A study on idiomatic variants and synonymous idioms in english and vietnamese

A study on idiomatic variants and synonymous idioms in english and vietnamese

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In the world today, there are 5,000 to 6,000 living languages, of which English is by farthe most widely used Approximately 350 million people speak English as their first language.About the same number use it as a second language It is the English language that is used asthe language of aviation, international sport and pop music 75% of the world's mail is inEnglish, 60% of the world's radio stations broadcast in English and more than half of theworld's periodicals are printed in English It is also the English language that is used as anofficial language in 44 countries, and as the language of business, commerce and technologyin many others English is now an effective medium of international communication.

In Vietnam, English has long been considered as a tool of international communication,and together with its rising importance, the need of learning English is becoming more andmore urgent It can't be denied that all foreign learners in general and Vietnamese learners inparticular desire to master English as the native speakers; however, they usually face a lot ofdifficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations One of the reasons forthese problems lies in the way people perceive and use idioms.

Each nation's language lies in itself similar and different concepts on many fields of lifesuch as humane values, ways of thinking, behavior standards, religious beliefs, customs andtraditions, social conventions, etc Words and expressions including idioms have formed thevocabulary system of a language Idioms are considered as special factors of a language'svocabulary system because they reflect cultural specific characteristics of each nation,including material and spiritual values Therefore, a lot of researchers have long shown theirconcerns for idioms.

Idioms are used to express ideas in figurative styles They bring the vividness andrichness to the speakers' speeches This is the reason why the more skillfully a person useidioms in his conversations, the more effectively he can establish his communicativerelationship One more important thing is that the general present tendencies are towardsidiomatic usage; therefore, knowing how to use idioms effectively in the right situations isbecoming essential Moreover, the most distinguished advantage of idioms is that they doprovide users with a whole new way of expressing concepts linguistically It can be said thatidioms are the color and vitality of a language.

Several linguists have given a lot of definitions about an idiom basing on its fixedcharacteristics For example, "An idiom is a fixed group of words with a special differentmeaning from the meaning of several words" (Dictionary of English Idioms, 1979) Sharingthe same point of view, Hoang Van Hanh (1994) considered an idiom as a fixed group ofwords which is firm in terms of structure, complete and figurative in terms of meaning, and iswidely used in daily speaking The fixed characteristics of an idiom are as follows:

- Form: The words of an idiom are generally fixed It means that the components

forming an idiom are unchanged in using.

- Structure: The fixed characteristic of structure of an idiom is expressed by the fixed

order of the components forming an idiom.

In fact, we can see a lot of idioms violating the principles of their fixed characteristics

such as to swear like a bargee and to swear like a trooper, to die a dog’s death and to die likea dog in English, nước đổ đầu vịt and nước đổ lá khoai (like water off a duck’s back), giãi giódầm mưa and dầm mưa giãi gió (to be exposed to the sun and socked with dew) in

Vietnamese This gives us some questions as follows:

Are the idioms above the idiomatic variants or synonymous idioms?

What kinds of idioms allow us to use the violation about their fixed characteristics? What criteria make a clear distinction between idiomatic variants and synonymousidioms?

What are the similarities and differences between idiomatic variants andsynonymous idioms in English and those in Vietnamese?

The questions above have not been found in any studies about idioms before This is

the reason why the author decided to make a further study on this topic The thesis, A study onidiomatic variants and synonymous idioms in English and Vietnamese, is expected to be an

interesting and helpful material for foreign language teachers and learners and for people whoare interested in idioms in both English and Vietnamese.

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study, as entitled, focuses on the idiomatic variants and synonymous idioms inEnglish and Vietnamese Therefore, the study is aimed to:

- Present some theoretical background on idioms.

- Establish some possible criteria for the distinction between idiomatic variants andsynonymous idioms.

- Gain an insightful look at idioms in general and idiomatic variants and synonymousidioms in particular in both English and Vietnamese.

- Work out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in terms ofidiomatic variants and synonymous idioms

3 Scope of the study

Due to the duration of time and the length as well as the references available, this thesisdoes focus on the forms and contents of idiomatic variants and synonymous idioms in Englishand Vietnamese The author would like to pay attention to the following questions:

- "Comparison" can be considered as a cognitive procedure, a scientific thought used inall processes of perception It means that it is different from a basic linguistic method.

- "Contrastive analysis" is a method which has its own principles and techniques - "Semantics-Pragmatics", according to Do Huu Chau, is a mergence of semantics andpragmatics (semantics containing pragmatics and on the contrary).

Due to the aims and objectives of the thesis, the scope of contrastive analysis is basedon the following principles and aspects:

- Contrastive analysis of signs and appearances - Contrastive analysis of meanings of components - Contrastive analysis of forms.

4 Methods of the study

Due to the main aims and objectives of the study, description, componential analysisand contrastive exploitation would be mainly carried out throughout the process Also, thethesis makes use of the English language as the target and the Vietnamese one as the sourcelanguage (the base language) The process, in general, can be divided into two stages whichare always applied in a quick-minded and active way.

Stage 1: During the process of investigating materials from various sources, the forms,

characteristics and meanings of idioms and their variants and synonyms in English andVietnamese are described and analyzed in the relationship with cultures Then, techniquessuch as comparison, transformation, and contrastive analysis are applied in a quick-mindedand active way to find out a general picture about the idiomatic variants and synonymousidioms in both languages.

Stage 2: Basing on the results from stage 1, the author has taken a careful contrastive analysis

to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese about the field ofthe study.

