Idioms relating to love in english and vietnamese

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS IDIOMS RELATING TO “LOVE” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE (Thành ngữ tình yêu tiếng Anh tiếng Việt) BUI THI LE LAN Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Hanoi 2020 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “IDIOMS RELATING TO “LOVE” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2020 Bui Thi Le Lan Approved by SUPERVISOR Dr Le Thi Minh Thao Date: 20/11/2020 I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This document contains our master thesis in English language at Hanoi Open University It describes the results of my research on the potential of crowd sourcing applications in organizational the content The last few months have proven to be challenging months, both personally and organizationally It is meaningful for me to finishing this research project This thesis could not been completed without the help of many people I would like to express by thanking to my supervisors from Hanoi Open University, Dr Le Thi Minh Thao Thank for her whole-hearted guidance and precious instruction for this graduation paper from the beginning to the completion Without her assistance, encouragement and valuable adjustment, this study could not be fulfilled Secondly, my heartfelt acknowledgement also belongs to all of my lecturers and teachers at Faculty of English of Hanoi Open University for helping, assisting and advising during my research Assoc Prof Hoang Tuyet Minh, Dr Le Van Thanh, Dr Dang Ngoc Huong, their feedbacks for my master thesis proposal outline were always valuable They build the initial foundation of my knowledge and offer me the opportunity to complete my graduation thesis Of course, this acknowledgement would not be complete without sending my thanks my parents and family, who supported me throughout my entire study and encouraged my activities Thanks to be loved, support and faith of my parents, I was able to finish my study and make it a great time to look back on Last but not least, I am proud of expressing thanks to friends and acquaintances who have supported and given a hand during the completion of my study BUI THI LE LAN Hanoi, 2020 II TABLE CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study 1 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Research methods .2 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Structure of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .3 2.1 Review of the previous studies 2.2 Review of the theoretical background 2.2.1 Theory of syntax 2.2.2 Theories of semantics 2.2.3 Definition of semantics 10 2.3 An overview of idioms 12 2.3.1 Definitions of idioms 12 2.3.2 Some features of idioms 14 2.3.3 Classification of idioms 17 2.4 Definition of Love 26 2.5 Summary .28 CHAPTER 3: COMPARISON BETWEEN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS RELATING TO ‘LOVE’ IN TERMS OF SYNTACTIC FEATURES AND SEMANTICS FEATURES 29 3.1 Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms relating to ‘love’ in terms of syntactic features 29 3.1.1 Phrase Structures 29 3.1.2 Clause Structures 34 3.1.3 Parallel Structures 35 3.1.4 Comparative structures 35 3.1.5 Similarities .36 3.1.6 Differences .37 3.2 Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms denoting ‘love’ in terms of semantic features .38 3.2.1 Similarities .41 3.2.2 Differences .42 3.3 Summary 42 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS 44 4.1 Recapitulation 44 4.2 Implications 44 4.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study 47 REFERENCES 48 III ABSTRACT To become proficient at English, one of the important and essential steps for learners is clearly to know how to use fluently English idioms as well as understand it in native language In a simple term, it is useful and favorable for learners to make use of succinct style of language to express meaningful thinking such as human feelings, traditional quotes and sayings, specific contexts and so on In both of Western and Eastern literature, “love” is probably the most ideal emotion for using idioms to define The purposes of this thesis are to examine in which methods and conditions are used to express the feeling “love” as well as to make some evaluations and comparisons between Vietnamese and English idioms The descriptions and concepts of idioms in terms of syntactic and semantic features are thoroughly described and made clear by mostly basing on the descriptive method, including careful and selective sources from dictionaries, documents, studies and essays to papers, magazines and other usable sources At the same time, the contrastive method and analytical method are precisely operated to drag out both of similarities and dissimilarities of English idioms and Vietnamese ones relating to "love" in terms of syntactic and semantic features From that, the study will show difficulties and suggest some solutions for teaching and learning English idioms, helping teachers and learners of English have a better overview and thus improving language acquisition Theoretically, the study mentions about some definitions of semantic and syntactic features of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese As a result, the learners and teachers can point out the similarities and differences of idioms relating to “love” between English and Vietnamese Practically, this study will provide information that can help teachers and learners of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese, which contributes to the teaching and learning English IV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Adj: Adjective Adv: Adverb Adj.P: Adjective phrase Art: Article Ex: Example IRL: Idioms relating to love N: Noun Num: Numeral NP: Noun phrase O: Object PP: Preposition phrase P: Preposition S: Subject V: Verb V CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study