An investigation into english idioms relating to fruit with reference to the vietnamese equivalents

Although idioms are classified in different groups in which the author chooses semantic and syntactic of English idioms relating to fruit with reference to the Vietnamese special struc

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT )

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

M.A THESIS

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH IDIOMS

RELATING TO FRUIT WITH REFERENCE TO THE

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VỀ TRÁI CÂY

TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT )

DANG THI THANH HUONG

Field: English Language Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Dr.Nguyen Thi Van Dong

Hanoi, 2016

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report

entitled a study on English idioms relating to fruit with reference to the

for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due

acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2016

Dang Thi Thanh Huong

Approved by SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

Date:………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this thesis

First of all, I am deeply indebted to my beloved supervisor, Dr Nguyen

Thi Van Dong for the invaluable support, enthusiastic guidance, and

encouragement he gave me throughout my research I am truly grateful to her for his advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage Without her untiring patience in reading the

manuscript and clarifying my ideas, the thesis would have never been in the current shape

Secondly, I would like to give our thanks to all lectures of Postgraduate Faculty at Hanoi Open University for their valuable teaching and tremendous assistance that have enlightened my study path

Thirdly, I am also indebted to the field workers who were kind enough to tolerate the painstaking task of collecting the data Then my thanks also sent

to my classmates at the Master Course Class who have taken time and trouble

to alert me to errors in my thesis and provided me with useful data on which this thesis is based

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to family members whose support and encouragements have greatly contributed to the completion of my study For my little experience and knowledge, I would like to receive more useful comments from lectures and others

ABSTRACT

Idioms are used regularly and naturally in everyday communication, however, the inner meaning of the concept of idioms is still unclear to a lot of people Therefore, the author thinks a study on the subject of idioms in Vietnamese and English is helpful for improving the knowledge of language learners, as well as the students learning English in general In the study the author finds out that a semantic and syntactic analysis of English and Vietnamese idioms relating

to fruit has shown that English and Vietnamese idioms relating to fruit mention appearance, moods and feelings, love affairs and relationship, success

or failure Besides that the use of English and Vietnamese idioms can be explained behavior, attitude, activity and action, advantageous or disadvantageous situation, poverty, geography Although idioms are classified

in different groups in which the author chooses semantic and syntactic of

English idioms relating to fruit with reference to the Vietnamese

special structure, is an appropriate subject for a study contrastive Besides that, the survey in the form of questionnaire carried out by 60 students in the First year students at University of Economics and Technical Industries is to find out the command mistakes in using Fruit idioms in English Finally, some implications for teaching and learning of English at University of Economics and Technical Industries were suggested

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 4.1: Brief description of the semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms relating to fruit

Table 4.2.1: Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express appearance in English and Vietnamese

Table 4.2.2: Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express moods and feelings in English and Vietnamese

Table 4.2.3: Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express love affairs/ relationship in English and Vietnamese

Table 4.2.4:Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express success/failure in English and Vietnamese

Table 4.2.5: Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express behavior/ attitude/ activity/ action in English and Vietnamese

Table 4.2.6:Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express advantageous/ disadvantageous situation in English and Vietnamese

Table 4.2.7: Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express poverty in English and Vietnamese

Table 4.2.8: Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express geography in English and Vietnamese

Table 4.2.9: Statistical summary of syntactic features of idioms in English and Vietnamese

Table of Contents

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv

Chapter 1: 1

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1.Rationale for the research 1

1.2.Aims of the research 2

1.3.Objectives of research 2

1.4.Scope of the research 2

1.5.Significance of the research 3

1.6.Structural organization of the thesis 3

Chapter 2 5

LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Review of previous studies 5

2.2 Review of theoretical background 7

2.2.1 Theoretical framework 7

2.1.2 Theoretical background 8

2.1.2.1.Idioms 8

a Concept of idioms 8

b Distinctive features of English idioms 10

2.1.2.2 Idioms and other languages units 18

a Idioms and proverbs 18

b Idioms and collocations 20

c Idioms and clichés 21

d. Idioms Relating to Fruit 22

2.3 Overview of phrase structures 22

2.3.1 Verb Phrases 22

2.3.2 Noun Phrases 23

2.3.3 Prepositional Phrases 23

2.3.4 Adjective Phrases 23

2.4 Summary 23

Chapter 3: 25

METHODOLOGY 25

3.1. Research-governing orientations 25

3.1.1 Research questions 25

3.1.2 Research setting 26

3.1.3 Research approaches 26

3.1.4 Criteria for intended data collection and data analysis 27

3.2 Research methods 27

3.2.1 Major methods versus supporting methods 27

3.2.2 Data collection techniques 28

3.2.3 Data analysis techniques 28

3.3 Summary 29

Chapter 4: 31

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 31

4.1 Semantic features of idioms relating to fruit in English and in Vietnamese 31

4.1.1 Similarities 35

4.1.1 Differences 36

4.2 Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit in English and in

Vietnamese 41

4.2.1 Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express appearance in English and Vietnamese 41

