Tóm tắt luận văn Nghiên cứu thành tố cấu trúc và ngữ nghĩa của một số thành ngữ cố định điển hình trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt

In order to achieve the aims, the study is expected to reach the following objectives: - to study how idioms are organized structurally and semantically in Englishand Vietnamese; - to es

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

O

ĐẶNG NGUYÊN GIANG

A STUDY ON STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC COMPONENTS

OF TYPICAL ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS

(Nghiên cứu thành tố cấu trúc và ngữ nghĩa của một số thành ngữ

cố định (đặc ngữ) điển hình trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt)

Major: English Linguistics Code: 62 22 15 01

Supervisors: Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang Assoc Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến

HANOI – 2013

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Actually, studying idioms is not new; nevertheless, it has never been old InVietnam, there exist three approaches in studying idioms: etymology, synchronicevolution, comparison and contrastive analysis (Hành 2008) The studies underoriginal recovery and synchronic evolution are the backgrounds for comparison andcontrastive works Several attempts have been made to work out the similaritiesand differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of emotion expressingidioms (Trào 2009), idiomatic verb phrases (Long 2010), idiom translation (Lan2001; Phúc 2009), etc An in-depth investigation of the structural and semanticcomponents of idioms will also offer excellent opportunities for cross-languagecomparison and analysis

Structurally, English and Vietnamese are very different English is regarded

as a semi-inflectional language (Crystal 1997) while Vietnamese is completelyisolating It is interesting, however, that several idioms in English have the same

structural patterns as those in Vietnamese For example, like water off a duck’s back in English and như nước đổ đầu vịt in Vietnamese are both prepositional

phrases It is more interesting that the idiomatic meanings of the two idioms arealso similar, and they are paraphrasable as ‘have no effect’ In terms of structuralcomponents, these idioms have both similarities and differences They are similized

idioms introduced by prepositions as the first component parts (like in English and như in Vietnamese) The differences lie in the rest of component parts forming the idioms The component parts after like in English together form a noun phrase whereas those after như in Vietnamese together form a clause To the best of my

knowledge, the structural components of idioms in both English and Vietnamesehave not yet been investigated in this way

Although the component parts forming idioms expressing the same concepts

in English and Vietnamese are usually different, they have some features incommon The idioms in both languages appear from totally transparent to thetotally opaque: transparent, i.e all the components are explicit; semi-transparent,i.e some components are explicit (the meaning focused) and the other are implicit;semi-opaque, i.e all the components are implicit but possibly interpretable; andopaque, i.e all the components are implicit (Fernando & Flavell 1981; Fernando1996) Investigating semantic components of idioms based on these semantic

criteria in both English and Vietnamese is still the gap In addition, what mainfactors lie behind the differences between the two languages in terms of theformation of semantic components of idioms also need uncovering (Hành 2008).

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

The study attempts to find out the similarities and differences betweenEnglish and Vietnamese idioms from structural and semantic perspectives In order

to achieve the aims, the study is expected to reach the following objectives:

- to study how idioms are organized structurally and semantically in Englishand Vietnamese;

- to establish the similarities and differences between English andVietnamese idioms in terms of structural and semantic components;

- to provide main factors lying behind the similarities and differencesbetween English and Vietnamese idioms

4 Scope of the Study

The present study focuses on everyday idioms selected from recently

published dictionaries (see Section 6.3)

5 Contributions of the Study

Scientifically, a common theory on idioms is applied to both English andVietnamese This approach helps to find out the similarities and differencesbetween English and Vietnamese idioms in terms structural and semanticcomponents

Practically, the work will provide assistance to English-speaking learners ofVietnamese and Vietnamese learners of English to distinguish one kind of idiomsfrom others in each language The work will also enable learners to tell whenidioms in English and Vietnamese are similar and different, which is likely to beuseful for their study Language teachers will be aided to help their learners reachthis communicative goal (see Section 3 in Part C) For translation, knowledge of

idioms from this work will help translators find closest equivalents to theexpression in the source language

6 Methodology

6.1 Theoretical Framework

In tems of structural components of idioms, the models of Immediate Constituent Analysis suggested by Bloomfield (1933) are used in the present study.

