A study of english and vietnamese idioms of anger

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For the completion of this study, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people. First of all, I should like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Tran Ba Tien, MA for his absolutely indispensable assistance, excellent suggestions, expert advice and detail comments, without which the study would not have been complete. In addition, I am very grateful to all teachers of Department of Foreign Languages for their constant support and encouragement. My warmest thanks are due to my loving parents, my younger brother for their love, support and forbearance. Finally, I am all too aware that despite all the advice and assistance, I feel that the study is far from perfect, it is, therefore, my sole responsibility for any inadequacies and shortcomings that the study may be considered to have. Vinh, May 10 th 2010 Lê Thị Lan i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements i Table of contents ii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Reasons for choosing the topic 1 2. Aims of the study .2 3. Scope of the study .2 4. Methods of the study .2 5. Design of the study 2 PART B: CONTENTS 4 CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4 1.1. Definitions of idioms .4 1.1.1. In English .4 1.1.2. In Vietnamese 5 1.2. History of idioms study 5 1.3. Distinction among idioms, free- word groups and proverbs 7 1.3.1. Idioms and free- word groups 7 1.3.2. Idioms and proverbs 10 1.4. Classification of idioms 12 CHAPTER II: SEMANTIC FEATURES AND CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH IDIOMS OF ANGER .14 2.1. Semantic features of English idioms of anger seen from the traditional view .14 2.2. Classification of English idioms of anger 15 2.2.1. Traditional classification of English idioms of anger 15 2.2.2. Cognitive linguistic- based classification of English idioms of anger .17 ii 2.2.2.1. Idioms as seen from the cognitive linguistic view .17 2.2.2.2. Cognitive linguistic- based classification of English idioms of anger 22 2.2.2.2.1. Metaphor 22 2.2.2.2.2. Metonymy 25 2.2.2.2.3. Conventional knowledge .29 CHAPTER III: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING AND TRANSLATING ENGLISH IDIOMS 34 3.1. The meaning of words 34 3.2. The meaning of idioms .35 3.3. Some suggestions for teaching English idioms to Vietnamese students 35 3.3.1. Identifying conceptual metaphor from idiom groups 37 3.3.2. Determining kinds of meaning 37 3.3.3. Using idioms in context .37 3.5. Some suggestions for translating English idioms .39 3.5.1. Idiomatic translation method .39 3.5.2.Some strategies for translating English idioms 40 PART C: CONCLUSION .45 REFERENCES APPENDIXES iii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.Reasons for choosing the topic I choose to write my graduation thesis about the entitled “A study of English and Vietnamese idioms of anger” for the following reasons: Firstly, idioms as a popular phenomenon of the language play an important part in spiritual life of the community because it reflects a vivid picture of the nation’s customs and cultural traditions, and recollection of its part history, scraps of folk songs. Every language has its own system of idiomatic expression especially in English. For instance, we can find many idioms such as “add fuel to the fire” (đổ dầu vào lửa), “burst a blood vessel” (vỡ mạch máu), “get all hot” (nóng hết cả người)… In addition, using idioms in communication is the most effective and interesting way. They, themselves contain not only denotations but also connotations. They make language more smoothy and more dynamic. Nowadays, English is an international language so the demand for translating to understand idioms is becoming important. But idioms give us some certain difficulties in translation and communication. Although idioms helps speakers and writers communicate successfully and make language more interesting, they are not easy at all to master and use appropriately. For example, when we say “If I’m late again my Dad will go bananas” (Nếu tôi tới muộn, bố tôi sẽ cáu tiết đấy), we do not mean that the father goes to bananas. Moreover, “anger” is a strong emotion, a feeling that is oriented toward some real or supposed grievance. As a result, the number of idioms of anger is not large but they are being used in everyday comunication. Lastly, this is very new and interesting topic. Idioms interest many linguists but most of those authors only study the aspects of contrastive 1 analysis. The contrastive analysis of idioms has only dealt with English and Vietnamese. This will be mentioned more carefully in the parts “Cognitive linguistic- based classification”, “Some suggestions for teaching and translating English idioms”. We hope that the study will help Vietnamese students learn and translate idioms effectively and fluently. 2.Aims of the study The first aim of the study is to describe English and Vietnamese idioms of anger. The second aim is to help Vietnamese students to understand English idioms meanings based on cognitive linguistics. The third aim is to help translating idioms. Students will have some certain materials to learn and use them. Then, we also give some suggestions to teach and translate idioms. The last aim is to satisfy our interest in translating English idioms of anger. 3.Scope of the study a. Idioms b. English idioms of anger c. Semantic features and characteristics of English idioms of anger d. Some suggestions for teaching an d translating idioms of anger 4. Methods of the study a. Statistic method b. Analysis and systematic method 5. Design of the study PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Reasons for choosing the topic 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Scope of the study 4. Methods of the study 5. Design of the study PART B: CONTENTS Chapter I: Theoretical background Chapter II: Semantic features and classification of English idioms of anger Chapter III: Some suggestions for teaching and translating English idioms of anger PART C: CONCLUSION REFERENCES APPENDIXES 3 PART B: CONTENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1. Definition of idioms 1.1.1. In English In English, “idiom” is a term which has been defined differently by many authors. It can be considered as a type of collocation involving two or more words. According to “English Idioms in Use” of Michael Mc Carthy and Felicity O’Dell, idioms are “expressions which have a meaning that is not obvious from individual words”. For example, when we say “make somebody’s blood boil” we do not mention that something happens with the blood, but we mean that making somebody very angry. Similarly, when we say “send the cat among the pigeons”, we do not mention that the cat is living with the pigeons but what we mean is that someone is getting very angry. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, A S Hornby (2000) defines an idiom as “a group of words whose meaning is different from the meanings of the individual words”. According to Longman Dictionary of English language and culture, an idiom is “a fixed phrase that has its own special meanings and it is impossible to guess the meanings from separated words”. Idioms in English have been defined by Jenifer Seidl and W Mc Mordie (1988) as “a number of words which, when taken together, have a different meaning from the individual meanings of each word”. In conclusion, these linguists have similar opinions about the definition of English idioms. We can understand that an English idiom is a number of 4 certain words, whose meanings are different from the individual meaning of each word it contains. 1.1.2. In Vietnamese According to Hoàng Văn Hành (1994), an idiom is defined as “a stable word group with a solid formation and structure, and a complete and figurative meaning, used in everyday communication, especially in spoken language”. For instance: “Nóng như lửa” (as hot as fire) is used to refer to a person that is very hot- tempered. “Vỡ mạch máu” (burst a blood vessel) is used to refer to a person that is getting very angry. Hoàng Phê (1997), an idiom is considered to be “a set of expression whose meaning is general inexplicable simply through the meanings of individual word it contains”. For example: “đổ thêm dầu vào lửa” (add fuel to the fire) is used to indicate a person who is getting very angry or “mắt như nảy lửa” (give somebody the evil eye) is used to refer to indicate looking at somebody in a very angry, unfriendly or unpleasant way. 1.2. History of idioms study The study of English idioms has been started since the beginning of 20 th century with many famous authors in Europe and America .They gave great contributions to the collection of English idioms such as W. Mc Mordie with “English Idioms and How to Use Them” (published in 1909), is considered as the first linguist to study fully about English idioms. This book defines over 3,000 idioms commonly used in every speech and illustrates them in example sentences. It organizes the idioms by grammatical structures such as idioms with nouns and adjectives, idioms with prepositions; by means of key words 5 for example colors, animals, parts of body; and by special situations including working, travelling, buying and selling… It also includes a comprehensive index so the book is very easy to use. “English Idioms and How to Use Them” is accompanied by two books of exercise: Exercise on Idioms and Exercise on Phrasal Verbs. Besides, there are some considerable works of idioms study such as V. H Collins with two books: “A Book of English Idioms with Explanation” (published in 1958) and “American English Idioms” (published in 1986). Both of them supply readers with many English idioms consisting of explanation and example sentences. Furthermore, other famous authors such as A. P Cowie, R Martin and I. R Cairo published “Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English” in 1994. There are a large number of English idioms in this book. Especially, they are explained and illustrated through specific examples or pictures. So it is very interesting for readers to study. Along with “Oxford Dictionary of Idiomatic English”, teachers and researchers from Cambridge University provide us with “Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms” (published in 1999). They play an important role in the idioms preservation and development. Although idioms study was started later than in Europe and other countries, many Vietnamese linguists show their interest in this difficult field. One of the most famous books is “Kể chuyện thành ngữ, tục ngữ” published in 1991, 1998 with volume 1, 2, 3 by Hoàng Văn Hành, Nguyễn Như Ý and Phan Xuân Thành. This book gives general information of idioms, their origins and formation. It is greatly different from other books because it provides the contexts of culture and language to help readers understand more about idioms origins, contextual and partial meanings. For example, with the idiom “Gương vỡ lại lành”, the authors explain its meaning firstly: healing or 6 reconnecting a broken love then they point out its Chinese origin (Phá kinh trùng viên). Besides, the Chinese love story between Từ Đức Ngôn and Nhạc Xương in Tran’s Dynasty is given to explain this idiom completely. Apart from this book, there are many Vietnamese idioms dictionaries that are very successful in idioms study such as Vũ Dung with “Từ điển thành ngữ và tục ngữ” (published in 1993); Nguyễn Như Ý, Nguyễn Văn Khang and Phan Xuân Thành with “Từ điển thành ngữ Việt Nam” (published in 1993); Việt Chương with “Từ điển thành ngữ và tục ngữ, ca dao Việt Nam” (published in 1999); Nguyễn Lân with “Từ điển thành ngữ và tục ngữ Việt Nam” (published in 1989)… Nguyễn Bích Hằng is very famous for the book “Từ điển thành ngữ- tục ngữ Việt Nam” published in 2007. Basing on Vu Dung’s work, the author collects a huge number of Vietnamese idioms and some ethnic minority’s idioms from Thai, Nung, Tay, Muong… These idioms are translated into Vietnamese. An important part in this book is the explanation of old- fashioned expressions, slangs, Han- Viet words, native language… Besides, the background of culture and language are much paid attention to. Overall, idioms have been studied widely through time in Vietnam as well as abroad. In next part, we will distinguish idioms from free- word groups and proverbs 1.3. Distinction among idioms, free- word groups and proverbs. 1.3.1. Idioms and free- word groups. Up to now, it is very difficult and complex to distinguish idioms from free- word groups. The linguists realize that both idioms and free- word groups are stable structures, but the meaning of free- word group is not united and figurative. So, they focus on two points to distinguish idioms from free- word groups basing on semantic and structure. 7 . CHAPTER II: SEMANTIC FEATURES AND CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH IDIOMS OF ANGER 2.1. Semantic features of English idioms of anger seen from the traditional. features and characteristics of English idioms of anger d. Some suggestions for teaching an d translating idioms of anger 4. Methods of the study a. Statistic