A cross cultural study on idiomatic expressions containing numbers in english and vietnamese

All of those are factors that give me the inspirations to choose this topic A cross-cultural study on idiomatic expressions idioms containing interesting and helpful material for foreig

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

-

 -

Vu Thi Kim Dung

A cross-cultural study on idiomatic expressions containing numbers

in English and Vietnamese

NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO VĂN HÓA NHỮNG THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CÁC TỪ CHỈ SỐ

TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

M.A THESIS

HANOI- 2013

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

-

 -

Vu Thi Kim Dung

A cross-cultural study on idiomatic expressions containing numbers

in English and Vietnamese

DECLARATION

Titlle: A cross-cultural study on idiomatic expressions containing

numbers in English and Vietnamese

I hereby declare that no part of the enclosed Master Thesis has been copied

or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor

I am also grateful to all my teachers at the Post-graduate Studies in Hanoi Open University for their useful lectures which have built in me a firm foundation with immense ideas for the fulfillment of this paper

In addition, my thanks also go to my friends with their ideas, material, and enthusiasm and support to me in all aspects

Last but by no mean least, I wish to acknowledge the support and invaluable help of my husband and my family while the work was in progress

Definitely, I will not be able to do any thing without their help

Hanoi, December 2013

Vu Thi Kim Dung

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1. Rationale of the study 1

2. Aims and objectives of the study … 2

3. Research questions 2

4. Scope of the study 3

5. Methods of the study.… 3

6. Design of the study 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: Literature review and theoretical background 5

A Theoretical background 5

1.1 Idiomatic expressions 5

1.2 Definitions of idioms 8

1.2.1 Definitions of English idioms 8

1.2.2 Definition of Vietnamese idioms … 10

1.3 Classification of idioms 11

1.3.1 English idioms 11

1.3.2 Vietnamese idioms 17

1.4 Specific characteristics of idioms 18

1.5 Numbers in English and Vietnamese cultures 23

1.5.1 Numbers in English culture … 23

1.5.2 Numbers in Vietnamese culture … 27

B Literature review of previous studies on idioms … 28

CHAPTER 2: Methodology 30

2.1 Research question 30

2.2 Data collection 30

2.3 Analytical framework 31

2.4 Data analysis 31

2.4.1 The connotative meanings of numbers in English and Vietnamese idioms… 32

2.4.1.1 Expressing positive meanings … 34

2.4.1.2 Expressing neutral meanings 37

2.4.1.3 Expressing negative meanings 39

2.4.2 Ideational, interpersonal and relational numerical idioms in English and Vietnamese 45

2.4.3 The frequency of appearance of numbers in English and Vietnamese idioms 52

CHAPTER 3: Findings and Discussions 59

3.1 Major findings … 59

3.1.1 From the connotative analysis … 59

3.1.2 From the functional analysis based on the appearance of idioms 60 3.2 Discussions 62

PART III: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 65

1. Recapitulation ……… 65

2. Limitations of the study …… ……… 66

3. Suggestions for implications and further studies 66

REFERENCES … .I

APPENDIX I: List of selected English idioms IV

APPENDIX II: List of selected Vietnamese idioms .VIII

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The connotative meanings of numbers in English and Vietnamese

idioms by Spangle and Werner’s model 33

Table 2: List of English idioms containing number one (1) 35

Table 3: List of English idioms containing number nine (9) 37

Table 4: List of English idioms containing number two (2) 38

Table 5: List of English idioms containing number three (3) 40

Table 6: List of Vietnamese idioms containing number three (3) 41

Table 7: List of Vietnamese idioms containing number two (2) 43

Table 8: List of Vietnamese idioms containing number one (1) 45

Table 9: Types of numerical idioms in English and Vietnamese by Fernando’s model 46

Table 10: English numerical idioms having Vietnamese equivalent expressions with the same meanings 50

Table 11: English numerical idioms having Vietnamese equivalent numerical idioms with the same meanings 51

Table 12: The frequency of appearance of numbers in English idioms 54

Table 13: The frequency of appearance of numbers in Vietnamese idioms 56

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

In the world today, there are 5,000 to 6,000 living languages, of which English is by far the most widely used According to the statistics of list of

English spoken countries by Nationmaster.com, there are 45 countries in the

world speaking English with approximately 350 million people speak English

as their first language About the same amount of people use it as a second language It is the English language that is used as the language of aviation, international sport and pop music 60% of the world's radio stations broadcast

in English and more than half of the world's periodicals are printed in English

It is also the English language that is used as an official language in 45 countries, and as the language of business, commerce and technology in many others The statistics above show that English is now an effective medium of international communication