The semantic components of idioms in the current study are analyzed according to

Katz & Fodor’s (1963) componential theory

6.2 Analytical Framework

In the present inquiry, the theories of contrastive linguistics of König andGast (2008) and Chaturvedi (1973) are applied to the investigation of the idiomscollected

In order to carry a contrastive study, Chaturvedi (1973) suggests someguiding principles as follows:

(i) to analyse the mother tongue and the target language independently andcompletely; (ii) to compare the two languages item-wise-item at all levels of theirstructure; (iii) to arrive at the categories of a) similar features, b) partially similarfeatures, c) dissimilar features - for the target language; and (iv) to arrive atprinciples of text preparation, test framing and target language teaching in general

6.3 Data Collection

In order to collect the data, a working definition of an idiom has beenestablished in the present study (see Section 1.1.1) Any idiom selected in bothEnglish and Vietnamese satisfies the criteria the definition for working involves

Data for the present analysis of English and Vietnamese are mainly collectedfrom the following dictionaries:

English

Bình, P V (1999) Tục ngữ nước Anh và thành ngữ tiếng Anh giàu hình ảnh

[English picturesque idioms] Hải Phòng: Nxb Hải Phòng

Cambridge Idioms Dictionary (2006) (2nd ed.) Cambridge, New York: CambridgeUniversity Press

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary (2002) (2nd ed.) UK: Harper Collins

Publisher

Cowie, A P., Mackin, R., & McCaig, I R (1993) Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms Oxford: Oxford University Press

Siefring, J (2005) Oxford Dictionary of Idioms Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vietnamese

Lân, N (2003) Từ điển thành ngữ và tục ngữ Việt Nam Hà Nội: Nxb Văn học.

Lực, N., & Đang, L V (2009) (3rd ed.) Thành ngữ tiếng Việt [Dictionary of

Vietnamese idioms] Hà Nội: Nxb Khoa học Xã hội

Minh, T H (2007) Đi tìm điển tích thành ngữ [Seeking idioms’ classic references].

Hà Nội: Nxb Thông Tấn

Ý, N N., Hành, H V, Khang, N V., Thại, L X., & Thành, P X (1998) Từ điển giải thích thành ngữ tiếng Việt [Dictionary of Vietnamese idioms] Hà Nội:

Nxb Giáo dục

Ý, N N (2002) Từ điển thành ngữ tiếng Việt phổ thông [A dictionary of common

Vietnamese idioms] Hà Nội: Nxb Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội

The dictionaries above are chosen because of several specific reasons.Firstly, they are quite popular and currently available Secondly, they cover a largenumber of the idioms which people are likely to find in everyday English as well asVietnamese Thirdly, most of idiom types can be found in these dictionaries in alarge number And finally, the dictionaries satisfy the diachronic perspectivebecause the examples for illustrations are mostly from literal works, magazines andnewspapers The collected data forms a corpus under three categories: symmetricalidioms (231 for English and 2,343 for Vietnamese), similized idioms (516 forEnglish and 699 for Vietnamese), and non-symmetrical idioms (3,387 for Englishand 1,011 for Vietnamese)

6.4 Data Analysis

Due to the aims, the objectives, and the scope of the study, componentialanalysis, describing, comparing and contrasting are regarded as the main methodsused in the present dissertation The study makes use of the Vietnamese language

as the target and the English one as the source language (the base language) Insome cases, we may use the opposite (the English language as the target and theVietnamese one as the source language)

components of idioms according to the theoretical framework (see Section 6.1).

(ii) After that, we compare the idioms in the two languages item-wise-item atall levels of their structural and semantic components We also seek the underlyingfactors affecting the formation of semantic components of idioms in both Englishand Vietnamese (Hành 2008; Lijie 2010)

(iii) Then, we arrive at the categories of a) structural and semanticcomponents of idioms found in both languages, b) structural and semanticcomponents of idioms unique to English as well as Vietnamese We alsoinvestigate the regularities for the established similarities and differences

(iv) And finally, we give some suggestions for idiom teaching and translationbased on the findings

7 Structure of the Study

The present study consists of three major parts, in addition to the appendicesand the references

Part A, introduction, consists of the rationale, the aims and objectives, theresearch questions, the scope, the contributions, the methodology, and the structure

of the study

Part B, development, is divided into three chapters including chapter 1:Literature Review, chapter 2: Structural Components of English and VietnameseIdioms, and chapter 3: Semantic Components of English and Vietnamese Idioms

The last part is conclusion which includes the recapitulation of the study aswell as the conclusions and some suggestions for implications achieved from thediscussion in the dissertation and for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical Background

1.1.1 Idioms Defined

In general, most of the linguists (Hornby 1995; Seidl and McMordie 1988;Fernando 1996; Mệnh 1972; Châu 1981; Dân 1986; Hành 2008; etc) share the samepoint of view that an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be workedout by looking at the meanings of its individual constituents

In the present study, given below is regarded as a summary of the definingfeatures of an idiom Such an idiom

