Semantic features of english and vietnamese idioms of happiness and sadness

VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------ ------ SUMMARY OF GRADUATION THESIS SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS OF HAPPINESS AND SADNESS: A COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE (Đặc trưng ngữ nghĩa của thành ngữ chỉ niềm vui và nỗi buồn trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt nhìn từ góc độ ngôn ngữ học tri nhận) FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Supervisor: Trần Bá Tiến, M.A Student :Nguyễn Thị Lâm, 47A1 Vinh, 2010 Acknowledgments i For the accomplishment of this study, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people I wish to thank. First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Tran Ba Tien, M.A, for his absolutely indispensable assistance, excellent suggestions, expert advice and detail critical comments, without which the work would not have been complete. Secondly, I would like to express my gratitude to all my lectures of Department of Foreign Languages for advising and supporting me during my study. Thirdly, I want to show my deep gratitude and faithful thanks to all my friends who help and encourage me enthusiastically. In addition, my warmest thanks are due to my loving family for their unconditional love, support and forbearance. Finally, I aware that despite all advice and assistance, I feel that the project is by no means perfect; therefore, it is my sole responsibility for any inadequacies and shortcomings that thesis may be considered to have. Vinh, May 2010 Nguyen Thi Lam TABLE OF CONTENTS ii Page Acknowledgement i Table of contents .ii PART A: INTRODUCTION .1 1. Rationale .1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Scope of the study .2 4 .Method of the study 2 5. Design of the study .2 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4 Chapter 1 – Theoretical background .4 1.1 Definition of idioms 4 1.2. Features of English idioms .5 1.3. Criteria to distinguish idioms from free-word groups, saying and proverbs .6 1.4. History of studying idioms in English and Vietnamese .8 1.5. Idioms of emotion 9 1.5.1 Definition .9 1.5.1.1. Concept of emotion 9 1.5.1.2. Concept of happiness .10 1.5.1.3. Concept of sadness .11 1.5.2. Cognitive linguistics 12 1.5.3. Metaphor and conceptual metaphor 13 1.5.3.1 .Metaphor 13 1.5.3.2. Conceptual metaphor .14 1.5.4 Metonymy 16 1.5.5. Conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy with emotion .17 Chapter 2: Semantic features of the English idioms of happiness and sadness in comparison with Vietnamese counterparts 18 2.1. Happiness .18 iii 2.1.1. Metaphors of happiness .18 2.1.1.1. Conceptual metaphors of happiness are applicable in both English and Vietnamese idioms 18 2.1.1.2. Conceptual metaphors of happiness are only applicable in English idioms .26 2.1.1.3. Conceptual metaphors of sadness are only applicable in Vietnamese idioms .29 2.1.2. Conceptual metonymies of happiness .31 2.2. Sadness .34 2.2.1. Metaphors of sadness 34 2.2.1.1 Conceptual metaphors of sadness are applicable in both English and Vietnamese idioms .34 2.2.1.2. Conceptual metaphors of sadness are only applicable in English idioms .36 2.2.1.3. Conceptual metaphors of sadness are only applicable in Vietnamese idioms .38 2.2.2. Conceptual metonymies of sadness .40 Chapter 3: Some suggestions for teaching and learning English and Vietnamese idioms of happiness and sadness 43 3.1. Recognizing conceptual metaphor from group of idioms 43 3.2. Guessing meaning based on knowledge of native idioms 44 3.3. Using idioms in context .45 PART C: CONCLUSION 46 References Appendix iv PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE All languages in the world have vocabulary and idioms; therefore the more vocabulary is, the more idioms are. Idiom is a popular and useful way of language expression in both speaking and writing. They are considered an attractive and common phenomenon of every language. Palmer (1990) described that they are expressions whose meanings can not be inferred from the meaning of its parts. Idioms seem to act too much like normal language, but they are quite different in many ways. They represent a rich vein in language behavior, so they cry out for explanation. An idiom that is the combination of figurative words often suggests a comparison to help us act abstract conceptions through concrete subject for understanding it. By using idioms, sentences are glossy and figurative that makes conversation or speech interesting and variable in meaning transformed. As the true meaning of the idiom generally can not be determined by the knowledge of its components, idioms may make us feel