A study on english and vietnamese idioms referring to human personality = (nghiên cứu về thành ngữ anh việt đề cập đến nhân cách con người)

VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT PHAN THỊ TRANG A STUDY ON ENGLISH AND VIETNMESE IDIOMS REFERRING TO HUMAN PERSONALITY (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC THÀNH NGỮ ANH - VIỆT ĐỀ CẬP ĐẾN NHÂN CÁCH CON NGƯỜI) GRADUATION THESIS Field: Linguistics VINH - 2012 VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT A STUDY ON ENGLISH AND VIETNMESE IDIOMS REFERRING TO HUMAN PERSONALITY (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC THÀNH NGỮ ANH - VIỆT ĐỀ CẬP ĐẾN NHÂN CÁCH CON NGƯỜI) GRADUATION THESIS Field: Linguistics Student: Phan Thị Trang, 49A1 English Supervisor: Trần Bá Tiến, M.A VINH - 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people for the completion of this work First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Trần Bá Tiến, M.A for his absolutely indispensable help, expert advice and critical comments without which the work would not have been finished I am grateful to all my lecturers in Foreign languages Department, Vinh University for providing me with useful lectures and valuable documents so that I could have knowledge sources for this thesis I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to people who contributed and who are contributing to this study with guidance and support I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my beloved parents for the blessings, my friends for their help and wishes for the successful completion of this study Finally, I am too all aware that despite all my effort, I feel that the study is far from perfect; it is, therefore, my sole responsibility for any inadequacies and shortcomings that the thesis may have Nghe An, May 10, 2012 Phan Thi Trang i ABSTRACT The indispensable presence of idioms referring to human personality in language system, especially in English and Vietnamese language has urged the author in the study on idioms In this thesis, the author discusses the different concepts, the features of idioms in English and Vietnamese first and then metaphor and concept of personality In addition, the author deals with personality in metaphorical idioms related to animals, plants, heart and heart The author proposes some suggested activities in teaching and learning English idioms referring to personality as well ii ABBREVIATIONS E.g: Exempli gratia (for example) Etc: et cetera iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii ABBREVIATIONS iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Justification of the study Aims of the study Methods of the study Scopes of the study Format of the study PART II: INVESTIGATION Chapter THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Definitions of idioms 1.2 Features of idioms 1.2.1 Semantic feature 1.2.2 Figurative feature 1.2.3 Structural feature 1.3 General view on metaphor 1.3.1 Metaphor 1.3.2 The distinctions between metaphor and simile 10 1.3.3 The distinction between metaphor and metonymy 11 1.4 Concept of personality 11 1.5 Dimensions of personality 13 Chapter ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS REFERRING TO HUMAN PERSONALITY 14 2.1 Personality in metaphorical idioms 14 2.1.1 Personality in metaphorical idioms related to animals 15 iv 2.1.2 Personality in metaphorical idioms related to plants 20 2.2 Personality in metaphorical idioms using human body parts 22 2.2.1 Personality in metaphorical idioms referring to “heart” 23 2.2.2 Personality in metaphorical idioms based referring to “head” 26 Chapter SOME SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH IDIOMS REFERRING TO PERSONALITY 30 3.1 Some rules to consider when teaching English idioms 30 3.1.1 Teaching English idioms in contexts 30 3.1.2 Teaching English idioms with rich illustrations 31 3.1.3 Teaching English idioms by providing some practice activities 31 3.2 Some suggested activities in teaching English idioms referring to human personality 32 PART III: CONCLUSION 39 Recapitulation and Implications 39 Suggestions for Further Studies 39 REFERENCES APPENDIX I APPENDIX II v PART I: INTRODUCTION Justification of the study It is undoubted that English is now becoming an international language and widely used all over the world Almost all books can be written in English In Vietnam, especially in high schools, English is really essential and it is also a compulsory subject to students It can help students widen their knowledge not only in studying all subjects but also in many other fields of life In order to learn English for intercommunication when the world is becoming integrated, ones have to learn much more dimensions than just focusing on grammar Of these important dimensions, idioms are very necessary one for learners to perceive and comprehend It is because idioms reflect