An investigation into idiomatic expressions containing numbers in english and vietnamese

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST – GRADUATE FACULTY ****** NGUYỄN THỊ THỦY TIÊN AN INVESTIGATION INTO IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING NUMBERS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CÁC TỪ CHỈ SỐ TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT) M.A Minor Thesis Field : English Linguistics Field code : 60 22 15 Ha Noi – 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST – GRADUATE FACULTY ****** NGUYỄN THỊ THỦY TIÊN AN INVESTIGATION INTO IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING NUMBERS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CÁC TỪ CHỈ SỐ TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT) M.A Minor Thesis Field : English Linguistics Field code : 60 22 15 Supervisor: Dr Hà Cẩm Tâm Ha Noi – 2011 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT………………………………………………………….i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… …………………………………………………….ii ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………… ……….… iii TABLE OF CONTENTS…… … ………………… …… ……………………… …iv LIST OF TABLES…………….………………………………………… ……….…….vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study………….…….………… ……………….…………… Aims of the study …………….…………… … ……….…………………………….2 Scope of the study…………………………………….………………… ….…………2 Methods of the study.……………….…… ………… ……………… … …………2 Design of the study…… …………………………….…………………….… ………3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Meaning……………………………………………………………………………… 1.2 Senses ………………………… …………………………………………………… 1.3 Definition of idioms ……………………………… ………………………… …… 1.4 Characteristics of idioms ……………………………… ………………………… …8 1.5 Classification of idioms …………………………………………………… …………9 1.6 Idioms and proverbs.……………………………………….…………………………11 1.7 Idioms and collocations ………………………………… ………………………… 12 1.8 Idiom and 'dead' metaphor………………………………… ……………… ………13 v 1.9 Number in English and Vietnamese…………………… ………………………… 13 1.10 Review of previous studies on idioms.…….…….…… ………………………… 16 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 Research question….……………………… ……………………………………… 18 2.2 Data collection…….………………………………………………………….…… 18 2.3 Analytical framework…………………………………………………………………18 2.4 Data analysis.……….………………………………………………….……… …….20 2.4.1 Ideational, interpersonal and relational numerical idioms in English and Vietnamese … ………………………………………………………………………… 20 2.4.2 The frequency of appearance of numbers in English and Vietnamese idioms…………… .23 2.4.3 The connotative meanings of numbers in English and Vietnamese idioms.…………………………………………………………………………………… 28 PART C: CONCLUSION Major findings…………………………………… ………………………………… 33 Implications ……………………………………… ………………………………….33 Suggestions for further studies……………………… ……………… …………… 34 REFERENCES ………… ……………………………….………………………35 APPENDICES vi LIST OF TABLES Table Table Names of table Types of numerical idioms in English and Vietnamese by Page 20 Fernando’s model Table The frequency of appearance of numbers in English idioms 24 Table The frequency of appearance of numbers in Vietnamese idioms 26 Table The connotative meanings of numbers in English and 29 Vietnamese idioms by Spangler and Werner’s model PART A INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study English has been a very important international means of communication in almost fields of life such as economy, politics, culture and education English bridges people over the world together Consequently, the mastering of English has been the desire of modern people who wish to join the international community in order to broaden their knowledge, promote in their career and have wider net of relationship Having the desire of becoming a member of international community in many fields to develop aspects of life, Vietnam is clearly aware of the importance of English as an international communicative means Learning and teaching English have been drawing a lot of attention of the whole Vietnam society English has been an official and compulsory subject in education curriculum Vietnamese people wish to have a good command of English so that they can have the key to the open world The mastering of English is not an easy matter because it requires a large number of linguistic issues such as grammar and pronunciation to have effective communicative activities Among these issues, vocabulary plays a vital role due to its meaning creating In fact, teaching and learning vocabulary are always emphasized In vocabulary teaching and learning, idiom is an issue with which English learners and