(i) is a fixed unit whose components cannot be varied or varied underdefinable control;

ii) is regarded as a complex scene with a bipartite semantic structure: a literalreading and an idiomatic meaning;

(iii) has the meaning which is usually different from the meanings of the

combination of its components;

(iv) expresses a pure concept

1.1.2 Idioms from Traditional View

Traditionally, it is believed that idioms are unpredictable or compositional (Chafe 1970; Chomsky 1965, 1980; Katz 1973; Fernando & Flavell1981; Mệnh 1972; Châu 1981; Đức 1995; Hành 2008; etc) It means that themeaning of an idiom cannot be derived from the meanings of its constituents

non-According to traditional view, the meaning of an idiom is the specialchemical mixture of all components’ meaning, which is completely new in quality

It means that there is no link between the literal reading and the idiomatic meaning.However, in fact, there exist a lot of idioms, the idiomatic meanings of which can

be derived from the meanings of their component parts, i.e their syntax iscorrelative Indeed, the traditional view cannot be applied to explain all types ofidioms It can be considered as the limitation of this view

1.1.3 Idioms from Cognitive View

From cognitive view, most idioms are believed to be analyzable and havemeanings that are at least partly motivated (Geeraets 1995; Gibbs 1990, 1995;Kövecses & Szabo 1996; Nunberg et al 1994; Fernando 1996; Taylor 2002;Langlotz 2006, etc)

Gibbs (1990, 1995) supposes that most idioms are motivated by cognitive –semantic mechanisms such as metaphors, metonymies and conventionalknowledge Indeed, the psychological experiments conducted by Gibbs (1990,1995) prove that the figurative meanings of most idioms are not arbitrary Sharingthe same points with the authors above, in the present study we once again supposethat most idioms in both English and Vietnamese are analyzable and have meaningswhich are at least partly motivated through the component parts forming idioms.

1.1.4 Idioms from Taxonomic View

In English, several attempts have been made to classify idioms (Makkai1972; Fernando & Flavell 1981; Seidl & McMordie 1988; Cowie, Mackin &McCaig 1993; Nunberg et al 1994; Fernando 1996; etc) From cognitive view,Nunberg et al (1994) classify English idioms into two types: idiomaticallycombining expressions (or idiomatic combinations) and idiomatic phrases Morespecifically, Fernando (1996) divides English idioms into three categories: pureidioms, semi-idioms and literal idioms It is clear that English idioms aretraditionally classified due to their synctactic properties whereas the classification

of idioms from cognitive view is based on their semantic properties

In Vietnamese, the category of idioms is usually established according to theforms (Lực and Đang 1978; Đức 1995; Hành 2008; etc) According to Đức (1995),

Vietnamese idioms can be divided into three main groups: idioms with symmetrical structures, idioms with comparison structures, and idioms with non-symmetrical structures Hành (2008) classifies Vietnamese idioms into symmetrical figurative, non-symmetrical figurative and similized Each main category is subdivided into

smaller categories

1.1.5 Idioms from Cultural View

Idioms which are regarded as a form of a language reflect culture in aconcentrated way (Zhang 2007) More particularly, Lijie (2010) points out that thecultural differences between English and Chinese on idioms origins are dominated

by different living circumstance, different historical allusion, different religions andbeliefs, and different traditions and customs

Fernando and Flavell (1981) outline the cultural preoccupations, the 'worldview' implicit in the idioms of English More specifically and generally, Bình(1999) supposes that geographical feature, habitat, mode of production, culturalcharacter, national thought, etc define the characteristics of idioms of each

language Sharing the same point of view with Bình (1999), Lan (2001) emphasizesthe role of the national thought in defining the images compared by giving acomparative table among Vietnamese, English and Russian in terms of similizedidioms Through this table, she comments that the images used to compare are verypopular things in everyday lives of the people in each nation Additionally, Hành(2008) does not only pay attention to structural system, he also particularly focuses

on the use and artistic value of idioms From cultural perspective, he comments thatunderlying cultural factors behind idioms need uncovering

1.1.6 Idioms in the Relationship to Other Linguistic Units

Several linguists (Mệnh 1972; Lực & Đang 1978; Đức 1995; Hành 2008;Trào 2009; etc) have made attempts to distinguish idioms from some of otherlinguistic units such as collocations, proverbs, clichés and catchphrases, etc.However, they in fact usually overlap to some extent In the present inquiry, idiomsand some of other linguistic units are distinguished according to their structuralrealization, relationship among components, meaning, nominative function,syntactic function, and denotation

