A study of idioms by clothes in english and vietnamese from a perspective of components

ABSTRACT An investigation of idioms by clothes in English and Vietnamese in terms of structural and semantic components is carried out in the present study.. The findings of the study ar

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

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

entitled “A Study of Idioms by Clothes in English and Vietnamese from a

Perspective of Components” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements 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, 2018

Nguyễn Thị Vân

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Đặng Nguyên Giang, Ph D

Date:………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from

my suppervisor, teachers and closest relatives

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mr Đặng Nguyên Giang, Ph D, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported

me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher

Many thanks go to my colleagues and many others whose support and encouragement help me to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for their patience, endless love, and devotion Whatever choices I have made, they have always stood

by me and believed in me I am immensely thankful for all the assistance they have given me

It is the support of all of the above that has enabled the completion of this study, and for this I remain eternally grateful

ABSTRACT

An investigation of idioms by clothes in English and Vietnamese in terms of structural and semantic components is carried out in the present study Componential analysis, describing, comparing and contrasting are regarded as the main methods used in the current thesis The findings of the study are concerned with the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes in terms of (1) structural components and (2) semantic components In order

to collect the data, a hand search approach of the dictionaries in both languages has been conducted, which helps to establish a corpus of 89 idioms by clothes in English and 50 idioms by clothes in Vietnamese.In the present study, a common theoretical framework on idioms by clothes is applied to both English and Vietnamese The structural and semantic components involve three types of idioms existing in our data: symmetrical, similized, and non-symmetrical (Nguyễn Công Đức (1995), Hoàng Văn Hành (2008)) The structural components of each idiom type are realized, described and analyzed according to grammatical rules suggested

by Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik (1985).The semantic components of each idiom type involve the motivation degrees (transparent, semi-transparent, semi-opaque, and opaque) (Fernando & Flavell (1981), Fernando (1996)), the association between the literal readings and the idiomatic meanings (Langlotz, 2006), and the semantic composition of component parts (Hoàng Văn Hành, 2008) The findings of the current study also reveal that most of the idioms in both English and Vietnamese are analyzable and have meanings that are at least partly motivated The thesis also presents the implications for idiom teaching and translation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

i

ii iii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

1.2 Aims of the Study

1.3 Research Questions

1.4 Scope of the Study

1.5 Significance of the Study

2.2.1 Previous Research Works on Idioms in English

2.2.2 Previous Research Works on Idioms in Vietnamese

CHAPTER 4: STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC COMPONENTS OF

IDIOMS BY CLOTHES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

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4.1 Structural Components of Idioms by Clothes in English and

Vietnamese

4.1.1 Symmetrical Idioms by Clothes

4.1.2 Similized Idioms by Clothes

4.1.3 Non-Symmetrical Idioms by Clothes

4.2 Semantic Components of Idioms by Clothes in English and Vietnamese

4.2.1 Motivation Degrees of Symmetrical Idioms by Clothes

4.2.2 Motivation Degrees of Similized Idioms by Clothes

4.2.3 Motivation Degrees of Non-Symmetrical Idioms by Clothes

4.2.4 Composition of Semantic Components of Idioms by Clothes in

English and Vietnamese

4.3 Comparision between English and Vietnamese Idioms by Clothes

4.3.1 In Terms of Structural Components

4.3.2 In Terms of Semantic Components

4.4.Idioms and their Importance for english Language Learners

4.5 Implications for Idiom Teaching and Translation

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

Vietnam is on the path of development and intergration not only with the countries in the region but also with countries around the world Therefore, learning and using English in communication becomes very important and necessary All English learners in general and Vietnamese learners in particular desire to master English as native speakers However, people often face to a lot of difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations One of the reasons of these problems is that they meet difficulty in understanding and using idioms in communication

Each nation‟s language lies in itself similar and different concepts on many fields such as customs and traditions, ways of thinking, religious beliefts, behavior standards, social conventions, ect Words and expressions including idioms have formed the vocabulary system of a language and make specific characteristics of each nation both material and spiritual values Hence, investigating the idioms in both English and Vietnamese always attracts many authors with many different studies

It is clear that studying idioms is not new; nonetheless, it has never been old

In Vietnam, there exist three approaches in studying idioms: etymology, synchronic evolution, and comparison and contrastive analysis (Hoàng Văn Hành, 2008) Firstly, the investigations on idioms under etymology go into macro field These studies focus on the formation and transformation of each idiom during its existence It is hard work taking a lot of time and energy The method mainly used

in these studies is the etymologizing, i.e the origins of idioms are recovered in order to make the forms and the idiomatic meanings transparent Hoàng Văn Hành (2002) and Tiêu Hà Minh (2007) are the typical authors who pay attention to this area The second approach in studying idioms is synchronic evolution Descriptive method is used in these studies from which the underlying cultural factors behind the idioms are partly interpretable This area of study attracts a lot of authors such

as Trương Đông San (1974), Nguyễn Lực & Lương Văn Đang (1978), Nguyễn

Công Đức (1995), Hoàng Văn Hành (2008), etc Studying idioms under comparison and contrastive analysis is the third approach The studies under original recovery and synchronic evolution are the backgrounds for comparison and contrastive works Several attempts have been made to work out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of emotion expressing idioms (Nguyễn Văn Trào, 2009), idiomatic verb phrases (Nguyễn Văn Long 2010), idiom translation (Nguyễn Thị Lan, 2001; Hoàng Thị Minh Phúc, 2009), structural and semantic components of idioms (Đặng Nguyên Giang, 2013), etc

In fact, there have been so far studies on idioms such terms as human feelings, colors, geography, animals, and time and so on from different perspectives However, to my best of knowledge, there have not been any studies investigating idioms by clothes in English and Vietnamese from a perspective of

components Therefore, this investigation is carried out to help learners of

Vietnamese and English as a foreign language improve their understanding of idioms by clothes, especilally from the perspective of components

1.2 Aims of the Study

The study is conducted to improve English teaching and learning in general and idiom teaching and learning in particular The findings of the study, to some extent, help the teachers and the learners have a better understanding of English and Vietnamese languages through the idioms by clothes

In order to achieve the aim, the study is intended to reach the following objectives:

- to uncover how the components of idioms by clothes are organized structurally and semantically in English and Vietnamese;

- to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes in terms of structural and semantic components;

- to give some implications for idiom teaching and translation

- What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes in terms of structural and semantic components?

