A study of idioms about weather in english and vietnamese from a perspective of components

It is conducted with the hope of finding out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms about weather in terms of structural and semantic components.. However

HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES -

GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

A STUDY OF IDIOMS ABOUT WEATHER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM A

PERSPECTIVE OF COMPONENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ THÀNH NGỮ VỀ CHỦ ĐỀ THỜI TIẾT TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT TRÊN

BÌNH DIỆN HỢP PHẦN)

Supervisor: Do Phuc Huong, PhD

Student: Pham Thu Hue Student number: 11317137

Hung Yen – 2021

HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES -

GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

A STUDY OF IDIOMS ABOUT WEATHER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM A PERSPECTIVE OF COMPONENTS

Student: Pham Thu Hue Student number: 11317137 Supervisor: Do Phuc Huong, PhD

(ký tên)

Hung Yen – 2021

DECLARATION

I, the undersigned, hereby certify that the study entitled “A study of idioms about weather in English and Vietnamese from a perspective of components” is the result of my own research and has not been submitted to any other universities or institutions Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Signature

Pham Thu Hue

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from my supervisor, teachers and closest relatives

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mrs Do Phuc Huong,

my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher

I am also grateful to all my teachers at the Faculty of Foreign Language in Hung Yen university of Technology and Education to give me an opportunity and the best conditions

Learning a foreign language is not simply to interpret and communicate but brings learners more than they can see Each language has its own particular features and values among which idioms mentionable Idiomatic expressions are undoubtedly encountered in almost every day conversations, newspapers, magazines, TVs or radios Idioms are used to express ideas in figurative styles They bring the vividness and richness to the speakers' speeches This is the reason why the more skillfully a person use idioms in his

conversations, the more effectively he can establish his communicative relationship One more important thing is that the general present tendencies are towards idiomatic usage; therefore, knowing how to use idioms effectively in the right situations is becoming essential Therefore, this thesis aims at analyzing the structural and semantic components

of idioms in English and Vietnamese It is conducted with the hope of finding out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms about weather in terms of structural and semantic components The findings of the study, to some extent, help the teachers and the learners have a better understanding of English and Vietnamese languages through the idioms Data used for analysis in this study are mainly collected from books and dictionaries Componential analysis, describing, comparing and

contrasting, experimental research are regarded as the main methods used in the present study

Contents

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale: 1

1.2 Aims of the study: 2

1.3 Research question: ……… 2

1.4 Scope of the study: 3

1.5 Significance of the study: 3

1.6 Methodology: 3

1.6.1 Major Methods: 3

1.6.2 Data Collection Techniques: 3

1.6.3 Data Analysis Techniques: 4

1.7 Design of the study: 4

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Previous research: 5

2.1.1 Definitions of idioms: 5

2.1.3 Previous research works on idioms in Vietnamese: 8

2.2 Theoretical background: 9

2.2.1 Syntactic and Semantic Features of Idioms: 9

2.2.2 Classification of idioms: 12

2.2.3 Idioms and other language units: 15

2.3 Summary: 16

CHAPTER 3 THE STUDY OF IDIOMS BY WEATHER IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 17

3.1 Structural Components of Idioms by weather in English and Vietnamese: 17

3.1.1 Symmetrical idioms: 17

3.1.2 Similized idioms: 18

3.1.3 Non-symmetrical idioms: 19

References: I

CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION 21

4.1 Recapitulation: 21

4.2 Concluding remarks: 21

4.3 Limitations of the Study: 22

conversations One of the reasons for these problems lies in the way people perceive and use idioms

Idioms can be considered as an attractive and popular phenomenon of every

language They are able to be used to indicate the speakers' intention more

interestingly and more persuasively than individual words do It is the reason why idioms, a special part of a language, seem to be the familiar elements which occur not only in daily conversations but also in literature works People are likely familiar with idioms which are used to express ideas in an attractive and figurative way Therefore, understanding the meanings of idiomatic expressions is essential and useful for

English users Traditionally, the meanings of idioms are quite implicit, and they

usually derive from unusual forms, stylistic devices and conventional knowledge From cognitive view, the meanings of idioms can be analyzable or at least motivated from its component parts

Although idioms are not easy to comprehend, it is not necessary for learners to disregard idioms in studying languages because idioms are an unseparated element of

a language and so common in daily use In the process of communication, we

sometimes come cross some expressions that we can't understand although we can comprehend the meaning of their every single word It seems that the main reason why

we cannot understand what these sentences are about lies in the low level of linguistic competence of idioms and the way we analyze the components of idioms

