Thành ngữ tiếng anh thông dụng trong kinh doanh và cách dịch sang tiếng việt

HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY = = == = = VU THI HANH COMMON ENGLISH BUSINESS IDIOMS AND WAYS TO TRANSLATE THEM INTO VIETNAMESE THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH THÔN

HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY

= = == = =

VU THI HANH

COMMON ENGLISH BUSINESS IDIOMS AND WAYS TO

TRANSLATE THEM INTO VIETNAMESE

(THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH THÔNG DỤNG TRONG KINH DOANH VÀ CÁCH DỊCH RA TIẾNG VIỆT)

Field: English Linguistics

XUAN HOA, 2018

HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY

= = == = =

VU THI HANH

COMMON ENGLISH BUSINESS IDIOMS AND WAYS TO

TRANSLATE THEM INTO VIETNAMESE

(THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH THÔNG DỤNG TRONG KINH DOANH VÀ CÁCH DỊCH RA TIẾNG VIỆT)

Field: English Linguistics

Supervisor: Do Tien Duc

XUAN HOA, 2018

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Mr Do Tien Duc for his continuous support during my study, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm and immense knowledge in four years at my college He had instructed me through all obstacles and adversities when I got lost and stuck in creating ideas for this study I appreciate all his efforts and time to read and comment on my research so I can improve

my work I wish to thank him for all contribution and encouragement, so I had a deep insight of doing research I feel fortunate to have chances to learn great lessons from his hard work and practical experiences I know that I would never accomplish this thesis without his help

Beside my supervisor, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for Mr Reeg who has patiently explained, given me so much knowledge and understanding in business as well as English linguistics Sometimes, he did not agree with my perception but continuously provide me insight and awareness that greatly assisted my research

I would like to express my deep love and appreciation to my parents, bothers who always encouraged me with unconditional love, unflinching sacrifice and spiritually support through my hardship

Finally, I am thankful to all my classmates for their kindness and support

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify that the graduation paper entitled:

Common English business idioms and ways to translate them into Vietnamese (Thành ngữ tiếng Anh thông dụng trong kinh doanh và cách dịch sang tiếng Việt)

has not been copied from any other person’s work without acknowledgments and that the study is originally done by myself under my supervisor’s instructions

Date submitted: May 2018

Vu Thi Hanh Do Tien Duc

ABSTRACT

English business idioms have become prevalent these days They are not only holding cultural identities but also narrow the gap in the international communication of business affairs As can be seen, understanding and translating business idioms from English to Vietnamese are necessary for the promotion of international cooperation The study would like to point out some challenges in business idiom translation before it comes up with some techniques and strategies Among numerous translation methods and techniques, there are only some of them which can be applicable and useful to transfer the meaning of business idiom from English to Vietnamese efficiently As a result, the thesis author adopted description and analysis research methods to investigate some common English business idioms Then, the thesis author applies some strategies and communicative translation as a constructive and practical method to render them into Vietnamese

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Methods of the study 4

5 Design of the study 4

DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: THEORIES OF IDIOMS AND BUSINESS IDIOMS IN ENGLISH 1.1 Historical studies 6

1 2 Definition of idioms 7

1.3 Characteristics of Idioms 10

1.3.1 Semantic features 10

1.3.2 Syntactic features 12

1.3.3 Classifications of idioms 15

1.4 Business idioms in English 19

1.4.1 What are business idioms? 19

1.4.2 Features of business idioms 25

1.4.3 Classifications of business idioms 26

CHAPTER 2: GENERALIZATION ABOUT TRANSLATION METHODS AND ENGLISH BUSINESS IDIOM TRANSLATION 33

2.1 Definition of translation 33

2.2 Translation process 36

2.3 Equivalence in translation 39

2.4 Methods of translation 41

2.4.1 Some approaches to translation 41

2.4.2 Translation methods 43

2.4.3 Communicative translation 46

2.4.3.1 What does communicative translation mean? 46

2.4.3.2 Merits of the communicative translation 47

2.4.3.3 Communicative and Semantic translation 49

2.5 English business idioms translation 51

2.5.1 Nature of English business idioms translation 51

2.5.2 Challenges in translating English business idioms 52

2.5.3 Satisfactory requirements of the translation of English business idioms and some methods for translating them into Vietnamese 56

2.5.3.1 Requirements for translating English business idioms 56

2.5.3.2 Suggested methods for translating English business idioms into Vietnamese 59

CHAPTER 3: APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE TRANSLATION IN TRANSLATING COMMON ENGLISH BUSINESS IDIOMS INTO VIETNAMESE 3.1 Introduction 62

3.2 Scope of the investigation 63

3.3 Analysis of the translation of business idioms in some examples 64

3.3.1 Analyzing the translation of business idioms at sentence- level 65

3.3.2 Analyzing the translation of business idiom at context- level 66

3 4 Reasons for applying communicative translation in translating English business idioms 72

3.5 Application of communicative translation in translating some common English business idiom into Vietnamese 74

3.5.1 Money-related English business idiom translation 76

3.5.2 Sport-related English business idiom translation 78

3.5.3 Color-related English business idiom translation 81

3.5.4 Food-related English business idiom translation 83

3.5.5 Number-related English business idiom translation 84

3.5.6 Market- related English business idiom translation 85

3.6 Strategies in translating English business idioms 87

CONCLUSION 94

1 Summary of the study 94

2 Suggestion for further studies 95

REFERENCES 96

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

“One language sets you in a corridor for life Two languages

open every door along the way.”

(Frank Smith) Smith’s statement has led us to the feeling that language is known as the indispensable source and a great tool to open opportunities for human life Notably, we are living in the era of integration when people from different countries communicate with each other Therefore, knowing an international language can not only be used for studies but also broaden opportunities in business

English is shining as the first international language people choose to learn It does wonder for breaking boundaries between people, and it is easy acquiring English seems has the fewest complicated pronouns, grammatical rules, and distinctions amongst genders in words Therefore, learners can easily acquire this language

Learning to use English freely and entirely, however, is a lengthy and effortful process Especially, English includes a variety of figurative expressions In many situations, idioms step in and become a stumbling block even for professional translators The reason for that phenomenon is that English idioms can hardly be understood by gathering meanings of individual words Moreover, idioms are continually adding over time as well as the changes in culture Every language learner,

if he wishes to develop the ability to translate English and to improve his language competence, should be fully aware of idiomatic expressions always included in native speakers’ speech

The thesis author interests in that aspect came from some conversations with American people in business The conversation was pretty hard as two American people continuously used idioms in their speech At the beginning of a negotiation, an

American said: “Let’s put everything on the table.” The interpreter almost became speechless until the American paraphrased “I mean discussing our ideas together.” In

addition to that, the conversation between them filled with various phrases such as

“win-win situation,” “opened the door,” “went through it,” “ the cream of the crop ”

The researcher realized that American English phrases are frequently used in business conversations However, it was surprising when most of K40 English linguistic students who major in translation did not have much knowledge about that field It got

the researcher to wonder why native speakers use these expressions Where do these phrases come from? How could translator acquire these idioms and translate them into Vietnamese? The thesis author will find out the answers to all these questions in this thesis by investigating and searching information from different sources