teachers are concerned because idioms are frequently used to make conversations more natural, interesting and concise in daily communicative activities Thus, the effective use of idioms is a necessary requirement for any language learners who have desire to master it Numbers which are very common in our daily life and have certain cultural characteristics also appear in idioms Idiomatic expressions containing numbers bring about interesting diverse meanings to our utterances and writings Moreover, personally, I myself am extremely interested in idiomatic expressions containing numbers In daily life of Vietnamese and English, I see that numbers have certain significance People admire some numbers and vice versa All of those are factors that give me the inspirations to choose this topic 2 Aims of the study The study is to explore the role of numbers in creating the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese Based on that, a brief comparison between idioms in English and Vietnamese is carried out to find out the similarities and differences in the contribution of numbers to their meanings In summary, this study is aimed at:  To explore the roles of numbers in the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese  To find out the similarities and differences in the contribution of numbers to the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese In order to achieve these aims, the following question should be answered:  What are senses numbers contribute to the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese? Scope of the study Because of the limitation of time, material resources, my knowledge and academic ability, this study is only focused on the senses of numbers contribute to the meanings of idioms Specific speaking, the study is focused on revealing what types of English and Vietnamese idioms numbers appear in and their connotative meanings in these idioms That is the foundation for a brief comparison between the contribution of numbers to the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese Methods of the study In order to achieve those above-mentioned aims, the study employs both quantitative and qualitative methods By virtue of quantitative method, data have been collected from, literary works, books of idioms and semantics and newspapers, websites and dictionaries in both English and Vietnamese The qualitative method is adopted to interpret the collected data Design of the study The study is consisted of three parts: The first part is Part A “INTRODUCTION” This part provides a brief account of issues which are rationale, aims, scope, methods, and design of the study The second part is Part B “DEVELOPMENT” This part is consisted of two chapters Chapter 1, theoretical background, provides the theoretical information about meanings, sense, idioms, brief information about numbers in English and Vietnamese and the review of previous studies on idioms Chapter is concerned with research question, data collection, analysis framework, data analysis The last part, Part C, “CONCLUSION”, summaries the major findings of the study, provides implications and suggestions for further studies PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This chapter has provided the theoretical framework for the following analysis of numerical idioms in the main chapter In this chapter, theoretical background is consisted of matters related to meaning; senses; idioms (the definition, the classification, the characteristics; the distinguishing between idioms and proverbs, idioms and collocations, idioms and dead metaphors); brief introductions about numbers in English and Vietnamese and the brief review of previous researches about idioms 1.1 Meaning Lyons (1997:1) said, “Semantics is generally defined as the study of meaning, and this is the definition which we shall initially adopt” Thus core issue in the field of semantics is the meaning In Understanding English Semantics by Dr Nguyen Hoa (2004), the definition of meaning is explained as follow: “According to C.K Ogden and I.A Richards (1923) in “The meaning of meaning”, a number of meanings can be associated with this term”:  An intrinsic property  The other words annexed to a word in a dictionary  The connotation of a word  The place of anything in a system  That to which the user of symbol ought to be referring  That to which the interpreter of a symbol - refers - believes himself to be referring - believes the user to be referring In terms of meaning classification, Hoa, Nguyen (2004: 51-54) divided meaning into seven types with different functions in communication