accumulated human experiences and are built on frequently occurring situations that demonstrate human behavior, social traits, certain habits or tradition in a country Meaning of idioms generally can not be determined by the knowledge of their components then idioms can be very confusing In some cases, idioms may sound naturally and suitably when a native speaker uses them; however, a non native speaker of English may know their basic meanings but still can not use them appropriately That is why, to know and use idioms like a native speaker, the learners have to understand the meanings and the ways they used in certain situations Due to their special characteristics, idioms are short at length, thus figures used in idioms are various and essential Of the preferred ones, metaphors play a very important role in creating images for idioms and maintaining their survival These can create the vivid images on the listeners’ minds whenever they communicate with speakers who use idioms as a sharp communicative means Personally, the author is always interested in human beings and everything that is considered as human chronic nature, especially personality The way a man reacts to certain situations will tell something about that person, the way a man behaves in communication will secrete something in his personality To some certain extents, each individual is unique but in some other extents man has something similar to others when comparing themselves with other individuals For the above reasons, the author decides to profoundly work on the topic: “A study on English and Vietnamese idioms referring to human personality” with an ambition to give the readers a new look on idioms in the angle of human personality In this thesis, the author does not wish to cover all metaphors that referring to human personality but the idioms that use animals, plants and some human body parts as the compared figures in implying personality Aims of the study The thesis has been carried out with the aims to: - Emphasize the importance role of figures in English and Vietnamese idioms, especially the figures in metaphorical idioms referring to human personality - Figure out the figures of idioms referring to human personality - Give some suggested activities for teaching and learning English idioms referring to human personality Methods of the study This thesis has been carried out by combining some methods: - Materials and information collecting - Analytic and synthetic method - Descriptive method Scopes of the study The author has no ambition to cover all kinds of personality that human beings may have or all metaphorical idioms that refer to personality The thesis only focuses on: Personality mentioned in metaphorical idioms related to animals and plants and the ones referring to “heart” and “head” Idioms available in some books such as: “Oxford idioms: Dictionary for learners of English (2006), Oxford university Press, “Vietnamese idioms” Nguyễn Lực & Lương Văn Đang (1978) and some other books Format of the study The thesis includes three main parts PART I: INTRODUCTION This part introduces the justification, aims, methods, scopes and format of the study PART II: INVESTIGATION In this part, chapter provides the theoretical background which is considered the ground for the thesis; chapter gives idioms referring to human personality in the angel of metaphor related to animals, plants, heart and head And chapter gives some suggested activities for teaching and learning English idioms referring to human personality PART III: CONCLUSION summarizes what has been discussed so far and also provides practical applications and some suggestions for further study Chapter SOME SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH IDIOMS REFERRING TO PERSONALITY It is difficult for English native speakers to master English idioms, let alone English foreign language learners because the figurative meanings of English idioms cannot be predicted through an analysis of their individual word meanings However, idioms are common in our daily life and provide a rich source of cultures Nippold and Martin (1989:59) stressed, “Failure to grasp the meanings of idioms can impinge upon an individual’s understanding of language in social, academic, and vocational settings” Apparently, teaching English learners to use English idioms is considerably critical for teachers; especially teaching English idioms referring to personalities to help students know how to use them in describing people In addition, we see that at the age of going to high school most of students can take notes, or create semantic maps for writing; however, they often not use the new words or concepts taught in class Thus, we give some suggested activities for teaching English idioms to high school students in order that they can not only learn them effectively but also