English has been a very important international means of communication in almost fields of life such as economy, politics, culture and education The mastering of English is not an easy matter because it requires a 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 vocabulary teaching and learning, idiom is an issue with which English learners and teachers are concerned because idioms are frequently used to make conversations more natural, interesting and concise in daily communicative activities Idioms are used to express ideas in figurative styles It is true that the more skillfully one uses idioms in his conversations, the more effectively he can establish his communicative relationship Therefore, knowing how to use idioms effectively in the right

situations is becoming essential It can be said that idioms are the color and vitality of a language Thus, the effective use of idioms is a necessary requirement for any language learners who have desire to master it

Numbers which are very common in our daily life and have certain cultural characteristics also appear in idioms Idiomatic expressions containing numbers bring about interesting diverse meanings to our utterances and writings Personally, in daily life of English and Vietnamese, I see that numbers have certain significance People admire some numbers and vice versa All of those are factors that give me the inspirations to choose this topic

A cross-cultural study on idiomatic expressions (idioms) containing

interesting and helpful material for foreign language teachers and learners and for people who are interested in idioms in both English and Vietnamese

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The thesis, as entitled, focus on idiomatic expressions (idioms only)

containing numbers in English and Vietnamese, gives definitions,

classifications as well as some features of idioms in both English and Vietnamese Therefore, the aims of the study are:

• To explore the roles of numbers in the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese

• To find out the contribution of numbers to the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese; Giving some suggestions to improve knowledge about English idioms

3 Research questions

In order to achieve these aims, the following matters should be made clear:

• What are the differences of English culture and Vietnamese culture

through the role of numbers in idioms?

• What do numbers contribute to the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese?

4 Scope of the study

In this study, attention is firstly focused on analyzing typical idiomatic expressions (idioms only) containing numbers in English and Vietnamese which express English and Vietnamese cultures Secondly, the study is focused on revealing what types of English and Vietnamese idioms which numbers appear in and their connotative meanings in these idioms

There are some kinds of numbers appearing in idioms: cardinal number and ordinal number (order number) and in Vietnamese we also have numbers

denoting months of the year In this study, only English and Vietnamese

idioms containing cardinal number from one (1) to nine (9) are selected and analyzed

Because of the size and scope of this thesis, many English idioms containing ordinal number and other numbers such as ten (perfect ten), zero (zero tolerance), thousand or million (a thousand times, one in a million) and also Vietnamese words denoting months of the year (like tháng 3, tháng 4, …) will

not be the subjects of the study

5 Methods of the study

To achieve the main aims and objectives stated, the study employs both quantitative and qualitative methods By virtue of quantitative method, data have been collected from 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 collected data

All the considerations and conclusions are largely based on the analysis of the

statistics data and references

6 Design of the study

This study consists of three parts, excluding the references

• Part one, INTRODUCTION, consists of the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the methods, and the design of the study

• Part two, DEVELOPMENT, is the heart of the study which directly deals with the research on idiomatic expressions containing numbers in English and Vietnamese to find out the answer for the research questions This part is divided into three chapters, including:



Chapter 1: Literature review and theoretical background, provides the theoretical information about definitions, classification and features of idioms, brief knowledge about numbers in English and Vietnamese culture, the review

of previous studies on idioms;



Chapter 2: Methodology, is concerned with research questions, data collection, analysis framework, data analysis;



Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions

• The last part, CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS of the study, includes recapitulation, limitations of the study and some suggestions for implications and for further studies

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: Theoretical background and Literature review

A Theoretical background

1.1 Idiomatic expressions

According to www.thefreedictionary.com, idiomatic expressions are the expressions whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up In other words, idiomatic expressions are types of informal language that have meanings different from the meaning of the words in the expression

Idiomatic expressions include idiom, proverb, phrasal idiom, set phrase, phrase, locution, saying, etc In English and Vietnamese language, idioms and proverbs are widely used We will focus more on idiom and proverb

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary provides the definition of idiom as “a

group of words whose meaning is different from the meanings of the individual words

According to Thành Ngữ Học Tiếng Việt (p.21), “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”

A proverb is defined as “a well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or

says something that is generally true” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)

Definition by Vu Ngoc Phan (2000) stated that a proverb as “a complete

saying expressing one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or criticism”

It is easy to find that idioms and proverbs have some in common, and until now there have been no clear-cut borders between them However, basing on some criteria, we can distinguish idiom and proverb:

Idiom:

- It is a fixed phrase or other sequence of words;

- It has a meaning beyond or other than the sum of the meaning of the individual words;

- Idioms do not participate in the usual possible range of variation;

- It is a part of a sentence;