4.2.2 Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express moods and feelings 41

4.2.3 Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express love affairs/ relationship 42

4.2.4 Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express success/ failure 43

4.2.5 Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit expressing behavior/ attitude/ activity/ action 43

4.2.6 Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit expressing advantageous/ disadvantageous situation………44

4.2.7 Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express poverty 44

4.2.8 Syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit express geography 45

4.2.9 A statistic summary of syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit in English and Vietnamese 45

4.3 Similarities and differences in syntactic features of idioms relating to fruit 46

4.3.1 Similarities 46

4.3.2 Differences 47

4.4 Implications 48

4.4.1 General suggestions on teaching idioms 48

4.4.1.1 Cultural differences 50

4.4.1.2 Word order in idioms 50

4.4.1.3 Idioms and sound patterns 51

4.5 Summary 51

Chapter 5: 53

CONCLUSIONS 53

5.1 Recapitulation 53

5.2 Concluding remarks 53

5.3.Limitations of the current research 54

5.4.Recommendations and suggestions for a further research 55

5.4.1 Recommendations 55

5.4.2 Suggestions for a further research 56

BIOGRAPHY 60

APPENDIX 61

Chapter 1:

INTRODUCTION

Language is a way to communicate ideas comprehensibly from one person to another in such a way that the other will be able to act exactly accordingly And Idioms represent a subject-matter which is both interesting and complex Many linguists agree that research in this field is problematic and tricky Nevertheless, it can be said that idiomatic expressions are worthy

of studying as they constitute an essential part of our speech, of our everyday communication They bring both stability and playfulness to our language However, when teaching a foreign language, I found that this use of language may cause some problems for foreign language learners since these linguistic resources, as vocabulary in general, may belong to different levels

of language use in terms of formality or situational context Idiomatic expressions are characterized by unpredictable meanings or unusual grammatical patterns, and they often convey specific connotations Sometimes non-native speakers lack confidence in using figurative language, especially idioms, whose meaning often can not be predicted or understood from the meaning of the words themselves Consequently, people may misinterpret what the other person is saying if they are not acquainted with the special meaning of a particular expression

The appointed reason is the condition of my theme choice I would like

to choose An investigation into English idioms relating to fruit with

help learners of Vietnamese improve their understanding of idioms, avoid

errors especially in translation and use them effectively as well

The thesis is aimed at investigating the similatities and differences in semantic and syntactic features of English idioms relating to fruit with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, thus suggesting some possible implications for learning English

Due to the time and research limitation, the thesis focuses on studying the syntactic and semantic features of idioms relating to fruit, analyzing collected from dictionary in both languages: English and Vietnamese This thesis mainly focuses on semantic features and syntactic features of English idioms relating fruit and their Vietnamese equivalents Other aspects are out of the scope of this study They, although can be found somewhere in this paper, are only meant to support of illustrate some arguments of the author

With a view to completing the research all the material collection of the English idiomatic expressions relating to “FRUIT” and their Vietnamese equivalents are hoped to be taken from the Internet and printed materials such as: dictionaries – Oxford Dictionary of Idioms (2010), Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Anh-Anh-Việt (2004), Thành Ngữ Tiếng Việt (2009), Từ Điển Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ Việt Nam (2008), Từ Điển Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ Việt Nam (2006)

The research is expected to contribute an in-depth description of English idiomatic expressions relating to FRUIT in terms of syntactic and semantic features with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, thus making a certain contribution to improving the quality of English-Vietnamese translation done

by Vietnamese EFL learners at English Faculty of Hanoi Open University

The study is organized into five chapters: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings and Discussion, and Conclusion

objectives of the research, scope of the research, significance of the study and structure of the thesis

review of the research, which attempts to present the theoretical background including general understanding about language learning process, an overview

of English idioms relating to “FRUIT” and Vietnamese and their equivalents

Chapter 3 - Methodology: describes the research methodology in

details and comprises the information of the subjects, instruments of data collection and methods of data analysis

features of English idioms relating to FRUIT with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents The features are accompanied by statistical results and the analysis

of the data shown in the tables The later part of chapter 4 works with some implications for teaching and learning English idioms realting to fruit

remarks Also, the limitations of the study are presented with suggestions for further studies

