Luận văn an investigation into idiomatic expressions containing numbers in english and vietnamese

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST — GRADUATE FACULTY NGUYEN THI THUY TIEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST — GRADUATE FACULTY

NGUYEN THI THUY TIEN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING

NUMBERS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(NGHIEN CVU NHUNG THANH NGU CO CAC TY CHI SO

TRONG TIENG ANH VA TIENG VIET)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field : English Linguistics Field code : 60 22 15

Ila Noi— 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST — GRADUATE FACULTY

NGUYEN TOI THUY TIEN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING

NUMBERS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(NGIIÊN CỨU NHỮNG THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CÁC TỪ CIIỈ SỐ

TRONG TIENG ANH VA TIENG VIET)

M.A Minor Thesis

Field : English Linguistics Field code : 6022 15

Supervisor: Dr Ha Cim Tam

Ila Noi— 2011

1, Rationale of the study chọn sọ nành Ho re "

4, Methods of the studiy ào wd

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.3 Definition 0Ÿ ÏdiOtiS nọ nh HH HH ghe S7

1.5 Classifivalion of idioms Tre " 9

1.8 Idiom and ‘dead moiaphor - - 13

1.9 Number in English and Vietnamese

1.10 Review of previous sludics on idioms

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

Table |_| Types of numerical idioms in English and Vietnamese by 20

Fernando’s model Table? _ | The fequency of appearance of numbers in English idioms 2

Table 3 _ | The flequency of appearance of numbers in Vietnamese idioms 26

Tale 4 |The counotative meanings of numbers in English and Vietnamese adioms by Spangler and Wemer’s model 28

PART A

INTRODUCTION

1 Rattonale of the study

English has been a very important international means of communication in almost

fields of life such as economy, politics, culture and education nglish bridges people over the world together Consequently, the mastering of English has been the desire of modern

‘people who wish to join the intemational commumty in order to broaden their knowledge,

promote in their career and have wider net of relationship

Having the desire of becoming a member of intcmational community in many

fields to develop aspects of life, Vietnam is clearly aware of the importance of English as

an infermational communicative means Leaming and teaching English have been drawing

a lot of attention of the whole Vietnam society English has been an official and

compulsory subject in education cuzriculum Vietuamese people wish to have a good

command of English so that they can have the key to the open world

‘The mastering of English is not an casy malice because if, requires @ large number

of linguistic issues such as grammar and pronunciation to have effective communicative

activities Among these issues, vocabulary plays a vital role due to its meaning creating In

fact, teaching and Icarning vocabulary are always cmphasived In vocabulary teaching and

Jeaming, idiom is an issue with which English Jeamers and teachers are concerned because

idioms are frequently used to make conversations more natural, interesting and concise in

2 Aims of the study

“The study is to explore the role of numbers in creating the meanings of idioms in English and Viemamese Based on that, « brief comparison between idioms in English and Vietnamese is carried out to find out the similarities and differences in the contribution of numbers to their meanings In sumanary, this study is aimed at:

» To explore the roles of numbers in the meanings of idioms in English and

Vietnamese

» ‘Yo find ont the similarities and differences in the contribution of numbers to the tneanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese

In order to achieve these aims, the following question should be answered

© What are senses do numbers coutributz to the meanings of idioms in Pnglish and

‘That is the foundation for a bricf comparison betwoon the contribution of numbers to the ameanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese

4 Methods of the study

in order to achieve those above-mentioned aims, the study employs both quantitative amd qualilative methods By virus of quantitative method, data have been collected ttom, literary works, books of idioms and semantics and newspapers, websites and dictionaries in both English and Vietnamese ‘The qualitative method is adopted to interpret the caltectod data

5 Design of the study

The study is consisted of three parts:

“The first part is Part A “INTRODUCTION” This part provides a brief account of

issues which are rationale, aims, scope, methods, and design of the study

The second pat is Part B “DEVELOPMENT” This part is consisted of two chapters Chapter 1, theoretical background, provides the theoretical information about

Taoanings, sonso, idioms, bricf information about numbers in English and Victnameso and the review of previous studies on idioms Chapter 2 is concerned with research question, data collection, analysis framework, data analysis

The last part, Part C, “CONCLUSION”, summarics the major findmgs of the study, provides implications and suggestions for further studies