In this study the writer concerns only connotative meaning because the study is aimed at revealing the significance of numbers in numerical idioms Specific speaking, because numbers can be lucky or unlucky numbers in daily life, the study has the desire to explore the role of numbers in creating positive, negative, and neutral meanings for idioms to assess whether they are lucky numbers in idioms or not Spangler and Werner (1989:50) states that one can have three main attitudes: positive (favourable), neutral (impartial), or negative (unfavourable) They provide the following example of a table containing the same characteristics of a woman described in three different ways depending on the attitude the writer has (i.e words with positive, neutral and negative connotation): Positive lady pleasingly plump jolly, entertaining highlights her assets confident, friendly brilliant, clever Neutral woman overweight a sense of humor wears makeup outgoing intelligent Negative dame fat silly, dizzy paints her face domineering know-it-all Leech (1974:23) defines that “connotative meaning is the communicative value of an expression according to what is referred to, exceeds the above contents that are purely conceptual” Keith Alan, (2001:147) states “the connotations that arise from encyclopedic knowledge about its denotation and also from experiences, beliefs, and prejudices about the contexts in which the expression is typically used.” For example, the word BOY has the connotation „STRONG‟ – positive meaning and LION the connotation „CRUEL‟ – negative meaning Siregar (2005) claims that there are two kinds of meaning in semantics: Linguistic meaning and Speaker meaning Linguistic meaning is determined by the meaning of its constituents and their grammatical relations For example: - Be careful of a sharp bend in the road 26 Vietnamese Table 3: The frequency of appearance of numbers in Vietnamese idioms Numbers Describing action 0 0 Describing situations 0 2 Expressing attributes 0 2 0 Describing people and 3 12 1 Expressing evaluations 0 Expressing emotions 2 0 14 30 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Comparison 1 0 0 Sequencing temporal 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 30 13 Kinds of numerical idioms Ideational thing Interpersonal idioms Expressing agreement Relational idioms information TOTAL ( 85 idioms) 27 In the table 3, the first column is types of idioms and other left columns are the times of appearance of numbers in Vietnamese idioms In terms of row, the second row denotes numbers that appear in types of Vietnamese idioms The total number of Vietnamese idioms is 85 idioms The analysis of data is based on the priority If the times of appearance are below times, they will not be analyzed Only remarkable significant numbers are analyzed There are some findings based on the above table: In ideational idioms, number is used the most There are 30 idioms among 80 ideational idioms For example, „ ba chân bốn cẳng‟ is an idiom describing an action of running very fast to go to somewhere Or the idiom „ ba cọc ba đồng‟ means „ low salary without any further perquisites‟ Besides, numbers and are also used quite frequently There are 14 ideational idioms containing number and 13 idioms containing number For example, „một chốn đôi quê‟ describe a situation or a circumstance of a person who lives in a place but has to take responsibility in two places Or the idiom „ ba vng bảy trịn‟ denotes a perfect thing The number of interpersonal and relational idioms is below idioms Thus, aforementioned statement, they will be not analyzed In conclusion, this part takes all 157 collected idioms consisting both English and Vietnamese numerical idioms It considers the times of appearance of each numbers in English idioms and in Vietnamese ones From that, we can infer the preference of using numbers in numerical idioms in two languages and then relate it to the cultural significance of each number in each number to find out any relation between them The study found out that numbers (26 times) is used most in English idioms to create their non-literal meanings whereas numbers (30 times) appeared most in Vietnamese ones Despite the fact that, these two numbers share the same thing which is the most frequent appearance in ideational idioms In English culture numbers 3, 7, are considered as lucky numbers (according to the views of Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher and the concept in English Bible), however number appears in English idioms most In addition to, in Vietnamese, although the numbers 6, 8, 9, are seen as lucky