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Review of previous studies

Idioms have attracted many language researchers all over the world They are an important factor in native – like discourse by English as well as a foreign language speaker There are some important books such as “Idioms Organization” by Wright, “The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms” by Ammer or “Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms and so on

In Vietnamese, there are many authors has studied about idioms such as

“Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ Việt Nam Chọn Lọc” by Trần Quang Mân, “Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Anh Việt” by Lã Thành ,“Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Tiếng Anh” by Vĩnh Bá , Hoàng Văn Hành with “Thành ngữ học Tiếng Việt”

Up to now, there have been some studies conducts to find out features and related aspects of idioms such as : “ A study on English and VietNamese idioms relating to spiritual life” by Phan Thi My Hanh ( 2011) at Da Nang University In the minor thesis , she presented, describled and analized the spiritual life – related English and VietNamese idioms from a lingual cultural perspective

A minor thesis is “A study of idioms relating family in English and Vietnamese” by Tran Ngoc Que Chau( 2011).in her research paper, Tran Ngoc Que Chau (2011) studies syntactic and semantic features of family idioms in English and Vietnamese She analyses 462 idioms relating family in English and Vietnamese in terms of syntax and semantic, and indicate the distinction between idioms meanings by native speakers of English and Vietnamese Syntactically, the classification of the data is mainly based on the different structural categories, namely: noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases,

prepositional phrases and adverbial phrases With regard to the semantic results, the data reveal that the meanings of all the collected family idioms in English and Vietnamese could be expressed through such means as metaphor, metonymy and symmetry Based on the functional grammar viewpoint, the author has investigated each semantic field based on superficial grammatical structures In the light of this approach, idioms are analyzed in forms of phrasal structures and clause structures in relation to their semantic features The phrasal structures could be categorized into noun phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases and adverbial phrases Besides, idioms are also structured

by clauses

Besides, Tran Ngoc Que Chau (2011) compares and contrasts idioms relating family in English and Vietnamese in terms of syntax and semantics In the syntactic aspects, idioms in English and Vietnamese are analyzed under phrasal structures These structures are categorized into noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases and prepositional phrases Semantically, English and Vietnamese idioms relating family in her study express their meaning through such means as metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole and symmetry

However, up to now, there have been no studies on idioms relating to

idioms relating fruit is interesting and worth-doing She, however, does not study the structural aspect of idioms but desires to look at idioms relating to fruit in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of their meaning and its cultural aspect She does hope that she can find out their similarities and differences in semantic and cultural features, then on that basis propose some

implications for teaching and learning idioms relating to fruit in particular and English idioms in general

2.2 Review of theoretical background

2.2.1 Theoretical framework

There have been a number of writers making investigations into idioms with different points of view and objectives In English, there are some famous

ones being collected and written by researchers such as “The American

usage and appropriate contexts for each idiomatic phrase Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang (2009) are two authors who made a significant contribution in the

field of Vietnamese idioms They wrote “Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt” which is a

collection of Vietnamese idioms arranged in alphabetical order with clear explanations and examples extracted from Vietnamese novels, newspapers and

magazines Moreover, Nguyễn Trần Trụ who wrote “Thành ngữ tục ngữ lược

gi ải” (2008) explains meanings of the most common idioms and proverbs in

such simple, clear ways that learners can use this book for consulting and reference purposes

After that, it is the appearance of “Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt

Nam” by Đặng Hồng Chương (2007), “1575 Thành ngữ - Tục ngữ cần bàn

aspects of idioms have been carried out by Vietnamese researchers

Among the important approaches that look into the study of diverse idioms definition, distinctive features of English idioms, distinction between

idioms, proverbs and some other terms: sayings, phrasal verbs, colloquialisms and so on These approaches give insights into understanding how certain English idiomatic expressions relating to FRUIT with reference to the

Vietnamese equivalents could be put under an investigation

2.1.2 Theoretical background

2.1.2.1 Idioms

a Concept of idioms

Up to now, there are many definitions of idioms From Simple English

Wikipedia , an idiom is defined as “a word or phrase which means something

Accordingly, idioms are units realized by at least two words In addition, “the

meaning of an idiom is not predictable from its component parts, which are

the similar viewpoint on idiom definition, “an idiom may be defined as a

phrase the meaning of which cannot be predicted from the individual

is an expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meanings of its parts It can be seen that there are two visible points in their statements First,

an idiom is a phrase; second, its meaning is not simply the meanings of constituents making up the phrase Having the same point of view is Seidle

and Mordie (1978, p.8) who consider “an idiom is a number of words which,

but shares the similar idea To take the definition by Collins (1995) to

consider, an idiom is a special kind of phrase It is a group of words which have a different meaning when used together from the one it would have if the meaning of each word were taken individually […] idioms are typical metaphorical: they are effectively metaphors which have become “fixed‟ or