1.2 Previous Research

1.2.1 Previous Research Works on Idioms in English

Idioms in English are studied in terms of several aspects such as grammar,semantics, rhetoric, pragmatics, etc which are investigated from different views.However, the majority of scholars pay their attention to the two approaches.Scholars (Chafe 1970; Chomsky 1965, 1980; Katz 1973; Fernando & Flavell 1981;Seidl and McMordie 1988, Cowie, Mackin & McCaig 1993; etc) who adopt thefirst approach are more structurally orientated They describe the idioms and theiridiomaticity in terms of one or more structural properties The idiomatologists(Geeraets 1995; Gibbs 1990, 1995; Kövecses & Szabo 1996; Nunberg et al 1994;Fernando 1996; Taylor 2002; Langlotz 2006, etc) who adopt the second approachlook on idiomaticity as manifesting underlying conceptual design of the language.Such an approach leads to the nature of cognition itself and hence has strongpsycholinguistic implications

1.2.2 Previous Research Works on Idioms in Vietnamese

In Vietnamese, although there exist several studies on idioms, most of thescholars (Tu 1976; Châu 1981; Thản 1963; Mệnh 1986; Giáp 1985; Lê 1976; San1974; Hành /1973/1976/2008; Việt 1981; Giáp 1988, Hùng 1988, Hiển 1994;

Khánh 1977; Đức 1995; etc) focus on the forms and meanings of idioms fromtraditional view It seems that studies on idioms from cognitive view have not beenpaid due attention.

1.2.3 Previous Research Works on Idioms in English and Vietnamese under Comparison and Contrastive Analysis

In Vietnam, some attempts have been made to work out the similarities anddifferences between English and Vietnamese idioms (Lan 2001; Giang 2009; Dũng2011; Phúc 2009; Trào 2009; Long 2010; etc) To the best of my knowledge, therehave not been any studies on idioms in terms of structural and semanticcomponents in both English and Vietnamese carried out before

CHAPTER 2: STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS OF ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE IDIOMS 2.1 Canonical Structural Components

2.1.1 Symmetrical Idioms

2.1.1.1 Realization

In the present study, a symmetrical idiom is generally regarded as one which

has two opposite component parts (A and B) And these two parts are usually

parallel It is also realized in the current thesis that 5.59% of our English data aresymmetrical idioms whereas symmetrical idioms in Vietnamese are 57.81%

2.1.1.2 Structural Patterns

In our English data, symmetrical idioms can be noun phrases, adjectivephrases, adverbial phrases, verb phrases, or prepositional phrases These phraseshave different functions indicated in the grammatical code Symmetrical idioms inour Vietnamese data can be noun phrases, verb phrases, or sentences

2.1.1.3 Structural Components

In English, symmetrical idioms usually have three components, one of which

is a connector Some may contain more than three components, but one of theirconstituents must be a connector The connectors are used to combine two

symmetrical parts of the idioms This can be specified in A and B, A or B, A but B,

A to B, or A, B A (usually corresponding with B) can be a noun/noun phrase, an

adjective/adjective phrase, an adverb/adverbial phrase, a verb/verb phrase, a

prepositional phrase, a pronoun, or a subordinator

Generally, symmetrical idioms in Vietnamese are regarded as idioms havingtwo opposite parts (A, B) A and B are together combined by the rhythm of thesyllables The number of syllables of the symmetrical idioms is usually even There

is no connector between A and B of symmetrical idioms in Vietnamese; however,

these two opposite parts are always parallel A (corresponding with B) can be a

noun phrase, a verb phrase, an adjective phrase, or a clause

2.1.2 Similized Idioms

2.1.2.1 Realization

In the present study, similized idioms are regarded as fixed groups of words

which are formed by their specific comparative means such as as…as, like, as, etc

in English (Seidl & McMordie 1988) and như, tày, đẳng, etc in Vietnamese (Hành

2008) Our investigation reveals that 12.48% of our English data are similizedidioms, and Vietnamese similized idioms in our data are 17.25%.

2.1.2.2 Structural Patterns

In our English data, similized idioms can be adjective phrases, adverbial phrases,verb phrases, prepositional phrases, or clauses Similized idioms in our Vietnamese datacan be adjective phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases, or sentences

2.1.2.3 Structural Components

A similized idiom is singled out by its specific structure of comparison The

structural components of similized idioms are categorized as as A as B, A like B, […] like B, or […] as B in English, and A như B, (A) như B, như B, or AB in

Vietnamese

2.1.3 Non-symmetrical idioms

2.1.3.1 Realization

A non-symmetrical idiom does not contain two symmetrical parts, or it is not

formed by its specific comparative means such as as…as, like, as, etc in English and như, tựa, bằng, tày, etc in Vietnamese Our investigation reveals that there are