The sources for the analysis are from materials and references written by linguists inEnglish and in Vietnamese as well as some bilingual reference books available in Vietnam.This will help to make clear both the similarities and the differences between the idiomaticvariants and synonymous idioms in English and those in Vietnamese.

Techniques for analyzing materials:

- English and Vietnamese idiomatic variants and synonymous idioms are investigatedin many of their aspects such as appearances, forms, component orders, characteristics,meaning colours, figurative styles etc Basing on this, the author has tried to find out thesimilarities and differences between English idiomatic variants and synonymous idioms andVietnamese ones.

- Description and comparison are carried in the order of different groups of subjects byusing some techniques such as contrastive analysis, componential analysis, transformableanalysis and statistics

Moreover, frequent talks with the supervisor, lecturers and experts on the field haveproved to be a very useful method for the completion of the study Also, the study is carriedout on the basis of the author's personal experience.

5 Design of the study

This study consists of three parts, excluding the appendixes and the references.

Part one, Introduction, consists of the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope, themethods, and the design of the study.

Part two, Development, is the heart of the study which directly deals with the idiomaticvariants and synonymous idioms in English and Vietnamese This part is divided into threechapters including chapter I: Literature review and theoretical background, chapter II: Majorcharacteristics of English and Vietnamese idioms, and chapter III: Idiomatic variants andsynonymous idioms in English and Vietnamese.

The last part is the conclusion of the study as well as some suggestions for implicationsachieved from the discussion in the thesis and for further studies.

Here are some studies directly relating to the field of the study:

A Study on Vietnamese Idioms (Hoang Van Hanh, 2004)

Hoang Van Hanh is a well-known Vietnamese linguist who had spent a lot of time andenergy on this research This study specialized in the objectives, the aims, the tasks, theproblems, etc of Vietnamese idioms The author analyzed idioms based on different aspects,synchronically and diachronically, on the view of functional and structural system as well asfrom cultural, social and psychological perspectives The research also introduced a systematiccollection of Vietnamese idioms in forms of three main types.

A contrastive analysis on animal-based comparison idioms in English andVietnamese (Nguyen Thi Nga, 2003, VNU-CFL)

In the study, the author focused on the features of English idioms and made acontrastive analysis on animal-based comparison idioms in English and Vietnamesecounterparts The author found that, though the animal-based comparison idioms in bothcultures use different animal images to express ideas, they semantically reflect the personalcharacteristics and status of people in the society during the course of historic development ofthe two nations According to her, many animals are positive in English but negative or neutralin Vietnamese and vice versa, which creates a lot of interests for learners in accessing andanalyzing them.

Simile in English and Vietnamese - A contrastive analysis (Le Thu Ha, 2001, HOU)

In this paper, the author presented a contrastive analysis on the concept, formulation,cultural traditional function, syntactic function and classification of simile in English and itsVietnamese equivalents She also pointed out some common mistakes made by Vietnameselearners of English and some solutions as well as suggestions for translating simile fromEnglish into Vietnamese

A contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese idioms of comparison (Do Quynh

Anh, 2004, VNU-CFL)

The author gave out some theoretical background about idioms and made somecomparison with other concepts such as proverbs, slang and quotations In the development,the author made a contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese idioms, and then pointed outsome similarities and differences between these two languages Due to the findings, the authorstated out some difficulties of learning English in terms of idioms and raised the awareness ofcultural related factors that should be put into consideration in the teaching process.

A study on comparative idioms from cultural perspective (Do Thi Thu Trang, 2006,

VNU-CFL)

In this study, the author analyzed and discussed English and Vietnamese comparativeidioms in the light of culture and she found out some similarities and differences in the wayand the reason why people from the two cultures convey their comparative idioms

Idiomatic variants and synonymous idioms in Vietnamese (Nguyen Thi Minh

Phuong, 2006)

This is a study written in Vietnamese In the study, the author gave some theoreticalbackground relating to Vietnamese idioms in general and their idiomatic variants andsynonymous idioms in particular Basing on the forms and contents, some criteria were givento make a clear distinction between idiomatic variants and synonymous idioms in Vietnamese.She also carried an investigation on these due to their forms and meanings

1.2 Theoretical background

1.2.1 Culture and the relationship between language and culture

Culture has a great influence on the origin and development of language This is the

season why content of language is closely linked to culture Besides words and expressions,idioms are considered as special language units because they reflect cultural characteristics ofdifferent countries.

1.2.1.1 Culture and its characteristics

Culture is what makes you a stranger when you are away from home It includes allbeliefs and expectations about how people should speak and act which have become a kind ofsecond nature to you as a result of social learning.

A way of thinking about culture is to contrast it with nature Nature refers to what isborn and grows organically (from the Latin nascere "to be born"); culture refers towhat has been grown and groomed (from the Latin colere "to cultivate")

(Kramsch, 2000: 4)

According to Goodenough's famous definition (1957: 167), the term "culture" is used inthe sense of whatever a person must know in order to function in a particular society.

Society's culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order tooperate in a manner acceptable to its members, and to do so in any role that they acceptfor any one of themselves.

Culture, therefore, is the "know-how" that a person must possess to get through the taskof daily living; only for a few does it require a knowledge of some, or much, music, literature,and the arts.

Some scientists also compare the nature of culture to an iceberg, which is mostlyhidden under water The part of culture that is exposed is not always that which creates cross-cultural difficulties; but the hidden aspects of culture have significant effects on behavior andon interactions with others.