Several linguists have given a lot of definitions about an idiom basing on its fixed characteristics For example, "An idiom is a fixed group of words with a special different meaning from the meaning of several words" (Dictionary of English Idioms, 1979) Sharing the same point of view, Hoàng Văn Hành (2002) considered an idiom

as a fixed group of words which is firm in terms of structure, complete and figurative

in terms of meaning, and is widely used in daily speaking

In fact, there have been many studies on idioms containing such topics as food, weather, animals, colors, etc However, as a teacher of English, the need of improving

my English idiom teaching and learning urges me to conduct the thesis entitled “A study of idioms about weather in English and Vietnamese from component

perspective” to find out the similarities and differences between English and

Vietnamese in terms of idioms containing the words denoting weather from the

component perspective

1.2 Aims of the study:

The study is conducted to improve the English teaching and learning in general and idiom teaching and learning in particular The findings of the study, to some extent, help the teachers and the learners have a better understanding of English and

Vietnamese languages through the idioms about weather

In order to achieve the aim, the study is expected to reach the following objectives:

- To uncover how the components of idioms about weather are organized structurally and semantically in English and Vietnamese;

- To find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms about weather in terms of structural and semantic components

1.3 Research Questions:

The objectives of the study can be elaborated into the research questions as follows:

1 How are the components of idioms by weather organized structurally and

semantically in English and Vietnamese?

2 What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by weather in terms of structural and semantic components?

1.4 Scope of the study:

I myself have found idioms such an interesting English aspect that is chosen as the topic

of the study Idioms in both English and Vietnamese have been investigated from several different points of view However, due to the limited time and knowledge, the author only focuses on English and Vietnamese idioms by weather from component perspective The idioms in the present study are collected from dictionaries, books available in English and Vietnamese

1.5 Significance of the study:

Theoretically, the findings of the study, to some extent, prove that the components forming idioms can be analyzed from both structural and semantic perspectives The idioms about weather are quite popular in both English and Vietnamese; therefore, the investigation is highly reliable in terms of theoretical framework suggested Practically, with the purpose of making a study on the components of idioms by weather in English and Vietnamese, the study will be able to provide Vietnamese learners of English with better mastering how to apply this kind of idioms in sensible ways and how to understand the meanings of idioms thoroughly, effectively and naturally

1.6 Methodology:

1.6.1 Major Methods:

Due to the main aims and objectives of the study, description, componential analysis, contrastive exploitation and experimental method would be mainly carried out throughout the process Also, the thesis makes use of the English language as the target and the

Vietnamese one as the source language (the base language)

1.6.2 Data Collection Techniques:

During the process of investigating materials from various sources, the structural and semantic components of idioms by weather in English and Vietnamese are described and analyzed Then, techniques such as comparison, transformation, and contrastive analysis are applied in a quick-minded and active way to find out a general picture about the idioms about weather in both languages Due to the results achieved, the author takes a careful contrastive analysis to find out the similarities and differences between English and

Vietnamese idioms by weather in terms of structural and semantic components Basing on the main findings, an experimental investigation is carried out in order to find out how effective the componential analysis apply to idiom teaching and learning

The sources for the analysis are from materials and references written by linguists in English and in Vietnamese as well as some bilingual reference books available in Vietnam This will help to make clear both the similarities and the differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of idioms by weather

1.6.3 Data Analysis Techniques:

English and Vietnamese idioms about weather are investigated in two aspects: structural and semantic components Due to this, the author tries to find out the similarities and

differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of idioms by weather Description and comparison are carried in the order of different groups of subjects by using some techniques such as contrastive analysis, componential analysis, transformable analysis and statistics Moreover, frequent talks with the supervisor, lecturers and experts on the field have proved to be a very useful method for the completion of the study Also, the study is carried out on the basis of the author's personal experience

1.7 Design of the study:

The study consists of five chapters, in addition to the appendices and the references

Chapter 1: Introduction, contains the rationale, the aims and objectives, the research questions, the scope, the contributions, the methodology, and the design of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review, is formed by two main parts: a review of previous

research works, and a review of theoretical background

Chapter 3: The study of idioms by weather in English and in Vietnamese, is divided into two main parts: structural components of idioms by weather in English and in

Vietnamese, and semantic components of idioms by weather in English and in Vietnamese

Chapter 4: The last part, is the conclusion which includes the concluding remarks and some recapitulation of the study as well as the suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review is divided into two main parts The first part presents and discusses the previous research works on idioms in English and in Vietnamese The second one gives a review of theoretical background of idioms in English and in Vietnamese on which the whole research has been based