confused. In many case, idioms sound naturally and fit occasion by native speaker using, whereas, a non-native speaker of English may know the basic meaning but still can not use it appropriately. Therefore, understanding meaning of idioms and the way using them is very important of learning one language. Idioms can be taken from many sources of life, among which idioms of happiness and sadness turn out to be a big group which becomes the topic of my thesis, as I am interested in the way English and Vietnamese people use these idioms to satisfy their need in daily communication. Idioms have been the topics that are concerned about over the years by many linguists and researchers. There have been many investigations into idioms with certain linguistic units such as color terms, number terms, culture terms, or human being terms and so on. There are also non-count writings about idioms in term of adjective phrases, noun phrases or verb phrases, etc. many aspects of idioms are offered and studied. With my interest in idioms, I take “Semantic features of English and 1 Vietnamese idioms of happiness and sadness: A cognitive linguistic perspective” as my topic for this thesis. In my study, I want to improve the knowledge of idioms for English students, especially with this aspect. Idioms are described particularly in a variety of situation to compare. In my thesis, I will show more deeply about semantic characteristics of English and Vietnamese idioms related to happiness and sadness. 2. AIMS OF THE STUDY The first aim of this study is to help learners to improve the knowledge of idioms, especially idioms of happiness and sadness. Secondly, this thesis aims to assist the learners to be aware of the differences and similarity between English and Vietnamese idioms of happiness and sadness. The third aim is to motivate the learners of English to obtain the semantic aspect of these idioms in English and Vietnamese. In addition, the study identifies and describes these idioms in culture, custom and tradition of two countries. The final aim is to give some suggestions for learning and teaching idioms of happiness and sadness. 3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY - Idioms of happiness and sadness in English and Vietnamese. - Semantics of English idioms of happiness and sadness in comparison with the Vietnamese counterparts in the view of cognitive linguistics 4. METHOD OF THE STUDY - Statistic method - Contrastive and comparative method - Analytic and synthetic method 5. DESIGN OF THE STUDY Part A – introduction 2 1. Rationale 2. Aims of the study 3. Scope of the study 4. Method of the study 5. Design of the study Part B – Development Chapter 1- Theoretical background Chapter 2- Semantic features of the English idioms of happiness and sadness in comparison with Vietnamese counterparts. Chapter 3- Some suggestions for teaching and learning English idioms of happiness and sadness Part C- Conclusion Reference Appendix 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1 – Theoretical background 1.1. Definition of idioms An idiom is a combination of words and functions as a single unit. These words are taken from the general vocabulary of a given language. To have true concepts for this aspect of language, many linguists both in English and Vietnamese try to define the term “idiom” in many ways. In English, idioms may be treated as a type of collocation involving two or more words in context. However, since the meaning of an idiom can not be predicted from the meaning of its constituents, idioms may be considered as a type of multi-word lexeme. In most general term, an idiom may be defined as “a phrase and meaning of which can not predicted from the individual meaning of the morpheme it comprises” (Howard Jackson and Etiene’ze’ A’nivela, 2002:66). An idiom also is defined by Johnathan Crowth (1995) as “a phrase whose meaning is difficult or sometimes impossible to guess by looking at the individual word it contains (from Advance Learner’s Dictionary). In English, idioms also have been defined by Jennifer Seild and W.Mc.Mordie (1988) as “a number of words which, when taken together, have different meaning from the individual meaning of each word”. Therefore, an idiom is a multi-word construction that is a semantic unit whose meaning can not deducted from the meaning of constituents and has a non-productive syntactic structure. For example, when we say “kicked the bucket”, it does not imply that they necessary hit a certain type of container for liquid with their foot, what it means is that they “died” in English, expression “to kick the bucket”, a listener knowing only the meaning of kick and bucket would be unable to deduce the