There have been some writers who have investigated numerous translation strategies

to cope with the complexity involved in the translation of idioms According to Mona Baker (1992), there are four most common strategies used to translate idioms while Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) classify into seven methods by analyzing stylistic in both French and English texts To systematize this concept, they divided seven translation strategies into two procedures with distinct categories: direct translation and oblique translation Nguyen Thi Kim Lan and a group of lectures (2011) in their studies of common negotiation idioms have published one hundred eighteen translated English business idioms into Vietnamese They have also explained the origins and give examples of these idioms

On the one hand, there may be good reasons why learners of English might find business idioms are a useful and essential contribution to grasp their linguistic acquisition First of all, this aspect of linguistic belongs to the new linguistic branch which has recently appealed considerable attention to English researchers in particular how learners remember and use in their contexts (Tran, 2013) Secondly, ambiguity may easily be a lack of awareness of knowledge in idiom branch as well as their usages English idioms in business do not always make sense As a result, learners should familiarize themselves with the meanings of each one It is not easy tasks, especially for non-native speakers who wish to make good use of common idioms in business and translate them as precisely as possible what speakers try to convey If English idioms in business can efficiently transfer, then the boundaries between speakers will narrow down, which have positive impacts on many business conversations

On the other hand, Vietnam has been attracting numerous oversea companies and organizations to come and invest There are more and more foreigners using English as means of communication at work Hence; It is economically essential for Vietnamese translators in general and students who major in English linguistics, in particular, to understand and interpret some common business idioms in English into Vietnamese equivalently at most

Those reasons above are most important ones that have encouraged me to conduct the study as an attempt to help students of English at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 with tackling some problems in transferring some common English idioms in business into Vietnamese” The thesis author ultimately wishes the readers to find something of relevant and practical use to their study and work with this material

2 Aims of the study

Base on the detailed classification of translation methods of Peter Newmark (1988) Catford (1965) and other scholars, this study provides the brief theories about translation as well as categories of translation methods into eight different types in general This paper also presents the definitions of idioms in general and then focuses

on some common English idioms used in business in which the research will providing some features and classifications of this particular idioms

Furthermore, this material aims to suggest some translation strategies that translators use in transferring from English text to its Vietnamese translation Many idioms may pose enormous difficulties and problems because of the non-equivalences between the two languages

To achieve the aim of the study, the following research questions are raised:

- What are challenges in translating English business idioms?

- What are the possible strategies adopted in translation to tackle some problems in translating English business idiom process?

- What are some suggested translation methods to translate English business idioms into Vietnamese so that their meanings in original text are the most equivalent to those translated?

3 Scope of the study

Within the scope of our study, the thesis author discusses only one type of idiom namely business idioms in English Hopefully, this field of study will provide learners

of English as a foreign language with some theoretical base and fundamental background clarifying the different types of translations Then, the thesis author has a close look at communicative translation that can be used in transferring business idioms

Due to a shortage of reference materials as well as the limited time, the study is somewhat restricted to a discussion of business idioms features and their usages context To make my thesis manageable, I will mainly focus on the study of some of

the most common English idioms used in business as well as the use of communicative translation to translate them into Vietnamese

The approach to the study of some common English idioms in business and applying

a communicative translation to transfer them into Vietnamese bases on the communicative language learning Therefore, thesis author attempted to accomplish the work through a descriptive and comparative analysis with the expectation that it will help English learners to their knowledge of business idioms and to avoid misunderstandings in communication because of the vast differences between two languages As the study requires data collection, the thesis author has chosen example

of English business idioms from several newspapers, magazines, even from some selected business movies

4 Methods of the study

To achieve the aims of the study, the following methods have intended to be used:

➢ Study the materials and sources related to English business idioms and their usages in communication

➢ Applying descriptive and comparative analysis the ways of using these idioms

to convey business people’ ideas in negotiation

5 Design of the study

Apart from the acknowledgments, the introduction, my study consists of the following three chapters:

Chapter I directs some theoretical background leading to the study of some common English idioms in business for translations in English The chapter begins discussion on English idioms in general and English idioms in business particularly, where some familiar business idioms are taken into account The study will also categorize idioms into a different classifications based on various criteria The most appealing section of chapter I is the findings of business idioms, which is the primary objective of the study Before defining business idioms, the thesis author attempts to have a close look at business discourse and how it distincts from others By doing that, it is determined that idioms used in business context is called business idioms Following this, business idioms are also investigated to set down some specific features like social and stylistic At the same time, the study classifies business idioms into five main groups based on their lexicon

Chapter II the research paper continues to present some fundamental theories in translation, which are the foundation to build up various methods and strategies The thesis author acquires that translation is rendering equivalence in SL to TL as long as the translation results convey the central message and meet other demands from different angles Besides understanding some equivalence, the study has looked for the translation process After going through translation conducting, the thesis author took into account the communicative translation to examine and apply

in the next chapter Furthermore, the study also makes every effort to understand the nature as well as challenges in business idiom translation As a result, translators need to continually learn other culture and improve their language competence in both languages Together, requirements of satisfied translation and practical methods are established to orient the research papers The thesis author has collected some feasible and useful ways to adopt in translating business idioms

Chapter III is the core chapter of my study which is designed for more detailed presentation of the meanings of some common English business idioms and how these particular idioms are used in business journals, new and movies From a brief survey of understanding business idioms and ways to translate them, the thesis author proceeds to describe them, analyze them and classify them according to lexical features Here, the research comes up with the idea of using communicative translation in transferring business idioms in English toward Vietnamese

DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 THEORIES OF IDIOMS AND BUSINESS IDIOMS IN ENGLISH

1.1 Historical studies

The first section in the theoretical background will line down some previous findings

in English business idioms and ways to translate them into Vietnamese After collecting preliminary data in this field, the thesis author would like to divide the materials into two main groups (one comes from Vietnamese experts, and another arises from international scholars)

There are several materials and research in English business idioms, but it is difficult

to find some reliable papers in this field Kathy (2000) is the author of the book

“TOEIC Business idioms from Silicon Valley.” In her study, she has collected and categorized 100 business idioms into nine chapters based on functions of conversations and stories including negotiations, meetings, challenges, sales and marketing, communication problems, a new accountant, start-up, a bad- decision, and the speech The scope of the book focuses on English business adopted in high- tech business professionals Besides providing the context, her book also gives learners numerous exercises and quizzes to acquire meanings of business idioms efficiently Even though her studies have contributed significantly to the understanding of English business idioms, her scope is narrowed down in high tech As a result, it will not be enough for business communication when it comes to some business idioms in the stock market

Together with Kathy, Bruce (2013) also publishes another book named “Business idioms in America.” One of appealing factors of this book is that the writer presents business idioms by telling the day- in- the life of Joan Auten By proposing twenty lessons, the author narrates Joan’s challenges which are comprised of over 2000 business idioms and phrases The book has recommended many practical businesses spoken in real-world business offices Moreover, it suggests some context usages for learners and translators However, these situation functions in the book are not classified apparently so that they will cause tremendous obstacles for learners and translators to remember and used these business idioms

In addition to that, Stecova (2016) submits her studies on English business idioms In her research, she has pointed out some origins of business idiom and given their

semantic meanings Her classifications in business idioms are four groups which are derived from lexical aspects Therefore, readers have no problems to acquire these new findings she suggested Nevertheless, other scholars still found out some missing pieces in her general picture Besides lacking a fundamental background in business idioms, the research only analyzes English business idioms in sentences from some economic books Therefore there are many features of English business idioms are not covered in this field