“fossilized‟ In his definition, there are two noticeable terms, “typical metaphorical” and “fossilized” used to describe idioms “Metaphorical‟ could

be referred to figurative and non-literal characteristics of idioms In the meanwhile, “fossilized” implies unchangeable property of idioms It can be seen from the definitions mentioned above; the linguists have defined idioms just in terms of their semantics and syntax

Idioms, like proverbs, are common sayings However, they usually do not make sense at first sight and do not offer any advice: “to blow one’s own trumpet”, which means, to praise oneself or boast…

So that, idioms are fixed expressions that are commonly used They are not complete sentences but words- An idiom is equal to a phrase

Idioms do not give comments, experience, a moral lesson, advice that made idiom aesthetic not educated, that is the reason why an idiom does not become a literary work- idioms belong to the language

In Vietnamese, idioms have also attracted a lot of the interest of researchers Mai Ngọc Chừ, Vũ Đức Nghiệu and Hoàng Trọng Phiến [53,

pp.153-165] state that “idioms are groups of words which are syntactically

restricted and have a particular meaning Their meanings are often imaginative

idioms are fixed phrase to express a concept Hồ Lê stated that “an idiom is a

word combination which has a stable structure and a figurative meaning, and

Nguyễn Thiện Giáp was of the opinion that idioms are set expressions have both the complete in meaning and valuable description Idioms express conceptions are usually based on specific images and symbols An example of

a Vietnamese idiom “mặt xanh nanh vàng” or “mặt hoa da phấn” it only

indicates the aesthetic – beauty or fruit of a face not a comment or advice or criticism Even though an idiom can be ornate and flowery (aesthetic function): so idioms do not bring about the full understanding about life and any lesson of the people’s relationship in the society (function of education and function of comprehension)

To sum up, an idiom is a phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definition of the individual words, which can make idiom hard for English learners to understand

b Distinctive features of English idioms

Analysis of the idioms in terms of definition simultaneously demonstrates some features of idioms Idioms should be treated as a special kind of every language They separate themselves from regular rules compared with other sorts of a language In other words, only in idioms the unacceptability in both meaning and form of a language could exist If a

sentence “Many a little makes a mackle” immediately indicates the meaning via its words, it could be changed into passive voice “a mackle is made by

form that could be changed into passive voice Agent – Action – Recipient, the form mentioned above must not be employed in passive voice, otherwise,

it looks odd Because, in fact “Many a little makes a mackle” is an idiom, it is

therefore necessary to be known as a fixed unit which does not permit any rearrangement of its elements Another aspect of idioms should be put into

consideration is semantics Whether the sentence he loses his wallet should be

treated as having a meaning directly through words or an idiom relating

“losing a great deal of money”, it will depend on the context it is embedded

with That means idioms deal with pragmatics

b.1 Semantic features of English idioms

Lexical meaning of idioms follow different rules that unlike common words Idioms are composed of words however they are not the combination of the meaning of each element forming them All idioms have complete meanings and they are generalized by all their forming elements It is undoubted that Figurative meaning is the basic characteristic of idioms which helps to decide whether a fixed expression is an idiom or not Here is an idiom

to exemplify: “to take one’s medicine” (to accept something unpleasant, for instance, punishment, without protesting or complaining) in Vietnamese we have “thuốc đắng dã tật, sự thật mất lòng”

However, the meaning of these idioms can be guessed from the meaning

of their components The meaning of an idiom is either partly or completely different from the meaning of all components In case of any partial difference, their figurative meaning is not different from the literal one The partly

different ones are such as kill two birds with one stone, to cut a long story

Besides, idioms can convey positive, neutral, or negative meanings For

the first group, conveying positive meaning we have some examples such as a

fair godmother (a person who helps you unexpectedly when you most need

help), the fruit(s) of something (the good result of an activity or a situation), be

examples of idioms expressing neutral meaning we have take a/the hint

(understand what somebody wants you to do, even though they tell you in an

indirect way), in somebody’s shoes (be in somebody’s position), bring

or serious something is) And in the last group typical examples of idioms with

negative meanings are monkey business (dishonest or silly behavior), a

influenced and controlled by his mother), a fair-weathered friend (somebody

who is only a friend when it is pleasant for them, and stops being a friend when you are in trouble)