For example:

In English:

- One foot in the grave

- Back to square one

- Be miles away

- Time’s up

- At the moment, etc

In Vietnamese:

- Ăn gian nói dối

- Biết người biết ta

- Đầu voi đuôi chuột

- Mượn gió bẻ măng

- Quý nhân phù trợ, etc

individual words;

- Proverbs’ logic contents/meanings are exposed in two ways:

+ It expresses one idea of justice directly (without through actions and events)

+ It expresses one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or criticism basing on an action or an event

- It can stand independently with a complete meaning

For example:

In English:

- A burnt child dreads fire

- Where there's a will there's a way

- A friend in need is a friend indeed

- Empty vessels make the most noise

- Great talkers are little doers, etc

In Vietnamese:

- Ăn quả nhớ kẻ trồng cây, ăn khoai nhớ kẻ cho dây mà trồng

- Ăn kỹ no lâu, cày sâu tốt lúa

- Con trâu là đầu cơ nghiệp

- Có công mài sắt, có ngày nên kim

- Ghét của nào trời trao của ấy

- Mạnh vì gạo, bạo vì tiền

- Người đẹp vì lụa, lúa tốt vì phân, etc

In conclusion, proverb and idiom has their typical characteristics Whereas an idiom is an equivalent unit to a word or a phrase as parts of sentence, a proverb is a complete sentence or a phrase expressing a full idea The second one is the function A proverb is “a well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice” and expresses “one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or

criticism” As a result, it has perceptive function, aesthetic function and educational function On the contrary, idioms have no the three functions because of not demonstrating judgments, giving advice or stating general truth about life

This study, because of its scope and size, concentrates only on the idioms containing cardinal number (from number 1 to 9)

1.2 Definitions of idioms

1.2.1 Definitions of English idioms

English is very rich in idiomatic expressions It is difficult to speak or write English without using idioms An important fact must be stressed is that idioms are not only colloquial expressions, as many people believe They can appear in formal style and in slang They can appear in poetry or in the language of the journalist, the writer and the Bible

According to Seidl and McMordie (1988), “an idiom is a number of words

which, taken together, meaning something different from the individual words

of the idiom when they stand alone The way in which the words are put together is often odd, illogical or even grammatically incorrect”

For example:

- All rolled up in one

- At sixes and sevens

- In two shakes of a lamb’s tail

- In one fell swoop

- Six feet under, etc

Idioms are composed of more than one word: their constituents show to some extents of internal cohesion that we expect of single words An idiom typically resists interruption and re-ordering of its constituents

According to Asher and Simpson (1994), idiom, habitual collocation, is a

phrase or other sequence of words which has a meaning beyond or other than the sum of the meanings of the individual words, and which do not participate

in the usual possible range of variation

According to Cruse (1986: 37), an idiom is an “expression whose meaning

cannot be inferred from the meanings of its parts when they are not parts of idioms”

Fernando (1996) shares the same view of the definition of idioms At the same time, he has a broad view when considering idioms as multi-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 constituents while the other constituent denotes a concept which it does not denote in other linguistic contexts

We can see some examples for these views:

- Blow hot and cold

- A fair weather friend

- Knock something off

- Three sheets to the wind

- Nine to five job, etc

Palmer (1990) defines idioms as group of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meaning of the words themselves Semantically, idioms are single units, but they are not single grammatical units like words

However, grammatically, an idiom does not function like a word Idioms are grammatically restricted

“An idiom is a group of words (or a compound) with a meaning that is different from the individual words, and often difficult to understand from the individual

words” (Vocabulary in Use Intermediate, p 26) The meanings of English idioms are very special People cannot infer the meaning of an idiom by working out the meanings of separate constituent elements but rather by considering the idiom as a whole In other words, an idiom can be understood only by grasping its figurative meaning The literal meaning means nothing That is the reason why many English learners often get confused or stuck when

it comes to guessing the meaning of a certain idiom What Holleman (2006) remarks in the book entitled “American English idiomatic expressions in 52

weeks” helps confirm this fact He says that “the use of idioms is a challenge

for English language learners because, compared to standard vocabulary acquisition, understanding these expressions is not clear by simply referring to

a dictionary.”