Similarly, there are some previous studies which concern about English business

idioms in Vietnam One of recent research is “118 common negotiation idioms”

conducted by Nguyen (2011) and a group of teachers In her investigation, she has not only proposed over a hundred popular negotiation idioms in business but also presented their usages as well as origins Furthermore, she delivers other expressions which are conveyed the same meanings in each idiom analysis Despite these contributions to translation business idioms from English to Vietnamese, her study still limits in sentences In other words, she gave the business idioms translation out of context As a result, the meaning of some business idioms will be changed their meanings in another context

Therefore, this thesis will attempt to give some descriptions in English business idioms (how they are recognized, what their characteristics and how they can be classified into different groups) Later on, the thesis author will present some challenges in translating English business idioms Before suggesting some strategies to deal with these issues, the study will offer some business idiom translation and how they are analyzed in different levels

1 2 Definition of idioms

According to some dictionaries, idioms are defined in various ways The following are four examples of definitions

The group of professional dictionary editors and writers in Merriam- Webster’s

Collegiate Dictionary defines idioms as “the language peculiar to people or community with specific syntactic pattern and grammar so that the meanings of each idiom cannot be derived from literal transferring each component.” The reason for

that is the style of the idioms is artistic and flexible for each one The interpretation of idioms is crucial because different types of idiom are used in different fields in our

society Oxford dictionary offers the same definition that idiom “is a group of words

established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those individual words.”

For instance, the expression of “costs an arm and a leg” forms an idiom which means

expensive It is certain that the example above cannot be understood by collecting the

component meaning of each word Cambridge dictionary states idiom as “a group of

words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word on its own.” There is a central aspect that all definitions agree

That is, the meaning of an idiom cannot be understood by transferring its separated components This distinguishes idioms from other linguistic expressions

The researcher in this field admitted that they did not believe in a specific definition of

idioms Lipka (2013) points out, in his public book “In the idiomatic world of animals-

idiom comprehension in a foreign language,” that it is hard to give an accurate

definition of idioms These definitions above are not different from S.Irujo’statement (1986) in which he agreed that an idiom is a conventionalized expression whose meaning cannot be determined from the meaning of its parts

Cruse (2011) divided idioms into two main branches including non-compositional expressions and compositional expressions whose meanings can be predicted from its components He supposed that some complex expression does not have a relation between grammatical elements and semantical ones Like other researchers, the three Vietnamese linguists Mai Ngọc Chừ, Vũ Đức Nghiệu và Hoàng Trọng Phiến (1997) also provide their definition of the idiom In their viewpoint, idioms are fixed phrases which complete in structure so that the overall meaning cannot be deduced from the meaning of the constituents It is evident that there is no difference between this definition and the ones above of idioms

Most of the assumptions of idioms share several similarities Mona Baker (1992) claims that there is little or no variation in the form of idioms She considered them

“frozen patterns of language.”

From these conceptions above, five common aspects in the definition of idioms can be drawn out as follows

1 Idioms contain numerous figurative meanings and cannot be interpreted literally by

a collection of its components

2 Users should avoid taking idiom’s meaning directly Otherwise, they may easily misunderstand the overall implication of idioms

3 Idioms have their syntax which is locked and cannot be added, deleted or replaced Many of them are considered ungrammatical

4 Idioms reflect the culture of each country Therefore, their meanings and their syntactic forms are inconstant and flexible

5 Idioms are natural to their native speakers, and they are often used in their informal conversations

It will be challenging for learners and linguists to acquire and utilize idioms correctly when English is not their mother tongue Nevertheless, there is a definite opinion in the relation between idioms’ ages and their contexts produced by Nunberg (Nunberg, 1978) If the context is informative enough, some strange phrase can be interpreted Moreover, there are many unfamiliar expressions presented in idioms For example,

the idiom of “the writing is on the wall” can be misunderstood by listeners if it is used

out of context This idiom means to predict the dangers and the risks However, it can

be translated as its direct meaning in the sentence “the writing is on the wall, which

makes me surprised.” The sentence does not include implication It simply means

“how someone feels when he sees the writing on the wall.” An expression can be

defined in term of phrases Conversely, idioms mention something which might be unrelated to the literal meaning of the groups of words Therefore, it can be demonstrated that idioms and phrases are primarily connected to one another but contrasting when they are put under the language analysis This example also shows that meanings of idioms are varied so that users should be aware of this to avoid misunderstanding them in conversations

Twenty- five thousand idioms are the statistic conducted by Wikipedia about the number of English idioms This is a significant number to show the important role of idioms to native speakers in communication It denotes things and connects people’s thoughts Idioms are flexible and vivid because they are holding cultures and history, which results in the fact that the meaning of those figurative expressions cannot be deductible from words that make them up Those conceptions are accepted by many researchers and linguists and become the initial elements to distinguish between idioms and other expressions in language learning

To sum up, even though scholars give tremendous definitions of idioms from a variety

of criteria, the study still realized that they all have the same cognition about the nature

of idiom Therefore, figurative expressions contain meanings cannot be interpreted by its separated components are idioms

1.3 Characteristics of idioms

Indeed, idioms are very abusive as pointed out by almost all the scholars who are researching for this field It is difficult to characterize idioms accurately

According to Cacciari and Tabossi (1993) “if the natural language had been designed

by a logician, idioms would not exist They are a feature of discourse that frustrates any simple logical account of how meanings of utterances depend on the meanings of their parts and the syntactic relationships among those parts.”

It is clear that there are two mains characteristics included in the idiom Even though many aspects remain controversial and many questions perhaps have not been answered yet In this study, the thesis author has attempted to shed light on two aspects which are the semantic and syntactic features to point out the main characteristics of the idiom

1.3.1 Semantic features

In the deep-rooted and continuous tradition, idiomatic expressions have typically been seen as a relatively homogenous topic The purposes of idioms are eventually to transfer information However, the meanings of the idioms are understood as whole units according to the definitions above While constituents give direct access to listeners, all of the idioms are rarely share their figurative meanings There are two ways to categorize idiom comprehension On the one hand, reflecting characteristics of

such idioms as beat about the bush and kick the bucket, this idiom class is designed

specially Learners cannot guess the meaning of the words they consist Therefore, their meanings can only retrieve the meaning of an idiom as a whole On the other hands, the second class reflects idioms which can guess through its components such

as open the door and go off the rails The meaning of the idioms can be taken by interpreting its parts The relation of the verb “open” and the word “door” mention positive things expanding like opportunities The idiom “go off the rails” presents

something gone wrong because it does not follow the rails Idioms’ meanings are retrieved from its ordinary linguistic processing combined with realistic interpretation

is non- arbitrary In this scenario, the capture of semantic is easier than arbitrary idioms

Gibbs (1989) separated idioms into two main types including compositional and

noncompositional “Spill the beans” and “kick the bucket” are typically two examples

of these types In this case, the direct look-up for compositional is usually faster than entirely linguistic analysis