- What are the possible implications for idioms teaching and translation?

1.4 Scope of the Study

This study investigates idioms by clothes in both English and Vietnamese from a perspective of components The study focuses on the idioms by clothes selected from recently published dictionaries All the authors of these works affirm that the idioms in their books are both current and used, or undersood, by most native speakers

1.5 Significance of the Study

Theoretically, this study will add some basic theories of English and Vietnamese idioms, specially the idioms by clothes from the perspective of components This helps to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes in terms of structural and semantic components

It also contributes to the knowledge of linguistics in general and of idioms by clothes in particular

Practically, for language teaching (both English and Vietnamese), the study facilitates learners‟ communication because language is for communication, and idioms are an indispensable part of common expressions (Cowie, Mackin & McCaig, 1993, p x) The work will provide assistance to English-speaking learners

of Vietnamese and Vietnamese learners of English to distinguish one kind of idioms from others in each language The work will also enable learners to tell when idioms in English and Vietnamese are similar and different, which is likely to be useful for their study Language teachers will be aided to help their learners reach this communicative goal For translation, knowledge of idioms from this work will help translators find closest equivalents to the expressions in the source language

1.6 Research Methods

1.6.1 Major Methods

Due to the main aims and objectives of the study, description, componential analysis, contrastive exploitation and experimental method have been chosen as major ones

Firstly, the description, componential analysis are utilized in order to give a

full account of the structural and semantic components of English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes Secondly, the contrastive method is applied to identify the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes Finally, the experimental method is used to uncover the effectiveness of idiom componential analysis applied to idiom teaching at An Duong high school

In conducting the research thesis, last but not least, setting up a regular consultancy with supervisor for a guidance and academic exchange is a critical technique to find out a right direction for doing the research successfully

1.6.2 Data Collection Techniques

The monolingual and bilingual dictionaries of idioms in two languages are useful instruments to collect data Google search should be accounted because a large number of relevant journals, newspapers, reference materials have been taken thanks

to this tool Hence, to select an appropriate collection of English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes with illustrating examples, the following techniques have also been applied: dictionary checking, Google searching techniques and data categorizing with determined criteria

Regarding dictionary checking techniques, such key words as „idiom‟, names

of clothes are used to check the relevant meanings of English idioms containing them To categorize the data with determined criteria, some data mining techniques like clustering technique and classification technique are used for defining the various semantic features in accordance with certain meaning categories In addition, others minor techniques are also employed as reading comprehension, meaning comparison and note-taking for selecting desired material of various idioms by clothes apart from the word processing technique for archive of data categorizations

Applying those data collection techniques, English and Vietnamese idioms containing the component parts of clothes have been collected Simultaneously, a collection of examples extracted from dictionaries and literature works have been gathered as well

1.6.3 Data Analysis Techniques

After finishing the collection of data, they are qualitatively described and analyzed in terms of the structural and semantic components to create a full picture of English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes In doing this thesis, the data profiling

technique is used in this research thesis to track the frequency, distribution and characteristics of the values that populate the columns of a data set; they then present the statistical results for review and drill-down analysis The selective idioms by clothes are carefully sorted out together with illustrated examples of the above-mentioned features to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes

Checklists and statistical techniques are utilized to quantitatively show the frequency and distribution of English and Vietnamese idioms by clothes Statistic tables for generalization, comparison and contrastive analysis are used with the purpose of making the investigation clear for discussion and interpretation

1.7 Design of the Study

The study consists of five chapters, in addition to the appendices and the references:

Chapter 1, introduction, contains the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the significance, the research methods, and the design of the study

Chapter 2, literature review, is formed by two main parts: a review of theoretical background and a review of previous research works

Chapter 3, data and methods, discusses theoretical and analytical frameworks, data collection, data analysis and procedures

Chapter 4, structural and semantic components of idioms by clothes in English and Vietnamese, is divided into two main parts: structural components of idioms by clothes in English and Vietnamese, and semantic components of idioms

by clothes in English and in Vietnamese

Chapter 5, the last one, is the conclusion which includes the summary of the findings as well as the concluding remarks and recommendations for further studies

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review is divided into two main parts The first part gives a review of theoretical background and framework of idioms in English and Vietnamese on which the whole research has been based The second one presents and discusses the previous research works on idioms in English and Vietnamese

2.1 Theoretical Background

2.1.1 Idioms Defined

The central problem one comes up against in attempting to define idiom is identifying the property (or properties) which will adequately capture all the idioms in a language while excluding all the non-idioms A number of approaches

to idiomaticity together with various definitions of what an idiom is have already been presented in the previous chapter If one narrowed down the consideration of idiomaticity to the specific problem of definition it is possible to identify two approaches to what idiomaticity is:

Those scholars who adopt the first approach look on idiomaticity as manifesting the specific character or genius of a language Their investigations of idiomaticity are directed towards revealing this specific character which is, in effect part of the underlying conceptual design of the language Such an approach ultimately leads to the nature of cognition itself and therefore has strong psycholinguistic implications The chief exemplars of this approach to idiomaticity in the Anglo-American tradition of linguistics, Smith (1925) and Roberts (1944), do not carry their investigations to these depths Their work, already referred to in Section 1.1, simply outlines the cultural preoccupations, the 'world view' implicit in the idioms of English, together with the pecularities of phrasing and other distinguishing features (e.g non-literalness) that distinguish expressions as idioms But the main emphasis in such work is on the conceptual design of the language in so far as it emerges through a consideration of idiomaticity rather than on the structural properties of idioms

Scholars who adopt the second approach are more structurally orientated and seek to define idiomaticity in terms of one or more structural properties They

are, therefore more selective in their indentification of idioms The second approach, in addition, enables the linguist to make topological classifications of such idioms on the basis of the properties he adopts as criteria The majority of the scholars whose work has been examined in Chapter I adopt this second approach which is also the one adopted in this chapter

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

an idiom?