Here are some more definitions of idioms:

- “An idiom is an expression which functions as a single unit and whose

meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts”

(Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, p.236)

- “An idiom is a fixed group of words with a special different meaning from

the meaning of several words”

(Dictionary of English Idioms, p.79)

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 that

an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning can not be worked out by looking at the meaning of its individual words

1.2.2 Definition of Vietnamese idioms

“Vietnamese idioms are fixed expressions in the form of single words or sentences but totally belong to the spectrum of words Most of them are

encoded, containing artistic stylization and are only part of an utterance.” (Thành ngữ là cụm từ mang ngữ nghĩa cố định, chưa tạo thành câu hoàn chỉnh; không thể thay thế/sửa đổi về mặt ngôn từ; thường được dùng để tạo thành các câu hoàn chỉnh trong văn nói/viết; số lượng thành ngữ trong tiếng Việt rơi vào khoảng gần 6 nghìn thành ngữ Kết cấu của thành ngữ rất khó (gần như không thể) phân định rõ ràng đâu là chủ ngữ, đâu là vị ngữ)

(Từ Điển Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ Việt Nam, p 659)

According to Thành Ngữ Học Tiếng Việt (p.21), “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”

Here are some examples of Vietnamese idioms, which are only part of an utterance:

- Cá mè một lứa

- An cư lạc nghiệp

- Ba hoa chích choè

- Thả mồi bắt bóng; …

Idioms are an invaluable treasure of the Vietnamese “In idioms, we can find

the typical features of people’s thoughts, aesthetics (đẹp như tiên), virtues,

standards of human behaviour (cây ngay không sợ chết đứng) as well as the

attitudes towards the good and the evil (xấu như ma), the noble and the

humble” (Từ Điển Giải Thích Thành Ngữ Tiếng Việt, p.3)

1.3 Classification of Idioms

1.3.1 Classification of English idioms

There are many ways to classify English idioms Idioms can be classified in

terms of structure, topic and meanings and functions We will, one by one, consider each way of classification

parts of body, children and babies, fashion, colours, death, food, money,

music, numbers, plants and flowers, politics, weather,etc

For example:

- Animals:

+ As blind as a bat

+ As poor as a church mouse

+ Beat a dead horse,

+ The black sheep of the family, etc

+ Rain cats and dogs

+ Come rain or shine

+ Steal my thunder

+ On cloud nine, etc

Idioms by structure: According to Cowie, Mackin and Mc Caig (1993) in

Oxford Dictionary of English idioms, Oxford University Express, English idioms have the enormous structural variety Basing on functions, idioms can

be also classified as phrase idioms and clause idioms Seidl – McMordie (1988), on the other hand, gave eight groups of idioms based on parts of speech, as follows:

a Key words with idiomatic uses:

- Adjectives and adverbs:

+ Big fish in a little pond

+ A hard and fast rule

+ As thick as thieves

- Nouns:

+ Out of sight, out of mind

+ The point of no return

+ That the way the cookie crumbles

- Miscellaneous:

+ Once and for all

+ How on earth…?

+ It’s back to the drawing board

b Idioms with nouns and adjectives:

- Noun phrases:

+ A drop in the ocean

+ The lesser of two evils

+ The pros and cons

- Adjective + noun:

+ A back-seat driver

+ A flying visit

c Idiomatic pairs:

- Pairs of adjectives: Alive and kicking, sick and tired, spick and span, etc

- Pairs of nouns: the thrills and spills, the ins and outs, body and soul

- Pairs of adverbs: first and foremost, more or less, now and again

- Pairs of verbs: chop and change, sink or swim, live and learn

- Identical pairs: by and by, over and over, step by step

d Idioms with prepositions: above, across, after, against, at, by, for, etc

+ At first sight

+ For the best

+ Behind the scene

+ Beat about the bush

+ Catch someone in the act

+ Put down roots

g Idioms with key words from special categories: this refers to the idioms by topics: Animals, colours, numbers, parts of the body, time, etc

- Animals:

+ Lead a cat and dog life

+ Rain cats and dogs

+ Red tape

+ A white – collar worker

- Numbers:

+ Back to square one

+ One in the thousand

+ Kill two birds with one stone

- Parts of body:

+ Cost someone an arm and a leg

+ See the back of something

+ Keep an eye on something/someone

h Idioms with comparisons: as … as, like:

+ As busy as a bee

+ As plain as the nose on your face

+ Like the cat that stole the cream

Idioms by meanings and functions: Fernando (1996) divides idioms into ideational idioms, interpersonal idioms and relational idioms in order to explore the meanings of idioms and their functions Based on that, it can be inferred what the roles of the numbers appearing in idioms are There are

three types of idioms:

experiential phenomena expressing message contents such as actions, events,

situations (be in a pickle), attributes (matter of fact), evaluations and emotions (lose one’s heart) or characterizing the message such as showing specific or

non – specific information

For example, the idiom “have blood on one’s hand” is an idiom to describe a situation which is “someone must be responsible for someone’s death or is

guilty of causing someone’s death” (Oxford Advanced Dictionary Online)