Canonical form in idioms is varied in their usages so the variance between original and new wordings may form the newly created idiom meanings If, for example, someone

said “crack the ice” instead of “break the ice” to refer to a change in the social situation, there would be no particular communicative intent would be inferred Crack and would be seen as mere stylistic variants of one other On the other hand, if someone says “shatter the ice,” then this would not be interpreted as a mere stylistic variant Instead, the difference between the meaning of break and the meaning of

shatter creates a new idiomatic meaning, something like “breaks down an uncomfortable and stiff social situation.” This example above is not merely an

example of lexical flexibility; it is an example of semantic productivity

Semantic productivity process in idioms is creating every day in conversation and the media One striking example appeared in a New York Times article on the rise and fall

of the Wall Street The firm Drexel Burnham Lambert had lost their money on junk bonds and then found themselves on the edge of bankruptcy In the distribution of firm’ assets among the executives, Drexel’s cash reserve was depleted, forcing the company into bankruptcy In this context, there was a familiar idiom to express

“Drexel’s senior executives, not content with collecting one golden egg after another,

seem to have insisted then on eating the goose.” Similarly, Donald Barthelme’ s title

for an essay on contemporary literature “convicted Minimalist Spills Bean” made

precisely sense to readers who knew of his reputation as a minimalist writer Even young children spontaneously use idioms productively in discourse, once the original idioms have been learned When children learned the expression spill the beans as

meaning “tell a secret.” Later on, she would tell her father “don’t throw the beans to

Rebecca! She is not supposed to know!”(Greenberg- Concool,1990)

In addition to that, another dominant characteristic of idiom in semantic feature is that

it contains metaphorical meaning Idioms are allusive expressions whose meaning is

different from the straightforward interpretation like in: Let’s call it a day means let’s

stop work now The reason for that feature is communicative demands People never

satisfied with their expressions Instead of using tedious phrases and “plain” words, people prefer figurative expressions which are more vivid, emotional and flexible With these purposes, there are numerous new idioms born to meet the expectation

from speakers such as opportunity knocked at his door or time is money Two

examples indicate that language users want to be creative and witty in their sayings Such ready-made phrases are produced a human’s thought, cultures, and processes of hard working and learning They are mainly handed down from generation to

generation and naturally accepted in daily life They compare things which have similar aspects together instead of using adjective adverbs and nouns It explains the reason why many idioms exist in the form of metaphors or similes, by which, they appear more expressive and figurative

In conclusion, idioms are characterized semantically by composition, composition, semantic productivities and figurative meanings These features of idioms make the language more flexible, and colorful in communication Eventually, it will result in efficient and expressive conversations

non-1.3.2 Syntactic features

Antoine de Saint Exupery said, “Language is a source of misunderstanding.” People

express and share their thoughts and emotions by using language Syntax with its functions is used to tie words in phrases and sentences In terms of idioms, the syntax

is varied concerning the degree of frozenness Even though many linguists argue that they are fixed-phrases which cannot be transformed, the study is to seek out ways of possible transformation for these ready-used phrases There are many differences in authors’ viewpoints in a variety of scientific publications They all conclude that the agreement of syntax and semantics helps to understand and analyze idioms efficiently This part aims to discover the relation between the form and the meaning and seek out some possible changes in idiomatic expression

If listeners did not acquire their messages from speakers by analyzing constituents, it means the different grammar form from language rules which are established in a sentence In this case, idioms should be acquired and investigated as a whole construction The study, as a result, should mark the coordinated system of form and meaning Any messages and ideas in the language can be expressed in different forms

An example of “spill the beans” has the connection of form and meaning in syntax

According to Gunel (2013)

Syntax

Spill the beans spill the beans spill the beans spill the beans

Verbs (predicate) spill the beans reveal the secret to slop grain

Verb article noun

Idiom lexical units idiom lexical unit

The phrases become lexical units The function of an idiom was taken just the same function of a word in a sentence It is hard to break idioms into parts or change Some

of the phrases can be broken into parts, but idioms usually cannot be changed or established new combination Words always bring their meanings in the substitution with other elements However, words may lose their independent meanings in idioms They cannot make sense in given separated- taken words The meaning of a word can

be understood literally, but an idiom is its figurative expression The study highlights the whole idiomatic construction must be analyzed and question to the whole as a single word during general analysis of sentences

Moreover, the investigation of syntactic features should be aware of the impossibility

of separated parts in idioms In many cases, the syntactic characterization of idioms has been a controversial topic Chomsky (1980) believes that idioms consist of combination constructions and contained logical units He wondered the relation between human’ thoughts and the idioms used Additionally, grammar in idioms could always be analyzed in sentences His perception violated the distribution of grammar morphemes In contrast, Fraser (1970) states that only specified idioms can undergo all the grammatical changes and there are those which cannot undergo the smallest grammar changes at all

Idioms have developed rapidly; it increases usages process In contrary, these expressions are rarely accepted changes in them Therefore, if the idioms which are easily subjected to syntactic changes, they are more flexible The usage of different grammar tense within the idioms as well as moods of the verb Some idioms can change the word order, the inclusion of additional word or reduction of their parts

within the constructions For example, the idiom “It may well be ahead of time” changes the words places instead of It may be well ahead of time (regular word order) Besides, there are additional words like the very long and short of it instead of the

short and long of it When tense changes within idioms, it would help to identify the

animation of the actions in speaker's mind

In VOA program, the reporter supposed that a nephew accidentally revealed the secret

to his aunt about her birthday party She still answered, “even though he spilled the

beans, I told him I would pretend to be surprised.” In the same article, VOA also gave

another example about an idiom “beat a dead horse” in another situation with the changes in the form of the word “beat” became “beating” to describe the uselessness

of reminding a boy to be tidy in his room

In terms of singular and plural form changes within idioms, the study found out other

figurative expressions such as smell a rat, spill a bean, kick the bucket, chew the flat The plural form of buckets, rats, and fats are disappeared It is ages since we met

(using singular with a plural noun) is another example of the plural form in idioms transformation Besides, countable nouns can become uncountable ones and vice-versa For instance, wear the deck – wear the decks, go into detail – go into details, in deep wood – in deep woods, kid stuff – kids’stuff, etc Gunel (2013)

Beside the changes in plural and tense form, some particular idioms can change into

passive voice as non-idiomatic expressions while other cannot The idiom “kick the

bucket,” for example, cannot turn into “the bucket was kicked.” It indicates that idiom

is fixed-expression On the other hand, other “break the ice” can change to the passive form with the expression “the ice is broken.”

In Gunel’ research, she reveals that there are two group of verbal idioms The one that can be separate as to constituent parts (such as making someone’s blood boil, spill the beans, put on the air, etc.) can be subjected to another syntactic variation It means they can substitute, added and replace in their form She also added the relationship between syntax and semantic when she gave many demonstrated cases In her study,

she pointed out when the noun phrase in idiom related to the meaning of the idiom, then they can also undergo syntactic analysis She gave an example from Painted Veil novel with saying “Oh, yes Charlie Townsend will get to the top of the tree all right”

The noun phrase “top of the tree” in the idiom “get to the top of the tree” makes the

reader imagine the highest place That imagine closes to the meaning of the idiom

“reach the highest rank,” so that idiom can be subjected to another syntactic variation

However, any changes in the case should be considered whether not it will affect the meaning of the idiom

To sum up, there are no features of being subjected to any changes in the form of the idiom It is true that some idioms cannot be transformed, but the existence of lexical and grammatical changed idioms can even more complexity than another one Therefore, the syntactic feature of idioms should not merely be carried out in the grammatical aspect; we should regard them as psychology sides and contain the images