Characteristics of culture proposed by Porter and Samovar (1994: 12):

- Culture is not innate, it is learnt Fact has shown that members of culture learn their

patterns of behaviors and ways of thinking until they have become internalized The powerand influence of these behaviors and perceptions can be seen in the ways in which peopleacquire culture.

- Culture is transmissible The symbols of a culture are what enable us to pass on the

content and patterns of a culture People can use spoken words as well as nonverbal actions assymbols to spread culture.

- Culture is dynamic As with communication, culture is on going and subject to

culture, they can produce changes through the mechanisms of invention and diffusion.

- Culture is selective Every culture represents a limited choice of behavior patterns

from the infinite patterns of human experience This selection is made according to the basic

assumptions and values that are meaningful to each culture In other words, culture alsodefines the boundaries of different groups The notion of selectivity also suggests that culturestend to separate one group from another If one culture selects work as an end (Japan) whileanother emphasizes work as a means to an end (Mexico), we have cultural separation.

- Facets of culture are interrelated As Hall clearly states: "You touch a culture in one

place and everything else is affected" (Porter and Somovar, 1994: 13) This characteristicshows that culture is like a complex system.

- Culture is ethnocentric Keesing notes that ethnocentrism is a "universal tendency for

any people to put its own culture and society in a central position of priority and worth"(Porter and Somovar, 1994: 13) Ethnocentrism, therefore, becomes the perceptual windowthrough which a culture interprets and judges all other cultures.

In conclusion, culture, in anthropology, is the pattern of behavior and thinking thatpeople living in social group learn, create, and share Culture distinguishes one human groupfrom others It also distinguishes humans from other animals A culture belonging to a groupof people includes their beliefs, rules of behavior, language, rituals, art, technology, styles ofdress, ways of producing and cooking food, religion, and political and economic systems.

1.2.1.2 Characteristics of British culture

The United Kingdom, constitutional monarchy in Northwestern Europe, is officially theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Great Britain is the largest island inthe cluster of islands, or archipelago, known as the British Isles England is the largest andmost populous division of the island of Great Britain, making the South and East Wales is onthe West and Scotland is to the North Northern Ireland is located in the Northeast corner ofIreland, the second largest island in the British Isles Among these four cultural regions, the

English culture is considered a representative and often used to refer to the entire country'sculture.

To other Europeans, the best known quality of the British, especially of the English is"reserve" They are people who often keep certain distance to strangers, do not talk muchabout themselves, do not show much emotion and seldom get excited This fact tends to givetheir communicators the impression of coldness

Apart from "reserve", a typical English man is expected to be modest and humorous.Any self-praise is felt to be ill-bred and it is ideal to laugh at oneself- at one's own faults, one'sown failures and embarrassment He also tends to expect those characters in others anddistrusts exaggerated promises and shows of affection, especially if they are expressed inflowery language.

Politeness is a hallmark of British society though their habits of politeness are on thewhole very informal There are no complicated greetings, for instance, a simple "goodmorning" or a cheery wave of the hands across the street is quite satisfactory; handshakes areonly exchanged on a first introduction, or on special occasions, or as a token of agreement orcongratulation All politeness is based on the elementary rule of showing consideration forothers, and fitly acknowledging the consideration they show to you.

Moreover, sportsmanship is highly valued in Britain with rules showing generosity toone's opponent and good temper in defeat It is also an ideal that is applied to life in general.This is proved by the number of sporting terms used in ordinary speech One of the mostelementary rules of life is "never hit a man when he's down", in other words, never takeadvantage of another's misfortune.

In short, we can say that although the United Kingdom covers only a small area of theearth surface, the British, on the one hand, represent people of many different origins and

cultures; on the other hand, they are very different in some ways from people of othercontinents

1.2.1.3 Characteristics of Vietnamese culture

The Vietnamese culture is said to be an agricultural one with the most distinguishingproducts as rice, vegetables and fish Living in an agricultural country created democracy andhierarchy, unity, and collective and independent spirit in Vietnamese people They are alsogreatly affected by Yin and Yang philosophy, clearly expressed in harmony tendency betweenpeople with people and with the nature In their social and communicative relationships, theVietnamese prefer feelings to reasons, spirit to material, subtlety and reserve to rough andviolence In their spiritual life, they idolize fertility- a belief praises multiply with the genitalsas its symbol.

Though at any development period, to every Vietnamese person, motherland is the mostmiraculous and nothing can compare to it They have fought for centuries, against a lot ofenemies, to protect and hand it down to their ancestors The second distinguishing featurewhen talking about Vietnamese cultural identity is the durable relationship betweenindividuals and their family, between families and village, and to a broader term, themotherland Generally speaking, Vietnamese people are those of duty and responsibility.Another feature of no less importance is the personalism in Vietnamese culture, which isopposite with individualism in Western culture Vietnamese people are those of various anddiversified relationship and strongly controlled by such complicated relationships In the Vietcommunity, to a person's children, he is a father; to his wife, he is a husband; to hisgrandparents, he is a nephew; to his neighbors, he also a family's child and a member of alarge family.

In general, Vietnamese culture is an undetechable part of South-East Asian culturespace with typical features of a wet-rice civilization and Vietnamese people are said to be veryhard-working, brave and faithful in their living and behaviors

1.2.1.4 Language and culture

According to Kramsch (2000:3) language is the principle means whereby we conduct

our social lives When it is used in contexts of communication, it is bound up with culture inmultiple and complex ways.

Kramsch argued that the words people utter express facts, ideas or events that arecommunicable Words also reflect their authors' attitudes and beliefs, their points of view,which are also those of others In both cases, language expresses cultural reality.