PART B

DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

‘This chapter has provided the theoretical framework for the following analysis of numerical idioms in the main chapter In this chapler, theoretical background is consisted

of matters related to meaning, senses; idioms (the definition, the classification, the characteristics, the distinguishing between idioms and proverbs idioms and collocations, idioms and dead metaphors), brief introductions about numbers in Tingtish and Vietnamese

and the brief review of previous researches about idioms

4.1 Meaning

Lyons (1997-1) said, “Semantics is generally defined as the study of meaning, and

this is the definition which we shall initially adopl” Thus core issuc in the field of semantics is the meaning, In Understanding English Semantics by Dr Nguyen Hoa (2004), the definition of meanmng is explained as follow: “According to C.K, Ogden and LA Richards (1923) in “Phe meaning of meaning”, a number of meanings can be associated with tús te:

=_ Anintinsic propety

» ‘The other words annexed to a word ina dictionary

» The connotation of a word

» ‘The place of anything in a system

* That to which the user of symbol ought to be referring

© That to which the interpreter of a symibol

~ refers

- believes himself to be referring

~ believes the user to be referring

In terms of mearing classiñoation, lloa, Ngnyen (2004: 51-54) đivided meaning

ino seven types with different fimetions in communication In this study the writer concems only cormotative meaning because the study is aimed at revealing the significance

of numbers in numerical idioms, Specifie speaking, because numbers can be lucky or unlucky numbers in daily Tife, the sludy has the desire to explore the rele of mambers in creating positive, negative, and neutral meanings for idioms to assess whether they are

jucky numbers in idioms or not Spangler and Werner (1989:50) states that one can have

three main attitndss: positive (favourable), naimal (impartial), or negative (unfavourable) They provide the following example of a table containing the same characteristics of a woman deseribed in three different ways depending on the attitude the writer has Ge

words with positive, neutral and negalive conmolation)

pleasingly plump overweight fat

jolly, entertaining a sense of humor silly, dizzy

highlights her assets wears makeup paints her face

confident, ficndly oulgoing domineering

‘brilliant, clever intelligent know-itall

Leech (1974:23) defines that “cormolative meaning ix the communicative value of

an expression accarding to what ts referred to, exceeds the above contents that are purely

conceptual” Keith Alan, (2001:147) states the connotations that arise front encyclopedic

knowledge about its denotation and also from experiences, beliefs, and prejudices about

the contexts in which the expression ts typtcally used.” \or example the word BOY has

the connotation *“STRONG’ — positive meaning and LION the cormotation ‘CRUEL’ — negative meaning

Siregar (2005) claims that there are two kinds of meaning in semantics: Linguistic

ameaning and Speaker meaning Linguistic meaning is determined by the meaning of its

constituents and their granunatical relations For example:

- Be careful of a sharp bend in the road

- Please don’t bend this paper

is of

Speaker moaning is what a speaker moans in producing an utterance Tt cons literal meaning and non-literal meaning Literal meaning does not make hearers have difficulty understanding what the speaker means, However, we mean somethmng different from whal our words mean by speaking nomitsrally In thal case, iLis called nondliteral meaning, Using, idioms is a way of using nom-literat meaning because the meaning of an idiomatic expression cannot be predicted either lexically or grammatically ‘This study is

a larger unit, a phrase, a clausc, a sontonec For example, the scnses of the word “library”

in the two sentences are different:

~ He has a quite large library (a collection of books)

~The fibrary is at the end of this street (a building where books arc kept and organized)

According to Palmer (1976), sense “relates to the complex system of relationships

‘between tingnistic elements themselves (mostly the words)” IToa, Nenyen (2004) suggests that there arc two kinds of sense relation, They are substitutional and combinational which

correspond to the two Saussurean terms of paradigmatic and syntagmatic Substitutional

relations exist bebween members of the same grammatical calegory and synlagmatic relations hold between items of different grammatical categories, For example:

The Phoak | was bought yesterday

car pen

1.3 Definitions of idioms

In English, there are a large number of idioms often used in daily communicative activities Thus, idioms have been a concem of any English leamers because they can not understand idioms by inferring from the literal meanings of words, which leads to difficulty in comnmnicating in both spoken language and the written form People often talk about idioms during the process of learning English, so what és idiom in English?