I 1.3 Classifications of idioms

The different functions of idiom have distributed a great number of English language

to communicate and to exchange people' thoughts in the expressive and more emotional ways Like searching for features of idioms, there are many lines has been done to approach classification; however, this issue still becomes a controversial topic

in present-day linguistics In the different periods, scholars have various ways to categorize idioms based on tremendous criteria and aspects In this part, the study will line down some of the findings and analyze them

A study in this field, Fernando (1996) also published his study to separate idioms and in- habitual collocations into three categories

• Pure idioms: they are conventionalized, non-literal multiword expressions'(2009)

Pure idioms are always non-literal, they may be either invariable or may have a little variation, e.g., devil-may-care; red herring; spick and span; smell a rat; the coast is clear Fernando also calls them opaque idioms to show that the meaning of these idioms has nothing to do with their literal components

• Semi-idioms: has "one or more literal constituent and at least one with nonliteral

subsense, usually special to that co-occurrence relation and no other." He means idioms are expressions have at least one non-literal subsense component For example, foot the bill to say pay the bill or catch fire to say start burning, chequered career

semi-instead of chequered history This kind of idiomatic expression is either allow restricted variances in their structure or invariant in their form

• Literal idioms: they are also either invariable or restrictedly variant Literal idioms

are also called transparent idioms as they can be interpreted based on of their parts Therefore, they are less semantically complicated than pure and semi- idioms For example, of course, in any case, for certain, on foot and the contrary is a literal idiom

In three types of idiom, Fernando continuously divides them into twelve different degrees of lexical variance as well as presents a function of the idioms He had groups

of idiom in terms of ideational, interpersonal and relational function However, it is clear that even Fernando admitted that his classifications were still complicated The study understands it is unnecessary to put all the important characteristics of idioms into one single system

Based on the requirement of this investigation, the study is going to focus on two criteria They are lexical features and syntactic features to categorize idiom in different groups

From linguist viewpoints, the contribution of an academician Vinogradov (1977) has a big influence on the classification of idioms His outstanding classifications provides based on lexicological aspect His study had foundation on the degree of semantic cohesion among the constituents of set expressions (idioms or phraseological units)

On the other words, it means he characterized the main features of semantic of phraseological combination and phraseological unity in their motivated meanings He emphasized the realization of lexical structure and the relationship between components and the whole meanings of the unit According to him, there are three main types of phraseological units: phraseological fusions, phraseological unity, and phraseological combinations

• Phraseological combinations are the groups of words which meanings are easily inferred from their parts It is motivated The readers and hearers can base on the direct meanings of one component to guess the general meaning behind the units In this kind

of idioms' structure, the unit usually consists of two main parts (one giving the literal meaning and another providing metaphorical meaning) The meaning of the unit can

partially transfer from their constituents The idiom “draw the line” in saying “this is

where I draw the line, let them seek services elsewhere,” for example, it contains two

main parts (“draw” holding the direct meaning and “the line” giving the figurative

meaning) Besides that, English also create the great number of phraseological

combinations such as the impossible dream, pipe dreams, I am all ears, and enough is

enough Accordingly, phraseological combinations belong to the traditional word-

forming It is clear that the idioms are combined from words with original meanings, putting in another way; the components of the whole unit retain their semantic independence It is difficult to explain their logical order as well as the limitation of the combination It means some components can only combine with certain words For

example, it is comprehensive to say “to deliver the lecture,” is contrary “to read the

lecture” does not make sense

• Phraseological unities are indivisible phraseological units which the meaning from their components motivates expressions meanings Sometimes, the meaning of the

whole unit can be perceived through metaphoric meaning of its constituent, e.g "to

bend the knee”- to submit to a stronger force, “to show one’s teeth” – to be unfriendly,

“to stand to one’s guns”- to refuse to change one’s opinion In general, the

phraseological unity is not the sum of the meaning of its components, but based on them and perceived the meaning through the components Some of the main words are

not changed the ordinary meaning even they appear in the whole units, e.g “to come

to one’s sense”- to change one’s mind, “to fall into a rage”- to get angry That

characteristic lead to the possible substitution by a synonym in the phraseological

unities, e.g., “to have your feet on the ground” and “to keep your feet on the ground."

The metaphoric meanings are significant features of phraseological unities and should

not ignore, e.g “a pain in the ass”- someone or something that is very annoying,

“close a deal”- to make a successful business arrangement with someone The

individual words in this example above can be inferred literally, but the figurative meaning can only be interpreted through the implication of the unit as a whole Therefore, the translation of phraseological unities should come up with both the direct and metaphoric meanings exacted from the phrases

• Phraseological fusions are the most idiomatic of all the kinds of phraseological units They are considered the highest blending words together In other words, they have not perceived from its constituent meanings instead leaners and listeners must understand the phrases as the whole unit They are highly idiomatic and cannot translate word- for- word into other languages Therefore, it is difficult to grasp the

clues from its parts Playing hardball, cut to the chase, blindsided are examples of this

type Any attempt to understand the meaning of these set expressions will result in misinterpretation of the intended implication of the idiom because they are

semantically indivisible and never influenced by the meaning of its components Sometimes, phraseological fusions are called idioms under which researchers perceive

a complete loss of the inner form To explain the meaning of idioms is a complicated

etymological problem (once in a blue moon means very seldom, but no one can

explain the meaning of the words blue moon)

In terms of syntactical aspect, the study would like to recommend the research of Dang Nguyen Giang (Giang, 2013) on structural components of typical English idiom He categorized idioms structurally into two mains group including canonical structural components and non- canonical structural components

In canonical structural components, he established the idioms into three types: symmetrical, similized and non-symmetrical based on the study of Vietnamese idioms from formal-semantic perspectives and Vietnamese idiom studies Moreover, he applied grammatical rules to describe and examined the structural components each type of idiom conforms to In his perspective, symmetrical idioms have two opposite

parts And these two parts are usually parallel They can be noun phrases "day and

night” or “death or glory,” adjective phrases “slow but sure” or “free and busy,”

adverbial phrases" on and off,” verb phrases, and prepositional phrases When it comes

to the similized type of idiom, he purposed that they are fixed group of words coming from comparisons He found out in English material various form of similized idiom

like adjective phrases (as solid as a rock), adverbial phrases (as fast as one’s legs

could carry one), verb phrases (spend money like water), prepositional phrases (like a cat on hot bricks) or clauses (as chance would have it) Towards to non-symmetrical

idiom, he defines they do not have two symmetrical components In this assessment,

he differs non-symmetrical idioms from two kinds of idiom above In fact, they do not

have two symmetrical parts like as, to, and, or Besides having all kinds of form like two idioms above, they have formed in sentences like you know where you can put

something

According to his study, he assumes non-canonical structural idioms are regarded as fixed expressions Those expressions account for the most of English idiom without changing in structure, word order and lexicology They include a variety of forms such

as noun phrases, verb phrases, sentences, etc He categorized into idiom variant and similar idioms In his opinion, even though the components of an idiom can be varied but its content is still the same For example, they are varied according to substitution

(take it into one’s head/ mind), modification, partial deletion, component reversal and

truncated reversal

To recapitulate, although idioms are established in various groups according to structural components, it is noteworthy that idioms have three main four main forms of

its grammatical structures They can be single words like spiked, demise, to name just

a few, whereas they appear in many phrase forms (one the ball, to hit the home run,

drop the ball, be in the black, green marketing), they can show in many clauses like to give somebody a hand, to come true Finally, idioms also have sentence form such as history repeat itself, or when the cat is away, the mice will play