numbers in Vietnamese culture, number appears most in Vietnamese idioms All of those mean that in English and Vietnamese idioms, numbers have meanings which are quite independent of their cultural significances Lucky numbers may not necessarily appear most in idioms 28 2.4.3 The connotative meanings of numbers in English and Vietnamese idioms The number of English numerical idioms having Vietnamese numerical idioms which have the same meanings is very limited Moreover, when numerical idioms share the same meanings, the roles of numbers in the meaning of their idioms are the same too They may contribute the same positive connotative meanings, neutral connotative meanings or negative connotative meanings to the meanings of idioms containing them As a result, if the semantic roles of numbers are only in the scope of those numerical idioms in two languages, the findings will be applicable in very limited scope For those reason, the study was carried out to analyze all 157 collected numerical idioms which are in both English and Vietnamese to have a broader and more reliable assessment about the connotative meanings of each number in idioms containing them in both English and Vietnamese and then to make comparison 29 Table 4: The connotative meanings of numbers in English and Vietnamese idioms by Spangler and Werner’s model English idioms Positive Vietnamese idioms Neutral Negative Positive Neutral Negative meaning meaning meaning meaning meaning meaning 10 (43%) 12 ( 50%) ( 16%) ( 5.8%) ( 5.2%) 14 Number (28.5%) 2 (8.6%) ( 20.8%) ( 32%) ( 17.6%) (5.2%) (8.6%) (0%) ( 41.1%) ( 42.1%) 15 ( 20%) ( 8.1%) ( 30.6%) ( 8.6%) ( 8.3%) ( 4%) (0%) ( 10.5%) ( 2%) ( 4.3%) ( 8.3 %) ( 8%) ( 5.8%) ( 0%) ( 6.1%) ( 0%) ( 4.1%) ( 12%) ( 0%) ( 5.2%) ( 2%) (8.6%) (0%) ( 4%) ( 17.6%) (10.5%) ( 16.3%) ( 0%) ( 0%) (4%) ( 0%) (0%) ( 17.3%) ( 8.3%) (0%) ( 11.7%) ( 15.7%) ( 6.1%) Total 23 24 25 17 19 49 ( 100%) ( 100%) ( 100%) ( 100%) ( 100%) ( 100%) 72 idioms (5.2%) 85 idioms In the table 4, in terms of column, the first column lists numbers which appear in English and Vietnamese idioms The other columns show their times of appearance and correspondent percentages In terms of row, the first row shows English and Vietnamese 30 numerical idioms The second row shows three types of connotative meanings: Positive, neutral and negative The tenth row points out the total number of each type of connotative meanings The last row shows the total number of English and Vietnamese numerical idioms analyzed The analysis of data is based on the priority If the times of appearance are below times, they will not be analyzed Only remarkable significant numbers are analyzed The following findings based on the data of table are: In 72 English numerical idioms, there are 23 idioms with positive meaning, 24 idioms with neutral meanings and 25 idioms with negative meanings In terms of positive meanings, number „1‟ appears in positive idioms most It accounts for 10 idioms among 23 English idioms with positive meanings There are 43 % of idioms containing number „1‟ which have positive meaning Thus, it can be said that number „1‟ is a number with the most positive connotative meaning in English idioms For example, „one hand washes the other‟ means „having better chance of achieving results because of good corporation among people‟ The idiomatic meaning expresses a positive statement, a positive attitude of the speaker It is about a good thing in life Thus, number along with other words in this idiom conveys positive meaning Besides, number „9‟ is also considered as a number with positive meaning in English idioms because it appears in four positive idiomatic meanings (17.3%) It is ranked-second positive connotative number after number „1‟ For instance, „be on cloud nine‟ has a positive meaning which is „the happiness when something wonderful has happened‟ The speaker talks about good things, wonderful things That means he/ she expresses a positive attitude Consequently, it can be concluded that number contributes positive meaning to the meaning of this idiom In terms of neutral meanings, numbers and can be seen as numbers contributing to the neutral meanings of numerical idioms most because they appear in neutral connotative idioms most Number appears in 12 neutral connotative idioms (50%) and number appear times (20.8%) For example, „in one‟ has neutral meaning which is „somebody/ something has different roles, contains different things or is used for different purposes‟ The meaning here does not show any attitude of speaker, neither approval nor disapproval Thus, number as well as other words