With the tendency of globalization nowadays, English by far has become as one of the most popular and useful language in all over the worlds In Vietnam, English has long been regarded as a tool of international communication, and together with its rising importance, the need of learning English is becoming more and more urgent It can’t be denied that all foreign learners in general and Vietnamese learners in particular desire to master English as the native speakers However, they usually face up with a lot of difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations One of the reasons for these problems lies in the way people perceive and use idioms Idiom is a special phrasing or a peculiar expression which performs metaphor or sometimes, literal meanings Every nation in the world has its idioms Some of them are particular and represent for the culture to which they belong On the contrary, a lot of idioms share the same meaning with others in many languages, denoting the needs of interfering different cultures and traditional customs in all over the world Having the ability to use idioms could help leaners to adapt the antiquities and customary habits of certain culture or country, while mastering idioms will provide learners the self confident and encouragement to well communicate with both nonnative and native speakers Idioms appear everywhere, from daily communication likes newspapers, magazines, television advertisements to more formal contexts such as books, novels, literature and studies Theoretically, the study mentions about some definitions of semantic and syntactic features of idioms relating to love in English and Vietnamese As a result, the readers and users can point out the similarities and differences of idioms relating to “love” between English and Vietnamese Practically, this study will provide information that helps teachers and learners of idioms relating to” love” in English and Vietnamese, which contributes to the teaching and learning English There have been many studies about idioms in varied aspects, with different opinions and arguments The writer is pleased and honored to perform a study about the topic “IDIOMS RELATING TO “LOVE” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE” with the hope that the research has attamed to give some suggestions for the Vietnamese teachers as well as learners in teaching and learning English and Vietnamese idioms in general and idioms relating to “love” in particular with the hope that they can master their meanings and use them better and more effectively in teaching and in learning language Aims and objectives of the study The study is executed with the aim points out the differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese idioms relating to “love” in syntactic and semantic features As a result, the study could be used for learning, teaching and translating English as well in other to motivate, encourage and submit certain solutions which could assist English learners to apply and use both English and Vietnamese idioms correctly The objectives of the study are: • To explore and identify the syntactic, semantic features of English idioms relating to “love” and Vietnamese ones • To comprehend and make critical comparisons to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms relating to ‘love’ in terms of syntactic and semantic features • To motivate, encourage and submit certain solutions which could assist English learners to apply and use both English and Vietnamese idioms correctly 1.3 Research questions (i) What are syntactic, semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms relating to “love”? (ii) What are the similarities and the differences between English and Vietnamese idioms relating to “love” in terms of syntax and semantics? (iii) What are the possible implications for the learning process of learners and teachers to use English idioms relating to love effectively? 1.4 Research methods The descriptions and concepts of idioms in terms of syntactic and semantic features are thoroughly described and made clear by mostly basing on the descriptive method, including a careful and selective source from dictionaries, documents, studies and essays to papers, magazines and other usable sources At the same time, the contrastive method and analytical method are precisely operated to drag out both of similarities and dissimilarities of English idioms and Vietnamese ones relating to “love” in terms of syntactic and semantic features The combination of these data collection methods will help the author achieve the aims of the study Last but not least, for better result, statistical method is generally applied to carry out valuable judgments Scope of the study This study is limited of English and Vietnamese idioms relating to “love” in term of syntactic and semantics aspects In syntactic features, the study will perform the key characteristics such as phrase structure In the same way, an examination into “love” in English and Vietnamese idioms will be performed to analyze the semantic aspect Thus, the study will concentrate on English and Vietnamese idioms relating to “love” to analyze these idioms in both languages in terms of syntactic, semantics features Following the rules above, the English idioms and Vietnamese ones are carefully selected from a range of dictionaries, studies, books and the internet With mostly based on a reliable and valuable sources of academic researches, a sum of 178 idioms consisting of 102 in English and 76 in Vietnamese is evaluated and used for covering this paper 1.6 Significance of the study It cannot be denied that idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese are an important part in our daily communication as well as in the process of teaching and learning a foreign language Following the aims, objectives and the scope of performing a study of English