeper analysis Idioms denoting “Head” in English and Vietnamese are collected from many reliable dictionaries The study would investigate the following points: - General view of idioms in English and Vietnamese - Syntactic and semantic features of “Head” idioms in English and Vietnamese - A contrastive analysis of head-based idioms in English and Vietnamese in the light of culture - Some pedagogical implications for teaching, learning and translating differences between two languages and give out the best equivalent idioms For example, the idiom “scratch one’s head” in English is equivalent to “gãi đầu gãi tai” in Vietnamese In short, the more properly one can translate idiomatic expressions and structures, the better he/she is as a skilful and competent translator 2.4 Limitations and Suggestion for Further Research In spite of the fact that the researcher has made a lot of efforts, the research about similarities and differences of idioms referring to “Head” in English and Vietnamese from cultural perspective still has some shortcomings One of them is that the researcher cannot find all the idioms referring to “Head” in English and Vietnamese because of the shortage of reference materials Moreover, with the limitation of knowledge, the researcher faced some constraints in analyzing all aspects of “head” idioms in English and Vietnamese in detail As a result, it may be not appealing enough to satisfy all the readers Therefore, some suggestions are figured out for further research It is hoped that an investigation into pragmatic aspects of English and Vietnamese idioms related to “Head” will be explored in other research In addition, there are many other kinds of idioms which may be interesting to discover, for example idioms containing the word “eyes”, “hands” and “blood” 40 REFERENCES English Anonymous (2003) Czech and English Idioms of Body Parts: A View from Cognitive Semantics, English language, URL:http://www.bohemica.com Barcelona, Antonio (Ed) 2000 Metaphor and metonymy at the Crossroads: a Cognitive Perspective Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co Brown, H D (1994) Principles of language learning and teaching Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Cowie, A.P., Mackin R., McCaig I.R (1994) Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms Oxford University Press Gibbs, Raymond W (1994): The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language, and Understanding Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hornby, A S (1995) Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary Oxford: Oxford University Press Kövecses, Zoltán (2010): Metaphor: A Practical Introduction 2nd edn Oxford: Oxford University Press Kramsch, C (2000) Language and Culture Oxford: Oxford University Press Kroeber, A.L., & Kluckhohn, C (1952) Culture: A critical review of concepts and definitions Harvard University Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology Papers 47 10 Kunin, A.V (2006) Comprehensive English - Russia phraseological Dictionary Moscow: Moscow Higher school publishing house 11 Lakoff, G & Johnson, M (1980) Metaphors We Live by Chicago and London: Chicago University Press 41 12 Lederach, J.P (1995) Preparing for peace: Conflict transformation across cultures Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press 13 Li, Y (2005) Culture and Language US-China Foreign Language, (7), 2326 14 Maalej, Z (ed.) (2005) Metaphor, Cognition and Culture, Manouba, Tunis Publications of the University of Manouba 15 Matsumoto, D (1996) Culture and Psychology Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole 16 Nordquist, R ( n.d.) What is language? Retrieved December 20, 2011, from http://grammar.about.com/od/grammarfaq/f/whatislang.htm 17 Radden, G & Kovecses, Z (1999) Towards a theory of metonymy In K Panther & G Radden (Ed.), Metonymy in Language and Thought (PP.17-59) Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company 18 Richards, J.C., Platt, J., & Platt, H (1992) Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics London, Longman 19 Seidl, J., McMordie, W (1988) English Idioms Oxford University Press 20 Spears A.R (1991) American Idioms Dictionary United States of America 21 UNESCO (2002) Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, issued on International Mother Language Day, February 21, 2002 Retrieved from http://www.unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/00127/127160m.pdf 22 Vinogradov, V V (1977) Fundamentals of General Linguistics Moscow: Moscow Higher -School Publishing House 42 Vietnamese Hoang Phe (1997) Từ điển Tiếng Việt, Da Nang Publisher Hoang Van Hanh (1994) Kể chuyện thành ngữ, tục ngữ, Khoa học xa hoi Publisher, Hanoi Nguyen Luc, Luong Van Dang (1978) Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt, Khoa hoc xa hoi Publisher, Hanoi Nguyen Lan (1989) Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam, Van Hoa Publisher, Hanoi Nguyen Quang (1998) Intercultural communication Hanoi: Vietnam National University Press Nguyen, M D (1985) Culture shock a review of Vietnamese culture and its concepts of health and disease Cross-cultural Medicine, 142, 409-412 Nguyen Dinh Hung (1999) Tuyể n tâ ̣p Thành ngữ Tu ̣c ng ữ Ca dao Việt Anh thông du ̣ng Ho Chi Minh Publisher Bui Phung (1995) Từ điển Thành ngữ, Tục ngữ Việt – Anh tường giải Khoa hoc xa hoi Publisher, Hanoi http://tratu.soha.vn/dict/vn_vn/Đầu 43 APPENDIX IDIOMS REFERRING TO “HEAD” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE ENGLISH IDIOMS Numbe r English Idioms Meaning someone who believes that they are very clever or a big-head very good at an activity and who thinks that other people should admire them the ability to stay calm and think clearly in a a cool head a good head a person who is nice and tender a head of steam the energy needed to move forward a head on someone‟s difficult situation if a person has a head on his shoulders, he is very reliable and sensible shoulders a roof over your a sword of a place to live head Damocles hangs over someone's if a sword of Damocles hangs over someone, they are in a situation where something bad is likely to happen to them very soon head an old head on a child or young person who thinks and talks like an young shoulders older person who has more experience of life be banging/hitting your head against a to keep asking someone to something which they never brick wall 10 bite/snap someone's head off to speak sharply and with great anger to someone I Numbe r English Idioms build/ get/ work up 11 a full head of steam 12 bury/ hide your head in the sand Meaning get enough motivation, energy, support or enthusiasm to something effectively to refuse to think about an unpleasant situation, hoping that it will improve so that you will not have to deal with it can't make head 13 nor/or tail of to not be able to understand something at all something 14 come into your head could 15 something standing on your to think or remember something to something with very little or no difficulty, to complete or accomplish something in a relaxed Carefree, or effortless manner head 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 someone's head in to make someone feel confused and unhappy eyes pop out of to show surprise your head fall head over to fall deeply in love with someone, especially heels (in love) suddenly from head to toe completely (from) top to toe get it into your head to begin to think that something is true get your head to be able to understand something (usually around something negative) get your head out to stop daydreaming and concentrating on the II Numbe r 23 24 25 26 27 English Idioms Meaning of the clouds essential issue get/ put your head to sleep for a short while ; to work hard at down something that involves reading or writing give someone a an early start on something, [before someone else st head start arts] give someone a heads up give someone their to allow someone to what they want to head without trying to help or give them advice go head to head go 28 to give someone information or a warning over someone's he to compete directly; to compete with someone directly (often + with ) to deal with someone at a higher level; to fail to understand something ad 29 30 31 32 33 34 go to someone's to make someone conceited head hang your head (in to be ashamed shame) harm a hair on someone's head have a full head of steam have a good head on your shoulders have a head for something to hurt someone (often negative) energy to quickly make progress to have common sense; to be sensible and intelligent have the mental capacity for something III Numbe r 35 36 English Idioms have a head start 39 40 back of your head or outside of one's field of vision hanging over your to have something bothering or worrying one; to have a deadline worrying one have your head to spend so much time thinking about yourself that (stuck) up your you have no time to think about other more arse important things have your head in to be unaware of what is going on from fantasies or the clouds daydreams have your head to have good judgment screwed on right have your head 41 be successful (often + on ) to seem to be able to sense what is going on behind head 38 to have an advantage that makes you more likely to have eyes in the have something 37 Meaning screwed on the if someone has their head screwed on the right way, they not stupid things right way head and shoulders 42 above clearly superior to someone or something; much someone/somethin better than other similar people or things g 43 44 45 head off something to avoid something bad by doing something now head off to to go somewhere somewhere head to intercept and divert someone or something; to someone/somethin stop the movement of people or animals by getting g off in front of them IV Numbe r 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 English Idioms Meaning heads will roll people will get into severe trouble hit the nail right on the head hold your head up high hold/ put a gun to someone's head in over your head keep a civil tongue in your head keep your head above water to strike a nail precisely on the head with a hammer; to exactly the right thing; to something in the most effective and efficient way to show that you are not ashamed of your efforts to use threats to force someone to what you want to be involved in a situation that is too difficult for you to deal with if you tell someone to keep a civil tongue in their head, you are telling them to be polite, especially after they have said something rude (often an order) to keep from drowning when swimming or floating; to manage to survive, especially financially; to keep up with one's work to remain calm and sensible when in an awkward 53 keep your head situation that might cause a person to panic or go out of control 54 55 keep your head lie low, try not to be noticed down knock something to stop doing something on the head laugh/ scream/ 