Many linguists such as Robins (1989), Palmer (1981), Jackson and Amvela (1998) and others regard idioms as a special kind of collocation The meaning of an idiom, however, cannot be deduced from the meaning of its constituents An idiom

is distinguished from a collocation, for a collocation is a sequence of lexical items which habitually co-occur and each lexical constituent of a collocation is a semantic component Hornby (1995) argued in his Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary,

an idiom is “a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit” Sharing the same point of view, Seidl and Mordie (1988) defined “an idiom is a number of words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words of the

idiom when they stand alone” For instance, the collocation of kick and the bucket forms an idiom meaning die, which is not systematically determinable from the meanings of kick and the bucket This idiom or phrasal lexeme is formally identical with the phrase kick the bucket whose meaning is systematically determinable on the basis of the meaning of the lexemes of which it is composed – hit a certain type

of container for liquids with their foot

In Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992), an idiom is also regarded as “an expression which functions as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts” In addition, Cowie, Mackin & McCaig (1993) state that idioms are groups of words with set meanings that cannot be calculated by adding up the separate meanings of the parts

Fernando (1996) defines an idiom as “an indivisible unit whose components cannot

be varied or varied only within definable limits” This means that no other words can be substituted for those comprising Nor are the words of an idiom usually recombinable

In Vietnamese, a great variety of definitions of idioms are also given Nguyễn Văn Mệnh (1972) and Đỗ Hữu Châu (1981) suppose that idioms are available linguistic units which have stable structures, typical meanings and nominative functions Having the same viewpoint, Nguyễn Đức Dân (1986) defines that an idiom is a fixed group of words having a complete meaning and descriptive value To make it clearer, he also adds that idioms express concepts based on separated images It is the reason why idioms usually have their own figurative

meanings For example, the phrase quần là áo lượt (very formal and well- dressed)

is considered as an idiom because its idiomatic meaning cannot be infered from the

meanings of its constituents (quần, là, áo, lượt) Another definition of idiom from

Hoàng Văn Hành (2008, p 31) is that an idiom is a fixed group of words which is firm in terms of structure, complete and figurative in terms of meaning, and is widely used in daily speaking

As can be seen from the above definitions, there are different ways of defining an idiom In general, most of the linguists share the same point of view that an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out by looking at the meanings of its individual constituents What is given below is regarded as a summary of the defining features of an idiom Such an idiom:

- is a fixed unit whose components cannot be varied or varied under definable control;

- is regarded as a complex scene with a bipartite semantic structure: a literal reading and an idiomatic meaning;

- has the meaning which is usually different from the meanings of the combination of its components;

- expresses a pure concept

2.1.2 Idioms from Traditional and Cognitive Views

i) Idioms from Traditional Views

Traditionally, in English, idioms are considered to be unpredictable or

non-compositional (Chafe (1970), Chomsky (1965/1980), Katz (1973), Fernando & Flavell (198), etc) This results in the concept that although we have learned the meaning and syntactic property of each word of an idiom, we are still unable to capture its idiomatic meaning In other words, the meaning of an idiom cannot be derived from the meanings of its constituents According Fernando & Flavell (1981), the meaning of an idiom is not the result of the compositional function of its constituent parts They regard an idiom as a lexeme

Vietnamese idioms are traditionally thought to be unpredictable or compositional (Nguyễn Văn Mệnh (1972), Đỗ Hữu Châu (1981), Nguyễn Công Đức (1995), Hoàng Văn Hành (2008), etc)

non-In summary, according to traditional view, the meaning of an idiom is the special chemical mixture of all components‟ meaning, which is completely new in quality It means that there is no link between the literal reading and the idiomatic meaning However, in fact there exist a lot of idioms in English and in Vietnamese, the idiomatic meanings of which can be derived from the meanings of their component parts, i.e their syntax is correlative Indeed, the traditional view cannot

be applied to explain all types of idioms It is regarded as the limitation of this view

ii) Idioms from Cognitive Views

In English, from cognitive view, most idioms are believed to be analyzable and have meanings that are at least partly motivated (Geeraets (1995), Gibbs (1990/1995), Kốvecses & Szabo (1996), Nunberg et al (1994), Fernando (1996), Taylor (2002), Langlotz (2006), etc)

According to Nunberg et al (1994, p 497), “saying an expression is an idiomatic combination (i.e idiomatically combining expression) doesn‟t require us

to explain why each of its parts has the figurative interpretation it does, so long as

we can establish a correspondence between it and the relevant element of the idiomatic denotation” Nunberg et al (1994) also divides idioms into two categories They are idiomatically combining expressions whose constituent parts carry identifiable parts of their idiomatic meanings, and idiomatic phrases whose idiomatic meanings cannot be derived from their parts For example, the phrase

spill the beans, which means „divulge the information‟, can be analyzed by looking

at the action of „spill‟ as the action of divulging and „beans‟ as the information

Gibbs (1990/1995) supposes that most idioms are motivated by cognitive-semantic mechanisms such as metaphors, metonymies and conventional knowledge

According to cognitive view, most Vietnamese idioms are also believed to

be analyzed and their meanings are at least partly motivated For example, the

idiom “kéo áo người đắp bụng mình” meaning “one who is greedy and only think

about his/her benifits”.|

In a word, the psychological experiments conducted by Gibbs (1990/1995) prove that the figurative meanings of most idioms are not arbitrary Sharing the same points with the authors above, in the present study we once again suppose that most idioms in both English and Vietnamese are analyzable and have meanings which are at least partly motivated through the component parts forming idioms

2.1.3 Functions of Idioms

Idioms may play different roles They are used to name objects, actions or

describe situations They may express certain generalizations, advice, make evaluation, emphasize…

Traditionally, from the point of view of the function of idioms, we can refer

to the following basic groups:

- idioms with a nominative function - express concepts and name objects,

states, processes, actions, qualities, etc They have the structure of a phrase

Examples: while elephant, pull somebody 's leg, cool as a cucumber, body

and soul

- idioms with a communicative function - describe situations and express

independent statements They have the structure of a sentence, e.g all that glitters is not gold, the coast is clear

- idioms with both nominative and communicative functions (including idioms

with a mixed, limited variable structure), e.g break the ice - the ice is

broken, close the door on - the door is closed, lead somebody by the nose - somebody is led by nose

- idioms without any distinctive nominative and communicative function - linguists usually include here modal and interjectional idioms, or idioms

which have a cohesive function, e.g like hell, what on earth, on the other

hand, as well as, by the way

In relation to words, within the group of idioms with a nominative function (lexemic idioms), we can refer to idioms equivalent to single words, i.e they may

be replaced by a single word (of course = certainly, kick the bucket = die, in the

family way = pregnant) They may also correspond to non-idiomatic phrases (collocations: a big fish = an important person, as red as a turkey cock = very angry), or they may be correlated with approximate (free) description, e.g have green fingers = have natural ability in growing plants

Nominative idioms correlate with word classes (parts of speech) They may

be divided into: noun, verbal, adjectival and adverbial idioms, etc., for example: a

dark horse (noun), make give up (verbal), as white as a sheet (adjectival), once in a blue moon, tooth and nail (adverbial) Their function is not completely identical

with that of single words, since their meaning usually includes a higher degree of both expressiveness and evaluation

From the pragmatic point of view and discourse, some linguists, including Fernando (l996) speak about:

- "ideational" idioms ("the state and way of the world" idioms, expressing namely: actions, events, situation, people, things, attitudes, emotions, etc.):

red herring, bury the hatchet, as white as a sheet

- "interpersonal" idioms (expressing greetings, agreement, rejections, etc.): so

long, never mind

- "relational” idioms (ensuring cohesion, etc): by the way, in addition to, last

but not least

Other linguists give more detailed categorization of idioms Some idioms may have more than one function Moon (1998), for example, distinguishes the following groups of idioms:

- informational (conveying information of different kind: in the red, rub

shoulders with, one’s kith and kin)

- evaluative (giving the speaker‟s attitude to the situation: works wonders,

wash one’s hands off something, a different kettle of fish

- situational (expressing conventions, clauses, exclamation, relating to

extralingual context: walls have ears, so long, talk of the devil, long time no

see)

- modalizing (expressing modality, truth values, advice, request: mark my

words, more or less, at all, in effect)

- organizational (organizing the text, signaling discourse structure: by the way,

all in all, let alone, in the light, on the other hand, in other words)

2.1.4 Idioms and other Language Units

That idioms share some common syntactic and semantic features with other phraseology units in the language makes it difficult for learners to distinguish The confusion often occurs between idioms and words, idioms and proverbs or idioms and slangs

i) Idioms versus Words

“Words are the smallest language units having their own meanings and fixed forms, and are used to build sentences” (Institute of linguistics, 2004) According to this definition, words have the following features:

- Words are independent language units and have their own meanings

- Words are available language units and have their own fixed forms

- Words usually have nominative functions It means that they are the names

of things, phenomena, activities, properties, states, etc

- Words are basic language units used to build sentences

The biggest difference between idioms and words is that they are compared with single words: The smallest idioms consist of at least two single words

Moreover, the determination of words closely connects concepts For example, hẻo

lánh (out of the way) is a word and khỉ ho cò gáy (out of the way) is an idiom Both

of these semantically express the same meaning However, hẻo lánh (out of the

way) has literal meaning which is quite objective and neutral; khỉ ho cò gáy (out of the way) has figurative meaning containing the speaker‟s emotional colorings and

comments: It is a boring hard place to live and work

Words are the smallest language units which are independent and have their

own meanings The meanings of compound words such as rain coat, coffee table and pocket dictionary are usually clear and easy to deduce by looking at the literal

sense of their components However, it is impossible to understand the meanings of idioms by doing like that (except comparative idioms in Vietnamese) because idioms have figurative meanings

ii) Idioms versus Proverbs

According to Hornby (1995), a proverb is defined as „a short well-known

sentence or phrase that states a general truth about life or gives advice, e.g Better

safe than sorry or Don’t put all your eggs in one basket‟ More particularly, Vũ

Ngọc Phan (2000, p 39) regards a proverb as „a complete saying expressing one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or criticism‟

It is obvious that idioms and proverbs share some common features and it is necessary to put them side by side to distinguish First of all, both idioms and proverbs are ready-made units which are mainly orally transmitted from generation

to generation and naturally accepted in daily life Secondly, both of them are expressions whose components are stable and not able to be substituted It is nearly impossible to add, omit or replace any components of an idiom or a proverb because

set-it will make them lose their figurative meanings In addset-ition, the meaning of most idioms and proverbs is understood metaphorically rather than literally This is the reason why it is arduous to discover their true meaning just by looking up the individual words in a normal dictionary Finally, some proverbs originate from

idioms An example of this is the proverb keep something under your hat (a person who always keep someone‟s secrets) which contains the idiom under your hat (keep

secrets in someone‟s mind)

Besides the similarities, both idioms and proverbs have their own typical features that distinguish one from another The first and most obvious difference lies

in their syntactic structures In terms of syntactic structures, idioms are phrases which are parts of sentences; thus, they are equivalent to words In contrast, proverbs are complete sentences or phrases which can express the whole idea by themselves What

is more, idioms and proverbs are also different in terms of their functions Proverbs are short well-known sentences or phrases that express a judgment, general truth about life, advice or moral lesson They contain three main literature functions namely perceptive, aesthetic and educational functions Therefore, a proverb can be

considered as a perfect literature work The Congolese proverb A pretty face and fine

clothes do not make character illustrates this point clearly Its perceptive function is

to make people aware that clothes is not much effect to sb‟s character Moreover, the proverb is expressed in a figurative and picturesque way which helps readers

understand the proverb easily then be deeply convinced On the contrary, idioms do not express judgments; give advice or state general truth about life, which means they

do not have functions of perception and education but only aesthetic function Lacking these two functions, idioms cannot be considered as a literature work, but as

a language unit only The idiom eat my hat illustrates that a person saying this when

he doesn‟t belive that something is going to happen

iii) Idioms versus Slang

Slang, as defined in Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (1995), is “very informal words and expressions that are more common in spoken language, especially used by a particular group of people, for example, children, criminals, soldiers, etc.” Slang is firstly created only to satisfy the need of secret-keeping, or it can be the signs to recognize people of the same group Slang can appear as a brand new word, a new meaning for an existing word, an abbreviation for a word, or a word that becomes more generalized than its former, narrow meaning Though both idioms and slangs are almost fixed in structure and meaning, they differ from each other in some aspects