Another example, the idiom “be in a pickle” is an idiom to describe a

situation The diomatic meaning is being in a difficult situation

Ideational idioms convey message contents: actions, events, situations, people and things, attributes, evaluations, emotions

- Interpersonal idioms: They are idioms that have interactional function or characterize the nature of the message, performing interactional strategies

such as greetings and farewells (bye for now, see you later), directives (never

mind, say no more), agreements (that’s true, say no more), eliciting opinions

(what do you think?), rejections (you’re joking)

Interpersonal idioms characterize the message by expressing newsworthiness, sincerity, calls for brevity, uncertainty

For example, the idiom “bye for now” is a farewell

Another example is “say no more” that means “I agree, I will do it; I concede,

no need to continue talking” Thus it is used to express agreement

integrative information such as addition (what is more, in addition to) or comparison (on the other hand, on the other), adversative (on the contrary,

far from ), causal (so that when, no wonder), concessive (at the same time) Relational idioms supply sequencing meta-discoursal information (in the first

place, last but not least) and sequencing temporal information (one day, up to

now)

For example: “in addition to” means “furthermore, besides, moreover” Thus,

it is an idiom that denotes addition

Another example is “in the first place” that is an idiom to denote “the

beginning” It has the function of pointing out the order of information mentioned Thus it is called an idiom of sequencing meta – discousal

information

In this study, we use the classification of idioms by Fernando to analyze the idiomatic expressions containing numbers in Chapter 2

1.3.2 Classification of Vietnamese idioms

Nguyễn Lân in the book “Từ Điển Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ Việt Nam” stated

that there are five types of idioms which are mentioned below:

- Idioms that contain well-selected words:

+ Len lét như rắn mùng năm

+ Nhanh như chảo chớp

+ Ăn quà như mỏ khoét

+ Ướt như chuột lội, etc

- Idioms with symmetrical structures:

- Reduplication idioms:

+ Khúc kha khúc khích

+ Lúng ta lúng túng

+ Hí ha hí hửng, etc

1.4 Specific characteristics of English and Vietnamese idioms

This part focuses on several points of view about specific characteristics of English and Vietnamese idioms

First of all, according to Nunberg, Sag & Wasow’s (1994), six characteristics

of idioms are as follow:

• Conventionality: The meanings of idioms can not be deducted from

“knowledge of the independent conventions that determine the use of their constituents when they appear in isolation from one another”

• Formal inflexibility: The numbers of syntactic frames in which idioms appear are limited Thus, idioms are syntactically restricted

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

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

substance, time as a path, love as war, and up is more ), metonymy (lend a

hand, count heads ), hyperboles (not worth the paper it’s printed on)

• Proverbiality: Idioms are used to illustrate familiar situations of social life

The situations are similar to folksy, familiar images (climbing walls, chewing

the fat, spilling beans)

• Informality: Idioms have a tendency to appear in colloquial speech

• Affect: Evaluative or affective stances can be inferred from the use of idioms

words that has a meaning that is different from the meanings of the individual

words themselves It can have a literal meaning in one situation and a

different idiomatic meaning in another situation It is a phrase which does not always follow the normal rules of meaning and grammar

We will have a look at the certain situation to understand clearly about these meanings of idioms:

To sit on the fence

The politician sat on the fence and would not give his opinion about the tax

issue

To sit on the fence can literally mean that one is sitting on a fence However, the idiomatic meaning of to sit on the fence is that one is not making a clear choice regarding some issue Therefore, we can see that the idiom not only gives or transfers the information but also implies the nuance, attitude and feelings of the speaker

The literal meaning of the idiom is the meaning that we can see basing on the each unit’s meaning and the idiomatic meaning, is the extension which shows the cultural distinction of using the word between this commodity and others The idiomatic meaning of the idioms is the meaning beyond or other than the sum of the meaning of the individual words

structure, indivisible meaning, and can appear in speech like a word is called

an idiom Therefore, both English and Vietnamese idioms can be distinguished by their grammatical and semantic features

Grammatical features

In English idioms, it is very easy to realize that most idioms are fixed expressions There are no changes in structure, word order and lexicology