brings about a neutral meaning to this idiom Or the idiom „two peas in a pod‟ only shows the comparison between two things/ two people, that is similar appearance This idiom does not express 31 any favorable or unfavorable attitude of the speaker As a result, it can be inferred that number as well as other words brings about a neutral meaning to this idiom In the last place, in terms of negative meanings, number „2‟ and number „3‟ can be seen as a number with the most negative connotative meaning The number of idioms containing number „2‟ has the most negative meanings (16 idioms account for 32%) and the number of idioms containing number „3 ‟is times which accounts for 20% For example, „in two minds‟ expresses a difficult situation in which a person can not make a decision The meaning here is negative because it shows the sadness or the concern of the speaker when having trouble reaching a reasonable decision Thus, number appearing in this idiom brings about negative connotative meaning Another example, „three bricks shy of a load‟ means „stupid, dense‟ It shows the unfavorable (negative) attitude of the speaker when expressing her/ his bad comment on somebody else As a result, it can be inferred that number has negative connotative meaning in this idiom because it along with other words expresses a negative idiomatic meaning In 85 Vietnamese numerical idioms, there are 17 idioms with positive meanings, 19 idioms with neutral meanings and 49 idioms with negative meanings In terms of positive meanings, among numbers, number „3‟ can be regarded as the number with the most positive connotative meaning Number appears in idioms with positive meaning most (41.1%) For example, „ ba vng bảy trịn‟ denotes something perfect That means the speaker expresses positive attitude to what he/ she talks about He or she gives to it his/ her compliment Thus, number in this idiom has positive meaning In the second position are numbers (17.6%) and ( 17.6%) For example, „ công đôi việc‟ is used when people want to talk about a good thing They can achieve two things with only one effort so they appreciate that Thus, number „2‟ in this idiom has positive meaning In terms of neutral meanings, number is still considered as the most neutral number It appears times which accounts for 42.1 % For example, „ba tháng mười ngày” refers to „a celebration after someone is dead for one hundred days‟ This idiom merely provides information, not point out any attitude of the speaker so in this idiom, number has neutral meaning As far as negative meanings are concerned, number „3‟ still accounts for most percentage (30.6%) and then number (28.5%) For example, „ ba cọc ba đồng‟ is often 32 used to talk about low salary Vietnamese people often use this idiom when complaining about their low salary and express their sadness about that Thus, number as well as other words brings out negative meaning to this idiom Another example, „ cá mè lứa‟ is often used by Vietnamese people when they talk about a group of people with decrying attitude In other words, they express that they not like that group in which members share certain characteristics It can be seen that number is a significant number in Vietnamese idioms In three types of meanings, it always appears most The reason is that the number of idioms containing „3‟ is much more than that of idioms containing other numbers 33 PART C CONCLUSION Major findings The study collects the total number of 157 numerical idioms involving 72 English ones and 85 Vietnamese ones for the analysis in order to find the answer to the research question about the senses numbers contribute to the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese The findings of the study provided the answers to that research question: - In English idioms, number is a remarkable number It appears 26 times and has the most contribution to the meanings of all three types of idioms: Ideational, interpersonal and relational Number is the most positive and neutral number and number is the most negative number - In Vietnamese idioms, number is used the most There are 30 ideational idioms containing this number among the total number of 80 ideational idioms Number is a significant number in Vietnamese idioms It is not only the most positive number but also the most neutral and negative number The reason is that the number of idioms containing „3‟ is much more than that of idioms containing other numbers - In both English and Vietnamese idioms, numbers mostly contribute to the idiomatic meanings to express message content Among 157 idioms, there are 142 ideational idioms