idioms relating to “love” with Vietnamese ones in terms of syntantic and semantic features above, the study will support English users in Vietnam with the knowledge and suggest ideas to correctly and flexibly apply this sort of idioms effectively Theoretically: The study mentions about some definitions of semantic and syntactic features of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese As a result, the learners and teachers can point out the similarities and differences of idioms relating to “love” between English and Vietnamese Practically: This study will provide information that can help teachers and learners of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese, which contributes to the teaching and learning English The results of the study will be of great benefit to the following: Teachers of English: The given data will provide the teachers with information on how to teach and use idioms especially idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese more effectively Students: This study will bring for students the background and useful knowledge about idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese.The content of the thesis will some how be useful material for those who study English as second language and have certain interest in the idioms and its deep meaning, especially helps them overcome the difficulties they encounter in using idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese in particular Therefore, they can speak English more naturally and be successful in communication 1.7 Structure of the study The research consists of four chapters: Chapter I: Introduction, this chapter presents the rationale, aim, objective, scope, significance and structural organization of the thesis Chapter II: Literature Review and Theoretical Background, this chapter generally analyzes the theoretical background of the study as well as the definition of the concept of idiom and love Chapter III: Findings and discussion for the study with presenting the syntax and semantics of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese Chapter IV: Conclusion, which provides the recapitulation, concluding remarks, limitation of the study, as well as some suggestions for implications achieved from the discussion in the thesis and for further research Finally, the study ends with the References and Appendix CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL 2.1 Review of the previous studies There are a great number of studies and researches about all kinds of idiom and related matters such and linguistic, syntax and translation in both of English and Vietnamese The knowledge support of these researches have contributed to my paper and should be appreciated before going into the main part of the study *The approaches of linguists to idioms could be parted into five moments which expose the different trends of consideration of idioms: (Curry, 1994) *The structure of an idiom phrase and its distinction from 1960s to early 1970s *The developing of idioms from late 1970 to 1980s *The metaphor of idioms from 1980s to 1985s *The activities of teaching, adapting and ackknowledging idioms from 1985 to 1990 *The expansion of view and jugdement as well as its effection in 1990s Idioms are available phrases, sentences, relatively fixed, sustainable, not intending to express an idea Idioms are used to emphasize meaning with lively expression, contributing to the color of art so that idioms are not only a treasure in daily communication language but also a valuable source of material for literary creation Many researchers have manipulated idioms, both native – like discourse by English as well as a foreign language speaker In English, there are some important books such as “Cambridge Idioms Dictionary” by Cambridge university press “The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms” by Ammer, “Idioms and Idiomaticity” by Fernando, or “ Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms” by Ayto and so on.[1], [3],[9],[19] Dr Montgomery Howwar (2013) of Aligarh Muslim University wrote an article about “Seeking the Nature of Idioms: A Socio-Cultural Study in Idiomatic English and Arabic meanings” on International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, he analyzed some Arabic and English idioms taking into consideration their bound culture, equivalence and context in order to explore the types of idioms, and to focus on using one of the techniques of dealing with idioms that is equivalence [26] Furthermore, some other articles also took English idioms into consideration Dr Richard Xiao (2010) from Edge Hill University paid more attention to “Can ‘translation universals’ survive in Mandarin? Idioms, word clusters, and reformulation markers in translational Chinese.” In which three linguistic features investigated in translation studies – namely idioms, word clusters and reformulation markers, in translational Chinese as represented in a one-million-word balanced corpus of translated Chinese texts in comparison with native Mandarin represented in a comparable corpus of non-translated Chinese texts [39] In Vietnam, idioms are quietly interested by many linguists There are some valuable works which are famous and familiar with Vietnamese reader such as “Từ vựng - Ngữ nghĩa tiếng Việt” (1981) of Professor Do Huu Chau who critically Truthfulness (4) In English (2) He is head over heels in love with his wife (Anh ta toàn tâm tồn ý với vợ mình) Don’t believe in what others said, you are the one and only (Đừng tin vào người khác nói, anh có em thơi) In Vietnamese (2) Em xin nguyện lòng với anh Deception (4) In English (2) Who are you with behind my back? (Anh qua lại với phía sau lưng tơi?) Go away, love-rat (Hãy khỏi đồ phản bội) In Vietnamese Anh đồ bắt cá hai tay Tại anh lại lừa dối đồ Sở Khanh? Pleasure (4) In English (3) It does my heart good to hear that you’re coming