Moreover, when an idiom is used in a complete sentence, it is hardly change

into passive voice

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

In addition, idioms may take many different forms or structures Some idioms are noun phrases such as “sixes and sevens”, “a black sheep”, “forty winks”, etc Some are verb phrases such as “give me five”, “to do someone proud” The most important thing is that an idiom can have its own regular, irregular

or even incorrect grammatical structure “To be at large” is an example of grammatical irregularity, no structure like this is normally accepted because

an adjective doesn’t usually come after a preposition singly However, this can be considered as an exception in language

the forms of Vietnamese idioms Nguyễn Văn Tú in “Từ và vốn từ Tiếng Việt hiện đại” (p.28) said that idioms are fixed expressions whose word components do not have their own individual meanings and become a solid block He emphasized the combination of the components forming the meaning of idioms Sharing this point of view, Nguyễn Thiện Giáp in his

book “Từ vựng học Tiếng Việt” (p.12) considered an idiom as a fixed

expression Although Nguyễn Đức Dân in his scientific research “Ngữ nghĩa thành ngữ và tục ngữ, sự vận dụng” (Tạp chí Ngôn ngữ, p.7) did not focus on

the forms of Vietnamese idioms, he dealt with the fixation of idioms He said

“Idioms are language units which have fixed forms” Hoàng Văn Hành (Thành ngữ trong Tiếng Việt, p.23) attached special importance to the components forming idioms He affirmed that an idiom was a fixed group of words whose form was unchanged

So we can say that Vietnamese idioms are fixed groups of words whose forms are unchanged: the fixed combination comes from settled words and expressions such as “được voi đòi tiên”, “chó ngáp phải ruồi”, “chim sa cá lặn” etc The fixation shows that we can not change the order of words or use the synonyms (similar words) to replace any components of an idiom in a casual way This is a basic feature helping us to realize idioms easily However, in fact, there are some fixed expressions which are not idioms Therefore, in order to realize an idiom correctly, we can not only look at this feature but also other ones

Semantic Features

In English idioms, when mentioning the semantic features of an idiom, we often talk about its meaning According to Kramsch in Language and Culture,

p.63, “The meaning of an idiom was the special chemical mixture of all

components’ meaning, which is completely new in quality”.This means that it

is very important to understand idioms metaphorically We can not usually discover the meanings by looking up the individual words in a dictionary when studying idioms; most of the idioms are metaphorical rather than literal Another feature concerning itself with semantics is that idioms can range from positive, neutral to negative meaning

Some idioms have positive meanings, we can see that sense in these idioms like “one’s lucky number comes up” (lucky or good fortune), “dressed to the

nines” (to be dressed in one’s best clothes), “on cloud nine” (happy because something wonderful has happened), “in seventh heaven” (extremely happy),

“look like a million dollars” (look very good)

Some have neutral meanings as “nine times out of ten” (almost always), “one over the eight” (to be slightly drunk), “once in a blue moon” (something happens very rarely), etc

And many other idioms are negative For instance, “one’s number is up” (somethings bad will happened to someone), “one foot in the grave” (close to death), “off on one” (someone gets extremely angry indeed), etc

All these above examples show that the nuances of idiomatic meanings are very complicated They mainly depend on the nuances of their key components

In Vietnames idioms, there have been a lot of different opinions about the semantic features of Vietnamese idioms According to Nguyễn Văn Mệnh in his scientific research established in Tạp chí Ngôn ngữ (p.21), an idiom introduces an image, a phenomenon, a state, a personality, an attitude, etc This opinion is quite simple and general In 1986, he gave his own new point of view: Idioms have their own meanings and nominative functions, and are used

in daily speaking Nguyễn Văn Tu (Từ và vốn từ tiếng Việt hiện đại, p.28) said that the meaning of an idiom did not come from individual components which may have their images or not Its meaning could be different from the meaning

of each component or did come from each original word

Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (Từ vựng học tiếng Việt, p.13) focused on the basic semantic features of idioms: Being rich in imagery is a basic feature of idioms Idioms express concepts basing on specific images and symbols The imagery of idioms is made from its metaphor and comparison

Although there have been different ideas about the semantic features of idioms, Vietnamese linguists have all shared the same point of view as follows:

• The meaning of an idiom is a perfect whole which does not come from the meanings of individual components added

• The meaning of an idiom expresses the reflection of things or concepts

• The meaning of an idiom is usually figurative and descriptive

In Vietnamese, there are also some idioms which have literal sense coming from the meanings of their components They may be comparative idioms such as “đẹp như tiên”, “ướt như chuột lột”, “nhanh như chảo chớp”, etc whose imagery comes from the images compared with activities or properties Some Sino-Vietnamese idioms such as “bán tín bán nghi”and “bách phát bách trúng” also have literal sense basing on the meanings of their components

In this study, we will focus on the semantic meaning (positive, neutral, negative) of idioms in English and Vietnamese to analyse and find the answer for the research questions

1.5 Numbers in English and Vietnamese cultures

1.5.1 Numbers in English culture

We will first have a look at numbers and their meanings to have the deep understanding of the presence of numbers in English and Vietnamese cultures 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 meanings of idioms containing numbers in English and Vietnamese cultures can be established and made clear