According lo Cruse (1986: 37), an idiom is am “exprossion whase meaning cannol

‘be inferred from the meanings of its parts when they are not parts of idioms” Cruse (1986:

37-38) claims that an idiom must have two compulsory features: ‘Lexically complex*

showing that cach idiom has to be cansisicd of morc than onc lexical constituent and

‘semantically simplex’ that is ‘a single minimal semantic constituent’ As a result, a non- idiomatic expression can be divided into several semantic constituents For example, the

meaning of the expression ‘at the eleventh hour’ can not be deducted from the meanings of

any its constituent or from its structure The cxpression micans that something happens

when it is almost too late, or at the last possible moment Fernando (1996) shares the same

view of the definition of idioms At the same time, he has a broad view when considering

idioms as nnulti-word expressions whose meanings are not derived from the meanings of

their constituents or their syntactic structures or consist the meaning of one of its

constituetls while the ofher constitaenl denotes 4 concep which it does not denole m other

Jinguislic contexts Idioms even accept restricted variation such as Titeral idioms ‘an the

contrary, a happy new year’

Oxford Advanced Leamer's Dictionary provides the definitions of “idiom” as “a group of words whose meaning is different, from the meanings of the individual words”

In Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, idiom is defined as “a group of

words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of

cach word understeod on its own” Idiom, a colorful way of using English, is used in

informal and formal, spoken and written languages to bring about stronger meaning than non-idiomatic phrases in an impressive way by conveying both ideas and implying the altitude of the language user such as disapproval, admiration or humor For instance, “leak

daggers at someone” is more interesting than “look argrily at someone” although they

express the same meaning,

Palmer (1990) defines idioms as group of words whose meaning can not be inferred from (he meanings of scparate words Scrmantically, an idiom is 2 language unit like a word However, grammatically, an idiom does not function like a word Idioms are grammatically restricted A word can be added suffix or prefix or its form can be changed For instance, the idiom “take a hand” in past simple is “took a hand” However, iL cam nol

‘be changed into “take hands”, “hand” does not accept plural foun “s”

in Vietnamese dictionary by Vietnam Linguistics Institute (1997), idioms are

defined as coramonily used fixed exprossions whose meanings can nol be simply infsrred from the meanings of constituents In Vietnamese, this is the definition “think ngtt 1 tap hợp có định đã quen đùng mà nghĩa của nó không thể giải thích một cách đơn giàn bang ghia cou ede Lừ lạo nên nổ” it Viclntsrnoss, mlost ð[ ta iđiorts at ineornplete ruonningfUl groups of words so they can not stand alone Idiom often appears in a sentence as a part so

as to contribute to the complete meaning of the sentence such as “Cái mat bring ra sita ma bay dat ban bac chuyén yéu duong” In Vietnamese, idioms are frequently used in proverbs, literature, and fork songs

+ Farmal inflexibility: The murnbers of syntactic frames in which idioms appear ars

limited Thus, idioms are syntactically restricted

+ Figuration: The meanings of idioms are non-literal, or figurative thanks to the

involvement of idiams in metaphors (take the bull by the horns, time as a substance, time

as a path, love as war, and up ix more), metonymies (lend a hand, count heads),

hyperboles (not worth the paper it’s printed on)

+ Proverbiality: Idierss arc uscd lo iMustrats familiar situations of social hfe The situations are similar to folksy, familiar images (climbing wally, chewing the fat, spilling

beans),

+ Informality: Idioms have a tendency to appear in colloquial speech,

+ Affect: Evaluative or affective stances van be inferred from the use of idioms

“shoot the breeze” Was the incaning which is not rdated to the meaning of the words

“shoot” and “breeze”

© Senui-idioms: “A semi-idiom has one or more literal constituents and at least onz with a non-literal snbsense, usually special to that co-occurrence relation and no other.”

Tn other words, the meaning of a semi-idiomn consi:

constituents while the other constituent denotes a concept which it does not denote i

sof the meaning of one of its

other linguistic context For example, the meaning of greenhouse includes the literal meaning of “house” but not the meaning of “green” A greenhouse is not a house of green color, but a house for growing— plants However, when “green” co-occurs with other words like “window, door, trees, pencil ” it is an adjective denoting color and modi fying these nouns,

ome”

© Literal idioms: “They are Jess semantically complex than pure and semi-i

They accept restricted variation For instancc, some literal idioms are such as “on the

contrary, a happy new year

ơn the Talliday (1985), Fernando (1996 72) suggests the fimelional

expresses an action or have blood on one’s hands demonstrate an event.