However, members of a community belonging to different social groups do not onlyexpress experience, they also create experience through language They give meanings to itthrough the medium they choose to communicate with each other, for example, speaking faceto face, writing a letter or reading a newspaper The way in which people use the spoken,written or visual medium itself creates meanings that are understandable to the groups theybelong to, for example, through the speaker's tone of voice, accent, conversational style,gestures and facial expressions Through all its verbal or nonverbal aspects, we find thatlanguage embodies cultural reality.

Language is also a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value.Speakers identify themselves and others through their use of language as a symbol of theirsocial identity The prohibition of its use is often perceived by its speakers as a rejection oftheir social group and their culture Therefore, we can say that language symbolizes culturalidentity.

The theory of linguistic relativity does not claim that linguistic structure constrainswhat people can think or perceive, only that it tends to influence what they routinely do thing.In this regard, the work of Sapir and Wholf has led to two insights:

- There is nowadays recognition that language, as code, reflects cultural preoccupationsand constrains the way people think

- More than in Wholf's days, however, we recognize how important context is incomplementing the meanings encoded in the language.

In brief, language and culture always exist together and reinforce each other Therelationship between them is so inextricable that we could not understand or appreciate the onewithout the knowledge of the others

1.2.2 Idioms

1.2.2.1 What is meant by “idioms”?

Words have their own meanings They, however, do not just come individually; theyalso come in expressions or in groups Idioms are among the most common of theseexpressions And it is impossible to master a language without learning idioms – a veryimportant part of the language What is an idiom? The question may have many answers Many linguists such as Robins (1989), Palmer (1981), Jackson and Amvela (1998) andothers consider idioms as a special kind of collocation The meaning of an idiom, however,can not be deduced from the meaning of its constituents An idiom is distinguished from acollocation, for a collocation is a sequence of lexical items which habitually co-occur and eachlexical constituent of a collocation is a semantic component Hornby (1995) argued in hisOxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, an idiom is “a phrase or sentence whose meaning isnot clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit”.Sharing the same point of view, Seidl and Mordie (1988) defined “an idiom is a number of

words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words of the idiom

when they stand alone” For instance, the collocation of kick and the bucket forms an idiommeaning die, which is not systematically determinable from the meanings of kick and thebucket This idiom or phrasal lexeme is formally identical with the phrase kick the bucket

whose meaning is systematically determinable on the basis of the meaning of the lexemes of

which it is composed – hit a certain type of container for liquids with their foot.

Here are some more definitions of idioms:

- “An expression which functions as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be workedout from its separate parts”.

(Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 1992) - “An idiom is a fixed group of words which is firm in terms of structure, complete andfigurative in terms of meaning, and is widely used in daily speaking”

(Hoang Van Hanh, 1994: 21)

- “An idiom is a fixed group of words with a special different meaning from themeaning of several words”

(Dictionary of English Idioms, 1979)

As can be seen from the above definitions, there are different ways of defining anidiom In general, most of the linguists share the same point that an idiom is a fixed expressionwhose meaning can not be worked out by looking at the meaning of its individual words.

1.2.2.2 What is meant by “idiomatic variants”?

In “Bases of General Linguistics”, Ju.X Xtepanov partly dealt with variants He saidthat phonetic variation of words had its own limitation performed by synonyms It means thatthe forms of the words change but their meanings are the same That a word is pronounced intwo ways makes two phonetic variants of a word [31: 42]

"Variant" is something which differs in form from another thing, though really thesame; as, a variant from a type in natural history; a variant of a story or a word [47]

Basing on these, we can say that idiomatic variants are idioms having the samemeanings and grammatical structures or having different components belonging to the samefield of meaning.

1.2.2.3 What is meant by “synonymous idioms”?

"Synonym" is one of two or more words (commonly words of the same language)which are equivalents of each other, one of two or more words which have very nearly thesame signification, and therefore may often be used interchangeably.

(http://www.usingenglish.com/synonym)

It can be said that Russian linguists have recorded great achievements of synonymy,especially synonymous idioms T.A Bertagaep and V.I Zimin referred to synonymous idioms(synonymous idiomatic groups of words) in modern Russian Basing on the structures ofsynonymous idioms, they gave the concept of idiomatic variants and the opposite of idiomaticvariants and synonymous idioms They supposed that synonymous idioms were idiomaticgroups of words which had the same meanings but different expressive colours belonging todifferent functional styles of the language [27: 55]

In Vietnam, Do Huu Chau has partly referred to the synonymous idioms He said “Theidioms which are about the same as words are mainly synonymous, colorific and descriptive”.[7] It means that synonymous idioms are idioms having the same meanings but differentstructures or having the same structures but different components belonging to different fieldsof meaning.

1.2.2.4 Functions of idioms

Idioms may play different roles They are used to name objects, actions or describe

situations They may express certain generalizations, advice, make evaluation, emphasize…

Traditionally, from the point of view of the function of idioms, we can refer to thefollowing basis groups:

- idioms with a nominative function - express concepts and name objects, states,processes, actions, qualities, etc They have the structure of a phrase Examples: whileelephant, pull somebody 's leg, cool as a cucumber; body and soul

- idioms with a communicative function - describe situations and express independentstatements They have the structure of a sentence, e.g all that glitters is not gold, thecoast is clear

- idioms with both nominative and communicative functions (including idioms with a

mixed, limited variable structure), e.g break the ice - the ice is broken, close the dooron - the door is closed, lead somebody by the nose - somebody is led by nose