apply them practically In this chapter, we focus on some rules to teach English idioms for learners and propose some detailed activities 3.1 Some rules to consider when teaching English idioms 3.1.1 Teaching English idioms in contexts The role of context is central in language learning It’s common that most students not really understand the various meanings of new words in different contexts That’s why students not know how to apply the words they have learned practically in various contexts Similarly, to learn idioms and use them effectively in writing and speaking is very important and it is 30 necessary to learn them in the contexts It’s fundamental for teachers to provide a rich context for students’ language learning and practice For instance, to give students contextual information to enhance their interpretation of idioms The contextual cues surrounding a particular word can help readers get that’s meaning In teaching idioms the rule is similar; that is, the teacher should try to provide students a wide variety of context to help them acquire idioms effectively 3.1.2 Teaching English idioms with rich illustrations Although there is lingering debate regarding the effect of visuals on reading comprehension, some researchers claim that reading materials accompanied by visuals will be more comprehensible For example, Scarcella and Oxford (1992) stressed that teachers need to illustrate key vocabulary effectively by showing pictures and diagrams so as to improve students’ reading comprehension (p 107) Mayer (1999) found that words and pictures presented together helped students recall better than alone It is efficient to provide interesting pictures to foster and reinforce vocabulary development Consequently, visuals must be stimulating, interesting and motivating to students’ comprehension and retention of reading 3.1.3 Teaching English idioms by providing some practice activities In the daily life students not have the opportunity to practise their idioms Thus, their knowledge of idioms seems to vanish when time goes by Providing some activities for students to practise their English idioms is essential in language learning Activities for practice should be prepared with a variety of types: such as - Matching game - Gap - filling exercise - Conversation - Guessing the meaning - Group discussion, etc 31 3.2 Some suggested activities in teaching English idioms referring to human personality In this part, we propose some activities which should be carried out steps by steps to get effect Activity 1: Provide the context In order to introduce the idioms effectively, teacher should introduce them in contexts Training students to infer meaning from context and to deal with figurative speech enables them to generalize beyond those idioms which they have learned and to understand idioms which they have never encountered before In order to help students understand the meanings and parts of speech of idioms used Teacher give idioms in the context of words Read the short paragraphs with some sentences containing idioms the teacher is going to teach in front of the class For example: The teacher has to teach the following idioms: The black sheep of the family A wolf in sheep’s clothing A snake in the grass Crocodile tears Have a heart of gold Have one’s head in the clouds Suggested contexts to introduce these idioms: My older brother is the black sheep of the family He’s always getting into trouble and nobody can trust him I like my new friend Marty, but my sister is not sure about him She said “You need to be careful of Marty He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing” My father often gave me advice: “Son”, he’s usually to say, always to be honest and true Don’t be a snake in the grass, sneaking around and deceiving others It will get you nowhere If you act that way You are bound to be caught someday 32 In his friend’s funeral, his cries were only crocodile tears Inwardly, he must have been happy Marry adopted five children from an orphanage She really has a heart of gold A: I hope to be to be rich by the time I am 30 B: How old are you now? A: 29 B: Wow, you have your head in the clouds! That’s going to be impossible! Activity 2: Guessing the meanings through the context After providing contexts for students to get to know the idioms, teacher should give students another activity that can help them figure out their meanings Teacher may give students multiple choice questions “The black sheep of the family” means: A Someone who likes to herb black sheep B The most disliked or troublesome member of a family C The member of a family who stands out the most “A wolf in sheep’s clothing” means: A A wolf that likes to dress in sheepskins B A person that likes to dress well but is actually harmless C A person who pretends to be good but is actually really bad “A snake in the grass” means: A A person who seems nice but is really an evil person underneath B A person who likes to walk in the grass C A person who looks like a snake “Crocodile tears” means: A Someone who cries a lot B Someone pretends to cry in an attempt to show his sorrow that is not real 33 C A crocodile cries for himself Someone who “has a heart of gold” is a person who is: A very rich B generous, sincere, and friendly C sick A person who “has his head in the clouds” is a person who is: A generous and kind B romantic and easy-going C unrealistic or even naive Activity 3: The nouns in the idioms have been mixed up, find the right combination In this activity, teacher should give sentences with mixed up combination Then ask students to find and correct the idioms In this way, teacher can help students remember exactly what the order of the idiom is The beautiful woman cried tiger tears when the policeman tried to give her a ticket for driving too quickly “She may look cute, but that girl is a dog in sheep’s clothing” John is talking about winning the lottery He has his nose in the clouds again Be careful what you tell your new friend Aleja said he's a sheep in the grass John is the black wolf of the family He is currently serving years in jail for stealing a car Alexander has a heart of stone and always thinks of others before himself Activity 4: Fill in the blank with the right idioms In this activity, teacher should give students some sentences with blanks and ask them to fill in the blank with the right idioms 34 If someone who appears friendly and nice or harmless but is really dangerous We call him ……… If you are sneaky and scheming, what kind of creature are you and where are you hiding ? If someone cries ……………, they pretend to be upset or affected by something If someone has a kind and helpful nature, even though it is not always obvious, they must have ……… If someone is different from the rest of their family or another group and considered bad or embarrassing, they are …………… if someone is not realistic because they are always thinking of their hopes, ideas, dream, etc They have………… Activity 5: Production In this activity, teacher divides the class into groups of students Ask each group to make their stories, conversations using more than one idiom and prepare to talk in front of the class In this activity, students have to make the idiom clear in their stories or conversations If the listeners can not understand, explanation is essential Activity 6: Game This is an extra activity but it can help students consolidate the idioms they have learned In this game, teacher will show some pictures or some clues having contents closely related to the idioms that students have learned Students have to try to guess the idioms in the exact words or exact order of the words Anyone who has correct answer can be rewarded For example: Guess the idioms based on the pictures: 35 Picture Picture 36 Picture Picture 37 Picture Picture 38 PART III: CONCLUSION Recapitulation and Implications Idioms, as a part of the culture of a country, play an important role not only in the development of the country itself but also the communication with other countries Of this treasure, metaphorical idioms referring to human personality are various and account for indispensable part in the idiom treasure in English and Vietnamese language Within the scope of the graduation thesis, this study has just covered idioms referring personality in metaphorical idioms related to animals, plants and idioms using “head” and “heart” It can be seen from this study that personalities which described through the use of metaphor related to animals, plants and parts of human body account for a certain part in idioms This give a general view on how these personalities reflected in idioms and the way people look on animals and plants and man in the angle of reflecting personalities The use of metaphor is one of the most important aspects of idiomatic style that should be mastered Human personality reflected lively and vividly It can be seen through the analysis of materials that human personality described in a variety of qualities through the way referring to animals, plants and human body parts Therefore, learners of English can master English idioms effectively only when this treasure taught in a logic system where there is a rich supply of contexts, illustrations and necessary practice Suggestions for Further Studies Within the limit of the thesis, the author can not cover the whole of idioms that referring to human personality Therefore, in the scope of referring to human personality, there are some further studies considered: A study on personality in English and Vietnamese proverbs referring to animals and plants Similes used in English and Vietnamese idioms referring to personalities 39 REFERENCES In English: A.P Cowfe, R Mackin & I.R Mc Caig (1993) Oxford dictionary of English idioms New York: Mc Graw- Hill Lan, Lê Thị (2010) A study of English and Vietnamese idioms of anger (Graduation Thesis) Nghe An: Vinh University Press Laurent, H (2008) Personality: How to build it Maryland: Wildside Press Như Quỳnh, Nguyễn Thị (2004) A contrastive study between English and Vietnamese idioms of colours embodying metaphors (Graduation thesis) Nghe An: Vinh university Press Oxford advanced learner’s Dictionary, Oxford University Press Phụng, Bùi (1997) Dictionary of Vietnamese English idioms and proverbs explained Ho Chi Minh: Culture Publishing House (2006) Oxford idioms Dictionary for learners of English New York: Mc Graw-Hill In Vietnamese: Hòe, Lê Tài (2002) Hình ảnh vật tâm thức người Việt qua thành ngữ, tục ngữ, ca dao (Master thesis) Nghe An: Vinh University Press Lân, Nguyễn (1997) Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam Hanoi: Science and society Publishing House Lực, Nguyễn & Đang, Lương Văn (1978) Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt Hanoi: Science and Society Publishing House Ý, Nguyễn Như Hành,Hoàng Văn & Thại, Lê Xuân (1998) Từ điển giải thích thành ngữ Tiếng Việt Hanoi: Education Publishing House Websites: http://www.google.com.vn/ http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Wu-TeachingIdioms.html http://www.wikipedia.org/ APPENDIX I Metaphorical idioms related to animals (In English) No Idioms Personality implied The black sheep of the family Different from other members, bad Act/play the goat Irresponsible Hold with the hare and hunt with Fraudulent, deceptive the hound Have butterflies in one’s stomach Nervous All his geese are swans Proud-hearted Ants in one’s pants Impatient To make an ass of oneself Ridiculous Lion’s skin Superficial Make a pig of oneself Greedy 10 Play cat and mouse Unexpected in behaviour 11 Not harm/hurt a fly Kind, gentle 12 Have bats in one’s belfry Oddish 13 The cat’s whiskers Self-content 14 Throw somebody to the wolves Aloof 15 Cat in the pan Betrayal 16 Paper tiger Cowardly Metaphorical idioms related to animals (In Vietnamese) No Idioms Ba hoa chích chịe Boastful, talkative Bọ chó múa bấc Incapable but pretend to be Ăn cá bỏ lờ Thankless Ăn cướp cơm chim Heartless, callous Đầu trâu, mặt ngựa Aggressive Hàm chó vó ngựa Maligning Mặt người thú Wicked Mặt sứa gan lim Determined Ngựa non háu đá Arrogant 10 Trơ mắt ếch Brassy 11 Gan cóc tía Brave, dauntless 12 Cóc mọc lơng nách Proud 13 Bắt cá hai tay Fraudulent, flirtatious 14 Personality implied Con rô tiếc diếc Greedy muốn 15 Thắt cổ mèo treo cổ chó Mean, stingy 16 Ngựa non háu đá Proud, overbold 17 Hùm tinh đỏ mỏ Cruel Miệng cọp gan thỏ Cowardly 18 Miệng hùm gan sứa 19 Có dại cắn càn Bold, 20 Chó ghẻ có mỡ đằng Snobbish Chó chê mèo lơng Criticize others while they Lươn ngắn chê chạch dài make 21 the themselves 22 Miệng hùm nọc rắn Totally cruel mistake 23 24 Mèo mả gà đồng Immoral Mèo đàng chó điếm Dishonest, sly Cá mè lứa 25 Châu chấu đá voi Daring 26 Chó dại cắn càn Fierce 27 Mèo khen mèo dài đuôi Proud, boastful 28 Hăng máu vịt Hotheaded, 29 Vểnh râu trê/ vểnh râu cáo Self-content, Tầm ngầm đấm chết voi Close-mouthed but able to 30 31 difficult things Cõng rắn cắn gà nhà Betray Metaphorical idioms related to plants (In Vietnamese) No Idioms Personalities implied Ba que xỏ Tricky Chanh chua khế chua People with same bad nature Vùi liễu dập hoa Ruthless (towards woman) Ăn mít bỏ xơ Irresponsible Già trái, non hột Timid (inside) Húng mọc tía tơ mọc Snobbish, clubby Dây lang bị rau muống bị Mượn gió bẻ măng A person who take chance to another Vắt chanh bỏ vỏ Thankless, irresponsible harm APPENDIX II Suggested answers for the activities provided: Activity 2: B C A B B C Activity 3: tiger tears - crocodile tears a dog- a wolf nose - head sheep- snake wolf- sheep stone- gold Activity 4: a wolf in sheep’s clothing a snake in the grass crocodile tears a heart of gold the black sheep of the family their head in the clouds Activity 6: Picture1: crocodile tears Picture 2: a wolf in the sheep’s clothing Picture 3: snake in the grass Picture 4: have a heart of gold Picture 5: has one’s head in the clouds Picture 6: the black sheep of the family ... UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT A STUDY ON ENGLISH AND VIETNMESE IDIOMS REFERRING TO HUMAN PERSONALITY (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC THÀNH NGỮ ANH - VIỆT ĐỀ CẬP ĐẾN NHÂN CÁCH CON NGƯỜI) GRADUATION THESIS... have or all metaphorical idioms that refer to personality The thesis only focuses on: Personality mentioned in metaphorical idioms related to animals and plants and the ones referring to “heart”... such as imagination and insight, and those high in this trait also tend to have a broad range of interests 13 Chapter ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS REFERRING TO HUMAN PERSONALITY 2.1 Personality