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 numbers are used for indicating order The majority

of ordinal numbers are formed by affixing the –th suffix onto the cardinal numbers such as tenth and eighth except for the irregular cases such as first (1st), second (2nd), third (3rd) and fifth (5th)

“Numbers rule all things” Pythagoras, 580 – 500 B.C.E

Pythagoras believed numbers had souls, as well as magical powers

Plato called the study of number symbolism “the highest level of knowledge” Numbers are a part of language They are frequently used in daily activities such as counting, arranging orders, making measurements or giving assessment As the relationship between language and culture is inseparable, numerical words play a role in human cultural communication

In English culture, there are certain numbers considered as lucky numbers in human psychology In “Handbook of international research in mathematics education” by Lyn D English, Maria Giuseppina Bartolini Bussi (2008), the world is made of three parts involving the land, the sea and the sky; nature is consisted of three parts which are animals, plants and minerals; the spirit, the flesh and the soul compose a human Thus, number 3 appears in quite a lot of saying like: “the third time is the charm”, number 3 is always fortunate” and

“all good things go by threes” “Three” is seen as a perfect number in the eyes

of Pythagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher because he suggested that everything can be divided into numbers and the best number choice is the

number “three” symbolizing 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 “seven” because seven refers to the planets such as Sun, Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mercy, Mars and Saturn that are accompanied with the God

Furthermore, according to Christian religion, it took Gof seven days to create the world Consequently, in the 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 as an unlucky number or as source of evil so the meanings of English numerical idioms containing “two”

are often something not good such as “two by four” or “two bits”

Besides, thirteen is also the first avoided number in western culture due to its unlucky meaning That dates back to the old story from Holy Bible that Jesus was betrayed by his thirteenth follower while having the last dinner with the other twelve followers

Robert Johnston (1999) in his book “Numbers in the Bible: God’s design in Biblical numerology”, stated that:

- Number 1: 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 seen a number with positive meaning or neutral meaning

- Number 2: can be considered as an unlucky number or as source of evil so

the meanings of English numerical idioms containing “two” are often something not good

- Number 3: is considered as a lucky number and people often use it to divide things into three parts

- Number 4: In the western countries, four represents the physical world, as the 4 elements (fire, water, air and earth), 4 seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter) and the 4 cardinal points (North, South, East and West) It can be seen

as a significant number

- Number 5: is four plus one (4 + 1) Five is the number of grace

- Number 6: Six is man’s number, because God created man on the sixth day

It often symbolizes imperfection because it falls short of the perfect number seven So it can be said that in English culture, number 6 is not considered as

a lucky number

- Number 7: 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 western cultures that the seventh son of a seventh son has the power of healing and that the seventh daughter of a seven daughter has the gift of interpreting dreams

- Number 8: In Christianity, eight represents rebirth or resurrection It can be considered neither lucky number nor unlucky number

- Number 9: In Christianity, there are nine choirs of angels, nine gifts of the Holy spirits and nine, as 3 times 3, as it refers to the Holy Trinity Thus, number 9 can be seen as a lucky number

1.5.2 Numbers in Vietnamese culture

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 some certain cultural colors

According to Mingtan (2002) in “How to attract Asian women”, there are unlucky numbers such as 3 and 4 It can be seen that number 3 is not a lucky number in Vietnamese culture When people get married or start going out to

do something important, they avoid the date having number 3

of the influence of Chinese culture on Vietnamese culture Number 4 in Chinese language “tử” has two meanings: child and death And there is a life circle in Vietnamese thought: birth, age, illness and death (sinh, lão, bệnh, tử)

So number 4 is considered to bring the unlucky things

On the contrary, in the book “Vietnam Culture” by Bobbie Kalman (2002) and the book “The little Sai Gon cook book: Vietnam cuisine and culture in

the South” by Ann Le, Julie Fay (2006), Vietnamese consider numbers 6, 8, 9 are lucky numbers: number 6 represents luckiness, happiness and material benefits; number 8 symbolizes achievements and becoming rich; number 9 represents power

B Literature review of previous studies on idioms

Studies on idioms have been paid a lot of attention by many researchers There has been a various collection of studies on idioms in general, from an article, a scientific research to a graduation paper or a book It can be said that the collection of idioms researches is not small