expression actual meaning, which is to die. Although it can refer literally to the act of string a specific bucket with a foot, native speakers rarely use it that way. Thus, idioms are not literal expressions. They are fixed expressions and they can be syntactic phrases or sentences. In Viet Nam, according to Hoang Van Hanh (1994), an idiom is defined as “a stable word group with solid information and structure, and a complete and figurative meaning used in everyday communication, especially in spoken language”. For 4 example, trên chín tầng mây (on cloud nine) or như ở trên mây (in seventh heaven) are used to refer a person who is very happy, or “khóc đứng khóc ngồi” (sob your heart out) refer to a person who cries nosily for a long time because you are very sad. Phan Van Que in “Ngữ nghĩa của thành ngữ, tục ngữ có thành tố chỉ động vật trong tiếng anh” (1996) defined idiom as “a group of words combined together to express something whose meaning is different from its constituent”. Hoang Phe (1997), an idiom is considered to be “a set of expression whose meaning is generally inexplicable simply through the meaning of individual word it contains”. Although idioms are defined in different ways, they still have things in common that can help us understand what an idiom is. These definitions are clues for us to identify idioms in using and studying. 1.2. Features of English idioms: An idiom is a multiword expression. Individual components of an idiom can often be reflected in the same way individual words in a phrase can be inflected. This inflection usually follows the same pattern of inflection as the idiom’s literal counterpart. For instance, idiom “have a bee in one’ bonnet” can be put in sentence like this “he has bees in his bonnet”. In this case, “a bee” from singular can be change into plural “bees”. An idiom behaves as a single semantic unit. It can be often be replaced by a literal counterpart that is made up of a single word. For example, “kick the bucket” means “die”. An idiom resists interruption by the other word whether they are semantically compatible or not. We can not change idiom “put one’s leg” like this “pull hard on one’ leg” or “pull on one’ left leg”. It also resists reordering of it component parts. For example, “let the cat out of the bag” can not be reordered “the cat got out of the bag”. An idiom has a non-productive syntactic structure. Only single particular lexemes can collocate in an idiom construction. Substituting other words from the same lexical relation set will destroy idiomatic meaning of expression. For instance, we can not say “kick the pail” instead of “kick the bucket” although bucket and pail are synonyms. 5 We can not say “eat one’s sentence” or “swallow one’s word” instead of idiom “eat one’s words”. Therefore, what is and what is not an idiom is a master of degree (Fernando and Flavell, 1981). For instance, “make up a story”, “make up a fire”, “make up one’s face”. The first expression is used in its literal meaning; the second is a partial meaning, while the last is full idiomatic. According to Howard Jackson and Etiemne’ Ze’Anivela (1995) in book “Words, Meaning and Vocabulary”, idioms may be characterized by several features but they may be summarized under 2 main heading: ambiguity, and syntactic peculiarities. Since most idioms are constructed from morphemes, that are also used non- idiomatically. They may either a literal or an idiomatic meaning. Hence, they are ambiguity. Idioms also have special syntactic properties that can distinguish them from word phrases, proverbs, collocates, etc. 1.3. Criteria to distinguish idioms from free-word groups, sayings and proverbs: Idioms are often difficult to distinguish from free-word groups, sayings, especially proverbs because all of them are stable structure. We have some characters to realize them. With free-word groups and sayings, this seems to be easier to recognize them. Free-word group is a short of words which are often used together or a sequence of two or more words arranged in a grammatical construction and acting as a single unit in sentence as the underlined expressions: - We are going to the White house. (used as a noun phrase of the sentence) - This green house belongs to a famous player. (used as a noun and subject of the sentence) Two criteria for distinguish free word groups from idioms: Firstly, there is the semantic difference of two word groups of the same constituents, and secondly meaning of free-word group is not united and figurative. However, according to Autrushina (1995), structure variability is one of essential features to distinguish idioms from free-word groups: firstly, idioms have restriction in the substitution 6