1.4 Business idioms in English

1.4.1 What are business idioms?

Besides their family and friends, people in the world spend a lot of time to communicate at workplaces When people enter the world of business, they may encounter many forms of spoken and written communication that are completely new

to them Many of employees with high- level of speaking ability might become speechless when their partners, all of a sudden, throw out a lot of business idioms and use great new phrases Therefore, it is important for employees and especially graduates to learn, understand and use them This kind of language at work plays an essential role in the life of most people Even outside of the workplace, people sometimes participate in professional interaction with customers, client or patients Communicating at the market or the bank, for example, people will be surprised that the way they interact with friends and family differentiate in many ways they communicate with their boss, colleges or clients In this part of the study, the researcher takes a look at some features to distinguish general language and terminology in language at work Based on the knowledge about these, the study will

go on to analyze and explain about business idioms in business discourse We will finally come up with the definition of business idioms at the end of this part

Before giving an investigation of the language which people use in business context, the research would like to provide some examples to explore the distinctive features of language used in professional and workplace setting Let’s have a look at the following two brief texts The first text is a casual conversation where students are chatting around the tea table and the second one is workplace meeting From the language people use, the differences between two conversations are identified

Text 1: Casual conversation: students are chatting around the table This example was taken from the book named Language of work written by Almut Koester (2004) Three female students who share a house are having tea at home on a Sunday.Prior to t

he extract below; they have just been talking about food

1 S03: I like Sunday nights for some reason; I don't know why

2 S02: [laughs] cos you come home

3 S03: I come home

4 S02: You come home to us

5 S01: and pig out

6 S02: Yeah yeah

7 S03: Sunday's a really nice day I think

8 S02: It certainly is

9 S03: It's a really nice relaxing day

10 S02: It's an earring; it's an earring

11 S03: Oh lovely oh, lovely

12 S02: It's fallen apart a bit but

13 S03: It's quite a nice one Actually, I like that; I bet, is that supposed to be straight?

14 S02: Yeah

15 S03: Oh I think it looks better like that

16 S02: And there was another bit as well, another dangly bit

21 S03: Mobile earrings

22 S01: What that looks better like that, it looks better like that

Text 2: This is the meeting at the workplace (workplace meeting, 2018) We will read

a conversation between Maria, Tom, and Gavin They are working for mobile app company The three colleagues are talking about several new ideas being considered in the company They are discussing how certain they are about the potential for each app

1 Maria: you know Nikki has had some good ideas in the past, but this one is ridiculous

2 Tom: how do you mean?

3 Maria: Well Waffle Bunnies? There's not a chance in hell the kids are going to go for that It's ridiculous

4 Gavin: I dunno the gameplay looks pretty slick to me Plus it’s cute And she surprised us with that robot game what was it Robo Challenge or something? I was dead certain that would be a flop

5 Tom: Yeah, me too But look what happened So, you never know Waffle Bunnies could take off

6 Maria: Don’t bet on it Did you see those mock-ups? I just don’t think the kids will connect with the characters

7 Gavin: Okay, so which of these do you like? You see any sure things?

8 Maria: A sure thing? I’d say you’re in the wrong industry if you’ re looking for a sure thing

9 Gavin: Right, but there must be something you think has potential

10 Maria: Well, the smart money is on SmashTower

Let’s us now inspect the distinct features of language at work according to six criteria

provided by Drew and Heritage (1992) “institutional talk.” The authors have pointed

out workplace, and professional talk differs from ordinary conversation

Goal orientation: The speakers in the workplace conversation, Maria, Tom, and

Gavin focused on the specific goal: to identify what is the best app their company should focus It is difficult to identify the goal in the first text People were just merely chatting Therefore, the conversation moved from topic to topic, for example from talking about how beautiful Sundays are to commenting on an earring on the floor

Turn-taking rules: It is noticeable that the turn-taking is much clearer than in the

casual conversation Everybody in the meeting was listening to each other Maria responded to Tom' question; she means Waffle Bunnies deserved to be laughed For

this, she used some idioms like "ridiculous” or “not a chance in hell" to describe her

certainty Following that, Tom also contributed to the conversation by delivering his positive opinion about Waffle Bunnies Therefore, the roles of speaker and listener are much more distinguishable In contrast, the conversation between the students in the text 1 seems much more disjointed The speakers freely commented and made observations on what someone has said The turn-taking is very loosely structured Some people's commenting overlapped to the others The turn numbered 17 and 18 in

the first text has demonstrated for that "What, attached to” and “the top bit.” The

speakers constantly comment on others’ utterances

Allowance contributions: As the students know each other well; their conversation is

very informal, there do not seem to be any restrictions on what they can say As noted above, the topic was changed abruptly in turn 10 The speaker number 1 said the

grammatically incomplete sentence “pig out.” That is the use of colloquialism still

accepted These informal characteristics can be recognized in the second text, for

example, Maria used the idioms “don’t bet on it” or “smart money is on.” However,

the speaker does not stray from the topic; she seems to be paying more attention to her language

The utterances in the second text are grammatically more complicated, with the use of

conditional sentence type (e.g.,“I’d say you’re in the wrong industry if you are looking

for a sure thing”), and they both make an effort to be polite ( “well”, “yeah, me too”,

“right") If we take a closer look at Gavin' utterances, we will realize that he tried to

ask Maria nicely by using two following questions (“so which of these do you like?

You see any sure thing?”) rather than an imperative (“tell me your ideas”)

Professional lexis: the professional context of conversation reflected in the number of

lexical items which are specific to technology: the game, robot game, industry Other words more generally reflect the business context, and would be found in other

workplace contexts: not a chance in hell, dead certain, take off, don’t bet on it, the

smart money is on Such use of terminologies and idioms can make the text like this

quite difficult to perceive for non- professionals

Structure: As it noted above, the meeting has a clear turn-taking pattern, which

contributes to its overall structure It seems that everybody in the meeting has equality

in their turns (either asking or answering the question), while other speaker makes

brief acknowledge contributions (“yeah,” “right,” “okay,” “well”) It is much more

difficult to identify a clear overall structure in the students’ conversation Readers or listeners have to read and listen carefully to figure out the small signals when a

speaker echoes her friends in her saying “you come home to us.” However, people can

recognize the main topic of the second text easily The first part is opinions’ exchange, and then they talked about the alternative solutions for different perspectives

Asymmetry: Workplace conversation is an example of an asymmetrical interaction

between colleagues It is also asymmetrical in term of knowledge and experience: Maria and Tom know more about applications and have more experience than Gavin Both kinds of asymmetry are reflected in the interaction: Gavin's questions were constantly asking Maria for her ideas and what they should do The student conversation, on the other hand, equals It is noticed that not all the speakers contribute equally to the talk: S02 and S03 speak much more than S01 does Thus, even casual conversations can have more subtle forms of asymmetry

Base on these elements, business discourse, can deduce as a subdivision of technical texts The main features of the language are the use of terminology, specialized terms Therefore, not all people can perceive the meanings, but it must be specialists with a certain background

It is clear that, in reality, analysis business text show a high frequency of idioms such

as “ridiculous,” “not a chance in hell,” “dead certain,” “you never know” used in

this field even unconsciously by specialists In other words, the native speakers often use idioms naturally in their business without realizing that

From analyzing two corpora, both six features of business language try to distinguish between casual conversations in general The language is business sector has its particular characteristics, and involve writing as well as spoken interaction Therefore, idioms are used in business context must be understood in that situation Business idioms should not be interpreted in isolation and divorced from their context

According to Vicente (2008), unlike General Language, Language for Specific Purpose shows a high degree of emotive meaning, which bring about a great number

of idioms used in business English Though idioms in the business account for the huge amount of language usages has been no definition of them so far The study would like to analyze some examples below first in order to have a preliminary concept of business idioms

Example 1: the idiom “24/7”

• The first situation: the woman has to take care of her husband and children She

complained “my husband is very needed He could not do anything, so I have to be

there with him in 24/7.”