According to Johnson-Laird (1993: vii), idioms are illogical and

frustrating features of discourse since their meanings do not depend on the

English idioms are not only extraordinary in terms of their syntax as analyzed but their semantics also

While Philip (2007) believes that the ease with which an idiom can be interpreted is based on its level of semantic transparency as well as truth conditions and other contextual cues As regards the level of semantic transparency, an idiom varies from opacity to transparence An idiom is transparent if the expression is straightforwardly connected to its meaning,

without much semantic re-elaboration, for example mind/ watch your language

can easily bring out the meaning “be careful about what you say in order not to

upset or offend someone” at first sight At the contrary level to transparence

is opacity when there is arbitrariness between the idiom’s expression and its

meaning, for example, “call the shots” has nothing to do with “be in

control” since the relationship between them is unmotivated and the product

of conventionalization In the view of Gill Philip, it is not easy to decide whether the idiom is transparent or not, as “it is affected by the individual’s real-world knowledge, awareness of cultural norms, and general familiarity with the phrase”

Sharing the same points of view with Philip (1996), but Fernando makes it more concrete by classifying idioms and bringing out necessary

criteria accompanied with According to Fernando, in her book Idioms and

idioms into pure idioms, semi-idioms and literal idioms as follows:

Pure idioms are non-literal and conventionalized, therefore invariant, which means that the meaning is completely figurative The only way to

deduce the meaning of a pure idiom is to learn and memorize

For instance:

It resists interruption by other words whether they are semantically compatible

or not

Semi-idioms have at least one literal constituent sense and at least one non-literal constituent sense Thus invariance or permission of

restricted variance in the structure occurs in this kind of idioms There will be a part of the idiom whose meaning can be referred

Consider:

accepted because it brings some benefit) “necessary” is the part that have the literal meaning “must be”

by women, such as cleaning, cooking and taking care of the children)

Literal idioms have non-literal element in their meaning, are hence less complicated than pure idioms and semi-idioms, which means that the meaning will immediately be deduced from the meanings of every word Invariance and restriction on variance are found in literal idioms

For example:

Most English idioms are based on conceptual metaphor or metonymy, which is another salient feature of idioms and known as metaphoricity This feature explains for the case why the idiom is difficult to be controlled and

mastered The idiom cock-and-bull story is based on metaphor, relating a

story that is unlikely to be true but is used as an explanation or excuse Sense

of “a/ per head” is based on the metonymy, relating “for each person”

In short, idioms can be motivated, partially – motivated and non –motivated Also, idiomatic expressions can convey positive, neutral, or negative meanings

b.2 Cultural features of idioms

Idioms - refined parts of language – are influenced by culture

dramatically According to Glucksberg “learning idiom provides learners

with a good opportunity to acquire information about a language’s

Culture and language are means of collective co-existence and social practice kept in the memory of the society that is created by the people during the centuries Cultural awareness helps people to become more understanding and tolerant of behaviors which are different from their own

Difference between cultures causes some misunderstandings in the interactive communications between a foreigner and a native-speaker Millions

of people travel around the world and they all need to communicate in some way They need to acquire not only linguistic competence but cultural awareness as well Cross-cultural investigations can provide materials that assist language learners to deal with the problems of unknown environments The native speaker puts in language his world vision, mentality, and the relation to other people in cross-cultural dialogue, and the non-native speaker receives that vision “It is clear that there is a difference between the native and the non-native speakers’ focus when they evaluate an oral discourse The former focuses on the vocabulary related to the cultural and social factors On the other hand, the latter lacks the ability to consider such factors This is one

of the major problems of the non-native speakers both at production and comprehension level (Kenan Dikilitaş, 2012)

Language and culture exist in each individual person That individual is

a thinker, a creator, a transmitter of the culture, he is the part of the society, and

he uses the language for communication with other members of this society where he is supposed to be understood as they belong to the same community But the indispensable condition of realization of any communication is that a speaker and a listener should have a mutual knowledge of realities or the background knowledge as a basis of a language interaction to understand each other A “Language world picture” gives a non-native speaker the opportunity

to realize the implicit meaning of the vocabulary through explicit meaning, to understand cumulated unconscious cultural information via background knowledge, to investigate cultural values via communicative process, to synthesize interrelation and interaction of the culture and the language