- idioms without any distinctive nominative and communicative function - linguistsusually include here modal and interjectional idioms, or idioms which have a cohesive

function, e.g like hell; what on earth; on the other hand; as well as; by the way

In relation to words, within the group of idioms with a nominative func tion (lexemicidioms), we can refer to idioms equivalent to single words, i.e they may be replaced by a

single word (of course = certainly, kick the bucket = die, in the family way = pregnant) Theymay also correspond to non-idiomatic phrases (collocations: a big fish = an important person,as red as a turkey cock = very angry), or they may be correlated with approximate (free)description, e.g have green fingers = have natural ability in growing plants

Nominative idioms correlate with word classes (parts of speech) They may be divided

into: noun, verbal, adjectival and adverbial idioms, etc., for example: a dark horse (noun),make give up (verbal), as white as a sheet (adjectival), once in a blue moon, tooth and nail

(adverbial) Their function is not completely identical with that of single words, since their

meaning usually includes a higher degree of both expressiveness and evaluation

From the pragmatic point of view and discourse, some linguists, includ ing Fernando(l996) speak about:

- "ideational" idioms ("the state and way of the world" idioms, expressing namely:

actions, events, situation, people, things, attitudes, emotions, etc.): red herring, burythe hatchet, as white as a sheet

- "interpersonal" idioms (expressing greetings, agreement, rejections, etc.): so long,never mind

- "relational” idioms (ensuring cohesion, etc).: by the way, in addition to, last but notleast

Other linguists give more detailed categorization of idioms Some idioms may havemore than one function Moon (1998), for example, distinguishes the following groups ofidioms:

- informational (conveying information of different kind: in the red, rub shoulders with,one’s kith and kin)

- evaluative (giving the speaker’s attitude to the situation: works wonders, wash one’shands of sth, a different kettle of fish)

- situational (expressing conventions, clauses, exclamation, relating to extralingual

context: walls have ears, so long, talk of the devil, long time no see)

- modalizing (expressing modality, truth values, advice, request: mark my words, moreor less, at all, in effect)

- organizational (organizing the text, signaling discourse structure: by the way, all inall, let alone, in the light, on the other hand, in other words)

1.3 Summary

There have been a lot of authors whose studies generally relate to idioms However, nostudies directly relating to idiomatic variants and synonymous idioms in English andVietnamese are known to us This is the reason why we carry a study on idiomatic variantsand synonymous idioms in both English and Vietnamese.

It can be said that culture has a great influence on the origin and development oflanguage Content of language is closely linked to culture Besides words and expressions,idioms are considered as special language units because they reflect cultural characteristics ofdifferent countries.

In general, idioms in both English and Vietnamese are fixed groups of words whichhave settled forms and figurative meanings and reflect their own nation's culture values,including material and spiritual values

Idiomatic variants are idioms which have the same meanings and grammaticalstructures or have different components belonging to the same field of meaning.

Synonymous idioms are idioms which have the same meanings but different structuresor have the same structures but different components belonging to different fields of meaning Idioms are used to name objects, actions or describe situations They may expresscertain generalizations, advice, make evaluation, emphasize, etc In other word, naming things,phenomena, processes, properties and describing situations are the main functions of idioms.

CHAPTER II: MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESEIDIOMS

2.1 Characteristics of idioms 2.1.1 Characteristics of English idioms

According to many linguists, a group of words which has a fixed structure, indivisiblemeaning, and can appear in speech like a word is called an idiom Therefore, idioms can bedistinguished by their grammatical and semantic features

2.1.1.1 Grammatical features

It is very easy to realize that most idioms are fixed expressions There are no changes

in structure, word order and lexicology We can take the idiom black and blue (of bruises) asan example It would sound uncanny if we changed it into blue and black It means that it

wouldn’t make sense Moreover, when an idiom is used in a complete sentence, it is hardly

change into passive voice Let us consider the idiom to stuff one’s face in the sentence She isstuffing her face with chocolates (She is eating a lot of chocolates); It would be unnatural tosay Her face is stuffed with chocolates.

However, some other idioms are more flexible; we can make some changes if theydon’t lose their idiomatic meaning This means that idioms are only fixed in some of theirparts but not all The alteration of component words can help to form a different idiom of thesame or different meaning Appearing on the mass media is in this way of using They nolonger keep the full form of the idiom but add some more components to make it more vivid,particularly effective when writing articles We can change the tense of the verb in the idiom

to give someone the cold shoulder (to treat someone in a cold or unfriendly way), or the verbin to have one’s finger with to get one’s finger

In addition, idioms may take many different forms or structures Some idioms are noun

phrases such as tender age, a black sheep, forty winks, etc Some are verb phrases such as tospare one’s blushes, to do someone proud, to cut one’s coat according to one’s cloth, etc The

most important thing is that an idiom can have its own regular, irregular or even incorrect

grammatical structure to be at large is an example of grammatical irregularity The idiom isformed by verb + preposition + adjective In English, no structure like this is normally

accepted because an adjective doesn’t usually come after a preposition singly However, thiscan be considered as an exception in language.

2.1.1.2 Semantic features

When mentioning the semantic features of an idiom, we often talk about its meaning Alinguist said “the meaning of an idiom is the special chemical mixture of all components’meaning, which is completely new in quality” This means that it is very important tounderstand idioms metaphorically We can not usually discover the meanings by looking upthe individual words in a dictionary when studying idioms; most of the idioms are

metaphorical rather than literal For example, in order to understand the idiom (to feel) likefish out of water, we have to consider its meaning metaphorically as to feel uncomfortablebecause of unfamiliar surroundings.