consisting 62 English ones and 80 Vietnamese ones Implications The findings of the study suggest some implications for the teaching and learning English Numbers contribute certain connotative meanings to idioms, thus when using these idioms, English learners and teachers should pay attention to idiomatic connotative meanings for appropriate context The same numbers in different idioms in English and Vietnamese have different contribution to their idiomatic meanings Therefore, when 34 translating English numerical idioms into Vietnamese, language users should be attentive to the attitudes of speakers implied in these idioms in order to have reasonable and close translations Suggestions for further studies The collected number of English and Vietnamese numerical idioms in this study is limited and the analysis is only focused on the senses numbers contribute to the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese Thus, it has not revealed all semantic and grammatical features of numbers in English and Vietnamese idioms Thus, it is suggested that further researches into English and Vietnamese numerical idioms be carried out to find out more numerical idioms, to explore more semantic features or grammatical features of numbers in English and Vietnamese idioms and to explore more significant numbers in idioms in English and Vietnamese 35 REFERENCES IN ENGLISH Ann Le, Julie Fay (2006), The little Sai Gon cook book: Vietnamese Cuisine and Culture in Southern, Globe Pequot Bobbie Kalman (2002), Viet Nam Culture, Crabtree Publishing Company Cambridge Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press Cambrigde international Dictionary of Idioms (1998), Cambrigde University Press Cowie, A.P Mackin, R & I.R Mc Caig (1993), Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms, Oxford : Oxford University Express Cruse, D Alan (1986), Lexical Semantics Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Fernando, Chitra (1996), Idioms and Idiomaticity Oxford: Oxford University Press G Leech (1974), Semantics, London: Penguin Graham Flegg (2002), Numbers: Their history and meaning, Courier Dover Publications 10 Jackson, Howard (1990), Grammar and Meaning, Longman Group UK Limited 11 Keith Alan (2001), Natural Language Semantics., Maldon MA and Oxford: Basil Blackwell 12 Lyn D English, Maria Giuseppina Bartolini Bussi (2008), Handbook of international research in mathematics education, Taylor & Francis 13 Lyons, John (1997), Semantics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 14 Mary S Spangler, Rita R Werner (1989), Strategies and structures, a basic writing guide, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston in New York 15 Mingtan (2002) in How to attract Asian women, BridgegapBooks 16 Nunberg, G., Sag, I A., & Wasow, T (1994), Idioms, Language 70 17 Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press 18 Palmer, F.R (1990), Semantics, Cambridge.Cambridge University Press 36 19 Palmer, F.R (1976), Semantics : A New Outline, Cambridge.Cambridge University Press 20 Robert Johnston (1999), Numbers in the Bible: God‟s Design in Biblical Numerology, Kregel Publications 21 Sin-wai Chan and David E Polland (2001), An encyclopedia of translation: Chinese- English, English – Chinese, Chinese University Press 22 Siregar, B.U ( 2005), Introductory Notes on Semantics, Medan : Fakultas Sastra USU IN VIETNAMESE 23 Bình, Phạm Văn (1993), Tử điển Tục ngữ, Thành ngữ Anh Việt, Nxb Hải Phòng 24 Chương, Việt ( 2005), Tử điển Thành ngữ, Tục ngữ, Ca dao Việt Nam, Đồng Nai : Nxb Tổng hợp 25 Hòa, Nguyễn ( 2004), Understanding English Semantics, VNU press 26 Hùng, N Đ (2007), Tuyển Tập Thành Ngữ Tục Ngữ Ca Dao Việt Anh Thông Dụng, Ho Chi Minh City Press 27 Lân, Nguyễn ( 2011 ), Tử Điển Thành Ngữ Tục Ngữ Việt Nam, Nxb Văn Học 28 Phan, Vũ Ngọc (2000), Tục ngữ, ca dao, dân ca Việt Nam, Hà Nội Nxb Văn Học WEBSITES 29 http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=FcwEdfZnYsC&pg=PA255&lpg=PA255&dq=cruse+%28+1986%29++idioms&source=bl&ots=F1iWatvFC3&sig=0U9WCN60MpLAen6e8IUn76c89s M&hl=vi&ei=B24zTpjwIK_5mAWh3azwCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&r esnum=3&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=cruse%20%28%201986%29%20 -%20idioms&f=false 30 http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=agBZW09QRqkC&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139 &dq=According+to+Cruse+%281986:+37%29,+%E2%80%9Can+idiom+is+an+ex pression+whose+meaning+cannot+be+accounted+for+as+a+compositional+functio 37 n+of+the+meanings+its+parts+have+when+they+are+not+parts+of+idioms&sourc