81.93% of symmetrical idioms in our English data whereas Vietnamese symmetrical idioms are 24.94%

non-2.1.3.2 Structural Patterns

In our English data, non-symmetrical idioms can be noun phrases, adjectivephrases, prepositional phrases, adverbial phrases, verb phrases, clauses, orsentences Non-symmetrical idioms in our Vietnamese data can be noun phrases,adjective phrases, verb phrases, or sentences

2.1.3.3 Structural Components

Non-symmetrical idioms are quite common in English The structuralcomponents of these idioms are classified under three general headings: phrase,

clause and sentence The phrase heading is sub-divided into noun phrases,

adjective phrases, prepositional phrases, adverbial phrases, and verb phrases The

clause heading consists of non-symmetrical idioms as clauses introduced by

subordinators such as if, unless, when, while, etc The sentence heading consists of

non-symmetrical idioms as sentences, i.e the patterns of idioms are sentences.They can be simple, compound, or complex sentences The simple sentences are

specified in AB (A is the subject which can be a noun or noun phrase for B being the predicate (a verb phrase)) A coordinator B is applied to the compound

sentences (both A and B are clauses) The complex sentences are possibly specified

in A subordinator B (both A and B are clauses), or A which is a superordinate

containing itself non-finite clause(s) In some cases, the idioms can start withcoordinators or subordinators; however, they are still regarded as compound orcomplex sentences

In Vietnamese, the structural components of non-symmetrical idioms areclassified under two general headings: phrase and sentence (Hành 2008: 78) The

phrase heading is sub-divided into noun phrases, adjective phrases, and verb

phrases The sentence heading consists of non-symmetrical idioms as sentences,

i.e the structural patterns of idioms are sentences They can be simple, compound,

or complex sentences The simple sentences are specified in AB (A is the subject which can be a noun or noun phrase for B being the predicate (verb phrase)) AB is

applied to the compound sentences (A is a clause and B is also a clause) The

complex sentences are specified in AB (A is the subject which is usually a clause

and B is the predicate (verb phrase))

2.2 Non-Canonical Structural Components

In the present study, we suppose that unfrozen idioms can be idiom variants

or synonymous idioms Indeed, the fixedness of idioms cannot be denied becauseidioms and their variants or synonyms are different ones In order to study thestructural components of these idioms, an investigation is carried out among 200pairs of idioms having same contents (100 in English and 100 in Vietnamese)

2.2.1 Idiom Variants

2.2.1.1 Realization

Idiom variants are idioms having the same contents, structural patterns, andmental images (mental images are expressed by different components belonging tothe same semantic field) It is realized in this thesis that 46% of our English dataare idiom variants, and 52% of our Vietnamese data are idiom variants

2.2.2 Synonymous Idioms

2.2.2.1 Realization

Synonymous idioms are idioms having the same contents but differentstructural patterns, or having the same contents and structural patterns but differentmental images (mental images are expressed by different components belonging todifferent semantic fields) The present study reveals that 54% of our English data,and 48% of our Vietnamese data are synonymous idioms

2.2.2.2 Structural Components

The structural components of synonymous idioms are classified assubstitution, pattern transformation and passivization in English, and substitution,literalized transformation, language transformation and pattern transformation inVietnamese

2.3 Structural Components of English and Vietnamese Idioms Compared 2.3.1 Similarities

2.3.1.1 Canonical Structural Components Found in both Languages

The structural patterns of symmetrical idioms in our data in both languagescan be noun phrases or verb phrases The structural components of symmetrical

idioms collected conform to two symmetrical component parts (A connector B in English and AB in Vietnamese) A (corresponding with B) can be a noun/noun

phrase, adjective phrase, or a verb/verb phrase

The structural patterns of similized idioms collected in both English andVietnamese can be adjective phrases, verb phrases, or prepositional phrases The

collected similized idioms are constructed in (as) A as B/A like B in English and A như B in Vietnamese A can be an adjective, or a verb, and B can be a noun, a noun phrase, or a clause These idioms are also constructed in like/as B in English and như B in Vietnamese B can be a noun phrase, or a clause.

The structural patterns of non-symmetrical idioms collected in bothlanguages can be noun phrases, adjective phrases, verb phrases, or sentences Thesentences are subdivided into simple sentences, compound sentences and complex

sentences The simple sentences are specified in AB (A is the subject which can be a noun or noun phrase for B being the predicate (verb phrase)).

2.3.1.2 Non-Canonical Structural Components Found in both Languages

The possible variabilities of idiom variants collected in both languagesconform to substitution, modification, partial deletion, and component reversal The