home (Em cảm thấy vui nghe tin anh trở nhà) You make my heart leaps (Em làm tim anh loạn nhịp) Whenever I am with you, I am all smiles (Anh vui vẻ bên em) In Vietnam (1) Em vui mà mặt tươi hoa kia? Unpleasure (4) In English (3) John and Marry are encountering many problems at the moment and their marriage is on the rock (John Marry gặp nhiều vấn đề hôn nhân họ thời kì khó khăn) We had blazing rows recently, I am really tired (Tôi mệt, dạo cãi to) I am in the blue since the day she left (tôi buồn kể từ cô đi) In Vietnamese (1) Lòng anh đau cắt thấy em bên người khác Parting (4) In English (2) I heard people said that out of sight out of mind, please come back to me soon (Em nghe người ta nói xa mặt cách lịng, quay với em sớm anh nhé) She walked out on my life (cô rời khỏi đời tôi) 40 In Vietnamese (2) Tôi chán cảnh đầu sông cuối sông Mercy (3) In English (2) Please give me a second chance; I won’t let you down again (Xin cho anh hội, anh không làm em phải thất vọng nữa) We finally make up after a month (Cuối làm lành sau tháng xa cách) In Vietnamese (1) Sau chia tay, họ lại quay với Đúng gương vỡ lại lành Table Semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms relating to “love” English and Vietnamese idioms English Vietnamese relating to “love” Number Percentage Number Percentage Semantic features Fervency of English and Promise Vietnamese idioms relating to Silliness “love” 14 Coherence 14 Break 10 Decision 10 Truthfulness 10 Deception 10 Pleasure 12 Unpleasure 12 Parting 10 Mercy Total 25 100% 21 100% 3.2.1 Similarities With the discussion above, it is easy to recognize that both of English and 41 Vietnamese IRL share the same fields of love’s degrees which are: Fervency, Promise, Silliness, Coherence, Break, Decision, Truthfulness, Deception, Pleasure, Unpleasure, Manner, Parting and Mercy It shows that love is not only all about happiness but also about sadness English IRL and Vietnamese ones cover most colors of love, which similarly contribute to the plentiful emotions of each culture with idiomatic expressions 3.2.2 Differences Following the cultural features of idioms, there are such quite differences between English IRL and Vietnamese ones in terms of semantic features To begin with, the dissimilarities between Eastern culture and Western culture also create the divergences between English and Vietnamese in most of their cultural factors such as traditions, social life and language as well as idioms The idioms relating to “love” of English are kind of direct and in details as the Western culture, which are more natural and easier to use than Vietnamese ones Second, Vietnamese IRL mostly give advices while English ones concentrate on expressing feelings It is because the tradition of Vietnamese is to give and follow advices of the elderly Last, the gender discrimination also appears on Vietnamese IRL As an agricultural country, Vietnamese culture affects badly on woman with strict rules and obligations As a result, idioms relating to “love”, which reflect the culture of the related country, focus on women side with most of bad influences English IRL not have the same mistake as Vietnamese ones because of the characteristics of Western modern countries 3.3 Summary The main conclusions of this chapter are as follows: Firstly, some phrasal structures of idioms relating to “love” in English and their Vietnamese are analyzed in turns to draw some typical features of idioms in terms of syntax in the two languages Secondly, a statistical summary of syntactic features of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese has been shown Thirdly, this chapter also illustrates semantic fields of love in both languages which are also handled to help us understand more about the meaning transfer of natural language like idioms Fourthly, the similarities and differences of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese have been proposed to provide an overall understanding about the idioms in two languages Lastly, some possible implications are also suggested for teachers and learners who interest in this field As for learning, students should be offered the context to enhance interpretation of idioms Learning English idioms relating to “love” in meaningful contexts is more effective than learning isolated items through memorization and drilling Besides, learners should employ knowledge about history, culture and customs…related to the idioms in the process of dealing with English IRL In other words, learners should realize the usefulness and necessity of learning and applying 42 idioms and English IRL because using English IRL appropriately in communication inspires confident in students and language users As for teaching, teachers should provide helpful information stimulated interest of students to learn voluntarily and effectively when they discover the beauty and the attraction covered in the language they are approaching Teachers should select the English IRL that are frequently encountered in target language and the ones that not own too many special problems with vocabulary and grammar Idioms should be taught in contexts, not in isolation and authentic materials should be used to teach idioms Teachers can simply go over a list of English idioms and their definitions or explanations Besides, teachers should present idioms along with examples in contexts, for example, in the conversation in which the meaning of idioms is explained Then, teachers can ask the learner to guess the meaning of idioms and correct if necessary IRL should be classified into categories such as IRL On the whole, there are two similar terms of syntactic features that both Vietnamese and English apply on their idioms which relate to love: First is both languages mostly use verb phrases and noun phrases with two structures ( Art ) + N + N in noun phrases and V + N / NP in verb phrase for their idioms