It can be inferred from the definition that slang is used by only some specific communities whereas idioms are used more commonly In other words, other group people may find it difficult to understand the slang and slang is a means of identifying and reinforcing certain sub-groups in society which can be divided according to age, occupation, criminals, etc However, there is a close relationship between slang and idiom It can be said that idiom is yesterday‟s slang and slang is tomorrow‟s idiom In other words, idiom is slang that has through use and over time, become acceptable to use in informal language Slangs are words that are usually made up and stand alone on their own, often used as euphemisms - but not always They are typically used in informal language, and are very often tied to locale, profession or cultural cliques For example: Pants the American default word for

the article of clothing that covers the legs and pelvic region seems pretty general and innocuous to English speakers in the U.S To the actual English, however,

„pants‟ is the primary word they use for „underwear.‟ And while American cinema and television typically writes the word „knickers‟ for underwear into the vocabulary of British characters that‟s probably just for comedic effect since „pants‟

wouldn‟t induce any response the most common British word for underwear really

is „pants.‟ Americans tend not to notice how often they refer to their so-called pants until someone from the U.K joins their ranks Once that happens they begin to notice restrained snickering every time „pants‟ are referenced in a polite conversation

In summary, have many things in common with words, proverbs and slangs that remind learners to take them into parallel consideration when studying language Despite these similarities among them, they are still distinguishable

2.2 Previous Research

2.2.1 Previous Research Works on Idioms in English

According to Makkai (1972) divides idioms into two main kinds: encoding and decoding Then, decoding idioms are subdivided into lexemic and semantic Semantic idioms consist of six categories: phrasal verbs, tournures, irreversible binomials, phrasal compounds, incorporating verbs and pseudo-idioms Seidl and McMordie (1988), Cowie, Mackin & McCaig (1993) mention the categories of idioms based on their topics and grammatical patterns From transformational grammar, Fraser (1970) regards an idiom as a constituent or a series of constituents whose meaning does not come from the meanings of individual parts He also mentions six level scales of idioms: unrestricted, reconstitution, extraction, permutation, insertion, adjunction and completely frozen Semantically, Quirk (1996) investigates idioms and proverbs having constituents of animals in English

In this study, typical cultural properties conveyed by this type of idioms and proverbs are established This is regarded as an initial research investigating English idioms and proverbs in terms of their semantic properties from component perspective

Fernando & Flavell (1981) are the linguists who realize the limitations of the previous scholars They suppose that idiom and idiomaticity are not the same They focus on the nature of idioms such as morpho-syntacite composition, semantic properties, homonymity, syntactic properties, etc They also examine several issues which focus attention on the idiom as a single lexeme that is non-correlative in its syntax and therefore non-literal in terms of its constituents The most satisfying and sensitive criterion to establish idiomaticity is

undoubtedly the semantic one Semantically, Fernando & Flavell (1981) establish the transparent - opaque axis for analyzing idioms In defining idiom, they stress three features in particular: a non-correlative syntax resulting in non-literalness, homonymity and institutionalization

From cognitive view, Nunberg et al (1994) divides idioms into two categories (i) idiomatically combining expressions whose constituent parts carry identifiable parts of their idiomatic meanings, and (ii) idiomatic phrases whose idiomatic meanings cannot be derived from their parts (see Section 1.1.3) Fernando (1996) also divides English idioms into three categories: pure idioms, semi-idioms and literal idioms Grammatically, Taylor (2002) mentions the interrelated topics of idioms and constructions The topics are interrelated in that both idioms and constructions are possibly considered as symbolic units, which associate a phonological (or „formal‟) representation with a semantic reading According to his points of view, constructions are usually specified at a high level of schematicity and likely to sanction an open set of expressions Nevertheless, a construction‟s usage range may not be fully predictable: constructions, in other words, display varying degrees of idiomaticity Idioms generally need to be specified at a lower level of schematicity Taylor (2002) also points out that the difference between idioms and constructions turns out to be a gradient distinction, having to do, essentially, with the schematicity at which a unit

is specified Langlotz (2006) explores alternative types of adnominal modification

in occasional variants of English verbal idioms Following the cognitive-linguistic framework, he states that the dimensions of idiom-transparency result from the language user‟s ability to remotivate the bipartite semantic structure by conceptual metaphors and metonymies

In short, idioms in English are studied in terms of several aspects such as grammar, semantics, rhetoric, pragmatics, etc which are investigated from different views However, the majority of scholars pay their attention to the two approaches Scholars who adopt the first approach are more structurally orientated They describe the idioms and their idiomaticity in terms of one or more structural properties The idiomatologists who adopt the second approach study idiomaticity

as manifesting hidden conceptual design of the language Such an approach leads to