Another feature concerning itself with semantics is that idioms can range from

positive, neutral to negative meaning Some idioms have positive meanings such as a willinghorse (a keen worker), to get it into one’s head (to deeply understand), or to warm the cocklesof one’s heart (to make someone feel pleased or happy) Some have neutral meanings as towatch the world go by (to observe the others while doing nothing oneself), etc And manyother idioms are negative For instance, crocodile tears means insincere tears, to waste one’sbreath means to talk or give advice without having any effects, or to wash one’s dirty linen in

public means to discuss or argue about one’s personal affairs in public, etc All those

examples show that the nuances of idiomatic meanings are very complicated They mainlydepend on the nuances of their key components.

2.1.2 Characteristics of Vietnamese idioms

In Vietnamese, idioms are considered as very special language units because they

reflect Vietnamese cultural characteristics The forms and contents of idioms are alsodistinguished by grammatical and semantic features.

2.1.2.1 Grammatical features

Most of Vietnamese linguists have had the same point of view about the forms ofVietnamese idioms Nguyen Van Tu [28] said “Idioms are fixed expressions whose wordcomponents do not have their own individual meanings and become a solid block” Heemphasized the combination of the components forming the meaning of idioms NguyenThien Giap [12] did consider an idiom as a fixed expression Although Nguyen Duc Dan [7]didn’t focus on the forms of Vietnamese idioms, he dealt with the fixation of idioms He said“Idioms are language units which have fixed forms” Hoang Van Hanh (1987) attached specialimportance to the components forming idioms He affirmed that an idiom was a fixed group ofwords whose form was unchanged.

It can be said that Vietnamese idioms are fixed groups of words whose forms are

unchanged: the fixed combination comes from settled words and expressions such as bắt cáhai tay (to run after two hares), mèo mù vớ cá rán (The devil looks after his own), cá chậuchim lồng (behind prison bars), ăn chắc mặc bền (solidity first), chuột sa chĩnh gạo (to get awindfall), etc The fixation shows that we can not change the order of words or use the

synonyms (similar words) to replace any components of an idiom in a casual way This is abasic feature helping us to realize idioms easily However, in fact, there are some fixed

expressions which are not idioms such as bánh xe lịch sử (the wheel of history), gia đình vănhóa (good family), khoa học kỹ thuật (sciences and techniques) etc Therefore, in order to

realize an idiom correctly, we can not only look at this feature but also other ones.

2.1.2.2 Semantic features

There have been a lot of different opinions about the semantic features of Vietnameseidioms According to Nguyen Van Menh [21], an idiom introduces an image, a phenomenon, astate, a personality, an attitude, etc This opinion is quite simple and general In 1986, he gavehis own new point of view: Idioms have their own meanings and nominative functions, andare used in daily speaking Nguyen Van Tu [28] said “The meaning of an idiom does not comefrom individual components which may have their images or not Its meaning can be differentfrom the meaning of each component or does come from each original word”

Nguyen Thien Giap [13] focused on the basic semantic features of idioms: Being richin imagery is a basic feature of idioms Idioms express concepts basing on specific images andsymbols The imagery of idioms is made from its metaphor and comparison.

Although there have been different ideas about the semantic features of idioms,Vietnamese linguists have all shared the same point of view as follows:

- Firstly, the meaning of an idiom is a perfect whole which does not come from themeanings of individual components added.

- Secondly, the meaning of an idiom expresses the reflection of things or concepts.- Thirdly, the meaning of an idiom is usually figurative and descriptive.

Although many linguists affirm that idioms have their own figurative and imaginarymeanings, we shouldn’t consider this as an absolute fact In Vietnamese, there are also someidioms which have literal sense coming from the meanings of their components They may be

comparative idioms such as nát như tương (as pasty as soy), đen như cột nhà cháy (as black

as a sweep) and bám như đỉa đói (to stick like a limpet), whose imagery comes from theimages compared with activities or properties Some Sino-Vietnamese idioms such as nhất cửlưỡng tiện (to kill two birds with one stone), bán tín bán nghi (half doubtful) and bách phátbách trúng (to hit the mark one hundred times out of one hundred) also have literal sense

basing on the meanings of their components

2.2 Classification of idioms

In both English and Vietnamese there exist many different ways of idiom classification

among linguists who have based on different categories such as motivation, function, origin,meaning and kind, etc However, each language has its own characteristics and the idiomclassification is also based on different points of view.

2.2.1 Classification of English idioms

Some authors have classified English idioms into topic groups and countries Theyhave also listed the amount of idioms belonging to each topic or country.

Idioms by topic

- Animals: the birds and the bees

- Body and bodily functions: at arm’s length

- Buildings and construction: to drive someone up the wall

- Character and appearance: as cold as ice

- Children and babies: like a kid in a candy store

- Clothes: at the drop of a hat

- Colours: black and white

- Death: at death’s door

- Drinking and pubs: to turn water in to wine

- Drugs: close but no cigar

- Food: as cool as a cucumber

- Furniture and household fittings: to cut a rug

- Gambling: to go for broke

- Law: to bring someone to book

- Men and women: man in the street

- Money: for my money

- Music: to call the tune

- Nationality and ethnicity: for England

- Nature: as cold as a stone

- Numbers: to feel like a million

- Person’s name: as rich as Croesus

- Place name: to set the Thames on fire

- Plants and flowers: to gild the lily

- Police and crime: to get away with murder

- Politics: on the stump

- Profession or work: all in a day’s work

- Religion: at the bottom of the totem pole

- Sex and sexuality: to play the field

- Sport: to drop the ball

- Technology and science: to hit the airwaves

- Time: behind the times

- Transport and travel: to hit the road

- War and conflict: war of words

- Weather: in a fog

Idioms by country

- American English: as mad as a wrongly shot hog

- Australian English: to cut down the tall poppies

- British English: by a long chalk

- Canadian English: The Mountie always gets his man

- Indian English: to do the needful

- Irish English: Even the dogs in the street know

- New Zealand English: across the ditch

- Scottish English: to turn the crack

(http://www.usingenglish.com/idiom catergory) Basing on parts of speech, Jennifer Seidl – W McMordie (1988) gave eight groups ofidioms as follows:

Key words with idiomatic uses

- Adjectives and adverbs: bad, good, long etc

- Nouns: end, line, thing etc

- Miscellaneous: all, how, too etc

Idioms with nouns and adjectives

- Noun phrases: a drop in the ocean

- Adjective + noun: a close shave

Idiomatic pairs

- Pairs of adjectives: cut and dried

- Pairs of nouns: wear and tear

- Pairs of adverbs: more or less

- Pairs of verbs: hit and miss

- Identical pairs: bit by bit

Idioms with prepositions: by, for, from etc

Phrasal verbs: act up, call something off, make something up to someone etcVerbal idioms: blow one’s own trumpet, call a spade a spade, do a bunk etc

Idioms with key words from special categories

- Animals: bird, bee, bull etc

- Colours: black, blue, red etc

- Numbers, size, measurement: one, inch, mile etc

- Parts of the body: arm, back, nose etc

- Time: day, minute, night etc

Idioms with comparisons

- Comparisons with as … as: as bold as brass

- Comparisons with like: to go like the wind

Basing on functions, idioms can be also classified as follows:

Idioms as noun phrases

e.g peace and quiet (peace/ calm): It is nice to have some peace and quiet the cat’s whiskers (wonderful): She thinks she is the cat’s whisker.

dog’s dinner (over dressed in a showy way): He was dressed up like a dog’s

Idioms as verb phrases

e.g to ump out of my skin (give a big jump): I jump out of my skin when I heard the

to get the bottom of things (find the true the explanation or the state of affair): We

need a proper investigation to get the bottom of things.

Idioms as adjective phrases

e.g as good as gold (generous, helpful, well-behaved): He is as good as gold.

hard and fast (can not be changed in any circumstances): There are no hard and

fast rules about this.

Idioms as adverbial phrases

e.g as likely as not (certainly/ surely): He’ll be at home now, as likely as not

Idioms as prepositional phrases

e.g in a black mood (a bad mood/ temper): Gerry is in a black mood.

Idioms as interjections

e.g Well, I never! Never say die! Take your time!

Idioms as independent clauses

e.g A little bird told me ( It is not necessary for me to tell you who told me this)

2.2.2 Classification of Vietnamese idioms

According to Luong Van Dang [9], Vietnamese idioms (in “Thành ngữ tiếng Việt”)can be classified as follows:

Idioms with three single words or more

e.g bạn nối khố (a bosom friend) bở hơi tai (fagged out)

treo đầu dê, bán thịt chó (He cries wine and sells vinegar)

trẻ không tha, già không thương (Neither consideration for the young nor the pityfor the old)…

Idioms with a single word and a compound word

e.g bé hạt tiêu (little body, great mind) câm miệng hến (mute as a fish)

có máu mặt (to be in comfortable circumstances)…

Idioms with two compound words

e.g buôn gian bán lận (to cheat in commerce) nhắm mắt xuôi tay (to die)

năm xung tháng hạn (an unpropitious period of time) …

Idioms as simple sentences

e.g châu chấu đá xe (David fights Goliath) êch ngồi đáy giếng (a frog in a well)

mèo mù vớ cá rán (The devil looks after his own)…

Idioms with alliterations or compound words

e.g hì hà hì hục (be completely engrossed in) lảm nhảm lảm nhàm (to drivel)

ăn bớt ăn xén (to take a stealthy rake off)…

Idioms with symmetrical comparisons

e.g nát như tương (as pastry as soy) đen như mực (inky-black))

nặng như chì (as heavy as the lead)

nguây nguẩy như mẹ quẩy tôm (to turn away in anger)…

Idioms with summary comparisons

e.g như cá gặp nước (feel like duck in water) như đỉa phải vôi (like a scalded cat)

như nước đổ đầu vịt (like water off a duck’s back)…

However, the common structures of Vietnamese idioms are the structures which havetwo balanced members Idioms are also formed by joining rhymes (usually interior rhymes)

such as bóc ngắn cắn dài (to live beyond one’s means), bé xé ra to (to make mountains out ofmolehills) etc These structures do not only make idioms easy to say and remember, but they

also keep the fixation and unshakeable characteristics of idioms

According to Nguyen Cong Đuc [11], Vietnamese idioms can be divided into two maingroups:

Idioms with symmetrical structures

Symmetrical structures consist of two members which have the same forms andharmonious balanced contents (opposite or supplement of each other) These structures form alarge number of idioms in general and idioms showing speaking activities in particular Theyare concretized by the following expressions:

- AxAy (A: verb; x, y: combinative words)

e.g buôn gian bán lận (to cheat in commerce) ăn không nói có (to be dishonest)

ăn thật làm giả (to work perfunctorily) …

- BxBy (B: noun; x, y: combinative words)

e.g điều ong tiếng ve (unfavourable reputation) mồm năm miệng mười (loud-mouthed) mồm loa mép dải ( loud-spoken)…

- CxCy (C: adjective; x, y: combinative words)

e.g dại mồm dại miệng (foolish tongues) vụng ăn vụng nói (not good at speaking)

vụng chèo khéo chống (A bad workman blames his tools)…

- DxDy (D: numeral; x, y: combinative words)

e.g nửa nạc nửa mỡ (neither flesh nor fish) nửa đùa nửa thật (half seriously) nửa úp nửa mở (equivocal)…

Idioms with symmetrical structures can be compound sentences; for example, có mồmthì cắp, có nắp thì đậy (to keep silent for good).