Secondly, English and Vietnamese both like to perform parallel structure to achieve better efficiencies for their idioms Other syntactic similarities such as grammatical structures and grammatical operations are quite unimportant to point out On the contrary, there are two dissimilarities between English IRL and Vietnamese ones in terms of syntactic features: it is more suitable for English IRL to contain Adjective phrases and prepositional phrases because of their supportively grammatical features On the contrary, the comparative structures and parallel structures are more popular in Vietnamese IRL than English one because of its unique and interesting vocabularies Semantically, IRL in both of English and Vietnamese are stable and united They both construct together and cannot be slitted into individual parts English IRL and Vietnamese ones similarly share for the particularly 11 semantic fields: Fervency, Promise, Silliness, Coherence, Break, Decision, Truthfulness, Deception, Pleasure, unpleasure, Parting and Mercy Among these sections, coherence is of the most used IRL in both of English and Vietnamese ones In contrast, because of the differences between Western and Eastern culture, IRL in English are easier to apply than Vietnamese ones Finally, sexism also effects on Vietnamese IRL but not on English ones 43 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS 4.1 Recapitulation To summarize, this study aims to examine and deeply discuss in essential aspects about the syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms relating to “love”, as well as point out the similarities and dissimilarities between them in terms of semantic and syntactic features First, in chapter one, the rationale, aims, objectives, scope and significance, as well as the structure organization of the study are carefully listed to introduce a general view of the study Second, chapter two presents analyze and also states critical point of views about the theories and documents which refer to the topic of the study to form a firm foundation for the following chapters A number of related theories, concepts, and definitions are precisely carried out with logical evaluations for the context of the study Chapter three is the most important and indispensable of the study, it introduces, classifies, discusses and evaluates the syntactic and semantic features of English idioms relating to “love” as well as observe and consider the similarities and dissimilarities of both languages in terms of syntactic and semantic features In the last chapter, the research has attamed to give some suggestions for the Vietnamese teachers as well as learners in teaching and learning English and Vietnamese idioms in general and idioms relating to “love” in particular with the hope that they can master their meanings and use them better and more effectively in translating, teaching and in learning language About the syntactic aspects, the related idioms are consulted in four kinds of grammatical structure which are phrase structure, clause structure, parallel structure and comparative structures In additionally, English idioms relating to “love” is more favorable with parallel structure than Vietnamese ones, while comparative structures are more common in Vietnamese idioms relating to”love” than English ones Based on the grammatical structures point of view, the similarities as well as dissimilarities in terms of syntactic features of idioms between English and Vietnamese could be easily examined and evaluated About the semantic aspects, the similarities in terms of semantic features of English idioms relating to “love” and Vietnamese ones are about the degrees of love There are thirteen levels: Fervency, Promise, Silliness, Coherence, Break, Decision, Truthfulness, Deception, Pleasure, Unpleasure, Manner, Parting and Mercy which are all well covered by both English idioms relating to “love”and Vietnamese ones Otherwise, due to the clear differences between Western and Eastern cultures, the dissimilarities in terms of semantic features between English idioms relating to “love” and Vietnamese ones are referred to the ways, the objects and the concepts which idioms try to deliver their figurative meanings to 4.2 Concludng remarks The thesis has applied the general theoretical achievements of syntax and semantics to investigate the idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese to find out the similarities and differences in structure and semantic characteristics are reflected The thesis draws some conclusions as follows: 44 As for learning, students should be offered the context to enhance interpretation of idioms Learning English idioms relating to “love” in meaningful contexts is more effective than learning isolated items through memorization and drilling Besides, learners should employ knowledge about history, culture and customs…related to the idioms in the process of dealing with English idioms relating to “love” In other words, learners should realize the usefulness and necessity of learning and applying idioms and English idioms relating to “love” because using English idioms relating to “love’ appropriately in communication inspires confident in students and language users As for teaching, teachers should provide helpful information stimulated interest of students to learn voluntarily and effectively when they discover the beauty and the attraction covered in the language they are approaching Teachers should select the English idioms relating to “love” that are frequently encountered in target language and the ones that not own too many special problems with vocabulary and grammar Idioms should be taught in contexts, not in isolation and authentic materials should be used to teach idioms Teachers can simply go over a list of English idioms and their definitions or explanations Besides, teachers should present idioms along with examples