the nature of cognition itself and accordingly has valid psycholinguistic

2.2.2 Previous Research Works on Idioms in Vietnamese

In the vocabulary system of Vietnamese, idioms which are usually placed

in a certain position can define themselves with other linguistic units such as compounds, collocations and proverbs Due to this direction, it can be seen that several studies on vocabulary and grammar or the boundary issues among lexical units have been carried out (Đỗ Hữu Châu ( 1981), Nguyễn Văn Mệnh ( 1986), Nguyễn Thiện Giáp ( 1985), Hồ Lê ( 1976), etc) Some other Vietnamese authors such as Trương Đông San (1974), Hoàng Văn Hành (1976) study the forms and meanings of similized idiom Nguyễn Công Đức (1995) studies Vietnamese idioms from formal-semantic perspectives It is a research investigating idioms quite systematically from both structural and semantic perspectives Based on the forms, he divides Vietnamese idioms into three categories: idioms with symmetrical structure, idioms with comparison structure and idioms with non-symmetrical structure For idioms with symmetrical structure, the most important characteristic is the reciprocal or contrast of meaning of the two parts of idioms, i.e it is the relation of symmetrical contents From this relation, these idioms form other relations such as the relation of symmetrical words, i.e symmetry or repetition between components Like other linguists, he supposes that idioms with

comparison structure are formed according to a general formula A như B (e.g trắng

như bông (very white) Idioms with non- symmetrical structure are generally

formed by phrases, especially verb phrases: vén tay áo sô đốt nhà táng giấy (show

a person who always waste money) The meaning formation process of idioms consists of three stages: creating constituent parts including explicit and implicit components, establishing the meanings through the internal relations among components, generalizing and identifying the idiomatic meanings with things and concepts in everyday life He also comments that the meanings of idioms are generally formed according to symmetrical, contrastive, harmonious, convergent and random relations

Like other linguists, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) regards idioms as fixed groups

of words having stable forms and fully figurative meanings The stable

particularity of idiom forms is the stability of vocabulary components (It is normally so fixed that they cannot be replaced by any synonyms) This stable characteristic is the result of dimming or forgetting the relationship between grammar and semantics However, he also notes that the stability of idioms in the standard system and their flexibility in usage are not two contradict aspects and don‟t exclude each other The full particularity of idiomatic meanings is also explained from nominal senses Differing from other normal parts of speech, idioms are considered as the nominal units of the second class From this point of view, he emphasizes that idioms have bipartite meanings: literal (base, origin); figurative (used in reality and formed by the emblematized process) The emblematized process of idiom meanings is expressed by two forms: comparative and figurative Due to this, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) classifies Vietnamese idioms

as follows:

i) Based on the formation of meanings, there are two kinds of idioms: similized and figurative Figurative idioms can be sub-classified into symmetrical figurative and non-symmetrical figurative

ii) Due to the structures, idioms can be classified into symmetrical and symmetrical Non-symmetrical idioms can be sub-classified into non-symmetrical similized

non-The differences in classification above are only in view, or rather in selecting the criteria for each level of classification Due to that thought, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) considers each sub-category as an issue for investigation And, basing on this way, he continually divides each sub-category into smaller sub-categories For example, symmetrical figurative idioms can be classified into two types: coordination - meeting of meanings and no meeting of meanings Symmetrical figurative idioms with non-coordination - meeting of meanings can

be further divided into balance, focus and alternative

Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) also states that the general pattern of similized

idioms (A như B) given by the previous authors is right but very reduced It does

not reflect the nature of comparison in terms of both logic and language

According to him, in any case the logical structure of comparison is At1 như Bt2

(t1 is the attribute of A; t2 is the attribute of B) Based on that general model, he

conducts an analysis to find out the structure of idiomatic meanings and divides it

into t như B and như B t như B idioms can be sub- divided into t như B (như B indicates the degree of t) and t như B (như B indicates the manner of t) In

addition, he does not only focus on the idiom structures but also their usage and values From cultural perspective, he supposes that the underlying cultural factors behind the idioms need uncovering Although he himself realizes that this approach of studying Vietnamese idioms is still open, we can find his contribution

in this aspect through his works on idioms

In short, in Vietnamese, although there exist several studies on idioms, most of the scholars focus on the forms and meanings of idioms from traditional view It means that studies on idioms in general and idioms by clothes from cognitive view have not been paid much attention

2.3 Summary

The chapter has presented theoretical background and framework which are employed for conducting the whole graduation thesis along with the review of literature with certain previous works on idioms both in English and in Vietnamese Idioms in both English and Vietnamese are studied in terms of several aspects such

as structure, semantics, and taxonomy, etc which are investigated from different views (traditional, cognitive, etc) However, Vietnamese idioms from cognitive view have not been adequately investigated Most scholars in Vietnam pay attention

to the forms and meanings of idioms from traditional view These studies are initial investigations on the specific aspects of idioms As far as I am concerned, there have been no studies investigating the structural and semantic components of idioms by clothes in both English and Vietnamese in a fully systematical way

CHAPTER 3 DATA AND METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the author discusses the theoretical background related to theoretical and analytical frameworks Data collection, data analysis and procedures are also presented in this chapter

3.1 Componential research

Idioms in the present study are investigated from both structural and semantic perspectives According to Katz & Fodor (1963, p 170), „a full synchronic description of a language is a grammatical and semantic characterization of that language‟ The term „grammatical‟ refers to the description of phonology, phonemics, morphology, and syntax „Semantic‟ belongs to a theory which must be constructed „to have whatever properties are demanded by its role in linguistic description‟ (Katz & Fodor 1963, p 171)

Structurally, idioms are generally described and analyzed according to typical grammarical rules In fact, there are different kinds of grammars Fromkin (1998)

mentions three types of grammars: descriptive, prescriptive and teaching The

descriptive grammar involves the description of what the speakers of a language do when they speak their language That certain language uses are categorized as acceptable or unacceptable according to a standard form of the language is called prescriptive grammar The teaching grammar is used to learn a foreign language or

a dialect

The models of Immediate Constituent Analysis suggested by Bloomfield

(1933) are used in the present study These models are then principally developed

by Wells (1947), Harris (1957) and Chomsky (1957) The central issue underlying these models is that the structure of an expression can be presented by dividing the expression into parts (immediate constituents), which are then further divided into smaller parts until syntactically indivisible units are obtained

Specifically, the structural components of an idiom are exhibited by dividing the idiom into successive layers or constituent parts The constituent parts can be labelled as belonging to different grammatical constituents like noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, etc which can be further divided into categories such

as noun, adjective, verb, etc (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik 1985) This can

be shown by taking a simple example of the idiom body and soul (completely) This

idiom is divided into two parts which are connected by a coordinator (and) The first part (body) and the second one (soul) are both nouns