2.1 Previous research:

2.1.1 Definitions of idioms:

Words have their own meanings They, however, do not just come individually; they also come in expressions or in groups Idioms are among the most common of these expressions And it is impossible to master a language without learning idioms a very important part of the language What is an idiom? The question may have several answers

Many linguists such as Robins (1989), Palmer (1981) and others regard idioms as a special kind of collocation The meaning of an idiom, however, cannot be deduced from the meaning of its constituents An idiom is distinguished from a collocation, for

a collocation is a sequence of lexical items which habitually co-occur and each lexical constituent of a collocation is a semantic component Hornby (1995) argued in his Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, an idiom is "a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit" Sharing the same point of view, Seidl and Mordie (1988) defined "an idiom is a number of words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words of the idiom when they stand alone"

For instance, the collocation of kick and the bucket forms an idiom meaning die, which is not systematically determinable from the meanings of kick and the bucket This idiom or phrasal lexeme is formally identical with the phrase kick the bucket whose meaning is systematically determinable on the basis of the meaning of the lexemes of which it is composed – hit a certain type of container for liquids with their foot

In Vietnamese, a great variety of definitions of idioms are also given

Nguyễn Văn Mệnh (1972) and Đỗ Hữu Châu (1981) suppose that idioms are

available linguistic units which have stable structures, typical meanings and

nominative functions

Having the same viewpoint, Nguyễn Đức Dân (1986) defines that an idiom is a fixed group of words having a complete meaning and descriptive value To make it clearer, he also adds that idioms express concepts based on separated images It is the reason why idioms usually have their own figurative meanings For example, the phrase “cành vàng lá ngọc” (descendants of kings, aristocrats) is considered as an idiom because its idiomatic meaning cannot be infered from the meanings of its

constituents (cành, vàng, lá and ngọc)

Another definition of idiom from Hoàng Văn Hành (2008: 31) is that an idiom

is a fixed group of words which is firm in terms of structure, complete and figurative

in terms of meaning, and is widely used in daily speaking As can be seen from the above definitions, there are different ways of defining an idiom In general, most of the linguists share the same point of view that an idiom is a fixed expression whose

meaning cannot be worked out by looking at the meanings of its individual

constituents What is given below is regarded as a summary of the defining features of

an idiom

2.1.2 Previous research works on idioms in English:

Idioms not only bring the beauty of language but also deeply contribute to

successful daily communications Idioms make color for language Idioms carry a large amount of nationally or culturally specific information It can be said that idioms are an interesting and popular phenomenon of every language

Up to now, there have been a number of researchers making investigations into English and Vietnamese idioms For example, in English, there have been many books and dictionaries such as "Oxford dictionary of English idioms" by Cowie (1994),

"Idioms and Idiomaticity" by Fernando (1996), "Idiom Structure in English" by

Makkai (1972), "Words and Idioms" by Smith (1925), "Problems in the Analysis of Idioms" by Weinreich (1969), ect In addition, there are some more collections of idioms such as “American Idioms and Some Phrases Just for Fun" by Swick (1994) In

fact, idiomaticity is not a new subject in linguistic study There has been plenty of work on it such as "Essential Idioms in English" by Dixon (1983), or "Idioms for everyday use" by Broukai (2001)

Structurally, Makkai (1972) divides idioms into two main kinds: encoding and decoding Then, decoding idioms are subdivided into lexemic and semantic Semantic idioms consist of six categories: phrasal verbs, tournures, irreversible binomials, phrasal compounds, incorporating verbs and pseudo-idioms Cowie (1994), Mackin & McCaig (1993) mention the categories of idioms based on their topics and

grammatical patterns From transformational grammar, Fraser (1970) regards an idiom

as a constituent or a series of constituents whose meaning does not come from the meanings of individual parts He also mentions six level scales of idioms: unrestricted, reconstitution, extraction, permutation, insertion, adjunction and completely frozen Semantically, Quirk (1996) investigates idioms and proverbs having constituents of weather in English In this study, typical cultural properties conveyed by this type of idioms and proverbs are established This is regarded as an initial research

investigating English idioms and proverbs in terms of their semantic properties from component perspective Fernando & Flavell (1981) are the linguists who realize the limitations of the previous scholars They suppose that idiom and idiomaticity are not the same They focus on the nature of idioms such as morpho-syntactic composition, semantic properties, homonymity, syntactic properties, ect They also examine several issues which focus attention on the idiom as a single lexeme that is non-correlative in its syntax and therefore non-literal in terms of its constituents The most satisfying and sensitive criterion to establish idiomaticity is undoubtedly the semantic one