• The second situation: in the Wolf of the Wall Street, the senior broker named Mark Hanna taught Jordan Belfort how to become a stockbroker when he first came to

L.F Rothschild He said: “Keep the clients on Ferris wheel And, it goes The park is

open 24/7.”

In the first conversation, the women complained about her husband She had to beside him like all day long to take care of him The readers can easily recognize that is a casual talk The lady talked about her limited time because of caring for a man, so the

word “24/7” is used as a common idiom However, it is clear that in the second conversation 24/7 has become a business idiom owing to the context of idiom usage Mark Hanna used both metaphors “keep the client on Ferris wheel” and idiom “24/7”

to imply that keeping the clients in their business all the time Then, they would attract more and more customers to invest their money in L Rothschild

Example 2: the idiom “what’s that catch.”

• The first situation: in the movie Gravity Falls, Stand is the uncle of Mason He

called children to come to a shop and asked: “Just take anything you like.” The children responded: “what’s the catch.” Here, it means that they had to be fast

before he changed his mind

• The second situation: in the Pirates of Silicon Valley, when Mike Markula came to Steve Jobs’ garage to offer quarter million dollar loan for Apple Computer Steve

asked Mike “what’s the catch.”

Through examining two situations above, it is obvious that the second scenario is a

business conversation, by that, the phrase “what’s the catch” becomes a business

idiom Mike sounded like giving Steve an attractive investment in Apple company Steve knew that something is abnormal It may have some risks and problems, so he

asked: “what the catch” to know whether or not there are any hidden issues on that

deal In contrast, the idiom in the first situation was produced in a casual conversation Even though it has the same interpretation as in the second one, it cannot be called a business idiom as Mr Mason did not do any business with the children

In conclusion, all of these examples constantly used by economists demonstrate the importance of idioms in business discourse It seems that even idioms in general like English words have different meanings in different contexts The figurative expressions which are frequently used in contexts related to business affairs become business idioms

1.4.2 Features of business idioms

Beside the two main features of common idioms related to syntactic and semantic aspects, business idioms have two more characteristics

1.4.2.1 Social features

Business idioms extent account for the historical development of language Idioms in business cannot only characterize by grammatical rules, but it is also affected by custom in society Many idiomatic expressions originate from the daily life of English people In the past, many of them have origins from the Bible, fables, myths or legends Nowadays, business idioms mostly created by people in different trades and occupations The business idioms are in the United States will be different from those

in the United Kingdom because they are created by native speakers The idiom “feel

the pinch,” for example, was found in the United Kingdom in the fourteen century

The word “pinch” was used as slang term for stealing In this phrase, the idiom means

under financial hardship In America, people used the term “grand” for one thousand

dollars in the 19th century It leads to different categories of idioms in each culture because different regions have various categories of business idioms In the old days, there are many idioms formed originally from British English Nowadays American English is in this position Many American business idioms have become worldwide phrases Idioms in business are disappeared and constantly created by economists Some of the idioms have gone through radical changes in meaning According to scientists, American culture took the leading role and started shaping the English language and especially in idiomatic expressions after World War II New idioms were introduced, and old ones were faded away during the development of English language As the U.S at the first position in the development of the economy, it has helped American business idioms spread faster and further than British ones It seems

that idiomatic expressions in America will continue being born through Internet and media to the world To sum up, idioms are affected by social aspects A region has with own history, and citizens’ interests would have specific business idioms This will eventually have impacts on the worldwide English language if that country leads the economic development

1.4.2.2 Stylistic value

Idioms in business discourse have their specific styles because their main function of

the idiom is to express the images behind the words They seem to be used by more people who expertise in the economy or business In fact, most of the business idioms find their origins in sport, food, market, color These terms are closed to people’s life

For example “carry the ball,” “big cheese,” “black market” and “be in the red.”

Business idioms show different styles Some are casual, other formal or even neutral

Then, many of them have become jargon in communication

1.4.3.1 Classification of business idioms

According to ( A Study of Selected English Business Idioms, 2016), business idioms into four different groups: number- related, food- related, market-related, color- related The group of sport-related would be added and focused on more because of its huge impact on business Each business idiom will be interpreted, with an example and explained with the help from Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

1.4.3.1.1 Sport-related business idioms

There are a lot of business idioms which are related to sport, for example

• On the ball - to be aware of and understand what is happening and able to react

quickly

• Stay ahead of the game – to be more successful than the people you are competing in

an activity

• To cover all the bases - to deal with every part of a situation or activity

• On the ropes- In a very bad situation/ Close to defeat

• Score an own goal – To make a mistake which has the opposite effect from what was

hoped

• In a league of their own – Much better than the rest

• To hit a home run - "to succeed with something

• Drop the ball – to make a mistake and spoil something that you are responsible for

Sport-related idioms have many similarities to business operation in terms of time and effort These idioms are used in normal ways, but they can help us produce a picture in our mind The majority of such idioms under analysis imply a prototype derived from sporting activities and games These are bat-and-ball sports, running, riding, gambling and card games Baseball, which is one of the most popular sports in America, has proved an extensive source for success-related idioms Hence, these idioms mean certain successful scenes (frames) from a baseball match They are target-oriented, and

a player should do his best to perform and achieve a good record for the team For instance, the rules of baseball state that a batter who hits the ball into the field must drop the bat and begin running toward first base, at which point the player is referred

to as a runner A batter-runner who reaches first base without being put out is said to

be safe and is now on base to hit a home run - "to succeed with something.”

(Kovalyuk, 2014)

Besides, many high- level executives strike deals on the golf course Business people have known to integrate the interest of golf course with aims of their business They are going to continue to use this language of sport to negotiate in business Women can also choose to play this or not (Hannah, 1997) The fact that many deals were made on the golf course, which leads to the idea of trying sports idiom with women

1.4.3.1.2 Color-related business idioms

Let’s us now consider the meaning of the following idioms:

• Be in the black - the situation of not owing money to a bank or of making a profit in

a business operation

• Be in the red: the situation of owing money to a bank or making a loss in a business

operation

• Black economy - the part of a country’s economic activity which is unrecorded and

untaxed by its government

• Black Friday - the day after the US holiday of Thanksgiving, regarded as the first

day of the Christmas shopping season, on which retailers make many special offers

• Blacklist - a list of people or groups regarded as unacceptable or untrustworthy and

often marked down for punishment or exclusion

• Blue-collar worker - manual workers, particularly in industry

• Golden parachute - a large payment or other financial compensation guaranteed to a

company executive if they should be dismissed as a result of a merger or takeover