in contexts, for example, in the conversation in which the meaning of idioms is explained Then, teachers can ask the learner to guess the meaning of idioms and correct if necessary Idioms relating to “love” should be classified into categories such as idioms relating to “love” about passion, harmony, agreement, happiness and sadness… As for translating, to have a good translational equivalent of idioms relating to “love”, English learners should be aware of cultural elements that have a great influence on idioms in general and idioms relating to “love” in particular Moreover, when translating the learners should know about major methods such as semantic translation method, communicative translation method and use different techniques like using a similar idiom or using a similar idiom but different form, or using non-idiomatic phrases, or using omission and so on To all learners, in the first place, self-motivation is the most important characteristic to learn or acquire any knowledge For this reason, learners must define their purposes and intentions for learning not only idioms but also English as well In the second place, because of the complex of syntactic features of idioms, leaners must have a firm foundation of knowledge about grammatical structures In the third place, because idioms have figurative and, sometimes, literal meanings, learners should acquire a variety of vocabularies and word forms to be able to recognize and, in easy themes, to predict the meaning of idioms Last but not least, idioms have cultural features so it is essential to examine the concepts of history, cultures, traditions, society and customs which are related to the idioms for using and applying the idioms in proper ways As love is a great concept with a number of descriptions, learners should perform studies and researches about this emotion for deeper understanding about idioms related to “love” These following frameworks should be appropriated: 45 Idioms need to be deployed and taught to English learners, especially to nonnative speakers, from the very first steps of acquiring English It could help learners to be familiar with the concepts of idioms from the beginning When reaching to higher levels of English, learners should deal with questions and assignments related to idioms, especially about both the figurative and literal meanings, in order to be able to distinct idioms and form a habit of facing with idioms In intermediate grades, idioms should be followed with linguistic matters such as theories and studies Thesis and reports should be performed by learners for acknowledgements and specific knowledge Idioms about love could be affected by many concepts, therefore to understand and get used to them, learners could try to translate them with techniques such as semantic translation technique, open translation technique or focus on vocabulary manners (synonyms, word forms) The reliability and validity of consulted sources like dictionaries or previous studies should be satisfied to secure the right judgement and considerations of learning idioms At last, it is important to exercise with idioms as much as possible, both in speaking, writing and reading skills, from daily communication to formal using, all to understand the interest of idioms In teaching field, teachers should have the proper ways and methods to deliver not only knowledge but also the compassion of the interest in English to leaners for achieving better results Idioms relating to love are popular for social using; therefore, teachers could find suitable concepts of teaching them Besides, because of the complex both in syntactic and semantic features, teachers should review, promote and supplement their knowledge to follow new trends or rules of English Idioms should be taught side by side with related knowledge and contexts Appropriate examples should be carefully cited in a proper way also Because love is a great concept so it is important to categorize the concept of love into general types such as promises, happiness, break deceptions, etc It is said that teaching vocabulary is not easy at all and teaching English idioms is no exception, even more difficult because idioms are sequences of words with tight cohesion both in their structures and meanings Learners often have difficulties in recognizing that they are dealing with an idiom and therefore they are easily confused with the meaning of the idiom in the context So, the first step in teaching idioms is to provide some recognizable features of idioms Baker [1992:65] gives some suggestions that idioms often “violate truth conditions, such as It’s raining cats and dogs, storm in a tea cup, fog for thought …” Some idioms “seem ill-formed because they not follow the grammatical rules of the language like in blow someone to kingdom come, by and large… Expressions which start with like also tend to suggest that they should not be interpreted literally.” The nature of idioms is that they are difficult to understand separately, thus we need to put them in specific context This is my first research on the issue 46 Therefore, mistakes and limitation to the form and the ideas of the thesis are inevitable There are many things need discussing in addition to the scope of the study I would be extremely grateful to any comment that would help me perfect my study To conclude, idioms are inseparable parts of each country’s language and culture Learning English in general and English and idioms in particular must be embedded in learning English culture 4.3 Limitations of the study The study aims to examine and evaluate the syntactic features, semantic features as well as the similarities and dissimilarities of English idioms relating to “love” and Vietnamese ones Despite attempting to perfectly complete the study, it is clearly that there are still some limitations of the study First, there are only idioms in both