Semantically, Fernando & Flavell (1981) establish the transparent-opaque axis for analyzing idioms In defining idiom, they stress three features in particular: a non-correlative syntax resulting in non- literalness, homonymity and institutionalization From cognitive view, Nunberg et al (1994) divide idioms into two categories (i) idiomatically combining expressions whose constituent parts carry identifiable parts of their idiomatic meanings, and (ii) idiomatic phrases whose idiomatic meanings cannot

be derived from their parts (see Section 1.1.3) Fernando (1996) also divides English idioms into three categories: pure idioms, semi-idioms and literal idioms

Grammatically, Taylor (2002) mentions the interrelated topics of idioms and

constructions The topics are interrelated in that both idioms and constructions are possibly considered as symbolic units, which associate a phonological (or 'formal') representation with a semantic reading According to his points of view, constructions are usually specified at a high level of schematicity and likely to sanction an open set

of expressions Nevertheless, a construction's usage range may not be fully

predictable: constructions, in other words, display varying degrees of idiomaticity Idioms generally need to be specified at a lower level of schematicity Taylor (2002) also points out that the difference between idioms and constructions turns out to be a gradient distinction, having to do, essentially, with the schematicity at which a unit is specified Langlotz (2006) explores alternative types of adnominal modification in occasional variants of English verbal idioms Following the cognitive-linguistic

framework, he states that the dimensions of idiom-transparency result from the

language user's ability to remotivate the bipartite semantic structure by conceptual metaphors and metonymies

In short, idioms in English are studied in terms of several aspects such as grammar, semantics, rhetoric, pragmatic, ect which are investigated from different views

However, the majority of scholars pay their attention to the two approaches Scholars who adopt the first approach are more structurally orientated They describe the idioms and their idiomaticity in terms of one or more structural properties The

idiomatologists who adopt the second approach study idiomaticity as manifesting hidden conceptual design of the language Such an approach leads to the nature of cognition itself and accordingly has valid psycholinguistic

2.1.3 Previous research works on idioms in Vietnamese:

There are a lot of books and dictionaries which have brought us with great benefits

of idioms It can be seen that idioms are carefully collected and categorized into

alphabetical arrangement

In Vietnam, Vietnamese researchers have so far paid a great attention to idioms There have been many authors who have carried out their studies on idioms (Nguyễn Công Đức (1995), Hoàng Văn Hành (2008), Đặng Nguyên Giang (2013) ) At

University of Da Nang there are several research papers that have relationship with various aspects of idioms (Phạm Thị Tố Như (1998), Nguyễn Hoàng Trà My (2011),

Nguyễn Thị Phương Thư (2008), and many books written by typical author such as Nguyễn Như Ý (1992), Nguyễn Lực & Lương Văn Đang (2009), etc

Some studies directly relate to the field of the study such as: Simile in English and Vietnamese - A contrastive analysis (Lê Thị Thu Hà – 2001), A study on comparative idioms from cultural perspective (Đỗ Thị Thu Trang – 2006), A study on Vietnamese idioms (Hoàng Văn Hành – 2004),

These books and research papers provide many idioms and explanations of meaning with illustrative examples It makes the reader have a lot more aware of the meaning

of each idiom From there, they can apply flexibly and skillfully to communication

In short, in Vietnamese, although there exist several studies on idioms, most of the scholars focus on the forms and meanings of idioms from traditional view It means that studies on idioms in general

2.2 Theoretical background:

2.2.1 Syntactic and Semantic Features of Idioms:

a Syntactic and Semantic Features of Idioms in English:

It is very easy to realize that idiom is a fixed phrase whose meaning cannot be construed from the meaning of the individual words of which it is composed (Katz & Postal, 1963; Weinreich, 1969) There are no changes in structure, word order and lexicology We can take the idiom black and blue (of bruises) as an example It would sound uncanny if we changed it into blue and black It means that it wouldn‟t make sense Moreover, when an idiom is used in a complete sentence, it is hardly change into passive voice Let us consider the idiom to stuff one‟s face in the sentence “She is stuffing her face with chocolates” (She is eating a lot of chocolates); it would be unnatural to say “Her face is stuffed with chocolates”

However, some other idioms are more flexible; we can make some changes if they don‟t lose their idiomatic meaning This means that idioms are only fixed in some of their parts but not all The alteration of component words can help to form a different idiom of the same or different meaning Appearing on the mass media is in this way of using They no longer keep the full form of the idiom but add some more components

to make it more vivid, particularly effective when writing articles We can change the tense of the verb in the idiom to give someone the cold shoulder (to treat someone in a cold or unfriendly way), or the verb in to have one‟s finger with to get one‟s finger