Semantic features of weather proverbs in English and Vietnamese

Semantic features of weather proverbs in English and Vietnamese Vũ Thị Yến Hồng Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15 Người hướng dẫn:

Semantic features of weather proverbs in

English and Vietnamese

Vũ Thị Yến Hồng

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15

Người hướng dẫn: M.A Đào Thị Thu Trang

Năm bảo vệ: 2012

Abstract Everyone understands the importance that proverbs have in every language

In the form of short, easily memorable phrases, the proverbs contain a great treasure of folk wisdom, and through use of a short proverb, it is often easier to express an idea better and more convincingly, than with a long speech Knowledge of proverbs is necessary for perfect knowledge of a language Yet, proverbs in general and weather proverbs in particular are units of language full of problems especially to second language learners Therefore, the thesis makes an effort to deal with a small part of proverbs: semantic features of English and Vietnamese weather proverbs Along with the investigation is the qualitative and quantitative analysis in English and Vietnamese proverbs collected from reliable books, dictionaries and websites The key target the investigation wants to reach is to discover the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese weather proverbs in terms of semantics by means of contrastive analysis A long with this discovery, the researcher reveals some weather proverbs in both English and Vietnamese that are not reliable in specific contexts Last, the study also puts forward some suggestions for teaching and learning proverbs in general and

weather proverbs in particular

Keywords Tiếng Anh; Tiếng Việt; Ngữ nghĩa; Tục ngữ

Content

1 Rationale for the research

Every language has proverbs Learning and understanding them is an important aspect of the mastery of language English language is no exception as it contains a large number of proverbs, which are extensively used as the wisdom of people English language learners, often struggling with a limited vocabulary, find these memorable proverbs easy to learn and fun to use Proverbs add familiarity and comfort to an often strange and stressful situation for older English learners Proverbs can capture a point of view in vivid words We learn proverbs our entire lives - from our relatives, our teachers, our friends, the media, and our literature These classic sayings contain folk wisdom gathered through time and experience They often capture a common human experience across cultures and languages

Hence, using proverbs in the language teaching not only provides learners with rich vocabulary but also equips them with a good basis of cultural knowledge reflected in the proverbs

themselves Through their keen observation of the world, hundreds of human generations have created proverbs and used them The condensed nature of proverbs allows them to be interpreted repeatedly, across time and in different situations They are interesting because they not only tap into universal themes in the human condition, such as the physiological rhythms of the human life cycle, but they also vary in ways that appear to reflect specific cultural differences In the home and in other community settings alike, proverbs are used to pass on rich cultural traditions,

to transmit folklore, and to communicate expected codes of behavior (Matthew S Kaplan, PhD,

2002, p.1)

So far, there have been a large number of researches conducted to investigate different features

of proverbs as well as their applicability in language teaching Yet, most of the studies deal with proverbs in general In this paper, the researcher would like to focus only on the English weather proverbs, put them in the comparison and contrast with Vietnamese ones in terms of semantic features

Weather, as we know, has been closely associated with us since we appeared in the world Our life, our work, our feelings are often influenced by weather In the past, before modern scientific weather forecasts existed, people whose lives and livelihood depended on the weather relied on weather proverbs to predict weather changes Nowadays, even with our access to sophisticated weather prediction techniques (such as satellites, weather balloons, super computers, Doppler radar, and a complex communications network) for production of reasonably accurate daily weather forecasts, many people still utilize common knowledge of the weather through weather proverbs because it is a simple way for them to predict the weather conditions

by themselves

The reason for the researcher’s choosing weather proverbs is that more than any other kind of proverbs, they illustrate the process human beings explore the natural world and form their world-view as well as gain experience in dealing with nature, serving their need of economic development If you know many proverbs, and have a little understanding of how weather systems work, you may conclude that proverbs tell you much about the weather Even if the proverbs are not ideally accurate, they will remind us about a weather system and help us learn and remember how weather system works More importantly, weather proverbs make us much more aware of our environment so we can observe and appreciate the many wonderful and intricate things going on in our natural surroundings Proverbs can help us understand and table out various weather situations In addition, studying English weather proverbs (EWP) and Vietnamese weather proverbs (VWP) plays an important role in interpreting and using this type

of proverbs

All the points mentioned above are fundamental impetuses that stimulate the researcher to conduct this study

2 Research aims and research questions

2.1 Research aims

First of all, through the investigation into the semantic features of weather proverbs, the researcher aims at discovering linguistic values underlying the literal words

Secondly, the study is to compare and contrast semantic features of weather proverbs in English and in Vietnamese

Thirdly, the study is to equip learners with rich knowledge on Vietnamese proverbs and English proverbs in general and on weather proverbs in particular In addition, some suggestions for teaching and learning English proverbs are also mentioned

2.2 Research questions

1 What are the semantic features of EWP and EWP?

2 What are the similarities and differences between EWP and EWP in terms of their semantic features?

3 Scope of the research

As proverb is a very broad topic, under the constraint of time, experience and shortage of materials, the researcher cannot cover all kinds of proverbs but focus on weather proverbs only

In addition, the researcher only concentrates on semantic features although the study would be of greater success if it deals with other linguistic and non-linguistic features of weather proverbs such as pragmatics, culture and syntax However, some aspects of culture are used to explain some different elements between two languages when it is necessary

4 Significance of the research

It is obvious that proverbs occupy a large part in almost every language It is hoped that along with the understanding of the semantic features of proverbs in general and those of weather proverbs in particular, the findings of the study can help learners employ weather proverbs more regularly, spontaneously and effectively Language learners can exploit them as a source of language units to enrich and color their writing and speaking in both academic and daily settings

As regards the teaching process, this thesis can also provide such a great reference source in the subject of semantics It can help to improve teachers’ awareness of the importance of proverbs as

an inseparable unit of the linguistic system and the need to include them into the curriculum

5 Structure of the research

The study is composed of three parts:

Part A, Introduction, includes the rationale, aims, research questions, scope of the research,

significance of the research, and structure of the research

Part B, Development, includes three chapters

Chapter 1, Literature Review, reviews some publications on weather proverbs and previous

studies as well as establishes the theoretical background for the study as the firm foundation with definitions of proverbs and weather proverbs The distinctive and remarkable characteristics of these phenomena will also be unearthed in order to provide a clear concept from the beginning

Chapter 2, Research Methodology, deals with the research design and procedures In this

chapter, description of the sampling, instruments, the procedure of data collection and analysis for implementing the thesis are mentioned

Chapter 3, Major Findings and Discussions, is the main part of the research, which includes a

generalization about the semantic features of weather proverbs in both languages - English and Vietnamese - and in what ways they are similar to or different from each other The latter discusses some weather proverbs that are not reliable in both languages

Part C, Conclusions, summarizes the main content of the research and draws out conclusions

This part also gives implications for teaching and learning PDW Moreover, a statement of limitations and suggestions for further research are also indicated in this chapter Apart from that, references and appendices are enclosed for those who are interested in studying the same issues

References

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