Special interest should be drawn to idioms which are the most difficult items of language If one can use them correctly in the communication, like native speakers, we say definitely that one’s English is fluent The lingua-cultural approach in teaching phraseology aspires to be approached to reality; it

is focused on the maximum explication of processes which occur in the reproduction and perception of the English idioms

It can be stated that idioms should be viewed as a cultural-based language unit Obviously, an idiom most often reflects the national specificity of the people It is a figurative interpretation of reality and an emotional model of communication Idioms are highly interactive items They are strong and colorful examples of cross-cultural relations The source of their

origin is sometimes difficult to ascertain They are firmly assimilated in various languages and have become part and the whole of these cultures The main difficulty is whether an idiom is appropriate in the given context when a non-native speaker tries to translate an idiom from his native language into English

It may confuse a listener The problem is often one of collocation, which is a central characteristic of the language in use The way native speakers use English in the real world is largely idiomatic and it assumes that a fluent non-native speaker should be similarly idiomatic When even very good learners of the language speak or write English, the effect is slightly odd Since idioms evaluate the whole narrative summarizing the main events or opinion, a native speakers’ unconscious knowledge of collocation is an essential component of their idiomatic and fluent language use and is, therefore, an important part of their communicative competence

A large number of idioms are of folk origin; however, there are huge numbers of the biblical, mythological and author-specific idioms Knowing culture, literature and traditions of different nationalities will help the language learner to communicate with a native speaker adequately In this way, an idiom

is the key, which enables people to open the gate of the national culture, history, traditions and beliefs of different people

Prodromoure (2003) marks that the love of puns and wordplay, often based on idiomatic sayings, is a common feature of a native speaker: “What is striking about informal uses of English is not only how common the idiom principle is, but just how common creativity with idioms is among native-speakers” Indeed, the need for greater idiomatic competence is precisely what linguists propose for the non-native speakers

2.1.2.2 Idioms and other languages units

a Idioms and proverbs

The boundary between idioms and proverbs is sometimes ambiguous and

a perfect solution is hardly possible In general, we could put them in separate groups as follows:

- Proverbs are a short saying expressing popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson in a concise and imaginary way,

E.g He laughs best who laughs last

Two heads are better than one

Proverbs have largely originated from the traditional and collective wisdom of mankind, by way of examples

experience of woodcutters in olden times

housewives in mending clothes

Many English proverbs owe their origin to the Bible, e.g: A soft answer

turned away wrath

In addition to the Bible, several proverbs are believed to have their origin

in the works of William Shakespeare, it is difficult to be certain whether these proverbs were truly invented by Shakespeare or they were already in existence before or around his time Some examples follow:

Brevity is the soul of wit (from Hamlet)

Some English proverbs have their origin in other languages like French, Latin and Spanish The English versions may have developed in parallel, or been

borrowed from other languages For instance: “he gives twice who gives quickly”

is a translation of “bis dat qui cito dat” (Latin) When the proverbs, have not been translated and are even today more popular in their original form, they can

be readily recognized to have been borrowed from another language

Take a look at some examples:

Like English proverbs, Vietnamese proverbs are also created naturally through the peasants’ life They are transferred from generation to generation by the oral way Some proverbs were written by intellectuals, writers, poets, and famous men Because of particular reasons, proverbs were widely propagated in

the community, examples: “ngày vui ngắn chẳng tày gang”, “có tài mà cậy chi

Du, are widely used as proverbs Some proverbs are borrowed from other

countries like Chinese proverb: “họ hàng xa không bằng láng giềng gần” (viễn

Proverbs are also set expressions because their lexical components are constant and stable Their meanings are usually figurative and they are ready-made as well Proverbs, therefore, must be studied together with other set expressions

fact that their meaning cannot easily be deduced from their components

b Idioms and collocations

The term collocation is defined as sequences of lexical items which habitually co-occur, which are nonetheless fully transparent in the sense that each lexical constituent is also a semantic constituent

The term collocation in linguistics is used to refer to sequences of lexical items which habitually co-occur, but which are nonetheless fully transparent in the sense that each lexical constituent is also a semantic constituent Such expressions as fine weather, torrential rain, high winds are examples of collocations Collocations are different form idioms; nonetheless, they do have

a kind of semantic cohesion – the constituents elements are, to varying degrees, mutually selective The semantic integrity or cohesion of a collocation is the more marked if the meaning carried by one (or more) of its constituent elements is highly restricted contextually, and different from its meaning in more neutral contexts Consider the case of heavy in heavy drinker This sense of heavy requires fairly narrowly defined contextual conditions: one may speak of a heavy smoker, or a heavy drug-user, a car may

be heavy on petrol, etc For this sense of heavy to be selected, the notion of

"consumption" as the immediate environment seems to be a prerequisite Collocations like foot the bill, whose constituents do not like to be separated, may be termed bound collocations Although they display some of the characteristic properties of idioms, bound collocations are nevertheless lexically complex