In Viet Nam, there have been studies on English and Vietnamese idioms such

as “Idiomatic expressions containing the word “dog” in English and Vietnamese” by Tu, Dao Thanh (2007), aimed at studying idiomatic expressions containing the word “dog” in English and compare with those in Vietnamese to establish the similarities and differences as well as to show the specific features of English and Vietnamese cultures about dog The study found out that in English culture, dog was the symbol of night, darkness whereas in Vietnamese culture, dog was one of the pure Vietnamese relics to protect houses and also the spiritual life of the Vietnamese This study also showed some differences between English and Vietnamese cultures through the image of dog

Another study is “An investigation into the English words and idioms denoting happiness” by Lam, Nguyen Thi Van (2002) To find out the answer for the research question “What are the grammatical features and sematic structures of “happy” and other words and idioms denoting happiness?”, the study concentrated on the idioms expressing happiness such as glad, pleased, delighted, elated, etc

There are also some studies focusing on idioms or topic related idioms such

as money related idioms, weather, colour, animals, etc

Gap identified here is that 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 out the contribution of numbers to the meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter focuses on the discussion and analysis of the collected data to

explore the contributions of numbers to the meanings of idioms in English

and Vietnamese In other words, numbers contribute to what types of idioms

(ideational, interpersonal and relational) contribute what types of connotative

meanings (positive, neutral, negative) to the overall meanings of idioms

Moreover, a brief comparison between English and Vietnamese numerical

idioms will be carried out to reveal similarities and differences between the

roles of numbers in non-literal meanings of idioms of two languages

2.1 Research question

In order to achieve the above aims, the study tries to find out the answers to

the following questions:

What are the differences of English culture and Vietnamese culture through

the role of numbers in idioms?

What do numbers contribute to the meanings of idioms in English and

Vietnamese?

2.2 Data collection

This study is about idioms so idioms are collected from many sources such as

books on semantics and idioms, newspapers, websites, dictionaries and literal

works

163 popular idioms containing lucky and unlucky numbers in English and

Vietnamese were collected, of which there are 76 English numerical idioms

and 87 Vietnamese numerical idioms

In this study, only English and Vietnamese idioms containing cardinal

number from one (1) to nine (9) are selected and analyzed

Because of the size and scope of this thesis, many English idioms containing ordinal number and other numbers such as ten (perfect ten), zero (zero tolerance), thousand or million (a thousand times, one in a million) and also Vietnamese words denoting months of the year (like tháng 3, tháng 4, …) will not be the subjects of the study

2.3 Analytical Framework

Firstly, in order to explore the contribution of numbers to the connotative meanings of idioms in English and Vietnamese, the study takes the theoretical view of connotative meanings by Spangler and Werner (1989) There are three types of attitudes when a word or a phrase is used Based on that, the meanings of numbers in idioms in English and Vietnamese are analyzed and divided into three types: Positive meaning (expressing favorable attitude), neutral meaning (expressing impartial attitude), and negative meaning (expressing unfavorable attitude)

The analysis of data is secondly based on the following theoretical framework

by Fernando (1996) introduced in the literature review This theory has been

mentioned in 1.3 Classification of idioms, chapter 1 According to this

classification, Fernando divides idioms into ideational idioms, interpersonal idioms and relational idioms in order to explore the meanings of idioms and their functions Based on that, it can be inferred what the roles of the numbers appearing in idioms are

2.4 Data analysis

There are 163 idioms containing numbers which are collected Among which, there are 76 English numerical idioms and 87 Vietnamese ones (see the appendixes I and II for the 163 collected and analyzed idioms)

Here are some results of data analysis which will be discussed in the

of their idioms are the same too They may contribute the same positive connotative meanings (+), neutral connotative meanings (0) or negative connotative meanings (-) to the meanings of idioms containing them As a result, if the semantic roles of numbers are only in the scope of those numerical idioms in two languages, the findings will be applicable in a very limited scope

For this reason, the study was carried out to analyze all 163 collected numerical idioms which are in both English and Vietnamese to have a broader and more reliable assessment about the connotative meanings of each number

in idioms containing them in both English and Vietnamese and then to make comparison

As stated above in the scope of the study, only idioms containing numbers from one (1) to nine (9) are collected and analyzed In the table 1, in terms of column, the first column lists numbers which appear in English and Vietnamese idioms The other columns show their times of appearance and correspondent percentages In terms of row, the first row shows English and Vietnamese numerical idioms The second row shows three types of connotative meanings: Positive, neutral and negative The tenth row points out the total number of each type of connotative meanings The last row shows the total number of English and Vietnamese numerical idioms

Negative meaning(-)

Positive meaning(+)

Neutral meaning(0)

Negative meaning(-)

27 (100%)

18 (100%)

21 (100%)

48 (100%)

The analysis of data is based on the priority If the times of appearance are below 3 times, they will not be analyzed Ony remarkable significant numbers