Beside the image of hand in English idioms and tay in Vietnamese equivalents, it is found out that many cultural images of each country appear in the English idiom containing the word hand and Vietname idioms containing the word tay.
4.2.1 The images of actions in the English idioms containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents
The images of actions in English containing the word hand take a large number of percentage in the total idioms. The actions vary and indicate the actions the English usually do everyday such as count, bear, bit, put, blood, eat… for example:
ask: ask for one’s hand
count: be able to count someone or something on one hand bear: bear someone in hand (mang, xách)
bit, feed: the hands that feed one blind: blind someone hand and foot blood: blood on one’s hands
45 eat: eat out of one’s hand
do: do something by hand
Whereas in Vietnamese idioms equivalents, the actions are the actions of agricultural country, for example: bế, bồng, bó, buộc, múa, ném …., accounting for
……, for example:
bế, bồng: tay bồng, tay bế bó: bó chân, bó tay
buộc: buộc chỉ cổ tay chỉ: chỉ tay năm ngón
gảy: gảy móng tay cũng xong gắp: gắp lửa bỏ tay người hớt: hớt tay trên
múa: múa tay trong bị ném: ném đá dấu tay
4.2.2 The images of things in the English idioms containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents
The images of things in the English idioms containing the word hand reveal the things that the English use in an industrial country, a developed country with high living standard and have a cold weather as iron, deck, glove, hat… for example:
deck: all hands on deck iron: an iron hand glove: be hand in glove hat: with hat in hand platter: hand on a platter canoe: handbrake on a canoe
till: have one’s hand in the till (ngăn kéo để tiền) card: have the cards in one’s hand (quân bài)
The images of things in the Vietnamese idioms containing the word tay express the things that the Vietnamese use in an agricultural country, a developing country with lower living standard and have a tropical climate as dao, cờ, thớt, dùi đục, bản chổi, … for example:
dao: chơi dao có ngày đứt tay cờ: cờ đến tay ai người ấy phất
46 thớt: tay dao, tay thớt
tùi đục, bàn chổi: tay dùi đục, chân bàn chổi đũa: mau tay hơn tày đũa
4.2.3 The images of parts of body in the English idioms containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents
Beside hand, one part of the body, there are many images of parts of body in the English idioms containing the word hand, they are foot, palm, mouth, heard, back, … for example:
foot: blind somebody hand and foot, have a hand like a foot palm: have someone eating out of the palm one’s had mouth: live from hand to mouth
heart: put one’s hand in one’s heart
back: with both hands tied behind one’s back
That happens the same in Vietnamese, beside tay, one part of the body, there are many images of parts of body in the 105 Vietnamese idioms equivalents containing the word tay. Because for the Vietnamese, most of them are farmers, therefore, parts of the body are common things mentioned in their proverbs, idioms or sayings. They are tóc, miệng, cổ tay, mắt, chân, vai, trán, … for example:
tóc: bắt tận tay day tận tóc mặt: bắt tận tay day tận mặt cổ tay: bộc chỉ cổ tay
trán: chặt tay day trán, chỉ tay day trán miệng: dang tay mắm miệng
móng tay: gẩy móng tay
mắt: giàu hai con mắt, khó hai bàn tay chân: mạnh chân, khoẻ tay
con mắt, bàn tay: giàu hai con mắt, khó hai bàn tay trán: vung tay qua trán
vai, cánh tay: sẩy vai xuống cánh tay ruột: tay đứt ruột xót
hàm: tay làm hàm nhai
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4.2.4 Other images in the English idioms containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents
Apart from three most popular images in the English idioms containg the word hand, there are some other images, but with less frequency, they are the images of people, for example: make a woman’s hand a prisoner and the hand of God.; the images of substances, for example: have a hand at pastry; the images of place, for example: go to hell in a handcart. Especially, there is not any idiom containing tay indicating the image of three images in Vietnamese idioms equivalents.
Table 4.2 Summary of images in English idioms containg the word hand and their Vietnamese idioms containingg word tay equivalents
No Images English Vietnamese
Frequency % Frequency %
1 Actions 146 84.88 78 57.35
2 Things 14 8.14 18 13.24
3 Parts of body 8 4.65 40 29.41
4 People 2 1.16 0 0.00
5 subtances 1 0.58 0 0.00
6 places 1 0.58 0 0.00
Total 172 100.00 136 100.00
As seen in table 4.2, the images of actions in the English idioms containing the word hand is highest percentage (84,88%) as the same in Vietname equivalents (57,35%). The second rank in English is images of things (8,14), whereas in Vietnamese one is parts of the body (29,41%). The third scale in English is images of parts of the body with 4,65%; meanwhile, in Vietnamese, the third one is the image of things (13,24%). The images of people, subtances and places fluctuate from 0,58 to 1.16, but there is not any idioms containing the word tay in Vietnamese equivalents.
In short, in English, with idioms containing the word hand and in Vietnamese, with idioms containing the word tay equilvants, the most prominent cultural features are the images of action. Because it is universal thing in life.
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