The semantic components of idioms in the current study are analyzed

according to Katz & Fodor‟s (1963) componential theory According to Katz &

Fodor (1963), „semantic components may be combined in various ways in different languages yet they would be identifiable as the „same‟ component in the vocabularies of all languages‟ Generally, this theory determines how expressed signs, usually vocabulary items called lexemes, in a language are related to the perceptions and thoughts of the people who speak the language In this theory, word meanings are broken down into semantic features and their specifications In other words, the meanings of lexemes are analyzed into components, which can then be compared across lexemes or groups of lexemes Since idioms are regarded as special linguistic units functioning as words (Fernando & Flavell (1981), Fernando (1996), Nguyễn Công Đức (1995), Hoàng Văn Hành (2008), etc), they can be analyzed in this way

The structural and semantic components of idioms in the present study are formally established according to three types of idioms: symmetrical, similized, and non-symmetrical (Nguyễn Công Đức (1995), Hoàng Văn Hành (2008)) The structural components of each idiom type are coded in separate component parts, which are then realized, described and analyzed according to grammatical rules suggested by Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik (1985) It is noteworthy that the component parts are realized under words, phrases and clauses The canonical semantic components of idioms are analyzed according to the transparent-opaque axis introduced by Fernando & Flavell (1981) and Fernando (1996) and the association between the literal reading and idiomatic meaning suggested by Langlotz (2006) The transparent-opaque axis involves the different motivation degrees of each idiom type: transparent, semi-transparent, semi-opaque, and opaque The association between the literal reading and idiomatic meaning refers to the possible analyzability of each idiom type

The theoretical framework is used for the present study for several specific

reasons First of all, the components are regarded as the criteria to classify idioms from both structural and semantic perspectives For example, similized idioms are structurally realized through the components as comparative means (Nguyễn Công Đức (1995), Hoàng Văn Hành (2008)), and these idioms are also semantically classified due to the explicitness and implicitness of their components (Fernando & Flavell (1981), Fernando (1996)) Second, this theoretical framework can be applied

to a large number of idioms belonging to different types in both English and Vietnamese And finally, it is the framework that helps to achieve the objectives of the study

3.2 Analytical research

According to Krzeszowski (1990, p 35), „No exact or reliable exploration of facts can be conducted without a theoretical background, providing concepts, hypotheses, and theories which enable the investigator to describe the relevant facts and to account for them in terms of significant generalizations‟ (cited in Nguyễn Văn Trào, 2009, p 12)

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

König and Gast (2008) suppose that contrastive linguistics is a branch of comparative linguistics that is concerned with pairs of languages which are „socio-culturally linked‟ According to these authors, two languages can be said to be socio-culturally linked when (i) they are used by a considerable number of bi- or multilingual speakers, and/or (ii) a substantial amount of „linguistic output‟ (text, discourse) is translated from one language into the other English and Vietnamese are socio-cultural linked because they satisfy both criteria given above

Contrastive linguistics invariably requires a socio-cultural link between the languages investigated, but that it is not restricted to pair wise language comparison Contrastive linguistics thus aims to arrive at results that carry the potential of being used for practical purposes, e.g in foreign language teaching and translation As it provides the descriptive basis for such applications, its research programme can also

be summarized as „comparison with a purpose‟ „Comparison‟ in the present study

is understood as the identification of similarities and differences between two or

more categories along a specific (set of) dimension(s) (König and Gast 2008) We mean that the categories compared must be of the same type, i.e there has to be a set of properties that they have in common in both languages

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

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

The contrastive analysis emphasises the influence of the mother tongue in learning a second language and translation This type of study will provide an objective and scientific base for second language teaching as well as translation For knowing the significantly similar structural and semantic properties in both languages, the first step to be adopted is that both languages should be analysed independently After the independent analysis, to sort out the different features of the two languages, comparison of the two languages is necessary From this analysis it is easy to make out that at different levels of structural and semantic properties of these two languages there are some features quite similar and some quite dissimilar

In the present study, a large number of idioms by clothes in both English and Vietnamese are used as examples for illustration It means that we have to translate idioms from Vietnamese into English The fact we face is that there are several Vietnamese idioms whose equivalents in English cannot be found In order to keep

the consistency in translation, the strategy we use is paraphrase (Baker (1992),

Fernando & Flavell (1981), Valero-Garcés (1997))

3.3 Data Collection

In order to collect the data, a working definition of an idiom has been established in the present study (see Section 2.1.1) Any idiom selected in both English and Vietnamese satisfies the criteria the definition for working involves

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

English

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

[English picturesque idioms] Hải Phòng: Nxb Hải Phòng

Cambridge University Press

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

Publisher

Cowie, A P., Mackin, R., & McCaig, I R (1993) Oxford Dictionary of

English Idioms Oxford: Oxford University Press

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

Press

Vietnamese

Nguyễn Lân (2003) Từ điển thành ngữ và tục ngữ Việt Nam [A dictionary of

Vietnamese idioms and proverbs] Hà Nội: Nxb Văn học

Nguyễn Lực & Lương Văn Đang (2009) (3rd ed.) Thành ngữ tiếng Việt [A

dictionary of Vietnamese idioms] Hà Nội: Nxb Khoa học Xã hội

Tiêu Hà Minh (2007) Đi tìm điển tích thành ngữ [Seeking idioms‟ classic

references] Hà Nội: Nxb Thông Tấn

Nguyễn Như Ý và các cộng sự (1998) Từ điển giải thích thành ngữ tiếng Việt

[A dictionary of Vietnamese idioms] Hà Nội: Nxb Giáo dục

Nguyễn Như Ý (2002) Từ điển thành ngữ tiếng Việt phổ thông [A dictionary

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

We choose the dictionaries above because of several specific reasons Firstly, they are quite popular and currently available Secondly, they cover a large number

of the idioms which people are likely to find in everyday English as well as Vietnamese Thirdly, most of idiom types can be found in these dictionaries in a large number And finally, the dictionaries satisfy the diachronic perspective because the examples for illustrations are mostly from literal works, magazines and newspapers The collected data forms a corpus under three categories: symmetrical idioms by clothes (6 for English and 32 for Vietnamese), similized idioms by

clothes (3 for English and 6 for Vietnamese), and non-symmetrical idioms by clothes (80 for English and 12 for Vietnamese)