• Green marketing - marketing based on the (supposed) environmentally beneficial

qualities of a product, company, etc

• Once in a blue moon – very rarely

• Pink-collar worker - relating to work traditionally associated with women

• Red- tape: official rules that seem more complicated than necessary and prevent

things from being done quickly

• White-collar worker - people who work in an office or another professional

environment

Colors play an important role in carrying people’s idea They are not simply pigments but also express energy and emotion According to different regions, colors affect all aspects of our life, our health and especially in business Idioms used in business usually take primary colors like red, white and black They have rarely used idioms in mixing of pigments or dyes It is important to emphasize that colors do not always carry the same meaning when they are used in a variety of contexts Red, for example,

is symbolized by warmth, excitement, determination, and courage It becomes color for many famous brand companies in the world like Coca, KFC, and Youtube

However, it can also get into idiom with more negative meanings like “be in red” or

“red tape.” When businessmen mention about phrase “red tape,” they mean their

business is delayed, or inaction is owing complex government policy For American,

red is a hot color to express the heat When people say “red hot,” they mean their

anger with something European cultures generally consider white to be purity, newness, cleanliness; it is a symbol of light, happiness, and the most popular color of wedding dress However, Japanese people wear white on opposite occasion - funerals

Also, the white-collar worker represents people who work in an office, as opposed to a blue-collar worker whose job is manual labor The phrase blue-collar stems from the

image of a manual worker wearing blue denim as their uniform Pink is the traditional color of female clothing At the beginning of the twentieth century, American used the

idiom “in the pink” to talk about their good health This term was captured from the

image of newborn babies with pink color with good health Therefore, the pink is associated with female professions like nurses

Green is a natural color for tree and grass It conveys both positive and negative meaning On the one hand, it represents positivity and prosperity Green traffic light informs pedestrians that they can go It also embodies well-being, durability, freshness, reliability, environmentalism Therefore, green marketing is based on the environmentally beneficial qualities of a product On the other hand, green also has

negative meanings For example, some people are green with envy when they are

envious of others because of being better than them

Black, another common color, is a symbol of negativity or failure The black economy

is an illegal economy that is uncontrolled and untaxed by the government

Surprisingly, being in the black is not negative as it means having money on an

account People describe their day when everything goes wrong as the black day

However, it also has some positive meaning For example, being in the black means

having money in the account Black Friday means the day after the US holiday of Thanksgiving, regarded as the first day of the Christmas shopping season Oxford

Dictionary explains the origin of the term as a day when retailers’ accounts went from

being in the red to in the black

1.4.3.1.3 Food-related business idioms

Now have a look at some examples of these idioms as follows

• Apple-pie order - perfect order or neatness

• Big cheese - an important person

• Bread and butter - a person’s livelihood or main source of income

• Bring home the bacon - supply material support

• The icing on the cake - an attractive but inessential addition or enhancement

• Red herring: a subject that takes people's attention away from the central point being considered

• Cream of the Crop- the best of a group of similar things or people

• Make a mint - making a lot of money

• Money for jam - money or reward earned for little or no effort

• Nest egg - a sum of money saved for the future

• A piece of cake - something easily achieved

• Sell like hot cakes - be sold quickly and in large quantities

According to Gluckberg (2001) “learning idiom provides learners with a good

opportunity to acquire information about a language’s culture.” Food-related idioms

in business serve to reflected English culture and image In both America and the United Kingdom, people consider bread as essential food for their meals Therefore,

bread symbolizes survival The idiom “bread and butter” implies the main source of

income For example, if someone says “ driving cab is my bread and butter right now,”

he will mean driving cab is his current job

English people have also created their idioms connected other kinds of food Beside

“red herring,” “neither fish nor fowl” also has a long- history means one thing in

some ways and like another thing in other ways In Britain, people have a long traditional commercial and marine economy As a result, they have produced some

figurative expressions like “bring home the bacon,” “cast one’s bread upon the

water” or “the world is one’s oyster.”

The original lifestyle of English people is nomadic, so they give prominence to personal ego In other words, they have a high opinion of an individual In business, they use food-related idioms to show their independence and determination They do

not hesitate to admit their fault by the saying “eat humble pie” or take the opportunities as a bite of the cherry There are many idioms related to “cake” which like “piece of cake,” “sell like hotcakes” and “icing on the cake” with have positive

meanings

1.4.3.1.4 Market-related business idioms

Let’s pay attention to some other business idioms below

• Bull market - a market in which share prices are rising, encouraging buying

• Bear market - a market in which share prices are falling, encouraging selling

• Black market - illegal traffic or trade unofficially controlled for scarce commodities

• Captive market - a group of consumers who are obliged through lack of choice to

buy a particular product, thus giving the supplier a monopoly

• Niche market - a small, specialized market for a particular product or service

These examples above demonstrate that the word “market” plays a crucial position in

business vocabulary A market is a place where the demand from clients meets the supplies from manufacturers or providers Most of the activities are performed at the business market where people make money; the employees can find out their jobs, etc

The black market means a transaction which has some illegal aspects If the law is

received approvals from the government, the businessman will not follow that rules

The black market has its operation For example, some products are prohibited from

selling at the legal markets so that it can be only found on the black market Captive is

a synonym of captured and captive market is a market where consumers face a

severely limited number of competitions so that they are forced to purchase what is available The customer usually has to accept the higher prices and less diversity in

products chosen The bull market and bear market describe opposites The bull market

is where the prices of stocks go up over the period In that situation, the market attracts

customers to buy more In contrast, the financial status in the bear market is

characterized by a consistent fall in which the investor wants to withdraw their money back because of trading declines; and the risk of failure

1.4.3.1.5 Number-related business idioms

Consider the following idioms which are related to numbers

• Eleventh hour - the latest possible moment

• Fifty-fifty - the same in share or proportion, equal or used to refer to one of two

possibilities that are equally likely to happen

• Nine-to-five - used about typical office hours, often to express an idea of

predictable routine

• Take five - have a short break

• Twenty-four-seven - twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, all the time

• Zero hour - a time when a vital decision or decisive change must be made

Business people always need to work with numbers whether they belong to finance or marketing Therefore, numbers become an essential part of the business when people

do calculations or have negotiations It is which the reason makes a number- related

business idioms are prevalent For example, the idiomatic expression twenty-

four-seven is used so often in business communication This idiom is easy to interpret with

twenty-four hours a day and during a week meaning all the time When it comes to

dividing the interests in business, the phrase “fifty-fifty” seems to be quite useful The

readers and listeners can easily take the meaning literally by considering the whole is one hundred Then, the percentage is divided into fifty-fifty means a half and a half

The idiom nine-to-five people can be difficult to interpret for some non-native English

speakers since a lot of countries and occupations may not work from nine in the morning and finish at five in the afternoon Hence, this idiom embodies the social

features as has been mentioned above Take five has probably symbolic meaning – a

having five-minute break though, in fact, it can last for long In the example “ we’re at

the zero hours, so someone has to make a decision.” The idiom zero hour has nothing

to do with midnight It is the time when a significant or notable event is scheduled to take place

Business idioms are pervasive in all styles of language use The aspects business idioms present including characteristics and classifications cannot be worked out by usual syntactic and semantic rules They are affected by other factors like society, culture and time The definition, classification, and features of business idioms make it difficult to handle From the analysis of business idioms above, the researcher expects

to bring about the distinction between idiomatic expressions in economic and other kinds of the idiom Also, there are numerous idioms used in business discourse every day Therefore, the study will mainly focus on some common English business idioms

in an effort to investigate them and to translate them as precisely as possible as will be shown in the next chapters