Idioms with comparative structures

These are the common structures of Vietnamese idioms A như (like/as) B is

considered as the comprehensive form of comparative idioms The words such as như, bằng, tày are usually between A and B, and they are concretized by the following expressions:

- A như B (A: verb or adjective; B: noun)

e.g nói như vẹt (to parrot))

ngang như cua (utterly nonsensical) chua như dấm (sour like vinegar))…

- Ax như B (Ax: verb-adjective phrase; B: noun)

e.g nói dối như cuội (to be a colossal liar) nói ngọt như đường (to use honeyed words) nói dẻo như kẹo (to be smooth-tongued)…

- A như Bx (A: usually verb; Bx: phrase expressing activity)

e.g dỗ như dỗ vong (to soothe)

chửi như vặn thịt (to abuse someone regularly) chửi như hát hay (to heap abuses on)…

- Ax như Bx (Ax: phrase consisting of a verb and an adjective; Bx: phrase expressing activity)

e.g nói dai như chó nhai dẻ rách (to talk constantly) chuyện nở như ngô rang (to chat loudly)

chuyện giòn như bắp rang (to chat loudly)…

2.3 Idioms versus other language units

Words and groups of words including idioms make a vocabulary system of a

language It means that a vocabulary system of a language is very complex It consists of a lotof different language units Therefore, distinguishing idioms and other language units isnecessary

2.3.1 Idioms versus words

“Words are the smallest language units having their own meanings and fixed forms,and are used to build sentences” [29] According to this definition, words have the followingfeatures:

- Words are independent language units and have their own meanings - Words are available language units and have their own fixed forms.

- Words usually have nominative functions It means that they are the names of things,phenomena, activities, properties, states, etc.

- Words are basic language units used to build sentences.

The biggest difference between idioms and words is that they are compared with singlewords: The smallest idioms consist of at least two single words Moreover, the determination

of words closely connects concepts For example, hẻo lánh (out of the way) is a word and khỉho cò gáy (out of the way) is an idiom Both of these semantically express the same meaning.However, hẻo lánh (out of the way) has literal meaning which is quite objective and neutral;

khỉ ho cò gáy (out of the way) has figurative meaning containing the speaker’s emotional

colorings and comments: It is a boring hard place to live and work.

Words are the smallest language units which are independent and have their own

meanings The meanings of compound words such as rain coat, coffee table and pocketdictionary are usually clear and easy to deduce by looking at the literal sense of their

components However, it is impossible to understand the meanings of idioms by doing likethat (except comparative idioms in Vietnamese) because idioms have figurative meanings.

2.3.2 Idioms versus locutions

Most of the linguists share the same point of view that an idiom is a fixed expression

whose meaning can not be worked out by looking at the meaning of its individual words “A locution is a fixed group of words having been used for a long time and its meaning

comes from the meanings of its components” [29: 810] For example, rán sành ra mỡ (to skina flint) (Vietnamese), as bald as a coot (English) are idioms, but lên lớp (to give a lesson)(Vietnamese), go to bed (English) are considered as locutions.

It can be said that the forms of idioms and locutions are the same: They are all fixedgroups of words However, the meanings of idioms don’t come from the meanings of theircomponents; locutions tend to have their own literal sense coming from the meanings of theircomponents.

2.3.3 Idioms versus slang

In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, slang is defined as follows:

“They are very informal words and phrases commonly used in speech, especiallybetween people from the same social groups or who work together, not considered suitable forformal contexts and often not in use for long”

Although both idioms and slang are almost fixed in structures and words, they havesome certain differences

Firstly, slang is used among some groups of people whereas idioms can be foundeverywhere Slang is a means of identifying and reinforcing certain sub-groups in society; themember of this group may not understand the conversations of other groups’.

Secondly, even in the same cultural area, while idioms are almost the same, slang

stands differently from region to region For example, the idiom like death warmed up (beingill) can be understood both in England and the US; meanwhile, such slang as asskissing(flattering, toadying), dinge (a black person) are accepted only by the American.

Finally, it is found that slang is fashionable and soon out of date For instance, to

indicate something beautiful, before the World War II, people used the word top hole, then inthe 1940s, it was wizard, 1970s ace, comic and in the 1980s, it turned to be brills, wicked.

2.3.4 Idioms versus proverbs

According to Hornby (1995), in his Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, a proverbis defined as “a short well-known sentence or phrase that states a general truth about life or

gives advice, e.g Better safe than sorry or Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” More

particularly, Vu Ngoc Phan (2000: 39) considered a proverb as “a complete saying expressingone idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or criticism”.

It is easy to find that idioms and proverbs have many in common and it comes as nosurprise that they are traditionally studied together The first one is that both idioms andproverbs are ready-made They are products of human’s thought, cultures and processes ofhard working and learning They are mainly orally handed down from generation to generationand naturally accepted in daily life Secondly, both idioms and proverbs are set-expressionswith stable and insubstituted components Therefore, their meanings can not be deduced from