10

Mossage content:

Actions : Tear down, wear different hats Events: Have blood on one’s hands, tuming point Situations : Be in a pickle, be up a gum tree

aman about towrr

People and thing : A red hemi

~ Attributes: Matier of fact, lily-white

+ Evaluations : Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, a watched pot never boils

+ Fimolions : Tear ono’s hair, lose one’s hear

Characterizing the message:

+ Specific information : What 1 am saying is, my guess is

+ Norespecific information : And.so on, kind of

Interpersonal idioms: The kind of idioms has interactional function or

“characterize the nature of the message” such as say no more and as a matter of fact

Interactional strategies are concerned with:

“& Groolings and farcwells : See you later, bys for now

++ Directives : Never mind, say no more

o> Agreement : Say no more, that’s true

+ + Foclers’, cliciting opinions : How do you fecl?, what do you think?

++ Rejections : I wasn’t bom yesterday, you're joking

Characterizing the message involves:

worthin

Guess whatl, what do you know?

+ Sincerity ; As a matter of fact, believe you me

* Calls for brevity : Get to the point, cut the cackle

+ Uneerlainty : Mind you, I daresay

» Relational idioms: ‘They make the discourse have coherence ‘Thus, they can be

“grouped with conjunctions” such as and, but because as having a tcxinal function, They can also be divided into :

Integrative information:

+ Adversaivs : On lhe contrary, far from

+ Comparison ; On the other hand, on the other

Causal : So that when, no wonder

1.6 Idioms and proverbs

It is essential to distinguish idioms and proverbs because language users tend to find it difficult to make differences

In Oxford Advanced Learnor’s Dictionary, a proverb is defined as “a well-known phrase or santence that gives advice or says something that is generally true, for example

‘Waste not, want not”, In Cambridge Advanced Leamer’s Dictionary, a proverb is “a shart sentence, ete,, usually known by many people, stating something commonly experienced

or giving advice” Another definition by Va Ngoc Phan (2000: 39) is that a proverb as “a complete saying expressing one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or

criticistn™

Proverbs and idioms have many in common so there have been books introducing, the collection of both proverbs and idioms Firstly, both idioms and proverbs are the product of hurran’s thought cullures and the fife experience and are orally exchanged from generation fo generation as the matter of fact or the truth wilhoul any donbl Secondly, they have fixedness showing that any changes such as constituent substitution or word order may lead to the change in meaning Another similarity is the use of metaphor to have non- Titcral or Figurative mearing Thus, thoir wearing ust be undersiood in metaphorical way without being based on the literal meanings of compositional words

Despite those aforementioned similarities, both proverb and idiom has their typical characteristics The first difference is grammatical structure Whereas an idiom is an

equivalent unit to a word or a phrase as parts of sentence, a proverb is a complete sentence

ot a phrase expressing a full idea ‘Ihhe second one is the function A proverb is “a well- known phrase or sentences that gives advies” and expresses “onc idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or criticism” As a result, it has perceptive function, aesthetic function and educational finetion Kor instance, the proverb “Afoney makes the mare ga”

12

expresses a comment about ths negative aspect of money Its perspective function helps

peopte realive the harnfil power of moncy controlling things inmorally Educational function advises people not to be blinded by the power of money and to avoid its bad affects, Besides, its aesthetic function is making people be aware of abstract message

idioms have no the three

through a lovely, exaggeralive, figurative way On the contrar

functions because of not demonstrating judgments, giving advice or stating general truth

about life For example, the idiom “be on cloud nine” expresses the happiness of a person

when a wonderfid thing happens bul il provides no educational lessons oF life ox;

In summary, the differences in structures and funetions make proverbs and idioms distinguishable

1.7 Tdioms and collocations

Idiom and collocation have both similarity and difference Howard Jackson (1990: 256) regards collocation as “a lexical rclationship of mutual expectancy, the prescnec of a particular lexieal itera gives the rise to the greater chance likelihood that other lexical items belonging to the same area of meaning will also occur.” Mc Carthy (1996: 16) regards collocation as corruption-occurrence between words Besides, Chistra Fernando (1996:27) views collocation as the company words keep In terms of difference, the meaning of an idiom can nol Titerally derive from the meanings of iis constituent; however, the meaning

of a collogation is the cambination of the litral meanings of ils soparate words Moreover, eolloeations are not as restiioted as idioms in terms of word substitution, Whereas, word substitution can make an idiom lose its idiomatic meaning and no longer be an idiom, a collocation accepls thal despite the change in fis teaning bul remains as another collocation, There are some examples such collocations ‘catch a bus/ a train, strong/ weak?