However, the borderline between collocations and idioms is not truly clear because they are both syntactic phrases that collocate habitually and exhibit a high degree of fixedness and they have some features in common

c Idioms and clichés

Cliché refers to an expression that has been overused to the extent that it loses its original meaning or novelty A cliché may also refer to actions and events which are predictable because of some previous events

All examples of Cliché are expressions that were once new and fresh They won popularity in public and hence have been used so extensively that such expressions now sound boring and at times irritable due to the fact that

they have lost their original color For instance, the phrase “as red as a rose”

must have been a fresh and innovative expression at some point in time but today it is considered universally as a cliché and does not sound good to be used in everyday formal writing

Clichés are quotations or sayings that are so frequently used that they have become hackneyed and stable As they are constantly and mechanically repeated they have lost their expressiveness and are therefore better avoided

Take an example: Stand shoulder to shoulder with

Pave the way to a bright new world

Having dealt with the terms above it can be noted “sayings and expressions units are general terms”

d Idioms Relating to Fruit

In the book “Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: International Student’s Edition” Turnbull et al [49, p.604] stated that “fruit is the part of a plant that consists of one or more seeds and flesh, can be eaten as food and usually tastes sweet: tropical fruit such as bananas and pineapples” or “a part

of a plant or tree that is formed after the flowers have died and in which seeds develop” In this thesis, we study idioms containing fruit words such as raspberry, apple, banana, lemon, peach, olive, nut, etc in English and quả bưởi, bòng, cà chua, nhãn, chuối, khế, chanh, dừa, quýt, sung, cam, mít, etc in Vietnamese and containing parts of fruit such as hạt nhãn, hạt na…

2.3 Overview of phrase structures

2.3.1Verb Phrases

Concerning verb phrase, Greenbaum [32, p.246] defined that “it has as

its head a main (or lexical) verb The main verb may be preceded by up to four auxiliaries.”

A verb phrase is the expansion of a verb, in the same way that a noun phrase is the expansion of a noun The verb phrase can be expressed both as an experiential structure and logical structure While the experiential structure is extremely simple, most of the semantic load is carried by the logical structure

In Vietnamese language, there have no regular distinction between finite and nonfinite verb forms like the way English does

2.3.2 Noun Phrases

In grammar, a noun phrase is a phrase whose head is a noun or a pronoun, optionally accompanied by a modifier set Like all phrases, the constituents of the English noun phrase can be analyzed into both functional constituents and formal constituents

2.3.4 Adjective Phrases

The adjective phrase has its head an adjective, which may be preceded by pre-modifiers and followed by post-modifiers [32, p.288] Adjective phrases act just like adjectives They modify, describe, or give more information about

a noun or pronoun

In brief, this chapter has reviewed previous studies relating this study Idioms are not new topic for researchers and they have discussed in many books Regarding the theoretical framework, the theory relating to semantic and culture has been used as a foundation for analyzing semantic and culture features

of English idioms relating to fruit with reference to the Vietnamese

equivalents However, no studies have been carried out fruit idioms in English and Vietnamese In terms of theoretical background, all aspects relating to idioms such as definition, features, classification have been indicated In addition, this chapter has presented some notions of idioms as well as some specific characteristics which will be the foundation for the following chapters especially, in Chapter 4 – the findings and discussion

The following chapters will provide a more detailed description of the methodology used for the idioms relating to fruit analysis so as to point out specific semantic and cultural features of English idioms relating to fruit with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents Though they are different in the number of categories, both have own specific forms

The review of literature dealt with so far holds a significant importance

in terms of providing the solid theoretical background for as well as setting up the analytical framework for the data collection procedure in the following part

of thesis

Chapter 3:

METHODOLOGY

This chapter is done to show the orientations and methods that are employed to conduct the whole research It comprises of two main parts: (i) research-governing orientations and (ii) research methods

3.1.1 Research questions

As it has been stated, the thesis was carried out in order to gain insights into the semantic and syntactic features of English idioms relating to fruit with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents It was designed in an attempt to seek answers to the following questions:

- What are the similarities and differences features in terms of semantic aspects of English idioms relating to fruit with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents?