56 shout your head to laugh/scream/shout very much and very loudly off 57 let your heart rule to something because you want to rather than for V Numbe r 58 59 60 61 English Idioms Meaning your head practical reasons like a bear with a be in a bad mood which causes you to treat other sore head people badly and complain a lot like a headless chicken lose your head if you something like a headless chicken, you it very quickly and without thinking carefully about what you are doing to become angry or confused or emotional to the point where you cannot think clearly make heads or tails to understand someone or something that someone (out) of something has said (Usually with the negative) need (to have) 62 your head you have done something that will make others examined = need think you stupid or strange your head testing need something 63 like a hole in the not to need something at all head not be right in the 64 head/ not right in to be mentally ill one‟s head 65 66 67 68 off one‟s head crazy off the top of your without giving it too much thought or without head precise knowledge on someone's (own) head be it out of your head something that you say in order to tell someone what they intend to is silly and they must accept the blame or responsibility if it goes wrong to be crazy ; to not be in control of your behaviour VI Numbe r English Idioms Meaning because of the effects of alcohol or drugs 69 70 over head and ears pissed out of your very drunk head pop your head out 71 owe a lot of money in debts = pop into to occur or form suddenly in someone's mind, as a thought, idea, or revelation someone‟s head 72 put / lay heads together to share ideas in trying to solve a problem to take great risks for someone or something; to go 73 put head/neck on to a lot of trouble or difficulty for someone or the block something; to attempt to gain favour for someone or something 74 75 76 77 78 put ideas into to suggest something-usually something bad-to someone's head someone put one's head in the lion's mouth to subject oneself to danger or trouble put/stick your head to be brave enough to state an opinion that might above the parapet upset people raise/rear its (ugly) head scratch your head to appear or become obvious after lying hidden to have difficulty understanding something to express difference of opinion or not accept 79 shake your head something by moving your head from one side to other VII Numbe r 80 81 English Idioms Meaning soft in the head stupid; witless someone's head on if you want someone's head on a plate you are very a plate/platter angry with them and want them to be punished stand on one's 82 head (to to attempt to impress someone by hard work or difficult feats something) stand/turn 83 something on its head 84 85 change something completely stick/put one's to say or something that could damage you or head in a noose your image swelled head a state of being conceited take it into your 86 to use something in a completely wrong way; to head to to decide to something, often something that seems silly or surprising something 87 talk out of the back to talk nonsense of your head trouble one's head 88 about (someone or to worry about someone or something something) 89 90 turn heads turn something on its head to be so interesting or attractive that people turn to look to show that an idea or argument is wrong and means the opposite of what it first seemed to mean, to change the way that people think about a subject VIII VIETNAMESE IDIOMS Number Vietnamese idioms Ba đầu sáu tay Bạc đầu cịn dại Bới đầu cá vạch đầu tơm Cá đối đầu Cắm đầu cắm cổ Chưa máu đầu Chúi đầu chúi mũi Cơm gạo mùa thổi đầu chùa chín Con trâu đầu nghiệp 10 Cứng đầu cứng cổ 11 Cưỡi đầu cưỡi cổ 12 Đâm đầu vào tròng 13 Đầu bạc long 14 Đầu bò đầu bướu 15 Đầu bù tóc rối 16 Đầu chẳng phải, phải tai 17 Đầu chày đít thớt 18 Đầu cua tai ếch 19 Đầu đội trời, chân đạp đất 20 Đầu đường xó chợ 21 Đầu gio mặt muội 22 Đầu gối tay ấp 23 Đầu hai thứ tóc 24 Đầu làng cuối xóm 25 Đầu mày cuối mắt 26 Đầu Ngơ Sở IX Number Vietnamese idioms 27 Đầu rắc rồi, cuối lôi 28 Đầu rơi máu chảy 29 Đầu sóng gió 30 Đầu sơng nguồn 31 Đầu tắt mặt tối 32 Đầu thừa đuôi thẹo 33 Đầu trâu mặt ngựa 34 Đầu trộm đuôi cướp 35 Đầu voi, đuôi chuột 36 Đầu xanh tuổi trẻ 37 Đầu xuôi, đuôi lọt 38 Đè đầu cưỡi cổ 39 Đến đầu đến đũa 40 Đen đầu bỏ, bỏ đầu ni 41 Gãi đầu gãi tai 42 Giật đầu cá, vá đầu tôm 43 Giấu đầu hở đuôi 44 Giơ đầu chịu bang 45 Lớn đầu to dại 46 Miếng trầu đầu câu chuyện 47 Nói đầu đũa 48 Nước đồ đầu vịt 49 Quân vô tướng hổ vô đầu 50 Quỳ gối cúi đầu 51 Tâm đầu ý hợp 52 To đầu cịn dại 53 Tốt tóc nặng đầu, tốt râu nặng cằm X Number Vietnamese idioms 54 Treo đầu dê, bán thịt chó 55 Trọc đầu khơng lo bị túm tóc 56 Từ đầu chí cuối 57 Vặn đầu vặn tai 58 Vạn khởi đầu nan 59 Xanh đầu nhà bác, bạc đầu nhà 60 Xuất đầu lộ diện XI ... following points: - General view of idioms in English and Vietnamese - Syntactic and semantic features of ? ?Head? ?? idioms in English and Vietnamese - A contrastive analysis of head- based idioms in English. .. is attached with meaning and examples In the third place, to learn idioms in general and idioms referring to ? ?Head? ?? in particular, learners ought to pay attention to the syntactic and semantic... carefulness and “pissed out of your head? ?? indicating the state of being drunk 3.3 Cultural Features in Idioms referring to ? ?Head? ?? in English and Vietnamese As mentioned above, language and culture are intimately