e=bl&ots=6pp2Z_ZHL&sig=VHU9EQo1E9fJaKMx0DeO3uaRJ98&hl=vi&ei=4RNyToqfHaKViAf9 _bihBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAQ#v= onepage&q&f=false 31 http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/words-stories/Words-and-TheirStories-Numbers-Part-Two-103201259.html 32 http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Words-and-Their-Stories-NumberOne-102455484.html 33 http://books.google.com/books?id=UWJSaxH9GiMC&printsec=frontcover&hl=vi &source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false 34 http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com 35 http://vietlion.com/ebk/download-ebook-tuyen-tap-thanh-ngu-tuc-ngu-ca-dao-vietanh.html 36 http://www.chiasekinhnghiem.com/kinh-nghiem-hay/y-nghia-cua-cac-con-so.html 37 http://d.violet.vn/uploads/resources/558/1930819/preview.swf 38 http://www.doc88.com/p-57086777012.html 39 http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=I6Z9HeRSgoC&pg=PA230&lpg=PA230&dq=proverbiality+of+idioms&source=bl&ots= Xaygx1VTAG&sig=Uhhvsm5zbfcXTCYTmEMPi15HNo&hl=vi&ei=b3k1Tt3_N8rPmAWfkMCsBA&sa= X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q =proverbiality%20of%20idioms&f=false 40 http://www.docin.com/p-219274005.html 41 http://khoaanh.net/_upload/CA2009/4C06-PhamAnhTuanCultural_affection_on_English_and_Vietnamese_animal_idioms.pdf 42 http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/PUB/WPL/03papers/rosa.pdf 43 http://wenku.baidu.com/view/890905d376a20029bd642d8c.html 44 http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=xDSBaet2uSsC&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq= semantics+functions+of+idioms&source=bl&ots=9A7phQMAf&sig=p1v0nVV21nPv_sv- 38 LC1HEogOZMk&hl=vi&ei=_hA8TtnBNuGImQWyqaHuAg&sa=X&oi=book_res ult&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false 45 http://books.google.com/books?id=PgJTSYeEnNkC&pg=PA43&dq=english+lucky +numbers&hl=vi&ei=94uFTr6DMO6UmQW6_5gn&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=re sult&resnum=2&ved=0CDAQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=english%20lucky%20n umbers&f=false 46 http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=4fWf1WlCStcC&pg=PA113&dq=lucky+nu mbers+in+english+culture&hl=vi&ei=O8qFTqILhZ6IB_P_rIkP&sa=X&oi=book_r esult&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=lucky%20num bers%20in%20english%20culture&f=false 47 http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=fY8lLOAAguEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=t he+significance+of+numbers+in+English&hl=vi&ei=bMyFTpKLCuGwiQfsz6yZ Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onep age&q&f=false 48 http://books.google.com/books?id=DL31CUOX8igC&pg=PA21&dq=english+luck y+numbers&hl=vi&ei=94uFTr6DMO6UmQW6_5gn&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=r esult&resnum=3&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=english%20lucky%20n umbers&f=false 1.2 I APPENDIX English numerical idioms having Vietnamese equivalent numerical ones with the same meanings  As one = Hai mặt lời  At sixes and sevens = Trăm đường nghìn nỗi  Fall between two stools = Bắt cá hai tay  Two of a kind = Cá mè lứa  One day = Một ngày  Two peas in a pod = Như hai giọt nước  In two minds = Tiến thoái lưỡng nan  Six of one and half a dozen of the other = Kẻ tám lạng, người nửa cân  Cut two ways = Con dao hai lưỡi  One of the boys = Một hội thuyền ( Cùng hội thuyền)  Kill two birds with one stone = Một công đôi việc( Nhất cử lưỡng tiện)  Once in a blue moon = Năm mười họa II APPENDIX English numerical idioms having Vietnamese equivalent expressions with the same meanings  One after another/the other = Tích tiểu thành đại/ Năng nhặt chặt bị  Nine-day wonder = Vui mở cờ bụng  That makes two of us! = Tại anh ả, đôi bên  Six feet under = Mồ yên mả đẹp  It takes two to tango = Tại anh ả, đôi bên  Lesser of two evils = Ăn muối chuối chát  Two can play at that game = Ăn miếng trả miếng  One good turn deserves another = Ân trả nghĩa đền  Back to square one = Bắt đầu lại từ số không ... numbers in the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese  To find out the similarities and differences in the contribution of numbers to the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese In. .. positive meaning and LION the connotation „CRUEL‟ – negative meaning Siregar (2005) claims that there are two kinds of meaning in semantics: Linguistic meaning and Speaker meaning Linguistic meaning... connotative meanings of each number in idioms containing them in both English and Vietnamese and then to make comparison 29 Table 4: The connotative meanings of numbers in English and Vietnamese