of languages have been carried out to investigate; therefore it could not stand for a whole and completed context of this topic Besides, there are many theories, syntactic features, semantic features as well as concepts of comparison between English and Vietnamese idioms relating to “love” that should have to be covered and discussed Last, the study seems like to focus too much about English idioms relating to “love” and forgot the Vietnamese ones without critical samples and strong points of reasoning The limitations of the study are caused by the limitations of time and finite knowledge as well We would be very grateful to those that take interest in this study with comments, advice, and adjustment The sincere, useful ideas are very valuable to make this paper more fulfilled, clearer, and more perfect 4.4 Suggestions for further study For further study, there are such topics should be covered to contribute to the studies about idioms relating to “love’, especially for semantic and syntactic features in English and Vietnamese: A study of English idioms relating to emotions with the reference to Vietnamese equivalents An investigation of English idioms relating to parents with the reference to Vietnamese equivalents A study of idioms referring to separation in English and Vietnamese A study about woman in English and Vietnamese idioms with appropriate references This is my first research on the issue Therefore, mistakes and limitation to the form and the ideas of the thesis are inevitable There are many things need discussing in addition to the scope of the study The writer would be extremely grateful to any comment that would help me perfect my study 47 REFERENCES In English Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Idioms Dictionary Phan Thị Minh Chau, (2005) Graduation paper: A Contrastive Analysis of the Grammatical and Semantic Features of Words and Idioms Denoting Intelligence and Wisdom in English and Vietnamese, VNU-CFL, Hanoi Christine Ammer (2003), The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Houghton Mifflin Oxford University Press (2016), Oxford Dictionaries Arnauld, Antoine (1660) Grammaire générale P 22 Bickerton, Derek (1990) Language and Species University of Chicago Press Chomsky, Noam (2002) Syntactic Structures p 11 Michel Bréal, (1890) Grammaire latine Richard Montague, (1960) On the nature of certain philosophical entities, pp 148-187 10 Donald Davidson,(1973) Semantics of Natural Languages, New York: Springer 11 Beth Levin, (1991), Lexical & Conceptual Semantics, Blackwell, Cambridge, MA 12 Nguyen Huong Giang (2015) The image of mouse, horse, cat, chicken in English idioms and proverbs with reference to Vietnamese equivalents, Hanoi Open University 13 Nguyen Hoa, (2004) Understanding English Semantics, National Republish House, Hanoi 14 Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms (1998) Cambridge University Prsess 15 Wright, J (2002) Idioms Organiser, (M L Jimmie Hill, Ed.) Boston, MA: Christopher Wenger 16 Jackson & Amvela and Palmer (2000), Idioms and Culture, Cambridge University Press 17 James Gordon White (1998) Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms, Cambridge University Press 18 Jennifer Sedl, W McMordie (1978), English idioms and How to use them, Oxford Unive1 19 John Ayto (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms, Oxford University Press, Oxford 20 Vinogradov, (2004).The Syntactic Behaviour of Idiom 21 Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992) 22 Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture 23 Makkai (1972) Idiom Structures in English, Mouton Publisher, Berlin 24 Michael, M F O’Dell (2010), English Idioms In use, Cambridge University 25 McCarthy, Michael (1998) Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 48 26 Montgomery Howwar (2013) Seeking the Nature of Idioms: A Socio-Cultural Study in Idiomatic English and Arabic meanings International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2013 27 Ho Thị Hoang Ngan, (2012), An investigation into idioms and proverbs relating to women in English and Vietnamese, Danang University 28 Pham Thi To Nhu (2011), A study of some characteristics of structures, meaning and culture of English idioms about animals, Danang University 29 Parkinson, Dilys (2006) Oxford Idioms Dictionary for Learners of English 2nd edition Oxford: Oxford University Press 30 Nguyen Quang (1997), Intercultural Communication, Foreign Language University 31 Richard Spears (2008) McGraw-Hill’s Essential American Idioms Dictionary, 3rd edition McGraw-Hill’s 32 Seidl, J & Mordie, W.Mc (1983), English Idioms, Oxford University Press, London 33 Frawley (1992) English Idioms and How to Use Them 34 Siefring, Judith (2004) Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, 2nd edition Oxford: Oxford University Press 35 Thomas Hill Long, (1979) Longman Dictionary of English Idioms Longman California.USA 36 Tiina Kainulainen (2006) A comparison of Finnish third grade students of national senior secondary school and IB Diploma Programme 37 Farlex (2015), Dictionary of Idioms, Farlex, Inc 38 Xiao, Z (2010) Can 'translation universals' survive in Mandarin? Idioms, word clusters and reformulation markers in translational Chinese Paper presented at the Using Corpora in Constrative and Translation Studies 2010 Conference, Edge Hill University, 27-29 July 2010 In Vietnamese 39 Nguyễn Thị Phương (2009), Luận văn thạc sĩ: Đặc trưng ngơn ngữ - văn hóa từ ngữ phận thể người thành ngữ Tiếng Việt (so sánh với Tiếng Anh), Trường Đại học Sư phạm TP Hồ Chí Minh English idioms relating to love in English and Vietnamese 40 Lương Văn Đang (1978), Thành ngữ tiếng Việt, Nhà xuất Khoa học xã hội, Hà Nội 41 Hoàng Văn Hành et al (2008), Thành ngữ học tiếng Việt, Nhà xuất khoa học xã hội, Hà Nội 42 Nguyen Thi Hiep (2001), “A contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese idioms