3.4 Data Analysis

Due to the aims, the objectives, and the scope of the study, componential analysis, describing, comparing and contrasting are regarded as the main methods used in the present thesis The study makes use of the Vietnamese language as the target and the English one as the source language (the base language) In some cases, we may use the opposite (the English language as the target and the Vietnamese one as the source language)

Componential analysis is said to develop from anthropological studies describing and comparing kinship terminology in diferent languages Componential analysis is one of the main methods used to describe and analyze the idioms, especially semantic components of idioms in both English and Vietnamese We describe meanings, meaning relationships and the grammatical behavior of idiom classes by analyzing idiomatic meanings into meaning components This analysis procedure is called lexical decomposition (Katz & Fodor (1963), Dowty (1979)) However, how to understand and apply this approach in the thesis is not entirely like the traditional sense Componential analysis in the concept of the thesis means that we do not only manipulate objects existing in a static way but we also analyze and access idioms in their operation More specifically, we study idioms in their existence and operating environment Here, we do not separate idioms from their

„internal‟ environment and characteristics directly impacting on the rules of formation, survival and the development of the idioms On the other hand, we do not also separate idioms from their „external‟ environment, i.e culture - society - history related to the establishment and administration of the idioms

According to Wisker (2001, p 118), descriptive research aims to find out more about a phenomenon and to capture it with detailed information Often the description is only true for that moment in time, but it still helps us to understand and know more about the phenomenon In addition, descriptive research attempts to

determine, describe, or identify what is, i.e the descriptive research uses

description, classification, measurement, and comparison to describe what phenomena are (Wisker, 2001, p 120) Describing method is applied in the present

thesis to present the theoretical foundation of idioms in general and idioms from structural and semantic components perspective in particular, which is then illustrated by examples with explanations and discussions, and hopefully reach conclusions by deductive reasoning

The term 'contrastive linguistics' was suggested by Whorf (1941) and was defined as „a sub-discipline of linguistics concerned with the comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine both the differences and similarities between them‟ (Fisiak 1981, p 1) Contrastive analysis

is the method of analyzing the structure of any two languages with a view to estimate the differential aspects of their systems, irrespective or their generic affinity or level of development Contrastive analysis of two languages becomes useful when it is adequately describing the sound structure and grammatical structure of two languages, with comparative statements, giving due emphasis to the compatible items in the two systems In appearance, comparing and contrasting are similar to each other, for both methods compare two or more items (languages in our case) in order to find similarities and differences between them But academically they have quite different connotations nowadays, partly of the etymological meanings of the two words, and partly because of the different traditions of the two disciplines in their development Although neither carries an extreme demand to look for „similarity‟ or „difference‟ only, each has nevertheless a tendency for one of the two, i.e methodologically, the „comparative‟ method stresses similarity more, while the „contrastive‟ method emphasizes the differences

In the present study, comparing and contrasting help us to identify, analyze and point out the similarities and differences between the structural and semantic components of idioms by clothes in English and those in Vietnamese

(ii) After that, we compare the idioms by clothes in the two languages

item-wise-item at all levels of their structural and semantic components

(iii) Then, we arrive at the categories of a) structural and semantic components of idioms by clothes found in both languages, b) structural and semantic components of idioms by clothes unique to either English or Vietnamese

We also investigate the regularities for the established similarities and differences

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

3.6 Summary

In the present study, description, componential analysis and contrastive exploitation are the main methods which would be mainly carried out throughout the process Also, the thesis makes use of the English language as the target and the

Vietnamese one as the source language (the base language) The models of

Immediate Constituent Analysis suggested by Bloomfield (1933) and Katz &

Fodor‟s (1963) componential theory are regarded as the theoretical framework used

in the current study The analytical framework in this study belongs to contrastive theory introduced by König and Gast (2008)

CHAPTER 4 STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC COMPONENTS

OF IDIOMS BY CLOTHES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

This chapter consists of four main sections The structural components of idioms by clothes are presented in Section 3.1 Section 3.2 discusses the semantic components of idioms by clothes Section 3.3 makes a brief comparison between idioms by clothes in English and Vietnamese in terms of structural and semantic components Section 3.4 give some implications for idiom teaching and translation

4.1 Structural Components of Idioms by Clothes in English and Vietnamese

In terms of structural components, idioms by clothes are divided into three types: symmetrical idioms by clothes (6.7% in English and 64% in Vietnamese), similized idioms by clothes (3.4% in English and 12% in Vietnamese), and non-symmetrical idioms by clothes (89.9% in English and 24% in Vietnamese)

4.1.1 Symmetrical Idioms by Clothes

i) Symmetrical Idioms by Clothes in English

English symmetrical idioms are considered as “idiomatic pairs”, which are established due to the pairs of adjectives, nouns, adverbs, verbs, etc (Seidl & McMordie, 1988) In short, in the present study, a symmetrical idiom by clothes

is generally regarded as one which has two opposite component parts (A and B) And these two parts are usually parallel

In our data, symmetrical idioms by clothes are in the forms: A and B (e.g

all mouth and trousers (someone who‟s all mouth and trousers talks or boats a lot

but doesn‟t deliver), belt and braces (someone who wears belt and braces is very

cautious and takes no risks), etc) A, B can be a noun/ noun phrase (e.g fur coat

and no knickers (someone with airs and graces, but no real class is fur coat and no

knickers), belt and suspenders (someone who wears belt and suspenders is very

cautious and takes no risks), etc)

In short, the two parts of these idioms usually belong to the same types of linguistic units; hence, the second one (B) usually corresponds with the first one

(A) In other word, A and B are completely symmetrical whether they contain one

or more component parts The connector of the idioms by clothes is and.