‘lack’ whiter hot coffee, a colé/an icy/a chill/a biting etc wind”

Despite the difftrences, Fernando Chistra (1996: 36) suggests that both idioms and collocations “show a habitual co-occurrence of words” ‘These combinations of words are widely acknowledged naturally and can be recognized without difficulty such as idioms

‘spill the heans, foot the bill’ and collocations ‘heavy/torrential rain, heavy Jrafficirainisnow'

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1.8 Iđiom and "dcad' mefaphor

Cruse (1986) suggests that idioms and dead metaphor should be distinguished While a metaphor, a kind of hidden comparison is an expression referring to one particular thing or object which is different fromm the thing or the object literally described in this expression, a dead metaphor is a metaphor in which words lose direct meanings and have

only figurative meanings In Hoa, Nguyen (2004), the word ‘ponder’ originally meant

‘weigh’, bul now il hus the moaning * consider thoughtfully’ Thus, idioms and dead mmelaphors are interpreted in the same way As far as syntax is concemed, both dead metaphors and idioms are fixed A dead metaphor will no longer be a dead metaphor if its

syntactic structure is changed

4.9 Numbers in English and Vietnamese

“This part is aimed at providing brief introduction about numbers, their functions in daily life and cultural roles Based on that, the relationship between numbers and the aneanings of idioms containing numbers in English and Vietnamese can be established and

made clearer

1.9.1 Numbers in English

Because the study is concemed with only idioms containing cardinal numbers and ordinal tumbers, only cardinal and ordinal numbers are taken consideration into According to Graham Flegg (2002) in the book “Numbers: Their history and meaning”, cardinal numbers are the basic numbers used for counting such as one, two or nine, Ordinal amumbers arc used for indicating order The majority of ordinal mumbers are formed by affixing the -th sfx onto the cardinal number such as tenth and eighth except for the irregular cases such as first (Ist), second (2nd), third (3rd), and fifth (sth)

Numbers are n par of language They arg frequently used in daily activities such as counting, amanging orders, making measurements or giving assessment As the

“threo” appears in quile w lol of sayinygs like ‘the third time is the charm’, Saumber three is always fortmate’ and ‘ail good things xo by threes’, “Three? is seen as a perfect number in the eyes of Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher because he suggests that everything can be divided inte wumbers and the bast number choice is the number “throc’ symiboliving three stages of a process including the beginning, the middle and the completion According to Sin-wai Chan and David E Polland ( 2001) in “ An encyclopedia of translation : Chinese- English, English — Chinese”, there is another lucky number which is

“scven” because sever refers to the plancts such as Sun, Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mercy,

Mars, and Satum that are accompanied with the God Furthermore, according to Christian

religion, il took the God seven days fo create the world Consequently, ir ths western religion, there are seven virtues consisting trust, hope, tenacity, prudent, control, fair, and benevolence and seven sins including gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, pride, lust, and envy

On the contrary, the number ‘two” is considered ax an unlucky number or as sauree of evil

80 the meanings of English numerical idioms containing “lwo” are oflen something mot pood such as wo by four and two bits, Besides, thirteen is also the first avoided number in western culture due to its unlucky meaning ‘hat dated back to the old story from itoly Bible thal Jesus was betrayed hy his thiriccnth follower while having the Tast dimer with the other twelve followers, Here are brief introduction about cultural significance in Bible

in the book “Numbers in the Bible: God’s Design in Biblical Numerology” by Robart Johnston (1999)

In Bible, the number “I” is the symbol of unity As a cardinal number it denotes unity, as an ordinal it denotes primacy It can be inferred that in English culture, that

number can be sean a manber with positive moaning or neutral meaning

Number ‘two’ can be considered as an unlucky number or as source of evil so the

Tmeanings of English rumnerieal idioms containing ‘Iwo" are often something nol good such

as two by four and nvo bits

In English, number “3” is considered as a lucky number and people often use it to divide things into three paris

{n the West, four represents the physical world, as the 4 elements (Fire, Water, Air,

Harth), the 4 seasons and as the 4 cardinal points (North, South, Kast, and West) H can be

scon as a significant number

Five is four plus one (4+1) We have had hitherto the three persons of the Godhead, and their manifestation in creation Now we have a further revelation of a People called out from mankind, redeemed and saved, ta walk wilh God from carth lo heaven Hence,

Redemption follows creation Inasmuch as in consequence of the tail of man ereation came -under the curse and was "made subject to vanity," therefore man and creation must be

redeemed Thus we have:

3 Spirit

‘These are the five great mysteries, and five is therefore the number of GRACE

Six is man's mumber, because God created man on the sixth day It often symbolizes imperfection, because it, falls short of the perfect mumiher sever, So it can be concluded thal in English culls, “6” is nol considered as a tacky maniber

Seven represents the number of perfection because God rested on the seventh day and it is the symbol of virtue, and self-sacrifice It is believed in some westem cultures, that the seventh son of a seventh son has the power of healing and that the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter has the gift of interpreting dreams

In Christianity eight represents rebirth or resturection Tt can be considered neither tucky mamber nor unlucky number

In Christianity, there are nine choirs of angels, nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, and

sine: as in 3 times 3, as it refers to the Holy ‘rinity ‘Thus, “9” can be seen as a lucky

TiarntbeT

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1.9.1 Numbcrsin Victnamesc

In daily life, we can see that numbers are usually used in Vietnamese daily activities such as talking about age, sizes of shirts and shoes In addition, they bring about

certain cullural colors According lo Mingtan (2002) in “low te altract Asian women”,

there are unlucky numbers such as three and four It can be sean that number ‘three’ is not

jucky number in Vietnamese culture When people get married or start going out to do

somicthinyg irmporlanl, they avoid the date having “Uhrse’, In addition lo, the tumbor ‘ four? represent many things such as natural phenomenon ( four directions : East, West, South, North; weather : Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter ), social phenomenan ( job : solider, farmer, cadr, business man ; ar: musie — chess — poetry ), human being (moral, citizen’s responsibilities ) However, it can be seen as unlucky number because it is related

to ‘death’, People often say ‘birth, age, illness, death’ For example, people do not want this number ‘four’ appearing in their number plates On the contrary, in the book * Viet Nam Culture” by Bobbie Kalman ( 2002) and the book “ The little Sai Gon cook book

Vietnamese Cuisine and Culture in Southern” by Ann Le, Julie Fay (2006) , Vietnamese

consider numbers “six, igh, mins? are Incky numbers ; The number ‘six’ represents juckiness, happiness and material benefits; the mumber ‘ eight’ symbolizes achievements and becoming rich ;the number * nine’ represents power

1.10 Review of previous siudies on idioms

Studies on idioms have been paid a lot of attention by many researchers, ‘Thus, it can be said that the collection af idioms rescarches is not small

In Viet Nam, there have been studies on English and Vietnamese idioms The research “Idiomatic expressions containing the word ‘dog’ in English and Viemamese” by

Tu, Dao Thanh (2007) was aimed at studying idiomatic cxpressions containing the word

“dog” in English and compare with those in Vietnamese fo establish their similarities and difference and show the specific features of English and Vietnamese cultures about dog

‘The stidy found out that in English cullure, dog was tha symbol of night, darkness and

afterworlds the world of death whereas in Vietnamese culture, dog was one of the pure Vietnamese relics to protect houses as well as the spiritual life of the Vietnamese At the

same time, the study also explored that in both Linglish and Vienamese, idiomatic micanings af the phưa:

s and sentences containing “dog” had more negative meanings than

positive ones However, there were some differences In English, many idiomatic

expressions containing “dog” expressed more good personal characteristics or high status

of people and the corverient conditions and good Inck but these idiomatic meanings were

hardly seen in Vietnamese

Another study is “An investigation into the English words and idioms denoting

happine

answers to the research question “What are the grammatical features and semantic

structures of ‘happy’ and other words and idioms denoting happiness?” ‘he study found

Lata, Nguyen Thi Van (2002) The purpose of the stndy was to find ont the

out thal ‘happy’ was an adjective to denote ‘happiness’ Tl was a neutral, generic ler TL

was descriptively synonymous with ‘glad, pleased, delighted, elated”; nearly synonymous with ‘cheerful, gay, merry, exultant, pleeftil, jubilant’, and antonymous with ‘unhappy, sad’, In terms of words and idioms denoting happiness, there were 8 adjectives denoting happiness, 6 nouns denoting happiness, and 2 verbs denoting happiness and 6 idioms denoting happiness ‘heir grammatical features depended on the sub-classes they belonged

to

Gap identified here is in Vietnamese, there seems to be the shortage of numerical idiom researches ‘Thus this study on idiomatic expression containing numbers in English and Vietnamese was carried out to find oul the contribution of manbers to the meanings of idioms in English and Victnama