using the terms of body parts 43 Nguyen Duong Nguyen Hao (2001) “Semantic structures of words denoting human body organs in English -Eye-Ear-Nose-Mouth - (versus Vietnamese)” 44 Do Huu Chau (1981) ,“Từ vựng - Ngữ nghĩa tiếng Việt” 45 Nguyen Lan (2010) Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam 49 APPENDIX: English idioms relating to love in English and Vietnamese English Vietnamese Bạn yêu người từ lần đầu gặp gỡ, từ nhìn Khi bạn bắt đầu có tình cảm, bạn bắt đầu u người Khi hai người yêu nhau, hai Love at first sight Fall in love with somebody Be an item trở thành một, hai trái tim, hai sống, hai tính cách, khác biệt cịn lại tình yêu Yêu yêu đường đi, ghét ghét tông chi họ hàng Love me, love my dog: Càng thắm chóng phai, thoang thoảng hương nhài lại thơm lâu Love me a little, love me long: Đàn ông xây nhà, đàn bà xây tổ Men make houses, women make ấm homes: Bạn người You may only be one person to the giới rộng lớn lại world but you may be the world to giới với one person: Break up with 10 Đường It only takes a second to say I love Chỉ giây để nói lời yêu you, but it will take a lifetime to em, anh dành đời để chứng minh điều show you how much: Làm yêu khác How can you love another if you bạn chưa u thân don’t love yourself? 11 Anh chọn yêu em sống I would rather be poor and in love nghèo khó cịn giàu with you, than being rich and not có mà cô độc having anyone: 12 Believe in the spirit of love… it can Hãy tin vào sức mạnh tình u- điều hàn gắn thứ heal all things: 50 13 Anh nguyện từ bỏ thứ để I’d give up my life if I could nhìn thấy em cười nắm command one smile of your eyes, lấy tay em one touch of your hand: 14 Pop the question: 15 16 Cầu hôn Yêu nhiều, hi sinh họ (Người Việt hay gọi say điếu đổ.) Be head over the heels: Kiểu hẹn hò giống mai mối, hai người chưa biết trước Blind dates: Ý muốn nói nụ hóa giải giận hờn trước Gương vỡ lại lành 17 Kiss and make up: 19 The way to a man’s heart is through Con đường ngắn đến trái tim his stomach người đàn ông qua dày 20 There is no difference between a Khơng có khác biệt wise man and a fool when they fall người thông minh kẻ ngốc in love yêu 21 out of sight, out of mind 22 23 24 25 xa mặt cách lòng hai người yêu nhau, đường dù dài tới đâu ngắn lại Nam châm trái dấu hút Two shorten the road Opposites attract Khi bạn u nhau, điều mà cặp đơi thích thể tình cảm bạn yêu, biểu q tự nhiên, chút vơ tình, ơm hôn trước công chúng Giống "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" (trái tim thèm khát điều hàng mong muốn) dùng giải Be lovey-dovey The heart wants what it wants 51 thích lý hai người yêu 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Love is blind Với nghĩa "tình yêu mù qng",cho tình u ln che mắt người cuộc, khiến họ khơng nhìn thấy thiếu sót đối phương "Love is blind" thường sử dụng người cuộc, người thấy rõ điểm xấu mối quan hệ tình cảm mà hai người yêu không nhận All you need is love ""All you need is love" nhắn nhủ sống, khơng điều quan trọng việc cho nhận lại tình u Hai người đẹp đơi, họ hợp thấu hiểu để trở thành cặp đơi hồn hảo Như thể cặp đơi si mê, phải lòng Hai người mối quan hệ tốt, định mệnh Match made in heaven "Tình yêu tìm cách" có nghĩa người u tìm cách vượt qua trở ngại để bên Love will find a way Yêu người nhiều, hy sinh cho Vì vậy, Be head over heels gọi “hãy gót chân” "Love knows no bounds" có nghĩa tình u khơng có giới Love knows no bounds hạn Tồn tâm tồn ý dành ánh mắt cho To have eyes only for To the world you may be one Với giới bạn person, but to one person you may người Nhưng với người, bạn be the world giới 52 34 35 36 37 38 39 I’d give up my life if I could Anh cho em tất đời command one smile of your eyes, để nhìn em cười, nắm bàn tay em one touch of your hand Một người yêu tuyệt vời không A great lover is not one who loves phải người yêu nhiều người many, but one who loves one lúc mà yêu riêng woman for life đến suốt đời Believe in the sprit of love… it can Tìn vào tình yêu heal all things điều hàn gắn thứ Khi bạn thấy người hấp dẫn, thú vị thú vị, bạn Have a hots for somebody muốn hẹn hị với người đó, nghĩa bạn có “ai cho đó” Tình u khơng có tuổi tác, Love has no age, no limit; and no khơng có giới hạn, khơng có death chết chóc 40 Cupboard love 41 Puppy love 42 To be the love of someone's life 43 44 45 46 Trong mắt anh có em mà thơi Have eyes only for you Tình cảm vờ vịt, thể tình cảm để có Mối tình trẻ (tình yêu thiếu niên) tình u gọi tình u chó con, hồn nhiên chó Tình u đời Hịa hợp với từ lần gặp Hit it off Whisper sweet nothings Nói lời thân mật có cánh dành cho On the rocks Tìm thấy người bạn đời thích hợp To be loved-up Yêu say đắm Hai người mối quan hệ tốt, định mệnh 47 48 A man falls in love through his eyes, Con gái yêu tai, trai yêu 53 a 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 woman through her ears mắt Be an item Khi yêu nhau, hai người hòa làm Be lovey – dovey Bày tỏ tình u tự nhiên, khơng quan tâm người khác nghĩ Double date Buổi hẹn hị hai người với hai người khác Love rat Tình yêu người ngoại tình Fix somebody with (somebody) Mai mối người yêu cho Tổ uyên ương A love-nest Yêu To be smitten by someone Beauty is not the eyes of the Vẻ đẹp đôi má hồng người thiếu nữ mà nằm beholder mắt kẻ si tình Là báu vật To be the apple of someone's eye 54 ... usefulness and necessity of learning and applying idioms and English idioms relating to ? ?love? ?? because using English idioms relating to ? ?love? ?? appropriately in communication inspires confident in students... phrase with 20 idioms take a main part of idioms relating to ? ?love? ?? in both of two 36 languages (total 44 % in English idioms relating to ? ?love? ?? and total 38 % in Vietnamese ones) To be more precise,... features of idioms relating to love in English and Vietnamese As a result, the readers and users can point out the similarities and differences of idioms relating to ? ?love? ?? between English and Vietnamese