- What are the similarities and differences features in terms of syntactic aspects of English idioms relating to fruit with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents?

- What are the implications of the study for teaching and learning English

in general and English in particular idioms relating to fruit with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents?

3.1.2 Research setting

English idioms can be made anytime or any situations not only in direct conversation, but also indirect ones The feeling and emotion are that they can represent anything It is a stand-in for what we make when dealing with English idioms relating to fruit As a matter of fact, for several years working as a teacher of English, the author found that the learners there have to meet big difficulty in using English, especially when they use idioms in English, they find

it hard to use them correctly

In this paper, English fruit idioms are treated as “relating to fruit” They are collected from different sources including books, dictionaries, websites and some other literature works After being collected, these idioms are reviewed, selected and categorized literally and figuratively to serve the tasks of analyzing and comparing in the later part of the thesis

3.1.3 Research approaches

The research describes and compare the semantic and cultural features of idioms relating to fruit in English and their Vietnamese equivalents In order to achieve the aims and objectives of the study, the descriptive and comparative methods are employed accompanied with both qualitative and quantitative approaches Besides, in the particular case of this thesis, English idioms relating to fruit and its Vietnamese equivalents can also be approached from the point of translating idioms in literary text (translation approach)

It should be noted that in the contrastive approach, idioms collected in English are compared with its equivalents in Vietnamese with the focus being placed on the mutual equivalence and language interference

3.1.4 Criteria for intended data collection and data analysis

The selective material related to making mistakes in conversations plays a crucial role in terms of supplement data for the research The English idioms relating to fruit for the research have been collected from the most trusted sources

Firstly, the following books and dictionaries which are concerned with idioms are collected and studied to gather necessary knowledge Main materials are Oxford Idioms (2010), Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Anh- Anh-Việt (2004), Thành Ngữ Tiếng Việt (2009), Từ Điển Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ Việt Nam (2008), Từ Điển Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ Việt Nam (2006)

Moreover, prestigious and reliable websites with a huge source of idioms are also made use of including En.wikipedia.org, News.google.com, Books.google.com and www.learn-english-today.com

Last but not least, previous theses in linguistics and literature words which are involved in the content of the study are also collected to grab related information

3.2 Research methods

3.2.1 Major methods versus supporting methods

As mentioned above, the study is an effort to describe the semantic and syntactic features of English idioms relating to fruit thus descriptive method seems to be the most suitable methodology for the study In addition, such methods as analytic, comparative and contrastive are also utilized to describe and analyze, to compare and contrast the database so as to bring out the causes

of making mistakes when using idioms in conversations

3.2.2 Data collection techniques

As mentioned previously, idioms, after being collected from different sources, are selected literally and figuratively and organized in alphabetical order to be followed with ease Data from some stories and novels are also an input

Details of data collection procedures and analysis are as follows:

- Collecting English idioms relating to fruit and their Vietnamese equivalents from stated sources

- Selecting these idioms and equivalents literally, figuratively and organized them in alphabetical order

- Analyzing and finding out cultural features of English idioms relating

to fruit and their Vietnamese equivalents

- Analyzing and finding out semantic features of English idioms relating to fruit and their Vietnamese equivalents

- Identifying similarities and differences between English idioms relating to fruit and their Vietnamese equivalents with regard to syntactic and semantic features

3.2.3 Data analysis techniques

After being collected, the data was analyzed using descriptive method The findings were mainly based on frequency distribution The overview of results in each datum was recorded in table containing numbers of idioms in English and the equivalent percentage The results were transcribed into, tables and figures Afterwards, the researcher analyzed, compared and contrasted the

English idioms and Vietnamese equivalents so as to find out why there are mistakes in using idioms in communication on this site

Last of all, with the collected data, the researcher analyzed and synthesized all the data to find out the answer for the three research questions Some considerations about free access and privacy matters should be taken into account Although the access of these sites is free, no authentic private information is published in the examples provided in this study Private personal information in the study has been modified, but keeping similarities with the original as a proof of the authenticity of the written words

The steps of data analysis include:

- Placing information into arrays

- Creating matrices of categories

- Creating flow charts

- Tabulating frequency of events

- Looking at the data in many different ways to avoid premature conclusions

- Dividing the data by type across all cases investigated

- Treating the evidence fairly to produce analytic conclusions answering the research questions

3.3 Summary

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the research methodology of this study, explain the sample selection, describe the procedure used in collecting data and provide an explanation of the statistical procedures used to analyze the data Besides, major methods, supporting methods and techniques